Hard Sayings of Jesus Christ by William Leighton Grane

THE SPECTATOR.—“We commend this book to the attention of our readers. . . . Mr. Grane grapples with the difficulties which these Sayings present frankly and courageously. He does not give easy answers compressed into half a dozen sentences. But he will not leave his readers merely to ‘deorientalise’ these utterances of Christ, nor permit them to be relegated to the region of the unpractical as  ‘counsels of perfection.’”

PALL MALL GAZETTE.—“Summer visitors to Bexhill have learned to expect at the parish Church sermons of more than ordinary merit. Prebendary Grane brings to the task of preaching a wide knowledge of books, and a shrewd understanding of what is passing in the lay mind. His most characteristic claim upon lay gratitude lies, however, in the fact that he refuses to abandon the common sense principles by which most of us interpret contemporary men and things when he enters upon the interpretation of the New Testament records.”

CHURCH TIMES.—“This book is one of marked ability, learned and thoughtful. It is in sermons such as these and the like that the power of the pulpit will be maintained. Sermon after sermon meets the average cultured layman on his own ground: the preacher, as it were, sits down by him, and point by point cuts away those difficulties which little knowledge, prejudice, crude or erroneous teaching in the past have raised up. . . .”

CHURCH GAZETTE.—“Prebendary Grane is not an average preacher, but though original he keeps within the bounds of sober sense. He warns with admirable clearness against an undue literalism in interpreting our Lord's sweeping generalisations. . . . The whole sermon on the ‘Might of Meekness’ is an excellent corrective to many an absurd caricature of the Gospel ideal. There is a powerful sermon on ‘Spiritual Suicide,’ from which we regret that we can only extract. . . . We wish, too, that we had space to give Mr. Grane's words in pp. 73, 74, on the ‘Divinity of Christ.’ The best sermon in the book, however, is that on ‘Gehenna.’ No previous writer, so far as we are aware, has put the true meaning of our Lord entirely lost for ages under a multitude of false glosses so clearly and forcibly as does Prebendary Grane. The splendid sermon on ‘Future Retribution’ ought to be read in connection with it. ... This is a volume which should be in the hands of every clergyman who wishes to be in touch with the minds and hearts of laymen in the present generation.”

CHURCH OF ENGLAND PULPIT.—“We cordially recommend this volume to our readers. They will find here the results of much reading, much pondering, much observation of men and things, wrought into shape by a particularly sane and trustworthy judgment, and set forth with considerable literary skill.”

CHICHESTER DIOCESAN GAZETTE.—“. . . These terse summaries of critical and practical reflections might be multiplied ; but enough has been quoted to show the close relationship between the ' Hard Sayings ' and our everyday life, with which the affluence of our author's practical wisdom enables him to stimulate the interest of his readers from first to last.”

SCOTTISH GUARDIAN.—“few sermons merit publication as much as these. . . . We readily perceive a vigorous and acute mind wrestling with the words of the Master, and laying bare with wonderful force and lucidity the reasonableness of His demands and the effectiveness of His method of teaching. . . . We can cordially recommend clergy to make use of this able and suggestive book.”

CHRISTIAN WORLD.— “Prebendary Grane works on sound principles, and his writing should do much to remove the difficulties of intelligent readers of the Bible.”

EXPOSITORY TIMES.—“. . . We build theological systems; and there are sayings of Jesus Christ we have left lying about as stones which would not fit into our system. Sometimes we have fallen over them. Mr. Grane looks at them singly, measures them and finds them fit any building which has Christ for foundation."