St. Louis, Mo., 1913
Published by B. Herder
17 South Broadway
NIHIL OBSTAT.
Sti. Ludovici, die 6 Feb. 1911
F.G. HOLOLWECK,
Censor Librorum.
IMPRIMATUR.
Sti. Ludovici, die 7 Feb. 1911
O.J.S. HOOG. V. G.
Copyright, 1911
by
Joseph Gummersbach.
- BECKTOLD -
Printing and Book Mfg. Co.
St. Louis. Mo.
The following Chapters have, in substance, been delivered in sermon form in the church of S. Silvestro-in-Capite in Rome, in Lent 1909; in the Carmelite church in Kensington in the Lent of 1910; and in a private house in Boston, U.S.A., in the Eastertide of the same year. I have altered to some slight extent the language used in their oral delivery; but to a large extent I have also allowed that language to stand, as being more appropriate to conferences intended to be persuasive rather than scholastic, and especially in treating of the dramatic scenes of the Passion. It is necessary also to add that the aim of the book as a whole is to be suggestive rather than exhaustive. I am well aware that countless points are not worked out as they deserve, and that it is possible to take exception to many of the arguments. I would only plead in extenuation that the book does not claim to be more than an impressionist sketch, or a sort of table of contents, to serve perhaps some day for the outline of a larger work upon the same subject. It is put forward in the hope that it may < vi PREFACE > suggest a new point of view to some of the many "men of good-will" who only desire to see the truth in order to grasp it. It is not at all meant as a controversial work for those who are determined to find fault with it, or with Catholicism. It is, in short, a well-meant attempt to indicate in a few strokes the wood, as a whole, to those who cannot see it for the trees.
ROBERT HUGH BENSON.
HARE STREET HOUSE: BUNTINGFORD.
November 17, 1910.