Sermons on Subjects of the Day
John Henry Newman
Contents
Dedication
Preface
Advertisement
Title
Page
Revised May, 2001—NR.
Works | Home
Contents
Top | Works | Home
Dedication
TO
WILLIAM JOHN COPELAND, B.D.
FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD
THE KINDEST OF FRIENDS
WHOSE NATURE IT IS
TO FEEL FOR OTHERS MORE
THAN THEY FEEL FOR THEMSELVES
This Volume
IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED
Top | Works | Home
Preface
{v} ON the republication of the present Volume of Sermons in answer to
an extensive demand for it, it is well, on behalf both of the Author
and of the Editor, to remind the reader of its special characteristic,
as separate and distinguished from the volumes republished under the
title of "PAROCHIAL AND
PLAIN SERMONS."
Of the epithet "PLAIN," indeed, it may be here mentioned,
by the way, that the Author always from the first publication of the
series so called by its Editors, entertained a doubt whether it had
been well chosen, as being, if not in itself inappropriate, yet
certainly inapplicable to some of those Sermons which he himself, as
well as others contributed to it. {vi}
A volume, however, entitled "SERMONS ON
SUBJECTS OF THE
DAY," warns the reader by its very title that these Sermons are
to be read and understood mainly with reference to their direct or
indirect bearing on the occasion and circumstances of their first
publication. They have necessarily an historical and controversial
aspect, though most of them treat of matters of deep and unfailing
interest, and of vast practical importance.
The Advertisement, therefore, and the Notes, which call attention
to the peculiarities of this volume, which are pointed out at some
length in the Appendix, Note C. of the Author's "HISTORY
OF HIS RELIGIOUS
OPINIONS," are retained in this Edition.
In compliance with a wish expressed by various persons for the
dates of all the Sermons, two lists of the whole number published,
including those in this volume, are appended to it: the one an index
of the Sermons in the order in which they stand in the several
volumes, with the record of their dates; the {vii} other a chronological
index of the dates, with references to the Sermons. [See Sermons
by Date—NR.]
It will be seen from this document that some of the Sermons have
been re-written—by which word where it occurs it is meant that the first
Edition of the printed Sermon was "re-written" from the MS.
as preached on the day assigned. Thus Vol. III. Sermon I. was printed
as it was preached, on July 19, 1829; but Sermon II. in the volume was
not printed in 1836 as preached on May 9, 1830, but
"re-written" for the purpose of printing: others again, in
like manner, have been enlarged, or expanded into two, or altered from
the original MS. for the first Edition; and instances may be found,
here and there, where a Sermon written for one season has been adapted
to another.
In subsequent editions up to the end of 1845, as there are no doubt
various differences observable, which are not here specified, most of
them only literary, some few doctrinal, it may be here stated, once
for all, that the Author was accustomed to {viii} correct and retouch the
successive editions very carefully; and it may be safely asserted that
the variations which are to be found in intermediate editions are such
as not to detract from the integrity, but rather to enhance the value
of the document here supplied.
In Vol. II Sermon II., for St. Thomas' Day, there is an addition,
and in Sermon XXXI., for St. Simon and St. Jude, an alteration, in the
last compared with the first Editions, of sufficient length and
importance to be noticed here. And in Vol. II. p. 142,
"miraculous" has been substituted, with the Author's
approbation, for "immaculate," written by a mistake, which
he has also made in a note on the translation of the TREATISES
OF ST. ATHANASIUS (p. 241). Also, in the present volume (p. 28), the clause
"in His own words" has been inserted, to meet a criticism of
Mr. Keble's at the time of its first publication.
It may be interesting to the reader to know that the text (Ps. civ.
23) which stands at the {ix} head both of the first (itself a recent one)
and the last Sermon in this volume, was the text of the Author's first
Sermon in 1824, when he went "forth to his work and to his
labour," and of his last in 1843, when "the evening"
was come.
W. J. COPELAND.
FARNHAM RECTORY, ESSEX,
November 22nd, 1869.
Top | Works | Home
Advertisement
{xi} THE Sermons which follow were all preached in the Author's late Parish;
but in preparing them for publication, a few words or sentences have
in several places been added, which will be found to express more of
private or personal opinion, than it was expedient to introduce into
the instruction delivered in Church to a parochial congregation. Such
introduction, however, seems unobjectionable, in the case of
compositions which are detached from the sacred place and service to
which they once belonged, and submitted to the reason and judgment of
the general reader.
LITTLEMORE,
November 25th, 1843.
Top | Works | Home
Title
Page
|
SERMONS
BEARING ON
SUBJECTS OF THE DAY
BY JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, B.D.
NEW
IMPRESSION
LONGMANS, GREEN,
AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY
1902
|
Top | Works | Home
Newman Reader — Works of John Henry Newman
Copyright © 2007 by The National Institute for Newman Studies. All rights reserved.
|