probability Ferrar's name and character were not unknown to him.

But in order to prove the real value of the work, not only as a clever
contrivance, but as an aid to religious instruction, and to the study of
the Gospel history, it is necessary to put on one side the prestige of
the royal patronage, and to give an accurate description of some one
volume.

The Harmony selected for this purpose is one of the earliest, and least
elaborate; it was made for a private friend of the Ferrars, and is no
doubt almost an exact reproduction of the volume which was used every day
by the children at Little Gidding; for it was a part of their daily duty
to repeat portions of the Harmony to Mr. Ferrar--the book being so
divided that "beginning still at the first day of the month, and ending
at the last day of the month, all the heads or chapters were said over in
every month's time."

The principle of the work was this--to make one continuous history of all
the actions and discourses of our Lord wherever related, and this to be
so arranged that the Gospel of any one Evangelist could be read straight
through from first to last.

To do this without confusion was no easy task, for every word of all four
Evangelists is in the Harmony, and yet in reading them as one connected
story there is no repetition. The whole of the Gospel history is divided
for this purpose into one hundred and fifty heads or chapters, each
chapter containing some special subject, and being made complete by the
bringing together the words of each Evangelist treating of that subject.

The following selection will show the manner in which the subjects were
chosen--

54. Christ's second going about Galilee and sending the Apostles.

55. John's beheading.

56. The five loaves.

57. Jesus walking on the sea.

58. Discourse of the Bread from Heaven.

The method adopted throughout the work was very simple and ingenious. It
was this: the words of each Evangelist were marked in the margin by a
distinguishing letter, viz. St. Matthew, by A; St. Mark, by B; St. Luke,
by C.; St. John by D, so that to read any one Gospel straight through, it
was only necessary to read all the passages marked by the same initial
letter, omitting all the others. But when, as often happens, two or more
writers use identical language, the words which had been inserted before,
were put in different type. The body of the work was given in ordinary
Roman type, but the words which