Preface

This volume has originated in the wish to gather together a few specimens of a style of teaching, which increasingly prevails amongst the clergy of the Scottish Church.

It does not claim to represent either the full extent of that teaching, or the range of subjects on which in their public ministrations its authors are in the habit pf discoursing. It may, however, serve to indicate a growing tendency, and to show the direction in which thought is moving. It is the work of those whose hope for the future lies, not in alterations of ecclesiastical organisation, but in a profounder apprehension of the essential ideas of Christianity; and especially in the growth, within the Church, of such a method of presenting them, as shall show that they are equally adapted to the needs of humanity, and in harmony with the results of critical and scientific research.

Some of the Sermons were preached exactly as they now appear, and are no more than samples of popular religious teaching. Others have been written expressly for the volume, or have been considerably enlarged after having been delivered from the pulpit. The writers are all clergymen of the Church of Scotland.

Should this volume accomplish its aim, it may be followed by another series.

THE EDITOR
Christmas 1879.

Scotch Sermons
Published in 1880 (pdf)