to ignore certain questions which some earnest minds are now mooting, it is not because I am unacquainted with, or undervalue them; but I have had other, and, as I think, higher objects in view. I have simply accepted that book for my annotations in the form in which it has been the vehicle of the devotions of the holiest, the wisest, and the best of our forefathers, for many generations; and I hope I may have shewn that they have not been misled, and are therefore occupying a lower place in the Kingdom of Heaven, because of the presumed capability of its improvement. It would, however, be a deep gratification to the writer to know that his little book had helped to allay the bitterness of the approaching conflict. Turning this hope into a prayer, I pray God so to bless it! POSTSCRIPT.-In correcting the proof sheets the author has been made painfully aware of some literary and other defects which it was too late to amend. His excuse is, that the original manuscript has been materially altered by the omission of some discussions on certain important points, considerably exceeding the length of notes, the publication of which would have exposed a work to the evils of controversy, which he designed to be merely a help, where needed (it has no other mission), towards making public worship and prayer a reality. These omissions required the addition of other matter, and corresponding changes elsewhere, which, in the author's eyes, have somewhat marred the uniformity of the whole. Moreover, he fears he has not always succeeded in conducting his little bark safely through the Scylla and Charybdis of brevity and obscurity. Should the public, however, deem this "small book on a great subject" worthy of being reprinted, its writer will endeavour better to fulfil his own conceptions of what it should be. DECEMBER 21, 1859. |