The
author of these sermons has had a feeling for a long time that the great need
in our churches in this day is systematic indoctrination. He put his theory
into practice last winter in his own church, and these sermons are the result.
We were having a great many accessions to our church. In the two years of the
church’s history we had had something like six hundred accessions to the
church, and every month considerable numbers of new members were being added.
While many of these came by letter from other churches, many of them were new
converts and had had practically no systematic instruction in the fundamental
truths of the Christian faith, so we announced a series of sermons on The
Fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Faith. There was immediately a large
increase in the attendance at the services where these addresses were given,
and this increase has kept up until on the last Lord’s Day we had much the
largest attendance we have ever had, excepting on Easter Sunday. Many have
testified to the blessing received from these sermons, and there has been a
great demand that the sermons be printed for general circulation. This request
has come from ministers of various denominations, Episcopalians, Presbyterians,
Methodists, Baptists, and others. It is hoped that this volume will be useful
to other pastors in suggesting lines of teaching in their regular pastoral
work, and also that it may be used widely by pastors and others for circulation
among Christians. We live in a day in which many of our church members are all
at sea as to what they believe on the fundamental doctrines of the Christian
faith. These sermons have already helped many through their delivery. It is
hoped they will reach and help far more in the printed form.