01.00.01. Prefaces

THE AUTHORS PREFACE

Sermons are a species of reading held in little estimation by the world. Among literary productions, by far the lowest place is assigned them, as a light and airy commodity by which knowledge cannot be promoted or extended; and an Authorship which is limited to Sermons, is regarded as of no value, and in the award of fame and merit is deemed but as dust in the balance. Collections of Sermons are nevertheless showered down upon us, and every successive season threatens a new flood, by which an inundation may at length be apprehended, not, however, of serious consequence; since, almost without exception, they descend with rapid haste into the deep and silent pit of oblivion, soon enough ― alas, in few cases can it be said too soon ― to find their grave, and terminate their ephemeral existence.

Under such circumstances, and amid the loud complaint of the reading community, made without intermission respecting the multitudes of religious compositions with which, like a swarm of locusts, they are visited and overwhelmed, the Author of the accompanying volume, which, moreover, makes its appearance in the despised form of Sermons, does not find himself under the least concern to justify its publication. To use the hackneyed pretense, and say, that he published it by " particular request," his conscience will not allow; and of the value of his productions, to say the truth, he has no very great opinion: at the same time, he would have it understood, that the well known tenets contained therein are to him beyond all worth, " better than gold and fine gold," and more precious than life itself.

The Author is perfectly sensible, that these Sermons little accord with the form and standard of the modern school, nor would they pass the ordeal of critical acumen. The sapient mother, Didactic Wisdom, if she should deign to look upon these productions, would see them, for the most part, so inartificial, so disconnected and irregular, that she could not possibly acknowledge them as her offspring, but would pronounce over them " Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin; " Expository Wisdom would with displeasure observe, in certain parts, the absence of the literal meaning; another school would complain of the want of good taste; while Critical Philosophy would find fault with the deficiency of sound reasoning.

The author hopes, by this self-condemnation, to propitiate those worthy gentlemen who sit in judgment, and he would give utterance to the wish, that they would admit, as an excuse for the publication of these discourses, that he both preached and committed them to writing, not for the wise men after the flesh, nor for the mighty, nor for the noble, of whom the apostle in one place speaks, and whose applause he must be content to forego; but for those whom man despiseth, but whom God hath chosen, for the sojourners in Mesech, and especially for the babes among them, to whom these sermons may perhaps convey a little honey from the slain lion; as it is written, ’"Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong, sweetness."

As it respects the title of the publication, " A Glance into the Kingdom of Grace," it may be observed, that it is designed to point out the subject treated of, since the sermons refer, for the most part, to the daily experience and inward state of the children of grace in the way of salvation. That respecting Issachar would have been omitted in this collection, if the Author had been aware that it had already made its appearance in another place.

The Sacred Writings, his own heart, and the people who surround him, constitute together, the Volume of instruction to which the preacher of the gospel should especially direct his studies and inquiries, and from which he should borrow the materials of all his Discourses.

If, therefore, this publication should be recognized by the experienced as genuine gleanings from that living and inexhaustible Volume; and if, here and there, a hungry soul should receive from these crumbs any comfort and refreshment, then all the desires will be accomplished with which the Author, with great diffidence, sends them forth into the world.

THE AUTHOR.

TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.

The name of Krummacher is now familiar to the English ear; and the satisfaction with which some of his works have already been received, might alone be deemed a sufficient apology for adding to their number: but there is another reason, of still greater force ― the intrinsic merits of his writings are such as cannot fail to recommend them to the lovers of scriptural simplicity and truth.

It has been the endeavor of the Translator, in presenting the Author to the public in another garb, to produce, as far as possible, the same impression on the English mind, which the original work is calculated to make on the German.

He is fully sensible of the difficulty of translation, and conscious of the great loss which a writer must sustain in having his ideas transferred into a different language; but if, with the absence of his elegance and power of expression, the meaning of the Author has in any case not been conveyed, it must be attributed to the fault, not to the intention of the Translator.

This small volume comprises the whole of that to which Dr. Krummacher refers in his Preface, with the exception of one discourse, namely, " The Temptation of Christ in the Wilderness," which he states to be a short abridgment of a course of Sermons delivered to his people in the vale of Barmen.’ That brief Treatise, as it may be termed, does not appear necessarily to form a part of his design as expressed in the title-page, and, from its nature and construction, it differs in various respects from the rest of the work.

Should this effort be made effectual, through the blessing of God, for the spiritual good of any of those to whom Dr. Krummacher can speak only through the medium of a translation, the highest wish and earnest desire of the translator, with regard to the publication, will be abundantly gratified.

THE TRANSLATOR.

West Cowes,
September, 1837.



NOTICE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The Translator has gladly availed himself of the opportunity afforded by the demand for a New Edition of this Work, carefully to revise the whole: he has in some instances endeavored to elucidate and otherwise improve the text. "The Temptation of Christ in the Wilderness," omitted in the former impression, but subsequently published by itself, is included in the present Volume. Some passages have been altered, in which a degree of speculation was indulged, the result of a luxuriant imagination, but which might not be deemed suitable for general readers in this country.

West Cowes,
December, 1837.