PREFACE. IN presenting the FOURTH VOLUME of the "Homilist" to the public, the Editor is happy to say, that the circulation has been gradually increasing from the beginning; and he trusts that the work has been improving in merit. It has won enthusiastic friends amongst the most learned and thoughtful teachers in all churches. He cannot better describe this volume, than by quoting the preface to the former ones. 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 to 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 a 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, not as the limb of a sect. The Thirdly. The book has no polemical theology. Editor-holding, as he does, with a tenacious grasp, the cardinal 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 endeavours to bring the Bible, through the instrumentality of the pulpit, into a more immediate and practical contact with the every-day life of man! Loughborough Park. DAVID THOMAS. CONTENTS. ALL the articles in the Volume were written by the Editor, with the exception of HOMILIES. PAGE Christian Love. (BY JOHN PILLANS) The Gradual, but Effectual, Operation of Christian Truth in the World. (BY JOSEPH HYNE RYLANCE,-Paris.). Family Reunions. (By D. G. WATT, M. a.) The Carefulness which Christianity Prohibits. (BY M. S.) The Great Contrast-the Condition of Fallen Men and Fallen |