PREFACE. THE Lectures contained in this little volume were delivered by the Author, in the ordinary course of his ministry, to a week-night congregation, and without the most distant reference to publication. And he would not have yielded to the request of his friends to publish them, but that he had reason to believe they had proved interesting and edifying to his hearers; and he hoped they might, by the blessing of God, prove equally so to the readers. He is fully conscious of their numerous imperfections, and, but for the many miscellaneous duties connected with a laborious ministry, he might, perhaps, be able to render them more worthy of public patronage. At the same time, he trusts that they may not be found so very imperfect as to fail in pleasantly and profitably aiding the meditations of Christian people. Bespeaking, therefore, the reader's candour, and praying that the divine blessing may accompany this effort for the diffusion of evangelical truth, the following pages are submitted with the kind wishes of HACKNEY GROVE, June, 1854. THE AUTHOR. |