Preface

Each chapter in this little book emerges out of a sermon preached in recent months at Rye Lane Chapel. My people have pressed me most earnestly to send the messages forth in some permanent form, and while I doubt their wisdom, I defer to their love: hence this book.

It is not in my heart, much less upon my lips, to claim any powers as a writer, but if deep conviction adds lustre to the written word these pages are aglow. No sudden enthusiasm dictates my thoughts; rather by a process painful to my own soul I have been led as I know, by the Holy Spirit, to the affirmation of the great truth that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming in manifest glory to this earth. I am positive the Church is suffering for its neglect of this subject.

Here is a world in the throes of conflict, in the vortex of ill will, and yet ministers are still declaring it is getting better! The solemn sober fact which no man, however erudite, can deny is that the world to-day is exactly in the position described by our Lord and His Apostles. The test of inspiration is prophecy. By that test the Scriptures are abundantly vindicated.

In December last a little company gathered around a grave in a North London cemetery. There were not many present but each one owed much to the one whose body that day was laid to rest. Her gracious spirit, wonderful patience, deep insight into truth had inspired her life until it exhaled the very spirit of her Lord. When I thank God for the great truths of this little book that He has burned into my soul, I think of her.

Theo. M. Bamber

Rye Lane Chapel, S.E.15. April, 1927.