Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/37

 would require a volume, and I did not wish to repeat what is said elsewhere, and therefore have referred to an “Introduction to the Old Testament on the basis of De Wette,” which is now in the press, and will probably come before the public in a few months. Some of the thoughts here set forth have also appeared in the Dial for 1840—1842. I can only wish that the Errors of this book may find no favour, but perish speedily, and that the Truths it humbly aims to set forth may do their good and beautiful work.

is now fourteen years since I prepared the first edition of this volume. In that time laborious Germans, some of them men of great genius, have investigated the history of the first and second centuries of the Christian Era with an amount of learning, patience, sagacity, and freedom of thought never before directed to that inquiry. Partly by their help, and partly by my own investigations, I have been led to conclude that the fourth Gospel is not the work of John the Disciple of Jesus, but belongs to a later period, and is of small historical value. This conclusion and its consequences will appear in some alterations made in this volume, which I have carefully revised in the light of the theological science of the present day. I know there are Truths in the Book which must prevail; the Errors connected therewith I invite men to expose and leave them to perish, that the Truths may the more readily do their work. I commit both to the Justice of Mankind.

, Dec. 25, 1855.