W DEDICATION E dedicate this book to the great army of sorrowing souls, who in the hour of distress earnestly seek yet fail to find consolation through the ordinary channels of truth presented. Christ and Heaven are placed too far away in the dim distance of eternity. Death is so near and sorrow so deep when we bury our dead from sight, while the sympathizing Savior is made to appear as if contemplating relief after ages have rolled by. To the early Christian Church Christ seemed very near, and his sustaining power enabled them to endure their present martyrdoms with a hope of immediate relief and admission to a Paradise without pain, in the immediate presence of the risen Savior. The speculations of a darkened Middle age Theology had not dimmed the faith which made them equal to the cruel martyrdoms they were called upon to endure. Theology is too much burdened with Philosophies while the Gospel presents its facts from life and experience. Whatever our theories we must remember that the Crucified Savior said to the penitent malefactor on the cross "To day thou shalt be with me in Paradise" and no evasion can avail to remove Heaven and the sympathizing Savior, far down the centuries and far removed from the soul dying and soon to be dismissed to the Unseen. Our suffering and sorrowing humanity needs, not so much the eternal Christ as the near Christ and when do we so much need the eternal Christ as when the sublime hour of death calls upon us to display the spiritual heroic of our common humanity. Our Risen Lord still comforts his chosen with the |