These twenty-five sermons have been selected from among those heard during the two and -one-half years which capped his active ministry. During this period in which the world and nation alternated between hope and doubt, fear and confidence, Dr. Fosdick's sermons were steadily insisting upon and illustrating a mature, practical and triumphant religion. Only those messages which seem to speak to all time have been included.

Harry Emerson Fosdick was an American clergyman. He was born in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from Colgate University in 1900, and Union Theological Seminary in 1904. While attending Colgate University he joined the Delta Upsilon Fraternity. He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1903. Fosdick was the most prominent liberal Baptist minister of the early 20th Century. Although a Baptist, he was Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church on West Twelfth Street and then at the historic, interdenominational Riverside Church (the congregation moved from the then-named Park Avenue Baptist Church, now the Central Presbyterian Church) in New York City.