The Carnal Mind

By Harmon Allen Baldwin

Preface

 

     As a consequence of their lack of knowledge, many honest souls, in their efforts after heart purity, aim wide of the mark. Some are inclined to attribute every evil thought suggested to their minds to the movings of depravity, and thus eliminate the temptations of Satan from their reckonings; with some the stirrings of depravity are excused away, and practically every evil thought and inclination is laid to the suggestions of the enemy; while others seem to have no definite ideas as to what they must be delivered from in order that they may be made holy. In the following pages we have made an honest attempt to clear up these difficult points, and to give, not only a doctrinal exposition of the subject, but, which is more important, have attempted to so connect doctrine and experience as to reveal, as far as possible to the unsanctified heart, the nature of the inherent trouble. How well we have succeeded we will leave others to judge; but we bespeak for ourselves, both from those who will agree and from those who may disagree, the charity which will allow that we have done our best, and that we have constantly desired and striven for those words which will be most to the glory of God and helpful to earnest seekers after light.

     The writer has feared that much of our literature on the subject of holiness stops right at the point where earnest hearts want to know; and in these pages has often ventured out into that region beyond, in which, as far as he can discover, few paths have been broken, except by those honest souls who in their determination to know God have blazed a path for themselves and made it through, leaving little or no record of their discoveries, and we know very little of the heartaches and tears amid which they pressed their way to the goal. We have presumed to pass by this way and erect guide-posts that others may see and go aright.

     Our constant prayer has been: Oh, that the Lord would enable us to speak a word in season to him that is weary, and help to direct souls, for whom Jesus died, to the Fountain of Blood where all sin, all defilement, shall be cleansed away. Amen. Even so, Lord Jesus.

H. A. Baldwin
Pittsburgh, Pa.
March 18, 1926