he life of Judith, and not
wonder?--of Susanna, and not love chastity and confide in God? Who has
read the prophecies of Isaiah, and not believed the gospel which he
foretold? And what example of a suffering Saviour so full, so perfect,
and expressive, as that exhibited in the life of Jeremiah? If thus,
then, from the beginning to the day of Christ, the Spirit of God
instructed mankind in truth and virtue, by writing for their instruction
"the Lives of the Saints," what can better agree with the ways of that
God, than to continue the record--to prolong the narrative? If this mode
of instruction has been adopted by the master, should it not be
continued by the servant?--if employed when the people of God were only
one family, should it not be resorted to when all nations were enrolled
with that people? if this mode of instruction was found useful when the
knowledge of the Lord was confined to one province, should it not be
preserved when that knowledge covered the whole earth even as the waters
cover the sea? And is it not therefore with justice we have said that
"The Lives of the Saints" might not improperly be designated "an
historical supplement to the Old and New Testaments?"

And in good truth, who can peruse the life of Peter, and not be animated
with a more lively faith? Who can read of the conversion of Paul, of his
zeal and labor, and unbounded love,--who can enter with him into the
depths of those mysterious truths which he has revealed, and contemplate
along with him the riches of the glory of the grace of God, and not
esteem this world as dung; or experience some throes of those heavenly
desires, which urged him so pathetically to exclaim, "I {011} wish to be
dissolved, and to be with Christ?" Who can read the life of the
evangelist John, and not feel the impulse of that subdued spirit, of
that meek and humble charity, which so eminently distinguished him as
the "beloved disciple of the Lord?" And if we advance through the
several ages that have elapsed since our Saviour ascended into heaven,
we shall find each and all of them instructing us by examples of the
most heroic virtue. The age of the martyrs ended, only to make room for
that of the doctors and ascetics; so that each succeeding generation of
the children of God presents to us the active and contemplative life
equally fruitful in works of sanctification. An Athanasius, a Jerom, a
Chrysostom, or an Augustin, are scarcely more precious as models in the