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OFFERED BY AN OLD STUDENT.

Robert Dubinfeld Darbishère, editor.

"WE ARE NOT TO TAKE ACCOUNT EITHER OF RISK OR OF SAFETY;
WHAT, ON THE OTHER HAND, WE HAVE TO CARE FOR IS, THAT WE SHOULD
NOT ABANDON THE GOSPEL, WHICH WE HAVE ONCE BEGUN TO PREACH, AS A
SPORT TO THE IMPIOUS, AND GIVE OUR ADVERSARIES WHEREWITH TO GLORY
AGAINST US, BECAUSE WE DARE NOT CONFESS WHAT WE HAVE TAUGHT, AND
FEAR TO SHED OUR BLOOD FOR IT-WHICH COWARDICE FROM US, WHICH
BOASTING FROM THEM, MAY CHRIST AVERT. AMEN."-Martin Luther. See
Beard's "Martin Luther," p. 419.

"IT MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE WHETHER WE PLACE TRUTH IN THE
FIRST PLACE OR IN THE SECOND PLACE."- Whately.

LONDON:

KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO. LTD.

1890.

II-5736
C1075.151

Hear, O Esrael:

The Lord our God is One Lord; And thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment.

And the second is like: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

There is none other Commandment greater than these.

Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is One God; and there is none other but He: and to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.

Ah! what time wilt Thou come? When shall that cry, "The Bridegroom is coming," fill the sky?

Enscribed to the Memory

OF

THE REVEREND JOHN KENRICK,

THE REVEREND JOHN JAMES TAYLER,

AND

THE REVEREND CHARLES BEARD,

STUDENTS AND TEACHERS,

PRE-EMINENTLY REPRESENTATIVE OF THE SPIRIT AND AIMS

OF

MANCHESTER NEW COLLEGE;

IN HUMBLE AND AFFECTIONATE ACKNOWLEDGMENT

OF UNSPEAKABLE OBLIGATION TO EACH OF THEM;

AND IN THE EARNEST DESIRE TO AID IN PERPETUATING SUCH

INFLUENCE AS THEIRS,

AND THAT OF ALMA MATER.

MANCHESTER ACADEMY.

INSTITUTED FEBRUARY XXII., MDCCLXXXVI.

A very respectable meeting of Gentlemen was held this twenty-second day of February, 1786, when it was unanimously agreed, after due deliberation, that an Academy should be established in Manchester, on a plan affording a full and systematic course of education for Divines, and preparatory instructions for the other learned professions, as well as for Civil and Commercial life. This Institution will be opened to young men of every religious denomination, from whom no test or confession of faith will be required.

[Then follow certain considerations in favour of settling at Manchester, and as to details of the plan to be adopted there, closing with the following final declaration.]

This Academy, like that of Warrington, is founded upon the most Liberal Principles, and will be open to young men of all Denominations and Professions.

TO THE READER.

Ir is right to say that this book is in no sense official, either on the part of Manchester New College, or on that of any of its representative men whose discourses are thus reprinted.

On the occasion of the adoption by the College of its new settlement at Oxford, for its own sake, and with a distinct hope of taking a place of its own amongst the various educational activities of that seat of learning, it seemed to me that an independent exhibition of the character and principles of the Institution, by some friend of it and its great cause, might be of service, both as a reminder and an encouragement to its friends, and as information and perhaps invitation to competent observers and inquirers not so familiar with its purposes and aims.

Faithful to its inheritance of the noblest [English] Presbyterian Puritanism, the College, with its pervading pursuit of the highest culture, its perfect intellectual liberty, and its inspiration of a personal piety, exempt from the hindrances and embarrassments of ecclesiasticism and priesthood, of dogmas and creeds, formularies and rituals of any kind, and its absolute independence of all sectarian or 'church' regulations and limitations, the College has, to those who have had eyes to see, become continually more and more established as an Ideal Home of Learning and Teaching, especially in Theology, and of Piety,-all alike Free.

It has at last sought at Oxford opportunities, long desired, for fuller culture, for greater learning, and for larger association with National life than have hitherto been within its reach, and that in a veritable home of Religious Enthusiasm. May God bless its pilgrimage!

It is impossible for such a College, however humble in the extent of its powers or means of influence, to settle itself at Oxford without some consciousness that in so doing it has, so to speak, left the wilderness, to take a place of its own amid the tumult of the Reformation which has never ceased to move since the printing of books began.

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