G. S. TULLIS, BOOKSELLER, STATIONER, PRINTER, AND PUBLISHER, BONNYGATE, CUpar-Fife, BEGS to direct attention to the following New Works, recently published and now on SALE by him : Just Published, FIFE AND KINROSS REGISTER FOR 1848, Just Published, Price 2s., Boards, LARGE AND SMALL FARMS, And their Influence on the Social Economy; Including a VIEW of the Progress of the Division of the Soil in France since 1815. Translated from the French of H. PASSY, Peer of France, Member of the Institute, ex-Minister of Commerce, of Finance, &c. &c. WITH NOTES. London: A. HALL & Co. Edinburgh: OLIVER & BOYD. Glasgow: F. ORR & SONS. Cupar-Fife: GEORGE S. TULLIS Price One Shilling, CORN LAW DEBATES: The Twelve Days' Debate in the House of Commons, and the Three Days' Debate in the House of Lords, February 9 to May 28, 1846, with Biographical Notices of the Speakers. Compiled by the London Correspondent of the Fife Herald. Since its appearance in the Herald, it has been Revised, and is now Published in a neat book form. ATHANASIUS COQUEREL, ONE OF THE PASTORS OF THE REFORMED CHURCH OF PARIS, 66 THEOLOGICAL WORKS. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH. "Ah me! the laurell'd wreath that murder rears, Campbell's Pleasures of Hope. LONDON: ARTHUR HALL & CO. EDINBURGH: OLIVER & BOYD. GLASGOW: F. ORR & SONS. MDCCCXLVIII. ކ 1863, Aug. 24. Chas. E. Norton. HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY CUPAR PRINTED AT THE ST. ANDREWS UNIVERSITY PRESS, BY G. S. TULLIS. AN ANSWER TO DR STRAUSS' LIFE OF CHRIST. THE appearance of this work is an event, and may be said to be the last important fact in ecclesiastical history; not that the book will be long-lived, for the time will soon come when it and its author will be buried in that gulph of oblivion in which all the deformed progeny of Infidelity are fated to perish. It puts an end to two systems of Scripture interpretation, and, unintentionally, confirms the true one, the one which alone renders glory to God, efficacy to his Word, and advancement to his Reign. These assertions will give rise to some uneasiness and surprise. The name of Dr Strauss is surrounded amongst us with a kind of satanic halo-a sort of odour of blasphemy exhales from it; his work excites alarm, and is looked upon as an inspiration of him who is called the Father of Lies. The noise of the earnest and keen conflict excited throughout Germany by this audacious attack, made by the spirit of man on the Spirit of God, has reached us from the other bank of the Rhine as the weakened echo of that of the last war of the rebel angels against that heaven from which they have fallen. In the opinion of some, it is almost a sin to read these volumes, and a stigma to confess having read them. A certain pastor is said to have been much astonished to find the work lying open on the desk of the private study of one of his colleagues; and, in listening to the various reports abroad, we would be led to believe that the Gospel had never before experienced so terrible a crisis that it has not usually triumphed over its opponents, or that, if it has overthrown them from Celsus down to Voltaire, it was only to succumb under the attacks of Dr Strauss. But we may ask, if poisons are not kept in pharmacies, if the physician of the soul should not make him A self acquainted with its diseases as the physician of the body probes its sores, and if it be possible to refute an adversary without knowing the points to which the refutation ought to be directed? In our opinion it is paying a poor compliment to truth not to dare to look error in the face; it is to doubt of the power of Christianity, to fear its detractors so far as to refuse to hear what they urge against it; to act in this manner is to treat them with a blameable degree of deference and respect. For ourselves, our faith is invigoratedand confirmed by every successive perusal of an infidel publication. In order to expose a falsehood, it is necessary to grapple with it at close quarters. Elias, Elisha, and St. Peter, each bent over a dead body in order to resuscitate it. The dread which the book of Dr Strauss has inspired, and which has been doubled since a French translation of it was announced, is quite unfounded. We do not consider the work dangerous to religion, and the grounds of our assurance are these:-First of all, it is Infidelity in the form of four octavo volumes; it is Infidelity much too lengthy, heavy, and learned, to seduce the multitude; and we are prepared to wager that the work will not be found in a single circulating library in Paris or the provinces. The multitude now-a-days is desirous that Infidelity should be served out to it in small and slight dozes-it is fond of sarcasms and not of arguments; it delights to doubt, but not to be wearied by the process; it requires a scepticism that is amusing; and that of Dr Strauss is not of this sort. Then, the work is of such a nature that it cannot be published in an abridged shape in a small size; it is entirely made up of details which cannot be thrown into a synoptical form, and every one knows that it is abridgments that do the mischief. The ten big and ponderous volumes of the astronomical and mythological Infidelity of the celebrated Depuis "The Origin of all Religions"have done much less harm to religion than the same work condensed into a few pages, or the small volume of Volney "On the Ruins of Empires ;" and the pamphlets of Voltaire have made more unbelievers than the "System of Nature" of Baron Halbach, or the works of the Materialists, in one of which Helvetius teaches, in so tedious a manner, the art of being happy, and where the self-conceit of the writer looks out so |