TO THE READER.

'Not from the rivulet of my own thought have I opened these things for thy drinking.

'I have begged them from just men who were lords of the Fountain.'-ST. EPHREM SYRUS.

THESE pages contain extracts, collected during many years, from the writings of 'devout men' of many nations, Fathers and Teachers of the Christian Church. The biographical sketches have been added to give further interest to the collection.

'Great men taken up in any way are profitable company. We cannot look, however imperfectly, upon a great man without gaining something by him. He is the living. light-fountain, which it is good and pleasant to be near.'1

So wrote the great thinker who has but just passed away from our midst; and if these words be true as regards 'the heroes' of history, surely the gain is not less in drawing near to those who, in a higher, diviner sense, have 'enlightened the darkness of the world,' and made manifest the

Heroes and Hero-worship (Carlyle).

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constraining power of a new affection-even the love of God in Christ; heroes who have shown us by word and deed that 'the fear of God casteth out all other fear,' and from whom we may learn with a deeper meaning, 'not to be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, but manfully to fight under His banner against sin, the world, and the devil, continuing Christ's faithful soldiers and servants unto life's end.'

October 1882.

M