Christianity and the unerring truthfulness of the art-instinct, that, since the birth of the Saviour of Men, the greatest artists have found their noblest inspirations in the sublime events and scenes that signalized the advent of the Christian religion. The A nnunciation, the Virgin Mother and her Heaven-begotten Child, the early Conversation with the Doctors in the Temple, the Miracles, the A gony in the Garden, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Lords Supper and the A scension, have furnished the favorite subjects of the great painters, throughout all the eighteen centuries of Christian history. Sculpture has also paid its highest tributes to Christian themes; and architecture has honored our holy religion by rearing for its worship its grandest and most graceful monuments. Nor has poetry been behind its sisterhood of arts in devotion to the divine truth and beauty it has found in the character and mission of Jesus, and the heroic lives of his early fol lowers. There is, indeed, no department of English poetry so rich and so extensive as that which is properly denominated sacred. Within the last few years, this mine has been worked by collectors and compilers with astonishing results. Not less than twenty volumes have recently been collected, in different departments of sacred verse, that were not intended for public worship; while the hymnology of the language has been swelled by the different sects to such a catalogue that it would seem to embrace the lyrical expression of every phase of Christian doctrine and devotional feeling. (Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don"t occur in the book.) About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology. Forgotten Books" Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historical