IMPORTANT TO HOME AND FOREIGN SUBSCRIBERS. Either of the seven volumes of the EDITOR'S SERIES of the 'HOMILIST,” will be sent POST FREE DIRECT to any address in England for 6s. 6d. per volume. Loughboro' Park, Brixton, London. Address—A. Thomas, 123, American Subscribers can be supplied by SMITH & ENGLISH, Philadelphia. N.B.-The next Volume, the Eighth of the Editor's Series, will, it is hoped, contain, in addition to the various sections of the present one, Articles on THE CHRISTIANITY OF SHAKESPEARE, which have been hitherto unavoidably postponed. LONDON: B. K. BURT AND CO., PRINTERS. PREFACE. THIS Volume, the THIRTY-SECOND of the entire Work, is the seventh of the New Series-THE EDITOR'S SERIES. Although considerably upwards of ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND VOLUMES have been sold, it will be gratifying for our friends to know that the demand is as great as ever. As the old key-note will still rule the melodies of the HOMILIST, and no new specific description is requisite, the former Preface may be again transcribed. First: The book has no finish. The Editor had not only not the time to give an artistic finish to his productions, but not even the design. Their incompleteness is intentional. He has drawn some marble slabs together, and hewn them roughly; but has left other hands to delineate minute features, and so polish them into beauty. He has dug up from the Biblical mine some precious ore, smelted a little, but left all the smithing to others. He has presented "germs" which if sown in good soil, under free air and an open sky, will produce fruit that may draw many famishing spirits into the vineyard of the Church. Secondly: The book has no denominationalism. It has no special reference to "our body" or to "our Church." As denominational strength is not necessarily soul strength, nor denominational religion necessarily the religion of humanity, it is the aim of the HOMILIST to minister that which universal man requires. It is for man as a citizen of the universe, and not for him as a limb of the sect. Thirdly: The book has no polemical Theology. The Editor-holding, as he does, with a tenacious grasp, the cordial doctrines which constitute what is called the "orthodox creed"-has, nevertheless, the deep and ever-deepening conviction, first, that such creed is but a very small portion of the truth that God has revealed, or that man requires; and that no theological system can fully represent all the contents and suggestions of the great Book of God; and, secondly, that systematic theology is but means to an end. Spiritual morality is that end. Consequently, to the heart and life every Biblical thought and idea should be directed. Your systems of divinity the author will not disparage: but his impression is, that they can no more answer the purpose of the Gospel, than pneumatics can answer the purpose of the atmosphere. In the case of Christianity, as well as the air, the world can live without its scientific truths; but it must have the free flowings of their vital elements. Coleridge has well said, "Too soon did the doctors of the Church forget that the heart-the moral nature-was the beginning and the end, and that truth, knowledge, and insight, were comprehended in its expansion." The Editor would record his grateful acknowledgments to those free spirits of all Churches, who have so earnestly rallied round him; to the many who have encouraged him by their letters, and to those, especially, who have aided him by their valuable contributions. May the "last day" prove that the help rendered has been worthily bestowed; and that the HOMILIST did something towards the spiritual education of humanity, in its endeavour to bring the Bible, through the instrumentality of the pulpit, into a more immediate and practical contact with the every day life of man! DAVID THOMAS. Holly Bush, Loughborough Park, |