EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY, DERIVED FROM ITS NATURE AND RECEPTION. BY JOHN BIRD SUMNER, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. A NEW EDITION, REVISED WITH REFERENCE TO RECENT OBJECTIONS. LONDON: HATCHARD AND CO., 187, PICCADILLY. MDCCCLXI 100. b. 36. PREFACE. THE republication at the present time of a treatise written nearly forty years ago, has been suggested by the volume of "Essays and Reviews," to which general attention has been lately drawn. Though there is nothing in that volume to disturb established faith, there is much which is calculated to leave a certain class of readers in a state of doubt and perplexity, equally inconsistent with safety and with comfort. Many persons are cast upon the world, and engaged in the business of active life, who have never seriously examined the foundations of the religion to which they nominally belong. They treat it with respect, they acknowledge the benefits which it confers upon society; but vague notions of uncertainty in its evidence, and of difficulties in its doctrines, float upon the mind, and keep them in an unprofitable state of hesitation. Meanwhile, a volume is put forth by persons of |