SERMONS

PREACHED IN BOLD-STREET, AND CROWN-STREET CHAPELS,

LIVERPOOL,

BY THE LATE

REV. DAVID THOM, D. D., PH. D.

WITH A BRIEF MEMOIR OF HIS LIFE.

LONDON:

H. K. LEWIS, 15, GOWER STREET NORTH.

1863.

SONNETS.

IN MEMORY OF DAVID THOM.

A CHRISTIAN hero! great and bold of speech;

No praise he asked, he feared from man no blame :

His soul no arrows of reproach could reach;

Ever his tongue proclaimed the Saviour's name.
Far into things divine he looked, and sought
The mines of holy truth for gems divine:

Bright joy, sweet peace, hope stedfast, love unbought,
These gifts of God unasked, O man, are thine!
He mixed not earth with heaven, nor vainly thought
To find God's life among the dead in crime:
He walked with God, and from his Spirit caught
Those rays of heaven which visit few in Time.
Of Truth's prevailing power a witness, he
Alike in life and death sought strength to be.
Birkenhead, April 5, 1862.

Another noble spirit hath been ta'en

To swell the names in Heaven's triumphal band!
Dear THOM, that spirit is thine own, the gain

To thee how great-a seat at God's right hand!
A purer atmosphere than this of ours

Thou breathest now; and that unbounded love
Whose proclamation here evok'd thy pow'rs

For ever wilt thou realise above.

No chains of Shiboleth had strength to take

Thy judgement captive or to fetter thee,

A mental Samson-thine it was to break

The withes like tow, and bid thy soul go free.

Dead Samson, as we weep beside thy pall,

Well may we ask on whom Elijah's cloak shall fall!

Wick, March 4th, 1862.

TO THE READER.

The publication of a volume of Sermons is a very common occurrence, and if it happen to go forth to the world as the production of some well-known and popular theological "authority," may prove a profitable speculation. The publication of this volume, however, was not induced by a view to profit (understanding the term in its mercantile signification), but by a different motive, and with a very different object; and the Editor may inform the Reader that the theological "authority" of the preacher was recognised by only a very limited number, and these consisted chiefly of persons in the humbler walks of life; and that "authority" was only recognised by them, in so far as they found the doctrines proclaimed by the preacher to be consistent with the Oracles of Truth.

Dr. Thom was not known to the world, nor even in the immediate neighbourhood of his ministerial labours, as a popular preacher, but the reverse. For the last thirty years of his ministry, his congre

gation never at any time amounted to more than from 150 to 200 individuals; but most of these were warm and attached friends, who recognised in him an "honest man" and a "true Christian," and were delighted to listen to the revealed truths of Scripture, as they fell like "heavenly manna" in honeyed accents from his lips. Well might he be respected and even loved by those who knew him, for he was at all times as accessible to the poorest as to the richest of his Christian brethren, and was ever ready to do good to all men as the Lord gave him opportunity.

The history of the publication of this volume of Sermons is simply this. It occurred to a few of Dr. Thom's congregation (and the Editor was not one of them) to employ a short-hand writer to report some of his religious Services, and after his decease this fact became known to his friends generally, and many of them expressed a strong desire to have the Sermons published. It was the privilege of the Editor to be one of the Doctor's hearers for upwards of thirty years, and also to be one of his most intimate friends. He was believed to be well acquainted with the Doctor's religious sentiments, and was requested and induced to undertake the task of revising the Sermons for publication.