In fine, the preaching of the cross includes a faithful denunciation of eternal misery, as the inevitable doom of all who pass from this state of probation, unrenewed by the Spirit of grace, unwashed in the blood of the Lamb.

Such are the essential principles of that system of redemption, which engaged the counsels of heaven from eternity; and which was carried into effect, not like the work of creation, by a single word of the Son of God, but by his assuming human nature, enduring a long exile of toil and reproach, and humbling himself unto death, even the death of the cross.

With what gratitude, then, ought this Gospel to be received by the guilty, perishing creatures, for whose rescue from perdition it is designed.  How should this display of divine compassion melt and captivate the hearts of those, whose sins have been thus expiated, and for whom an offer of free pardon and endless blessedness has been thus dearly purchased.

But be astonished, O heavens, at this—­these tidings of salvation are received by many with chilling indifference—­the sufferings of the cross are regarded with unconcern—­the treaty of reconciliation, written in atoning blood, is by some contemptuously disregarded—­by others repelled with determined opposition.  These appalling facts display more of the malignity of sin, its blinding, deadening influence, and more of the rancorous enmity of the carnal heart against God, than all the other enormities which blacken the world’s history.  All other crimes appear less atrocious than this scorn of a Saviour’s love—­this trampling under foot the blood of the covenant.  While no finite mind could have conceived it possible, that Almighty love should be so slighted, yet the Spirit of prophecy announced this impious ingratitude, long before the incarnation.  When Isaiah saw the glory of Christ, and spake of him, he also saw that he would be despised and rejected of men.  And by all their hostility to the doctrines of grace, sinners are only verifying the description, which inspiration gave long ago, of their blindness and perverseness.  By all their vain reasonings and presumptuous objections, they just corroborate revealed truth, and evince the desperate wickedness of the natural heart.

As in the days of the apostles, so in this period of increased light, the preaching of the cross is esteemed foolishness.  The message of redeeming mercy is often received with utter listlessness—­often with an evident disgust—­and sometimes with an openly avowed hostility.  In the apostolic age, it might be supposed that the resistance, with which the Gospel had to contend, arose from the prejudices of a Heathen or Jewish education, and from a very imperfect knowledge of Christianity.  But, at the present period, the undiminished hostility, which is displayed against the pure doctrines of redemption, can be attributed to nothing, but that hatred to the ways of God, which the Scriptures represent as rankling in the natural heart, and for which they contain the only remedy.