Aids To The Divine Life

The little work which is here presented to the reader in a new dress, was originally published in the year 1680, under the following Title: "Divine Breathings: Or, a Manual of Practical Contemplations; Tending to Promote Gospel Principles, and a Holy Life in Christ".
As regards the book itself, if, as a clever writer has somewhere said, "great books, like large skulls, often have the least brains," it possesses the double recommendation of being small, and having brains beyond its size.
Our age is too busy for the large folios of our fathers. Like the railway train, rushing on with accelerated speed as it approaches the terminus, the world seems hurrying on as if it felt that it had but a short time in which to dispatch its remaining business. The ceaseless whirl of events, the bewildering illusions which each succeeding day presents to our notice, and the anxious necessities of business, sacred and secular—leave most of us scant time for reading or study. Here then is a book, in size small enough for the pocket; in arrangement divided into portions, short enough to be read at any leisure moment; and yet weighty enough in matter to supply much food for profitable meditation. Good old Thomas Fuller wrote 'Good Thoughts in Bad Times'; the reader may find in the following pages, "Brief Thoughts for Busy Times".
So far as the character of the work—to those who lack a spiritual palate—it will doubtless prove altogether uninteresting; but to such as, "by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil," it will, I think, be rejoiced over as the finding of great spoil.