PREFACE. A SERIES of accidental circumstances has caused the publication of these Lectures to be long delayed, and renders it necessary to send them forth, even now, in a condition much less complete than I had originally intended and hoped. Among other things I had greatly wished to add, by way of Preface or Introduction, some further considerations upon the subjects with which the Lectures severally deal; but I am obliged to forego this intention. The Lectures were written while I was in a position which left me but little leisure for thought or study; but they are published amid the pressure of still more incessant occupations. I can only pray that with all their imperfections they may be accepted as a sincere and honest effort to strengthen in the minds of those who read them a faith in the great truths of Christianity; and their purpose will not have wholly failed if they impart to but one single soul a deeper conviction of the certainty of those doctrines which were once found competent to regenerate a diseased and perishing society, and which have lost no single element of their power to quicken, in the hearts of all those who faithfully accept them, the desire to spend a noble life, and the ability to bring that desire to good. effect. I have only to add that a great portion of the proof-sheets was corrected while I had no means of obtaining access to books, and another portion while I was suffering from the effects of a serious accident. I have done my best to ensure accuracy, but it is only too probable that a few errata-I hope not many-may have crept into the following pages from these causes. F. W. F. MARLBOROUGH COLLEGE, April 20, 1871. |