ide him
as he goes to school with himself as chief pupil, with all of nature to
find out and develop, and so to get mastery both of himself and of
nature and its forces. We recognize this as the best school-teacher
method for good self-development.

But here something more seems needed. The situation down on the earth
has gotten badly mixed up. Even though Jesus has been on the earth, and
has died, and has sent down the Holy Spirit in such irresistible power,
the situation in the world, and among His disciples, has gotten so
subtly tangled and intense, the enemy is so viciously and cunningly at
work, that only one thing will meet the need,--a revelation, a simple,
direct, warm revelation given us personally by the Lord Jesus Himself.
And here it is in this little end-book, with its vision of the glorified
Jesus, its pleading heart-cry to His followers, and its simple but
tremendous outlook into the future.

It would not be surprising if such a book should be made the subject of
special attack by the evil one. It is not surprising, though it is
deeply grievous, that the common idea about this book among Christian
people is that it is a sort of a puzzle, that it is impossible to get a
simple, clear, workable understanding of its message. Parts of it are
conned over tenderly and loved, a paragraph here, a verse there, and so
on, but a grasp of the one simple message of the book seems not common,
to put it mildly. No book of the sixty-six has seemed so much like a
riddle to which no one knew the answer. And without doubt the full
meaning of much will be quite clear only as events work themselves out.
Events will be the best exposition of certain parts. But these parts, be
it keenly noted, are not essential to the grasp of the whole message.
God is intensely practical. Jesus was too intent on helping people to be
otherwise than practical. He hasn't changed. He is too tremendously
wrapped up in the outworking of His plans. The Bible is wholly a
_practical_ book. And this crowning end of it is intensely and only
practical. It is with the clear conviction that it is entirely possible
to get the simple grasp of it that shall steady our steps, and clear our
understanding, and feed our personal devotion to the absent Jesus, our
blessed Lord, that these few simple quiet talks have been put together.

Doing Leads to Understanding.

The outline of the book is very simple. After the brief introduction[41]
and personal greeting,[