NATURE AND BLESSEDNESS OF CHRISTIAN PURITY. BY REV. R. S. FOSTER. With an Introduction, BY EDMUND S. JANES, D. D., ONE OF THE BISHOPS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." L New York: PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PORTER, 200 MULBERRY-STREET. C Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by REV. R. S. FOSTER, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York. 686 Meth.5 1851 PREFACE. READER, what is the great object of life? Is it not to be good, and to do good, and thus to glorify God? I am sure I should do you great injustice to suppose you capable to return any other answer. But this sentiment is precisely my apology for presenting you the following treatise. No other consideration would have brought it before the public. Its author has no other object to subserve-no other aim to gratify. It comes to you on a mission of love, with a sincere desire for your welfare, and a single intention to promote it. He wishes to do good, and would avail himself of the widest means. I know you will commend the object-I trust you will approve the method. He might have contented himself in his ordinary pulpit and private ministrations; but then he reflected, that possibly he might extend the sphere of usefulness by employing other agencies. If he reaches thousands with his voice, he remembered, that he might reach thousands more with the pen. If he impresses a few in public assemblies, and in friendly circles, he reflected, that he might reach others in their retirement, and impress them in their solitude. If he speaks to some now, he remembered, that "the night cometh in which no This hope man can work," when his voice will be silent-he might speak, when dead, through the printed page. of widening the sphere of usefulness, and extending it through a longer period, decided him. Is it a chimerical hope? He trusts not. If any good shall be done to any one, that would not have been done without the publication, he will be amply repaid, and rejoice that "he has not run in vain, neither laboured in vain." If a single soul shall be saved, he will feel that such a result would have been worth an eternity of toil; if any shall be quickened to higher exertion, his effort will be a thousand times compensated. One word more, and the preface concludes. The author is painfully sensible that his production has many defects, but he believes that they are such as will not be injurious to the reader-blemishes rather than poisons. For these he asks your indulgence. Conscious of the sincerity of his motives, and hoping for the Divine benediction, he sends it forth upon its mission, trusting to find, in the day of the Lord Jesus, that it has produced some fruit. May the great Head of the Church bless both writer and reader, and bring them to that realm where they shall see eye to eye, and know as they are known! |