FAITH: SERVICE: RECOMPENSE. THREE SERMONS. BY THOMAS PINCHES, M. A., Curate of Portskewett with St. Pierre. WITH A PORTRAIT OF BISHOP WILBERFORCE BIBLIOTHERA FEB '79 BODLEIANA LONDON: C. KEGAN PAUL & CO., 1, PATERNOSTER SQUARE. REAT is the company of the preachers who address themselves through the Press to the world small the company of those whom the world to hear doth seriously incline. Sermons issued singly, for the most part make ignominious descent into the depths of the waste-paper basket: artfully collected into a volume, they attain, unread, the inglorious elevation of the upper shelf. Such being the case, the homilist, who, without warrant of ecclesiastical position or literary prestige, risks an addition to the number of the rejected addresses, may be fairly challenged at the outset, to render a reason.' When Bunyan courted the verdict of his confrères, on the scribble' with which he had beguiled his 'vacant seasons' of cell-life, in Bedford Gaol, 'Some said, John, print it; others said, Not so: This divided counsel the allegorist found perplexing. Yet had there been no perplexity, had there been no encouragement; and, fortunately for multitudes, to whom the product of the tinker's penmanship has come, as, in some sort, a new revelation, illustrating and enforcing the Old, and whose minds it has stirred with brave pilgrim purpose, John gave his scribblement the benefit of the doubt, and straightway betook himself to the man of types, saying, 'I print it will.' And, lo! the marvellous Dream hath set the wakeful printing presses of many lands in motion. |