THE FUTURE STATE AND FREE DISCUSSION; FOUR SERMONS PREACHED IN THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, OF OAKLAND, BY REV. L. HAMILTON, AND THE ECCLESIASTICAL ACTION UPON THEM. IVERS Of California. SAN FRANCISCO: PRINTED BY JOHN H. CARMANY & CO., BOOK & JOB PRINTERS, Southwest corner of Washington and Battery Streets. 1869. P3 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by L. HAMILTON, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the District of California. ха PREFACE. FOUR reasons will explain why the following sermons appear in print. The desire of my friends to see them; the readiness of others to misstate their teachings; my willingness that the public should know the whole reason why I am under the necessity of separating from the Presbyterian Church; and above all, the hope that they may contribute something to the diffusion of a more healthful sentiment upon the main subject of which they treat. I am asked to "print just as preached." Only the slightest changes, in no way affecting the sense, therefore, are made in any part, and none at all in the second discourse, which gave the chief offense. The fourth was added to the course as serving to explain, and perhaps justify, the attitude of Free Discussion which I have taken. The Introductory History explains the rest. May the Truth prevail. |