66 THE LETTER KILLETH, BUT THE SPIRIT GIVETH LIFE."-Paul. London: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & C STATIONER'S HALL COURT. WADE & CO., LUDGATE ARCADE! 1881. Per, 13205. PREFACE: THE MISSION OF "THE HOMILIST" IS NOT ΤΟ SUPPLY SERMONS FOR INDOLENT OR INCOMPETENT PREACHERS, BUT STIMULUS AND TONIC FOR THE TRUE-HEARTED, HARD-WORKING, AND GENUINE TEACHER. IT DOES NOT DEAL IN THE READYMADE," BUT IN THE RAW MATERIAL. IT ONLY ADMITS CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE MOST CONDENSED AND SUGGESTIVE CHARACTER. IT REQUIRES THINGS, NOT INTO WORDS-HEALTHY SAPLINGS, JUST RISING INTO SIGHT AND STRUGGLING SHAPE, NOT LIFELESS TIMBER, HOWEVER EXQUISITELY CARVED OR BRILLIANTLY POLISHED. THE FORMER MAY GROW, THE LATTER MUST ROT. IT MANUFACTURED SERMONS. IT WHICH TO HANG ARTISTIC CARTLOAD OF TEXTS AS PEGS ON PREFERS ONE LIFE-GERM ΤΟ A HOMILIST," IN ONE WORD, DIS ΤΟ BE CULTIVATED FOR HUNGRY SOULS. "THE PROCEEDS UPON THE PRINCIPLE THAT THAT AUTHOR SERVES HIS READER BEST, NOT WHO GIVES, BUT WHO SUGGESTS THOUGHTS AND AND THOUGHT-PRODUCING UNCONSCIOUS. Although "THE HOMILIST" has passed through six Serial forms, numbering in all forty-five volumes, of which about ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND have been sold, another Series has been called for, and that by clergymen of all denominations, not only in this country and the colonies, but throughout Europe and America. The larger portion of the volumes that have appeared are out of print, and but few remain unsold, still the circulation continues as ever. This is the fifth volume of the Excelsior Series; and as the same keynote rules this as ruled the melodies of the forty-seven previous volumes, we may fairly dispense with a formal Preface, and only state that, as ever, it aims to be free from pedantic learning, rhetorical verbiage, theological polemics, and denominational narrowness. It says with Horace, "I'll play the whetstone; useless and unfit * Erewyn, Upper Tulse Hill, London. DAVID THOMAS. |