This volume is not, as a glance at any page will show, a translation of St. Augustine's 'Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount', but an attempt to draw from the whole circle of his writings (that one of course included), what of most valuable he has contributed for the elucidation, or for the turning to practical uses, of this portion of Holy Scripture. . . . It is not my intention to offer in the pages which follow any estimate of the worth and significance of St. Augustine's theology, regarded as a whole; but so far as possible to restrict myself to the subject indicated by thte title of this Essay, and to consider him in a single light, that is, as an interpreter of Scripture. -- from the Preface