else but the teaching of Jesus Christ, received and retained in the Christian society, guarded by the dogmatic definitions of the Church, analysed and systematized by the labours of theologians. The elements of this doctrine are here set forth, so far as he can compass it, in their natural connection.

If the introduction seem disproportionately long, he would plead the importance of the preliminary considerations to which it is devoted. If some questions that are now eagerly debated have small place assigned them, it is because he is not writing controversially. If the practice of Religion seem to be treated too broadly and generally, it is because an approach to detail would be the beginning of a larger volume than is here. Some minds are repelled by the ap-. parent hardness of dogma; some are wearied with the intricacies of theology. What is here attempted is the simple presentment of the living truth of the gospel, in the form which Christian experience and Christian

science have shown to be required. It is meant for persons of ordinary education; as far as possible everything that calls for even a small measure of technical knowledge has been either passed by or set apart in notes. There are many ways of presenting Christian Doctrine. In presenting it to a child one tries to formulate answers to the questions that naturally pose themselves in a childish mind. The simplest presentment to an educated man is one that shall be constructed for him in a corresponding fashion. This the writer has attempted. If he has not succeeded, he has at all events done his best.