Br

4501

B36

1860

Now we look upon Christianity not as a power which has sprang up out of the hidden depths of man's nature, but as one
which descended from above, when heaven opened itself anew to man's long alienated race; a power which, as both in its
origin and its essence it is exalted above all that human nature can create out of its own resources, was designed to impart to
that nature a new life, and to change it in its inmost principles. — NEANDER.

PREFACE

In the opening paragraphs of his powerful essay on Jonathan Edwards, Professor M'Dougall remarks on the too extensive diffusion of the idea that evangelical religion, in its strict, personal form, comports ill with solidity and compass of intellect. In a course of somewhat desultory reading, I was forcibly struck with the prevalence of this idea in certain departments of our literature; and it occurred to me that a statement of the Christian view of the individual character, together with a fair representation of the practical embodiment and working of that character in our age, might not be unattended with good. It was thus that the composition of the following chapters had origin. With the first idea certain others became gradually allied, and especially it seemed to me important that the position and worth of Christianity as a social and reforming agency should be, at least, in outline, defined. The twofold statement and delineation which I here attempt was the final result.

The first and third divisions of the general subject may seem not to bear a due proportion to the second. The disproportion is only apparent if I may be permitted to speak somewhat pedantically, the relation between the three parts is that of stem, foliage, and fruit.