PREFACE

We are living in a tIme when many great changes of complexion are taking

place in every realm. It is certainly no time of stagnation. Not only has the

face of things greatly changed in half a life-time, but there is in these

immediate days a tremendous acceleration in this change, so that we do not know

what the world situation may be from one day to another.

What obtains in general is no less true-perhaps even more true-in

Christianity. Everything is in a realm of question and uncertainty-that is, so

far as the framework, the form, the work, the way and the earthly prospect are

concerned. We can go further and say that-most probably in the sovereignty and

providence of God-conditions (already so far advanced in the East) are

literally compelling Christians to reconsider their foundations, and driving

responsible people to face the whole question of demanded reorientation.

If we are nearing the consummation of this age, then this is exactly what

we may expect. Only truth in its very essence will stand the test which will

be forced upon everything by God Himself, and this " judgment must begin at the

house of God." All the accessories, appurtenances, accompaniments,

paraphernalia and 'etceteras' of Christianity will be stripped off, and only

stark reality remain at the last. There is mentioned in Scripture a "fiery

trial which shall come upon all the inhabited earth, to try the dwellers

thereon." The tragedy of our time is thAT so many responsible leaders either

are too busy and preoccupied with work or are so superficially optimistic that

they are not aware of the real emergency implicit in world developments.

There is a growing need for such a stock-taking in many connections, but

not least in the matter of the Gospel itself. Let us hasten to make clear that

we are not implying that there is any need whatever for a reconsideration or

reorientation of the essence of the Gospel. No, emphatically No! It, in its

essential nature and constituents, remains 'The everlasting Gospel'. But

there is a very real need for a fresh apprehension of what that Gospel really

is. The very word or term " Gospel " has come to imply something less than "

the whole counsel of God ", and to be applied almost exclusively to the

beginnings of the Christian life.

When the Apostle who wrote the Letter to the Hebrews had set forth the

transcendent greatness of Christ, God's Son, in every realm, whether of

Patriarchs, Prophets, Angels, or whom you will, he summed up everything a vast

everything-in one phrase: " so great salvation "; concerning which salvation he

declared that even to neglect it-not necessarily to oppose or resist it-would

involve in an inescapable doom.

In the pages of this little volume we have sought to serve this need of

recovering, or re-presenting, something -only something-of the greatness of the

Gospel, and to show that everything for life, service, progress, and victory

depends upon our real grasp of its greatness.

T. AUSTIN-SPARKS

FoREST HALL,

LONDON, 1954.