David Swing, Poet-Preacher (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from David Swing, Poet-Preacher No apology is needed for this record of the life of David Swing, unless it be that the story of his great ministry should not have remained for so long untold. This silence, which has been longer than falls to the lot of even lesser men, is due in part to the rush and hurry of the age, and to the bland facility with which it forgets the men of yesterday. Absorbed in the present, striving for the future, the past and those who with it depart count for too little. It must be that we the living have not been duly mindful of our obligation to the dead and to the advancing generation, or else we have forgotten that the image of a great preacher is kept in the world by the devotion of those whom he inspired. It is of supreme importance that the life of such a man should be written if it be true, as F. W. H. Myers has said, that the record of a great and pure personality is the best bequest of time. The ministry of Swing was in every way unique and worthy of record, though one is safe in saying that it never once crossed his mind that any one would in the future sit down to tell its story. He was, as all who knew him can testify, at once the most lovable and least aggressive of men. For himself he made no claim, asked for no reward, and seemed to cherish no ambition. His theory of life was that what gift soever a man had should be used for his fellow man, and for no other end; and that theory he carried out. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.