Gaining Favor with God and Man came from the pen of William M. Thayer of Massachusetts, originally published in 1893. After Rev. Richard "Little Bear" Wheeler discovered this treasure in an old, dusty, used book store, Mantle Ministries republished the 446-page, beautifully bound hardcover in 1989, retaining the wonderful old, black-and-white prints and the Master of the His-story Thayer recorded. Little Bear felt the urgency of his ministry's task: "We can no longer entrust public schools to transfer these priority precepts to our children, but rather we must recognize it as our own responsibility." Little Bear was speaking of the precepts of II Peter 1:5-7, precepts honored in Gaining Favor with God and Man.

After 40 years of studying biographies available to him, Thayer wrote this volume, beginning it thus: "The lives of great men are an inspiration to the young. Tact, industry, perseverance, honesty, self-reliance, and the other virtues indispensable to success are incarnated in them. They are lived, thereby becoming real things instead of idealities or speculation. . . That older people - parents, guardians, business men - often derive the greatest benefit from books written for the young goes without saying. . ." Thayer then starts his introduction with Scripture. Ah, that modern "character building" books were so in-tune with the plan of the Master Builder for the little ones among us.

Thayer couples the 123 chapters - some only a few pages in length - with nearly as many illustrations to bring you stories of "Quiet Meditation," "Keeping the Heart with Diligence," "Gratitude," "Reducing an Idea to Practice," "What to Read," and many, many more discourses for a wise heart. Being from Massachusetts, you must expect Thayer's sentiments over "the late War of Rebellion" to be Union in his writing on "Patriotism." Don't let that dissuade you from receiving from this excellent book.

I found it sad to see so many Scripture verses unattributed in the book. However, after more thoughtful consideration, I received, perhaps, a revelation, and yet my sadness deepened. It is not that Thayer sought to expunge the Speaker or to hide His identity, I believe, but that he wrote during a time when naming the Speaker was superfluous detail to a book about morals, righteousness, integrity, courage, and wisdom. Of course the "divine book" is the holy Word of God. Of course the "Thee" of Whom Thayer oft writes is the Lord God. It is we who have need of attribution. I wonder at his confident pen: "Best of all are the moral results of well-chosen newspaper reading. It is the only reliable way of tracing the providence of God in our day. To the Christian, the newspaper is the record of God's doing on the earth. With the Bible in one hand, and the able daily journal in the other, he has such proof of the fulfillment of prophecy and the progress of truth, as the best commentaries cannot furnish. The newspaper is our commentary upon divine providence, recording events, discoveries, inventions, advances in science and art, the triumphs of industry and genius, and a host of other things that explain providence beyond what our forefathers ever dreamed of. So we claim that the best newspaper is a providential record for Christians to study. . ." Do you not cringe to wonder his opinion of newspapers today?