HOURS OF THOUGHT ON SACRED THINGS, A VOLUME of serMONS BY JAMES MARTINEAU, LL.D., D.D., HONORARY MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, AND Ψυχῆς ἁγνης τόπον οἰκειότερον ἐπὶ γῆς οὐκ ἔχει Θεός. DEMOPHILI Sent. Pythag. 45. Um Gott zu haben, muss man zuerst etwas sein, das Gott haben kann. RICHARD ROTHE: Stiile Stunden, 189. LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, READER AND DYER. 1876. PREFACE. THE first duty, it has been said, of a retired preacher is to commit to the flames whatever he has prepared for the pulpit, and secure the world against further tedium from his labours. In the face of this canon of clerical duty, I have hesitated to rescue a few fragments from the process of destruction, and let them try for themselves whether their natural life has reached its term. If I have found courage for the experiment, it is chiefly because a previous collection, which thirty years ago I did not expect to reproduce, is apparently more true to the feeling of the present time than to that of the last generation. Those who have spent thought and zeal on the moral movements of their age may naturally dread, as their strength declines and their speed slackens, to be thrown out of the great march which they have long shared and they may legitimately put it to the test, whether they have dropped off into loneliness, or whether their voice is still in harmony with the tones which meet the future. If the following pages |