[Transcriber's note: this book uses several non-standard spellings,e.g. "tho" (though), "thoro", "thoroly" (thorough, thoroughly), "thru"(through), etc.]
The substance of what is written in this book has been given on severaloccasions during the past five years in the form of sermons orlectures. On each occasion they met with such hearty commendation, andso many requests that they be written and published in book form thatthey might have a wider circulation, that I have been induced toundertake it. This volume is the result.
It is in no sense a treatise on controverted theological questions;altho some of these are incidentally treated, but only as they enteredas factors into my own religious life and experience. This book issimply the story of my own religious life from my early childhood tothe present time, in its various transitions from the narrowestorthodoxy to a broad, liberal, rational religious faith. Itnecessarily deals to some extent with certain theological problems thatfrom time to time confronted me, the way in which I solved them, theconclusions I finally reached, and why I reached them. But these havebeen treated in mere outline only. The temptation has been very greatto treat, some of these at least, more elaborately; but I have beencompelled to content myself often with the bare statement of my views,with few or no detailed arguments to support them. But as my objecthas been, not so much to try to solve these problems for others, as topoint the way thereto, and stimulate the reader to further inquiry anddeeper investigation of the subjects treated, if I have succeeded inthis, my main object has been accomplished.
No one is more sensible of the many defects in this work than I am. Itmakes no pretension to any literary merit, nor to any scholarlyerudition. I am not a "professional writer." I have simply tried totell my story in a simple way and make it "readable" if possible. Mysole purpose in writing these pages has been to try to help others whomay still be in the fetters of ecclesiastical bondage, or wandering inthe quagmires of agnosticism—and I know there are many such—to findthe way to light and liberty in a rational religious faith. If I canaccomplish this, even in a small degree, I shall feel abundantly repaidfor the time and labor spent in reviewing the story of my own religiousevolution.
When the traveller, bent on some important quest, makes a prolonged andperilous journey and returns in safety to his friends and neighbors,instinctively those who have known him in former years realize that heis, and he is not, the same person who had dwelt among them. He hasseen unfamiliar peoples, traversed strange lands, encounteredunexpected dangers. Old prepossessions have been effaced, erroneousopinions have been corrected, new habits of thought have