It is to you, O thoughtful and considerate public, that I dedicate
this book. May it, under the providence of God, do good to this
generation and posterity!

I earnestly hope my meaning, in the writing thereof, may not be
misapprehended.

It must not be thought, because I am constrained to describe the
overthrow of civilization, that I desire it. The prophet is not
responsible for the event he foretells. He may contemplate it with
profoundest sorrow. Christ wept over the doom of Jerusalem.

Neither am I an anarchist: for I paint a dreadful picture of the
world-wreck which successful anarchism would produce.

I seek to preach into the ears of the able and rich and powerful the
great truth that neglect of the sufferings of their fellows,
indifference to the great bond of brotherhood which lies at the base
of Christianity, and blind, brutal and degrading worship of mere
wealth, must--given time and pressure enough--eventuate in the
overthrow of society and the destruction of civilization.

I come to the churches with my heart filled with the profoundest
respect for the essentials of religion; I seek to show them why they
have lost their hold upon the poor,--upon that vast multitude, the
best-beloved of God's kingdom,--and I point out to them how they may
regain it. I tell them that if Religion is to reassume her ancient
station, as crowned mistress of the souls of men, she must stand, in
shining armor bright, with the serpent beneath her feet, the champion