Lent, I imagine to be the Church's scheme for amendment and return to this pattern; which scheme is unfolded in the successive Sundays as (1) Mortification of the Flesh, (2) Self-distrust, (3) Confidence in God, (4) Reliance on Divine Ordinances, (5) Perseverance, (6) Voluntary Humiliation.

Holy Week and Easter teach of course the Atonement and the Resurrection, and at the same time open the understanding of the Churchman to other doctrines which depend on these two revelations.

These I imagine to be (1) The continual Presence of Christ in His Church, (2) The Commission of His Ministers, (3) The office of His Church, (4) The office of the Comforter, (5) The efficacy of Common Prayer, and (6) The Mission of Christ's representatives; all which subjects are successively unfolded during the Season from Easter-tide to Whitsuntide; while the prize of our high calling, the Acceptance of Human Nature, is placed before our eyes by the doctrines of Ascension Day.

On Whitsuntide, I imagine that the reason why the Christian and the Churchman is called upon for the performance of works so far beyond his natural capacity as a child of Adam, is fully disclosed to us; and that the whole scheme of doctrine is summed up and concluded on Trinity Sunday, by a revelation of the Great Name into which we are all baptized.

This completes the doctrinal part of the year-the remainder is the application of those doctrines to the ordinary and every-day life of the Christian. The Church having led us through this regular chain of systematic teaching, seems to consider us as the Lord considered those, who, having accompanied Him through His mission on earth, having worked out the meaning of His successive revelations, and having "tarried hitherto at Jerusalem," abided, that is to say, in the Church until they had been "endued with power from on high;" had now been taught, also by that power, to understand the nature of the gifts they had been endued with. We are now sent forth on our several missions in the world, in order to let our light shine before men, and to set forth the glory of God, by practising the virtues which we have been taught and enabled to perform. These virtues, I

believe, the Sundays after Trinity are intended to unfold, each after each, according to their natural succession, growth, and development.

This, and nothing short of this, I believe to be the scheme on which the Church has carried out her teaching in the succession of Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, working out her plan, more or less distinctly, from the Old Testament, by means of her special lessons.

That the Church's teaching is a system, and a series, and not a number of accidental selections, is evident; otherwise, why should this same succession be observed throughout every offset of the Christian Church? and if so, if there be a definite scheme marked out by the Church, then I contend that no work on the Christian Yearwhich is not based on this scheme can come up to the Church's teaching.

I am perfectly aware that to carry out an undertaking like this, I must necessarily labour under disadvantages which did not fall to the lot of my predecessors. I cannot, like them, avail myself of the learning and talents of all who are willing to contribute to my work, because the whole plan of such a work as this requires unity, not of conception only, but of execution also. I am limited, therefore, to the assistance of those with whom I can consult.

Neither can a serial like this be written so hastily, or so easily, as one of a more miscellaneous character. The Editor has not only to consider the doctrines of each sermon, but the bearing of each sermon upon every other. In order to preserve the unity of the design, it is necessary, therefore, that the framework of the whole should be complete, and most of the details worked out, before any part of it is presented to the public. This is the reason why I have postponed the completion of my design for a twelvemonth, after entering into engagements with my publishers.

My object in referring to ancient, in preference to modern authorities, is that which I have explained already, in the Preface to my Postils, not that I in any way undervalue the more modern divines, but that I would show, incidentally as it were, the unchangeable character of the Church's teaching, that it is essentially the same in our days, as it was in those of St. Augustine and Chrysostom.

I regret my own limited acquaintance with patristic theology, of which I now see the immense importance; and it is because I see the importance of it, that I have associated with me in this undertaking, those from whose more extensive reading I hope to derive assistance.

My aim has been, that the sermons should be written as much as possible ad populum; but that they should be written in this manner exclusively, is altogether incompatible with my purpose. The Christian scheme really does contain doctrines which it is impossible to treat popularly. The Incarnation, the Atonement involving the death of the Creator, the two natures of Christ, the Indwelling of the Spirit, and the Trinity in Unity, are all doctrines which it is impossible to popularize without lowering. And in my opinion it is a mistake even to make the attempt. But on the other hand there are an infinity of duties based upon and resulting from these doctrines, which are conveyed more clearly, even to educated minds, when placed before them in a popular form. As the Gospels afford us a scheme of Church teaching, so I imagine the Epistles will furnish specimens of the way in which the Church handles the traditions-to use St. Paul's expression-which have been delivered to her. Viewed doctrinally, all the Epistles are abstruse and difficult; viewed practically, everyone of them is open to the understanding of all. This I imagine to be the idea of the Church, from which we derive the combination of the Epistles and Gospels in its weekly teaching; and because I believe it to be the idea of the Church, I have endeavoured to imitate the model myself.

This is my conception of the subject, and the plan which I intend to work out to the best of my ability. Of its execution the public must judge; but that the conception is, in the main, correct, I feel certain, and it will not be disputed that the Church's arrangement should invariably be made the basis of the Church's teaching.

INTRODUCTORY SERMON.

THE ARRANGEMENT OF FAITH AND DUTY.

2 Tim. iii. 16, 17.

"All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be throughly furnished unto all good works."

WINTER brightens into Spring, and Spring into Summer, the days lengthen, the sun gains strength, the winds sink, the snows and the frost melt away, the downs put on a warmer hue, the grass springs, the woods are tinged with green; day by day the light feathery tints are extending, and Summer comes in all its glory. The England of June is a very different world from the England of January.

But during that whole period there has been no sensible difference, there have been gleams of sunshine, there have been days and weeks of milder weather, and brighter and more hope

ful skies; but all this has been succeeded by sharp winds, and withering storms, and untimely frosts, so that at times we might say that the year was actually receding into Winter. At no time has any one day become perceptibly longer, or sensibly warmer, than its predecessor, so that men could say "this step has been achieved this point has been confirmed;" it is only by looking back to what we were, that we can see what we have gained in warmth and brightness, in comfort and in fruitfulness.

All this while, however, the year was rolling on, though men might not see its daily march. The new forms of life which, day after day, were stealing into existence, were the only measure of its actual progress.

Few men, whose recollections can carry them back over twenty years, into the January of the English Church, will not recognise at once the illustration, will not remember the first yielding of the long cold night, the first faint spring of life and freshness, the deceitful sunshine, the discouraging frosts, the sharp and trying east winds, which, though they braced and strengthened that which was already set, yet nipped so many of the tender shoots, and blighted so much of the early promise. But through all this they will have seen, and