This book is a contribution to that end, and may those who read its
pages be brought to yield their best to the glory of Him who is our
all.

Baltimore, Md. Peter Ainslie.




PREFACE

This book contains my religious experience in a forty years' sojourn
on earth. If any doubt the propriety and value of relating one's
religious experience, I would refer them to the case of Paul, who
used this method on a number of occasions. However, we should be
careful not to make an improper use of this method and preach our
experiences in place of the gospel. Paul says: "We preach not
ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for
Jesus' sake" (2 Cor. 4:5). We should refer to our experiences simply
to help deliver people from human error and center their attention on
the gospel of Christ, which alone is the power of God unto salvation.

I do not take any great credit to myself for my experiences recorded
in this book, realizing that they were largely the result of my
inherited proclivities and religious environment. It must be admitted
that the great mass of mankind are what they are in religion,
politics, etc., by heredity and environment. This is powerfully
impressed upon us by the ministers who give their experience in "Why
I Am What I Am." Even the fact that it is natural for me to seek to