carried on, and The Army will, I hope, continue to receive and record in Orders and Regulations that manifested Will, and, by obedience, continue to go forward from victory unto victory!

“I think I may truthfully say that in no words which it has been my privilege to write in the past, and in no work that it has ever been my lot to undertake, have I been more conscious of the presence and guidance of another Spirit, than in the preparation of these Regulations.  That Spirit has 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 best fashion, and to describe it in plain language, so that it may