PREFACE

Summary

This revised and compressed Memoir of Henry Venn has been prepared for the press at the instance of many friends, who hoped that such a life and character might be more widely studied if presented in a less costly form.

As the book now appears, I am solely responsible for it, though I have adopted the valuable Biographical Sketch almost without change, endeavouring to carry forward, as far as the materials at my command enabled me, a record of the latter and more important years of his life. Several of his friends expressed to me their disappointment that the first edition did not contain more reminiscences from the pens of those who knew him; but, though I have since applied to those friends and others for such sketches and anecdotes, I have applied almost in vain. Nevertheless, the additional matter to which I have had access will be found full of interest and highly characteristic. I have had the opportunity of availing myself more largely of his private journal; many important and graphic letters have been added; and I have to express my thanks to the Rev. Prebendary Wilson, the Rev. Canon Clayton, and the Rev. G. T. Fox for very valuable additions to the correspondence; and last, but not least, to Miss Caroline E. Stephen for a life-like portraiture of her revered uncle.

In order not to interfere with the continuity of the work, I have, along with other documents, removed to the Appendix Mr. Venn's own narratives of the early years of the Church Missionary Society, and his Suggestions for the Organization of Native Churches.