{"product_id":"9781621714217","title":"The Gospel of Out of Doors","description":"The \u003cb\u003e digital copies \u003c\/b\u003e of this book are available for \u003cb\u003e free \u003c\/b\u003e at First Fruits website. \u003cbr\u003e place.asburyseminary.edu\/firstfruits \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWHY THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere are two kinds of books. One kind couldn't be helped. The other kind could be helped, but their writers were compelled to write, by a sense of duty to a cause or an idea, or they were written with an eye to the royalties. Not that one kind is nec- essarily any better than the other. The author of the couldn't-be-helped book may maunder on about his favorite subject as a lover babbles about his mistress, never quite happy unless he can find a sympathetic ear into which he can pour her charms. The author of the could-be-helped book may bring to his tasks the research of a student and the industry of a lifetime, and produce a work that the world will not willingly let die. But I venture to say that the author of the couldn't-be-helped book will enjoy himself more while he is at work on it, and will not quarrel with the world if his book doesn't prove to be a \"best seller.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e I will confess without a blush that this book is of the latter class. I have come un- der the spell of the out of doors on the old farm. It would be hard not to write about it even if nobody read what I wrote. Like an old minister whom I once knew, who, after he retired from active service, though he never expected to preach again, still wrote a sermon for his barrel every week, so I should be inclined, if worst came to worst, to write about my farm, even if my essays were to be forever confined to the unsympathetic em- brace of a drawer in my study desk. How- ever, a number of partial friends have ex- pressed their pleasure in some of these es- says, when published in various periodicals, and it requires but a slight amount of such en- couragement to incline one to ·bind the chil- dren of his love between boards and give them to the world. I have, too, a purpose not altogether egoistic in their publication, and that is that other men and women, en- couraged by my own experience of the joy, the comfort, and the health that come from an old farm, may feel its lure, learn its joy, and experience its health-giving comforts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e F.E.C.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"First Fruits Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47062510895344,"sku":"9781621714217","price":8.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781621714217_p0.jpg?v=1763864717","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781621714217","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}