, To Messrs. SHELDON & Co., Publishers. GENTLEMEN: I am much obliged to you for consulting me in reference to the publication of some of the sermons I preached in the United States, and for giving me the opportunity of selection and revision. This is a courtesy due to every author, but not always shown to those who speak as well as write, and to whom the injustice is sometimes done of placing on permanent record in a book, not only their own accidental errors of delivery, but the mistakes both of reporter and of printer. I wish it to be known that I cannot hold myself responsible for any sermons attributed to me which I have not myself revised previous to publication; and that yourselves, together with Messrs. Ticknor & Fields, Boston, are the only publishing houses, and the New York Independent and the Boston Congregationalist the only newspapers, which have authority from myself to issue discourses in my name. With the sermons now forwarded I also send, according to your request, a short account of Surrey Chapel and its Institutions. I am, gentlemen, Yours faithfully, LONDON, January, 1868. NEWMAN HALL. (7) TO THE CLERGY AND CHRISTIAN PEOPLE OF AMERICA. DEAR BRETHREN: A desire having been expressed that there should be some permanent record of the ministry which, by God's good providence and your kindness, I have been permitted to exercise among you, the following pages have been prepared, and are now, with affectionate remembrance, transmitted for your perusal. These printed sermons are substantially the same in thought and expression as those which were preached; they are merely pruned of those redundancies, repetitions, and verbal inaccuracies incident to a free delivery. May they, by the divine blessing, be instrumental in reviving holy impressions in those who listened to the spoken addresses, and also in promoting the spiritual good of others. Now that I am once more settled in my home and the ordinary work of my church, my late visit to you sometimes appears a dream. Yet is it a holy and gratefully prized reality. I shall never forget the generous welcome |