ΤΟ THE HONOURABLE JOHN CHETWYND TALBOT, ONE OF HER MAJESTY'S COUNSEL, ATTORNEY-GENERAL TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF WALES, ETC. ETC. BY WHOM THE TRUE MISSION OF LAYMEN IN THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IS FULLY REALIZED IN A DAILY DEVOTION OF HIMSELF AND OF HIS SUBSTANCE TO HER BEST INTERESTS, This Volume IS, WITH PERMISSION, RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBed. P R E F A СЕ. THESE sermons are given to the public, partly because the Author was persuaded to publish them at the repeated request of several persons who heard many of them delivered, and expressed a desire to have in their possession the whole connected series, and who entertained the belief that, if they appeared in print, they might promote the interests of piety and religion; and partly because he himself was of opinion, that the delineation of so prominent a scriptural life as that of S. Mary Magdalene, especially when viewed in combination with the passages concerning the penitent woman of the city and the sister of Martha and Lazarus and so forming one consistent character, (an attempt which he believes has not been made by any previous writer,) might be found both attractive and instructive; and by means of the additional interest attaching to a connected narrative might render the lessons which he desired to convey more engaging, even to many to whom serinons ordinarily offer little attraction. The idea of the series was conceived by the Author when serving his first cure, in 1844, at S. John's, Westminster, and preparing discourses for the pulpit; and was kept before his mind, he trusts, by the gracious Spirit of GOD, until it has gradually developed into the connected view of the scriptural details of S. Mary Magdalene's life furnished in the present volume. The sermons have undergone considerable amendments and additions since their composition for the pulpit; and as, besides this, two of them were never preached, they have, therefore, the less right to claim any interest from the several places of their delivery. Suffice it, therefore, generally, to say that they were delivered before metropolitan congregations, in the years 1844, 1846, and in the present year. The passages in the Appendix have generally been added, to give the reader confidence in the Author's views; which, however, were formed, for the most part, independently of them. The Author's conviction of the identity of Mary Magdalene and Mary sister of Lazarus sprang from a serious meditation and scriptural research on the |