These sermons, whatever other defects they may have, are free from pretence and affectation. They are born of their mood. They were preached in the months that followed restoration to work after an interruption, through illness, which lasted more than a year. These were days when, after looking death in the face, the preacher had drawn very near to God. And, without wear ing his heart upon his sleeve, from Sunday to Sun day he allowed the experience through which he had passed to colour his preaching. He did not pretend that a revelation from heaven had been granted to him which entitled him to pose as the author of a new pocket-gospel for mankind. He only felt a little more sure about the Old Gospel which it was his business in the world to preach. He did not dream that no man had ever been ill before him, or that he was the first to discover that there was comfort in Christ! But certain experi ences had been his which had led him through dazed wonder to settled peace. So he Spoke to his friends, spoke simply, about some of the deepest things in life.