PREFACE.

THE writer of the following papers trusts that a reason may be found for their publication in the circumstances which gave rise to them. In their original form they were merely private thoughts, noted down for personal use, whilst reading the 22nd and part of the 23rd Chapters of Saint Luke's Gospel. As such, they were, of course, wholly unfitted for any other purpose. But after publishing a little book, called "Thoughts for the Holy Week," the writer was urged to complete the work by adding "Thoughts for the remainder of Lent," and though it was not easy to comply with the request, which was, therefore, for the time, set aside,-it suggested the enlargement of the notes before mentioned, and they were in consequence brought into their present form.

They cannot, now, however, be called Thoughts for Lent." The number of chapters extends beyond the Forty Days; and the subjects are not all such as would be especially suited to the season; but they are the nearest approach which the writer could make to the work which she had been requested to undertake, and as such they are published.

Although the subjects chosen are unconnected, and may often appear far-fetched, when compared with the text, yet they have been left unaltered as they suggested themselves, and were noted down from the feelings and circumstances of the moment; for when we speak to ourselves; eitlier in warning or self-reproach, we are more likely to be true and earnest than when we attempt with a deliberate purpose to give uncalled-for advice to others.

BONCHURCH,

Jan. 12th 1860.

PASSING THOUGHTS ON RELIGION.

THE CHIVALRY OF RELIGION.

ST. LUKE, Xxii, 1, 2.

"Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover. And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill Him; for they feared the people."

THE concluding chapters of the Gospel touch upon subjects so awful, that it may at first sight appear almost irreverent to obtrude our own thoughts in connection with them. But, like the whole of the Bible, they are mines containing treasures of infinite wisdom, for which we must search if we hope to find; and miserably imperfect as this search must necessarily be, yet, if undertaken in dependence upon God's assisting grace, we may dare to hope that even the humblest and most unworthy will, in some degree, be rewarded for their efforts. For we may remember that it is not always the depth or the novelty of a thought which constitutes its value to ourselves, but the fitness of its appli