as been, I believe, the Spirit of
Eternal Light. I have asked wisdom of God, and I verily believe
that my request has been favourably regarded. Of this, I think,
these Regulations will, to those for whom they have been prepared,
bear witness.

"These Regulations are not, I repeat, intended as a finality. If
any Staff Officer into whose hand this book may come, or may be
brought into knowledge of the working of the Regulations contained
in it, can suggest any improvement, let him do so. If he can show
any plan by which the end aimed at can be more simply, or
inexpensively, or effectually gained, either as regards work, or
men, or methods, or money, by all means let him make the discovery
known to us. God is in no wise confined to any particular person
for the revelation of His will. It would be the vainest of vain
desires were I so foolish as to wish that it should be so. Let Him
speak by whom He will. What I want to see is the work done, souls
saved, and the world made to submit at the Saviour's feet.

"I cannot conclude without saying that there has been present with
me, all the way through the preparation of this book, a vivid sense
of the utter powerlessness of all system, however wisely it may
have been framed, which has not in the application of it that
Spirit of Life who alone imparts the vital force without which no
extensive or permanent good can be effected.

"And now, on the completion of my task, and at the moment of
placing it in the hands of my Officers, this conviction is forced
upon me in an increasing, I may almost say, a painful, degree.

"No one can deny that the religious world is full of forms which
have little or no practical influence on the minds, or hearts, or
lives, of those who travel the weary round of their performances
day by day. Are the Regulations that I am now issuing at no distant
date going to swell the number of these dead and powerless systems?
God forbid that it should be so! Nothing could be further from my
contemplation than such a result.

"However, there must be Regulations. They are necessary. If work is
to be done at all, it must be done after some particular fashion,
and if one fashion is better than another--which no one amongst us
will question--it must be the wisest course to discover that be