These superb works are without equal in modern literature. Schilder ''brings the reader into touch with the spiritual and temporal forces which converged during the Passion Week. He is careful to keep Christ central, and he blends in a masterful way this culmination of our Lord's earthly life with historical facts and psychological realities'' (Cyril Barber, The Minister's Library).
Schilder was a noted Dutch scholar of the early twentieth century. The three volumes of this work were translated by Henry Zylstra. They first appeared in 1937.
The three volumes cover three aspects of the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are entitled: Christ Crucified, Christ in His Suffering, and, Christ On Trial.
In The Minister's Library, Cyril Barber states: ''Theologically accurate, abounds in suggestive insights, and provides exegetical illumination for a score of Easter sermons. It is a classic treatment on the passion of Christ. [It} deserves a place in every pastor's library. [The three volumes} cover the night of His betrayal to His condemnation . . . [it is] a learned, accurate treatment.''
That says a lot about this unique, very important work. It is simply indispensable to the understanding and feeling of the power of the passion of Christ. To put it into the words of the Apostle Paul, all should feel as he did, ''[Oh that I might] ''be found in Him . . . to know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, having been conformed to His death, if somehow I may attain to a resurrection out of the dead'' (Philippians 3:9-11). Through the guidance and inspiration of God the Holy Spirit Schilder has captured the drama and the pathos of Christ's ordeal, and yet also passes on to the reader the triumph and the exultation of Christ as He completes His voluntary submission to the Father's will: ''Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but You prepared a body for Me. You did not delight in burnt offering and sacrifices concerning sins. Then I said, Lo, I come in the heading of the Book it was written concerning Me, to do Your will, O God'' (Psalm 39:6-9; Heb. 10:5-7).
No child of God is completely mature until he or she has gone to Gethsemane and followed the trail of Christ as He approached the hour when He must endure unspeakable humiliation, pain, and the suffering of momentary loss of the Father's presence with Him. It is no wonder that He sweat blood at the prospect, for He was not ignorant of what He must go through in order to provide salvation for His sheep: ''The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep'' (John 10:11).
No one will better draw you down to the depths of this drama, a scene which only one Person could have endured, than Schilder. You will not be the same after you have followed Christ through these stirring looks that Schilder gives you - you will be a better Christian, by far.
This is a Best Set in Print.
Schilder was a man of many gifts, without any doubt. Anyone who has read his writings, even some of them, will readily acknowledge that he possessed the ability to look at various theological questions in different ways and to express his ideas in sometimes eloquent ways which were often fresh and new. 476 pages, blue hard cover
