Chapter I: Foreword

The Salvation Army, contrary to what has often been thought by surface observers, has owed its existence, its strength, and its success chiefly to our careful attention to the profoundest questions of the soul.

And still, as always, we wish to urge upon all the study of those great practical truths, without the proclamation of which our work for men would cease to have any abiding value. We glory in the knowledge of Christ as a perfect Saviour just as much for this, our own time, as for any past generation, or for any generation yet to come. The pretence that this age has reached some superior development, whether mental or moral, for which a new kind of Saviour is needed, seems to us absurd. And we do not believe it can long endure where Christ is really known.

To the most thoughtful, therefore, as well as to those who have the least time for thought, I earnestly commend the words of devout and practical men upon those great questions, which I hope to see reproduced in the series of which the present volume is the first. Prayerful reading of their messages cannot but lead to immediate action, to a complete self-abandonment to God, and to a realizing faith in His power to use every one of His sons and daughters for the healing of the world's open sores and the triumph of His Rule.

BRAMWELL BOOTH. LONDON, January, 1909.

CONTENTS.

PREFACE

I. WHO IS HE? II. PREPARING HIS HOUSE III. IS THE BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT A THIRD BLESSING? IV. THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT V. PURITY VI. POWER VII. TRYING THE SPIRITS VIII. GUIDANCE IX. THE MEEK AND LOWLY HEART X. HOPE XI. THE HOLY SPIRIT'S SUBSTITUTE FOR GOSSIP AND EVIL-SPEAKING XII. THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST XIII. OFFENCES AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST XIV. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND SOUND DOCTRINE XV. PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT XVI. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ANOINTED PREACHER XVII. PREACHING XIX. THE SHEATHED SWORD: A LAW OF THE SPIRIT XX. VICTORY THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT OVER SUFFERING XXI. THE OVERFLOWING BLESSING XXII. IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE AND EXPERIENCE OF HOLINESS TO SPIRITUAL LEADERS XXIII. VICTORY OVER EVIL TEMPER BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT