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Preface
When a man has toiled for
many days and at last is ready to lay his work before the
public he naturally feels desirous of saying some word
which will make them favorably inclined toward the thing
which his brain and heart and hands have fashioned. Here
is what I would say:
Please notice that I have
only tried to prove one thing: that the true basis of
church membership is spiritual. I believe many other
things besides that. I have hundreds of opinions which I
have not expressed in this book.
Likewise I have hundreds
of profound theological convictions which I have not
written down here—not because I do not believe them; but
because I had a sizable proposition to prove as it was,
and I did not wish to weaken my case by trying to prove a
number of other things at the same time.
It is easier to hold the
ground at one point than to defend a hundred mile battle
line. I have simply tried to defend the ground—and
possibly advance a bit—at one point. I have not tried to
fight on a long battle line.
While the physical
preparation of the book has been done under pressure for
time after busy days in an editorial office, the central
thought of the book has been slowly wrought out in my soul
more painfully than any other belief of my life.
Many young men have a
crisis period of doubt and uncertainty about God and
life's ideals which they must pass—if they are able to
pass—with much suffering.
I also went through this
experience; but for me the greatest doubt and perplexity
was not in regard to the existence of God,, but in regard
to the nature of the church.
As a child I accepted
what was told me upon this point; but upon re-examining
the matter as a youth I was plunged into such a maze of
uncertainty that my distress became at times intense
mental anguish.
At last I reached the
solution proposed in this book. It is not original with
me, but the approach to the doctrine is my own, and the
doctrine itself came to me with the force and clearness of
an original discovery.
Since then I have found
great peace of mind and heart on the subject of Christian
unity; and a clear conviction of the method by which our
holy Christianity may extricate itself from the mazes of
division.
I feel disposed to adopt
for myself the words penned by Sir Isaac Newton in 1686,
in the introduction to his Principia "I heartily beg
that what I have here done may be read with candor; and
that the defects I have been guilty of upon this difficult
subject may be not BO much reprehended as kindly supplied,
and investigated by new endeavors of my readers. "
This work is hereby
humbly committed to my fellow-believers everywhere, as
members of His body, and to Christ, the Head of the
church.
Yours in Christ,
Charles Ewing Brown
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