readers of the world, and it may happen that the reading of some small portion of a treatise or a Sermon or a Homily here set forth may be successfully attempted by those who would never have the courage to peruse the larger volumes. While again it may happen that some persons here and there, as yet ignorant of the very great value of the works in question, may be arrested by these passages and be carried on further and further in their perusal, so as to be led ultimately to a more systematic examination of the originals. They will surely find that in proportion to the study which they bestow on such of the ancient authors as are here set forth, so will be their love of and adherence to the Church in which it has been our blessing to be baptized. Whatever our practice may be, and however great our short-comings in the paths of the old English Catholic Church, still even yet, in theory at least, they will find that the English Church may be preferred above any other national Church (with the exception perhaps of the true Church of Scotland) as more in harmony with the Church of S. Chrysostom, S. Augustine, and S. Cyprian. May all our labours (under God's Blessing) be directed to strengthening those who stand, and winning those who are yet without, so that at length the Churchmen of the former and the latter ages may be gathered together into one fold, as we have but One Shepherd. Frome, Conversion of S. Paul. 1852. W. I. E. B. THE Editors of the Library of the Fathers have long wished to publish selections from them for devotional purposes, in the hope that their thoughtful and meditative teaching might find access to classes whose means do not enable them to possess themselves of the larger works. It is one thing to argue from the Fathers, in proof of doctrine; another, to listen to them as practical teachers, opening, as they do richly, the meaning of Holy Scripture, or impressing the substance of the great truths of the Gospel. To quote or argue from the Fathers requires learning; to learn of them, only teachableness. S. Chrysostom and S. Augustine preached to mixed congregations of the same average intellect and moral character as the various educated classes among ourselves. S. Augustine often takes especial pains to make himself clear, on any difficult subject, to those of slower understanding, and bids those of the cleverer sort wait for them. There seems then no reason why men or women, or even the poor among us, should not be taught by S. Augustine, to say the least, as well as by any, such as we are. There is nothing learned in this. It is people's own fault if they make a show of learning, or argue, in a shallow way, from this or that Father, whom they happen to hear alleged in controversy. The Fathers spoke to the hearts of their own people, the members of the One Body of Christ, in their own day; they will yet speak to the heart, if they are read with hearts which God teaches. This selection has come, then, as a grateful contribution from one whose blessed influence in winning, by God's help, poor and rich to the love. of Christ, will long be valued, when the recent storms will be remembered only to be deplored. It will be followed, if God will, by selections for Advent, and perhaps by others. form a whole by itself. Christ Church. Sexagesima. 1852. But each will E. B. P. |