Truth's Conflicts and Truth's Triumphs; Or, the Seven-Headed Serpent Slain. a Series of Essays, with an Allegorical Introduction on Some Chief

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1854 edition. Excerpt: ...unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God. But, as in the Apostle's days, so now, there are some who despise this method of moving the springs of moral action in mankind; and, in the pride of their strength, and the plenitude of their vanity, they think that they can devise both a wiser scheme, and apply a more effective agency for moralising, 'and thereby, as they suppose, saving mankind, than the preaching of the doctrine of the Cross. Hence, not unfrequently, in the face of the fact that the Apostle declares Christ sent him not to baptise tut to preach the Gospel, they substitute sacraments in the place of preaching, or they avail themselves of some sensible means of human invention--such as the exhibition of a material cross, or the crucifix--to work upon the natural feelings, instead of appealing directly to men's hearts and consciences, in order to move them to repentance, and to turn to God in all the acts of pious devotedness. Even if they preach the Gospel at all, it is with an economic reserve, thinking, by hiding some of its more offensive doctrines under a bushel, to guard it against abuse. Such is the wisdom of man! He perverts even the appointments of God, from the idea that he can devise more efficient agencies than those which He has ordained for making men moral, and elevating them to walk worthy of the dignity of immortality. But the futility of his schemes, and the weakness and inefficiency of all his efforts, are most strikingly evinced by the fact that man never did, and never can, produce, by all his devices, expedients, and appliances, such powerful and such elevating moral effects as ever have been, and still are, produced by the simple preaching of the cross; so that hereby it is proved that the...