An Ordered Life - Publisher's Foreword

The reading of this autobiography twenty or more years ago made a profound impression on me, the effects of which I still feel today. Reading it again for this reprint has been refreshing and challenging. I hope you receive eternal benefit as you ponder its pages.

To me it’s a great pity that the life and writings of G. H. Lang are so little known in our day. In my view, he deserves to be recognized as a spiritual successor to such giants in the faith as George Müller, Anthony Norris Groves and Robert Cleaver Chapman. That he is lesser known than these other great men is surely more an accident of history than any failure on his part to live and teach the same Biblical principles of absolute surrender to God and total dependence on Him for everything.

 The life story unfolded in these pages is full of spiritual instruction. The author traces in precise detail the dealings of God with his soul, from the day of his conversion at the tender age of seven, through the twilight years when bodily infirmity restricted most of his former activities. You will be amazed, I think, as you read these pages, to see how quickly and continually a soul can grow in grace and in the knowledge of spiritual things if they will wholly follow the Lord. 

Horace Bushnell once preached that every man’s life is a plan of God, and that it’s our duty as human beings to find and follow that plan. As Mr. Lang looks back over his long and varied life in the pages of this book, he frequently points out the many times God prepared him in the present for some future work or role.

The author traveled all over the world as a Bible teacher and preacher with no fixed means of support other than prayer and faith. Like George Müller before him, he told his needs to no one but God. Many times his faith was tried to the limit, as funds for the next part of his journey arrived only at the last minute and from unexpected sources.

Many of Lang’s other writings are equally valuable (a number are available on our website: www.kingsleypress.com). His precise thinking made him an extremely astute Bible expositor. I highly prize his Pictures and Parables, which is usually the first (and sometimes only) place I look if needing help understanding a specific parable. Some of his teachings, particularly along prophetic lines, brought him into controversy; but this should not be allowed to detract from the immense value of his writings.

In this first Kingsley Press edition we have re-typeset the entire book, but otherwise it is little changed from the first edition published by Paternoster Press in 1959.  British spelling, grammar and usage have been left untouched, for which we beg indulgence of our North American readers. The main benefit of re-typesetting is the ability to make the book available for the first time in eBook format (available at Amazon.com’s Kindle Store and Apple’s iBookstore).

May God add His rich blessing to the republishing of this wonderful book.

Edward Cook

Kingsley Press

June, 2011