[Footnote 133: "Everything evil in Europe is primarily the fault of her Bishops."] [Footnote 134: "I knew, in using it, perfectly well what you meant." (Note by Mr. Sillar.)] [Footnote 135: "Cash," I should have said, in accuracy--not "wealth."] [Footnote 136: Mr. Sillar's pamphlet consists of a collection of paragraphs, all condemnatory of usury, from the writings of the English bishops, from the sixteenth century down to the present time; and is illustrated by five emblematic woodcuts representing an oak tree (English commerce) gradually overgrown and destroyed by an ivy-plant (usury).--ED.] * * * * * THEOLOGY. NOTES ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHEEPFOLDS. (Pamphlet, 1851.) THE LORD'S PRAYER AND THE CHURCH. (_Letters and Epilogue_, 1879-1881.) THE NATURE AND AUTHORITY OF MIRACLE. (_Contemporary Review, March_ 1873.) * * * * * NOTES ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHEEPFOLDS.[137] PREFACE (CALLED "ADVERTISEMENT") TO THE FIRST EDITION. _Many persons will probably find fault with me for publishing opinions which are not new: but I shall bear this blame contentedly, believing that opinions on this subject could hardly be just if they were not 1800 years old. Others will blame me for making proposals which are altogether new: to whom I would answer, that things in these days seem not so far right but that they may be mended. And others will simply call the opinions false and the proposals foolish--to whose goodwill, if they take it in hand to contradict me, I must leave what I have written--having no purpose of being drawn, at present, into religious controversy. If, however, any should admit the truth, but regret the tone of what I have said, lean only pray them to consider how much less harm is done in the world by ungraceful boldness, than by untimely fear._ DENMARK HILL, _February, 1851._ PREFACE TO THE SECOND (1851) EDITION. _Since the publication of these Notes, I have received many letters upon the affairs of the Church, from persons of nearly every denomination of Christians; for all these letters I am grateful, and in many of them I have found valuable information, or suggestion: but I have not leisure at present to follow out the subject farther; and no reason has been shown me for modifying or altering any part of the text as it stands. It is republished, therefore, without change or addition_. _I must, however, especially thank one of my correspondents for sending me a pamphlet, called "Sectarianism, the Bane of Religion and the Church,"[138] which I would recommend, in the strongest terms, to the reading of all who regard the cause of Christ; and, for help in reading the Scriptures, I would name also the short and admirable arrangement of parallel passages relating to the offices of the clergy, called "The Testimony of Scripture concerning the Christian Ministry."_[139] PREFACE TO THIRD (CALLED SECOND) EDITION.