CHRISTIAN LIFE, ITS COURSE, ITS HINDRANCES, AND ITS HELPS. SERMONS, PREACHED MOSTLY IN THE CHAPEL OF RUGBY SCHOOL. BY THOMAS ARNOLD, D. D. HEAD MASTER OF RUGBY SCHOOL, AND LATE FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD. LONDON: B. FELLOWES, LUDGATE STREET. "As far as the principle on which Archbishop Laud and his followers acted went to re-actuate the idea of the church, as a coordinate and living power by right of Christ's institution and express promise, I go along with them; but I soon discover that by the church they meant the clergy, the hierarchy exclusively, and then I fly off from them in a tangent. "For it is this very interpretation of the church, that, according to my conviction, constituted the first and fundamental apostasy; and I hold it for one of the greatest mistakes of our polemic divines, in their controversies with the Romanists, that they trace all the corruptions of the gospel faith to the Papacy."-COLERIDGE. Literary Remains, vol. iii. p. 386. INTRODUCTION. THE Sermons contained in this volume will be found, I hope, to be in agreement with its title ; although having been written separately, and not having been intended to form together a systematic work, they were not capable of making any regular whole. They were all preached in the chapel of Rugby School, with the exception of the XXII, and of the last three in the volume; and of those three, one was preached at Ambleside, another in the parish church at Rugby, and the third, (the XXXIXth) was written for a congregation in Westmorland, but was in fact never preached at all. Amongst the helps of Christian life, the highest place is due to the Christian church and its ordinances. Several sermons will be b |