ON

COMMON TOPICS OF CHRISTIAN FAITH

AND PRACTICE.

BY

JAMES W. ALEXANDER, D. D.

NEW YORK:

CHARLES SCRIBNER, 124 GRAND STREET.

1858.

57857

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by

CHARLES SCRIBNER,

In the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of

New York.

JOHN F. TROW, Printer, Stereotyper, and Electrotyper 377 & 379 Broadway,

Cor. White Street, New York.

PREFACE.

THE appearance of these Discourses is due to the kind importunity of the Publisher, once my pupil and since my esteemed friend, who has for several years asked this contribution. Diligent inquiry of the Trade has informed me, that while the recent depression of business has lessened literary demand in general, the proportion of religious books sold has strikingly increased.

There are, as every one knows, several clever sayings, which set aside the Sermon as a species characteristically dull and unreadable; and this has tempted not a few, in giving the matter of their preaching to the world, to use some disguise as to the original form. Yet the testimony of booksellers is, that some of the most widely spread publications of the day are collections of Sermons.