A Guide to Christ (Solomon Stoddard)

A Guide to Christ

Or, the Way of Directing Souls that are Under the Work of Conversion

Compiled for the help of Young Ministers, and may be serviceable to private Christians, who are enquiring the way to Zion.

Written by Solomon Stoddard, grandfather of Jonathan Edwards, to instruct ministers how to work with those who were under conviction of sin, and who were seeking God, in order to lead them to Christ rightly.

Stoddard experienced several seasons of genuine revival during his pastorate at Northampton, Massachusetts. He had observed how the Spirit of God worked in the lives of men during these times. Stoddard seems to have, more than almost any other person of his day, observed the twists and turns of the human heart. He was not fooled by presumptuous hopes and false religious affections.

The Puritans knew that there must be preparatory work by the Spirit of God in convicting a person of their sins and humbling their heart before they could truly believe. Solomon Stoddard believed that this conviction of sin and humbling of the heart was a necessity, but even in his day there were those who did not believe in the necessity of this preparatory work, prompting Stoddard to write these words:

From the book:

“Some there be that do deny any necessity of the preparatory work of the Spirit of God, in order to a closing with Christ. This is a very dark cloud, both as it is an evidence that such men have not the experience of that work in their own souls. And as it is a sign that such men are utterly unskillful in guiding others that are under this work; if this opinion should prevail in the land, it would give a deadly wound to religion, it would expose men to think themselves converted when they are not.”

We are now living in a day when Stoddard’s prediction has come true. A Guide to Christ is perhaps the best book ever written on this subject. Our version was taken from the 1742 edition and for the first time ever, it contains a table of contents so that the reader can easily navigate to different topics within the book.

About the Author

Solomon Stoddard graduated from Harvard in 1662 and was its first librarian. In 1672 he became the second pastor of the church at Northampton, Massachusetts, succeeding Eleazer Mather at that post.  He shepherded the same church all his remaining days, until his death in 1729.