shall suffer persecution.” This is not yet an obsolete truth, as some seem to think it at least in a state of advanced civilization such as we live in. The offence of the cross has not ceased. The world has not become Christian; it is the world still, though polished and learned, instead of savage and barbarous. But the church has become worldly, and that to a fearful extent, so as often to seek to justify her worldliness. Whenever she completely renounces the world, and utters a clear, consistent