from  childhood  until  now. As  in  families  it  would
be  a  wild  and  unnatural  supposition,  for  any  one
of  the  children  to  begin  doubting,  whether  their
reputed  parents  are  their  real  ones ;  arguing  the
point,  and  requiring  demonstration  of  it : — as  it  is
a  thing  from  which  we  recoil  even  in  fictitious
stories,  counting  it  an  extravagant  and  unreal
device : — so  and  much  more  in  so  serious  an  affair
as  this,  by  how  much  it  is  more  shocking  to
undervalue  God's  mysterious  and  heavenly  gifts,
than  those  which  relate  to  this  world  only. And
if  any,  through  their  own  or  other's  neglect,  have
grown  up  among  us — (alas,  that  the  case  should
be  so  common !) — unconscious  of  their  spiritual
Mother's  care,  and  unwarned  of  their  duty  towards
her,  and  so  should  have  fallen  into  grievous  sin :
how  much  more  miserable  to  think  that  they
should  make  this  their  undutifulness  a  plea  for
disloyalty,  and  say  in  effect,  "You  did  not  keep
me  in  order,  therefore  I  disown  you !"  Who  can
deny  that  there  may  be,  on  the  one  hand,  so  devout
and  unwearied  an  use  of  the  means  of  grace
offered  among  us,  that  for  the  person  so  favoured
to  indulge  in  doubt  and  misgiving  would  be  simple
ingratitude  and  irreverence,  and  therefore  in  such
an  one  not  imaginable :  on  the  other  hand,  such
open  neglect  of  them,  as  to  make  the  very  act
of  comparing  and  judging  profane  ?  In  both  those
cases,  then,  it  seems  a  plain  duty  to  reject  scruples
before  they  be  meddled  with  :  and  if  in  these  two


PREFACE. 