Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Hark ! Hark ! the air is vocal still With herald angels' thrilling song, ' A Saviour, Christ the Lord, is born,1 Which glad refrain let us prolong. The good old Gospel still is rife, Like waters fresh from deepest well, To quench the burning thirst within, And all our throbbing fears dispel, And a bright hope, new-born, inspire, Immortal as the life above, While filling each responsive breast As with the Godlike grace of love. " For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified."?I. Cor. ii., z THE OLD GOSPEL. The new century in which we now happily live was inaugurated with mighty portents and signs. It came laden and crowned with all the spoils and conquests of the past. It can claim as its heritage the almost incredible progress made during the preceding century in literature and science, in the region of research and invention, in the industries and arts of life, in commerce and agriculture, and, in short, in every department of life. And still the spirit of progress holds on its resistless course. Everything rushes forward at top speed. The pulse of society seems to be at fever heat. The great wheels of life go crashing on without intermission. There seems but little time left for repose or reflection. A spirit of excitement, a craving for amusement, a love of sensationalism are the order of theday and night. " Who will show us any good ? " seems to be the universal cry of struggling humanity. But this very cry, stifled although it may be, betrays a deep feeling of unrest, and a groping after something not yet possessed. It reveals a hidden, secret, and unsatisfied need in the human breast, which all the inventive genius and combined wisdom of man have not been able to meet. This crying need appeals to heave...