The Gospel of Out of Doors (Paperback or Softback)

The digital copies of this book are available for free at First Fruits website.
place.asburyseminary.edu/firstfruits

WHY THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN

There 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."

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.

F.E.C.