Preface
These brief biographies originally appeared as magazine articles, thirty-two of them in Moody Monthly magazine (1971–77) and sixteen in The Good News Broadcaster, published by Back to the Bible Broadcast. The Moody Monthly articles were compiled into Walking with the Giants and Listening to the Giants, both published by Baker; and the others into Victorious Christians You Should Know, co-published in 1984 by Back to the Bible and Baker. The biographies from the two Giants books later became Living with the Giants, which was published by Baker in 1993.
At the request of the publisher, I wrote the chapters on Clarence Edward Macartney and Alva Jay McClain especially for this volume.
It pleases me that there is still an interest in Christian biography. One of the goals in my writing ministry has been to encourage Christians—especially pastors—to “dig again the old wells” (see Gen. 26:18) and get acquainted with the godly leaders of the past who kept the light shining long before we were ever on the scene. I have heard from people in different parts of the world who have read these studies and been helped by them. Many of my readers have especially appreciated the bibliographical information and have searched for these forgotten books. I hope they found them!
Many Christians today are so fascinated with the latest religious fads and celebrities that they forget that all of us are “like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants,” to quote the French philosopher Bernard of Chartres (d. c. 1130). In his essay “History,” Emerson reminds us, “There is properly no history; only biography.” I rejoice that in recent years, at least in the United States, there have been an increase in published biographies, both popular and academic, and I hope this continues. We must remember the warning issued by George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
The past is not an anchor to drag us back but a rudder to help guide us into the future. I have been helped greatly in my own life and ministry by reading the hundreds of biographies, autobiographies, and histories that have enabled me to write these chapters, and I trust you will benefit from reading them. When I started the Moody Monthly series, I was pastoring Calvary Baptist Church in Covington, Kentucky, near Cincinnati. Then we moved to Moody Church in Chicago (1971–78) and then to Back to the Bible Broadcast in Lincoln, Nebraska (1979–89).
The magazines I once wrote for are no longer being published. I’m grateful that these articles can be conserved in this volume, and I trust they will inform and inspire you.
Warren W. Wiersbe