PREFACE.

THE object of this work is explained in the concluding paragraph of the Introduction.

I am indebted to two friends for the Readings on "The Changing of the Water into Wine" and on "The Temptation of our Lord" respectively. For the rest of the volume I am myself solely responsible. In so varied a collection, ranging over such a wide range of subject, it is hardly likely that everything should commend itself to every mind, even though the convictions of the reader and of the writer be truly one. If it should be so in any instance, I can only ask that it may be overlooked for the sake of the pervading harmony of the whole series of Readings with the faith and hope of the Church, as revived and restored to us in these last days.