The principles of evangelical theology are in neat sequence here: Read the Bible and you will learn of the “misery of all mankind,” that since Adam’s fall all suffer under the power of sin; you will also learn that God has made one plan for ‘the salvation of all mankind’ in the death and resurrection of his son Jesus Christ; and you will further learn that the only way to grasp this salvation is by having a “true and lively faith” in Christ as your Savior.

Author Thad Barnum has achieved this in a very remarkable way. Through a series of life stories, many of which are drawn from his own life, Bishop Barnum leads his readers in a series of devotional reflections that are truly engaging, biblically affirming and takes the reader into the souls of other peoples' lives and how they engage God in times of triumph and tragedy.

Many of these young martyrs had become Christians through the missionary work of the "White Fathers," the Roman Catholic Society of Missionaries of Africa, founded by Charles Cardinal Lavigerie, an ardent foe of slavery and the Archbishop of Algiers. Enough converts were baptized and shared the faith with others that Christianity soon threatened the influence and power of the witch doctors and the Arab Muslims who operated the slave trade in Uganda and promoted Islam to the king.

Guinness points to the current international economic crisis which is due not to hostilities between European countries, but within them - perhaps most notably, a refusal on the part of one generation to curtail current benefits or entitlements even if it bankrupts those around them - which is as much a matter of character as of economics.