MR. WORLD AND MISS CHURCH-MEMBER A TWENTIETH CENTURY ALLEGORY BY REV. W. S. HARRIS. to Edwin L. Bergstreser WHOSE TESTED FRIENDSHIP I HAVE ENJOYED FOR NEARLY TEN YEARS AND WHOSE KINDLY INFLUENCE HELPED ME TO PERSEVERE IN WRITING THIS ALLEGORY THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. Preface. After long and careful study we send forth this book to do its work. We offer no apology for adding one more volume to the endless library of modern times, constantly increasing at the rate of over one hundred volumes per week, the great bulk of which is consigned to the debris of the passing years. We pray that this book may find a field of usefulness rather than an early grave. We need not tell of the pleasures and difficulties we experienced in preparing these twenty-five chapters for the press. Let it be known, however, that we were seconded and assisted by several able critics who, each one independently of the others, kindly reviewed the manuscript. At the suggestions of these critics minor changes were made in the several manuscript editions. These critics deserve much credit especially for the literary finish there may be to this book. The illustrations were drawn by Paul J. Krafft, of New York. They evince patient study and careful work, and display a creative genius well suited to the field of allegory. The leading moral truths are developed in the memorable journey of Miss Church-Member upon the Broad Highway in company with the polite and yet fiendish Mr. World. In this lifelike journey the two companions come in contact with many of Satan’s up-to-date schemes, and witness his far-extended operations in many a wicked realm. In the descriptions of all these things we have endeavored to be suggestive rather than exhaustive, for we have withheld the almost infinite details and brought to light only a mere synopsis of the panorama as seen from the lofty summit. Will not the reader, as he takes one step after another in the progress of the story, realize more keenly than ever the unspeakable deceptions of Satan, so bewitchingly robed in the garments of subtle treachery? The course of Miss Church-Member is a sad comment on the moving masses who are so thoroughly led captive by the Devil as to imagine that they are traveling on a more convenient way to Heaven while they are actually on the Broad Highway to destruction. The logical ending of such a life is pictured in the remorseful and tragical experiences of Mr. World and Miss Church-Member in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. It is our prayer that each reader may be saved from such a terminus of life by journeying on the King’s Highway and taking Christ as his all in all. Then when he comes to the place made shadowy by the power of sin and death, he will be surrounded with a light from the sure city of God, and by a convoy of angels whose music will quell his rising fears and by whose power he will be transported to his never-ending home. THE AUTHOR. Contents