Lay Sermons

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. It is the object of the Lay Sermons to exhibit them as necessarily interdependent. With somewhat of an occasional character, with an express reference to a particular conjuncture of affairs, not without an appearance, though an appearance only, of political bias, and with considerable warmth of language, they conciliated no prepossessions, and were calculated to serve no party purpose. Above all, they were found to require a fixity of attention in the perusal, and an. amount of patient afterthought, which it would be unreasonable to expect from the many, and which is not easy to obtain, for any deeper process of self-knowledge, even from a few.

Yet it cannot be doubted that these Sermons have found readers, more or less thoughtful, and have contributed with the rest of the author's writings, to leaven the public mind. Opinions, here combated, it might almost seem with the energy of despair, - ways of thinking then all but universal, are now no longer prevalent; - at least they no longer rise to the surface.