PREFACE. FROM a late work of the Rev. Dr. Tweedie, entitled "The Life and Work of Earnest Men," we extract the eight sketches given in this volume, believing that they will be read with great profit by both young and old. In the examples of the noble men whose conflicts and victories are here depicted, these "HEROES FOR THE TRUTH," the reader will find fresh incentives to earnestness in purpose and decision in action. In the words of the Author's Preface "ENERGY OF DECISION of CHARACTER may be educated like any other attainment. Those who are familiar with the self-discipline of such men as Ignatius Loyola are well aware of that fact. Every successive generation may be thus trained by studying the examples of the past; and an attempt is here made to promote such study. The contents of many volumes are condensed into one, to meet the requirements of our rapid age; and by accustoming youth to fix the eye steadfastly upon those who have gone before them-struggling, but yet victors-many more may learn to ge and do likewise. In the rude collisions which virtue must encounter in a world like ours, or amid the hostility to which philanthropists and other benefactors of men are so often exposed, it is sometimes difficult to realize the actual progress of man upon the whole. Yet that progress is real; and it is equally opposed to Scripture and to fact to say that the former times were better than these.' The lives which follow both attest and explain that progress, and they are commended to the study of the young, that the coming generations may learn to be wiser, better, and nobler than the past." |