PREACHED AT TRINITY CHAPEL, BRIGHTON, BY REV. FREDERICK W. ROBERTSON, M. A. VOL. I. BOSTON: FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO., SUCCESSORS TO TICKNOR AND FIELDS. 1869. PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. whose THE Reverend Frederic W. Robertson 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, and 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 of them a passage which with almost identical expression urges the duty of progress with the words, "The Christian soldier's motto is for ward.'" Mr. Robertson's life, short as it was, was one of familiarity with disappointment, sorrow, and harass ing trials, for which the admiration and enthusiasm generally felt and expressed for his character and genius were hardly compensations; and, to those who knew him best and loved him most, it was hardly a cause of surprise that an organization of exquisite sensibility, such as his was, should have developed under the pressure of nervous excitement and mental distress disease in the head, which, after a short season of acute suffering, terminated his brief but beautiful career. The present collection of sermons (which are but imperfectly preserved, as he never wrote or even made notes of his discourses) remains to attest the excellence and power of his preaching. But, beside the effect produced by his public ministry, and personal intercourse on the more educated classes who came within his influence, Mr. Robertson obtained a power for good over the working men and mechanics of Brighton, which makes his name a |