THE CHURCHMAN'S PULPIT. Collection of Sermons BY EMINENT CLERGYMEN OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. "How shall they hear without a Preacher? LONDON: I. K. GARNER, 7, GRANGE PLACE, HOXTON. MDCCCL. PREFACE. 6 ON the beginning, or rather, strictly speaking, the concluding of this Volume of the Churchman's Pulpit,' the Editor would wish to address a few words to his readers in explanation of the object which he had in view in commencing this Periodical. It was briefly this to serve and strengthen the cause of the Church and of Truth in this country, by bringing before the mass of the People selected Discourses and Sermons of such Clergymen of the present day as are distinguished by ability and eloquence, by earnestness in the Church's cause, or by the authority of high Spiritual rank: these Sermons, not obtained surreptitiously, but printed with the consent and by the authority of their Authors, it was his aim to publish in such a cheap and Popular form, as to render them not only accessible, but familiar to every member of the instructed classes of the Community: it was his aim and wish to have earnest and sound Church Discourses read and commented on, where now too often only publications of an immoral or infidel tendency, (merely, we may hope, from their cheapness) find their way, in the back-shop of the trader, by the fire-side of the mechanic, and in the lodging-house of the factory child; it was among these classes in particular, where the voice of the Church is so seldom heard, the Idea even of Her being so very strange, that he wished the 'Churchman's Pulpit' to gain a footing, in the hope, that under Providence, it might be the A 2 means-and some means, alas! is deeply needed-of leading them to love their Church. The high price at which Clergymen generally publish their Sermons, by which the Industrial Classes are quite precluded from deriving any advantage from them, and the success of a dissenting periodical, whose means of obtaining the Discourses of Anglican Clergymen, are more easily reconcilable with expediency than with honesty, were also incitements to bringing out the present Publication. With these objects the 'Churchman's Pulpit' was commenced; and in this spirit it has been carried on to the 17th number, and thirty five Sermons have been published in it, to none of which the merit can be denied of either Eloquence, Orthodoxy, or Piety. But while the Editor cannot look back upon what he has done without some degree of self-approval, he is at the same time constrained to acknowledge that the circulation of the Churchman's Pulpit' has not been commensurate with either his intentions or expectations; and it is with the reluctance of one who gives up a cherished idea, that he is compelled, by the severe pecuniary loss its expenses have entailed upon him, to announce the discontinuance of its publication. It is still, however, his hope, that the effort will not have been made quite in vain, and that it has not been totally inadequate to the desired end: and, as the Publication originated in the motive of dutiful and obedient affection to the Church, so the Editor has the consolation of knowing, from the kind and zealous way in which many Clergymen, and other, of his Friends, have expressed themselves, that it has not altogether been unappreciated. Before he has done, the Editor has a duty, and a difficult one he feels it to discharge adequately, and that is to express his gratitude to those Clergymen who have assisted him by authorizing him to publish their Discourses, or by furnishing him with Sermons; to them, and he would mention by name the Right Rev. LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD, the Rev. W. FRASER, B. C. L., the Rev. W. J. E. BENNETT, M. A., the Rev. H. BEDFORD, M. A., and the Rev. W. GILLMOR, M. A., he offers his most sincere thanks and warmest acknowledgments for their kindness and aid. 6 The Editor of the Churchman's Pulpit' feels that he cannot conclude this address to his readers better, than in those heart-stirring lines, which have formed the motto to his Publication; and the spirit of which serves to cheer and encourage him, in his disappointment. "GOD save the Church!-Whose rites control, "GOD save the Church!-for rich and poor Alike expands Her gracious door, Who from the cradle to the grave Watches the soul CHRIST died to save." "GOD save the Church!-be this our cry For, rail Thy foemen as they will, Hoxton-June 1850. Montgomery's "CHRISTIAN LIFE," p. 477. |