resemble the rarer sermons of those to whom it is 'given to contemplate the bright countenance of truth in the mild and dewy air of delightful studies." They can only be written roughly and hastily, currente calamo, amid occupations, interruptions, and anxieties of every kind.' Precisely the same doctrines have been preached, even during the few past months, by learned and most honoured divines who have, from whatever cause, escaped the antagonism which I have encountered. But I shall not for one moment regret that opposition if I may once more turn the serious thoughts of earnest and holy men to truths which have been displaced by groundless opinions, and which are necessary for the purity, almost for the very existence, of that faith which is the one sole hope of the suffering world, but which 1 I may perhaps be allowed to mention one single fact. From the day on which I came to London in September, 1876, till the day on which I left it for a brief summer holiday, I was not able to add one word or line to a work on which I have long been engaged. I mention this not on any personal grounds, but because I would humbly suggest that the original meaning and object of canonries is destroyed when they are tied by Act of Parliament to London livings. in many thousands of hearts and minds has been utterly shipwrecked upon the reef of this merely human opinion about "endless torments for the vast majority, as a doom passed irreversibly at death." And now, in all humility, I submit to the judgment of all wise and good men in the Church of God the views which I have thus suddenly been called upon to advocate. I sincerely ask pardon if any of my expressions cause an unintended irritation;-I beg a kindly consideration for any error which may be due to the haste in which I have been forced to prepare this volume; I pray God that whether by the confirmation, or by the refutation, of what I have urged, this truth may be elicited ;-I assure all good people who may be unable to accept these views that they are due at the worst to an error in intellectu, not to any contumacia in voluntate ;—and I feel assured of this at any rate, that no true Christian-even if he be unable to adopt my conclusions will cherish any anger or hatred against a doctrine which alone can stem the spread of infidelity; which is maintained in a spirit of perfect loyalty to the Church, and of reverence for her most holy faith; which is supported on strong Scriptural authority; which is sincerely believed to be a truer explanation of the words of our Lord and Master than that by which it has too often been superseded; and which seems to those who hold it to be impregnably built upon the rock of an entire belief in Christ's infinite Redemption and of the mercy "from everlasting to everlasting" of Him whose name is Love. "Behold, we know not anything; I can but trust that good shall fall At last-far off-at last, to all, "So runs my dream but what am I? An infant crying in the night: An infant crying for the light : CHRISTMAS EVE, 1877. |