SIXTY YEARS OF THORNS & ROSES Autobiography

Originally Published in 1920I thought I was about through publishing but, as I neared my sixtieth birthday, new inspiration came upon me to write my fortieth book, and give a few incidents in my unworthy life. Some of these appear for the first time, while others were related in the "Ups and Downs of a Pioneer Preacher." Since the former book has been exhausted for a number of years, and the calls are so frequent and urgent for another edition, I hope, with the new matter, it may have a new life and be a blessing.Generally, when the sayings and doings of an individual are published, it is because in reality or fancy he was an extraordinary person. Be it far from the author of this volume to pose as such. No! No!! It is his earnest prayer that those who may chance to read these pages will not see the man, but rather the "God of all Grace" who is ever waiting to make something out of nothing, and to use the "weak things of the world to confound the mighty."I am filled with a sense of gratitude that God has let me live so long when many prophesied that I would not see thirty. I am also greatly humiliated that I have accomplished so little for my Lord. I have tried to crowd eighty years into sixty but, even so, I can now see where I could have improved.In the back part of the book I have deviated from all other writers and told on myself -- "Some of My Mistakes and What They Taught Me." I trust the gentle reader may profit at my expense.For the purpose of encouraging those with meager gifts and limited opportunities, and of helping them master their environments, is this unpretentious volume sent forth.Elmer Ellsworth Shelhamer