IT INTRODUCTION. T is now nine years since the death of the Rev. Harry Walter Sargent; and it is felt that some explanation may perhaps be needed, after such an interval, of the publication of these Sermons. They were, indeed, never intended to be published: and it was only on the strong united solicitation. (now two years ago) of many who had heard them, and knew and loved the writer, that consent was given by Mr. Sargent's nearest relatives for their publication. They will serve, it is thought, as a memorial of one whose beautiful life and character, whose holy teaching, and whose direction of the wellordered, reverent, and edifying services which grew up under his fostering care in "Merton Chapel," (for him and for his people their " Parish Church of St. John the Baptist,") are, it is plain, still affectionately cherished by those who had the privilege of knowing them. Charged, as a Clerical Fellow of Merton College, with the pastoral care of the small parish of St. John's, numbering in itself scarcely more than 120 souls, he yet felt it his duty to offer to Almighty God, and to them, of his very best. He was one of those to whom the thought, "O how amiable are Thy dwellings, Thou Lord of Hosts," "Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy House, and the place where Thine ་ |