THE VISION OF FAITH, A SERIES OF SERMONS ON THE DECALOGUE, AND THE LORD'S PRAYER. BY REV. I. D. WILLIAMSON, D. D., OF LOUISVILLE, KY. MADISON IA: PUBLISHED BY B. F. FOSTER & CO. J. M. USHER: BOSTON. 1852. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by B. F. FOSTER & Co., in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Indiana. PREFACE. The Discourses contained in this volume, were originally prepared in the ordinary course of sermonizing, and delivered to the congregation of which the author is Pastor. A brief report of several of them has been published, and the favor with which they were received, has induced the writer to comply with the oft repeated request for their publication in a suitable form for preservation. In this form they are now presented to the public, with many alterations from the original manuscript, and no doubt with many imperfections. In the view taken of the Prayer and the Decalogue, in many respects, the author has trod, what was to him an unbeaten path; and the chief merit of the discourses, whatever it may be in amount, will be found in the hopeful and trustful view given of these important portions of the Divine Word. Hitherto, for the most part, the Decalogue has been viewed as a stern and inflexible mandate, from the existence of which, the wide world has little to hope, and much to fear; and the Prayer, an earnest petition, which may indeed be offered to God, but of whose fulfilment, so far as the masses of our race are concerned, there is little or no prospect. If the author of this work has succeeded in showing, that the former is an authoritative announcement of God's immutable law, which must be fulfilled in every jot and tittle; and that the latter is but the expression of a true and living faith, which lays hold of the realities of man's destiny, and rests upon the authority of the Son of God, then it will be seen how full of the blessedness of hope, is the prospect here opened to the believing soul; and how glorious is the "Vision of Faith," thus opened in the future of humanity. It is not without some degree of diffidence, that the author presumes to add another to the volumes of sermons from his pen, already before the public; and yet the favor extended to his previous works, encourages him to hope that the present effort will meet with a generous reception. That it may be blessed to the upbuilding of the cause of truth and righteousness, and to the confirmation of the faith of the doubtful and despondent, in some small degree, at least, is the devout wish of THE AUTHOR. Louisville, Ky., March, 1852. |