MAXSON, Henry Doty SERMONS OF RELIGION AND LIFE: BY HENRY DOTY MAXSON: With Biographical Sketch by HENRY MARTYN SIMMONS: Sermons Edited by JAMES The VILA BLAKE: Published by the UNITARIAN SOCIETY of MENOMONIE, WISCONSIN, in Memory of their beloved Minister, and to give to others a portion of the Ministry that has helped them: CHICAGO: PREFACE. It was Mr. Maxson's habit to write his sermons in one of the phonographic systems of stenography, of which he seems to have been a master. When, after his sudden death in the very beginning and promise of a great usefulness, his people desired to put forth in print some of the sermons which had instructed and charmed them, it was necessary that a considerable number of them should be translated from the stenographic characters by a stenographer versed in the same system. Of the sermons so translated, thirteen included in this volume were chosen by the parishoners and handed over to the editor. Two discourses have had the advantage of revision by the author, namely, the discussion of Agnosticism and the sermon of Immortality, both of which came to the editor in print, having been published previously under Mr. Maxson's own care. These two of course have gone into the volume as the author left them. As the other thirteen came to the editor through a short-hand and a translation thereof, and the more as Mr. Maxson evidently was in the habit sometimes of filling out his notes with extemporary speech, it was inevitable that the sermons should need detailed editing. It ought to be said, therefore, that the editor has been very scrupulous to preserve untouched whenever possible, and not to mar anywhere, the traits of the author's individual character and manner. Mr. Maxson's qualities of style have been respected faithfully, and no opinion or critical view has been passed on by the editor or altered in the least. The first sermon in this volume, "Religious Possibilities of Agnosticism," and the last, "How Much does he Get?" are respectively the first and the last discourses given by the lamented minister in his Menomonie pulpit. The sermons will speak for themselves. But perhaps it is right, as certainly it is pleasant to me, that I should express my admiration for them. They are marked by a morality of a striking quality; I mean not only in respect of earnestness and sincerity, which belong to morality essentially, but also in respect of a peculiar penetrating power. They seize hold of the reader and cut through to his conscience. This quality of the sermons is the result of the union of a pure truthfulness and unselfishness with mental power and an observation of men and things equally kindly and keen. May, 1893. J. V. B. |