THE SHORT COURSE SERIES

Edited by Rev. John Adams, B.D.


A Mirror of the Soul

Short Studies in the Psalter

By Rev. John Vaughan, M.A.

General Preface

 

The title of the present series is a sufficient indication of its purpose. Few preachers, or congregations, will face the long courses of expository lectures which characterised the preaching of the past, but there is a growing conviction on the part of some that an occasional short course, of six or eight connected studies on one definite theme, is a necessity of their mental and ministerial life. It is at this point the projected series would strike in. It would suggest to those who are mapping out a scheme of work for the future a variety of subjects which might possibly be utilised in this way.

The appeal, however, will not be restricted to ministers or preachers. The various volumes will meet the needs of laymen and Sabbath-school teachers who are interested in a scholarly but also practical exposition of Bible history and doctrine. In the hands of office-bearers and mission-workers the "Short Course Series" may easily become one of the most convenient and valuable of Bible helps.

It need scarcely be added that while an effort has been made to secure, as far as possible, a general uniformity in the scope and character of the series, the final responsibility for the special interpretations and opinions introduced into the separate volumes, rests entirely with the individual contributors.

A detailed list of the authors and their subjects will be found at the close of each volume.

 

"THERE is no one book which has played so large a part in the history of so many human souls. By the Psalms Augustine was consoled on his conversion, and on his death bed. By the Psalms Chrysostom, Athanasius, Savonarola were cheered in persecution. With the words of a Psalm Polycarp, Columba, Hildebrand, Bernard, Francis of Assisi, Huss, Jerome of Prague, Columbus, Henry the Fifth, Edward the Sixth, Ximenes, Xavier, Melanchthon, Jewell, breathed their last. . . . The 68th Psalm cheered Cromwell's soldiers to victory at Dunbar. Locke, in his last days, bade his friend read the Psalms aloud, and it was whilst in rapt attention to their words that the stroke of death fell upon him. Lord Burleigh selected them out of the whole Bible as his special delight. They were the frame work of the devotions and of the war-cries of Luther; they were the last words that fell on the ear of his imperial enemy Charles the Fifth."

DEAN STANLEY.