SERMONS

ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS.

BY

JAMES J. MURPHY,

EX-PROFESSOR OF MORAL THEOLOGY AND ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

IN THE SEMINARY OF HOLYCROSS,

CLONLIFFE, DUBLIN.

LONDON:

LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.

1871.

100. y 334

PREFACE.

THREE of the sermons printed in this volume were written while their author was as yet a student in Maynooth College. The remaining fourteen were written within the past twelve months. And those three, which my dear associates in Alma Mater will recognise as old acquaintances, will yet be recognised as old acquaintances that have undergone a change.

It is sometimes expected that a writer, on making his first appearance before the public, should explain why he makes that appearance at all. The public right to explanation is all the greater if the author happen to be, not only unknown to fame, but young in years. And, perhaps, seeing the large number of able, learned, and eloquent secular priests, who are content to preach without publishing sermons, there is a special reason why, if he wishes to ward off the charge of presumption, the present