The Harmony selected for this purpose is one of the earliest, and least elaborate; it was made for a private friend of the Ferrars, and is no doubt almost an exact reproduction of the volume which was used every day by the children at Little Gidding; for it was a part of their daily duty to repeat portions of the Harmony to Mr. Ferrar--the book being so divided that "beginning still at the first day of the month, and ending at the last day of the month, all the heads or chapters were said over in every month's time." The principle of the work was this--to make one continuous history of all the actions and discourses of our Lord wherever related, and this to be so arranged that the Gospel of any one Evangelist could be read straight through from first to last. To do this without confusion was no easy task, for every word of all four Evangelists is in the Harmony, and yet in reading them as one connected story there is no repetition. The whole of the Gospel history is divided for this purpose into one hundred and fifty heads or chapters, each chapter containing some special subject, and being made complete by the bringing together the words of each Evangelist treating of that subject. The following selection will show the manner in which the subjects were chosen-- 54. Christ's second going about Galilee and sending the Apostles. 55. John's beheading. 56. The five loaves. 57. Jesus walking on the sea. 58. Discourse of the Bread from Heaven. The method adopted throughout the work was very simple and ingenious. It was this: the words of each Evangelist were marked in the margin by a distinguishing letter, viz. St. Matthew, by A; St. Mark, by B; St. Luke, by C.; St. John by D, so that to read any one Gospel straight through, it was only necessary to read all the passages marked by the same initial letter, omitting all the others. But when, as often happens, two or more writers use identical language, the words which had been inserted before, were put in different type. The body of the work was given in ordinary Roman type, but the words which occurred a second time and were, therefore, unnecessary for the continuous history were given in old English lettering. To make this contrivance quite clear the following directions were written at the beginning of the concordance-- "If you would read the Evangelical History keepe on still from one of the marking letters to another, reading onely that which is in the Roman letter. But if you would read the Evangelists severally, then you must keepe still from section to section in the same letter with which you begin, reading both context and supplement, that is the Roman letter and the Inglish letter annexed. Where you find any one word or more streaked under, you are to omit it in the reading of the context to make the clearer sence; but it is necessarily left remaining for the reading of the Evangelist severally."