A COURSE OF SERMONS ON SOLEMN SUBJECTS CHIEFLY BEARING ON REPENTANCE AND AMENDMENT OF LIFE, PREACHED In St. Saviour's CHURCH, LEEDs, during the WEEK AFTER ITS CONSECRATION ON THE FEAST OF S. SIMON OXFORD, JOHN HENRY PARKER: SOLD ALSO BY RIVINGTONS; AND BURNS, LONDON: 1847. The Profits to be given in aid of a new Church or Chapel at Leeds. PREFACE. THE deep and kind interest which many, both of the Clergy and Laity, took in the Consecration of St. Saviour's, as well as the love of the poor people for whom the Church was intended, seemed to furnish an occasion which ought not to be neglected, for essaying, by the blessing of Almighty God, to fix the feelings which that Solemnity called forth, even beyond the impressive service of the day of Consecration. The expectation, also, that many of the Clergy would be present, seemed a reason the more, why they should not disperse, without an attempt, in what way they might, to benefit the place where they were for the time gathered. Any thing too, which might be done, seemed the more natural and less of an effort, as flowing out of the circumstance of their being brought together. The Editor, accordingly, (with the aid of one of the friends who afterwards, although absent in body, assisted in the work, and whose society he was at the time enjoying,) formed a plan for a course of Sermons, beginning with very solemn and aweful subjects, which might, they hoped, by God's mercy, be the means of awakening in some a sense of the end and awefulness of their being, the deadliness of sin, the nothingness of all beside God, the necessity for repentance for sin, the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, and of deepening and fixing these thoughts in others. A general outline of the plan was b a transmitted to the Bishop of the Diocese, with the assurance that nothing was further from the mind of the Editor than to enter upon controversy; his one object being to bring solemn truths before the hearers, with the hope and prayer that God would bring them home to their souls. The simple aim to benefit the souls committed to his care could not but obtain the concurrence of the chief Pastor of the Diocese, (whose anxiety for the spiritual benefit of his Diocese it would ill become such as the writer to speak of,) as well as of his friend the devoted and laborious Vicar of the Parish. The Editor was much cheered by the words, "I heartily pray God to bless the efforts to convert and build up souls which will then be made." As the time drew near, trial seemed to hang over the plan. Heavy distress, still more for the Church's sake than for his own, broke at last suddenly on the writer; and for the first time, he had to go forth to his labour, apart from the friend of above twenty-two years, who was to him as his own soul, with whom had been shared the little he had himself been enabled to do to God's service in our Church, and whose counsel had been to him for the last twelve years, in every trial, the greatest earthly comfort and stay. Of those also, to whom he looked to assist him in the plan, some who would kindly have shared in it, were hindered; and of those who did aid most effectually, three were visited with sickness, either in those very near them or in themselves. Still, what was undertaken simply for the Glory of God and the good of souls, it seemed wrong to abandon; and the plan was continued, in trust a Some of the subjects were altered, in consequence of the change of the day of Consecration, (some legal forms having been delayed,) through which All Saints' Day fell on the ensuing Saturday. It became necessary to bring the austerer subjects into a narrower space. Other changes were involved by the hindrances alluded to. in Him, to Whom, it was hoped, souls might thereby be won. It has seemed necessary to explain thus much, because it might seem to some unfitting that, in the midst of those first distresses, the Editor should any where be taking any prominent part, (although he trusts that it was altogether of the Good Providence of God,) while those other distresses compelled him actually to take a much larger share in the plan, than he had originally thought of, and in appearance, a yet larger. For, unwilling to lose the concurrence of those whose bodily presence was hindered by sickness or attendance upon a sick-bed, he himself delivered the Sermons of those who were thus hindered". He did thereby greatly gain both by their help and their prayers while absent, and himself meditating on what he had of their's to deliver; and he felt even the more united with them, in that every thought of their's which he had to deliver, became his own. With regard to his own Sermons, he has thought it best to say, that the Sermon on All-Saints' Day had been previously preached before the University of Oxford, the great pressure of occupation preventing him from preparing any thing anew for that Festival It stands nearly as it was originally preached, except that some things local, and others, slightly controversial, were omitted in the delivery, and are not now inserted. Of the other Sermons, he may b It becomes necessary in consequence to distinguish the Sermons, lest the Editor should claim what is not his The 2d and 3d Sermons, then, are the contribution of the Rev. C. Marriott; the 4th, 5th, and 6th, of the Rev. John Keble; the 7th of the Rey. W. U. Richards; the 9th of the Rev. W. Dodsworth; the 10th of the Rev. Isaac Williams, as also the 8th, although unfinished in consequence of severe illness; the rest are by the Editor. In delivering those of others, the Editor found that he could not but add something of his own, following out their thoughts, or closing some of the Sermons as seemed natural to himself. These additions at the close have been retained, and marked by an † prefixed. |