Produced by the Bookworm (bookworm.librivox@gmail.com)
Twelve years have elapsed since the period at which the third part ofthe Narrative of the Lord's dealings with me closes. It has not beenfor want of matter, that this fourth part has not appeared sooner; butthe increased and ever increasing variety of other occupations has keptme hitherto from arranging the materials for the press. Of late,however, I have judged, for the following reasons, that I oughtparticularly to give myself to this service.
1, It has pleased the Lord so abundantly to bless the former parts of myNarrative to the comfort, encouragement, strengthening, and instructionof those who are young and weak in the faith, and to those unacquaintedwith the simplicity of the truth, that I consider myself to be theservant of such; and I feel that responsibility is laid upon me, to dowhat further I can, in this way, to serve them. And this, I confess, Ido joyfully; for my spirit has oft times been not a little refreshedduring the eighteen years which have elapsed, since I published thefirst part of my Narrative, by the many hundreds of letters I havereceived, giving an account of the blessing, which the writers of themhave derived from the perusal of it; and I have thus been again andagain encouraged to go on with the work.
2, I think it important, that the reader of the first three parts of myNarrative should have a right impression of the work in which I amengaged. He may not be acquainted with the Reports of the ScripturalKnowledge Institution for Home and Abroad, which have been publishedsince 1844, and therefore he may know no more of the work in which I amespecially engaged, than the first three parts of my Narrative give him.In that case he would not know how the work has been growing since thatperiod; he would not be aware, that it is now three or four times aslarge as it was in 1844, and is still more and more increasing. He wouldnot know in that case, that the principles of Holy Scripture on whichthe work of God in my hands was carried on, when comparatively small,and which then were found to be sufficient, even in these last days, arethe same on which it is carried on now, though the work is now so large.This point has especially weighed with me, in desiring the publicationof the continuation of the account of the Lord's dealings with me inthe form of the first three parts, in order that the Living God may beglorified through this account. I judged, moreover, that, whilst thefirst three parts may especially furnish, to the believer in the LordJesus for his private life subjects for comforting and encouragingreflections; this part, besides doing the same still further, mayespecially be of help to the servant of Christ labouring for God on alarge scale, or to the man of God who seeks to carry on business on alarge scale, on Scriptural principles.
3, Though the Reports of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution for Homeand Abroad have been issued generally every year or every two years;yet, as they are not bound together, they may be lost in part, and thusthe chain be interrupted. Moreover, they contain, sometimes, matterswhich may be of moment for the time being, but not so importantafterwards. The Narrative leaves out such points, and introduces on theother hand things which were scarcely suitable for the Reports. Mydesire, therefore, has been to give in this fourth part the substance ofthe Reports, which have been published since July 1844, and to bringthus together in one volume what is contained in these nine differentReports.
4, The Reports give scarcely anything of the dealings of God wi