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ON SELECT PORTIONS

OF THE

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

BY THE

REV. J. JONES, M. A.

INCUMBENT OF ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH, LIVERPOOL;
AND FORMERLY OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

VOL. I.

LIVERPOOL:

ARTHUR NEWLING, 31, RANELAGH STREET;

LONDON: J. HATCHARD AND SON, PICCADILLY;
HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. PATERNOSTER ROW.

1841.

OTHE

ELT

LEICESTER:

PRINTED BY J. S. CROSSLEY.

PREFACE.

Ir has been frequently remarked, that whilst multitudes of Sermons are daily issuing from the press, few, comparatively, are free from the imputation of having been either written with an immediate view to publication, or considerably altered in their style and language subsequent to their delivery. And to this cause, perhaps, rather than to any other, may be attributed that beautifully precise, but cold and heartless correctness, which characterizes the majority of published discourses. The careless freedom, and simple pathos of the oral address is transmuted into the rigid formality of an elaborate treatise, or an argu

mentative essay; and that which was observed to inspire warmth and feeling as it came from the pulpit, produces little or no emotion when presented by the press.

Whatever may be the faults (and, doubtless, they are many,) in the style of the following pages, they will probably be thought to wear a character totally different from that which has just been noticed, and must certainly be attributed to a widely different cause. At all events, the Lectures appear in print almost precisely as they were first penned, and subsequently delivered, and offer no pretensions to any superiority in language or style over the Author's ordinary preparations for the pulpit.

As an apology for their publication, it may be sufficient to plead the wishes of some highly valued friends, who, having heard them with marked attention when spoken to the ear, indulge the charitable expectation that, with God's blessing, they may serve to awaken similar interest when presented to the eye.

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