EXTRACT II.
Can man preach the Gospel.
"Can man preach the Gospel? No, not in the right sense of the word.—All he can do, is to preach and direct to the Gospel. Gospel power is the source from which all power must come: it is God in man." p. 195.
On this principle, what can be the meaning of "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ," Mark, i. 1? The primary sense of Gospel (εὐαγγελίον) is, good tidings, or the announcement of good tidings. When the angel announced the birth of our Lord, he said, "I bring you good tidings of great joy, (εὐαγγελίζομαι) and it appears always to be used with especial reference to those good tidings. Our Lord clearly used it in this sense.—"Go ye into all the world, preach the Gospel to every creature." For the meaning of the following passage (which has been so much misunderstood) Rom. i. 16,—"I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;" compare 1 Cor. i. 18, where the same Apostle says, "The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God;" v. 21, he says, "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe;" and, v. 23, 24, "We preach Christ crucified,—Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." This same Christ crucified, which was to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness, is here decisively declared to be the power of God, and the
