02.000. Introductiion
INTRODUCTION. The voice of experience — this is the one great value of this book. It is the open avowal of convictions and methods which have been found successful in practice. Dr. Goodell as a Christian minister has occasion to thank God profoundly for what he has enabled him to do. I suppose he never thought of making a book when he wrote these papers, but he certainly has a purpose and an aim in giving himself to the work of the ministry. How sharply he brings it out in the very first sentence: “ The supreme object must be the salvation of men.” And this has ever been, and ever must be, the one, living, supreme, imperative end of every true minister of Jesus Christ. “ For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost. To convert sinners, to edify the body of Christ; aside from this he has nothing to do; short of this he cannot stop. And he will suit his methods to his end; and especially, and above all, he will keep his own mind and heart in tenderest and quickest sympathy with Christ and his gospel. One says of Baxter, “ When he spoke of weighty soul concerns, you might find his very spirit drenched therein.”
“ Much impressed Himself, as conscious of his awful charge, And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds May feel it, too.” And evidently the heart out of which these writings came is full; full of the joy of the Lord, and full of watchful, eager desire to save souls. We see our author about his work every day. He goes right on. He has no time to dally with the fascinations of aesthetics, or to pillow his head upon a lap where the strongest is sure to be shorn of his strength. He has no affection for doubts which obstruct and darken the Christian’s way, and turn him aside to blaze a path — a dubious and treacherous path for himself — through swamps and deserts, where no sure ray of heaven’s light is seen, and no voice from above the tree-tops is heard. From beginning to end these chapters show a mind clear of that folly which assumes that a man may entertain one thing and teach another. He preaches what he believes, and believes what he preaches. ’ For as he thinketh in his heart so is he.” He neither criticises the church nor complains of her creeds. He neither doubts the authorship of the Pentateuch, nor denies the logic of Paul. He is not wise above what is written. He is not more liberal than his Master. He knows nothing of an unknown God; but he does know the crimson guilt and the fearful sentence of the sinner. He does know the gift of free grace, and the power of the Holy Spirit. He knows the time for repentance. “Now is the accepted time.” He also knows the way of salvation. Christ is the way. “ There is none other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved.” And in such knowledge and convictions — knowledge gained from the inspired Word and convictions wrought by experience of the Spirit’s power — is found the secret of ministerial success.
Most grateful also and natural is the earnest spirit of this little book — an earnestness that throbs in every line, and inspires exertion everywhere, and to the last. Here is an urgency like that which runs through the teaching of the Master and his apostles. “Strive to enter in at the strait gate.” “As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”
Timely and suggestive also is this book. Statistics show that in some towns, cities, and even States the church of Christ is not holding her own. With multitudes the pleasures and pursuits of this world are all-absorbino:. There is a lowerinor of the law and a cheapening of the gospel. Sinners ignore the claims of Jesus Christ, and idle away their Sabbaths and their probation in unbelief. The very atmosphere is charged with the forces of skepticism. And just as a nation ignorant of the true God sets up wooden gods, so the people, when they have renounced the Christian religion, embrace superstitions that are hideous and errors that are deadly. And is the Church free from responsibility in all this? Are our robes, as Christian ministers, without stain? Whoever reads these pages attentively will find the impulses of his own heart prompting him to an earnestness and activity which are altogether the best antidote for the evils which afflict our day. The gospel is God’s gift to sinners. To understand and accept it makes a new man. ’’ If any man be in Christ he is a new creature.” And the new creature must have a new home. How to build this home is briefly and forcibly told in this little book. Most heartily do I commend it, especially to young ministers, and pray that it may prove a guide and an inspiration to all who build “ upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone.”
E. B. WEBB.
Shawmut Church, Boston, July 30, 1883.