INTRODUCTION

This is a wonderful Book. At whatever page you open it, your eye lights upon pithy aphorisms that combine the sententiouness of Benjamin Franklin with the sweet holy savour of Samuel Rutherford. It contains hundreds of bright seed-thoughts like these. "This world is very large in our hopes, but very small in our hands." " The water without the ship may toss it; but it is the water within the ship that sinks it." God is nearer to us than we are to ourselves." "A harp sounds sweetly, yet it hears not its own melody." "Moses had more glory by his vail than he had by his face." "A saint is not free from sin, that is his burden; a saint is not free to sin, that is his blessing. Sin is in him, that is lamentation; his soul is not in sin, that is his consolation." "If youth be sick of the will-nots, old age is in danger of dying of the shall-nots" Mattheew Henery, rich as he was, did not surpass his little volume in gems of condensed and quickening thought.

The wonder is that such a book should have laid in utter obscurity for fifty years. Another wonder is that while Religious Cyclopedias make abundant mention of Archbishop Secker, none of them (as I can discover) even mention the name of the very original genius who was "Minister of All-Hallows Church," and who produced this unique word. It will be a treasure to ministers; and will be worth their study if it only teaches them Mr. Secker's admirable plan of constructing a sermon. "Firstly, the explanation of that which is doctrinal. Secondly, the application of that which is practical. The former is like cutting the garment out; the latter is like putting the garment on." I am happy to commend this ingenious and remarkable piece of tailoring; and whoever tries " the garment," will find that it fits his own religious experience very closely.
Brooklyn, N.Y., June 1888.