It is no small pleasure to me to commend this book to all who
love God, and in particular to those who are labouring to serve
Him in the ranks of The Salvation Army. I believe that it will
prove useful in the most important ways--in its bearing, that
is, upon many of the practical difficulties and problems of daily
life.
The writer, Colonel Brengle, gives us not only of the fruit of an
orderly and well-stored mind on the great subject before us,
but--and this is the more important--he tells us of the actual work
of the Holy Spirit in the lives of ordinary men and women, as he
has witnessed the results of that work amidst his many labours
for the Salvation and Holiness of the people. It is for them he
writes. It is to them, living the common life, bound to others by
the obligations of ordinary social intercourse, toiling at their
secular occupations, and rubbing shoulders with the multitude in
the market-place, that his message comes. I venture to hope that
his words will make it plain to some of them that the highest
intercourse with the Divine is their privilege; that the special
province of the Holy Ghost is to lead men into the truest
devotion to God, and to the advancement of His Kingdom on earth,
even while they are carrying on the common avocations associated
with earning their daily bread.
The only purpose of God having a practical bearing on our lives
is His purpose to save men from sin and its awful consequences,
and make them conform to His will in this world as in the next.
The work of the Holy Spirit is to help us to achieve that
purpose. Without His help we are unable to overcome the
difficulties that are in the way, whether we consider them from
the standpoint of the world or of the individual. If anyone could
have looked at the state of the world at the time of our Lord's
death he would surely have regarded the work which the Apostles
were commissioned to attempt as the most utterly wild and
impracticable enterprise that the human mind could conceive. And
it was so, but for one fact. That fact was the promise of the
Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to be the great Helper in the
undertaking.
And equally in the work of uniting the individual soul with God's
purpose that Spirit is our Helper. In the work of righteousness
He is a Partner with us. In the life of faith and prayer He is
our unwavering Prompter and Guide. In the submission of our wills
to God and the chastening of our spirits He is the great Co-worker
with us. In the bearing of burdens and the enduring of trial and
sorrow He joins hands with us to lead us on. In the purifying of
every power from the taint of sin He is our Sanctifier.
All this is practical. It has to do with to-day--with every bit
of to-day. In fact, so far from the sphere of the Holy Spirit
being limited to the pulpit or the platform, or to the inward
experiences of the religious life, He is just as truly and
properly concerned with the affairs of the shop and the street,
the nursery and the kitchen, the chamber of suffering and the
home of penury, as with preaching the Gospel or healing the sick.
Now it is to lead its readers to a personal experience of all
this that this book has been written. No mere intellectual assent
to the truth it sets forth can satisfy its author, any more than
it can benefit his readers. What he seeks, and what I join him in
devoutly asking of God, is that you, dear friend, who may take
this little volume into your hands, may see what an infinite
privilege is yours, and may begin to act with God the Holy Ghost,
and to open your whole being to Him, that He may work with you.
BRAMWELL BOOTH.
LONDON, January, 1909.