This is a book which is wanted. Thoughtful men, in every class, are
not afraid of theology, _i.e._ of a reasoned account of their
religion, but they want a theology which can be stated without
conventions and technicalities; they do not at all care for a religion
which pretends to do away with all mystery, but they are glad to be
assured of the essential reasonableness of the Christian Faith; they
do not expect a ready-made solution of the problem of evil, but they
wish to see it honestly faced; above all, they want to know how
Christian truth bears on the real problems of life; the best of them
are not at all afraid of a religion which makes big demands on them,
but they know well enough the difficulty of responding to those
claims, and their greatest need of all is to find and to use that life
and power, coming from a living Person, without which our best
aspirations must fail and our highest ideals remain unrealized.

These needs seem to me to be satisfactorily and happily met in the
following pages. My friend and chaplain, Mr. Rawlinson, has had good
means of knowing what men are and what they want. He has had to do
with the undergraduate, with officers and men in the Army, and with
the ordinary civilian in parish life. He has been able to see the
nature and needs of our British manhood at different angles, and he is
the sort of man with whom men are not afraid to talk. He has had good
opportunity of diagnosing the situation, and this book shows his skill
in dealing with it.

I do not find myself in agreement with everything in these pages, but
when I am conscious of difference of view, I am no less grateful for
the stimulus to thought. I am specially thankful that the writer has
been so courageous in tackling the most difficult subjects.