"The best school for eloquent and forcible preaching is at the bedside of the sick and dying, and the best Sermon notes are composed there. C. E. HADOW. It might be expected that, in publishing another edition of this work, the Author would have rendered it a fuller and more complete manual for the use of the Clergy than it is; but it may be a sufficient apology for his not doing so to say, that it was not originally intended for the exclusive use of the Clergy; it was composed for the use of a highly valued friend and parishioner in her visits to the poor on her husband's estate, in the Parish of Rostherne, in the County of Chester, of which the Author was then Vicar. The object of the book is to point out passages of Scripture and of other books proper to be read to the sick under different circumstances; and to supply the sick with directions for choosing suitable passages for themselves,—for which purpose the book may be lent to them during sickness. The Author has therefore thought it best to let the book retain its original simplicity of character, as being most in accordance with the object of those who take an interest in visiting the sick, without intruding upon the pastoral province of the Clergy; for whose especial use many and much superior manuals have been published since this little work first made its appearance. |