INTRODUCTION

FOR more than a quarter of a century Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman was a potent presence and a formative force in the councils and activities of the evangelical church.

He was conspicuous, not as one who sought preferment or place, but as one who, "for Christ's sake and the Gospel's," gave himself to the service of his fellowmen. He was great among us in that he was the servant of all.

Though he was unique there was no singularity in his person or his ministry. He had no eccentricities of manner or of speech, nor did he need such aids. He was heard, and heard gladly, in all parts of the world because of an undertone of reality, a ring of certainty, a note of conviction: all of which were constant in his personality and directed his simple yet cogent and sinewy speech.

Throughout his ministry Dr. Chapman maintained a high conception of his office. This he magnified and was himself thereby enlarged. A man among men, he was genial, jovial, ready of wit; yet ever and everywhere a minister of Jesus Christ. Although clericalism was to him an abomination he was always the clergyman.

As an ambassador of Christ he was loyal to the commission and the message he received. He faithfully delivered his message, and his ministry was therefore effective and fruitful.

The cardinal truths he believed and defended were the Divine Inspiration of the Scriptures, the Deity of Jesus

Christ, the Personality of the Holy Spirit, the Primacy of the Atonement, and the Return of our Lord.

Love for Christ was his ruling passion, the evangel of Christ was his message: in the life he lived, in the sermons he preached, in the books he wrote, in the songs he composed.

He was a preacher to preachers. There are ministers in all lands who, but for his compelling touch, would not be preaching to-day, and innumerable others who, because of their contact with him, are preaching with greater power. He had a passion for souls, but he had also a passion for soul winners. Great were the evangelistic meetings that he conducted, but equally great were the conferences that he held for ministers. In these conferences ministers of Jesus Christ were born anew to a higher ideal, to a finer consecration, to a more spiritual ministry.

It is eminently fitting that the story of his eventful life should be written, not for his sake, not to magnify one who has passed beyond the reach or need of man's praise, but for our sakes who live, that the image of the man may be impressed upon us, and that the inspiration of his life-work may summon us to nobler service.

There are many who might have written his life as it was seen and known in its public phases. Important and suggestive as these aspects were, such an account would be but fractional. The hidden values would be absent from the reckoning.

The fine parts of Dr. Chapman's life were invisible-his dreams and ideals, his spiritual aspirations, his far-flung vision, his broad plans; all that the ministry of light and shadow, of gladness and tears, of losses and gains, had wrought in the evolution of his character: these were the

man, and except his biographer had knowledge of them he could not tell the whole story.

To write his life none among his friends was so well qualified as Dr. Ottman. He knew Dr. Chapman as few men knew him. He knew his inmost life, and by him was loved and trusted. In all his ministry Dr. Ottman was his confidant, his companion in the home and on his world journeys, his friend and counsellor, a sharer of his joys and sorrows. Such intimacy supplies a biographer with materials for a sympathetic and revealing interpretation.

I have read the manuscript of this volume. Its literary style is chaste and elevated. Its wealth of historic reference is instructive. Its survey of world conditions during the period covered is most discriminating. Its delineation of the character and its estimate of the services of Dr. Chapman are accurate, appreciative, and compelling.

What Boswell did for Johnson and Francis Wilson did for Joseph Jefferson, Ford C. Ottman has done for J. Wilbur Chapman.

In these times, when the call to the ministry is so urgent, I wish that this book might be placed in the hands of all the young men in our colleges and theological seminaries. As the story of Brainerd inspired Henry Martyn, a student of Cambridge, and made him a missionary, so should this story of Chapman inspire young men and lead them into the holy ministry of the Gospel.

JOHN F. CARSON.