Excerpt from Forty Family Sermons These considerations will perhaps lead the reader to account for, if not to justify, the usual plan of the following discourses. That they are brief, and are attempted to be simple, and easily intelligible, and seldom or never controversial, needs no apology. That they should be chiefly elementary, embracing the lead ing points of Christian doctrine and practice, is what the writer wished, at least, to attain. That they are too calm, too little conversant with the striking illustrations and never-forgotten words which are sometimes heard in the pulpit, is partly the writer's defect, but it is also partly incidental; for a sermon written errpressly to be read in families - perhaps often by a son or daughter, the whole audience being only the parents, children, and servants - would be wholly unsuitable if composed in a style very proper for the pulpit. Denunciations must often becorns persuasions; fervent appeals to various classes of character must often become rather Scriptural statements respecting such classes of character, since either the originals may not be present, or, if present, the application might be improperly personal; the pas toral authoritative you, must sink into the modest we; and the whole assume the air of simple discussion, afl'ectionate advice, gentle persuasion, and plain Scrip tural instruction, rather than those elevated features which the family reader could not with propriety adopt, so as to make the sermon his own. This would be no excuse for want of faithfulness or earnestness, but it greatly modifies the style of conveying Scriptural truth. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.