Introduction

This is a collection in two volumes of ministry by Alfred J Gardiner not previously available in book form. Several volumes of our brother’s ministry were produced formerly (and are listed at the end of this book), and second-hand copies can be found of most if not all of these. A lot more of his ministry, however, was published in monthly periodicals, leaflets, and other forms. These are no longer in print, and the articles are therefore much less accessible.

Various sources have been used in this collection, but most of the material has come from three dis-continued periodicals—Words of Truth, edited by Mr Walter M Brown from Harrow; Words of Grace and Comfort, edited by Mr Harry F Nunnerley, latterly at Hove, then William Henderson from Glasgow; and Paroles d’Édification Mutuelle, published in France by M Paul G Blanc in Valence. Material from this magazine has been translated; it had a mix of our brother’s ministry given in France, and ministry elsewhere rendered in French—I have so far found little of this in English publications.

The articles are in date order; a few that are un-dated come at the end of the second volume. I assume the articles were revised before first publication—and expect that the author was able to do this himself. I have read every one carefully, without doing my own revision. I have left scripture quotations from the King James Version as found.

In my early years, I attended the meetings in Streatham where

Mr Gardiner broke bread; and remember him with great affection and regard. He was, of course, very active in ministry, and often travelling away, but he never forgot his local meeting—either in his prayers or his attention to our practical and spiritual welfare.

Mr Gardiner gives good advice on page 232 of this volume: ‘Read the ministry by all means, dear brethren. If the Lord is giving ministry to the assembly, we ought to be diligent to follow it up. Thank God for the ministry … but let us not think we shall get into it merely by reading books’. May reading of these books nevertheless be to God’s glory.

ANDREW BURR

2020