Is this a book of biography, or is it romance? The author himself scarcely knows. If an honest attempt to give the facts makes biography, then he hopes it may deserve that title. If an effort to interpret some of those facts and give them life makes romance, then must his work be called romantic. In either case he hopes that the picture in each case is true; and that the whole is a proof of a deeper truth which it is needful for us all to remember. It is, that "God is wonderful in His saints"; that He "chooses whom He will Himself"; that in His house "there are many mansions"; and that there is no condition of life to which His grace does not reach, none so low but He can make it worthy of Himself. We have called this book "Saints for Sinners," and in doing so we would take the word "Sinners" in a broad sense. For beside the actual consciousness of sin, and the sense of weakness that comes of it, there is also a kindred consciousness of failure, and ineffectualness, and other hard things in the spiritual life which makes us realize our utter nothingness, and compels us sometimes to wonder whether we are not ourselves their cause. When these hard things oppress us, and tempt us to despair or resent, it is well to bear in mind that they were the lot of all the saints, that "virtue is made perfect in infirmity," and that the life of the Cross is an ideal above every other, however human nature may stumble or be scandalized. For this reason, in these chapters, the human element has been more considered than the sanctity that has been built upon it; the latter rises in proportion to the depth of the foundation.

It will not be difficult to see the common purpose of these Studies. Read only the critics, whether Rationalist or Christian, and it would seem that the Gospels must always be surrounded by at least some element of doubt. Read the Gospels themselves, and they are their own convincing witness. External difficulties can always be raised against them, some of which can never be solved; not because they are insoluble, but because the corresponding external evidence is lost. But such difficulties, at their best or worst, are never more than negative or circumstantial; they do not touch, nor do they usually attempt to touch, the positive truth which the Gospels contain on every page, for one who is willing to see. It has been the writer's aim to illustrate this, by drawing out a few of the threaas of the Gospel Witness to itself. The witnesses considered are Saint John the Evangelist, Zachary, The Blessed Virgin Mary, the people in Nazareth, the people in Galilee, the Apostles, the lawyers, Pontius Pilate and ultimate Almighty God.

The details of the Passion, the material surroundings and circumstances, are accepted from others, though tested, most of them, on the spot; in regard to those details the author would only say that it is strange how great at times is the divergence of opinion amongst scholars, even on matters about which it would seem at first sight that agreement should be easily reached. It would almost appear that once we depart from, or attempt to add to, the story of the Passion as it is told by the Evangelists, we are liable to say what is open to question. Though, for instance, we may know the main streets in the Jerusalem of that time, yet the actual sites of the palaces of Annas, of Caiphas, of Herod, and of late even of Pilate, are by no means agreed upon, while the scourging, the crowning, the crucifixion, have been given different descriptions, founded all on some substantial evidence. Frankly, therefore, the author has taken all these studies as secondary. He has used them as he has needed them, for the Passion cannot be described without them; but for the first source of his information he has relied on the four Gospels themselves. As in the study of the Public Life, so here he has tried to keep his attention fixed on Jesus Christ Our Lord, for whose sake alone the story of the Passion is worth telling, refusing, so far as he has been able, to be turned aside by any controversial question or discussion whatsoever. He has asked himself: How does the Passion reveal Christ to us? What manner of Man does He show Himself during that ordeal? What were His thoughts and feelings? What was His soul? And, hence, knowing that He is 'yesterday, and to-day, and the same for ever', what is the meaning of Jesus crucified to me here and now? We derive far more light for our purpose from the saints, and from those who have written in the spirit of the saints, such as S. Augustine, Ludolph of Saxony, Fra Thomas of Jesus, and in another sense, S. Catherine of Siena. Love, real and objective, and the insight and interpretation that come of love, are the only key to the Passion, certainly far more than learning; for love alone opens our eyes that we may know Him who endured it and why, whatever we may know or not know about Him. The method, therefore, of this study has been to follow the Evangelists as closely as possible, reading between the lines of their narrative; the harmony used has been that of Tischendorf, with but a few minor variations. The streets of Jerusalem were very narrow indeed, some of them scarcely admitting men to walk six abreast; when a camel lurched down them with his load on his back there was little room for anyone else. Though undoubtedly a crowd followed the Passion, which grew in numbers as the day went on, yet no less certainly there were other crowds which stood aloof. There was at least one crowd of sympathisers, which S. Luke equally describes as 'a great multitude of people' that 'followed Him'; there were many more who looked on from their doors and windows, or squatting on their shop counters, with that indifference which only the East can show. If the procession from the Pretorium to Calvary, as seems not unlikely, passed through the bazaar of the city, probably business went on as usual; for crowds such as these were nothing very strange, and the day, the eve of the great Feast, was an exceptionally busy day in Jerusalem. We are tempted to compare the suddenness of the Passion, and the success of its leaders, to one of those sinister coups d'etat which have captured nations, and of which we have had examples in plenty in our own time. All this we may assume and lay aside: our main object is to study Him round whom the story is gathered, that, if we can, we may know Him the better, whatever may be our other mistakes and shortcomings.

THIS volume contains the main ideas in each of three courses delivered in Bombay during the second College term, 1916-17. Part 1. gives sermons preached in the Church of the Holy Name, Bombay, in January, 1917. The lectures in Part II. were delivered in the St. Xavier's College Hall during the Christmas term,19I6-17. Part III. summarises the Lenten course preached in the Ch urc.h of the Holy Name during the same year. The audience was in no case entirely Catholic; for the lectures in the Second Part only about half the hearers were Christians. This fact will sufficiently explain the method that had to be adopted. As for the fruit of such lectures, we are constantly told that converts are never made among the educated classes in India; at the same time it cannot but be matter for thanksgiving and encouragement that men should welcome as they do instructions such as these. Perhaps others besides Eastern non-Christians will give them a like welcome. Perhaps, too, those accustomed to daily meditation will find in them material for their purpose. Indeed, if he has given to them in particular some food for thought, something by means of which they may the better know and love Him who alone is worthy of all the human heart can give, the author will be more than satisfied.

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