The volume now in the reader's hands completes a work which I began sixteen years ago, entitled "Expository Thoughts on the Gospels." By the good hand of God that work is now finished. For this I desire to be deeply thankful. "Better the end of a thing than the beginning of it." (Eccles. vii. 8.)I have now only to commend to my gracious God and Father this feeble attempt to explain a most glorious portion of His revealed Scripture. I do it with humble thankfulness, but with a sense of utter weakness before the power of His word, and of inability to sound the depth even of its simplest sentence. May he spare the hand which has been put forward to touch the ark! May He, for Christ's sake, forgive all rashness, all perverseness, all uncharitableness, which may be found in this book! And may He sanctify it to the use of His Church: its truth, if any for teaching; its manifold defects for warning." (From the Preface) Books in this series: Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of St. Matthew Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of St. Mark Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of St. Luke, Vol. 1 Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of St. Luke, Vol. 2Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of St. John, Vol. 1Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of St. John, Vol. 2Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of St. John, Vol. 3