BY GARDINER SPRING, D.D. PASTOR OF THE BRICK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEW YORK "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." SECOND EDITION. NEW YORK: BAKER AND SCRIBNER, 36 PARK ROW AND 145 NASSAU STRFET. E.C.P. PUBLIC LIBRARY ASTOR, LENOX AND ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1848, by BAKER & SCRIBNER, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. ww THOMAS B. SMITH, STEREOTYPER, S. W. BENEDICT, PRINTER, 216 WILLIAM STREET, N. Y. 16 SPRUCE STREET. m DEDICATION. Ir his own days of active service were not so rapidly coming to a close, the writer would hesitate in again obtruding himself upon the notice of the religious community. No governing thought more frequently recurs to his own mind than that presented in the injunction, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor knowledge, nor device in the grave whither thou goest." As the time is not far distant when he will be at a great remove from the sphere in which he now converses, he naturally thinks of those who are to come after him. And as the descending sun often quickens our pace, he confesses that he feels a desire to do something that shall give him a place in their thoughts, though it be but for a moment. He is not sure that the views he has expressed will meet with their approbation. He ardently hopes that time, whose instructions are clear and resistless, will show that, in the opinions to which he refers, he has judged correctly. It is a wide, an enchanting field of labor, which ansfer from Circ. Dept. MAY 27 1905 opens upon the youthful ministry. Never was there such a work as that to which they are invited in the present age of the world. A growing conviction of the importance of the work itself, and a strong desire that those who come after him may better fulfil the ends of the sacred office than he has done, have encouraged him to suggest a few plain thoughts which he hopes may be profitable to his younger brethren. To them this work is respectfully dedicated, by their affectionate fellow-servant, New York, April, 1848. THE AUTHOR. |