Page:SermonOnTheMount1900.djvu/12

 — not merely for his extraordinary knowledge of them — but for the wonderful practical effect, on heart and intellect alike, produced by his use of them in his sermons and other writings.

The Meditations sur l'Evangile, which form, with their companion volume the Elevations sur les Mysteres, a very important portion of Bossuet’s Biblical works, are specially interesting as being quite different in style and method from the sermons and 'discourses,’ which are so much more generally known. They are not argumentative; they are not written on any definite plan; they do not — as many of his sermons do — work out a subject in regular sequence under headings or divisions. They are simply his own thoughts on the Sacred Text, put down as they arose in the mind of one to whom the Word of God was in truth as his daily bread. He said of them himself that he did not intend them to be a dogmatic treatise on religion. 'If you think' — he wrote — 'that I am going to resolve all doubts and to satisfy your curious desires, you are mistaken. I have not taken pen in hand here to teach you the thoughts of man.’

Nevertheless, disconnected as their form may be, these two works are held, by those who know Bossuet well, to contain the whole body