4

Our business is to preach the "body of reconciliation";--
to endeavour to establish in the minds and hearts
of our {illegible: learners?} a sense of their {illegible: lives?}; and point them
to their {illegible}.

In accomplishing to this, we cannot do better than
to take for our guides, those first heralds of the cross,--
who, being the immediate subjects of the teaching of
the founder of our faith, must be presumed to
have incurred least risk of error; and of whos
preaching and teaching we have such abundant
memorials in the pages of holy writ.

By referring to these, we cannot but observe in the
writings of them all, especially in those of him
who was the chief preacher among them, the --
importance attached to a few leading doctrines as
cardinal points in the system. "Christ crucified"
was the ever-recurring theme of this ministry. The
expounding and following {illegible} of that our single
{illegible: principal?}, in all its legitimate details, compressed
the burden of the ministry of the Apostle to the Gentiles.
It was to Christ he referred {illegible: perpetually?}, as the source
and end of all his teachings as the {illegible: matter?} and
{illegible: finisher?} of the faith he preached; the great sacrifice
for sin; the "end of the law-- for righteousness to every
one that believeth;" -- and to whom he commanded
the humbling penitent, as to a friend, a refuge,
and a Saviour.