PREFACE. Of the Sermons contained in this volume, the first twenty-eight and the thirty-fourth were preached in the chapel of Rugby School. They were addressed, therefore, to a peculiar congregation; but as the faults against which they are directed are more or less common to all schools, I thought that they might be useful to others besides those for whom they were originally designed. The remaining five sermons were preached at different places, to congregations of the usual character. They were all written within the last fifteen months, that is, since the beginning of that aggravated state of disorder in our social relations, which now wears so threatening an aspect. But the views which they contain I have entertained for many years, and have long anticipated the crisis which has come upon us. Would it were as easy to discover the remedies for the |