CXXXVJli. PROLEGOMENA. 



lives of His Saints, as their proper guides and 



protectors. For as no person can sit under the 



branches of the Cassia when waved by the breezes 



of heaven, without catching their fragrance ; so 



no one can repose beneath the Apostolic tree, 



which is fanned by the spirit of Christ, without 



inhaling something of the odour of sanctity. But 



the sweets of the former are as ])erishable as the 



passing shadows which its boughs cast in the 



sunshine ; while the fruits of the latter are 



everlasting joys. 



If we wish to engraft our souls on this 



perennial stock, we must first lop oflf from the 



cions all the tendrils of sensuality which lean to 



the earth to root therein. And we must begin 



with the strongest inclinations to sin, as the 



Saints did, and not destroy only the baubles 



while we spare the riches of corruption, as 



some modern Christians have learnt to do, from 



their neighbourhood to heresy, and their distance 



from cloistered sanctity in these modern times. 



For as Samuel, seeing that Saul had spared the 



treasures of Amalech, hewed Agag their king in 



pieces before the Lord in Galgal ; so when the 



true spirit of the cross comes, our ruling passion 



must be made the first sacrifice. For this we 

 shall find was the practice of all the Saints, whose 

 lives, recorded in this book, when compared 

 with those of worldlings, and the modern com- 

 promisers of Christianity, will convince us that 

 we cannot serve both God and Mammon. 



