THE HOMILIST. CONDUCTED BY THE REV. DAVID THOMAS. VOL. V.-Nos. 27 To 32. "I KNOW WELL I OUGHT NOT TO HAVE ANY DESIGN FOR MYSELF, JOHN HOWE. LONDON: WARD AND CO., 27, PATERNOSTER ROW; W. OLIPHANT AND SON, EDINBURGH; G. GALLIE, GLASGOW; Per 13205. e. 17. PREFACE. IN presenting the FIFTH 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. Thirdly: The book has no polemical theology. The Editor-holding, as he does, with a tenacious grasp, the cardinal doctrines which constitute what is called the |