This work is not a personal history. For fifteen years I was a layman in the Protestant Episcopal Church, and having had my attention called to the subjects and mode of Baptism, after two years of careful study of the subject I deemed it my duty to unite with the Baptists. In my examination of the subject I found it necessary to read a great many tracts, pamphlets, and books, none of which covered completely the whole ground. Feeling the need of a comprehensive little work to place in the hands of young converts, and those desiring to know the distinctive principles of the Baptists, I prepared the following volume. I claim for it no originality. It is simply a compilation of facts, and the arguments of others, culled from numerous sources after careful and voluminous reading. But as he who would obtain credit for constructing a new edifice largely from old material, with the addition of a little new, must see to it that the old material is not too conspicuous, and as I remember that the class of persons for whom this is written care more to see the finished building than the method, manner, and material of its construction, I have arranged the facts and arguments culled, so that their source and authorship is not evident. At the same time I have acknowledged my indebtedness to all who may recognize their own offspring in the garb of a foreigner. About the Author: Rev. Clarence Larkin (1850–1924) was an American Baptist pastor, Bible teacher and author whose writings on Dispensationalism had a great impact on conservative Protestant visual culture in the 20th century. His intricate and influential charts provided readers with a visual strategy for mapping God's action in history and for interpreting complex biblical prophecies.
