PREFATORY NOTE. ONE cannot without some misgiving add to the volumes of sermons already in existence. Yet, simple and unpretentious as these discourses are in form, a deep and wide theology underlies them, which, with the calm and trustful spirit that they reveal, will, it may be hoped, make them a source of strength to many readers. They were all preached to a village congregation in the churches of St. Ippolyts and Great Wymondley, in Hertfordshire, of which double parish my father was vicar from 1857 to 1872. Each sermon represents many hours of anxious thought; for the preacher gave to his simple parishioners, as afterwards to University students, nothing but his best. first of the series was preached on his first Sunday in his new parish: of the next eleven, several were delivered more than once, some of them in later years The at Cambridge with considerable alterations: in such cases the original or 'village' form has been retained. The last twelve sermons form a continuous series, delivered once only, in 1868. I have ventured to correct a few obvious slips, since, in spite of frequent careful revision, the manuscript was clearly only meant for the author's own use. ARTHUR FENTON HORT. |