The digital copies of this book are available for free at First Fruits website.
place.asburyseminary.edu/firstfruits
PREFACE
The public will pardon the artistic deficiencies in the composition of these addresses, and we trust that an apology will not be necessary for the fact that they were delivered extemporaneously, since they follow a well defined line of thought. If we understand the mind of the average man, he is more interested in a thing of life than a thing of art. The jagged methods of emphasis, rendered perhaps a little more jagged by the vicissitudes of a stenographic report, might be entirely smoothed out if the author were to re-write these lectures in composition form; and the arguments imbedded therein might be more clearly articulated; but they would lose something which they are bound to have derived from the associations of a convention which in denominational complexion and spiritual passion could hardly be duplicated in the Christian world.
It may add a mental setting to the thoughts of the serious reader to remind him that the best intellect and the best devotion of every widely known Christian denomination, with the possible exception of the Roman Catholic, was represented in the audience that received these lectures, and that the meetings resulted in much definite blessing; so much that many of the writ ten testimonies have been published, of people who took higher ground in the Karuizawa Convention.
It was in deference to the judgment of certain Christian leaders that these messages were re- ported for publication. This was recommended because doctrinally they are representative of one of the standard interpretations of a theme in which all Christendom is acquiring an increased interest; because, while the interpretation of Christian holiness as here presented has borne much good fruit, since the days of John Wesley, the presentation of it in these addresses is “characterized by breadth of vision, charity and tolerance, without sacrificing those qualities of clearness and aggressiveness which are appreciated by candid men of ail schools.”
Wilmore, Ky.
J.P.
