In offering this book to the public no claim is made to literary merit
or originality of thought. It is published with the same purpose its
contents were spoken from the platform, namely, to do good.
With the testimony of many, that hearing these lectures helped to
shape their lives, came the thought that reading them might help
others when the tongue that spoke them is silent.
As a public speaker the author admits, that how to get a grip on his
hearers outweighed the grammar of language; that the ring of sincerity
and truth in presenting a proposition appealed to him more than
relation of pronoun or preposition; besides in the "high school of
hard knocks" from which he graduated artistic taste in literature was
not taught.
If it is true that "tongue is more potent than pen," then the
mysterious power of personality and delivery will be missed in the
reading, yet it is hoped the simplicity of the setting of anecdote and
argument, incident and experience, facts and figures, story, poetry
and appeal will suffice to make this volume attractive and helpful to
those who read it, and thus the lives of many may be made brighter and
better by the life work of the author.
George W. Bain.