The Set of the Sail

by A. W. Tozer

Publisher:

WingSpread

, 1986

Overview

These are essays selected from The Alliance Witness, the magazine Tozer edited. Each essay is a brief, thoughtful, sometimes bitter commentary on the religious scene and the Christian walk. Use this as a devotional, a pick-me-up when life seems be closing in, or a book for reflection and meditation. Tozer urges us to “set our sails in the will of God,” that way, no matter which way wind blows, we will find ourselves going in right direction. Some topics Tozer addresses are benefits of prayer, need for sanctified thinking, trying the spirits, and discipleship.

In the Logos edition, this volume is enhanced by amazing functionality. Important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.

Product Details

• Title: The Set of the Sail
• Author: A. W. Tozer
• Publisher: WingSpread
• Publication Date: 1986
• Pages: 172

About A. W. Tozer

Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897-1963) was born on a small farm in what is now Newburg, PA. His family moved to Akron, Ohio, when he was just a young boy. At the age of 17, Tozer heard a street preacher, responded to the calling of Christ, and began his lifelong pursuit of God. After becoming an active witness of Jesus as a lay preacher, he joined The Christian and Missionary Alliance and was soon serving as the pastor of West Virginia’s Alliance Church, in 1919. He transferred to the Southside Alliance Church in Chicago in 1928, and his ministry continued there for 31 years. During that time he preached on the Moody Bible Institute’s radio station. In the 1940s Tozer was invited to speak at Wheaton College, and seldom a year passed after World War II that he didn’t preach in the college’s Pierce Chapel. In 1950 he became the editor of The Alliance Life magazine and served in that capacity until his death.

Self-taught, with no formal Bible training, Tozer has been called a twentieth-century prophet within his own lifetime. Through years of diligent study and constant prayer, he sought the mind of God. A master craftsman in the use of the English language, he was able to write in a simple, cogent style the principles of truth he had learned. For Tozer, “there was no substitute for knowing God firsthand.” He wrote many of his books with one idea in mind—that his reader would achieve the heart’s true goal in God and maintain that relationship with Him.

Tozer moved to Toronto in 1959 and spent the final years of his life as the pastor of Avenue Road Church. He and his wife, Ada, lived a simple, non-materialistic lifestyle and let much of the royalties from his books go to those in need. The Tozers had seven children, six boys and one girl. James L. Snyder, said of Tozer that his “preaching as well as his writings were but extensions of his prayer life. He had the ability to make his listeners face themselves in the light of what God was saying to them.”

Contents

Top Highlights

“It should be noted that the Spirit reveals God to the spirit of man, not to his intellect merely. The intellect can know God’s attributes because these constitute that body of truth that can be known about God. The knowledge of God is for the spirit alone. Such knowledge comes not by intellection but by intuition.” (Page 48)

“God’s nature is of another kind from anything with which the mind is acquainted; hence when the mind attempts to find out God it is confronted by obscurity.” (Page 47)

“Elsewhere I have said that we cannot know God by thinking, but that we must do a lot of thinking if we would know Him well.” (Page 47)

“What these men overlooked was that when God desires He can and does reveal Himself to men.” (Pages 47–48)

“I do not mean to scold, and I am grateful for any shreds of New Testament worship that may be left among us; but I cannot but hope and pray that the evangelical church may soon return to the land of promise. We have been in Babylon long enough. And one of the first things she must rediscover before she comes home is her own identity.” (Page 148)

Product Details

• Title: The Set of the Sail
• Author: A. W. Tozer
• Publisher: WingSpread
• Print Publication Date: 1986
• Logos Release Date: 2008
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Meditations
• ISBNs: 9780875093796, 9781600660207, 0875093795, 1600660207
• Resource ID: LLS:SETOFSAIL
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:56:59Z

About A. W. Tozer

A. W. Tozer (1897–1963) was a dynamic preacher, prolific writer, and a no-nonsense man of God. Aiden Wilson Tozer responded to the call of Christ at the age of 17. After becoming an active witness of Jesus as a lay preacher, he joined The Christian and Missionary Alliance and was soon serving as the pastor of West Virginia’s Alliance Church.

In 1928, he transferred to the Southside Alliance Church in Chicago where he served for 31 years. During that time he preached on the Moody Bible Institute’s radio station and was often invited to speak at Wheaton College in Pierce Chapel. Tozer spent the final years of his life as the pastor of Avenue Road Church in Toronto and the editor of The Alliance Life magazine.

Tozer authored over 40 books, including The Attributes of God, Volume One, Tozer on Christian Leadership, We Travel an Appointed Way, The Pursuit of God, and God’s Pursuit of Man.