PREFACE. SINCE the publication of the first Volume of Mr Bonar's Sermons, the Author has been removed from the scene, at once of his useful labours, and of his severe trials. It was after many solicitations that he had been prevailed upon to appear before the Public as an author; but his friends were anxious that the influence of his exertions should not be confined to those who had lived under his ministry, or known him in the more intimate relations of social life. Before his death, Mr Bonar had the satisfaction of knowing that his instructions were extensively diffused, and had been received by the Public with an avidity gratifying both to his personal feelings, and to his earnest wishes that the cause of religion should should be promoted by the circulation of evangelical writings. The rapid sale of the first edition of that Volume, and the steady demand that continued to attend the subsequent editions, appeared to the friends of its deceased Author, to be the sure test of its acceptability to the religious Public. And as there remained several Sermons which Mr Bonar had selected for publication, and which were not included in the first Volume, together with some others which he had corrected, his family were advised, by those on whose opinion they could rely, to consent to the publication of a second. A few additional Sermons, to complete the Volume, have been care+ fully selected from among his Manuscripts; and there has been prefixed a Memoir of the Author, from the pen of a friend who was intimately acquainted with his character, and with the events of his life. When the Editor reflects on the disadvantages under which some of the Sermons have thus thus laboured, he feels anxious to solicit the indulgence of the Reader to the errors in them which a critical eye will easily discover. He has bestowed on them all the pains in his power, but he is conscious that the want of the last corrections of the Author will still be visible. While this is the case, it has been highly satisfactory to him to have been told, by those friends to whom, in the course of publication, the Sermons were submitted, that, in every essential requisite, they are considered as in general fully equal to those of the former Volume. In some respects, indeed, the present selection will be more generally interesting than the preceding. It contains a greater number of Sermons on particular occasions, both public and private; where the instruc tions are not less useful, from being interspersed with sketches of individual character, with illustrations of particular charities, or with remarks on the political bearings of the times. To the more inti mate mate friends of the Author, it will also be The following Selection is possessed of all the peculiar excellencies of Mr Bonar's manner; but it would be improper, by any attempt at analysing these, to detain the Reader from the perusal of the Ser- mons, by which he will be able to form his own opinions. It may be mentioned, how- ever, that there are some judicious remarks * Sermon XI. was the first, and Sermon XIII. the last. CONTENTS. |