A SERIES OF SERMONS DELIVERED IN THE YEAR 1876, BY THE ORDER OF THE GENERAL SYNOD OF THE REFORMED (DUTCH) CHURCH IN AMERICA. NEW YORK: BOARD OF PUBLICATION OF THE REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by the BOARD OF PUBLICATION OF THE REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. PREFACE. IN June, 1875, the General Synod of the Reformed (Dutch) Church directed the preparation and delivery of a series of discourses on topics appropriate to the Centennial year of the Republic. The object was to set forth the general relations of religion to liberty; to compare our national struggle with that of Holland; to exhibit something of the denominational history during the colonial period; to indicate the large Huguenot element which entered into this branch of the Church; and especially to set forth its character, doctrine, usages and spirit, as developed and tested during the first century of its independent existence, with the view of exciting profounder gratitude to God for his signal mercies, and of stimulating a heartier consecration to His service. These discourses are now printed. To them is appended the Latin inaugural address of the Rev. Dr. John H. Livingston, who was unanimously elected Professor of Theology by the General Synod, 1784. He was a graduate of Yale College in 1762, and of the University of Utrecht in 1770. This oration, delivered in 1785, is supposed to have been the first address of a formally appointed Professor of Theology in this country. The undersigned were directed by the General Synod of the present year to superintend the publication of the volume. We strove earnestly to secure its appearance at an earlier period, but circumstances quite beyond our control made delay unavoidable; this, however, is the more easily borne, since the work is one of permanent value, embracing as it does a variety of useful and interesting matter, not easily attainable in any other form. As such it is commended to the Christian public with the invocation. of the Divine blessing. New York, December, 1876. (RECAP) T. W. CHAMBERS, E. T. CORWIN, JAMES ANDERSON. 27709 |