INTRODUCTION: BY SAMUEL HANSON COX, D. D., BROOKLYN, N. Y. These sermons have all been published before. One of them, the tenth in the series, was the valedictory of the Author to the people of his former charge, before leaving the country, three years since. Another," the third, was delivered and published in Boston, last Autumn, on an occasion solemn and interesting, the Ordination of a Missionary. And one other, the ninth, was published in Albany some years since. The others were all published in London, where they were delivered to listening crowds, who were not willing that they should be enjoyed only in the hearing, or realized only in the delivery. Hence, in different ways, they procured their publication. And hence it is that many a pious family here, and there in the metropolis and other parts of Great Britain, retain, as precious relics, and justly valued mementos, of a beloved American preacher of the gospel, a copy, and collectively thousands of copies, of the sermons of our esteemed countryman. We are not surprised if among ourselves should be the demand or the desire for their appearance in the combined and convenient form of a volume. Their Author has many friends, in the cities and neighbourhoods of his native country, to whom such a counsellor would be a comforter, such a companion a constant and salutary friend. And yet it is only an act of justice to our Author, to make the community acquainted with the motives, and the proximate causes, that have induced the present publication. This the more, that his present distinguished career as a preacher, might otherwise prejudice or pervert the estimate of the community. Its present appearance, truth to say, is the result in a peculiar development of benevolence. The proceeds of the publication are all to be devoted to an object, which enlightened Christianity will approve, and which the heart at least of every minister of the Lord Jesus Christand of some more especially than others—cannot regard without the deepest sympathy. Our Author yields his volume, that its proceeds may assist indigent students in their course preparatory to the ministry. And may we here insert a plea in behalf of hundreds, it may be, who are labouring up the hill, with patience, perseverance, and penury; the noblemen of grace and of nature too, but not of fortune, or titles, or rank; whose object, ingenuously pursued, shows excellence of no common kind; and yet who are estimated as they deserve, by very few of their cotemporaries. Possibly, to a mind like that of our Author, the reality might have been imagined, even if not identified in any recent in We have all seen such instances, and the public ought not to be wholly ignorant of their existence. To such petitioners what ordinary hardness could conclude a refusal? A Christian, and a minister of Christ, should not be made of sterner stuff, than refined humanity in other spheres of life. Nor is our statement a mere hypothesis for illustration. O! it is, in its basis, history, veritable and real, as hundreds of affecting instances attest. And what, to a mind of delicate and noble texture, and at the same time saturated with the influences of grace, what might melt one sooner, into a generous and practical sympathy, than to behold or contemplate such a spectacle! A brother in the Lord—a young brother-a devoted and self-denied disciple-a candidate for the ministry: one that has felt want and stance. dreaded to feel it more ; that has toiled by night and day; that has shrunk from no labour, mental or manual; that has endured privation, without repining, for the constrainng love of Jesus, and for the encouraging hope of preaching him ; that has done all this, and done it for n years—done this, and more, and more, in a catalogue that might be lengthened, with items of truth, more wonderful than those of fancy or romance! A youth, of principles too ethereal to be appreciated in this intractable world, aspiring devoutly towards an office which inspiration hath defined as a good work, and worthy of the best desire of the human bosom ; such an one, applying his ; mind to its mighty and appropriate labours of preparation, with vigils, fastings, and exposures ;-and all this, augmented by the utter destitution of necessary pecuniary means! O what obstacles, cumulative, unbearable, and wrong! May it not be sin to them, in the day of judgment, who know these things of the noble young servants of the Church, and roll in wealth and luxury, and profess religion, and have hope towards God through the gospel, and yet-DO NOTHING to assist those principled aspirants, those devoted candidates, those studious spiritual cadets, who are in process of training for official trust and duty in the high places of the field ; and who deserve well of Christians, of mankind, and of all posterity! The assiduities and trials, consequent or concomitant, in their CURRICULUM of preliminary study, are quite enough, in all human reasonableness, without breaking their courage against mountains interposed, “And poverty's unconquerable bar.” There are several reasons why such examples are not appreciated by the public. The first is ignorance; or, what is much the same, an utter absence of reflection on the facts of the case. Another is the allied consequence ance. of the former-a disparagement of the value of sound learning in the ministry, or a contempt of the manner in which alone it can be acquired. The time, the toil, the trial, and the cost, who knows, that has no experience in such conflicts? Again, the circuity and remoteness of the path, the indirectness of the promise! A preacher in the field, if wise and zealous and eloquent, is felt and loved. But who sympathizes with the student? who considers the means that were plied to prepare the preacher ? the difficulties through which he rose to eminence; and the necessity of recruiting the service, by a process as long, as pains-taking, as costly, as that which enables the accomplished preacher to grace the pulpit with manly and masterly displays of the truth? The preacher himself considers them; and almost none beside! Here, then, is the secret of our volume's appear Mr. Kirk virtually says to his young brethren, “If it can assist you, behold, it is at your service.” This, it strikes us, may have been mainly the process, by which his mind arrived at the conclusion, to give these sermons to the public, in their present form. And surely his countrymen, in their candor and their piety, will generously estimate the deed. We know they will ; nor do we anticipate the cynic who shall constitute the exception. The request, we doubt not, was on their part modest and retiring! But he could see and feel its force instantaneously; and we commend his decision. May the present writer be pardoned, if this seems too ideal, or inappropriate, or imaginary! But he has witnessed and compassionated, especially within the last seven years, and continually to this time, too many facts in proof, to doubt the correctness of the delineation. Perhaps others may impeach it for exactly opposite reasons; that it seems not ideal, not inapposite, not imaginary. To either class he would say, The moral of it, is the whole of it. If Mr. |