College Sermons 12+

📖 PREFACE THE first two Sermons printed in this volume belong to a different period from the rest, and may be said to represent an earlier manner. Mr. Jovett was at that time a young tutor whose views were not fully formed, but whose fresh and keen interest in his pupils was already the same which distinguished him to the end. It was at that time the custom at Balliol College that the Holy Communion was celebrated only once in the middle of each term and on the Saturday evening preceding this each tutor gathered his own pupils into his room and delivered to them an address in preparation for the Sacrament. Mr. Jovetts addresses on these occasions were highly valued by the more thoughtful of his pupiIs, and it seems desirable to give specimens of them. He preached comparatively seldom before he became blxter. He was Select Preacher before the University in the years 1851-2 but none of the Sermons of that time are included in the present volume. They belong not to the College Sermons, but to those dealing with more general interests. A specimen of his University Sermons will, however, be found in Sermon V. He declined the officc of Catecherical Lecturer which then existed in the College, as too technical and, since there were no sermons in the College chapel, he preachcd hardly at all in Oxford, and only on rare occasions for his friends in London and other places. But in the year 1869 having been requested by the ColIege to preach to the undergraduates, he commenced the series o...