they are not the pillar of cloud and fire. I advise my younger readers to remember that. Use your own judgment prayerfully and diligently. Use commenta- ries; but be a slave to none. Call no man master.*
It only remains for me now to express my regret, that the completion of my "Expository Thoughts on the Gospels " has been so long delayed. The delay has arisen from causes entirely beyond my control. The work was first begun in a little quiet parish of three hundred people, and then brought to a standstill by heavy domestic affliction. It has been resumed, and carried on, amidst many interruptions, in an isolated ru- ral parish of 1,300 souls, in which, after coming into residence, I found a parsonage had to be repaired, large schools had to be built, and a huge old dilapidated church had to be restored. In the face of these difficul- ties and distractions, I can only wonder that I have been enabled to finish my work on St. John at all.
The book is now sent forth, with a deep conviction in the author's mind, that it contains many defects, in- accuracies, and blemishes, but with an earnest desire and prayer that it may help some readers to a better understanding of one of the most interesting portions of Holy Scripture. I never felt more persuaded than I do in the present day of the truth of the old saying, " Ignorance of Scripture is the root of all error." If I can lessen that ignorance a little I shall be very thankful.
The concluding paragraph of Dean Alford's " Prole- gomena " to his " Commentary on the Book of Revela-
* A full list of Commentators, whom I have consulted, more or less, in preparing my notes on St. John, will be found in the preface to my first volume. From that list the following authors were omitted, — Hengstenberg on "John," Manton, Newton, Bur- gess, and Traill, on the " 17th chapter of John," and Bishop An- drews' Sermons.
PEEFACE. Xi
tion," so thoroughly expresses my own feelings, on completing my work on St. John's Gospel, that I make no excuse for inserting it here, with the omission of a few words : —
" I have now only to commend to my gracious God and Father this feeble attempt to explain a most glori- ous portion of His revealed Scripture. I do it with hnmble thankfi/lness, but with a sense of utter weakness before the power of His word, and of inability to sound the depth even of its simplest sentence. May he spare the hand which has been put forward to touch the ark ! May He, for Christ's sake, forgive all rashness, all per- verseness, all uncharitableness, which may be found in this book ! And may He sanctify it to the use of His Church : its truth, if any, for teaching ; its manifold de- fects for warning."
J. C. RYLE. Stradbroke Vicarage, Suffolk, February, 1873.