PREFACE
This book of sermons is the result of a determination made by the compiler more than a dozen years ago. At that time I lived at Gatesville, Texas, forty-seven miles we at of Waco, and it was my good fortune to meet Dr. Carroll, at McGregor, then a new railroad town between Waco and my home. From that meeting there sprang up a friendship between us that through many eventful years has grown and strengthened. From the first time I heard him preach I yearned to give his great and burning thoughts to the world. I lay no claim to greatness, but am thankful for the power to discern it in others. Hundreds of Dr. Carroll's sermons that should have lived to bless the world are lost forever, but I rejoice to have been the humble instrument in God's hands in preserving those that are here presented.
This book was almost completed a year ago, but all the work was destroyed by fire. Afterward it was deemed wise and for the best interest of the cause, to have the book brought out by the American Baptist Publication Society, which in my judgment is the greatest single engine of usefulness in the world.
Many of these sermons are of historic interest, having permanently molded public opinion on the subjects discussed. It is also proper to state that in the main these sermons were preached extemporaneously, directly from the heart, and were stenographically reported for the "Texas Baptist Standard." They are not in any sense essays, but sermons preached to living hearers. For the most part they were preached in Dr. Carroll's own church at Waco. Sermons preached elsewhere bear a note to that effect.
And now as the book goes out on its mission of love, I pray that God will richly bless it. Many of these sermons have led souls to Christ when preached, and afterward when put in print. That they may still be so blessed, and that such a blessing may attend them till Jesus comes, is the highest desire of him who preached them, and of the one who writes these lines.
J. B. CRANFILL.
WACO TEXAS, January, 1895.
This book of sermons is the result of a determination made by the compiler more than a dozen years ago. At that time I lived at Gatesville, Texas, forty-seven miles we at of Waco, and it was my good fortune to meet Dr. Carroll, at McGregor, then a new railroad town between Waco and my home. From that meeting there sprang up a friendship between us that through many eventful years has grown and strengthened. From the first time I heard him preach I yearned to give his great and burning thoughts to the world. I lay no claim to greatness, but am thankful for the power to discern it in others. Hundreds of Dr. Carroll's sermons that should have lived to bless the world are lost forever, but I rejoice to have been the humble instrument in God's hands in preserving those that are here presented.
This book was almost completed a year ago, but all the work was destroyed by fire. Afterward it was deemed wise and for the best interest of the cause, to have the book brought out by the American Baptist Publication Society, which in my judgment is the greatest single engine of usefulness in the world.
Many of these sermons are of historic interest, having permanently molded public opinion on the subjects discussed. It is also proper to state that in the main these sermons were preached extemporaneously, directly from the heart, and were stenographically reported for the "Texas Baptist Standard." They are not in any sense essays, but sermons preached to living hearers. For the most part they were preached in Dr. Carroll's own church at Waco. Sermons preached elsewhere bear a note to that effect.
And now as the book goes out on its mission of love, I pray that God will richly bless it. Many of these sermons have led souls to Christ when preached, and afterward when put in print. That they may still be so blessed, and that such a blessing may attend them till Jesus comes, is the highest desire of him who preached them, and of the one who writes these lines.
J. B. CRANFILL.
WACO TEXAS, January, 1895.
