Introduction

This volume is an addition to a series of books which I have produced in recent years to bring together ministry by Alfred J Gardiner not previously collected in this form. It adds to the collection a range of items which have come to light since it was completed. The sources of this material do not all include information about where and when the ministry was given. It is unlikely that Mr Gardiner himself revised most of these articles.

Some of these pieces were originally published in French, although one of them was originally given in London; I take responsibility for translating these into English.

A full list of books of our brother’s ministry, including those originally published contemporarily, is at the end of this book; copies of the old ones can be readily found second-hand.

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

Note—This book was first published as ‘Part 12’ in a collection of Mr Gardiner’s ministry; this is a re-issue including an additional article on Faith, an address given in Londonderry in 1959.

2026