"If the language of sermons be vague and general; if it do not apply clearly and DR. ARNOLD. LONDON: JACKSON AND WALFORD: 18, ST PAUL'S CHURCHYARD. M.DCCC.XLIV. EDITOR'S PREFACE. As the Lectures contained in this volume were not prepared for the press by the Author, a brief statement explanatory of the degree in which they approach to completeness, and of the points on which editorial care was chiefly needed, may not be improper. In the year 1822 Mr. Foster, in compliance with the earnest request of some intimate friends, commenced the delivery of the lectures from which the following are selected, once every fortnight (the months of July and August excepted), and continued them, though latterly at longer intervals, till the close of 1825. His auditory consisted of persons belonging to various religious communities in Bristol, most of whom had long known and appreciated his writings. With such a class of hearers, Mr. Foster felt himself warranted to take a wider range of subjects, and to adopt a more varied and elaborate style of illustration, than in addressing a promiscuous congregation. All the leading ideas of each discourse were committed to paper, with occasional hints for amplification, filling generally twelve or fourteen quarto pages. Various marks were adopted to guide the elocution, as may be seen in the very accurate facsimile given of a part of the fifteenth lecture. (P. 226.) Though it is certainly to be regretted that the volume was not prepared for the press by Mr. Foster, yet the above statement will moderate this feeling, and serve to show that its contents are very far from being hasty sketches or meagre outlines. The editor would be sorry to raise unfounded expectations, but he has not used the term "notes," or any similar one in the title, from the belief that it (10) but, you are GOING toward that same Futurity! – it is the one constant inevitable action of life _ - your progress is not turning another way than in the -no reversed or circuitous movement _____ direct _ and think how, Forme stages rapid! earnest and every step seems to belong more to that awful futuring and its realities than the preceding freturity the last & step, which is to be into Eternity, appears to have a by the same rule that transcendent importance so, in proportion, all that are approximating it Now, if you allow that in regard to that Futurity, it would have been so happy that the progress hitherto had been in the spirit of a christian; what do you think of the remaining progress from with the realities in prospect, shall ur say, rising higher and larger, and mou majetée, above the horizon of your view – + Consider, too, that, whatever the world and time could have given you from the first, they can at all events give you much. less now - and sooner to be taken au and by what away you? in vain 2 + When shall this sad indifference be broken up and leave would you quietly wait for some alarming dispensation of Pexvidence to do it? ___ to be admonished as Phanach was ant mound ? _ wait till some heavy affliction? – till some disaster in your till another dear relative or friend shall die? -till a severe sickness, with imminent threatening of death?! - can you be content to wait for such visitations? Standidge &C. Lithe, Cornhill London your world th affairs? 7. |