Читать книгу The Kingdom of God - John Bright - Страница 6

THE PREPARATION OF A BOOK IS AN ARDUOUS TASK, AND IT IS PROBABLE THAT FEW HAVE EVER CARRIED IT THROUGH TO COMPLETION WITHOUT the assistance and encouragement of others. This book has been no exception. I must, therefore, express my thanks to those friends who have helped me along the way. I am grateful, first of all, to the Rev. Dr. Barclay Walthall and the Rev. Dr. Holmes Rolston, both of the Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church, U.S., Richmond, Va. It was the invitation of the former to deliver a series of Bible lectures at a leadership conference for laymen at Montreat, N. C., in the summer of 1950 that first gave occasion for thinking through the subject matter of this book and presenting it orally; and but for the friendly interest and insistence of the latter the labor of writing might never have been undertaken at all. I must also thank Dr. Henry M. Brimm, librarian, Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Va., who called the Abingdon-Cokesbury Award Contest to my attention and whose encouragement it was that emboldened me to enter it. Especial thanks are due to Professor G. Ernest Wright of McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, Ill., who read the completed manuscript and made numerous suggestions for its improvement. The present book is far the better for his help, as well as for that of Professor W. F. Albright of Johns Hopkins University, who made yet further suggestions; but it must be emphasized that the shortcomings which remain are entirely my own. Not least, I owe thanks to my wife—without whose assistance in the typing and correcting, the manuscript would never have been ready in time.

Quotations from Scripture, except where otherwise indicated or where I have ventured my own translation of the original, follow the R.S.V.