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HT 915 .166

UN

ENTERED, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by
JOHN F. TROW,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New York.

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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
GENERAL LIBRARY
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN
7-27.53.

PREFACE.

THE reason for the present publication may, perhaps, best be given in the following extracts from letters addressed to the author the day after the delivery of the discourse in the regular course of his pulpit ministrations, by a large number of intelligent Canadian gentlemen:

REV. STUART ROBINSON:

TORONTO, Feb. 27, 1865.

DEAR SIR:-The interests of religion and truth require that, in all matters affecting our faith in Divine Revelation, our opinions should be clear and definite. The subject of Human Slavery comes under this category. It is a subject which in former times very much agitated the public mind in Great Britain, and, since the commencement of the American war, has been revived with great vigor, both in England and Canada. ***

On a subject of so much importance—a subject involving the interests of millions of our fellow-beings-it would seem necessary and right that we should have something more substantial than vague generalities, as an anchor to our faith.

In common with the bulk of the English people, we hold, and hold thoroughly, as you are aware, anti-slavery opinions; but while so doing, we believe it to be in the interests of truth that the subject should be laid open to full, free, and fair discussion.

The extraordinary research and ability displayed in the Lectures on Genesis and Exodus, delivered by you in this city during

the past two years, entitle your opinions to a careful consideration; and it is only in accordance with British justice that you should have a fair hearing. For these reasons we, whose names are here annexed, request that you will permit your views, embodied in the recent lecture on slavery, to be published.

Very respectfully yours.

TORONTO, Feb. 27, 1865.

REV. STUART ROBINSON:

DEAR SIR:-Conjointly with many others who heard the admirable discourse on slavery as recognized by the Bible, preached by you last evening, and who, with myself, would be pleased to see it in a form that would reach the mass of the people in the province and abroad, who must be interested in a just and exhaustive exposition of this subject, I take the liberty of inquiring whether you will permit its publication, and would be disposed to place the manuscript in our hands for that purpose?

I am, Rev. and Dear Sir,

Very faithfully yours, &c.

Not having before thought of such a publication, the preparation for the press, in accordance with the foregoing requests, has, of course, been made somewhat hastily under the pressure usual in such cases of public call for a discourse. The views and opinions uttered, however, have long been entertained; and the expositions of the Scriptures are in general accordance with the steadfast faith of the people of God, as uttered through their pious and learned men, in all ages up to the present. This will be apparent by a comparison of the statements of the discourse with the foot-notes which have been appended for the benefit of plain readers, who have not access to many commentators, that they may know what is the voice of the Church's interpreters. For some of these authorities, that were not within his reach, the author is indebted to

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