George Smeaton (1814–1889) was for over thirty years Professor of New Testament Exegesis at New College, the Edinburgh seminary of the Free Church of Scotland.

This collection comprises various printed sermons, lectures, and other shorter writings covering the whole period of his ministry and professorial work.

The collection is wide-ranging in its content and in one respect or another reveals the characteristics of an exercised man, whether speaking, or writing, for ministers, divinity students, or the general reader.

His sermons 'were full of Christian fervour, and were characterised alike by purity of diction and breadth of scholarship.' Smeaton was 'a scholarly devout soul,' said one former student, 'whose earnest prayers brought the heavens near.'

It is the hope of the publisher that these sermons and addresses will prove to be as edifying, challenging, and stimulating to this present generation as they were to Smeaton's own.