To THE CONGREGATION WORSHIPPING IN TRINITY CHAPEL, BRIGHTON, FROM AUGUST 15, 1847, TO AUGUST 15, 1853, THESE RECOLLECTIONS OF SERMONS PREACHED BY THEIR LATE PASTOR ARE DEDICATED WITH FEELINGS OF GRATEFUL RESPECT. PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. THE Reverend FrederickW. Robertson-whose beautiful life and early death have left the deepest impression of love, admiration, and regret, on all who knew him-finished his career on the very threshold of middle age, having exercised his sacred calling during the last years of his life in Brighton, where the effect of his ministry will long be felt by all classes, and where the seed of righteousness he sowed will yield increasing harvests when all personal memory of him must have passed away. Mr. Robertson's appearance was extremely striking; he was tall and handsome, with a fine, regular outline, and clear, powerful, gray eyes. The expression of his countenance combined frankness, determination, anc. a sort of spiritual valiancy; so that with his firm and rapid movements, and sono rous, ringing voice, he produced almost a martial impression, and outwardly appeared the express type of what he inwardly was—a courageous Chris tian soldier, a fearless fighter of the good fight, a powerful leader, strong to command, to exhort, and to encourage; whose daily life was war to the death with every base and evil thing, and whose preaching was like a clarion call to duty, to devotedness, to all that was holy, lovely, noble, and of good report. The military profession was the one towards which Mr. Robertson first inclined, and his early predilections could still be traced in his character as a Christian minister, and are distinctly perceptible in various passages of his eloquent sermons, where the heroic devotion to danger and death, and implicit submission to discipline, of the true soldier, furnish him with frequent illustrations. A resemblance between the characters of Robertson and Arnold, in this respect, will probably occur to those who read these sermons with a recollection of the writings and life of the lamented Master of Rugby. In both there was a dauntless element of moral bravery, which partook in some measure of the quality of physical courage; both would have undoubtedly made enduring and intrepid soldiers, and it is interesting to find in the writings of both |