Author of "Alone with God," "Half Hour Studies at the Cross," "Helps to Faith," "The Holy Spirit," "Christian Union."
THE BETHANY PRESS ST. LOUIS 1926
Introductory
WE ARE living at a time which is marked by great and perplexing problems. Advancing civilization creates new situations and raises new problems. The greater the progress, the profounder and the more difficult are the questions it raises. The primitive savage had but few wants and, therefore, was faced by but few and simple questions. The civilized and Christianized man of today finds himself face to face with situations which tax all his powers, and with problems whose solution transcends all the power of human reason and philosophy.
The chief problems of life are those which have to do with God, with our relations to our fellow men, with the moral and spiritual elevation of the race, with the proper correlation of forces working for human good, and with the destiny of mankind. Science and philosophy have helped us to answer many of the questions of life, but they are powerless when they face these supreme questions of the human soul. It would be strange, indeed, if there were no authentic guide in these highest ranges of human thought and of human needs.
In the fulness of time there appeared One among the sons of men as pure as he was strong, as gentle as he was great, as gracious as he was wise, who declared himself to be the Way, the Truth and the Life. He was the Way, because he was the Truth and the Life. He was the true and living Way. Standing in the midst of a lost race, wandering in the mazes of sin and ignorance, and knowing not whither to go, nor the way thither, Jesus pointed to himself as the Way, by walking in which men could find both truth and life and reach the ultimate goal for which man was created. Never were such claims made by any other being in the world's history. Has he made good his claim as the Way?
It is my purpose, in a few chapters, to study this question in relation to some of the chief problems of life, with the view of making it clear to those who read that Christ is indeed the solution of all our most important problems, and the true and living Way to the realization of man's fondest hopes, desires, and aspirations. It is my firm conviction, growing more deeply rooted with the passing years, that Jesus Christ is the physician for our human ills, and the only safe Guide in the solution of life's most vital problems. We believe he is the Way in a profounder sense than has yet been realized by the religious world in general. There are signs, however, that he is coming to his own, and that men are seeing in him as never before the Way out of all our religious, social and industrial difficulties and the Way to the City of God--the goal of perfected humanity and redeemed society. May he, by his spirit, guide us while we seek to point out how he solves our problems, and how he becomes the Way by which the church may regain its lost unity and bring in the universal reign of the kingdom of God.
