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 salvation for the lost and guilty.  The cross is the symbol of that amazing expedient of infinite wisdom and mercy, by which a treaty of reconciliation is offered to convicted traitors against Jehovah’s government.  Its exhibition therefore must require a developement of the principles, and a defence of the doctrines, peculiar to this gracious dispensation.

The grand fact, which constitutes the very essence and glory of the Gospel, and which it is the leading object of the Christian ministry to announce; is, that He, who took upon himself the form of a servant, and offered up the sacrifice of Calvary, is God over all, blessed for ever.  This gives to the cross all its glory and efficacy.  It is on the supreme Deity of Christ—­on the expiation made for sin by the Maker and Sovereign of worlds—­that