PKEFACE 



"FoR close upon forty years I have been writing with one 

 purpose ; from time to time, I have fought for that which seemed 

 to me the truth, perhaps still more, against that which I have 

 thought error ; and, in this way, I have reached, indeed over- 

 stepped, the threshold of old age. There, every earnest man 

 has to listen to the voice within : ' Give an account of thy 

 stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward.' 



" That I have been an unjust steward my conscience does not 

 bear witness. At times blundering, at times negligent, Heaven 

 knows : but, on the whole, I have done that which I felt able 

 and called upon to do ; and I have done it without looking to 

 the right or to the left ; seeking no man's favour, fearing no 

 man's disfavour. 



" But what is it that I have been doing ? In the end one's 

 conceptions should form a whole, though only parts may 

 have found utterance, as occasion arose ; now do these exhibit 

 harmony and mutual connexion ? In one's zeal much of the old 

 gets broken to pieces ; but has one made ready something new, 

 fit to be set in the place of the old ? 



"That they merely destroy without reconstructing, is the 

 especial charge, with which those who work in this direction 

 are constantly reproached. In a certain sense I do not defend 

 myself against the charge ; but I deny that any reproach is 

 deserved. 



"I have never proposed to myself to begin outward construc- 

 tion ; because I do not believe that the time has come for it. 

 Our present business is with inward preparation, especially the 



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