Signs of promise. Sermons preached in Plymouth pulpit, Brooklyn, 1887-9.

Preface

This volume contains eighteen sermons which, during the two years of my ministry in Plymouth Church, have been from time to time specially requested for publication, either by the officers of tbe church or by members of the congregation. If there is any reason for their publication, it lies in the fact that they have been helpful to some hearers who have believed that they might be helpful to others in the reading. They are printed as delivered; they were not written, but were taken down stenographically and subsequently revised by myself for publication. They have therefore the characteristics of extempore address. These characteristics I have neither attempted to remove nor to conceal.

There is no visible and apparent connection between these sermons. They were not preached as a series. Each sermon grew out of some supposed need in the church or congregation and was addressed thereto, with no thought of subsequent publication. Yet the reader may perhaps discern a certain unintended connection, such as may serve to give a kind

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of unity to the volume. The first two sermons are in the nature of personal tributes to my predecessor in Plymouth Pulpit, the greatest preacher of our age if not of all ages; a man to whom I owe the greatest debt one soul can owe to another — the debt of love for spiritual nurture. The next two contend for the right and duty of progress in religious thought and life, and indicate certain laws which govern real progress, and certain characteristics which distinguish it from mere movement. The next four deal with some aspects of the fundamental issue of our day, that between Naturalism and Revelation, between religion that is a human product and religion that is a divine gift and growth. The next two treat of the church of God, the visible incarnation and manifestation of his gift to mankind. The remaining eight deal w^ith problems and experiences of the spiritual life in the individual soul.

Neither is there, perhaps, at first view perceptible any connection between the title of this book and its contents. If, however, the sermons are read with care, I hope that in them will be found an expression of the spiritual faith of the church universal by one who sees, in the intellectual and spiritual movements of our time, signs of promise that this faith is gaining a deeper hold on the heart of humanity than ever before, and is moving forward more rapidly to its final and perfect victory over all forms of unbelief and all phases of selfishness and sensuality.

I am indebted to the quick pencils of Arthur B, Cook, Henry Winans, and Robert Van Iderstine,

PREFACE. 5

who, without any assurance that their reports would ever be used, took down these sermons as they were delivered, and without whose aid they could not have been published.

Lyman Abbott.

Brooklyn ^ June i8, 1889.