College Sermons

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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 of Sermons from which most of those were published are taken. On becoming Master, in 1870, he made it a rule to preach regularly twice in the tern, on the first and fifth Sunday and he continued this practice, with but rare exceptions, to the end. He also preached more frequently in other places, and, from the year 1866, on the invitation of Dr. Stanley, Dean of Westminster, and of his successor, Dr. Rradley, lie addressed the large evening congregation regularly once a year in the Abbey. Many of his sermons were preached both at Oxford and in London nor did he hesitate to repeat the same sermon again and again in the College with a few years intennl. The Sacramental Lectures naturally deal more directly with the spiritual life. In some of the College Sermons prudential advice becomes more prominent. But the unswening faith which saw- in the life and Spirit of Christ the true representation of the nature of was always present. One of those who has pubLished his reminisccnccs of the Master recalls the impression made on him when, after hall-an-hours rcflexions on common experiences, which seemed about to close with little to raise men above the world, the preacher stopped short, and dosed his sermon with these words If you ask me for an idcal, an example, a standard if you say, What, then, is the higher life I will tell you. It is the measure of the stature of the fuIIness of Christ. His method, though sometimes varied, is to hover for a time round the main subject of the sermon, giving some general exposition of the text or of topics bcaring upon it, and then to fasten definitely upon the special pint which he desires to enforce, and to spend his whole strength in illustrating and enforcing it. His theory of preaching was not to react largely, or to go through a long elaboration of thought for the special occasion, hut to take some subject which he had already worked out both in thought and in experience, and to write it as the direct product of his mind and heart. But he was ex- tremely careful, even fastidious, in the expression of his thoughts and in this, as in every part of hi work, he gave himself incredible pains, as is evidenced by the alterations, erasures, and additions in the manuscript...