toils He went aside into a mountain and continued all night in prayer unto God. The life of activity was sustained and nourished by the life of inner communion. Therefore it is useless to condemn the book before us on the ground that it is contemplative and unpractical. The love with which it is still regarded is its best defence. “ Securus judicat orbis terrarum. ” I could name more than one contemporary to whom I have known it to be dear. It was one of the favourite books of the unselfish, hardworking, all-sympathising, Frederick Maurice, and the references to it by some of the most powerful of living secular writers show how strong a hold it has upon their affections.
That other aspect of Christianity is of course equally true which bids us remember that we are members of a family, Englishmen, brethren. It is the aspect upon which the popular theology of our day almost exclusively dwells. And doubtless this belief is the only effective instrument which we shall find to counteract the social evils that afflict us. But if we would not be conquered by the world that we are seeking to conquer, we must study daily the Conqueror in His meekness, His perfectness and beauty, His world-embracing redemption, His sacramental grace, His twofold nature. And in the hope that this copy may help some Christian brother thus to find him, I now put from me this labour of love.