It is one of the clearest principles of divine revelation, that holiness is the fruit of truth; and it is one of the plainest inferences from that principle, that the exhibition of the truth is the best means of promoting holiness. Christians regard the word of God as the only infallible teacher of those truths which relate to the salvation of men....If this little book should be instrumental, by the simple exhibition of the truth, of pointing out the WAY OF LIFE to those who are anxious to know what they must believe and what they must experience in order to be saved, it will answer the design of its preparation and publication. - from the text

The intent of this edition is to make this work by Charles Hodge accessible to the modern reader, without altering its essential character, and to make it available in both paperback and electronic versions. To that end, the editor has preserved the original text without revision and without discarding nineteenth century words and phrases. Typographical errors in the original have been corrected. Spelling has been updated to current American standards in most cases. The Scriptural citations originally presented as footnotes, have been incorporated into the text body. Roman numerals have been replaced with Western Arabic numerals.