ing contrast, the
humble votaries of faith, who reverently bow to the authority of
Scripture; and the adherents of a haughty, self-confident rationality,
who will receive the testimony of God himself, no farther than it
accords with their opinions and prejudices--and thus to elicit a fair
and full manifestation of every man's real disposition and feelings.

Such, uniformly, has been the effect of the Bible, wherever its sacred
contents have been made known. To all who have received it with
penitence, humility, and confidence, as the infallible word of God, it
has proved their pleasure and delight--their fountain of
consolation--their guide to peace: while the self-righteous and
unbelieving have transformed it into a subject of perplexity and
disputation--_a cause of deeper guilt and more aggravated ruin_. The
Gospel has appeared transcendently beautiful and glorious to all who
have been savingly enlightened by the Holy Spirit--while, to the
impenitent and skeptical, it seems obscure, irrational, and
incomprehensible. The former rejoice in the scriptures, just as they
are, and willingly yield to the obedience of faith: the latter are ever
anxious to lower the standard of divine truth to the level of their
views of fitness, and to mould its materials into a form suited to their
unholy inclinations.

On these principles it is easy to perceive the real nature and causes of
the insidious warfare, which is maintained, in various forms, against
the essential doctrines of the Gospel. It is just an effusion of the
malignity of the unsanctified heart. Its prevalence is an exact
fulfilment of prophecy; and therefore an irrefragable proof of the truth
and divine authority of that system which it is labouring to destroy.
The emphatic declaration of the apostle, in the text, strikingly
describes the state of feeling which now actually prevails, among many
who enjoy all the external privileges of the Christian
dispensation--_The preaching of the cross is, to them that perish,
foolishness._

In illustration of this passage, it will be attempted, to explain the
import of the phrase, _the preaching of the cross_--to enumerate some of
the _instances_ and _causes_ of such preaching being accounted
_foolishness_--and to describe the _fearful state and prospects_ of
those who hold it in such low estimation.

The preaching of the cross is a plain and full announcement of all the
essential truths of that system which provides pardon and s