Whatever tends to encourage the praying habit, should be itself encouraged. A carefully selected collection of incidents, showing the beauty, power and success of prayer will in itself encourage further devotion. This book is just that type of collection. Every incident may not be completely scientifically accurate; scientific accuracy is impossible in gleaning matter from so many and varied sources. Yet the collection as a whole is both creditable and credible. It shows diligence and painstaking care on the part of the author, and illustrates unmistakably the efficacy and utility of true prayer. Let the book be widely read, and let us hope that every reader may receive an abundant blessing.
--from the Introduction to the book, James H. Potts
Solomon Benjamin Shaw was a Methodist Episcopal minister, historian, essayist and editor. Solomon and Etta Ellen were married McBride, Montcalm County, Michigan. Solomon resided in Chicago, llinois for a time before taking up his principal residence in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
During the period 1877 to 1901, much controversy erupted in Protestant Christianity over the matter of 'holiness' movements. Solomon Benjamin Shaw as editor of theMichigan Holiness Record, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, attended conventions trying to deal with the subject, convened in Cincinnati and New York (1877); Jacksonville, Illinois (1880); Round Lake, New York (1882); Chicago 1885; and again in Chicago in 1901.
Rev. Shaw labored on what he referred to as the "undenominational line". This stand constituted a middle ground
... Show morebetween the association plan favored by the denomination-oriented members of the National and the independent
congregationalists of the movement. "Our work is not to build up or tear down churches, but to save souls and to lead God's people into the glorious experience of entire sanctification regardless of denominational lines," he said.