LIVING MESSAGES OVER THE AIR

"His words were weighed and selected as if they were to be sent by cable at a dollar apiece." This remark was made about the sermons of a famous preacher before the days of radio. They have an application when we value the Living Messages of this volume. All who have heard the impressive cadence of John Thomas' voice over the radio delivering the sermons here recorded were impressed with the fact that his words had wings, and that on their wings they carried resistless truth. It takes faith to deliver an unctuous message to an audience, unseen, of unknown magnitude, with the arched sky for our pavilion. Many assaying to do so have failed to hold the attention of the public. These eloquent sermons of heart-searching truth have received response from coast to coast, and from nearly every section of North America. Many, as they should, have enclosed checks to aid in bearing the heavy expenses of broadcasting. It has been this writer's privilege to review a representative selection of the letters of those who have received blessing and uplift.
In reading the Messages the nation-wide audience will enjoy them the more by associating the voice of the speaker, the spiritual songs, and the sane and wholesome atmosphere of worship which always accompanied them on the air. The Master says that every scribe who is instructed in the kingdom of Heaven bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old. How aptly is this fulfilled in Living Messages. There are rare poems and other passages which numbers of people have desired to possess; rich treasures of sentiment, rhythm and truth that this prophet and world traveler has been accumulating through the years.
The preacher of these sermons is unique in his presentation of the Gospel and always safe to follow, In the latter qualification he is singularly endowed with the ability to keep step with those who believe the whole Bible, preach a full Gospel and walk in the Spirit, while keeping a cool head and not having the smell of fanaticism on his garments. His presentation is direct. He has no long preambles, no theological dust or clerical ceremony. When he opens his mouth it is to preach. How unusual the thought that Jesus, standing at the door, is "excluded in favor of other guests." Who but John Thomas would have cornered an atheist and made him admit that he believed the Bible, by quoting the passage, for him to affirm or deny, "It is appointed unto man once to die." Witness the freshness of his homiletics in the outline of one of these sermons: "The Dual, The Duel, The Deliverance."
If thousands of souls have been helped by these Messages proclaimed verbally, it is not too much to hope that other thousands will be blessed in reading the printed volume.