IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 // 
 
 // 
 
 
 m 
 
 ><" c? 
 
 L^ c-?, 
 
 iA 
 
 
 'Us 
 
 V. 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 1.25 
 
 ■''■ IIM 
 " IIM 
 
 ':4 
 
 1.4 
 
 IIM 
 IIM 
 
 1.6 
 
 <^ 
 
 \ 
 
 /a 
 
 ^m 
 
 •c'l 
 
 ■e.'i y 
 
 *^ 
 
 /. 
 
 // 
 
 y 
 
 //a 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 Corporation 
 
 m 
 
 i-^V 
 
 l^ 
 
 ;\ 
 
 \ 
 
 ^> 
 
 Xs 
 
 
 Pt^ 
 
 \j 
 
 V 
 
 23 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, NY MS80 
 
 (716) 873-4503 
 
6= C^, 
 
 ^ J 
 
 fe: 
 
 i^^ 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 
 Microfiche 
 
 Series. 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 Collection de 
 microfiches. 
 
 Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut canadien de microreproductions historiques 
 
Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques 
 
 The Institute has attempted to obtain the best 
 original copy available for filming. Features of this 
 copy which may be bibliographically unique, 
 which may alter any of the images in the 
 reproduction, or which may significantly change 
 the usual method of filming, are checked below. 
 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 D 
 D 
 D 
 D 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 Coloured covers/ 
 Couverture de couleur 
 
 I I Covers damaged/ 
 
 Couverture endommagde 
 
 Covers restored and/or laminated/ 
 Couverture restaur6e et/ou pellicul6e 
 
 I I Cover title missing/ 
 
 Le titre de couverture manque 
 
 Coloured maps/ 
 
 Cartes g^ographiques en couleur 
 
 Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ 
 Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) 
 
 Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ 
 Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur 
 
 Bound with other material/ 
 Relid avec d'autres documents 
 
 Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion 
 along interior margin/ 
 
 La reliure serr6e peu; causer de I'ombre ou de la 
 distortion le long de la marge intdrieure 
 
 Blank leaves added during restoration may 
 appear within the text. Whenever possible, these 
 have been omitted from filming/ 
 II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajoutdes 
 lors d'une restauration apparaissent dan8 le texte, 
 mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont 
 pas 6X6 film^es. 
 
 L'Institut a microfilmd le meilleur exemplaire 
 qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Les details 
 de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-dtre uniques du 
 point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier 
 une image reproduite. ou qui peuvent exiger une 
 modification dans la mdthode normale de filmage 
 sont indiqu^s ci-dessous. 
 
 I I Coloured pages/ 
 
 D 
 
 ■7 
 
 D 
 D 
 D 
 D 
 
 Pages de couleur 
 
 Pages damaged/ 
 Pages endommagdes 
 
 □ Pages restored and/or laminated/ 
 Pages restaurdes et/ou pelliculdes 
 
 Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ 
 Pages ddcolor6es, tachetdes ou piqudes 
 
 Pages detached/ 
 Pages ddtach^es 
 
 Showthrough/ 
 Transparence 
 
 Quality of print varies/ 
 Qualit^ in^gale de {'impression 
 
 Includes supplementary material/ 
 Comprend du matdriel suppldmentaire 
 
 Only edition available/ 
 Seule Edition disponible 
 
 Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata 
 slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to 
 ensure the best possible image/ 
 Les pages totalement ou partiellement 
 obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, 
 etc., ont 6ti filmdes A nouveau de fapon d 
 obtenir la meilleure image possible. 
 
 D 
 
 Additional comments:/ 
 Commentaires suppl^mentaires: 
 
 This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ 
 
 Ce document est filmi au taux de reduction indiquA ci-dessous. 
 
 10X 
 
 
 
 
 14X 
 
 
 
 
 18X 
 
 
 
 
 22X 
 
 
 
 
 26X 
 
 
 
 
 30X 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 12X 
 
 16X 
 
 20X 
 
 24X 
 
 28X 
 
 32X 
 
The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks 
 to ihe generosity of: 
 
 Library of the Public 
 Archives of Canada 
 
 L'exemplaire film6 fut reproduit grdce d la 
 g6n6rosit6 de: 
 
 La bibliothAque des Archives 
 pubiiques du Canada 
 
 The images appearing here are the b'ffst quality 
 possible considering the condition and legibility 
 of the original copy and in keeping with the 
 filming contract specifications. 
 
 Les images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le 
 plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et 
 de !a nettetd de l'exemplaire 1\\m6, et en 
 conformity avec les conditions du contrat de 
 filmage. 
 
 Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed 
 beginning with the front cover and ending en 
 the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- 
 sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All 
 other original copies are filmed beginning on the 
 first page with a printed or illustrated impres- 
 sion, and ending on the last page with a printed 
 or illustrated impression. 
 
 Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en 
 papier est imprim6e sent film6s en commen9ant 
 par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la 
 dernidre page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second 
 plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires 
 originaux sont film6s en commenpant par la 
 premiere page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par 
 la dernlAre page qui comporte une telle 
 empreinte. 
 
 The last recorded frame on each microfiche 
 shall contain the symbol —^(meaning "CON- 
 TINUED"), or the symbol y (meaning "END"), 
 whichever applies. 
 
 Un des symboies suivants apparaftra sur la 
 dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le 
 cas: le symbols — ^ signifie "A SUIVRE". le 
 symbols V signifie "FIN ". 
 
 Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at 
 different reduction ratios. Those too large to be 
 entirely included in one exposure are filmed 
 beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to 
 right and top to bottom, as many frames as 
 required. The following diagrams illustrate the 
 method: 
 
 Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre 
 film^s d des taux de reduction diff6rents. 
 Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre 
 reproduit en un seul cliche, il est film6 d partir 
 de Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche d droite, 
 et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre 
 d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants 
 illustrent la mdthode. 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
■Mini 
 
A QUAINT OLD 
 
 NOVA SCOTIAN JUDGE'S 
 
 VIE^W 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ROMAN GOVERNOR'S QUESTION 
 
 "WHAT IS TRUTH?" 
 
 ^ LONDON: 
 
 WILLIAM EIDGWAY, 169, PICCADILLY. W. 
 
 1878. 
 
 Price Sixpence. 
 

 i 
 
WHAT IS TRUTH? 
 
 " Look you, who comes here ? 
 
 " A young man and an old in solemn talk." 
 
 ShaJcespeare. 
 
 
 The residence of an old judge, with whom 1 
 have been making a short sejour^ is situate near 
 the beautiful basin of Annapolis, which is con- 
 nected by a narrow strait with the Bay of Fundy. 
 As the judge and I sauntered by the shore of the 
 basm, the waters of which sparkled in the sun's 
 rays, sleeping calmly between the full and the ebb 
 of the tide, we observed, propelled by noiseless 
 paddles, a little squadron of bark canoes proceed- 
 ing, in line, to a burying-ground, there to deposit 
 the remains of one of the MicMacs whose unit had 
 been subtracted from the number of that degraded, 
 but not uninteresting tribe, already much reduced 
 by the influences of civilization, and, especially, by 
 the use of ardent spirits which the whites intro- 
 duced among them. In a few minutes the canoes 
 stranded so lightly as scarcely to displace a pebble 
 on the beach, and by the debarked Indians were 
 
^Jl II-. ],Jf,» 
 
 "mi 
 
 I 
 
 clraAvn up, lincl left on the shore. In order to 
 witness unobtrusively the approaching ceremony, 
 w(; retired to a grove at hand. The funeral train 
 was marshalled by an aged MicMac with order and 
 decency. The coffin, of unpainted pine, not rudely 
 made, was borne to a grave silently excavated, and 
 the body, placed in it, was covered with mould. 
 The whole party then knelt around the grave, 
 their movements being directed by the chief, whose 
 long flowing locks, thin, sinewy hands, uplifted 
 and expanded, and closed eyes, formed an interest- 
 ing spectacle. Then arose with untaught harmony 
 from their deep, guttural voices, in a dialect 
 unknown to us, a solemn chant, which was followed 
 by a ])rayer, the sincerity and devotion of which 
 could not be doidjtcd. The ceremony ended, the 
 Indians reimbarked, and paddled away as silently 
 as they came. 
 
 After they were gone, we came forth from our 
 retreat, and loitered at the spot of interment. 
 " This turf covers," said the judge, " our red 
 l.)rother who there rests from his labours." I 
 remarked, " He was, I suppose, ' a light unto 
 himself;' but how far, think you, will his respon- 
 sibility, if such awaits him, be affected by 'his 
 works that follow him,' which were influenced by 
 no higher principle than the instinct of the bear or 
 the deer that he slew for food?" "As to the 
 purpose," replied my friend, " which in the moral 
 economy of the world the life and Avorks of the 
 
 I 
 
 n 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 ** 
 •& 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
5 
 
 his 
 
 poor savage were designed to subserve, I could 
 probably gather no information from reason, or 
 from revelation ; so that I shall leave your question 
 to the hereafter, which will,* no doubt, answer it, 
 and some others of far greater importance that 
 perplex us now. I have learned ' not to exercise 
 myself in great matters, or in things too high for 
 me.' Nevertheless, as your query seems to imply 
 a doubt in your mind as to what lies beyond, in 
 ' the undiscovered country,' I shall inflict on you 
 a homily over this grave which may help you to 
 resolve it, if it exists. I have been long anchored 
 in the creed which my good old mother taught me, 
 by her knee, from our Church catechism. To 
 travel out of that involves a danger of being 
 * puffed up,' as St. Paul calls it. There were such 
 inflations in his days as there are in ours. If you, 
 young man, are looking to your own intellect alone 
 for an answer to the great question of your future, 
 you will die with it unanswered; and you may 
 fiind, when the veil is lifted, that you have been 
 ' stumbling on the dark mountains/ when it would 
 have been better for you to have accepted the 
 proffered 'light of the world.' He Avho stood 
 before the Roman Governor, when the latter, in 
 the very noon-day blaze of the human intellect, 
 anxiously, or despondingly, or derisively, asked of 
 the former, ^What is fndhf was. Himself, the only 
 reliable answer that has ever been given to that 
 question. 
 
 2 
 
G 
 
 " Not to speak of tlio profoiiiul wisdom of His 
 doctrine, or of the murvellous eloquence of His 
 life, we may remember, that He declared Himself 
 to be ' the lAfxht of the w^orld.' 
 
 "It is of infinite moment to you and to me to 
 determine, each for himself, whether he is trul^' 
 enlightened by that light as his accepted guide of 
 life, or whether it is to him but ' a light shining in 
 darkness that comprehendeth it not.' 
 
 '^ Demonstration of the truth of Christianity 
 there never can be, from what must necessarily be 
 the nature of a Divine revelation, and from what 
 we know^ to be the nature of man. Evidence of 
 some other kind, therefore, must satisfy a mind 
 inquiring on that point, or it nuist remain unsa- 
 tisfied. 
 
 " It is clearly the teaching of the Book wdiich 
 Christians regard as Divine, that effectual conviction 
 of the origin of the revelation which it contains 
 must be produced, if at all, not by logic of the 
 head, but by what I venture to call loc/ic of the 
 heart. Moreover, such appears to me to be the 
 only means by which, as man is constituted, the 
 truth of a revelation of that which lies beyond the 
 reach of sense and experience can be so established 
 in man's apprehension, as to influence and regulate, 
 as a principle, his conduct. 
 
 " Love, or gratitude — a thing purely of the heart 
 — is declared by the great Teacher to be the con- 
 dition necessary for so receiving Him as to obtain 
 
julate, 
 
 ,*^ 
 
 redemption by Him. He said, ' Greater lore hath 
 no man than this, that a man lay down his life for 
 his friends.' ' If ye love me, keep my command- 
 ments.' ' As the Father hath loved me, so have 
 I loved you.' ' He that loveth father or mother 
 more than me, is not worthy of me.' 
 
 " He speaks of that same affection, also, as 
 related to evidence of the Divine authority of his 
 doctrine. These are his words : — ' He that loveth 
 me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love 
 him and manifest myself to Mm.' After He had 
 said, ' My doctrine is not mine but his that sent 
 me/ he added, ' If any man will do \i.e. as the 
 Greek is, desireth to do'] his will, he shall hnow of 
 the doctrine whether if be of God.' 
 
 " The condition on which that knowledge is thus 
 declared to depend, is not an intellectual one. It 
 is the existence of a sincere desire to do the will of 
 God, arising from the love of God — an affection of 
 the heart ! With the source of that principle — 
 perfectly clear from Scripture — we are not, at pre- 
 sent, concerned. 
 
 " Again, when our Lord said, ' of such' [little 
 children] * is the kingdom of Heaven,' it was as if 
 He had said, ' If ye would attain to that kingdom, 
 the process by which you may expect to be con- 
 vinced that I am ' the way ' that conducts to it, is 
 not an exercise of your reasoning faculty, but it is 
 the swaying of your hearts toward me from simple, 
 trusting love, as little children, incapable of the 
 
 2 * 
 
 3 
 
llfJUL ■ l^i^BEB^r^lB^ 
 
 8 
 
 logic of the mind, are drawn by their loving in- 
 stincts towards their earthly parents.' The DiA^ine 
 source of the doctrine in question is thus pro- 
 nounced to be provable by heart logic^ which is but 
 another form of words to express ' the law written 
 on the heart !' 
 
 " In the texts of the New Scriptures just quoted, 
 we have, in effect, Divine love appealing to human 
 hearts. Observe how human hearts have re- 
 sponded, and are now responding to that appeal. 
 The Psalmist, in prophetic anticipation, most 
 likely, of what I have noticed, exclaimed, " Whom 
 have T in heaven but thee ? and there is none 
 upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh 
 and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of 
 my hearty and my portion for ever.' 
 
 " It is, undeniably, true, that that same response 
 has, in every hour since the great act was enacted 
 on Calvary, been made by human hearts, so con- 
 vinced of what they regarded as the ' inestimable 
 gift,' as neither to demand, nor to need a mere in- 
 tellectual assurance of the reality of it. Of that 
 response the heart-felt sincerity and the earnestness 
 have been proved in every case by the self-denying 
 devotion of a life, and by a faith in the hour of 
 death stronger than death — in a word, by a nature 
 changed from selfishness to love. 
 
 " An enlightened mind, rigidly scrutinizing the 
 outward manifestations of such a regenerated na- 
 ture, and seeing that such an effect carmot be ascribed 
 
•m 
 1 
 
 ig in- 
 )iviiie 
 pro- 
 is but 
 ritten 
 
 uoted, 
 mman 
 ve ro- 
 ippeal. 
 most 
 Whom 
 s none 
 Y flesh 
 igth of 
 
 Gsponsc 
 enacted 
 so con- 
 timable 
 aere in- 
 Of that 
 lestness 
 ienyhig 
 bour oi 
 i nature 
 
 zing the 
 ited na- 
 ascnbed 
 
 ^^w 
 
 to mere human causes^ cannot but consider as great 
 a miracle to have been thus operated, as was the 
 feeding of the five thousand by the few loaves and 
 fishes. It were as rational to refer the last as the 
 first to human influences. Is it consistent with 
 sound reasoning, then, when the subject discussed 
 is the evidence of Revelation, to ignore, as some 
 do, a heart-logic which claims so high an original, 
 and has produced such results ?" 
 
 Here, interrupting my venerable friend, I said, 
 " Admitting the truth of what you have urged, I 
 feel, nevertheless, that, in regard to the subject of 
 your remarks, a cultivate' 1 intellect, where the 
 heart is untouched, demands evidence of another 
 kind; I am, therefore jurioas tr. hear what you 
 have to say on the point ol mental conviction, or 
 of evidence strictly such." 
 
 "In my opinion," he replied, " an honest mind 
 will not make that demand in vain." 
 
 " We have," he continued to say, " in the 
 Hebrew Scriptures, in which (it may be observed 
 by the way) God's communication of His nature 
 and attributes would appear to be progressive, 
 beginning with a declaration of eternal self- 
 existence, and, under the Gospel dispensation, 
 ending in a Being, who taught, on earth, as a 
 human impersonation of the Godhead, a narrative 
 of a transaction, in v/hich Jehovah is represented 
 as an actor with a then living man. It expressly 
 points to something future of interest to the 
 
10 
 
 whole human race. It is out of place, and with- 
 out any intelligible meaning or purpose where it 
 appears in the history with which it is connected, 
 if viewed in mere relation to the subject of the 
 history with whom God is represented as so acting. 
 The narrative appeared in the same place and con- 
 nection where and in which it is now read, ages 
 before an event of then future occurrence took 
 place, to which alone of all future events recorded 
 in human annals it can be intelligibly referred. 
 
 " Now, in view of the fact of such pre-existence 
 of that narrative, and of the incidents, connections,- 
 and results that I have stated, I say, that that now 
 existing narrative with such incidents, connections, 
 and results, constitutes evidence of a pre-deter- 
 niined connection between the narrative and the 
 event. 
 
 '' Let us," he added, " try out this by consider- 
 ing — and a close consideration of all the circum- 
 stances is most material — that narrative. 
 
 " What is related by St. Luke in his statement of 
 the journey to Emmaus suggested to my mind 
 what 1 am about to submit to vours. 
 
 " A<lmitting the difficulties connected with the 
 Greek documents which high criticism and elabo- 
 rate historical research have raised, and not shut- 
 ting the eyes to other difficulties that with more or 
 loss Aveight, according to the degree of faith, or the 
 acuteness of intellect, perplex many minds, I, 
 nevertheless, mahitain, that here is evidence of a 
 
 
u 
 
 I 
 
 kind and of a co<,^ency that ought to satisfy the 
 most highly trained mind, that the Gospel story is 
 of supernatural origin as regards the great central 
 figure of it, and that the testimony it bears to the 
 atoning character of His death is true. Bear in 
 mind that, if that narrative, viewed as I view it, is 
 evidence for the purpose -indicated, it is but a 
 selected portion of a large class of evidence of a 
 kindred nature that conduces to the same result. 
 
 "In common, no doubt, with most professing 
 Christians, I believe what I have thus selected to 
 ' concern Jesus :' but I do not pretend to present 
 in a new aspect a single feature of it. I aim at 
 your conviction by means of the way in which I 
 put the familiar old story, with its adjuncts and 
 relations. 
 
 " The ' Christus' of whom Tacitus wrote as cru- 
 cified under Pilate, is identical with the Christ of 
 the CJospcls. He is in one of these recorded to 
 have declared, after his resurrection, that the 
 Jewish prophets, liad spoken of him, and had pre- 
 dicted that he should suffer, and resume his glory. 
 " Let any man of intelligence seek for e^'idence 
 derived from the old Scriptures read with the 
 Greek documer ts, that the Jesus of these last was 
 what he is tlvjrehi represented to have been, and 
 that he suffered as rei)rcsented. If, considering 
 that his faculties are limited, and that he is con- 
 ducting inquiry in a subject which treats of the 
 unseen and the unknown, that inquirer finds, that 
 
12 
 
 II Hebrew prophet or patriarch (lid, in any way, in 
 that which was a remote futnre to him, point to a 
 remarkable person, and to remarkable incidents 
 connected with him, that are related in the Greek 
 Scriptures, and to none other person and incidents 
 that are the subjects of history — he cannot in such 
 conditions reasonably refuse hir assent to the 
 general truth of those Scriptures, so far as they 
 profess to refer to that particular person. 
 
 " I will suppose that inquirer to have directed his 
 attention to the narrative of the Abrahamic sacrifice, 
 and to the incidents of Abraham's life connected 
 therewith, as recorded in Genesis. That narrative 
 was where it is now found ages before the birth 
 of Jesus of Nazareth. It could not, therefore, 
 have been forged after the event to which I sup- 
 pose it to refer — no human prescience could have 
 foreseen that event — no state of mundane things 
 co-existed with the date of the narrative that 
 could have suggested it as a possible result of that 
 state of things. 
 
 " I offer these preliminary observations, and those 
 that follow, before proceeding to examine the 
 narrative. 
 
 " We find from the previous history of Abraham, 
 that a trial of his obedience, considered merely as 
 stich^ — especially a terribly severe one, — would not 
 seem to have been necessary, for Jehovah is re- 
 corded to have said of him, ' I know him that he 
 will command his children and his household after 
 
 I 
 
13 
 
 him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to 
 do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring 
 upon Abraham that which he has spoken of him.' 
 
 " We read that Jehovah, before the destruction 
 of Sodom, said, * shall I hide from Abraham the 
 thing which I /do ?' The reason follows: — 
 * seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great 
 nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be 
 blessed in him.' Surely, in view of this, it is far 
 from improbable, that the Lord would not 
 altogether hide from Abraham ' the thing that he 
 did ' — i,e. designed to do — in order to the accom- 
 plishment of that very promise which is indicated 
 in the reason. We have the more ground for 
 thinking that Jehovah did not hide from the 
 patriarch that thing, if we regard the fact, that, in 
 the sequel of the virtual sacrifice of Isaac, Abra- 
 ham, as his last act in the wonderful drama, named 
 the place \Jehovah Jireh' — ' the Lord will see or 
 provide.' 
 
 " Can we reach the import of these words? I 
 think we can, by a fair and natural construction, 
 with the aid of the context. Isaac had said 
 * Behold the fire and the v/ood, but where is the 
 lamb for a burnt offering ?' and Abraham had 
 answered, ' My son, God loill provuk himself a 
 lamb for a burnt-offering." After this, God had 
 provided for virtual sacrifice Isaac, and for an 
 actual substituted one a ram. Abraham, in view 
 of what had thus passed^ — after God had provided 
 
14 
 
 the ram — proceeds to name the place, and call it — 
 (what? not bywords importing that 'there God 
 had 'provided^ but) ' God will provide ' — i.e. will 
 provide a then future sacrifice — a then future lamb 
 for St burnt-offering. Can any other reasonable 
 interpretation of the words used be given ? 
 
 " We, in reading the story, distinguish betAveen 
 the condition of the patriarch's feelings as we try 
 to enter into them, when he received and acted on 
 the command, on the one hand, and what we can 
 conceive to have been in the Divine mind when the 
 command was given, on the other. In this view 
 there is nothing in the nature of the command that is 
 revolting to human sentiment. There existed not 
 from the first a Divine purpose that Abraham 
 should slay his son. It is not, therefore, necessary 
 to import into the case for an explanation of the 
 narrative any considerations derived from Abra- 
 ham's probable familiarity with human sacrifices 
 before he became a nionotlieist. There is, nothinir. 
 therefore, in the narrative that could be su[)posed 
 to give a sanction to human sacrifices. 
 
 " It is obvious to a Christian why Abraham should 
 be made to feel the intensity of a father's sufferings 
 tUider the circumstances, and why he should have 
 some intimation given him that there existed a 
 tremendous necessity for some such a sacrifice. 
 
 " That Abraham should have regarded the pro- 
 mise in Isaac to refer to mere temporal blessings is 
 inconceivable : but it is not unreasonable to sup- 
 

 15 
 
 pose that he was thus made to see that Jehovah 
 would provide in a descendant of Isaac a sacrifice 
 by which ' all the nations upon earth would be 
 blessed.' 
 
 '' To consider, as some commentators have 
 strangely done, that the purpose was to teach Isaac 
 the virtue of suffering, is violently improbable. 
 Why should an innocent man be therefore made a 
 victim, and that by special command of Jehovah? 
 History does not present an instance of an innocent 
 person being represented as doomed to suffer 
 death for such a purpose by the command of the 
 true God, or of any false one. 
 
 " Let us now notice the features of the narrative 
 in order to see if this portion of the Old Scriptures 
 concerns the Jesus Christ of the Greek Scriptures. 
 I use the word ' virtual' but once. Where it is to 
 be supplied afterwards will be apparent. When 
 the features referred to are indicated^ it will he unne- 
 cessary for me to notice the Greeh imrallels. Those 
 features may be presented thus: — Jehovah — the 
 Heavenly Father — appoints the sacrifice. A 
 human father virtually sacrifices his son (brought 
 into life pretcrnatarally) his only son, the son he 
 loved. He consents to, and takes part in the 
 sacrifice. ' The father took the fire in his hand, 
 and the knife.' 'The father stretched forth his 
 hand, and took the knife to slay his son.' 
 
 " The son dies, and lives after his death. ' And 
 Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the 
 
16 
 
 knife to slay his son. Thus the son died. * And 
 Abraham took the ram, and offered him up for a 
 burnt offering in the stead of his son.' Thus the 
 so%i that loas sacrificed was released frcmi the bonds 
 of death^ and lived again. ' Even from the dead 
 his father received him in a figure.* The son dies 
 by violence, and on the wood — on wood that he is 
 made to bear to the place of sacrifice. ' And 
 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and 
 laid it on Isaac his son.' ^ And Abraham laid 
 Isaac on the altar, upon the wood, and bound 
 Isaac his son.' The son consents to be the victim. 
 After the father had replied to the son, ' My son, 
 God will provide himself a lamb,' the son, physi- 
 cally able effectually to resist, submissively con- 
 sents to become that lamb, and to be bo^ ad, and 
 laid upon the wood. Observe, too, as showing 
 the perfect agreement between the father and 
 the son, it is said — not merely once, but it is 
 repeated — ' and they went both of them together.' 
 They go both together, and they alone, to the 
 place of sacrifice. ' Of the people there were 
 none with me.' 
 
 " The son, thus sacrificed, was the previously 
 appointed type and channel *of blessings for all 
 the nations of the earth.' 
 
 " The sacrifice would seem to have been com- 
 pleted on the third day from that on which the 
 father leads out the son for the sacrifice. Such 
 appears to mc to be the effect of the words of the 
 
17 
 
 narrative. During the interval, and up to the 
 moment when the son is unbound, he remains 
 under the sentence of death. On the third day 
 the son is released. 
 
 " When the sacrifice is finished, the blessing is 
 renewed; and, then and there, as if to prevent a 
 misconception in supposing it to have referred to 
 mere temporal benefits, these last are mentioned, 
 and then we have superadded the words, ' and in 
 thy seed shall all the nations of the earth 
 be blessed/ In the sequel Abraham foresees a 
 provision made by Jehovah for a future sacrifice. 
 
 " We may not, perhaps, necessarily infer from the 
 narrative that the sacrifice was thus shown to be of 
 an atoning character. Abraham, however, if hf then 
 ' saw Christ's day,' must have viewed it in that 
 light. We may note, also, that the sacrifice is 
 represented as a ' burnt offering.' Such is men- 
 tioned six times in the thirteen verses of the 
 narrative, and it is mentioned only in two or three 
 other places in Genesis. If Abraham understood 
 that kind of sacrifice in the sense made to attach 
 to it in Leviticus, he must have known that his 
 son in the transaction was made by Divine appoint- 
 ment an expiating victim. ' And he' (the offerer) 
 ' shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt 
 offering ; and it shall be accepted for him, to make 
 atonement for him.' 
 
 " And, now, let me put to you this question : — 
 Looking to history developed since Abraham's 
 
 '.It I 
 

 18 
 
 day, has any human beings save one, appeared on 
 the theatre of this world, whose character and 
 career were such as can be said to have even con- 
 duced to ' bless all the nations upon earth ' ? 
 
 " In the whole history of man, not inckcding the 
 Greek Scriptures^ there is no other instance beside 
 that in the Hebrew narrative recorded, so far as I 
 know, of an innocent man consenting to become a 
 sacrificial victim upon an altar raised by his 
 father, upon an intimation received from that 
 father that a God required, or approved his sub- 
 mission to the sacrifice. If this be true, it is 
 inferential as to a connection between the Abra- 
 hamic sacrifice and that on Calvary.* 
 
 " It appears to me but one explanation can be 
 given of all this. 
 
 " Supposing the narrative not to point to some- 
 thing which is not on the surface of it, how is it to 
 be explained ? I assert that, on that supposition, 
 no reasonable explanation of it can be given. 
 
 " I make this assertion advisedly. The promise 
 declared in the narrative after the act in obedience 
 was not a result, or a reward of tliat act. This is 
 shown by the fact that the narrative but repeats 
 the very promise that had been declared before the 
 act."!" 
 
 * Judge^i. 3(5 is clearly a case essentially different from 
 that under i-eview. If a parallel, it would strengthen the general 
 argument. 
 
 t Compare ch. xviii. vcr. 18, with oh. xxii. ver. 18. 
 
19 
 
 " Regarding the purpose to have ])cen a pre- 
 intimation of the mode in which th*? promise would 
 be performed (and the point of the narrative is 
 expressed in the twelfth verse) then, the trial, so 
 fearful, especially in view of the previously proved 
 signal obedience of the tried one — then the 
 solemnity of the transaction — then the special 
 circumstances, including a designation of the 
 place of sacrifice — then the submission of Isaac — 
 the provision of a ram — the actual burnt offering 
 — the naming of the place by Abraham — all be- 
 come intclliofible and significant. The reverse is 
 true, if the sole purpose had relation to obedience. 
 
 " I have referred to the twelfth verse. It is most 
 striking. I read it thus, adding to the words 
 others that they suggest : — ' seeing thou hast not 
 withheld thy son, thine onl}^ son, from me,' / thus 
 disclose to you that I will not loitliliold my son, my 
 only son, from thee and thy seed^ 
 
 " No man, in face of what the Greek documents 
 show, could reasonably assert that Jesus, being a 
 mere man, as the assertion would suppose, did, 
 from enthusiasm, procure himself to be a sufferer, 
 in view of the narrative, and as a self-designed 
 antitype of Isaac as the latter is presented in it. 
 Jesus, on the assumption of his mere humanity, 
 could not truly (I say it with reverence) have 
 represented, or sanely have believed, himself 
 to be a subject of the prophecy in question. 
 Moreover, the negative testimony of the Gospels 
 
20 
 
 would refute the supposed assertion. Neither 
 our Lord, nor any one of his followers, during His 
 life ever, expressly, or by necessary implication, ad- 
 verted to the Abrahamic sacrifice. Jesus did not 
 notice it, even when He declared Himself in His 
 reference to the brazen serpent to be the fulfilment 
 of prophecy ; nor when He spoke of Abraham 
 having seen his day ; nor when speaking of Him- 
 self a° the Son of God. Beside if such a position 
 could command any support, the question would still 
 remain: viz., was the narrative written in order 
 that a »Jew mighty ages afterwards, appropriate it 
 to himself as the Son of God ? 
 
 " In this connection, mark the effect of the passage 
 occurring in St. John's Gospel : — ' The next day, 
 John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith,' 
 [and this was before the event on Calvary], ' Be- 
 hold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of 
 the world !' Observe, we do not read in the 
 context, ' and in Mm will he fulfilled tliat loMch 
 was spoken hy the prophet ^^ or * in him will he accom- 
 plished lohat Ahraham saio, or heard^ or did.^ No ! 
 it is a simple announcement made to the Priests 
 and Levites by the Evangelist, without any express 
 reference to the past, that the man before them 
 was ' the Lamb of God,' and the ' Lamb of God 
 that taketh away the sin of the world.' That 
 there is here an implied reference to * the paschal 
 lamb,' confirms my view of the effect of the 
 narrative. 
 
21 
 
 •" Here, let mo pause, and ask, — Was He of 
 whom John so spoke, one of the seed of Abraham? 
 Is taking away the sin of a world a blessing to all 
 the nations of the earth ? Is any other event 
 registered on the page of history that can be so 
 characterized ? 
 
 •• It is not necessary to notice the various views 
 that have been taken by commentators of the 
 purpose of the narrative in question. Many have 
 considered, as I do, that Jehovah had preordained 
 that He. who, afterwards, as Christ was crucihed, 
 should, although innocent, suffer, and had designed, 
 further, that by means of the transaction related ni 
 the narrative that then future sacrifice should be 
 in some decree revealed, or adumbrated to the 
 mind of Abraham. 
 
 " It is easy to conceive why that representative 
 Hebrew should have been the selected one of a 
 selected race, so to receive a pre-intimation of the 
 greatest event that history records. 
 "^ " A result of all this is to my mind unquestionable 
 evidence that the patriarch in the particular trans- 
 action ' saw Christ's day ' through the vista of 
 the centuries interposed between it and the Great 
 Sacrifice. If he did, it was by the operation of a 
 miracle as real and as great as any related in the 
 Greek documents !" 
 
 lr 
 
 "Beau Site," Cannes, 
 
 11th March, 1878. 
 
 I 
 
 o 
 
 \/-e y' 
 
SUPl'LEMENTAL. 
 
 The "old judoje'' may be assimied thus r») ex- 
 press a summary of the precedmi^ views: — "The 
 crucifixion of Jesus is a fact supported by secular 
 ^3fjtimony. 
 
 "Four documents exist that purport to repre- 
 sent Him as dying on the cross, and risini>- from 
 the dead. In one of these He is reported to haxe 
 said to two of His followers, aware of His cruci- 
 fixion, but doubting of His resurrection, that 
 certain Jewish Scriptures, then and long before 
 His birth existing, were written ' concerning Him.' 
 
 " In another one of these documents He is 
 reported to have said that ' Abraham saw His day' 
 ^ —and that, without specifying when and where. 
 
 " Lookinir to the source thus indicated for evi- 
 dence to prove the general truth of the documents, 
 and especially in relation to the question of the 
 
supernaturnl involved, T hfivc ibuiul it in 'the 
 narrative,' unless the many and th^ particular 
 coincidences therein loith the circumstances stated lu 
 the docwnents of the crucifixion and resurrection 
 wercj as regards the narrative^ undesigned and merely 
 accidental. 
 
 " If that 3an be predicated of them, reasonably, 
 by a sound mind, in view of all the circumstances, 
 my argument on the point goes for nothing. 
 If that cannot be so predicated, the argument 
 standvS, and shows that ' the day was seen in the 
 transaction narrated." 
 
 The judge would probably have to qualify his 
 words put interrogatively on page 14, and concede 
 that the place 7nay have been named as a memorial 
 of the provision that had been made. 
 
 lu note * on pago 18 for i. road xi.