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Introduction

This volume is planned to be one of seven bringing together ministry by Alfred J Gardiner not previously collected in this form. The volumes together comprise nearly 250 articles. I am very grateful to others who have helped to collect this material, and to make it fit to publish.

Several volumes of our brother’s ministry (listed at the end of this book) can be readily found second-hand. A lot more of his ministry, however, was published in monthly periodicals, leaflets, and other forms no longer in print, which is therefore much less accessible.

These other sources have been used in this collection, as shown at the end of almost every article. Some material is translated from French magazines: ministry given in France, and ministry elsewhere rendered in French. I am sure others are more able at translating, but I am sufficiently confident that I have given a good account of this very useful ministry.

I have already produced two new books, without at first having planned any others, but a lot more material then came to hand. This book has additional articles ministered from 1960 to 1969. It is well-known that these years brought a lot of sorrow and ended with the loss of much that the ministry of our brother and others had laboured to establish; I believe nevertheless, having read them all carefully, that the articles in this volume are sound and remain helpful and edifying. I have assumed what has been already published in English was revised by the author.

In my early years, I attended meetings in Streatham where Mr Gardiner broke bread; and have held him in great affection and regard. He was, of course, very active in ministry, and often away, but he never forgot his local meeting—either in his prayers or his attention to our practical and spiritual welfare. I remember him as apt to repeat himself in ministry, but I now know this was not a sign of age—it will be seen in these books too.

Mr Gardiner has salutary advice about reading: ‘Books by themselves, however good they may be, cannot establish us in the truth … It is only in the power of the Spirit that the thoughts of God can be grasped and made profitable, and if we are well aware of that, we are cast on God in prayer’. May reading of these books be taken up in this spirit to God’s glory!

ANDREW BURR

2020

Contents

Introduction

Spiritual Personality

The Glory Of The Father

The Administration Of Blessing In The Hands Of Christ

The Government Of God

What The Lord Says, And What The Spirit Says

Life Out Of Death

Gideon

Christian Baptism