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"I KNOW WELL I OUGHT NOT TO HAVE ANY DESIGN FOR MYSELF,
WHICH ADMITS NOT OF SUBORDINATION TO THE INTEREST AND HONOUR
OF THE GREAT GOD AND MY REDEEMER, AND WHICH IS NOT ACTUALLY
SO SUBORDINATED."
JOHN HOWE.

LONDON:

WARD AND CO., 27, PATERNOSTER ROW;

W. OLIPHANT AND CO., EDINBURGH; G. GALLIE, GLASGOW;

G. AND R. KING, ABERDEEN; J. ROBERTSON, DUBLIN.

Per. 13205. e. 17.

[blocks in formation]

PREFACE.

THE TENTH VOLUME of the "Homilist" is the third of a New Series, of which the distinctions are the monthly issue, and several new departments, the most important being Notes and Queries, and the Pulpit and its Three Handmaids-History, Science, and Art. In addition to these, this Volume contains most valuable criticisms by one of the first Biblical scholars of the age; also a section entitled Finger Posts, under which head there will be found very brief and suggestive outlines of discourses. The contents thus necessarily assume a very variegated aspect. However conscious of divergence from the absolute standard of excellence, the Editor regards this volume as superior in some respects to any of its predecessors. The endeavor of the Editor has been, is, and shall be, to give manly force, reverent freedom, natural earnestness, a widened empire, and a living, catholic Christianity to the pulpit of the age.

As the old key-note will still rule the melodies of the "Homilist," and no new specific description is requisite, the nine-years-old 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 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

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