1-11-38 2 Vol. PREFACE. THERE would seem to be no apology necessary for presenting to the Public the Life and Letters of FREDERICK W. ROBERTSON. The abiding influence of his published writings on all those readers who are capable of being interested in spiritual questions and in Christian experience, has awakened in them a desire to know more of his career. Constant allusions made in the Public Press and in Reviews to his pre-eminence as a Preacherthe wide diffusion of his Sermons not only over this Kingdom but also over part of the Continent and of America-the interest in his teaching, which now (more than twelve years after his death) is increasing rather than diminishing, have led men to ask whether his life corresponded to the Ideal pictured in his writings-whether his private vi PREFACE. letters would be worthy companions of his public utterances. The friends who lived with him and loved him his Congregation, and especially those Working Men of Brighton with whom he was connected-have long and eagerly wished to have some record of his life. Those on the other hand who knew him not, but who since his death have learned to reverence him as their Teacher-who have found in his sermons a living source of Impulse, a practical direction of Thought, a key to many of the problems of Theology, and above all a path to Spiritual Freedom, these, with an amount of feeling rarely given to one personally unknown, have hoped to possess some more intimate memorial of him, without whose life they had not lived. For these reasons this Book has been undertaken. The publication of Mr. Robertson's Letters was considered to be of great importance. They seemed to add a personal interest to his Sermons, to explain fully his mode of thought, to indicate the source and progress of many of his views, and to supplement his general teaching. They are full of tender human thought, of subtle and delicate feeling, and of much tried and suggestive experience. They possess also, in common with his Sermons, |