Preface
This is not a theological book. I frankly confess I have not been
trained in theological schools, and do not understand their methods nor their
terms. But the Lord has taught me experimentally and practically certain
lessons out of his Word, which have greatly helped me in my Christian life, and
have made it a very happy one. And I want to tell my secret, in the best way I
can, in order that some others may be helped into a happy life also.
I do not seek to change the theological views of a single individual.
I dare say most of my readers know far more about theology than I do myself,
and perhaps may discover abundance of what will seem to be theological
mistakes. But let me ask that these may be overlooked, and that my reader will
try, instead, to get at the experimental point of that which I have tried to
say, and if that is practical and helpful, forgive the blundering way in which
it is expressed. I have tried to reach the absolute truth which lies at the
foundation of all "creeds" and "views," and to bring the soul into those
personal relations with God which must exist alike in every form of religion,
let the expression of them differ as they may.
I have committed my book to the Lord, and have asked Him to counteract all in
it that is wrong, and to let only that which is true find entrance into any
heart. It is sent out in tender sympathy and yearning love for all the
struggling, weary ones in the Church of Christ, and its message goes right from
my heart to theirs. I have given the best I have, and could do no more. May the
blessed Holy Spirit use it to teach some of my readers the true secret of a
happy life!
HANNAH WHITALL SMITH, GERMANTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.