This may be what your looking for: `
<div class="blog-post">
<?php static $count = 0; if ($count == "4") { break; } else { ?>
<h2><a href="https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/62131/<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
<ul class="meta">
<li><?php the_time(get_option('date_format')); ?></li>
<li>| </li>
<li><span>Posted By</span> <?php the_author_posts_link(); ?></li>
<li>| </li>
<li><a href="#"><?php comments_number('No comments yet','1 comment','% comments')?></a></li>
</ul><!--end of meta-->
<p>
<?php echo substr(strip_tags($post->post_content), 0, 350);?>
... <a href="https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/62131/<?php the_permalink() ?>" class="readMore">Read More.</a>
</p><!-- Display a maximum of 350 characters from the blog post -->
<?php $count ; } ?>
</div><!--end of blog-post-->
<?php endwhile; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php if(function_exists('wp_paginate')) {
wp_paginate();
} ?> `
very simple to pull 4 blog posts per page limited by characters (350). Just make sure in WordPress Reading settings you have a set home page and a set blog page.