The digital copies of this book are available for free at First Fruit's website.
place.asburyseminary.edu/firstfruits
FORWARD
The poems in this volume have been written over a period of years. A greater part of them have been published in various books, magazines and anthologies of verse.
The Meditations are an afterthought, the product of the zero hour. Then in the midst of preparation came a serious illness in the family which silenced my type- writer for months. After a brief respite, Mrs. Wiseman again underwent three major operations in rapid succession. At this moment she hovers between life and death, but her ardent desire is that this book, delayed so long, be published. I trust there will not be revealed, to too great an extent, the haste in which each meditation was written, and the mental anguish that was ever present.
I deeply appreciate everything done by the doctors and hospital of Martha's Vineyard, the surgeons of the Lahey Clinic of Boston, and the New England Deaconess Hospital. We shall never forget the prayers and words of encouragement from the many friends of our various churches, especially those of the Vineyard, whose only demand has been that I remain by the side of my wife.
My prayer as I send forth this volume is that the minister might find some help for the church year, the sorrowful find comfort, faith reborn, and love and devotion to the Master be increased through the reading of these pages.
George W. Wiseman
Methodist Parsonage
Oak Bluffs, Mass.
August, 1941
About the Author: George William Wiseman (1902-1985) was born in Little Bay Islands, Newfoundland, and immigrated with his family to Boston, Massachusetts when he was seven years old. His family became involved in the work of Dr. J. Edgar Helms of the Church of All Nations, Morgan Memorial in Boston. This Methodist minister and his church were the founding ministry of today's Goodwill Industries and established this work to help immigrant families like the Wisemans. Under the influence of Dr. Helms, George Wiseman went on to Boston University and obtained his Bachelor of Religious Education, Bachelor of Sacred Theology, and a Master of Sacred Theology. George Wiseman served as a Methodist pastor for forty-four years, serving churches in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, before a severe case of pneumonia led him to transfer to the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church, where he served several additional churches. He published numerous poems, sermon outlines, and devotions in a wide variety of religious periodicals, as well as four books. George Wiseman's first wife, Elsie Coggshall died at a young age and he then married Miriam Tower, the daughter and granddaughter of missionaries to sailors on Martha's Vineyard. George and Elsie had one daughter, Joanne Wiseman of Girard, Kansas, and George and Miriam had two daughters, Donna Chapman of Davisburg, Michigan, and Dianne Danielson of Fort Fairfield, Maine. George Wiseman's works cover a variety of genres from religious poetry, sermons, and devotional reading to a history of the Seaman's Bethel of Martha's Vineyard and its mission work. First Fruits is proud to have the opportunity to bring these out-of-print books from a Methodist pastor of a previous generation to a brand new audience.
