Читать книгу The Destiny of the British Empire and the U.S.A - William Gordon Mackendrick - Страница 3

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Say, reader, did you ever write a book? No! Well, neither have I, so we break even on that score.

When I came back from the Front in the spring of 1919, I had a decided hunch that I should put on paper these views for the benefit of my numerous business friends and perhaps for a few others. Now, a brain-wave to most people is a creature of a moment or two and then passes off, but with this bit of Scotch it is a real force to be reckoned with and to be humoured, or got rid of, or else followed.

Choosing the latter course, I started to put on paper these ideas, but I found that when I commenced looking up any of the reference books or the Bible, I at once became so interested in reading—that I read night after night and never put a page on paper. Besides, I realized I was never made to sit still long enough for quill driving and my mental equipment was unsuited for such work, for, be it known, the call of the "out of doors" at the age of thirteen caused me to play "hookey" for several months (there being no truant officers in those days) and my young form darkened school doors no more.

I also soon recognized that this was essentially a religious question; and while I have been accused of many things, up to date I have never heard that I was accused of being pious or religious, and I have never felt good enough to join a church, though I once had the compliment passed by a reverend gentleman asking me to be a sidesman, deacon or churchwarden, I don't remember which. But I was not for having any, though I attend service every Sunday, rain or shine.

Amid these discouragements, the calls of business with a turn-over of two million dollars, and the thronging duties that fall to one's portion in a big city, absorbed a good deal of my steam, so that when I reached home in the evening, it was slippers, a grate fire, a game of bridge, and a growing family that took my attention ere the feathers wooed me thitherward.

My conscience or the aforementioned hunch, however, never lost its grip, but kept urging me on despite the numerous times I waved it aside with many a "to-morrow perhaps," or "next week."

Sitting one day in the Club after luncheon, talking to a young friend of about sixty-five or seventy summers and an equal number of winters, mostly hard ones I should judge, we chanced on this subject and I unloaded some of the following data off my chest.

Turning to me with great earnestness, he said, "I would give anything in the world that I possess if I had your faith!"

"Say, Tom, it's not that costly! Just invest a few dollars in some books I'll give you a list of, and I'll bet you cannot come to any other conclusion than I have."

"The world is just crying out for the faith that you have; and if you would publish what you have just told me, you have a way of saying things that makes them stick in one's mind, you would be doing fine service to humanity in renewing the faith our mothers taught us in the years long ago. We need it sadly."

This talk stirred me to renewed action; so, here I am with my finger in the ink-pot under the urge of my young friend, whose opinion and judgment I value highly, trying, and trying hard, to write a book that will show you the everyday road to God's Kingdom that is right here on earth. You don't have to die to get it, as it is part of your inheritance while you are alive and going strong.

Having served this notice of what to expect, I seem to have cleared my conscience, because, if you delve further into these pages, it's your own funeral, as you have had fair warning that I am far removed from being properly equipped or suited to the job of bookwriting. Think of it rather as a series of letters from a friend direct to you. I'm appalled at the number of capital "I's" in the foregoing, but it seems impossible to dodge them, due, doubtless, to my inexperience and not knowing how.

I really have little that is original to offer you; but during the last thirty-seven years, I have read over 250 books and pamphlets on this subject, and the data contained therein has been absorbed during those years. My test of every book has been to check up its statements or data by the Bible, and my father might have been from Missouri, instead of from Glasgow, Scotland, by the way they had to "show me!"

It is impossible, therefore, to quote all the authors whose material I have absorbed, but when I make a statement you can bank on its being based on the good horse-sense that you apply to your business daily, and you can be sure that it is all truth as it is given me to see it.

Furthermore, a book like this is only of as much good to you as the use you make of it; and if you desire to get anything out of it, it will have to be studied and checked up, not merely read for entertainment. I always read with a soft pencil in my hand. For every opinion expressed that I cannot see or do not believe, I put a question mark in the margin. I tick off the things I agree with or wish to refer to again. I turn down the corner of pages I wish to refer to hurriedly, and I can glance through a book a second time from cover to cover in half an hour. I would ask as a favour that you do likewise with this book, because to really get it, you will have to study it over many times to absorb most of the truth it contains. Question anything you cannot see or do not believe; heavily pencil any items that strike you as good stuff; and don't be afraid of digging into the Bible to do a bit of mining on your own account, as not one-half of it as yet is properly understood by most people.

You do your business six days a week on the basis of taking other men's word for details and things you have not time or inclination to go into or figure for yourself. I would ask that you do the same with me as you do with your subordinates and place the same confidence in my judgment and accept my word for everything I put down here until you finish the book and until you find me in error, because its facts are as true as the fact that you have a head on your shoulders.

As you may be undecided whether to accept the foregoing suggestion, I may mention that my bank backs my word and judgment to the tune of between a quarter and half-million dollars overdraft each season, and they, as you know, have the habit of looking into the innermost recesses of one's make-up ere they loosen to the above tune.

Mention is made of this, not in a boastful manner, nor to encourage you to seek a loan, but solely because I think it well you should know that my head is screwed on shoulders as straight and as tight as is the ordinary business man's who has to rustle among his competitors daily for his provender in the marts of a large city.

THE ROADBUILDER.

September, 1921.