OUTLINES OF CHURCH TEACHING. A Series of Instructions FOR THE SUNDAYS AND CHIEF HOLY DAYS OF THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. By C. C. G. With Preface by THE REV. FRANCIS PAGET, M.A., "That which Nature is towards Philosophy, the Catechism is towards Divinity." GEORGE HERBERT. LONDON: J. MASTERS AND CO., 78, NEW BOND STREET. MDCCCLXXXIV. TO ONE WHOSE LIPS AND LIFE TAUGHT MANY LESSONS OF UNDYING TRUTH, THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED BY THE WRITER, IN THANKFUL LOVE. PREFACE. IN venturing to write this preface I am deeply conscious of the difficulty which every one must find in so entering into the heart and spirit of another's work that he may judge and speak of it truthfully and worthily. The writer of a book alone can know exactly and thoroughly the intention, the motive, the sustaining impulse with which it has been written, and the character which it has thus received: others may see the writer's aim when it has been shown to them: but it will never be for their sight all that it is to the eyes which first saw and have never swerved from it. Thus a preface written by a hand other than that which wrote the book will always miss something of its life and mind: it will have, beside its own actual shortcomings, an inherent fault like those which in literature have made sequels for the most part disappointingly different from that first success which encouraged their appearance. I trust however, that this disadvantage may be countervailed in part by the freedom with which the purpose and the characteristics of the work may be pointed out by one who has had no share in it save a little of the labour of revision. I. The purpose of this book is to trace in outline the scheme of faith and life which the Church of England sets before the members of her communion, and at the same time to refer the mind of the reader to those truths in the divine revelation which have guided and sustained the construction of this scheme. The importance of teaching thus systematic was perhaps never greater than it is in the present day. For in the minds of many |