PREFACE. THE following Sermons are, almost exclusively, occupied with practical subjects bearing upon school life. The publication of them is the last proof I can give of the undying affection which I shall always retain for Marlborough College, and of the deep and sacred interest which I shall always feel in those among whom, for six years, it was my privilege to live. This volume must not be regarded as representative of my entire teaching. Asked to publish some of my school sermons, I have selected those only which were more or less special in character or treatment. Hence I have excluded from this volume the many sermons which I preached on the great doctrinal truths of Christianity; those which were suggested by the Fasts and Festivals of our Church; those on different Scripture characters; those which pleaded the cause of various charities; those that dwelt exclusively on the Life, the Parables, the Miracles, the Cross and Passion, the Resurrection and Ascension, of our Saviour Christ. Many of these might doubtless, in a literary sense, have been regarded as better and more valuable than some here published. But this volume is not published on literary grounds at all. All my sermons were necessarily composed as they were required, in brief intervals from much labour and incessant interruption; they were never intended for publication; and have neither been altered nor elaborated since. Any value they may possess depends on their being left as they were written with all their intentional repetitions, with the absence of references and authorities, which I could not always give, and in the style intended solely for oral delivery. I know that those who heard them, and for whose sake they are mainly published, will receive them kindly, and will read them with no other desire than that of reviving those good impressions which I trust that, by God's grace, they sometimes produced in faithful hearts. ST. MARGARET'S RECTORY, WESTMINSTER, |