It requires but a transient view of the religious state, even of enlightened and refined society, to see that to very many, now, the preaching of the cross is foolishness.  While any temporal interest excites feeling, this theme is listened to with apathy.  O, how often are those statements, which fill heaven with ecstasy, rehearsed to vacant, listless hearers!  How many weep at fictitious woes, who contemplate the bloody scene of Calvary without a tear!  How many hearts glow in admiration of the benevolence or heroism of a fellow worm, while entirely unaffected alike by the sacrifice or the triumph of the Son of God!  How often do men express sentiments of the most fervent gratitude towards earthly benefactors, who would be ashamed of uttering one emotion of thanks to Him who gave himself to die for them!  And is not this treating the Gospel as foolishness?  But this heartless unconcern, criminal as it undoubtedly is, in the sight of God, is not so fearfully impious—­affords not so appalling a disclosure of depravity, as the absolute disgust and contempt, with which the doctrines of the cross are sometimes received.  In almost every community, there are those who utterly despise the whole system—­who do not disguise their abhorrence—­and who evidently hate the very mention of the subject.  How indignant are such at any effort, in private conversation, to urge upon their attention themes connected with the dying love of Christ!  How chilling is the effect, when such discourse is attempted, in many circles of refinement and elegance?  And what a brand of infamy is affixed to the human character, by the fact, that from most such circles all these topics are absolutely excluded!  Let a man confine his conversation to such subjects as engaged the attention of Christ and his apostles—­such subjects as now employ the hosts of heaven,—­let him be accustomed in company, to bring forward the holy mysteries of redemption,—­and by how many would he be shunned like a pestilence?  And with what scornful hatred are those churches avoided by many, where nothing is heard but Jesus Christ and him crucified?  Such are the open, unequivocal expressions of contempt and disgust, with which many treat the doctrines of the cross.  Do not they esteem them foolishness?

But there is a class of the contemners of evangelical truth, characterized by more active zeal and decided measures.  Far from the giddy thoughtlessness of those who hardly reflect upon the subject at all, and from the strange inconsistency of such, as profess to respect what they really despise and hate,—­these feel and express a deep interest in religious opinions; devote time and attention to theological studies; and, as the result of their investigations, avow their utter disbelief of the peculiar doctrines of the cross; and undertake to demonstrate their falsehood and absurdity.  They tell you, they have maturely examined the whole subject—­that they have brought to the investigation