“This little volume of sermons has been prepared in response to repeated appeals from the people who heard them from the pulpit… they have been chosen from a cabinet of upwards of two thousand discourses.
“When you feel your burden of sin weighing heavily upon you, only go to Him… Only those who will not acknowledge their sin and feel no need of a Savior — only these are rejected.
Timothy East’s practical book is intended to, “disturb the false peace of the criminally indifferent… impart consolation to the conscientiously fearful, (and to) excite to higher degrees of gratitude the comparatively few, who know that they are safe for eternity.
“In these godless and worldly times we must earnestly and diligently preach conversion. We must insist on its necessity. We must reason, exhort, convince, beseech, and plead; ‘Turn ye, turn ye; why will ye die?
“If any clergyman needs a spiritual guide, let him choose Scriver. He is the preacher for preachers, full of consolation and encouragement to the well-meaning, but a storm of hail to the faithless and slothful pastor.