PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION.

THIS Third Edition is a reprint of the First and Second, with the exception of a few verbal corrections and alterations, and slight adjustments and curtailments in certain of the Notes. The analysis of Contents also has been abridged. The author is indebted to the Rev. ALEXANDER MAIR, D.D., for kindly assisting him in the correction of the proofs.

EDINBURGH, July 1897.

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.

THESE Lectures, the first on the Kerr Foundation, are published in fulfilment of the conditions of the Trust under which they were delivered. Their publication has been delayed owing to the author's appointment to the Chair of Church History in the Theological College of the United Presbyterian Church, at the Synod of May 1891. They have now been made ready for the press under the burden of labour and anxiety connected with the preparation of a second winter's course. This may excuse the minor oversights which, in handling so large a mass of material, must inevitably occur.

The Lectures are printed substantially as delivered in the spring of 1891--the chief exception being that portions of the Lectures which had to be omitted in the spoken delivery, through the limits of time, are here restored in their proper connection. Material which could not conveniently be incorporated in the Lectures has been wrought into Appendices and Notes. The latter are designed to furnish not simply references to authorities, but illustrations, corroborations, and what may be termed generally "assonances" of thought, drawn from a wide range of literature, which it is hoped will aid the reader who is disposed to pursue his study of the subject further, by guiding him to the best sources of knowledge. Since the Lectures were delivered, important books have appeared, both in this country and on the Continent, dealing with parts or aspects of the field here traversed, such, e.g., among English works, as Mr. Gore's valuable Bampton Lectures on The Incarnation, Principal Chapman's Pre-organic Evolution, Mr. Kennedy's Donnellan Lectures on Natural Theology and Modern Thought. Occasional references to these and some other works are likewise included in the Notes.

The author's best thanks are due to the Rev. Professor JOHNSTON, D.D., of the United Presbyterian College, and to the Rev. THOMAS KENNEDY, D.D., Clerk of Synod, for their kind assistance in the revision of the proofs.

EDINBURGH, February l893.