The Fourfold Gospel

By A. B. Simpson

Introduction

The title of this little volume, "The Fourfold Gospel," has been a familiar phrase to thousands of God's children during the past forty years. Not that the truths contained in the statement were unknown before, but the grouping of them in this form was given to Dr. A. B. Simpson after he had happily experienced the fulness of the Gospel in his own life.

This does not mean that the blessings of the Gospel are limited exclusively to four-Christ our Saviour, Christ our Sanctifier, Christ our Healer, and Christ our Coming Lord. In one sense it is a manifold Gospel with countless blessings and ever deeper and richer experiences of God's grace and love. "But there are four messages in the Gospel," says the author, "which sum up in a very complete way the blessings which Christ has to offer us and which it is especially important that Christians should emphasize today." These constitute four great pillars in the temple of truth.

Note the order of these great truths. First things first-Christ our Saviour. Rightly, the first has to do with the soul, lost through sin and estrangement from God, but "made nigh by the blood of Christ." It is no small thing to be saved-justified, forgiven, born again. This foundation truth needs to be reiterated in these days, when sin is minimized or explained away, and the atonement of Jesus Christ is rejected by many. The same is true of Sanctification-a word and experience misunderstood and evaded by many believers. It marks a definite and distinct crisis in the history of a soul. The unfolding of these four phases of the Gospel will be made fascinatingly clear to the reader of this book. It is well worthy of thoughtful and prayerful study, and best of all of appropriating the full-orbed message-the all-sufficient Christ for spirit, soul, and body.

Dr. Simpson proved this in his own life; otherwise, his preaching would have been in vain, the Christian and Missionary Alliance would not have come into existence, and multiplied thousands of people the world around would have been deprived of the knowledge and experience of a complete Christ. Addressing an audience in London many years ago, Dr. Simpson related the following experiences which marked three great epochs in his life: "Some twenty-seven years ago, I foundered for ten months. in the waters of despondency, and I got out of them just by believing in Jesus as my Saviour. About twelve years ago I got into another deep experience of conviction, and I got out of that by believing in Jesus as my Sanctifier. After years of teaching and waiting on Him, the Lord Jesus Christ showed me four years ago that it was His blessed will to be my complete Saviour for body as well as soul."

This exposition of "The Four-Fold Gospel" has had a very large circulation in past years, and in this new and attractive form we are confident it will be in great demand. Nothing better, outside of the Bible, could be put in the hands of converts. One of our evangelists in the earlier years of the work used hundreds of them in that way with marked results.

The message is simple, Scriptural, and satisfying. The Church needs it as antidote to error and apostasy, a sure remedy for failure, an answer to the cry of hungry hearts, a source of health for the body and an inspiration to complete the witness and bring back the King.

FREDERIC H. SENFT.