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 WAYIARKS IN THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 JANUARY, 1857 
 
 THE DAWNING LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 What is prophecy ? Generally, it is a declaration of some- 
 thing that is in the future, as history is a record of what is 
 past. A man of observation and experience may, from pre- 
 sent appearances, conjecture the probability of future events, 
 with more or less correctness, according to his sagacity and 
 his acquaintance with the circumstances which may influence 
 the event ; and such conjectures, in a loose way of speaking, 
 we style predictions ; but, strictly speaking, prophecy can 
 come only from God, who knows the end from the beginning,, 
 and calls things that be not as though they were. God has 
 not bestowed the gift of foreknowledge upon any of His crea- 
 tures, for it would be inconsistent with the maintenance of 
 His supremacy and their dependence. To profess such an 
 endowment, or idly to pry into the mystery of the future, is 
 impious, as it would be to profess omnipotence, or to tamper 
 with any of the prerogatives of God. 
 
 If God is ever pleased to unveil the secrets of His omnis- 
 cience, the revelation must have an extraordinary occasion 
 
 VOL. I. — NO. I. A 
 
 1130138
 
 2 The Dawning Light of Prophecy. [Jan., 
 
 and the most exalted objects, and it must be a solemn thing 
 to receive and handle it. To holy beings, so far as we can 
 discern, the knowledge of existing relations, the fulfillment of 
 them, and the satisfaction of present joy, would leave no occa- 
 sion for prophecy. Neither the pressure of sorrow nor the 
 ■fear of coming evil would need it, to kindle or sustain hope, 
 which is the succor of the wretched. So, though God con- 
 descended to commune with man in Eden, we do not learn 
 that Omniscience ever raised the veil of the future to his 
 view. The light of Eden would have been extinguished by 
 the darkness of coming woe. But when man sinned, the more 
 clearly existing relations were discerned, the more complete 
 was his misery and despair. The past was a vain regret ; the 
 present was guilt and condemnation ; the future was an awful 
 foreboding. It was then that Divine Grace unveiled the 
 secret of Omniscience. A flood of heavenly light broke in 
 upon the darkness of despair, and, striking the tear-drops of 
 mortal grief, straightway the rainbow of hope spanned the val- 
 ley of the shadow of death. This was prophecy- — the germ 
 of all prophecy — which is not designed to gratify idle curio- 
 sity concerning the issues of a mortal existence, but which 
 contains a discovery of God's gracious purpose to save man 
 by His Son in His everlasting kingdom. Prophecy, it will at 
 once be perceived, was essential to religion among fallen 
 beings. All their hopes must flow from it. All their confi- 
 dence in God must flow from the promises of God ; that is, 
 from the sure word of prophecy, which, through all the long 
 night, shines a star of hope and guidance, to which surely we 
 do well that we take heed. 
 
 Prophecy is God's revelation of a Saviour and a salvation 
 to man, and exhibits to us so much of the great plan as 
 Divine Wisdom sees to be necessary for our comfort, or profit- 
 able for our sanct'ification. It has been made at such times 
 and by such degrees as were best adapted to secure these gra- 
 cious ends. At no time has there been more or less light 
 than was useful for that time. The general purpose was first 
 revealed, and then a variety of details were made known as 
 men needed or could bear. Sometimes the view of it was
 
 1857.] The Dawning Light of Prophecy . 3 
 
 varied, to suit tlieir character or circumstances ; but, whether 
 partially or more completely discovered — whether in the 
 general or in detail — and whatever aspect of it was pre- 
 sented — the word of prophecy, from Genesis to Revelations, 
 is one consistent whole, revealing one purpose ; and what God 
 has spoken at sundry times and in diverse manners by the 
 prophets, and in these last times by His Son, contains the 
 sum of all we can know of the scheme of human salvation. 
 
 When God at any time has made a new or additional reve- 
 lation, He has not blotted out the previous revelations, and 
 made the new independent and complete in itself. On the 
 contrary, at each successive stage, an acquaintance with what 
 preceded it is taken for granted, and all the stages sustain, 
 corroborate, and illustrate one another. If, therefore, we 
 would know all that can be known, and that is profitable to 
 us, of the Divine purpose, our inquiries must extend over the 
 whole field of Scripture. The New Testament, for example, 
 amplifies, verifies, and illustrates the Old ; but it also every- 
 where refers to the Old, and presupposes an acquaintance 
 with it, so that the one cannot be advantageously studied 
 without the other. In this way, amongst others, Scripture is 
 its own interpreter. 
 
 And what do we find in these scriptures of the Old and 
 New Testaments ? Have we there the whole amount of in- 
 struction which God has vouchsafed to man in every age ? 
 Evidently not. Revelation, as it is now completed in the 
 Bible, is a gradual unfolding of a great plan. At any period 
 of it, there were instructions necessary only to that era, and 
 which were unnecessary to the accumulative light of subse- 
 quent ages, and are not recorded. Thus, we have traces of 
 intelligence in the antedeluvian era, the sources of which are 
 not in the record. And so the Evangelical narratives do not 
 contain a record of all the acts and words of our Lord, of 
 which John says : " If they should be written every one, I 
 suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books 
 that should be written." We know of the existence of many 
 prophets in different ages, of whose inspired instructions to the 
 men of their day not a single relic has been handed down to
 
 4 TJie Dawning Light of Prophecy. [ Jan, f 
 
 us. This will show the importance of studying the prophetic 
 Word as a whole ; for if some acquaintance with previous 
 revelations is taken for granted in later revelations, we must 
 often look back for light ; and if instruction peculiar to one 
 age is not recorded when advancing light has rendered it un- 
 necessary, then, in the study of the earlier stages, we must often 
 look forward for light. For instance, the first intimation of 
 Mercy to man, " He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt 
 bruise his heel," addressed to the Serpent, is unintelligible to 
 us, unless we seek the light of subsequent prophecy ; and the 
 prediction in Rev. 20, " And I saw an angel come down 
 from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great 
 chain in his hand, and he laid hold on the dragon, that old 
 serpent which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thou- 
 sand years," loses all its significance, unless we view it in 
 connection with that first prophecy. The correspondence be- 
 tween the intimation which marks the commencement of the 
 long controversy and the prophetic record of the event which 
 shall terminate it, very strikingly illustrates the connection 
 and harmony of the whole body of prophecy, from Genesis to 
 the Apocalypse. 
 
 The record of prophecy preserved in the Bible not only 
 shows the progressive development of the plan, with accu- 
 mulating details, in succeeding ages, but, in connection with 
 the record' of sacred history, it serves the important end of 
 showing us that the faith and hope of all ages have been the 
 same, and that the people of God are one: and thus we are 
 prepared for the union of love and joy in the fulfillment of 
 the promises, by which our hopes as well as theirs have been 
 sustained ; when many shall come from the East and from 
 the West, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in 
 the kingdom of our Father. 
 
 Parallel with the record of prophecy, runs a historical 
 record of its fulfillment up to the point when the light of the 
 Gospel of Christ is shed over the world. There was a time 
 when all that was known of God's gracious purpose was mat- 
 ter of prediction merely ; but now an important part of it 
 has become matter of history ; and the transference of events
 
 1857.] The Dawning Light of Prophecy. 5 
 
 from the one record to the other is continually advancing. 
 It is easy to see the advantage of having these records side 
 by side. The fulfillment of any part of prophecy, besides 
 being important in itself, gives the most confident assurance 
 of the completion of the purpose. Thus, if we have at first a 
 prediction of glory as the result of suffering, the accomplish- 
 ment of the predicted suffering is the surest pledge of the 
 coming glory. 
 
 But here it may be proper to remark, that every particular 
 of the fulfillment of prophecy, up to the point where inspired 
 history stops, is not recorded in Scripture. We may trace 
 many additional particulars in profane history. All, how- 
 ever, is recorded which bears upon the great design in which 
 all ages are interested, as the matter of a common faith. The 
 great burden of prophecy is the coming of a Divine Saviour 
 to suffer and conquer for man, and then to share the fruits of 
 His conquest with His people. Now the first part is accom- 
 plished, and stands to us the pledge of all the rest. The 
 accomplishment of that first part introduces a new dispensa- 
 tion of grace, in which the faith of a Saviour who has come 
 and suffered takes the place of the hope of a Saviour coming 
 to suffer. The fact that He has come is fully testified in 
 Scripture. All that God promised in this respect He has 
 made good by sending His Son for our redemption. All the 
 prophetic descriptions of the coming Saviour are answered 
 in Jesus the Christ He is the person foretold, and His pre- 
 dicted work- is so far accomplished. 
 
 The nature of the predictions rendered a connected history, 
 from Adam to Christ, necessary to the proof of their fulfill- 
 ment. The Conqueror was to be the seed of the woman, 
 and it was necessary to trace the line of His descent from 
 Eve. He was to be the seed of Abraham and of David, and 
 it was necessary to trace His genealogy from the father of 
 the faithful, in the line of the sweet singer of Israel. The 
 record of His descent, brief though it be, shows us how the 
 universal course of events is directed, and how all events 
 conspire to the accomplishment of God's purpose. The his- 
 &orj of man is but the fulfillment of prophecy ; and the record
 
 6 The Batoning Light of Prophecy.. [Jan.,. 
 
 of history throws a flood of light upon the Divine character 
 and purpose, while the past fulfillment of prophecy furnishes 
 us with a key to the prophecies that are yet to he fulfilled. 
 The first view of the great scheme is dim and distant. It 
 has been appropriately likened to the distant view of a vast 
 mountain range to the traveler. In the purple haze that en- 
 velopes it, it seems a solid rampart, raising its ragged outline 
 to the sky. But as he approaches it, distinct eminences be- 
 gin to stand out from the seemingly smooth surface of the 
 barrier ; still new and bolder features are distinguished ; the 
 valleys deepen ; the single mountain becomes a wide-spread 
 range of hills, into which, at length, he enters, and, after 
 having climbed many a succeeding height, and threaded the 
 devious path of many a valley and ravine, he finds himself 
 still surrounded by the majestic bills, and the mountain sum- 
 mit is yet far away in the blue distance. This is our position 
 amid the sublime and heavenly grandeur of the revealed pur- 
 pose of God, advancing to its consummation. 
 
 We purpose, in dependence on Gracious aid, to lay before 
 our readers, in a series of articles, a view of the general 
 scope of prophecy, in the hope of persuading them to under- 
 take for themselves the charming and profitable study. With 
 this view, we shall select important points in the great chain,. 
 to illustrate the characteristics of its successive periods. In 
 treating these leading predictions, we shall point out the cir- 
 cumstances in which they were delivered ; endeavor to ascer- 
 tain what the Spirit of God therein signified, and how they 
 were understood by those to whom they were delivered ; and 
 endeavor to ascertain how far they have been fulfilled, and 
 what, in as far as they are unfulfilled, they hold out to our hope. 
 With this view, we devote the remainder of this article to 
 the first prophecy — the germ of all the rest — a mere bud, in- 
 deed, but when its leaves are fully expanded, it will be seen 
 to have involved the discomfiture of hell, the salvation of the 
 Church, the renovation of the earth, and, above all, the glory 
 of the Redeemer. For the accomplishment of this prophecy, 
 creation groans, the hope of six thousand years has waited, 
 and the Mediator sits expecting at the right hand of God.
 
 1857.] The Dawning Light of Prophecy. 7 
 
 The Earth ! With what feelings do we turn back from its 
 present desolation, which can not altogether hide its beauty, 
 to its primal bloom, as it came from the hands of its Maker! 
 Perhaps in its desolation it lias been endeared to us as the 
 scene of mortal conflict and grief, and we long to know what 
 it was before the desolation came. Divine "Wisdom has seen 
 it to be better and happier for us to look forward to what it 
 will be ; and so our curiosity about the past is not encou- 
 raged. " And God saw every thing that he had made, and 
 behold it was very good," is the brief testimonial of departed 
 beauty and blessedness. But the earth has its highest in- 
 terest as the scene of man's redemption, where the Son of 
 God lived, loved, and suffered, and where He will at last 
 reign. And are we to suppose that He who made it had no 
 view to this highest manifestation of His glory, in the day 
 when He spoke it into being ? Nay, we know that He had 
 this expressly in view. When He laid the foundation of 
 the world, He was preparing a home for the blessed. What 
 a sublime tenderness even does it infuse into the brief narra- 
 tive of those six days of creative wonders, when we trace the 
 Word who was with God, and who has been made flesh, as 
 the Maker of all, and reflect, that in His work of creation, 
 He had redemption in view, with all its suffering and all its 
 glory ! 
 
 But we must not linger here. " The heavens and the earth 
 were finished, and all the host of them." Last of all, man 
 was created, whose rational and holy nature gave significance 
 to all the rest ; for what would so much beauty, power, and 
 goodness have meant, without an intelligent eye to look on it, 
 and a loving heart to kindle into rapture at the view ? The 
 account of man's original being is noble and dignified in the 
 highest degree. " And God said, let us make man in our 
 image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over 
 the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the 
 cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing 
 that creepeth on the earth." What a king, and what a do- 
 minion ! The similitude of God was not so much in the high 
 attribute of reason to sway an inferior creation, as in the
 
 8 The Dawning Light of Prophecy. [Jan., 
 
 higher attributes of spiritual know ledge, of righteousness, 
 holiness, and love ; in which also the redeemed are renewed, 
 after the image of Him that created him. And if we may at 
 all judge of the first Adam by the Second, of whom he was a 
 type, how great and. good was man, the last and noblest of 
 creatures — Adam, the son of God ! 
 
 He was endowed with the dominion of the earth. It was 
 created for him ; he was made to be its lord. With words 
 of Divine blessing, he was presented with the sceptre of a 
 kingdom, prepared for him by Divine wisdom and love. God 
 also provided and appointed the seat of his empire : " The 
 Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden" — a fitting 
 metropolis for an empire of love and peace. "We may not 
 speculate on its regal splendor and heavenly delights ; but, 
 alas that it is lost! — nay, better that it shall be more than 
 restored ! Man was king, but not independent of Him who 
 bestowed the crown ; and it was fitting that, with all the 
 bounty of God's love, there should still be some assertion of 
 His supremacy and a token of man's fealty, which was found 
 in a prohibition of the fruit of the tree that stood in the 
 midst of the garden. God said : " Thou shalt not eat of it ; 
 for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Man's 
 loyalty was assailed by an enemy of God ; man's pride and 
 ambition were flattered ; and then the love of God was sus- 
 pected, His supremacy questioned, and straightway the bonds 
 of allegiance were dissolved. He ate of the fruit of the tree 
 whereof God commanded him that he should not eat. A 
 trifling act, it may be urged ; but so much the more easy was 
 the test of loyalty, and so much the more inexcusable the 
 guilt. A trifling act ! but not trifling the sin, for it had an 
 awful purpose, and was done in the face of awful consequen- 
 ces. Was the sin light, when one so exalted in favor, so 
 loaded with love and honor, renounced allegiance to God, 
 broke through all restraints of law and love, set God's au- 
 thority at naught, defied the consequences of transgression — ■ 
 nay, listened to the impious suggestion, " Ye shall be as gods" 
 — His rivals — perhaps His superiors? 
 
 From so great a height, man fell into such a gulf of guilt.
 
 1857.] The Batoning Light of Prophecy. 9 
 
 The once noble and holy one shrank away guilty and abashed, 
 seeking, in all that beautiful world that had been given to 
 him as a dominion, only some dark nook to hide his shame. 
 God came down. How had his presence once been wel- 
 comed ! but, now, for what could He come but judgment and 
 doom ? The guilty vainly tried to hide : there was an eye 
 they could not escape, a voice they could not resist — such a 
 voice as shall again be heard through the hiding-places of 
 guilt, and myriads of rebels shall obey, as our first parents 
 then obeyed. Our limits do not permit us to discuss the terms 
 in which the eventful narrative of the meeting of God and 
 guilty man is couched ; but, taking the terms in their plain 
 import, we have God, Adam and Eve, and the Tempter, as 
 parties in the interview. 
 
 As the case stood between God and man, the issue seemed 
 plain. Man was guilty ; God was holy, just, and true ; and 
 what was to be anticipated but the terror of condemnation ? 
 But, everlasting praise to His name ! here, in the midst of 
 deserved wrath, began a new manifestation of the Divine 
 perfections — the most glorious of all. His wisdom, power, 
 holiness, justice, goodness, and truth had been adored by all 
 His holy creatures ; but now began the revelation of His 
 grace, which could find occasion and exercise only in a world 
 of sin and misery. The righteous God must indeed speak 
 His sore displeasure against sin ; but yet what words of pity 
 and love did He speak to the sinner ! First of all, the weight 
 of condemnation fell upon the Enemy, whose malignity had 
 gained a brief triumph in man's fall. In the assertion of His 
 supremacy — untouched, though foully assailed — and in the 
 utterance of His blasting curse on the Destroyer, He mingles 
 an assurance of coming deliverance to man. The intimation 
 of mercy to man was made first to man's destroyer, and was 
 made before He addressed to man the sentence of mortal 
 woe. He awakened hope to sustain the load of sorrow, and 
 kindly tempered the voice of judgment — else man had perished 
 at His rebuke. 
 
 "And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou 
 hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above
 
 10 The Dawning Light of Prophecy. [Jan., 
 
 every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and 
 dust shalt thou cat all the days of thy life. And I will put 
 enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed 
 and her seed : it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise 
 her heel." 
 
 In accordance with our intimated method, we inquire, in 
 the light of Scripture, what is the true import of these memor- 
 able words ? First of all, we must ascertain who and what 
 is the tempter, styled the Serpent, on whom the curse was 
 pronounced, and whose final overthrow was predicted ? 
 Throughout the Scriptures we have traces of a malignant 
 being — the Devil, the Evil One, Satan, Beelzebub, the prince 
 and the god of this world. We learn that he was one of 
 those exalted intelligences, the angels, who kept not their 
 first estate. Our Lord says, "He abode not in the truth." 
 He is the chief of those who fell, as we read of " the devil 
 and his angels." His present condition is represented as one 
 of hopeless perdition, but yet of restless activity in evil. He 
 is represented as malignant and wicked, the father of sin, the 
 unrelenting enemy of God and man. He is every where 
 pointed out as the source of sin and misery in this world. 
 That he is the tempter and deceiver who is here judged and 
 condemned, is made certain from the connection of his other 
 names with that which he bears in this narrative, in the 
 record of the consummation of this very sentence, Rev. xii. 9. 
 " And the great serpent was cast out, that old serpent called 
 the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world." It 
 was in this act he showed himself a murderer from the be- 
 ginning, a liar, and the father of it ; and on account of his 
 agency in man's fall, it is said, " He that committcth sin is of 
 the Devil, for the Devil sinneth from the beginning." 
 
 The actual tempter was the Devil, who, for the accom- 
 plishment of his design, appeared to the woman in the guise 
 of a serpent — a fact which has in some way or other im- 
 pressed itself on the religious traditions of all nations. The 
 serpent occupies a conspicuous place, not only in the fables 
 of ancient nations, but in existing pagan superstitions, both 
 in the Old World and in the New. It was fitting that even the
 
 1857.] The Dawning Light of Prophecy. 11 
 
 outward symbol of deception should bear the mark of degra- 
 dation in a loathed and crawling existence ; but the true 
 import of the curse respects the degradation and final destruc- 
 tion of the deceiver himself. This destruction is to be 
 accomplished by " the seed of the woman." The expression 
 is very peculiar, and the more so in view of the invariable 
 usage of Scripture and the East, where lineage is always 
 traced in the male line. Yet it is not "the seed of Adam/' 
 but " the seed of the woman." The term, " the seed," is the 
 same employed in the promise to Abraham, which an apostle 
 shows referred to one particular descendant. The peculiarity 
 of the expression is repeated in a prophecy of Isaiah : " Be- 
 hold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call 
 his name Inmianuel" — a prophecy which had its amazing ful- 
 fillment when "Mary brought forth her first-born, and 
 wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a 
 
 manger." 
 
 The passage, then, intimates a conflict in which a promised 
 seed of the woman is to suffer, but is finally to conquer and 
 crush Satan under his feet. The destruction of the destroyer 
 implies the emancipation of mankind from his thraldom, the 
 removal of their guilt, the obliteration of the curse, and the 
 restitution of all things. And so the great work of Him who 
 is at once the Son of God and the Son of Man is constantly 
 described: "For this purpose the Son of God was mani- 
 fested, that He might destroy the works of the Devil." So 
 He represents His conflict : " The prince of this world 
 cometh, and hath nothing in me." And He is described as 
 taking our nature, "that He might destroy death and him 
 that had the power of death, that is the Devil." So the de- 
 liverance of believers is said to be from the power of Satan, 
 and their victory is over the Evil One. 
 
 There is also a seed of the serpent spoken of, and then 
 hostility to the seed of the woman is predicted. In the New 
 Testament, this is explained as describing an impenitent 
 world. " Ye are of your father the Devil," said the Lord, to 
 His enemies ; " and the lusts of your father ye will do." John 
 says : " He that committeth sin is of the Devil." The
 
 12 The Dawning Light of Prophecy. [Jan., 
 
 enmity of the serpent's seed, then, describes the malignant 
 opposition of the world to the Church, which has been mani- 
 fested from the day that Cain slew his brother Abel, and 
 which to-day is gathering its forces for a last onset in which 
 it shall be broken to shivers. The victory of Christ and His 
 people is secure : " God will bruise Satan under your feet 
 shortly." Every trace of his malignity shall at last be ob- 
 literated. "The Devil that deceived them shall be cast into 
 the lake of fire and brimstone," and all who are of the Devil 
 shall be cast " into the fire prepared for the Devil and his 
 angels." The groaning creation shall then share the glorious 
 liberty of the sons of God, the sceptre shall be restored to 
 man, all things shall be put under His feet, and His people 
 shall be welcomed to the kingdom prepared for them from 
 the foundation of the world. 
 
 If, in the light of subsequent revelations, we have correctly 
 interpreted this germ of prophecy, the inquiry still remains, 
 did those who listened to it understand it in its full and gra- 
 cious import ? One thing it is proper here to remark : while 
 we speak of the dawning light of revelation, as the record of it 
 now appears to us, we are not by any means to conclude that, 
 as to actual light and knowledge of Divine things, those who 
 lived in the first ages of the world were in darkness, as com- 
 pared with ourselves. Fallen as our first parents were, we can- 
 not suppose that the lessons of Eden were at once obliterated. 
 The truth probably is, that what appears to us as a dim reve- 
 lation, is so x on account of the greater distance from which 
 we view it ; and that clearer and more impressive lessons be- 
 came necessary as men who did not like to retain God in 
 their knowledge, wandered farther and farther away into the 
 regions of darkness and sin. But, to return to the inquiry : 
 how did our first parents understand the first prediction of 
 coming deliverance ? We answer, that doubtless the purpose 
 of God has been illustrated by subsequent revelations and 
 subsequent events, and most evidently we who have received 
 " the things which are now reported to us, with the Holy 
 Ghost sent down from above," view the whole field of ante- 
 cedent prophecy from a lofty vantage ground. Yet, even to
 
 1857.] The Dawning Light of Prophecy. 13 
 
 our first parents, the prediction conveyed a certain and com- 
 forting assurance of salvation. That it made the deepest 
 impression on their minds, is evident from the hold it has 
 retained on the religious feelings of mankind. It appears, in 
 some form, in every mythology — in such fables, for example, 
 as the infant Hercules strangling the serpent. We have in 
 our possession a sacred picture which was purchased from a 
 Brainfn in the presidency of Madras, which represents Vishnu, 
 in one of his incarnations, wrestling with an enormous ser- 
 pent, and in the act of crushing its head with his heel. The 
 Oriental myth has been appropriated by the Romish church, 
 and appears in the story of St. George and the dragon, and 
 may be traced in the legends of many lands. The impression 
 made upon our progenitors has survived all the degradation 
 and corruption of succeeding ages, though it has not escaped 
 corruption. For themselves, they now knew that their fall 
 was the victory of the enemy of God ; and in the serpent's 
 sentence they saw that, however he had prevailed against 
 them, he had gained no victory over their Maker. God's 
 supremacy was intact — "The deceived and the deceiver are 
 His." Then, what hopes it must have inspired to learn that 
 the enemy's victory over them was not complete — that God 
 would enable man to contest Satan's empire, and, not only 
 that he would be crushed at last, but that his destruction 
 would be effected by the victorious seed of the woman ! Natu- 
 rally, they would expect to recover, in his destruction, what 
 they had lost by his success — righteousness, life, happiness — 
 nay, the crown and the kingdom ; otherwise, the victory over 
 him would be incomplete. The work of the Devil cannot be 
 destroyed unless there is a restitution of all things. 
 
 Whatever they understood by this intimation of Satan's 
 destruction by the seed of the woman, at the time of its utter- 
 ance, it is certain that, from the earliest times, men were not 
 ignorant of the coming deliverance. It was intimated that 
 the deliverer should suffer in effecting it — " Thou shalt bruise 
 his heel ;" and sacrifice seems to have been divinely instituted 
 to commemorate this distinguishing feature of the promise, 
 as an emblem or type of suffering for sin — a typical expres-
 
 14 The Dawning Light of Prophecy. [Jan., 
 
 sion of the great truth of redemption, " Without shedding of 
 blood, there is no remission." We accordingly find Adam 
 and Eve soon after clothed with skins of animals, probably 
 slain in sacrifice ; for we know that they were not slain for 
 food. After this prediction, Adam called his wife Eve, as ex- 
 pressive of his confidence in the promise of life, through her 
 seed. They taught the blessed truth to their children ; and 
 we find one of their sons a believer, and another a child of 
 the Devil ; for " by faith, Abel offered a more excellent sacri- 
 fice than Cain." The difference in their sacrifices was, that 
 Cain, rejecting the promise of a suffering but triumphant 
 Redeemer, offered of the fruits of the ground, in professed 
 acknowledgment of God's providential goodness ; but he re- 
 fused to acknowledge his sin, and his faith in a sacrifice for sin. 
 Abel, believing the promise, offered a sacrifice from the flock, 
 and God graciously accepted it as the expression of his faith. 
 
 The true nature of Cain's offence is seen in God's rebuke, 
 " If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted ?" In other 
 words, " If you were without sin, then indeed you would be 
 accepted without a sacrifice for sin." " And if thou doest 
 not well, then sin lieth at the door ;" that is, " Since you 
 cannot claim that you are without sin, a sin-offering is at 
 hand by which you may obtain forgiveness." He had no ex- 
 cuse ; he was wilfully and proudly rejecting the provisions of 
 Divine mercy. Abel's faith not only embraced the truth of 
 a Saviour coming to be the propitiation of sin, but he laid 
 hold upon the hope of sharing the Redeemer's triumph in the 
 restitution of all things ; for he is enumerated among those 
 of whom it is said, " these all died in faith, not having re- 
 ceived the promise ; God having reserved some better things 
 for us, that they, without us, should not be made perfect." 
 
 Our limits will not permit us to investigate the sources of 
 information enjoyed by the antedeluvians in the revealed pre- 
 sence of Jehovah, to which they were admitted, and in the 
 voice of prophecy, some traces of which have been handed 
 down to us ; nor to inquire into the acquaintance with the 
 plan of salvation which they actually possessed. Enough has 
 probably been said to show that believers then cherished the
 
 1857.] The Dawning Light of Prophecy. 15 
 
 faith and hope that have sustained all generations of Clod's 
 people — faith in a Saviour suffering for sin, hope of a Saviour 
 coming in glory at the restitution of all things, which God 
 hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets, since the 
 world began. Though so little has been recorded, the voice 
 of prophecy was not silent during the antedeluvian period, as 
 we learn incidentally from the Epistle of Jude. " Enoch, the 
 seventh from Adam," prophesied of the things for which we 
 now look. " Behold, the Lord cometh, with ten thousands of 
 His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all 
 that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, 
 which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard 
 speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." 
 
 The predicted Saviour — one remarkably answering the 
 description of the seed of the woman — has appeared. Satan 
 has bruised His heel, as the Man of Sorrows, and acquainted 
 with grief. " Through death He hath destroyed him that hath 
 the power of death, that is the Devil." The conquest is not 
 yet finally manifested. " We see not yet all things put under 
 Him ; but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than 
 the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and 
 honor." Meanwhile, the seed of the serpent maintains its 
 enmity with the seed of the woman, nor will that enmity be 
 abated until Satan is bruised under our feet. The prophecy 
 leaves us to anticipate conflict and suffering. " We wrestle 
 not with flesh and blood, but against principalities and 
 powers, against spiritual wickedness in high places." But it 
 leaves us also in confident hope of a speedy and everlasting 
 triumph. The prince of this world is already judged, and 
 very soon he shall be stripped of his usurpation ; the do- 
 minion shall be reclaimed ; man shall again be crowned ; the 
 new earth shall outstrip all the glories of the former, as the 
 renewed man shall excel the first Adam ; a happier Eden 
 than that which was lost shall be regained ; and, in the 
 higher glories of the restoration, God shall have nobler 
 praise.
 
 ly Lares and Penates, [Jan., 
 
 LARES AND PENATES, 
 
 THE DISINTERRED GODS OF TARSUS 
 
 BY JAMES I N G L I S 
 
 Without attempting to analyze the sentiments of pleasure 
 and interest with which we regard classical ground, the birth- 
 place and sepulchre of the great and good, the retreats which 
 inspired the genius of our favorite authors, and the scenes 
 which have been dignified by the achievements of heroic vir- 
 tue, or hallowed by the sufferings of heroic faith, we know 
 that they are universal and irresistible. " That man is not 
 to be envied," says Dr. Johnson, in a passage which has be- 
 come trite from frequent quotation, " whose patriotism would 
 not gain force upon the plains of Marathon, or whose piety 
 would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona." On this 
 account, it is surprising that so little is popularly known of 
 Tarsus, the birth-place of the Apostle of the Gentiles, than 
 which, we might suppose, few spots beyond the bounds of 
 Palestine would draw more largely on the curiosity of Chris- 
 tians. We will take it for granted that we are performing a 
 grateful service to our readers when we lay before them some 
 accounts of that city and its antiquities, as these have been 
 illustrated by modern research and discovery. 
 
 Cilicia, of which Tarsus was the metropolis, is a plain of 
 great beauty and fertility, stretching by the sea shore along 
 the foot of the mountain range of Taurus, in length about 
 one hundred and twenty miles. Mr. Howson, in The Life 
 and Epistles of St. Paul, says : 
 
 " It wa8 naturally the high road both of trading caravans and military 
 expeditions. Through this country Cyrus marched to depose his brother 
 from the Persian throne. It was here that the decisive victory was
 
 1857.] the Disinterred Gods of Tarsus. 17 
 
 obtained by Alexander over Darius. This plain has since seen hosts of 
 the western Crusaders, and in our day has often been the field of opera- 
 tions of hostile Miihommedan armies, Turkish and Egyptian. The Greek 
 kings of Egypt endeavored long ago to tear it from the kings of Syria; 
 The Romans left it at first in the possession of Antiochus, but the line of 
 Mount Taurus could not permanently arrest them, and the letters of 
 Oicero are among the earliest monuments of Roman Cilicia." 
 
 This is but a meagre representation of the historical interest 
 of a region where the fate of the world has been thrice de- 
 cided in battle, where Cleopatra vanquished Antony by her 
 blandishments, and where at least ten crowned heads have 
 found death and a grave ; among these, Trajan, Constantius, 
 and Julian the Aposta 
 
 This once prosperous, populous, and powerful country is 
 now fallen and degraded under the feeble government of the 
 Turks. Cities that once boasted 30,000 inhabitants are re- 
 duced to miserable villages with 200, others are leveled with 
 the ground, and the site of others can scarcely be pointed 
 out. Near the western extremity of the plain, near the foot 
 of Mount Taurus, and about twelve miles from the sea, stands 
 Tarsus, now a decayed city of 30,000 inhabitants. It is situ- 
 ated on the River Cydnus, which rises in a neighboring 
 mountain, and is fed by the dissolving snows. It will be 
 remembered that Alexander the Great nearly sacrificed his 
 life by imprudently bathing in the chilly stream ; on which 
 occasion he magnanimously displayed his confidence in the 
 physician who had been secretly accused of having taken a 
 bribe from Darius to poison him. The buildings of modern 
 Tarsus are mean. Its commerce is ruined by the malaria, 
 which renders it almost uninhabitable during a part of the 
 year. This malaria exhales from a stagnant lake or marsh, 
 which lies between the city and the mouth of the river, occu- 
 pying the spacious basin of the ancient harbor ; the connection 
 with the sea being cut off by the accumulation of sand. The 
 inhabitants, for the most part, spend the summer in the moun- 
 tains, and the merchants are chiefly strangers ; so that no one 
 thinks of improvements, or of expending money upon buildings. 
 The few noble monuments of ancient prosperity that remain 
 
 VOL. II. — NO. I. S
 
 18 Lares and Penates, [Jafl. r 
 
 only give an air of deeper sadness to the present desola- 
 tion. 
 
 The origin of the ancient city is lost in dim tradition. 
 It has been supposed to have been founded by the sons of 
 Tarshish, the grandson of Noah ; though it is impossible to 
 determine the locality of Tarshish, or, rather, of the several 
 places of that name spoken of in Scripture. Cilicia fell into 
 the hands of the Medes on the dismemberment of the Assy- 
 rian empire. Daniel flourished at that time, and there is a 
 tradition that he was buried at Tarsus. Whatever its origin, 
 it had attained distinction as early as authentic history fur- 
 nishes any reliable data. It continued to increase in splen- 
 dor and importance up to the period of the Roman conquest, 
 and was recognized as the metropolis, not of Cilicia only, but 
 of Asia Minor. Tarsus was indeed " no mean city," but its 
 greatest glory was its schools of learning. 
 
 Strabo says that the inhabitants of Tarsus had distin- 
 guished themselves so much by their application to philo- 
 sophy and literature, that 
 
 " This city, in that point, surpassed Athens, Alexandria, or any other 
 towns where schools and colleges were to be met with, directed by philo- 
 sophers and learned men. The only difference is, that in Tarsus those 
 who apply themselves to literature are all Tarsiots, and that it is -visited 
 by few strangers. Even those born there do not remain, but leave it to 
 go and perfect themselves elsewhere, and remain voluntarily in exile, 
 except a small number, who return to their country. It is very different 
 in these other towns : many strangers go there to study and take up their 
 residence, while few of the native inhabitants seek the advantage of 
 their own schools, as they receive many strangers in their schools, and 
 send many of their own youth to other towns. Tarsus possesses schools 
 for every kind of instruction. It is, furthermore, populous and powerful, 
 and must be regarded as a capital." 
 
 An account of the illustrious men which the city has pro- 
 duced follows this account of its schools, which he thus con- 
 cludes : " It is particularly in Rome that we may procure 
 information regarding the great number of men of letters 
 produced by Tarsus, for it is full of learned men from that 
 city, as well as from Alexandria." While we advance these
 
 1857.] T lie Disinterred Gods of Tarsus. 19 
 
 proofs of the commercial importance and literary eminence 
 of Tarsus, it will be understood that we are not claiming that 
 Paul was trained in the learning and philosophy of its 
 schools. On the contrary, it is probable that he was care- 
 fully shielded from their contamination ; and his removal to 
 Jerusalem at an early age renders it certain that he could 
 have made no great progress in literature. But we state 
 prominently its literary eminence, to contrast it with the 
 gross superstition that co-existed with it ; and we now place 
 before our readers some illustrations of this, furnished by 
 Mr. Barker, in his account of the remains which he has re- 
 cently disentombed from among the ruins of the ancient city. 
 
 Against the ancient walls of Tarsus an immense pile of 
 rubbish had accumulated. The wall, in one place, had been 
 gradually removed by the present citizens for the building- 
 materials which it contains, and one side of the mound which 
 leaned against it was exposed. An examination of this 
 mound, which was the accumulated rubbish of ages, brought 
 to light an immense number of statues, or fragments of sta, 
 tues, lamps, altars, and miscellaneous objects, which Mr. 
 Barker has carefully collected and subjected to the examina- 
 tion of artists, antiquarians, and scholars. These fragments 
 have been executed in terra-cotta ; that is, cast in a paste 
 made of fine potter's clay ; and if we may judge from the 
 illustrations in Mr. Barker's book, indicate a high cultiva- 
 tion of art at the time of their execution. These remains 
 are not of the size or character of statues erected in the 
 temples, or of utensils employed in public worship. They 
 arc miniature copies of such objects, designed to adorn pri- 
 vate dwellings, and to be used in household worship. Mr. 
 Barker styles them Lares and Penates. 
 
 The Penates, so called, it is said, from a Latin word signi- 
 fying the innermost recesses of a dwelling, where they were 
 worshipped, were household gods, who were believed to pre- 
 side over family fortunes. Every family worshipped one or 
 more of them, and held their images peculiarly sacred. The 
 Lares more nearly answered to the Popish idea of guardian 
 angels and tutelary saints, and were supposed to exercise 
 
 s
 
 20 Lares and Penates, [Jan., 
 
 a protecting influence over the affairs of every man's 
 house. 
 
 Of these curious remains, it is impossible to give a correct 
 impression without the aid of pictorial illustrations. Re- 
 garding their general character, Mr. Birch remarks : 
 
 " In style of art, many are of exquisite taste and feeling — some of 
 the most charming fragments of terra-cotta which I have seen. These 
 ohjects were found in the midst of an ancient mound or rubbish heap — 
 one of the monti testacei, as they are called at Rome — which leaned 
 against the old city wall; the stones of which having been carried away 
 by the modern inhabitants, exposed a section of the hill, in the centre of 
 which were the terra-cottas. The whole collection had been anciently 
 thrown away as rubbish, all the figures being found not only broken, but 
 incomplete, while proof exists of the former use of the utensils, such as 
 lamps and vases." 
 
 Regarding their character as works of art, Mr. Abingdon, 
 an accomplished artist, remarks : 
 
 " Reviewing the whole collection, there is a strange incongruity of high 
 artistic taste and bad workmanship, such as we find in the plaster images 
 of the Italians, which are moulded from good originals, but by men of 
 very inferior skill. The trade of figure-making was chiefly in the hands of 
 the Greeks, and the magistrates permitted them to take casts of the 
 statues of the gods, which were public property, in order to promote 
 domestic religion, by giving a plentiful supply of copies." 
 
 It will be understood that the remains before us are the 
 ordinary copies which were offered every day for sale to the 
 inhabitants of Tarsus, and with which their taste or super- 
 stition furnished their private residences. And then it may 
 be asked, What were the gods whose images they honored in 
 their homes, and whose characters they set before their fami- 
 lies as objects of worship and imitation ? With all that is 
 known of the impure character of the ancient mythology, it 
 might be expected that their household deities would be 
 selected with some regard to the influence that would neces- 
 sarily be exerted by the family worship on its morals. But, 
 alas ! the popular sense of virtue and propriety could not 
 rise above the character of the popular deities ; aaid, so far
 
 1857.] The Disinterred Gods of Tarsus. 21 
 
 as Mr. Barker's discoveries go, those of the gods whose fabu- 
 lous histories are most corrupt were the greatest favorites ; 
 and images were set up for worship before their wives and 
 daughters which could not now be exposed for sale in this 
 country. 
 
 The population of Tarsus was of a very mixed kind. The 
 ancient history of the city, and all the changes through 
 which it had passed, left some traces upon its social character. 
 All ages and nations made a mark there. Its commerce and 
 its schools of learning attracted a vast concourse of people 
 from every part of the civilized world ; and these various 
 peoples and kindreds gave a tone not only to its social but 
 also to its religious life. The history of the place might be 
 read in its mongrel mythology. Mr. Barker, after describing 
 several figures in his collection, says : 
 
 " A proof of the promiscuous worship of the people of Tarsus, and a 
 picture of their superstition, before the establishment of Christianity, is 
 afforded by the accompanying list of some of the figures found. It will 
 be seen how comprehensive their religious faith must have been. Here 
 we have Apollo, Isis, Venus, Jupiter, Serapis, Mercury, Diana, Juno, 
 Pallas, Pluto, Eros, Fortune, Hercules, Adonis, Atys, Bacchus, Pan, 
 Horus, Apis, Anubis, Typhon, Iris, Esculapius, Phre, and a multitude of 
 deified men, women, and children, to whom it is impossible to assign 
 names." 
 
 We copy this list, not so much to show the number and 
 variety of their household gods, but to illustrate the plastic 
 and accommodating spirit of their religion. True religion 
 holds on its own undeviating course, maintaining eternal and 
 immutable truth, offering no compromise with error, and 
 amalgamating with no earthly or human corruption. False 
 religion easily coalesces with every form of falsehood, and is 
 intolerant only of truth. When the votaries of the gods of 
 Egypt, Greece, and Rome met on common ground, there was 
 no conflict ; but only so many additional objects of worship 
 found a place in the sacred calender of each, and the priests 
 greedily adopted every thing which promised to fascinate the 
 people and bring traffic to the temple. Gibbon, while he
 
 22 Lares and Penates, [Jan., 
 
 endeavors to set the fact in a light of false attractiveness, 
 thus describes the peculiarity to which we refer : 
 
 "The thin texture of the pagan mythology was interwoven with 
 various, but not discordant, materials. The deities of a thousand 
 groves and a thousand streams possessed in peace their local and respec- 
 tive influence; nor could the Roman, who deprecated the wrath of Tiber, 
 deride the Egyptian, who presented his offering to the beneficent genius 
 of the Nile. The Greek, the Roman, and the barbarian, as they met 
 before their respective altars, easily persuaded themselves that, under 
 various names, and with various ceremonies, they adored the same 
 deities." 
 
 This facility of amalgamation receives its most striking 
 illustration in the collection before us, while the indiscrimi- 
 nate ruin in which these monuments of superstition and false- 
 hood lie, represents the genius of Christianity, which makes 
 no terms with falsehood, and will not rest satisfied till the 
 works of the devil are destroyed, and the nations, disen- 
 thralled, cast their idols to the moles and to the bats. If 
 Christianity would have accepted a niche in the Pantheon for 
 its founder, Christians need not have confessed the truth at 
 the stake ; but when it would not buy peace at the expense 
 of truth, the world offered it no alternative but the sword. 
 It was in this sense our Lord declared, " I am not come to 
 send peace on earth, but a sword." 
 
 Among the figures are many in which affection, struggling 
 against despair in the hour of bereavement, has endeavored 
 to cheat itself by arraying the image of the departed in the 
 symbols of Deity. Mr. Barker describes a number of " deified 
 little ones," some of them with radiated heads, and mounted 
 upon dolphins ; for example, we have " a fragment represent- 
 ing a child with wings, and in close drapery ; the hair of the 
 head is knotted on the top." There is connected witli it an 
 ornamental ring, apparently to hang it by. " It is possibly a 
 memorial," says Mr. Abingdon, " of a deceased and deified 
 child." 
 
 One class of heads opens up a vein of very curious in- 
 quiry. A drawing is given by Mr. Barker of the figure of 
 a monstrous head in a conical cap, on which Mr. Abingdon
 
 1857.] The Disinterred Gods of Tarsus. 23 
 
 remarks: "This is the most extraordinary thing in the col- 
 lection. On the first view, I was struck with the identity of 
 its strange profile with the figures sculptured upon the monu- 
 ments and edifices of an extinct people in Central America. 
 Many of Stephens' engravings represent the same faces ex- 
 actly.'' Sketches of the sculptures in Central America, taken 
 from Stephens' plates, when placed side by side with Mr. 
 Barker's drawing of the monstrous head, exhibit not merely 
 a general resemblance, but one of them might be taken for a 
 portrait of the same individual, at a different stage of life. 
 Now, the question arises, What connection can exist between 
 the idolatry of Tarsus and the monuments of Central Ame- 
 rica ? None of our readers who are familiar with the general 
 course of history are ignorant of the spacious highlands 
 between China, Siberia, and the Caspian Sea — the ancient 
 seats of the Huns and Tartars — whence the tide of emigra- 
 tion and war has again and again poured out over the world; 
 and they will have little difficulty in accounting for the pre- 
 sence of a head of that race in a collection at Tarsus. But 
 H is also ascertained, that in one of their great emigrations, 
 some bodies of the Mongul, Kalmuck, and other Tartar tribes, 
 crossed to America. Mr. Abingdon suggests to Mr. Barker : 
 11 Hitherto, the sculptures of Central America have only been 
 wondered at, but not explained. Does not this head of yours 
 identify them with the Huns, and thereby let light in upon a 
 dark mystery?" But, how singular, if we are to go to a 
 rubbish mound at Tarsus to find a key to the sculptures of 
 Central America ; and if there, also, we are to find a clue to 
 the history of our aboriginal tribes ! That it should be even 
 possible, furnishes a striking proof of what we have said 
 regarding the history of the city and the nature of its idola- 
 try ; gathering elements from so wide a space, and through 
 such length of time — receiving contributions from Assyrian, 
 Egyptian, Indian, Greek, and Roman mythology. 
 
 There remains one question regarding this curious collec- 
 tion, with which we must, for a little, delay our readers- 
 How came these sacred objects to be cast out, shattered and 
 dishonored, in a heap, without the city wall? At first, tliey
 
 24 Lares and Penates, the Gods of Tarsus. [ Jan. r 
 
 were supposed to be the waste of a manufactory ; but it was 
 observed that they were not defective casts, such as might be 
 rejected by the workman, but perfect casts, broken ; and that 
 not upon the spot where the fragments were found, for they 
 were often incomplete. To many of the figures, the mortar 
 still adheres by which they were fixed in their places, and 
 some of them bear traces of repeated coats of paint. The 
 lamps bear marks of daily use ; altars show where incense 
 has been burned upon them ; and other utensils bear evidence 
 of handling. Among other objects are votive offerings, and 
 such sacred objects as it would have been regarded the most 
 atrocious impiety to remove or injure. Now, here they lie,, 
 gods and offerings together, in common degradation ; and in 
 such numbers, as proves some great movement among the 
 idolators. What caused such a sweeping act of sacrilege? 
 History furnishes no answer ; but it warrants the conclusion 
 that here we have signal proof of the conquering presence of 
 the cross. But, let it be observed, the style of art in these 
 remains shows, that under whatever influence these images 
 of superstition were cast away, it took place before the 
 decline of Rome. A supposition of Mr. Howson, in the Life 
 and Epistles of St. Paul, suggests a reply to the question as to 
 the time of this overthrow. He is speaking of the mission- 
 ary tour of Paul and Silas : 
 
 " If there were churches any -where in Cilicia, there must have been 
 one at Tarsus. It was the metropolis of the province. Paul had resided 
 there, perhaps for some years, since the time of his conversion ; and if 
 he loved his native city well enough to speak of it with something like 
 pride to the Roman officer at Jerusalem, he could not be indifferent to its 
 religious welfare. Among the Gentiles of Cilicia to whom the letter 
 which he carried was addressed, the Gentiles of Tarsus had no mean place 
 in his affections ; and his heart must have overflowed with thankfulness^ 
 if, as he passed through the streets which had been familiar to him since 
 his childhood, he knew that many households were around him, where- 
 the Gospel had come not in word only, but in power, and the relations 
 of husband and wife, parent and child, had been purified and sanctified' 
 by Christian love. No doubt the city still retained all the aspect of the 
 cities of that day, where art and amusement were consecrated to a false 
 religion. The symbols of idolatry remained in the public places —
 
 1851.1 On (he Ancient Hymns. 25 
 
 statues, temples, altars, and the various objects of devotion -which, in all 
 Greek towns, as well as Athens, were conspicuous on every side. But 
 the silent revolution was begun. Some families had already turned from 
 idols to serve the living and true God. The dumb idols to which, as 
 Gentiles, they had been carried away, even as they were led, had been 
 recognized as nothing in the world, and had been ' cast to the moles aad 
 to the bats.' " 
 
 ON THE ANCIENT HYMNS. 
 
 BY JOHN HOGG. 
 
 Mankind have, from the earliest ages, not merely prayed 
 to God, but have celebrated His praises with hymns and 
 spiritual songs. The most ancient nations, such as the Chal- 
 deans, Phoenicians, and Egyptians, have employed music and 
 song in the worship of their false gods. The Greeks and 
 Romans sang short odes in praise of their deities ; and the 
 Northern nations, from the remotest period of antiquity, had 
 their bards and skalds, who composed and taught the people 
 sacred songs. The Jews, after their deliverance from Egypt, 
 praised God in a triumphal song ; and we have several traces 
 of the same custom, scattered through the Old Testament, till 
 David, with other holy men, composed the psalms which were 
 used in the temple service. Since hymns have been sung 
 to God by all nations from such a remote antiquity, there 
 must have been a felt necessity for the practice. In fact, 
 hymns not only nourish, in the popular mind, the glow of 
 devotion, and kindle the fire of a pure inspiration, but the 
 melting of many voices into one is an affecting symbol of the 
 unity of faith and of feeling that ought to pervade all hearts. 
 Thus, though there are unnumbered myriads in heaven, yet 
 they sing one song, showing that one common triumph is 
 celebrated, and that one joy ravishes every heart.
 
 26 On the Ancient Hymns. [Jan., 
 
 The Jews were accustomed to sing or, ratlier, chant the 
 Psalms of David in their synagogue and temple service, and 
 Christ and his apostles evidently conformed to the same prac- 
 tice. After the institution and celebration of the first com- 
 munion, Christ and his disciples sang a hymn, upon retiring 
 to the Mount of Olives. Matt. xxvi. 30. This hymn was prob- 
 ably one of the psalms composing the great Hallel, extend- 
 ing from the 113th to the 118th Psalm, inclusive, and which 
 was usually sung at the feast of the Passover. Thus, the 
 Psalms of David would naturally pass over from the Jewish 
 synagogue into the Christian church ; and as the church in 
 Jerusalem would long be regarded as the mother and pattern 
 of all the newly-established Christian communities in the 
 chief Gentile cities, the same psalmody would be generally 
 used in public and private devotion. 
 
 Bat other hymns beside, and in addition, to the Psalms of 
 David would soon spring up in the newly-formed Christian 
 communities. The introduction of the Gospel, as a light 
 shining in darkness, must have made a deep impression on 
 the minds of men. The strongest feelings of gratitude and 
 joy would be excited — feelings too strong to be confined to 
 the breast, and which would naturally find expression in 
 songs of praise. Besides, during any period of deep religious 
 excitement, the popular feelings have usually found expres- 
 sion in hymns, composed for the occasion ; and so remarkably 
 is this the case, that the warm, living piety of the sixteenth 
 century is just as truly reflected from its psalmody as the 
 cold indifferentism of the succeeding age is from its cold 
 moral productions. Taking advantage of the natural ten- 
 dency of the human mind, when under the influence of deep 
 excitement, to burst forth into a song of triumph, the Apostle 
 Paul thus exhorts his converts : " Let the word of Christ 
 dwell in you richly in all wisdom ; teaching and admonishing 
 one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, sing- 
 ing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Col. iii. 16. See 
 also Eph. v. 19. There are here enumerated three kinds of 
 poetry — psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. A psalm ori- 
 ginally denoted a sacred song, chanted to the accompani-
 
 1857.] On the Ancient Hymns. 27 
 
 merit of instrumental music ; a hymn was specifically an 
 address to the Deitv ; and an ode " is the natural outburst of 
 an excited bosom — the language of the sudden impulse of 
 an Oriental temperament." The Colossians and Epliesians, 
 previous to their reception of the Gospel, had been accus- 
 tomed to sing odes to their gods many and lords many, and 
 they are now commanded to sing to the true God spiritual 
 odes, odes prompted by the Spirit of God, as a manifestation 
 of their spiritual nature. Thus, while psalms and hymns 
 may denote the Psalms of David, transmitted from the 
 Jewish to the Christian Church, the spiritual songs, or odes, 
 were the early Christian compositions in which they gave 
 utterance to their pious feelings. Dr. Eadie, in his comment- 
 ary on Epliesians, thus ably defends this view : 
 
 "As a considerable portion of the Church at Ephesus was composed 
 of Jews, these psalms might be the Psalms of the Old Testament, and 
 not merely sacred poems thus named by them, as is the opinion of Ear- 
 less ; and the hymns might be compositions specially adapted to the 
 Gentile mind, though not inapposite to the Jew. The imagery, allusions, 
 and typical references of the psalms could not be fully appreciated by 
 the Gentile sections of the churches ; and these spiritual odes, perhaps 
 of a more glowing and individual nature, might be recited or chanted in 
 their assemblies or churches, as the Spirit gave utterance." 
 
 It is not probable that the apostles composed any hymns, 
 else they would have been as carefully preserved as their 
 epistles. But it lias been rendered almost certain that a few 
 fragments of early Christian hymns are quoted in the New 
 Testament. Thus, Paul quotes the three first lines of an 
 ancient hymn in Epliesians, v. 14 : " Awake thou that sleepest, 
 and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." 
 This passage is introduced as a quotation, and as there is no 
 place in the Old Testament to which it exactly corresponds, 
 the opinion, reported by Theodoret, produced on the author- 
 ity of certain interpreters, that it is a fragment of an early 
 hymn, is greatly strengthened. Another of the supposed 
 fragments of early Christian hymns is contained in 1 Timo- 
 thy, iii. 1G : " God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the
 
 28 On the Jlncient Hymns. [Jan.» 
 
 Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on 
 in the world, received up into glory." These quotations 
 show that hymns exerted a mighty influence in the Christian 
 Church, silently pervading and controlling all the common 
 modes of feeling and of expression — a state of things which 
 must have greatly contributed to the growth and permanence 
 of Christianity. Hence, the Apostle Paul did not condemn 
 the practice which prevailed in the Christian Church of 
 every man having a psalm, but he simply reprehends the 
 irregularity of the manner in which the exercise was con- 
 ducted. But if nothing was sung in the Church except the 
 Psalms of David, it is difficult to perceive how any man could 
 have had his psalm, or that, where all was so accurately de- 
 termined, any irregularity could have existed in the early 
 Church. In the Book of Revelation, also, the Church in 
 heaven sings a new song, distinct from the Psalms of David, 
 and that song is : " Great and marvellous are thy works, 
 Lord God Almighty ; just and true are thy ways, thou King 
 of saints. Who shall not fear thee, Lord, and glorify thy 
 name ? for thou only art holy : for all nations shall come and 
 worship before thee ; for thy judgments are made manifest." 
 Rev. xv. 3, 4. Now, if the assembly in heaven, composed of 
 holy angels and the spirits of just men made perfect, sing 
 other songs than the Psalms of David, why should not the 
 Church on earth imitate their example? The redeemed in 
 heaven and on earth are one family, and why should one 
 department of the family be confined to the Psalms of David, 
 while the other gives free expression to its feelings in songs 
 of praise, which arc the more immediate and spontaneous 
 effusion of the heart ? Besides, the past dispensation is infe- 
 rior in light and privilege to the present ; and hence the Jew- 
 ish prophets did not always understand the meaning of their 
 own predictions, as they " inquired diligently what, or what 
 manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did 
 signify, when it testified beforehand of the sufferings of 
 Christ and the glory that should follow." The Old Testa- 
 ment Psalms celebrate the praises of a coming Messiah ; while 
 the Christian Church celebrates the praises of Messiah as
 
 1857.] On the Ancient Hymns. 29 
 
 already come, " who has brought life and immortality to light 
 through the Gospel." 
 
 In the age next to that of the apostles, we have frequent 
 reference to the hymns of the early Church. Pliny the 
 younger, when governor of Bithynia, writing to the emperor 
 Trajan, not more than three or four years after the death of 
 the Apostle John, says of the Christians : " They were accus- 
 tomed to meet together on a Saturday, before it was light, 
 and to sing a mutual hymn to Christ, as to a god." Tertul- 
 lian, who wrote about the year 200, when giving, in his 
 Apology for the Christians, an account of family worship, says, 
 " that light being brought, every one is invited to sing some- 
 thing as he is able, either from the sacred Scriptures, or from 
 his oven composition^ Describing the misery of Christians 
 marrying heathens, he asks : " What shall the husband sing 
 to her, or she to him ? Where is the invocation of Christ ?" 
 When describing, on the contrary, the conjugal happiness of 
 Christians, he says : " Their psalms and hymns respond, and 
 they emulate each other in singing to their God. Christ 
 rejoices to see and hear such things, and sends them his 
 peace." Busebius, who lived in the fourth century, repre- 
 sents a much earlier writer as saying : " Whatever psalms 
 and hymns were written by. the brethren from the beginning, 
 celebrate Christ, the Word of God, by asserting his divin- 
 ity." The morning and evening hymns of the early Chris- 
 tians have, in fact, been preserved; their mode of composition 
 indicating that they date back to a period little later than 
 the apostolic age. The morning hymn is found at the end of 
 the Psalms in Grabe's Septuagint, and also in the Church of 
 England Liturgy. We give the following free translation 
 of it: 
 
 ANCIENT MORNING HYMN. 
 
 Glory be to God on high, 
 Peace on earth, good will to men ! 
 
 Thee we bless and magnify, 
 In our morning song again — 
 
 Endless praise to Thee be given, 
 
 God the Father, King of heaven
 
 30 On the Ancient Hymns. [Jan., 
 
 Jesus Christ our Lord we praise — 
 
 Lamb of God for sinners slain ! 
 Son of God, thy name we raise 
 
 In our morning song again. 
 Mercy ! Thou for sin hast died, 
 
 Ilear us at thy Father's side. 
 
 Thou art holy — Thou alone ! 
 
 Thee alone we own as Lord, 
 God the Father and the Son 
 
 And Holy Ghost as one adored ! 
 Everlasting praise be given 
 Now on earth and then in heaven. 
 
 The evening hyfim is described by Basil the Great as 
 being " very ancient, of an unknown author, handed down 
 from their fathers, in use among the people." It is thought 
 to be alluded to in general terms by both Tertullian and his 
 imitator, Cyprian. The following is a free translation of it : 
 
 ANCIENT EVENING HYMN. 
 
 Hail Jesus, Lord of life and light ! 
 
 Of Him who reigns all rule above, 
 To man revealed, the image bright — 
 
 Effulgence of Eterflal Lore ! 
 Now when the day its course has run, 
 
 In twilight calm our song we raise : 
 To God the Father, God the Son, 
 
 And Holy Spirit, endless praise. 
 
 Thou, Thou art worthy ! Thee we laud 
 
 With holy voices morn and eve. 
 Thou, Thou art worthy, Son of God, 
 
 Eternal homage to receive ! 
 Here we the willing tribute bring, 
 
 While all above and all below 
 The universal anthem sing, 
 
 To Thee to whom our all we owe. 
 
 It has been objected to the course of reasoning here pur- 
 sued, that the early Church prohibited the use of private 
 psalms. The Council of Laodicca, which met in 36-1, en- 
 
 *
 
 1857.] On the Jlncient Hymns. 31 
 
 acted in its 59th Canon that " private psalms must not be 
 read in the Church, nor uncanonical books, but only the 
 canonical ones of the Old and New Testament." The rea- 
 son of such a prohibition was this : The Arian heresy, which 
 denied the Saviour's supreme Divinity, had lately risen in the 
 Church, and it had greatly spread among the common people 
 through the heretical hymns composed with great elegance 
 and polish by its leader. In order to neutralize the influence 
 of such compositions, it was enacted that only such psalms 
 should be sung in the Church as had obtained the approba- 
 tion of the proper authorities. The very structure of the 
 Canon seems to imply, that private hymns were usually sung 
 in the Church, though it had become expedient, through cir- 
 cumstances, thai; such a practice should cease. 
 
 Ancient writers have given us very little information re- 
 specting the mode of singing practised in the early Church. 
 It was probably derived from the Jewish synagogue, and was 
 something between a singing and a saying, with a slight mod- 
 ulation of the voice. Isiodorus, who lived about the year 
 600, says that " they so sung in the primitive Church, that 
 the psalm was intoned with a moderate flexibility of voice, 
 so that it was nearer to pronouncing than singing." The 
 mode of singing was probably antiphonal, in which one verse 
 was sung by the men, the other by the women and children. 
 But in the earliest times, no instrumental music was em- 
 ployed. The first notice that we have of its use is about the 
 year 190, when Clement of Macedonia forbade the use of 
 the flute, as not adapted to the sacred services of the sanc- 
 tuary, and recommended that David's harp should be used in 
 its place. And as the Christians were compelled, during the 
 age of persecution, to meet in the Catacombs, in the depth of 
 the forest, or on the summit of the mountain, instrumental 
 music would have been deemed wholly unsuitcd to their cir- 
 cumstances. They were contented with singing their mutual 
 hymns to Christ, as to God, and without the additional aid of 
 modern times, they " admonished one another in psalms, and 
 hymns, and spiritual songs."
 
 82 The Death-bed and Burial of Paine. [Jan., 
 
 THE DEATH-BED AND BURIAL OF PAINE, 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 An aged minister of the Gospel — the only survivor of the 
 ministers of the City of New York in the commencement of 
 this century — relates the particulars of an interview with 
 Paine, the notorious reviler of the Gospel, which may be in- 
 structive to some of our readers. Paine, it will be remem- 
 bered, when a member of the French National Convention, 
 fell under the suspicion of the Jacobins, and was committed 
 to the Luxembourg. During the Reign of Terror, a member 
 ©f the Committee of Safety passed through the prison every 
 evening, and made a private mark upon the door of the cell 
 of such prisoners as had been condemned through the day. 
 The following morning the executioners collected their vic- 
 tims from the marked cells, and, without further ceremony, 
 dragged them to their fate. Paine was actually condemned 
 to death, but, as it afterwards appeared, the door of his cell 
 stood ajar at the time the officer of the Committee made his 
 fatal round, so that the mark which was to designate him for 
 execution was made upon the inner side. The doors were 
 locked at night, and in the morning, no mark being visible to 
 the executioner, Paine was left undisturbed. The keeper of 
 the prison, moved by compassion, communicated the fact of 
 his condemnation and marvellous escape to De Bonneville, a 
 bookseller of Paris, who generously resolved to run all the 
 hazard of concealing him in his own house. Paine's enemies 
 supposed that he was dead, and he remained safe in the asy- 
 lum of friendship till after the fall of Robespierre, when he 
 could make his appearance without danger. 
 
 The generosity of De Bonneville the wretch repaid by 
 seducing his wife, and carrying her, with her two children, to
 
 1857.] The Dcath-bcd and Burial of Paine. 33 
 
 this country. His reception in the United States was very 
 different from that he expected. The popularity of his ear- 
 lier political writings was obliterated by the abhorrence 
 which his rude attacks on Christianity had excited ; and he 
 found himself everywhere shunned, except by the degraded 
 and profligate, with whom his own habits naturally allied 
 him. He was still, indeed, possessed of a decent competency, 
 but it could not buy peace of mind or respect ; and at length, 
 a miserable wreck, deserted by the woman whom he had 
 taught the lesson of treachery, he was lingering out in profli- 
 gacy the last remnant of a shameful life in the City of New 
 York. The grossness of his debauchery, the filthiness of his 
 habits, and the envenomed hatefulness of his temper, ren- 
 dered his company intolerable to his warmest admirers. One 
 after another had cast him out of their homes with loathing, 
 and at last he had found refuge in the house of a poor widow, 
 who undertook the care of him, moved partly by pity and 
 partly by her own necessities, which obliged her to seek sup- 
 port as a sick-nurse. Two years ago, this lady, in helpless 
 decrepitude and senility, was paraded at the annual festival 
 in which the infidels of New York celebrate their master's 
 memory. Had she been capable of recalling the past, what a 
 testimony she could have given in that assembly of the fruits 
 of their principles ! 
 
 Our venerable informant, then a youthful and ardent min- 
 ister of the Gospel, had learned some particulars of the 
 awful condition of the blasphemer, and could not rest with- 
 out making an effort to point him to the Lamb of God who 
 taketh away the sins of the world. Accompanied by two 
 friends, he waited upon the widow at her house, and, after 
 explaining his objects and motives, requested her to intro- 
 duce them to the unhappy man. She readily consented, and 
 displayed deep anxiety, though she expressed her hopeless- 
 ness regarding the result of their visit, and cautioned them 
 against introducing the subject of religion abruptly, lest a 
 paroxysm of rage on the part of the dying man should at 
 once close the opportunity. 
 
 They found him lying in a stupid sleep — a bloated and 
 
 VOL. II. — no. i. c 

 
 34 The Death-bed' and Burial of Paine. [.'an., 
 
 revolting mass of corrupt humanity. His Qomple&jQj) was 
 purple by intemperance, and his countenance was rendered 
 hideous by the monstrous deformity of his mw. produced by 
 excesses. When he collected himself sufficiently to recognize 
 them as strangers, the oldest of the party in traduced himself 
 as an old political disciple of Maine's in England, and then 
 introduced his companions. 
 
 At first, Paine seemed pleased and flattered by the atten- 
 tion of the visit, and entered into conversation regarding his 
 own failing health and many sufferings. The gentleman who 
 thus far had acted as spokesman of the party endeavored to 
 lead the conversation on to the great object of their visit, 
 and at length ventured a question as to his preparation for an 
 eternal state, which the young minister followed up by an 
 expression of affectionate concern about his salvation. Their 
 character and object at once flashed upon his mind. The 
 purple of his countenance changed almost literally to black 
 with rage, and his eye was lighted up with intense hatred ; 
 and, after a few moments of speechless passion, he gasped out 
 an order to leave him. In the consciousness that it might be 
 the very last time the Gospel he had blasphemed might be 
 spoken in his hearing, they endeavored still, with tenderness 
 and trembling earnestness, to plead with the miserable man — 
 told him of the over-abounding grace of God, and of the 
 blood of Christ which cleanseth from all sin- — -until the ter- 
 rible storm of anger which the attempt aroused rendered it 
 dangerous to the man himself to proceed. " Leave me ! leave 
 me ! Get out of the house ! Begone instantly ! Leave me, 
 ! say !" he continued to vociferate, with mingled fury and 
 terror, till the sad party were out of hearing. The pitiful 
 scene recalls John Wilson's rough sketch of the death-bed of 
 Voltaire, " the famous wit, whose brilliant fancy hath waxed 
 dim as that of any clown — whose malignant heart is quaking 
 beneath the Power it had so long derided, with terrors over 
 which his hated Christian triumphs — and wdiose intellect, 
 once so perspicacious that it could see but too well the motes 
 that arc in the sun, the specks and stains that are on the 
 flowing robe of Nature herself — prone, in miserable contra-
 
 1857.] The Death-bed and Burial of Paine. 35 
 
 did ion to its better being, to turn tlicm as proofs against the 
 power and goodness of the Holy One who inhabiteth eter- 
 nity — is now palsy-stricken as that of an idiot, and knows 
 not even the name of its once proud possessor, whom crowded 
 theatres had risen up with one rustle to honor, and then with 
 deafening acclamations raised a mortal to the skies r There 
 he is : it matters not now whether on down or straw 
 stretched, already a skeleton, and gnashing — may it be in 
 Senselessness, for otherwise what pangs are there! — gnash- 
 ing his teeth within lips once so eloquent, now white with 
 foam and slaver, and the whole mouth, of yore so musical, 
 grinning ghastly, like the fleshless face of fear-painted Death ! 
 Is that Voltaire ? — he who, with wit, thought to shear the 
 Son of God of all His beams — with wit, to loosen the dread- 
 ful fastenings of the cross — with wit, to scoff at Him who 
 hung thereon while the blood and water came from His 
 blessed side — with wit, to drive away those shadows of 
 ano-cls that were said to have rolled off the stone from the 
 mouth of the sepulchre of the resurrection — with Avit, to 
 deride the ineffable glory of transfigured Godhead on the 
 Mount, and the sweet and solemn semblance of the man 
 Jesus in the garden — with wit, to darken all the decrees of 
 Providence — and, with wit, 
 
 " To shut the gates of mercy on mankind." 
 
 II is nurse told the visitors of Paine's awful life. During 
 the day, he sought to escape from consciousness by the use of 
 large quantities of intoxicating liquor. A great part of his 
 time was spent in a state of drunkenness, or the stupid sleep 
 which followed. He showed an awful apprehension of being 
 left, even for a moment, in the dark. Lights were kept in 
 his room during the night ; and when, on one or two occa- 
 sions, these had accidentally been extinguished, he continued 
 to knock with his cane upon the floor, with the utmost vio- 
 lence, and piteously to call for help, until the nurse carried 
 another light into the room. He died in a few weeks after 
 this visit, in a state of misery which was "hell anticipated." 
 Often, in his last days, he ejaculated, when he supposed that
 
 86 The. Dcath-hed and Burial of Paine. [Jan., 
 
 he was alone, " Jesus Christ!" " Oli God!" "Oh Christ, 
 have mercy upon me !" " Save me ! save me I" His physi- 
 cian, a pious man, who stood by his bed-side when he used 
 some such expression, asked, " Do you, then, believe in Jesus 
 Christ, Mr. Paine ?" Opening his eyes and collecting hirn- 
 B'elf for a moment, he replied, " I don't want to believe any 
 thing." 
 
 He was buried upon his own farm. Mrs. was on a 
 
 risit to some friends, upon an adjoining farm, at the time of 
 the funeral, and brought back a report of it from some of the 
 neighbors, who had the curiosity to go to witness it. ITis 
 remains were followed by a very few, probably five or six, 
 of his infidel friends. After they had dug a grave and let 
 down the coffin, one of the party took up a large stone and 
 dashed it into the grave, with sufficient violence to break the 
 coffin-lid, exclaiming, "Lie there and be damned! You have 
 ruined me and my family for time and eternity, and I leave 
 my curse at your grave." He had been a respectable man, 
 and had been drawn first into infidelity, and then into drunk- 
 enness, by his association with Paine ; and that curse was 
 the only requiem of the destroyer. 
 
 His friends and admirers showed no respect for his mem- 
 ory, or delicacy in speaking of his vices. Two of them, his 
 most intimate cronies — one of whom still survives, supported 
 by the charity of Christians — published an account of his 
 life, revealing depths of baseness and depravity in the man's 
 character which Christians could never have imagined, and 
 would not pollute their minds by reading. It contained, 
 amongst other things, an account of the seduction of his 
 friend's wife, and of the manner in which he and his para- 
 mour had lived after their arrival in America. She was then 
 alive, and brought an action for libel against the author, 
 which led to the suppression of the work, though it is known 
 that some copies have escaped destruction, and the testimony 
 of infidels to the character of their leader may yet see the 
 light. 
 
 Dr. Mason, of New York, in his contrast of the death of 
 David Hume with that of John Finlcy, says :
 
 1857.] The Controversy on the Apochrypha. 37 
 
 " If you ask how many infidels close their career in anguish, in distrac- 
 tion, in a fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery indignation, which 
 shall consume the adversaries, how endless is the train of wretches! 
 how piercing their cry ! That arch-blasphemer, Voltaire, left the world 
 with hell anticipated ; and we hear so frequently of his disciples going 
 to their own place in a similar manner, that the dreadful narratives lose 
 their effect by repetition. It was quite recently that a youth in the State 
 of New York, who had been debauched by the ribaldrous impiety of 
 Paine, yielded up the ghost with divers imprecations on the hour when 
 he first saw an infidel book, and on the murderer who first put it into his 
 hands ; but who ever heard of a dying man cursing the day when he 
 believed on Jesus Christ? Such an instance never occurred. Nothing 
 is more common than the peaceful death of those who have tasted that 
 the Lord is gracious. They who see practical Christianity in retreats 
 which the eye of a profane philosopher seldom penetrates, could easily 
 fill a long record of dying beds, softened with that bland submission and 
 cheered with that victorious hope which threw so heavenly a lustre round 
 the bed of Dr. Finlev." 
 
 THE CONTROVERSY ON THE APOCHRYPHA. 
 
 BY JOHN HOGG. 
 
 About the beginning of the present century, a sharp con- 
 troversy sprung up in Great Britain respecting the Old Tes- 
 tament Apochrypha. The British and Foreign Bible Society 
 published the Apochrypha along with those Bibles which 
 were intended for circulation in continental Europe, on the 
 plea that it was impossible to circulate the Scriptures abroad, 
 especially in Germany, if these writings were excluded, as 
 the people generally imagined that they were a part of the 
 "Word of God. This was true, it was alleged, not only of 
 the Roman Catholics, who, since the Council of Trent, re- 
 ceived all the boohs of the Apochrypha as canonical Scrip- 
 ture, but also of the Lutherans, who, from reading them both
 
 38 The Controversy on the apochrypha. [Jan,, 
 
 in public and private, attached to them the idea of a sort of 
 half inspiration. The late Dr. Andrew Thomson, of Edin- 
 burgh, attacked this position, both in the pulpit and the press, 
 with all the force of his pnwerful mind, alleging that such a 
 defence was just a reiteration of the sentiment, "Let us do 
 evil, that good may conic." This discussion extended to 
 every part of Scotland, and issued id the establishment of 
 the Edinburgh Bible Society, by which nothing was circulated 
 but the pure Word of God. After the heat of controversy 
 had subsided, the British and Foreign Bible Society ceased to 
 print the Apochrypha for foreign circulation, out of defer- 
 ence, it was alleged, to Scotland ; but, doubtless, also, for the 
 conclusive arguments of Dr. Thomson and his coadjutors. 
 
 The Apochrypha controversy, as it was conducted in Great 
 Britain, never touched the merits of the question. It was an 
 appeal to expediency rather than to principle. The battle had 
 to be fought and won on its own native soil, in Germany, on 
 the ground of principle. Luther endeavored to find a middle 
 ground between Roman Catholicism and Calvinism; and 
 hence, while he excluded the Old Testament Apochrypha 
 from the inspired canon, he maintained that its various books 
 were useful for the diffusion of knowledge and the promotion 
 of piety among the people. The result of such a decision was, 
 that in the popular mind the Apochrypha gradually was re- 
 garded as a part of the Word of God, and even the learned 
 tacitly proceeded on the assumption that it was a very proper 
 and natural appendix to the sacred volume. This was exactly 
 the position maintained by Jahn, Hurlst. and other learned 
 Roman Catholics, who, in order to reconcile the decisions of 
 the Council of Trent with the results of modern criticism, 
 endeavored to draw a distinction between the proto-canonical 
 and deutero-canonical books of Scripture — a distinction un- 
 known to the Tridcntinc fathers — affirming that the Apochry- 
 pha belonged to the latter class, to which a subsidiary rank 
 was assigned. In order to combat these views, the Prussian 
 Bible Society offered a prize, in the beginning of 1853, for 
 the best essay on the impropriety of circulating the Apochry- 
 pha along with the Scriptures. This prize was adjudged to
 
 1557.] The Controversy on the Apochrypha. 39 
 
 Philip Frederick Karl, and his essay, The Apochrypha of the 
 Old Testament, was published at the expense of the Society, 
 lie alleged, among other objections, that the Apochrypha 
 sanctioned great errors in both doctrine and practice, and 
 that it was entirely destitute of any reference to the Messiah, 
 •as the hope of Israel. Many of the author's friends thought 
 that he had bent the bow a little too tightly, and that many 
 of his main positions would be vehemently assailed. Nor 
 were they disappointed. Hengstenbcrg, who has lately main- 
 tained many of the errors of the Puseyites, and who calls 
 Popery " a harmless superstition," assailed this essay, with 
 remarkable bitterness, in the Evangelical Church Magazine^ 
 affirming that its author could be nothing less than a Rational- 
 ist ; that his statements went to overthrow the Church, and 
 to nullify the Saviour's promise, " Lo, I am with you alway, 
 ■even unto the end of the world." Were this opinion pushed 
 to its logical results, it would follow that the Church has never 
 erred — a position entirely -opposed to all the facts of his- 
 tory. Why did Paul rebuke the Corinthians for tolerating 
 the incestuous person in their communion, and for their im- 
 proper mode of observing the Lord's supper ? Why did he 
 rebuke the Galatians for following the Judaizing teachers, 
 and say to them, " I desire to be present with you now, 
 and to charge my voice, for I stand in doubt of you "? Why 
 did he remind liis converts, " the mystery of iniquity doth 
 already work," if that leaven of deceit was not already in 
 operation which should pervade the whole mass? These 
 facts show that the Church could err, notwithstanding the 
 Saviour's promise, and that our Lord's farewell promise to 
 his disciples is just an assurance of their Master's presence 
 and protection, in proportion as they remained faithful to 
 their exalted Head. 
 
 But the most formidable opponent of Karl's view is Dr. 
 Pudolf Stier, author of the Words of Jesus, who maintains that 
 the Apochrypha fills up an important gap between Malachi 
 and the New Testament ; that it contains a peculiar Christo- 
 iogy, necessary to show the connexion between the Messiah 
 of the Old Testament and the Christ of the New ; and that
 
 40 The Controversy on the Apochrypha. [Jan., 
 
 our Saviour and his apostles, without the formality of quota- 
 tion, frequently quote the very same words and sentiments aa 
 those contained in the Apochrypha. These facts, it is alleged, 
 show that, in the estimation of the New Testament writers, 
 the Apochrypha formed a sort of appendix to the Inspired 
 Volume, and that it was to them of more importance than all 
 other books besides. Karl has replied to these sentiments in 
 a pamphlet of 368 pages, in which he endeavors to uphold 
 and strengthen his first positions. But the most important 
 part of his work is an appendix, " Philo in the New Testa- 
 ment," in which he shows, by numerous quotations, that the 
 language of the Alexandrian Jew more frequently coincides 
 with that of the New Testament than all the Apochryphal 
 books together ; and that, consequently, if Stier is consist- 
 ent, he ought henceforth to maintain, " that in future, the 
 writings of Philo should be immediately added to the Apoch- 
 rypha of the Old Testament, and that it should be placed im- 
 mediately after the Book of Wisdom." 
 
 In contending for the omission of the Apochrypha from the 
 Inspired Volume, it is not necessary to maintain all the posi- 
 tions assumed by Karl, as they invalidate rather than 
 strengthen the general argument. The language of the 
 Apochrypha frequentl illustrates the phraseology of the 
 New Testament, and the peculiar Greek of the Septuagint 
 was doubtless intended by Divine Providence to form the 
 style of our Lord's apostles, and to' be the medium of commu- 
 nicating religious instruction to the Christian Church. Many 
 of the doctrinal conceptions of the New Testament also origi- 
 nated in the period between Malachi and Christ ; such as 
 Paradise, or the Garden of Eden, for heaven — a conception 
 which finds its full development in the new dispensatioB. 
 Neither is it necessary to maintain with Karl that there is 
 no reference to the Messiah in the Apochrypha ; or that the 
 doctrinal representations of some of these books, especially 
 " The Wisdom of Solomon," exerted no influence on the phra- 
 seology and doctrinal representations of the New Testament. 
 All these positions are beside the question, and their admis-
 
 1857.] The Controversy on the Apochrypha. 41 
 
 sion by no means involves the belief that the Apochrypha 
 ought to occupy a subsidiary place in the canon. 
 
 Dr. Stier does not maintain that the Apochrypha ought to 
 be included in the canon, as of equal authority with the pro- 
 phecies of Isaiah or Jeremiah, but as occupying a middle 
 place between God's "Word and man's word. Now, it ought 
 to appear fatal to this theory, that, in the Septuagint, from 
 which Dr. Stier argues, the Apochrypha is not placed at the 
 end of the Bible, as in modern translations, but is inter- 
 mingled with the inspired works. They originally were ar- 
 ranged in the following order : The two books of Esdras are 
 placed after Second Chronicles ; then follows Nehemiah, with 
 Tobit and Judith ; the Wisdom of Solomon, and the book of 
 Jesus, the son of Sirach, come after the Song of Solomon ; 
 Baruch follows Jeremiah ; the epistle of Jeremiah follows the 
 Lamentations ; Belaud the Dragon forms a part of the book 
 of Daniel ; and the three books of Maccabees generally come 
 last. From the simple statement of the case, the only con- 
 sistent positions evidently are, either that the Apochrypha 
 forms part of the Word of God, as is done by the Council of 
 Trent ; or with Protestants, that these books never formed 
 any part of the Jewish canon, and were wrongly blended 
 with the Scriptures by the Alexandrine Jews. The theory 
 which places them in a middle class, as a sort of supplement 
 to Scripture, is inconsistent with the facts of the case, and is 
 evidently adopted in order to support a foregone conclusion. 
 
 The arbitrary character of the Alexandrine theology is 
 sufficiently obvious from a mere inspection of the Septuagint. 
 In all difficult passages, the translations for the Hebrew Scrip- 
 tures are generally very loose paraphrases. Arbitrary altera- 
 tions are made wherever it suits the whim of the translator ; 
 and some very extraordinary sentiments are blended with the 
 text, or occur at the end of the sacred books, very much on 
 the principle of Dr. Stier 's theory of placing the Apochry- 
 pha as an appendix to the Bible. That reckless treatment of 
 the Word of God, quite as much as the allegorical mode of 
 exposition, induced the Palestinian Jews to look upon Greek
 
 42 The Controversy on the Apochrypha. [Jan., 
 
 literature with great dislike. Joscphus Bays that his countiv- 
 men looked with disfavor on the acquisition of the Greek 
 tongue, on account of its dangerous tendency. The Talmud, 
 which consists of two parts — the Mishna, or sacred law, 
 completed about the year of Christ 219, and the Gemara. or 
 commentary, finished between the fourth and fifth century, 
 condemns Greek literature in equally strong terms. " Cursed 
 be he," says the Gemara, " who teaches his son Greek wis- 
 dom ;" and their Rabbis affirm, " Let him be cursed, whoso- 
 ever feeds pigs ; let him also be cursed who teaches his son 
 Greek wisdom." This horror of Greek wisdom evidently 
 arose from a repugnance to the Septuagint, which added and 
 blended so many unauthorized statements with the inspired 
 volume. This is obviously the reason why it is said, in the 
 ancient book of Midrash-Rabba, " He who brings into his 
 house more than the 24 books, brings a desolation into his 
 house ; also, the book of the son of Sirach, and the book of 
 Tight. " 
 
 The Jews, to whom the keeping of the oracles of God was 
 committed, never admitted the Apochrypha into the sacred 
 canon. Joscphus only enumerates 22 books ; and the Jewish 
 Talmud, though adopting a different principle of arrange- 
 ment, neither excludes an inspired book, nor admits an Apoch- 
 ryphal one. It has been ascertained that Philo, the Jew, 
 though he made all his quotations from the Septuagint trans- 
 lation, never quotes an Apochryphal book, neither as author- 
 ity, nor yet for the purpose of illustrating his sentiments. 
 This is the more remarkable, as he repeatedly quotes Plato, 
 as agreeing with the statements of Moses ; and yet no one 
 could learn from his writings that the Apochrypha ever had 
 an existence. 
 
 The most remarkable position maintained by Stier, and 
 that which was designed to be decisive of the question, is, 
 that our Lord and his apostles frequently quote the very 
 words and. sentiments of the Apochrypha. It is admitted 
 that these writings are not quoted with the usual formula, 
 "It is written," or that they are of equal value with those 
 books which confessedly form the sacred canon ; but it is
 
 1857.] The Controversy on the Apochrypha. 43 
 
 affirmed that the New Testament writers frequently refer to 
 them as if they had derived from this source the principal 
 part of their thoughts and language. In maintaining this 
 position, Stief divides their references to the Apochrypha into 
 three classes. In some passages, there appears to he a gen- 
 eral reference to some hooks in the Apochrypha — something 
 presupposed, rather than definitely stated ; in others, par- 
 ticular thoughts, or the entire course of thought, can be dis- 
 cerned ; and, in the third and smallest class, the coincidence 
 exists in the identity of particular phrases and sentiments. 
 In support of this theory, Sticr adduces a great number of 
 passages from the New Testament, which he affirms, in their 
 thoughts and language, to be little more than copies of cor- 
 responding passages in the Apochrypha ; and certainly the 
 list might have been greatly increased. 
 
 In replying to this part of the argument. Karl has evi- 
 dently injured his own case, and what we believe to be the 
 cause of truth, by affirming too much. He improperly en- 
 deavors to show that there is no reference, either in language 
 or in thought, to the Apochrypha, and that the exclusive 
 reference is to some passage in the canonical Scriptures which 
 Sticr has overlooked. Now, it was sufficient to have main- 
 tained that many thoughts, proverbs, and phrases are not 
 peculiar to any author, but are the common characteristics of 
 every language, at certain periods of its development ; and 
 that, consequently, these identical thoughts and expressions 
 may be used by different authors who are not conscious of 
 each other's existence. It is impossible, for example, not to 
 perceive the identity of thought, and even of phraseology, 
 between Wisdom vii. 26 and Hebrews i. 3. In the former, 
 it is said of wisdom, " She is the brightness of the everlast- 
 ing light ; the unspotted mirror of the .power of God, and the 
 image of his goodness." In the latter, Christ is described as 
 " the brightness of God's glory, and the express image of his 
 person;" and in Colossians, as "the image of the invisible 
 God." Philo, the Jew, employs the very same expressions as 
 Paul, when describing the Logos or Word of God: "The 
 word is the image of God, by whom the entire world is
 
 44 The Controversy On the Apochrypha. [Jan., 
 
 governed." " The eternal word is the express image of God." 
 But these remarkably similar expressions by no means prove 
 that the sacred writers quoted the Apochrypha any more 
 than that they were acquainted witli the writings of Philo, 
 as all such expressions were manifestly the common property 
 of the age in which they lived, and of the language in which 
 they spoke. In like manner, we do not for a moment ima- 
 gine that our Lord was indebted to Philo for the proverb, 
 
 " With God all tilings are possible" — Tiavra yap &ey fyiara; nor 
 
 that the Apostle Paul quotes Philo, though with an inversion 
 of his thoughts, when he says, "That was not first which is 
 spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterwards that which 
 is spiritual." 1 Cor. xv. 46. Philo says: "There is a two- 
 fold race ; for the one is the heavenly man, but the other the 
 earthly. He who is heavenly is formed according to the 
 image of God, not being a partaker of corruption, nor of the 
 least particle of an earthly nature ; but the earthly is formed 
 of scattered dust, which he calls the ground." Yol. I, p. 50. 
 The language is here almost identical ; and yet the subjects 
 of which the writers speak are very different. Paul describes 
 the resurrection-bodies of believers — the difference between 
 the body that is sown in corruption, and the body that is 
 raised in incorruption ; but in Philo, in accordance with his 
 peculiar philosophy, a distinction is instituted between the 
 world as made and the world which is the archetype of the 
 visible universe ■ — between man, as made, and the man who, 
 in the Divine mind, is the primal type of the race. The 
 latter is the heavenly man, made in God's image, and conse- 
 quently first in existence ; while the former is the earthy 
 man, compassed with impurity and corruption. This in- 
 stance of close similarity between the thoughts and expres- 
 sions of two writers, nearly contemporaneous, shows how 
 soon the resemblance vanishes when we take into account the 
 very different subjects of which they speak. It is evident 
 that their thoughts are the common property of the age, and 
 arc not traceable to any one source ; and though we can per- 
 ceive occasionally a similarity between the language of the 
 writers of the New Testament and the Apochrypha, this re-
 
 1857.] 
 
 The Controversy on the apochrypha. 
 
 45 
 
 semblance by no means infers the additional fact of quota- 
 tion ; and hence we generally find the similarity less clearly 
 marked between the sacred writers and the authors of the 
 Apochrypha, than between them and Fhilo. 
 
 As a specimen of the mode in which Dr. Stier conducts 
 this part of the argument, we shall give a few of his quota- 
 tions from the New Testament, which, he alleges, the sacred 
 writers have quoted from the Apochrypha : 
 
 « 1. Luke i. 28. ? And the an- 
 gel came in unto her and said, Hail, 
 thou that art highly favored, the 
 Lord is with thee : blessed art thou 
 
 among women/ 
 
 "2. Matt. vii. 11. ' Therefore, 
 all things whatsoever ye would 
 that men should do to you, do ye 
 even so to them.' 
 
 "3. James i. 19. 'Wherefore, 
 my beloved brethren, let every man 
 be swift to hear, slow to speak, 
 slow to wrath.' 
 
 " 4. 1 Feter v. 4. * And when 
 the ehief shepherd shall appear, 
 ye shall receive a crown of ^lory 
 that fadeth not away.' 
 
 "5. John xvii. 3. 'And this is 
 life eternal, that they might know 
 thee the only true God, and Jesus 
 Christ, whom thou hast sent.' " 
 
 "1. Judith xiii. 18. ' Then said 
 Orzias unto her [Judith], daugh- 
 ter, honored art thou of the Most 
 High God above all the women 
 upon the earth.' Judith xv. 19. 
 'Thou art the exaltation of Jeru- 
 salem, thou art the great glory of 
 Israel, thou art the great rejoining 
 of our nation. Blessed be thou of 
 the Almighty Lord for evermore.' 
 
 '•2. Tobit iv. 15. 'And what 
 thou hates t, do to no man.' 
 
 " 3. Sirach iv. 29. ' Be not 
 hasty in thy tongue, and in thy 
 deeds slack and remiss.' Sirach 
 v. 11. 'Be swift to hear; and let 
 thy life be sincere, and with pa- 
 tience give answer.' 
 
 "4. Wisdom v. 10. 'Therefore 
 shall they receive a glorious king- 
 dom, and a beautiful crown from 
 the Lord's hands ; for with his 
 right shall he crown them, and 
 with his hand shall he protect 
 them.' 
 
 " 5. Wisdom xv. 3. ' For to 
 know thee is perfect righteous- 
 ness, yea, to know thy power, is 
 the root of immortality.' " 
 
 These and a great many other passages from the Apochry- 
 pha, which Stier also quotes, plainly show, according to his
 
 4G The Controversy on the Jlpocfirypha. [Jan., 
 
 theory, that Christ and his apostles very frequently quoted 
 the Apochryphal writers. lie contends that as the later 
 boohs of Scripture are based on facts and modes of expres- 
 sion Avhich occur in the earlier, and as the figurative lan- 
 guage of the New Testament is almost uniformly derived 
 from the Old, so, similar references and allusions may be 
 traced between the Apochrypha and the New Testament. 
 We think Karl unfairly denies the similarity of thought that 
 may occasionally be perceived between the New Testament 
 and Apochrypha, and especially when he affirms that the 
 Apochrypha contains no reference whatever to the Messiah, 
 as the glory of Israel and the light of the Gentiles. All 
 this might be fully admitted, and yet it would by no means 
 follow that the one class of writers quote the other. It 
 might be granted that certain expressions and forms of 
 thought were diffused among the people, in consequence of 
 their knowledge of the Apochrypha, as contained in the Sep- 
 tuagint version of the Scriptures. But, long before the time 
 of Christ and his apostles, these thoughts must have become 
 the common property of those who spoke the Greek lan- 
 guage ; and writers would use, and modify them, and apply 
 them to various subjects, without being conscious of the 
 source in which they originated. This we believe to have 
 been the case with our Lord's apostles ; and, as the most con- 
 clusive proof of such a theory, Karl quotes a much larger 
 number of coincident expressions between Philo and the 
 New Testament, than Stier has done between the Apochry- 
 pha and the New Testament. It is evident, therefore, that 
 Stier 's argument proves too much, and, as Karl presses on 
 him with resistless force, that, if followed out to its legi- 
 timate results, it would show that the writings of Philo 
 ought to be placed after the book of Wisdom, which they 
 very closely resemble in thought and language. As an illus- 
 tration of this point, we shall give a number of parallel 
 passages from Philo and the New Testament, premising that 
 the complete force of the resemblance can only be seen in the 
 original Greek :
 
 1857.] 
 
 The Controversy on the Jlpoclirypha. 
 
 47 
 
 1. Matt. v. G. " Blessed are 
 they who do hunger and thirst 
 after righteousness ; for they shall 
 be filled." 
 
 2. Matt. vi. 19-21. "Lay not 
 up for yourselves treasures upon 
 earth," &c. Matt. vi. 33. " Seek 
 ye first the kingdom of God and his 
 righteousness." 
 
 3. 1 John i. 5. " God is light, 
 and in him is no darkness at all." 
 
 1. De Profugis, vol. i, p. 5G6. 
 " This is the divine order which 
 enlightens the visible soul — they 
 that hunger and thirst after right- 
 eousness shall be filled." 
 
 2. De Prseiniis et Poenis, vol. 
 ii, p. 425. " The true riches is 
 placed in heaven, through wisdom 
 and righteousness. " 
 
 3. De Scmniis, vol. i., p. 632. 
 " He states the third reason on 
 account of which he remained in 
 that place. The 'sun was set' 
 (Genesis xxviii. 11) ; not that sun 
 that shines, but that most illumi- 
 nating and most glorious light of 
 the visible and highest God. God 
 is light. ' For the Lord is my 
 light and my salvation,' he sings 
 in hymns. And he is not only 
 light, but also the archetype of 
 all other light ; but he is rather 
 older and superior to the arche- 
 type, being the reason of the ex- 
 emplar." 
 
 These, as a mere specimen of a vast number of paragraphs 
 that could be adduced, clearly show that the resemblance be- 
 tween Pliilo and the New Testament is more complete, both 
 as to thought and single expressions, than between the 
 Apochrypha and the New Testament. If, then, these expres- 
 sions arc a good reason for assigning the Apochrypha a kind 
 of deutero-canonical authority, the argument is still more con- 
 clusive in favor of the writings of Philo. The Alexandrian 
 Jew speaks of the Logos as the Son of God, as the Prince, 
 as the Archangel, and as eternal, in terms so similar to the 
 Evangelist John, that some imaginative writers have affirmed 
 that he must have been a Christian. 
 
 But how can we account for the remarkable coincidence 
 of thought and expression that occur between Philo and the 
 New Testament ? This learned Jew was born between 20
 
 48 The Controversy on the Jlpochrypha. [Jan., 
 
 and 30 years before the Saviour's birth, and consequently lie 
 must have been about GO years of age at the crucifixion ; and 
 some of his writings were composed about the year of our 
 Lord 38. It is, therefore, impossible that he could derive 
 his very remarkable language from the New Testament, as 
 the first epistle to the Thcssalonians, the earliest part of the 
 New Testament, was written some years later. Neither is it 
 at all probable that the sacred writers were at all acquainted 
 with Philo's works, as they moved in a very different sphere, 
 and were conversant with very different society from what 
 lie was. It has been said that some of the Jews, notwith- 
 standing the prohibition of their Rabbis, were accustomed to 
 apply themselves to Greek learning ; and that Gamaliel, at 
 whose feet the Apostle Paul sat, was educated in this forbid- 
 den lore. But, suppose that this assumption were admitted — 
 though it rests on a very slender reference in the Talmud — 
 still this leaves it unexplained how the other inspired writers, 
 and especially John, obtained the use of such extraordinary 
 language. We are rather inclined to assign a common ori- 
 gin to both the peculiar language of Philo and the New Tes- 
 tament, in the use of the Scptuagint version of the Scriptures, 
 the traditional interpretations of the fathers, mingled with 
 Greek and Oriental philosophy, so as to produce, in the 
 course of ages, a new mode of thinking and speaking. This 
 peculiar phraseology seems to have been generated between 
 the time of Malachi and the coming of Christ, its first step 
 occurring in the Scptuagint Scriptures, and its full develop- 
 ment in the Alexandrian philosophy. 
 
 Karl urges the usual objections against the Apochrypha, for 
 the low morality which it enjoins, and even the vices which 
 it inculcates. It must be confessed that these objections are 
 urged with too great vagueness, in order to make out a strong 
 case ; and that, in this way, the force of an otherwise strong 
 argument is considerably weakened. But when Stier en- 
 deavors to justify the deceit of Judith, and the murder of 
 Holoferncs, by instituting a comparison between the book of 
 Judith and Esther, and between the two books of Maccabees 
 and the two books of Chronicles, we feel that the cause must
 
 1857.] The Controversy on the Apochrypha. 49 
 
 be a weak one which needs such a defence. Such an argu- 
 ment would go to prove that the book of Judith, instead of 
 being placed beside the canon, should be admitted into it, 
 though it formed no part of the Jewish Scriptures, and, con- 
 sequently, did not obtain the ratification of the Saviour when 
 He said to the Jews, "Search the Scriptures" — meaning the 
 Old Testament. But Sticr chiefly spends his strength on this 
 part of the argument, in defending the Book of Wisdom, in 
 which the author personates Solomon, king of Israel. Who 
 wrote this book is still a matter of doubt. Some have erro- 
 neously supposed that it was Philo, the Jew, from several 
 coincident modes of expression, and from strange doctrines, 
 peculiar to both. Thus, Philo maintains the pre-existence of 
 numan souls in a form which differs little from the transmi- 
 gration of souls, which has been so extensively diffused in 
 Indian superstitions. He divides souls into two classes — 
 the earthy and sensuous, who are entangled in gross bodies, 
 and others that regard this body as a grave and prison, and 
 aspire to the source of eternal blessedness. This diversity of 
 character was impressed on both before they came into this 
 world ; and, consequently, the wicked, obeying the original 
 impulse of their nature, look upon this world as their home r 
 but the righteous, recollecting their high original and earnest 
 aspirations, regard it as a strange country. Thus, it is said 
 in Wisdom viii. 19, 20, " I was a witty child, and had a good 
 spirit. Yea, rather, being good, I came into a body unde- 
 fined." But this and a number of other curious coincidences 
 that might be alleged, instead of proving that Philo was the 
 author of the Book of Wisdom, rather indicate the com- 
 mencement of a mode of thinking which received its full de- 
 velopment in the Alexandrine theology. The sanctioning of 
 such an error, however, clearly proves that the Book of Wis- 
 dom is rightly excluded from the sacred canon ; for the 
 Evangelist John does not approve of the statement, but 
 simply records it as an historical fact, when he represents the 
 disciples addressing the Saviour, as if it had been possible to 
 commit sin in a previous state of existence : " Master, who 
 did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind ?" 
 
 VOL. II. — NO. I. D
 
 50 The Controversy on the Apochrypha. [Jan., 
 
 It is thus rather remarkable that Dr. Beccher's theory, in his 
 Con/lid of Ages, is not a product of the highest form of 
 Christianized thought, but an offshoot pf Jewish theology and 
 heathen metaphysics. 
 
 But, perhaps one of the most repulsive doctrines of the 
 Apochrypha is, that the children of adulterers are excluded 
 from hope in their death. "Wisdom iii. 16-18: "As for the 
 children of adulterers, they shall not come to perfection ; and 
 the seed of an unrighteous bed shall be rooted out. For 
 though they live long, yet shall they be nothing regarded : 
 and their last age shall be without honor. Or, if they die 
 quickly, they have no hope, neither comfort in the day of 
 trial. 1 ' It is admitted., that in the moral government of God, 
 children are involved in the consequences of their parents' 
 transgressions, just as a comparatively righteous man msy 
 suffer in consequence of his being connected with a guilty 
 community ; but that infants, as such, are condemned to 
 eternal death, for their parents 7 sins, is opposed alike to rea- 
 son and Scripture. To say that the seed of the righteous are 
 saved, while the seed of the wicked are lost, makes salvation 
 or damnation depend quite as much on the parents' merit or 
 demerit as on the righteousness of Christ and the faith of the 
 individual, as a condition. And surely this language ill ac- 
 cords with the language of the Saviour, when He took little 
 children into His arms and blessed them, without any refer- 
 ence to their being the seed of the righteous, and said, " Of 
 such is the kingdom of heaven." 
 
 It appears from these facts and illustrations, as well as 
 from others that might be adduced, that the Apochrypha has 
 no dcutcro-canonical authority. The Gospel, unmixed with hu- 
 man tradition or philosophy, is the seed of the Word, tho 
 instrument of regeneration, and the power of God unto salva- 
 tion to every one that believeth. "It has God for its object, 
 salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of 
 error, for its matter." To intermingle, therefore, the words 
 of man with the words of God, and to give any thing like tho 
 same honor to the former that we do to the latter, is as ab- 
 surd as it would be to blend the purity of heaven with tho
 
 1857.] The Intercession of the Spirit. 51 
 
 impurity of earth, and in the end must prove dishonoring to 
 the Bible's great Author, and injurious to the best interests 
 •of man. " The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the 
 soul." 
 
 THE INTERCESSION OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 The grace of God is marvellously displayed, in that, after 
 sending His Son to suffer for sin, to reconcile men to Him- 
 self, He has sent His Spirit as His advocate in effecting the 
 reconciliation. The Gospel is, indeed, the instrument em- 
 ployed, yet the reconciliation of sinners to God is none the 
 less the work of the Spirit, just as it is none the less God 
 who giveth food to every living thing, because the seed must 
 be cast into the ground, and showers and sunshine are em- 
 ployed to mature the harvest. The Spirit's power is not tran- 
 siently manifested in the reconciliation — He abides with the 
 believer. All the graces of the renewed character are fruita 
 of the Spirit ; all spiritual strength and endowments are of 
 His operation and bestowment. " If any man have not the 
 Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." 
 
 "The Spirit helpeth our infirmities." What a view docs it 
 afford us of the condescending love of God, when we know 
 that He is thus continually with us, holding up our weakness, 
 tending our tottering steps, and encouraging us onward ! " I 
 taught Ephraim to go, taking them by the arms" — 'like a 
 tender mother, who guides and sustains her infant in its first 
 staggering attempts to walk. But this aid is spoken of 
 specially with reference to our approaches to a throne of 
 grace ; " for we know not what we should pray for as we
 
 52 The Intercession of the Spirit. [ Jan., 
 
 ought ; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with 
 groanings which cannot be uttered ; and He that searcheth 
 the heart, knoweth the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh 
 intercession according to the will of God." This affords us 
 the most humbling views at once of our helplessness and His 
 grace — since His aid begins, not in the supply of our neces- 
 sities, in answer to our supplications, but in our supplications 
 themselves. We need not only to go for alms, but we can 
 not go without His aid. 
 
 We are needy and helpless ; there are infinite stores of 
 grace provided for us, and these stores are always open to us 
 for the asking. " Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall 
 find." Why is it that, with free access to such provisions, 
 and with so much apparent prayer, there should still be so 
 much spiritual poverty and feebleness? The Word of God 5 
 answers, " Ye have not, because ye ask not ; ye ask and re- 
 ceive not, because ye ask amiss." It is a proof that " we 
 know not what we should pray for as we ought." A sense of 
 want lies at the foundation of all earnest prayer ; but there 
 is this sad peculiarity about our spiritual neediness — the 
 greater it is, the less we feel it. But, in addition to a sense 
 of want, a knowledge of the appropriate supply, and of the 
 source whence it may be obtained, is necessary to true prayer - 
 and, in spiritual things, a man left to himself is sure to follow 
 some vain and destructive delusion ; he will be like the dis- 
 ciples, to whom the Lord said, " Ye ask ye know not what." 
 Even if he knew his want and its appropriate supply, he 
 could not of himself pray for it as he ought — his spirit would 
 be selfish, perhaps petulant and querulous ; and he would 
 come to God, not in the humble confidence of a child r but in 
 pride, fear, or distrust. This spiritual disability is spoken of 
 as common to all men — the Apostle Paul included himself 
 when he said, " We know not what we should pray for as we 
 ought." And, after this, is it surprising that there should be 
 so much apparent prayer, which passes, like the idle wind ? 
 
 But the Spirit helpeth our infirmities and maketh interces- 
 sion for us. Intercession is pleading on behalf of another, as 
 the Church makes intercession for all. men ; and, beyond all,
 
 £857.] The Intercession of the SpiriL 53 
 
 as our great High Priest intercedes for His people in the 
 presence of God. It should be remarked, that whenever the 
 Scriptures speak of the Spirit as acting in the matter of our 
 salvation, His agency is performed within us. So, in this 
 case, the sphere of his intercession is in the hearts of be- 
 lievers ; for it is described as helping our infirmities, and as 
 issuing in our inarticulate groans. In the case of a son who 
 had become alienated from an earthly parent, two friends of 
 the family might undertake to effect a reconciliation — one 
 going to the father, to plead that he would pardon the prodi- 
 gal ; the other going to the son, to persuade him to return, 
 .and to inspire him with correct feelings and affections to- 
 wards his injured parent. This is an imperfect illustration 
 of the distinction between the intercession of Christ and that 
 •of the Spirit. The Spirit convinces of sin, reveals Christ in 
 the soul, sheds abroad the love of God in the heart, awakens 
 spiritual desires, and leads us to our Father in heaven ; and 
 His intercession finds utterance in groanings which cannot be 
 •uttered. A groan is the ^outcry of nature under a deep sense 
 >of misery, or a desire which is too great and vehement to be 
 expressed in language. He thus intercedes only for the 
 saints. Such holy desires and longings are awakened only in 
 the hearts where He dwells. There He awakens and keeps 
 alive the sense of spiritual neediness, prompts the desire for 
 the appropriate supply, and, as the Spirit of adoption leads 
 »us to a throne of grace, crying, " Abba — Father." 
 
 The Spirit comes forth from the Father and the Son, to 
 accomplish the purpose of Divine Grace in the heart of 
 the believer. In every step of His mission, He acts accord- 
 ing to the will of God : "He shall not speak of himself, but 
 whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak." Every desire 
 he awakens is an echo of the will of God ; and what we, 
 under the Spirit's influence, desire, is precisely what God 
 wills us to be and to have. Then mark the comforting con- 
 clusion — however imperfectly expressed, or though they can 
 not be expressed in words, He who searcheth the heart, 
 knows the want and the desire, and the unsyllabled prayer 
 i^ill be answered, for it is according to the will of God. We
 
 54 The Intercession of the Spirit. [Jan., 
 
 may utter our own selfish wishes or the conclusions of our 
 own reason, forgetting that we know not what we should 
 pray for as we ought, and have occasion to bless God that 
 our short-sighted desires are not granted to us ; but prayer 
 in the Spirit can not be ineffectual. " This is the confidence 
 that we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to 
 his will, he hcareth us. Whatsoever we ask, we know that 
 we have the petitions that we desired of him." 
 
 The blessed result will not be affected by our imperfect 
 utterance. Since the desires which the Spirit awakens must 
 be proportioned to the reality and preciousness of the bless- 
 ing sought, they must often be too much for utterance. The 
 Inability to express them is not peculiar to babes in Christ. 
 Paul speaks of it as the common experience of believers, that 
 the intercession of the Spirit is made in inarticulate groans ; 
 but this does not hinder God's knowledge of it. He goes 
 beyond all utterance, and searches the heart. Nay, he goes 
 back even of our imperfect conceptions and feeble desires, 
 and " knows what is the mind of the Spirit." Imperfect as 
 our conceptions may be, and inarticulate as our utterance 
 may be, the prayer comes to God in all the fullness of the 
 Spirit's meaning and desire. 
 
 What displays of love, then, are in every aspect of our 
 salvation ? It is not that in one sublime act of grace God 
 gave His Son, and issued a proclamation of pardon ; nor that 
 in one splendid act of sacrifice the Son of God put away sin ; 
 but heaven itself is made a court where the plea of mercy is 
 presented — the Eternal Throne becomes a mercy-seat before 
 which our Advocate continually appears. And, beside all 
 this, the Spirit makes a sinful world the theatre of His un- 
 wearied agency — not in that He once for all breathed forth 
 the eloquence of truth and love in the Scriptures, but that 
 He is ever present with that truth, bearing with the obsti- 
 nacy and corruption of men, as though loth to abandon 
 them — taking up His abode in the heart, when an entrance 
 is won, patiently enlightening our ignorance, training our 
 waywardness, helping our infirmities, making our organs of 
 feeling and utterance instruments of the Divine Will f fan-
 
 1857.] The Intercession of the Spirit. 55 
 
 ning the spark of life to a flame, and awakening such a sense 
 of sin, such pantings after complete deliverance, that, at last, 
 overpowered with their intensity, the soul is breathed out in 
 vehement intercession, human language fails beneath the pres- 
 sure, and naught remains but " groanings which cannot be 
 uttered." 
 
 We are admonished not only to " walk in the Spirit," but to 
 " pray in the Spirit." The two duties are intimately con- 
 nected. That we may pray in the Spirit, we should walk in 
 the Spirit ; and that we may walk in the Spirit, we should 
 pray in the Spirit. As Leighton expresses it, " That you may 
 pray much, live holily ; and that you may live holily, pray 
 much." The Spirit accomplishes His work of sanctification 
 and comfort in the believer by the Word. There are no 
 new revelations, but He makes the revelation which we al- 
 ready have, quick and powerful. If, then, we would know 
 the plenitude of the Spirit's power and aid, w r e must " let the 
 Word of God dwell in us richly." Professors, who neglect 
 their Bibles, may work themselves up into a phrenzy, and 
 call that the Spirit's power. Miserable delusion ! As though 
 the Spirit of God would sanction their insolent contempt of 
 His Word ! Christians must come back to their Bibles : the 
 Word must touch the inmost recesses of their souls ; " the 
 sword of the Spirit must be seen gleaming in heavenly ra- 
 diance" in the hands of the soldiers of the cross, before the 
 triumphs of the Spirit can gladden the Church. The Spirit's 
 work will be accomplished in us and through us, when we 
 are brought under the influence of His instrumentality' — the 
 Truth — the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. 
 Then only we shall know the power of prayer. Taught by 
 the Spirit, and walking in the Spirit, we will pray in the 
 Spirit. Prayer on earth will be in harmony with interces- 
 sion in heaven, and must prevail. Then, " whatsoever we ask, 
 we receive, because we keep His commandments, and do 
 those things that are pleasing in His sight." God will gra- 
 ciously meet the supplications which He inspires, and He has 
 an infinite fullness from which to supply our needs. " With 
 Christ, He will freely give us all things."
 
 / 
 
 56 The Intercession of the Spirit. [Jan., 
 
 The less gifted in the Church may be comforted with the 
 assurance that mere fluency of speech is no mark of grace ; 
 and that man has reason to humble himself who is a stranger 
 to wants beyond his own powers of accurate conception, and 
 to desires too vehement for words. We ought, indeed, to 
 aim at clearer conceptions, though the clouds may never be 
 dissipated entirely here ; and at fuller utterance, though the 
 last big, burning desire of our mortal pilgrimage may issue 
 in a groan or a sigh. But it must be remembered that the 
 answer of prayer does not depend on the eloquence of our 
 language ; and that the groan which conveys nothing to the 
 ear of man, may convey most to the ear of Him who searcheth 
 the heart. 
 
 With such aids and assurances, we should pray in faith, 
 " for he that doubtcth is like a wave of the sea : let not that 
 man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord." If 
 the answer seems to be delayed, we should only become the 
 more importunate. " Knock, and it shall be opened." Some 
 men's devotion needs the inspiration of a public assembly ; 
 prayer in the Spirit will often be in secret, when the heart 
 has nothing to do with man ; or in little circles of kindred 
 souls, like the company who continued with one accord in 
 prayer and supplication, waiting for the promise of the 
 Father. We do not need to pray, as they did, for the pro- 
 mised Spirit ; for the Spirit has come, and will never be re- 
 moved. But we need to pray for renewed manifestations of 
 His presence, that we and all the saints " may be strengthened 
 with might by the Spirit in the inner man," that His comforts 
 and fruits may be multiplied, and His triumphs extended to 
 the glory of God, the edification of the Church, and the sal- 
 vation of men.
 
 1857.] Chapter from an Unpublished Biography, 57 
 
 CHAPTER FROM AN UNPUBLISHED BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 BY JAMES IN G LIS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 It seems a long way to travel back to the origin of a life 
 which has expanded into the vigorous maturity of fourscore 
 years — the period which covers the history of this great 
 nation. And when we have reached the origin of it, and see 
 the infant welcomed to the simple love of a cottage home in 
 the Highlands of Scotland, it seems a strange enough con- 
 trast to the patriarch preacher of New York — a city which 
 then also gave little intimation of its present gigantic pros- 
 perity. We are not writing the history of one whose name 
 has been emblazoned on the roll of worldly greatness ; and 
 if we carry the reader to the romantic seclusion of that cot- 
 tage home, it is not to excite the interest with which the pil- 
 grim visits the birth-place of genius, to search for the tiny 
 foot-prints which mark the outlet of a career which led to 
 distinction. If we speak of the domestic circle which 
 adorned its humility with the graces of hereditary virtue, 
 it is not with the idle conceit of magnifying a hero with 
 fancied ancestral honors. But, speaking to a people sprung 
 from a Puritan stock, we would fain, by a description of 
 kindred character, refresh the fading impressions of a grave 
 wisdom, a sturdy virtue, and a heroic faith, which linger in 
 the hearts of a small remnant of a departing generation. It 
 may not be without its uses to mark the influences by which 
 the boyhood was moulded which resulted in such a maturity ^ 
 and that boyhood itself will be found to unfold qualities not 
 unworthy of the admiration of the ripest manhood.
 
 58 Chapter from an Unpublished Biography. [Jan., 
 
 The general character of the scenery of Scotland has been 
 made as familiar to Americans as that of any foreign land, 
 both by the literature in which Scotchmen have imperishably 
 recorded the admiration of mountaineers for their native soil, 
 and by the description of travelers who have gone thither 
 prepared to echo the admiration of scenes which that litera- 
 ture has made classic ground. The portion of Scotland with 
 which our travelers have become most familiar is the entrance 
 to the West Highlands. Multitudes of pilgrims annually 
 find easy access from the picturesque banks of the Clyde to 
 the mingled beauty and sublimity of Loch Lomond ; and 
 thence proceed through the awful majesty of its cloud-capped 
 mountains, and the simple loveliness of its bosky glens, to the 
 regions which the Wizard of the North has so thoroughly 
 peopled with the creations of his fancy. The mountains of 
 that region are lofty and rugged. Many of the peaks tower 
 up to a height of from two thousand to four thousand feet, 
 and between the ridges lie narrow valleys or straths, more 
 remarkable for picturesque beauty than fertility, in which a 
 hardy and industrious race earn a frugal livelihood by the 
 cultivation of the coarser kinds of grain, and the care of 
 flocks and herds, which pasture on the lower slopes of the 
 hills. The almost impracticable mountain paths discourage 
 intercourse with the busy world, and, within a short distance 
 of the great thoroughfares of commerce, little communities 
 may still be found who cherish, in their recesses, a primitive 
 simplicity and purity of manners. 
 
 They are distinguished by a piety which modern laxity 
 would regard as stern and austere, but which, observed more 
 closely by a Christian eye, would be recognized as approach- 
 ing our idea of the dignity and elevation of apostolic times. 
 The advantages of literary culture, in which we might be dis- 
 posed to boast our superiority, is made up in their familiarity 
 with the Word of God ; and, besides a mastery of the doc- 
 trines of the Gospel which would put many professed theolo- 
 gians to the blush, they often possess, under a rude exterior 
 and the awkward reserve of their manners, the finest appre- 
 ciation of the pastoral beauties and the sublimities of sacred
 
 1857.] Chapter from an Unpublished Biography. 59 
 
 poetry. With the sublimities of the prophets there seems a 
 peculiar sympathy in minds which take the impression of the 
 natural grandeur of the Highlands. 
 
 An humble man of this class was introduced to a party of 
 the literati of Edinburgh. Dugald Stewart, the metaphysi- 
 cian, who was of the party, asked him if he had ever heard 
 anything so grand as the oft-quoted lines of Shakspeare — 
 
 ¥ Our revels now are ended : these oar actors, 
 As I foretold you, were all spirits, and 
 Are melted into air, into thin air : 
 And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, 
 The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
 The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
 Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve ; 
 And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, 
 Leave not a rack behind : We are such stuff 
 As dreams are made on, and our little life 
 Is rounded with a sleep." 
 
 " Yes," said the rustic, with a look as grand as his subject, 
 
 ' I have heard the passage from which that was borrowed : 
 
 1 And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, 
 
 from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away, and 
 
 there was found no place for them.' " 
 
 They are devotedly attached to their National Church, 
 which is the Presbyterian, holding as its symbol the "West- 
 minster Confession of Faith. With the multitude, indeed, this 
 is now a mere national pride ; but, even among the true chil- 
 dren of God, this church is hallowed by the persecutions amid 
 which it was founded, the remembrance of which is kept ever 
 fresh in the traditions of the people. The cairns, or mounds, 
 which mark the martyrs 7 graves, are regarded with reverence 
 unmingled with superstition ; and the story of the martyrs' 
 faith and sufferings is narrated around the winter evening's 
 fireside, to audiences that never tire and are never unmoved. 
 Though all over the land may be found congregations who 
 have seceded from the church as established by law, they 
 would not admit that they have abandoned the church of 
 their fathers. They rather protest against the corruptions
 
 66 Chapter from e,n Unpublished Biography, [Jan., 
 
 which have naturally followed the dependence of the Church 
 upon the State — holding by the original symbols, and main- 
 taining the original ecclesiastical order, but disclaiming the 
 authority and the patronage of the Government 
 
 The most marked and attractive feature of the religious 
 system of Scotland is its family discipline and worship. A 
 great man, who knew well the peasantry from which he rose, 
 thus apostrophises his country, while he (rebukes modern de- 
 fections from the severity of ancient manners : " Ye were a 
 nation of families, and every head of a family was a king and 
 a priest in his house, which was a house of God and a gate of 
 heaven! Your peasantry were as the sons of kings, in their 
 gravity and wisdom. They were men who could hold com- 
 munion with the King of Heaven. Oh ! never again, till our 
 King comes, shall the world witness such a chosen vine and 
 noble seed as were planted among the most desolate wilds of 
 the North!" This is net the mere partiality of patriotism, 
 but contains truth which has not yet become merely historical. 
 Among the glens of which we speak it still lives ; and in 
 many a straw-thatched cottage, which looks desolately forth 
 apon bleak moorlands and mountains, may to-day be found 
 the hallowed reality of which Burns' 'Cotter's Saturday Night 
 is not an overdrawn picture. 
 
 Across a range -of mountains which grandly walls in the 
 extraordinary beauty of Loch Lomond and its hundred islands, 
 lies one of the secluded valleys of which we have spoken, 
 where nestles the village of Killearn — a collection of cot- 
 tages scattered around the parish church. A neat free church 
 now raises its rival steeple in the distance ; and a monument 
 is erected near it to the memory of George Buchanan, the his- 
 torian and poet, and the tutor of James VI, who was born 
 and educated there. 
 
 Among the most respected and influential of the farming 
 ^population of the parish, were the family of the subject of this 
 memoir, who, for successive generations, had .rented a farm of 
 a hundred and fifty .acres on the outskirts of the village, 
 where, having neither poverty nor riches, they maintained a 
 virtuous independence. They were noted among their neigh-
 
 1857.] Chapter from an Unpublished Biography. 61 
 
 bors for piety, integrity, and sagacity. His maternal grand- 
 mother was remembered, fifty years ago, as a woman of great 
 strength of character, who, by her address and her knowledge 
 of the Gaelic language, saved the village from being plun- 
 dered by the rebel forces, who ravaged the country in 1745-, 
 when the Stewarts made their last attempt to regain the crown 
 which their unworthy ancestors forfeited. A well written, 
 diary of her life and religious experience has been preserved 
 in the family. Her son, the father of our subject, was a man. 
 of superior intelligence, and at an early age won the respect 
 and confidence of all clas%e£ in the region. He was the repre- 
 sentative of the family worth, and the hereditary tenant of 
 the farm, and was entrusted with the collection of the public 
 revenue of the parish. As appears by the parish register, he 
 was married, in 1770, to the daughter of a neighboring farmer, 
 of kindred character, and who, in like manner, could trace 
 her pedigree through some generations of godly and exem- 
 plary worth. In the prime of a vigorous youth, they applied 
 themselves to the duties of their station with diligence and 
 success. The Divine blessing crowned their industry, and 
 they were enabled to build a comfortable home, somewhat in 
 advance of the humble cottages of their neighbors. It still 
 stands, a substantial though unpretending farm-house, on a 
 sloping lawn just without the village, named, from its site, 
 Grcei End. Here, on May 17, 177*8, their third son saw the 
 light of a fallen world. 
 
 The domestic life of the family at Green End furnished a 
 fine instance of the grave, peaceful and dignified economy of 
 the Scottish household. Every morning and evening the 
 hired laborers were assembled with the family to worship 
 God, in the simple service of singing a Psalm, reading a por- 
 tion of Scripture, and prayer. On the Lord's day this wor- 
 ship was observed morning, noon and night ; and in the even- 
 ing the whole household was instructed in the doctrines of the 
 Gospel. The mother, besides, taught her children, at a very 
 early age, to read the Scriptures. After they had begun to 
 attend the village school, she erathered them around her everv 
 morning before they went to school, and again in the evening r
 
 62 Chapter from an Unpublished Biography. [Jan,, 
 
 after their return ; and, while she pursued some quiet house- 
 wife industry, engaged them in reading, by alternate verses, 
 some portion of the Word of God, which she made the subject 
 of conversation which never failed to interest them. In these 
 daily readings, she explained the truth with such success, that 
 now the aged minister often recalls his mother's expositions 
 as the most forcible and correct. 
 
 Religion was wrought into the whole life of the family, and 
 thus, walking together as heirs of the grace of life, these two 
 humble Christians saw their children, six in number, growing 
 up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Their first- 
 born son died at the age of nine years, after having given the 
 most remarkable evidence of an intelligent and well-grounded 
 faith in the Redeemer. Another bereavement overshadowed 
 the sunshine of their home, in the removal of their youngest 
 child. And these, alas ! were but the precursors of severe 
 afuiction. In the midst of so much happiness and promise 
 at the age of thirty-six, when the subject of our memoir was 
 but seven years old, the head of the house was stricken down 
 by a sudden illness, and the mother was left, with four chil- 
 dren, to battle alone with the world, through the twenty- 
 three years during which she survived her husband. 
 
 The particulars of family piety handed down, not only in 
 its observances, but in its power, from sire to son, are re- 
 corded., not only to illustrate the character and manners of 
 that age, but to furnish a much-needed and neglected lesson 
 to the habits of this age, and a testimony to the preciousness 
 and power of that household training the benefits of which 
 still linger among us to the third and fourth generations, from 
 those men of God who transplanted to New England a kin- 
 dred piety. 
 
 "From scones like these Old Scotia's grandeur springs, 
 Which make her loved at home, revered abroad" — 
 
 and though we may not appeal, in this place, to the patriotism, 
 we may surely well address ourselves to the piety of this land, 
 threatened far more seriously by the degeneracy of native 
 morality, than by the influx of foreign ignorance and super-
 
 1857.] Chapter from an Unpublished Biography. 03 
 
 stifion ; that, ceasing from the wisdom of man, and the rest- 
 less transition from one to another of tiie flimsy expedients of 
 moral amelioration, the sons of the Puritans may return to 
 the old paths, and, in the peaceful seclusion of their homes, 
 make the hearth and the family altar the centre of an influ- 
 ence which may soon pervade our communities with the light 
 and life of Divine truth. It is not on the platform, hut the 
 hearth-stone — not in the occasional excitement of public 
 meetings, hut the evcry-day sanctity of life — not through the 
 noisy agitation of imposing organizations, but through the 
 silent training of the divinely instituted family relationship, 
 that the great work of moulding a people to intelligence, vir- 
 tue and piety is to be conducted. And it matters little 
 how costly our temples, how imposing our public acts of de- 
 votion, or how numerous our public agencies of religion and 
 benevolence : until domestic piety and discipline are revived, 
 and until, within the sanctuary of home, incense and a pure 
 offering ascends, the plague of infidelity and immorality can 
 not be stayed. We will not be understood as pleading for 
 the establishment of a form of family worship for the sake of 
 its influence upon the members of the domestic circle. It is 
 only when it is the natural manifestation of a living faith, 
 whose influences pervade life and all its relations, that it can 
 be aught else than a mockery of God, and an injury to all who 
 are within the pale of its influence. But we know no more 
 striking evidence of the emptiness of the loud and ostenta- 
 tious profession of our day than the fact that it is to its public, 
 and not its private activities that it always appeals. We 
 boast of our multiplied church edifices, religious periodicals, 
 Sunday schools, Bible and Missionary Societies, and the large 
 revenues of benevolent institutions, in contrast with the days 
 of our fathers ; but we say nothing of the worldly conform- 
 ities, at which they would have shuddered, unless it be to scoff 
 at their narrow views ; or of the decay of scriptural intelli- 
 gence, spiritual mindedncss, and every-day devotion.
 
 64 Signs of the Times* [Jan., 1857. 
 
 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 BY F. W. FARER. 
 
 The days of old were days of might 
 In forms of greatness moulded, 
 
 And flowers of heaven grew on the earth, 
 Within the Church unfolded ; 
 
 For grace fell fast as summer dew, 
 
 And saints to giant stature grew. 
 
 But, one by one, the gifts are gone, 
 
 That in the Church resided, 
 And gone the Spirit's living light 
 
 That on her walls abided, 
 "When by our shrines He came to dwell 
 In power and presence visible. 
 
 A blight hath past upon the Church ; 
 
 Her summer hath departed ; 
 The chill of age is on her sons, 
 
 The cold and fearful-hearted : 
 And sad, amid neglect and scorn, 
 Our mother sits and weeps forlorn. 
 
 Narrow and narrower still each year 
 
 The holy circle groweth, 
 And what the end of all shall be 
 
 No man or angel knoweth : 
 And so we wait and watch in fear — 
 
 It may be that the Lord is near !'
 
 WAYMAKKS IN THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 FEBRUARY, 18 51. 
 
 ADVANCING LIGHT OF PROPHECY IN THE ABRAHAMIC 
 
 COVENANT. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 PRELIMINARY. 
 
 "When man fell by transgression, and forfeited life in the 
 favor of God, the purpose of Divine Mercy was announced 
 in terms that conveyed a complete assurance of the over- 
 throw of Satan and the restitution of all things. This pur- 
 pose was to be executed by one who is styled, by way of dis- 
 tinction, " the seed of the woman" — who was to suffer in the 
 conflict, but, in suffering, was to triumph. The manner of 
 man's redemption is made plain to us, since God has sent 
 forth His Son, born of a woman, to destroy the works of the 
 Devil ; and now we can look confidently forward to the time 
 when Satan shall be bruised under our feet, and when, in the 
 everlasting kingdom of our Lord, all that was lost shall be 
 more than restored. The announcement to our first parents 
 seems to us vague and indefinite, but then it evidently re- 
 vealed enough to fix their faith in a coming Saviour, and to 
 awaken hopes of immortality. 
 
 The great Gospel truth concerning a suffering Saviour, 
 the propitiation for our sins, was from the first embodied in 
 
 VOL. II. — no. ii. E
 
 66 Advancing Light of Prophecy [Feb., 
 
 typical sacrifices. As wc arc informed, " By faith Abel 
 offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain." It 
 was " by faith," which implies a Divine promise and appoint- 
 ment — an expression which should at once settle the ques- 
 tion as to the divine institution of sacrifice. From this in- 
 stitution, as Jonathan Edwards remarks, " all nations derived 
 the same custom. No nation, however barbarous, has been 
 found without it. This is a great evidence of the truth of 
 revealed religion ; for no nation but only the Jews could tell 
 how they came by the custom, or to what purpose it was to 
 offer sacrifices to their deities. The light of nature did not 
 teach them any such thing. That did not teach them that 
 the gods were hungry, and fed upon the flesh which they 
 burnt in sacrifice ; and yet they had all this custom — of 
 which no other account can be given but that they received 
 it from Noah, who had it from his ancestors, on whom God 
 had enjoined it as a type of the great sacrifice of Christ." 
 
 "We have traces of the common faith and hope of the elect 
 throughout all the antediluvian period. The account we 
 have of the offerings of Cain and Abel shows that there was 
 an appointed place of worship where the Lord manifested His 
 gracious presence, probably in some display of His glory 
 similar to that in which He dwelt between the cherubim in 
 the Tabernacle and Temple. After the birth of Enos, the 
 son of Seth, we are informed, " Then began men to call upon 
 the name of the Lord." Not that then, for the first time, men 
 worshipped Jehovah, for the previous narrative proves the 
 contrary ; but this expression, " to call upon the name of the 
 Lord," has evidently a peculiar significance in Scripture. A 
 striking instance of this occurs in Joel ii. 32: "Whoever 
 shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered;'' 
 which Peter quotes in his address on the day of Pentecost, 
 as referring to faith in the Redeemer. Paul also quotes it as 
 the warrant of our faith in Him, in Rom. x. 13. And these 
 quotations enable us to interpret many other passages in the 
 Old Testament, as parallel with those passages in the New 
 Testament which describe the saints as " those who in every 
 place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord." It is, in
 
 1857.] In the Abrahamic Covenant. 67 
 
 fact, an appropriate designation of a peculiar people, who, in 
 every age, have been separated from the world that lies in 
 the Wicked One, by faith in a common Saviour — as will be 
 made more evident by a consideration of the proper use of 
 the name of Jehovah, in another place. We recognize the 
 distinct appearance of this people in the days of Enos, when, 
 on the one hand, the increasing population of the earth 
 rendered the distinction more apparent, and increasing un- 
 godliness widened the separation ; and when, on the other 
 hand, the conceptions and knowledge of the Deliverer were 
 expanding among the people of God, and they were bound 
 more closely together by the ties of a common faith in the 
 presence of their enemies. A fragment of antediluvian 
 prophecy, by the mouth of Enoch — that illustrious example 
 of faith, in its triumphant exercise and sanctifying influence — 
 has been preserved to us in the Epistle of Jude, in which, 
 with a vividness and distinctness that seems rather to belong 
 to the last times, he describes the true glory of the Redeemer, 
 and anticipates His triumph in judgment. " Behold, the Lord 
 cometh with the myriads of his saints to execute judgment 
 upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them 
 of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed, and 
 of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken 
 against him." 
 
 While we trace a people, before the Flood, one in faith and 
 hope with those who, in later times, " do believe in God," it 
 is a sad truth that they are but a few out of the multitude 
 who followed in the way of Cain. When the constitutional 
 vigor of the race was as yet unimpaired by the accumulating 
 traces of hereditary corruption, and when human life was pro- 
 longed for centuries, we might expect that vice, unchecked, 
 would attain gigantic proportions. In process of time, also, 
 the originally wide distinction between the sons of God and 
 the seed of the Serpent began to be obliterated, by a declen- 
 sion of the former class. Those who called upon the name 
 of the Lord entered into fatal alliances with those from 
 whom, in purer days, they would have shrunk as the enemies 
 of God. The consequence may be anticipated : religion was
 
 68 Advancing Light of Prophecy [Feb. r 
 
 almost banished from the earth, and vice every where 
 triumphed ; so that He who at first, with paternal delight, 
 " saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very 
 good," now "looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was cor- 
 rupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth." 
 So far as appears from the record, only one man stood out 
 against the prevailing impiety: "Noah found grace in the 
 eyes of the Lord" — the last remnant of faith in a race to 
 whom God had displayed the riches of His grace. 
 
 And how was this remnant to be preserved from being 
 swallowed up in the abounding corruption, or crushed by the 
 abounding violence ? After due warning to the ungodly, He, 
 whose eye never for a moment loses sight of His own, sent a 
 flood, and swept away the ungodly, while Noah and his family 
 found refuge in the ark built by God's appointment. Thus, 
 from the. corruption and violence that threatened it, the rem- 
 nant of righteousness was saved by the waters in which the 
 world that then was perished. The salvation of the Church 
 was effected by the destruction of evil, and life was brought 
 out of death. 
 
 We can not dwell on the appalling catastrophe, but at once 
 consider Noah a second head of the human race, descending 
 from Mount Ararat to occupy the desolate but purified earth. 
 On issuing from the ark, his first act was to erect an altar to 
 the Lord, and, in a memorable act of faith in the promised 
 Deliverer, to consecrate himself and his all to God. Jeho- 
 vah signalized His approbation of that faith by giving a new 
 grant of the earth to mankind, under a new dispensation of 
 His providence, under which, though the earth has from age 
 to age been filled with deceit and violence, His mercy and 
 forbearance remain, according to His promise that the earth 
 should not again be overwhelmed, but should be reserved 
 unto the consummation of all things. God's providence is 
 not now retributive, as it was in the antediluvian period, and 
 as it was under the extraordinary constitution of the Israeli- 
 tish nation. Temporal prosperity is not the token of God's 
 approval of His people, and temporal afflictions are not the 
 sure retribution that follows in the track of impiety. The
 
 1857.] In the Ahrahamic Covenant. 69 
 
 nations of the earth have existed under this promise to Noah, 
 that a fair opportunity might be afforded them of showing 
 what they could accomplish, and that, at last, His mercy in 
 the salvation of any might be apparent.* 
 
 With this new constitution the ancient covenant of God 
 was not lost sight of. " And I, behold I establish my coven- 
 ant with you" — language in which God's gracious promise 
 was revived and renewed. Noah's faith in the coming De- 
 liverer is also indicated in the prophetic blessing of his sons. 
 " Blessed be the Lord God of Shein, and Canaan shall be his 
 servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the 
 tents of Shem." In which, as Hengstenberg remarks, the 
 patriarch beholds a degree of prosperity for his son Shem, so 
 great, that instead of announcing it in direct terms, he is 
 moved to break forth in praise to God, by whom it was to be 
 conferred. The nature of this prosperity is indicated by the 
 use of the name Jehovah, which refers to the divine Redeemer, 
 who is styled the " God of Shem," implying that He would 
 
 * Warburton imperfectly apprehends this truth when he says: "But 
 that distribution of reward and punishment which God, under every 
 mode of His moral government, makes with supreme justice either in 
 this world or hereafter in another, was, when the sentence of death was 
 denounced on man's transgression, at first made here in this world, so 
 long as he continued to be favored with the administration of an equal 
 or extraordinary providence, which, as we learn from the Mosaic history, 
 was continued from the Fall down to the time when polytheism univer- 
 sally prevailed ; for when the world, by reason of the vices and corrup- 
 tions of its inhabitants, did not like to retain God in their knowledge, but 
 changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an imnge made like to 
 corruptible man, that first dispensation of Providence was withdrawn. 
 Yet, so soon as God had selected a chosen race, and had separated it 
 from the rest of mankind to place His name Ihere, we see with astonish- 
 ment this equal providence revive in Judea, for man was still under the 
 curse or doom of death; and this existed till repeated idolatries — the 
 crime which first caused the equal providence to be withdrawn from the 
 rations at large — did at length deprive the chosen people likewise of 
 their share of the bles?ing." — Divine Legation, vol. ii, p. 364. We will 
 not be suspected of sympathizing with Warburtor>, either in his views of 
 the ground of these facts, or in the use he makes of them.
 
 70 Advancing Light of Prophecy [Feb, r 
 
 sustain His covenanted relation to Shem. By the dwelling 
 of Japheth in the tents of Shem, it is intimated that the true 
 religion was to be preserved among the posterity of Shem, 
 and imparted by them to the descendants of Japheth, who 
 were to be received among the true worshippers of God. 
 As it is elsewhere foretold, that, through the seed of the 
 patriarchs, all nations should be blessed, so here it is pre- 
 dicted that the blessings of salvation are, from the posterity 
 of Shem, to be extended to the posterity of Japheth.* 
 
 Assured against a return of the waters of the deluge, the 
 race of man spread over the face of the earth, not without 
 abundant evidence that the imagination of man's heart is evil 
 from his youth. It might have been expected that the memory 
 of God's awful judgment would, through many succeeding gene- 
 rations, restrain human pride and passions, yet the traces of 
 the ravages of the flood were not obliterated when an im- 
 pious confederacy, to erect a tower of defiance against God, 
 rendered it necessary to scatter them by an extraordinary 
 providence — the confusion of their language. Noah died 
 but two years before the birth of Abraham ; yet, in Abraham's 
 day, idolatry had overrun the world, and the worship of Je • 
 hovah was almost extinct. So emphatically does every page 
 of human history refute the boast of carnal wisdom, that it 
 can find its own way out of darkness into light ! 
 
 On the speedy corruption of mankind subsequent to the 
 general deluge, God was pleased to adopt a new method of 
 perpetuating a knowledge of Himself and of His purposed 
 grace among mankind. He selected a family, separated them 
 from all other families of the earth, and fenced them round 
 by peculiar institutions, whom He made the depository of His 
 oracles, and through whom He determined to execute His 
 gracious plan. It is this new measure, and the advancing light 
 of prophecy in it, that we now come to consider, in the call 
 of Abraham, and the covenant which God made with him. 
 
 Lingering still near the cradle and original homestead of 
 
 * See Ilengstenberg's Cliristology on Gen. is, 9, 10.
 
 1857.] In the Jlbrahamic Covenant. 71 
 
 the human family, the ancestors of Abraham dwelt in Ur of 
 the Chaldecs, supposed to have been situated in Mesopotamia. 
 Joshua, in his parting counsels to the tribes of Israel, says of 
 Terah, the father of Abraham, and his family, "They served 
 other gods ;" and in the midst of this idolatry, in which, prob- 
 ably, he participated, Abraham was summoned to leave coun- 
 try and kindred, and go to an unknown land, upon the assur- 
 ance of God — "I will make thee a great nation, and I will 
 bless thee, and make thy name great ; and thou shalt be a 
 blessing : and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him 
 that curseth thee : and in thee shall all families of the earth 
 be blessed." We have the simple but expressive record, " So 
 Abraham departed, as the Lord had spoken to him." The 
 faith displayed in this sublime act of obedience is celebrated 
 in all the subsequent Scriptures. And, to estimate it aright, 
 we must remember that, in that corrupt age, the whole tide of 
 human opinion was against him — he was called to sacrifice 
 all that was dear to man — to estrange himself perpetually 
 from home and kindred — to expose himself to unknown toils 
 and dangers in a foreign land ; and all this upon the bare 
 promise of God, which, to him, was an untested security. 
 The sacrifice was immediate : the blessings promised were re- 
 mote. He was already seventy-five years of age, and had no 
 child ; yet, in the face of all probabilities, he believed God, 
 and went out, not knowing whither he went — an unparal- 
 leled instance of simple confidence in Jehovah. 
 
 Following the Divine guidance, he arrived at Sechem, in 
 the plain of Moreh, where God revealed to him that he had 
 reached the promised land — " Unto thy seed will I give this 
 land ;" but, as yet, there was no resting-place for the patriarch 
 himself. As a dweller in tents, a stranger in the land, God 
 preserved and prospered him. Lot, his nephew, had accom- 
 panied him on his journey, but the design of God required 
 that His chosen servant should be separated even from this 
 last bond of earthly association, and, in His providence, a 
 separation was effected. God then made a more full and 
 distinct revelation of His purpose — Gen. xiii. 14 : "And the 
 Lord said unto Abraham, after that Lot was separated from
 
 72 Advancing Light of Prophecy [Feb., 
 
 him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where 
 thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and w< 
 ward : for all the land that thou scest, to thee will i give 
 it, and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the 
 dust of the earth : so that if a man can number the dust of 
 the earth, then thy seed also shall be numbered." Yet the 
 promised inheritance was not to be immediately possessed, 
 for it is added, " Arise, walk through the land, in the length 
 of it and the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee." 
 
 After multiplied wanderings and perils, God again assured 
 him of protection and reward ; and Abraham, emboldened by 
 the condescension, inquired of the Lord, first, regarding the 
 promised seed, and received the assurance of a natural de- 
 scendant who should inherit the promise ; then, regarding the 
 inheritance, and God, with the utmost solemnity of sacrifice, 
 renewed the assurance : and now, for the first time, it is said, 
 " The Lord made a covenant with Abraham" (xv. 18). A 
 proper understanding of this transaction, and of the subse- 
 quent revelations of God's grace, requires some explanation 
 in this place of the Scriptural use of the word " covenant.' 7 
 
 In transactions among men, a covenant is a mutual consent 
 or agreement of two or more persons to do or forbear some 
 act or thing — either party being bound to the fulfillment of 
 certain conditions ; and, carrying this idea into spiritual 
 things, when God is said to make a covenant with man, it is 
 erroneously understood as a contract between parties, in 
 which God binds himself to confer certain blessings, upon 
 the ground of something to be done by man. Nothing could 
 be more subversive of the plan of mercy, nor more dishonor- 
 ing to God, than to represent man as in a position to make a 
 contract with Jehovah, or to give an equivalent for the bless- 
 ings promised in the everlasting covenant. God, in the 
 promise and bestowment of salvation, is to be regarded as 
 exercising grace and mercy to the guilty. Man is to be 
 regarded as receiving a free gift, to which he can urge no 
 claim, and for which he can render no price. Faith is not a 
 condition which man performs as his part of the covenant, 
 but is the simple reception of the blessings freely given to us
 
 1857.] In the Abrahamic Covenant. 73 
 
 of God. Holy obedience, so far from being the fulfillment of 
 man's engagement in a mutual covenant, is itself among the 
 blessings of the covenant) and an essential part of the salva- 
 tion promised by God. As it is written, "This is the cove- 
 nant that I will make with them after those days, saith the 
 Lord ; I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their 
 minds will I write them." If every instance in which Cod 
 is represented as making- a covenant with man be examined, 
 it will be found that it contains a free promise of undeserved 
 blessings to man. So it is in the case before us — "In that 
 same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, 
 Unto thy seed have I given this land."' So, in the case of 
 David, God says, " I have made a covenant with my chosen. 
 I have sworn unto David, my servant, thy seed will I estab- 
 lish forever, and build up my throne to all generations." 
 
 While it is evident from every example that God's coven- 
 ant is His free and gracious promise of blessings to man, it is 
 necessary to observe that another important element enters 
 into the very nature of such a covenant. Although God had 
 made repeated promises of the same inheritance to Abraham, 
 we hear nothing of a covenant until a solemn sacrifice has 
 been prepared, and the symbol of the Divine Presence has 
 passed between its divided parts. The bestowment of bless- 
 ings upon the guilty implies the remission of sins ; and since 
 God is holy, and just, and true, He can not manifest grace to 
 sinners without a satisfaction to His holy law, which He has 
 graciously provided in the sacrifice of Christ — "without the 
 shedding of blood, there is no remission." The manifestation 
 of His grace to man is all based upon this vindication of Ilis 
 justice ; and this enters into the idea of His covenant, which 
 is His free promise of salvation, rectified by the death of Christ. 
 Previous to the coming of Christ to put away sin by the sacri- 
 fice of Himself, God was pleased to direct men's minds to 
 this event, as the basis of all His gracious dealings with them, 
 by means of a typical sacrifice ; and whenever He is said to 
 make a covenant with them, it will be found that He makes 
 a formal promise to them, when a sacrifice has been slain in 
 confirmation of it. So the Apostle Paul, in pointing to Christ
 
 74 Advancing Light of Prophecy [Feb., 
 
 as the Mediator of the new covenant, argues : " For where a 
 covenant is, there must also be death of the appointed victim. 
 For a Covenant is of force when the sacrifice is slain ; other- 
 wise, it is of no force at all while the victim liveth." He 
 then refers to the ratification of the Mosaic covenant by sacri- 
 fice, when Moses said, " This is the blood of the covenant 
 which God hath enjoined upon you'' — language which cor- 
 responds with our Lord's reference to His own sacrifice, 
 " This is the new covenant in my blood, shed for many, for the 
 remission of sins." The Hebrew word rendered " covenant" 
 refers to this distinguishing feature of the transaction, and 
 signifies literally purifier, or purifying sacrifice; and the 
 phrase, to make a covenant, signifies literally to cut or to 
 smite the purifying sacrifice. 
 
 When men observed that God confirmed His promises to 
 them by sacrifice, it was not unnatural that they should adopt 
 the practice of ratifying their solemn engagements and trea- 
 ties with one another by the same rite. When God thus con- 
 firmed His promise, it intimated that He would be gracious 
 to them through the sacrifice of Christ. When men used this 
 solemnity, they severally bound themselves to the faithful per- 
 formance of their engagements by all their hopes of salva- 
 tion : and in this manner also they appealed to God for His 
 blessing on the transactions. We have examples of such a 
 practice in the sacrifices offered when a covenant was made 
 between Abraham and Abimelech, and between Jacob and 
 Laban. The practice also lingered among the traditions of 
 idolatrous nations, of which profane history furnishes ex- 
 amples that will occur to many of our readers. 
 
 Among others, Livy gives some account of the ceremonies 
 used on such occasions. When a treaty was formed between 
 the Romans and the Albans, the representative of the Romans, 
 having recited the terms of the treaty, uttered the following 
 invocation over the selected victim : " Hear, Jupiter ! hear 
 me, Father Protector of the Albans ! ye Albans, hear ! I vow 
 that the Roman people will never be the first to abandon 
 these obligations, which have been recited from beginning to 
 end from these writings, in good faith and in their full mean-
 
 1857.] In the Jibrahamic Covenant. 75 
 
 ing. If they be the first to abandon them, do thou, Jupi- 
 ter, smite the people of Rome as I now smite this sacrifice, 
 only smite with as much greater severity, as thou art mightier 
 than I am." Having said this, he killed the sacrifice with a 
 blow.* The same historian relates, that on the eve of the 
 battle of Trebia, Hannibal exhorted his army, and concluded 
 by promising them the most magnificent spoils, as the reward 
 of their valor. To confirm their confidence in his promise, 
 he took a lamb, ready for the altar, and, placing his left hand 
 on it while he held up a large flint in his right hand, he in- 
 voked Jupiter and the other gods, that if he failed in his 
 promise, they would slay him as he then slaughtered that 
 lamb ; and on that invocation, he crushed the head of the 
 victim with the stone. t 
 
 Among men there are mutual stipulations in a covenant, 
 and both parties usually engage in the sacrifice ; but when 
 God makes a covenant with men, He only ratifies His own 
 free promise by acknowledging the propitiation for their 
 sins; and so in the case immediately before us — the ap- 
 pointed animals were divided, and the parts were arranged 
 opposite to each other ; but the symbol of the Divine Glory 
 alone passed between the pieces, while Abraham was a pas- 
 sive spectator of the solemn scene. God then solemnly con- 
 firmed His promise to Abraham, over a sacrifice typical of 
 the great propitiation ; and, from this time, when He renews 
 His promise, it is always by a reference to this covenant. 
 
 There is another and secondary use of the term covenant, 
 which it is necessary to notice, in order to a fair understand- 
 ing of some portions of Scripture. An institution or system 
 of institutions, founded upon God's promises and illustrative 
 of them, is sometimes called His covenant, 'ihe Sabbath, for 
 example, is called a covenant, because it is a sign of the 
 promised rest ; and the observance of it is a profession of 
 faith in God's covenant or promise. So, in the institution of 
 the Lord's supper, the Lord said, " This cup is the new 
 
 : Livy, lib. i, cap. 24. f Livy, lib. sxi, cap. 45.
 
 76 Advancing Light of Prophecy [Feb., 
 
 covenant in my blood," because it is a sign of it. The wholia 
 system of the Mosaic institutions is called God's covenant, 
 because these institutions were founded on the promises, and 
 were signs of the blessings. So, also, we read of the coven- 
 ant of circumcision, because it was a sign of the blessings of 
 God's covenant. It would be a manifest perversion to repre- 
 sent these institutions, in their observance, as conditions to 
 be fulfilled, as man's part of the contract — as the ground on 
 which God bestowed His blessings ; for in the case of circum- 
 cision, for example, the covenant was ratified with Abraham 
 years before it was instituted. It was but a sign and memo- 
 rial of the covenant, in the observance of which Abraham 
 displayed his faith in the promise; as Paul takes care to show 
 in arguing the grounds of Abraham's justification : " Cometh 
 this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon 
 the uncircumcision also ? for we say that that faith was 
 reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then 
 reckoned ? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircum- 
 cision ? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And 
 he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteous- 
 ness of faith which he had yet being uncircumcised : that he 
 might be the father of all them that believe, though they be 
 not circumcised ; that righteousness might be imputed to them 
 also : And the father of circumcision to them who are not of 
 the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith 
 of our father Abraham, which he had yet being uncircum- 
 cised. For the' promise, that he should be the heir of the 
 world, was not to Abraham, or his seed, through the law, but 
 through the righteousness of faith." 
 
 We must leave the consideration of the Abrahamic coven- 
 ant itself for a future opportunity, and shall conclude this 
 preliminary article with the notice of one or two other im- 
 portant incidents in the life of the patriarch. When he was 
 ninety years of age, God re-affirmed the covenant, and 
 changed his name from Abram to Abraham, " the father of 
 multitudes," and added (Gen. xvii. 6), "And I will make thee 
 exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings 
 shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant
 
 1857.] In the Abrahamic Covenant. 77 
 
 between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their genera- 
 tions for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and 
 to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy 
 secd after thee, the land wherein tlion art a stranger, all the 
 land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession ; and I will be 
 their God." Then also lie promised more definitely that 
 Sarai, whose name was changed to Sarah, " the princess," 
 should be the mother of the long-expected son ; and, accord- 
 ing to this promise, Isaac was born, when Abraham was a 
 hundred years old. 
 
 The last and severest trial of Abraham's faith still re- 
 mained. This son of his old ago grew up in his affections, 
 and God broke in upon his dream of peace, with the com. 
 maud, " Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou 
 lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriak, and offer him 
 there for a burnt offering." Poor old father ! and can even thy 
 faith sustain this trial ? It was his only son, whom he loved 
 — the solace of his declining years — the child of promise, in 
 whom so many precious hopes were bound up, in whom the 
 promise was entailed, and of whom the promised Saviour was 
 to come. Must he fail by a wretched father's hand, without 
 a reason o-iv en r an alternative offered? But Abraham's 
 faith did not stagger even here. " He that had received the 
 promise, offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was 
 said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called ; accounting that 
 God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from 
 whence also he received him in a figure." He arose early in 
 the morning, made all needed preparations for the journey, 
 and set out sad, but not despairing. For three days he 
 traveled on, with the beloved son before his eyes, unmoved 
 in his resolution. With unfaltering purpose, he ascends the 
 mountain. What an appeal to a father's heart, when the un- 
 suspecting youth asked, " My father, where is the lamb for a 
 burnt offering"! But his faith does not waver. The altar 
 is built — the victim is bound! We know not what endear- 
 ments passed between the father and son — what groans of 
 anguish mingled with the father's words of consolation. The 
 knife is grasped ! The father's eye perhaps shrank from the
 
 78 Advancing Light of Prophecy. [Feb., 
 
 imploring eye of the son ; bat it must be done ! And Abra- 
 ham stretched forth his hand 0, the agony is past I A 
 
 voice from heaven arrests the deed, Isaac is unbound, and a 
 ram caught in a neighboring thicket was offered in his stead. 
 A fitting time this to renew the covenant, with more distinct 
 assurance of the Redeemer, who, long years after, was sacri- 
 ficed for sin near the very spot where they stood. The coven- 
 ant was now confirmed by an oath. " By myself have I 
 sworn, saitli the Lord, because thou hast done this thing, and 
 hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I 
 will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed 
 as the sand that is upon the sea shore ; and thy seed shall 
 possess the gate of his enemy, and in thy seed shall all the 
 nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my 
 voice." 
 
 A few more years, and Sarah died in Kirjath-Arba. The 
 widowed patriarch, still a stranger in the land of promise, 
 bought a burying place, the only possession he has yet ob- 
 tained in that land of which God said, " I will give it thee." 
 The venerable man had filled up the measure of a hundred 
 and seventy-five years. " Then Abraham gave up the ghost, 
 and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and 
 was gathered to his people, and his sons Isaac and Ishmael 
 buried him in the cave of i.acpelah : there was Abraham 
 buried and Sarah his wife."
 
 1857.] The Catacombs. 79 
 
 THE CATACOMBS. 
 
 BY JOHN HOGG. 
 
 The word Catacombs, or catacumbce. that is, places of sepul- 
 ture, was first given by Gregory the Great to those subterra- 
 nean vaults beneath the City of Rome, in which the early 
 Christians were accustomed to bury their dead. In early 
 times, they were styled Jirece, that is, vacant places, because 
 out of them the sand and building materials were dug for the 
 construction of the City of Rome, and Cemeteries, or sleeping 
 places, indicating the pleasing conviction that, to the be- 
 liever, death is a sleep in Jesus. These Catacombs, or sub- 
 terranean tombs, have been discovered in Rome, Naples, 
 Syracuse, Malta, and, in the year 1844, on the island of 
 Melos. They are all very much alike in structure, internal 
 arrangements, and symbolical representations ; and it has 
 been thought probable that those of Rome and Naples were 
 used as places of Christian sepulture as early as the end of 
 the first, or the beginning of the second century. The Chris- 
 tians, compelled by persecution, frequently met in these 
 tombs for the purpose of public worship, and to celebrate the 
 Lord's supper ; and hence, when the Emperors Valerian and 
 Gallienus commanded them not to enter the Cemeteries, it 
 was deemed a calamity little less than death itself : and, after 
 the age of persecution closed, the tombs of the martyrs were 
 places of frequent resort for the pious, and kings and em- 
 perors regarded it as a high privilege, during the middle 
 ages, to be buried by the side of those who sealed their testi- 
 mony with their blood, in defence of Christianity. Leo the 
 Great, who died in 402, was the first pope who was not 
 buried in the Catacombs, but in the vestibule of St. Peter's 
 Church, at Rome ; but it was still customary to bury priests
 
 80 The Catacombs. [Feb., 
 
 and princes in these honored vaults, at Rome, in the second 
 half of the sixth century, and at Naples and Sicily, in the 
 ninth and tenth centuries. After this period, only a few 
 bishops and princes of distinguished name were buried in the 
 Catacombs. 
 
 The veneration with which the Catacombs were regarded 
 by the early Church, soon led to superstitious usages. It was 
 customary, from the earliest ages, to celebrate the anniver- 
 sary of a martyr's death in these vaults, called his birth-day, 
 because he was then said to be born into a new and better 
 state of existence. At these annual gatherings, the acts of 
 the martyr were read, several discourses were delivered, and 
 hymns were sung, the Lord's supper was celebrated, and the 
 entire proceedings were closed by the Agapa, or love feasts 
 — a simple and innocent meal, in which the first Christians 
 participated after the celebration of the Lord's supper. These 
 customs were, however, productive of gross irregularities. 
 It was felt that the Church in heaven and on earth is one 
 family, and that the sleeping members of Christ's mystical 
 body have communion with the living. To indicate this 
 communion, the graves of the Christians were not placed 
 here and there by the side of the road, or each family buried 
 in its own field, as with the heathen ; but together, as if even 
 the dead were capable of mutual intercourse. Thus, Cyprian, 
 bishop of Carthage, denounces Martial, a Spanish bishop, 
 in no measured terms, because, along with other defections 
 from Christianity, he had interred his children in the burial 
 places of the heathen. In carrying out this idea, much be- 
 yond its original and legitimate intention, it was customary, 
 from the fourth to the eighth century, to communicate with 
 tlic dead ; to place the consecrated bread not in the mouth, 
 but on the breast of the deceased ; and, having put the wine 
 into a small phial, to place it either in the grave with the 
 deceased person, or in a small niche in the wall. The third 
 Council of Carthage, which met in 397, condemned that prac- 
 tice in their sixth canon, as contrary to the original institu- 
 tion and design of this holy ordinance. " It is determined," 
 aays the Council, " that the Eucharist shall not be given to
 
 1857.] The Catacombs. 81 
 
 the bodies of the dead ; for it is said by the Lord, ' Receive 
 and eat/ but corpses arc neither able to receive nor eat." 
 The evil was greatly increased when worldly men were ad- 
 mitted into the Church, after Constantino the Great had 
 established Christianity. Men, who knew nothing of Chris- 
 tianity but its name, held almost daily festivals at the tombs 
 of the martyrs, at which they ate and drank to excess, till, at 
 last, the Agapse degenerated into the Parentalia, which the 
 heathen were accustomed to celebrate at the tombs of their 
 deceased ancestors. These gross excesses gradually brought 
 the festivals at the tombs of the martyrs into disrepute. 
 During the middle ages, the Catacombs became the resort of 
 robbers ; and, at last, the entrances to these ancient tombs 
 remained undiscovered for centuries. 
 
 The rude inscriptions on the tombs of the early Christians 
 are exceedingly interesting. The earliest of them are writ- 
 ten in large capital letters, ill-written, badly spelled — bear- 
 ing evident traces that they were the production of an illite- 
 rate and oppressed people. It seems that some of the relatives 
 of the deceased were not able to read, and that they had 
 recourse to several curious devices, that, amid the multitude 
 of graves, they might be in no doubt of the resting-place of 
 their departed friends. Thus, on the grave of Dracontius. 
 we have the rude figure of a dragon, or snake, because draco, 
 in Latin, means a dragon ; on the grave of Onager, an ass ; 
 and on that of Porcella, a little pig — such being the meaning 
 of their names in Latin. These rude inscriptions evidently 
 belong to a poor and oppressed community, and clearly show 
 that, in the early ages of Christianity, " not many mighty, not 
 raanv noble were exalted.'' 
 
 a/ 
 
 The early inscriptions on the tombs of the early Christians 
 equally show their deep poverty and the strength of their 
 faith and hope. Some simply record, in the rudest charac- 
 ters, the name and age of the deceased. Of this, the follow- 
 ing is an example : " Irene, who lived five years, twenty-five 
 days." This inscription is accompanied with the rude repre- 
 sentation of a dove, with a palm-leaf in its mouth — indicat- 
 ing that the storm of Divine wrath was passed. In other 
 
 YOL. II. — NO. II. p 
 
 t
 
 82 The Catacombs. [Feb., 
 
 instances, the inscriptions contain sentiments of hope and 
 confidence. From the numerous examples that might be 
 given, we shall simply select the following 1 : 
 
 1. "Arecusa, in peace. She lived seventeen years, more or less." 
 
 2. " Syosima, twelve years old, in peace." 
 
 3. " To the well-deserving Petronia, who lived seven years. Died in 
 peace." 
 
 4. " Justus sleeps." 
 
 5. "Sabbatia, about twenty-nine years of age. Departed in the 
 sleep of peace." 
 
 6. " Olympiodorus lives in God." 
 
 Each of these simple inscriptions are the representatives of 
 large classes that may be found in the Catacombs. Though 
 multitudes who lie beneath these stones must have died a vio- 
 lent death, yet there is no record of blood and wounds, and 
 no prayers for vengeance on their murderers. Peace, peace 
 is the sacred symbol which meets you on their tombs. They 
 are described as asleep — showing that there is a glorious 
 resurrection morn. They are not so much regarded as dead, 
 as living in God — as if death were merely an emigration 
 from one world into another. 
 
 Some of the inscriptions are accompanied with a wish or 
 prayer, in which they are requested to pray for their friends 
 and brethren. Cardinal Wiseman, in his Lectures on the Prin- 
 cipal Doctrines and Practices of the Catholic Church, cites the 
 following examples, for the purpose of showing that it is right 
 to pray to saints, that they might intercede for us with God : 
 
 1. " Sabbatius, sweet soul, pray and entreat for thy brethren and 
 comrades." 
 
 2. " Atticus, thy spirit is in bliss : pray for thy parents." 
 
 3. " Jovianus, may you live to God, and pray." 
 
 4. " Anatolius made this monument to his well-deserving son, who 
 lived seven years. May thy spirit rest well in God, and thou pray for 
 thy sister," 
 
 5. "Pray for us, because we know that thou art in Christ." 
 
 " These," exclaims Cardinal Wiseman, " are, most of them, 
 inscriptions on the tombs of martyrs whose bodies were de-
 
 1857.] The Catacombs. 83 
 
 posited therein during the very first centuries of Christianity, 
 when men were ready to die for the faith of Christ." The 
 Cardinal, as a wise Romanist, carefully conceals the fact 
 that the Christians buried their dead in the Roman Cata- 
 combs till the close of the sixth century ; and that in the 
 examples he has given, there is a full-point placed after every 
 word — a practice which did not exist till between the fourth 
 and fifth centuries. If the Apostle Paul could say, " The 
 mystery of iniquity doth already work," when the churches 
 were still composed of those converted from heathenism to 
 Christianity, we surely can not wonder that at a later age 
 the progress of corruption should be still more apparent. In 
 the second century, Tertullian advised, though he did not 
 command, a certain widow to pray for the soul of her de- 
 ceased husband. It was also imagined that the souls of the 
 pious did not go immediately after death into the presence of 
 God, as the Scriptures taught, but into an intermediate place, 
 styled a place of refreshment. Some of the inscriptions con- 
 tain notices of this superstitious notion, as in the following 
 example : " Niaforus, sweet soul, in the place of refresh- 
 ment." This inscription, from its spelling and execution, is 
 much earlier than any the Cardinal has quoted ; and it is 
 easy to be seen how this general sentiment would, in a few 
 years, degenerate into the worst errors of Popery. 
 
 The date of a few of the inscriptions is fixed, as they 
 record the names of the Roman consuls, when they were 
 erected. This has, however, been a great source of error. 
 The same names of consuls occur at very different periods of 
 Roman history. Of this, the following is an example : " In- 
 nocentius to his wife, with whom he lived happily ten years, 
 twelve days, who departed from this age on the Ides of 
 August, Gallicarus being consul." The name of the other 
 consul has been obliterated. Now, this date will agree either 
 with the year 127, or 150, or even 237, though, from the 
 style of the inscription, the two earlier dates are the more 
 probable. Another inscription purports to have been made 
 in the year when Anicius Faustus and Severus Gallus were 
 consuls, which was at one time erroneously placed in the
 
 84 The Catacombs. [Feb., 
 
 year 98, but which, in reality, did not occur till 298. The 
 truth is, that the earliest inscriptions are entirely destitute 
 of dates ; so that a date almost uniformly indicates a later 
 origin. Thus, in Sicily, we have an interesting stone, with 
 the following Greek inscription : " Stephan, the deacon, of 
 blessed memory, rests here, who died on the 11th of the 
 month of June, under the consulate of Monayius and Plinta" 
 — a date which agrees with 419. In the Roman Catacombs, 
 the latest date refers to the year 56'8, under the consulship of 
 the Emperor Justin. It is, indeed, true that the monk Diony- 
 sius Exiguus, about the middle of the sixth century, intro- 
 duced the practice of computing events from the birth of our 
 Saviour ; but the new era was not generally adopted till 
 between the eighth and ninth centuries. 
 
 When the era of persecution closed, it was common for 
 persons to purchase graves in their lifetime for themselves 
 and friends, that they might be certain their ashes would 
 repose with the honored dust of the martyrs. Thus, we have 
 the following inscriptions : " Constantia made for herself 
 this place, while alive •" " Marcella made this for herself and 
 her daughter Bencdicta, while alive. In peace." At a later 
 period, the name of the Fossor, or individual who dug the 
 grave, and who was then placed among the lowest orders of 
 the clergy, was included in the inscription. In illustration of 
 this point, we may cite the following : " Felarius Stilico 
 being consul, on the 10th of the kalends of September, 
 Soteres, while alive, bought this place, for herself and her 
 husband, Vernaculus, from the Fossor Celerinus." The 
 modern date of this inscription is the 23d of August, 400 or 
 405. That the members of the same family might be buried 
 together, we frequently meet with double, and even three- 
 fold graves. Of this, the following instances may be cited 
 as examples : " Valerius Rogatianus, while alive, made for 
 himself and his wife a double grave. In peace." Sometimes 
 we have nothing more than a simple record of the names of 
 the deceased, as in the following example: " Scverus, Leon- 
 tius, Victorinus — a threefold grave." This custom, to- 
 gether with the names of endearing tenderness that appear
 
 1857.] The Catacombs. 85 
 
 on the tombs, show that the earl}- Christians cherished each 
 other's memory, and that they expected a happy reunion 
 •when the suspended friendships of earth should be resumed. 
 It is obvious that Christianity, while it controlled and di- 
 rected, did not freeze up the warmest sympathies of our na- 
 ture, but directed them all into a proper channel. These 
 tender sentiments must have bound the Christians into one 
 happy community, and must have soothed the pangs of those 
 who were about to be separated from beloved friends and 
 relatives. 
 
 " To hope, to think that we are dear, 
 Must change to bliss the deepest wo, 
 The saddest hour with rapture cheer, 
 And wake an angel's joy below." 
 
 Christian antiquarians have been very much perplexed by 
 a small number of inscriptions that indicate a mixed heathen 
 and Christian origin. On some graves we have the capital 
 letters inscribed, " D. M.," or <: D. M. S.," which the heathen 
 engraved on the tombs of their relatives, dedicating them to 
 the infernal gods. They mean, " To the infernal gods/' or 
 " Sacred to the infernal gods." It was at once felt that 
 these inscriptions were wholly unsuitable to the hopes and 
 aspirations of a Christian ; and, • hence, various attempts 
 have been made to obviate the difficulty, so as to vindicate 
 the character of the primitive Christians. It was impossible 
 to deny that these were Christian tombs, as they contain the 
 expressions, " In peace," " Laid down in peace," " Having 
 departed from the age" — sentiments wholly unknown to the 
 best forms of heathenism ; and many of them bear the mono- 
 gram of Christ's name, in which the second Greek capital 
 letter of the word " Christ" is run up through the first — a 
 custom which later and more superstitious ages transformed 
 into a literal cross. Some have supposed that the early 
 Christians employed heathen symbols with a Christian mean- 
 ing, and that on their tombs the questionable inscriptions 
 meant, " To the Supreme God," or " Sacred to the Supreme 
 God." But this supposed conformity to the idolatrous cus-
 
 S(y The Catacombs. [Feb., 
 
 toms of the ago is wholly inconsistent with the known aver- 
 sion of the first Christians to all monuments of idolatry, and 
 
 is an explanation much better suited to the temporizing in- 
 difference of the nineteenth century than to the uncompro- 
 mising fidelity of the first. It would be at once felt that the 
 letters would suggest the heathen meaning, which was com- 
 pletely interwoven with all the habits and feelings of the 
 age, and that the Christian meaning would be entirely kept 
 in the background. These Christian inscriptions, with a 
 heathen reference, are all of a comparatively late date, when 
 the piety of the Church had greatly declined. This has led 
 to the supposition, that these monumental stones had been 
 first placed over the graves of the heathen, and that the 
 Christians, having partially effaced the original inscription, 
 employed it to indicate the place where a Christian reposed. 
 It is not improbable that, in some instances, the mystical 
 letters, " D. M. S.," were employ ©4-«with no very definite idea 
 of their meaning. Thus, we know that a heathenish mode of 
 speech may prevail long after the ideas are forgotten which 
 it was originally employed to convey ; and, hence, we use the 
 names Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, &c, without 
 ever supposing that these days, as in heathen times, 
 were dedicated to the Sun, Moon, Tuisco, and Woden — 
 deities worshipped by our Saxon forefathers. It is probably 
 to the combined operation of both these causes that we have 
 a few such inscriptions as the following : " To the infernal 
 gods. Principio erected this to his most dear son, who lived 
 six years, twenty-seven days. In peace." 
 
 It appears from their names that many of these inscriptions 
 commemorate the worth of departed females. Heathenism 
 and false Christianity have alike degraded woman below her 
 true dignity, cither to the condition of a beast of burden, or 
 to the toy of an hour and a slave of passion. Christianity 
 first elevated her to her true position in society — not as the 
 petulant plaything, but as the companion and equal of man ; 
 and this is, perhaps, one reason why women, in all ages of 
 the Church's history, have so warmly embraced the Gospel, 
 and why, in primitive times, she so frequently died in its
 
 1857.] Nebuchadnezzar's Vision of Empire. 87 
 
 defence. When our Saviour was forsaken by His disciples, 
 
 He was followed by the weeping daughters of Jerusalem ; 
 
 and it was females who were last at the cross and first at the 
 
 tomb. 
 
 " She ne'er with treacherous kiss her Saviour stung, 
 Nor e'er denied Ilim with unholy tongue : 
 She, when apostles shrank, could danger hrave — 
 Last at His cross, and earliest at His grave." 
 
 NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S VISION OE EMPIRE. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar's vision of a colossal image, with Daniel's 
 interpretation of it, has been used by most expositors of 
 prophecy as the basis of their calculations of the course of 
 time, and by writers on the millennium as the guide of their 
 discussions. The importance of this vision, for these pur- 
 poses, is apparent at a glance, since it traces the course of 
 earthly sovereignty, in a continuous line, from the days of 
 Nebuchadnezzar, " that head of gold," down to the hour 
 when all earthly sovereignty shall make way for the king- 
 dom which the God of heaven shall set up. " For the true 
 account of times in Scripture, we must have recourse to that 
 sacred kalendar and great almanac of prophecy — the four 
 kingdoms of Daniel — which are a prophetic chronology of 
 times, measured by the succession of four principal kingdoms, 
 from the beginning of the captivity of Israel until the mys- 
 tery of God should be finished." 
 
 The general features of this vision, and its interpretation, 
 are familiar to all our readers, and need not be dwelt upon 
 in this place. The application of the interpretation, so far
 
 8S Nebuchadnezzar's Vision of Empire. [Feb., 
 
 as it relates to the four successive monarchies, is not to be dis- 
 puted. It is a simple question of fact. The prophecy itself 
 determines the power symbolized by the head of gold. And 
 when we interrogate history, By what was the empire of 
 Babylon superseded? there is but one answer — The Mcdo- 
 Persian. When wc ask, By what power was that second em- 
 pire overthrown? the unequivocal answer is — The Grecian. 
 And equally distinct is the answer of history, when we in- 
 quire into the successor of the third empire, the Roman — the 
 fourth and the last. Secular writers have not failed to notice 
 the fact, that there have never been but four universal mon- 
 archies ; and though their sagacity could not determine that 
 there can not be a fifth, they have necessarily noticed the 
 dismemberment of these formerly-consolidated sovereignties, 
 in which the distributive forces of the nations were gathered 
 up. The infidel might well be arrested by the prescience 
 which, in the days of Babylon r s glory, not only anticipated 
 her fall, but foresaw that, when these four universal monar- 
 chies had run their course, the power should be broken and 
 distributed. When to this we add the striking symbols of 
 the characteristics of these empires, in the materials of the 
 different portions of the image — -for, as in the metallic succes- 
 sion, the materials diminish in splendor, but increase in 
 strength, so, in the imperial succession, the kingdoms decrease 
 in pomp, but increase in power — there is surely something 
 very different from human sagacity or random suggestion. 
 " Infidels, as well as Nebuchadnezzar, may well be troubled 
 on account of the image." 
 
 Thus far, there is, and there can be, no dispute as to the 
 application of Daniel's interpretation of the vision : and 
 there has been little difference of opinion among the ex- 
 positors of prophecy as to t]ie application of the next part 
 of the interpretation. The ten toes have been almost univer- 
 sally understood as symbolizing the existing kingdoms of 
 Europe — though it has been a difficult task to name ten 
 kingdoms as realizing that tenfold division. Any attempt to 
 dispose of the difficulty, by treating the number as indefinite, 
 is embarrassed or rebuked by the repetition of the precise
 
 1857.] Nebuchadnezzar's Vision of Empire. S l J 
 
 number in the parallel vision of the four beasts, and the 
 ten horns of the last beast. Any one at all acquainted with 
 the geographical divisions of Europe, cither at the present 
 time or any period since the fall of the Roman empire, will 
 understand this difficulty. But there is another considera- 
 tion, which not only increases the difficulty, but renders such 
 attempts worse than futile ; and that is, the consideration 
 that the map of Europe is not co-extensive with the Roman 
 empire, and leaves altogether out of the division the original 
 scats and scenes of empire, which were all embraced in the 
 last great monarchy. Cast your eye over the whole extent 
 of the Roman empire, and recall the history of that vast 
 region since its fall, and you see any thing rather than a 
 settled and well-defined distribution of its power and re- 
 sources into ten or any other given number of kingdoms. Its 
 history is one of restlessness and change, in the vain attempts 
 of ambitious rivals to extend their dominions, or to adjust 
 their respective boundaries : and, in our day, the controversy 
 seems as far from settlement as ever. Nay, does not every 
 intelligent man expect a very speedy and important change 
 of the map of the world ? Who shall say whether that 
 change will not settle the question regarding these ten king- 
 doms, of which the prophet spoke? 
 
 But, to turn back to the Roman empire itself, there is one 
 important feature of the symbol which has been strangely 
 overlooked in popular expositions. The iron legs of the 
 image represent the Roman empire. The expressiveness of 
 this twofold symbol is obscured in our English Scriptures, 
 which give " the belly and thighs" as the symbol of the 
 Grecian empire. Mr. Newton points attention to the fact 
 that the word which, in our version, is rendered " thighs," 
 more properly denotes the lower part of the human trunk. 
 In the French version it is rendered " les kanckes." In Exod. 
 xxiv. 31, it is used to denote that part of the candlestick 
 where the main shaft receives the feet. In ordinary lan- 
 guage, when speaking of a statue or a man, "legs" is under- 
 stood to include the thighs. Venema renders it " the belly and 
 sides of brass." This twofold symbol, the "legs," distinctly
 
 90 Nebuchadnezzar's Vision of Empire. [Feb., 
 
 represents the twofold character of the Roman empire, from 
 the time of its full establishment till its fall. " This obvious 
 difference, " says Gibbon, " marked the two portions of the 
 empire with a distinction of colors which, though it was in 
 some measure concealed during the meridian splendor of 
 prosperity, became, gradually, more visible as the shades of 
 night descended on the Roman world. The Western coun- 
 tries were civilized by the same hands that subdued them. 
 As soon as the barbarians were reconciled to obedience, their 
 minds were opened to any new impressions of knowledge and 
 politeness. The language of Virgil and Cicero, though with 
 some inevitable mixture of corruption, was so universally 
 adopted, in Africa, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and Pannonia, that 
 the faint traces of the Punic or Celtic idioms were preserved 
 only in the mountains, or among the peasants. Education 
 and study insensibly inspired the natives of these countries 
 with the sentiments of Romans, and Italy gave fashions as 
 well as laws to her Latin provinces." " The situation of the 
 Greeks was very different from that of the barbarians. The 
 former had long since been civilized and corrupted. They 
 had too much taste to relinquish their language, and too 
 much vanity to adopt any foreign institutions. Still pre- 
 serving the prejudices, after they had lost the virtues of their 
 ancestors, they affected to despise the unpolished manners of 
 the Roman conquerors, while they were compelled to respect 
 their superior wisdom and power. Nor was the influence of 
 the Grecian language and sentiments confined to the narrow 
 limits of that once celebrated country. Their empire, by 
 the progress of colonies and conqest, had been diffused from 
 the Adriatic to the Euphrates and the Nile. Asia was 
 covered with Greek cities, and the long reign of the Mace- 
 donian kings had introduced a silent revolution into Syria 
 and Egypt. In their pompous courts, those princes united 
 the elegance of Athens with the luxury of the East ; and 
 the example of the court was imitated, at an humble dis- 
 tance, by the higher ranks of their subjects. Such was the 
 general division of the Roman empire into the Latin and 
 Greek languages."
 
 1857.] Nebuchadnezzar's Vision of Empire. 91 
 
 This division was radical and thorough ; and one of the 
 first indisputable evidences of the approaching dissolution 
 of that vast monarchy, was the more formal recognition of it, 
 when Valcntinian solemnly and formally divided the empire, 
 and bestowed on his brother the empire of the East, extend- 
 ing from the Lower Danube to the confines of Persia ; re- 
 serving for himself the Western empire, from the extremity 
 of Greece to the Caledonian rampart, and from the rampart 
 of Caledonia to the foot of Mount Atlas. The radical divi- 
 vision of these two branches of the empire is illustrated, also, 
 in the separation of the Greek and Latin churches, on which 
 it is not necessary, at present, to dwell. The division has 
 left its traces on all subsequent history, and is seen in the 
 community of interests and manners which, through all fluc- 
 tuations of power and contests of ambition, has rendered 
 Europe, in some respects, one great republic. 
 
 With the fall of Constantinople and the triumph of Ma- 
 homedanism, the Eastern empire disappears from our view : 
 and, perhaps, it need not surprise us that interpreters of 
 prophecy should have forgotten it, and should have confined 
 their attention to the Western empire, as though the image 
 of Nebuchadnezzar had only one foot, or, rather, as if the 
 toes of both feet were gathered together on one foot ? God, 
 in His providence, has forced attention to the truth. Recent 
 events have not only reminded mankind that there was an 
 East as well as a West in the Roman empire, but seem to 
 intimate that the dark shadow under which the East, with 
 its great history, has lain concealed, is about to pass away, in 
 order to the final organization of the ten kingdoms which 
 shall share the ancient dominion, as they occupy its ancient 
 seat in its whole extent. Nor is it unworthy of notice that, 
 contemporaneously with this movement in the region of an- 
 cient empire, on the borders of Asia, French arms in Alge- 
 ria, have been rescuing the African portion of the Western 
 empire from a kindred oblivion, and preparing it for its 
 place in the final distribution. 
 
 The Roman empire, in its completeness, extended over the 
 seats of the three empires that preceded it : its territory,
 
 1)2 Nebuchadnezzar's Vision of Empire. [Feb., 
 
 therefore, includes all that portion of the earth comprehended 
 under that colossal image of dominion. In the language of 
 Gibbon, " The empire was about two thousand miles in 
 breadth, from the wall ofAntonius and the northern limits 
 of Dacia, to Mount Atlas and the Tropic of Cancer. It 
 extended in length more than three thousand miles, from the 
 Western Ocean to the Euphrates. It was situated in the 
 finest part of the Temperate Zone, between the twenty- 
 fourth and fifty-sixth degrees of northern latitude, and was 
 supposed to contain above sixteen hundred thousand square 
 miles, for the most part of fertile and well-cultivated lands." 
 This is the region which, according to the sure word of 
 prophecy, is to be divided between the ten kingdoms who 
 are to share the ancient sovereignty ■ — not, indeed, with the 
 splendor of its golden head, nor yet with all the strength of 
 its iron legs, but partly strong and partly brittle, containing 
 an element of Roman vigor, but mingled with elements of 
 weakness and decay — part of iron and part of clay. 
 
 The most important advance in the interpretation of pro- 
 phecy in our times will be the full recognition of this fact 
 and principle. It will, indeed, overthrow whole systems of 
 hasty and confident speculation, in which men have taken 
 the events of history, and endeavored to make prophecy fit 
 them ; or have seized upon the most remarkable features of 
 current events, and, after adjusting prophecy to them, have 
 endeavored to make the great book of revelation a mere 
 book of divination, and have degraded the exposition of pro- 
 phecy to a kind of political fortune-telling, more attractive to 
 the idle curiosity of the carnal mind than edifying to the 
 children of God. 
 
 Napoleon, looking at the signs of the times from a human 
 point of view, predicted that Europe must speedily become 
 either republican or Cossack : and many so-called expositors 
 have gone down to the same stand-point, and have endea- 
 vored to accommodate the sure word of prophecy to their own 
 vaticinations. But he who walks by the Word of God, and 
 not by the wisdom of man, knows that it can be neither. It 
 can not be republican, for the power and dominion of the
 
 1857.] Nebuchadnezzar's Vision of Empire. 9o 
 
 fourth monarchy are to be distributed among ten kingdoms, 
 which shall continue till the mystery is accomplished. It 
 can not become Russian, for Russia lies beyond the limits of 
 empire, and can not even have a share in the final division, 
 unless, like the Turks, when they established themselves at 
 Constantinople, she ceases to be Russian : and should she 
 transfer the seat of her power and her name within the pre- 
 scribed limits, still Europe can not become Russian, for there 
 can be no fifth monarchy of earthly origin, and the dominion 
 of the fourth must be divided among the ten. Mr. W. B. 
 Newton, whose name and writings, we trust, will become 
 familiar to American readers, points attention to the impor- 
 tant fact, that the Scriptures regard the fourth empire as ex- 
 istent until the Ancient of Days sits, and the authority of the 
 Gentiles terminates. " After Adrian had given that tremen- 
 dous blow which he was allowed to inflict upon Jerusalem, 
 the Roman empire soon began to wane and crumble. But it 
 was not to crumble so as to perish, but only so as for the Ro- 
 manum imperium to become a divided imperium, to be divided 
 finally among ten kingdoms." He quotes, as confirmatory of 
 this statement, from Sir F. Palgrave's Rise and Progress of 
 the English Commonwealth — " The Roman empire, or fourth 
 monarchy, was not destroyed by the termination of the im- 
 perial governments, the founders of the barbarian dynasties 
 being the inheritors, within their respective kingdoms, of the 
 imperial power." But, without authorities, our readers them- 
 selves can refer to the facts in the case, so far as the event 
 has yet transpired. We need not dwell on all the conse- 
 quences of the recognition of these views of the tenfold 
 division of the kingdom, as being yet in the future. We 
 hope to have future opportunities of recurring to the subject : 
 meanwhile, we commend it to the serious consideration of all 
 who are waiting for the Son of God from heaven.
 
 94 Early Latin Hymns. [Fob.> 
 
 EARLY LATIN HYMNS. 
 
 BY JOHN HOGG. 
 
 The primitive mode of celebrating Divine worship was 
 distinguished for its unaffected simplicity. "On the day 
 which is called Sunday," says Justin r..artyr, " all who live 
 in either town or country come into the same place, and the 
 memorabilia of the apostles, or the cognate writings of the 
 prophets, are read, as time permits. Then, the reader being 
 silent, the president delivers a discourse, in which he in- 
 structs the people, and exhorts them to the imitation of ex- 
 cellent things." But, when Constantine, in 323, proclaimed 
 Christianity the religion of the state, and built large, mag- 
 nificent churches for the Christians — when even heathen 
 temples were transformed into temples for the worship of the 
 true God — a more imposing ritual was devised than what 
 was thought, necessary during the ages of persecution. 
 Churches, about this time, were built after the supposed 
 pattern of the Temple at Jerusalem ; the officiating minister 
 became a priest ; the communion table was styled an altar ; 
 and the clear exhibition of Gospel truth was changed into 
 delusive mystery. These were some of the causes, together 
 with the institution of numerous festivals and saint-days, that 
 essentially altered the psalmody of the Church, and gradu- 
 ally produced a more artificial and less Scriptural mode of 
 praising God than what had been practised in the earliest 
 and best ages of the Church's history. 
 
 But, perhaps no single cause contributed so much to change 
 the external form of the early Christian hymn as the intro- 
 duction of Arianism. Those who maintained that Christ was 
 a super-angelic being, and not the Supreme God, introduced 
 these heretical sentiments into their hymns, which, being
 
 1857.] Early Latin Hymns. 95 
 
 composed with more attention to rythmical arrangement 
 than the orthodox hymns, were soon greatly preferred by 
 
 the people. In order to neutralize the efforts of heretics, 
 and prevent the spread of Arianism, sonic of the Church 
 fathers composed hymns which taught the divinity of Christ 
 and the Holy Spirit, adapted to Ihe measures and tunes of 
 the Arians. The hymns of the Eastern Church, composed at 
 this period, are strongly tinged with the peculiar philosophy 
 of the Alexandrian school — a circumstance which materially 
 detracts from their value ; while the hymns of the Western 
 Church, moulded more nearly on the model of primitive 
 times, contain all the elements of praise, and are thus Letter 
 fitted for the use of a Christian Church. 
 
 Ambrose, bishop of Milan, who died about the year 397, 
 is one of the oldest and best of the Latin hymn writers. He 
 was distinguished for his blameless life and stern virtue, and 
 had been made bishop by the universal suffrage of the people, 
 and against his will, at the early age of thirty-four. So im- 
 partially did he discharge his duty, without respect to rank 
 or influence, that when the Emperor Theodorius endeavored 
 to enter the church at Milan, after having murdered at least 
 seven thousand Thessalonians, in cold blood, the dauntless 
 bishop took him by the hand, and said, " A bloody man is un- 
 worthy to be numbered with the Christian community." The 
 Emperor pleaded, in his own defence, that King David had 
 been guilty of murder and adultery, upon which, Ambrose im- 
 mediately replied, " Follow David in his repentance, as thou 
 hast followed him "in his sin ;" and steadily refused to admit 
 him into the church till he had complied with the penance 
 inflicted on aggravated offenders. This estimable writer 
 composed a number of excellent hymns, of which the follow- 
 ing, addressed to the Trinity, is an example : 
 
 The fiery sun its course has told, 
 
 And, in the gentler light of even, 
 Calm, pure, and fathomless, behold 
 
 An emblem of the light of heaven ! 
 True light ! whose beam true life imparts, 
 Shine graciously into our hearts.
 
 9G Early Latin Hymns. [Feb" 
 
 We, suppliant even in our song 
 
 To Thee, at morning's dawning light, 
 
 And, suppliant still, the praise prolong 
 To Thee, in decp'ning shades of night. 
 
 Our glory, suppliant evermore, 
 
 In songs Thy glory shall adore. 
 
 To God the Father, endless praise ! 
 
 To Christ, His only Son, our Lord ! 
 To TFim They sent our souls to raise, 
 
 By the sweet comfort of the Word ! — ■ 
 To Father, Son, and Spirit, be 
 Glory and praise eternally ! 
 
 In this hymn, as well as in all those composed about this 
 lime, through the middle ages, there is a certain rude rhythm 
 at the end of the lines, which, when chanted, must have had 
 a very pleasing effect. There is also a very pleasing allusion 
 to the evening and morning hymn of earlier times, in which 
 Christ's divinity is clearly taught; and it can scarcely es- 
 cape the notice of the attentive reader that there is a marked 
 similarity of expression between our hymn and these early 
 compositions. In the second stanza, the phrase, "our glory," 
 refers to the tongue, regarded as the instrument of manifest- 
 ing the Divine glory, as in Psalm Ivii. 8, " Awake up, my 
 glory ; awake, psaltery and harp : I myself will awake 
 early' 7 — Psalm xvi. 9 : "~My heart is glad, and my glory re- 
 joiccth." 
 
 About this period, the singers occupied a prominent place 
 in the Christian Church, and schools were instituted for the 
 purpose of instructing the youth in Church music. The 
 Christian people sung along with the choir ; for Christian 
 worship had not yet degenerated into a performance. But, 
 as piety declined, the choir cultivated difficult pieces of 
 music, in which the people could not join, till, in the year 
 590, Gregory the Great so entirely altered the Ambrosian 
 hymns and mode of singing, as to confine the praises of God 
 to a very small class in the community. He composed, how- 
 ever, some excellent hymns, of which the following, addressed 
 to Christ, freely translated, is an example :
 
 1857.] Early Latin Hymns. 1)7 
 
 HYMN TO CHRIST, THE KING. 
 
 Thou King anointed, at whose word 
 
 A world from nothing answ'ring came, 
 The •world, redeemed, shall own thee Lord, 
 
 And yield its honors to Thy name. 
 To Thee, low-bending down Thine ear, 
 
 The suppliant never pleads in vain — 
 Our lowly homage swift to hear, 
 
 Though angels swell the rival strain. 
 
 Eternal life flows from Thy wound ; 
 
 Grace, in Thy very weakness strong, 
 Dissolves the tyrant's chains, which bound' 
 
 Our souls to ruin, dragged along. 
 Each star is but another gem 
 
 To garnish Thy creative crown ; 
 Yet Thou, the Babe of Bethlehem, 
 
 The humblest wilt a brother own ! 
 
 Thy hand the secret influence wove 
 
 That links in one, things great and imall }. 
 Thy hands were fettered to remove 
 
 The tangled net of Satan's thrall. 
 Nailed to the cross, Thy piteous- cry 
 
 Scarce pierced the shout of hellish rage ; 
 Thy whisper shakes the earth and sky; 
 
 Thy glance sheds darkness on the age. 
 
 Refulgent Victor ! from the height 
 
 Of Thy paternal glory, bend ; 
 From dangers of the thick'ning night, 
 
 Thy people, best of Kings ! defend. 
 The darkness of the night dispel ; 
 
 Reveal the splendors of Thy throne ; 
 O'erthrow the reign of Death and Hell, 
 
 And take the kingdoms for Thine own. 
 
 This hymn was usually sung at the celebration of the 
 Lord's supper. A connection is partly traced between the 
 Saviour's sufferings and the blessings oi salvation ; as, the- 
 Saviour was bound, that he might unbind the complications 
 of a world falling to ruin — a comparison which was elabo* 
 
 TOL. II. — NO. II. G
 
 98 Early Latin Hymns. [Feb., 
 
 rated and extended, to a great many particulars, during the 
 middle ages. But, though the langunge of this hymn is magnifi- 
 cent, and it contains many just sentiments, yet it is decidedly 
 inferior, in devotional feeling, to the early Ambrosian hymns. 
 During the lives of the early Roman popes, a great, revolu- 
 tion was effected in Church psalmody and music. The choir 
 became gradually more and more separated from the people ; 
 difficult music was cultivated ; and the introduction of the 
 organ, together with various wind instruments, almost com- 
 pelled the people to worship God by proxy. But the Latin 
 was still the vernacular language in Italy, Spain, France, and 
 North Africa ; so that Divine service was still performed in 
 the language of the people. A decided change, however, was 
 soon to be effected. The Northern barbarians poured their 
 hordes into the civilized parts of Europe, and, after the first 
 fearful slaughter, the conquerors and the conquered settled 
 down side by side, and ultimately were blended into one 
 people. The consequence was, that the rude Northern dia- 
 lects were intermingled with the Latin, and formed, by de- 
 grees, the various languages of modern Europe. Now, when 
 the Romish missionaries went into England and Germany to 
 preach the Gospel to the heathen, and to plant churches, 
 they were unable to speak the rude dialects of the people 
 among whom they lived, and never attempted to translate the 
 Scriptures into the language of the people, as Ulphilas had 
 done among the Goths, in the year 361. They performed 
 Divine service exclusively in the Latin language ; so that the 
 people were compelled, from the very necessities of the case, 
 to praise God by proxy. The evil was confirmed and per- 
 petuated, when Charles the Great compelled the Romish 
 ritual to be exclusively used in his dominions, that a common 
 church service might serve as a bond of union, and ultimately 
 mould the numerous tribes that he governed into one people. 
 The Roman pontiffs were not slow to perceive that similarity 
 of language and of religious observances were essential to 
 the outward unity of their church ; so they enacted that the 
 laity should neither possess nor read the liturgy and hymns 
 in any other language than Latin. The ministers of the Gos- 
 
 - ■
 
 1657.] Early Latin Hymns. 99 
 
 pel were changed into priests, supposed to be surrounded 
 with an austere and super-human virtue ; and it was sup- 
 posed to be their exclusive duty to worship God in the 
 temple below, as the angels worshipped Him in the temple 
 above. 
 
 During this period, some noble hymns were composed, 
 though generally tinged with the tenets of Popery. This 
 is particularly the case witli the noble hymn entitled " Dies 
 iras, dies ilia." It was composed by Thomas of Ccllano, a 
 Franciscan monk, who lived about the year 1230. A few 
 verses have been imitated, in a free translation, by Sir Walter 
 Scott, as follows : 
 
 " That day of wrath, that dreadful day, 
 When heaven and earth shall pass away, 
 What power shall be the sinner's stay? 
 How shall he meet that dreadful day ? 
 
 When, shriv'ling like a parched scroll, 
 The naming heavens together roll ; 
 When, louder yet, and yet more dread, 
 Swells the high trump that wakes the dead ;< — 
 
 ! on that day, that wrathful day, 
 When man to judgment wakes from clay, 
 Jesus! be thou the sinner's stay, 
 When heaven and earth shall pass away." 
 
 In this hymn, Christ is entreated to show mercy to the 
 sinner, as He did to the dying malefactor that hung on the 
 cross by His side; and., also, from the affection He bore for His 
 mother — the latter being a purely Roman Catholic petition. 
 This hymn was intended for All Souls' Day, though many of 
 its sentiments are worthy of a much nobler purpose. 
 
 In early times, hymns were regarded as an important me- 
 dium of communicating truth ; and, hence, Paul represents 
 his converts as teaching and admonishing one another in 
 psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. In all ages, poetry 
 has, to a considerable extent, lived in the hearts and moulded 
 the characters of men. Thus, Fletcher of Saltoun once said,
 
 100 Early Latin Hymns. [Feb., 
 
 that if he were permitted to make the ballads of a nation, 
 he cared not who made the laws : and it is true, in a still 
 more important sense, that he who is permitted to make the 
 hymns of a church need care little who preaches, or who 
 makes the creed ; for the commonly-received psalmody will 
 slowly but surely mould the popular faith and the popular 
 character. But it was impossible for Latin hymns, however 
 well composed, to produce any practical result during the 
 middle ages, as Latin had become a dead language ; and it 
 was not till the morning of the Reformation dawned that 
 the slumbering piety of the Church was awakened. Then 
 Luther composed a hymn-book in the German language, which 
 was published in 1524, and in one year it passed through four 
 editions. These hymns were sung by men, women, and chil- 
 dren, in the market place, in the fields, and in every situation 
 of life ; so that the doctrines of the Reformation were, to 
 use the words of a Jesuit, " sung into the hearts of the 
 people." Indeed, the value of hymns was tacitly admitted by 
 the Roman Catholics, as, in order to counteract the Reforma- 
 tion, some of their most distinguished poets composed hymns, 
 recommending the errors of Popery. Thus, hymns have 
 been employed as an important medium of communicating 
 both truth and error ; and, consequently, it is of the highest 
 importance that they should be thoroughly imbued with the 
 spirit and principles of the Gospel.
 
 1857.] Christ's Last Discourse. 101 
 
 CHRIST'S LAST DISCOURSE AT TABLE WITH HIS 
 
 DISCIPLES. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 The discourse recorded in John xiv, and subsequent chap- 
 ters, has always possessed a singular charm, even for those 
 who could not appropriate its affluence of heavenly consola- 
 tion. Like a clear fountain which gushes in living joy from 
 a lofty rock, the traveler gazes with delight on its sparkling 
 beauty, though he cau not reach its waters, to quench his 
 thirst. You may find traces of frequent perusal on these 
 pages in many Bibles that bear no other mark of diligent 
 study. There is a beauty in the love it reveals, which ar- 
 rests even those whose hearts that love never warmed • its 
 tenderness may attract when its weighty truths are unap- 
 preciated ; and, besides, there is such a ceaseless yearning for 
 comfort in the heart of fallen man, that its very accents 
 soothe, though its import be unknown. But, to the Church, 
 what wells of consolation are there ! From the hour on 
 which it was uttered — an hour of peace amid deepening 
 troubles — the sweet stream of its comfort has flowed on, 
 following the Church in the wilderness, and the pilgrims of 
 all ages have drunk their fill. It flows fresh and full as 
 ever. A brief contemplation of its opening verses will not be 
 irksome to those who trace these Waymarks ; and, if we 
 succeed in making their import more distinct in the appre- 
 hension of any wayfaring man, we shall thank Him who gave 
 us this stream, for the privilege of sending a brother on his 
 journey refreshed. 
 
 r ihe record of this discourse has an appropriate place in 
 the Gospel by John. Neander, whose views of inspiration 
 are low, though he was the antagonist of German Neology,
 
 102 Christ's Last Discourse [Feb. r 
 
 when accounting, in a natural way, for the accurate recollec- 
 tion of such a discourse, says, " When the spiritual life of the- 
 disciples, eclipsed for a moment, emerged again after the re- 
 surrection of their Master, how brilliantly must the image of 
 these last discourses have shone forth in their hearts ! How 
 precious must each word have been to them !" And, again r 
 he says, more pointedly, " John could not have been John, 
 had it been possible for him to forget such discourses of 
 Christ." There is truth in the remark, though it was not 
 needed to account for the full record which we have under 
 the guidance of that Spirit who was promised to bring all 
 things to their remembrance. Owen, if we remember aright, 
 likens the inspired men to harps, which give forth a melody 
 according to the will and intent of the performer. Accept- 
 ing the figure, so far as it expresses the truth that " holy men 
 of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," we 
 may add, that, nevertheless, each harp has its own tone, and 
 the melody bears to the ear the distinctive sound of the in- 
 strument. And so we say, this discourse has a natural place 
 in the Gospel by John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. 
 
 Much of its impressive tenderness arises from the circum- 
 stances in which it was delivered. At that last supper, when 
 the traitor had e;one — when the darkness of that night of wo 
 
 'O' 
 
 was gathering on His soul — when He knew that, ere the 
 next day dawned, He should be betrayed into the hands of 
 His enemies, — then, the heavenly serenity of His soul undis- 
 turbed, He thought only of those He was soon to leave, and 
 occupied the last brief hour of peace in fortifying their minds 
 against approaching trials. Apart from their tender interest, 
 attention to these circumstances is necessary to a just appre- 
 ciation of the design of the speaker. We are not to regard 
 Him as a dying friend, preparing those who loved him for the 
 event of his- death, and suggesting consolations to sustain 
 them when he should be laid in the grave. He was to die, 
 indeed ; but then He was to rise again, and, three days after, 
 if they went to the tomb, they would hear the joyful an- 
 nouncement, " He is not here, for He is risen, as He said, 
 Come see the place where the Lord lay." The Church does
 
 1857.] At Table xeith His Disciples. 103 
 
 not, in widowhood, go to the grave to weep there. He 
 designed to prepare them for very different trials ; and the 
 grand consolation He offers is, that He liveth evermore. 
 
 He had come to His own, and II is own received Him not. 
 Upon His final rejection by Israel, it is evident that the grace 
 of God must be ministered in a new dispensation. He was 
 not, as His disciples had expected, " at that time to restore 
 the kingdom to Israel," but was to sit down on His Father's 
 throne until His enemies shall be made His footstool. The 
 Church, meanwhile, which is His body, was to be left in the 
 world, walking by faith, and not by sight — holding on tho 
 path of suffering in which He was made perfect, and meeting 
 with the same returns for all her love from the world, which, 
 as it hated Christ, must hate His people, in as far as they are 
 like Him. 
 
 The principles and life of holiness are the same in all dis- 
 pensations. These the Lord had already taught. He had. 
 exhibited these principles in action, amidst the sufferings and. 
 hostility which His people were to encounter. He had. 
 silently communicated to them much truth, which could only 
 come into use after he had left them. But, up to the time 
 when he was' actually proclaimed king in Jerusalem, His pub- 
 lic ministry had reference to that offer which He made of 
 Himself, as David's son, and the heir of David's throne. 
 Now, He had been formally rejected — Jerusalem had re- 
 fused to be gathered under Him — and their house was left 
 to them desolate. The whole tone and aspect of His ministry 
 was, therefore, changed, and has reference expressly to the 
 dispensation which was to succeed. The principles and life 
 of holiness are always the same ; but every dispensation has 
 truth and duties, promises and obligations, blessings and 
 trials, peculiar to itself. This last discourse unfolds the dis- 
 tinguishing truths of that dispensation which began when He 
 went to the Father, and which will continue until He come 
 again. 
 
 This renders it interesting and precious to us. The com- 
 fort and counsel it contains are not of any private applica- 
 tion to the eleven, or to their individual sorrows ; as tho
 
 104 Christ's Last Discourse [Feb., 
 
 intercession, at its close, was not for them alone, but for all 
 who should believe on Him, through their word. He dis- 
 played, indeed, a peculiar sympathy for them in the trial of 
 the transition. The discourse has an aspect of peculiar ten- 
 derness towards those who had been the companions of His 
 pilgrimage, whose hopes that Israel would own " the Blessed 
 One" were all blasted, and who, in future conflict, would 
 miss the familiar presence of their Counsellor and Protector. 
 Still, He speaks to them as representatives of His Church 
 during His absence, and gives directions and promises which 
 remain in full force and application to us. 
 
 The consolatory admonition, " Let not your hearts be 
 troubled," is said, not with reference to His approaching 
 death, but with reference to the condition of the Church on 
 His ascension — left to be buffeted by a world's hostility in 
 fulfilling an arduous mission. And abundant reasons are 
 offered why, even then, their hearts should not be troubled. 
 
 I. He directs them to this unfailing stay : " Ye believe in 
 God, believe also in me." They had already, by Divine 
 illumination, recognized Him as the Christ — the Son of 
 God. He does not, therefore, in this sense, challenge their 
 faith. They had, indeed, believed upon Him as the Christ, 
 the Saviour of the world ; but, then, they had given their 
 confidence to one who dwelt among them, and who went out 
 and in before them in the warm and sensible reality of every- 
 day companionship. He was now about to be removed from 
 them, and He taught them, that He who had been an object 
 of sight, was to become an object of faith. " Ye believe in 
 God" — or, if it be preferred, " Believe in God ;" that is to 
 say, " in God who is invisible : you realize His love, though 
 you never heard His voice ; you experience His care, though 
 you never touched the hand that guides and protects you." 
 " Believe also in me ;" that is to say, " In like manner you 
 must realize my existence, love, and care, when I also am out 
 of sight." He not only lives, but loves ; and His care is as 
 effective, now that He sits at God's right hand, as it was when 
 He tabernacled on the earth. This comfort remains, and this 
 is the faith in which we now live. As Peter expresses it,
 
 1857.] At Tabic with His Discipks. 105 
 
 " Whom not having seen, ye love ; in whom, though now ye 
 see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable 
 and full of glory." 
 
 II. He adds the consolatory assurance, " In my Father's 
 house are many mansions : if it were not so, I would have 
 told you." This is commonly connected with the intimation 
 which follows : "I go to prepare a place for you." But 
 surely this intimation did not need to be backed up by so 
 positive an assurance that there were many mansions in His 
 Father's house ; as though He could not otherwise make good 
 His word. Besides, the idea of many separate mansions does 
 not harmonize with other intimations of the final state of the 
 redeemed. We are taught to look forward, not to a state of 
 isolation, where each shall occupy his separate abode, but 
 rather to our gathering together unto Him, and to being ever 
 with the Lord in the closest relations of a common inheri- 
 tance. Neither is it a scriptural idea that we are at last to 
 be taken away to distant abodes : the salvation is to be 
 brought to us, and the tabernacle of God is to be with men. 
 
 The assurance connects itself naturally with the view of 
 our present relations to our glorious but unseen Head. He 
 is in one abode, and His Church in another ; but both in 
 mansions in His Father's house. He has just taught them to 
 realize the existence and love of an invisible Saviour ; and> 
 to enforce the lesson, he continues: " In my Father's house are 
 many mansions : if it were not so, I would have told you." 
 If this earth had been the only place in all the universe 
 where the man, Christ Jesus, could exist, so that in leaving 
 it He must cease to be man, He would not have left them 
 ignorant of so important a fact. But it is not so. In that 
 wide universe which, in all its extent, is the house of our 
 Father, there are many places where He could abide. The 
 word rendered "mansions" Las not that idea of permanence 
 which our word conveys, and by which the English reader 
 may be misled. As Barnes points out, it was applied by 
 Greek writers to the tents or temporary dwellings which 
 soldiers pitch in their marches. There were many places of 
 abode, but all in His Father's house. His absence, therefore
 
 106 Christ's Last Discourse [Feb., 
 
 involves no dissolution of lies ; and the thought seems to 
 lessen the sense of distance and separation. If we may he 
 pardoned a familiar illustration, it is as when a fond mother 
 is about to leave her child to the solitude of its sleeping 
 chamber, and when clinging affection, rather than timidity, 
 remonstrates against her departure, she soothes it with the 
 assurance, " I am not going to forsake my child. I am but 
 going into the next apartment, and shall still be near." This 
 is not a hope of the future, but a comfort of the present. 
 The Lord, though unseen, is not far off from us. 
 
 III. He makes the consoling intimation, "I go to prepare 
 a place for you." There is a great work advancing on earth, 
 through the Church, as the organ of the Holy Spirit ; but it 
 would be a radically defective view of this dispensation to 
 coniine our regards to this, as though the Lord, meanwhile, 
 had retired from the work, and, in sublime repose, or in lofty 
 occupation, in other spheres, awaited the completion of the 
 number of His elect. r l he official work of our High Priest 
 is now advancing within the vail — a work as essential to 
 the grand purpose, as His death upon the cross. His de- 
 scent to earth was not more expressly for His people than 
 His ascent to heaven. There is consolation in the assurance 
 that He lives and loves, and is still near us ; but, more than 
 this, He is still occupied with our interests — nay, He has 
 gone for the very purpose of promoting them. 
 
 It would be a low view of His language to interpret it as 
 referring to the preparation of a local habitation ; as though 
 He who spake, and it was done, were engaged in the labo- 
 rious construction of a dwelling, to which He will remove 
 His people. There is, indeed, a building which He is con- 
 ducting in this dispensation, and which, under His care, 
 " groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord." Living stones 
 upon the living foundation, arc built up a spiritual house. 
 But we can not admit the conception of His going to con- 
 struct a local or material home for them. All those pas- 
 sages of Scripture which speak of His official work in the 
 presence of the Father constrain us to understand the lan- 
 guage, " I go to prepare a place for you," in a tropical
 
 1857.] At Table with His Disciples. 107 
 
 sense, as we constantly employ the words place and position. 
 Thus, we speak of a place for repentance — a place in a man's 
 affections or memory. As our High Priest, lie has gone 
 within the vail, to secure for us a place in the family of God 
 — to maintain us in the place of acceptance, as we, through 
 Him, have access by faith into this grace, wherein we stand. 
 As the Lord of providence, to whom all power is given in 
 heaven and on earth, He controls all events to the security 
 of His Church, and to her establishment in the place of 
 glory and dominion. For this He went, and He is now at 
 the right hand of God, and maketh intercession for us. He 
 is evermore devoted to the Church, which He hath purchased 
 with His blood. On the throne, as much as on the cross, He 
 is for us. The glory of heaven has as little power as the 
 shame of Calvary to turn aside His love from its object. 
 
 IV. He predicts the issue of this dispensation. " If I 
 go and prepare a place for you, I will come again to receive 
 you to myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." The 
 proud benevolence of a superior might be content with send- 
 ing an alms to the wretch whom he would not admit to his 
 presence ; but this would not satisfy true love, and, least of 
 all, love such as Christ's. It would not satisfy His love to 
 send blessings to them by the hand of another. Nor would 
 it satisfy their love to receive all blessings, if they were 
 never to see Him. The crown of glory would lose its charm, 
 if it were not to be bestowed by His hand. The heavenly 
 inheritance would want half its attraction, without the assu- 
 rance that we are "joint heirs with Him." When He as- 
 sures us of the preparation of a place for us, He therefore 
 adds, " I will come again." The conditional clause, " If I go 
 and prepare a place for you," will not be understood as ex- 
 pressing any uncertainty about the mission, but as marking 
 the connection of His return with the completion of His 
 preparatory work ; as though He said, " As surely as I go, 
 and whenever the preparation is accomplished, I will come 
 again." On [lis return, He will not be as a wayfaring man, 
 that turneth aside to tarry for a night, but, He says, " I will 
 come again and receive you to myself; that where I am, there
 
 108 Christ's Last Discourse [Feb., 
 
 ye may be also." His Church is the object of His return, as 
 well as of His departure. She will then appear with Him in 
 glory, and the mutual love of Christ and His people will be 
 satisfied in eternal association. 
 
 An unwarrantable emphasis has been put upon the Sa- 
 viour's use of the present tense, " Where I am," as though it 
 must signify their eternal residence in the spot where He 
 then uttered these words. But the grammatical construc- 
 tion is not unusual or obscure, and the sense is simple and 
 unambiguous. Without indicating any locality, He conveys 
 to us the blessed assurance of enjoying His presence as well 
 as sharing His glory. As the Apostle Paul expresses the 
 same comforting truth, " And so shall we be ever with the 
 Lord." It is thus they are seen together and inseparable in 
 every view of the coming glory. " We shall reign uith Him 
 on the earth f " To him that overcometh will I give to sit 
 with me on my throne, even as I also overcame, and am sat 
 down with my Father on his throne." 
 
 This promise and prospect has impressed a very distinct 
 character on the whole of this dispensation. No sooner was 
 He parted from the disciples than an angel appeared, to re- 
 mind them of His promise. " This same Jesus who is taken 
 up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye 
 have seen Him go into heaven." And from that hour the 
 proper attitude of the Church is that of " waiting for the Son 
 of God from heaven ;" " looking for that blessed hope and 
 the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour 
 Jesus Christ." 
 
 We can, in conclusion, barely notice another reason given 
 why the disciples should not let their hearts be troubled, and 
 another truth, peculiar to this dispensation : " And whither 
 I go ye know, and the way ye know." The knowledge of 
 the place whither a loved one has gone, and of the way by 
 which he traveled, might be a comfort in his absence, or, at 
 least, ignorance on these points might increase the anxiety of 
 an affectionate nature ; and so the apostles evidently sup- 
 posed the Lord mennt to comfort them by a reference to the 
 actual locality of His absence. But such information, if it
 
 1857.] At Table with His Disciples. 109 
 
 could have been communicated, would have been inconsistent 
 with the spirit and genius of Christianity, which points out 
 to us no holy place on earth — no sacred star in the heavens. 
 His subsequent conversation shows that He meant to teach a 
 very different and much more important truth. " The way" 
 of which He speaks is Himself — the way to the Father. 
 The knowledge of that way to which He refers, as a consola- 
 tion to them in His absence, is a practical familiarity with it 
 as a path they should often travel, when, in spirit, they 
 sought a refuge from the gathering storm, consolation in 
 thickening sorrow, and help in the time of need. They are 
 encouraged to come by the view of the Father's character 
 furnished in His own. They knew all His condescension and 
 kindness ; and such, also, is the Father. They were encou- 
 raged to come, also, by the thought that He is there to take 
 up their suit, and successfully advocate it. " Whatsoever ye 
 shall ask the Father in my name, that will I do." It is the 
 very same truth which Paul urges upon us in his Epistle to 
 the Hebrews : " Having then, brethren, boldness to enter 
 into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living 
 way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the vail, that 
 is to say, his flesh ; and having a high priest over the house 
 of God ; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance 
 of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, 
 and our bodies washed with pure water." 
 
 The limits of this article forbid us to prosecute this sub- 
 ject ; but it will be found that every particular in this mar- 
 vellous discourse will be seen in a new aspect of beauty and 
 power, when viewed in its dispensational connection. In the 
 particulars at which we have glanced, what treasures of com- 
 fort, what arguments against despondency and disquiet, in 
 the path of present service and sacrifice ! He lives, and 
 loves, and cares for us. Our relationship is not dissolved, 
 and He is always near to us in our trials. His love is urging 
 on the preparation for our triumph. When it is complete, 
 He will come the second time, without sin unto salvation, 
 and all our toils will have rest — all our sufferings, reward, 
 in our everlasting association with Him on the throne of His
 
 110 Recent Researches in Palestine. [Feb., 
 
 glory. Nay, even at present we have access in spirit to the 
 Father where He is, and may come boldly unto the throne 
 of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in 
 time of need. 
 
 RECENT RESEARCHES IN PALESTINE.* 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 Palestine! What thoughts the word awakens! — very 
 various, indeed, in different minds, but in every mind the 
 most profound, tender, and hallowed, of which it is suscep- 
 tible. As various are the books of travel in that land. 
 Some one has said that no one has yet succeeded in writing 
 unpoetically on flowers : it would be difficult to write a book 
 of travels in Palestine devoid of interest. Yet it is as diffi- 
 cult to find a book which satisfies expectation. There is a 
 sentiment, far removed from lhat which the Christian most 
 cherishes, lingering around all our hearts, which no descrip- 
 tion can satisfy, which the reality itself disappoints, and for 
 which, as Wordsworth sings of far other scenes, it were 
 better " unvisited." Beyond this sentiment, which the real 
 scene must impair, the natural aspect of that land, where all 
 history which most concerns us has transpired, disappoints ; 
 while the present condition of its most remarkable places 
 shocks the better feelings : and if this be the traveler's ex- 
 perience, it is not surprising that those who must take it all 
 at second hand should not find expectation satisfied. 
 
 * " Sinai and Palestine, in Connection with their History. By Arthur 
 Penryhn Stanley, M.A., Canon of Canterbury." RetfJiiU, New York.
 
 1857.] Recent Researches in Palestine. Ill 
 
 Regarding the want of imprcssivenoss in the scenery of 
 Palestine, Mr. Stanley happily remarks, "If the first feeling 
 be disappointment, the second may well be thankfulness," 
 since " all this renders the Holy Land the fitting cradle of 
 a religion which expressed itself, not through the voices of 
 rustling forests, or the clefts of mysterious precipices, but 
 through the souls and hearts of men — which alone, of all 
 religions, claims to be founded, not on fancy and feelings, 
 but on Facts and Truths." And, again, regarding the pres- 
 ent condition of its celebrated sites, the same writer ob- 
 serves : " At first, there can not but be something of a shock 
 in seeing before our eyes, and under our feet, places in com- 
 parison with which the High Altar of St. Peter's would 
 seem profane. Yet, gradually, this thought dissolves, and 
 another takes its place. These localities have, indeed, no 
 real connection with Him. It is true that they bring the 
 scene vividly before us, and in many instances they illustrate 
 His words in detail. But, the more we gaze at them, the 
 more do we feel that this interest and instruction are second- 
 ary, not primary : their value is imaginative and historical, 
 not religious. The desolation and degradation which have 
 so often left on those who visit Jerusalem the impre^ion of 
 an accursed city, read, in this sense, a true lesson : ' He is not 
 here : he is risen.' " 
 
 Nothing can be more inconsistent with the spirit of the 
 Gospel than the feelings with which the unrenewed heart is 
 disposed to turn to " holy places." Not in the foul-mouthed 
 ravings of infidelity has our faith been more dishonored than 
 by the unhallowed superstition which originated the Cru- 
 sades, and which, in modern times, has engaged the most un- 
 scrupulous craft of diplomacy, and called civilized nations to 
 arms. It is an instance of the Divine wisdom and goodness 
 that all marks by which we might, with certainty, identify 
 the very localities of the great events of Christianity, are 
 obliterated. The localities pointed out as the scenes of our 
 Lord's birth, acts, and burial, have, for the most part, been 
 selected by the superstition of a corrupt age, and the use that 
 has been made of them sufficiently proves the kindness which
 
 112 Recent Researches in Palestine. [Feb., 
 
 left no sure foundation for it. Rome and Mecca, as well as 
 the idolatry of darker regions, show the tendency of the 
 religion of place ; and the character of the present inhabi- 
 tants of the wilderness of Sinai, or the plain of .Bethlehem, 
 shows how little the most hallowed associations of locality 
 can do for man. Yet, we could not conceive of a Christian 
 advancing, from the Red Sea through the mountains of Sinai 
 to Jerusalem, without the most profound emotion ; or stand- 
 ing on Mount Olivet, unmelted and unawed. 
 
 In like manner, we should regard the man who gave the 
 rein to imagination, and charmed us with mere poetic dreams 
 amid scenes which speak so impressively, at every step, of 
 heavenly truth and the great facts of revelation, as an in- 
 truder, whom we could not accompany to Nazareth or to 
 Calvary. Yet, we would as little choose the mere antiqua- 
 rian or topographer, for a companion, who walks, compass 
 and line in hand, through scenes hallowed by the memory of 
 patriarchs, prophets, and apostles — nay, where He of whom 
 they all testilied lived, and taught, and suifered, without 
 lifting a thought above the dimensions of the ruin which he 
 measures, or the extent of the country which he surveys. 
 
 The state of the East has hitherto been, in the last de- 
 gree, unfavorable to the prosecution of such a study of the 
 Holy Land as would subserve the true objects of travel 
 there. Perhaps we may hail it as a happy result of a most 
 lamentable war, that the field will now be thrown open to 
 deliberate research, and that it will attract the labors of 
 those who are best qualified to improve the opportunity, but 
 who, generally speaking, are not the best prepared for peril- 
 ous adventure. The true uses of the knowledge to be reaped 
 there arc now understood, and, amid all past hindrances, the 
 way has been so far prepared, that the explorers may at once 
 enter upon the higher functions of their office. 
 
 Contributions to the evidences of Christianity ought not to 
 be the object sought. The truth is insulted by proposing it. 
 Christianity is proved. It can not be made more certain to 
 those who receive the testimony of God. And if those who 
 lived in Jerusalem in the days of our Lord, and witnessed
 
 185 7.] Recent Researches in Palestine. 113 
 
 His mighty works, or heard His loving words, could join in 
 the outcry, " Crucify him!" we may rest assured that no tes- 
 timony which the ruins of Jerusalem can yield — no foot- 
 prints of the Blessed One that can ever be discerned by the 
 Lake of Galilee, or on the summit of Olivet, will turn men 
 from darkness to light. " If they hear not Moses and the 
 prophets, neither will they believe though one rose from the 
 dead." The unbelief of the human heart now seeks to ex- 
 cuse itself by demanding "a proof," as formerly it did by 
 demanding " a sign." But, we must protest against the tone 
 of professed advocates of Christianity towards antiquarian 
 and scientific research ; as though its Divine authority needed 
 confirmation from these sources. In looking for a rapid in- 
 crease of historical and geographical knowledge from the 
 lands of the Bible, it is not with any such view. The pro- 
 gress of Christian inquiry will always furnish a reply to the 
 cavils which infidel research may originate ; but, as a demon- 
 stration of its truth, the Gospel has nothing either to fear or 
 to hope. The Gospel is true, and it is already proved : if it 
 were not, nothing that can be found in the rubbish of Jeru- 
 salem, or on the rocks of Sinai, could now establish it. We 
 do not go to Bunker Hill for proof of the fact of the Ameri- 
 can Revolution, nor revisit the scenes of our childhood to 
 establish our own existence or identity. The inscriptions 
 from the palace of Sennacherib, recording the fall of his 
 army, will not make one infidel the less, nor do any thing to 
 build us up on our most holy faith. 
 
 It is illustration of Scripture, not evidence of its truth, we 
 ask from Sinai and Palestine. We can better understand the 
 people of Israel when we have seen their home. Scriptural 
 forms of thought and expression will receive illustration 
 from the scenes and circumstances that suggested them. This 
 aid will especially be felt in the study of the poetical and 
 figurative portions of Holy Writ. There is a still more im- 
 portant result of an intimate acquaintance with these scenes,, 
 in the light it will throw on the events of sacred history. 
 As is remarked regarding a battle and a battle-field, a cam- 
 paign and the seat of war, " No one can thoroughly un- 
 
 VOL. II. — NO. II. H
 
 1 1.4 Recent Researches in Palestine. [Feb., 
 
 derstand the one without having seen or investigated the 
 
 other." 
 
 Beyond mere illustration and aid in the interpretation of 
 the Scripture, such investigations will enable us to realize 
 the scenes, the persons, and the events that arc already mat- 
 ters of assured faith. They can not be made more certain 
 to our belief, but a vivid realization of them is a distinct 
 attainment. As has been remarked regarding Tarsus and 
 other places associated with the life of Paul, those who have 
 visited these spots must often have felt a thrill of recollec- 
 tion as they trod in the footsteps of the apostle : they must 
 have been conscious how much the identity of the outward 
 scene brought them into communion with him, while they 
 tried to imagine to themselves the feelings with which he must 
 have looked upon the objects before them. Since we have 
 adverted to the doubtful authenticity of the minute localities 
 which superstition venerates and bigotry guards, we may add, 
 that the pleasure and advantages of this realization attach 
 chiefly to the unchanging scenes of nature, to " the Sea of 
 Galilee, Mount Olivet, and the foot of Gcrizim, rather than 
 to the house of Pilate, or the cave of Bethlehem," even were 
 the localities now shown ever so genuine. 
 
 Our design, in this article, is to introduce to our readers a 
 work from which we have quoted in the above remarks — 
 Sinai and Palestine, in Connection with their History, by Ar- 
 thur Pcnryhn Stanley, M.A., Canon of Canterbury— one of 
 the most valuable of recent contributions to Biblical litera- 
 ture. The reader will not find in it the interest of 1 lively per- 
 sonal narrative, nor the mere entertainment of the imagina- 
 tion, nor, indeed, any of the lighter charms which have 
 secured the popularity of numerous contributions to the 
 literature of the clay, by wanderers in the East and adven- 
 turers in the North. This is a book of higher aim ; and, 
 though it docs not lack interest in a casual perusal, it has not 
 served its purpose with the entertainment of the hour. The 
 author brought high qualifications and extensive erudition to 
 his task. He did not go to the cradle-land of history to 
 record the casual impressions of a summer tour ; but, in ad-
 
 1857.] Recent Researches in Palestine. 11-5 
 
 dition to the matured study of history, he carried thither a 
 thorough acquaintance with the labors of previous explorers, 
 a,nd, with impartiality and discrimination, he tries their con- 
 clusions by his own observations. No pleasing fancy leads 
 his judgment astray, and he never spares an unfounded tra- 
 dition, however we might wish that it could be established. 
 Yet he is fully alive to all the sacred associations of the 
 localities, and has endeavored, in his own language, " so to 
 delineate the events of the Old and New Testameut, as that 
 they should conic home, with a new power, to those who, by 
 long familiarity, have almost ceased to regard them as his- 
 torical truth at all, and so bring out their inward spirit, that 
 the more complete realization of their outward form should 
 not degrade, but exalt, the faith of which they are the ve- 
 hicle." 
 
 When we speak of his rigid observation and impartial trial 
 of the conclusions of previous explorers, it must not be sup- 
 posed that he passes through those scenes with the coldness 
 of a mere critic or antiquarian. Though, in some portions of 
 the description, we could well have borne a deeper tinge of 
 enthusiasm, he has a fine perception of natural beauty, and a 
 lively appreciation of historical associations. His description 
 of the scenes through which he passed are given from jour- 
 nals and letters, written on the spot, and are judiciously kept 
 distinct from the dissertations matured in the subsequent 
 elaboration of the study. When we speak of the erudition 
 which Mr. Stanley has brought to the task, it will not be sup- 
 posed that he has produced a volume of cumbrous disserta- 
 tions for the few who aspire to rank among the learned. On 
 the contrary, his work is a fair instance of a novelty in our 
 later religious literature — the moulding of erudition into 
 popular forms, and throwing over it an air of life and ele- 
 gance, which sustains the interest of ordinary readers In 
 this respect, the work before us will take its place appro- 
 priately, beside Connybcar and Howson's Life and Epistles 
 of St. Paul, in the library of every Bible student. We must 
 not be understood, in all this, as expressing satisfaction with 
 Mr. Stanley's religious sentiments on many important points,
 
 116 Recent Researches in Palestine, [Pel 
 
 as they arc indicated In his work, or with many of his expo- 
 sitions of Scripture. It is as a geographer and an explorer 
 of the lands of the Bible, not as an interpreter of its living 
 truth, that we commend Mr. Stanley to the confidence of our 
 readers. 
 
 Our limits admit of nothing like a review of such a work ; 
 "but, for those who may not have access to it, we propose to 
 give, in this place, a precis of our author's views of the gen- 
 eral aspect of Palestine, and in a future article some extracts 
 from his review of the Gospel History and Teaching, in con- 
 nection with its localities. 
 
 The physical structure and situation of the country are 
 remarkably adapted to the character of the people, as set 
 apart from the rest of the world. On the east, they were 
 protected from the encroachments of the great empires that 
 arose on the plains of Mesopotamia by the Desert, which 
 extended, to the territory of the tribes lying east of the Jor- 
 dan, and then by the vast fissure of the Jordan valley. Next 
 to the Assyrian empire, in power, was Egypt, and from that 
 they were guarded on the south by " the great and terrible 
 Desert," and the mountains of Sinai. On the west, Palestine 
 presented an inhospitable front to the sea — a long line of 
 coast, with only three bad harbors. And on the north were the 
 mountain ranges of Lebanon. " These were the natural for- 
 tifications of that vineyard which was hedged round about 
 with tower and trench, sea and desert, against ' the bears out 
 of the wood/ and ' the beast of the field.' " 
 
 The traveler is struck with the smallness of the territory. 
 He is surprised to find that it is but a day's journey from the 
 capital of Judea to the capital of Samaria. The breadth, 
 from the sea to the Jordan, is only fifty miles. Its length, 
 from Dan to Becrsheba, is about a hundred and eighty miles. 
 The contrast between this little enclosure and the extended 
 empires on the north and south, helps the prophets and 
 psalmists to magnify the grace of God towards their land. 
 It fostered the consciousness that they would not always be 
 restrained within such narrow bounds ; and the view of 
 other lands was a daily memorial that they were secluded
 
 1857.] Recent Researches in Palestine, 117 
 
 'there for the sake of the world, in whose centre they were 
 set. 
 
 The situation of Palestine is remarkably bound up with its 
 future destinies. " I have set Jerusalem in the midst of the 
 nations and countries that are round about her" — standing 
 midway between the two great seats of ancient empire, Baby- 
 lon- and Egypt. " There is no other country/' says Mr. Stan- 
 ley, "which could exhibit the same confluence of association 
 as that which is awakened by the rocks which overhang the 
 Dog river, where it rushes through the ravines of Lebanon 
 Into the Mediterranean Sea, where, side by side, arc to be 
 seen the hieroglyphics of the great Rameses, the cuneiform 
 characters of Sennacherib, and the Latin inscriptions of the 
 Emperor Antoninus." Let our readers spread out before them 
 a map of the Eastern Hemisphere, and place a finger on the 
 most eligible site for the metropolis of a universal kingdom 
 of peace. 
 
 Above all other countries, it is a land of ruins. "Where, for 
 miles, there is no appearance of present life or habitation, 
 save the goatherd on the hill-side, there is hardly a hill-top 
 which is not covered by the remains of ancient fortress or 
 city. These remains deepen and confirm the impression of 
 age or decay, which invests every view of Palestine with an 
 appearance "which can be called by no other name than 
 venerable." The ruins are of diverse ages — -Saracenic, Cru- 
 sading, Roman, Grecian, Jewish — extending, perhaps, even 
 to the old Canaanitish remains before the arrival of Joshua. 
 
 These ruins tell the traveler, at a glance, that he must not 
 judge of the resources of the land by its present depressed 
 and desolate state. They show us not only how fertile it 
 might be, but how fertile it was. The disappearance of civili- 
 zation and population — the destruction of forests — the ne- 
 glect of terraces which supported the soil — in part, at least, 
 answer the question of travelers, " Can these stony hills and 
 deserted valleys be indeed the land of promise, the land 
 flowing with milk and honey?" The gradual cessation of 
 rain, which Mr. Stanley ascribes to the destruction of forests, 
 has had an important share in producing the present sterility.
 
 118 Recent Researches in Palestine. [Ecb^ 
 
 The Kedron has recently, for the first time, probably, in ages; 
 flowed with a copious torrent. Our author attributes this to 
 the numerous enclosures of mulberry and olive trees made 
 within the last few years by the Greek convent. Whatever 
 may be thought of the adequacy of these alleged natural 
 causes, there arc many of our readers who will look beyond 1 
 them to another reason why 
 
 "The showers have been witholderr, 
 Arc! there hath been no harvest rain," 
 
 And in the orerflowing again of the Brook Keclron, they may 
 see a foreshadowing of an approaching day when it shall be 
 said : 
 
 " Be glad then, ye children of Zion, 
 And rejoice in the Lord your God r 
 For he hath given you the former rain moderately, 
 And he will cause to come down for you the rain, 
 The former rain, and the latter rain as in former times." 
 
 Joel, ii, 23. 
 
 The country presenting such an extraordinary variety of 
 structure and temperature, furnished a fitting theatre for a 
 history and writings destined to influence all nations. The 
 sacred poetry embraced in its range the natural features of 
 almost every country. Yet its distinguishing physical fea- 
 ture is its mountainous character. Even the valleys and 
 plains of the interior of Palestine are so high above the 
 level of the sea as to partake of the characteristics of moun- 
 tainous history and scenery. Its earliest name, Aram, signi- 
 fies " highlands." From a mountain sanctuary, Israel over- 
 looked the world. "My mountains," "my holy mountain," 
 are expressions for the whole country. Ever}' high point in 
 it commands vast prospects, to which there are such frequent 
 reference in Scripture history ; as, when Abraham "lifted up 
 his eyes, and looked from the place where he was" on the 
 promised inheritance — Balaam saw Israel from " the top of 
 the rocks: from the hills he beheld" — Moses, from the top 
 of Pisgah, saw the land which he was not permitted to enter.
 
 1857.] Recent Researches in Palest hie. 119 
 
 The multiplication of hills explains two points constantly 
 recurring in Jewish history — "the fenced cities" and the 
 "high places." "A city in a valley," says Mr. Stanley, "in- 
 stead of being, as elsewhere, the rule, is here the exception. 
 Every valley has its hill, and on that hill a city is set which 
 'can not be hid.' These multiplied heights were so many 
 natural altars, which, to the idolatrous proclivities of the 
 nation, presented rivals to Mount Zion." 
 
 "Those who describe Palestine as beautiful," says Mr. 
 Stanley, " must either have a very inaccurate notion of what 
 constitutes beauty of scenery, or must have viewed the coun- 
 try through a highly colored medium. As a general rule, 
 not only is it without the two main elements of beauty — 
 variety of outline and variety of color — but the features 
 rarely so group together as to form any distinct or impres- 
 sive combination." Its chief features are rounded hills of a 
 gray color, and valleys with the beds of dry water-courses. 
 The hills are, for the most part, bore of forest. In the 
 spring, hill and valley are covered with thin grass, and glow 
 with a profusion of wild flowers and a variety of trees. The 
 olive, oak, terebinth, palm, sycamore, and oleander, break the 
 monotony of the landscape. The geological structure of 
 Palestine is almost entirely limestone. This rocky character 
 of the country preserves many memorials of the past ; such 
 as the wells, which " serve as the links by which each succes- 
 sive age is bound to the other, in a manner which at first sight 
 would be thought almost incredible ;" the sepulchres, which 
 were hewn out of the living rock, indestructible as itself; and 
 the caves, which have been the scenes of some of the most re- 
 markable events in history. The well of Jacob, at Shcchem, 
 is a monument of the earliest and of the latest events of 
 sacred history. In the excavations which surround Shiloh, 
 Shechem, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem, the traveler knows that 
 lie sees the last resting places of the generations contempo- 
 rary with Joshua, Samuel, and David. In innumerable caves 
 we see the hiding-places which served sometimes for the de- 
 fence of robbers and insurgents — sometimes for the refuge of 
 those " of whom the world was not worthy."
 
 120 Recent Researches in Palestine. [Feb., 
 
 In conclusion, if the matter-of-fact delineations of such a 
 traveler disenchant some cherished dreams, and we are dis- 
 appointed with the actual Palestine, we must not lose sight of 
 the ground of thankfulness which the writer suggests. We 
 must not forget, also, that the curse of God rests on that 
 desolated land, and that its present aspect does not deter- 
 mine what it was in those days when Mount Zion stood, as it 
 will stand again, " most beautiful, the joy of the whole earth." 
 We may experience some measure of disappointment that the 
 land is not more lovely, as we may in the contemplation of 
 the so-called Christian world, in the nineteenth century of 
 the Christian era ; but, we must remember, that if either had 
 been other than it is, it would have contradicted the express 
 word of Jehovah. In the contemplation of the present deso- 
 lation of both, there is the light of joy from the future, which 
 can not be remote. When we look and mourn over the deso- 
 lation of Jerusalem, we hear a voice comforting her : 
 
 " Thou shalt no more be called Forsaken; 
 
 Neither shall thy land any more be called Desolate : 
 But thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, 
 And thy land Beulah : 
 
 For the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married." 
 
 Isaiah, lxii, 4.
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 121 
 
 ^nc run 
 
 CHAPTERS FROM AN UNPUBLISHED BIOGRAPHY, 
 l 1 
 
 BY JAMES I N G L I S . 
 
 .CHAPTER II. 
 
 m 
 
 Suen a mourner for such a husband was not without abun- 
 dant consolation. Upheld by the grace of a Saviour in whose 
 love she had learned to abide, and surrounded by the counsel 
 and aid of many humble but devoted friends, she addressed 
 herself, with characteristic wisdom and energy, to the man- 
 agement of her affairs. The farm was in a state of good cul- 
 tivation ; and, although the death of her husband had been 
 unexpected, his prudence had not left her without means of 
 carrying it on. In accordance with the strong attachment 
 of her people to the primitive family organization, the eldest 
 son, though yet a mere lad, was in some measure recognized 
 as the head of the house ; and his promising character en- 
 couraged her inclination to place the business, as far as pos- 
 sible, under his direction. The moral and religious govern- 
 ment of the familv she herself solelv assumed. The family 
 worship was maintained with wonted punctuality, and the 
 training and instruction of her children was prosecuted with 
 increasing zeal. In a brief memoir, published in the Edin- 
 burgh Missionary Magazine, at the time of her decease, in 
 1805, we find the following estimate of her character, by the 
 late Rev. Wm. Aiaxton: "To train up her children in the 
 nurture and admonition of the Lord, was her constant em- 
 ployment. Whilst her hands were diligently occupied in 
 providing for their temporal wants, she was in the habit of 
 making them sit beside her, and road attentively a portion of 
 the Word of God ; when she proposed questions to them ex- 
 planatory of the passages which they read, and which were 

 
 122 Chapters from an Unpublished BiograpJiy. [Feb., 
 
 calculated to impress the truth upon their minds. Thus, 
 while she sat in the house, and walked by the way. she en- 
 deavored to render Divine truth (ainilito* to them ; and she 
 had the unspeakable happiness of lindin^ttr labors in this 
 important, though neglected, departnufeit or Christian ac- 
 tivity not in vain." jf 
 
 The family soon, however, bciran to feel the pressure of 
 trial and embarrassments. The eldest son. who was entrusted 
 with much of the business of the farm, though hitherto a 
 remarkably amiable and exemplary youth, proved inadequate 
 to the burden that was laid prematurely upon his shoulders. 
 Confiding and inexperienced, there were not wanting, 'even in 
 these secluded regions, designing men, who flattened his 
 vanity-, and led him into reckless bargains and unnecessary 
 expenses. On his visits to the market town, he was marked 
 as a prey by the unprincipled, and, from* one step to another, 
 he was lured on, till within a few years the business became 
 hopelessly involved. The lease of the farm wa- abandoned, 
 the stock sold, and the widow became the tenant of another* 
 in the house which the provident industry of her husband 
 had reared, to be a home for her and her children. 
 
 Archibald, meanwhile, at the age of eight, had gone out to 
 lighten the expenses of the family, and earn his own liveli- 
 hood by such service as his childish hands could render. He 
 was, from childhood, remarkable for the hardy vigor of his 
 frame and the manly thoughtful ncss of his character ; and in 
 his frequent visits to Green End, he even then sought, with 
 considerate affection, to soothe the sorrows which he saw 
 multiplying around his mother. When the embarrassment of 
 affairs rendered it evident that the widow and her younger 
 children must soon bo thrown upon their own resources, he 
 fixed upon the trade of a weaver, which, at that period, was 
 a prosperous one ; and, with the consent of his mother, he 
 bound himself an apprentice to an old man, who practised it 
 in the village. Here the real trials of his life began. The 
 old man and his wife were exacting and cruel : besides over- 
 tasking the strength of the boys, they starved them on the 
 merest pittance of the coarsest food. In after years, the old
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 123 
 
 woman, left to a despised and neglected widowhood, was in 
 part supported by the liberality of the boy who was the vic- 
 tim of-<b*r wanton barbarity. His trials were carefully con- 
 cealed from his mother, from the twofold motive that he might 
 not add to her sorrows, and that lie might not be thwarted in 
 his resolution to acquire a knowledge of the trade. But the 
 resistance of his vigorous constitution at last gave way, and 
 he was forced to return home. The severe treatment left its 
 1 races in his countenance to his latest days, in the unnatural 
 pallor which overspread his formerly ruddy complexion, and 
 which all familiar with his personal appearance have noticed. 
 
 Thcwisis of the family a flairs had now arrived, and the 
 eldest son sought to escape the shame of his course in a 
 foreign land, from which he long after returned, a reclaimed 
 and exemplary man. The occasion brought out the stamina 
 of Archibald's character, lie sustained his mother by the 
 buoyancytof his resolution, and, at the ago of twelve, under- 
 took to provide for her and his sisters by his industry — a 
 charge which, by God's blessing, ho fulfilled, till his mother's 
 death, fifteen years after, during which they never wanted 
 the necessaries, or even the comforts, of life. 
 
 When the family homestead was offered for sale, a step- 
 brother of the widow's bought it ; and it will show the con- 
 fidence which a boy's energy and activity inspired, when we 
 mention, that soon after Archibald entered on his self-im- 
 posed charge, his uncle sold the property to him on easy 
 terms. At the age of fourteen, he had paid the last farthing 
 of the stipulated price, and was rewarded by seeing his 
 mother living again in her own house. Throughout the 
 whole of this period, he put the whole of his earnings into 
 the hands of his mother, and received from her what was 
 necessary for his expenses, as though it were bestowed by 
 her kindness. 
 
 There was true heroism in that boy's heart, more worthy 
 of lasting record than most that is chronicled in the world's 
 book of fame. "We can all remember enough of an evcry-day 
 boyhood to appreciate the soul-conflict out of which such 
 mastery of self-control was won. And though it was ex"
 
 124: Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [Feb., 
 
 tended over the common-place drudgery of an humble life of 
 toil, and so is less attractive to the imagination than some 
 single splendid act of devotion, we know of no instance of 
 filial devotion on record that is more worjhy of honor. We 
 can imagine the singular gush of silent happiness which 
 every fresh trial or self denial let into the soul of both 
 mother and son — the mother's admiration, which maternal 
 prudence strove to conceal- — the son's honest pride, which 
 filial respect subdued. And then the loving confidence of 
 their consultations over every difficulty and perplexity, and 
 the quiet blessedness that shed its tempered radiance Over the 
 family group when the long day'Wtoil was ended and they 
 gathered around the fireside ! What thoughts weronhere of 
 the departed, of whom they ail loved to talk, while they 
 wept tears of tenderness! And wha^MToughts oi the ab- 
 sent one, whose name each hesitated to Titter! 
 
 Archibald, it may well be thought, was not an unintelli- 
 gent boy, though his formal education was summed up in 
 some three years' attendance at the parish school, before his 
 father's death. He had read the Bible till he was familiar 
 with it from Genesis to Revelations. His memory was stored 
 with it, and, what was better still, the conversation oi his 
 mother had taught him to reflect on its history, doctrine, and 
 ordinances. In the school of affliction, he had early learned 
 wisdom ; and the responsibility and serious diligence of his 
 self-imposed charge, had already developed a manly vigor 
 and stability of character ; — 
 
 And every moral feeling of his soul 
 Strengthened and braced by breathing, in content, 
 The keen and wholesome air of poverty, 
 And drinking from the well of homely life. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to add. that his life was marked by 
 the strictest purity and truthfulness. He was, also, punctual 
 in the observance of what he regarded as the duties of reli- 
 gion ; was in the constant habit of reading the Bible, and 
 said his prayers, in secret, morning and evening. No Phari- 
 see of them all could have been more exact or zealous. Yet,
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 125 
 
 as he himself observed, his " religion was only that of a young 
 Pharisee." He was an utter si ranger to the saving power of 
 the Gospel. His only enjoyment of religion was in the pride 
 of his performances ; and his only hope of safety lay in the 
 shallow claims of self-righteousness, which often failed him 
 and left him a prey to the condemnation of a guilty con- 
 science, and the awful apprehensions of a soul estranged from 
 God. 
 
 His sister, who was two years older than himself, was 
 early brought to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, 
 and, from the day she experienced the pardoning love of God, 
 she never ceased, solemnly and affectionatel}", to point him to 
 the Saviour. Her conversation was always listened to with 
 attention, though its point was for some time evaded. The 
 conversation which, through God's blessing, arrested him, we 
 must give, as nearly as possible, in his own words, as we have 
 heard him relate it oftener than once. The reader will bear 
 in mind that it is an account of a conversation between a girl 
 of fourteen and a boy of twelve years of age : 
 
 " On Sabbath evening, after the family had retired, my 
 sister and I prolonged our conversation till long past mid- 
 night. The subject was the necessity of a change of heart. 
 My sister insisted that such a change was necessary in all 
 cases, regardless of our outward character or conduct. I ad- 
 mitted that the grossly wicked and profane needed a thorough 
 change of mind, but I claimed that my own conduct was cor- 
 rect : I prayed every morning and evening, read my Bible 
 daily, and attended worship regularly every Lord's Day ; 
 that, in short, my conduct was as correct as her own, and she 
 had no right to question the purity of my heart. She rc- 
 replicd, that Nicodemus was probably a better man than I 
 was, read the Bible more studiously, and prayed more fre- 
 quently ; and that we had every reason to believe that his 
 conduct was blameless : yet, our Lord said to him, and 
 through him to every human being, ' Verily I say unto thee, 
 except a man be born again, he can not enter the kingdom of 
 God.' She pressed the subject home upon my conscience, 
 with great earnestness and solemnity ; but, instead of pro-
 
 12G Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [Feb., 
 
 ducing the effect slie desired, it only wounded my pride of 
 heart, and excited a spirit of irritation and resentment. I 
 told her I thought my heart was as good as her own. She 
 meekly admitted that she had no goodness to boast of. I 
 rejoined, 'I think so, too, sister, or you would not be so 
 ready to suspect others.' She looked at me with great ear- 
 nestness and pity, while tears rolled down her cheeks, and 
 said, ' Archibald ! you are just as certain of going to hell, if 
 you remain in your present state of mind, a< though you were 
 already there, lifting up your eyes, being in torment.' The 
 conviction that what she said was true, came home to my 
 heart, like a flash of lightning, with irresistible force. I 
 was unable to reply, or to move from my seat. I knew that 
 unless I was born again, I must perish in my sins. 
 
 " These convictions deepened. I read the Scriptures, but 
 they appeared only to condemn me, and showed me that I 
 was justly exposed to the wrath to come. I tried to pray, 
 but guilt sealed my lips. Formerly, I had no difficulty in 
 saying my prayers, but now the burden of sin pressed %o 
 heavily on my conscience, it seemed an unpardonable pre- 
 sumption that such a hell-deserving sinner as I was, should 
 call upon a holy God. All the righteous threatenings of the 
 Divine law seemed levelled against me ; and how these 
 threatenings could be fulfilled, and I yet be saved, I could 
 not understand. 
 
 " The agony of this conviction long disturbed me, till, at 
 last, in the providence of God, I was led to hear Mr. Willis, 
 a Secession minister from Crawfordsdyke, preach in the 
 neighboring parish of Balfron. His text was Eph. i. 7, 'In 
 whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness 
 of sins according to the richness of his grace.' The sermon 
 made an impression on my mind that can never be effaced ; 
 and I often now recall its general train of thought and argu- 
 ment. He first showed the deplorable condition of the whole 
 human race. While they arc in an unconverted state, they 
 arc the slaves of sin and Satan, bound over by the curse of 
 the law to endless perdition. I felt deeply that every par- 
 ticular of his description was true in my case. He then
 
 1857.] Chapters from, an Unpublished Biography. 127 
 
 showed the deliverance which all believers obtain through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ — redemption through the Mood and 
 the full and free remission of all their sins ; that Chrisl had 
 yielded a perfect obedience i<> the law of Cod, which we had 
 transgressed — endured its penalty, suffering the just for the 
 unjust, so that all who believe in His name receive pardon, 
 peace, and eternal life. He argued that, in this way, the 
 glory of God was illustriously displayed. His grace was 
 seen in devising the plan, in revealing it, in giving His Son to 
 execute it. and in giving His Spirit to apply it to our hearts. 
 
 " While he was speaking, it pleased the Lord to open my 
 dark mind to understand the Divine method of saving sin- 
 ners, through faith in a crucified Saviour, and to see how God 
 could be just, and the justificr of him who believeth on Jesus. 
 It seemed as though a flood of light burst into my dark 
 heart. I saw God reconciled : the law's threatening^ were 
 silenced. I learned that lie had made Him to be sin for us 
 who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteous:. ?s of 
 God in Him ; and unspeakable peace took possession of 
 troubled soul. 
 
 "In the first transport of my love and gratitude, I could 
 have embraced in my arms the preacher through whom the 
 Gospel was made known to me. as the wisdom of God and 
 the power of God unto my salvation ; but I was a diffident 
 boy, and dared not even speak to him. I never saw him be- 
 fore that day : I have never seen him since. His son, the 
 Rev. Dr. Willis, is Professor of Theology in Knox's College, 
 Toronto ; and it has been my privilege, in my old age, (o 
 acknowledge to him the deep gratitude which, as a boy, I 
 owed to his father." 
 
 We may well suppose that the change which thus trans- 
 p : red in the character of so important a member of the little 
 household, was not unnoticed by the mother and sister, who 
 found in it the answer of many fervent prayers, and who then 
 received in it a son and a brother as alive again from the 
 dead. The assurance of the reality of the change was re- 
 ceived by the prudent mother with cautious reserve ; but, 
 after many anxious conversations, and close, silent obscrva-
 
 128 Chapters from a Biography, [Feb., 1857. 
 
 tion of his Life, conduct, and demeanor, she gradually intro- 
 duced him into the position — one of great moment in such a 
 family — of leader of the family worship. She had, as we 
 have mentioned, from the day of her husband's death, con- 
 tinued his practice of morning and evening worship, and dis- 
 covered an extraordinary gift in prayer, which her son, in 
 his old age, remarks, he has never heard excelled; but it suit* 
 best with the prevailing views of the propriety of recognizing 
 a male head of the hou sh id, that she should yield the place 
 to her son as soon as she believed him to be a Christian • 
 and, with trembling and self-distrust, it was accepted. 
 
 The practice which he thus acquired prepared the way for 
 an early prominence in the exercises of a prayer meeting, 
 which he soon began to attend, where, as he now remembers 
 with surprise and humiliation, aged Christians were accus- 
 tomed to listen with kindly respect to the modest utterance 
 of a boy's thoughts on the precious truths which formed the 
 subject of their weekly meditation.
 
 WAYMARKS IN THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 MARCH, 1857. 
 
 ADVANCING LIGHT OF PROPHECY IN THE ABRAHAMIO 
 
 COVENANT. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS 
 
 In a preliminary article, we recited the leading incidents 
 in the life of Abraham, and the various occasions on which 
 God made or renewed His promises to that patriarch, chiefly 
 with a view to point out the important fact that God made 
 only one covenant with Abraham. A covenant is God's free 
 promise of mercy to man, formally ratified by sacrifice ; and 
 the only occasion on which God entered into any such solemn 
 engagement with Abraham is that described in the fifteenth 
 chapter of Genesis. Previous to that transaction, God made 
 promises to Abraham — in fact, promised the very blessings 
 which are included in the covenant ; but we read nothing of 
 a covenant till we reach that chapter. After that, the cove- 
 nant is spoken of as something already understood and estab- 
 lished ; as, when God said, " My covenant is with thee," and 
 appointed circumcision as a memorial of it. From first to 
 last — from the time that God first called him to the time 
 when He ratified His covenant with him — and from the 
 ratification of the covenant to the time when He confirmed 
 it by an oath — there are the same great promises, revealed 
 
 VOL. II. — NO. III. I
 
 130 Advancing Light of Prophecy [March, 
 
 more or less in detail, and placed in a variety of aspects, but 
 Btill the same great promises, embracing — I. A triumphant 
 Seed, through whom the promised blessings were to be 
 effected ; II. An everlasting inheritance, which Abraham and 
 his seed were afterwards to receive ; III. A blessing to all 
 nations, through that promised Seed ; and IV. An assurance 
 that God will be with Abraham and his seed forever, to be, 
 in a peculiar sense, their God. 
 
 These promises are commonly understood as referring pri- 
 marily to the Jewish nation, and their temporary occupation 
 of the Land of Canaan : and the covenant which God made 
 with Abraham is frequently spoken of as that under which 
 Israel enjoyed that land. We shall, as we advance, find 
 abundant proof that such an interpretation of the promises 
 and the covenant is unjust and dishonoring to God. Mean- 
 while, let it be remembered that the New Testament scrip- 
 tures very carefully distinguish between the covenant which 
 God made with Abraham and the covenant which he after- 
 wards made with the Israeli tish nation. For example, Paul, 
 in the Epistle to the Galatians, when refuting the vain pre- 
 tensirns of the Jews, argues, not only that the covenants are 
 distinct, but that the latter docs not in any way fulfill, abro- 
 gate, or modify the former : " And this I say, that the cove- 
 nant, which was confirmed before of God in Christ, the 
 law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, can not 
 disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect." 
 What he terms "the law," in this passage, is " the covenant" 
 of which he speaks in his Epistle to the Hebrews : " For 
 when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people 
 according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of 
 goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled 
 both the book, and all the people, saying, This is the blood of 
 the covenant which God hath enjoined unto you." This was 
 a covenant most distinct in its nature and objects, and must 
 never for a moment be confounded with the everlasting cove- 
 nant which God made with Abraham. 
 
 To interpret the promises which God made to Abraham, 
 and renewed to Isaae and to Jacob, as referring to a carnal
 
 1857.] In the Abrahamic Covenant. 131 
 
 seed and temporal blessings, is dishonoring to God, and ex- 
 hibits the patriarchs in a low and degrading attitude. In 
 that case, Abraham was only an ambitious or avaricious old 
 man, who set out in the idle chase of fortune' — he was the 
 deluded victim of an idle hope, and, after being trifled with 
 during a century of homeless wandering, he died a stranger 
 in the land of which God said, " I will give it thee." It was 
 unworthy of God, and in plain contradiction of all His deal- 
 ings with His people, to hold out to the patriarchs the empty 
 pride of founding a family and bequeathing to their heirs a 
 splendid patrimony, as the motive and aim of their lives. But, 
 without dwelling upon these manifestly unworthy and erro- 
 neous views of God's promises, let us, in the light of Scrip- 
 ture, examine their true import, and, as far as possible, ascer- 
 tain the sense in which the patriarchs regarded them. 
 
 I. THE PROMISED £EED„ 
 
 This promise, evidently, did not refer to Isaac ; for God 
 intimated to Abraham, not that Isaac was the Seed, but " in 
 Isaac shall thy seed be called." The same promise of a Seed 
 was renewed to Isaac himself, and, subsequently, it was re- 
 newed to Jacob. In every age of Old Testament prophecy, 
 this prophecy is referred to as unaccomplished, but still in 
 force. Nor can we find any descendant of Abraham who 
 meets all the terms of the promise till we come down to Him 
 who is thus introduced to us by the pen of inspiration : " The 
 book of the generations of Jesus the Christ, the son of David, 
 the son of Abraham." We are not left to conjecture re- 
 garding the intention of God in this promise ; for, without 
 multiplying quotations, Paul very explicitly applies it to 
 Christ, in Gal. iii. 16 : u Now to Abraham and his seed were 
 the promises made. He saith not, 'And to seeds/ as of many; 
 but as of one, 'And to thy seed/ which is Christ." 
 
 However conclusive this may be regarding the design of 
 God in making the promise, it mig'it still be a question how 
 far Abraham understood it, and whether his faith, indeed, 
 reached forward to Christ. In any endeavor to ascertain
 
 132 Advancing Light of Prophecy [Marclr, 
 
 the light in which Abraham viewed this promise, it must not 
 be forgotten that it was not the first intimation of a Seed of 
 promise. The hopes of mankind, from the day of their fall,, 
 were pointed to a Sud of the woman : and, in as far as they 
 cherished any hope of salvation, even in their departures 
 from the living and true God, this promised Deliverer must,, 
 in some way, have been associated with it. We find it linger- 
 ing in the traditions of the most remote idolators ;* and. in 
 the earlier ages, it must have held a very prominent place in 
 the minds of the pious. When Abraham was called of God, 
 and received the most distinguishing assurances of Divine 
 favor — the emphatic promise of a Seed, who, in- perfect 
 triumph, shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in whom 
 all the nations of the earth shall be blessed — he would 
 readily associate it in his mind with the first promise of a 
 Seed of the woman, who should bruise the head of the ser- 
 pent. The remembrance of a suffering as well as trium- 
 phant Saviour was perpetuated among men by the institution 
 of sacrifice ; and if the Seed of Abraham was to possess the 
 gate of His enemies, a conflict was implied, which must at 
 once have suggested the intimation in the first announce- 
 ment of a Saviour,. " Thou shalt bruise his heel." 
 
 But we are not left to mere conjecture regarding Abra- 
 ham's understanding of the promise. Besides many passages 
 in which Abraham's faith is identified with that of all who 
 have laid hold on Christ, as their only hope,, our Lord him- 
 self, in express terms, assures us, John viii. 56, " Abraham 
 rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad." There 
 is a figurative use of the word " day," which is not uncom- 
 mon in Scripture, in which it refers, not so much to time, as 
 to that which distinguishes and characterizes the time ; as 
 when the restoration of Israel is styled " their day." So the 
 Lord, speaking of His coming triumph, says, " So shall the 
 Son of man be in his day." In the passage before us, lie has 
 reference to His humiliation and suffering for the redemption 
 
 We haye, in a previous article ; referred to these traditions.
 
 1857.] In the Aorahamic Covenant. 133 
 
 of mankind, in which state lie was rejected by the Jews, who 
 claimed to be the children of Abraham, and to whom He 
 says, " Your father, Abraham, rejoiced to see my day : he 
 saw it, and was glad" — an intimation that Abraham not only- 
 looked forward to His coming, but had a clear knowledge of 
 His humiliation and suffering's ; and that, instead of stum- 
 bling at the truth, so offensive to carnal pride, he rejoiced in 
 it. The phrase, " he saw it," is very emphatic, as appears 
 from the construction which the Jews immediately put upon . 
 it, and can be understood to mean nothing less than a clear 
 and vivid perception of the truth, however communicated to 
 him. It may be interesting to inquire whether any trace is 
 preserved, in the Mosaic record, of the manner in which "he 
 saw Christ's day." 
 
 We have already spoken of the important fact, that the 
 institution of sacrifice preserved among mankind the promise 
 of a suffering Saviour, and illustrated to them the nature and 
 objects of His sufferings ; and we have suggested, that God's 
 promise of a seed to Abraham must at once have connected 
 itself in his mind with the first promise of a Seed of the 
 woman, and, therefore, with all that was known of a Saviour 
 who was to be made perfect by suffering. The extraordinary 
 circumstances connected with the birth of Isaac must, of 
 themselves, have directed the patriarch's views away beyond 
 all common hopes of posterity. The rejection of Ishmael, 
 and the assurance that Sarah should, in her old age, be the 
 mother of a son, in whom the promise was to be confirmed, 
 must have convinced Abraham, if proof were needed, that 
 something beyond all carnal and temporal ends Avas to be 
 accomplished in the seed. But, with all this, we find nothing 
 in the record which expressly revealed to Abraham the man- 
 ner in which human redemption was to be effected, until we 
 come to that most memorable incident when the aged father 
 was called upon to offer up his son Isaac in sacrifice. In- 
 fidelity has frequently laid hold upon this incident, as the 
 ground of an insolent cavil against the God of Abraham; 
 and, probably, the advocates of Christianity have, in some 
 measure, failed in the vindication of the record, from over-
 
 134 Advancing Light of Prophecy [ - arch, 
 
 looking the groat end which was designed to be accomplished 
 by the command. 
 
 In primitive times, the communication of memorable truth 
 by significant actions, rather than by words, was common ; 
 and, in the communication of Divine truth, this mode was 
 often employed, as more instructive and impressive than any 
 language. To say nothing of the institution of formal types, 
 all our readers can recall instances of symbolical action in 
 the prophets ; as, when Jeremiah breaks a potter's vessel in 
 sight of the people — puts on bonds and yokes, and casts a 
 book into the Euphrates. We speak not without authority 
 "when we claim that the offering up of Isaac was just such a 
 symbolical action ; for Paul, in referring to it in his Epistle 
 to the Hebrews, expressly says that Abraham received his 
 son from the dead " in a figure." God had been progressively 
 opening up His gracious design to the " father of believers," 
 and had prepared his mind to receive this last and hardest 
 lesson, that " he who was rich must for our sakes become 
 poor, that we, through his poverty, should be made rich" — 
 that our life was to be brought out of his death, and that it 
 was in yielding to death that He was to attain His triumph. 
 It would be impossible to conceive of any means by which 
 the great truth could have been more vividly and impressively 
 brought home to the patriarch than by that otherwise unac- 
 countable transaction. 
 
 The truth taught was the same which our Lord himself 
 declared to Nicodemus: "For God so loved the world, that 
 he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
 should not perish, but have everlasting life." And how could 
 the love God entertained be more impressively illustrated 
 to Abraham than in the anguish of his own paternal affec- 
 tion, when he was required to take " thy son, thine only son 
 Isaac, whom thou lovest," and with his own hands to bind 
 him to the altar, and prepare to sacrifice him? There is, 
 apparently, an intentional emphasis on the " o?i'y son, whom 
 thou lovest," which Paul does not omit, when he records tho 
 triumph of faith when " he that had received the promises 
 offered up his only begotten son" It is not unworthy of notice
 
 1857.] In the Mrahamic Covenant. 135 
 
 that the time occupied by the transaction corresponds with 
 the time occupied in the final act of Christ's Suffering and 
 humiliation, from His death to His resurrection : and when, 
 at last, lie receives him as alive from the dead, the joy of it is 
 completed by the most perfect assurance of all his hopes — 
 when God, willing, more abundantly, to show unto the heirs 
 of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by 
 an oath. Abraham's apprehension of the truth, so impres- 
 sively taught, is indicated in the name given to the scene of 
 the sacrifice: "And Abraham called the name of that place 
 Jehovah-jireh : as it is said to this day, In the mount of the 
 Lord it shall be seen" — to which there appears an allusion 
 in the very words of our Lord, "He saw it and was glad." 
 
 II. THE INHERITANCE. 
 
 " And I will give to thee, and to thy seed after thee, the 
 land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for 
 an everlasting possession." This is commonly understood as 
 promising nothing more than was fulfilled to the natural 
 descendants of Abraham, when Joshua led them into the land 
 of promise : yet, there are many important particulars, which 
 such a fulfillment altogether violates. The Israelites have 
 never yet, in any sense, possessed that land, in all its de- 
 scribed limits ; and it is surely an extraordinary stretch of 
 language which makes a brief, partial, and uncertain occupa- 
 tion of the land answer the description of an " everlasting 
 possession." The temporary possession of the land by his 
 natural descendants was, indeed, predicted to Abraham : but 
 this, so far irom being the fulfillment of the covenant, was* 
 given expressly as a sign that the covenant shall be fulfilled. 
 Abraham, encouraged by the condescension of God, at-ked, 
 " Whereby shall I know that 1 shall inherit it?'' God's as- 
 surance had been very explicit — that Abraham njinself, as 
 well as his seed, should inherit the land. "I will give it /o 
 tkee, and to thy sad" marks out Abraham, personally, as the 
 heir, more explicitly than if the premise had been sin plj 
 " I will give it to thee." In the latter case, there might have
 
 136 Advancing Light of Prophecy [March. 
 
 been some plausibility in the claim that the promise was ful- 
 filled to Abraham in his seed ; but this explanation is cut off 
 by the mention of both — "to thee, and to thy seed.*' Now, 
 it is regarding his personal interest in the promise that Abra- 
 ham inquired. It was this that demanded such an exercise 
 of faith. He had long wandered in the land, childless and 
 homeless ; he was hastening to the close of a mortal pilgrim- 
 age, and he desired assurance that he should, after all, enjoy 
 the everlasting inheritance. God confirmed His promise in a 
 covenant ratified by sacrifice ; and then gave him some pre- 
 dictions of the course of events by which He would fulfill His 
 covenant — the most prominent of which are the deliverance 
 of his descendants from Egyptian bondage, and their return 
 to the land in which Abraham was then a stranger. The ful- 
 fillment of that prediction is an evidence to all after ages 
 that God's purpose is advancing to accomplishment : just as 
 Paul, in speaking to the Thessalonians, of the day of the 
 Lord, tells them that it can not come till after the apostacy 
 and the revelation of the man of sin ; and the fulfillment of 
 these predictions, in their order, must convince the Church 
 that the day is at hand. 
 
 The Israelites themselves never regarded their temporary 
 occupation of the land as a fulfillment of the promise to their 
 fathers. "When they entered it, God cautioned them that it 
 was not then given to them for a possession. " The land," 
 paid He, " shall not be sold forever, for it is mine ; for ye are 
 etrangers and pilgrims with me." Paul, in his Epistle to the 
 Hebrews, shows that Joshua did not lnad them into the pro- 
 mised rest ; and so David testifies ■ — " We are strangers be- 
 fore thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers." 
 
 The strong assurance to Abraham that he should person- 
 ally participate in the possession, was renewed, in similar 
 terms, to Isaac and to Jacob. As Paul expresses it, "By 
 faith, he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange 
 country, dwelling in tabernacles, with Isaac and Jacob, the 
 heirs with him of the same promise." In after ages, God 
 declared Himself "the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of 
 Jacob," thereby intimating that He still adhered to His
 
 1857.] In the Abrahamic Covenant. 1 ?>7 
 
 covenant with tliem personally. The promise of which they 
 were heirs lias not yet been fulfil led. As Stephen argued 
 before the council — ''And God gave him no inheritance in 
 it : no. not so much as to set his foot on. Yet He promised 
 that He would give it to him for a possession." Paul, also, 
 in his Kpistlc to the Romans, speaks of the promise to Abra- 
 ham, that he should be the heir of the world, as being shared 
 by believers under the New Testament. And again, in his 
 Epistle to the Galatians, he argues, that the promised inherit- 
 ance was not peculiar to the Jews, and assures Gentile be- 
 lievers, " If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and 
 heirs according to the promise." This last assurance is a 
 conclusion from the important point which the apostle deter- 
 mines in the sixteenth verse of the same chapter: "Now to 
 Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith 
 not, 'And to seeds,' as of many ; but as of one, ' To thy sad,' 
 which is Ciirtst" — a passage which we had occasion to quote 
 under a former head. But, if it be determined by inspiration 
 that when God said, "I will give to tha, and to thy sad after 
 thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger," the seed intended 
 is Christ, there is surely no foundation left for the opinion, 
 that the promise was in any sense fulfilled when the carnal 
 Israel entered Canaan under Joshua : and it remains as cer- 
 tain that that land will yet be (riven to Christ for a losses- 
 sion — the centre and metropolis of a kingdom which shall 
 embrace the earth, under which all nations shall be blessed, 
 and in which Abraham and all the faithful will be associated 
 with him. The promise of which, in Christ, we are heirs, 
 respects not a temporal and perishing possession, but an ever- 
 lasting possession — an inheritance incorruptible and unde- 
 lilcd, and that fadeth not away. 
 
 This covenant, and all its promised blessings, have been 
 obscured by the effort to fix the seat of our glorious inherit- 
 ance in some far-oil' spirit-land, and away from this earth, 
 which was made man's home and inheritance — the recovery 
 of which from the curse is one of the revealed glories of our 
 King. But the Lord himself evidently designed to tench us 
 that the promise to Abraham will yet Lc fulfilled in its strict
 
 138 Advancing Light of Prophecy [March, 
 
 literality, when He uses it as an argument with the Sadda- 
 cees in favor of a resurrection from the dead. It can not be 
 denied, that if God is yet to give Abraham that land for a 
 possession, the patriarch must be raised from the dead to 
 enjoy it: and so the Lord quotes the book of Moses, "Now 
 in the bush God spake unto him, saying-, 'I am the God of 
 Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and tlie God of Jacob.' He 
 is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living." 
 These patriarchs had, for centuries, been gathered lo their 
 fathers ; but God still reveals Himself as true to His cove- 
 nant with them, and as holding Himself pledged to its fulfill- 
 ment. Whether this argument was, as Archbishop Whately 
 claims, new both to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, this 
 much is evident, it was admitted as conclusive by both ; "and 
 after that, they dared not ask him any questions at all/' 
 
 A similar argument has been maintained bv Jewish writers 
 in every age, showing their invariable interpretation of God's 
 promise. Mr. Brooks, in his Elcmitits of Piop/idual Interpre- 
 tation, quotes a reply of Rabbi Gamaliel, the teacher of Paul, 
 to a question of the Sadducees, regarding the resurrection : 
 "Nor could he silence them till he brought against them 
 Deut. xi. 21, " Which land the I ord sware that he would 
 give to y<-ur fathers.' The Rabbi argued, that as Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob had it not, and God can not lie, therefore 
 they must be raised from the dead to inherit it." In a note, 
 Mr. Brooks adds : " Rabbi Simai, though of later date, ar- 
 gues the same from Exodus vi. 4, insisting that the law as- 
 serts the resurrection of the dead, when in this place it is 
 said, ' And also I have established my covenant uith them, to 
 give them Canaan ;' for it is not said, ' to you,' but ' to th< in.' " 
 In this he only follows the earlier commentators. Warbur- 
 ton, to illustrate the general expectation of the Jews, that 
 Abraham is to rise and take possession of the promised land, 
 quotes Manasseh Ben-Israel: ''God, speaking to Abraham, 
 says, ' I will give to thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land 
 in which thou art a stranger.' But it is certain that Abra- 
 ham and the other patriarchs have never possessed thai land. 
 They must, therefore, be raised from the dead to enjoy the
 
 1857.] In the Jibrahamic Covenant. 139 
 
 promised blessings : otherwise, the promises of God would 
 be false and of no effect. Hence, there is proved not only 
 the immortality of the soul, but also that essential doctrine 
 of the law, a resurrection of the dead." 
 
 The question may still be asked, Did Abraham so under- 
 stand God's promise? One thing is very evident, in the 
 Mosaic record of his life — he dwelt much upon the assurance 
 of his personal interest in the inheritance : and that he looked 
 away beyond this present life for its enjoyment, is evident 
 from the fact that he was contented to live and die a stranger 
 in the land. He manifestly expected nothing else than that, 
 as a stranger and sojourner in the land, he should go to his 
 fathers, and rest there until the appointed time. Up to the 
 last of his pilgrim-life, we hear no utterance of dissatisfac- 
 tion or disappointment, but, on the contrary, unabated con- 
 fidence in God and in the fulfillment of the promise. 
 
 "We are not, however, left to conjecture in this matter. If 
 Abraham, as we have seen, had a clear view of the character 
 of the promised Seed, and of the salvation he was to effect, 
 he could not be mistaken as to the nature of the inheritance : 
 and so we are plainly informed in the eleventh chapter of the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, to which we have already had occa- 
 sion to refer. Paul there also distinctly recognizes the per- 
 sonal form of the promise. "Abraham, when he was called to 
 go out into a place which he should after receive far an inheri- 
 tance, obeyed ;" but the light in which he viewed the inheri- 
 tance is not left in doubt ; " for he looked for a city which 
 hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." And 
 again, speaking of Abraham, in connection with the other 
 patriarchs, "These all died in faith, not having received the 
 promise, but having seen them afar off, and embraced them, 
 and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the 
 earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that 
 they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful 
 of that country from whence they came out, they might have 
 had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a 
 better country, that is an heavenly : wherefore God is not 
 ashamed to be called their God : for he hath prepared for
 
 140 Advancing Light of Prophecy [March, 
 
 them a city." This makes Abraham's course of self-denying 
 obedience all plain, and invests his character with true dig- 
 nity, when we see him going forth, not in pursuit of perish- 
 ing possessions, or with the idle ambition of being the founder 
 of a carnal nation, but with his faith reaching down to 
 Christ's day, and his hopes embracing the glories of the 
 heavenly inheritance, wdien the Conqueror shall have re- 
 deemed the purchased possession, and, sitting in the gate of 
 His enemies, shall sway the sceptre of a heavenly kingdom, 
 in which multitudes from the East and from the West shall 
 sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 
 
 III. THE BLESSING ON ALL NATIONS. 
 
 When God called Abraham, ITe promised, "In thee shall 
 all families of the earth be blessed." And afterwards, when 
 Abraham was more fully instructed in God's purpose, He 
 spoke more definitely, " In thy seed shall all nations of the 
 earth be blessed." We have already seen that the promised 
 seed is Christ. Peter, when he preached in the porch of the 
 Temple, quoted this promise, and added, to the Jews, "To 
 you first God having raised up his Son Jesus, hath sent him 
 to bless you, in turning every one of you from his iniquities." 
 This was preliminary to the preaching of repentance and the 
 remission of sins, in the name of Jesus, among all nations : 
 and it throws a flood of light upon the promise, upon the 
 nature of the blessing, and the manner in which it is be- 
 stowed. As Paul also argues, Rom. iv. 16, •' The inheritance 
 is of faith, that it might be by grace ; to the end the promise 
 might be sure to all the seed ; not to that only which is of 
 the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham ; 
 who is the father of us all, as it is written, I have made thee 
 a father of many nations." This promise is advancing to its 
 fulfillment, as God is going forth in the Gospel of His Son to 
 gather out of the nations a people who shall be to Abraham 
 a seed, numerous as the sands of the sea-shore — a mighty 
 multitude, whoin no man can number, out of every tribe and 
 tongue, country and nation, who shall be unto our God kings and
 
 1857.] In the Jlbrahamic Covenant. I'll 
 
 priests, and who shall reign on the earth : and then, in its 
 full extent, shall the promise be fulfilled* when the earth shall 
 be filled with the glory of the Lord, and the nations shall 
 walk in the light of the New Jerusalem. We do not know 
 how far Abraham embraced this great design. He could not 
 understand the manner of its accomplishment ; for that was 
 God's secret, which was hid from ages and generations. But 
 we arc assured that " the Scripture, foreseeing that God 
 would justify the heathen by faith, preached before the Gos- 
 pel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be 
 blessed :" and that thought, doubtless, entered into the joy 
 ■with which he saw Christ's day. 
 
 IV. GOD SHALL BE THEIR GOD FOREVER. 
 
 " And I will establish my covenant with thee, and thy 
 seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting cove- 
 nant, to be a God unto thee, and thy seed after thee." A 
 Saviour was promised, who, as the seed of the woman, should 
 bruise the head of the Serpent, and, as the seed of Abraham, 
 shall possess the gate of His enemies. He shall lead His 
 people in triumph into the promised inheritance, where they 
 shall be crowned with blessing, and where, above all, they 
 shall be introduced into the most intimate relations to God, 
 the Father of all. He shall be their God, which implies 
 their perfection in holiness, for without holiness no man 
 can sec the Lord ; their restoration to eternal life, for He is 
 not a God of the dead, but of the living ; and their perfect 
 blessedness, for in His presence is fullness of joy for evermore. 
 So it is every where represented as the crowning step of their 
 advancement. " Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, 
 and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, 
 and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." 
 
 In conclusion, we understand the covenant which God 
 made with Abraham as identical with the new covenant in 
 Christ's blood. The promise embraces the very Saviour in 
 whom we trust, the grace in which we stand, and the inherit- 
 ance for which we hope. That covenant is still in force.
 
 142 Advancing Light of Prophecy. [March, 
 
 The law, or Sinaitic covenant, which was four hundred and 
 thirty years after, could not disannul it. Zecharias, rejoicing 
 in view of Christ's first advent, blessed God that He had 
 visited His people " to perform the mercy to our fathers, and 
 to remember his holy covenant; the oath which he sware 
 to our father Abraham." The Seed is come, under whom the 
 promises are advancing to a sure and speedy fulfillment ; the 
 inheritance is purchased, and soon will be taken possession 
 of; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will arise from the cave of 
 Macpelah ; and God will make good His promise, " To thee 
 will I give it." But the land is given to Him who is pre- 
 eminently the Seed, and is, therefore, called " Emmanuel's 
 land" — a special enclosure within a larger inheritance, the 
 world. All who are in Christ are heirs, as our Lord said, 
 " Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." 
 Patriarchs, prophets, kings, apostles, martyrs, believers of 
 every age, shall enter together into the inheritance, made per- 
 fect in one : and then shall the will of our Father be done 
 on earth, as it is done in heaven. We delight to anticipate 
 the holy joy and surprise with which the reverend father of 
 the faithful shall look round upon the multitude, which no 
 man can number — upon the land, decked in all the splendors 
 of the new creation — and see how far his amplest hopes 
 came short of the fullness of the Divine performance.
 
 1857.] The Council of Trent. 1 U 
 
 THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 The infallibility of the Romish Church is an article of 
 Romish faith ; but it is not, by any means, a settled point 
 in whom this attribute is vested. It continually shifts its 
 residence, to suit the convenience of parties and occasions. 
 Sometimes we fancy that we have treed it in the pnpal chair ; 
 but, anon, it is convenient to own that the Pope is a fallible 
 man : sometimes it seems earthed in a General Council ; but, 
 presently, it becomes necessary to protect the supremacy of 
 Peter : and, after a vain chase, all that remains is to believe 
 that the Church is infallible, or — anathema to us. We do 
 not design, at present, to quote the contradictory deliver- 
 ances of Popes equally infallible, or Councils equally in- 
 spired, or of the Church in one age against the Church in 
 another age, to show how difficult an accomplishment faith in 
 such a dogma must be. We desire simply to ascertain Avhere 
 we may find some statement of doctrines, or rule of discipline, 
 by which the infallible Church will own herself bound, and 
 for which she may be held responsible : and we shall pro- 
 bably be regarded, even by Romanists, as doing her no in- 
 justice, if we take the decrees of the Council of Trent as 
 presenting the authoritative deliverance of the Church on the 
 important points on which they treat. Wherever the Church's 
 infallibility resides, it is a settled point with Romanists that 
 general and lawful Councils can not err in defining doctrines 
 of faith : and that of Trent, as standing last in order, and 
 nearest to us, may be accepted as the most perfect transcript 
 of the church's actual belief. 
 
 A brief view of that Council, in the circumstances of its
 
 1-1-1 The Council of Trent. [March, 
 
 assembling, the materials of which it was composed, and the 
 management of its affairs, can not but he interesting and in- 
 structive. What an array of holy men might we expect to 
 meet as the representatives of an infallible Church, and the 
 organs of the Holy Ghost, assembled for a last and full de- 
 claration of what men must believe, on pain of eternal dam- 
 nation ! What heavenly solemnity, what exalted spirituality, 
 what holy beauty, would we expect to surround their delibe- 
 rations and deliverances, when, with Divine authority, they 
 decided points of faith, and, in God's name, pronounced 
 God's will to a waiting world ! But, let us look at the re- 
 ality. 
 
 The first demand for this Council was heard in Luther's 
 appeal. When, contrary to all his own purposes, he found 
 himself in open conflict with him whom he regarded as head 
 of the Church on earth — when he had exhausted all means 
 of dutiful remonstrance against flagrant corruptions — and 
 when there remained to him but the choice of submission or 
 destruction — on the 28th of November, 1518, disclaiming all 
 designs against the Church, he protested: "Seeing that the 
 Pope, who is God's vicar upon earth, may, like any other 
 man, err, sin, and lie ; and that an appeal to a General Coun- 
 cil is the only means of safety against that injustice which it 
 is impossible to resist, I am obliged to have recourse to this 
 step." 
 
 The step was a bold one, though there is here but twilight 
 streaks of the light of the Reformation ; and it was not long- 
 before the reformer who now speaks of the Pope as God's 
 vicar upon earth, spoke out in different terms of that same 
 Leo X. A year later, he meets the papal bull, excommuni- 
 cating him as an obstinate heretic, with an appeal, " from the 
 most holy Pope Leo to a future General and Christian Coun- 
 cil." The most holy Pope, however, is now described as an 
 unjust judge, a hardened apostate, an anti-Christ, and a blas- 
 phemer of the Church. We can not trace the course of the 
 Reformation from this stage of protest and appeal to Coun- 
 cils, till the Church professedly bowed to the authority of 
 the Word of God alone; but we may remark, that wide as
 
 1857.] The Council of 1 rent. 145 
 
 the Reformation was soon spread, its influence was not limited 
 to those who openly espoused its principles. Within the Ro- 
 man Catholic Church inquiry was awakened ; the corrup- 
 tions and tyranny of Rome became alike intolerable ; and 
 the appeal of the reformers was perpetuated in the demands 
 of an outraged people, who looked to a General Council for 
 the correction of a thousand corruptions, and the redress of 
 a thousand grievances. The abuses and pollutions of Rome, 
 in some way or other, united all classes in seeking reform ; 
 princes hoped to check the arrogance of the' ecclesiastics ; 
 the middle classes sought relief from an insupportable taxa- 
 tion — even the ecclesiastics sought protection from the usur- 
 pations of their superiors, and especially from the encroach^ 
 ments of the Papal court : all who regarded either religion 
 or morals, longed for a restoration of the ancient discipline. 
 The reformers soon became so numerous in the states of the 
 Catholic princes, that they earnestly desired a Council, in 
 the hope that matters might at last be amicably adjusted with 
 a party too numerous and influential to be silenced by the 
 executioner. 
 
 Leo the Tenth died before any steps could be taken to as- 
 semble a Council, had he sincerely designed it. Adrian, his 
 successor, a well-intentioned but narrow-minded man. at- 
 tempted a few reforms, only to discover how incompetent he 
 was to grapple with the embarrassments of his position. Sur- 
 rounded by all the agents of corruption, he could accomplish 
 nothing, and began to think of the extermination of heretics 
 as the only remedy for heresy. He found it as difficult to 
 move the secular arm for destruction as the ecclesiastical 
 arm for reformation ; and, after two years' misery and dis- 
 traction on a throne, he died. 
 
 Clement III, a subtle politician, pressed with the increasing 
 demands of prince and people for a Council, used every arti- 
 fice to evade the demand. During the first three years of his 
 popedom, the Emperor Charles V, embroiled with France, 
 found it to his interest to secure the friendship of Rome ; and 
 Clement found no difficulty in procrastinating. But, that ex- 
 igency passed, Charles directed his attention to the adjust- 
 
 VOL. II. — NO. Ill, J
 
 146 The Council of Trent. [March, 
 
 merit of the religious differences that agitated the empire, 
 and demanded a Council, in a tone that could no longer be 
 slighted. 
 
 The Pope affected to concede his demand, but clogged the 
 concession with conditions which rendered it nugatory. 
 Without tracing the course of wily negotiations, which he 
 managed to protract for eight years, we come at once to the 
 period of Clement's death, 1534 ; and yet no step has been 
 taken to convene the Council, which has now been agitated 
 during the reign of three successive Popes. It may serve to 
 keep up the association of history, to remind the reader that 
 the latter days of this Pope were embittered by the revolt of 
 England from the Papal Sec. 
 
 Paul III affected great zeal for the reformation of abuses, 
 but belied his professions two months after his accession, by 
 bestowing cardinal's hats upon his two illegitimate sons — 
 the one sixteen, and the other hardly fourteen years of age. 
 He felt the imperative necessity of doing something to satisfy 
 the long-delayed demand for a Council ; and, in the year 
 after his exaltation, he dispatched nuncios to the courts of 
 Europe, to ask their cooperation. Vergerio, who afterwards 
 went over to the Protestants, was sent to Germany, to endea- 
 vor to persuade the princes, and especially Luther and his 
 supporters, to consent to its being held in Italy. They could 
 perceive, as well as the Pope, that in Italy it would be the 
 mere creature of Rome — and refused their assent. But, ulti- 
 mately, with the concurrence of the Emperor alone, a Gen- 
 eral Council was summoned to meet in Mantua, on May 7, 
 1537. Germany, France, England, and even Italy protested 
 against the decision, and the Duke of Mantua raised objec- 
 tions to the Convocation in his city. This occasioned an- 
 other year's delay, and it was appointed to meet at Vicenza, 
 on May 1, 1538. On that day the legates of the Pope were 
 there ; but, after waiting three months in vain for the arri- 
 val of the bishops, they were recalled. Three years of boot- 
 less negotiations followed, and in 1541 the Emperor and the 
 Pope held an interview, at which they mutually and decisively 
 fixed upon Trent as the place where the Council should as-
 
 1857.] The Council of Trent. 147 
 
 semble. The 1st of November, 1542, was the day appointed ; 
 but, as war again broke out between the Emperor and 
 France, another delay of two years was occasioned ; so that 
 it was not till March, 1545, that the Council was actually 
 opened, which, as we have seen, was first demanded by Luther 
 in 1517, and which, for twenty-five years, the reluctant Popes 
 had been pretending to facilitate. 
 
 Twenty-five years ! — and what changes had passed over 
 the face of society since then ! The great men of the former 
 day had given place to their successors ; and those who were 
 the young men of that day were the grave and reverend 
 seniors of this.. In 1517, when the poor monk appealed to 
 a Council from the decree that threatened to crush him, he 
 stood alone, and almost trembled at his own boldness. In 
 1545, the kings of England, Sweden, and Denmark, with 
 many of the princes and states of Germany, and many of the 
 most eminent men of every land, were on his side. Then he 
 only humbly aimed at the reformation of one or two flagrant 
 abuses of the Church of Tome : now the whole system was 
 condemned as an ti- Christian. The human mind must be un- 
 fettered, God's word exalted, and the Church of Christ must 
 emerge free, holy, and mighty. And it was surely not so 
 much in the hope of conciliating the spiritual victors, as to 
 find a pretext for drawing the sword, that princes and priests 
 assembled a Council to decree the Pope's will. 
 
 Trent, a city known to us only as the seat of this Council, 
 is romantically situated on the Adige, a fertile valley of 
 the Tyrolese mountains. It was a dependence of the Empire, 
 but governed by its cardinal bishop. " The situation was 
 recommended by two considerations : that it was neither so 
 very Italian, as that the Germans should refuse to repair to 
 it ; nor so very German, as to make the Pope despair of 
 remaining master of any Council that might be held in it." 
 This last, in any case, the Pope determined to do ; and, ag 
 we shall see by its composition, he had no difficult task to 
 accomplish. 
 
 In the first place, the Pope was represented there by three 
 cardinals — Del Monte, Santa Croce, and Pool. The two
 
 148 The Council of Trent. [March, 
 
 former were subsequently elevated to the popedom, and the 
 third was of the royal family of England. Tlicy went ac- 
 credited as angels of peace, and commended for their learn- 
 ing, probity, and experience. This was for the public ear ; 
 but, behind this, they had in reserve, for any exigency that 
 might arise, a secret bull, authorizing them to adjourn the 
 Council. 
 
 When the representatives of his holiness appeared at Trent, 
 there was not a single bishop to meet them. but the bishop of 
 the see, who showed his diligence by preparing seats for four 
 hundred. The 15th came, and the opening was, of necessity, 
 adjourned. A week later, and Mendoza, the ambassador of 
 Charles V, and two others, had arrived. The straggling ar- 
 rivals continued through the summer, which was spent in idle 
 discussion on etiquette and preliminaries ; and, at last, on De- 
 cember 13th, the General (Ecumenical and Universal Council 
 of Trent was opened, with twenty-five bishops and four arch- 
 bishops. During the first period, of which we shall presently 
 speak, the number of bishops sometimes rose as high as 
 seventy — a large portion of them Italian pensioners of the 
 Pope. And this is the Council of which a Jesuit eulogist says, 
 " It was composed of all that was most illustrious in Ger- 
 many, France, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Bohemia, England, Ire- 
 land, Portugal, Poland, Sweden, Belgium, Moravia, Illyria, 
 and Greece!" "What madness," said Paul IV, "to have sent 
 three score bishops, from among the least capable, to a small 
 city among the mountains, there to decide so many things !" 
 
 But, the Council of Trent is to be opened, at length. The 
 papal Legates, the bishops in their robes, and a number of 
 ecclesiastics, march in procession to the Cathedral. The 
 Cardinal del Monte celebrated mass, at the end of which he 
 proclaimed plenary indulgence to all who should engage in 
 public prayer for the Council. A bombastical sermon was 
 preached by the Bishop of Bitonto, in which common sense 
 was outraged, and Scripture profaned. The time has come, 
 he alleged, when God must speak, and He will speak. In 
 spite of the wickedness of its members, he claims, " the voice 
 of the Council will not the less be the voice of God." He
 
 1857.] The Covncil of Trent. 149 
 
 celebrated the efforts of the Pope to gather his children, as 
 the bird doth her chickens under her wings. The Legates, 
 the Emperor, and other sovereigns, received their meed of 
 fulsome adulation. The mountains, rocks, woods, and tor- 
 rents of Trent were apostrophized to announce to the earth 
 the day of its merciful visitation, that it might not be said 
 that " the light of the Pope hath come into the world, and 
 men loved darkness rather than light," The City of Trent 
 itself was saluted in the words of the prophet, " Thy gates 
 shall be open continually. They shall not be shut day nor 
 night. Salvation shall possess thy walls, and praise thy 
 gates." He appealed to the countries of Christendom which 
 Satan had desired to have, and invited them to come 
 to the marriage, because all things are now ready ; and in- 
 voked the presence of the Lord, through the intercession of 
 Vigilius, the tutelary saint of the Valley of Trent An ad- 
 dress by the Legates followed ; and the Council was declared 
 to be opened, for the glory of God, the destruction of heresy, 
 and the peace, union, and reformation of the Church. The 
 Cardinal del Monto blessed the assembly, which separated 
 with every demonstration of joy over so signal an event. 
 
 How much there was about such an assembly, we do not 
 say, to sustain the claim of infallibility ; but to command 
 respect, we leave to the reader's candor. The plots and 
 wiles, the chicanery snd hypocrisies of twenty-five years, of 
 which it was the mature fruits, were worthily seconded by 
 the intrigues and artifices of its management, of which we 
 have a fair intimation in the fact that there was an under- 
 standing between the Legates and the Pope that there should 
 always be two dispatches — one confidential and secret, the 
 other containing no more than those parties were willing to 
 iiave communicated to the bishops. Such was the preparation 
 made for receiving the communications of the Holy Ghost 1 
 
 It is only necessary to add, that Italy was then, as now, 
 divided into a number of small sees, whose bishops were the 
 servile tools of Rome ; and, from the vicinity of Trent, the 
 Pope could at any moment furnish a sufficient number to pre- 
 serve his majority in the Council. As compared with all
 
 150 On the Preaching of the [March, 
 
 other countries, the number of Italian bishops who, from first 
 to last, figured in the Council, were as three to two ; and, 
 however the apologists of Rome may now vindicate the im- 
 position, the non-Italian members of the Council, in the heat 
 of controversy, were not slow to complain that " they could 
 do nothing — the Italians voted as one man, and swept all 
 before them." 
 
 We shall, on a future occasion, give an instance or two of 
 the expert management by which the papal Legates secured 
 the passage of decrees which the papal world is now required 
 to accept as the infallible utterance of the Iloly Spirit. To 
 those who desire to study the subject more at large, we re- 
 commend Cramp's Text-Book of Popery and Bungener's His- 
 tory of the Council of Trent — either of them containing a 
 great amount of valuable information, in a popular form, and 
 within reasonable limits. 
 
 ON THE PREACHING OF THE FIRST AGES OF 
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 Preaching, in its general sense of oral teaching or advo- 
 cacy, must be almost coeval with human society ; and, by 
 many asies, it preceded the use of letters, as a means of in- 
 fluencing the public mind. Its employment in the dissemina- 
 tion of religious truth, and in religious persuasion, is traced 
 back, historically, to the antediluvian ages, when He who, 
 by His apostles, in after times, preached peace to Jews and 
 Gentiles — by Noah, a preacher of righteousness, preached 
 to the disobedient generation whom the Deluge overtook in 
 their sins. Moses and his successors were preachers, publish- 
 ing the law and declaring the will of God in the hearing of
 
 1857.] First Jlges of Christianity. 151 
 
 all the people ; and a succession of prophets and public 
 teachers raised the voice of instruction, warning, admonition, 
 and persuasion down to the days when John the Baptist 
 "came preaching in the wilderness of Judca." Our blessed 
 Lord was a preacher. In the outset of His public ministry, 
 He went into the synagogue at Nazareth, and read the pro- 
 phecy of Isaiah : " The spirit of the Lord is upon me, be- 
 cause he hath appointed me to priach the Gospel to the poor ;" 
 "And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture 
 fulfilled in ) our ears.'' Of the sermon which He then 
 preached, we learn that the congregation " wondered at the 
 gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth." The great 
 burthen of His preaching was, Repent, for the kingdom of 
 God is at hand. And, in like manner, He sent out His 
 apostles with the charge, •' And as ye go, preach, saying, The 
 kingdom of heaven is at hand." 
 
 After He had been rejected and crucified by the Jews, He 
 taught His disciples that, as a grand result of His death and 
 resurrection, repentance and the remission of sins should be 
 preached, in His name, among all nations. This charge and 
 commission He gave them before His ascension — to preach 
 the Gospel to every creature : and this is a distinguishing 
 feature of the dispensation under which we live ; " for after 
 that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not 
 God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save 
 them that believe." 
 
 It is proper that we should here admit that the preaching 
 which was thus practised and enjoined, had nothing in com- 
 mon with modern sermonizing, save that both imply an oral 
 address on a religious topic. The Greek word rendered " to 
 preach," in most of the passages referred to. signifies, " to 
 herald or proclaim, as a public crur,'' and is, in several in- 
 stances in the New Testament, rendered, " to publish" and 
 "to proclaim." Our English word "preach," in its primitive 
 signification, derived from the La tin praco, " a crier," very 
 well represented the original ; but it has now acquired an 
 almost exclusively technical sen-e. According to Webster, 
 " to preach," is " to pronounce a public discourse on a 1 eli-
 
 152 On the Preaching of the [March, 
 
 gious subject. The word is usually applied to such discourses 
 as are formed from a text of Scripture." Or it is to deliver 
 a sermon, which the same authority describes as " a discourse 
 delivered in public by a licensed clergyman, for the purpose 
 of religious instruction, and usually grounded on some text 
 of Scripture." There could be no greater perversion of Scrip- 
 ture than to understand 'preaching, in this modern sense, in 
 those passages where it is mentioned. The preaching, for 
 example, of the Twelve, when the Lord first sent them out, 
 was nothing more than going from place to place, and, as 
 public heralds, making the announcement, " The kingdom of 
 heaven is at hand :" and the manner in which they fulfilled 
 their more extended commission, to preach the Gospel to 
 every creature, is sufficiently shown in the addresses which 
 are left on record. In simple and direct terms, they pro- 
 claimed to Jews and Gentiles glad tidings of salvation, an- 
 nouncing the Saviour, publishing the offer, and urging its 
 acceptance. Such preaching was altogether apart from the 
 stated instruction of the Church, and still more distinct from 
 its worship. Wherever they found an opportunity or an au- 
 dience — whether in the Synagogue, the council-chamber, the 
 Agora, the Areopagus, or the audience-chamber of kings, 
 there the intrepid heralds proclaimed Christ and Him cruci- 
 fied. 
 
 In the stated exercises and devotions of Christian assem- 
 blies, in the first ages, there was evidently great simplicity, 
 or, as we would say, informality. It was not then the exclu- 
 sive duty or privilege of one man or class of men to teach 
 and exhort. Yet, there were occasions when the mutual ex- 
 hortations of the brethren, and the general addresses of 
 those who had the gift of teaching, gave way to a prolonged 
 discourse * as, when Paul preached to the disciples at Troas, 
 when they came together to " break bread on the first day of 
 the week." But, though our translators use the word preach 
 in this case, also, it is not the same word in the original 
 Scriptures as that employed in the cases mentioned above. 
 There, as we have said, the word (ttnovoou)) signifies, " to pro- 
 claim as a herald :" here the word (SiaXeyu)) signifies, " to
 
 1857.] First Jlges of Christianity. 153 
 
 discuss a subject, to make a discourse, or to lecture as a 
 teacher of philosophy might to his students." The former 
 was the mode of making known the Gospel to those who 
 were without : the latter was the mode of teaching and en- 
 forcing the truth to disciples. 
 
 In process of time, as the presbyters or bishops acquired 
 an increasing influence in the affairs of the Church, they 
 monopolized the right of preaching, in both senses — a result 
 which was favored by the growing carnality of the Churches, 
 and the decay of spiritual gifts. The distinction between the 
 two modes of discourse was gradually obliterated when idol- 
 atry was generally abandoned, when a certain amount of 
 evangelical knowledge was generally diffused, and when the 
 line of demarcation between the Church and the world was 
 obscured, 'ihen the usual assemblies consisted of believers 
 and unbelievers indiscriminately, and the discourses addressed 
 to them became of a mixed character. 
 
 At what time the practice of sermonizing, as it is now fol- 
 lowed, was first introduced, can not be exactly determined. 
 Doubtless, there was a gradual change from the simple and 
 informal addresses in which the first Christians endeavored 
 to edify one another. We have discourses delivered before 
 the end of the fourth century, which, in structure and de- 
 sign, closely resemble modern sermons. Neander, in his 
 History of the Church, in the first three centuries, says : "After 
 the reading of the Scriptures, there followed, as there had 
 previously in the Jewish synagogue, short, and, at first, very 
 simple addresses, in familiar language — the momentary 
 effusion of the heart, which contained an explanation and 
 application of what had just been read." Justin Martyr ex- 
 presses himself thus on the subject: " After the reading of 
 the Scriptures, the president instructs the people in a dis- 
 course, and incites them to the imitation of these good ex- 
 amples." Among the Greeks, where the taste was more rhe- 
 torical, the sermon, from the earliest times, was more 
 lengthened, and formed a very important part of the service. 
 According to Origen, as quoted by Lord King, the sermons 
 in his day were explanations of the lessons or passages of
 
 154 On the Preaching of the [March, 
 
 Scripture read in order. They occupied about an hour in 
 delivery, and concluded with a suitable application, by way 
 of exhortation. 
 
 When copies of the Bible were rare, and literary attain- 
 ments were limited to a few, the reading of portions of Scrip- 
 ture was an important means of public instruction ; and, in 
 one sense, that importance can never be diminished. The 
 earliest discourses were expositions of the Scriptures, read 
 in course. Sometimes, the teacher would be engrossed by 
 one point in the lesson ; and, by degrees, it would appear, the 
 lesson became shorter, and the discourse a more prominent 
 part of the service, though a deference to antiquity, and a 
 veneration for Scripture, preserved the custom of introducing 
 the sermon by a text. 
 
 As the most satisfactory illustration of ancient preaching, 
 we conclude with an outline of a sermon by Chrysostom, and 
 a few quotations from a translation of it by Professor Rip- 
 ley. The practices of the Church, in his day, had receded 
 very far from apostolic simplicity. He first distinguished 
 himself among the Anchorites, who even then rivalled the aus- 
 terities of the Hindoo Yogis. He lived in a solitary cavern, 
 and remained two years without lying down. After his re- 
 turn to society, his eloquence attracted Jews, heathens, and 
 heretics. In 397, he was placed in the episcopal see of Con- 
 stantinople, and closed a chequered life in banishment in 407, 
 sixty-three years old. The name Chrysostom (golden mouthed) 
 was given to him after his death, in compliment to his elo- 
 quence. A partial critic remarks : " The vivacity and power 
 of his imagination, the force of his logic, his power of arous- 
 ing the passions, the beauty and accuracy of his comparisons, 
 the neatness and purity of his style, place him on a level with 
 the most celebrated Greek authors : the Christian Church 
 has not a more accomplished orator." 
 
 The sermon from which we quote is one of a series of 
 seven discourses, suggested by the parable of Lazarus and 
 Dives. After referring to previous discourses, and the trea- 
 sures of instruction and comfort they had found in the par- 
 able, he intimates that it is not exhausted, but, to avoid
 
 1857.] First Jlgcs of Christianity. 155 
 
 satiety, he turns to another subject — another, hut still a har- 
 monious theme — "For in treating the parable," says he, "our 
 aim was to teach the hearers this lesson, that they should 
 regard all the splendors of this present life as nothing, but 
 should look forward in their hopes, and daily reflect on the 
 decision which shall be hereafter pronounced, and on that 
 fearful judgment, and that Judge who can not be deceived. 
 On these things, Paul has counselled us to-day in the passages 
 that have been read to us. Attend, however, to his own 
 words : ' I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, 
 concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even 
 as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus 
 died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus 
 will God bring with him.' "—1 Thess. iv. 13, 1 1. 
 
 In proceeding with the illustration of this text, he directs 
 attention, first, to the interesting fact, that in speaking of 
 Christ, he employs the word death ; but, in speaking of the 
 decease of believers, he calls it a deep. " For where a resur- 
 rection has taken place, he mentions death with plainness : 
 but where the resurrection is still a matter of hope, he says 
 sleep — consoling us by the expression; for he who is only 
 asleep will surely awake, and death is no more than a long 
 sleep." 
 
 He then answers some of the objections of mourners who 
 refuse to be comforted : 
 
 "But, you say, a dead man experiences corruption, and becomes dust 
 and ashes. And what then, beloved hearers ? For this very reason, we 
 ought to rejoice. For when a innn is about to rebuild an old and totter- 
 ing house, he first sends out its occupants, then tears it down, and re- 
 builds anew a more splendid one. This occasions no grief to the occu- 
 pants, but rather joy; for they do not think of the demolition which 
 they see, but of the house which is to come, though not yet seen. Winn 
 God is about to do a similar work, he destroys our body, and removes 
 the soul which was dwelling in it as from some house, that he may build 
 it anew and more splendidly, and again bring the soul into it with '-renter 
 glory. Let us not, therefore, regard the tearing down, but the splendor 
 which is to succeed. 
 
 " If, again, a man has a statue decayed by rust and age, and mutilated 
 in many of its parts, he breaks it up and casts it into a furnace, and,
 
 156 On the Preaching of the [March, 
 
 after the melting, he receives it again in a more beautiful form. As, 
 then, the dissolving in the furnace was not a destruction, but a renewing, 
 of that statue, so the death of our bodies is not a destruction, but a 
 renovation. When, therefore, you see, as in a furnace, our flesh flowing 
 away to corruption, dwell not on that sight, but wait for the recasting. 
 And be not satisfied with the extent of this illustration, but advance, in 
 your thoughts, to a still higher point; for the statuary, casting into the 
 furnace a brazen image, does not furnrh you in its place a golden and 
 undeeaying statue, but again makes a brazen one. God does not thus; 
 but, casting in a mortal body formed of clay, lie returns to you a golden 
 and immortal statue ; for the earth, receiving a corruptible and decaying 
 body, gives back the same, incorruptible and undeeaying. Look not, 
 therefore, on the corpse, lying with closed eyes and speechless lips, but 
 on the man that is risen, that has received glory unspeakable and amaz- 
 ing, an 1 direct your thoughts from the present sight to the future hope. 
 
 " But, do you miss his society, and, therefore, lament and mourn? 
 Now, is it not unreasonable, that, if you should have given jour daugh- 
 ter in marriage, and her husband should take her to a distant country, 
 and should there enjoy prosperity, you would not think the circumstance 
 a calamity, but the intelligence of their prosperity would console the 
 sorrow occasioned by her absence ; and yet here, while it is not a man, 
 nor a fellow-servant, but the Lord himself, who has taken your relative, 
 that you should grieve and lament?" 
 
 After making due allowance for the natural feelings and 
 emotions of the bereaved, he claims that they should " weep, 
 but weep as your Master wept over Lazarus, observing the 
 just limits of sorrow ; or, as Paul says, ' sorrow,' but ' not as 
 others which have no hope.' Grieve, but not as the Greeks, 
 who have no hope of a resurrection." He then takes occa- 
 sion to rebuke the extravagant demonstration of grief at 
 funerals, after the manner of the heathen, and shows what a 
 wide difference there is between the situation of a believer 
 and an unbeliever, in affliction and in death : 
 
 " We difTer from unbelievers in our estimate of things. The unbeliever 
 surveys the heaven, and worships it, because he thinks it a divinity; he 
 looks to the earth, and makes himself a servant to it. and longs for the 
 things of sense. FUit not so with us. We survey the heaven, and ad- 
 mire Him that made it ; for we believe it not to be a god, but a work of 
 God. I look on the whole creation, and am led by it to the Creator. 
 He looks on wealth, and longs for it with earnest desire: I look on 
 wealth, and contemn it. lie sees poverty, and laments : 1 see poverty,
 
 1857.] First Jlges of Christianity. 15T 
 
 and rejoice. I see things in one light: he in another. Just so in regaid 
 to death. He sees a corpse, and thinks of it as a corpse : I see a corpse, 
 and behol 1 sleep rather than death. And as in regard to books, both 
 learned persons and unlearned see them with the same ©yes, but not with 
 the same understanding ; for, to the unlearned, the mere shapes of letters 
 appear, while the learned discover the sense that lies within those letters. 
 So in respect to affairs in general, we all see what takes place with the 
 same eyes, but not with the same understanding and judgment. Since, 
 therefore, in all other things we differ from them, shall we agree with 
 them in our sentiments respecting death V" 
 
 This train of reflection is prosecuted in an affecting view 
 of the desolateness of the heathen who have no hope, and an 
 encouraging view of the advantages of the Christian, who, 
 even in the present life, has a source of perpetual joy, and, 
 in the severest calamities, receives abundant consolation from 
 the hope of coming glory. The true occasion of sorrow to 
 the believer is not the death of those who die in the Lord, 
 but the life of those who are living in sin. " Let us bewail 
 only sin : and all other things, whether poverty, or sickness, 
 or untimely death, or calumny, or whatever human evil be- 
 falls us, let us resolutely bear them all. For these calamities, 
 if we are watchful, will add to our glory." 
 
 He enforces his admonition to patience under affliction by 
 the example of Job, who stood firm, though assailed from 
 every quarter. Satan covered the whole sea with waves, but 
 did not overwhelm the bark : he despoiled the tower of its 
 glory, but could not batter it down. The particulars of Job's 
 trials arc eloquently illustrated, especially the loss of his 
 children, snatched away together in one hour, in the prime of 
 life, after so much promise, and as by a single stroke of 
 vengeance : 
 
 "He lost them all in the very flower of their age. You know how 
 very piercing are untimely deaths, and productive of very diversified 
 grief. The instance we are contemplating was not only untimely, but 
 also violent ; so that here was a seventh stroke. For their father did not 
 see them expire on a bed, but they were all overwhelmed by the falling 
 habitation. Consider, then : a man was digging in that pile of ruins, 
 and now he threw up a stone, and now a limb of a deceased one; he saw
 
 158 On the Preaching of the First Ages. [March, 
 
 a hand still holding a cup, and another right hand placed on a tahlc, 
 and the mutilated form of a body, the nose torn away, the head crushed, 
 the eyes put out, the brain scattered, the whole frame marred, and the 
 variety of wounds not permitting the father to recognize the beloved 
 countenances. You suffer emotions and shed tears at merely hearing of 
 these things : what must he have endured at the sight of them V For if 
 we, so long after the event, can not bear to hear of this tragedy, though 
 it was another man's calamity, what an adamant was he to look on 
 these things, and contemplate them, not as another's, but as his own 
 afflictions !" 
 
 The example of Abraham is then cited, who showed even 
 greater fortitude, when he did not, indeed, see Isaac die, but 
 was commanded to slay him, and did not question the com- 
 mand nor repine at it. After relating the particulars, he 
 adds : " In what manner to express myself, I know not : he 
 only could know who did these things. For no language can 
 describe how it happened that his hand did not become tor- 
 pid — that the strength of his nerves did not relax — thut the 
 affecting sight of his son did not overpower him I" lie con- 
 cludes : 
 
 "By these two examples, then, we ought not only to admire virtue, 
 but to emulate and imitate it. And let no one say, these were wonder- 
 ful men. True, they were wonderful and great men. But we are now 
 required to have more wisdom than they, and than all who lived under 
 the Old Testament. For except your righteousness exceed that of the 
 scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
 Gathering wisdom, then, from all quarters, and considering what we are 
 told concerning a resurrection, and concerning these holy men, let us 
 frequently recite it to our souls, not only when we are actually in sorrow, 
 but also while we are free from distress. For I have now addressed you 
 on this subject, though no one is in particular affliction, that when we 
 shall fall into any such calamity, we may, from the remembrance of what 
 has been said, obtain requisite consolation. As soldiers, even in peace, 
 perform warlike exercises, so that when actually called to battle, and the 
 occasion makes a demand for skill, they may avail themselves of the nrt 
 which they have cultivated in peace ; so let us, in time of peace, furnish 
 ourselves with weapons and remedies, that whenever there shall burst on 
 us a war of unreasonable passions, or grief, or pain, or any i*uch thing, 
 we may, well armed and secure on all sides, repel the assaults of the 
 Evil One with all skill, and wall ourselves around with right contempla-
 
 1857.] The Gospel History and Teaching. 159 
 
 tions, with the declarations of Hod, -vrith the examples of good men, and 
 ■with every possible defence. For so shall we be able to pass the present 
 life with happiness, and to attain to the kingdom of heaven, through 
 Jesus Ohii-t, to whom be glory and dominion, together with the Father 
 and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen." 
 
 THE GOSPEL HISTORY AND TEACHING IN THE 
 LOCALITIES OF PALESTINE. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 " The holy places," as they are called, in Palestine, are 
 not the scenes of events in sacred history, but sites which the 
 Greek or Latin Church has selected as objects of pilgrimage 
 and superstitious homage. They have an interest of their 
 own, such as that with which we might regard the seat of 
 the Delphic oracle, or the remains of the Temple of the Sun ; 
 and the superstitions formerly practised at the one, are not 
 darker than those still practised in the other. The frantic 
 and revolting imposture of the Greek Easter, iti the Church 
 of the Holy Sepulchre, if possible outdoes the folly of Ma- 
 homedan pilgrims at the shrine of their prophet. The revels 
 of ancient Bacchanals need scarcely blush beside the insane 
 frenzy of either. The more thoroughly the claims of these 
 localities are examined, the more evident it becomes that a 
 wise Providence has obliterated all evidence on which such 
 abuses might rest with any thing approaching to plausibility. 
 The Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, the Tomb of the 
 Virgin, the Church of the Ascension, the Church of the Holy 
 Sepulchre, and other favorite sanctuaries, have no claims 
 except such as the authority of the Church patronizing them 
 can give. 
 
 The interest which the intelligent Christian finds in the
 
 1 60 The Gospel History and Teaching [March, 
 
 localities of Palestine, connected with the history and teach- 
 ing of Christ, is of a very different kind. It seeks not to 
 identify minuter localities, but to seek in the broader fea- 
 tures of the scene the illustration and enforcement of both 
 history and teaching. In the personal history of our Lord, 
 we very often find such allusions to time and place as are 
 necessary to enable us to trace the fulfillment of ancient 
 prophecy, and nothing more. Thus, Bethlehem is mentioned 
 as His birth-place, and then almost disappears from view. 
 Egypt afforded an asylum for His infancy, but that is all we 
 can tell of it. His connected history begins at Nazareth, and 
 it was as " Jesus of Nazareth" He was known — a village in 
 a wild, but picturesque situation. "Its wild character, high 
 up in the Galilean hills, may account for the roughness of 
 the population, unable to appreciate their own prophet, and 
 for the evil reputation which it had acquired even in the 
 neighboring villages, one of whose inhabitants, Nathaniel of 
 Cana, said, 'Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?' 
 There, secured within the natural barrier of the hills, was 
 passed that youth of which the most remarkable character- 
 istic is its absolute obscurity : and thence came the name of 
 Nazarene, used of old by the Jews, and used still by the Mus- 
 sulmans, as the appellation of that despised sect which has 
 now embraced the civilized world." 
 
 His residence in Nazareth terminated with His entry on 
 His public ministry, which was divided chiefly between Judca 
 and the parts of Galilee lying around the Lake of Gennesa- 
 reth. Mr. Stanley points out an important distinction be- 
 tween the earlier and the latest Evangelical narrative. " The 
 three first Gospels turn almost entirely on the ministrations 
 in Galilee : the Gospel of St. John turns almost entirely on 
 the ministrations in .ludea. If the reader takes the Gospels 
 of St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke, he would hardly be 
 aware, till he reached the final chapters, that Judea was in 
 existence. If he takes the Gospel of St. John, he will find 
 that although Galilee is mentioned, from time to time, yet it 
 is always the exception, not the rule — in three chapters only, 
 out of the twenty which form the regular narrative — always
 
 1857.] In the Localities of Palestine. 1GI 
 
 ■with a reason, almost with an excuse, for the retirement from 
 the sphere of His labors in Judea among the Jews at Jerusa- 
 lem." This fact, though it lies so much on the surface, wc 
 own had escaped our notice ; and now that it is suggested, it 
 seems of sufficient importance to be treasured : and, in future 
 studies, it may probably throw light upon the ministry of the 
 Lord. 
 
 Though Galilee and Judea furnished the chief scene of His 
 labors, He occasionally visits other regions ; as, for example, 
 Samaria, through which He passed on His way from Jerusa- 
 lem to Galilee — or the limits of the Holy Land, on the 
 west — the boundaries of Tyre and Sidon, and the villages 
 of Cesarea-Philippi — the region beyond Jordan, and the 
 "Wilderness of Judea, where He was compelled to seek refuge 
 from the hostility or the excitement of the popular mind. 
 
 But the greatest interest and advantage in viewing the 
 scenery of sacred story, is to mark the features that have 
 suggested the impressive images of our Lord's parables and 
 discourses. Of this, Mr. Stanley gives a few interesting ex- 
 amples. Thus, speaking of the parables of " the vineyard," 
 he says : 
 
 " The first parablo that risoa before the mind of the traveler as he 
 enters Judea from the Desert, is that of the vineyard. ' There was a 
 certaia householder who planted a vineyard, and set a 'wall' around it, 
 and digged a winepress, and built a tower.' It is one of the few in- 
 stances — perhaps the only one — in which an image of the Old Testa- 
 ment is almost exactly repeated in the discourses of Christ. ' The song 
 of my beloved,' the vineyard in a hill, the horn of oil,* with ' the wall/ 
 1 the stones gathered out,' ' the vine of Sor«k,f the tower in the midst of 
 it,' and ' tho winepress,' — arc common to the Gospel parables and to the 
 prophecies of Isaiah. Of both, an equal illustration is preserved in 
 what has been before described as one of the main characteristics of the 
 southern scenery of Palestine — the enclosures of loose stone, like the 
 walls of fields in Derbyshire or Westmoreland, which, with the square 
 gray tower at the corner of each, catch the eye on the bare slopes of 
 Hebron, of Bethlehem, and of Olivet, — at first sight hardly distinguish- 
 
 * Hebrew for " a very fruitful hill." 
 f Hebrew for " the choiceit vine." 
 TOL. II. — NO. III. K
 
 J 62 The Gospel History and Teaching [March, 
 
 able from the ruing of ancient churches or fortresses, which lie equally 
 scattered over the hills of Judaea." 
 
 Again, speaking of the parable of " the fig-tree," he says : 
 
 " Mount Olivet, besides its abundance of olives, is still sprinkled with 
 fig-trees. Bethphage possibly derives its name from this circumstance. 
 One allusion to these fig-trees has been already noticed. There are two 
 others, and they are indisputably connected with Olivet. One is the 
 parable not spoken, but acted, with regard to the fig-tree, which, when 
 all the others around it were, as they are still, bare at the beginning of 
 April, was alone clothed with its broad green leaves, though without the 
 corresponding fruit. Fig-trees may still be seen overhanging the ordi- 
 nary road from Jerusalem to Bethany, growing out of the rocks of the 
 solid 'mountain,' which might, by the prayer of faith, be removed, and 
 cast into the distant Mediterranean ' sea.' On Olivet, too, the brief par- 
 aide in the great prophecy was spoken, when lie pointed to the bursting 
 buds of spring in the same trees, as they grew around Ilim : ' Behold the 
 fig-tree and all the trees — when they now shoot forth — when his branch 
 is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, ye see and know of your own 
 selves that summer is now nigh at hand.' " 
 
 " The shepherd," as furnishing the theme of parable or 
 figure, he thus illustrates : 
 
 "Another image, which, whatever may have been the case formerly, 
 is now seen again and again in the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem,* is 
 that of the shepherds leading over the hills their flocks of sheep and 
 goats — of white sheep and of black goats intermingled on the mountain- 
 side, yet by their color at onae distinguishable from each other. The 
 'shepherds,' we know, 'abode with their flocks,' at that time, at least 
 within a few miles of Jerusalem. It is possible that even then, when the 
 Mount of Olives must have been much more thickly set with trees and 
 enclosures, such a flock may have wandered up the sides of the hill, and 
 suggested to Him who was sitting therewith His disciples over against 
 the Temple, the scene of the Shepherd of Mankind dividing the parts of 
 that vast flock, each from each, the sheep on His right hand, and the 
 
 * I can not now recall to mind how frequently they occurred in other 
 parts of Palestine. Doubtless, in the great plains of the north and 
 west, we must have met them. But, in Central Palestine, I recall them 
 only in the wild uplands above Bethany, and on the slopes of Olivet, 
 above the Kedron.
 
 1857.] In the Localities of Palestine. 16$ 
 
 goats on His left. There is also one other parable of this class, of which 
 the scene, though not so distinctly specified, is yet placed close to Jeru- 
 salem. It was whilst He was conversing with the excommunicated blind 
 man, not within the Temple courts, and, therefore, probably in His other 
 usual resort, on Olivet, that He addressed to the Pharisees the parable 
 of the Good Shepherd. The sheepfold on the slope of the hdl — the 
 the wicket gate — the keeper of the gate — the sheep, as in all southern 
 countries, following, not preceding the shepherd, whose voice they hear, 
 — may have been present to His mind then, as in the later parable ; and 
 thus it may have been the same outward scene which suggested the 
 image of the mild and beneficent Guardian, and of the stern and awful 
 Judge, of the human race. 
 
 " There is yet another parable, drawn from the shepherd-life of Pales- 
 tine, of which, however, both the contest and its own contents carry us 
 away from Judaea. The indications of the scene of the Lost Sheep are 
 indefinite, yet both in St. Luke and in St. Matthew, the last preceding 
 note of place connects it with Galilee. But the combined description of 
 the pastures ' in the wilderness' and ' on the mountains' can hardly find 
 any position in Palestine, precisely applicable, except the 'mountainous 
 country' or * wilderness,' so often called by these names, on the east of 
 the Jordan, The shepherd of that touching parable thus becomes the 
 successor of the wild herdsman of the trans- Jordanic tribes, who wan- 
 dered far and wide over those free and open hills — the last relics of the 
 patriarchal state of their ancestors." 
 
 One of the most interesting of Mr. Stanley's illustrations, 
 under this head, is that of " the corn-fields," when he conies 
 to speak of the parables that were spoken in Galilee : 
 
 " Of these, the greater part are grouped in the discourse from the fish- 
 ing-vessel off the beach of the plain of Gennesareth. Is there any thing 
 on the spot to suggest the images thus conveyed ? So (if I may speak 
 for a moment of myself) I asked, as I rode along the track under the 
 hill-side, by which the plain of Gennesareth is approached. So I asked, 
 at the moment seeing nothing but the steep sides of the hill, alternately 
 of rock and glass. And when I thought of the parables of the sower, I 
 answered, that here, at least, was nothing on w'uoh the Divine Teaching 
 could fasten. It must have been the distant corn-fields of Samaria or 
 Esdraelon on which His mind was dwelling. The thought had hardly 
 occurred to me, when a slight recess in the hill-side, close upon the plain, 
 disclosed at once, in detail, and with a conjunction which I remember no 
 where else in Palestine, every feature of the great parable. There was 
 the undulating corn-field, descending to the water's edge. There was 
 the trodden pathway running through the midst of it, with no fence or 

 
 164 The Gospel History and Teaching [March, 
 
 hed^e to prevent the seed from falling here and there on either side of it, 
 or upon it; itself hard witli the constant tramp of horse, and mule, and 
 human foot. There was the ' good' rich soil, which distinguishes the 
 whole of that plain and its neighborhood from the bare hills elsewhere 
 descending into the lake, and which, where there is no interruption, pro- 
 duces one vast mass of corn. There was the rocky ground of the hill- 
 side protruding here and there through the corn-fields, as elsewhere 
 through the grassy slopes. There were the large bushes of thorn — the 
 ' Nabk,' that kind of which tradition says that the Crown of Thorns 
 was woven — springing up, like the fruit-trees of the more inland parts, 
 in the very midst of the waving wheat." 
 
 The discourses of Christ are less directly connected with 
 the scenes where they were delivered than the parables, and 
 may be understood without regard to local allusions. We 
 shall only quote Mr. Stanley's illustrations of the Sermon on 
 the Mount, delivered, if not on the very mountain now 
 pointed out in the Plain of Hattin — yet, certainly, on one 
 of the heights of the western shore of the Lake of Genne- 
 sareth : 
 
 " One of the most striking objects in the prospect from any of these 
 hills, especially from the traditional Mount of the Beatitudes, is the City 
 of Safed, placed high on a bold spur of the Galilean Anti-Lebanon. Dr. 
 Robinson has done much to prove that Safed itself is a city of modern 
 date. But, if any city or fortress existed on that site at the time of the 
 Christian era, it is difficult to doubt the allusion to it, in ' the city ' lying' 
 on the mountain top.'* The only other that could be embraced within 
 the view of the speaker would be the village and fortress of Tabor, which 
 would be distinctly visible from the Mount of the Beatitudes, though not 
 from the hills on the lake-side. Either or both of these would suggest 
 the illustration, which would be more striking from the fact, that this 
 situation of cities on the tops of hills is as rare in Galilee as it is com- 
 mon in Judaea. 
 
 " The most remarkable appeal to nature which occurs in the whole of 
 the New Testament is found in this discourse : f Behold the fowls of the 
 air,' and 'Consider the lilies of the field.' The flocks of birds in the 
 neighborhood of Gennesareth have been already observed. Their num- 
 ber, their beauty, their contrast with the busy stir of sowing and reap- 
 in" - , and putting into barns, visible in the plain below (whether of Hattin 
 
 * JloXie endvej upovc Keintvn. — Matth. v. 14.
 
 
 1857.] In the Localities of Palestine. 165 
 
 or Gennesareth),* must all be taken into account. What the especial 
 flower may be which is here indicated by the wordf which we translate 
 t lily,' it is impossible precisely to determine. The only 'lilies' which I 
 saw in Palestine, in the months of March and April, were large yellow 
 water-lilies; in the clear spring of 'Ain-Mella'ieh, near the Lake of Me- 
 rom. But if, as is probable, the name may include the numerous flowers 
 of the tulip or amaryllis kind, which appear in the early summer or the 
 autumn of Palestine, the expression becomes more natural — the red and 
 golden hue more fitly suggesiing tlie comparison with the proverbial 
 gorgeousness of the robes of Solomon. And, though there may not be 
 any special appropriateness to Galilee, the brillii.nt flowers of Palestine 
 are one of the most attractive features of its scenery, the more so from 
 the Witnt of color or form in the general landscape. 
 
 " The image with which, both in St. Matthew and St. Luke, the dis- 
 course concludes, is one familiar to all Eastern and Southern climates — 
 a torrent, suddenly formed by the mountain rains, and sweeping away all 
 before it in its descent through what, a few minutes before, had been a 
 dry channel. Yet it may be observed that it is an image far more natural 
 in Galilee than in Judaea ; whether we take the perennial streams which 
 run through the Plain Gennesareth, or the torrent-streams^ of the Kishon 
 and the Belus, which, on the west, run through the plain of Esdraelon 
 to the Mediterranean. There is more aptitude in this likeness, as ap- 
 plied to them, than if applied to the scanty and rare flooding of the 
 Kedron, and the corresponding w dys of the south. The sudden inun- 
 dation of the Kishon is a phenomenon already historical from the Old 
 Testament; and, if we are to press the allusion to the ' samV on which 
 was bailt ' the house that fell, 5 then there is no other locality in Pales- 
 tine to which we can look, -except the long sandy strip of land which 
 bounds the eastern plain of Acre, and through which the Kishon flows 
 into the sea." > 
 
 * The W.\dy Hyman — the Valley of Pigeons — leads straight from the 
 Plain of Hattin to t&at of Gennesareth, with the mountains visible at the 
 end. 
 
 t Kpivov. 
 
 % Schwarze (p. 73) speaks of a prayer offered up by the High Priest 
 on the Day of Atonement, for the inhabitants " of the Valley of Sharon," 
 ihat their houses might not become their graves — in allusion to the 
 danger to which they were exposed from mountain torrents. (Jerusalem 
 Talmud, Joma, c. v.) He supposes that this vaUey is the part of the 
 Plain of Esdraelon enclosed between Lutle Hermon and Gilboa. The 
 grounds for this supposition, which chiefly rests on the modern name of 
 the village of Shirin, in the Valley of Jezreel, are hardly sufficient. But, 
 af correct, it exactly suits ths Galilean origin of this parable.
 
 166 Superiority of Christ over the [March, 
 
 Tn viewing our Lord's life and doctrine in connection with 
 these localities, we can realize His true humanity, and per- 
 ceive the simplicity and reality of II is teaching. Nor is it 
 without instruction, as well as interest, to find that the 
 grander features of the scenery and the peculiarities of Ori- 
 ental vegetation are passed by for the humbler and plainer 
 figures of every-day life. "A groundwork of historical and 
 geographical fact, with a wide applicability extending be- 
 yond the limits of any age or country — a religion rising in 
 the East, yet finding its highest development and fulfillment 
 in the West — a character and teaching, human, Hebrew- 
 Syrian in its outward form and color, but, in its inward 
 spirit and characteristics, universal and divine; — such are 
 the general conclusions discernible, doubtless, from any care- 
 ful study of the Gospels, but impressed with peculiar force 
 on the observant traveler by the sight of the Holy Land." 
 
 SUPERIORITY OF CHRIST OVER THE LEVITICAL 
 
 PRIESTS. 
 
 BY JOHN HOGG. 
 
 The main object contemplated by the Apostle Paul in the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, is a comparison of the Christian 
 with the Levitical dispensation, that he might show the supe- 
 riority of the former over the latter. The object of this 
 extended discussion is to prevent his converts from aposta- 
 tizing from the Gospel, and returning to Judaism, or, as he 
 elsewhere styles it, to " the weak and beggarly elements of 
 the world." For this purpose, he shows that Christ is supe- 
 rior to the prophets of the past economy ; to the angels who
 
 1857.] Levitical Priests. 167 
 
 were present at the giving of the law on Mount Sinai ; to 
 Moses, with whom God spake face to faee ; and to the priests 
 of the Levitieal order, who were appointed by God himself 
 to their office. The last, which is the subject of the present 
 article, is by far the most extended. It commences with 
 Hebrews iv. 14, and, with several digressions, is concluded 
 at Hebrews x. 15. 
 
 The original idea of the word priest seems to be a media- 
 tor or middle person, who interposes between two parties. 
 In reference to this primitive use of the word, the sons of 
 David are styled priests in one of the historical books of the 
 Old Testament, and chiefs or princes in another. 2 Sam. 
 viii. 18: "And David's sons were chief rulers." In the 
 original, David's sons were priests — an expression which is 
 explained in 1 Chron. xviii. 17, by saying that they " were 
 chief about the king." These individuals were probably 
 styled priests, as Gesenius supposes, because they were coun- 
 sellors of the crown — more particularly, perhaps, in eccle- 
 siastical affairs ; and the leading idea common to both a 
 priest and a prophet, which, in patriarchal times, were exer- 
 cised by the same individual, is agent or mediator between 
 two or more parties. Thus, the great truth which lies at the 
 foundation of the word priest is, that guilty man can not 
 approach the Almighty in his own person ; that all direct 
 communication between heaven and earth, between God and 
 man, is cut off; and the Divine Majesty can only now be 
 approached through a mediator. Hence, the apostolic defi- 
 nition of the word priest completely meets every part of the 
 case : "Every high priest taken from among men is ordained 
 for men, in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both 
 gifts and sacrifices for sins." Hebrews v. 1. 
 
 It follows, as a necessary consequence from this definition, 
 that a priest must have a common relation to. and sympa- 
 thy with, those between whom he interposes. This proves 
 that Christ, "the great High Priest of our confession,*' must 
 be both God and man — man, that He might be capable of suf- 
 fering and dying ; and God. that His sufferings and death 
 might be of Divine value and infinite efficiency — God, that 

 
 168 Superiority of Christ over the [March, 
 
 He might sustain the legislative honor of the Deity ; and 
 man, that He might sympathize with us with the purest heav- 
 enly pity. Thus, it was not only necessary that the Jewish 
 High Priest, as the type of Christ, should " be taken from 
 among men," but he must be also capable of having "com- 
 passion on the ignorant, and on them that are out o-f the 
 way." In like manner, Christ can feel for the tempted and 
 afflicted, since He has felt the power of temptation, and has 
 trodden the darkest and the deepest path of suffering. He can 
 even compassionate the ignorant and the erring — not, in- 
 deed, because He " is encompassed with infirmity," as were 
 the Jewish priests, but from that infinite, boundless compas- 
 sion which impelled Him to undertake and consummate the 
 work of human redemption. But God, as the offended 
 party, might have refused to accept of mediation, and 
 might have insisted that the sinner should endure in his 
 own person the threatened penalty ; it was, therefore, neces- 
 sary that the priest should be Divinely appointed — a quali- 
 fication which the apostle shows belongs both to Aaron, as 
 the type, and Christ, as the anti-type. 
 
 It is evident from the preceding discussion that the priests 
 of the Levitical order, as well as the sacrifices which they 
 offered, could only be typical of Christ, " patterns of things 
 in the heavens — shadows of good things to come." The 
 priests of the Aaronic order were divinely appointed, and 
 they could, from personal experience, have compassion on 
 the ignorant and erring. But this compassion flowed from 
 a consciousness of personal guilt, in consequence of which 
 they were required to offer sacrifices for themselves as well 
 as the people ; while Christ is perfectly and absolutely holy, 
 so that His compassion originates in the highest and loftiest 
 principles of philanthropy. The Jewish priests were only 
 men of like passions with ourselves ; but Christ is' both hu- 
 man and Divine, and thus Ho is capable of acting as a true 
 and proper mediator between God and man. The apostle, 
 having stated these qualifications as essential to the priest- 
 hood, next shows, by an enumeration of particulars, in what
 
 1857.] Lcvitical Priests. 1G9 
 
 respects Christ, as a priest, is superior to the priests of the 
 Aaronic order. 
 
 I. Christ is superior to the priests of the Aaronic order 
 in the character of His priesthood. The Jewish High Priest 
 entered upon the discharge of his duties at thirty, and quitted 
 them at forty-live years of age, and some did even before 
 they reached that age: "they were not suffered to continue 
 by reason of death." But Christ's priesthood is not trans- 
 ferred from one to another : it may be emphatically called 
 the priesthood, of which the I evitical was only the shadow 
 and the type ; and, hence, the apostle says, " But he, because he 
 continucth forever, hath the intransmissible priesthood." This 
 position is confirmed and illustrated by the case of JSIelchise- 
 dec, who is affirmed to have been "without father, without 
 mother, without descent, having- neither beginning of clays 
 nor end of life." It is not to be supposed that Mclchisedec 
 had neither father nor mother ; but this language simply 
 means that his parents are not mentioned — neither is his 
 genealogy recorded in the inspired volume. That this lan- 
 guage was current in the days of the apostle, may be argued 
 from the fact, that Philo, who was probably about sixty 
 years of age at our Saviour's crucifixion, says that Sarah was 
 without mother — meaning, that her mother's name is no- 
 where mentioned in the Scriptures. We can not admit the 
 opinion for which some have contended, that Mclchisedec is 
 the son of God himself; for he is said to have been "made 
 like to the Son of God" — an affirmation* which implies that 
 they were different persons. Melchiscdcc was, in all proba- 
 bility, a Canaanitish prince, who, in accordance with patri- 
 archal usage, was both the king and the priest of his people ; 
 and, as the Scriptures nowhere mention his descent, the 
 apostle regards his priesthood as a fit type of Christ's ever- 
 lasting priesthood. There was no definite period fixed for 
 his entering on his office, nor yet for leaving it ; but these 
 duties extended throughout the whole period of his life. 
 Christ's priesthood, in like manner, is not confined to time. 
 He has no rivals and no successors : He is a priest after the
 
 170 Superiority of Christ over the [March, 
 
 order of Melchiscdec, who neither entered upon nor retired 
 from this office at a definite age : and, therefore, Jehovah 
 himself, with the solemnity ol an oath, to confirm our weak 
 and wavering faith, said, " Thou art a priest forever, after 
 the order of Melchisedec." Our Redeemer, therefore, is 
 possessed not simply of a priesthood, but of the intransmissible 
 priesthood ; and, consequently, the assertion of the Church 
 of Rome, that her ministers are priests who offer Christ in 
 the mass for the sins of the living and the dead, is blasphe- 
 mous and dishonoring to Christ's essential and only priest- 
 hood. 
 
 IT. Christ is superior to the Levitical priests in the purity 
 of His character. The High Priest, under the law, was to 
 be without any physical defect, and to be ceremonially holy. 
 But he is still described as "compassed with infirmities," and 
 the law recognized him as a sinner ; for he " offered up sacri- 
 fice, first for his own sins, then for the people's." Christ, on 
 the contrary, was holy in heart and life, and the sacrifice 
 which He offered was wholly for the sins of others. "Such 
 an High Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, 
 and separated from sinners." This assertion is fully borne 
 out by the events of His life, and by the whole tenor of His 
 public ministry. He was thrown into every variety of cir- 
 cumstances, and often tempted to speak unadvisedly with 
 His lips. His conduct was eagerly scrutinized, and His mo- 
 tives called in question ; and yet He could boldly appeal to 
 His enemies, " Which of you convicteth me of sin?" The 
 judge that condemned Him, the traitor that betrayed Him, 
 and the Roman centurion that guarded the scene of cruci- 
 fixion, all attested his innocence, and declared that He was 
 unstained with the least shadow of moral pollution or defile- 
 ment. Thus, the apostle contrasts the Levitical with Christ's 
 priesthood : " The law maketh men high priests who have 
 infirmity ; but the word of the oath, which was since the 
 law, maketh the Son, who is perfected for evermore ;■" that is, 
 qualified to act as our priest, by the assumption of our nature 
 into close and indissoluble union with His Divine person, and
 
 1857.] Levitical Priests. 171 
 
 by the tilings which he suffered, that He might be capable of 
 sympathizing with us. 
 
 III. Christ is superior to the priests of the Aaronic order 
 in the place of His ministration. This is the first point to 
 which the apostle refers, at the commencement of the eighth 
 chapter : "Now, of the things which we have spoken, this is 
 the sum," or. according to the correct reading, " the chief" — 
 our High Priest is "a minister of the sanctuary, and of the 
 new tabernacle, which the Lord hath pitched, and not 
 man." 
 
 The Jewish High Priest went alone, once a year, into the 
 most holy place, viewed as the special residence of Jehovah, 
 to make atonement for the sins of the people. The precise 
 day in the year was determined by Divine appointment — 
 the tenth day of the seventh month — corresponding with 
 our September, and called the Great Day of Atonement, on 
 which there was supposed to be such a complete atonement 
 made for sins, that the Jews were accustomed to say, " That 
 on the day of expiation, all Israel was made as innocent as 
 in the day of creation." The apostle informs us that the 
 Jews regarded the most holy place as an emblem of heaven : 
 and hence it is described in this Epistle as "the true taber- 
 nacle," as "the example and shadow of heavenly things," 
 and as the things in the heavens of which the tabernacle and 
 temple were the patterns — as if they had constituted the 
 archetype, or original model, according to which the taber- 
 nacle was constructed. It has even been contended that 
 Moses was favored with such a model, or visible representa- 
 tion, on Mount Sinai, and that this truth is taught in the 
 direction, " Sec that thou make all things according to the 
 pattern showed to thee in the mount." Now, the apostle 
 shows that Christ, as a priest, officiated in a more glorious 
 place than the sons of Aaron ; that He has passed through 
 the heavens, into the presence-chamber of the Almighty ; and 
 and that He ministers in the archetype, of which the Jewish 
 sanctuary was the type or rough draught. " Christ is not 
 entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the
 
 172 Superiority of Christ over the [March, 
 
 figures of the true ; but into heaven itself, now to appear in 
 the presence of God for us." 
 
 IV. Christ is superior to the priests of the Aaronic order 
 in the perfection of His sacrifice. The High Priest went, 
 on the annual day of atonement, into the immediate presence 
 of God, with smoking incense and the blood of sacrifice. 
 He seems, from a comparison of Leviticus with the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews, to have entered four times into the sanc- 
 tuary — once in bringing out the golden censer, which was 
 deposited near the mercy seat ; once with burning incense ; 
 and twice with the blood of slain victims. These Levitical 
 sacrifices were inherently stamped with imperfection, for 
 they were repeated every year, implying that they could not 
 make " the comers thereunto perfect." They consisted in the 
 blood of bulls and of goats, and the apostle contends that 
 they could not take away sin — that they only brought sin 
 to remembrance, and pointed forward to a more costly and 
 noble sacrifice than themselves. The Jewish High Priest 
 went into the most holy places with the blood of others ; but 
 Christ has entered into heaven with His ow T n blood. The 
 one sacrifice was offered every year, but the other, in token 
 of its perfection, was offered " once for all." The sacrifice on 
 which we depend for salvation is " the blood of Christ, who, 
 through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to 
 God." The phrase, " eternal Spirit," does not here mean the 
 third person in the Godhead, but Christ's Divine nature — 
 the altar that sanctifies the gift, and renders it of infinite 
 value in the sight of Eternal Justice. This Divine nature is, 
 in the Epistle to the Romans, " the spirit of holiness," and is 
 opposed to Christ's being " made of the seed of David, ac- 
 cording to the flesh." Thus is Christ superior to the Leviti- 
 cal priests, because He is at once priest, sacrifice, and altar. 
 He " offered himself," He " purged away our sins by himself," 
 and it was through " the Eternal Spirit," through the Divine 
 nature, that He offered himself to God ; showing that the 
 altar on which this perfect sacrifice was offered, was not the 
 cross, but His divine nature. 
 But it has been objected that Christ offered this one sacri-
 
 1857.] Levitical Priests. 173 
 
 fice of himself when lie poured out His soul unto death, and 
 not, as we have supposed, in heaven. This objection pro- 
 ceeds on a mistake, and arises from our confounding the kill- 
 ing of the victim with the offering of the sacrifice. The 
 Jewish priest killed the victim in the outer court of the 
 Temple, and it was not offered till its blood was brought 
 within the vail into the most holy place, and sprinkled before 
 the mercy scat. Christ's crucifixion on Calvary was, in like 
 manner, the killing of the victim ; but the sacrifice was only 
 truly offered when He entered once for all into the holy 
 place, not made with hands. 
 
 The Jewish High Priest offered incense as well as sacri- 
 fice, emblematical of the intercession which he made for the 
 people, founded on sacrifice. That the incense is typical of 
 the mediation of Christ, and not of the prayers of saints, is 
 proved by the fact, that in Revelation the incense is carefully 
 distinguished from the prayers of all saints which the angel 
 offered upon the golden altar before the throne. Rev. viii. 
 3, 4. The angel here mentioned is probably the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, the Angel of the everlasting covenant ; and the in- 
 cense is the intercession which He offers to His Father in 
 behalf of His people, in consequence of which their prayers 
 and persons are accepted. "He is able to save them to the 
 uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth 
 to make intercession for them." The Jewish High Priest 
 only interceded for the people once a year, and this interces- 
 sion was limited to his tenure of office, or to the period 
 of his life ; but Christ ever lives, and, consequently, His in- 
 tercession is always prevalent. 
 
 V. The blessings secured by the sacrifice of Christ are in- 
 finitely superior to those obtained by the sons of Aaron. 
 During the past dispensation, there were various kinds of 
 atonement ; but the atonement was all emblematical, while 
 the transgressions were all real. The blood of bulls and of 
 goats only sanctified to the purifying of the flesh ; and, there- 
 fore, they could secure only temporal and ecclesiastical bene- 
 fits. They could neither remove a sense of guilt from the 
 conscience, nor free man from the burden of sin, or de-
 
 17-i Superiority of Christ over the [March, 
 
 liver him from the fearful apprehension of punishment. 
 They only brought sin to remembrance, without taking it 
 away. But the one sacrifice of Christ's, in its effects, reaches 
 to the mind and conscience of the sinner, and bestows on 
 believers all spiritual and eternal blessings. It obtains for 
 us " eternal redemption," and it secures " the promise of eter- 
 nal inheritance." It at once satisfies the demands of law and 
 justice, and it " cleanses the soul from all sin ;" the former 
 giving a title, and the latter a meetness, a fitness, for the 
 heavenly inheritance. This was typified by the fact, that 
 Moses " sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the 
 vessels of the ministry." When the Israelites touched any 
 part of the sacred utensils, they were accounted polluted, 
 and, in order to their purification, they were sprinkled with 
 blood. In conformity with this idea, heaven is said to be 
 sprinkled with the blood of Christ, lest the sinner should de- 
 file its spotless holiness, and lest it should be dishonored by 
 his admission into its holy courts. "It was necessary that 
 the patterns of things in the heavens should be purilicd with 
 these ; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacri- 
 fices than these." In allusion to the fact, that Christ's death 
 procured our admission into heaven, He reminds His dis- 
 ciples, " I go away to prepare a place for you." 
 
 It follows, as a consequence, from the imperfection of the 
 Jewish sacrifices, that all the saints of that dispensation were 
 saved through the one perfect sacrifice of Christ. Its efficacy 
 reaches back to the first sin that was ever committed, and it 
 reaches forward to the last. He removes by His death " the 
 transgressions that were under the first testament," or, as it 
 is expressed in the Epistle to the Romans, " the sins that are 
 passed." Hebrews ix. 5, with Romans iii. 25. This one conside- 
 ration shows that the object of faith and the way of salvation 
 have in all ages been the same, the mode of viewing that object 
 only being different. The saints of the past age looked for- 
 ward to a Saviour yet to come, through the shadows and 
 types of a ceremonial ritual ; while saints of the present day 
 look back on a Saviour already come, who has equally put 
 away sin and sin-offering by the one sacrifice of Himself.
 
 1857.] Levitkal Priests. 175 
 
 Tims was Christ infinitely superior to the priests of the 
 Aaronic order. They were only typical priests, exercising 
 the {'unctions of a typical priesthood ; but He is the only 
 Priest — the substance which all the types divinely fore- 
 shadowed. The priests of the Aaronic order were " com- 
 passed with infirmities ;" and, in proof of moral pollution, 
 required to offer sacrifice for themselves as well as the 
 people ; but Christ is unstained with the least shadow of 
 pollution or defilement. The former entered the holy of 
 holies with blood not his own, and made not a real, but a 
 typical atonement ; while the other entered heaven by His 
 own blood, and hath " obtained eternal redemption for us." 
 Dr. Pye Smith, in his four discourses on the Sacrifice aud 
 Priesthood of Christ, thus beautifully sums up the entire ar- 
 gument, when commenting on the passage, " A great High 
 Priest, who is passed through the heavens:" "Aaron and 
 each of his successors passed through ail the precincts and 
 courts of the earthly sanctuary, till he arrived at his solitary 
 and awful station ; and then, accompanied by no mortal, 
 with light such as rendered but darkly visible the ark of the 
 covenant, the golden mercy seat, and the cherubim of glory, 
 he sprinkled the blood of typical expiation, presented the 
 incense, and prayed for his nation. But the Messiah, having 
 offered His own blood, by which a real and not an emble- 
 matical atonement was made, entered into the true holy of 
 holies, which is heaven. As a real and not an emblematical 
 High Priest, with an expiation and a righteousness not figu- 
 rative, but of infinite worth in the eyes of eternal holiness, 
 He ascends on high ; He passes through all the regions of 
 beauty and greatness in the invisible world, receiving in this 
 triumphant progress the joyous homage of ' angels, principali- 
 ties, and powers' (Ephes. iii. 9 ; 1 Peter iii. 22) ; He enters 
 into that state of supreme majesty which is pre-eminently the 
 heavenly world ; He takes His seat of authority ; He displays 
 it to us as 'the throne of grace ;' He invites our devout ap- 
 proach ; and He insures to us the greatest blessings."
 
 17G The Great Scats of Empire. [March, 
 
 THE GREAT SEATS OF EMPIRE. 
 
 BT JAMES I N GLIB. 
 
 Dim tradition, illustrated by antiquarian research, points 
 in the direction whither inspiration guides us, to the cradle 
 and homestead of post-diluvian humanity, and there we find 
 the original seat of empire, art, and civilization. As the 
 stream of population poured onward, after the Deluge, " to 
 replenish the earth," it was first arrested by the matchless 
 beauty and fertility of the Plain of Shinar. There the de- 
 sign was first broached to centralize the forces and resources 
 of mankind in a vast city, and under one sovereignty — a 
 design which the merciful interposition of God at that time 
 defeated, but to which all that is worst and greatest in cor- 
 rupt humanity has been continually reverting. Mankind 
 were dispersed by the judgments of God, but the central 
 power and intelligence still lingered around Babel, the city 
 of confusion. Whether Nimrod, the fourth from Noah, was 
 concerned in the first ambitious project, we can not tell. He 
 is the first whose name comes to us as that of the founder of 
 a kingdom, and we know that " the beginning of his kingdom 
 was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land 
 of Shinar ,"' and, according to the correct marginal reading, 
 " Out of that land he went into Assyria, and built Nineveh, 
 and Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and 
 Calah : the same is a great city." In the fertile plains 
 watered by the Euphrates and Tigris, we find very early 
 traces of the cotemporaneous sovereignties of Aram or Syria, 
 Chaldaea or Babylonia; on the east, the kingdoms of Me- 
 dia, Parthia, and Persia ; and away to the west, in the Valley 
 of the Nile, Egypt, the rival of Assyria in antiquity, civiliza- 
 tion, and power.
 
 1857.] The Great Scats of Empire. 177 
 
 The magnificence of Assyria lias been recently illustrated 
 by Mr. Layard and others, who have explored the ruins of 
 palaces, to which, " on the most moderate calculations, we 
 must assign a date of 1100 or 1 200 years before Christ." 
 As soon as the light of history dawns, we have evidence of 
 the supremacy of Assyria among the kingdoms of Western 
 Africa. We can not mark out the precise boundaries of her 
 power, but it seems to have extended almost as far as civili- 
 zation. "According to Plato," says Layard, "Troy was 
 within the dominion of the King of Assyria. Eusebius, 
 quoting from the works of ancient authors, mentions its de- 
 pendency on that monarch. On the authority of Cephalion, 
 he even relates the terms in which Priam applied to his 
 Assyrian suzerain for assistance." There is no evidence of 
 the magnificence and extended dominion of Assyria which 
 docs not also prove that the ambition of empire is identical 
 with rebellion against God. The name of the first who wore 
 a crown is JYimrod, which signifies apostacy, impiety, or re- 
 bellion ; and, in these original seats of empire, the fathers of 
 Abraham served other gods. God's providential government 
 of the world has invariable reference to His purpose of grace. 
 The family of Abraham, as the Israelitish nation, sustains an 
 important relation to that purpose, and was the centre of 
 God's earthly arrangements. " When the Most High divided 
 to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons 
 of Adam, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the 
 number of the children of Israel." Even the profane history 
 of nations centres around the chosen people. Darkness rests 
 on the early history of the nations, and it is only when they 
 come within the circle of Israel's light that any thing is 
 known of them. It is a memorable fact that no universal 
 monarchy was permitted until the chosen nation had utterly 
 forfeited their covenant and constitution. Even after the 
 ten tribes were carried away by Assyria, Judah remained an 
 impassable barrier to ambition. And it was only after Nebu- 
 chadnezzar had carried the favored tribe into captivity, that 
 lie could issue his haughty decrees " to every people, nation, 
 and language," and that his kingdom could be described by 
 
 VOL. II. — NO. III. L
 
 178 The Great Seats of Empire. [March, 
 
 Daniel, " Thy greatness is grown and readies to heaven, and 
 thy dominion to the end of the earth." An empire of ungod- 
 liness, holding of the prince and god of this world, was then 
 fairly established, which, through various conditions, extends 
 over all time, and its progress and changes make up the 
 materials of secular history. The four monarchies which, in 
 succession, wielded the sceptre of the world, ran their course 
 between the Babylonish captivity, when the first arose, and 
 the destruction of Jerusalem and the diffusion of Christianity. 
 Can the fact be without design on the part of God, or with- 
 out meaning to us? 
 
 I. 
 
 The first universal monarchy is symbolized by " the head 
 of gold," in the image of Nebuchadnezzar, and by the lion 
 with eagles' wings, in the vision of Daniel. Its original seat 
 was a region of small extent around Babylon, the metropolis, 
 which stood on the same spot as the Tower of Babel. We 
 can not trace the early progress of the nation which at length 
 appropriated to itself the accumulated wealth and glory of 
 Assyria, Egypt, Media, and all that had hitherto claimed a 
 share of earthly dominion and glory. Some conception of 
 the surpassing pomp and splendor of that royalty which jus- 
 tified the symbol of" the head of gold," may be formed from 
 the descriptions which have reached us of the magnificence of 
 the capital. According to Herodotus, the city was sixty 
 miles in circumference ; the walls, according to the most 
 moderate account, were seventy-five feet high, and thirty two 
 in breadth ; — Herodotus says, three hundred feet high, and 
 seventy-five feet thick. The wealth of the city may be in- 
 ferred from the fact, that Xerxes took from the Temple of 
 Belus a statue valued at a hundred millions of dollars, and 
 that after it had been plundered by his predecessors. Of the 
 extent of the empire, we know that, beside subduing Egypt, 
 Syria, and Phcnicia, Nebuchadnezzar extended his arms as 
 far as the Pillars of Hercules, and laid Spain under tribute. 
 
 Even before .ludah had fallen, the downfall of Babvlon 
 was foretold by the Jewish prophets — not only the nation,
 
 1857.] The Great Seats of Empire. 179 
 
 but the leader, "by whom she should be vanquished, was 
 named. " Go up, O Elam! besiege, Media!" says Isaiah. 
 "The Lord hath raised up the spirit of the King of the 
 Medes, for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it," says 
 Jeremiah. Minute circumstances of the capture of the city 
 and her desolation were foretold. " thou that dwcllest 
 upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, 
 and the measure of thy covctousness. And they shall not 
 take a stone of thee for a corner, nor a stone for founda- 
 tions ; but thou shalt be desolate forever, saith the Lord. 
 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for drag- 
 ons, an astonishment and a hissing, without an inhabitant" — 
 a desolation so complete, that our antiquarians are still dis- 
 puting what is the actual site of " the golden city" — " the 
 glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency." 
 
 II. 
 
 The early history of Media and Elam, or Persia, is covered 
 with oblivion. They become accurately known to us when, 
 they are united under Cyrus, in the overthrow of Babylon, 
 and, enriched by her spoils, they appear as the second univer- 
 sal monarchy. This kingdom was symbolized by " two 
 breasts and arms of silver," in the great image ; by " the 
 beast like unto a bear, and it raised up itself on one side," 
 in the vision of Daniel; and, again, as "a ram which had 
 two horns, and the two horns were high, but one was higher 
 than the other, and the higher came up last." This last sym- 
 bol is very expressive. Media was the more ancient of the 
 two ; but Persia at once gained the ascendancy in their union, 
 under Cyrus. An ancient writer describes the Persian mon- 
 arch as wearing for a diadem a ram's head, made of gold, and 
 adorned with precious stones : and, among the ruins of Per- 
 sepolis, Sir John Chardiu observed figures of rams' heads, 
 with horns of unequal length. The twofold origin of the 
 kingdom is represented by the two arms of the image, and 
 the pre-eminence of Persia is likewise pointed out in the 
 exalted side of the bear. 

 
 180 The Great Scats of Empire. [March, 
 
 The inferiority of the second kingdom, indicated by the 
 inferior metal of the breast and arms of the image, was not 
 so much in the extent as in the power and splendor of the 
 monarchy. The Persians were not able, indeed, to maintain 
 their authority in the more remote regions of the west to 
 which the power of Nebuchadnezzar had extended ; but, on 
 the other hand, they extended their conquests eastward to 
 regions unknown to Babylon ; so that, in the commencement 
 of the Book of Esther, we learn that Ahasuerus, or, as he is 
 styled in secular history, Artaxerxes-longimanus, "reigned 
 from India even to Ethiopia, over a hundred and seven and 
 twenty provinces." Kaised from rudeness and poverty to 
 the possession of the wealth and arts of the conquered em- 
 pire, they speedily fell into a shameful effeminacy, and be- 
 came an easy prey to the next great conqueror. After a 
 career which extended only over two centuries, Persia, 
 with all its conquests, was swallowed up by the Macedonian 
 empire. The triumphant march of Alexander to the throne 
 of Persia furnishes one of the most brilliant passages of 
 martial history. The fate of Darius, with his magniheent 
 retinue, supplies one of the most pitiful pages in the annals 
 of fallen greatness. Deserted, betrayed, and insulted, he who 
 had commanded an army of nearly a million men, yielded to 
 the dagger of an assassin, and left Alexander the undisputed 
 master of the world. 
 
 III. 
 
 The Macedonian or Grecian empire was the third univer- 
 sal monarchy, symbolized by " the belly and sides of brass" 
 of the great image ; by " the beast like a leopard, with four 
 wings and four heads," in Daniel's vision ; and by the he goat 
 that came from the West, in Daniel's vision of the ram. The 
 description of the movement of the he goat, "and he touched 
 not the ground," is appropriate to the rapid marches and 
 speedy conquests of Alexander — the characteristics repre- 
 sented by the nimble leopard, with its four wings. Exposi- 
 tors have given many reasons for the use of brass as the 
 symbol of the Greek kingdom. " The Greeks," says Bishop
 
 1857.] The Great Seats of Empire. 181 
 
 Newton, " were famous for their brazen armor ; their usual 
 epithet being, ' the brazen-coated Greeks. 7 " Daniel's interpre- 
 tation, in Josephus, is, li That another, coining from the West, 
 armed in brass, shall destroy the empire of the Modes and 
 Persians." But, all that is important is the inferiority of 
 the metal, compared with that of the preceding symbol. 
 Whatever may be said of the genius of Alexander, or of the 
 discipline and prowess of his army, we can not but perceive 
 the diminished splendor, power, and solidity of the empire 
 they so speedily achieved. In extent, it exceeded the second. 
 When the Persian empire lay at the feet of Alexander, with 
 an insatiable desire for conquest, he pushed his arms north- 
 ward to the Caspian Sea, and subdued the Scythians. He 
 then marched victoriously through India, where he planted 
 Greek colonies and built seventy towns. On his return, he 
 died at Babylon, from the consequences of a fit of intempe- 
 rance, in his thirty-second year, after a reign of twelve years 
 and six months. His kingdom was divided among four of 
 his generals, as was intimated by the four heads of the 
 leopard, and by the four horns of the he-goat, which came up 
 when the first was broken. Ptolemy obtained Egypt and 
 Ccele Syria ; Cassander, Maccdon and Greece ; Lysimachus, 
 Thrace and the northern parts of Asia Minor ; Seleucus ob- 
 tained the rest, including Syria and Babylonia. 
 
 IV. 
 
 About the time that Assyria was approaching the zenith of 
 her power, and when the prophets of Israel were warning 
 their nation that God would bring the Assyrians against 
 them, to carry them into a distant captivity, an adventurer in 
 Italy was tracing a furrow round the Palatine Hill, on the 
 banks of the Tiber. Within this line, a few huts were erected 
 by the band of adventurers who owned him as their chief; 
 and this they called by the afterwards proud name of Rome. 
 A fond patriotism has often styled it "The Eternal City," 
 and for twenty five centuries it has, in some way, been con- 
 nected with most that is important in the history of Europe,
 
 182 The Great Seats of Empire. [March, 
 
 if not of mankind. By slow steps, tins originally contempt- 
 ible community advanced to greatness. Nearly five hundred 
 years from the founding of the city, they made the first dis- 
 tinct movement towards the dominion of the world, in the 
 first Punic war. Seventy years later, at the end of the 
 second Punic war, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Spain, and Cis- 
 alpine Gaul were Poman provinces. In fifty years more, 
 Greece and Macedon lay at her feet, and Rome was, in fact, 
 mistress of the world. Syria and the whole kingdom of the 
 Seleucidas became a Roman province sixty-five years before 
 Christ. Egypt and the kingdom of the Lagidas fell thirty- 
 years before Christ. And now, at last, a consolidated em- 
 pire under the Csesars, we behold the fourth universal mon- 
 archy, symbolized by the iron legs of the image, and by the 
 fourth beast, "dreadful, and terrible, and strong exceedingly, 
 with great iron teeth and ten horns," in Daniel's vision. 
 
 The twofold symbol of the legs has commonly been re- 
 ferred, by modern expositors, to the two consuls of the Ro- 
 man republic, although we do not see the fourth kingdom of 
 the vision until the republic has given place to the empire, 
 and the consular dignity has dwindled to a mere shadow. 
 Dr. Gill and some others have glanced at the true interpreta- 
 tion : "It was divided in the time of 'I heodosius into the 
 Eastern and Western empire, which may be signified by the 
 two legs." Yet, when he speaks of the division, he says : 
 " These toes, which are ten, as the toes of men are, de.-dgn the 
 ten kings, or kingdoms, into which the Western Roman em- 
 pire was divided."* It is not accurate to speak of the formal 
 division of the empire into the Eastern and Western, as 
 
 * In some of the earlier enumerations of the ten kingdoms, the Fast 
 ■was included. Mr. Brooks quotes that of Eberar'd in 1240: The Turks, 
 Greeks, Egyptians, Africans, Spaniards, Gauls, English, German*, Sici- 
 * ians, and Italians. The following enumeration was made at the time of 
 the Reformation: 1. Italy and Germany; 2. France; 3. Spain; 4. Eng- 
 land ; 5. Scotland ; 6. Hungary; 7. Poland and Lithuania; 8. Denmark, 
 Sweden, and Norway ; 9. Portugal ; 10. the Greek empire held by the 
 Ottomans.
 
 1857.] The Great Scats of Empire. 183 
 
 having occurred "in the times of Thcodosius ;" but, beyond 
 any formal division, the distinction of the East and West 
 was a natural and radical one, as is strikingly illustrated in 
 a quotation from Gibbon in a former article. The common 
 neglect of this evident feature of the symbol can only be 
 accounted for by the desire to identify the Roman Catholic 
 Church with the little horn that springs up among the ten 
 horns of the fourth beast. From the days of the Reforma- 
 tion, this has been regarded as a settled point in most Pro- 
 testant expositions ; and the greatest obstacle to the admis- 
 sion of the truth, which God, in His providence, has forced 
 on our attention, will be the reluctance to abandon the ear- 
 nest invectives against Popery which have been based on 
 this symbol. 
 
 Apart from the division of the Roman empire into Eastern 
 and Western, as represented by the two legs of the image, 
 and from the symbolical truth, that of the ten final king- 
 doms, five belong to each of the two divisions, it is difficult 
 to understand upon what grounds the ten kingdoms should 
 be sought in Europe alone. While the empire yet stood, 
 Irenams, speaking of the ten toes and the ten horns, ob- 
 serves : " John, the disciple of the Lord, in the Revelation, 
 hath yet more manifestly signified of the last time, and of 
 these ten kings, among whom the empire that now reigns shall 
 be divided." Jerome speaks of it as the sense of all " eccle- 
 siastical writers, that when the Roman empire is destroyed, 
 there shall be ten kings that shall divide it among them." 
 No man can doubt what these writers meant bv the Roman 
 empire, especially when Jerome wrote in the East ; but why, 
 at any time, should the Roman empire be regarded as limited 
 to Europe? Or why should the fourth kingdom of the pro- 
 phecies signify less than the empire in all its extent? This 
 is the less excusable, since the Eastern division must have 
 been more immediately in view when the Roman empire was 
 represented as superseding the Macedonian. Whatever havoc 
 the conclusion may carry into popular expositions of prophe- 
 cy, or popular declamations against Popery, we claim it as 
 obvious to the common intelligence of mankind that the
 
 384 The Great Seats of Empire. [Marcn, 
 
 fourth kingdom includes more than Europe, and that its 
 division among ten kings has not yet taken place. 
 
 It may be satisfactory to many readers to indicate by their 
 modern names the countries which fall within the bounds of 
 the empire. The western extremity of it was Spain, includ- 
 ing Portugal. Ancient Gaul embraced France, Belgium, 
 part of Holland west of the Rhine, Luxembourg, part of 
 Prussia west of the Rhine, and Switzerland. Britain, as a 
 Roman province, comprehended England, Wales, and the 
 Lowlands of Scotland. "If we except," says Gibbon, ''Bo- 
 hemia, Moravia, the northern skirts of Austria, and a part of 
 Hungary, all the other dominions of the house of Austria 
 were comprised within the limits of the Roman empire." 
 Bavaria and Wirtemberg formed part of the ancient province 
 of Rhcetia. The ancient Dacia included part of Hungary, 
 Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldavia, and Bessarabia. In 
 South and South-eastern Europe, we have Italy. Greece, the 
 islands of the Mediterranean, and Turkey in Europe. In 
 Asia, the Roman empire extended, generally, over what is 
 now the Turkish empire, with the Euphrates as its south- 
 eastern boundary, including Palestine and Asia Minor. The 
 countries now known as Crim-Tartary, Circassia, and Men- 
 grelia also acknowledged the sovereignty of the Emperors. 
 In Africa, the empire embraced Egypt, and the long line of 
 territory, from one to two hundred miles in breadth, which 
 extends from Egypt, along the Mediterranean, to the Atlan- 
 tic, and which has been commonly spoken of by geographers 
 under the name of Barbary. It includes Tripoli and Tunis, 
 occupying the seat of the Republic of Carthage — Algiers 
 occupying the territory of the ancient Numidia. The ancient 
 Mauritania is represented by Fez, as the dominion of " the 
 barbarian whom we condescend to style the Emperor of 
 Morocco." 
 
 Of the division into ten kingdoms, and of the extraor- 
 dinary king that shall arise after the ten, and subdue three of 
 them, we must seek a future opportunity to speak particu- 
 larly. Meanwhile, we request attention to the language of 
 Daniel's interpretation of the vision of Nebuchadnezzar, with
 
 1857.] The Great Scats of Empire. 185 
 
 reference to these ten kings. In speaking of the successive 
 monarchies, he describes one as rising after the other, and 
 superseding it ; but the fourth kingdom is not superseded by 
 ten kingdoms, that arise after it, but is itself divided into 
 ten : " And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of 
 potter's clay and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided." 
 The same thing is taught in Daniel's vision, where the four 
 successive monarchies are represented each by a beast ; but 
 the ten kingdoms are not represented by so many beasts, but 
 by the horns of the fourth beast. It is, therefore, the Roman 
 empire, as we have described its limits, that is to be divided 
 into these ten distinct kingdoms, which shall share, for a 
 time, the dominion of the earth. In accordance with the 
 symbol, five of these kingdoms will be found in each of the 
 two great divisions of the empire. It would lie presumptuous to 
 attempt to say what will be the tenfold division of the map 
 of the Old World, in which the swelling commotion of these 
 regions will result. But it can not fail to strike an intelli- 
 gent observer, that the disturbing elements of European and 
 Asiatic politics affect the region in question, and take the 
 direction necessary to effect the changes that must precede 
 the final settlement. Those powers which occupy the scats 
 of empire are, in spite of their prepossessions, drawn into 
 closer alliances with one another. Those powers which lie 
 beyond the boundaries of the Roman world are being sepa- 
 rated from their confederacies. Prussia, it will be observed, 
 is not properly within the limits, though she claims posses- 
 sions that belonged to ancient Gaul ; and the difficulty which 
 has recently arisen regarding her claim upon Mcufchatel, is 
 an indication of the manner in which portions of the inclu- 
 ded territory may be separated from foreign control. The 
 diplomatists of Europe will make the most strenuous efforts 
 to maintain the integrity of the Turkish dominion, but their 
 efforts will certainly be in vain. Palestine must be restored 
 to the Jews, and, from her remaining possessions, four out of 
 the five final kingdoms will be constituted. We have pointed 
 out the connection of the empire with the fate of Jerusalem. 
 When Jerusalem was sacked, the Roman empire hastened to
 
 18G Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [March, 
 
 iU decline and fall ; and it appears that when Jerusalem is 
 rebuilt, these kingdoms; which arc to share her power, 
 will be constituted, in anticipation of the grand issue : " And 
 in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a 
 kingdom, which shall never be destroyed ; and the kingdom 
 shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces 
 and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." 
 
 CHAPTERS FROM AxN UNPUBLISHED BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The prayer meetings, or, as they were called, " fellowship 
 meetings" of the peasantry in Scotland, have been extensively 
 blessed as a means of spiritual advancement and comfort. 
 In times of religious declension, when the life-giving truth 
 has been displaced in the pulpit by a barren morality — when 
 the state clergy, through whole presbyteries, have been time- 
 serving men, who mocked the thought of vital religion — 
 spiritual life has been cherished, and the lamp has been kept 
 burning, through the instrumentality of these humble gather- 
 ings. They were so well established in the hearts of the 
 people, that the hireling clergy, though they hated them, dared 
 not attempt to suppress them. 
 
 These meetings were not in intention, but in fact, the true 
 Churches of Christ, gathered out of the carnality of the nom. 
 inal churches. While all the adult inhabitants of the parish 
 were admitted indiscriminately to the membership of the 
 Church, none were received as members of the fellowship 
 meeting, who did not give satisfactory evidence of being born 
 again ; and the character of the members was watched over 
 with a jealous and affectionate care, which supplied the reality 
 of Church discipline without the form or the name. The exer-
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 187 
 
 cises at these meetings were conducted with a view to instruc- 
 tion and mutual improvement, as well as enjoyment. A por- 
 tion of Scripture was appointed, at the close of one meeting, 
 as the subject of consideration at the next ; and the mem- 
 bers came prepared, by prayer and meditation, to edify one 
 another. Besides the more direct benefits of these humble 
 brotherhoods, it would probably be found that the Church 
 was indebted to them for the few faithful ministers who lifted 
 up a testimony to the truth in times of degeneracy, and en- 
 deavored to stem the tide of error and ungodliness. 
 
 We have stated in our introductory remarks that the cor- 
 ruptions which flowed from the unholy alliance of Church 
 and State, even in the Church of Scotland, the purest of 
 Established Churches, has led, from time to time, to the se- 
 cession of faithful ministers and members, who have formed 
 themselves into presbyteries, holding the original confession 
 of faith. In the commencement of the last century, an 
 alarming degeneracy characterized nearly the whole Protest- 
 ant world. The majority of the Scottish minister had aban- 
 doned the great doctrine of justification by faith, and derided 
 the evangelical doctrine of regeneration as ignorant fanati- 
 cism. Many of them held, and a few openly preached, Soci- 
 nian views. With the decay of spirituality within the 
 Church, the encroachments of the civil power upon spiritual 
 independence kept pace. The parish pulpits were filled by 
 mere creatures of the government, and the ecclesiastical 
 courts were ready to make themselves the tools of the Cabi- 
 net. These corruptions and abuses had led to the secession 
 of an influential party, headed by the Erskines, whose names 
 are well known in America. In the space of fifty years, the 
 body of associate Seceders had spread themselves over the 
 length and breadth of the land, and had even planted 
 churches in the secluded valleys of the Highlands, with 
 which the godly men and women of the surrounding parishes 
 connected themselves. 
 
 The widow, with exalted views of Christian doctrine and 
 practice, had been driven to seek a congenial home in one of 
 these Secession churches, at the Craig, in the parish of Kil-
 
 188 Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [March, 
 
 patrick, about twelve miles distant from Green End. After 
 the reverse in her circumstances, when she had no longer a 
 horse at her command, she still maintained a punctual attend- 
 ance on the worship of the Lord's Day. irme commonly 
 walked part of the distance on Saturday night, and remained 
 at a friend's bouse until Archibald joined her in the morning, 
 when they went together to Church, and returned the whole 
 distance after service, walking leisurely, and shortening the 
 long mountain road with conversation on Divine things. It 
 was not the eloquence of the preacher that attracted them, 
 for Mr. Watson, though a godly man, was not gifted ; but a 
 strong sense of the religious obligation not to forsake the 
 assembling of themselves together, and a high appreciation 
 of the sweet privilege of the communion of saints and the 
 ordinances of the Lord's house, enabled the people of God, 
 in those days, to overcome difficuliies which, among us, would 
 be thought altogether insurmountable. 
 
 When Archibald first joined the Church, he had an un- 
 bounded admiration of his minister, who was a warm-hearted 
 man, and dealt very tenderly with the lambs of the flock. 
 He used to preach a series of ten or twelve sermons from a 
 single text, and his youthful admirer contrasted this affluence 
 with the poverty of ordinary preachers, who must have a new 
 text for every sermon. " By and bye," he says, " in my de- 
 sire to secure the substance of these valuable discourses, I 
 commenced to write notes of the principal points. When he 
 had finished a series of twelve sermons, of which I had a fair 
 outline, he took another text, and, to my amazement, the series 
 which he produced from this was in no material point dis- 
 tinguishable from the former — whatever his text, he brought 
 his whole body of divinity out of it before he dismissed it." 
 
 His faith in his pastor's greatness, not in his goodness, was 
 shaken by this discovery : and so' it was, that in other re- 
 spects, also, the intelligence of the boy was fast outgrowing 
 his circumstances and the ability of his instructors. Desires 
 began to spring up for a wider field and more ample means 
 of improvement, and his thoughts were gradually turned 
 towards a change of residence, which, on other grounds,
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 189 
 
 seemed to be desirable. The long, toilsome walk of twenty- 
 four miles every Lord's Day, in addition to the incessant toil 
 of the week, was becoming increasingly burdensome to his 
 mother, while her desires for the privileges of Christian fel- 
 lowship seemed to gain strength with her years. His sisters 
 were, for the most part, cut off from attendance on any reli- 
 gious instruction which was likely to benefit them. IJe had 
 heard, also, of the facilities which a city affords for mental 
 improvement. On consultation with his uncle, Mr. Thomas, 
 he found that he could prosecute his trade more profitably in 
 Glasgow. In addition to many other acts of kindness, Mr. 
 Thomas, who was a manufacturer there, offered the family a 
 house free of rent. By common consent, and with mutual 
 regrets, they at last resolved to leave the circle of attached 
 friends, and to part with Green End, the scene of so many 
 trials and of so many holy enjoyments. 
 
 A change of residence was no light matter to such a family 
 
 — the more so, as it involved the dissolution of tics that had 
 
 bound the name to the place for generations. Direction had 
 
 been anxiously sought in prayer, and their deliberate decision 
 
 met the approval of their most judicious friends. But it was a 
 
 trying day when they passed forever across the threshhold 
 
 of the only home they had ever known ; and when leaving 
 
 the living and the dead, they went forth to take up their 
 
 abode among strangers, in a large city. Archibald had gone 
 
 to Glasgow, a few months before, and had prepared the way 
 
 for the family, and they were soon comfortably established 
 
 in their new home. New friends soon learned to appreciate 
 
 the unpretending worth of the widow and her children ; and, 
 
 in a pecuniary point of view, the advantages of the change 
 
 exceeded all their anticipations. But it was, especially, in 
 
 their religious privileges that they felt the improvement in 
 
 their position. They became connected with a Church of the 
 
 same der o nination as that they had left at Craig, of which 
 
 the Rev. Mr. Pirie was pastor, aided, in his advancing years, 
 
 by the Rev. John Dick, D.D., the accomplished author of 
 
 Lectures on Divinity, which have been republished in this 
 
 country. They were devoted men and able preachers, whose
 
 190 Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [March, 
 
 weekly instructions contrasted most favorably with the dry 
 theology of Mr. Watson. To have a place of worship within 
 a few steps of their house, to which they could resort on 
 week-day evenings, as well as on the Lord's Day, was an ad- 
 vantage to be prized by those who, for years, had toiled over 
 twelve miles of mountain and moor to reach the house of 
 God. " The Lord has brought me to the borders of his sanc- 
 tuary," was the frequent expression of the worthy matron's 
 gratitude and satisfaction. 
 
 The change to Archibald was as happy as it was advanta- 
 geous. In the enlarged sphere of his new associations, his 
 character rapidly expanded. He commenced a systematic 
 course of intellectual improvement, by attending an evening 
 school ; and he found companions whose education was more 
 advanced than his own, from whom he received information 
 ■ — one of whom became his private instructor in the Latin 
 language. Some branches of study, which required chiefly an 
 exercise of memory, he prosecuted while his hands were occu- 
 pied with his trade. He contrived a simple arrangement by 
 which his text-book was suspended open before him as he sat 
 at his loom. His assiduity and intelligence soon attracted 
 the notice of all with whom he was in any way connected, 
 and made him friends who were forward to promote his in- 
 terests. Their minister waited upon his mother with the 
 offer of pecuniary aid to enable him to prosecute a regular 
 course of study at the University — a generous offer, which, 
 for weighty reasons, was declined. 
 
 The same state of things which, in the rural districts, led 
 to the organization of the fellowship meetings, led to similar 
 expedients in the city. Among these was a prayer meeting, 
 held at an early hour on Sabbath morning, composed, for the 
 most part, of young men — many of them students of divinity, 
 which at that time was greatly blessed. None were admitted 
 to membership but those who were members of an evangeli- 
 cal Church, whose lives were blameless, and who gave satis- 
 factory evidence of piety. Besides the object of mutual edi- 
 fication, the little society had in view a co-operation in plans 
 of benevolent exertion. They had fourteen Sunday Schools
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 191 
 
 under their care in the suburbs and neglected portions of the 
 city. Their operations were conducted noiselessly and un- 
 obtrusively ; but very many will at last trace their salvation 
 instrumentally to " the Sabbath Morning Prayer Meeting." 
 
 While we gratefully record the honor which the Head of 
 the Church has put upon these organizations, which the low 
 state of religion in the nominal churches rendered necessary 
 to the enjoyment of Christian fellowship, we should deeply 
 regret if this testimony should be understood as countenanc- 
 ing the multiplied institutions of the present day, by which 
 youthful vanity and mistaken zeal attempt to supersede the 
 Church as the proper sphere of Christian enjoyment, and the 
 proper agency of Christian benevolence. There is no legiti- 
 mate object of these voluntary associations which does not, 
 of right, come within the sphere of the Church ; and it be- 
 hooves us carefully to shun the very appearance of dishonoring 
 the institutions of the Saviour by a preference of human ex- 
 pedients. In the parishes of Scotland, the Church had 
 ceased to be the Church of Christ, when the children of God 
 turned elsewhere to seek edification, mutual comfort, and op- 
 portunities of co-operation in well-doing ; and these alli- 
 ances were a substantial protest against the degenerate and 
 apostate Establishment. The fellowship meetings were 
 Churches imperfectly organized, where believers sought the 
 accomplishment of the great ends of the Church's existence 
 in the world ; while the so-called Churches were mere crea- 
 tures of the State — associations of ungodly men, presided 
 over by hirelings, who profaned the ordinances of the Gos- 
 pel, as means of maintaining their own influence and soothing 
 the consciences of a deluded people. The prejudices of birth 
 and education, a traditional attachment to the name of the 
 Church of Scotland, and defective views of the true charac- 
 ter and constitution of a Church of Christ, kept the pious 
 men who formed these meetings from abandoning the apos- 
 tate confederacy and completing their organization by the 
 election of pastors and the observance of ordinances. 
 
 Apart from the state of things which called them into ex- 
 istence, these humble and unobtrusive gatherings had little
 
 192 Chapters from a Biography. [March, 1857. 
 
 in common with the noisy and ostentatious associations 
 which, in our day, attempt to usurp the guidance of Christian 
 enterprise, and to patronize the Church in those things in 
 which they do not officiously supersede it. The former, un- 
 seen by the world, assembled to pray to Him who heareth in 
 secret and rewardeth openly, or silently prosecuted their 
 humble course of beneficence : the latter clamorously challenge 
 public attention, praying in the market-place, and sounding 
 a trumpet before men when they bestow alms. And although 
 it is to be feared we can not vindicate the claims of our 
 Churches to the most exalted spirituality, or the most self- 
 sacrificing devotion, assuredly it is not a holier zeal or a 
 purer faith which seeks a home in the associations of which 
 we speak. The true objects of the Church are forgotten, 
 its Divine authority is slighted, and it ceases to be the home 
 of Christian affection and devotion ; — while ministers of the 
 Gospel among us are found only too willing to lend them- 
 selves, not, indeed, as creatures of the Crown, but as subser- 
 vient tools of popularity, of which these voluntary associa- 
 tions are the organs. 
 
 If we are mistaken, and if it is a longing desire for closer 
 Christian fellowship than can be enjoyed in the Churches, 
 and, for co-operation in schemes of philanthropy more en- 
 larged than the Churches will embrace, then let the people of 
 God, in one of two ways, honor the institution of the Lord : 
 — either let them bring the Churches into the full fellowship 
 of the Spirit, and the most enlarged efforts of pious philan- 
 thropy, or, failing in this, and if the Churches prove irre- 
 claimably apostate, then let us come out from the apostacy 
 and re-constitute true Churches, builded together as a habita- 
 tion of God, through the Spirit, where the testimony of God 
 may be maintained in purity — the truth, as it is in Jesus, 
 fully taught — the ordinances of the Gospel cherished, and 
 its mission of mercy fulfilled in the world ; but do not let us 
 insult that which we acknowledge as the Church of Christ, 
 by setting up alongside of it a human device, as its rival or 
 substitute.
 
 WAYMAMS II THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 APRIL, 185 
 
 THE UNFOLDING OF THE PROPHETIC SCHEME IN 
 THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 Mortal vanity persists in the proud thought that humanity 
 has been gradually elevating itself from what is styled a state 
 of nature, and that its career is onward to the perfection of 
 a temporal millennium — the good time coming. True his- 
 tory, on the contrary, records the continual failure of man- 
 kind. The brightest promise of races, nations, or churches 
 has had its decline and fall as certainly as the vigor of youth 
 sinks into the feebleness of age. Prophecy shows, that what 
 is true of the past will be true of the future, and that from 
 the close of mortal history, we shall look back on the melan- 
 choly picture of man's failure, under all advantages ; and we 
 shall then, also, see, that God's mercy has constantly found 
 its opportunity, and God's love its most glorious displays, in 
 man's failure. 
 
 "We have seen how the speedy corruption of mankind after 
 the Deluge, furnished the occasion for a new manifestation of 
 the Divine grace in the call and covenant of Abraham, and 
 in the separation of the family of Abraham in an appointed 
 line from all the nations of the earth. One object of this 
 
 TOL. II. — NO. IV. M
 
 194 The Unfolding of the Prophetic Scheme [April, 
 
 separation evidently was, that the knowledge of the one 
 living and true God might be preserved from the prevailing 
 idolatry, and that the knowledge of God's gracious purpose 
 might be preserved among the people of whom the promised 
 Seed was to come. God also designed, evidently, to give a 
 great lesson of His character and government, in the history 
 of that people : and in no other nation have we sucli demon- 
 stration of the weakness and worthlessness of human nature, 
 as in that on which God heaped such signal favors. The im- 
 portance of this people, in their relation to the plan of mercy, 
 is not generally understood. They are, as has been remarked 
 elsewhere, the centre of all God's earthly arrangement ; and 
 long before the nation had an existence, before even the call 
 of Abraham, God distributed the nations of the earth with 
 reference to the place which His chosen people were to oc- 
 cupy amongst them. " When the Most High divided to the 
 nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of 
 Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the num- 
 ber of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his 
 people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance." As has been 
 remarked, even the profane history of nations centres around 
 Israel. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome — 
 all contend for Israel's land, are known in connection with 
 it, or actually get their full imperial place and character at 
 the time they acquired possession of it. Though clouds of 
 dark traditions, scarce pierced by modern research, hang 
 over all the rest of the nations, and obscure their history, 
 whilst they reveal their existence, in the neighborhood of 
 Israel all is light. The light of Israel's history is shed on 
 all the nations around them. It is preserved, almost with 
 modern accuracy, when a few fragments scarce rescue from 
 •entire oblivion other ancient histories. 
 
 God's covenant with Abraham, in its grand promises, as 
 we saw in a former article, was unconditional, and is advanc- 
 ing to a certain and perfect fulfillment, irrespective of any 
 human failure. In the promised Seed it will be made good 
 in every particular. Abraham shall yet enjoy his everlasting 
 inheritance, and in his Seed all the families of the earth shall
 
 1857.] In the Exodus of Israel. 195 
 
 be blessed. But God gave to Abraham a promise regarding 
 the temporal fortunes of his natural descendants, as a sign 
 and pledge of the fulfillment of the covenant, and in reply to 
 his question, " Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?" 
 "And he said unto Abraham, Know of a surety that thy seed 
 shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve 
 them ; and they shall afflict them four hundred years • and 
 also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge : and 
 afterward shall they come out with great substance. And 
 thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace ; thou shalt be buried in 
 a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come 
 hither again : for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet 
 full."— (Gen. xv. 13.) 
 
 In His providential care of the infant race, God selected 
 Egypt as the nursery in which they should be kept until the 
 proper time came for their national organization. It is not 
 necessary, in this place, to recount the marvellous steps by 
 which He provided there for the welfare of the family of 
 Jacob. Joseph's slavery led to his exaltation to the first 
 place at the court of Pharaoh ; and it might have been ex- 
 pected that his brethren, introduced by him to public favor, 
 would speedily have been absorbed in the general population. 
 But, though the influence of Joseph secured for them an asy- 
 lum, the superstitions of the country forbade any intimate 
 association with them, " for every shepherd is an abomination 
 to the Egyptians ;" and the land of Goshen was assigned to 
 them for a separate dwelling. The separation which super- 
 stition began, a cruel tyranny perpetuated, for " a king 
 arose, who knew not Joseph," and who treated his people 
 with oppressive severity. 
 
 During the sojourn in Egypt, the ancient covenant was not 
 forgotten, and the voice of prophecy was not altogether silent. 
 Judah was pointed out as the tribe in which the Messiah 
 should be born ; and its existence, as a tribe, was guaranteed 
 until His birth — a prediction rendered more remarkable in 
 its fulfillment, because the other tribes were dispersed before 
 the coming of Shiloh ; and, soon after He came, Judah also 
 was scattered to the winds of heaven. It was a most expres-
 
 196 The Unfolding of the Prophetic Scheme [April, 
 
 sive act, that Jacob directed his sons to bury him in the cave 
 of Macpelah, and that Joseph took an oath of his people that 
 they would carry his bones with them to Canaan. The pa- 
 triarchs thus expressed their faith in God's promise; and their 
 ashes rest in that promised land, in a hope that shall not be 
 disappointed. God, long after, renewed His promise of a 
 time when " Joseph shall have two portions. And ye shall 
 inherit it : concerning the which I lifted up my hand to give 
 it unto your fathers : and this land shall fall unto you for 
 an inheritance." — (Ezek. xlvii. 13.) 
 
 Afflicted they were, and held in cruel bondage ; but yet, in 
 the seclusion of Goshen, the people increased till their op- 
 pressors feared that they might become the stronger party, 
 and resorted to the most barbarous measures of extermina- 
 tion. In the words of the martyr, Stephen, "At which time 
 Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in 
 his father's house three months ; and when he was cast out, 
 Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him as her 
 own son : and Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the 
 Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds." Through 
 all this dark period, the faith of God's covenant lingered in 
 the hearts of a remnant. In this faith — believing that God 
 would indeed raise up the promised Seed, and that, therefore, 
 the Egyptians would not be allowed to cut off the race — 
 the parents of Moses preserved their son. In this faith, also, 
 Moses, " when he was come to years, refused to be called the 
 son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer afflic- 
 tion with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of 
 sin for a season ; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater 
 riches than the treasures in Egypt : for he had respect unto 
 the recompense of reward." Partly at the court of Pharaoh, 
 and partly in the pastoral seclusion of the family of a vener- 
 able sheikh or shepherd-prince of Midian, God trained His 
 servant to be the deliverer and leader of His people. The 
 predicted four hundred years had nearly expired ; Moses was 
 the fourth in descent from Levi ; the patriarchal family of 
 seventy-five had increased to a nation ; and God prepared for 
 their emancipation. Jn Mount Horeb He appeared to Moses
 
 1857.] In the Exodus of Israel, 197 
 
 in the bush that burned and was not consumed ; avowed 
 Himself as the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob ; and 
 commissioned Moses to inflict judgment on the oppressors, 
 and to conduct the people out of the house of bondage. 
 
 Moses went to Pharaoh, in God's name, and demanded the 
 release of the people. That infatuated king, when he saw 
 the signs by which Moses was accredited, did not dispute his 
 claim to be the messenger of Jehovah, but demanded, " Who 
 is the Lord, that I should obey him ?" and thus took open 
 ground against God. Let it be remarked, that although 
 miracles were the proofs of the mission of Moses, it does not 
 follow that every miracle is the evidence of Divine truth. 
 "Within certain limits, the Devil can, by his agents, imitate 
 miracles ; and, in all ages, he has been ready with his coun- 
 terfeits to neutralize the influence of true signs and wonders. 
 In their unwillingness to admit the supernatural anywhere, 
 nationalist commentators have taken pains to explain away the 
 counterfeit miracles of the magicians as mere feats of jug- 
 glery ; but it stands on the record, " The magicians did so by 
 their enchantments." The Devil's lying wonders are always, 
 however, confined within certain limits, and are always in 
 some way marked by his character. It would be interesting 
 and instructive to note all the recorded examples, and ascer- 
 tain what these limits are. In the case of these magicians, 
 for example, we find that they could change water into blood, 
 and bring up frogs over the land ; but they could not pro- 
 duce living insects from inorganic matter — they could not 
 remove the judgments of God from the Egyptians — they 
 could not inflict like judgments on the Israelites — and they 
 could not save themselves from the Common calamity. To 
 deny the fact of their power, within certain limits, is dis- 
 honoring to the Divine record, and exposes men to the delu- 
 sions of the Devil, by leading them to conclude that when- 
 ever they see a work which transcend;? our natural powers, 
 there must be a Divine work and the sanction of a Dirine 
 revelation. The agents of evil spirits may thus, by idle 
 tricks and marvels, palm off the most monstrous falsehoods 
 on the simple. Nor must we suppose that all this belongs to
 
 
 198 The Unfolding of the Prophetic Scheme [April, 
 
 a past age. The Lord himself warns us that in the last days 
 " there shall arise false Chyists and false prophets, and shall 
 show great signs and wonders ; insomuch, that if it were pos- 
 sible, they shall deceive the very elect ;" and Paul warns us 
 of one " whose coming is after Satan, with all power, and 
 signs, and lying wonders." 
 
 Pharaoh learned, at last, that all the power of his god 3 
 was no protection against the strong hand of the God of 
 Israel. The Israelites were directed to prepare for their 
 journey — to slay a sacrificial lamb, and sprinkle the blood 
 on the lintels and door-posts of their houses — and thus to 
 await the issue. Night settled down on the Egyptians, ex- 
 ultant in their rebellion against Jehovah. At midnight their 
 doom overtook them. " And Pharaoh arose in the night, he 
 and all his servants, and all the Egyptians ; and there was 
 a great cry in the land ; for there was not a house in which 
 there was not one dead" — save where the sacred symbol in- 
 timated that an Israelite dwelt, and there the destroying 
 angel passed over. Frantic with grief and terror, the Egyp- 
 tians urged the departure of the oppressed people, "And it 
 came to pass the selfsame day, that the Lord did bring the 
 children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, by their armies, ,r 
 laden by the spoils of the tyrants, who, in their fear, yielded! 
 to their just demands a partial compensation for centuries of 
 unrequited toil. 
 
 Scarcely had the people set out on their journey, when the 
 act of justice which terror had extorted was repented of. 
 Pharaoh,, summoning his vast army, pursued them, thinking to 
 secure an easy but ignoble victory over a defenceless crowd 
 of women and children. He was to receive a last lesson of 
 the might of that God he had scorned. He drove the hap- 
 less multitude upon the waters of the Red Sea, when Moses 
 stretched forth his hand, and the waters divided, and a safe 
 path was opened up for them ; the waves standing as a wall 
 on either hand, and the angel of the Lord, in a pillar of 
 cloud and fire, protecting their rear. The Egyptians madly 
 ventured upon that sacred path ; but the Lord looked through 
 the cloud to their host, and troubled them' — Moses stretched 

 
 1857.] In the Exodus of Israel. 199 
 
 forth his hand, " and the waters returned, and covered the 
 chariots and the horsemen ; and of all the host of Pharaoh 
 that came into the sea after them, there remained not so much 
 as one of them." On the further side of the destroying flood, 
 the newborn nation stood rejoicing in their strength, their 
 song, and their salvation. Thus amply did God fulfill his predic- 
 tion to Abraham : " And also that nation, whom they shall 
 serve, will I judge : and afterward shall they come out with 
 great substance." This fulfillment was more than a confir- 
 mation of the covenant : it was an important step towards 
 its accomplishment, and it was the commencement of the most 
 complete development of the plan of mercy which had as 
 yet been vouchsafed to the world, in a sublime series of types, 
 both in their history and in the positive institutions of their 
 worship. 
 
 " History was born on that night when Moses led his 
 people out of Goshen." And it greatly increases the natural 
 interest with which we peruse the records of this exodus, 
 when we fairly realize its relations to all other history. But 
 that with which we have now to do is not its historical or anti- 
 quarian connections, but its relations to that great purpose 
 which underlies all history, and which alone gives value or 
 importance to the affairs of time. Mr. Stanley, in speaking 
 of the aspects of the region into which the tribes of Israel 
 issued from their sea-walled path, says : 
 
 " They were brought into contact with a desolation which was forcibly 
 contrasted with the green valley of the Nile. They wer 3 enclosed within 
 a sanctuary of temples and pyramids not made with hands ; the more 
 awful, from its dissimilarity to any thing which they or their fathers 
 could have remembered in Egypt or in Palestine. They were wrapt in a 
 silence which ga\ e full effect to the morning and the evening shout with 
 which the encampment rose and pitched, and still more to the 'thunders 
 and the voice exceeding loud' on the top of Horeb. The prophet and 
 his people were thus secluded from all former thoughts and associations 
 — that, 
 
 " c Separate from the world, his breast 
 Might duly take and strongly keep 
 The print of God, to be exprest 
 Ere long on Sinai's steep.' " 
 

 
 200 The Unfolding of the Prophetic Scheme [April, 
 
 For all the great purposes which God had in view in the 
 call and constitution of the Israelitish nation, their complete 
 separation from the rest of mankind was indispensable. And 
 the fact is one of the most extraordinary in the natural his- 
 tory of man, that from the day that " Abraham departed as 
 the Lord had said unto him," the seclusion of this race has 
 been secured through these four thousand years. Nations 
 have risen and declined — races of men have become extinct, 
 or have been swallowed up in others — all the great changes 
 which make up ancient and modern history have trans- 
 pired — but this people remain distinct. Through all vicissi- 
 tudes of fortune, in peace and war, prosperity and adversity, 
 as a great nation or a scattered people, as conquerors or cap- 
 tives, the distinction has never been obliterated, and it is as 
 marked to-day as when their father Abraham sojourned in a 
 strange land. The wilderness of Sin was a fitting place to 
 mould and organize a people for such a seclusion. The cir- 
 cumstances in which they found themselves there all tended 
 to the same result. And this is evidently one object in all 
 their institutions — to promote their entire seclusion — till 
 the venal prophet who went to curse them involuntarily 
 uttered the characteristic prediction, " From the top of the 
 rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him. Lo ! the 
 people shall dwell alone, and shall not be numbered among 
 the nations" — a characteristic which still holds good, through 
 all their afflictions. As Bishop Newton remarks : 
 
 " They are dispersed among all nations, and yet they are not con- 
 founded with any. The drops of rain which flow into the ocean are soon 
 mingled and lost in the immensity of waters ; and the same, in all human, 
 probability, would have been the fate of the Jews. They would have 
 been mingled and lost in the common mass of mankind ; but, on the con- 
 trary, they flow into all parts of the world, mix with all nations, and yet 
 keep separated from all. The Northern nations have poured their swarms 
 into the southern parts of Europe, but where are they to be distin- 
 guished? Who can separate Franks and Gauls, Goths and Moors, 
 Britons, Saxons, Danes, and Normans? The Jews remain distinct, 
 and that, although the contempt with which they have been treated, 
 and the hardships which they have endured, might well have made 
 them glad to renounce ther name."
 
 1857.] In the Exodus of Israel. 201 
 
 The Hebrews stood on the farther shore of the Red Sea, 
 and entered the wilderness a free people ; hut as yet without 
 a national constitution and organization. The only govern- 
 ment among them existed in the personal influence of their 
 deliverer, as the servant of God, until, in the third mouth, 
 they came into the wilderness of Sinai, where the national 
 orgauization was completed. The covenant which God made 
 with Israel at Sinai must never for a moment be confounded 
 with the covenant which God made with Abraham — a cove- 
 nant which, as we have seen, is still in force, and which the 
 law, that was four hundred and thirty years afterwards, can 
 not disannul. Up to the time of their arrival at Sinai, the 
 Israelites were under a dispensation of mercy and free favor j 
 and what we must chiefly remark, at present, in the constitu- 
 tion under which they were then placed, is, that it was one 
 in which the people voluntarily bound themselves, by strictly 
 legal terms, to God, as their king, and promised to keep His 
 law as the condition of their enjoyment of His blessing. It 
 is, however, carefully to be noticed, that the covenant which 
 God made with Israel was strictly national, and that the 
 blessings which were promised, as the reward of their loyalty, 
 were strictly national and temporal. The enjoyment of eter- 
 nal life and the heavenly inheritance was then, as now, re- 
 served to the children of Abraham's faith. Natural birth 
 and ceremonial observances could never secure the salvation 
 of the soul. The Israelites, with rash self-confidence, bound 
 themselves to the law, as a condition of their prosperity : 
 with what result, it is not necessary to say. How soon were 
 they found dancing round the golden calf! And this was but 
 the beginning of a course of characteristic rebellion. God 
 found occasion, in their disobedience, to introduce first one 
 and then another principle on which He could exercise His 
 long-suffering towards them ; in every step finding a fresh 
 illustration of the great principles of His grace to a perish- 
 ing world. For this is a most important consideration, that 
 in the whole history of this people, and in the varied institu- 
 tions and agencies which God employed, we have types of 
 better things which were to succeed.
 
 202 The Unfolding of the Prophetic Scheme. [April, 
 
 Paul, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, explains to us 
 that the whole of the deliverance from Egypt, and the course 
 of the Israelites in the wilderness, were typical. Having 
 recounted the leading incidents, and shown the interpretation 
 of one of the types, he says (x. 11) : "Now all these things 
 happened unto them for ensamples ;" or, as it is in the mar- 
 gin, "for types ;" "and they are written for our admonition, 
 upon whom the ends of the world are come" — a passage 
 which not only intimates that the history is typical, but 
 shows the duty and advantage of studying it. In the reli- 
 gious and social institutions of the Sinaitic covenant, we find 
 a partition-wall erected, which, more effectually than any 
 material barrier, isolated the people in the earth. But the 
 Divine "Wisdom, in the structure of that economy, is seen in 
 the fact, that while it was levelled against the idolatry of 
 surrounding nations, it had a shadow of good things to come, 
 typically illustrating the character, office, and work of 
 Christ, and the whole plan and purpose of grace. This 
 typical system we must make the subject of separate considera- 
 tion, only remarking, for the present, that the most spiritual 
 in every age have borne testimony to the treasures of instruc- 
 tion and comfort that are locked up in it. Types, indeed, 
 prove nothing ; but, as Tyndal remarks, " To the believer, 
 they serve to open Christ, and the secrets of God hid in 
 Christ, even to the quick, and can declare them in a more 
 lively and sensible manner than all the words in the world."
 
 1857.] The Haldanes. 203 
 
 THE HALDANES. 
 
 A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, 
 
 BY JAMES INGLI8. 
 
 "When the history of the religious movements of the last 
 half century comes to be reviewed at a distance from all 
 local and party influence, it will be better understood than 
 it is now for what important service God raised up the 
 brothers whose names we have placed at the head of this 
 article. For the present, a sketch of their course and their 
 personal character may furnish important practical instruc- 
 tion to an age and country which eminently demand a kin- 
 dred faith, energy, and devotion. Our narrow limits will 
 only permit us to glance at the leading incidents of their 
 extraordinary lives — an interesting memoir of which has 
 been furnished by Alexander Haldane, Esq,, of the Inner 
 Temple, who is the son of the younger brother. 
 
 The brothers Robert and James Haldane were descendants 
 of an ancient and honorable family in Scotland, from whom 
 they inherited wealth, station, and worldly influence ; but, as 
 their biographer well says, " it was the higher privilege of 
 the brothers to be enabled practically to sympathise with the 
 sentiments expressed in the noble lines of Cowper : 
 
 " ( My boast is not that I deduce my birth 
 
 From loins enthroned or rulers of the earth ; 
 But higher far my proud pretensions rise, 
 The son of parents paised into the skies.' " 
 
 Their father died when Robert was four years of age, and 
 two months before the birth of James. Their mother, who 
 was the sister of the celebrated Admiral Viscount Duncan,
 
 204 The Haldanes. [April, 
 
 was an eminent Christian, of whom Robert says : " She lived 
 very near to God, and much grace was given to her." She 
 devoted herself to the education of her children, and though 
 she died before the seed she sowed bore fruit, her sons both 
 traced their religious impressions to her early lessons. " My 
 mother died," says the younger son, " when I was very young 
 — I believe under six ; yet I am sure that the early impres- 
 sions made on my mind by her care have never been entirely 
 effaced ; and to this, as an eminent means in the hand of God, 
 I impute any serious thoughts which, in the midst of my folly, 
 would sometimes intrude on my mind, as well as that still 
 small voice of conscience which afterwards led me to see that 
 all below was vanity, without an interest in that inheritance 
 which can not fade away." Her elder son remembered in 
 after life that he had overheard her, on her knees by their 
 bedside, in the silent watches of the night, earnestly praying 
 that the Lord would be pleased to guide them through that 
 world which she felt that she was herself soon to leave, that 
 their lives might be devoted to His service upon earth, and 
 that finally they might be brought to His everlasting king- 
 dom. 
 
 After their mother's death, their education was carefully 
 conducted under the eye of their grandmother, Lady Lundie, 
 and their uncles, Colonel Duncan and the Admiral. They 
 were regarded as youths of great promise, and distinguished 
 themselves, both at school and college. It will not be thought 
 surprising if their intercourse with their uncle, and the eclat 
 of his distinguished exploits, determined them both to seek 
 glory in the naval service of their country, which they en- 
 tered at an early age. 
 
 Robert, during a brief career on the ocean, attracted the 
 attention of his superior officers. At the close of an action 
 in which his gallantry was generally observed, Lord St. Yin- 
 cent wrote to Admiral Duncan, complimenting him on the 
 spirit of his nephew, and predicting that Robert Haldane 
 would one day be an ornament to his country. Upon the 
 peace of 1783, he retired from the navy, being then in his 
 twentieth year, and returned to complete his studies at the
 
 1857.] The Haldanes. 205 
 
 University of Edinburgh. In a year or two, he married, and 
 settled upon his estate of Airthrcy, near Stirling, where he 
 devoted himself to the improvement of his property, and to 
 the cultivation of literature. 
 
 James also, in his seventeenth year, entered the navy, and 
 soon gave promise of distinction. lie gave himself to what 
 is called a life of pleasure, and was a great favorite with his 
 youthful associates. His dauntless courage, great energy, 
 and commanding presence joined to a perfect study of his 
 profession, pointed him out for speedy promotion, and at 
 twenty-five he was nominated to the command of the Melville 
 Castle. While his ship lay in the Downs, in company with a 
 considerable fleet, a mutiny broke out on board the Button 
 man-of-war. The crew, having taken possession of the ship, 
 threatened to carry her into a French port. The officers 
 were driven from their command, and a sort of panic spread 
 through the fleet. Captain Haldane, in face of the threats 
 of the infuriated mutineers, appeared in his boat at the side 
 of the Dutton, and in a few moments stood upon the quarter- 
 deck, single-handed. By the simple impression of his courage 
 and command, the multitude of the mutineers were at once 
 quelled. Two of them, in a state of intoxication, were at 
 the door ol the powder magazine, with the intention of blowing 
 up the ship, rather than surrender. One of them had wrenched 
 the iron bar from the door ; the other stood by with a shovel 
 of live coals, ready to throw in. When every heart was 
 paralyzed with terror, Captain Haldane rushed to the scene 
 of danger, put a pistol to the head of the man with the iron 
 bar, and, calling for the ship's irons, had these two despera- 
 does, with others of the ringleaders, put in confinement by 
 the crew themselves, who could not resist his authority. The 
 officers were at once restored to their command, and the men 
 submissively returned to their posts. 
 
 This incident, which brought him more favorably than ever 
 before the notice of the Admiralty, was, nevertheless, the 
 last of his perils at sea, and these bloodless laurels were the 
 last he won in his chosen profession. While he lay in the 
 Downs, he was in the habit of going on shore to attend the
 
 206 The Haldanes. [April, 
 
 ministry of Dr. Bogue, of Gosport, who had been a great 
 favorite with his uncle. This man of God embraced every 
 opportunity of directing the young officer's attention to Divine 
 things. A deep seriousness took possession of his mind. As 
 he sat in his cabin, or paced the quarter-deck, his thoughts 
 were occupied with the concerns of his soul ; and, filled with 
 a sense of the vanity of earthly ambition, he was, at his own 
 urgent request, released from his command a few days before 
 the fleet sailed for the East Indies. He returned to Scotland, 
 sought the society of godly ministers and other Christians, 
 and at length his eyes were opened. " God," he says, " showed 
 me the evil of sin in the sufferings of His Son, and in the 
 manifestation of that love which, while it condemned the 
 past ingratitude, sealed the pardon of the believing sinner." 
 
 Robert, meanwhile, was living on his estate, in the cultiva- 
 tion of the manly habits and elegant tastes of a country 
 gentleman. He had been interested in the great events of 
 the French Revolution, and at first was sanguine as to its 
 results in advancing human enlightenment and happiness. 
 His liberal sentiments alienated from him the Tory nobility 
 of the neighborhood, and led him to seek the society of the 
 more accomplished clergy around him, who, happily, were 
 evangelical preachers and pious men. His hopes of human 
 progress were blasted by the fearful outbreak of infidelity 
 under the leaders of the Revolution ; and just then the con- 
 version of his brother, and the conversation of the ministers 
 whom he welcomed to his hospitable mansion, gave a new 
 direction to his thoughts. His early serious impressions, and 
 the memory of his mother's counsels and prayers, were re- 
 vived, and he began to seek in earnest a Saviour from sin. 
 He used to say, that " although he traced his training instru- 
 mentally to the early instructions of his mother, and never 
 had been entirely without some convictions from the time he 
 was nine years old, and although he did not attribute his con- 
 version to any other human agency, yet if he were to point 
 out the individual from whom he derived most spiritual light, 
 at the beginning of his career, he would mention a journey- 
 man mason of t>e name of Klani." This good man was em-
 
 1857.] The Haldanes. 207 
 
 ployed by Mr. Haldane on some of the extensive improve- 
 ments which were in progress at Airthrey. Once they walked 
 together to a distant part of the estate, and, on the way, 
 their conversation turned from the subject of masonry to the 
 glory of the Great Architect of the universe. The views of 
 faith in the finished work of Christ, which his humble but 
 spiritually-enlightened companion unfolded, were blessed of 
 God .to reveal to his mind the true ground of a sinner's hope, 
 and he always looked back witli gratitude to that interview 
 as the occasion on which he learned to cast away every other 
 confidence, and rest upon the Rock of Ages. 
 
 The brothers now found themselves one in faith and hope 
 — twice brothers ; and, rejoicing together, they united their 
 extraordinary energy, talents, and resources in the accom- 
 plishment of the noblest ends of existence. Near the com- 
 mencement of his Christian life, Robert heard of the Baptist 
 Missionary Society, and the first labors of Dr. Carey, in 
 India. His soul was straightway fired with a holy zeal to 
 devote himself and his splendid fortune to the great work of 
 propagating the Gospel among the heathen. After six months 
 of deliberate consideration, he proposed one of the grandest 
 designs of Christian benevolence which individual devotion 
 ever attempted. By the sale of his property, he proposed to 
 raise ample means for the execution of his plan, which was 
 to go, in company with a band of missionaries, and attempt 
 the evangelization of British India. The services of Dr. 
 Bogue, Dr. Innes, Mr. Greville Ewing, John Campbell, and 
 other well-known men of piety and ability w T ere secured. 
 Mr. Haldane undertook to pay all expenses, and to vest 
 £25,000 sterling in trustees, to secure the mission, in the 
 event of his death. 
 
 The arrangements were completed, so far as it depended 
 on the self-sacrificing parties to this great undertaking ; but 
 a barrier was interposed by the selfish policy of the govern- 
 ment of India. The Directors of the East India Company 
 were alarmed by the apprehension of injurious consequences 
 from any interference with the religion of the natives, and 
 they were suspicious of the motives of the projectors of the
 
 208 The Iluldancs. [April, 
 
 plan. Worldly men could not understand why a man of 
 great wealth, high station, superior talents, and social in- 
 fluence should be willing to abandon every thing, and go 
 voluntarily impoverished, to propagate the Gospel among the 
 Hindoos. They suspected that the mission was only a pre- 
 text for some deep-laid plot of personal ambition. After 
 every influence had been exerted on behalf of the mission, a 
 final negative was put on it by the authorities, and Mr. Ilal- 
 danc and his friends were left to seek other channels for 
 their Christian benevolence. 
 
 James Haldanc, during this period, was residing in Edin- 
 burgh, associating with the most devoted ministers of the 
 Church of Scotland, and co-operating with a small circle of 
 pious Christians in endeavors to do good among the poor 
 and ignorant. Among these friends were John Campbell, at 
 that time a prosperous merchant in Edinburgh, afterwards 
 known as the African traveler, the efficient minister of Kings- 
 land chapel, and a popular writer ; and John Aikman, a re- 
 tired "West India merchant, who had been converted by 
 reading Ncwtoms Cardiphonia, which he purchased at a book- 
 stall, on the supposition that it was a novel. These men 
 were earnestly watching for opportunities of making known 
 the way of life to the perishing. 
 
 The close of the last century has been called the midnight 
 of the Church of Scotland. Some of its most eminent min- 
 isters were the intimate friends of David Hume and Adam 
 Smith, and were more than suspected of infidelity. Many of 
 the country ministers were Socinians. Almost all of them 
 were cold-hearted moralists, who can not be accused of 
 hypocrisy only because they did not conceal their contempt 
 for religion. The open ungodliness which prevailed through- 
 out their parishes need scarcely be described. In the midst 
 of all this there were a few godly men, some of whom we 
 have already named, who endeavored to stem the tide. A 
 correspondence and co-operation sprang up between them 
 and a few godly ministers in England — such as John New- 
 ton, Mr. Simeon, Thomas Scott, and Rowland Hill. Mr. 
 Simeon made a tour through Scotland in 179G, accompanied
 
 1857.] The Ilaldanes. 209 
 
 by James ETaldanc, who found a blessing to his own soul, and 
 learned many important lessons, in the art of doing good. 
 He began to accompany Mi*. Campbell in his labors among 
 the poor, and ere long was emboldened to address a company 
 of poor people in the village of Gilmerion, near Edinburgh, 
 The preaching of " the Sea Captain" attracted much atten- 
 tion, and he was encouraged by fruits of the Word in the 
 conversion of souls. In company with Mr. Aikman, he com- 
 menced a series of itineracies, in which he preached the Gos- 
 pel in almost every village from the Tweed to the Orkney 
 Islands — the blessed results of which labors may-, to this 
 day, be traced in the spiritual condition of many communi- 
 ties. 
 
 Lay preaching, as it was called, was a novelty in Scotland, 
 and, even by the most godly ministers of the Established 
 Church, was loudly condemned. The men who went past all 
 ecclesiastical regulations, and burned with unquenchable zeai 
 for the salvation of souls, were net likely to be long held in 
 the trammels of a lifeless Establishment ; but, in the outset, 
 they dreamed of nothing less than the formation of a sepa- 
 rate Church. The word seemed to burn in their hearts, and 
 they thought only of uttering God's message, and beseeching 
 men to be reconciled to God. A systematic effort to pro- 
 vide preachers for destitute places was made, by the organiza- 
 tion of a society for the propagation of the Gospel at home. 
 Soon after this, it was proposed to increase the efficiency of 
 the society by providing places of public worship, on the 
 plan of Whitfield's Tabernacles. Some one mentioned to 
 Robert Haldane that the Royal Circus in Edinburgh might 
 be procured for such a use ; and, with his accustomed libe- 
 rality, he at once secured it. Rowland Hill came down from 
 London to open it, and preached to a congregation of nearly 
 three thousand. And thus was commenced what has 
 been known as the Tabernacle system, which, by God's 
 blessing, was the instrument of a wide-spread revival in 
 Europe. 
 
 Still, they all continued members of the Church of Scot- 
 land. Mr. Hill was the first to suggest the formation of a 
 
 TOL. II. — tfO. IV, N
 
 210 The Haldanes. [April, 
 
 Union Church; "and," said he. "lot her prove that she 
 deserves the name." A meeting of the active friends of the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel at Home was held 
 to consider this suggestion ; and, in January, 1799, a Congre- 
 gational Church was formed, and Mr. James Haldanc was 
 unanimously chosen pastor of the new Church. At Glasgow, 
 the Royal Circus was purchased and converted into a place 
 of worship. A Church was organized there, under the 
 pastoral cure of Mr. Ewing, who had resigned his charge in 
 the Church of Scotland. A similar Church was organized 
 at Dundee, under the pastoral cure of Dr. Innes, who also 
 resigned one of the most desirable livings in the national 
 Church. And, throughout the country, Churches, on the 
 same model, sprang up, with great rapidity, distinguished 
 for piety and evangelical zeal. 
 
 Rohert Haldane, at the same time, made arrangements to 
 carry out his plan of educating a number of pious young men 
 for the ministry. A first class was placed under the instruc- 
 tion of Mr. Ewing ; a second under the tuition of i)r. Bogue, 
 at Gosport ; a third under Mr. Innes. All these were sup- 
 ported by Mr. Haldane, who thus educated more than three 
 hundred preachers — among whom were John Angel James, 
 of Birmingham ; Dr. Paterson, of St. Petersburg ; Dr. Mac- 
 lay, of New York ; Dr. Henderson, of Highbury College ; 
 and others who have done signal service as ministers and 
 Biblical scholars. A writer who is thoroughly acquainted 
 with the whole movement, estimates that this devoted man 
 could not have expended less than £80,000 sterling, from his 
 own private fortune, in the education of ministers, building 
 places of worship, and sustaining missions. 
 
 While thus occupied in devising and executing great plans 
 of usefulness, he was not unwilling to take his own share in 
 the evangelical labors of his associates, and, from time to 
 time, he preached the Gospel with great power and accept- 
 ance. We have received from Dr. Maclay, formerly pastor 
 of the Tabernacle Baptist Church in New York, an account 
 of the address and personal appearance of his friend and 
 patron at this period. " The first time," he says, " I ever saw
 
 1857.] The Haldanes. 211 
 
 this most excellent man was in Glasgow, when he preached 
 on a beautiful lawn, then called 'The Deanside Brae,' to an 
 immense concourse of people, who listened to the truth with 
 deep attention, many of them Lathed in tears. Perhaps 
 thirty ministers of different denominations were present ; 
 among whom was the distinguished Dr. Balfour, who sat at 
 the feet of the speaker, in deep emotion. The presence of 
 Mr. Ilaldaue, at this time, was peculiarly commanding. His 
 preaching was earnest. He fervently warned every man, 
 teaching every man in all wisdom. His dress, so far as that 
 may be considered as indicating the character of the man, 
 was free from clerical pretension : it was simply that of a 
 gentleman of his class in that day — his vest swans' down, 
 his clothes light-colored, his hair powdered. I do not now 
 remember the text ; but I can never forget the scene and the 
 solemn impression of the whole service." 
 
 From the Gtli of May, 1797, when James Haldane preached 
 his first sermon to the colliers of Gilmerton, down to the 
 middle of 1800, the work which he accomplished might have 
 been sufficient for a lifetime. Nor had the toils of his 
 brother been less arduous. How much had been effected in 
 that short space ! The efforts of the friends of evangelical 
 truth had been called out and systematized ; a multitude of 
 agencies for the propagation of the truth had been put in 
 operation ; thousands had been brought to a saving knowl- 
 edge of the truth ; Churches, worthy of the name, had been 
 planted at many important points ; evangelical preachers had 
 been scattered over the land ; and arrangements had been 
 made for training a succession of faithful laborers. The in- 
 fluence of the movement had extended even where it was 
 most emphatically disowned, slumbering Churches had been 
 aroused, and something like an awakening might be seen 
 even within the Established Church itself. 
 
 Some years afterwards the Haldanes and some of their 
 associates embraced Baptist sentiments, and, for a time, an 
 alienation of feeling impaired the efficient co-operation of the 
 Churches. Robert returned to his estate of Auchingray, and 
 wrote his work on the evidences of Christianity, of which
 
 212 The Servant of Jehovah. [April, 
 
 Rowland Hill said, " A better compilation of the evidences 
 of Christianity, to the best of my recollection, I have never 
 seen." After a brief period of comparative repose, the ter- 
 mination of the wars, which had long distracted Europe, 
 opened up to him a new field of activity. 
 
 [to be continued.] 
 
 THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH. 
 
 BY JOHN HOGG. 
 
 The phrase, " servant of Jehovah," or " servant of the 
 Lord," has various significations in the inspired volume. It 
 sometimes denotes simply a pious man, as when God calls 
 Job His servant — an expression which is explained, on in- 
 spired authority, as " one that feared God and eschewed 
 evil." But the more usual meaning of the title refers to any 
 one sent by God on a special mission — such as David, who 
 fought the wars of the Lord, or the prophets, who foretold 
 future events, reproved the people for their wickedness, and 
 instructed them in the truths of religion. Israel, viewed as 
 a collective name for the entire nation, is sometimes called 
 the servant of Jehovah, since the chosen people were sepa- 
 rated from the other nations of the earth, that they might 
 preserve the worship of God uncontaminated by idolatry, 
 and that they might exert a healthful moral influence on the 
 surrounding heathen. Thus, God addressed His people : 
 " Hear, Jacob, my servant, and Israel whom I have 
 chosen ;" "Thou, Israel, art my servant ; Jacob, whom I have 
 chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend." But whenever this 
 honorable appellation, "the servant of Jehovah," denotes the
 
 1 857.] The Servant of Jehovah. 2 1 3 
 
 Israelites, it is the entire community, and not merely the 
 pious portion of it, that is indicated ; as, when the prophet 
 reprehends them for unfaithfulness to their divine mission : 
 "Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as the messenger 
 that I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind 
 as the Lord's servant ?" The obvious meaning of this pas- 
 sage is — Why do ye call the heathen blind and deaf, when 
 Israel, the very people whose duty it is to make known the 
 will of God, wholly disregard their sacred obligations? 
 
 In the later prophecies of Isaiah, the title " servant of 
 Jehovah" is given to the Messiah, as the Father's messenger. 
 He is variously described as a prophet, priest, and king, in 
 language which every reader feels to be too grand and ele- 
 vated to apply even to the most favored of God's ancient 
 servants. When He is announced as a prophet, He is care- 
 fully distinguished from every ordinary teacher, and even 
 from Moses and Elias, those extraordinary teachers, raised 
 up by the special providence of God for peculiar emergen- 
 cies, since He proclaims salvation to the Gentiles, in all its 
 wide extent of meaning, and since He should be, in fact, a 
 light to the Gentiles, while the ministry of the most favored 
 of the Jewish prophets was exclusively confined to the laud 
 of Canaan. As a king, He commands the distant heathen to 
 obey His voice, and He gives law to the isles of the sea. In 
 the fifty-second and fifty-third chapters, lie is described as a 
 high priest, who makes atonement for the heathen — as the 
 anti-type of the paschal lamb — and as the true sacrifice for 
 sin. It is clear as day that these characteristics are far too 
 lofty to apply to any human being, and that they are only 
 strictly true of Him to " whom all the prophets give wit- 
 ness.^ Hence, some of the early Jewish expositors affirm, 
 that the title in question belongs exclusively to the Messiah, 
 and that the abettors of an opposite opinion are struck with 
 blindness. That this was the current view among the Jews 
 about the time of our Saviour's birth, may be inferred from 
 the fact that the aged Simeon took Jesus into his arms, and, 
 in allusion to the prediction that Jehovah's servant should be 
 a light to the Gentiles, and God's salvation to the ends of
 
 214 The Servant of Jehovah. [April, 
 
 the earth, lie said, "Mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which 
 thou hast prepared before the face of all the people ; a light 
 to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people, Israel." 
 In reference to the same prediction, Paul and Barnabas said, 
 to the Jews, on their rejection of the Gospel, " Lo, we turn 
 to the Gentiles, for so hath the Lord commanded, I have set 
 thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldst be for 
 salvation to the ends of the earth." " Behold my servant," 
 says God, " whom I uphold ; mine elect, in whom my soul 
 rejoiceth." In allusion to these words, at the Saviour's bap- 
 tism, the Father proclaimed, from the most excellent glory, 
 " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" — lan- 
 guage which was repeated at the transfiguration, with the ad- 
 ditional clause, "Hear ye him" — an undoubted reference to 
 the prophet like unto Moses, whom all were to hear and 
 obey. The connexion of this announcement from heaven with 
 the original passage in Isaiah will be clearly demonstrated 
 when it is recollected, that the word for " servant" in the 
 Septuagint involves the twofold idea of servant and son ; and 
 hence the force of the Apostle'Peter's language, " Of a truth 
 against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed" — the 
 term child denoting both son and servant. Thus, Paul 
 affirms that our Saviour took upon Himself the form of a ser- 
 vant ; and Christ said, with respect to himself, " I came down 
 from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him 
 that sent me. He that sent me is with me : the Father hath 
 not left me alone ; for I do always those things that please 
 him." 
 
 It is evident, from the above considerations — and they 
 are but a small part of the evidence that might be adduced 
 — that the phrase, " the servant of Jehovah," refers .to the" Mes- 
 siah. But this conclusion will be established, beyond the 
 power of contradiction, when it is borne in mind that the 
 later prophecies of Isaiah, from the fortieth chapter to the 
 end of the book, constitute one continuous discourse, and 
 that they simply describe the varying aspects of the same 
 groat subject. It is, therefore, manifestly absurd to maintain, 
 with some, that one chapter refers to Israel, another to the
 
 1857.] Tlie Servant of Jehovah. 215 
 
 pious part of the Jews, a third to some Jewish prophet, and 
 a fourth to the high priest. The unity of the discourse points 
 to one individual throughout, who is at once our prophet and 
 lawgiver, our priest and sacrifice, and who, on the ground of 
 His perfect sacrifice, proclaims "liberty to the captives, and 
 the opening of the prison-doors to those that are bound." 
 
 The predictions in the latter part of Isaiah were written 
 when Judah was threatened with captivity, and when it was 
 predicted that llezekiah's sons should be eunuchs in the court 
 of Babylon. Now, as the Church was, in that age, identical 
 with the State, and as there had been no example of their 
 separate existence, the pious Jews probably supposed that 
 the destruction of their commonwealth would prove the over- 
 throw of the Church ; and that, consequently, the object for 
 which the Jews had been separated from the other nations 
 of the earth — for the purpose of preserving the worship of 
 God in the midst of idolatry — would be completely frus- 
 trated. In order to console the spiritual Israel under these 
 severe calamities, the star of hope shines forth from the 
 breast of the darkest sky ; the prophet beheld the glorious 
 future pass before him in a series of panoramic representa- 
 tions, throwing back its brightness on the dreary gloom 
 of the present. Isaiah was a seer, rather than a prophet. He 
 was transported, in vision, to the scenes which he described ; 
 he saw them taking place, in mystic symbols, before his eyes ; 
 and he simply records, as a historian, what he saw and heard, 
 while the proper field of prediction is generally limited to a 
 few events closely connected with the leading scene. In 
 these chapters, therefore, we have a number of magnificent 
 shifting scenes, in which the prophet saw and afterwards 
 related the great deliverance effected by the Messiah, as the 
 great subject of prophecy. 
 
 The Jird scene commences with the fortieth chapter of 
 Isaiah. The point of time which the prophet occupies is at 
 the close of the past dispensation, and on the confines of the 
 present — at the period when John the Baptist announced 
 the Saviour's birth, and when the ritual economy, which had 
 been waxing old, was ready to vanish away. He heard God
 
 216- The Servant of Jehovah. [A pril r 
 
 affirming — and he repeats the declaration for the comfort of 
 the Church — that the ritual economy had accomplished its 
 intended purpose, that atonement had been made for sin, and 
 that abundant mercies had been conferred on the Church. 
 "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. Speak ye to the hiart 
 of Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accom- 
 plished; that he'- iniquity is pardoned ; for she hath received* 
 ©f the Lord's hand double'' — abundant mercies — "for all 
 her sins." Scarcely had this gracious announcement beea 
 uttered, when the prophet heard a voice in the wilderness, 
 without the person who used it being seen, shouting, " Pre- 
 pare ye the way of Jehovah ; make straight in the desert a 
 highway for our God." A second voice shouted to the first, 
 " Cry ;" upon which the first asks, " What shall I cry? since 
 all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower 
 ©f the field ; the grass withereth, the flower fadeth ; because 
 the Spirit of the Lord blowcth upon it : surely the people is 
 grass." The second voice replies to this inquiry, "The 
 grass withereth, the flower fadeth ; but the word of ous God 
 shall stand forever." One of the voices commands Zion to- 
 ascend the high mountain, and, from its summit, proclaim, so 
 that the intelligence may be heard on the next mountain- top,, 
 from which it might be transmitted to distant regions, " Be- 
 hold your God I" Scarcely were these words uttered, when? 
 the Messiah is seen coming in the distance, and the Church 
 eries out with transport at the sight, " Behold, the Lord 
 Jehovah is coming with strength, and his arm is ruling for 
 him : behold, his reward is present with him, and his work 
 before his face. As a shepherd to his flock, so will he be a 
 shepherd ; with his arm he will collect the newborn lambs,, 
 and in his bosom bear them; the ewes giving suck he will 
 gently lead." 
 
 The second scene is recorded m the forty-second chapter,. 
 The prophet sees Messiah approaching, and he hears Jeho- 
 vah pointing Hrm out to the attention of the world, as His 
 servant and messenger, whom He had sent forth on the 
 errand of man's salvation. The everlasting Father affirms 
 that, in order to qualify His servant for LI is high office, he
 
 1857.] The Servant of Jehovah. 217 
 
 had conferred upon Him the Holy Spirit, and that He shall 
 diffuse among- the heathen the practical knowledge of right- 
 eousness and the fear of God. His ministry shall be remark- 
 ably free from noise and tumult. " He shall not cry, nor lift 
 up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets." During; 
 the days of His flesh, when the Pharisees held a council 
 against Him how they might destroy Him, instead of expos- 
 ing them to popular indignation, or working a miracle for 
 His own safety and the discomfiture of their designs, He 
 quietly withdrew to a distance ; and when, in His new 
 sphere of labor, He wrought numerous miracles, He charged 
 the people not to make Him known. On this principle. He fre- 
 quently enjoined silence on those whom He healed of their 
 otherwise incurable diseases ; and when He came down from 
 the mount of transfiguration, He charged the three favored 
 witnesses of the scene to tell the vision to no man till the 
 Son of Man had risen again from the dead ; as such a mani- 
 festation of glory was incompatible with a state of humilia- 
 tion. In harmony with this gentle and peaceful ministry, the 
 Messiah shall encourage weak faith, and He shall welcome 
 the humble and contrite sinner : " A bruised reed shall he 
 not break, and the smoking flax he shall not quench." The 
 aptness of this figure, for the illustration of the subject, con- 
 sists not merely in the feebleness of the reed and the insignifi- 
 cance of the flax, but in the fact that the prophet speaks of a 
 living reed, whose top is broken, but not broken off, and of 
 a glimmering cotton wick, whose transient and fitful glow is 
 about to be extinguished for want of oil. This negative 
 form of expression strongly implies that the broken reed is 
 supported and bound up, and that the flame of the expiring 
 lamp is increased by a fresh supply of oil. In fulfillment of 
 this prediction, our Saviour began His ministry by pronounc- 
 ing a blessing on the poor in spirit, by affirming that He came 
 not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance ; and He 
 thus addressed all who felt their guilt and eagerly panted for 
 deliverance, " Come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy- 
 laden, and I will give you rest." But, in spite of His blame- 
 less life and unostentatious manners, He must encounter
 
 218 The Servant of Jehovah. [April, 
 
 bitter and malignant enemies ; and, hence. His Father affirms, 
 that He should not fail, through incompetency, nor break 
 down by opposition, till He had established righteousness in 
 the earth ; and not merely within the narrow limits of 
 Canaan, but that the isles — the distant heathen — should 
 wait for His law. The prophet then heard Jehovah address- 
 ing His Son and ' ervant, in terms which invested Him with 
 His high commission to be a covenant of the people and a 
 light to the Gentiles. The scene then closes with the assu- 
 ranee which Jehovah gives to the Church, that this predic- 
 tion shall surely be accomplished, when creation, anticipating 
 the jubilee of the universe, bursts forth into a shout of 
 triumph. 
 
 The third scene which the prophet saw pass before him is 
 contained in the forty-ninth chapter. The point of time which 
 the prophet occupies is at the close of the Messiah's min- 
 istry, when comparatively few of the Jews received His tes. 
 timony. He heard the Messiah, invested with His Divine 
 commission to the Gentiles, crying to the distant heathen, 
 " Listen, isles, unto me!" As the reason for this attentive 
 consideration, He refers to His Divine call, and to His quali- 
 fications for His important work ; and He also repeats the 
 substance of a conversation that took place between Him 
 and the everlasting Father, when invested with His Divine 
 commission. The Father said to Him, at the commencement 
 of His ministry, " Thou art my servant, Israel, in whom I 
 will be glorified." But when He compared the smallness of 
 the fruit with the largeness of the promise, He replied, in 
 effect, " How can you be glorified in me, since I have spent 
 my strength for nought and in vain ?" Jehovah replies, that 
 though Israel should remain scattered, almost as sheep with- 
 out a shepherd, yet the Divine promise shall not fail of its 
 accomplishment — that, as His mediatorial reward, He shall 
 not only restore the remnant of Israel, the believing Jews, but 
 that Ho shall bestow salvation on the ends of the earth. At 
 the close of this monologue, in which the Messiah informs the 
 Gentiles what the Father had said to Him, when giving Him 
 " the heathen for his heritage, and the uttermost part of the
 
 1857.] The Servant of Jehovah. 219 
 
 earth for his possession," the prophet heard one of the myste- 
 rious voices, referred to in the fortieth chapter, repeating to 
 the Messiah, and to the Church, in other words, what Jeho- 
 vah had said, as con (inning the preceding testimony. The 
 prophet, like a faithful historian, simply relates what he saw 
 and heard. 
 
 The fourth pictorial representation of Messiah, as Jeho- 
 vah's servant, is contained in Isaiah 1. 4-11. The Messiah 
 appears to the prophet's view as entering on His unparal- 
 leled sufferings, as enduring the contradiction of sinners 
 against Himself, and as treading the wine-press alone. The 
 prophet heard Him give an account of His past obedience to 
 His Father's will, in communicating instruction to the igno- 
 rant, and ministering consolation to the afflicted. He then 
 describes His present sufferings, as the strongest proof of His 
 ready obedience to Him that sent Him into the world, as 
 willingly " giving his- back to the smiters, and his checks to 
 them that plucked off the hair," and submitting, without re- 
 sistance, to every species of contempt and reproach. He 
 expresses His firm conviction that, as the reward of His 
 mediatorial sufferings, He should be highly exalted ; that 
 His people should, in the most trying circumstances, enjoy 
 Divine guidance and heavenly consolation ; while His ene- 
 mies, in spite of the fictitious and false glare with which they 
 surround themselves, should be damned, even by the compas- 
 sionate Saviour, to endless sorrow. Thus, the Saviour's 
 glory shines forth from the deepest obscurity, as well as from 
 Tabor's mount ; and it is manifest, from the depth of His 
 sufferings, no less than from the full-orbed blaze of His 
 glory, that He is " God over all, blessed for evermore." 
 
 The fifth scene, which passes in mystic symbols before the 
 prophet's eye, is recorded in Isaiah Hi. 13-15. The Messiah 
 had manifested His ready obedience to His Father by sub- 
 mitting to the suffering of death ; and now the prophet heard 
 Jehovah declaring that His Servant should be exalted and 
 extolled, and made very high, as the result and reward of 
 His obedience unto death. He then takes a rapid survey of 
 His unparalleled sufferings, and he affirms that He should
 
 
 220 The Servant of Jehovah. [April, 
 
 sprinkle, or make atonement, for many nations — for the 
 heathen ; that kings shall reverently shut their mouths in 
 His presence ; and that the blessings of the Gospel shall go 
 far beyond the most enlarged expectations of the Church. 
 
 The sixth prophetic scene opens with that awfully myste- 
 rious hour when the Prince of Life lay cold and stiff in the 
 arms of death, and when heaven, earth, and hell waited and 
 watched, mute with astonishment, the progress of events. The 
 Church gives an account of Messiah's rejection by the Jews, 
 His bitter sufferings and atoning death, as present events ; 
 and then she predicts His future glory and honor. In the 
 first instance, she gives an account of the Messiah's severe 
 sufferings ; and, as it is assumed throughout the whole dis- 
 cussion that He is perfectly innocent, it follows that He must 
 have borne our sins and carried our sorrows. The Church 
 next describes her I ord and Saviour's mediatorial reward, 
 and closes with a prediction of His future glory. In the 
 fifty-second chapter, He is described as a High Priest, 
 sprinkling many nations — making atonement for the hea- 
 then ; and in the fifty third chapter, He is viewed as the anti- 
 type of the paschal lamb, as making His soul an offering for 
 sin, and as pouring out His soul unto death — strictly sacrifi- 
 cial language, deriving all its meaning and force from our 
 Lord's substitutionary sufferings. 
 
 The siventk prophetic scene proclaims a full and free Gos- 
 pel to all mankind. — (Isaiah lv. 1-5.) The Messiah, after 
 His resurrection, invites every lost and ruined sinner to re- 
 ceive the blessings which He died to purchase, without money 
 and without price. He remonstrates against the folly of 
 seeking happiness and peace from created things, and He 
 invites all, without exception or distinction, to take hold of 
 His covenant, that they might find rest to their souls. The 
 Father then addresses the Church, in terms which confirm 
 His Son's testimony. He next turns to His righteous Ser- 
 vant, and says to Him, that nations who previously knew 
 Hjrn not should willingly obey His laws and acknowledge 
 His government 
 
 In the last scene, the prophet heard the Messiah giving a
 
 1857.] The Servant of Jehovah. 221 
 
 brief recapitulation of the Gospel. — (Isaiah Ixi. 1-3.) He 
 was appointed by the Father, and tilled with the Holy Ghost 
 above measure, that He might preach good tidings to the 
 meek, comfort the mourners, release the captives of sin and 
 Satan, announce the jubilee of the universe, when tremendous 
 vengeance should overwhelm the ungodly, and when Zion's 
 mourners should be effectually comforted. The last part of 
 the Gospel is still future. The Church is waiting and watch- 
 ing, with eager anxiety, for Her Lord's coining, when His 
 enemies shall be subdued and His people shall reign with 
 Him on the earth. 
 
 It is obvious that all these scenic representations point to 
 one individual, who is viewed as a prophet, priest, and king 
 to both Jews and Gentiles, whose sufferings are strictly sub- 
 stitutionary, and whose death is an atoning sacrifice. The 
 title, " servant of Jehovah," therefore, can not be ascribed to 
 any Jewish prophet, since their mission was confined to the 
 promised land. Neither can it refer to any Jewish king, 
 since none of them gave law to the distant heathen. Of no 
 human being could it ever be affirmed, that he made atone- 
 ment for the heathen, and that he himself was also the sacri- 
 fice for sin. The opinion which affirms that " the servant of 
 Jehovah" is an ideal conception for the best and most pious 
 part of the Jews, overlooks the very obvious fact, that a 
 living person is spoken of throughout, and not a cold, life- 
 less abstraction, as if the Hebrew prophets had been little 
 better than German metaphysicians. Besides, no part of the 
 community could make atonement for the sins of another, 
 since all our obedience is due to God for ourselves, for the 
 present moment, and can form no compensation for any other 
 person, or for any other time. It will not do to shift our 
 hypothesis with every chapter, and, according to the exigen- 
 cies of the case, to make " the servant of Jehovah" mean a 
 Jewish prophet, or a Jewish king, or a mere ideal of the 
 pious Jews. The composition is strictly one, and it refers 
 throughout to one person. There is on'y one key that will 
 accurately answer every ward of the complicated lock ; and 
 that is furnished by the history of our Saviour's birth, life,
 
 222 On the Septuagint. [April, 
 
 sufferings, death, resurrection, and final triumph over all His 
 and our enemies. Every chapter unfolds the character of 
 His mission, the nature of His kingdom, and the glory of His 
 conquests ; and. as the counsels of heaven lay bare before the 
 prophet's vision, he heard the Father investing His Son with 
 His divine commission, and sending Him forth to effect the 
 salvation of a lost and ruined world. Thus, these panoramic 
 representations clearly identify the Messiah of the Old Tes- 
 tament with the Christ of the New. They abundantly prove 
 that " Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God," and that His 
 death, as a sacrifice for sin, is the only foundation of the 
 trembling sinner's trust. Every other foundation is a founda- 
 tion of sand — every other refuge is a refuge of lies, which 
 will fail the sinner in his hour of utmost need, and will 
 leave him, naked and defenceless, to the sweeping tempest of 
 Divine wrath. Hence, the watchword of the Church, in all 
 past ages, and which shall constantly be repeated, is — In 
 the Lord alone have I righteousness and strength. 
 
 ON THE SEPTUAGINT. 
 
 BY JAMES IN G LIS. 
 
 References to the Septuagint occur so frequently in expo- 
 sitions of Scripture, and in Scriptural discussions of every 
 kind, that it concerns every intelligent Christian to know 
 something about its history and character. The history is in 
 itself an interesting one, and there are a number of inquiries 
 connected with it which throw light upon the New Testa- 
 ment also. This much, probably, every one knows — that 
 " the Septuagint " is a Greek version of the Old Testament
 
 1857.] The Septuagiht. 223 
 
 scriptures ; so called, because it was said to be the work of 
 seventy, or, rather, of seventy-two, interpreters. The account 
 of it given by Joseplius and Philo is also extensively known, 
 and is sometimes related, even at this day, as credible : — that 
 it was executed on the island of Pharos, by command of 
 Ptolemy Philadelphia, king of Egypt ; and that, when the 
 seventy-two translators had each completed a version of the 
 whole Scriptures, in perfect isolation from one another, they 
 met and compared them, and found them all, miraculously, 
 word for word the same. In some more benighted circles, we 
 have found this fable transferred to the history of our received 
 English version. It is enough to remark for the present, 
 that the Septuagint is, evidently, not the work of one man, 
 nor even of a company acting in concert — probably, it was 
 not the work of one age. 
 
 Before proceeding with our account of the version, we 
 may be permitted to make a remark upon the language in 
 which it is written, in its relation to Christianity. When, 
 in the fullness of time, the " grace of God, which bringeth 
 salvation," was to be revealed to all men, God had already 
 prepared a wonderful instrument for the purpose. During 
 whole centuries, the Greek tongue had been maturing for 
 the great uses of a universal revelation. In the fairest re- 
 gion of the south of Europe, where the noblest influences of 
 the East and West were blended to perfect the natural man, 
 grew up the most beautiful, subtle, and powerful language 
 that ever flowed from the lips of mortals. Its origin, in 
 descent from the primitive Oriental languages, is lost in 
 obscurity. Nine centuries before Christ, in notes whose 
 echoes never die away — 
 
 Far in the mythical East, in the haze of history's morning, 
 Pealed its swells and falls from the glorious trumpet of Homer. 
 
 Among the keen intellects of Athens it received its edge, and 
 was elaborated to give expression to the nicest shades of hu- 
 man thought. The Christian, who can see God in all history 
 promoting His gracious purpose to man, and overruling all
 
 224 On the Septnaoint. [April, 
 
 influences to subserve it, knows that when Homer and Hesiod 
 sang, when Herodotus and Zenophon wrote, when Plato 
 speculated, and Demosthenes spoke, they were unconsciously 
 God's workmen, moulding, enriching, and polishing a Ian* 
 guage for the world wide message of love. 
 
 When it had been welded in the forge of thought, tem- 
 pered in lofty conflicts, polished on works of beauty, strength- 
 ened in achievements of power, God raised up a conqueror, 
 himself a man of letters, who overran the East, and carried 
 the Greek tongue wherever his conquests extended. When a 
 ruder, but stronger, people conquered Greece, they them- 
 selves did honor to Greek letters and art, and Greek became 
 and continued to be the civilized language of the world — the 
 language of a universal literature, and even the language of 
 commerce in the East. In the great city of Alexandria, 
 Alexander himself founded a Jewish colony, and there the 
 Greek language became wedded to the theology of the He- 
 brews ; and by a discipline in the school of Moses, was 
 moulded into fitness ior use in the school of Christ. In the 
 New Testament it remains to us, not, indeed, in classic purity, 
 but in all its inimitable power and subtlety ; and stjll so 
 superior to all languages in the expression of fine turns and 
 minute links of thought, that it seems surprising that Chris- 
 tians of every country and condition do not bestow the labor 
 necessary to master it, in order that they may read for them- 
 selves the original utterance of the mind of the Spirit. 
 
 The Septuagint is also called the Alexandrian version, from 
 the belief that it was in reality executed at Alexandria. Per- 
 haps few of our readers need the information that Alexander the 
 Great founded this city in Lower Egypt, to be the capital of 
 his empire and the centre of the commerce of the world. Its 
 first inhabitants were Egyptians and Greeks ; and to these 
 were soon added numerous colonies of Jews, who, being 
 familiar with the Greek language, were called "Hellenists," 
 or, as it is in our version of the New Testament, " Grecians." 
 After the division of the empire into four parts, Egypt fell 
 to the lot of Ptolemy, and Alexandria was the capital and 
 residence of the line of mouarchs of that name, who made it
 
 1857.] On the Septuagint. 225 
 
 also the great seat of learning — whence that age of litera- 
 ture is styled the Alexandrian. Ptolemy Philadelphia, a 
 liberal patron of literature, founded its iamous library, the 
 largest of ancient times, and the museum, which may be con- 
 sidered the first academy of sciences and arts. Under the 
 Roman emperors, its literature was still cherished, and a long 
 list of distinguished names has perpetuated to our own day 
 the fame of its schools of poetry, philosophy, mathematics, 
 and medicine. 
 
 The Ptolemies showed great favor to the Jewish colonists 
 in Alexandria, and Jews eventually formed a large portion 
 of its vast population. They seem to have shared equally in 
 all its literary advantages ; and to the other remarkable 
 combinations of Asiatic and European elements, the theology 
 of the Hebrews and the philosophical speculations of Greece 
 contributed a school of literature which, from its prevailing 
 characteristic, received the name of Hellenistic. Few of our 
 readers but have become familiar with the name of Philo, the 
 most noted of these Hellenistic philosopers. Both literary 
 curiosity, probably, and political prudence, excited in the 
 Ptolemies a desire to possess the venerable Scriptures of the 
 Jews in the common language. Hence, Ptolemy Philadel- 
 phus, or his father, is said to have applied to the High Priest 
 at Jerusalem to procure competent scribes to translate the 
 law of Moses into the Greek. The translation thus effected 
 was added to the valuable collection of books mentioned 
 above. Its composition must date as far back as two hun- 
 dred and eighty years before the birth of our Lord. Gradu- 
 ally, at different times, translations of other portions of 
 Scripture were added, and the whole, executed by various 
 hands, was completed before the advent of Christ. From 
 280 B. C. to 120 B. C., may be taken as the period of its 
 execution. 
 
 The Alexandrian Jews, as well as the Jews scattered 
 through the empire, and known as Hellenists, to a great ex- 
 tent lost the knowledge of Hebrew. The Greek was, in fact, 
 their mother tongue ; and the Septuagint, consequently, was 
 the only version of the Bible they could use. At length, it 
 
 TOL. II. — NO. IY.
 
 226 On the Septuagint. [April, 
 
 was commonly read, even in Palestine, where Greek became 
 the language of commercial intercourse ; for it was not till a 
 very late period that the prejudice against it arose. This 
 version alone is quoted by the philosopher Philo and the 
 historian Josephus. A former paper in the Waymarks illus- 
 trates the extent to which it was quoted by our Lord and 
 His apostles. It stood in the same relation to the Hebrew 
 as our common English version does, and was used in prefer- 
 ence to the Hebrew by those who wrote books for universal 
 perusal. 
 
 The Septuagint was, for many ages, the only Bible known 
 to the Christian Church. Up to the era of the Reformation, 
 very few Christians knew any thing of the Hebrew language, 
 or thought of inquiring after the Hebrew Bible. All old 
 translations, except the Syriac, were made from the Septua- 
 gint : amongst these, the Vulgate, the authorized text of the 
 Latin Church. The Greek Church has never acknowledged 
 any other but this venerable version, now more than two 
 thousand years old. 
 
 The Hebrew original and this Greek translation have come 
 to us through two absolutely independent and even hostile 
 channels, and this fact furnishes an important link in the 
 chain of evidence of the genuineness and authenticity of the 
 Bible. The Hebrew we owe entirely to the Jews, and the 
 Septuagint has reached us through the nominally Christian. 
 Church. These two guardians of the fidelity of Scripture had 
 no intercourse with each other, and there are differences in 
 their copies perplexing to the critic, which show their inde- 
 pendence ; but there is no difference which affects any article 
 of Christian faith. 
 
 Opinion has been divided as to which copy is of greatest 
 weight. The Latin Church recognizes only the authority of 
 the Vulgate, a Latin translation of the Septuagint: the Re- 
 formers preferred the Hebrew Scriptures ; and to these last 
 Protestant translations have been more and more conformed. 
 Among other reasons for the preference, we have positive 
 assurance of the scrupulous, and even superstitious, eare with
 
 1857.] On tlw Septuagint. 227 
 
 which the Jews watched over the text ; so that mistakes in 
 transcribing are scarcely supposable, while the Greek text 
 has never been so carefully preserved, and is known to be 
 in many points defective. 
 
 In two parts of the New Testament, the Septuagint is fol- 
 lowed where it differs from the Hebrew — namely, in the 
 speech of Stephen, the Hellenistic deacon, and in the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews. In both, the name Jesus occurs when 
 Joshua is meant ; Jesus is a Greek translation of Joshua, and 
 is the form employed in the Septuagint. Then Stephen, 
 quoting the Septuagint, speaks of seventy-five people going 
 down to Egypt with Jacob ; whereas our copies, following 
 the Hebrew, assert that there were but seventy. In the fifth 
 chapter of the Hebrews, we find the Septuagint translation 
 of a passage in the fortieth Psalm : " Sacrifice and offering 
 thou wouldst not, but a body thou hast prepared for me ;" 
 while our version of the Psalm literally translates the He- 
 brew, " Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire : mine 
 ears hast thou opened." 
 
 The earliest English translations were from the Septuagint, 
 through the Vulgate ; and though they have been brought 
 nearer and nearer to the Hebrew, we have still abundant 
 traces of the former influence in our modern editions. The 
 names which we give to the five books of Moses appeared 
 first in the Septuagint, thence were transferred to the Vul- 
 rate, and from that we borrow them. The translators of the 
 Septuagint, as Jews, had a superstition against pronouncing 
 the word Jehovah, or writing it in any but Hebrew letters. 
 The name Jehovah, consequently, does not once appear in 
 their version, but is invariably rendered by the Greek word 
 Kvpiog, which, in the Vulgate, is translated Dominus, and 
 that, again, in our English Bible, is rendered Lord. Thus, a 
 common title of respect between man and man is very often 
 substituted for the peculiar and incommunicable name of 
 God ; though the evil is attempted to be remedied, in some 
 measure, by printing it in capital letters, Lord. From the 
 same cause, the writers of the New Testament use Kvptog as
 
 228 On the Septuagint. [April, 
 
 a well-understood equivalent of Jehovah ; and when this 
 title, Lord, is there applied to the Redeemer, we must under- 
 stand that He is thereby proclaimed to be Jehovah. 
 
 It will be borne in mind, as explained in Mr. Hogg's article 
 on the Apochrypha, that it was in the Septuagint these books 
 first appeared : from it they were copied into the Vulgate, 
 where the Roman Church decided they should remain. The 
 Reformers rejected them from the canon, because they had 
 never been in the Hebrew, and did not, therefore, form part 
 of the Jewish Bible, when our Lord fixed the seal of His 
 authority to it. The reader is referred to that article for a 
 view of the influence of the Septuagint in this particular, 
 throughout Christendom. 
 
 The Septuagint retained its authority, even in the Jewish 
 synagogues, until the commencement of the first century after 
 Christ, when the Jews began to deny that it agreed with the 
 Hebrew text, in order to deprive the Christians of the sup- 
 port of its arguments from prophecy. Two ancient copies of 
 the work divide the attention of scholars, as of most author- 
 ity. The first of these is the Alexandrian copy, in the 
 British Museum, which was presented to Charles I. by the 
 Patriarch of Constantinople. It is written on parchment, in 
 four volumes, is mutilated in some parts, and is so old, that 
 the ink has in some places eaten quite through the page. It 
 is supposed to belong to the fifth or sixth century. Besides 
 the Septuagint, these volumes contain the greater part of the 
 New Testament, and some other uninspired documents. The 
 Other copy of rival authority is a manuscript in the library of 
 the Vatican, at Rome, which is supposed to be somewhat older 
 than the Alexandrian.
 
 1857.] Spiritualism. 229 
 
 SPIRITUALISM. 
 
 BY JAMES PYPER. 
 
 Errors ana aosurdities are continually appearing amongst 
 mankind, attracting public attention, securing adherents, and 
 passing into oblivion. It is unquestionably true that many 
 of the errors which rise and float upon the surface of human 
 thought, like bubbles upon the brow of the ocean, can be 
 most successfully neutralized by being let alone. But neglect 
 is by no means a panacea for the systems of error with which 
 our world is afflicted. Some will only yield to the direct 
 and formal application of the instrumentalities which God 
 has ordained to save the lost, and bring them to the knowl- 
 edge and love of the truth. Modern Spiritualism, appearing 
 first as the patron of true religion, next as the source of the 
 most astounding l.lasphemy, and again as the handmaid of a 
 sort of Rationalistic Christianity, has been regarded by many 
 wise and good men as one of those absurdities which time, 
 and not argument, would subvert. From this view of the 
 matter we are compelled to dissent The phenomena are as 
 Startling to the intellect as its doctrines and disclosures are 
 pleasing to the affections and passions of depraved mortals; 
 and the wide-spread ruin which it has produced, and is still 
 producing, admonishes the Christian that something more po- 
 tent than silent contempt is necessary to its overthrow. 
 
 Spiritualism is not such a novelty as its advocates seem to 
 imagine. Consulting " familiar spirits " was a practice which 
 largely obtained in the days of Moses, and the sin of necro- 
 mancy is sternly denounced in the Word of God. If, then, 
 the Bible treats the matter so gravely, it cannot be unworthy 
 of our notice. With the sacred Scriptures in our hands, let
 
 230 Spiritualism. [April, 
 
 us calmly look at the subject, and, that we may the more fully 
 disclose the grand source of such pernicious systems, let us 
 consider the character and conduct of 
 
 THE DEVIL AND HIS ANGELS. 
 
 Design implies a designer. "When we see a plan unfolding 
 itself before our eyes, and witness day by day the requisite 
 means employed to carry that plan to a good or bad result, 
 we instantlv conclude that an intelligent hAfrg ^f 30.11^ de- 
 scription is carrying it forward. Now, it would be an ex- 
 ceedingly difficult task to trace, even in the most cursory 
 manner, the history of our race, without beinsr impressed by the 
 thought, that all who have not h$eh renewed and led by the 
 Holy Spirit, have been under the control of an unseen and 
 infernal r gent, as deep and far-seeing in the conception of 
 his plans, as he is crafty in their development, and successful 
 in their consummation. The subversion of man's original 
 rectitude was no accident. The being that plotted his fall, and 
 who has since gradually brought him under systems of ruinous 
 deception, has evinced deep, infernal design, and a settled hos- 
 tility to God and man. And how nicely are his plans adapted 
 to take captive the human soul ! Whether we look at Pagan- 
 ism, in its multifarious aspects, or at the corruptions of the 
 Jewish or Christian systems, we everywhere discover such 
 pandering to the solicitations of depravity — such minister- 
 ing to the pride, and the folly, and the selfishness of fallen 
 man, as to leave not a rational doubt upon any reflecting 
 mind that the precise opposite of a holy being is the prime 
 mover and concocter of them. To mark the havoc which sin 
 produces in this world, and yet to deny its legitimate results 
 in another state of being, is at war with every suggestion of 
 right reason ; and the fact that we find so many dupes of 
 false reasoning on this point, evidences Satan's skill and suc- 
 cess in blinding men. 
 
 But we shall not seek to establish the existence and unfold 
 the character of the Devil and his angels, by induction. 
 We have an infallible guide in this matter, to whose teach-
 
 1857.] Spiritualism. 231 
 
 ings we shall do well to take heed as unto a light shining in a 
 dark place. Of the Devil and his angels the Holy Spirit, 
 through prophets and apostles, has spoken, in language plain 
 and unequivocal; so that if we suffer ourselves to be overcome 
 by the great enemy, we do so in the face of solemn warning. 
 Of the history of Satan and fallen angels we know, indeed, 
 but little ; and to let loose the imagination, and sport in Ihc 
 region of conjecture, on such a subject, would be worse than 
 trifling. We shall adhere closely to the teachings of the 
 Bible, without assuming to be wise above what is written. 
 There is a being whose dark intrigues and malicious opera- 
 tions amongst men are, with great frequency, referred to by 
 the inspired penmen. He is called Satan, The Devil, The 
 Great Dragon, The Old Serpent, &c.; and to question his ex- 
 istence, is simply to prove that we are the dupes of his deceit. 
 In discussing this topic, we shall consider, 
 
 I. The original position of the Devil and his angels. 
 
 II. Satan's character. 
 
 III. His power and tactics. 
 
 I. Of the original position of the Devil and his angels. Jude 
 says, " The angels which kept not their first estate, but left 
 their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains 
 under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." And 
 Peter says, " God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast 
 them down to hell, and delivered them unto chains of dark- 
 ness to be reserved unto judgment." Of Satan himself Christ 
 said (John viii. 44), " He was a murderer from the beginning, 
 and abode not in the truth. 
 
 From the above passages we deduce the following facts: 
 1. The .<;evil and his angels were once holy intelligences, 
 but fell from their original condition. They stood in spotless 
 purity before that God who created them, and, for a time, 
 fulfilled the end of their creation. In their glorious habita- 
 tion, they discharged the duties of their first estate or office, 
 and thus far all with them was peace and blessedness ; but, 
 alas! they were soon overwhelmed in wretchedness. They 
 " abode not in the truth" — " they sinned" — " they kept not 
 their first estate" — they even "abandoned their habitation,"
 
 232 Spiritualism. [April, 
 
 but could not fly beyond the range of Jehovah's power. He 
 spared them not, but cast them down to hell. By creation 
 and position, then, they were highly exalted, and their ori- 
 ginal exaltation renders their fall the more appalling. 
 
 2 They were free agents. It is stated as the ground of 
 their condemnation that they kept not their first estate ; that 
 they sinned and left their own habitation — expressions which 
 necessarily imply their entire natural and moral freedom. 
 Satan abandoned the truth, and became the father of lies ; 
 and thus he and his angels became voluntary transgressors. 
 Their freedom was essential to their existence as moral and 
 accountable intelligences. The actions of a being destitute 
 of the power of sinning, and impelled continually in obe- 
 dience to law, would possess no moral character whatever, 
 and the whole course of such a being would be eternally re- 
 moved alike from praise and blame. Satan and his angels 
 sinned, transgressed the law, and thus became the voluntary 
 instruments of their own destruction. 
 
 3. They are reserved in darkness, to be punished at the 
 judgment of the great day. Their present abode is hell — in 
 the Greek, Tartarus. This is not the term usually employed 
 to indicate the place of final punishment : indeed, this is the 
 only instance in which any of the inspired writers have used 
 the word. Its import, therefore, must be sought in classical 
 usage. Robinson says, in his Greek Lexicon : " Tartarus, in 
 Greek mythology, was the lower part or abyss of Hades, 
 where the shades of the wicked were imprisoned and tor- 
 mented." MacKnight quotes Homer and Hesiod as repre- 
 senting Tartarus as " a deep place under the earth," and adds, 
 "but on other occasions, the Greek writers speak of Tar- 
 tarus as in the air, and at the extremity of the earth, beyond 
 the region of Mauritania. Hence the epithet, Tdoraoov 
 neooevra (airy Tartarus)." This term, then, would convey to 
 the minds of those who spoke the Greek language in the 
 days of Peter — first, the idea of a place of punishment for 
 wicked spirits ; and, second, its locality would he considered, 
 by some at least, as being in the air. Both these ideas are
 
 1857.] Spiritualism. 233 
 
 agrccalile to the analogy of Bible teaching on the same subject. 
 The Old Testament represents Satan as wandering up and 
 down iu the earth, tempting men, and as being permitted to 
 present himself before Jehovah. The evangelists and apostles 
 attest the same facts. He tempted the Lord himself. He 
 goes about like a roaring lion. He is called the prince of 
 the power of the air ; and again we are said to wrestle, not 
 with flesh and blood, but with the rulers of the darkness of 
 this world, and with spiritual wickedness in high places — ■ 
 literally, says MacKnight, " with spiritual things of wicked- 
 ness in the heavenly regions ; that is, the atmosphere above 
 us." But, wherever may be the present abode of the fallen 
 angels, they have not yet met their sorest doom — they arc 
 reserved lo the day of judgment to be punished. This they 
 understand ; for on one occasion certain demons said to 
 Christ, "Art thou come to destroy us before the time?" and 
 at another period they besought TTim that He would not 
 command them to go out into the deep or abyss. They kept 
 not their first estate ; they left their original habitation ; and 
 their present abode is amid the darkness of this world. 
 <f Chains of darkness" is a metaphorical expression, which 
 conveys the idea that the fallen angels are restrained in a 
 degraded state. The expression strongly marks the distinc- 
 tion between their past and present condition. They are no 
 longer angels of light, although they sometimes mimic the 
 holy ones ; for Satan himself is sometimes transformed into 
 an angel of light — but darkness is their inheritance ; and 
 every son and daughter of Adam who is brought to believe 
 in the Lord Jesus Christ is said to be delivered from the 
 power of darkness: and Paul calls upon the saints on earth 
 to give thanks unto the Father, who has made us meet to be 
 partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. The 
 Devil and his angels are called " the rulers of the darkness 
 of this world ;" and when Judas, who, together with the mob 
 which followed him, was under the control of Satan, came 
 to seize our Lord, Christ said, " When I was daily with you 
 in the Temple, ye stretched forth no hand against me ; but 
 

 
 234 Spiritualism. [April, 
 
 this is your hour and the power of darkness." Chains of 
 darkness, then, do not confine the Dcvii and his angels to a 
 certain spot, out to a certain condition. 
 
 II. Our next inquiry relates to the character of Satan. On 
 this point we iiave abundance of light. He is called an ad- 
 versary, an enemy, a tempter, deceiver, murderer, liar, &c. — 
 an accumulation of epithets which present to the mind a char- 
 acter so black, so malicious, so detestable, and so utterly vile, 
 that the human mind instinctively shrinks back from the bare 
 contemplation of the monstrous deformity. Combine all the 
 guilt, the malice, the subtle villany, the falsehood, the black- 
 hearted cruelty, with which depraved mortals have gloated 
 over the w t ocs of earth, in a single bosom, and it would not 
 present a blacker character than inspiration ascribes to 
 Satan. From the merciless enemy, filling the soul with d^ead 
 ■ — the subtle, false accuser, compassing his ends with every 
 species of infernal ingenuity which high intelligence can 
 devise or refined malignity exercise — from the great insti- 
 gator of contention, warfare, perjury, lust, and murder — 
 every holy heart in the universe must recoil ; and such is the 
 arch-deceiver by whom human wisdom is buffeted. 
 
 But the character of Satan will be further developed and 
 illustrated by considering next, as proposed — 
 
 III. His power and tactics. He is continually represented 
 in the Word of God as securing his infamous objects by guile 
 and deception ; and it is only his ingenuity we have to dread, 
 as the weakest moral agent on earth possesses natural ability 
 to resist his most formidable assaults upon the heart. Satan 
 has no power to coerce men : their submission to his will is 
 voluntary, and hence their guilt. He accomplished the ruin 
 of man by subtilty : "The serpent beguiled me, and I did cat," 
 said Eve. And Pauls says, 2 Cor. xi. 3 : " I fear lest by any 
 means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so 
 your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that 
 is in Christ." 'I hus, we learn that our first parents were 
 deceived by Satan. lie could not coerce them into rebellion 
 against God, but he laid a snare in which they were taken. 
 The father of lies told a talc so smooth, so pleasing to a
 
 1857.] Spiritualism. 235 
 
 young intelligence, that our progenitors were captivated ; they 
 listened, they yielded, and they fell. God had informed them 
 that disobedience would result in death, and Satan levels his 
 artillery against this tremendous sanction of the Divine law. 
 lie commences the assault by saying, " Yea, hath God said — 
 can it be possible thai ne has said — Ye shall not eat of every 
 tree of tne garden?" This feigned amazement was adapted, 
 in a most subtle manner, to brir.g Gou s goodness into ques- 
 tion, and to prepare the mind for further suggestions in the 
 same direction. Having ventured thus far in safety, he next, 
 in the most positive manner, contradicted the solemn decla- 
 ration of Jehovah. "Ye shall not surely die," said Satan : 
 •' for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, ye shall 
 be as gods" (as God). Here we find an impudent attempt to 
 set aside the penalty of God's law, by charging the Most 
 High with uttering one thing, and at the same time knowing 
 its opposite to be true. Such astounding blasphemy has had 
 its counterpart in all generations. Infidelity has ever, in 
 some shape, endorsed the Devil's teachings, while discarding 
 God's warnings. But mark, next, the motive urged by Satan 
 to spur Eve on to disobedience : " Your eyes shall be opened ; 
 ye shall become wise as God." This was the first lecture 
 ever delivered on human progress, in opposition to the will 
 of Jehovah ; and it is well that we are so distinctly apprised 
 of its source, for he who first uttered it has contrived, in the 
 various ages of the world, to have it made the burden of 
 many an imposing discourse on the earth, and, as we arc now 
 advised, of many an impassioned oration in the air. 
 
 To lead men to neglect the efficacious work of the Seed of 
 the woman, and to substitute for it a patchwork righteous- 
 ness of their own, has been the unwearied effort of the Prince 
 of Darkness ; and the pride of the human heart has ever been 
 a ready instrument to be employed in such a work. The Fall 
 changed man's relation to God and to the world. While in 
 innocency, he was the friend of God, and an absolute sove- 
 reign on the earth. Jehovah had said to him : " Have do- 
 minion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, 
 and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."
 
 236 Spiritualism. [April, 
 
 But he, being in honor, continued not ; he sacrificed his po- 
 sition, bowed to a cunning usurper, and brought a curse upon 
 himself and his habitation — a curse destined to remain until 
 Christ shall utterly destroy the works of the Devil. The 
 usurped authority of Satan, which God tolerates, to a certain 
 extent, for the time being, but which our Lord will soon en- 
 tirely subvert, is a fixed and terrible fact. John, the Lord's 
 disciple, says of Christians, " We know that w r e are born of 
 God." Then, contrasting the condition of the subjects of 
 such a birth with that of mankind in general, he adds : " And 
 the whole world lieth in the wicked one." The same awful 
 truth is taught in Col. i. 13, where every subject of the king- 
 dom of Christ is, without exception, said to be delivered from 
 the power of darkness. We form unscriptural views of the 
 world out of Christ, if we imagine that there is any thing in 
 it pleasing to God. It is ever — the friend of the world is 
 the energy of God. Again : love not the world ; neither the 
 things that are in the world. If any man love the world, 
 the love of the Father is not in him. Can the love of the 
 Father burn in the heart of him who is wedded to the in- 
 terests of a world controlled by the enemy of God and man? 
 The supposition is self-contradictory. Hence, Christ says to 
 His people, " Ye are not of this world, even as I am not of 
 the world. If ye were of the world, the world would love 
 its own ; but because ye are not of the world, but I have 
 chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." 
 Now, let us not soften down our Lord's language to meet the 
 demands of depravity. We are not called upon to come out 
 from what we may deem the evils of the world, but from the 
 world itself. All out of Christ, together with the globe 
 which we inhabit, are under the curse — "the whole world 
 lieth in the wicked one" — " the whole creation groaneth and 
 travaileth together in pain." But we have still more direct 
 testimony on this subject. Our Lord himself, who never 
 erred, nor paid a useless compliment to mortal or immortal, 
 called Satan " the prince of this world " — a high title, and 
 replete with terrible meaning. But this is not alb Paul, 
 speaking as he was moved by the Holy Spirit, calls him (2
 
 1857.] Spiritualism. 237 
 
 Cor. iv. 4) " the god of this ivorld" and testifies that "lie has 
 "blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of 
 the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should 
 shine unto them." Here, then, we have a glimpse of the 
 power and tactics of our enemy, as unfolded by an unerring 
 pen. Satan is the prince, and god, and ruler of the darkness 
 of this world; and by signs and lying wonders, and with all 
 dcceivableness of unrighteousness in them' that perish, he in- 
 tercepts the rays of saving truth, and keeps needy souls from 
 being influenced by the Gospel. And it is not the minds of 
 the uninformed alone that he blinds — the extensive scholar, 
 the polished philosopher, the pompous theorist, and the self- 
 sufficient speculator, become the dupes and the instruments of 
 the Father of Lies, and live the advocates and die the slaves 
 of some specious delusion. 
 
 That Satan is the god and prince of this world, is further 
 evidenced by one of his temptations, presented to our Lord. 
 He showed Christ all the kingdoms of the world in a moment 
 of time. Rapid as the flight of thought was the glimpse 
 which Satan gave Christ of the kingdoms of this world ; 
 which is to us another proof of his intelligence and his 
 power. The Devil said unto Him, " All this power will I 
 give thee, for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I 
 will I give it. If thou, therefore, wilt worship me, all shall 
 be thine." Here Satan, in the presence of One who knew 
 him, assumed that he possessed absolute control over all the 
 kingdoms of the earth ; and although he is the father of lies, 
 in this instance his boasting was not destitute of truth. 
 Christ, who afterward repeatedly called him the Prince of 
 this World, did not dispute his ability to make good his 
 promise, but simply rebuked him for seeking that homage 
 which belonged to God alone. Indeed, had Satan possessed 
 no power to give the glory of earthly sovereignty to Christ, 
 his promise, made in such circumstances, would never have 
 been recorded by the pen of inspiration as a temptation. 
 This view of the subject is confirmed by John, who informs 
 us, Rev. xiii, that the dragon (a name given to Satan) gave 
 bis authority to the beast ; he placed an earthly potentate in
 
 238 Spiritualism. [April, 
 
 a seat of power, and the man of sin receives his seat and 
 great authority from the same dragon. And surely the god 
 and prince of this world, the spirit that worketh in the chil- 
 dren of disobedience, can rule his subjects according to his 
 own will. He can not, indeed, pass beyond the limits which 
 Jehovah assigns to him, but still within those limits his power 
 is tremendous. Were he permitted to exert his physical 
 might, we have evidence that he would soon leave the earth 
 an extended scene of desolation ; but, being ordinarily re- 
 strained in this respect, he and his legion must carry on the 
 work of ruining men by craft and deception. He appeals, 
 with great subtilty, and with awful effect, to the depravity of 
 the human heart ; and in this way he accomplishes his ends. 
 
 But look a little further at some of the revealed manifes- 
 tations of his power and malice. God permitted him to try 
 Job, to a certain extent; and what did the fiend effect? 
 (See Job i. 16-19.) First, he stirred up a lawless band of 
 Sabeans, who carried off Job's asses, and slew his servants — 
 one, by means unaccountable to us, escaping, to bear the 
 tidings to the patriarch. The Sabeans knew not, doubtless, 
 that they were directly serving Satan ; but the veil is lifted 
 before our eyes, and we are permitted to look upon the prime 
 mover. Next, he directs the fire of God against Job's sheep 
 and shepherds, and suddenly consumes them — still sparing a 
 messenger to run with his tale of wo to the afflicted man of 
 Uz. What an exhibition of physical power is here mani- 
 fested ! From this narrative, it is evident that Satan, when 
 permitted, can control and direct the elements of destruction. 
 Next, he marshals the Chaldeans into three bands, who carry 
 off the camels and slay their keepers. Again, while Job's 
 sons and daughters are feasting in the house of their elder 
 brother, there comes from the wilderness a tornado, so sweep- 
 ing and irresistible, that it levels to the earth the house in 
 which they are assembled, and the children of the patriarch, 
 are buried in the ruin. Here, again, is power over the air. 
 The whirlwind is his agent, when God permits him to employ 
 its force. And we can not fail to notice both his malice and 
 his power, in saving a messenger out of each scene of slaugh-
 
 1857.] Spiritualism. 239 
 
 tcr, to run in hot haste, one treading on the heels of another, 
 to inform Job of his disasters and bereavements, and thus, 
 by blow after blow, severe and yet more severe, to overwhelm 
 his soul and upset his confidence in God How insignificant 
 is the power of man, when compared with the might of this 
 fallen spirit, whose very existence, by some of our worldly- 
 wise men, is questioned, or positively denied ! The Devil's 
 physical power is under restraint ; and well for man is it 
 that this is the case; although Satan well knows, that to 
 corrupt the souls of men, is to effect a greater amount of evil 
 than he could effect by all the physical power which he, even 
 unrestrained, could wield: hence, his main efforts are of a 
 moral character. True, he has occasionally tortured the 
 bodies of men, as in the case of those who were possessed by 
 demons. Those unclean spirits, or evil spirits, or demons, as 
 they are called, were under the authority of Satan, for he is 
 called the prince of devils or demons ; and their cruelty was 
 worthy of such a leader. Still, their grand efforts are directed 
 against the souls of men. Falsehood and deceit are their 
 chosen instruments for compassing the eternal ruin of our 
 race. 
 
 In the heathen world, Satan reigns with despotic authority. 
 The heathen oracles, found even in measurably-enlightened 
 Pagan nations, were mere caricatures of consulting the God 
 of heaven. We do not affirm that human trickery was not 
 perceptible in the management and deliverances of these 
 oracles ; but, in this way, the god, the ruler of the darkness 
 of this world, secured alike the homage of the deceivers and. 
 the deceived. The ancient systems of divination were 
 fearful engines of mischief to man ; as by these every faculty 
 of the soul was enslaved and degraded. Different kinds of 
 divination passed as sciences. Diviners predicted future 
 events, by the air, by the heavens, by the flight of birds, by 
 inspecting the entrails of animals, also the human hand, by 
 chasms in the earth, by fire, by water, by the position of the 
 heavenly bodies at the birth of individuals, &c, &c. And. 
 this is man without the light of revelation — led captive by 
 the Devil at his will ! But it may be asked, Had spirits any
 
 240 Spiritualism. [April, 
 
 tiling to do with those systems of divination? Our infallible 
 guide in such matters makes it apparent that they had. In 
 the narrative, in Acts xvi. 16, we learn, first, that the spirit 
 in the maiden was a spirit of divination, and doubtless car- 
 ried on the work of deception by instructing his medium, the 
 damsel, through such arts as belonged to the science. Second, 
 the spirit knew the character of Paul and his co-laborers, 
 and, withal, was engaged in the benevolent work of endorsing 
 them as " servants of the most High God,'"' and teachers of 
 the way of salvation ; but Paul, grieved at his heart, would 
 not accept this testimony given on his behalf, coming, as it 
 did, from an evil source. Standing in the dignity of an apos- 
 tle of Christ, in the name of his infinitely great Master, he 
 commanded the spirit to leave the damsel ; and the spirit fled 
 before the power of that name ; her soothsaying was at an 
 end, and her masters were enrag'V I. But what fierce commo- 
 tion was instantly raised around the servants of Christ ! 
 They were violently arrested and cast into prison ; but here 
 the enemy was restrained. lie who stirred up to deeds of 
 slaughter the Sabeans and Chaldeans, would have employed 
 the mob to crush the apostle and his co-laborers ; but God 
 had still a mighty work for them to accomplish, and they 
 were protected. 
 
 Again, Satan's power and tactics are clearly manifested in 
 corrupting Christianity. We have accurate information, in 
 the apostolic writings, as to the manner in which Satan com- 
 menced and consummated this work. Judaizing teachers were 
 the first covert enemies of the Gospel. They adroitly assumed 
 the office and authority of apostles of Christ, and taught that 
 salvation was to be obtained by obedience to their law, thus 
 setting aside the righteousness of Christ, as the ground of a 
 sinner's justification before God. Paul, enlightened by the 
 Holy Spirit, discovered, at a glance, the infernal source and 
 the destructive tendency of such teaching, and thus warns the 
 disciples, 2 Cor. xi. 3 : " But I fear lest by any means, as 
 the serpent beguiled Eve by his subtilty, so your minds 
 should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." 
 And, in order to unmask the instruments of Satan in the work
 
 1857.] Spiritualism. 241 
 
 of deception, he adds verses 13-15 : " For such are false apos- 
 tles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apos- 
 tles of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself is trans- 
 formed into an angel of light ; therefore, it is no great thing 
 if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of right- 
 eousness, whose end shall be according to their works." This 
 is certainly unequivocal teaching. Here the great enemy is 
 seen thrusting himself into the Church of God, and employing 
 his agents in leading men from the way of salvation. A new 
 Gospel was proclaimed, which Paul (Gal. i. 7) pronounced no 
 Gospel at all, but, on the contrary, a perversion of the Gos- 
 pel of Christ ; then adds, verse 8, " though we or an angel 
 from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that 
 which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." 
 This sentiment he repeats in the next verse, making it awfully 
 emphatic. How sublime, how solemn is this twice-uttered 
 warning — should an angel from heaven, a being from the 
 very seat of holiness and fountain head of truth — yea, from 
 the presence of Jehovah — should even such an one teach any 
 other Gospel than the Gospel already revealed, " let him be 
 accursed." 
 
 But, how effective are the wiles of the devil 1 Notwith- 
 standing the apostle's earnestness in cautioning the Churches, 
 those ministers of Satan successfully commenced the work of 
 corruption, and set in motion the " mystery of iniquity," 
 which the apostle predicted should ripen into a most blasphe- 
 mous apostasy, which should in various ways bewilder men's 
 souls, until driven from the earth by the coming of the Lord. 
 The revealed characteristics of the dark iniquity are thicken- 
 ing around us ; and let none of God's people be startled, or 
 in the slightest degree led to distrust the teachings of the 
 Bible, because of the multiplication of signs and lying won- 
 ders. Indeed, it is another evidence of the truth of the Bible, 
 that the spirit of prophecy points distinctly to the advent of 
 strange forms of iniquity, especially in the last days. But 
 let them beware of the wiles of the Devil. He entered into 
 Judas, and led him to betray Christ. He put it into the 
 hearts of Ananias and Sapphira to lie to the Holy Ghost. 
 
 TOL. II. — KO. IT. p
 
 242 On Divine Providence. [April, 
 
 And let it never be forgotten, that when any one heareth the 
 Gospel of the kingdom, and undcrstandeth it not, then Com- 
 eth the wicked one and catcheth away that which was sown 
 in his heart. Vigilance becomes those who have to contend 
 with such an enemy ; the proofs of his malice and of his wiles 
 are all around us ; yet, with a firm reliance upon the arm of 
 our deliverer, we are secure. The poor worldling is his 
 slave ! The sneer of infidelity, and the cavillings of deceived 
 men, when the doctrines of the cross are urged upon their 
 consideration, furnish sad evidence of the truth of the in- 
 spired declaration, that the god of this world has blinded 
 their minds. 
 
 ON DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 
 
 BT JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 Without the light of revelation, the darkness which rests 
 on the future history of mankind is impenetrable and distress- 
 ing. The conjectures of the most far-seeing only divert the 
 painful uncertainty ; and the loudest boast of progress can 
 not soothe the fears with which the wise and good " look 
 after those things which are coming on the earth." How 
 much of the lives of the wisest and best of men is spent in 
 vain anxieties regarding the future, and bitter regrets over 
 the past, in their private history ! A reckless man may say, 
 " Cast care to the winds ! " but it is the folly of despair. A 
 proud and heartless man may scorn grief, as an infirmity ; 
 but the world has no true consolation to offer in the hour of 
 bereavement and disappointment. 
 
 Revelation discloses a grand design, which is advancing to 
 a sure accomplishment in the history of the world, and to
 
 1857.] On Divine Providence. 243 
 
 which all events are made to contribute. This is all the 
 more remarkable, because the greatest events are seen to 
 depend upon the most trivial incidents, and at every page of 
 history we are forced to exclaim, " Behold, how great a fire 
 a little spark kindles 1 " Besides this grand design, to which 
 every event contributes, we are taught that the same Wisdom 
 condescends to watch over the humblest of our race. Nay, 
 who can tell where that care stops ? If, from the history of 
 the lowliest of mankind, we could descend to trace the lives 
 of inferior creatures, we should but find written out at large 
 what Incarnate Truth uttered in a comprehensive sentence — 
 " Not a sparrow falleth to the ground without your Father 
 in heaven." 
 
 We think with wonder of the Hand which fashioned the 
 universe in its vastness, at the same time lavishing miracles 
 of wisdom on the minutest insect, and marvels of beauty on 
 the tiniest flower : but it furnishes a still more impressive 
 view of the perfections of the Supreme, when, from the 
 achievements of creation, we turn to the arrangements of tlis 
 providence. Here we find the same contrast between the 
 vastness of the design and the minuteness of operation. We 
 find that, on the one hand, nothing is so great as to exceed His 
 control ; and, on the other, nothing is so small as to escape 
 His notice. The animalcule, which we can scarcely discover 
 with the microscope, reveals the power and wisdom of the 
 Creator in its structure ; but it has also a momentary exist- 
 ence, which, if we could trace its course, would as plainly 
 reveal the tender care of the Preserver. If, from the history 
 of the animated atom which accomplishes its destiny in a 
 minute of time, we proceed upward to the comparative maj- 
 esty of man, whose earthly mission covers a period of four- 
 score years, we find each individual of the myriads of our 
 race under a watchful supervision through all the incidents 
 of life and death — even the hairs of his head are all num- 
 bered. These individual lives, again, are interwoven in a 
 harmonious scheme, which includes all existence, and which, 
 in its various connections, makes up the history of nations 
 aad races • while these, in their rise, progress, and decline,
 
 244 On Divine Providence, [Apri?, 
 
 are contributing to the grand design of winch we spoke, the 
 final triumph of Christ and His Church, and the establish- 
 ment of His everlasting kingdom. 
 
 The Christian is not merely warranted to rest in calm as- 
 surance of the fulfillment of God's grand design regarding, 
 the Church, and of God's gracious purpose towards himself ~ 
 but, if his eyes are indeed anointed with eye-salve, that he may 
 see, he can discern the hand of God in the every-day events 
 of his life, and find, in a practical recognition of Divine provi- 
 dence, both guidance and consolation. In times of trial, the 
 assurance, " All things work together for good to them that 
 love God," proves like the break in the clouds, through which 
 the rays of Divine love shine, and, striking on the tear-drop 
 of mortal sorrow, span the valley of the shadow of death 
 with the rainbow of heavenly hope. Present afflictions may 
 often seem to be in contradiction of the believer's hope — 
 they may seem to argue either that God has forgotten him, or 
 that He does not love him ; but Faith knows that these afflic- 
 tions are in reality promoting God r s gracious end, and this 
 knowledge sheds abroad the light of joy in the house of 
 mourning, and sends forth the children of sorrow refreshed 
 and invigorated for the march and the conflict. 
 
 The Apostle Paul introduces this assurance in his Epistle 
 to the Romans — not as an abstract truth or an opinion, or a 
 mere article of his creed, but as a truth of his experience, 
 "We know," he says, " that all things work together for good 
 to them that love God ; to them that are the called, accord- 
 ing to» his purpose." H We" and vre only, who love God r 
 know it. The believer sees God in Christ, not only as 
 " love," but as "love to Mm '" and so all the Divine perfec- 
 tions combine to secure his everlasting good — all the re- 
 sources of creation and the arrangements of Providence must 
 be subservient to it. Other men may have some vague 
 thoughts of their relation to God, as their Creator ; but it 
 is too distant to be influential, and too cold to be comforting. 
 They may have some thoughts of an eternal state ; but it is 
 to them a terrible, perchance, a chilling speculation. So 
 they may have some thoughts of a providential arrangement
 
 51857.] On "Divine Providence. 245 
 
 of the affairs of life, and may say, with desperate resignation, 
 •" All is for the best" — a sentiment which they do not feel, 
 and which, to them, is not true. The believer sees God in 
 •Christ as a Father, in the most profound and tender sense : 
 he sees that the present and passing is all made tributary to 
 the unseen and eternal ; he sees all things moving on to the 
 •manifestation of the glory of Christ; and he is conscious of 
 »his own advancement towards a participation in His blessed- 
 ness : so that he actually knows that all things work together 
 for good to him. 
 
 It is not true, as the worldly man utters it, that " all is for 
 the best." So far as this world is concerned, it is not for the 
 best that a brief life should be wasted in pain and disappoint- 
 ment : it is not for the best to be poor and despised — to be 
 worn out with toil — to pine in hunger — to writhe in. 
 .agony — to have our homes desolated — to lay our loved ones 
 in the grave — to be left lonely in an unfriendly world : — to 
 the worldly man, it is not true ; and, though he may say it, he 
 can not feel it. No, it is to the believer, and with reference 
 to the issue of affairs la the world to come, that " all is for 
 the best." No affliction is, for the present, joyous, but grie- 
 vous ; and it is only as afflictions work the peaceable fruits 
 of righteousness in us, or work out a far more exceeding and 
 eternal weight of glory for us, that they are for the best. A LI 
 things work together for good to them that love God : t® 
 other men, all things are working out sure destruction. Even, 
 ■afflictions promote the believer's blessedness ; but even the 
 goodness of God is transformed into treasures of wrath to 
 those who despise it. 
 
 Those who love God may appropriate the comfort of this 
 assurance : yet there is no room for the proud tliought, that 
 at is because they love God, that all tilings work together for 
 good to them. The apostle mentions .another characteristic 
 of theirs, which places it on its proper ground — "to them 
 who are the called, according to God's purpose." It was no 
 original merit that they loved God. On the contrary, they 
 were at enmity against God when He called them in His own 
 Hove; and they only love Him because He first loved them.
 
 246 On Divine Providence. [April, 
 
 His gracious purpose is to be accomplished — not their merit 
 rewarded ; and, unless His love can be foiled, or His purpose 
 defeated, all things must work together for good to them. 
 The fact that they love God is in itself a proof that His pur- 
 pose is in course of accomplishment. As they look over the 
 way by which He has led them, and see how all the past has 
 been made subservient to it, they have an experimental 
 knowledge of the truth that all things work together for 
 good to them that love God. It is the purpose of God, and 
 who will hinder it ? 
 
 The purpose of Redeeming Love is that which is working 
 out in the history of the world. The purpose of Redeeming 
 Love is also that which is working out in the history of 
 every believer. All events bear on our eternal glory. This 
 is the sense in which all things work together for good : and 
 if we would interpret God's present dealings aright, we must 
 Tiew them in their bearing on this end. The plan is com- 
 prehensive : all things contribute to its accomplishment — not 
 things of a given character or magnitude, but all things, great 
 and small — the greatest calamity and the least mercy. But 
 it is not only true that every thing, whatever its character, 
 contributes to this end, but all things work together. They 
 are parts of a nicely adjusted scheme, the issue of which i3 
 good to them that love God. It is not as though God stood by 
 to take advantage of events as they arise, but the whole 
 course of events, in their order, as well as in their separate 
 character, is directed to accomplish His gracious design. 
 " Misfortunes," men say, " never come singly." And, indeed, 
 it very often appears that one affliction treads upon the heels 
 of another. A second blow falls while wo yet stagger under 
 the effects of the first ; or the sorrow comes when we seem 
 least prepared to endure it. Now, how comforting is it to 
 know, that not only the event, but the time, manner, and cir- 
 cumstances of it, are all directed by infinite love ! All things 
 work together for good to them that love God. 
 
 If we accustomed ourselves, under the illumination of the 
 Spirit, to see the heavenly things that underlie these sen- 
 sible affairs, we would be led along, from day to day,, by tuft
 
 1857.] On Divine Providence. 247 
 
 hand of the Good Shepherd. And how then, with reference 
 to all that is past, should we learn to exercise a grateful 
 acquiescence, and in "every thing give thanks, for this, how- 
 ever it may cross or wound us, is the will of God concerning 
 us" — rejoicing that His will is done, and ours, if it run counter 
 to His, thwarted ! And how, with reference to all that is 
 future, should we learn to rest in calm confidence — to " be 
 anxious for nothing," since we have a refuge from anxiety at 
 a throne of grace, where, " in every thing, by prayer and sup- 
 plication with thanksgiving, we may make our requests 
 known unto God ; and the peace of God, which passeth all 
 understanding, shall keep our heart and mind, through Christ 
 Jesus." 
 
 The providence of God is not limited to this earth as its 
 sphere, nor to earthly existences as its objects, nor to time as 
 its period. Could we trace it, every part of creation fur- 
 nishes similar proof of Divine care ; and this earth is a por- 
 tion of a vaster scheme which includes the universe. The 
 final issue of temporal history will reveal its bearing on the 
 godlike design to fill up eternity with a universal harmony, 
 when all in heaven and on earth shall be gathered together 
 in ONE — a unity of joy and holiness, in which God will be 
 all in all. Nor throughout eternity shall this Providential 
 love ever relax its vigilance : the throne of Jehovah shall 
 rule over the universal harmony, and, in the perfect bliss of 
 His creatures, shall be known what is dimly discerned, even 
 amid present sufferings — "AH things work together for good 
 to them that love God." Believers shall then experience the 
 same Shepherd's care, for " the Lamb that is in the midst of 
 the throne shall feed them and lead them to living fountains 
 of water, and God himself shall wipe away all tears from 
 their eyes."
 
 218 Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [April, 
 
 CHAPTERS FROM AN UNPUBLISHED BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 BY JAMES I N G L I f . 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Under the pressure of a dire necessity, the fellowship 
 meeting filled an important place in the experience of the 
 godly in Scotland, at the period through which our narrative 
 runs ; and our young adventurer, in the City of Glasgow, 
 reaped manifold advantages from his connection with " The 
 Sabbath Morning Prayer Meeting." He was there intro- 
 duced to the acquaintance of a class of excellent young men 
 — the very salt of society there ; he enjoyed the counsel and 
 moulding care of the more experienced of them ; and the 
 younger were his helpers in every good work; — some of 
 them became his fellow-students, and ultimately his associates 
 in the ministry. The meetings promoted his experimental 
 acquaintance with the truth, and furnished admirable oppor- 
 tunities of cultivating his gifts and preparing him for exten- 
 sive usefulness. At the age of fifteen, the Society entrusted 
 him, in company with another member, with the superintend- 
 ence of one of their largest schools, where he speedily dis- 
 played the tact and practical talent which have distinguished 
 his long life of religious activity. 
 
 These engagements naturally revived the longings which 
 had been often before violently repressed, to engage in the 
 great work of preaching the Gospel. He did not then sup- 
 pose that he could ever aspire to an office or ministry in any 
 of the Churches at home, but he fondly hoped that, by assi- 
 duity, he might, through God's grace, become qualified to 
 occupy some obscure post as a missionary to the heathen. 
 At this early stage of his progress, he had an understanding
 
 * 
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 249 
 
 •with his most intimate friend that they should engage in mis- 
 sionary service, if ever God, in His providence, should open 
 up the way. These longings and purposes stimulated his 
 efforts at self improvement. Every spare moment was 
 devoted to study ; and he made considerable progress, even 
 in classical studies, while he yet worked at the loom and sup- 
 ported the family. 
 
 About this time, the interest of the lovers of a pure Gospel 
 in Glasgow was awakened, in spite of their prejudices, by 
 the preaching of Mr. Greville Ewing. This gentleman had 
 been a minister of the Established Church, but had sacrificed 
 the finest prospects of honor and preferment, to unite with a 
 few faithful men in the advocacy of Evangelical truth and 
 the establishment of Congregational Churches, which they 
 believed to be the primitive order. Their influence was 
 speedily extended over the land, and, among other energetic 
 measures, they had purchased the Royal Circus in Glasgow, 
 and had converted it into a place of worship, whither the 
 faithful and eloquent preaching of Mr. Ewing was now 
 attracting vast congregations. 
 
 The preaching of the most Evangelical of the Presbyte- 
 rian ministers of that time was overlaid by a certain technical 
 and metaphysical theology, which bewildered even expe- 
 rienced Christians, and often led the young disciple into deep 
 darkness and perplexity. Archibald had already suffered 
 severely under this mistaken teaching. The character of his 
 mind rendered clear and definite views of the truth neces- 
 sary to his peace ; and the effort to disentangle the truth 
 from the technicalities and speculations of the pulpit often 
 resulted in the most agonizing doubts. "If," we have heard 
 him say, " if I know what saving faith is, I was taught it with 
 a vengeance." 
 
 One Lord's Day evening he had listened to a labored ser- 
 mon on faith, in which the preacher enumerated many kinds 
 of faith; which men frequently mistook for the true grace. 
 A cradle faith, an historical faith, the faith of miracles, the 
 faith of devils, an appropriating faith, the faith of adherence, 
 the faith of assurance, &c, were defined and exposed ; and,
 
 250 Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [April, 
 
 at last, saving faith was represented as a complicated and 
 mysterious process of the soul, which included all the steps 
 of conviction, regeneration, and sanctification — all the graces 
 of the Christian character, and the whole experience of the 
 Christian life. And this alone was saving — the faith of 
 God's elect — without which a man shall not see life. 
 
 The thought had been suggested, with startling energy, as 
 the preacher advanced. " And what if, after all, my faith is 
 not of the right kind?" and he had endeavored to apply the 
 definitions of the sermon to a searching examination of his 
 own state ; but all seemed bewilderment and apprehension. 
 He left the house in a state of the most distracting uncer- 
 tainty. For hours, he paced the streets, canvassing the great 
 question of his personal interest in the Saviour. In the in- 
 tensity of his thoughts, he was utterly unconscious of an 
 external world, till he was at last restored by the pain which 
 he had involuntarily inflicted upon himself by tearing his 
 hair in agony. He at once bethought him of a friend, whose 
 clear views and triumphant confidence he had often wondered 
 at, and, though the hour was unseasonable, he hastened to 
 seek his counsel. 
 
 "I am in terrible doubt," he exclaimed to his friend, as 
 soon as they met, " I am in terrible doubt as to whether my 
 faith is of the right kind." " Never trouble yourself about 
 the kind of your faith," was the reply ; " the grand ques- 
 tion is — Are you believing the right thing?" and, sitting 
 down, he explained, in simple terms, the truth to be believed 
 in order to eternal life — the record which God has given to 
 us concerning His Son, showing that there is but one act 
 which is properly styled believing, however different the 
 truth believed, or the evidence on which it was received — 
 and that the grand distinction of saving faith is, that- it is 
 the belief of the truth as it is in Jesus, upon the testimony, 
 not of man, but of God. The light broke in upon his soul 
 again, with something of the joy of his first espousals, and he 
 then obtained a knowledge of the Gospel, in its simplicity, 
 which no sophistry or speculation could ever afterwards ob- 
 scure, and which has given point and illumination to every
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 251 
 
 sermon he ever preached ; for he has always made it his care 
 that no sinner shall go away from his preaching without 
 having heard words whereby he may be saved. 
 
 About the time of this enlargement of his heart in the 
 truth, he was induced to go with the crowd to hear Mr. 
 Ewing, whose preaching had already been crowned with an 
 abundant blessing, and who had organized a Congregational 
 Church, to which he continued to minister till his death, in a 
 ripe old age. Mr. Ewing was an accomplished scholar, pos« 
 sessed a refined taste, perfect command of the Knglish lan- 
 guage, and a peculiarly attractive address. He used the 
 simplest language to express the most sublime thoughts ; but 
 more than all the charm of his preaching to our young dis- 
 ciple, was the clear and simple style in which he unfolded the 
 great doctrines of salvation, and his lucid expositions of Scrip- 
 ture. From occasional hearing, Archibald became convinced 
 that it would be greatly to his advantage to attend regularly 
 upon such a ministry. But then he was a Presbyterian, and 
 Mr. E wing's Church was Congregational or Independent. 
 Mr. Ewing's Church also showed forth the Lord's death in 
 the breaking of bread every Lord's Day, while the Presbyte- 
 rian Churches observed the Lord's supper, with much cere- 
 mony, once in six months. 
 
 "But what if Mr. Ewing had Scripture on his side?" 
 This thought led to a patient examination of the Word of 
 God, which resulted in a conviction that the Congregational 
 order was that of the primitive Churches, and that weekly 
 communion was their uniform practice. After full consulta- 
 tion with his mother, his pastor, and other Christian friends, 
 joined to earnest prayer and deliberation, he felt impelled to 
 seek admission into the Congregational Church — a step 
 which gave a new and unexpected direction to his whole life. 
 Beside the instruction and edification of Mr. Ewing's minis- 
 try, the change was, in other respects, highly advantageous to 
 his spiritual and intellectual life. He exchanged the cold for- 
 mality of a stately assembly for the intimate and endearing 
 associations of a Christian brotherhood. This new connec- 
 tion was, in fact, the fellowship meeting, carried out to the
 
 252 Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [April, 
 
 perfect constitution of a Church ; and, doubtless, the rela- 
 tions of the former was a suitable preparation for the latter, 
 to him and many others who fell in with the Haldane move- 
 ment. The Church was strict and cautious in the admission 
 of members, and the purity of the body was guarded by a 
 rigorous discipline. The spirituality and purity of these in- 
 fant Churches were, doubtless, also promoted by the notice 
 they attracted, the reproach to which they were exposed, 
 and the censorious scrutiny of many hostile eyes. Their 
 origin and circumstances were pledges of their zeal and ac- 
 tivity^, and the opposition they encountered bound the mem- 
 bers closer to one another, aud promoted their mutual love. 
 
 Archibald now found in the Church at large what, hith- 
 erto, he had only known in a select prayer-meeting ; and 
 at the weekly meetings the brethren were invited to engage 
 in prayer and in mutual exhortation, which many of them did 
 with great force and intelligence. He was frequently called 
 upon to engage in these exercises ; and this not only proved 
 a fine opportunity for cultivating his peculiar talents, but 
 afforded his pastor and brethren an opportunity of judging of 
 his qualifications for public usefulness. These qualifications 
 were speedily discerned and appreciated. Almost from the 
 first, his Christian friends fixed upon him as one destined to 
 occupy a prominent place in the Church. 
 
 There were at the same time other friends who were 
 watching his course, and who were endeavoring to shape for 
 him a far different destiny. His kind uncle, Mr. T homas, 
 was a prosperous and enterprising manufacturer, and wanted 
 a young man of just such stamina, integrity, and address as 
 his nephew displayed, to carry out his far reaching plans of 
 business. He was a man of liberal education, for his parents 
 had designed him for the ministry of the Established Church, 
 which, however, he had too much honesty to enter as an un- 
 converted man. He took pains to stimulate his young rela- 
 tive's efforts to cultivate his mind — advised him as to his 
 course of study — but, beyond presenting him, from time to 
 time, with valuable books, he wisely left him to his own 
 resources. He had discovered Archibald's aspirations
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 253 
 
 towards the pulpit, and observed that Mr. Ewing and other 
 Christian friends had an eye upon him for the work of the 
 ministry. In the hope of diverting him from this purpose, 
 and engaging him in business pursuits, he proposed to him, in 
 his eighteenth year, to travel through the country as his 
 agent in the sale of goods — a course of life which, by with- 
 drawing him from the immediate influence of the Church, 
 might diminish his religious ardor, and which, by extending 
 his acquaintance with men and with the market, might fit 
 him for a leading place in a mercantile establishment. The 
 ostensible motive for this new course was, that it would afford 
 a better income, while it afforded relief from incessant toil ; 
 and the nephew accepted it, in the hope that, besides sup- 
 porting the family, it might furnish him with the means of 
 prosecuting the course of study from which it was the uncle's 
 secret design to divert him. 
 
 A year and a half was spent in traveling over the west of 
 Scotland, with unexpected success and profit : and though it 
 deprived him of the benefit of Mr. E wing's regular instruc- 
 tions, and the associations of the Church, it did not cut him 
 off from all opportunities of improvement and usefulness. He 
 always carried with him, besides the Bible, some valuable 
 book, which he studied at leisure hours ; and a supply of 
 religious tracts, for distribution, furnished the constant occa- 
 sion of speaking with the people among whom he traveled on 
 the interests of their souls. He gradually formed the ac- 
 quaintance of the godly families on his route, at whose 
 houses he was always a welcome guest ; and now and then 
 he gathered the people in destitute neighborhoods together, 
 and preached the Gospel to them in an humble manner. 
 
 He visited Glasgow often enough to keep up his old friend- 
 ships, and to cultivate the acquaintance of the Church. His 
 pastor still watched over him, and saw, with paternal delight, 
 his Christian steadfastness in a course of life designed to 
 divert his attention from the things that are unseen and 
 eternal. His demeanor, amid manifold temptations, con- 
 firmed all previous impressions of his eligibility to the post 
 of a Christian minister. His promising character was at this
 
 254 Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [April, 
 
 time brought under the notice of Mr. Haldane, who was 
 eagerly seeking pious and able young men for his Theologi- 
 cal Seminary. John Campbell, who was still in business in 
 Edinburgh, and who acted as Mr. Haldane's agent in many 
 of his plans of benevolence, came to Glasgow to converse 
 with him on his views of the Christian ministry, and to en- 
 deavor to form an estimate of his religious character and 
 intellectual qualifications. On Mr. Campbell's report of him, 
 Mr. Haldane at once made him an offer of a free education 
 and a liberal support until he should be prepared to enter the 
 ministry — an offer which he was enabled gratefully to ac- 
 cept, since the profits of his agency were available for the 
 support of the family. 
 
 The widow all this while, had proved not only a loving 
 mother, but a wise counsellor and confidential friend, to 
 whom her son always respectfully deferred. She had found 
 it no small trial when they were separated in Church fellow- 
 ship by his union with the Congregational Church ; but a 
 more intimate acquaintance with the members of that body 
 overcame the prejudices with which she was disposed to re- 
 gard the new sect. She was led to examine their principles, 
 and it was not long before the family were united again un- 
 der the pastoral care of Mr. Ewing, whom they all greatly 
 loved. The eldest daughter, who was the instrument of her 
 brother's conversion, was naturally bound to him by ties of 
 peculiar endearment. She grew up a remarkably intelligent 
 woman, of decided principle, dauntless moral courage, and 
 untiring zeal. She possessed much of her brother's strong, 
 practical good sense, with a conciliatory and winning man- 
 ner. Before she had reached her twentieth year, at least 
 twenty persons had been hopefully converted through her in- 
 strumentality. The younger sister had also been brought to 
 a knowledge of the Saviour : and their family happiness was 
 complete in their union of faith, love, and hope. Palaces 
 arc never irradiated by such joy as shone upon the humble 
 home of the widow of Green End, which, in the midst of the 
 crowded city, was a retreat of peace, contentment, and sim- 
 plicity, on which surrounding pride and pollution could not
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 255 
 
 cast even a shadow. The widow knew too well the love and 
 faithfulness of Him who had been her helper, to have any 
 misgivings as to the future, when her son, at the call of a 
 higher duty, abandoned the course of noble industry by which, 
 from a boy, he had supported the family. On the contrary, 
 her conviction and desire anticipated his own. When the 
 choice lay between a prosperous business, with the prospect of 
 affluence, and the pulpit, with the prospect of usefulness, such 
 a mother could not long debate which of the two to choose. 
 There were other friends, who could not so easily give up, 
 to what they regarded as an amiable folly, a young man who 
 gave promise of eminence in mercantile pursuits. His uncle, 
 and one or two others of like mind, in a last effort to save 
 him from the sacrifice, proposed to him to go to Cork, with 
 a large stock of goods, to sell on commission — a proposal 
 which they presented in the most tempting form. But, with 
 all gratitude for their kindness, his steady answer was, that 
 no prospect of worldly gain could tempt him to forego the 
 long-cherished hope to which God, in His providence, had at 
 length opened up the way. There were yet some two months 
 before the opening of the session of the seminary, and it was 
 at length arranged, to satisfy the urgent persuasions of his 
 uncle, that he should go to Cork, with a cargo of goods, and 
 open the business there, while they should look out for an- 
 other agent to take his place at the expiration of that time. 
 Goods to the value of =£10,000 sterling were accordingly 
 placed on board a ship, and he was to embark the following 
 day. In course of the intervening night, he was seized by 
 what proved to be a very severe attack of measles, and it be- 
 came necessary to send some one else in charge of the goods, 
 and he remained at his mother's until the opening of the ses- 
 sion, when he was sufficiently recovered to enter on his 
 studies. Mr. Thomas afterwards frankly told him that it 
 was their intention, if they had succeeded in getting him once 
 engaged in the enterprise, to have kept him there, by for- 
 warding fresh supplies of goods, and extending the business, 
 so that he should feel that he could not desert his post with- 
 out immense loss to them.
 
 256 The Christian Mariner. [April, 1857. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN MARINER. 
 
 "Jnd so he bringeth them to the haven where they would be." 
 
 Yes, billow after billow — see they come 
 
 Faster and rougher, as yon little boat 
 
 Nears the desired haven. Oftentimes 
 
 It seems to sink and fall adown the wave, 
 
 As if borne backward by the struggling tide ; 
 
 Yet mounting billow after billow, wave 
 
 On wave o'er-riding, tempest-tossed and shattered, 
 
 Still, it nears the haven evermore. 
 
 " Poor Mariner ! art not thou sadly weary? " 
 
 Dear brother, rest is sweeter after toil. 
 
 " Grows not thine eye confused and dim with eight 
 
 Of nothing but the wintry waters ? " True ; 
 
 But then my pole-star, constant and serene, 
 
 Above the changing waters, changes not. 
 
 " But what if clouds as often veil the sky? " 
 
 Oh, then an unseen hand hath ever ta'en 
 
 The rudder fiom my feeble hands the while; 
 
 And I cling to it. " Answer me once more, 
 
 Mariner : what think'st thou when the waters beat 
 
 Thy frail boat backward from the longed-for harbor? " 
 
 Oh, brother, though innumerable waves 
 
 Still seem to rise betwixt me and my home, 
 
 / know that they are numbered ; not one less 
 
 Should bear me homeward, if I had my will; 
 
 For One who knows what tempests are to weather, 
 
 O'er whom there broke the wildest billows once, 
 
 He bids these waters swell. In His good time 
 
 The last rough wave shall bear me on its bosom, 
 
 Into the haven of eternal peace. 
 
 No billows after ! They are numbered, brother. 
 
 " Oh, gentle Mariner, steer on, steer on : 
 
 My tears still flow for thee, but they are tears 
 
 In which faith strives with grief, and overcomes."
 
 WAYMAMS IN THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 MAY, 18 5 1 
 
 THE HALDANES. 
 
 A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 As was intimated in the close of the last article, the ter- 
 mination of the wars which had long distracted the continent 
 of Europe opened up a new field for Robert Haldane's activ- 
 ity. His attention had, for years, been turned to the spiritual 
 desolation of continental Europe ; and, in 1816, accompanied 
 by Mrs. Haldane, he went to Paris, in the hope that the Lord 
 might open up some way in which he might promote the truth 
 there. Here his attention was directed to Geneva, where 
 only one pastor retained even the semblance of Evangelical 
 sentiments. Geneva, with its proud ancestral faith — its 
 creeds and symbols inscribed by the hand of Calvin himself 
 — and its formularies moulded upon the simplicity of Scrip- 
 ture — had lost all of the Reformation, but the boast of its 
 historic names, in a lifeless and insolent Rationalism. We 
 may rest assured that it was not vital Christianity that 
 attracted Rousseau, Voltaire, and Gibbon to that region ; and 
 
 VOL. II. — NO. V. Q
 
 258 The Haldanes. [May, 
 
 we may also rest assured that the influence of such men upon 
 the professors and clergy did not tend to elevate the stand- 
 ard of religion and morals. At the period of Mr. Haldane's 
 visit, both clergy and professors ridiculed the idea of the 
 divinity of Jesus of Nazareth ; and countenanced, by their 
 lives, the gaiety and frivolity by which people in general 
 sought to drown all thoughts of eternity. Here and there a 
 feeble voice was heard, bearing witness to the ancient faith ; 
 but it was soon stifled. In 1816, a pamphlet, defending the 
 divinity of Jesus Christ, excited a perfect storm'of indigna- 
 tion. A meeting of infidel students, presided over by M. 
 Merle d'Aubigne, protested against " the odious aggression," 
 as they styled a very moderate assertion of the cardinal doc- 
 trine of Christianity. 
 
 So unpromising was the field to which Mr. Ilaldane's steps 
 were now turned, and thus clamorous were its spiritual neces- 
 sities ! On his first visit, he soon abandoned it, in despair of 
 finding any opportunity of usefulness ; but, having halted at 
 Berne, he was persuaded to return and renew the effort. A 
 second time he was on the eve of abandoning it, when, provi- 
 dentially, he was led into conversation with a student of the 
 Theological Seminary, on the subject of religion. This young 
 man, Mr. James, afterwards pastor at Brede, was profoundly 
 ignorant of the Gospel, but displayed a deep interest in Mr. 
 Haldane's conversation. On the morrow he returned, bring- 
 ing with him another student, Mr. Charles Rieu. Both of 
 them became evidently awakened, and Mr. Haldane at once 
 made arrangements to prolong his stay. The sequel may best 
 be related in his own words : 
 
 " The two students with whom I first conversed brought six others, in 
 the same state of mind with themselves, with whom I had many and long 
 conversations. Their visits became so frequent, and at such different 
 hours, that I proposed they should come together ; and it was arranged 
 that they should do so three times a week, from six to eight o'clock in 
 the evening. This gave me time to converse with others, who, from the 
 report of the students, began to visit me, as well as leisure to prepare 
 what would be profitable for their instruction. I took the Epistle to the 
 Romans as my subject ; and this portion of Scripture I continued to 
 expound to them during the winter, and to dilate on the great doctrines
 
 1857.] The Haldams, 259 
 
 which it unfolds. After having proceeded in this manner about a fort- 
 night with these eight students, I was earnestly solicited, in the name of 
 the other students, to begin anew : in which case, I was assured the rest 
 of them would attend. I accordingly complied with this request, and, 
 during the whole of the winter of 1816-17, and until the termination of 
 their studies in the following summer, almost all the students of theology 
 regularly attended, and God was graciously pleased to accompany His 
 Word with power. In addition to the general knowledge which all of 
 them acquired, a goodly number soon appeared to be turned to the Lord. 
 Some of them have now finished their course with joy, and, like MM. 
 Rieu, Gonthier, and Henri Pyt, have left behind them the blessed assu- 
 rance that they are now in the presence of God and of the Lamb ; while 
 others have, in like manner, evidenced the reality of the work of grace, 
 by the steadfastness of their faith and the abundance of their ministra- 
 tions. 
 
 "Besides those who regularly attended, some, who did not wish to 
 appear with the students, came at different hours, and in conversing with 
 them at those times, or after finishing the public course at eight o'clock, 
 I was often engaged till near midnight. Others of the inhabitants of 
 Geneva, unconnected with the schools of learning, and of both sexes, 
 occasionally visited me, in the afteraeon, tc receive instructions respect- 
 ing the Gospel. 
 
 " The impression produced in Geneva was, by the blessing of God, so 
 great, that discussions became frequent on the grand truths connected 
 with salvation. The pastors and professors in the Faculty heard of the 
 doctrines I was inculcating, and the manner I spoke of their false doc- 
 trines. They began to preach openly against what I taught, and I as 
 plainly controverted what they taught — collecting their arguments, set- 
 ting them before the students, and others to whom I had access — com- 
 paring them with Scripture, and laboring to refute their destructive 
 heresies. They insisted that men were born pure, and spoke of the 
 Saviour as the first of created beings ; and I opposed and refuted such 
 errors and blasphemies. They taught that the Gospel was useful, but 
 siot indispensable to salvation ; and adduced the case of Cornelius, as an 
 example of a man accepted of God, without the knowledge of the Gospel. 
 I proved that this was an egregious misrepresentation of the fact, and 
 that the history of Cornelius formed no exception to the uniform doctrine 
 of Scripture, that there is no other way ef salvation but by faith in the 
 Saviour. It was net, then, by avoiding controverted subjects, and simply 
 dwelling upon the truths common to professing Christians, as some good 
 men have recommended, as the proper course to be pursued on the Con- 
 tinent, that I labored to raise up the fallen standard of the Gospel 
 at Geneva. It was, on the contrary, by not shunning to declare the 
 whole counsel of God, so far as I was enabled to do so ; it was by dwell- 
 ing on every doctrine of the Gospel, whether controverted or not, or how-
 
 260 The tialdams. [May, 
 
 ever repulsive to the carnal mind, and by confronting and bringing to 
 the test of Scripture every argument levelled at my instructions, both by 
 pastors and professors. In this manner, matters proceeded at Geneva, 
 till the middle of the summer of 1817 — the period which terminated the 
 studies of the theological students. The pastors attempted to instigate 
 the government to banish me from their canton; and when this proved 
 unsuccessful, it was proposed, in the venerable company, that I should 
 be cited before them to answer for the doctrines I was inculcating among 
 the students. On this it was observed, by one of them, " You will not 
 gain much by that;" and the matter dropped. At the same time, they 
 did all in their power to preveut the attendance of the students. I hare 
 since seen M, Gaussen, in this country, and, in answer to my inquiry, 
 ' How was it that the pastors failed in that attempt ?' he replied, ' That 
 this was the first blow that had seriously affected them; and although 
 they were anxious to adopt every means in their power to prevent the 
 students coming to see me, yet they found it impossible, because if strong 
 measures had been resorted to, as the penalty of disobeying the prohi- 
 bition, the students had resolved to leave their professors.' The pastors, 
 however, did not cease to labor to counteract the effects of the change 
 that h id taken place in the minds of so many students, and, particularly, 
 by framing the ' Reglement ' of May 3, 1817, consisting of certain ar- 
 ticles, which every student was ordered to sign before he should be con- 
 secrated, and which were intended to exclude from the pulpit of Gei_eva 
 the doctrines which they so \iolently opposed, and particularly the doc- 
 trine of the Godhead of the Saviour, of original sin, of grace and effect- 
 ual calling, and of predestination. In spite of all their endeavors, the 
 light was diffused, to a very remarkable degree, in Geneva, which, through 
 the ministrations of these Socinian, Arian, and Armenian teachers, had 
 fallen from the glory which once belonged to it, and instead of being the 
 centre of illumination to Protestant Europe, had become a synagogue of 
 Satan, and a citadel of ignorance and error." 
 
 The irritated and alarmed Consistory and Faculty did not 
 long confine themselves to harmless denunciations of Mr. 
 Haldane. They found other objects of vengeance more 
 within the scope of their power. The first who was honored 
 to bear public testimony to the truth, and to suffer for it in 
 Geneva, was M. Csesar Malan, one of the pastors of the 
 city, who had been awakened first of all by conversation with 
 Dr. Mason, of New York, who passed through Geneva, on 
 his travels, with Matthias Bruen, about the time of Mr. 
 Haldane's visit. Mr. Haldane was honored to lead him, as 
 an awakened sinner, to a knowledge of the Saviour ; and 7
 
 
 1857,] The Haldanes. 261 
 
 once enlightened himself, he lifted up a fearless testimony in 
 the pulpit. "His eloquent words," we are told, dropped on 
 the leaden slumbers of his audience, like bolts of fire: 
 pastors, professors, syndics, and private citizens, were cut to 
 the heart, and almost gnashed on him with their teeth, as 
 Dr. Mai an descended from the pulpit and passed through 
 their open ranks, unrecognized — an avoided and rejected 
 man." The hated truth, which they had derided in private, 
 had found a voice in a Genevan pulpit ; and who could tell 
 whereunto it might grow? Dejected and overwhelmed, the 
 preacher hastened home, in solitude. At his own door, Mr. 
 Haldane met him, with a cordial grasp of the hand, and the 
 congratulation, " Thank God, the Gospel has been once more 
 preached in Geneva!" M. Gaussen, also (a neighboring 
 pastor), boldly preached the word of life. A number of the 
 students, also, as we have seen, had already avowed the faith. 
 And the rules, which the " venerable company" had adopted 
 to keep the students out of the pulpit, were employed to drive 
 out of it such ministers as held the sentiments which, they 
 said, " were enough to make men brigands." The rules, also, 
 drove the excluded to seek in new organizations the commu- 
 nion of saints and the ministry of the Word. 
 
 This instrument of tyranny was, in the first instance, the 
 occasion of great suffering to these youn<r men ; but it was, 
 by the overruling mercy of God, the occasion of great spirit- 
 ual benefit to multitudes. The heresy of Geneva was now 
 fairly unveiled, and the attention of the people was called to 
 the truth ; and the sufferers at once became earnest preachers 
 to the mutitudc of inquirers. Mr. Haldane, conceiving that 
 his special mission was accomplished, took leave of the dis- 
 ciples, admonishing them to a modest but courageous deport- 
 ment, and charging them, in all things, to take the Word of 
 God as their guide. He went to Montauban, in hopes of 
 finding an opening for a similar work ; and, that he might 
 not prejudice his advocacy of the Gospel, he desired to avoid 
 mixing himself up with the discussion of questions of eccle- 
 siastical polity, which would necessarily arise when the 
 brethren came to organize a separate communion.
 
 262 The Haldanes. [May r 
 
 There will be differences of opinion as to the propriety of 
 his course in this particular. For ourselves, we can not 
 reconcile it with the duty of a faithful teacher of God's 
 Word, that, from motives of expediency, he should shun to 
 declare the whole counsel of God. It is certain that he 
 gained nothing by withdrawing from the field at such a junc- 
 ture. He could not escape the responsibility of that which 
 was a legitimate consequence of what he had already done. 
 M. Gaussen mentions it with approbation : "He was himself 
 a Baptist, but never did I hear him utter a word on the sub- 
 ject of baptism." But we can conceive that many Pedo-Pap- 
 -Sists would have honored him more, if he nad plainly avowed 
 what he believed to be the ordinance of the Lord. Mr. Hal- 
 dane himself quotes the language of Paul in justification of 
 his course : " Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the 
 Gospel f but, if the apostle avoided the actual administra- 
 tion of the ordinance, he could scarcely have defended him- 
 self, as a faithful ambassador, if he had never uttered a word 
 on the subject : and, at any rate, Mr. Haldane did not pre- 
 tend to any special mission, different from that of Christians 
 in general. 
 
 When Mr. Haldane shrank from the responsibility of aid- 
 ing in the formation of a separate Church, God, in His pro- 
 vidence, led another agent upon the ground. Mr. Henry 
 Drummond, a young English gentleman of fortune, whose 
 heart the Lord had touched, arrived at Geneva just when 
 Mr. Haldane was leaving, and entered with spirit into the 
 movement so happily begun. He encouraged the disciples to 
 organize a Church, and urged Dr. Malan to take the over- 
 sight of the ffock. On September 21, 1817, three months 
 after Mr. Haldane's departure, the Lord's supper was cele- 
 brated at Mr. Drummond's house, by a party of ten — at 
 least seven of whom have since been distinguished in the ser- 
 vice of the Gospel. Here was the first formal step in a work 
 which has spread over Europe, and which has even reached 
 to this continent, in the Swiss missions to the Lower Cana- 
 dians. We can not trace its further progress in this place. 
 The mere enumeration of the names of those students who
 
 1857.] The Haldanes. 263 
 
 were brought to the knowledge of the Saviour, and enlisted 
 in His service, would tell to many of our readers how great 
 a work was accomplished. Among them were Merle d'Au- 
 bigne 1 , F. Monod, C. Rieu, Gonthier, Mejanel, Felix NefF, 
 M. Olivier, and others, who have left an imperishable name 
 in the records of Christianity. It is not unworthy of notice, 
 that, carefully as Mr. Ilaldane avoided the mention of bap- 
 tism, several of the most distinguished of his pupils were, in 
 course of their own independent examination of the Word 
 of God, led to embrace Baptist views. 
 
 Mr. Drummond, Mr. Ilaldane, and other friends of the 
 Gospel in England, engaged earnestly in the formation of 
 " The Continental Society," designed to provide pecuniary 
 support for the preachers who were so wonderfully raised up 
 to carry the Gospel over the benighted regions of both Papal 
 and Protestant Europe. Among its first missionaries were 
 Felix Neif, Henri Pyt, and Francois Olivier. The day of 
 the Lord will tell how much this institution has accomplished 
 for the glory of God. 
 
 There remained to Mr. Haldane, after the accomplishment 
 of this great work, a long course of activity. On his return 
 from the Continent, he turned his attention to the religious 
 destitution of Ireland, and in his efforts there became inti- 
 mately associated with Dr. Alexander Carson, of whom we 
 shall have occasion to speak hereafter, and who became a 
 valuable fellow-laborer w r ith the Haldanes in the advocacy 
 and defence of Bible truth. At a later period, we find both 
 of the brothers engaged with Dr. Andrew Thomson and 
 other distinguished ministers, both in Scotland and England, 
 in a protracted conflict with the managers of the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society, who, it was found, were circulating 
 adulterated versions of the Bible, and were lending the in- 
 fluence of the Society, on the Continent, to a hireling State 
 clergy, in opposition to the Evangelical movement. This 
 controversy led to important discussions on the canon and 
 inspiration of Scripture, and to this, through Mr. Ilaldane's 
 friendship, the world is indebted for Dr. Carson's masterly 
 tracts on Inspiration. Aided by Dr. Carson in the critical
 
 264 The Haldanes. [May, 
 
 interpretation of the language of the Epistle, Robert gave to 
 the press his exposition of the Romans, to which the greatest 
 theologians of our day have paid the tribute of their unquali- 
 fied approbation, and which, in its republication in this coun- 
 try, may yet, it is hoped, be blessed to the invigoration of the 
 feeble doctrines of many of our theological schools. Amid 
 labors of love, his life was prolonged till the close of the 
 year 1842, when, although his elasticity of mind never gave 
 way, his bodily frame seemed gradually to sink. On Decem- 
 ber 12, he fell asleep. His last words were, "Forever with 
 the Lord ! — forever, forever ! " 
 
 This event was intimated to Dr. Ma el ay, at New York, in 
 a letter from James H., Gated Edinburgh, December 26, 1842, 
 in the following terms : 
 
 " Perhaps before receiving this you will have heard of the departure 
 of my brother. He died in Edin'mr^h a fortnight ago. For some months 
 be was entirely confined to the house, and latterly to bed. His disease 
 was in the kidneys, which appear to have been affected for a considerable 
 time. He was much reduced, and suffered from weakness, rather than 
 violent pain. His mind was quite unimpaired, and stayed upon the Lord. 
 He repeatedly quoted 2 Tim. iv. 6-8, as his experience. He preferred 
 being left much to himself, observing, that he did not wish to have new 
 trains of thought suggested to him. He expired, without a struggle, on 
 Monday, the 12th instant ; and, I have no doubt, entered into that rest 
 that remains for the people of God. He always entertained a great re- 
 gard for you ; and I thought it would be gratifying to you to learn these 
 particulars." 
 
 Mr. James Haldane, during the period which his brother 
 spent at Geneva and Montauban, continued, with una- 
 bated zeal, to fill his post as pastor of the Tabernacle 
 Church, in Edinburgh ; and, as occasion offered, preached 
 the Gospel in destitute places. An interesting and instruc- 
 tive volume might be filled with the incidents of his evan- 
 gelical labors among all classes, and in all circumstances r 
 now in the drawing-room of the noble, and again in the 
 hovels of the poor. Frequently, in places of public resort in 
 the city, and throughout the villages and hamlets of the 
 land, he gathered a company in the open air, and preached 
 Christ to them, with fervor and power. Mr. Campbell, e-f
 
 1857.] The Ilaldanes. 205 
 
 Kingsland, speaking of his labors and his success, says : " The 
 good which lie was instrumental in doing will not be known 
 till the books shall be opened in the day of the gathering 
 around the great white throne." The Rev. Dr. Andrew 
 Thomson, who had one of the largest parishes in Edinburgh, 
 pointedly remarked, that in examining candidates for admis- 
 sion to the communion of the Church, he found a greater 
 number of instances of awakening attributed to the preachings 
 of James Haldane than to that of any other preacher. Dr. 
 McCrie, the celebrated historian of John Knox and the 
 Reformation, observed, that, "in his opinion, James Haldane 
 preached the doctrine of j us tili cation by faith more fully, and 
 more clearly, than any other minifter he knew." 
 
 During the period of his m6re mature ministry, he did 
 good service to the cause of truth by exposing prevailing 
 errors, from time to time, and pleading for the great doc- 
 trines of grace. Most of his writings, however, were ad- 
 dressed to evils of a local and ephemeral nature ; and, 
 consequently, have been more limited in their circulation 
 than the works of his brother. In 1848, he published his 
 Exposition of the Epistle to the Ga'atians — a valuable work, 
 which has only been hindered from a wide-spread popularity 
 by the earnestness with which he insists on the immcrsio*i of 
 believers, as the baptism of the New Testament. He was 
 well aware of the unpopularity of this portion of the book, 
 and the extent to which it would hinder its success ; but 
 when expostulated with on the propriety of publishing these 
 views, he replied: " I durst no more have published an ex- 
 position of Galatians, and have slurred over the truth con- 
 tained in chap. iii. 27, than have put my hand in the fire." 
 The tone of this reply very well illustrates the characteristic 
 difference between the two brothers — a difference of tem- 
 perament, rather than of principle ; for no one who knew 
 them would, for a moment, believe that Robert would, in 
 any case, have sacrificed his convictions of the truth of God 
 to any motives of worldly expediency whatever. 
 
 Amid so many labors, this servant of Christ reached his 
 fourscore years with an eye undimuied and an intellect un-
 
 266 The Haldanes. [May, 
 
 clouded. In his eightieth year, the old East India captain 
 preached in the Scotch church, at Woolwich, to a large con- 
 gregation of soldiers and marines, with all the fire of youth, 
 mellowed by the pathos of age. In 1849 he completed the fif- 
 tieth year of his ministry, and a jubilee meeting was held, at 
 which the leading ministers of the Established Church, the 
 Free Church, the Independents, and Baptists, assembled to 
 give thanks to a common Father for the great grace shown 
 to their friend and brother. Of the associates of his early 
 labors, however, only the venerable Dr. Innes, who has re- 
 cently gone to rest, was present. Robert Haldane, Mr. Aik- 
 man, Mr. Campbell, Mr. Ewing, Rowland Hill, and Mr. 
 Simeon, had all left their places empty, and it was the con- 
 viction of all that another phfce would soon be vacated. 
 
 In the following year he Writes : " I am lecturing on the 
 Hebrews. I have got to the seventh chapter, and have writ- 
 ten out my exposition as far as the ninth chapter. "When I 
 have finished, I intend to begin again, and re-write my expo- 
 sition of the whole Epistle ; and, if it seem desirable, to print 
 it. This is pretty well at the age of eighty-two." He lived 
 to finish his exposition in his public ministrations, but not to 
 complete his revision for the press. 
 
 In the beginning of 1851, he had an attack of hereditary 
 gout. On Lord's Day, Feb. 2, he was. for the first time, de- 
 tained from his place in the sanctuary. Throughout the week, 
 he sank into insensibility. On Friday, he roused himself a lit- 
 tle, and said, " When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then 
 shall we also appear with Him in glory." A little while 
 after, he said, " I must rise." Mrs. Haldane said, " You are 
 not able to get up." He smiled, and answered. " I shall be 
 satisfied when I awake in His likeness." She said, " Is that 
 what you mean by rising? " and he nodded assent. He sank 
 again into seeming unconsciousness, though during the fol- 
 lowing day — his last on earth — he seemed, during his wak- 
 ing intervals, to be in possession of every faculty. " His 
 pulse," says his son, from whose Memoirs we have borrowed 
 most of these particulars, " beat almost to the last minute, 
 and his face was suffused with color. Then, in the presence
 
 1857.] The Haldanes. 2G7 
 
 of all his family, he drew his last soft breath. In an instant, 
 the shadow of death passed over his countenance, and his 
 ransomed spirit entered into the joy of his Lord." 
 
 His funeral, though intended to be strictly private, at- 
 tracted thousands, who came to do homaore to his worth. The 
 presbytery of the Free Church attended in a body, headed 
 by Dr. Candlish. Nearly all the Evangelical ministers in 
 the city and neighborhood followed the bier. A secular 
 paper of the day remarked, that " such a tribute of respect 
 has rarely been paid to any private individual ;" and another 
 said, that " excepting the funerals of Dr. Chalmers and Dr. 
 Thomson, there has not been such an unsolicited demonstra- 
 tion of public feeling on any like occasion." 
 
 The sketch we have attempted is, indeed, but a meagre ex- 
 hibition of the character and course of two extraordinary 
 men ; and still more so, of the religious movement which 
 God raised them up to originate and conduct. It would be 
 impossible to trace all the influences of their labors ; for it 
 would be difficult to find a revival of religion in Europe, 
 during the last half century, to which they did not directly 
 or indirectly contribute. The revival of Geneva was the 
 parent of that of Yaud, and again of that in France. The 
 scattered Churches that exist amid the spiritual death that 
 reigns over the North of Europe, are the fruits of their zeal ; 
 and even Churches that did not recognize their ministry, 
 profited by their toils and prayers.
 
 268 The Vulgate. [May, 
 
 THE VULGATE. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 The translation of the Hebrew Scriptures known as the 
 Septuagint, whether prompted by the policy and literary taste 
 of the Ptolemies, or by the religious necessities of the Alex- 
 andrian Jews, was destined to serve a most important pur- 
 pose, in the advancement of Divine truth. The Greek 
 language — then the language of the civilized world — was 
 thereby moulded to express spiritual truth ; and the trans- 
 lation itself was, to the heathen nations, a harbinger of 
 Christianity. It gave them the only correct views of the 
 being, law, and perfections of God and said, in anticipation 
 of the preaching of the Gospel, " Behold the Lamb of God 
 that taketh away the sin of the world ! " The traditions of 
 a supernatural guidance in the work, were invented to over- 
 come the prejudices of the Palestinian Jews — prejudices 
 which were not wholly without foundation. The translation 
 of the Pentateuch is the most meritorious part of the work : 
 the inaccuracy of other books, shows that the translators 
 were unequal to the task. The translation of Daniel was so 
 wretched, that, after the commencement of the Christian era, 
 the translation of Theodotion was made to supply its place. 
 
 Besides these defects of translation, the Jews were justly 
 offended by additions and alterations in the sacred books, to 
 advocate the views and promote the objects of the Alexan- 
 drian Jews. As an instance of their additions, made without 
 any sinister purpose, may be mentioned the 151st Psalm, 
 which the translators Say was written by David, when he 
 fought with Goliath ; but which never had a place among the
 
 1857.] The Vulgate. 209 
 
 Hebrew Psalms. The late Professor Tennant, of St. An- 
 drew's, Scotland, gives the following translation of it — a 
 happy imitation of the older Scotch psalmody : 
 
 " Among my brethren deemed was I 
 Of mean account and small, 
 And in my father's house I was 
 The youngest of them all. 
 
 I fed my father's sheep, my hands 
 
 The shepherd's organ made; 
 I strung with strings the psaltery, 
 
 And on it sweetly played. 
 
 Who shall report my name or praise 
 
 Unto my Lord on high ? 
 The Lord himself is nigh — He heard 
 
 My gentle vow and sigh. 
 
 He sent His angel down — he took 
 
 Me from the flocks I fed, 
 And, with His own anointing oil, 
 
 He did anoint my head. 
 
 My brethren were of valiant strength, 
 
 And goodly fair to sight ; 
 But not in Jesse's eldest sons 
 
 Th' Almighty took delight. 
 
 I to the war went out, to meet 
 
 The heathen champion proud : 
 The Philistine looked down, i.nd cursed 
 
 Me, by his idols, loud. 
 
 nis sword I drew, in God's own might; 
 
 His head I took that day ; 
 And, from the hosts of Israel, 
 
 Removed that stain away." 
 
 But, in spite of all its imperfections and additions, the 
 Septuagint has been extensively useful — first of all, to the 
 Greek-speaking Jews ; then to the heathen ; and, lastly, to 
 the Christian world, which, to a great extent, was formerly
 
 
 270 The Vulgate. [May, 
 
 indebted to this translation for what was known of the Old 
 Testament. The vague expectation which prevailed in the 
 heathen world, previous to the birth of the Saviour, is doubt- 
 less to be traced to their acquaintance with the prophets, 
 through this version. Mr. Hogg suggests, that the current 
 report that " the East should prevail," was derived from the 
 Septuagint, where the East is the translation of the term 
 branch, applied to the Messiah. There is, also, a peculiar 
 translation of Numbers, xxiv. 17 : "A star shall arise out of 
 Jacob : a man shall stand up out of Israel." The verb 
 "Jlrise" has the same root with the noun "East," and can not 
 be imitated in a translation. Now, the Magi, guided by 
 these passages, and certain traditions of their own. came at 
 once to Jerusalem, when they saw a mysterious star in the 
 heavens, and said, " Where is he that is born king of the 
 Jews ; for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to 
 worship him." 
 
 The Greek tongue, as we have remarked, was gradually 
 fitted to be the vehicle of the Gospel to all nations : in that 
 the New Testament was written, and in that, naturally, 
 Christians of every nation found a means of intercommunica- 
 tion. At first, therefore, all Christian writers seem to have 
 used it as the ecclesiastical language. But many influences 
 were at work to make the natural division of the Roman em- 
 pire into East and West apparent and decisive. In the 
 West, as we remarked in a previous number, the conquered 
 nations owed their civilization to their conquerors, and 
 adopted the Latin as the language of that civilization. The 
 Greek, therefore, obtained no general footing in the West ; 
 and, even as the common language of Christianity, it was 
 gradually driven back to its original seats. Every thing 
 that widened the division, confirmed the ascendancy of Latin 
 in the Western empire. 
 
 To meet the necessities of the West, a Latin version of 
 the Scriptures was gradually produced, and supplanted the 
 Septuagint. The Old Italic, as it is called, was a literal 
 translation of the Septuagint and of the original Greek of 
 the New Testament. Its origin and date are unknown.
 
 1857.] The Vulgate. 271 
 
 There is, however, every reason to believe that it was exe- 
 cuted in the first half of the second century; for it is referred 
 to by Tertullian before the close of that century. For two 
 hundred years, it was regarded in the West with almost the 
 same veneration which was paid to the Septuagint in the 
 East. It was afterwards so completely superseded by the 
 Vulgate, that, as a whole, it has perished, and we are ac- 
 quainted only with fragments of it, found in various authors. 
 
 The corruptions of the Septuagint led Origen to under- 
 take a revision of it : and his amended Greek text became 
 the Textus Receptus ; or, the received text. The Latin Bible, 
 al^o, underwent many corruptions in the hands of transcri- 
 bers ; and ; even where it was not corrupted, it was impor- 
 tant that it should be conformed to the amended Greek 
 version. Towards the close of the fourth century, accord- 
 ingly, Jerome, one of the four great Latin Fathers, and the 
 patron of monastic institutions, undertook to revise the Old 
 Italic, at the suggestion, and under the patronage, of Dama- 
 sus, bishop of Rome. In the first instance, the revisor 
 directed his attention only to the Greek text of the Septua- 
 gint, amended by Origen ; but, in the course of his labors, 
 he became sensible of the importance of going past that 
 translation to the Hebrew itself : and, with the assistance of 
 learned Jews, he applied himself diligently to acquire a 
 knowledge of that ancient tongue. Of his first revision, 
 only the Book of Job and the Psalms have been preserved 
 to our times ; the greater part of his manuscripts being lost 
 or destroyed by the fraud, or wilful negligence, of some per- 
 son whom he does not name. 
 
 Having qualified himself to consult the Hebrew Scrip- 
 tures, he recommenced his revision of the Italic — not, as it 
 will be understood, that he executed a new translation from 
 the Hebrew, but that, where he thought it necessary, he cor- 
 rected his version by it. In substance, the new edition re- 
 sembled the old, and retained most of the peculiarities which 
 it had inherited from the Septuagint — such as the presence 
 of the Apochryphal books, the spelling of proper names, the 
 titles of the books, and the order in which they stand. It
 
 372 The Vulgate. [May, 
 
 was introduced very gradually, in deference to the preju- 
 dices of the people, who were naturally attached to the ver- 
 sion to which they were accustomed ; so that it was not fully 
 sanctioned in the Latin Church for two hundred years after 
 its first publication. Its ultimate ascendancy was owing to 
 the approbation it received from Gregory, the first and 
 greatest of that name. Since that time, it has been exclu- 
 sively adopted by the Romish Church, and is generally 
 known as the Vulgate ; that is, Versio Vulgata, the version 
 in common use. 
 
 The text of the new version, like its predecessors, soon 
 became corrupted. Without intentional fraud, the transcri- 
 bers during the dark ages, who were often ignorant men, 
 could not copy exactly what was placed before them ; and 
 thus mistakes were constantly multiplying. Various attempts 
 to arrest the evil were made, but with little success, for in 
 these ages the most learned were ignorant of Hebrew and 
 Greek, and could only compare one copy of the Vulgate with 
 another. All translations made in these ages were simply 
 from the Vulgate, as it then existed — such as the Anglo- 
 Saxon version, made in the eighth, ninth, and tenth centu- 
 ries ; and, even at a much later date, the English version of 
 John Wickliff. The first use of the art of printing was to 
 multiply copies of the Bible. The first book that issued 
 from the press at Mentz was the Vulgate ; and, as soon as 
 presses were established in the various countries of Europe, 
 copies were issued from the manuscripts that happened to 
 come into the printer's hands. 
 
 The accumulating imperfections of the ancient version be- 
 came manifest when these printed Bibles came to be compared 
 with one another. To determine what was the true text, 
 became a prominent question of that day. God, in His provi- 
 dence, was preparing for the diffusion of light in the Refor- 
 mation. By a combination of circumstances that can not be 
 regarded as fortuitous, the exile of the Jewish rabbis from 
 Spain scattered a knowledge of the Uebrew Bible over 
 Europe; and, almost at the same time, the learned Greeks 
 who fled before the victorious Turks carried the Greek Tes-
 
 1857.] The Vulgate. 273 
 
 lament into the West. Biblical criticism was a precursor of 
 reformation. The Reformers preferred the Hebrew of the 
 Old Testament and the Greek of the New to any translation, 
 however ancient. But the Church of Rome decided to ad- 
 here to that which she received from the Fathers, whatever 
 might be its imperfections. The Council of Trent decreed 
 that the Vulgate should be the standard of appeal, which no- 
 one should, on any pretext, reject. " Upon this ground,' r 
 remarks Bishop Lowth, " many contended that the Vulgate- 
 version was dictated by the Holy Spirit : at least, was provi- 
 dentially guarded against all error; was, consequently, of 
 Divine authority, and more to be regarded than even the 
 original Hebrew and Greek texts. And, in effect, the de- 
 cree of the Council, however limited and moderated by the- 
 explanation of the more judicious divines, has given the Vul- 
 gate such a high degree of authority, that the translation has 
 taken the place of the original ; for the learned of the Church 
 of Rome, who have taken the liberty of giving translation* 
 of the Scriptures, in modern languages, profess to translate 
 the Vulgate." 
 
 After this decree was passed, it remained to be determined 
 what was the true text of the Vulgate, and the Popes under- 
 took to produce an infallible edition. In 1570, Sixtus V. 
 issued the authorized Bible, enforced by anathema on all who 
 should disturb the text ; but the errors of this edition, called 
 the Sixtine, were so glaring, that, in 3593, Clement VIII. 
 published a second infallible edition, called the Clementine,, 
 and now generally understood when the Vulgate is spoken 
 of. The fatal variance between the Sixtine and Clementine 
 editions, both of which the Church of Rome has pronounced 
 infallibly true, has been pointed out by many Protestant 
 writers. Many Roman Catholics have felt the inconsistency,, 
 and have not scrupled to urge the necessity of a new transla- 
 tion, as the Vulgate was executed when Scriptural philology 
 was in a very low state. Practically, however, this ancient 
 version is the standard of faith, and no translation is tole- 
 rated which does not conform to it. Our common version, 
 v for example, is repudiated, and the Douay and the Rheims 
 VOL, II, — no. y. »
 
 274 On Demons. [May, 
 
 New Testament are sanctioned, because they are made from 
 the Clementine edition of the Vulgate. 
 
 It must not, however, be forgotten, that the Vulgate is also 
 the basis of our own — the originals being used to correct 
 obvious errors. Many traces of this origin arc still appa- 
 rent in the English Bible — some of which were mentioned 
 in a previous article. While we are not insensible of the 
 defects of the Vulgate, it little becomes us to depreciate it 
 below its merit. Home remarks : " Even in its present state, 
 notwithstanding the variations between the Sixtine and 
 Clementine editions, and that several passages are mis-trans- 
 lated in order to support the peculiar dogmas of the Church 
 of Rome, the Latin Vulgate preserves many true readings 
 where the modern copies are corrupted." Though it should 
 not reconcile us to the corruption of God's precious Word, 
 in the smallest particular, it is yet consolatory to know that 
 the way of life, through a crucified Saviour, is not obscured, 
 and the honest inquirer may learn what he must do to be 
 saved. 
 
 ON DEMONS. 
 
 BY JAMES PYPER. 
 
 The cunning and malignity of Satan can never be fully 
 understood in this world ; but enough is revealed in Scrip- 
 ture to assure us that, could we look beyond the seen and 
 sensible, the trail of the serpent is left on every page of his- 
 tory, and his wiles are in operation through the whole course 
 of earthly affairs. In the Christian dispensation, " the mys- 
 tery of iniquity" is the centre of his system. Opposition to 
 the cross of Christ is its leading characteristic : its modifica- 
 tions are innumerable. We can not regard Popery as fully 
 answering the Scriptural description of that mystery in its
 
 185?.] On Demont. 2?5 
 
 ^maturity. Tt may be the highest manifestation of its present 
 •operation ; but the mystery is yet to appear in other and 
 »more awful forms. Paul said in his day, " the mystery of in- 
 iquity doth already work ;" and, from that day, every suc- 
 teeeding generation has witnessed some new characteristic of 
 the predicted abomination. Delusions and corruptions now 
 'multiply around us ; •and though, as yet, the liostility to the 
 <jrospel is found in systems, opinions, and practices, disjointed 
 and various, the day is approaching when they will coalesce 
 and form an infamous wlfole, 'under an infamous head. 
 
 Amid the upheavings of the latter days, the apostle em- 
 phatically warns us of «, manifestation of iniquity wbick 
 seems to correspond with modern Spiritualism, when he says, 
 41 The Spirit speakoth expressly that in the latter t'mes some 
 shall depart from the faith, giving heed to sedT>eing spirits 
 ^nd doctrines of devils" — or, as the Jast word should be 
 Tendered, " demons ;" for, as most of onr readers are aware, 
 the word diabolos, from which our word " devil" is formed, is 
 in Scripture the title ©f the prince of evil spirits, and is 
 siever used in the plural. The others are his emissaries o<r 
 angels, unclean spirits or demons $ and wherever the word 
 u devils" occurs in the New Testament, "-demons" should ba 
 substituted. To clear our way to the discussion of the true 
 character of Spiritualism, it will be necessary to trace the 
 use of this word both in Scripture and in the classics. 
 
 A cheap libera'lity of sentiment has been cultivated among 
 'us, which recognizes the idolatry of the nations as but 'the 
 worship of God nnder different names and symbols — a senti- 
 ment in striking contrast with the tone of Scripture, which 
 -every where regards these false gods with holy contempt and 
 dndignation — speaking of them as " shame," " abominations," 
 " no gods," " stocks," " stones," " vanities," " devils" <or " de- 
 mons." " "What true or tolerable notion of a deity," says 
 Zjocke, "had they who acknowledged and worshipped huR- 
 dreds? Every deity that they owned above one, was a/n 
 'infallible evidence of their ignorance of God, and a proof 
 that they had no true notion of Him. To which, if we ad-d 
 their gross conceptions of conporiety, expressed in their
 
 Tt6 On- 'Dlmonv. jJMajv 
 
 images and representations of their deities, the amours, mar- 
 riages, copulations, lusts, quarrels, and other mean qualities- 
 attributed by them 1 to their gods, we shall have little reason 
 to think that the heathen world — that is, the greatest part 
 of mankind — had any knowledge of God, much less ideas off' 
 Him of which He was ; the author." . 
 
 The truth is, that the language* of Scripturc r which charges 
 the heathen with the worship of demons, would scarcely her 
 disowned by the heathen themselves, though the associations 
 awakened by the word would be very different in the mind 
 of a Jew and of a Gentile-. In Homer, the demons and gods 
 are always regarded as synonymous ; and although the ap- 
 plication of the word was subsequently modified, the identity 
 was never entirely lost sight of. In the writings of the Greek- 
 philosophers, the- demons are an intermediate class of beings* 
 between gods aud men. They are -called gods or evil de- 
 mons — not to- express any essential difference of nature, but 
 as they sent blessings or inflicted chastisement on their vota- 
 ries. The superior gods were not supposed to interfere* 
 directly in the government of the world * and as fear is 
 roach more influential with the mass of men than gratitude., 
 the evil demons soon became the exclusive objects of wor- 
 ship. The deification of heroes was perhaps the first step 
 towards the application of the word " demon " to the souls of 
 the departed. 
 
 Without relinquishing the original meaning of the word, 
 Plato' attached a new idea to it. He frequently styles souls- 
 of men, especially in the disembodied state, demons, with a 
 eonfused reference to the original creation of man in the 
 image of God. This use of the word gradually prevailed — 
 sometimes to the exclusion of the earlier sense. It was- 
 adopted by Josephus. in his zeal to accommodate the pecu- 
 liarities of Judaism to Greek philosophy. " Tnose that we- 
 call demons/' he says in the Jewish Wars, ""are the spirits of 
 wicked men." 
 
 We thus trace three distinct meanings of the word in clas- 
 sical usage — demons were regarded as gods, as interme- 
 diate agents between gods and men r and as the souls of
 
 £857.0 °n Demons. 2T7 
 
 -deceased men. The good and evil demon of Socrates does, 
 iiot enter into this discussion, as he evidently does not refer 
 'to a distinct spiritual being, but to conscience bearing wit- 
 mess for or against us. 
 
 When the word occurs in the Septuagint, or in the New 
 Testament, we might expect that the classical ideas associated 
 •with it would recur, essentially modified by tho belief of a 
 people who worshipped only the one living and true God. 
 Thus, the Canaanitish idols are styled, in the Septuagint, 
 "" demons" — as in the translation of Deuteronomy, xxxii. 17- 
 With direct reference to such passages in the Old Testa- 
 ment, Paul, when reproving the Corinthians for mingling 
 aieatheu rites with Christian ordinances, says, " The things 
 which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and 
 not to God : and I would not that ye should have fellowship 
 with demons-" The apostle evidently includes the greater 
 gods of the Romans under the general term " demons," as 
 well as the host of subordinate deities — the word is used 
 in its Homeric sense. The word was used by the Athenians, 
 also, in a friendly sense, as signifying eome inferior deities, 
 when they said of Paul, " He seemeth to be a setter-forth of 
 strange demons" — in our common version rendered " strange 
 gods." In like manner, Paul, when he addressed tire Atheni- 
 ans on Mars Hill, said, "I perceive that in all things }'-e are much 
 given to demon-worship." This was entirely in accordance 
 with Greek usage, as Zenophon, by a worshipper of demons, 
 means a pious man, and -repeatedly employs the fear of God 
 sand the fear of demons as interchangeable and equivalent ex- 
 pressions. 
 
 The second sense given to the word " demons" in Scrip- 
 ture — if, indeed, it be a second — is that of "malignant 
 spirits. Thus, in the A pochrypha, useful as indicating Jew- 
 ish opinions previous to the birth of Christ, Asmodeus k 
 styled " an evil demoa." In tlie New Testament, they are 
 described as evil spirits, unclean spirits, spirits of wicked- 
 ness. There is, of course, nothing analogous to this use of 
 the word in classic literature ; for the character of their 
 g€ds, taken at the best, did not admit of iJbe idea of any
 
 218 On Demons. [May:, 
 
 order of fallen intelligences more malignant or more polluted 
 than themselves. We have questioned whether this should 
 be spoken of as a second sense, since the Jews evidently coi> 
 sidered that, under the names of Jupiter, Juno, Beelzebub^ 
 and the rest, the heathen worshipped the fallen angels. On 
 this subject, Archbishop Whately remarks: "The gods wor- 
 shipped by the ancient heathen were believed by the Jews', 
 and, indeed, by the early Christians also, to be really exist- 
 ing evil demons. And, indeed, the very name, 4 demons, 7 was 
 applied by the heathen themselves to the beings they wor- 
 shipped. 
 
 "It is true we often find the Jews deriding the heathen fo? 
 what is strictly called ' idolatry' — for worshipping images 
 <af silver, and gold, and wood, and stone, ' the work of man's 
 hands.' But, like all other idolaters, they believed the 
 images- they venerated to be representations or emblems of 
 some really existing beings ; and, what is more, the Jews> 
 whether truly or erroneously, held the same belief: for we 
 find them' speaking, for instance, of L Beelzebub, as the prince 
 of the demons,' and we know that Beelzabub was the Philis- 
 tine god worshipped at Ekron." 
 
 In another place, having referred to the belief in the rea^ 
 existence of these demons, as common to both Jews and 
 Gentiles, he adds: "It was, therefore, quite necessary tha$ 
 this belief should be, in the Christian Scriptures, not wholly 
 passed over, but noticed in some way or other. Supposing 
 the truth to have been, that both parties were under a delu- 
 sion,, and that no such beings as thes€ demons had any exist- 
 ence, except in a distempered imagination, then it would 
 have been requisite distinctly to declare this, en Divine au- 
 thority, and> to* free men's minds fuom all vain hopes, and 
 fears, and superstitious fancies, in that quarter. On the other 
 hand, supposiug somesuch beings to have a real existence — 
 supposing some, even though a few, out of many of the gods 
 worshipped by the heathen — to have agreed, even though 
 only partially, with the real description of actually existing 
 demons ; — supposing this, it was evidently needful that Jesus 
 and his apostles should make some mention of such beings,,
 
 1857.] On Demons. 279 
 
 for the purpose of putting men on their guard against cither 
 being seduced into the worship of them, or any other danger 
 from them ; and, also, for the purpose of dispelling any false 
 terrors, and of giving assurance of Christ's effectual protec- 
 tion and final triumph over these adversaries." In the neces- 
 sity for such a warning, he finds one principal reason for the 
 revelations that are made in the New Testament regarding 
 the Devil and his angels : and it is in this light only that 
 the mythology of the heathen world can be safely or cor- 
 rectly studied. 
 
 The third use of the word " demons," by classical writers, 
 as signifying the souls of the departed, had its origin in the 
 deification of distinguished men after their death ; and we 
 question whether such a use of it is at all sanctioned in Scrip- 
 ture. Many passages have, indeed, been expounded upon this 
 interpretation of the word ; but, arbitrarily, and, as we be- 
 lieve, unfairly. Dr. George Campbell, for example, thus 
 explains the passage in James, " The demons believe and 
 tremble," though the use of the word " demonish" or "devil- 
 ish," in the following chapter, might have led him to a differ- 
 ent sense. The accusation of tin Jews, that our Lord cast 
 out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, appears con- 
 clusive as to the sense in which the word was employed 
 regarding those who were possessed ; and the reply of the 
 Lord evidently sanctions the common understanding as cor- 
 rect, that this possession was by Satan and his emissaries. 
 In like manner, when the seventy returned, saying, " Lord, 
 even the demons are suljcct to us, through thy name," He 
 replies, i; I beheld Satan falling as lightning from heaven." 
 
 It is affirmed, with great confidence, that individuals are in 
 direct communication with spirits in this our nineteenth cen- 
 tury ; and we are under no temptation to deny its possibility. 
 Attempts to explain all the phenomena of Spiritualism, so 
 called, by the operation of natural laws, seem unsatisfactory. 
 The name and status of some of its adherents forbid us to 
 question the facts which they testify, or to pronounce them 
 mere feats of jugglery. The blunders and contradictions c' 
 the alleged spirits do not prove that they arc the imposition^
 
 280 On Demons. [May, 
 
 of bungling performers. If "Washington utters blasphemy in 
 one circle, heathen dreams in another, and perverted Chris- 
 tianity in a third, it proves, indeed, that the spirit of George 
 Washington is not there, but it does not prove that the false- 
 hoods have not a spirit-author in each circle. That men 
 should give heed to seducing spirits, and to the teaching of 
 demons, we are led by the Word of God to expect. If the 
 manifestations should be far more startling than any that 
 have yet been reported, it would only be in accordance with 
 the marvels which are predicted to precede the time of the 
 end. Paul affirms that the coming of the wicked one, or 
 lawless one, is " after the working of Satan with all power, 
 and signs, and lying wonders'" — the last expression referring 
 not to fictitious miracles, but to miracles performed in sup- 
 port of falsehood. The display of supernatural power in sup- 
 port of the pretensions of Anti-christ will be sublime and 
 amazing : " And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh 
 fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, 
 and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by those miracles 
 which he had power to do." The approach of that consum- 
 mation of ungodliness will be marked by multiplying perils 
 and impostures. We must remember that we are fully 
 warned on this point : " For there shall arise false Christs 
 and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, 
 insomuch, that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very 
 elect. Behold, I have told you before." We must not be sup- 
 posed to see, in any thing so bungling and ridiculous as 
 Spiritualism, the fulfillment of these solemn warnings ; but it 
 is a warning to the watchful believer of the quarter from 
 which danger is to be expected.
 
 1857.] The Respectable Sinner. 281 
 
 THE RESPECTABLE SINNER. 
 
 BY JO UN HOGG. 
 
 Though in reality there are but two great divisions of 
 mankind, believers and unbelievers, there are four different 
 classes of men described, in very different language, in the 
 Word of God. with respect to their character and prospects 
 for eternity. Some are openly wicked, and have reached the 
 climax of depravity, in not only doing things worthy of 
 death, but in taking pleasure in those that do them. Others 
 are decidedly on the Lord's side, " the epistles of Christ 
 known and read of all men," to whom, at last, " an entrance 
 shall be ministered abundantly into the everlasting kingdom 
 of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." A third class are 
 thought to occupy an intermediate position between saint and 
 sinner — not "so 2:00 d " as to belong to the former, and vet 
 "too good " to be classed among the latter. There is also a nu- 
 merous class in the community who may have been born again, 
 bnt so many inconsistencies disfigure their conduct, that it is 
 difficult to decide whether they are for Christ or against Him 
 — whether their final home shall be heaven or hell. It is 
 manifest, that of these various kinds of persons, the two' 
 latter classes are most liable to be deceived : and, hence, we 
 intend to devote a short article to a consideration of the 
 pleas, in self-justification, advanced by the third class, and 
 who are generally regarded as respectable sinners. 
 
 It would be altogether false to maintain that all men are 
 equally depraved, and that all the unregenerate are as devoid 
 of honor and integrity as they are of the love and fear of 
 God. Previous to the introduction of the Gospel into the 
 world, the majority of men could distinguish between right 
 and wrong; while some had a keen appreciation of whatsoever
 
 282 The Respectable Sinner. [May, 
 
 tilings are excellent and of good report. Such individuals 
 are well described by Professor Jowett, in his work on the 
 Pauline epistles, who unfortunately labors to destroy the dis- 
 tinction between the Church and the world. " T hey have 
 luirdly any consciousness," says he, " of the peculiar doctrines 
 of the Gospel. They seem to live aloof from them in the 
 routine of business, or of pleasure, 'the common life of all 
 men,' not without a sense of right, and a rule of truth and 
 honesty, yet insensible to what our Saviour meant by taking 
 up the cross and following Him, or what St. Paul meant by 
 being one with Christ. They die without any great fear or 
 lively hope — to the last, more interested about the least con- 
 cerns of this world than about the greatest of another. They 
 have never, in their whole lives, experienced the love of God, 
 or the sense of sin, or the need of forgiveness. Often they 
 are remarkable for the purity of their morals ; many of them 
 have strong and disinterested attachments, and quick human 
 sympathies ; sometimes a stoical feeling of uprightness, or a 
 peculiar sensitiveness to dishonor." 
 
 Such, we freely admit, is a correct description of a large 
 and influential class in the community : and yet, without call- 
 ing in question a single particular in the preceding catalogue 
 of virtues, it is easily demonstrated that a man may possess 
 them all, while he is in " the gall of bitterness and in the 
 bond of iniquity." He may be a good husband, an affection- 
 ate father, and a dutiful child ; his affections may go beyond 
 the limits of his own family, and he may alleviate misery 
 wherever it is to be found, and scatter his bounties with 
 liberal hand; and yet he may "mind only earthly things," and 
 his thoughts may never rise above the surface of the ground 
 on which he treads. He may maintain inviolate the connec- 
 tion that binds man to man, but he may have ruptured the 
 noblest bonds in the universe — the bond that connects man 
 with his Maker — the chain that binds the feebleness of earth 
 to the throne of heaven. Thus, a man may be a good, moral 
 citizen, even while he has " no part in the kingdom of Christ 
 and of God." 
 
 The Scriptures chiefly denounce the wrath of God against
 
 1857.] The Respectable Sinner. 283 
 
 those sinners whom the world deems respectable. They pro- 
 ceed on the assumption that it is of comparatively little use 
 to affirm that the openly ungodly shall he turned into hell, 
 since the natural conscience, if not utterly depraved, acqui- 
 esces in this condemnation. But they draw a picture of the 
 average men and women of society ; those who occupy the 
 extensive border land "between Christ and the world — too 
 good for hell, and not good enough for heaven" — and they 
 affirm, without any modification of their strong language, 
 that such individuals arc hurrying on to a lost and undone 
 eternity ; and this harsh, repulsive doctrine, to the world, is 
 not stated merely once or twice in the sacred volume, when 
 the interpretation is dark and doubtful, nor is it arrived at by 
 a mere process of inferential reasoning, but it occurs in every 
 possible connection, and it is stated with all the impassioned 
 earnestness of truth. 
 
 The Saviour repeatedly affirms, both in parables and in plain 
 language, that the non-moral, as well as the immoral, shall be 
 everlastingly condemned. The tares are so like the wheat, 
 that the servants can not distinguish them, previous to the 
 harvest, and yet they are destined to be bound up in bundles, 
 and cast into the quenchless flames. The servant who hid 
 his talent in the earth was unprofitable, rather than wicked. 
 He neither beat the servants, nor ate and drank with the. 
 drunken ; yet his lord calls him a " wicked and slothful ser- 
 vant," and takes from him the talent which he had neglected. 
 The crime of the invited guest who was bound hand and foot 
 by the servants, and cast into outer darkness, was the v ant 
 of the wedding garment. The sheep and the goats are both 
 within the Church, and they so strongly resemble each other, 
 that none but the shepherd can distinguish them. And in 1he 
 day when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of His glory, 
 those shall be condemned to eternal fire who have simply 
 neglected believers as the members of Christ's mystical body, 
 as well as those who have persecuted and wasted the Church. 
 (Matth. xxv. 41-45.) These impivssive parabolical represen- 
 tations are fully confirmed by plain, direct statements. "He 
 that believeth on him (the Son) is not condemned ; but he
 
 284: The Respectable Sinner. [May, 
 
 that believeth not, is condemned already, because he hath not 
 believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Our 
 Saviour obviously passes by all the higher forms of wicked- 
 ness : He makes no mention of those who disbelieve and those 
 who misbelieve — those who discredit the Divine testimony, 
 and those who have wrongly apprehended its meaning ; but 
 He fixes exclusive attention on the man who believes not. He 
 is condemned already — he is now under tne wrath of God ; 
 and if he merely neglects to lay hold on the Saviour, his 
 present condemnation shall terminate in eternal death. And, 
 as if to show that there is not an inch of neutral ground on 
 which we can stand, and that indifference is real hostility, our 
 Saviour positively affirms, " lie that is not for me, is against ; 
 and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad " — " He 
 that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not 
 worthy of me ;" that is, the man is unworthy of me who en- 
 deavors to serve two masters of opposite principles, and to 
 obtain at the same time the favor of God and the smiles of 
 the world. 
 
 All the sacred writers reiterate the language and tread in 
 the footsteps of their divine Master. The Apostle Paul de- 
 nounces the wrath of God against the children of disobe- 
 dience, as well as against the sons of transgression ; and the 
 voice of neglected love echoes from Calvary, "" If any man 
 love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. The 
 Lord cometh." The want of love to Christ, as well as open 
 hatred, draws down on the guilty head the condemnation of 
 the Gospel. This fearful sentence is perfectly impartial ; it 
 takes in Jew and Gentile, the member of the Church and the 
 man of the world, who does not love the Lord. In the second 
 epistle which Paul wrote, he affirms that the " Lord Jesus 
 shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in 
 flaming fire, taking vengeance on those that know not God, 
 and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 
 Thessalonians i. 7, 8.) And the apostle of the Gentiles 
 solemnly admonishes the Hebrew converts lest they should 
 allow the things which they had heard to slip — silently to 
 escape, as liquor oozes from a leaky vessel. " How shall we
 
 1857.] The Respectable Sinner. 285 
 
 escape, if we neglect so great salvation ? " A mere escape is 
 all that is contemplated, and the crime supposed is not the 
 despising or rejecting, but simply the neglecting of the great 
 salvation. The statement is put in the form of a question , 
 thereby affirming, in the most positive and decided manner, 
 that even a simple escape is utterly impossible — that " the 
 unrighteous shall be turned into hell, and all the people that 
 forget God." " The fearful and the unbelieving,'' as well as the 
 abominable and murderers, and other gross sinners, " shall 
 have their part in the lake which burnetii with fire and brim- 
 stone." 
 
 These passages from the "Word of God — and they are only 
 a small specimen of its current language — conclusively prove- 
 that the respectable citizen who is not converted to God lias- 
 no title whatever to the heavenly inheritance. On this point,, 
 the decision of God is in stern conflict with the judgment of 
 man. But as there can not be a question whose judgment is 
 to decide the controversy — that we are to bow to the de- 
 cisions of God, rather than to the opinion of man — we must 
 solemnly consider the fearful situation of those who arc 
 almost saved, and yet altogether lost. This point is impres- 
 sively illustrated byBunyan, in the concluding paragraphs of 
 the first part of the Pilgrim's Progress. He saw Ignorance, 
 with whom Christian and his companion had several conver- 
 sations, approach the river of death. He experienced little 
 difficulty in crossing, as Vain-hope,, a ferryman, helped him 
 over in his boat. He then boldly went up to heaven's gate, 
 and demanded admission, as a matter of right, and not? at all 
 of grace. But when his certificate was demanded — the fact 
 of his conversion to God — he was speechless, and then the 
 king commanded the two shining ones who conducted Chris- 
 tian and Hopeful to the Celestial City to take him away. 
 " Then they took him up," says this inimitable dreamer, " and 
 carried him through the air to the door that I saw in the- 
 side of the hill, and put him in there ;" this being the by-way 
 to hell, which he had previously seen. " Then I saw that 
 there was a way to hell, even from the gates of heaven as 
 well as from the City of Destruction." Yes ; there is a way
 
 286 Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [May, 
 
 to hell from the Church and the communion-table, as well as 
 from the hall-room and the theatre. Our Lord himself de- 
 scribes the scene from which the one imagined by Bunyan 
 was borrowed. It is the case of a person cleaving to the 
 hope of a blessed immortality, and the delusion remains in 
 its full force, in spite of the searching light of eternity, till 
 the righteous Judge descends from heaven. When the door 
 is shut, some will "knock at the door, saying. 'Lord, Lord, 
 open unto us ;' and he shall answer and say, ' I know you not 
 whence ye are.' Then shall they begin to say, '' We have eaten 
 and drank in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets."' 
 " But he shall say, 'I tell you I know you not whence ye are : 
 depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity." They are then 
 consigned to outer darkness. There let us leave them ; for 
 there is a depth in heli's misery, as well as a height of 
 heaven's glory, which we can not comprehend. 
 
 CHAPTERS FROM AN UNPUBLISHED BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Y JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 In speaking of the theological training on which Archibald 
 now entered, it is a pleasing duty to refer to the life and 
 character of Greville Ewing, who, more than any other man, 
 gave tone and character to the future life of one of his favo- 
 rite pupils. Mr. Ewing was a native of Edinburgh, where 
 his father was a teacher of mathematics, and the author of a 
 refutation of the dcistical writings of Tom Paine. His step- 
 mother, under whose care he was educated, was converted 
 under the preaching of George Whitfield. The family sat
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 287 
 
 under the ministry of Dr. Jones, the devoted minister of 
 Lady Grlenorchy's Oliapel, under whose labors Greville was 
 early brought to a knowledge of the truth ns it is in Jesus. 
 
 He was educated at the High School of Edinburgh — the 
 " Eton" of Scotland — and afterwards at the University of 
 
 his native city where he early distinguished himself as an 
 accomplished scholar. He had a better distinction as a godly 
 man ; and, shortly after his entry upon the work of the min- 
 istry, he was, at the earnest desire of his pastor, chosen asso- 
 ciate minister of Lady Gleuorchy's Chapel. 
 
 We have already spoken of the awful spiritual desolation 
 of the Church of Scotland at this period. In the midst of 
 it the youthful minister, with the cordial approbation of his 
 venerable colleague, entered upon a course of zealous evan- 
 gelical effort. Before any general effort had been made to 
 establish Sunday schools in Edinburgh, he taught a large 
 class of young people — some of whom still survive to bless 
 God for that means of grace. In 1796, the first Missionary 
 Society was formed in Scotland, and Mr. Ewing was ap- 
 pointed its first secretary. His earnest devotion to this 
 movement brought him into intimate relations with the men 
 of God, both in Scotland and England, who were endeavor- 
 ing to stem the overflowing tide of irreligion and infidelity. 
 When these men felt the necessity of establishing a periodi- 
 cal, as a means of intercommunication and of influencing the 
 public mind, lie was selected as the editor, and was the 
 means of establishing The. Missionary Magazine, which has 
 survived to this day. 
 
 Mr. Ewing had married a sister of the late Dr. Innes, 
 mentioned in another article as the minister of Stirling ; and, 
 when on a visit to his brother in-law, was introduced to 
 Eobcrt Haldanc. at Airthrie. When the last-named gentleman 
 had matured his plans of a mission to India, Mr. Ewing was 
 invited to become associated with Mr. Innes and Dr. Bogue 
 in that noble scheme. He at once accepted the invitation, 
 and made preparations for the undertaking — the failure of 
 which has already been narrated. The enkindling of zeal 
 for the salvation of the heathen, though its purpose was tem-
 
 288 Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [May r 
 
 porarily thwarted, had very marked results in efforts for the 
 perishing at home. Godly men became astonished at their 
 former comparative apathy, and they began to feel that the 
 ordinary means of instruction were totally inadequate to meet 
 the spiritual necessities of their country. A conflict arose 
 between compassion for souls and regard for established 
 usages ; and Mr. Ewing was one of the few ministers of the 
 National Church who were determined to hazard all con- 
 sequences to themselves, in making some immediate efforts for 
 the salvation of the perishing. He became the close ally of 
 the Haldanes and John Campbell, in their endeavors to reach 
 the neglected population, and in the Missionary Magazine de- 
 fended their itineracy, and what was styled " lay preaching." 
 " "We scruple not," he says in an editorial, " to express the 
 highest satisfaction in stating to the public, that for some 
 time past the Gospel has been preached in a neighboring vil- 
 lage by some disciples of the Lord Jesus, who, like Apollos r 
 are fervent in spirit, and have no doubt as to the obvious 
 general application of our Saviour's command, to go into all 
 the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." 
 
 The article is not an apology, but a straightforward justi- 
 fication of the course of Captain Haldane, Mr. Campbell, 
 and Mr. Aikman, which had awakened a perfect storm of 
 ecclesiastical indignation, and had excited the fears even of 
 good men, who shrank from thoughts of innovation. The 
 opposition of the Church-courts to these measures for propa- 
 gating the Gospel, weakened his attachment to the Church of 
 Scotland, and led to doubts as to the propriety of national 
 religious establishments. Tfoe formation of " The Society for 
 Propagating the Gospel at Home," provoked more strenuous 
 opposition from the High Church party, and drew the friends 
 of Evangelical truth into closer alliance. Their attention 
 was directed to the evils of a corrupt communion. Inquiries 
 into the primitive constitution of the Church of Christ, 
 followed. And in a short time Mr. Ewing resigned his pas- 
 toral charge, and declined being considered any longer a 
 minister of the Church of Scotland. The trial and sacrifice 
 of this step were greater than can well be understood in this
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 289 
 
 country. To say nothing of the brilliant prospects which he 
 sacrificed, and the deep obloquy which he incurred, the 
 strong attachment of his people, who thenceforth would, for 
 the most part, regard him as an apostate — and the strong 
 hereditary attachment of a pious Scotchman to the Church 
 hallowed by so many heavenly memories, formed obstacles 
 which only the most exalted convictions could have sur- 
 mounted. The pain of the step was alleviated by the assu- 
 rance of respect and confidence from the better portion of 
 the Church he left. 
 
 The Royal Circus at Edinburgh had already been opened 
 as a place of worship, and what has been called the Taber- 
 nacle system was being introduced, with tokens of the Divine 
 blessing ; so that Mr. Ewing at once found a congenial field 
 of labor. The multitudes who crowded to the Circus, the 
 zeal and activity of those engaged in Sunday schools and 
 various other useful institutions, and the intelligence re- 
 ceived from others who had been sent forth on more distant 
 labors, became the ground of thanksgiving and the encour- 
 agement of prayer. In all these activities he bore his part — 
 preaching in the city, and undertaking occasional tours 
 through the country. But his peculiar field of labor was as 
 a theological tutor, upon which he entered in 1799. 
 
 The first class placed under his care, supported by the 
 liberality of Robert Haldane, consisted of twenty-four mem- 
 bers, selected from the different bodies of Presbyterians, 
 The original intention was not to unite them in a new sect, 
 but simply to qualify pious young men to go out into the 
 highways and hedges to preach the Gospel, unconnected with 
 the peculiarities of any denomination. They met in Edin- 
 burgh before a Church had been constituted in connection 
 with the efforts at the Circus ; but, before the termination 
 of their course, they found themselves, without exception, 
 decided Congregationalists. In the formation of the Church, 
 Mr. Ewing exercised a leading influence. One of the ori- 
 ginal members remarks, in a letter to the daughter of Mr. 
 Ewing, who has ably edited his Memoirs, " Opposed as he 
 was, on all occasions, to the half measures of human policy, 
 
 VOL. II. — no. v. s
 
 290 Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [May, 
 
 and reserved to follow the Lord fully, he insisted on follow- 
 ing the truth of God, the whole truth, and nothing but the 
 truth, as taught in the Scriptures, and exemplified in the his- 
 tory of the primitive Churches." 
 
 In a few months, arrangements were made to open the Cir- 
 cus at Glasgow, also, as a place of worship, and Mr. Ewing 
 removed to that city. Many of our readers will be interested 
 in the following notice of the commencement of his labors 
 there, by Andrew Fuller, who, soon after, made his first visit 
 to Scotland, to collect funds for the Baptist Missionary So- 
 ciety : " Mr. Ewing, about ten weeks ago," he remarks, in a 
 journal of that tour, " has opened a very large place of wor- 
 ship : an amazing congregation is gathered, and was gathered 
 the very first Sabbath, and that chiefly from they know not 
 where — from the highways and hedges. The other minis- 
 ters in the town have lost some ; but all speak highly of Mr. 
 Ewing. Dr. Balfour — to his honor be it spoken — having lost 
 one of his friends, and being asked whether it did not affect 
 him, replied, ' That may be the case ; but though it is a loss 
 to me, yet it will be none to him' — meaning his former 
 friend, who now attends Mr. Ewing.'"' In the following year, 
 a Church was constituted on Scriptural principles, which 
 continues to this day — an influential and consistent body, 
 maintaining a faithful testimony to the Gospel. As pastor of 
 this Church, Mr. Ewing prosecuted a long career of useful- 
 ness — contributing many valuable works to our Biblical 
 literature ; among these, a Greek grammar and lexicon, which 
 are not unknown on this side the Atlantic ; and training a 
 great number of young men for the Gospel ministry, through 
 whom his influence has been extended to many lands. 
 
 In 1836 he was afflicted by the loss of his sight, but still 
 continued, with cheerfulness and vigor, to take part in public 
 labors. In 1841 he calmly fell asleep. His daughter, speak- 
 ing of his death bed, says : " Closely and eagerly as we con- 
 tinued to watch him, not one of us could determine the mo- 
 ment of his departure." 
 
 But it is chiefly in his relations to the Theological Semi- 
 nary that we have to do with his memory in this place. The
 
 si 857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 291 
 
 .list class, as we have stated, commenced their studies with 
 3Vlr. Ewing at Edinburgh, and removed with him to Glas- 
 gow. During the last year of their attendance, a second 
 class commenced their studies at Dundee, under Mr. Innes, 
 •who had resigned his charge at Stirling, and left the Estab- 
 lished Church 5 and, in the early part of 1801, this class was 
 removed to Glasgow, and was under Mr. Ewing for fifteen 
 months. A succession of classes was educated by the aid of 
 Messrs. Aikman, Wemyss, Stephens, and Cowie. " The 
 ♦course of study," says Mr. Kinneburgh, " generally extended 
 over two years, with a vacation of six weeks in each year, 
 and embraced English grammar and rhetoric, the elements 
 of Greek and Hebrew ; the last three classes studied Latin 
 in addition, lectures on systematic theology, and essays upon 
 prescribed subjects. Each student, in rotation, delivered 
 sermons before the class — the tutor making his remarks. 
 One day in each week, all wore required to speak in rota- 
 tion, from a passage f «f Scripture prescribed for the purpose, 
 the tutor making concluding observations. The students 
 were supported — had medical attendance, when needed — 
 their education and class books were given them — and they 
 had access to a large and well-selected library ; — all at the 
 expense of Mr. Robert Haldane, Although, in consequence 
 of the urgent demand for laborers, the young men were sent 
 out with more meagre attainments than would have been 
 proper in other circumstances, yet among them there were 
 very many who would have done honor to any of the religious 
 bodies of the day." 
 
 In a note, Mr. Kiuneburgh remarks : " At a moderate cal- 
 culation, it would seem that Mr. Haldane expended upwards 
 >of £80,000 sterling on objects connected with the spread of 
 the Gospel in Scotland," 
 
 Our object in dwelling upon such details is not with the 
 vain hope of interesting readers, at this distance of time and 
 place, in an institution which, in a worldly point of view, 
 Clever attained to eminence, and whose existence has almost 
 -ceased to be remembered on the scene of its humble benefi- 
 <eence. But we are i&ot without -hope that we may thus oon-
 
 292 Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [Maj,. 
 
 tribute a mite to the accumulated wisdom and experience 
 which must speedily be called upon for a solution of the 
 most perplexing question of Christian policy in this land. 
 The more closely the religious condition of our " great 
 West" is scrutinized, the more "Will Christian anxiety be 
 awakened as to the manner in which religious instruction is 
 to be provided for a population which has already extended 
 so far beyond the existing supply of living teachers. The 
 liberal efforts which have been made, of late years, to pro- 
 mote the endowment of colleges and theological institutions, 
 afford little promise of furnishing either the kind of educa- 
 tion or the number of laborers which the field requires. And 
 we shall speedily be reduced to the alternative of adopting 
 new measures to recruit the ranks of a Gospel ministry 
 thinned by other enemies than death, or a vast extent of 
 territory must be resigned to darkness and irreligion, while 
 many Churches already existing must be left to languish and 
 die. 
 
 The course of education provided by Mr. Haldane for the 
 young men who afterwards, by God's blessing, accomplished 
 so much at home and abroad, was in itself sufficiently slender. 
 Evidently, the astonishing results and the efficiency of the 
 laborers introduced through the Seminary into the Evangeli- 
 cal field, point us to something beyond itself for an adequate 
 explanation. It will be remembered, though the young men 
 who entered it were called away from the loom, the plough, 
 and the counting-house, they had already made great progress 
 in that knowledge which was of most importance to them in 
 their new calling. Take the case of the subject of these 
 memoirs as an instance. He had been trained at the knees 
 of a godly mother. Before he was five years of age, he had 
 read the Bible, not as a mere exercise in the art of reading, 
 nor as a mere religious form, but as a subject of interesting 
 conversation and reflection ; for his mother took daily pains 
 to engage the attention of her children with its contents. 
 She encouraged their questions and solved their difficulties. 
 Before his conversion, at twelve years of age, he was familiar 
 with its contents, and had stored his mind with its treasures.
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 293 
 
 Upon his conversion, this acquaintance with the letter of the 
 Word, which had lain dead in his mind, was immediately 
 turned to account, and laid the foundation of an earnest 
 study of its sanctifying truth. In meetings where Christians 
 sought, not the cheap luxury of pious emotion and excite- 
 ment, but mutual edification in the truth, he had, from boy- 
 hood, been accustomed to plain and experimental illustrations 
 of it. He had even been encouraged to speak, and, there- 
 fore, to think and mature his views, both of doctrine and 
 duty. On his removal to Glasgow, he had been introduced 
 into circles pervaded by a vigorous and enlightened piety. 
 The happy influenoes of " the fellowship meeting " still sur- 
 rounded him; and he sat under preaching, the great distinction 
 of which was its lucid expositions of Scripture. From his 
 fifteenth year, he had conducted a Sunday school, upon a 
 plan which rendered the careful study of the Scriptures abso- 
 lutely indispensable on the part of the teacher. He had 
 mingled extensively in Christian society, where conversation 
 turned chiefly on Scriptural themes. He had engaged in 
 active efforts to advance the knowledge of the truth during 
 his business tours. And now, when, at twenty, he entered 
 the Seminary, he was an experienced Christian, an intelli- 
 gent man, and, in one sense, a mature theologian. 
 
 In all this he was but a fair specimen of his class. The 
 domestic training, the religious associations, the public in- 
 struction, the habits of patient study, and the Christian ex- 
 perience which fittod him to enter on a course of preparatory 
 studies for the ministry, were common to them all. And the 
 possession of the knowledge and character which Mr. Camp- 
 bell found in him, was the regular qualification for admis- 
 sion. By private study, he had already acquired a respectable 
 knowledge of the Latin language, and the rudiments of 
 Greek. Most of his fellow-students had made, at least, 
 equal attainments ; for the system of parochial schools in 
 Scotland, though in some respects defective, afforded, in most 
 parishes, the opportunity of a classical education to the chil- 
 dren of the peasantry. What the Seminary really did foi* 
 such young men during a two years' course, was to reduce to
 
 294 Chapters from an Unpublished Bio graplty. [May,. 
 
 order the rich stores of knowledge they had already accumu- 
 lated, to furnish them with the aids of experience in the direc- 
 tion of their future studies — to cultivate correct habits of 
 study, composition, and delivery — and, generally, to intro- 
 duce them to the various functions of the Evangelist's office. 
 
 The system pursued was, evidently, most judicious. It 
 maintained and promoted spirituality and practical godliness- 
 among the students. The studies were not merely profes- 
 sional, but practical and experimental. Divine truth was not 
 treated as a mere science for the exercise of the intellect, but 
 as living and mighty doctrine for the sanitification of the 
 heart. The young preachers were not encouraged to affect 
 artificial brilliancy and florid ornament, to attract genteel 
 audiences in prominent positions ; but were taught to aim at 
 plain, pungent, and searching exhibitions of the Gospel, with 
 a view to reach the hearts and consciences of perishing men. 
 All they studied bore directly upon their preparation to ex- 
 pound the Scriptures, edify the Church, and convince the- 
 world. And what they studied, they studied thoroughly. 
 Their instructors did not aim to carry men superficially over 
 the range of a university curriculum, and send forth smat- 
 terers and pretenders to astonish the ignorant with their 
 learning, and make the learned sad with their ignorance.. 
 They aimed to send forth plain, earnest Scriptural preach- 
 ers, not with excellency of speech and wisdom, but in humility 
 and love, to hold forth Christ and Him crucified. 
 
 These were precisely the men we need to go out and labor 
 among our Western population, to bring up the standard 
 of Christian doctrine and piety in our decaying Churches, and,, 
 through God r s blessing, to* work a thorough and lasting; 
 revival of religion. But, if we were to recommend the adop.- 
 tion of a similar system of training here, a grand obstacle- 
 would present itself in the very condition of things in our- 
 Churches, which it would be designed to remedy. The pre- 
 vailing piety is too low to furnish the requisite number of 
 men of vigor and earnestness, who would resist all the allure- 
 ments of wealth and honor, and press on to the post of 
 humble service. And even were the requisite number fun-
 
 1857.] On the Final Divisions of the Roman Empire. 295 
 
 nishcd, they would be found to come far short of the knowl- 
 edge and experience which would enable them to avail them- 
 selves of the advantages of the system. . We must begin at 
 the beginning. There must be a different order of family 
 instruction, a different mode of dealing with the young mem- 
 bers of our Churches, and a prodigious advance both in the 
 devotion and intelligence of our Churches, before they can 
 become nurseries of evangelists and teachers. Unless God, 
 in mercy, shall lead us to a great reformation in the whole 
 administration of the Churches, where will twenty-five years 
 of the present state of things leave the Western States? Yet, 
 if the infant Churches which had been planted by t lit Hal - 
 danes and their associates could furnish two hundred voung 
 men in the space of five or six years, and send them forth so 
 well equipped for evangelical service, what might not be 
 expected from our hundreds of thousands in these United 
 States, were they walking in the fear of God and the comfort 
 of the Holy Spirit ? 
 
 ON THE FINAL DIVISIONS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 It is the merest fiction of carnal pride to suppose that the 
 human race has been gradually elevating itself from a state 
 of primitive barbarity, and that now, in an advanced stage 
 of civilization, it is hastening to the goal of universal liberty, 
 virtue, enlightenment, and happiness. All history refutes 
 the boast as to the past ; and, revelation apart, there are 
 thinkers of this world who can look through the sclf-llattery 
 of the superficial idolaters of the present. " One of the in- 
 evitablest private miseries to an earnest man, in such circum-
 
 296 On the Final Divisions of the Roman Empire. [May, 
 
 stances," says Carlyle, " is this multitudinous efflux of oratory 
 and psalmody from the universal foolish human throat, drown- 
 ing, for the moment, all reflection whatever, except the sor- 
 rowful one that you arc fallen upon an evil, heavy-laden, 
 long-eared age, and must resignedly Lear your part in the 
 same. The front wall of your wretched old crazy dwelling, 
 long denounced by you to no purpose, having, at last, fairly 
 folded itself over and fallen prostrate into the street, the 
 floors, as may happen, will still hang on by the mere beam- 
 ends and coherency of old carpentry, though in a sloping 
 direction, and depend there till certain rusty nails and worm- 
 eaten dove-tailing give way. But is it cheering, in such cir- 
 cumstances, that the whole household burst forth into cele- 
 brating the new joys of light and ventilation, liberty and 
 picturesqueness of position, and thank God that now they 
 have got a house to their mind ?" And what this gifted world- 
 seer groans out regarding the flimsy boast of a self-sufficient 
 age, has its application to the equally flimsy boast of a self- 
 sufficient Church, which says, " I am rich and increased with 
 goods, and have need of nothing" — not knowing that it is 
 wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. 
 
 If we mistake not, the experience of the past few years has 
 tended to awaken suspicion in the minds of philanthropists 
 of comprehensive views, regarding the present aspect and 
 immediate prospects of the civilized world. Twenty years 
 ago, the advocates of Christian missions and the promoters 
 of philanthropic institutions were exchanging their congratu- 
 lations on the prospect of the speedy recognition of the equal 
 rights of mankind, the overthrow of despotism, and the uni- 
 versal reign of intelligence and virtue. The more sanguine 
 did not hesitate to say that the millennial day was dawning. 
 There was a general impression that the barbarous arts of 
 war belonged to the humbling memories of the past, and that 
 the world had outgrown the hideous infatuation. The bitter 
 lessons of the past, the palpable interests of the present, and 
 the dawning hopes of the future, seemed alike to rebuke the 
 fear that the world's peace could again be broken. The 
 events of the past few years have done much to disenchant
 
 1857.] On the Final Divisioyis of the Roman Empire. 297 
 
 that dream ; and if there be a disposition to revive old hopes 
 in the present lull and breathing-space, when the nations 
 which have scarcely wiped the sword from recent carnage 
 are boasting of peace, amity, and prosperity, it must be ob- 
 served that the sky is still gathering blackness, and it must 
 be remembered that the atmosphere is never so still as just 
 before the bursting forth of the wildest storm. 
 
 Men of enlarged views and intelligence, for the most part, 
 look with apprehension to the immediate future of earthly 
 history, and feel that we arc on the eve of some vast and 
 decisive convulsion, which is to introduce a new era in the 
 history of human progress. And when human sagacity is 
 vainly calculating the years of darkness and toil through 
 which man may travel back again from the point to which 
 the storm will carry him, or despondingly picturing the dis- 
 mal spectacle which the scathed and bleeding earth will 
 present when the struggle is over, or with profane and rebel- 
 lious impatience demanding if there is to be no peace until a 
 groaning creation sleeps the sleep of eternal oblivion and 
 nothingness, Revelation lifts up the exulting voice of hope, 
 amid all the gloom ; and even when there is upon the earth 
 distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves 
 roaring, men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking 
 upon those things that are coming upon the earth, it calls 
 aloud to the believer, " Then look up, and lift up your heads, 
 for your redemption draweth nigh." 
 
 There is nothing more clear in the word of God than that 
 a millennium awaits the Church — nothing more certain than 
 that this earth, redeemed from the curse, shall yet be the seat 
 of a glorious reign of peace, and purity, and love. It is sure 
 as the Eternal Throne that God will give to His Son the 
 heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the 
 earth for a possession. But nothing could be more incon- 
 sistent with the teachings of Scripture than to suppose that 
 Christianity is to triumph through the instrumentality of 
 an apostate Church, or that the millennium is to be intro- 
 duced on the " triumphant car of modern enlightenment." 
 The present dispensation is every where described as ending
 
 298 On the Final Divisions of the Roman Empire. [May, 
 
 in corruption and ruin ; and the triumph of Christ and His 
 Church is to be brought about, not peacefully, or by man's 
 submission to the Gospel of God's grace, but by the execu- 
 tion of terrible judgments upon the ungodly nations. No 
 passage is more commonly or more justly quoted, in proof of 
 Christ's triumph, than the assurance of the Father in the 
 second Psalm, already referred to — " Ask of me, and I will 
 give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost 
 parts of the earth for a possession." But how are the rights 
 of this insulted and rejected Sovereign made good? " Thou 
 shalt break them with a rod of iron ; thou shalt dash them in 
 pieces, like a potter's vessel." This is in harmony with all 
 the predictions of Messiah's glory and the blessedness of 
 His reign. Thus, in Psalm xcvi., when the earth is summoned 
 to universal joy and praise, in view of the universal bless- 
 ings of His reign, He is represented as coming, but coming 
 to judgment. In Isaiah xi., where the happy days that await 
 this groaning earth are depicted, He is represented as usher- 
 ing in these days of peace and blessing by His strange acts 
 of judgment : " And he shall smite the earth with the rod of 
 his mouth ; and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the 
 wicked." But, it is unnecessary to multiply quotations in 
 proof of what runs throughout the whole book of prophecy, 
 that, after His long forbearance with the guilty nations, He 
 will " put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and 
 cover himself with zeal as a cloak. According to their 
 deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries, re- 
 compense to his enemies : to the islands he will repay recom- 
 pense. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the 
 west, and his glory from the rising of the sun." The judg- 
 ments of the Lord every where introduce the millennium. 
 
 We have, in a previous article, adverted to the familiar 
 truth that the whole course of Gentile sovereignty, from its 
 commencement to its termination by the just judgment of 
 God, is traced in the prophetic visions of the great image 
 and the four beasts of Daniel. These predictions span the 
 whole period from Nebuchadnezzar till the coming of Christ 
 in the clouds, with power and great glory. Daniel's inter-
 
 1857.] On the Final Divisions of the Roman Empire. 200 
 
 pretation of the vision of Nebuchadnezzar thus concludes : 
 "And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven 
 set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed ; and the 
 kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break 
 in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand 
 forever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was 
 cut out of the mountains without hands, and that it break in 
 pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold • 
 the great God hath made known to the king what shall come 
 to pass hereafter ; and the dream is certain, and the interpre- 
 tation thereof sure." It can scarcely fail to strike the con- 
 siderate reader that here, as in all the other passages quoted 
 and referred to, a work of awful judgment and destruction 
 precedes the establishment of a glorious and everlasting king- 
 dom. 
 
 We do not pause here to show, at length, the inconsistency 
 of this representation with those speculations which under- 
 stand the stone of the vision to symbolize the Gospel gradu- 
 ally and peacefully spreading, till the whole world is brought 
 into the Church. The fact that the stone was cut out of the 
 mountain without hands, evidently excludes all thoughts of 
 human agency and ordinary instrumentalities. But, further, 
 the stone is not seen, during the supremacy of the fourth em- 
 pire, slowly increasing, and, as it increases, changing the 
 character of the image, as those speculations imply ; but, in 
 the divided state of the empire, the stone smites the image, 
 and it is completely destroyed. " The iron, the clay, the 
 brass, the silver, and the gold, arc broken to pieces 
 together, and become like the chaff of the summer threshing 
 floors, and the wind carried them away, and no place was 
 found for them" — language which forcibly recalls the pre- 
 diction of the second Psalm ; and it is then, when the over- 
 throw and destruction are complete, that " the stone that 
 smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the 
 whole earth." 
 
 Without resorting to human reasoning and the aids of 
 secular history, we can learn from the Scriptures what were 
 the four universal empires represented in these visions. As
 
 300 On the Final Divisions of the Roman Empire. [May, 
 
 to the first, Daniel announced to Nebuchadnezzar, " Thou art 
 the head of gold.' 7 As to the second, Daniel relates how the 
 king of the Chaldeans was slain, and Darius, the Mede, took 
 the kingdom. As to the third, Daniel saw the he-goat in his 
 vision smite the ram, and " cast him down to the ground, and 
 stamp upon him ; and there was none that could deliver the 
 ram out of his hand." And when he sought for the meaning 
 of the vision, he was informed, " The ram which thou sawest 
 having two horns are the keys of Media and Persia, and the 
 rough goat is the king of Grecia." As to the fourth, we read 
 in Luke of a decree which went out from Caesar Augustus, 
 " that all the world should be taxed" — and as there are but 
 four universal monarchies, this which exercises a sovereignty 
 over " all the world," the Roman empire, must be that which 
 succeeded the Grecian. "We have, then, determined, beyond 
 all cavil, that the successive monarchies under which Gentile 
 supremacy was to be maintained, are Babylon, Persia, Greece, 
 and Rome ; and, beyond these, there can be no fifth univer- 
 sal monarchy, till the kingdoms of this world become the 
 kingdom of the Lord and His Christ. 
 
 The fourth kingdom is not subverted, like the others, but 
 is at last divided, and in its divided state it is described as 
 partly strong and partly brittle — the iron is mixed with 
 clay. The divisions are represented in the vision of Nebu- 
 chadnezzar by the toes of the image ; and although nothing 
 is there said of the number, we find the same division repre- 
 sented by the ten horns of the fourth beast ; and, in the in- 
 terpretation of it, we are informed. " The ten horns out of 
 this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise." As it is in 
 the days of these kings that the God of heaven shall set up a 
 kingdom, it becomes a question of deep importance to us — 
 Who are these ten kings, and have they yet arisen ? The 
 common answer to this question is, as we have shown else- 
 where, unsatisfactory. Nor is there any thing approaching 
 to general consent in naming any ten kingdoms. But what 
 chiefly lies as an objection against any of the common enume- 
 rations is, that they leave out altogether one of the great divi- 
 sions of the Roman empire. In both of the visions — that of
 
 1857.] On the Final Divisions of the Roman Empire. 801 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar and that of Daniel — it is manifestly not a 
 part, but the whole, of the empire that is contemplated in the 
 division ; and, in the former, the two branches of the em- 
 pire — the East and the West — arc plainly referred to in 
 the symbol of the two legs of the image. As we arc in- 
 structed, moreover, by the symbol of the toes, five of tliose 
 kingdoms shall be found in the Eastern, and five in the 
 "Western empire. We conclude, therefore, not only that no 
 enumeration which has been given of the ten kingdoms, as 
 lying in Europe, can be correct, but that the division con- 
 templated in the prophecy has not yet taken place. By the 
 terms of the prediction, it is a division which is to be found 
 only in the last and closing scene of earthly sovereignty. 
 
 In a former article, we pointed out the distinction between 
 the Eastern and Western empire as a radical one. The dis- 
 tinction has been perpetuated by the influence of the Latin 
 Church in the West ; and, in the East, first by the Greek 
 Church, and then by the domination of the Turks — so that 
 to-day it is marked in the geography of the region included 
 within the power of the image. Events are tending, first, to 
 a segregation of those nations which are included in that 
 region from all extraneous alliances ; and, next, to a redistri- 
 bution of empire among them, which we may anticipate will 
 result in the tenfold kingdom, distinct, but yet connected, 
 on which the stroke of judgment shall descend. 
 
 The preparation for that re-distribution is most apparent 
 in the East ; and, in providence as in prophecy, it is not 
 dimly indicated that the approaching distribution will have 
 reference to Palestine, as a centre. The Jews are looking 
 towards their own land. For the first time since their dis- 
 persion, Jews are cultivating its soil. The conviction is 
 settling in the minds of men that the establishment of an in- 
 dependent State there is essential, not only to the prosperity 
 of those regions, so long desolated by Turkish misrule, but 
 also for the peace of the world. When this conviction be- 
 comes effective, and security of person and property is guar- 
 anteed to them, no one doubts that the scattered race will 
 flock to Jerusalem. Their return would at once introduce
 
 302 07t the Final Divisions of the Roman Empire. [May, 
 
 into the East immense wealth and almost unrivalled commer- 
 cial enterprise, and would immediately be followed by a 
 fresh civilization spreading over all those seats of darkness. 
 The thought may well awaken enthusiasm ; but that enthu- 
 siasm must soon be checked by a reference to the picture 
 which the pen of revelation has drawn of the iniquity which 
 is there to reach a head, and the judgments which are to fol- 
 low both upon Jews and Gentiles. 
 
 In the eighth chapter of Daniel, we have a vision which 
 throws abundant light upon the course of events in the re- 
 gion and the period of which we speak. It describes Alex- 
 ander's rapid conquests, and predicts the fourfold division 
 of his empire. And then, overleaping the revolutions of so 
 many centuries, it tells what is to take place " in the latter 
 time of their kingdom, when the transgressions are come to 
 the full," " in the last days of the indignation." We are spe- 
 cially cautioned against attempting the application of these 
 predictions to any earlier events by the charge to Daniel, 
 " Understand, son of man, for at the time of the end shall 
 be the vision. 7 ' We conclude, therefore, that these four 
 divisions of the Macedonian empire will constitute four out 
 of the ten kingdoms — that is to say, Greece, Syria, Egypt, 
 and the remaining part of Turke}\ 
 
 The great burthen of this prophecy is the appearance of 
 " a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sen- 
 tences" — of mighty power, who shall direct his destructive 
 energies against the Jews, restored to their own land, in un- 
 belief and still beneath the judgments of God — of singular 
 craft and policy, and a singular pride — who, by peace, shall 
 destroy many nations, and shall also stand up against the 
 Prince of princes. No stretch of ingenuity can make this de- 
 scription apply to any person or power that has existed ; and 
 especially in the last-mentioned circumstance do we discern 
 the characteristic mark of the Anti-christ. One can scarcely 
 read it without being reminded of the little horn of a pre- 
 vious vision that came up among the ten, before whom three 
 horns fell — " even of that horn that had eyes and a mouth 
 that spake very great things, whose look was more stout thaa
 
 1857.] Poetry and the Pulpit. 303 
 
 his fellows ; who made war with the saints and prevailed 
 against them, until the ancient of days came." Other de- 
 scriptions of that lawless one will at once suggest themselves 
 — the dark image, which casts its baneful shade over the 
 closing hours of this guilty and groaning creation. 
 
 We can not prosecute this important theme, but leave these 
 imperfect suggestions to our readers, with the hope that they 
 may be induced to review previous conclusions regarding the 
 character and seat of Anti-christ, as well as the European di- 
 visions of the iron kingdom — firmly convinced that a correc- 
 tion of our interpretations of these visions, will let in a flood 
 of light upon the whole book of unfulfilled prophecy. 
 
 POETRY AND THE PULPIT. 
 
 In glancing through the slight biographical sketches in Dr. 
 Aikin's British Poets, and the continuation of that work, ex- 
 tending from Ben Jonson to Croly, we had the curiosity to 
 note the number of instances in which it appeared that the 
 poets of England were either clergymen or the sons of clergy- 
 men. The number of authors comprised in the collection is 
 seventy-three ; and of these, sixteen are the sons of ministers, 
 fourteen were themselves in what are called holy orders, be- 
 sides Milton, who abandoned the design of entering the cleri- 
 cal profession. The parentage of a number of the authors is 
 not mentioned ; so that, possibly, the list of clergymen's sons 
 might be increased. 
 
 Ben Jonson was the posthumous son of a clergyman in 
 Westminster, where he was born in 1574, about a month 
 after his father's decease. 
 
 Milton originally intended to enter the Church, but re- 
 nounced his intention when, "coming to some maturity of 
 years, he perceived what tyranny had invaded it." 
 
 John Philips was the son of an archdeacon of Salop. 
 
 Thomas Parncll took deacon's orders in 1700, and was
 
 30-i Poetry and the Pulpit. [May, 
 
 ordained priest three years after. In 1705, he was presented 
 to the archdeaconry of Cloghcr, and subsequently received 
 other valuable livings in the Church. 
 
 Joseph Addison was the son of a clergyman in Wiltshire. 
 
 Thomas Tick ell was the son of a clergyman in Cumberland. 
 
 Jonathan Swift was dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin, at his 
 death. 
 
 James Thomson was one of the nine children of Rev. Mr. 
 Thomson, minister of the parish of Ednam, in Scotland. 
 
 John Dyer took orders and held a living, first in Leicester- 
 shire, and afterwards in Lincolnshire. 
 
 Charles Churchill succeeded his father as curate of St. 
 ' John, Westminster. 
 
 Edward Young was the only son of the Rector of Upham, 
 and himself held a rectory in Hertfordshire. 
 
 Oliver Goldsmith was the son of a clergyman in Ireland. 
 
 John Armstrong was the son of the parish minister of 
 Castleton, in Scotland. 
 
 Joseph Wharton, himself a doctor of divinity, was the son 
 of the Vicar of Basingstoke. 
 
 Thomas Wharton was a younger brother of the preceding. 
 
 William Mason was the son of a clergyman in Hull, and 
 became rector of Hull and a royal chaplain. 
 
 William Cowper was the son of Rev. Dr. Cowper, rector 
 of a parish in Hertfordshire. 
 
 Mrs. Barbauld was the daughter of Dr. Aikin, and the 
 wife of the Rev. Rochemont Barbauld. 
 
 George Crabbc was rector of Trowbridge. 
 
 James Graham held a living at Sedgewick, near Durham. 
 
 William L. Bowles was the son of the Vicar of King's 
 Sutton, and obtained some preferment in the English Church. 
 
 Henry H. Milman is described as an eloquent preacher 
 and a zealous clergyman. 
 
 Leigh Hunt is the son of a clergyman of the Church of 
 England. 
 
 Robert Pollock was a preacher of the United Presbyte- 
 rian Church in Scotland. 
 
 George Croly is rector of St. Stephen's, Walbrook.
 
 1857.] Aids to the Study of the Apocalypse. 30.5 
 
 AIDS TO THE STUDY OF THE APOCALYPSE. 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 O'- 
 er 
 
 It is an unspeakable calamity when the truth, or any thin 
 affecting it, becomes involved in party dissensions r so that 
 men can no longer regard it on its own merits. This has, 
 unhappily, occurred with the translation of the Scriptures 
 into English. Many hearts have been made sad by vain and 
 presumptuous utterances on either side of a discussion regard- 
 ing the revision of our authorized version, which, from our 
 own shores, has extended to England. With that contro- 
 versy we do not intermeddle ; and we beg that the present 
 humble contribution to the more exact study of the Apoca- 
 lypse may not be viewed in that connection. 
 
 We present not a new translation, but a revision of the 
 old, with whose familiar phraseology there is no unnecessary 
 interference. We should rather style the present a revised 
 revision, since the basis of it was completed seven years ago, 
 and was then designed to exhibit the results obtained by the 
 most careful editors, in approaching as closely as possible to 
 the very words of inspiration. Within this period, impor- 
 tant contributions have been made to our critical apparatus. 
 We gladly embrace this opportunity of bearing testimony to- 
 the learning, judgment, and elegance of a revision executed 
 by the Rev. John Lillie, D.D., New York, for the American 
 Bible Union — a work which, probably, the dissensions alluded 
 to have defrauded of its well-merited consideration. For 
 ourselves, such is the estimation in which we hold it, that in a 
 verbal comparison of this version with it, we have felt that 
 we must have a good reason for differing from it in any in- 
 stance. Dr. Lillie, we believe, has a great work to perform 
 
 vol. ii. — no. v. T
 
 30G Prefatory Note. [May, 
 
 in this department, and both the scholarship and the piety of 
 this land will yet gratefully acknowledge his distinguished 
 services. 
 
 In the discussions which have been unwisely provoked, the 
 popular mind has probably received an exaggerated impres- 
 sion of the errors and defects of the common version. One 
 tendency of such a publication as this will be to correct that 
 impression. The amendments here proposed may not seem 
 numerous — and, in many instances, may not be thought im- 
 portant — yet, there are no readings of the Greek text by 
 recent editors, and no suggestions of recent translators of 
 any weight, that have not been fairly considered. Extrava- 
 gant expectations have been cherished of the aid of revision 
 to the ordinary reader of the Bible, as though it were to 
 excavate a royal road to Scriptural knowledge. The num- 
 ber and nature of our corrections may, therefore, occasion 
 disappointment : rather let it awaken gratitude, that God has 
 so graciously guarded His Word, that no important truth has 
 been lost, and no fatal perversion introduced. The true and 
 earnest student will regard no amendment as trivial, which 
 leads to a more accurate knowledge of a book bringing 
 assurances of blessing to those who read, hear, and keep its 
 sayings. 
 
 We designed to give authorities for the changes in brief 
 foot-notes ; but it has been thought that they would encum- 
 ber the page, without being of any use to the mass of our 
 readers. The customary divisions of chapters and verses, 
 which mar the intelligent perusal of the book, are omitted. 
 We have marked the natural and grammatical divisions, in 
 its distinct epistles and visions ; but it will be remembered 
 that such marks are of no authority. In one or two instances, 
 Greek words which can not be translated will sound harshly 
 to the English reader. For example : The common version 
 of Chap. vi. 6 — " A measure of wheat for a penny, and three 
 measures of barley for a penny''" — conveys to the English 
 reader the impression of a period of great plenty, while the 
 original describes a severe famine ; the chcenix containing only 
 a little more than a quart, and the denarius being an adequate
 
 1857.] Revelation. 307 
 
 remuneration for a day's labor. We have, therefore, retained 
 these words, following the example of Dr. Lillie and some of 
 the most judicious translators. 
 
 REVELATION. 
 
 THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST, WHICH GOD GAVE TO HIM, TO 
 SHOW TO HIS SERVANTS THINGS WHICH MUST COME TO PASS SHORTLY ; 
 AND SENDING BY HIS ANSEL, HE SIGNIFIED IT TO HIS SERVANT 
 JOHN, WHO TESTIFIED THE WORD OF GOD, AND THE TESTIMONY OF 
 JESUS CHRIST, WHATSOEVER THINGS HE SAW. 
 
 BLESSED IS HE THAT READETH, AND THEY THAT HEAR THE WORDS OF 
 THE PROPHECY, AND KEEP THE THINGS THEREIN WRITTEN : FOR THE 
 TIME IS AT HAND. 
 
 JOHN, to the Seven Churches that are in Asia : Grace to you and 
 peace from Him who is, arid who was, and who is coming ; and from 
 the seven Spirits who are before His throne; and from Jesus Christ, 
 the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Prince of the 
 kings of the earth. 
 
 To Him that loveth us, and hath washed U8 from our sins in His own 
 blood ; and He made us kings and priests to His God and Father : to 
 Him he the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 
 
 Behold, He is coming with the clouds 5 and every eye shall see Him, 
 and those who pierced Him : and all the tribes of the earth shall wail 
 because of Him. Even so, Amen. 
 
 I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, who is, and who 
 was, and who is coming, the Almighty. 
 
 I, JOHN, your brother and partner in the tribulation, and in the 
 kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called 
 Patmos, because of the word of God, and because of the testimony 
 of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day ; and I heard 
 behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, "What thou seest, 
 write in a book, and send to the seven Churches ; to Ephesus, and to 
 Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to 
 Philadelphia, and to Laodicea." And I turned to see the voice which
 
 $08 Revelation: [May, 
 
 was speaking with me : and having turned, I saw seven golden lamp- 
 stands ; and, in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, 
 dad with a garment descending to the feet, and girt about at the 
 breasts with a golden girdle. His head and hair were white, as 
 white wool, as snow ; and his eyes as a lame of fire ; and his feet like 
 burnished brass, a3 if they glowed in a furnace ; and his voice as the 
 voice of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars r 
 and out of his mouth issued a sharp two-edged sword ; and his coun- 
 tenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I 
 fell at his feet, as dead ; and he laid his right hand upon me, saying,, 
 u Pear not. I am< the First, and the Last, and the Living One : and 
 I was dead, and, behold, I an* alive for evermore : and I have the 
 keys of Death and of Hades-. Write, therefore, the things which: 
 thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall 
 come to- pass after these ; the mystery of the seven stars which thou.i 
 sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands. The 
 seven stars are the angels of the seven Churches, and the seven lamp- 
 stands are the seven Churches. 
 
 " To tss Angel of the Church jn Ephesus,. write : 
 
 "These things saith He who holdeth the seven stars in His righft 
 hand, who walketh m the midst of the seven golden lampstands ■ I 
 know thy works, and thy toil, and thy patience, and that thou canst 
 not bear the wicked ; and hast tried those that call themselves apostles r 
 and are not, and hast found them liars : and hast patience, and hast 
 borne for my name sake, and art not wearied out. But I have against 
 thee that thou hast left thy first love. Remember, therefore, from 
 whence thou hast fallen, and repent and do the first works ; or else I 
 am coming to thee quickly, and will remove thy lampstand out of 
 its place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest 
 the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate. He that hath an 
 ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches r To him 
 that overcometh will I give to> eat of the tree of life which is in the 
 paradise of God. 
 
 " And to the Angel of the Church in Smyrna, write : 
 
 "These things saith the First and the Last, who was dead and did 
 live : I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty (but thou arti
 
 ! 1857.] ftevekfion. 30$ 
 
 rrich), and the reviling of those who say that they are Jews, and 
 are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear not the things which 
 *thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall east some of you into prison, 
 -that ye may be tried ; and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be 
 thou faithful until death, and J will give thee the crown of life. He 
 that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches : 
 He that overoemeth shall not be hurt by the second death. 
 
 " And to the Angel of ; the Ghurch in Pbrgamos, write : 
 
 " These things saith He who hath the sharp two-edged sword : 1 
 iknow thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where the throne of 
 Satan is: and theu holdest my name, and didst not ■ deny my faith 
 *even in those days wherein Antipa6, that faithful witness of mine, was 
 drilled among you, Where £atan dwelleth. But I have a few things 
 .against thee, because thou hast there some who hold the doctrine of 
 .Balaam, wh© taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the chil- 
 • dren of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit forni- 
 cation : so hast thou, also, some that hold the doctrine of the Kico- 
 ;Iaitanes, in like manner. Bepent, therefore ; or else I am coming 
 *&o thee quickly, and will fight with them with the sword of my 
 .-mouth. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith t© 
 the Churches : To him that overcometh will I give of the hidden 
 manna, and will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name 
 'written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it. 
 
 "And to che Angel of the Csurch in Thyatira, write: 
 
 " These things saith the Son of Crod, who hath His eyes as a flame 
 -of fire, and His feet are like burnished brass : I know thy works, and 
 love, and faith, and service, and thy (patience ; and thy last works to 
 be more than the first. But I have against thee that thou sufferest the 
 woman Jezebel, who ealleth herself a prophetess, to teach and deceive 
 my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to 
 idols. And I gave her space to 'repent, and she is not willing to 
 rTepent of her fornication. Behold, I cast her into a bed, and those 
 who commit fornication with her, into great tribulation, unless they 
 repent of her deeds. And I will kill her children with death ; and 
 all the Churches shall know that I am He who searcheth the reins and 
 hearts : and I will give ^io every one of jou according to his works.
 
 310 Revelation. [May, 
 
 But to you I say, and to the rest that are in Thyatira, whosoever 
 have not this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as 
 they say ; I will put upon you no other burden : but that which ye 
 have, hold fast till I come. And to him that overcometh, even to him 
 that keepeth my works until the end, I will give authority over the 
 nations : and he shall rule them with an iron rod, as the vessels of 
 the potter are shivered : as I also have received of my father. And 
 I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear 
 what the Spirit saith to the Churches. 
 
 "And to the Angel of the Church in Sardis, write: 
 
 11 These things saith He who hath the seven Spirits of God, and the 
 seven stars : I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou 
 livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things that 
 remain, which were about to die : for I have not found thy works com- 
 plete before my God. Remember, therefore, how thou hast received 
 and heard ; and keep, and repent. If, therefore, thou shalt not watch, 
 I will come upon thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour 
 I will come upon thee. But thou hast a few names in Sardis that 
 have not denied their garments ; and they shall walk with me in white, 
 for they are worthy. He that overcometh shall thus be clothed in 
 white garments : and I will not blot his name out of the book of 
 life ; and I will confess his name before my Father, and before His 
 angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to 
 the Churches. 
 
 "And to the Angel of the Church in Philadelphia, write : 
 
 " These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath 
 the key of David, He that openeth, and no one will shut ; and shut- 
 teth, and no one will open : I know thy works : behold, I have set 
 before thee an open door, which no one can shut : for thou hast a 
 little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. 
 Behold, I give those out of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are 
 Jews, and are not, but do lie ; behold, I will make them come and fall 
 prostrate before thy feet, and know that I have loved thee. Because 
 thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the 
 hour of trial, that shall come upon the whole world, to try them that 
 dwell upon the earth. I am coming quickly : hold fast that which
 
 1857.] Revelation. 311 
 
 thou hast, that no one take thy crown. Ilira that overcometh will I 
 make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more ; 
 and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the 
 city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of 
 heaven from my God ; and my new name. He that hath an ear, let 
 him hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches. 
 
 " And to the Axcel of the CnuRcn ix Laodicea, write : 
 
 "These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, 
 the Beginning of the creation of God : I know thy works, that thou 
 art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. Tims, be- 
 cause thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, 1 am about to spew 
 thee out of my month. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and have 
 enriched myself, and have need of nothing • and knowest not that thou 
 art the wretched, and the pitiable, and poor, and blind, and naked ; I 
 counsel thee to buy of me gold purified by fire, that thou mayest be 
 enriched ; and white garments, that thou mayest clothe thyself, and 
 the shame of thy nakedness may not be manifested ; and anoint thine 
 eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I re- 
 buke and chasten : be zealous, therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand 
 at the door, and knock : if any one hear my voice, and open the door, 
 I will come in to him, and snp with him, and he with me. To him that 
 overcometh will I give to sit with me in my throne, as I also over- 
 came, and sat down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an 
 ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches." 
 
 Ifter tbtst things, I saw, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven : 
 and the first voice which I heard, as of a trumpet talking with me, said, 
 " Come up hither, and I will show thee the things which must be after 
 these." Immediately I was in the Spirit : and, behold, a throne was 
 set in heaven, and on the throne was one sitting. And he that sat 
 was in appearance like a jasper and a sardine stone : and there was a 
 rainbow round about the throne, in appearance like an emerald. And 
 round about the throne were twenty-four thrones : and on the 
 thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments : 
 and upon their heads golden crowns. And out of the throne 
 issued lightniugs, and voices, and thunders : and seven lamps of 
 fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of
 
 312 Revelation. [May, 
 
 God : and before the throne was, as it were, a glassy sea, like crystal : 
 and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four 
 living creatures full of eyes before and behind. And the first living 
 creature was like a lion, and the second living creature like a calf, and 
 the third living creature had the face as a man, and the fourth living 
 creature was like an eagle flying. And the four living creatures, each 
 by itself, had six wings about it : and they were full of eyes within : 
 and they have no rest day and night, saying, " Holy, holy, holy, Lord 
 God the Almighty, who was, and who is, and who is coming." And 
 when the living creatures give glory, and honor, and thanks to Him 
 that sitteth upon the throne, that liveth forever and ever, the twenty- 
 four elders fall down before Him that sitteth upon the throne, and 
 worship Him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before 
 the throne, saying, "Thou art worthy, Lord our God, to receive 
 the glory, and the honor, and the power : for thou hast created all 
 things, and because of thy will they were, and have been created." 
 
 And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat upon the throne, a 
 book, written within and on the back, sealed up with seven seals. And 
 I saw a mighty angel, proclaiming, with a loud voice, " Who is worthy 
 to open the book and to loose the seals thereof?" And no one in 
 heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the 
 book, or to look thereon. And I wept much, because no one was 
 found worthy to open the book, or to look thereon. And one of the 
 elders saith unto me, "Weep not : behold, the Lion that is of the tribe 
 of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and 
 the seven seals thereof." And I saw in the midst of the throne, and 
 of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb 
 standing, as if it had beeu slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, 
 which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And 
 he came and took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat on 
 the throne. And when He took the book, the four living creatures 
 and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having every 
 one of them a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the 
 prayers of the saints. And they sing a new song, saying, "Thou art 
 worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof : for Thou 
 wast slain, and didst redeem us to God by Thy blood, out of every 
 tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation ; and Thou didst make them 
 kings and priests to our God : and they shall reign on the earth." 
 And I saw, and I heard a voice of many angels round about the 
 throne and the living creatures and the elders ; and the number of
 
 1857.] Revelation. 313 
 
 them was mj'riads of myriads, and thousands 01 thousands ; saying, 
 with a loud voice, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive the 
 power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, 
 and blessing." And every creature that is in heaven, and on the 
 earth, and under the earth, and those that are on the sea, and all that 
 arc in them, heard I saying, " To Him that sitteth upon the throne 
 and to the Lamb, be the blessing, and the honor, and the glory, 
 and the dominion, forever and ever." And the four living creatures 
 said, " Amen." And the elders fell down and worshipped. 
 
 ^tib ,f sufo when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I 
 heard one of the four living creatures saying, as with the voice of 
 thunder, " Come 1 " And I saw, and, behold, a white horse : and 
 he that sat on him had a bow ; and a crown was given to him : and 
 he went out conquering, and that he might conquer. 
 
 And when He opened the second seal, I heard the second living 
 creature saying, "Come!" And there went out another horse that 
 was red : and it was given to him that sat on him to take peace 
 from the earth, and that they should slay one another : and there was 
 given to him a great sword. 
 
 And when He opened the third seal, I beard the third living 
 creature saying, " Come ! " And I saw, and, behold, a black horse : 
 and he that sat on him had a balance in his hand. And I heard 
 a voice in the midst of the four Irving creatures, saying, " A chce- 
 nix of wheat for a denarius, and three choenixes of barley for a 
 ■denarius ; and hurt not the oil and the wine." 
 
 And when He opeued the fourth seal, I heard the fourth living 
 creature saying, " Come ! " And I saw, and, behold, a pale horse : 
 and his name that sat on him was Death ; and Hades followed with 
 him. And authority was given to him over the fourth part of the 
 earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and by 
 the wild beasts of the earth. 
 
 And when He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the 
 souls of those slain because of the word of God, and because of the 
 testimony which they had : and they cried with a loud voice, saying, 
 "" How long, Lord, the holy and true, dost thou not judge and 
 avenge our blood on those that dwell on the earth." And a white robe 
 was given to each of them ; and it was said to them, that they should 
 rest yet for a little space, until their fellow-servants also and their
 
 314 Revelation. May, 
 
 brethren, who should be killed as they themselves had been, shall have 
 been completed. 
 
 And I saw when He opened the sixth seal, and there was a 
 great earthquake ; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair ; 
 and the whole moon became as blood ; and the stars of heaven fell 
 to the earth, as a fig-tree casteth its untimely figs, when it is shaken 
 by a great wind. And the heaven was parted, as a scroll rolling up ; 
 and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And 
 the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the chief captains, and 
 the rich, and the mighty, and every bondman, and freeman, hid them- 
 selves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains ; and they say 
 to the mountains and to the rocks, " Fall on us, and hide us from the 
 face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the 
 Lamb : for that great day of His wrath is come ; and who is able to 
 stand ? " 
 
 ^fter tjris, I saw four angels, standing at the four corners of the 
 earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that no wind should blow 
 on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree. And I saw another 
 angel, ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the 
 living God : and he cried, with a loud voice, to the four angels, to 
 whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, " Hurt not 
 the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants 
 of our God on their foreheads." And I heard the number of the 
 sealed : an hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed out of every 
 tribe of the children of Israel. Out of the tribe of Judah, twelve 
 thousand were sealed ; out of the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand ; 
 out of the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand ; out of the tribe of Asher, 
 twelve thousand ; out of the tribe of Naphtali, twelve thousand ; out 
 of the tribe of Manasseh, twelve thousand ; out of the tribe of 
 Simeon, twelve thousand ; out of the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand ; 
 out of the tribe of Issachar, twelve thousand ; out of the tribe of 
 Zebulun, twelve thousand ; out of the tribe of Joseph, twelve thou- 
 sand ; out of the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand were sealed. 
 
 After these things, I saw a great multitude, which no one could 
 number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing 
 before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and 
 palms in their hands ; and they cry with a loud voice, saying, " The 
 salvation to our God who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb."
 
 1857.] Revelation. 315 
 
 And all the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the 
 four living creatures : and they fell before the throne upon their faces, 
 and worshipped God, saying, " Amen. The blessing, and the glory, 
 and the wisdom, and the thanksgiving, and the honor, and the power, 
 and the might, be to our God, forever and ever. Amen." And 
 one of the ciders answered, saying unto me, "These that are clothed 
 in white robes — who are they ? and whence came they ? " And I said 
 to him, " My lord, thou knowest." And he said to me, " These are 
 they who are coming out of the great tribulation, and they washed their 
 robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore 
 are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night 
 in His temple : and He that sitteth on the throne shall be a taber- 
 nacle over them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; 
 neither shall the sun strike them, nor any heat. For the Lamb 
 that is in the midst of the throne shall tend them, and shall lead them 
 to living fountains of waters : and God shall wipe away every tear 
 from their eyes." 
 
 And when He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in 
 heaven, about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand 
 before God ; and seven trumpets were given to them. And another 
 angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer ; and much 
 incense was given to him, that he should apply it to the prayers of 
 all the saints, upon the golden altar which is before the throne. And 
 the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, arose out 
 of the angel's hand before God. And the angel took the censer, and 
 filled it with the fire of the altar, and cast it on the earth : and 
 there were thunders, and lightnings, and voices, and an earthquake. 
 
 And the seven angels having the seven trumpets prepared them- 
 selves to sound. 
 
 And the first sounded, and there was hail and fire mingled with 
 blood, and they were cast on the earth : and the third part of the 
 earth was burnt up, and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and 
 all green grass was burnt up. 
 
 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain 
 burning with fire was cast into the sea : and the third part of the sea 
 became blood ; and the third part of the creatures that were in the 
 sea, that had life, died; and the third part of the ships was destroyed. 
 
 And the third angel sounded, and there fell from heaven a great 
 star, burning as a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers,
 
 316 Revelation. [M a y-> 
 
 and upon the fountains of the waters (and the name of the star is 
 called Wormwood) ; and a third part of the waters became worm- 
 wood ; and many of the men died of the waters, because they were 
 made bitter. 
 
 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was 
 smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the 
 stars ; that the third part of them might be darkened, and the day 
 might not shine for the third part of it, and the night likewise. 
 
 And I saw, and I heard an eagle flying in mid heaven, saying, with 
 a loud voice, " Wo, wo, wo, to those who dwell on the earth, from 
 the remaining trumpet-voices of the three angels who are about to 
 souEd ! " 
 
 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fallen from heaven 
 to the earth. And the key of the pit of the abyss was given to him ; 
 and ke opened the pit of the abyss ; and a smoke arose out of the 
 pit, as the smoke of a great furnace ; and the sun and the air were 
 darkened by the smoke of the pit. And out of the smoke came locusts 
 upon the earth : and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the 
 earth have power. And it was said to them that they should not 
 hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree ; but 
 only the men who have not the seal of God on their foreheads- And 
 it was given to them that they should not kill them, but that they 
 should be tormented five months : and their torment was as the tor- 
 ment of a scorpion, when it strikcth a man. And in those days shall 
 the men seek death, and not find it ; and shall desire to die, and death 
 fleeth from them. And the ajjpearances of the locusts were like 
 horses prepared for battle ; and on their heads were, as it were, 
 owns, like gold ; and their faces were as the faces of men : and they 
 had hair, as the hair of women ; and their teeth were as the teeth of 
 iions : and they had breastplates, as iron breastplates ; and the sound 
 of their wings was as the sound of chariots, with many horses, running 
 to battle ; and they have taSs like scorpions, and stings ; and then- 
 power was in their tails, to hurt men five months. They have a king 
 over them, the angel of the abyss : his name in the Hebrew is Abad- 
 don, and in the Greek he hath the name Apollyon. 
 
 The first wo is past : behold, there come yet two woes aftee 
 these things. 
 
 And the sixth angel sounded ; and I heard a voice from the horns 
 of the golden altar, which is before God, saying to the sixth angel
 
 1857.] Revelation. 317 
 
 that had the trumpet, " Loose the four angels that have been bound 
 at the great river Euphrates." And the four angels were loosed, that 
 had been prepared for the hour, and day, and month, and year, to 
 slay the third part of the men. And the number of the armies of 
 the cavalry was two myriads of myriads. I heard the number of them. 
 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and those who sat on them, 
 having breastplates, fiery, hyaciuthine, and like brimstone : and the 
 heads of the horses were as the heads of lions ; and out of their 
 mouths issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone. By these three plagues, 
 the third part of the men was killed ; by the fire, and the smoke, and. 
 the brimstone, that issued out of their mouths. For the power 
 of the horses is in their mouth, and in their tails : for their tails are 
 like serpents, and have heads, and with them do they hurt. 
 
 And the rest of the men, who were not. killed by these plagues r 
 repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not wor- 
 ship demons, and idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of 
 stone, aud of wood ; which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk : 
 neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of 
 their fornication, nor of their thefts. 
 
 And I saw another mighty angel descending from heaven, clothed 
 with a cloud, and the rainbow was on his head, and his face was aa 
 the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire : and he had in his hand a little 
 book opened : and he set his right foot on the sea, and the left on the 
 earth, and cried, with a loud voice, as a lion roareth : and when he 
 had cried, the seven thunders spoke with their voices. And when the 
 seven thunders had spoken, I was abosrt to write, and I heard a voice 
 from heaven, saying, u Seal the things which the thunders spoke, and 
 write them not." And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea 
 and on the earth, lifted up his right hand to heaven, and sware by Him 
 that liveth forever and ever, who created the heaven and the things in 
 it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it 7 
 that there should be no more delay, but iu the days of the voice of 
 the seventh angel, when he should be about to sound, the mystery of 
 God should be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets. 
 And the voice which I heard from heaven spoke with me again, and 
 said, "Go, take the book that is opened in the hand of the angel 
 who stands on the sea and on the eartL" And I went to the angel, 
 and said to him, " Give me the little book." And he saith to me, 
 " Take, and eat it up : and it shall make thy belly bitter, but in thy 
 mouth it shall be as sweet as honey." And I took the little book eui;
 
 318 Revelation. [May, 
 
 of the hand of the angel, and ate it up. And it was in my mouth 
 sweet as honey ; and when I had eaten it up, my belly was made 
 bitter. And he said to me : " Thou must prophecy again of many 
 peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings." 
 
 And there was given to me a reed like a rod, he saying, " Rise, and 
 measure the temple of God, and the altar, and those who worship 
 therein : and the court that is without the temple leave out, and 
 measure it not ; for it is given to the Gentiles : and the holy city shall 
 they tread under foot forty-two months. And I will endow my 
 two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred 
 and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees 
 and the two lampstands that star.d before the Lord of the earth. And 
 if any one desire to hurt them, fire issues out of their mouth, and 
 devours their enemies : and if any one desire to hurt them, thus must 
 he be killed. These have authority to shut the heaven, that no rain 
 fall in the days of their prophesying : and they have authority over the 
 waters, to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with every 
 plague as often as they will. And when they shall have finished their 
 testimony, the beast that ariseth out of the abyss shall make war 
 with them, and shall overcome them, and shall kill them. And their 
 remains shall lie in the public square of the great city, which spiritually 
 is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. And 
 men of the peoples, and tribes, and tongues, and nations, see their 
 remains three days and a half, and shall not suffer their remains to be 
 put into a sepulchre. And those who dwell upon the earth rejoice 
 over them and make merry, and shall seud gifts one to another ; be- 
 cause these two prophets tormented those who dwell upon the earth. 
 And after the three days and a half, the breath of life from God 
 entered them, and they stood upon their feet ; and great fear fell upon 
 those who beheld them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven, 
 saying to them, " Come up hither." And they went up to heaven 
 in the cloud ; and their enemies beheld them. And in that hour was 
 there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the 
 earthquake were slain seven thousand names of men : and the rest 
 were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. 
 
 The second wo is past : behold, the third wo cometh quickly. 
 
 And the seventh angel sounded ; and there were loud voices in 
 heaven, saying, " The kingdom of the world is become our Lord's 
 and His Christ's, and He shall reign forever and ever." And the
 
 1857.] Revelation. 319 
 
 twenty-four elders, wlio sit before God on their thrones, fell upon their 
 faces, and worshipped God, saying, " Wc give Thee thanks, Lord 
 God the Almighty, who art and who wast ; because Thou hast taken 
 up Thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were 
 enraged, and Thy wrath came, and the time of the dead to be 
 judged, and to give reward to Thy servants the prophets, and to 
 the saints, and to them that fear Thy name, the small and the great, 
 and to destroy those who destroy the earth." 
 
 And the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of His 
 covenant was seen in His temple : and there were lightnings, and 
 voices, and thunder, and an earthquake, and great hail. And a great 
 sign was seen in heaven ; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon 
 under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars : and she 
 being with child, crieth, travailing and pained to bring forth. And 
 another sign was seen in heaven ; and, behold, a great red dragon, 
 having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 
 And his tail sweepeth the third part of the stars of heaven, and it cast 
 them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was 
 about to bring forth, that, when she brought forth, he might devour 
 her child. And she brought forth a male child, who is to rule all the 
 nations with an iron rod : and her child was caught away to God and 
 His throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a 
 place prepared by God, that they should nourish her there a thousand 
 two hundred and sixty days. And there was war in heaven : Michael 
 and his angels fought against the dragon ; and the dragon fought and 
 his angels, and prevailed not ; neither was their place found any 
 more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, the old 
 serpent that is called the Devil and Satan, that deceiveth the whole 
 world : he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out 
 with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, " Now is 
 come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and 
 the authority of His Christ : for the accuser of our brethren is cast 
 down, who accused them before our God day and night. They also 
 overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the 
 word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even until 
 death. Therefore, rejoice, ye heavens, and ye who tabernacle in them! 
 Wo to the earth and to the sea 1 for the devil is gone down to you, 
 having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time." And 
 when the dragon saw that he was cast to the earth, he persecuted 
 the woman that brought forth the male child. And to the woman
 
 320 Revelation. [May, 1857. 
 
 were given the two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into 
 the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished a time, and 
 times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent 
 cast out of his mouth water, as a river, after the woman, that he might 
 cause her to be carried away by the river. And the earth helped the 
 woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river 
 which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was en- 
 raged about the woman, and went away to make war with the rem- 
 nant of her seed, that keep the commandments of God, aad have ths 
 testimony of Jesus,
 
 WAYMARKS II THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 JUNE, 1851 
 
 THE TYPICAL NATION AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 The Gospel of the grace of God is shorn of its glory in 
 every exhibition of it which attempts to veil the reproach of 
 the Cross, and to reconcile it with the wisdom and science of 
 a fallen world. To-day, as truly as in ancient times, the 
 preaching of the Cross is, to them that perish, foolishness^ 
 and it is best that we should at once see our calling,. " how 
 that not many wise men after the flesh, not many noble, not 
 many mighty men are called." To one who has exchanged 
 the superficial speculations of the age for the august purpose 
 of God, which He purposed in Himself before the world was, 
 and who has learned to count all things but loss for the 
 excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, it is 
 sometimes difficult to forego the expression of a conscious su- 
 periority, and to restrain the utterance of contempt for the 
 vanities of science and philosophy, as opposed to Revelation, 
 and still more of wealth, and pride, and ambition. But it is 
 better that we should fully realize the place which the Truth 
 and the true Church must occupy in this world, and that we 
 should occupy it with meekness and humility. 
 
 VOL. II. — NO. vi. u
 
 322 The Typical Nation [June, 
 
 With that attitude, however, the highest appreciation of 
 the vastness of God's grace to us is not inconsistent, and from 
 the lowest places in the valley of humiliation, we can look 
 up and see the mountain tops all a-glow with the radiance 
 which is soon to burst into the splendor of an everlasting 
 day. In the meagre sketches of the prophetic revelation 
 during the first 2,500 years, contained in previous numbers 
 of this journal, we have realized something of the majesty of 
 the truth. It is not a thing of yesterday. To the hearts of 
 our first parents, in their fall, it brought life and hope : ad- 
 vancing to a fuller manifestation, it raised Abraham in life 
 and destiny to the dignity of the friend of God : and still, as 
 it advances in clearness and certainty, the history of what is 
 past lends confirmation to the prophecy of what is future — 
 while each successive revelation is a stepping-stone to yet 
 ampler discoveries. When God made a covenant with Abra- 
 ham, He revealed some striking particulars in the fortunes of 
 his descendants, in order that the faith of future generations 
 might be upheld under His apparent delay to fulfill the cove- 
 nant. As a traveler to a distant city by an unfamiliar path, 
 who has received a chart of the way, gains confidence in his 
 guide when he finds the first stages of his journey accurately 
 delineated, so :the Church, traveling to the city which hath 
 foundations, gains assurance of hope when she finds the pro- 
 gress of events answering to the course of prophecy. 
 
 In an article on the Exodus, at page 193, we found an exact 
 fulfillment of the prediction made to Abraham : " Know of a 
 surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not 
 theirs, and shall serve them ; and they shall afflict them four 
 hundred years ; and also that nation whom they serve will I 
 judge : and afterward shall they come out with great sub- 
 stance." We must remind our readers that this was in no 
 sense a fulfillment of the oovenant to Abraham, which, as Paul 
 distinctly shows, was not made with reference to the natural 
 descendants, but with reference to "that one Seed, which is 
 Christ." The deliverance of Israel was, however, an import- 
 ant evidence that God was carrying events forward to the 
 fulfillment of His promise. For important ends connected
 
 a 857. 3 And its Institutions. 3*23 
 
 with its execution, He separated that people from all others, 
 .and established peculiar relations between Himself and them. 
 " To them," says Paul, " pertaineth the adoption, and the 
 glory, and the covenaats, and the giving of the law, and the 
 service -of God, and the promises: whose are the fathers, and 
 of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came ; who is over 
 all, God blessed for ever. Amen." To them was committed 
 the oracles of God, and their law was a schoolmaster to bring 
 them to Christ. 
 
 While we are called to admire the wisdom of those provi- 
 dential arrangements and positi-ve institutions by which the 
 objects of their national existence were secured, we must 
 look beyond all that is merely national, in order to a just esti- 
 mate of God's dealings with them. In their history, consti- 
 tution and laws, we find a complete system of types, in which 
 the great purpose of mercy is unfolded in its principles and 
 issues. The record of their history has a higher aim than the 
 ordinary interest and advantages of history : like all other 
 •scripture, it is profitable for doctrine, admonition, and re- 
 proof; and contributes to make the man of God perfect, 
 thoroughly furnished to every good work. Often, in those 
 portions of Scripture which are slighted as obsolete, or read 
 for their historical interest alone, we have the most luminous 
 exhibitions of the great truths of human (redemption ; and in 
 the neglect of these lessons, we cut ourselves off from an im- 
 portant means of comfort and sanctification. 
 
 This is no human fancy. The typical character -of the na- 
 tion and its institutions, is frequently and variously illus- 
 trated in the New Testament Paul, having narrated the 
 incidents of their earlier history, says, " all these things hap- 
 pened unto them for types, and they are written for our ad- 
 monition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." In 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews, when he is illustrating the char- 
 acter and office of Christ by a historical type, he pauses to 
 rebuke the neglect of such sources of higher instruction. 
 ■" For while, for the time, ye ought to be teachers, ye have 
 need that one teach you again what are the first principles 
 of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of
 
 fft& The Typical Nation [June, 
 
 milk/' The proofs of the typical character of the chosen na- 
 tion and its institutions, are very abundant in the New Tes- 
 tament. There are at least forty references to the types of 
 the book of Leviticus. We have a multitude of references to* 
 the book of Psalms, showing that what are too often treated 
 as Jewish national odes, or as hymns for a temple service- 
 that is abolished, are full of Christ and His Church, of whom 
 the persons, places, and events primarily contemplated were 
 types. Though it is not to be denied that typical interpre- 
 tation has often been carried to the most fantastic and 
 unwarrantable lengths, we can not, with such inspired exam- 
 ples, question their true use, and these examples are suffi- 
 ciently numerous to furnish us with a safe guide to the gene- 
 ral meaning of the types. The Old Testament becomes a new 
 book to him who has found this key to unlock its treasures. 
 An old writer says that God, in the former dispensation, was 
 teaching His children their letters. In this dispensation, 
 they are learning to put them together, and they find that the- 
 letters, arrange them as they will, spell Christ, and nothing 
 but Christ. 
 
 In a future article we hope to show what is the ultimate 
 relation of Israel to the grand purpose of God, and the place 
 they shall occupy in the glorious dispensation which is to 
 succeed the present ; but in this place we desire to deline- 
 ate, though in a rude outline, the further development of 
 the truth contained in the system of types to which we have 
 referred. A thorough discussion of the subject would require 
 a division of the types into two principal classes, which might 
 be designated the providential and the positive — the provi- 
 dential designating the typical import of their national exist- 
 ence, and the incidents of their national history ; and the 
 positive designating those types which were more formally in- 
 stituted and systematically arranged by the express ordinance 
 of Jehovah. 
 
 The- existence of the nation itself is evidently typical of the 
 redeemed of the Lord, to whom, in the fullest and loftiest 
 meaning, all the names, dignities, and privileges of the former 
 are transferred : as when Peter applies to believers the very
 
 1857.] And its Institutions. 325 
 
 language tvhicli God addresses to His ancient people, "Ye 
 are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, 
 a peculiar people :" and when Paul, writing to the Philippi- 
 •ans, claims, " We are the circumcision who worship God in 
 the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence 
 in the flesh." The history of this people, from their origin, 
 is, in every particular, typical. As Paul expressly declares, 
 when relating the leading particulars of their deliverance 
 from Egypt, and their course in the wilderness, he adds, 
 " now these things were our examples," or, more correctly, 
 " types of us." We are, therefore, led back to the condition 
 in which God found them, and called them to be His people ; 
 and in the abject misery and -degradation of the Israelites in 
 Egypt, we have an impressive type of the bondage to sin and 
 the spiritual debasement from which the grace of God rescues 
 His Church. No one needs a guide to the type of wrath im- 
 pending over a guilty world, in the destroying angel about 
 to go forth against the Egyptians ; and the Spirit of God has 
 again and again interpreted to us the blood of the slain Lamb 
 sprinkled on their lintels and door-posts. " Christ our pass- 
 over," says Paul, " is sacrificed for us." We have salvation, 
 not for our righteousness' sake, but through the blood of the 
 Lamb ; and what a joy it was for the elect family to stand 
 with their shoes on their feet, and their loins girt, safe within 
 the house whose door-posts were sprinkled with blood, while 
 the destroying angel was abroad in judgment. 
 
 But it is a meagre and elementary view of salvation which 
 rejoices only in deliverance from wrath ; and so we find the 
 people delivered from wrath also delivered from bondage, 
 and led out of Egypt into the seclusion of the wilderness. 
 This, God also accomplishes by a strong hand and out- 
 stretched arm, leading them through the depths of the sea, 
 which proved a grave to their enemies, till they stood with 
 songs of victory on the farther shore, a ransomed and a free 
 people — as though from death they had issued into a new life. 
 The same truth is here typically expressed in the history of 
 Israel, which is emblematically taught in the baptism of be- 
 lievers : they have passed from death unto life — dead to sin,
 
 Z26 The Typical Nation June, 
 
 they are alive unto God ; separated from the world, they are 
 now holy unto- the Lord. Rescued from the flood, and their 
 oppressors overwhelmed by its waves,, they were free, but still 
 in the wilderness, and far from the land of their rest — an apt 
 type of believers, as strangers and pilgrims here ; traveling 
 on, safe, indeed, under the shadow of their Divine Protector, 
 but yet far from home. We might follow their wanderings, 
 and find the most instructive types at every step ©f their pro- 
 gress. The manna which they gathered for food, is a type of 
 the bread from heaven, by which the- spiritual life is nour- 
 ished. The waters from the smitten rock, which followed 
 them, is a type of the water of life from Christ our rock, which 
 flows for the refreshment of His weary Church. In hostile- 
 tribes, we have types of spiritual foes ; in Israel's wars and 
 victories, types- of the spiritual conflicts by which believers- 
 are made more than conquerors through Him that loved us. 
 And at last, in their peaceful possession of Canaan, we have 
 a type of our eternal rest in the purchased possession, re- 
 deemed from the enemy, and purged from all evil. 
 
 But we hasten to glance at the institutions and ritual or- 
 dained by God, constituting what we have designated the 
 positive types. In these, we find a constitution and laws admi- 
 rably adapted to secure the objects of Israel's national exist- 
 ence ; but we have at present to do with them as a typical 
 illustration of the character, office, and work of Christ. 
 These illustrations were not designed for the instruction of 
 the- Jews alone. Moses and all the prophets knew " that not 
 mnto themselves, but to us they did minister the things, that 
 are now reported to us by them who- have preached the gos- 
 pel to us." The types were- prophetfc ; they were shadows' 
 ©f good things to- come — they teach us the truth regarding 
 those which have come ; and the light of types accomplished, 
 teaches us the interpretation of those which remain to be ac- 
 complished. They are expressly said to be for " our admoni- 
 tion, upon whom the ends of the world have come." 
 
 In the arrangement of the great system of types, we comer 
 first of all to the recognition of the typical nation, and the 
 establishment of typical relations between that natkm and
 
 1857.] And its Institutions. 327 
 
 God. We followed the people, in a former article, from the 
 shores of the Red Sea to Sinai, where at length the national 
 organization was completed. This nation was designed to 
 be a type of a pardoned people, enjoying a dispensation of 
 mercy, and conducted through grace to a heavenly inherit- 
 ance. They must therefore, as a nation, be shown as proper 
 objects of mercy ; and in order to this, they must first be 
 seen under a dispensation of righteousness. Accordingly, at 
 Sinai, God proposed to them a constitution of strict law, in 
 obedience to which they should secure perpetual prosperity. 
 41 If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, 
 then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me, above all people, 
 for all the earth is mine." This, with presumptuous self-con- 
 fidence, they engaged to do. " All the people answered to- 
 gether and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." 
 Upon this voluntary assent, God ratifies the relation between 
 Himself and them as their King, and announced His law to 
 them. Our readers remember the terrors of the scene : the 
 mount that might not be touched, and that burned with fire ; 
 the blackness, the darkness, the tempest, the sound of a trum- 
 pet, and the voice of words, in the presence of which even 
 Moses quaked. The covenant is announced ; Israel is a 
 nation ; and Jehovah i* their king. It will be understood, 
 however, that all this has reference only to national obliga- 
 tions and temporal blessings, and does not interfere with 
 God's precious covenant with Abraham. Under that consti- 
 tution, as before it, salvation was only by faith. " For the 
 promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to 
 Abraham or his seed through the law, but through the right- 
 eousness of faith : for if they which are of the law be heirs, 
 faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect." The 
 blessings promised as the reward of obedience, are, it is to be 
 observed, national and temporal blessings, and only a type of 
 Eden restored — the true inheritance is of faith that it might 
 be by grace. 
 
 How vain and presumptuous were the self-righteous engage- 
 ments of Israel ! Forty days afterwards, the Lord proclaims 
 their utter failure : " They have turned aside quickly out of
 
 328 The Typical Nation [June, 
 
 the way which I commanded them ; they have made them a 
 molten calf and have worshipped it." The covenant was 
 already broken, and as a nation they were guilty and con- 
 demned. It was then that Jehovah proclaimed Himself to be 
 " the Lord God, merciful and gracious ;" a character abun- 
 dantly sustained in all His dealings with a stiff-necked and 
 rebellious people. To a guilty nation, God gave the institu- 
 tions of His grace, which were a shadow of good things to 
 come — fully and clearly exhibiting sin and the sinner, grace 
 and the Saviour ; so that an old writer styles the book of 
 Leviticus, in which they are recorded, " the Gospel according 
 to Leviticus." 
 
 In a typical exhibition of the plan of mercy, there was first 
 of all a manifestation of the Divine presence in the taberna- 
 cle, or palace of the king of Israel, to which a reconciled 
 people might approach, where intercession might be made for 
 them, where His will might be made known, and His blessings 
 dispensed. The tabernacle was constructed in strict accord- 
 ance with a pattern which was shown to Moses on the mount, 
 and in its most sacred retirement the glory of God dwelt — 
 blessed thought !— over the Mercy Seat. This type of the 
 heavenly place must not be understood as representing the 
 final inheritance of the glorified saints, but the glorious 
 manifestation of the Divine presence, into which our High 
 Priest has now entered ; which we may now enter boldly by 
 faith, and which shall at last abide with men. The entrance 
 of Israel into the promised land, at the end of their pilgrim- 
 age, after the heathen had been driven out before them, is 
 the type of the Church's entrance into the possession of a 
 redeemed and renewed world, and then " the tabernacle of 
 God shall be with men, and He will dwell with them, and 
 they shall be His people, and He shall be with them and be 
 their God." 
 
 The typical arrangement and uses of the Tabernacle might 
 well occupy the whole of such an article as this, but we must 
 hasten to say, that for its service there was a high priest, 
 " ordained for men, in the things of God, to offer both gifts 
 and sacrifices for sin." He was selected by God from among
 
 1857.] And its Institutions. 329 
 
 his brethren as one who could sympathize with them, and 
 carry their cases affectionately to the Mercy Scat ; a type of 
 our great High Priest, who was in all points tempted like as 
 we are, through whom only we can come to God, and through 
 whom only God's mercy can come to us. At the inaugura- 
 tion of the high priest, he was washed at the holy laver, and 
 then stood a type of Him who is holy, harmless, undefiled, 
 and separated from sinners. He was clothed witli the ephod, 
 and its curious girdle; a type of Christ, arrayed in righteous- 
 ness and girt about with salvation — its robes of blue intimat- 
 ing His heavenly nature, and its bells and pomegranates tell- 
 ing that He comes laden with joy and blessings. lie put on 
 the official breast-plate, with the names of the tribes graven 
 on its precious stones, representing Christ's loving and unfail- 
 ing remembrance of His people. In the midst of it were 
 Urim and Thummim, types of light and love. The conse- 
 crating oil poured on his head, pointed hinr out as the type 
 of the Lord's Anointed. The earthly high priest was a sinful 
 man, and, that he might typify a sinless Saviour, sacrifice was 
 first of all offered for his own sin ; then, being ceremonially 
 pure, he entered on his office, and for seven days — the num- 
 ber of perfection, a type of eternity — he remained in the 
 Tabernacle, to intimate that Christ is a priest forever. The 
 high priest, thus perfected, was the grand medium of commu- 
 nication between the people and Him who dwelt between the 
 Cherubim. 
 
 The basis of all worship for fallen man is sacrifice, for 
 "without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.'' 
 A righteous and holy God can not show favor to guilty man 
 in any measure, or under any dispensation, without a pro- 
 pitiation for sin. This truth was taught from the first, in all 
 God's dealings with mankind ; and now, under a fuller reve* 
 lation of His plan, the most numerous and instructive types 
 are those sacrifices and offerings which illustrate the work of 
 Him who hath loved us and hath given Himself for us. Our 
 limits permit us only to glance at a few of the chief charac- 
 teristics of those sacrifices which they offered year by year, 
 continually.
 
 330 The Typical Nation [June, 
 
 The leading and most familiar view of sacrifice, is that it 
 represents Christ suffering for us, the just for the unjust, 
 that He might bring us to God ; His endurance of the curse 
 of a broken law, that we might be delivered from the curse : 
 but it is a great mistake to suppose that this is all that is 
 taught in the typical offerings, or all that is meant by 
 Christ's offering Himself for us. In the system of types, this 
 is the great truth taught in the blood of the Passover Lamb, 
 sprinkled on the door posts, by which they were delivered 
 from death ; but after they are redeemed from Egypt, there 
 are great truths regarding their acceptance with God, their 
 standing in His favor, their restoration when they fall, and 
 their consecration to His service, illustrated by the variety 
 of offerings. The fundamental truth is, indeed, always kept 
 in view, and is again and again enforced ; for it was neces- 
 sary to remind those who lived under such a system, that 
 those sacrifices could never in themselves make the worship- 
 pers perfect, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and 
 of goats should take away sin. The sacrifices were therefore 
 constantly renewed, to point the faith of those who offered 
 them forward to the true sacrifice, which they prefigured. 
 This was the impressive lesson of the sacrifice of the great 
 day of atonement, when the high priest entered into the holy 
 place every year with its blood, and which the Apostle, in 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews, contrasts with the perfect offer- 
 ing of which it was the type — " for Christ, after he had 
 offered one sacrifice for sin, for ever sat down at the right 
 hand of God ; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be 
 made his footstool : for by one offering he hath perfected for 
 ever them that are sanctified." 
 
 The principal offerings beside these, which show other 
 important aspects of Christ's redeeming works, are : the 
 burnt offering, the meat offering, the peace offering, the sin 
 offering, and the trespass offering. To point the way to a 
 correct understanding of these types, it is important to notice 
 a distinction which divides them into two classes : I. Those 
 offerings which are said to be a sweet savor to the Lord, 
 namely, the burnt offering, meat offering and peace offering,
 
 1857.] And its Institutions. 331 
 
 and, II. Those which we?e regarded as an expiation, and 
 arc not burned on the altar as a sweet savor to the Lord, 
 namely, the sin offering and the trespass offering. It is 
 scarcely necessary to say that Christ offered Himself once for 
 all, and these numerous offerings but typify different aspects 
 of His work. The nature of the case requires this variety ; 
 for as a shadow of a solid body gives us but one outline of it, 
 and we must change its position and obtain another shadow 
 in order to see any other aspect of it, so a number of types 
 must be employed to represent the completeness of Christ. 
 
 Of the first class, the burnt offering is commonly but 
 erroneously understood to represent Christ as made a curse, 
 and enduring the wrath of God for us — in other words, it is 
 confounded with the sin offering, which was not burnt upon 
 God's altar, but sent away from His presence and burnt 
 without the camp. The burnt offering is, on the contrary, 
 accepted as a delight, and its smoke ascends from the altar a 
 sweet savor to the Lord. It represents Christ offering Him- 
 self for us in fulfillment of all we owe to God in 'the unre- 
 served consecration of our being to Him — as he is described 
 in the Psalm, exclaiming, " Lo I come to do thy will, God. r? 
 His whole being is thus joyfully devoted to glorify the 
 Father, to do the will of Him that sent Him ; to fulfill all 
 righteousness. The fire of the altar represents, not the 
 wrath of God consuming the sin offering, but God's accept- 
 ance of the sacrifice, and that Christ is, so to speak, consumed 
 in His service. 
 
 The Burnt offering was wholly consumed on the altar, but 
 the meat offering, though first offered to God, was given 
 for food to the priests, and is a type of Christ, conse- 
 crated, indeed, to Gktcl, but in that consecration devoting 
 Himself in love to man — going about continually doing good. 
 Both tables of the law were broken ; and as it became Him, 
 as our representative, to fulfill all righteousness, we sec Him, 
 in the burnt offering, fulfilling the first, which was man's 
 duty to God — and in the meat offering we sec Him fulfilling 
 the second, which was man's duty to man. The whole of the 
 frankincense, which was an essential part of the meat offer-
 
 332 The Typkal Nation [June, 
 
 ing, was burned upon the altar, intimating that while man 
 enjoyed the blessing, God had all the praise. These two 
 sacrifices — the burnt offering and the meat offering — viewed 
 in the light here suggested, carry our views of the great 
 truth, that Christ gave Himself for us, far beyond the single 
 idea of enduring the penalty of a broken law to deliver us 
 from wrath, which too frequently is all that is taught for 
 gospel. We see Him as our righteousness in the fullest sense, 
 as fulfilling the law in a holy and perfect obedience, in a life 
 that is all love to God and all love to man ; and we are not 
 only saved from wrath, but justified from all things, and are 
 accepted in the beloved. 
 
 It may be proper here to remark, regarding typical sacri- 
 fices in general, that they have a twofold significance, as they 
 not only represent Christ offering Himself for the believer, 
 but also represent the believer offered to God in Christ. 
 Thus, in His death upon the cross, we behold Him made sin 
 for us, but at the same time we are crucified with Christ, and 
 reckon ourselves dead unto sin, and alive unto God. In the 
 burnt offering and the meat offering, we see Christ fulfilling 
 both tables of the law, for righteousness to every one that 
 bclieveth ; but we also see believers acceptably presented 
 to God in Christ, to the consecration ot their being to His 
 will. The idea of our obedience as the ground of our for- 
 giveness and acceptance, is excluded in every view of the 
 case ; for we already have forgiveness through His blood, 
 and being justified by faith, we have peace with God. But 
 delivered from sin, and constrained by grateful love, we 
 acknowledge ourselves to be His : and, in Christ, He accepts 
 us. So, with evident allusion to the burnt offering, Paul 
 says : " I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of 
 God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, 
 acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." 
 And with evident allusion to the meat offering, he styles the 
 tokens of affection sent to him in his bondage, by the saints 
 at Philippi, " an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, 
 well pleasing to God." 
 
 In the peace offering — part of which was burned on the
 
 1857.] And its Institutions. 333 
 
 altar, and part given to the priest, while on the remainder 
 the offerer feasted with his friends — we have a lively type of 
 Christ in all His fullness given to the Church. God, as a 
 Father, provides a feast for His children, and, in infinite con- 
 descension, shares it with them. The priest, as distinguished 
 from the offerer, is a type of Christ, and when the priest 
 receives his share of the sacrifice, we behold a type of Christ 
 Himself sharing the blessings and the glory He has procured 
 for His people. He is not only the author and finisher of 
 their faith, but in their enjoyment of salvation He shall see 
 of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. Thus it is that 
 believers have fellowship with one another, and " truly," says 
 John, " our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, 
 Jesus Christ." 
 
 In these three offerings, we meet with no thought of sin, or 
 aught that is offensive to God. Each of them is the pre- 
 sentation to Jehovah of something, in the acceptance of 
 which He finds delight and satisfaction. In the second class 
 of offerings we find sin, confessed and judged ; but sin atoned 
 for and blotted out. They are not burned on God's altar, 
 nor are they described as a sweet savour ; but are sent away 
 from God's presence, and are burned without the camp. The 
 offerings of this class are two : the sin offering and the 
 trespass offering — the former being an offering for sin in 
 our nature, the latter for the fruits of it in actual trespasses. 
 They, as we have intimated, represent Christ as made sin for 
 us, and bearing the cross. The offering was required to be 
 perfect in its kind, without blemish or defect, to represent 
 the holiness of Christ — the sinless was made sin. The man- 
 ner in which it is treated, shows how really the Lord laid 
 upon Him the iniquities of us all ; the Holy One of God is 
 made sin for sinners, and the Blessed One is made a curse for 
 those who were under the curse. 
 
 Our readers can not be so sensible as we are of the meagre- 
 ness of these notices of this marvellous series of illustrated 
 lessons on the great doctrines of the Gospel. We have men- 
 tioned but a few of the types, and these we have looked at in 
 but few of their particulars. The most we can hoi e i g > tnat
 
 334: The Typical Nation [June, 
 
 we may have pointed the road to the rich mines from which 
 these specimens are gathered. One thing will be found true 
 in all investigations of them : each type separately, and all of 
 them together, exhibit Christ — only Christ. In their variety 
 and complexity they only show how the Holy Spirit labors, 
 so to speak, to keep Christ, in all His fullness, before the eye 
 of faith. 
 
 To return for a moment to the typical nation. We have 
 seen how they fell from their allegiance, and we have glanced 
 at the institutions through which their injured King dis- 
 pensed His grace to them. We can not follow their devious 
 course in the wilderness, nor rehearse their wars and victo- 
 ries, though all their history is full of meaning. But behold 
 them, at last, led by Joshua into the promised land, a type of 
 the Church introduced into the inheritance that is incorrupti- 
 ble and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. The type is, ia 
 its nature, incomplete ; the sin and sorrow of that land does 
 not serve as a type of the state of the redeemed in their pos- 
 session. We have, however, a type of the universal joy and 
 triumph of that state in The Feast of Tabernacles, when 
 all goodly trees furnished boughs to form shady and fragrant 
 bowers — in their luxuriant verdure, and the festal mirth that 
 filled them, exhibiting an image of Paradise regained. Men, 
 dwelling in peace, sent up to God songs of praise. The joy 
 of harvest, and the shouting of men that trod the wine-press, 
 mingled with the joy peculiar to the feast. The remembrance 
 of the perils of the wilderness gave zest to the blessed Sab- 
 bath-keeping. In the antitype of this festival, when the earth 
 is covered with new created loveliness, and the pilgrim 
 Church finds herself home at last, the remembrance of the 
 great tribulation out of which she has come, will lend the 
 highest charm to that peace and joy in which she shall sor- 
 row no more at all. For the present, these offerings, which 
 at once typify Christ for the Church, and the Church in 
 Christ, speak to us of suffering and trial. His lot here was 
 sacrifice, self-denial, shame, and hatred :, and as He is, so are 
 we in this world. In the language of another, "As Luther 
 said, ' Our spouse is a bloody husband to us,' He will not let
 
 1857.] The Pharisees and Sadducecs. 335 
 
 us have this world until He has it. His day is at hand ; for 
 that day He waits. Let us be content to wait with Him yet 
 a little while ; and, while many arc anticipating His kingdom 
 as a kingdom without His presence and without His saints, 
 let us look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of 
 the world to come." 
 
 THE PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES. 
 
 BY JOHN HOGG. 
 
 The spirit of religion rapidly evaporated, after the return 
 of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity ; and, as one result 
 of this declension, Judaism, instead of presenting an unbro- 
 ken front to the heathen, was divided into a number of rival 
 sects. A cold, dead formalism extinguished the religion of 
 the heart ; and it was imagined that a rigid observance of 
 forms and ceremonies invested the worshippers with a char- 
 acter of worth and merit, in the sight of God. Religion 
 became subservient to politics, and the Jews contended for 
 the religion of their fathers, not so much on account of its 
 involving the hope of a spiritual deliverer, as from patriotic 
 and national considerations. Thus, when the Syrian kings, 
 in the second century before Christ, endeavored to substitute 
 the worship of Jupiter for Jehovah, and to introduce Greek 
 culture in the place of Jewish rites, the national spirit was 
 completely roused, and many — such as Eleazar and his seven 
 sons — preferred death to apostasy from the peculiar institu- 
 tions enjoined by the law of Moses. Judas Maccabeus and 
 his brave brothers collected those who remained faithful to 
 their religion, and retired into the wilderness till they gath- 
 ered strength, and acquired the necessary discipline, till they
 
 336 The Pharisees and Sadducees. [June, 
 
 became so strong as to drive out their enemies, and render 
 Judea, for a short time, independent of foreign control. 
 Jonathan Maccabeus assumed both kingly and priestly func- 
 tions, though he had no connection with the tribe of Levi ; 
 and, in opposition to the exclusive character of Judaism, he 
 entered into covenant with the Romans and other heathen 
 nations. These facts conclusively show that the religion of 
 the Maccabees partook quite as much of a political as of a 
 sacred character, and hence worldly policy was curiously 
 blended with religious observances. The strict Jewish party, 
 on the contrary, called, in the first book of Maccabees, the 
 Congregation of the Assida?ans, maintained that all such po- 
 litical movements were totally opposed to the genius and 
 character of their religion, and that it was entirely illegal 
 for any one, who was not descended from Aaron, to usurp the 
 functions of the priesthood. Those who composed this party, 
 instead of manfully opposing their heathen aggressors, retired 
 into deserts and solitudes, and were esteemed by the people 
 peculiarly holy. The first party became the Pharisees of a 
 later age ; and the second were the Essencs, who reached the 
 height of their fame about the commencement of the Chris- 
 tian era. 
 
 The word Pharisees means Separatists, denoting that they 
 were separated from others, on account of their supposed holi- 
 ness. It is not known with certainty when they assumed this 
 name, whether in the time of Judas Maccabeus, one hundred 
 and sixty years before Christ, or somewhat earlier. But this 
 is simply a point of antiquarian interest, since the germs of 
 their distinguishing principles are observable immediately 
 after the Babylonish captivity ; and we have an excellent 
 view of their strong national feelings, and self-righteous de- 
 pendence on their own works for salvation, in the various 
 books of the Old Testament Apocrypha. This national feel- 
 ing was greatly strengthened by the rapid and remarkable 
 success of the Maccabees ; the victory over the Syrians ; the 
 total destruction of the Jewish party who had sympathized 
 with their heathen persecutors ; the subjugation of the Idu- 
 means ; the humiliation of the Samaritans, together with the
 
 1857.] The Pharisees and Sadducees. 337 
 
 destruction of their temple on Mount Gerizim. All these 
 events conspired to rouse the national spirit, and led the more 
 sanguine to suppose that Judca would soon become the mis- 
 tress of the world. 
 
 The Sadducees, as the opponents of the Pharisees, were 
 the sceptics of the age, and their creed, like that of modern 
 Unitarians, chiefly consists of negatives. Some have derived 
 the name from Zadok, their founder, who taught that we 
 should obey God, not for the hope of reward, but for the love 
 of virtue — a sentiment which after ages construed into a de- 
 nial of future rewards and punishments ; while others derived 
 the name from Zadikim, the just ones, as if they only enter- 
 tained just views of the law. The last explanation is proba- 
 bly the correct one, as it is evident from several passages in. 
 the books of Maccabees, that a party, identical with the Sad- 
 ducees, denied the doctrine of the resurrection. Now, as the 
 Pharisees and Sadducees are opposed to each other, it is ob- 
 vious that an intelligent account of the one presupposes a 
 history of the other ; and hence we shall give a short state- 
 ment of the religious differences that obtained between the 
 two rival sects. 
 
 I. The Pharisees maintained the doctrine of Providence, 
 in connection with the freedom of the will ; while the Sad- 
 ducees affirmed that everything was under the dominion of 
 chance. " "When the Pharisees determine/ 7 says Josephus,. 
 that all things are determined by fate, they do not take away 
 from men the power of acting as they think fit ; since their 
 notion is, that it hath pleased God to make a constitution of 
 things whereby what He wills is done, but so that the will of 
 man can act virtuously or viciously." " They ascribe all to 
 fate (or Providence), and to God, and yet allow that to act 
 what is right, or the contrary, is for the most part in the 
 power of man." This mode of stating the doctrine of Divine 
 Providence was directly opposed to the teachings and prac- 
 tice of the Sadducees. Those who fought with the heathen 
 for the national independence of their country were, in con- 
 sequence of their relative position to each other, divided in 
 opinion as to the means of its attainment. The leaders natu- 
 
 VOL. II. — no. vi. v
 
 338 The Pharisees and Sadducees, [June, 
 
 rally sought to strengthen themselves, and to weaken the 
 enemy, by foreign alliances. The soldiers, in common with 
 the mass of the people, denounced such confederations, as ex- 
 pressing distrust in Divine Providence, and as a virtual 
 departure from the living God. It was contended that the 
 destiny of the Jewish commonwealth, as well as of individ- 
 uals, was dependent in no degree on human power or prowess, 
 hut on Divine Providence alone ; and hence a curse is pro- 
 nounced on the man who trusts in man, and maketh flesh his 
 arm. The Pharisees, composing the great body of the people, 
 embraced the strict view of the subject ; while the Sadducees, 
 who had their followers chiefly among the rich and powerful, 
 maintained the necessity for heathen alliances, and their doc- 
 trinal belief soon became conformable to their practice. 
 They seem, at first, to have strongly asserted the freedom of 
 the will, which was not denied by their opponents ; then the 
 doctrine of Providence gradually occupied a smaller place in 
 their thoughts, till it was at last banished from their creed, 
 as totally superfluous. Nor is the subject devoid of difficul- 
 ties, which are beyond the grasp of the human mind. It is 
 still an unsolved problem, how we are to reconcile the free 
 agency of man with a doctrine which teaches that God does 
 all things according to the counsel of His own will — a diffi- 
 culty which the Pharisees do not seem to have grappled with. 
 II. Josephus says that the Pharisees maintained, while the 
 Sadducees denied, the doctrine of rewards and punishments 
 after death. " They believe that souls have an immortal 
 vigor in them, and that, under the earth, there will be rewards 
 or punishments, according as men have lived virtuously or 
 viciously in this life. The latter are to be detained in an 
 everlasting prison ; but the former still have power to revive 
 and live again." " The soul is ever immortal, and is a por- 
 tion of divinity that inhabits our bodies." This strong doc- 
 trinal statement was probably put forth to meet an objection 
 of the Sadducees. It might be said, since God directs and 
 controls all the events of providence ; since " all chance is 
 direction, which we can not see," how does it happen that, 
 frequently, one event happens to the righteous and the wicked,
 
 1857,] The Pharisees and Sadducees. 339 
 
 and that, sometimes, the wicked are the prosperous in the 
 earth? "Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper?" 
 In answer to this objection, the Pharisees pointed to the time 
 when all seeming contradictions should be reconciled, and 
 when God's judgments, now a great deep, " should be as the 
 light that goeth forth, and as a lamp that burnetii." In order 
 to neutralize this defence put forth by the Pharisees, it was 
 maintained by the Sadducees that virtue is its own reward — 
 " in the keeping of God's commandments there is a great re- 
 ward," and not merely after they are kept ; and that it is to 
 act a selfish and unworthy part to live a virtuous life for the 
 hope of a future reward. " Be not as those slaves" say they, 
 " who serve their master on this condition, namely, that they 
 receive a reward ; but let the fear of heaven be in you." 
 But, if the doctrine of future rewards and punishments is nei- 
 ther to influence our lives, nor to operate on our hopes and 
 fears, it will soon be denied. A creed that lies, like useless 
 lumber, in the background of the mind, will speedily be ab- 
 jured altogether. Hence the Sadducees, about the time of 
 our Saviour, maintained that there was no resurrection, 
 neither angel nor spirit' — in fact, that there was no spiritual 
 essence in the universe, except God. Mark, xii. 18 : "The 
 Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection." Acts, xxiii. 
 8 : " For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nei- 
 ther angel nor spirit : but the Pharisees confess both." In 
 harmony with their views, the Sadducees propounded a ques- 
 tion to our Saviour, which seems to have puzzled their oppo- 
 nents — the case of a woman, who had, according to the 
 Jewish law of marriage, seven brothers in succession, as hus- 
 bands ; and they asked, with an air of triumph, whose wife 
 she should be in the resurrection, as if the simple asking of 
 the question disproved the fact of a future life. The Saviour 
 at once affirmed that the future life is not the counterpart of 
 the present, and that the doctrine which they despised was 
 taught in the Pentateuch, to which they attached the highest 
 degree of importance — as when God said to Moses, "I am 
 the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of 
 Jacob " — from which He draws this inference : " God is not
 
 MO The Pharisees and Sadductes. [Jime r 
 
 the God of the dead, but of the living." The force of the 
 argument is this : when God made this promise to Moses, the 
 patriarchs had been dead for centuries ; and, as God is not 
 the God of dead corpses, but of living persons, it follows that 
 the fathers must live again after the time of Moses. Matthew r 
 xxii. 23 — 32, 
 
 It appears, from the strong, dogmatic way in which the doc- 
 trine of the resurrection is maintained in the Apocrypha, that 
 it was denied in the time of the Maccabees. Some of those 
 who abjured this scriptural truth were probably those Jews 
 who conformed to Greek usages, and who are repeatedly 
 styled "the ungodly;" for, though the heathen had some faint r 
 inconsistent views of a future life r yet they had not the most 
 distant conception that the body should rise from the tomb. 
 The Sadducees, who were the infidels and freethinkers of the 
 day, seem to have adopted the same cheerless belief — a 
 dogma which seems to have been earnestly combatted by the 
 Pharisees. Thus we are informed, in Second Maccabees, 
 when some of the Israelites were slain, that " under the gar- 
 ments of every one that was slain there were found things 
 consecrated to the idols of the Jamnites, which is forbidden 
 the Jews by the law." Juda3 then collected two thousand 
 drachms of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem for a sin-offering — 
 " doing therein very well and honestly, in that he was mind- 
 ful of the resurrection. For, if he had not hoped that they 
 that were slain should have risen again, it had been superflu- 
 ous and vain to pray for the dead. And, also, in that he per- 
 ceived that there was great favor laid up for those that died 
 godly, it was an holy and good thought, "Whereupon he 
 made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be deliv- 
 ered from sin." 2 Maccabees, xii. 43 — 45. It is manifest, 
 from this passage, that the doctrine of the resurrection was 
 then denied, and that the dominant party — the Pharisees — 
 practised prayers for the dead, just as the Roman Catholics 
 do now. 
 
 The Pharisees maintained the doctrine of the transmigra- 
 tion of souls. " They say that all souls are incorruptible, but 
 that the souls of good men only are removed into other
 
 S.-S57.] The Pharisees a%d Sadducees. 341 
 
 bodies, and that the souls of bad men are subject to eternal 
 punishment." Josephus, in dissuading his countrymen against 
 self-murder, asks, " Do not you know that those who depart 
 out of this life, according to the law of nature, and pay that 
 debt when He that lent life is pleased to require it back again, 
 -enjoy eternal fame? that their souls are pure and obedient, 
 and obtain a most holy place in heaven, whence, in the revo- 
 lution of ages, they are again sent into pure bodies ; while 
 the souls of those whose hands have acted 'madly against them- 
 selves, are received by the darkest place in Hades ? " We 
 liave some traces of this doctrine in the Apocrypha, as when 
 Wisdom says, u I, being a witty child, -entered into a body un- 
 dented." This peculiar belief illustrates several passages in 
 the New Testament. Thus, when Herod heard of the fame 
 of Jesus, after he had put John the Baptist t© death, a guilty- 
 conscience, guided by the prevalent superstition of the age, 
 forced him to exclaim, " It is John, whom I beheaded:: he is 
 risen from the dead." Mark, vL 16. "John have I be- 
 headed : but who is this, of whom I hear such things .?" Luke, 
 ax. 9. And when, at a subsequent period, Christ inquired of 
 His disciples, "Whom say the people that I am?" in giving 
 an account of the conflicting opinions of their countrymen, 
 they say, u John the Baptist ; but some say, Elias ; and others 
 say, that one of the old prophets is risen again." Luke, ix. 
 19. This opinion, also, serves to reconcile an apparent con- 
 tradiction in the New Testament respecting John the Baptist. 
 <God had foretold, by the prophet Malachi : " I will send you 
 Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dread- 
 ful day of the Lord." The Jews expected, at the time of the 
 Saviour's advent, that the soul of Elijah should animate the 
 body of his forerunner, on the same principle that they main- 
 tained that the soul of Beor, the father of Balaam, Cushan 
 Rishethaim, and Laban were one and the same. Hence, when 
 the messenger of the -Jews inquired of John the Baptist, 
 ■"Art thou Elias?" he answered, " I am not ;" for had he sim- 
 ply given an affirmative answer, they would have understood 
 trim as teaching the transmigration of souls. Thus, our Sa- 
 viour, referring to the prophecy of Malachi, expressly affirms
 
 342 The Pharisees and Sadducees. [June, 
 
 that John the Baptist is the Elias that was to come; evidently 
 meaning that he came in the power and spirit of Elias. Mat., 
 xvi. 10 — 13. During the Rabbinical period of Jewish liter- 
 ature, it was maintained that all souls were created on the 
 first day, and that they remained in a peculiar receptacle, 
 called Gref, till they were needed ; while, after the revolu- 
 tion of centuries, some of the most pious souls were allowed 
 to inhabit other bodies. It was also a question between the 
 schools of Hillel and Schammai, whether souls could, by their 
 thoughts and actions, have either merit or demerit in Gref — 
 a point probably referred to by the disciples when they in- 
 quired of our Lord respecting the blind man : "Master, who 
 did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind ?" 
 
 III. The Pharisees attached great importance to the tradi- 
 tions of the fathers. "The Pharisees," says Josephus, "have 
 delivered to the people a great many observances, by succes- 
 sion from their fathers, which are not written in the law of 
 Moses ; and for that reason it is that the Sadducees reject 
 them, and say that we are to esteem those observances to be 
 obligatory which are in the written word, but are not to ob- 
 serve what are derived from the tradition of our fathers." 
 These traditions are said to have been partly delivered by 
 God, for men, at Sinai, and were transmitted, by oral tradi- 
 tion, by Moses to the Judges, by the Judges to the Prophets, 
 and, finally, to the men of the great Synagogue, till they were 
 reduced to writing by Rabbi Judah, the holy, and embodied 
 in the Talmud ; they are partly the traditional expositions 
 from a remote age, of how the Mosaic law was then under- 
 stood. But these traditions were frequently in direct con- 
 flict with the written word, and hence the Saviour affirmed 
 that they made the law of God void by their traditions. Of 
 this we have many remarkable examples in the evangelical 
 narratives. The Pharisees maintained that if a man should 
 say to his father, or his mother, that whatever he intended to 
 devote to their support should be dedicated as a gift to the 
 temple service, though he might afterwards repent of his 
 rash vow, yet he was precluded from contributing anything 
 to their sustenance. Mark, vii. 14. On another occasion
 
 1857.] The Pharisees and Sadducces. 343 
 
 tlicy found fault with our Saviour for curing a man on the 
 Sabbath, though they made no scruple of pulling a sheep .out 
 of a pit on that day ; and they severely blamed His disciples 
 for plucking the ears of corn on the Sabbath to appease the 
 cravings of hunger, though David and his men, in a case of 
 similar necessity, ate the shew-bread, which, in ordinary cir- 
 cumstances, was only lawful for the priests. And though the 
 Sadducces attached no value whatever to tradition, yet they 
 equally made the law void by their timid and unmeaning liter- 
 alities. They held to the mere letter of Scripture, without 
 -even referring to its real meaning and spirit — a mode of ex- 
 plaining away the Scriptures, while pretending to receive 
 them, which the Saviour rebukes in His Sermon on the Mount. 
 Thus, lie taught that adultery and murder were not to be con- 
 fined to the outward act, as the Sadducees imagined, but to 
 the intention — that adultery may be committed in the heart — 
 and that hatred is murder. 
 
 A short time before the coming of our Saviour, the Phari- 
 sees were divided into two parties — the schools of Hillel 
 and Schammai. Hillel was a Babylonian Jew, whose fathers 
 had remained in Babylon after the return of the Jews to their 
 own land. It is said that he was descended from the royal 
 family of David, by the mother's side, and that he was born 
 in the year 75 before Christ. He visited Judea in his fortieth 
 year, and propounded a system, the influence of which is felt 
 ■and acknowledged at the present day. He endeav.ored, with 
 no very great success, to mediate between the Pharisees and 
 Sadducees. With the former, he maintained the authority of 
 the traditional law, and, with the latter, he affirmed that the 
 traditions of the fathers can only be explained in harmony 
 with the written word. He held that due attention must be 
 given, not only to the words of the sacred writers, but to 
 their evident meaning and design. But, as his two rules of 
 faith, Scripture and tradition, were frequently opposed to 
 each other, he laid down seven rules, by which they might be 
 brought into, at least, seeming harmony. He also brought 
 several traditions with him from Babylon, which, it was sup- 
 posed, the Palestinian Jews had lost 

 
 344 The Pharisees and Sadducees. [June, 
 
 The school of Schammai arose somewhat later, and they 
 were always opposed to the school of Hillel. Schammai was 
 a Palestinian Jew, who, both in theory and practice, asserted 
 the supremacy of the oral over the written law — that the 
 former was like wine, and the latter like water. He looked 
 with no friendly eye on proselytes, lest they should corrupt 
 and lower the tone of Judaism ; and his followers were chiefly 
 distinguished for the austerity of their manners, and the punc- 
 tiliousness of their religious observances. They were Phari- 
 sees of " the straitest sect," to which the apostle Paul evi- 
 dently belonged. Such was their intolerant zeal for the law, 
 that, if a man became sick on the Sabbath, and if his life de- 
 pended on the prompt application of a remedy, they at once 
 decided that the man must die ; thus contending for forms and 
 ceremonies, while they neglected mercy, righteousness, and 
 the love of God. 
 
 It is obvious, from the preceding sketch, that the Pharisees 
 expected salvation from their slavish adherence to the Mosaic 
 ritual ; while the Sadducees were the freethinkers of the age, 
 and embraced a creed almost wholly negative. The Phari- 
 sees exercised the greatest influence over their countrymen, 
 while the Sadducees chiefly obtained adherents among the rich 
 and the noble. The former cherished the most fraternal feel- 
 ings towards each other ; but the latter were repulsive in 
 their manners, and, in the selfish spirit of scepticism, were in- 
 different to each other's welfare. But the one thing which 
 characterized the Pharisees was their self-righteous pride — 
 their dependence on the Mosaic law for justification before 
 God. This error, to which the early churches were particu- 
 larly subject, is denounced by Paul in the very strongest lan- 
 guage ; and he places faith and works in complete opposition 
 to each other. He repeatedly affirms, almost in the very 
 words of the Psalmist (Ps. cxliii. 2), " By the works of the 
 law shall no man living be justified." He proves that all are 
 guilty before God, and are shut up as close prisoners to the 
 righteousness of the Gospel ; and he clearly shows that, if 
 any of his converts submitted to circumcision with the design 
 of meriting the favor of God, and obtaining heaven, he had
 
 1857.] Demoniacal Possessions and Witchcraft. 345 
 
 fallen from grace, and Christ could profit him nothing. And, 
 as this is an error into which the carnal mind is apt to fall, 
 under new forms and in different circumstances, we must 
 guard against secretly cherishing the very errors which we 
 deplore, as we remember that justification by faith alone in 
 the merits of Christ is, as Luther expresses it, the article of 
 a standing, or of a falling Church. It is the central sun, 
 round which all the doctrines of grace revolve, and it is vital 
 to the faith and hopes of the genuine Christian. 
 
 DEMONIACAL POSSESSIONS AND WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 BY JAMES PYPEfi. 
 
 Amid the conflicting sentiments regarding our relations 
 to God and eternity, by which the world is distracted, no- 
 thing is more apparent than the extent to which men's pas- 
 sions and prejudices affect their views of the truth. Nor 
 need it surprise us that the most conclusive evidences should 
 fail to convince men of the truth of Christianity, since its 
 doctrines and precepts are directly opposed to their depraved 
 passions, appetites, and interests. " Ye would take away our 
 gods, and what have we more?" If these evidences could 
 be supposed to be ten thousand times stronger than they arc ; 
 could men see, every day, the most striking miracles in sup- 
 port of the Gospel ; even should the dead be raised to life, as 
 witnesses of its divinity, the multitude might be staggered 
 for a while, but they would not believe ; for we have power 
 over the mind's eye as well as over the bodily organ, and 
 can easily shut it against the rays of divine truth whenever 
 they become painful to us. The correctness of this view is
 
 346 Demoniacal Possessions and Witchcraft. June, 
 
 proved, not more by the scepticism than by the credulity of 
 the bitterest enemies of our faith. For, while infidelity, 
 boasting of its enlightenment, has constantly hurled the 
 reproach of fanaticism, bigotry, or superstition, against those 
 who receive the heavenly truth of this Gospel, sceptics have 
 very commonly displayed a weak credulity with reference to 
 anything that ministers to the cravings of depravity. Those 
 who make the loudest demands for more evidence when the 
 claims of Christianity are urged, are ready enough to accept 
 assertion for proof when the Word of God is contradicted ; 
 and those who proudly call themselves " rational," in opposi- 
 tion to the humble trust of the disciples of Christ, seem to be 
 staggered by no extravagance or absurdity which promises 
 to shield human corruption from the scathing flashes of eter- 
 nal truth. 
 
 Throughout those dark ages when the simplicity of the 
 Gospel was corrupted by admixture with the grossest super- 
 stitions of paganism, the popular mind was ruled by puerile 
 terrors of ghosts and hobgoblins, necromancy and witchcraft. 
 At the Reformation, the light of the Bible scattered these 
 creatures of the night; and human intellect, unfettered — even 
 though unsanctified, sprang forward in the pursuit of science 
 and philosophy. It was the craft of Satan to pervert the 
 light of Christianity, and to turn science and philosophy 
 against the very means by which the minds of men had been 
 emancipated for the pursuit of them. All belief in the spirit- 
 ual and supernatural was ridiculed as childish and unphilo- 
 sophical ; and the proudest triumph of speculation was to 
 reduce all the hopes and aspirations of the heart within the 
 narrow sphere of the material and temporal. Though not 
 always plainly avowed, the master doctrine and keystone of 
 the Infidel systems was, " Death an Eternal Sleep." It would 
 be a curious and instructive study to ascertain the influences 
 under which this course is now being reversed, so that Infi- 
 delity is invoking spiritual or demoniacal witnesses against 
 the materialism which it fostered, and the exploded super- 
 stitions of a corrupt Christianity are revived, to sustain the 
 most grotesque speculations regarding a disembodied immor- 
 tality.
 
 1857.] Demoniacal Possessions and Witchcraft. 347 
 
 The question between Christians and this most recent 
 sect of Infidels, who style themselves 'Spiritualists/ is not 
 regarding the possibility of spirits .holding communication 
 with men, but regarding the nature and origin of the particu- 
 lar communications on which they rest their faith. The 
 quarrel of the new sect is with their predecessors and their 
 former selves when they argue the possibility of such inter- 
 course with the invisible world. The Word of God teaches 
 that there are legions of evil spirits, ever ready to do the 
 malignant will of their chief in his attempts to contravene 
 the grace of God, and to work wo to mankind ; that they 
 can exercise an extraordinary power over the physical ele- 
 ments of this world, and that they can influence the soul as 
 well as the body of man. 
 
 For the present, passing by the proof of this in the Old 
 Testament, we find a class of proofs bearing very directly 
 upon the recent claims of the party to which we allude, in 
 the numerous instances of demoniacal possession which our 
 Lord and His Apostles encountered during their ministry in 
 Judea and Galilee. We can understand how an unbeliever 
 may call in question the record of these possessions, but it is 
 unaccountable how any man, professing to believe the record 
 and to recognize the divine mission of the Saviour, should 
 question the reality of the possessions. It has been alleged 
 by writers who assume the attitude of defenders of revelation, 
 that the symptoms of demoniacal possession are the same 
 with those of some natural disorders, and that our Lord and 
 His disciples but speak in accommodation to popular and 
 prevailing impressions, when they ascribe paroxysms of lunacy 
 to the immediate agency of a demon. These writers seem to 
 feel that they have relieved the Gospel narratives from a per- 
 plexing objection, when they have thus explained away the 
 express language of inspiration. But they forget at what an 
 expense they obtain this supposed advantage, since their 
 explanation exhibits the Lord as riveting the mischievous 
 superstitions of the age, and confirming error instead of 
 propagating truth. 
 
 On a candid examination, the record will be found to
 
 348 Demoniacal Possessions and Witchcraft. [June, 
 
 admit of no such explanation or apology ; and we are left no 
 choice but to admit the reality of the possession, or to reject 
 the record and the claims of Jesus of Nazareth as unfounded. 
 For the symptoms described are in many instances not those 
 of ordinary disease : divination and soothsaying ; telling of 
 things absent, and foretelling things future ; recognizing 
 Jesus as the Christ, the son of God, ere yet His immediate 
 disciples had learned the great truth ; endeavoring to defeat 
 His ministry by a premature disclosure, or to throw discredit 
 on His claims by associating them with such testimony as 
 theirs — these are not symptoms of ordinary disease, but these 
 are ascribed to the demons by the inspired historians. The 
 language of the Evangelists excludes all these accommoda- 
 tions and explanations, for they take care to distinguish this 
 from natural diseases in general, and from lunacy in particu- 
 lar : as when it is recorded, " They brought unto him all sick 
 people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, 
 and those which were possessed with devils, and lunatics, and 
 he healed them." The writer seems to have been more care- 
 ful to mark the distinction, because lunacy and possession 
 had many features in common. In the example recorded in 
 Matthew, xvii. 15, a father evidently mistook his son's 
 malady for lunacy, when in reality he had a devil ; and so 
 the Lord treated it. "And Jesus rebuked the devil, and he 
 departed out of him, and the child was cured from that very 
 hour." He also explained to His disciples, who had failed to 
 cure the child, that this miracle of dispossession demanded a 
 special preparation of prayer and fasting, as the victory over 
 Satan was a greater achievement than the removal of an 
 ordinary disease. 
 
 The truth is, that the casting out of devils is evidently 
 insisted on as a display of sovereignty and power, most 
 appropriate and important to the proof of the mission of 
 Him who came to bruise the head of the serpent, and as an 
 assurance of His ultimate victory, when Satan shall indeed 
 be cast out. The bearing of these miracles upon that final 
 triumph, and the importance of these proofs of His Messiah- 
 ship, is pointed out by the Lord Himself, when, in reply to
 
 1857.] Demoniacal Possessions and Witchcraft. 349 
 
 the disciples, who came exulting in the power of their minis- 
 try, He said, " I beheld Satan fall, as lightning from heaven;" 
 and when, in reply to the false accusation of His enemies, He 
 forces home upon them the conclusion, " If I cast out devils 
 by the Spirit of God, then, the kingdom of God is come unto 
 you. 7 ' 
 
 The antagonism of the seed of the woman and the seed of 
 the serpent, and the presage of final victory which accompa- 
 nied the advent of Christ in humility, is represented in the 
 tradition of the Church, that the heathen oracles, inspired hj 
 Satan, were then struck silent. 
 
 The oracles are dumb — 
 No voice or hideous hum 
 
 Runs through the arched roof, in words deceiving. 
 Apollo, from his shrine, 
 Can no more divine, 
 
 With hollow shriek, the steep of Delphos leaving; 
 No nightly trance or breathed spell, 
 Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell. 
 
 Without accepting the tradition, we may quote the remarks 
 of Sir Walter Scott : " There appears nothing inconsistent 
 in the faith of those who, believing that, in the elder time r 
 fiends and demons were permitted an enlarged degree of 
 power in uttering predictions, may also give credit to the 
 proposition, that, at the Divine advent, that power was 
 restrained, the oracles silenced, and those demons who had 
 aped the divinity of the place, were driven from their abode 
 on earth, honored as it was by a guest so august." 
 
 There are two examples of Satanic manifestation on record, 
 that seem specially calculated to guard against all the eva- 
 sions to which we have referred. As Bishop Warburton for- 
 cibly argues : " Our indulgent Master has been pleased to 
 guard this important truth against the most plausible evasions 
 of self-conceited men. To cut off all escape from a forced 
 concession of the mighty hand of God, compelling His most 
 averse creatures to acknowledge His sovereignty, here are
 
 350 Demoniacal Possessions and Witchcraft. [June, 
 
 two cases obtruded on the most incredulous : The one is 
 Satan's temptation of the Messiah ; the other is the possession 
 of brute animals — in neither of which cases has the power of 
 imagination any place. In the first, the Divine patient was 
 above their delusions ; in the other, the brutal was as much 
 below them." 
 
 ifeln the first of these instances, in which the adversary was 
 permitted to try if he could contravene the great work of the 
 Redeemer, the terms of the narrative admit of no evasion. 
 The statement is direct, that He was led by the Spirit into 
 the wilderness, and was tempted there forty days of the devil. 
 In the second, which is the instance recorded by three Evan- 
 gelists, of the Gadarene who was delivered from a legion of 
 demons, " And the devils besought him, If thou cast us out, 
 suffer us to go away into the herd of swine." The extraor- 
 dinary request is urged and permission is granted, as though 
 for the very purpose of silencing every doubt, and refuting 
 every evasion. Warburton remarks : " It is true, that the 
 wild extravagance of human fancy may be able to form chi- 
 meras that shall affright the raiser of them to distraction, yet 
 brutes, we all know, have none of this dangerous faculty. 
 Therefore, when we find great numbers of them stimulated at 
 once to an instantaneous madness, we must needs conclude 
 that it was caused by some supernatural agent acting on their 
 
 organs." 
 
 The reality of the possession is proved, alike by the subjec- 
 tion of the demons to the name of Christ, and their resistance 
 of inferior powers of exorcism. This is strikingly illustrated 
 in the case mentioned in Acts, xix. 11, where seven impostors 
 tried to imitate Paul in casting out evil spirits. Wanting the 
 authority and faith of the Apostle, they only aroused a power 
 they could not withstand. With contemptuous rage the evil 
 spirit replied to their adjuration, " Jesus I know, and Paul I 
 know, but who are ye ?" And the man in whom the evil 
 spirit was, leaped on them and overcame them, and prevailed 
 against them, so that they fled out of the house, naked and 
 wounded." 
 
 The application of these proofs of demoniacal possession to
 
 1857.] Demoniacal Possessions and Witchcraft. 351 
 
 the modern instances of so-called spirit-communication by a 
 so-called medium, may be questioned on the ground of the 
 nature of the affection, since the possession appears to have 
 been involuntary on the part of the patient, and since it was 
 manifested in acts of violence and insane fury. All we design 
 at present, by adducing such proof, is to show that evil spirits 
 can act through the human organization ; that they not only 
 can do so, but actually have made men and women mediums of 
 utterance and action. The question as to whether they are 
 doing so in these modern instances, is to be separately consid- 
 ered. The case last cited, in connection with others in the 
 sacred narrative, such as those of Simon Magus and Elymas 
 the sorcerer, suggests the remark that jugglery and imposition 
 have often been practised by designing knaves, to sustain a 
 claim of preternatural agency. Sleight of hand, collusion and 
 cunning, lie at the foundation of many wonders in ancient 
 and modern times, which superstition has accepted, as proof 
 of such a claim. The knavish often passes for the divine. 
 It by no means follows that a thing is supernatural because it 
 is incomprehensible to us. The time is not long past when 
 experiments in Electro-magnetism were ascribed to the incan- 
 tations of witchcraft and the agency of the Devil. The case 
 in question is well adapted to guard us from either extreme ; 
 for if we have, on the one hand, the fraud and false preten- 
 sions of the vagabond exorcists, we have, on the other, a clear 
 instance of a demon acting through a human medium. 
 
 But it will be observed that acts of insane fury were not 
 the only symptoms of demoniacal possession, even in those in- 
 stances to which we have referred. The utterance of what 
 could have been known only by some superhuman intelli- 
 gence, brings the possession into close connection with those 
 cases in which, both among the Jews and among the heathen, 
 the spirits imitated the inspiration of true prophets of 
 God. We have, in a former article, referred to the demoni- 
 acal origin of idolatrous worship, as recognized in the Word 
 of God ; and with this, the witchcraft and dealing with famil- 
 iar spirits against which the Law of Moses is so emphatically 
 pronounced, were manifestly connected both in nature and
 
 352 Demoniacal Possessions and Witchcraft. [June, 
 
 jruilt. The claims of that law, and the recorded instances of 
 its violation, are as little suceptible of the explanation of 
 mere imagination, trickery or popular delusion as the instan- 
 ces of possession in the Evangelical narratives. This much 
 is evident — language could not more explicitly denounce and 
 des3ribe a hideous reality. "To deny the possibility, nay, 
 the actual existence of witchcraft and sorcery," says Black- 
 stone, in his Commentary on the Laws of England, " is, at once, 
 flatly to contradict the revealed "Word of God in various pas- 
 sages both of the Old and New Testaments ; and the thing 
 itself is a truth to which every nation in the world hath, in 
 its turn, borne testimony, either by examples seemingly well 
 attested, or by prohibitory laws, which at least suppose the 
 possibility of a commerce with evil spirits." 
 
 We must by no means suppose that authentic accounts of 
 such intercourse are limited to the Jewish nation, or that the 
 belief of it was peculiar to that people. Though among the 
 heathen, the demons and evil spirits of the Hebrews are dig- 
 nified by the title of gods, the same impious but preternatural 
 powers are claimed by the priests of all their polluted altars, 
 and the prophets of all their oracles. We can not, within 
 present limits, give any detailed account of their superstitions, 
 but briefly refer, as an example of the whole, to the oracle of 
 Delphi, the most celebrated of all the oracles of Apollo. In 
 the innermost recess of the Temple, before the golden statue 
 of the God, was a chasm in the ground, from which the inspi- 
 ration was supposed to proceed. Over the chasm stood the 
 tripod, on which the Pythoness took her seat when the oracle 
 was to be consulted. The prophetess or medium was in 
 early times a young girl, but in later times a woman of fifty 
 years, selected from among the natives of the place, for a sus- 
 ceptibility of temperament. After taking her place on the 
 tripod, she gradually yielded to a delirium, the effects of which 
 on her whole mental and bodily constitution were sometimes 
 so violent that she was thrown into convulsions, and, after a 
 few days, died. In this delirium or ecstasy she uttered the 
 revelation of Apollo. 
 
 The question whether this was all a skillful contrivance of
 
 1857.] Demoniacal Possessions and Witchcraft. 353 
 
 priestcraft has been discussed both in ancient and modern 
 times. " The early Christian writers," says Professor Anthon, 
 "seeing that some extraordinary power must, in several cases, 
 have been at work, represented it as an institution of the evil 
 spirits. In modern times, opinions arc very much divided. 
 Huellmann, for example, has endeavored to show that the ora- 
 cle of Delphi was entirely managed and conducted by the aris- 
 tocratic families of Delphi, which are described as forming a 
 sort of hierarchical senate for all Greece. If so, the Delphic 
 senate surely was the wisest of all in the history of the an- 
 cient world. Klausen, on the other hand, seems to be in- 
 clined to allow some truly Divine influence ; and, at all events, 
 thinks that, even in so far as it was merely managed by men r 
 it acted in most cases according to lofty and pure moral prin- 
 ciples." 
 
 Without discussing the merits of the Delphic oracle, or the 
 inspiration of the Pythoness, the Word of God enables us, life 
 some cases, to trace both lying miracles and false prophecies 
 to their diabolical source. Without multiplying examples, it 
 is sufficient to refer to miracles of the priests of Egypt in the 
 presence of Moses, which are recorded as realities — " the magi- 
 cians did so, with their enchantments ;" and, in the New Tes- 
 tament, to the case of the " damsel possessed with a spirit of 
 divination, which brought her masters much gain by soothsay- 
 ing," through whose testimony Satan endeavored to discredit 
 Paul, as he formerly attempted to discredit the Lord, by the 
 testimony of demoniacs. That there was here an actual pos- 
 session is proved, not only by the express language of the nar- 
 rative, but by the miracle of exorcism which Paul performed) 
 in the name of Jesus Christ. It must be remembered that 
 this occurred in a heathen city ; and the word rendered " of 
 divination" (Ilvdovoc), in the margin, " of Python," is the same 
 that was applied to the prophetess of the Delphic oracle. 
 
 We have remarked that the utterance of superhuman intel- 
 ligence by the demoniacs, brings the instances of possession re- 
 corded in the New Testament, into connection with the cases* 
 of diviners, soothsayers and workers of false miracles ; but it 
 will be observed that there is, on the other hand, a bond of 
 VOL. II. — no. vi. w
 
 354 Demoniacal Possessions and Witchcraft. [June, 
 
 connection and resemblance in the frantic delirium, trance or 
 ecstasy of the latter class, as in the case of the Delphic Pytho- 
 ness. This is a marked feature of all description we hare of 
 the false prophets and mediums of their gods ; and will be 
 observed as characterizing all claimants to spiritual inter- 
 course, in modern as well as ancient times. 
 
 There is one noticeable fact in all the inspired accounts of 
 intercourse with spirits, and of the manifestation of demoni- 
 cal power upon men, that in no instance do we find the spirits 
 of departed men, and least of all of departed saints, holding 
 communication with mortals. The only seeming exception is 
 the appearance of Samuel to Saul, at the incantations of the 
 witch of Endor. However, this appearance, which manifestly 
 exceeded the expectation of the witch herself, is accounted 
 for — whether devilish power was permitted to take posses- 
 sion of the frame of the deceased prophet, or to delude the 
 affrighted woman with some spectral semblance, and the 
 wretched monarch with the mimicked sound of the familiar 
 voice, no one can suppose that the repose of the man of God 
 could be invaded at the will of such as they. At any rate, it is 
 to be noticed that there is nothing like the possession of another 
 person by the spirit of the prophet, or like speaking through 
 a medium, or using any invisible agency. The form of the 
 prophet is seen, and his voice is heard, as though he were per- 
 sonally present. It is evident, from this instance, that witch- 
 craft among the Jews sometimes took the form of necromancy, 
 or pretended consultation of the dead. The heathen, also, 
 had Oracles of the Dead, in which the diviners pretended to 
 call up the spirits of the departed, and offered sacrifices to 
 the infernal gods. But the Scriptures give no countenance to 
 the supposition that these spirits answered the call, or had 
 any power to employ mediums, or exercise invisible agency. 
 They do, however, abundantly prove the agency of evil 
 spirits, and that not only among Jews and idolaters ; but, as 
 soon as the Church began to depart from the faith, and the mys- 
 tery of iniquity began to work, we find their agency within 
 the pale of a professed Christianity. As, of old, they mim- 
 icked the inspiration of the prophets, so, now, they counter-
 
 1857.] The Christian Pilgrim. 355 
 
 feited the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and it became necessary 
 to give this caution to the saints : " Beloved, believe not every 
 ■spirit, but try the spirits, whether they be of God." It be- 
 •came necessary in the Christian Church, as under the law of 
 Moses, to give warning of the awful guilt of consulting fa- 
 miliar spirits, and seeking intercourse with the dead. Among 
 the works of the flesh enumerated by Paul, in his Epistle to 
 the Galatians, we find " witchcraft ;" regarding which he 
 adds : " They which do such things shall not inherit the king- 
 dom of God." That the benighted heathen should volunta- 
 rily prostrate themselves before oracles and diviners, is not 
 matter of wonder ; for man, conscious of his native darkness, 
 pants for light upon his future destiny, and he who knows not 
 God seeks a God in his own fancies. But that an intelligent 
 being, possessing such teaching and examples as the Bible af- 
 fords, should consult spirits, real or imaginary, is a burlesque 
 of humanity in the foulest insult to God. Salem witchcraft 
 was wisdom and virtue, compared with the infatuation which 
 accepts a necromantic revelation, puerile in its miracles, and 
 merely impudent in its contradiction of the teachings of the 
 Holy Spirit, and which must at once debase the faculties and 
 vitiate the morals of its victims, to say nothing of its terrible 
 consequences beyond the present state of existence. 
 
 THE CHEISTIAN PILGRIM. 
 
 " We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well 
 that ye take heed in your hearts, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, 
 antil the day dawn, and the day-star arise." 
 
 The Desert stretched, pathless and desolate, 
 Into the boundless shade. Unbroken night 
 Lay, like a load, upon a burdened world. 
 The curtained blackness of the sky let through 
 No ray of gladsome star. From the abys*
 
 356 The Christian Pilgrim. [June,. 
 
 Of gloom> no taper sent its level beam' 
 
 To tell of human dwelling and sweet home. 
 
 The anxious eye, defeated of its functions, gave 
 
 Its wonted watch-care to the tortured ear : 
 
 Which, on the strain, took in the hideous sounds 
 
 Of Discord, and dire Hate, and bellowing Wrath. 
 
 Beneath the uncertain footfall Serpents hiss ; 
 
 From neighboring fen the Toad croaks ominous ; 
 
 Out of congenial shade, the hooting Owl 
 
 Answers the Bittern's boom — the lean Wolf 's howl, 
 
 The Tiger's and the Lion's thunder blend 
 
 With the fierce bluster of the swelling storm 5 
 
 And loud Hyena-laughter mocks their rage. 
 
 Forth, in the night, a lonely pilgrim stept, 
 
 Wrapt in the mantle of unchanging Trust; 
 
 Armed with the staff of Promise, and bi» feet 
 
 Sandaled with Gospel Peace. ' k 0, pilgrim lone I 
 
 Return to home and country, whence you came, 
 
 Nor tempt the perils of the Wilderness]!" 
 
 Calm, in its meekness, was the low, sweet voice, 
 
 Which said, " My home is in the better land, 
 
 Whither I go ;" and, with undaunted step, 
 
 He pressed into the darkness. Straightway flashed^ 
 
 From a far eminence, a beacon-light, 
 
 Clear and seTene ; nor could the fogs of earth, 
 
 Nor all its tempests, quench its friendly sheen. 
 
 The storm raged fiercer ; buis he only wrapped 
 
 His sheltering mantle closer-round his breast. 
 
 The savage din rose louder; but I heard, 
 
 Above it all, the pilgrim, as he went, 
 
 Joyfully singing, u I will fear no ill, 
 
 For Thou art with me, and Thy rod and staff 
 
 They comfort me." The notes of love and faith 
 
 Dispelled the ireful clamor, and the night, 
 
 Beneath the melody, began to smile. 
 
 With steady eye upon the Beacon fixed, 
 
 The pilgrim, hymning, urged his Eastward way, 
 
 Till the day dawned, and the Day-star arose 
 
 Upon the palace-towers and battlements 
 
 Of New Jerusalem, his hope and home.
 
 3.857.] The Solution of Difficulties in Scripture* 357 
 
 HINTS TOWARDS THE SOLUTION OF DIFFICULTIES 
 
 IN SCRIPTURE. 
 
 BY JAMES INGL IS. 
 
 I. 
 
 " Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one." GaL, 
 aii. 20. 
 
 The most mature convictions of the earnest and prayerful 
 student of God's Word will bear out the remark, that the 
 greater number of what are regarded as obscure and difficult 
 passages, are rendered so by our own pre-judgments and pre- 
 possessions. Without any design to pervert the truth, or to 
 force a meaning upon a passage, we are all apt to read Scrip- 
 ture in the light of preconceived opinions, and find difficul- 
 ties in it, when it does not readily accommodate itself to 
 them. How humiliating it is, to find, in this, as in other par- 
 ticulars, that the greatest task in learning the truth is to un- 
 learn our errors, and to come, in child-like docility, to take 
 our lesson as God has given it to us. There are, also, erro- 
 neous habits and rules of interpretation which we adopt un- 
 consciously, following the general current, and accepting a 
 certain traditional .authority, from which it seems presump- 
 tuous to dissent. But, though we would be far from thinking 
 lightly of the labors of the learned and wise, and still more 
 of the spiritual and holy, whom the Lord has given to in- 
 struct His Church, and the record of whose accumulating re- 
 searches in the mines of truth has been graciously handed 
 down to us, we must yet remember that it is a privilege vouch- 
 safed to the least, as well as to the greatest, to come directly 

 
 S58 Hints towards the Solution of [June, 
 
 to the living oracles, and hear for themselves what the Spirit 
 saith to the Churches. 
 
 There is nothing more unworthy or unpromising than the 
 practice of censuring the received version on every occasion, 
 and pretending to amend it ; yet, in the language of a cau- 
 tious instructor, " it is not necessary that our translation/ be 
 deemed infallible ;" and, though it should, indeed, be done 
 with modesty and prudence, we must not hesitate to appeal 
 past them, when a just or clear understanding of the Word 
 of God demands it, The passage now to be considered fur- 
 nishes an example of a difficulty which will yield to no pa- 
 tient inquiry, as it stands in our English Bibles, and for the 
 solution of which we suggest a change, which we hope to jus- 
 tify, even to readers of the English version only. 
 
 But, in order to an explanation of the passage, we must run 
 over the course of the argument in which it stands. The 
 Churches of Galatia had been invaded by the Jewish arro- 
 gance and bigotry which disturbed the brethren at Antioch f 
 declaring to these earliest Gentile converts, " Except ye be 
 circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved." 
 Paul, in his endeavors to bring back those who had been led 
 astray, to the simplicity of the Gospel, and to settle their 
 minces in the faith of it, shows them that the observances of 
 the Mosaic law, so far from being necessary to the salvation 
 of the Gentiles, eould not effect the salvation of the Jews : 
 as was shown in the case of those who counted all their legal 
 advantages but loss, that they might win Christ, and be found 
 in Him, not having their own righteousness, which was of the 
 law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the right- 
 eousness which is of God by faith. 
 
 Nay, he goes back to Abraham himself, and shows that hi3 
 justification and acceptance with God rested on the very same 
 grounds as were, in the Gospel, proposed to the Gentiles. 
 His was not a legal and ceremonial righteousness, but a right- 
 eousness by faith ; and, as Paul argues more at large in 
 the Epistle to the Romans, "a righteousness which he had, 
 being uncircumcised." 
 
 Besides the important fact, that Abraham was declared t©
 
 1857.] Difficulties in Scripture. 359 
 
 be accepted, while he was yet uncircumcised as they were, the 
 apostle points out that, in His covenant with Abraham, God 
 expressly anticipates the time when the Gentiles, as such, 
 and as distinguished from the Jews, should be introduced to 
 all its privileges. Nay, he shows that the distinguishing 
 promises of the covenant were not made to the Jews as a 
 people, but to Christ, the true Seed of Abraham. " Now to 
 Abraham and his seed were the promises made. lie saith not 
 And to seeds, as of many, but as op one (tvoc;), And to thy 
 seed, which is Christ." We request attention to the emphasis 
 upon this one, as we shall have occasion again to refer to it. 
 The whole force of the argument rests upon the fact that 
 Israel, as a nation — the natural descendants of Abraham — 
 were not parties to the Abrahamic covenant, nor were they 
 included in it. This one point is settled — that God's cove- 
 nant, without any condition or qualification, was " confirmed 
 of God in Christ," and must be fulfilled, irrespective of any- 
 thing that the Jews might either do or fail to do. 
 
 We come now to another and a very different transaction, 
 in which Israel, as a nation, was the party concerned. God, 
 according to a distinct prediction made to His servant Abra- 
 ham for the support of his faith, had led them out of the house 
 of their bondage, and had incorporated them as ( a people unto 
 Himself/ in the wilderness of Sinai. He then made a cove- 
 nant with them, very different in its nature from that which 
 He made with Abraham. The covenant which He confirmed 
 in Christ was unqualified and unconditional; and God's Word 
 stands actually pledged to give Him the everlasting inherit- 
 ance with all its blessings : but the covenant which He made 
 with Israel was conditional, and dependent on their fidelity 
 and obedience. A law was given; and then God promised, 
 " ]f ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and 
 do them, then I will give you rain in due season, and the land 
 shall yield her increase," &c; while, on the other hand, judg- 
 ment and calamity were threatend, in the event of their re- 
 bellion. The blessings promised at Sinai were national and 
 temporal ; natural birth and obedience to outward ordinances 
 secured a title to them ; the blessings of the Abrahamic cove-
 
 360 Hints towards the Solution of [June, 
 
 nant were spiritual and eternal ; and neither Jew nor Gen- 
 tile could have any share in them, except by faith in Christ. 
 Thus in every respect these two covenants were not only dis- 
 tinct, but different. The parties were different : in the one, 
 God and Christ ; in the other, God and the Israelitish nation. 
 The one was a free and precious promise ; the other was a 
 promised reward for a stipulated performance. The one was 
 spiritual, and related to an everlasting inheritance ; the other 
 was national, and related to temporal blessings. 
 
 Now, the apostle's argument is, that the promise, being ab- 
 solute and unqualified, cannot be disannulled, modified, or set 
 aside by the law. He appeals even to the well understood 
 principles of good faith in human transactions : where a cove- 
 nant is once ratified, it would be regarded as a violation of 
 all integrity and common honesty, if one of the parties should 
 afterwards arbitrarily set it aside, or modify its terms. And, 
 if so, how dishonoring is it to God, to suppose that He could 
 violate or qualify His promise ! To allege that obedience to 
 the law which was given at Sinai was necessary to salvation, 
 was nothing less than alleging that God had made His own 
 promise a nullity. " For if the inheritance be of the law, it 
 is no more of promise ; but God gave it to Abraham by 
 promise." There is a wide difference between a free gift and 
 a stipulated reward. The inheritance cannot be at once a 
 matter of grace and a matter of debt or right. If it be 
 gained only by legal obedience, it cannot be bestowed as an 
 unconditional promise. But God gave it to Abraham by 
 promise, and, as He is faithful and true, it cannot for a mo- 
 ment be supposed that He has made it depend on the observ- 
 ance of a law, which was never heard of till four hundred and 
 thirty years after the promise was made. 
 
 An objector might then be supposed to demand, Wherefore, 
 then, serveth the law ? For what purpose was it given, if 
 the covenant which God made with Abraham stands just as 
 it did before, and is altogether unaffected by it ? The apostle 
 replies, that the law was given for important though tempo- 
 rary purposes. Centuries were to elapse before the time ap- 
 pointed by Divine Wisdom for the mission of the promised
 
 1857.] Difficulties in Scripture. 361 
 
 Seed ; and, in the meantime, the law was given to hold the 
 transgressions of men in check, to prove the true nature of 
 sin, and to demonstrate to mankind their need of a Saviour, 
 and thus to prepare them to receive the grace of God. The 
 law, though designed to serve a temporary and subsidiary- 
 purpose, the apostle yet acknowledges to be glorious in its 
 nature, and solemnly binding upon those who received it. 
 " It was ordained by angels in the hands of a mediator." 
 The ministrations of angels attested its solemnity and glory : 
 " the word spoken by angels was steadfast ; and every trans- 
 gression and disobedience received a just recompense of re- 
 ward." It was obligatory upon those whom the mediator 
 represented. But who was the mediator, and whom did he 
 represent ? The answer to that question is the solution of 
 the difficulty before us. 
 
 Moses, in speaking to the Israelites of the Sinaitic covenant 
 (Deut., v. 5), said : " I stood between the Lord and you at 
 that time, to shew you the word of the Lord : for ye were 
 afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount." 
 This mediation was at their own instance : " And they said 
 unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear thee ; but 
 let not God speak with us, lest we die." The mediator was 
 Moses, and he represented the children of Israel, who were 
 the true parties to this transaction. And this is the conclu- 
 sive argument against the supposition that the law could in 
 any way modify the promise — the parties were not the same: 
 in the one, the parties were God and Christ ; in the other, 
 God and the Israelites. " Now a mediator is not a mediator 
 of one ;" or, as we submit it would be more correctly ren- 
 dered, "But the mediator," i. e. Moses, " is not the Mediator 
 of the one " (t-i'of), i. e. Christ. Moses was acting, not as the 
 representative of the one Seed, to whom the promise was con- 
 firmed, but on behalf of a different party altogether, namely, 
 the natural descendants of Abraham. Consequently, the 
 former covenant was not in the least affected in the transac- 
 tion. 
 
 The last clause of the verse, ' but God is one,' we would join 
 to the following verse, as the statement of a further objection
 
 362 The Solution of Difficulties in Scripture. [June, 
 
 to the apostle's argument. For the objector might urge that, 
 although the parties were so far different, God was a party to 
 both covenants, and must be inconsistent with Himself in 
 making two covenants so opposite in their nature. " But it 
 is one God : the law is, therefore, against the promises of 
 God." The apostle replies, that this objection might have 
 been urged, if a law had been given which could have given 
 life ; for, then, a man might have been justified by the deeds 
 of the law, and so have obtained the inheritance as a debt. 
 So far from this, the Scriptures, or written law, concludes all 
 under sin, brings home their guilt to them, and thus, instead 
 of being opposed to the promise, is subsidiary to it ; since it 
 condemned men, and prepared them to receive the promise by 
 faith in Christ Jesus. It was their schoolmaster to bring 
 them to Christ ; but, after He is come, its temporary office is 
 served. Even believing Jews are no longer under it : how 
 much less can believing Gentiles be required to submit to it ? 
 The distinction which the law made between Jew and Gen- 
 tile is at an end. Christians are all, Jews as well as Gentiles, 
 the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. The Jew had 
 no advantage, and had no other way of salvation than that 
 which the Gentiles enjoyed. " Ye are all one in Christ 
 Jesus." United to Christ, the one Seed, to whom the promise 
 was made, which the law could not disannul, you are heirs 
 according to the promise, and cannot be required to keep the 
 law as a condition of obtaining the inheritance. 
 
 We have the more readily dwelt upon the apostle's argu- 
 ment, because it furnishes a striking illustration of the nature 
 of the covenant of Sinai, and of the relations of the Israel- 
 itish nation to the great purpose of God. That covenant is 
 entirely distinct from the covenant which God made with 
 Abraham. Moses himself carefully marks the distinction : 
 " The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The 
 Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us." 
 This covenant had its own terms and its own blessings ; but 
 so far as the blessings of the everlasting covenant arc con- 
 cerned, no one ever inherited them by descent from Abraham, 
 or the observance of the law. Abraham himself was justified
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 363 
 
 by faith ; and under the Mosaic dispensation it was as true as 
 now, that " the just by faith shall live." At no time was it 
 taught that the natural seed were heirs ; but they that be of 
 faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. 
 
 CHAPTERS FROM AN UNPUBLISHED BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 We have thus far avoided mentioning the name of the sub- 
 ject of these memoirs, in consideration of the feelings of one, 
 who, at fourscore, retains much of the virtuous sensitiveness 
 of youth. But we now reach a point when it would be incon- 
 venient and unbecoming to use the familiar name of his boy- 
 hood, — and it will not diminish the interest of our readers, 
 when we introduce to them the name of Dr. Maclay, of New 
 York, which will henceforth be employed in our narrative. 
 
 The first year of study which was spent by Mr. Maclay in 
 Dundee, was not devoted to mere literary improvement. The 
 aim of Mr. Innes, and the character of the church of which 
 he was pastor, made it a year of great spiritual enjoyment 
 and progress to all the students. Mr. Maclay's application 
 to study was so intense as to threaten his health, and pru- 
 dence demanded greater moderation in intellectual labor; 
 but he sought relaxation, not in idleness, but in doing good. 
 With the approbation of his tutor, he was in the habit of 
 going to the surrounding villages, and in school-house, barn, 
 or cottage, and sometimes in the open air, he preached the 
 Gospel to those for whose souls no man seemed to care. 
 From the first, he secured the willing attention of increasing
 
 361 Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [June, 
 
 congregations, the encouragement which followed him in all 
 his future ministrations. lie made rapid progress in those 
 attainments which marked him out, in the estimation of Dr. 
 Innes, and his fellow-students, as likely to prove an accepta- 
 ble preacher and a successful pastor. 
 
 " There ought to be regular employment of the students in 
 visiting, praying, catechising, and preaching," says Dr. Bon- 
 ner, in his " School of the Prophets." " Say what you will, 
 preaching should be one part of the education of a preacher," 
 said Rowland Hill : and the only wonder is, that it should 
 ever have been disputed or neglected. What were the 
 fruits of this system, the names of Mr. Maclay's fellow-stu- 
 dents and associates will show. Among them were the late 
 Dr. Wardlaw, of Glasgow, Dr. Russel, of Dundee, Dr. Pater- 
 son, of St. Petersburg, Dr. Henderson, the Biblical scholar, 
 of Highburg College, and Mr. Dick, who founded the Mission 
 at Hamburg, to whose labors J. G-. Oncken succeeded. We 
 scarcely know any respect in which some of these men would 
 suffer, in comparison with the most eminent members of any 
 Church, while, in all that constitutes the true excellence and 
 success of a Gospel ministry, they outstripped the learning of 
 the world, and the obscure seminary did a work to shame the 
 universities of Europe. 
 
 After a year spent at Dundee, the class of which Mr. Ma- 
 clay was a member, was removed to Glasgow, and placed 
 under the literary and theological tuition of Mr. Ewing, who 
 thus became, a second time and in a double sense, his pastor. 
 Mrs. Maclay and her daughters had the happiness of receiving 
 back again, to their own loved home, the son and the brother 
 who had made it what it was. Throughout the remainder of 
 his period of study, he, with some of his fellow-students, 
 boarded there, and the support of the family was easily and 
 comfortably provided for. The widow looked back to this 
 as the happiest period of her life, when she gathered conge- 
 nial society around her table — saw her son happy in the pros- 
 ecution of a course of study for what she considered the 
 highest position in life ; and when the whole family, one in 
 faith and hope, were striving together for the most exalted 
 end of life.
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 365 
 
 All the students looked back to the period of their connec- 
 tion with Mr. Ewing, as a period of great privilege, both 
 spiritually and intellectually ; and they all refer, with the 
 most fervent gratitude, to his pastoral care, his unbounded 
 kindness, his pains-taking instruction, and his judicious coun- 
 sels. The peculiar excellence of his pulpit ministrations lay 
 in his expositions of Scripture, which had a groundwork of 
 critical and extensive learning ; and his peculiar gifts in this 
 way had a peculiar adaptation to the duties of his chair in 
 the seminary. The contact of the students with such a mind, 
 was in itself a signal advantage — it raised them to a higher 
 range of mental existence, gave an impetus to all their pow- 
 ers, and an exalted aim to all their habits of thought. The 
 impress of his teaching remained on all their after labors ; 
 his chaste, correct, and perspicuous style, his plain and 
 direct address to the conscience, and his clear and forcible 
 expositions of Scripture, might be traced in all their pulpit 
 ministrations ; his quiet, kind, and gentlemanly manners, his 
 unaffected kindness, and his patient and pains-taking atten- 
 tion to the spiritual condition of his flock, might be traced in 
 all their pastoral intercourse. 
 
 It was not, however, intellectual strength or learned wealth 
 that gave him such an influence over the affections and the 
 characters of these young men. It was still more the eleva- 
 tion of his own piety, and the closeness of his walk with an 
 unseen Saviour. Living in continual communion with Him 
 who is the chief among ten thousand, a heavenly fragrance 
 compassed his presence, and a spiritual power was communi- 
 cated to his whole character, which could not be resisted. 
 If the countenance which reflects most of Christ, and shines 
 most with His love and grace, is most fitted to attract the 
 gaze even of a careless, giddy world, and win their restless 
 souls from the fascinations of creature love and creature 
 beauty, how irresistibly attractive must such characters prove 
 to those who already love the Lord, and are pressing on to 
 conformity to the same image ! When we look at the success 
 of those ministers who have been most honored of God, in 
 the advancement of His Church and the conversion of sia-
 
 366 Chapters from an UnpublisJied Biography. [June, 
 
 ners, we shall find that their strength lay not alone in the 
 broad, manly, and Scriptural Theology which they preached, 
 still less in their learning, eloquence, or power of argument ; 
 but chiefly in their living fellowship with a living Saviour, 
 which, transforming men into His image, fitted them to be 
 able ministers of the New Testament. They abode in Him, 
 and brought forth much fruit. And this, which is the true 
 source of ministerial influence, is the true secret of a teacher's 
 power with such a class of students as gathered around Mr. 
 Ewing. 
 
 It is not his lectures or direct teaching, in which he proba- 
 bly communicates nothing which might not be found in text 
 books, but his living character, which makes his relations to 
 them influential and impressive. This character, of course, 
 gave its hue to all his instructions. The study of theology in 
 that school was not the study of science, as a professional 
 qualification, but the study of life-giving and sanctifying 
 truth, applied to their own souls first of all. And, whatever 
 their study might be, they were never allowed for an hour to 
 forget, that their grand object was to be rendered meet instru- 
 ments in God's hands for the conversion of souls and the feed- 
 ing of Christ's flock. The grand theme of the class-room 
 was the Gospel — the Word of God was the text book — they 
 were students of the Bible. The instructions of the class- 
 room were brought into close alliance with the instructions of 
 the pulpit, and the students were still made to feel that they 
 were members of the Church. 
 
 They were encouraged to engage in all the Church's activi- 
 ties, not as a separate class, but as ordinary members. In the 
 prayer meeting, the Sunday school, and all efforts of Chris- 
 tian benevolence, they could always be relied upon. They 
 were gradually, also, accustomed to speak in the presence of 
 large congregations. Mr. Ewing was in the practice of 
 taking one of them into the pulpit with him, to read the Scrip- 
 tures and hymns, and occasionally to lead in the devotions of 
 the sanctuary. On the Lord's day, the more advanced of them 
 had regular appointments to preach in the surrounding vil- 
 lages, and, during the vacation of the seminary, they were dis-
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 367 
 
 persed over the country to supply vacant and destitute places. 
 Mr. Maclay, during this period, was in the habit of preaching 
 regularly in the village of Airdrie. At his first visit he re- 
 sorted to the novel expedient of announcing by the town 
 crier that he would preach in an old brewery, which he had 
 hired for the purpose. By this means he secured a large at- 
 tendance of those who were not in the habit of going to any 
 place of worship. The favorable reception of his first ad- 
 dress led to a second appointment, and the interest continued 
 to increase. God blessed His truth, sinners were converted, 
 experienced Christians rallied around the effort, and an effi- 
 cient Church was ultimately constituted there. 
 
 The character of the students, and their activity in every 
 good work, secured for them the respect and friendship of 
 Christians of all denominations in Glasgow, and opened up 
 their way to all the best society of the place — another advan- 
 tage, which was not only a source of holy enjoyment to them, 
 but a means, also, of fitting them for the enlarged spheres of 
 usefulness which some of them were called to occupy. Dr. 
 Maclay's conversation is enlivened now, by his reminiscences 
 of the great and good men into whose confidence and friend- 
 ship he was then welcomed. Among them was David Dale, 
 the pastor of an old Independent Church in Glasgow, whose 
 name was extensively revered at that day, and is yet cher- 
 ished by those who love the simplicity of the Gospel, and the 
 purity of a truly Christian life. Though he held the office of 
 pastor, and preached the Gospel with assiduity and faithful- 
 ness, he held an important and influential place among the 
 rising merchants of the metropolis of Scottish commerce. He 
 was President of the Bank of Scotland, and was one of the 
 leaders of that enterprise which has since crowded Glasgow 
 and its environs with factories. The largest spinning mill 
 and factory of that day was erected by him on the Clyde, and, 
 under the name of New Lanark, obtained, after his death, an 
 unhappy notoriety in connection with the Socialist schemes 
 of his son-in-law, Robert Owen. Owen was a young and 
 penniless adventurer from England, who ingratiated him- 
 self with Mr. Dale, and held the place of confidential clerk in
 
 368 Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [June, 
 
 his counting-room, where he displayed great business talents. 
 He carefully concealed his scepticism, and was a punc- 
 tual attendant on the simple worship of the little church 
 where his employer presided. Dr. Maclay, when a student, 
 often met with him at the hospitable mansion of his too 
 credulous patron. In course of time, the concealed enemy of 
 her father's faith obtained the hand of Miss Dale in marriage, 
 and, with it, the large fortune which he has squandered upon 
 schemes as visionary and impracticable, as they are full of ma- 
 lignity against all that was dearest to him who amassed it. 
 Attributing the failure of his schemes to the social state and 
 religious institutions of Scotland, Mr. Owen sought what he 
 believed to be a more congenial soil, in the New World, and 
 conducted his experiments to another and final failure, at 
 New Harmony. 
 
 A son, by this marriage, received the blended names of his 
 father and grandfather, Robert Dale Owen. He was a lively 
 and interesting boy when Dr. Maclay left Scotland, in 1805. 
 Forty years later, when Dr. Maclay was on a visit to Wash- 
 ington, and was invited to preach in the House of Represent- 
 atives, this very boy, then a member of Congress from the 
 State of Indiana, was one of his hearers. 
 
 It will be remembered that, subsequent to the removal of 
 the Maclays to Glasgow, Archibald's mind was distracted by 
 many fears of his own personal salvation, growing out of the 
 mystical method of preaching which prevailed, even among 
 the evangelical party ; and that, one evening, after having 
 listened to a sermon on faith, he was driven in anguish to 
 seek the counsel of a young friend, from whom he obtained 
 such a simple and direct view of the plan of salvation as ever 
 after shielded him from the disturbance to which he had been 
 exposed. The young friend who, by God's blessing, had been 
 the means of this great comfort to his soul, was John Pater- 
 son, a native of Kilpatrick, and was now his fellow-student 
 and fellow-laborer. A very cordial friendship had existed 
 "between them from the commencement of their acquaintance. 
 They had an understanding with each other, as we have
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 3G0 
 
 already intimated, that, if ever the way should be opened, 
 they should go together as missionaries to the heathen. 
 
 This intimacy was not only a source of mutual advantage 
 to them, but it greatly strengthened the influence of each for 
 good, among their fellow-students ; and, with the views of the 
 Gospel which they held, and in the faith of which they lived, 
 they were frequently enabled to render essential service to 
 their young friends in their spiritual trials. The vague and 
 ill-defined notion of the way of salvation which prevails, even 
 among pious men, is the source of many of their perplexi- 
 ties, and the occasion of a certain feebleness and irresolution 
 which extend over the whole Christian experience of multi- 
 tudes of professors. Such was the state in which the two 
 friends found many of their fellow-students ; and they were 
 often privileged, in private conversation, to open up the truth, 
 which had not been apprehended, even when presented in the 
 discourses and lectures of their clear-headed preceptor. 
 
 Among other means of mutual improvement which Mr, 
 Ewing had suggested, was a meeting, held on Saturday, when 
 there was no regular session of the class, in which, after devo- 
 tional exercises, some religious question, on which there was 
 an honest difference of opinion, was discussed ; and any diffi- 
 culty which had occurred in their studies, or in their religious 
 experience, was made the subject of conversation. John. 
 Campbell, the associate of James Ilaldane, already men- 
 tioned oftener than once, had abandoned his lucrative busi- 
 ness in Edinburgh, to devote himself to the work of an evan- 
 gelist ; and, previous to entering on his new sphere, he had 
 joined the class at Glasgow, with the intention of devoting a 
 year or two to systematic study. The status of this devoted 
 man, socially and religiously, may be understood from his re- 
 lations to the Haldanes and their associates from the com- 
 mencement of their career. While he took his place as a 
 student, Mr. Ewing was justified in so far acknowledging 
 his age and experience as to request him to preside at the 
 Saturday meeting, to check any tendency to those abuses by 
 which such associations too commonly become disastrous to 
 
 VOL. II. — NO. VI. x 
 
 -v
 
 370 Chapters from an Unpublislied Biography. [June, 
 
 the spirituality, brotherly love, and Christian dignity of 
 students. 
 
 At one of these meetings Mr. Campbell proposed as the 
 subject of conversation, the case of a professing Christian, 
 who, with much earnestness in religion, and a hope which he 
 could not abandon, was yet continually racked by doubts of 
 his adoption. " Was such a state of prevailing doubt," he 
 asked, "consistent with the reality of faith in his heart? 
 How was such a man to be regarded? and, if he is a true 
 Christian, how may he be delivered from his doubts, and led 
 to a clear knowledge of the fact that he is born of God?" 
 
 A number of remarks were made regarding this too com- 
 mon state of doubt and uncertainty among professing Chris- 
 tians, and on the lamentable fact that instances of a habitually 
 clear and unclouded faith were rare exceptions to the common 
 experience. Some spoke as though the absence of such doubts 
 should be regarded with suspicion, since they seemed to occur 
 in the experience of the most eminent saints. Others sug- 
 gested a number of plain and practical evidences of regenera- 
 tion, by which every Christian ought to try his own heart ; 
 and suggested that the doubting Christian could only be di- 
 rected to an examination of himself, in order to a solution of 
 his perplexities. 
 
 From Mr. Maclay's acquaintance with Mr. Campbell, and 
 from the manner in which the case had been stated, he sus- 
 pected that, under a supposed case, their president had stated 
 his own sad experience ; and, after silent prayer, he replied 
 to the question, that men may not rashly decide upon the spir- 
 itual condition of others, but should receive those who are 
 weak in the faith, and cherish them. The fiery darts of the 
 enemy may assail the child of God, and he may be tempted to 
 cast away his confidence. He may often be led through dark 
 places, and bewail the hidings of his Father's countenance. 
 But doubt is the opposite of faith ; true love casts out fear ; 
 and, if fear is a man's habitual frame, and doubt his prevail- 
 ing experience, the probability is that he is one of those who 
 are ever learning, and never able to come to a knowledge of 
 the truth. For the man himself, it is safest to conclude that
 
 1857. Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 371 
 
 lie is a stranger to that faith of which the apostle says, " Being 
 
 justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord 
 
 Jesus Christ : through whom, also, we have access by faith 
 
 into that grace wherein we stand, .and rejoice in hope of the 
 
 glory of God." 
 
 The pale countenance of Mr. Campbell, as, in his place as 
 president, he bent forward earnestly listening to these 
 remarks, confirmed the suspicion that he had stated his own 
 case ; and gave additional solemnity to the manner of the 
 speaker, as he proceeded to hold up the divine simplicity of 
 the Gospel, and pointed the eye of the inquirer away from 
 the emptiness of self, to the fullness of Christ. Faith in the 
 Saviour was disentangled from the metaphysics of the schools, 
 and shown in its peace-giving power. In contrast with the 
 doubts of modern profession, it was shown how, under the 
 original proclamation of the Apostles and their fellow-labor- 
 ers, joy, peace, and assurance, were the invariable fruits of 
 believing. The conversation gradually expanded into an 
 earnest discourse, which was listened to with rapt attention 
 by the little congregation, and by none more eagerly than by 
 Mr. Campbell, whose subsequent change of views was noticed 
 by all his friends. It is thus described by the son and biog- 
 rapher of James A. Haldane : 
 
 <e For many years he had (known and believed the truth, but his views 
 of Christ had been rather sought in the reflection of the inward work of 
 the Holy Spirit in his heart, than in the finished righteousness of Christ, 
 and he had neither peace nor joy in believing. It was a subjective rather 
 than an objective faith. Doubts and fears, and actualbackslidings, had 
 often shaken his hope and driven him almost to despair, even at the time 
 he was esteemed by other Christians, and regarded as a pattern. At 
 last, to use his own earnest words, in a letter published by Mr. Newton, 
 'The cloud that covered the Mercy-seat fled away — Jesus appeared as He 
 Is. My eyes were no longer turned inward, but outward ; the Gospel 
 was the glass in which I beheld Him. In the time of my affliction, the 
 doctrine of election appeared irritating and confounding ; now it appears 
 truly glorious, and very humbling. I now stand upon a shore of compar- 
 ative rest, believing, I rejoice. When, in search of comfort, I resort to 
 the testimony of God, this is the field which contains the pearl of great 
 price. Frames and feelings are like other created comforts — passing 
 •awcy. What an unutterable source of consolation is it, that the feunda-
 
 3T2 Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [June^ 
 
 tion of our hope is ever, immutably the same — the sacrifice of Jesus is as- 
 acceptable and pleasing to the Father as ever it was. To this sacrifice I 
 desire ever to direct my eye, especially at the approach of any gloom or 
 mental change." 
 
 Again Mr. Campbell says : 
 
 " After my deliverance, my views of many things were much changed, 
 especially about faith. I perceive that this principle arises from no exer- 
 tion in the man, but from the constraint of evidence from without. The 
 Spirit takes the things of Christ, and shows their reality and glory in 
 such a manner to the mind of man, that it is not in his power to refuse 
 his belief of them. It is no weighty matter, nor is it in any wiy merito- 
 rious to believe that the sun is shining, when our eyes are dazzled by his 
 beams. The internal evidence of the truth of revelation has ten thousand- 
 times more effect upon my mind than all its external evidence. There is- 
 a divineness of glory and excellence in the Seripture, perceived by enlight- 
 ened minds, which they cannot so describe as to make it intelligible to an* 
 xmregenerate person. Formerly, the major part of my thoughts centred 
 either upon the darkness I felt, or the light I enjoyed. Now, they are 
 mainly directed to Jesus, and what He has done,. suffered and promised." 
 
 We have stated this incident at length, in the hope that it 
 may be useful to some who are goiug mourning all their days, 
 under a misapprehension similar to that from which Mr. 
 Campbell was mercifully delivered ; and to some, perhaps,, 
 who are deluding themselves into a religion of feeling, which 
 has no foundation whatever in faith — for, in our day, there is 
 a current style of speaking, which has extended to religious 
 society in general, which proves disastrous alike to spiritual 
 peace and. progress. It cultivates the habit of resting on 
 temporary emotions, which, at the same time, it artificially 
 stimulates. The- eye is directed inward, not to find the occa- 
 sion of humiliation, but the ground of hope ; and attention is 
 turned from Christ to self — from God's sure Word to our 
 evanescent feelings. Let our readers recall the commoii 
 relation of religious experience as the proof of what we say. 
 How much is heard of self, and how little of the Saviour,. 
 there? The hearts of many of our readers will probably 
 bear testimony to the shallow comfort and the thick clouds, 
 the feeble faith and the frequent doubts, which make up the 
 experience through which this grievous error is leading ths-
 
 1857.] Aids to the Study of the Apocalypse. "373 
 
 "Churches. The same habit of mind is doubtless leading mul- 
 titudes of deluded souls, who can also relate their joys and 
 sorrows witli the rest, to a presumptuous and false confidence, 
 while they remain in utter ignorance of Christ as their right- 
 eousness, and of God's Word as the ground of all hope. 
 
 AIDS TO THE STUDY OF THE APOCALYPSE. 
 
 REVELATION. 
 
 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 320. 
 
 And I was placed upon the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast 
 rising out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his 
 horns ten diadems, and on his heads names of blasphemy. And the 
 beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet as those of a bear, 
 and his month as a lion's mouth : and to him the dragon gave his 
 fiower, and his throne, and great authority. And I saw one of his 
 heads, as it had been wounded to death :; and life deadly wound was 
 healed : and the whole earth wondered after the beast. And they wor- 
 shipped the dragon, because he gave authority to the beast : and they 
 worshipped the beast, saying, " Who is like the beast, and who is able 
 to make war with him ?" And there was given him a mouth speaking 
 great things and blasphemies ; and authority was given him to act 
 forty-two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against 
 ■God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and those who 
 tabernacle in heaven. And it was given him to make war with the 
 saints, and to overcome them ; and authority was given "him over every 
 tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation. And all that dwell on the 
 «arth shall worship him, whose names are not written, from the foun- 
 4&tion of the world, in the book of life of the Lamb that hath been
 
 374 Revelation. [JunCj. 
 
 slain. He that hath an ear to hear let him hear. He that leacleth. 
 into 1 captivity, into captivity he goeth : he that will kill with the sword, 
 with the sword must he be killed. Here is the patience and the faith 
 of the saints. 
 
 And I saw another beast rising out of the earth ; and he had two 
 horns like a lamb, aad he spoke as a dragon. And all the authority 
 of the first beast he exerciseth before him, and causeth the earth and 
 those who dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound 
 was healed. And he doeth great signs, so that he even maketh fire 
 to come down from heaven to earth before men ; and he deceiveth 
 those who dwell on the earth, through the signs which it was given/ 
 him to do before the beast; saying to those who dwell on the earth, 
 that they should make an image to the beast w r hich hath the wound Of 
 the sword and lived. And it was given him to give breath to the 
 image of the beast, that it should both speak, and cause that as many 
 as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And 
 he causeth all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and 
 the free and the bond, to receive a mark on their right hand, or on. 
 their forehead : and that no one should be able to buy or sell but he 
 that hath the mark, the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 
 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number 
 of the beast ; for it is the number of a man ; and his number is 666- 
 
 Qrtin f safe, and behold the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and 
 with him a hundred and forty -four thousand, having His name and 
 His Father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voic 
 from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of loud 
 thunder : and the voice which I heard was as the voice of harpers 
 harping with their harps : and they sing a new song before the throne, 
 and before the four living creatures and the elders : and no one could 
 learn the song but the hundred and forty-four thousand who were re- 
 deemed from the earth. These are they who were not defiled with 
 women, for they are chaste. These are they who follow the Lamb, 
 whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, first- 
 fruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no 
 falsehood, for they are blameless. 
 
 And T saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having an everlast- 
 ing gospel to announce to those who dwell on the earth, and to every 
 nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice : 
 " Fear God, and give Him glory ; for the hour of His judgment
 
 1857.] Revelation. 375 
 
 is come : and worship Him that made the heaven, and the earth, and 
 the sea, and fountains of waters." 
 
 And another angel followed, saying, " Fallen, fallen is Babylon the 
 Great, who made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her 
 fornication." 
 
 And another angel, the third, followed them, saying with a loud 
 voice, " If any one worshippeth the beast and his image, and rcceiveth 
 a mark on his forehead, or on his hand, even he shall drink of the 
 wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out unmixed into the cup 
 of His indignation ; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone 
 before the holy angels, and before the Lamb : and the smoke of their 
 torment riseth up forever and ever : and they have no rest, day and 
 night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever rcceiveth 
 the mark of his name." 
 
 Here is the patience of the saints : those who keep the command- 
 ments of God, and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from 
 heaven, saying, "Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord 
 henceforth. Even so, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their 
 toils ; for their works follow them." 
 
 And I saw, and, behold, a white cloud, and one sitting on the cloud 
 like a son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand 
 a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying 
 with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, " Send forth thy sickle, 
 and reap : for the time to reap is come ; for the harvest of the earth 
 is dried up." And he that sat on the cloud cast his sickle on the 
 earth, aud the earth was reaped. 
 
 And another angel came out of the temple that is in heaven, he also 
 having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, 
 having authority over the fire, and cried with a loud voice to him 
 that had the sharp sickle, saying, " Send forth thy sharp sickle, and 
 gather the clusters of the vine of the earth ; for its grapes are fully 
 ripe." And the angel cast his sickle to the earth, and gathered the 
 fruit of the vine of the earth, aud cast it into the great wine-press of 
 the wrath of God. And the wine-press was trodden without the city, 
 and blood came out of the wine-press, to the bridles of the horses, 
 for a distance of a thousand and six hundred furlocgs. 
 
 Slab | safa another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven 
 angels having the seven last plagues, wherein the wrath of God was 
 ended.
 
 376 Revelation. [June, 
 
 And I saw, as it were, a glassy sea mingled with fire : and those 
 who came off victors over the beast, and over his image, and over the 
 number of his name, standing by the glassy sea, having the harps of 
 God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the 
 song of the Lamb, saying, " Great and marvellous are Tby works, O 
 Lord God the Almighty ; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of 
 the nations. Who shall not fear, Lord, and glorify Thy name ? 
 for Thou only art holy : for all the nations shall come and worship 
 before Thee ; for Thy decrees have been manifested. 
 
 And after these things I saw, and the temple of the tabernacle of 
 the testimony in heaven was opened : and the seven angels that had 
 the seven plagues came forth, clad in pure bright linen, and girt about 
 the breasts with golden girdles. And one of the four living creatures 
 gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls, full of the wrath of 
 God, who liveth forever and ever. And the temple was filled with 
 smoke from the glory of God, and from His power ; and no one could 
 enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were 
 ended. 
 
 And I heard a loud voice saying to the seven angels, " Go, and 
 pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God into the earth." 
 
 And the first went, and poured out his bowl on the earth ; and 
 there came a noisome and grievous sore on the men who had the mark 
 of the beast, and who worshipped his image. 
 
 And the second poured out his bowl into the sea ; and it became 
 blood, as of the dead : and every living creature in the sea died. 
 
 And the third poured out his bowl into the rivers, and the fountains 
 of waters ; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the 
 waters saying, " Righteous art Thou, who art, and who wast, the 
 Holy ; because Thou hast judged thus. For they poured out the 
 blood of saints and prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink: 
 they are worthy." And I heard the altar saying, " Even so, Lord 
 God the Almighty : true and righteous are Thy judgments." 
 
 And the fourth poured out his bowl on the sun ■ and it was given 
 to it to scorch the men with fire. And the men were scorched with 
 great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, who hath power over 
 these plagues ; and they repented not, to give Him glory. 
 
 And the fifth poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast ; and 
 his kingdom was darkened ; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, 
 and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their 
 sores, and repented not of their deeds.
 
 1857.] Revelation. 377 
 
 
 And the sixth poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates ; 
 and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings from 
 the East might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits, as it 
 were frogs, for they are the spirits of demons working miracles, go 
 forth out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the 
 beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophets, to the kings of the 
 whole world, to gather them together to the battle of that great day 
 of God the Almighty. (" Behold, I come as a thief; hkssed is he that 
 watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his 
 shame.") Aud they gathered them together to the place that is called 
 in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. 
 
 And the seventh poured out his bowl into the air ; and there came 
 a loud voice out of the temple, from the throne, saying, " It is done." 
 And there were lightnings, and voices, and thunders ; and there was 
 a greal earthquake, such as was not since there was a man upon the 
 earth — such au earthquake, and so great ! A nd the great city was 
 divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And Baby- 
 lon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the 
 wine of the fierceness of His wrath. And every island fled, and the 
 mountains were not found. And great hail, about the weight of a 
 talent, fell upon the meu out of heaven : and the men blasphemed 
 God because of the plague of the hail ; because the plague thereof is 
 great exceedingly. 
 
 £!lnb out af tbt se&tit ungels who had the seven bowls came, and 
 spoke with me, saying, " Come hither ; I will shew thee the judgment 
 of the great harlot that sitteth on the many waters : with whom the 
 kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of 
 whose fornication those who dwell on the earth have been made 
 drunk." And he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness : and 
 I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of 
 blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was 
 clothed id purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious 
 Btones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup, full of abomina- 
 tions and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a 
 name written, Mystery, Babylon the (treat, the mother of the har- 
 lots and of the abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman 
 drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the wit- 
 nesses of Jesus : and when I saw her, I wondered greatly. And the 
 angel said to me, " Wherefore didst thou wonder ? I will tell thee
 
 378 Revelation. [June, 
 
 the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which 
 hath the seven heads and the ten horns. The beast which thou saw- 
 est was, and is not ; and is to arise out of the abyss, and to go into 
 perdition : and those who dwell on the earth, whose names have not 
 been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, shall 
 wonder when they behold the beast ; because it was, and is not, and 
 shall be present. Here is the mind that hath wisdom. The seven 
 heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth ; and they 
 are seven kings : five are fallen, one is, the other is not yet come ; and 
 when he shall have come, he must continue a little while. And the 
 beast which was, and is not, even he is an eighth, and is of the seven, 
 and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are 
 ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom ; but they receive 
 authority as kings for one hour with the beast. These have one mind, 
 and give their power and authority to the beast. These shall make 
 war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them ; for he is 
 Lord of lords, and King of kings : and those who are with Him are 
 called, and chosen, and faithful." And he saith to me, "The waters 
 which thou sawest, where the harlot sitteth, are peoples, and multi- 
 tudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns that thou sawest 
 and the beast shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and 
 naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall utterly burn her with fire. 
 For God hath put it into their hearts to accomplish His design, and to 
 give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God be fulfilled. 
 And the woman whom thou sawest is the great city, that holdeth rule 
 over the kinors of the earth." 
 
 o^ 
 
 After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, 
 having great authority ; and the earth was lightened with his glory. 
 And he cried with a mighty voice, saying, "Fallen, fallen, is 
 Babylox the great, and is become an habitation of demons, a haunt 
 of every unclean spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful 
 bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wrath of her forni- 
 cation, and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her, 
 and the merchants of the earth became rich by means of her vo- 
 luptuousness." And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, 
 " Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partners of her sins, 
 and that ye receive not of her plagues ; for her sins have accumu- 
 lated to heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Render 
 to her as she also rendered, and double to her two-fold according
 
 1857.] Revelation. 379 
 
 to her works : in the cup which she hath mingled, mingle to her 
 double. How much she glorified herself, and lived voluptuously, 
 so much torment and sorrow give her ; because she saith in her heart, 
 'I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall sec no mourning.' There- 
 fore, shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and 
 famine ; and with fire shall she be utterly burned : for mighty is the 
 Lord God who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who have 
 committed fornication and lived voluptuously with her, shall weep and 
 wail for her when they see the smoke of her burning ; standing afar off, 
 because of the fear of her torment, saying, ' Wo, wo, the great city 
 Babylon, the mighty city ! for in one hour thy judgment came.' And 
 the merchants of the earth weep and mourn because of her ; for no 
 one buyeth their lading any more ; lading of gold, and of silver, and 
 of precious stones, and of pearls, and of Cue linen, and of purple, and 
 of silk, and of scarlet, and all thyinewood, and all ivory ware, and 
 wares of most precious wood, and of brass, and of iron, and of mar- 
 ble, and cinnamon, and spice, and incense, and unguent, and frankin- 
 cense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and cattle, and 
 sheep, and horses, and chariots, and bodies and souls of men. And 
 the fruits that thy soul longed after have departed from thee, and all 
 the sumptuous and the bright things have perished from thee, and 
 never, never more shalt thou find them. The merchants of these 
 things, who became rich by her, shall stand afar off, because of the 
 fear of her torment, weeping and mourning, aud saying, ' Wo, wo, the 
 great city, which was clothed with fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, 
 and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls ! for in one hour 
 so great riches have been made desolate.' And every shipmaster, and 
 every voyager, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar 
 off, and cried, seeing the smoke of her burning, saying, ' What city is 
 like the great city !' And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, 
 weeping and mourning, saying, ' Wo, wo, the great city, wherein all 
 that had ships in the sea were enriched from her costliness ! for in one 
 hour she hath been made desolate.' Rejoice over her, heaven, and 
 ye saints, and apostles, and prophets ; for God hath judged your cause 
 upon her." And a mighty angel took up a stone, as it were a millstone, 
 and cast it into the sea, saying, "Thus with violence shall the great 
 city, Babylon, be cast down, and shall be found no more at all. And 
 the voice of harpers, and musicians, and pipers, and trumpeters, shall 
 never be heard in thee more ; and no craftsmen of any craft shall ever 
 be found in thee more ; and the sound of a millstone shall never be
 
 380 Revelation. [June, 
 
 heard in thee more ; and the light of a lamp shall never shine in thee 
 more ; and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall never be heard in 
 thee more : for thy merchants were the grandees of the earth ; for by 
 thy sorcery all the nations were deceived. And in her was found the 
 blood of prophets, and of saints, even of all who had been slain on 
 the earth." 
 
 ^Iffcr thest tbhftjjs, I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, 
 saying, " Alleluia ! the salvation, the glory, and the honor of our 
 God ! for tree and righteous are His judgments : for He hath judged 
 the great harlot, who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and 
 hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand." And a second 
 time they said, " Alleluia ! " and her smoke riseth up forever and ever. 
 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down, and 
 worshipped God that sitteth on the throne, saying, "Amen; Alle- 
 luia !" And a voice came out from the throne, saying, " Praise our 
 God, all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him, both small and great." 
 And I heard as it were a voice of a great multitude, and as a voice 
 of many waters, and as a voice of mighty thunders, saying, "Alle- 
 luia : for the Lord our God the Almighty has become King. Let us be 
 glad and rejoice, and give the glory to Him : for the marriage of the 
 Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready." And it was 
 given to her that she should be clothed in bright and pure fine linen: for 
 the fine linen is the justification of the saints. And he saith to me, 
 " Write, Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the 
 Lamb." And he saith to me, " These are the true sayings of God." 
 And I fell before his feet to worship him. And he saith to me, " See 
 thou do it not : I am a fellow-servant with thee, and with thy brethren 
 that have the testimony of Jesus : worship God : for the testimony 
 of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." 
 
 Axn I saw heaven opened, and, behold, a white horse ; and He 
 that sat on it was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He 
 doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on 
 His head were many diadems. He had a name written, which no one 
 knoweth but nimself. And He was clothed in a vesture dipped in 
 blood, and nis name is called The Word of God. And the armies 
 that were in Heaven followed Him, on white horses, clad in fine linen, 
 white and pure. And out of His mouth issueth a sharp sword, that 
 with it he should smite the nations; and He shall rule them with an iron
 
 1S57.] Revelation. 382 
 
 rod : and Ho treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath o 
 God the Almighty. And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a 
 name written, King of kings, and Loiu> of lords. And I saw an 
 angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all 
 the birds that fly in mid-heaven, " Come, gather yourselves together to 
 the great supper of God, that ye may eat flesh of kings, and flesh of 
 chief captains, and flesh of mighty men, and flesh of horses, and of 
 those who sit on them, and the flesh of all, both free and bond, both 
 small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and 
 their armies, gathered together to make war with Him that sat on the 
 horse, and with His army. And the beast was taken, and with him 
 the false prophet that wrought the signs before him, with which he 
 deceived those who had received the mark of the beast, and those who 
 worshipped his image They two were cast alive into the lake of fire 
 which burnetii with brimstone. And the rest were slam with the 
 sword of Him that sat on the horse, the sword issuing out of His 
 mouth : and all the birds were filled with their flesh, 
 
 ^iuir 1 sit fa' mt uitgdi coming clown from heaven, having the key of 
 the abyss, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the 
 dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him 
 a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut him up, and 
 set a seal on him, that he should deceive ihe nations no more till the 
 thousand years be ended : after these he must be loosed a little space. 
 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given 
 to them : and I saw the souls of those that were beheaded because of 
 the testimony of Jesus, and because of the word of God, and those 
 who had not worshipped the beast, nor his image, and had not received 
 the mark on their forehead, and on their hand ; and they lived and 
 reigned with Christ the thousand years. The rest of the dead lived 
 not until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. 
 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On 
 such the second death hath no power ; but they shall be priests of 
 God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousaud years. And 
 when the thousand years are ended, Satan shall be loosed out of his 
 prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations that are in the four cor- 
 ners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the 
 battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went 
 up on the breadth of the earth, and encompassed the camp of the saints, 
 and the beloved city: and fire eanie down out of heaven, and devoured!
 
 382 Revelation. [June, 
 
 them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of 
 fire and brimstone, where both the beast and the false prophet are ; 
 and they shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. 
 
 And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose 
 face fled the earth and the heaven ; and no place was found for 
 them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the 
 throne ; and books were opened : and another book was opened, 
 which is the book of life ; and the dead were judged out of those 
 things that were written in the books, according to their works. And 
 the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and Death and Hades gave 
 up the dead that were in them : and they were judged every one 
 according to their works. Death and Hades were cast into the lake 
 of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And whosoever was 
 not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. 
 
 2V.nb % ssfo a nefa hrnbnt unb u »wfe earth : for the first heaven and 
 the first earth had passed away : and the sea was no more. And I 
 saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from 
 God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a 
 loud voice out of heaven, saying, " Behold, the tabernacle of God is 
 with men ! and He shall tabernacle with them, and they shall be His 
 peoples, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God ; and 
 shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death shall be no 
 more. Neither shall there be any more mourning, nor crying, nor 
 pain : for the former things are gone." And He that sat on the 
 throne said, " Behold, I make all things new." 
 
 And He said to me, " Write : for these words are faithful and 
 true." And He said to me, " They are done. I am the Alpha and 
 the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give to him that 
 thirsteth, of the fountain of the water of life, freely. He that over- 
 cometh shall inherit these things ; and I will be his God, and he shall 
 be My son. But the cowardly, and uubelieving, and sinners, and 
 abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idola- 
 ters, and all liars, shall have their portion in the lake which burneth 
 with fire and brimstone : which is the second death." 
 
 And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls 
 full of the seven last plagues, and spoke with me, saying, l * Come 
 hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife " And he carried 
 E&e away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me
 
 1857.] Revelation. 383 
 
 the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having 
 the glory of God : that which gave it light was like a stone most 
 precious, as a jasper stone, clear as crystal ; it had a wall great and 
 high ; it had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels ; and names 
 were inscribed thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the 
 children of Israel : on the east were three gates, and on the north three 
 gates, and on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And 
 the wall of the city hath twelve foundations, and upon them the twelve 
 names of the apostles of the Lamb. And he that spoke with me had 
 a golden measuring reed to measure the city, and the gates of it, and 
 the wall of it. And the city lieth four-cornered, and the length of it 
 is as much as the breadth of it. And he measured the city with the 
 reed, twelve thousand furlongs : the length and breadth and the height 
 of it are equal. And he measured the wall of it, a hundred and 
 forty-four cubits, man's measure, that is, the angel's. And the struc- 
 ture of the wall of it was jasper : and the city was pure gold, like 
 pure glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned 
 with every precious stone : the first foundation, jasper ; the second, 
 sapphire ; the third, chalcedony ; the fourth, emerald ; the fifth, 
 sardonyx ; the sixth, sardine ; the seventh, chrysolite ; the eighth, 
 b3ryl ; the ninth, topaz ; the tenth, chrysoprases ; the eleventh, 
 hyacinth ; the twelfth, amethyst. And the twelve gates were 
 twelve pearls ; each gate severally was of one pearl : and the public 
 square of the city was pure gold, as it were brilliant glass. And 
 I saw no temple in it : for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb 
 are the temple of it. And the city hath no need of the sun, or of the 
 moon, to shine in it : for the glory of God lightened it, and the Lamb 
 is the lamp of it. And the nations shall walk by means of its light ; 
 and the kings of the earth bring their gloiy to it. And its gates shall 
 not be shut at all by day : for there shall be no night there. And 
 they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. And there 
 shall by no means enter into it any thing common, or causing abomina 
 tion, or falsehood : but those who are written in the Lamb's book of 
 life. 
 
 And he shewed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, issuing 
 out of the throne of God and the Lamb. In the midst of its public 
 square, and the river on either side, there was the tree of life, pro- 
 ducing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit every month ; and the leaves of 
 the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no 
 more curse. And the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it :
 
 384 Revelation. [June, 1857. 
 
 and His servants shall serve Hub, and they shall see Ilis face : and 
 His name shall be on their foreheads. And there shall be no night 
 there ; and they shall have no need of a lamp, or of the light of the 
 sun ; for the Lord God will lighten them : and they shall reign for. 
 ever and ever. 
 
 ^iniJ be gaib tcr me, "These sayings are faithful and true : and the 
 Lord God of the spirits of the prophets hath sent His angel to shew 
 His servants the things which must come to pass shortly. Behold, I 
 am coining quickly : blessed is he that kcepclh the words of the prophecy 
 of this book.'''' And I, John, was he who heard and saw these things. 
 And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the 
 feet of the angel who shewed me these things. And he saith to me, 
 " See thou do it not : for I am a fellow-servant with thee, and with 
 thy brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this 
 book : — worship God." And he saith to me, " Seal not the words of 
 the prophecy of this book : for the time is at hand. He that is un- 
 just, let him be unjust still : and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still: 
 and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still : and he that is 
 holy, let him be holy still." 
 
 " Behold, I am coining quickly ; and My reward is with Me, to give 
 to every man according as his work is. I am the Alpha and the Omega, 
 the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed arc those 
 who wash their robes, that they may have the privilege of the tree of life, 
 and may enter in by the gates into the city. Without are dogs, and 
 sorcerers, and ivhoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and every one 
 that loveth and maketh a lie. I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify 
 these things to you, in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of 
 David, the bright and morning Star. And the Spirit ami the bride say, 
 Come. And let him (hat hearetk say, Come. And let him that thirstetht 
 come. And let him that willeth take of the water of life freely. I testify 
 to every one that heareth the tvords of the prophecy of this book : If any 
 one shall add to these things, God shall add to him the plagues that are 
 written in this book : and if any one shall take away from the words of 
 the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of 
 life, and out of the holy city, which have been written of in this book." 
 
 HE THAT TESTIFIETH THESE THINGS SAITH, "YEA, 
 J AM COMING QUICKLY. AMEN." 
 
 Come, Lord Jesus ! 
 
 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with all the saints. Amen.
 
 WAYMARKS IN THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 JULY, 1 8 5 T. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST FORESHADOWED IN THE 
 
 KINGDOM OF DAVID. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS 
 
 Paul, in his Epistle to the Colossians, when speaking of 
 the Levitical institutions, says : " Which are a shadow of 
 things to come, hut the body is of Christ " — a graphic descrip- 
 tion of what the types really were. On a plane surface, a 
 shadow represents the precise form of an object in outline. 
 It gives, however, but one aspect of the object, and before we 
 can, by this means, obtain any further knowledge of its form, 
 we must change the position of the body, and obtain a new 
 shadow. A great number of types were thus required to 
 illustrate the character and work of Christ, each of them fur- 
 nishing a distinct idea, and all of them combining to give the 
 complete conception. In the interpretation of types, as of 
 other figures, we must be careful to ascertain the precise 
 aspect of truth designed to be illustrated : for, as in a para- 
 ble, the incidents introduced as mere drapery, are not to be 
 forced to yield a fancied meaning, so, in a type, every circum- 
 stance is not typical ; and we must look, not for every possi- 
 
 VOL. II. — NO. VII. Y
 
 386 The Kingdom of Christ Foreshadowed [July, 
 
 blc point of resemblance, but for the resemblance expressly 
 designed. 
 
 In previous articles in this journal, we have seen that God 
 made a covenant with Abraham, which is still in force, and 
 which is not yet fulfilled. God, in the progress of events, 
 separated the children of Israel from the families of the 
 earth, in order to the accomplishment of the covenant ; and, 
 in doing so, He made an impressive typical exhibition of His 
 purposed grace. The Jewish nation, with its constitution, 
 laws, and religious observances, furnished a complete system 
 of types ; but this typical illustration of the covenant, is 
 never to be confounded with the covenant itself. While the 
 shadow lasted, true believers looked through it to better 
 things to come ; and when the shadow has passed away, the 
 covenant remains, in its original force and significance. All 
 that happened to them in Egypt, and in the wilderness, as 
 well as their express laws and religious institutions, were 
 typical ; and their establishment in Canaan was typical of 
 the accomplishment of the everlasting covenant, when the 
 true Seed of Abraham shall enter into the everlasting inherit- 
 ance. Israel being introduced into the promised land, it was 
 now time to exhibit God's purposed grace, in its final devel- 
 opment as a kingdom established in the purchased inherit- 
 ance — an exhibition which could not possibly have been 
 made, for the type would not have answered the reality, had 
 the kingdom been set up in the wilderness. 
 
 The guilt and failure of man have furnished occasions for 
 the successive revelations of God's grace. On man's first fall, 
 He made a first promise of a Saviour ; when mankind, after 
 the flood, fell into universal idolatry, He made a covenant 
 with Abraham : and now, again, Israel's apostacy furnished 
 the occasion on which God revealed the glory of the ever- 
 lasting kingdom. At every step it is thus seen, that salvation 
 is all of grace. For three hundred and fifty years, God con- 
 tinued to administer the Sinaitic constitution, by a succession 
 of Judges of His own appointment. But at length this car- 
 nal nation, forgetful of His wonderful grace, became distrust- 
 ful of their invisible Sovereign, and sought an earthly king
 
 1857,] In the Kingdom of David. 387 
 
 to rule them, and to lead tlicm to battle. Without pausing 
 to consider the motives and influences under which they 
 acted, in making this demand, their guilt is sufficiently evi- 
 dent, iu the answer of the Lord to Samuel, " They have not 
 rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not 
 a-eign over therai." Their views --are farther manifested, in the 
 character of their king : " A choice young man and a goodly, 
 and there was not, among the children of Israel, a goodlier 
 person than he; from his shoulders and upward, he was 
 higher than any of the people." His subsequent career 
 proved him to be graceless and wicked, but a carnal nation 
 Hooked only to external appearances, and, captivated by his 
 beauty of form and nubility of stature, they cried, " God save 
 the king." This was the king after their heart. He was of 
 the world, and the world loved its own. 
 
 Before passing from the reign of Saul, which our limited 
 space will not permit us to review, we may remark, that, 
 typically, it was the proper introduction to the reign of 
 David ; since the glorious reign of the antitypical David will 
 be preceded by a wilful king, who shall usurp God's place, and 
 by external advantages, secure to himself the suffrages and 
 homage of mankind. We refer to anti-Christ, " That wicked, 
 who shall be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with 
 the Spirit of His mouth, and destroy with the brightness of 
 His coming." 
 
 There is a striking contrast between Saul, endowed with 
 every advantage that could attract the carnal eye, and the 
 man whom God chose to be king of His people — the unknown 
 shepherd of a humble flock. "And Samuel said unto Jesse, 
 "'Are here all thy children ?' and he said, ' There remaineth 
 yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep :' and 
 Samuel said unto Jesse, 'Send and fetch him, for we will not 
 sit down till he come hither ! ' " Such is the first mention we 
 have of David the king — not deemed worthy by his father to 
 foe presented, with the rest of his household, before the 
 prophet of God ; the last upon whom the choice of worldly 
 wisdom would have fallen. "God chose David also, His 
 servant and took him from the sheepfolds ; from following
 
 388 The Kingdom of Christ Foreshadowed [Jnly, 
 
 the ewes great with young, He brought him to feed Jacob 
 His people, and Israel His inheritance." And this is the man 
 according to God's own heart. The reader will easily trace 
 the resemblance between the preparatory course of the typi- 
 cal and that of the antitypical shepherd-king — their exalta- 
 tion from deep humiliation ; their anointing when men saw 
 no comeliness in them, that they should be desired ; and their 
 persecution by the representative of unholy power : for the 
 Psalms, which, to the carnal ear, are nothing but the lament- 
 ations of David, persecuted by Saul, to the spiritual ear con- 
 tain the pitiful outcry of a suffering Saviour. But at length 
 the wilful king, the man according to Israel's heart, was 
 slain, and David, the man after God's heart, that is to say, 
 the king of God's choice, perceived that the Lord had estab- 
 lished him king over Israel, and had exalted his kingdom for 
 His people Israel's sake. And thus, in a manner unspeakably 
 more glorious, shall the antitypical David be exalted over the 
 wreck of all carnal dominion, and the kingdoms of this world 
 shall become our Lord's and His Christ's. 
 
 It would be alike interesting and profitable to trace the 
 typical resemblances between David and Christ, and the 
 typical import of all the kingly history of Israel ; for this, 
 like the rest of their history, is full of meaning. But our 
 present purpose is rather to consider a new development of 
 the purposed grace — the express covenant and promise in 
 which God intimated the glory of the kingdom that is yet to 
 be : concerning which, God hath said, " Once have I sworn 
 by My holiness, that I will not lie unto David." God's cove- 
 nant with Abraham, was absolute and unconditional, depend- 
 ing upon no merit or obedience of His creatures, and, there- 
 fore, it was of grace. The covenant which He made with 
 Israel, at Sinai, was conditional, and their enjoyment of 
 promised blessings, depended on their fulfillment of stipu- 
 lated requirements. There was something corresponding 
 with both of these, in His promises to David. There were 
 conditional promises, which related to his natural seed and 
 to national blessings, which depended on their fidelity and 
 obedience, and which his descendants, by their apostacy, for-
 
 1857.] In the Kingdom of David. 389 
 
 feited. There were also absolute and unconditional promises, 
 and these related to Christ, the Son of David, and to spirit- 
 ual and eternal blessings — these are all of grace, and will 
 most assuredly be fulfilled. " The Lord God shall give Him 
 the throne of His father David, and He shall reign over the 
 house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no 
 end." It is with this last that we have at present to do. 
 
 We purpose treating the particulars of God's covenant 
 with David, in the same order in which we considered the 
 Abrahamic covenant, and shall accordingly note the leading 
 particulars of promise, endeavor to ascertain their true mean- 
 ing and application, and inquire how David himself under- 
 stood them. 
 
 The occasion on which the great promise was first made to 
 David, occurred at the close of the early and disturbed part 
 of his reign. The Philistines, the most formidable of the 
 enemies of Israel, were completely routed; David brought the 
 ark of the covenant to .Zion, with great rejoicing ; and now, 
 when he enjoyed a season of profound peace, the grateful 
 monarch entertained a purpose of building a temple to the 
 Lord, where the ark might find a fitting and permanent rest- 
 ing-place. " Lo," said he, " I dwell in a house of cedar, but 
 the ark of the covenant of the Lord dwelleth under curtains.'' 
 The Lord sent a message of comfort and approval to His 
 servant, though He declined the purposed homage, because 
 David had been a man of war, and had shed blood. The 
 prophet Nathan was the bearer of the message, and first com- 
 municated this precious assurance : " Also, the Lord telleth. 
 thee that He will make thee a house ; and. when thy days be 
 fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up 
 thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels ; 
 and I will establish thy kingdom. He shall build an house 
 for My name, and I will establish his kingdom for ever. I 
 will be his Father, and he shall be My Son. If he commit 
 iniquity, (or when iniquity shall come upon him) I will chasten 
 Mm with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children 
 of men ; but My mercy shall not depart away from him, as I 
 took it from Saul, whom I put away from before thee. And
 
 290 The Kingdom of Christ Foreshadowed! [«Mjr,, 
 
 thy house and thy kingdom shall be established forever 
 before thee ; and thy throne shall be established forever."' 
 2 Sam., vii. 12. 
 
 This covenant, in one' aspect of it, was- temporal and condi- 
 tional ; but, in another, it was eternal and unconditional,,. 
 The twofold aspect of this and other promises, arises natu- 
 rally out of the typical character of the nation and the king- 
 dom. The first aspect relates to the type, the second to the- 
 antitype. But in the progress of the revelation, we find the- 
 second meaning coming out into greater distinctness and 
 prominence, as in the reference to this promise in the eighty- 
 ninth Psalm, "I have made- a covenant with My chosen, 1 
 have sworn unto David, My servant — thy seed will I establish- 
 forever, and build up thy throne to- all generations." In sub- 
 sequent portions of the Psalm, we have the promises repeated 
 almost in the language employed by Nathan. Let it be 
 remarked, that in all citations of the covenant, these is a dis- 
 tinct promise of an immortal Seed, a perpetual throne, ancS 
 a glorious kingdom, established forever in- the presence of 
 David himself. 
 
 I. THE SEED OF DAVi:&. 
 
 As the promise to Abraham had a proximate and typical 
 fulfillment in Isaac, but not an actual fulfillment — for we are- 
 informed, by inspiration, "that Seed was Christ," — so, the 
 promise of a Seed to David, had a similar fulfillment in> 
 Solomon, though it is evident that it cannot be completely 
 fulfilled by any mere man. If there were nothing more than 
 the marked characteristic of perpetuity, it plainly cannot be 
 answered in him, of whom it is recorded, "Solomon reigned! 
 in Jerusalem, over all Israel, forty years, and Solomon slept 
 with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David, his- 
 father." This cannot be He, of whom it is said, " He shall be- 
 as a Son, to continue Bis Father's name forever." 
 
 There is a description of the promised Seed in the seventy- 
 second Psalm, which ought forever to settle (he question as 
 to the glorious Person intended : " They shall fear thee as 
 long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.
 
 1857.] In the Kingdom of David. 391 
 
 He shall come down like rain upon the new-mown grass : as 
 showers that water the earth. la his days shall the righteous 
 flourish ; and abundance of peace as long as the moon en- 
 ■dureth. He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from 
 the river unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the 
 wilderness shall bow before him ; and his enemies shall lick 
 the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring 
 presents : the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, 
 all kings shall fall down before him : all nations shall serve 
 him." And again, "His name shall endure forever : his name 
 shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be 
 blessed in him : all nations shall call him blessed." Not only 
 are these characteristics of the king and his reign inapplica- 
 ble to any temporal sovereign, but they must strike every one, 
 who is familiar with the Scriptures, as being most remarka- 
 bly in accordance with the descriptions of Christ, from Gene- 
 sis to Revelation. For example, the concluding language is 
 almost the same with that used concerning the Seed of Abra- 
 ham. In Isaiah, xi., when the prophet speaks of a rod out of 
 the stem of Jesse, it is said, " With righteousness shall he 
 judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the 
 earth : and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, 
 and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And 
 righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness 
 the girdle of his reins." 
 
 Such passages might be cited in great numbers, and some 
 of the most impressive from the Psalms of David himself. 
 The New Testament opens with these words : " These are the 
 generations of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of 
 Abraham." Throughout the New Testament, proof is fre- 
 quently furnished, that Jesus Christ is the promised Seed of 
 David ; and in its closing words He declares Himself, " I am 
 the root and offspring of David." In all this, it is evidently 
 meant, not merely that He is a descendant of the shepherd- 
 king, but that He is, by way of eminence, the Seed, on whom 
 the promise rests, and who is destined to fill the throne of 
 His father, in the full import of the covenant.
 
 392 The Kingdom of Christ Foreshadowed [Julyv 
 
 II. THE THRONE AND KINGDOM OP DAVID. 
 
 The Throne is literally a chair of royal state ; tropically, it 
 is the government exercised there : in relation to a kingdom, 
 it is the seat of government. A Kingdom is the region gov- 
 erned by a king, comprehending the people who are subject 
 to him, and the sway which he exercises. " The throne of 
 David," and " the kingdom of David," are very definite ex- 
 pressions. When Abner speaks of translating the kingdom 
 from Saul, and setting up the throne of David, over Israel 
 and Judah ; or, when David swears to Bathsheba, "Assuredly 
 Solomon my son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon 
 my throne," no one has any difficulty in determining what is 
 meant by the terms. Now, it is this very throne and this 
 very kingdom that God has bound Himself to establish for- 
 ever, and it is this very throne on which He has promised 
 that the Seed of David shall sit. 
 
 The definite language which is employed on this point 
 throughout the Old Testament, meets us again in the New 
 Testament. When the angel announced the birth of Jesus, 
 he said : " He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of 
 the Highest : and the Lord God shall give unto him the 
 throne of his father David : and he shall reign over the house 
 of Jacob forever ; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." 
 Language could not be more explicit, and no one can for a 
 moment question what impression it conveyed to the Jewish 
 maiden, to whom it was addressed. Peter, in like terms, 
 speaks of the expectation that God would raise up Christ to 
 sit on David's throne. 
 
 With the plain promise of God, repeated with precision by 
 the prophets of succeeding ages, and with the carefully ex- 
 hibited proof in the New Testament, that Jesus of Nazareth 
 is the promised Seed of David to sit on his throne, it seems 
 unaccountable that one who acknowledges the Divine author- 
 ity of the Scriptures, should question that a day is coming 
 when the Lord will return to this earth, and reign over an 
 everlasting kingdom, the centre of which shall be Mount 
 Zion. That He has never yet reigned there is certain, a3 a
 
 1857.] In the Kingdom of David. 393 
 
 matter of history ; that He will yet reign there is equally cer- 
 tain, as a matter of prophecy. 
 
 The present desolation of the throne and kingdom of David 
 "was plainly predicted. In the eighty-ninth Psalm we have 
 this prophetic lamentation over the temporary overthrow of 
 the throne : "But thou hast cast down and abhorred, thou 
 hast been wroth with thine anointed. Thou hast made void 
 the covenant of thy servant, and hast profaned his crown by 
 casting it on the ground." Then we have this expostulation: 
 " How long, Lord, wilt thou hide thyself? Forever ? Shall 
 thy wrath burn like fire?" followed by the expression of una- 
 bated confidence in Him who has promised the perpetuity of 
 the throne : " Blessed be the Lord for evermore. Amen and 
 amen." A prophecy is thus uttered, while the throne was in 
 the height of temporal glory, of a long-continued desolation; 
 but yet it does not interfere with the hope of the after-glory 
 and the perpetuity of the kingdom. 
 
 The prophet Jeremiah, having summoned the earth to hear, 
 says of the sinful king of David's lineage : " Write ye this 
 man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days : for 
 no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of 
 David, and ruling any more in Judah." After bewailing the 
 dispersion of Israel, he utters this prediction : " Behold, I 
 will raise unto David a righteous Branch." With equal dis- 
 tinctness Ezekiel addresses the last of David's temporal suc- 
 cessors : " And thou profane and wicked prince, whose day is 
 come, when iniquity shall have an end, thus saith the Lord 
 God : Remove the diadem, and take off the crown : this shall 
 not be the same. Exalt him that is low. Abase him that is 
 high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it : and it shall be 
 no more, until he come, whose right it is ; and I will give it 
 to him." The temporal succession accordingly terminated 
 with that prince, and no one since his day has sat on the 
 throne of David, which must remain desolate till the Seed 
 returns to fill it forever. 
 
 These predictions of the overthrow of the throne plainly 
 show that the covenant of David was not to be applied to 
 any natural succession. They arc also coupled with the as-
 
 394 The Kingdom of Christ Foreshadowed [July, 
 
 surance, that the promised Son of David shall sit upon the 
 very throne which is now cast down. How can it be sup- 
 posed that all this means that Christ shall reign in the hearts 
 of His people, or in the institutions of the Gentile Church, or 
 at the right hand of God, where lie now sits ? David's throne 
 was not the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. David had 
 no throne in the hearts of Christ's people, nor authority over 
 the Church which first appeared on the day of Pentecost. 
 None of these was the throne overturned by the armies of 
 the king of Babylon. David's throne still lies desolate, and 
 his Son can not yet have received it. 
 
 He who was born King of the Jews, and over whose cross 
 Pilate wrote the unintentional truth, " Jesus of Nazareth, the 
 King of the Jews," was introduced to the world with the 
 assurance that He shall sit on the throne of his father David. 
 And, after his resurrection, it was intimated that God had 
 raised him up according to his promise to occupy that throne. 
 He has been highly exalted, and is now crowned with glory 
 and honor. In these circumstances it has been too easily 
 taken for granted, that the place of honor, which he occupies, 
 is that which was intended by the Covenant. No intelligent 
 expositor of Scripture would fail to point to the present state 
 of Jerusalem and of the Jews, as fulfilling the prediction 
 which we have quoted, concerning the overthrow of David's 
 throne. Yet these predictions are all connected with the as- 
 surance, that Christ shall sit on that very throne. And, since 
 the right hand of God is not the throne of David, and since 
 the throne of David now lies desolated, it is an utter perver- 
 sion of speech to say that the assurance has already been 
 fulfilled. 
 
 The Old Testament Scriptures are not silent regarding the 
 present place of honor and glory which He occupies in dis- 
 tinction from His ultimate reign. In the eighth Psalm it is 
 promised, that He shall have dominion over the earth, and 
 that all things shall be put under His feet. In the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews this promise is quoted with the remark, ll We see 
 not yet all things put under Him." And then we arc taught 
 that the present exaltation is but the pledge of that future
 
 1857.] In the Kingdom of David. 395 
 
 dominion. In the hundred and tenth Psalm we read, "The 
 Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I 
 make thy foes thy footstool." Peter shows that this predic- 
 tion refers to His present exaltation, which has the limit in 
 point of time, "until I make thy foes thy footstool." The 
 Psalm describes Him as subsequently coming from that ex- 
 altation to take His great power and reign, and as advancing 
 by judgment and victory to rule in the midst of His enemies. 
 The Lord himself, also, clearly distinguishes between His own 
 throne, on which He is yet to sit, and His Father's throne, 
 on which He now sits. "To him that ovcrcometh will I 
 give to sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame, 
 and have sat down with my Father on His throne." 
 
 The Lord now sits on His Father's throne, and meanwhile 
 the throne of David is overturned, but the day is coming 
 when He shall assume His own proper rule. Prophecies of 
 the ingathering of Israel are as numerous and distinct as 
 prophecies of their dispersion. And their ingathering, and 
 the restoration of their kingdom, are always associated with 
 predictions of the perpetual dominion of the Redeemer. The 
 prophecy, for example, " In those days, and that time, I will 
 cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David," 
 is preceded by the assurance, "Again shall there be heard in 
 the place which ye say shall be desolate without man and 
 without beast, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets 
 of Jerusalem, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the 
 voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice 
 of them that say, 'Praise ye the Lord for He is good.' For 
 I will cause to return the captivity of the land as at the first." 
 Upon this restoration, the Lord our righteousness shall exe- 
 cute judgment and righteousness in the land — predictions 
 which, in no sense, can be said to be fulfilled. 
 
 Again, in Ezckicl, xxxviii., we have a singularly explicit 
 statement of God's design toward His people: "I will take 
 the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they 
 be gone. David, my servant, shall be king over them, and 
 they shall dwell in the land that I gave unto Jacob, my serv- 
 ant — the land wherein your fathers may dwell. My taber-
 
 396 The Kingdom of Christ Foreshadowed [July, 
 
 nacle, also, shall be with them, and I will be their God and 
 they shall be my people" — language exactly corresponding 
 with that employed in God's covenant with Abraham, and 
 with that employed in the description of the final glory of 
 the saints in the Apocalypse. Can there be any doubt as to 
 the throne of David on which his Son is to sit? It is not a 
 throne on which He now sits, for the captivity is not yet re- 
 turned, and God's tabernacle does not yet dwell with man. 
 He now sits on His Father's throne, but as surely as He sits 
 there, God will set His king on His holy hill of Zion, and 
 will give Him the heathen for His inheritance, and the utter- 
 most parts of the earth for His possession. 
 
 As Abraham had a personal interest in the promises of an 
 everlasting inheritance, so David has a personal interest in 
 this everlasting and glorious kingdom. God's promise was, 
 " My kingdom shall be established for ever before thee; " that 
 is, " in thine own presence." The patriarch David is both 
 dead and buried, and his sepulchre remains amid the ruins of 
 Jerusalem. Yet God has promised that he shall be a spec- 
 tator of the glories of His Son's reign. Accordingly, we find 
 that David did not understand God's promise as referring to 
 Solomon, or to any temporal successor, and that he connected 
 his own personal salvation with that promised Seed and His 
 promised reign. He recognized his Son as also his Lord. 
 Peter, quoting from one of David's psalms, "Because thou will 
 not leave my soul in hell, neither will thou suffer thine Holy 
 One to see corruption," assured the Jews that David, "Being 
 a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to 
 him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, He 
 would raise up Christ to sit upon His throne — he seeing 
 this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul 
 was not left in hell, neither did His flesh see corruption." 
 With this in view, we can appreciate the express acknowl- 
 edgment of the Patriarch King, in his last words. With the 
 remembrance of all his own failures, and the evidences of the 
 sinfulness of his children before him, he knew that One of a 
 far different character must arise in order to the accomplish- 
 ment of God's covenant. " The God of Israel hath said, the
 
 1857.] In the Kingdom of David. 397 
 
 Rock of Israel spake to mo, He that ruletk men must be 
 just, ruling in the fear of God, and he shall be as the light 
 of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without 
 clouds, as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear 
 shining after rain. Although my house be not so with God, 
 yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered 
 in all things and sure ; for this is all my salvation, and all 
 my desire, although he make it not to grow." These are 
 words of deep confession, but yet they are words of confi- 
 dence and exulting hope. There were, indeed, no present 
 tokens of the fulfillment of the covenant, but David could 
 close his eyes in death, with the assurance that it will all be 
 made good, and that in its accomplishment his salvation is 
 secure. 
 
 Paul, speaking of the world to come, says : "And when He 
 bringeth again the first begotten into the world He saith, 
 And let all the angels of God worship him." Bringing again 
 implies a first and second coming. And when we turn to the 
 Psalm, from which the apostle quotes this reference to His 
 second coming, we find this sublime description of it : "Clouds 
 and darkness are round about Him, righteousness and judg- 
 ment are the habitation of His throne, a fire burneth before 
 Him and burneth up His enemies round about, His lightening^ 
 enlightened the world, the earth trembled." The most care- 
 less reader may be struck by the resemblance between this 
 description in a Psalm of David, and a description of the 
 same event in an Epistle of Paul : " The Lord Jesus shall be 
 revealed Irom heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, 
 taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey 
 not the Gospel : who shall be punished with everlasting de- 
 struction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory 
 of his power." Then it is that Zion is made glad, the 
 righteous rejoice in the Lord, and He is exalted above all the 
 earth. Or, as the apostle has it, He shall be glorified in His 
 Saints, and admired in all those that believe. 
 
 Many similar correspondences may be traced between Old 
 Testament anticipations of the glory of David's Son, and 
 New Testament hope of the glory in which Christ shall ap- 

 
 398 The Kingdom of Christ Foreshadowed [July, 
 
 pear the second time, without sin unto salvation. For exam- 
 ple, in the forty-fifth Psalm we read : " Gird thy sword upon 
 thy thigh, most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty; 
 and in thy majesty ride most prosperously, because of truth, 
 meekness and righteousness. Thine arrows are sharp in the 
 heart of the king's enemies. Thy throne, God, is for ever 
 and ever." In the book of Revelation we find this remarka- 
 ble parallel passage : " And I saw heaven opened, and behold 
 a white horse, and he that sat on it was called Faithful and 
 True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 
 And out of his mouth goeth a sword, that with it he should 
 smite the nations : and he shall rule them with a rod of iron : 
 and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of 
 Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh 
 a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords." And 
 thus Fie is described as advancing with conquering might, and 
 in glorious majesty to reign. And who will doubt that when 
 the conflict is past, and the saints of all ages are seen sitting 
 on the throne to reign with Christ, David will enjoy all his 
 salvation and all his desire? 
 
 The revelations of God's precious purpose harmonize. The 
 complete exhibition of Christ's power, when Satan is cast into 
 the lake of fire, is but an expansion of the first assurance of a 
 Deliverer for man, when God said to the serpent, " He shall 
 bruise thy head." That seed of the woman, the seed of Abra- 
 ham possessing the fate of his enemies, and the seed of 
 David riding prosperously, because of truth, meekness and 
 righteousness, is one and the same triumphant Saviour. The 
 land of Abraham's inheritance is the seat of David's everlast- 
 ing kingdom. The possessors of the one and the heirs of the 
 other, are the same people to whom God pledged himself to 
 be with them forever and be their God. If, in Abraham's 
 seed, all the families of the earth are to be blessed, so it is 
 said of David's Son, " Men shall be blessed in him, and all na- 
 tions shall call him blessed." These Patriarchs received the 
 same Gospel ; their faith embraced the same Savior ; their 
 hope reached forward to the same salvation ; and the faith 
 of after ages, rejoicing in the advancing fulfillment of the
 
 1857.] In the Kingdom of David. 399 
 
 promises, blesses "The Lord God of Israel, who hath raised 
 up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant 
 David, to perform the mere} 7 promised to our fathers, and to 
 remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our 
 father Abraham." The hope of all ages will receive a glori- 
 ous accomplishment when lie shall come, who is the Root 
 and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star, and 
 when there shall be heard the voice of a great multitude as 
 the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thun- 
 derings, saying, "Alleluia, for the Lord God Omnipotent 
 reiirneth." 
 
 They shall all be there ; Abel, accepted through the sacri- 
 fice which his slain lamb, afar off, prefigured ; Enoch, the 
 seventh from Adam, mingling with the myriads whom his 
 faith foresaw following in the train of the Conqueror ; Abra- 
 ham, from the Cave of Macpelah, shall come to inherit the 
 laud wherein he was a stranger ; Moses, from his unknown 
 resting place, shall enter the land which he saw from the 
 heights of Pisgah ; David, from his sepulchre at Jerusalem, 
 shall see his Son and his Lord seated on his throne. And 
 they shall greet many from the east and from the west, from 
 the north and from the south, who shall come to sit down 
 with them in the kingdom of God. In the joy of that day's 
 triumph, the song of Moses and the Lamb shall be united. 
 " Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God the Al- 
 mighty: great and true are thy ways, thou King of Nations! 
 Who shall not fear, Lord, and glorify thy name ? For 
 thou only art holy, for all nations shall come and w r orship 
 before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest.'
 
 400 A Chronological View of the New Testament. [July, 
 
 A CHRONOLOGICAL VIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 BY JOHN HOGG. 
 
 The various books that form the New Testament were com- 
 posed by eight different writers, under the influence of inspi- 
 ratiou, according to the wants and necessities of the early 
 Church. Thus, Paul wrote his epistles, either to counteract 
 the false doctrine and licentious conduct which judaizing and 
 false teachers had surreptitiously introduced into the Church, 
 or to comfort, instruct and warn his converts, in consequence 
 of the severe trials to which they were subjected. And, as 
 the false teachers uniformly laid claim to an authority to 
 which they were by no means entitled, in order lo prevent 
 forgery, Paul uniformly wrote the salutation with his own 
 hand, though he seems to have dictated the body of the epis- 
 tle to an amanuensis. Thus, in closing the Second Epistle to 
 the Thcssalonians, he says : " The salutation of Paul with 
 mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle : so I 
 write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. 
 Amen." "When the Thessalonians saw these two sentences 
 in Paul's own hand-writing, they knew they were not imposed 
 on with the work of a judaizing teacher, or false Christian. 
 We have traces of a similar mode of authentication in the 
 other epistles : " The salutation by the hand of me, Paul. 
 Remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen." Colos- 
 sians, iii. 17, 18. " Ye see how large a letter I have written 
 to you with mine own hand." Galatians, vi. 11. Some have 
 supposed that Paul wrote the entire Epistle to the Galatians 
 with his own hand, contrary to his usual custom, and that this 
 was to be regarded as a special mark of his affection towards 
 them. But the word, rendered in our version "letter," de- 
 notes, not an epistle, but the letters of the alphabet ; and
 
 1857.] A Chronological View of the Neio Testament. 401 
 
 hence the verse may be translated, " Sec how large letters I 
 have written with my own hand." The apostle had previously 
 been caught up into the third heaven, and had seen and heard 
 what it was not possible for man to utter. But, lest he should 
 be exalted above measure, there was sent a thorn in the flesh, 
 a messenger of Satan to buffet him ; and, though he prayed 
 once and again, and obtained the promise of sustaining grace, 
 yet the affliction was not removed. Now, the supernatural 
 brilliance of heaven's glory, in all probability, injured his 
 eyesight, and rendered it necessary for him, through life, to 
 write from dictation ; and, in consequence of defective sigh^ 
 the salutation would be written in large, clumsy characters. 
 
 The various epistles, after being perused by the Churches 
 to which they were directed, were commanded to be read by 
 all the Churches in the immediate neighborhood. Thus Paul 
 exhorted the Colossians : "And when this epistle is read 
 among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the 
 Laodiceans ; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Lao- 
 dicea " — probably the Epistle to the Ephesians. As the epis- 
 tles were written on thin, perishable paper, manufactured from 
 the papyrus plant, they would be soon worn out ; and hence 
 all the autographs of the sacred writers seem to have perished 
 before the middle of the second century. This would render 
 it necessary to multiply copies of the epistles and gospels for 
 future use, and that they might be diffused as widely as pos- 
 sible amongst the various Churches. Before the close of the 
 New Testament canon, the epistles of Paul seem to have been 
 collected into one whole — at least such is the most natural 
 interpretation of 2 Peter, iii. 15, 16 : " As our beloved brother 
 Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him. hath writ- 
 ten unto you, as also in all his epistles ; in which arc some 
 things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned 
 and unstable wrest, as they do the other scriptures, unto their 
 own destruction." The epistles of Paul are here viewed as of 
 equal authority with the other Scriptures — the Old Testa- 
 ment — and the former, as a collected whole, are placed side 
 by side with the latter. 
 
 It is still an unsolved problem when, or by whom, was the 
 VOL. II. — NO. vii. z
 
 402 A Chronological View of the New Testament. [July, 
 
 New Testament canon arranged in its present order. We 
 have no better authority for alleging that it was the apostle 
 John, than that he was the last of the apostles ; and hence 
 a vague tradition has maintained that he did for the New Tes- 
 tament what Ezra is reputed to have done for the Old — that 
 ?ie collected the various books into one volume, and placed 
 on them the stamp of apostolic authority. But, though such 
 a thing is totally destitute of the slightest foundation, yet it 
 is obvious that our present arrangement of the sacred books 
 which compose the New Testament is very ancient. In a 
 fragment discovered at Milan by Muratori, during the pre- 
 ceding century, and attributed to Caius, a Roman presbyter 
 of the second century, the enumeration of books that compose 
 the New Testament is nearly the same as at present, though 
 mentioned in a somewhat different order. This fragment, 
 written in exceedingly bad Latin, was probably intended for 
 the instruction of young communicants in the principal facts 
 and doctrines of the Gospel. The part is defective which 
 speaks of Matthew and Mark's Gospels, but he places the 
 Gospels by Luke and John, the third and fourth in order. 
 The order in which he mentions the other books of the New 
 Testament is as follows : The Acts, written by Luke, and ad- 
 dressed to Theophilus ; Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, 
 Colossians, Galatians, Thessalonians, Romans, Philemon, Ti- 
 tus, 1 and 2 Timothy, Jude, 1 and 2 John, Revelation and 1 
 and 2 Peter. He alludes to several spurious books, such as 
 Paul's Epistle to the Laodiceans, and the Epistle to the Alex- 
 andrians, probably referring to the Hebrews, which was long 
 denied to be the work of Paul, or to have any right to a place 
 in the New Testament canon. He mentions, also, that the 
 Shepherd of Hermas, who was Bishop of Rome about the 
 year 150, was read for the edification of the people, but that 
 it was placed in a different class from the prophets of the Old 
 Testament, or the apostles of the New. Though Caius im- 
 agined that this was the order in which the books of the New 
 Testament were written, yet it can be easily proved that this 
 was by no means the case, and that he was simply misled by 
 adhering to the order in which the various books were ar-
 
 1-837.] A Chronological View of the New Testament. 403 
 
 Tanged in the copy which he possessed of the sacred volume. 
 It is a strong argument in favor of the antiquity of this ar- 
 rangement, that Hebrews, 2 and 3 John, with 2 Peter, are 
 omitted, as it was a considerable time before these books were 
 admitted into the New Testament canon. In like manner, 
 the ancient Syriac version, which was probably made about the 
 beginning of the second century, omits 2 and 3 John, 2 Peter, 
 Jude and Revelation, as these books hsxl not been sufficiently 
 known by the Churches when this translation was made. 
 
 It is obvious, from the considerations already adduced, that 
 the person or persons who placed the various books that com- 
 pose the New Testament in their present order, had no idea 
 of chronological arrangement. In fact, these books arc evi- 
 dently arranged in three classes — the historical, epistolary, 
 and prophetic ; the first sustaining the same relation to the 
 other two that the law did to the rest of the Old Testament 
 canon. This may account for the fact, that, in the early 
 Church, the New Testament generally composed two volumes:; 
 the first being styled The Gospel-, and the second The Apostles, 
 since of the latter the epistles of Paul formed by much the 
 larger portion. 
 
 The New Testament canon naturally commences with the 
 four Gospels, as containing an account of the life, death, resur- 
 rection, and ascension into heaven of Christ, the founder of 
 the Christian Church. These four narratives were viewed 
 by the earliest Christian writers, not so much as four histo- 
 ries, or gospels, as one in four different relations, or, as Ire- 
 naeus excellently expresses it, the four-formed Gospel. Witfe 
 the exception of Justin Martyr, who sometimes styles the 
 evangelical narrative the Memorabilia of the Apostles, in imi- 
 tation of Xenophon's Memorabilia of Cyrus, tire other writers 
 of that period speak of the Gospel, seldom the Gospels; and, 
 as a proof that this language was then in current use, Justin 
 Martyr himself frequently employs the same phraseology. 
 Thus the four living creatures in the visions of Ezekiel and 
 John, the former of which bore the providential chariot on 
 which the Redeemer sat enthroned, were viewed as emblemat- 
 ical of the four Gospels, united in the accomplishment of the
 
 404 A Chronological View of the New Testament. [July, 
 
 same great design. Matthew is the man, as he chiefly gives 
 us a yiew of our Lord's human character ; and, in tracing His 
 descent to Abraham, he conclusively proves that Jesus is the 
 Christ, or the Messiah promised to the fathers. Mark is the 
 lion, who represents our Redeemer in the majesty of His divin- 
 ity, as the Son of God ; Luke is the ox, the principal animal 
 used in sacrifice, as he exhibits His death as an atoning sacri- 
 fice for the sins of the world ; and John is the eagle, who, 
 with undimmed eye, gazes on the peculiar glory of the Sun 
 of Righteousness, and who, with unfaltering wing, flies into 
 the bosom of Eternal Love. In such an enumeration, the 
 Acts of the Apostles, written by Luke, would naturally fol- 
 low the Gospels, as they give us an account of the reception 
 of the Gospel both by Jews and Gentiles, as the result of the 
 outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. 
 
 The epistles are arranged with respect to their size and 
 relative importance, not of the date of their composition. 
 The fourteen epistles of Paul are placed in the foreground, 
 on account of their number, though Hebrews is placed last, 
 as it was long disputed whether it was written by the apostle. 
 The Acts of the Apostles concludes with stating that Paul 
 dwelt two whole years in his own hired house at Rome ; and 
 this, together with the great importance of the epistle, seems 
 to have been the reason why the Epistle to the Romans is 
 placed immediately after the Acts. But, when this epistle 
 was written, Paul had not been at Rome, for he thus addresses 
 them : " I make mention of you always in my prayers; making 
 request, if by any means now at length I might have a pros, 
 perous journey, by the will of God, to come to you." His 
 prayers were strangely answered ; for he came to them as a 
 prisoner in bonds. The other epistles seem to have been ar- 
 ranged in accordance with their supposed relative impor- 
 tance, those directed to Churches taking the precedence of 
 those addressed to individuals. The Epistles of John are 
 placed together, and the New Testament fitly closes with 
 Revelation, as that book gives us an outline of the Church's 
 history, and concludes with the Saviour's promise and the 
 Church's prayer, that her Lord would come quickly, and thus
 
 1857.] A Chronological View of the New Testament. 405 
 
 redeem the promise on which He has taught His Church to 
 depend : " I will come again to receive you unto myself." 
 
 But, though an important principle pervades our arrange- 
 ment of the New Testament books, yet it is obviously not 
 that of chronological arrangement. It is generally conceded 
 that First and Second Thessalonians was the first part of the 
 New Testament that was written, and that the composition 
 of the four Gospels was comparatively late. But, beyond the 
 admission of these general truths, as a starting point, critics 
 are by no means agreed respecting the time when, and the 
 place from which, the various books were written. The post- 
 scripts at the end of the epistles are simply unauthorized ad- 
 ditions, forming no part of the Word of God, and which 
 seem to have been added by some unknown persons between 
 the fourth and fifth centuries. Some of them are correct, and 
 others are evidently false. Without laying claim to minute 
 accuracy, which, in our present state of knowledge on the 
 subject, is perhaps unattainable, it is believed that the follow- 
 ing table is an approximation to the true order in which the 
 books that compose the New Testament were written : 
 
 BOOK. PLACE WRITTEN. TIME. 
 
 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Corinth, 51 to 52 A. D- 
 
 Galatians, Ephesus, 53 — 4. 
 
 1 and 2 Corinthians, Ephesus, 54 — 5. 
 
 Romans, Corinth, 57 — 8. 
 
 James, Jerusalem, 60. 
 
 Ephesians, Rome, 62. 
 
 Colossians, Rome, 62. 
 
 Philemon, Rome, 63. 
 
 Matthew's Gospel, Palestine, 63. 
 
 Hebrews, Rome, 63. 
 
 1 Peter, Babylon, 64. 
 
 Luke's Gospel, Rome, 64. 
 
 Philippians, Rome, 64. 
 
 Titus, Ephesus, 65. 
 
 Acts of Apostles, Rome, 64. 
 
 1 Timothy, Macedonia, 66. 
 
 2 Timothy, Rome, 67. 
 Mark's Gospel, Rome, 67 — 8. 
 2 Peter, Rome, 68. 
 Revelation, Ephesus, 68. 
 Jude, Unknown, 69. 
 John's Gospel, Ephesus, 80. 
 
 1 John, Ephesus, 82. 
 
 2 and 3 John, Ephesus, 82.
 
 406' Jt Chronological View of ' the JSTew Testament. [Jury,. 
 
 It will be obvious that many of these places and dates rest 
 on merely probable grounds, and that they ought to be re- 
 garded as ana approximation to the truth, rather than the 
 truth itself. Some have adopted a very different arrange- 
 ment. But absolute certainty is not to be expected on a 
 point, where the original authorities are both few and obscure,, 
 and not seldom conflicting. The vindication of the entire 
 scheme would be tedious to the general reader, and it would! 
 ©xtend this article- much beyond its legitimate limits. 
 
 The formation of the New Testament canon was not the 
 work of any apostle or ecclesiastical C3uncil, as some have- 
 supposed,, but of the entire Church. The Gospel* and epis- 
 tles were not admitted into the place which they now occupy 
 through mere accident, or caprice, while others, that had as- 
 good a claim to inspiration, were summarily rejected ; but 
 they were received on the testimony of the communities to- 
 whom they were directed. To determine this point, the 
 early Christian- writers- uniformly refer to> the most ancient 
 Churches'. " Come now," says Justinian, " let us run through 
 the apostolic Churches-, among whom are still the chairs in* 
 which the apostles presided, among whom their authentic 
 epistles are read." " Let us see," says he, when writing: 
 against the heretic, Mascion, who only recognized a mutilated 
 Gospel by Luke, and ten of Paul's epistles — "let us see- 
 what milk the Corinthians drew from Paal ; to what rule- 
 the Galatians were subjected, what the Philippian3, Thessalo- 
 nians, Ephesians read, whatever the Romans, as the nearest,, 
 sound forth, to whom both Peter and 1 Paul left the Gospel,, 
 also, attested with theii; own blood." 
 
 The question has been keenly agitated since the Reforma- 
 tion, Did the early Church improperly exclude any of the 
 books that they ought to have admitted into the sacred canon?' 
 The Reformers have generally maintained the negative side- 
 of the question, and the R'oman Catholics,, in order to sup- 
 port the authority of unwritten tradition, have taken the 
 affirmative side. It has been inferred, for example, from 2 
 Corinthians, v. 9, " I wrote to you in an epistle, not to com- 
 pany with fornicators,."' that Paul had written an. epistle ti>
 
 1857.] A Chronological View of the New Testament. 407 
 
 the Corinthians previous to what is now styled First Corinth- 
 ians. But the reference is to our present epistle, and the cor- 
 rect rendering is : "I wrote to you in this epistle, not to com- 
 pany with fornicators." A much more remarkable passage is 
 Colossians, iv. 16, where the apostle commands the Colossians 
 to read the epistle from Laodicea. It has been thought that 
 the epistle to the Ephesians is referred to, which seems to 
 have been a kind of circular letter, sent first to the Ephesians, 
 and then to Laodicea, and now it is enjoined to be read in 
 Colosse. This may account for the fact that Marcion, the 
 Gnostic heretic, in the second century, changed the title of 
 this epistle from Ephesus to Laodicea. But, at all events, it 
 is sufficiently obvious that the present so-called epistle to the 
 Laodiceans, made up of passages from Ephesians and Colos- 
 sians, without either aim or connection, can lay no claim to 
 be a genuine work of Paul. There are, indeed, a few other 
 passages which are supposed to refer to lost epistles ; but the 
 exposition that would deduce such a meaning from them is so 
 manifestly wrong as not to demand any particular refutation. 
 In fact, the preservation of the Word of God, through so 
 many ages, without material alteration, in spite of the remiss- 
 ness of its friends and the continuous hostility of its enemies, 
 must be deemed a miracle, not less wonderful than any of 
 those wonderful works which stamped divinity on the system 
 of Moses, or on the Gospel of Christ. It has risen, young 
 and immortal, like the phenix, from the ashes of persecution; 
 and its emblem, in every age, has been a bush burning, but 
 not consumed.
 
 408 Archbishop Whateley on a Future State. [July, 
 
 ARCHBISHOP WHATELEY ON A FUTURE STATE. 
 
 BT JAMES INGLI8, 
 
 A popular English writer, who, as a dissenting minister, 
 will not be suspected of any overweaning partiality for an 
 Archbishop, says of Dr. Whateley : " Though this lucid and 
 elegant writer may, from obvious reasons, be most widely 
 known for his ' Logic ' and ' Rhetoric,' the time will come 
 when his theological works will be, if not more widely known, 
 still more highly prized. To great powers of argument and 
 illustration, and delightful transparency of diction and style, 
 he adds a higher quality — and a very rare quality it is — 
 an evident and intense honesty of purpose, an absorbing de- 
 sire to arrive at exact truth, and to state it with perfect 
 fairness and with the just limitations." And again, after 
 enumerating Whateley 's works of one class, this writer adds : 
 11 They abound in views original and just, stated with all the 
 author's aptness of illustration and transparency of language." 
 
 There are many among us who will not regard this esti- 
 mate as extravagant. And, indeed, so far as it relates to 
 style and power of illustration, it will scarcely be disputed, 
 though very many will differ with the friendly critic as to 
 the permanent renown and future influence of the eminent 
 prelate's theological writings. For ourselves, the greatest 
 attraction we have found in them is the spirit of frankness, 
 liberality, candor and independence they seem to breathe, 
 which is especially refreshing in one occupying his disad- 
 vantageous position. These impressions, and the high repu- 
 tation by which the work was indorsed, led us to the perusal 
 of "A View of the Scriptural Revelation Concerning a Fu- 
 ture State," with the most favorable expectations. The sub- 
 ject is always attractive, and at the present time there is an
 
 1857.] Archbishop Whatcky on a Future State. 409 
 
 urgent demand for an earnest, influential and well-considered 
 discussion of it. 
 
 We confess to a feeling of deep disappointment, both in the 
 manner and matter of the volume. The popular aim of the 
 writer, and the fact that the Lectures of which it is made up, 
 were originally composed for the use of his parishioners, suffi- 
 ciently explain the omission of much that we might have 
 desired to find in a treatise, on such a theme, by a distin- 
 guished religious teacher, but can form no excuse for imma- 
 ture conclusions on the weightiest matters, and a superficial 
 examination of any point on which he ventures a deliverance, 
 since, with such readers or hearers, his views were likely to 
 have the greatest weight. 
 
 A criticism of such a writer scarcely comes within the 
 scope of our journal ; and especially a criticism which in- 
 volves his literary claims. Least of all would it become us 
 to stoop to anything that bears the aspect of detracting from 
 a well-earned renown. With petty attempts to lessen the 
 reputation of eminent authors, by tracing their thoughts and 
 arguments to writers who have preceded them in the same 
 field, we have no sympathy. For of all the most original 
 thinkers it may undoubtedly be said : " Other men labored, 
 and ye are entered into their labors." And the most impor- 
 tant inquiry is not, Is this new? but Is this true? Still, 
 there is a point where the legitimate use of other men's labors 
 ends, and literary larceny begins ; and it bodes ill for the 
 moral tone and intellectual vigor of the press, if the oblitera- 
 tion of this boundary line is to be sanctioned by great names. 
 The admirers of a popular novelist may smile at the cool 
 effrontery of his voluminous appropriations of the produc- 
 tions of the genius of others, but theologians may well dis- 
 dain his apology for such means of acquiring undeserved fame 
 and influence. 
 
 Archbishop Whateley's Lectures on a Future State, and a 
 related series " On Good and Evil Angels," were received to- 
 gether, and a cursory perusal suggested that their weightiest 
 portions had a familiar sound. Without any pains to trace 
 their origin, and assuredly with no design to sustain a charge
 
 410 Jlrchbishop Whateley on a Future State. [July, 
 
 of plagiarism, we turned to " The Divine Legation of Moses," 
 which, in point of learning, contains capital sufficient for a 
 whole host of modern book-makers, and found not only argu- 
 ments and trains of thought, which have been freely bor- 
 rowed, but paragraphs, in both volumes, which, in fairness, 
 Dr. Whateley should have marked as quotations. This, of 
 course, does not affect the truth or error of the views ad- 
 vanced, but it does affect the claims of the author, and renders 
 the opinion quoted above very questionable, that " the time 
 will come when his theological works will be, if not more 
 widely known, still more highly prized." The future will 
 not assume the burden of borrowed and second-hand author- 
 ships, however skillfully the borrowed gems may be set. 
 
 We do not, of course, suppose that Dr. Whateley was 
 driven to make a book in this manner by intellectual penury, 
 or that he was tempted to build a reputation on another 
 man's foundation ; but he has hastily and prematurely given 
 to the public a work on a subject, which demanded at his 
 hand the most patient investigation and deliberate utterance. 
 This impression is strengthened by a consideration of the 
 manner in which conflicting views, on some important points, 
 are stated and treated. 
 
 The subject of a future state could not well be discussed 
 at the present day, without some reference to the views 
 of those who are popularly styled " Millenarians ; " and, in 
 one of Dr. Whateley's standing and reputation, we might 
 have looked at last for a fair, candid and generous discus- 
 sion of them. The seventh Lecture is professedly devoted to 
 an examination of these views ; but, instead of the fairness 
 and frankness we expected, we know of no Millenarian who 
 would not disclaim, both the statement of their views, and 
 arguments by which they are represented as sustaining them. 
 
 " The notions I allude to," he says, p. 131, " which have 
 been formed by some Christians, from their mode of inter- 
 preting certain passages of Scripture, are these : That, be- 
 fore the end of the world, the whole body of unbelieving 
 Jews are to be converted to Christianity, and to be collected 
 in their own country, and are there to enjoy a superior de-
 
 1857.] Archbishop Whatcky on a Future State. 411 
 
 gree of divine favor, as being restored to the privilege of 
 God's peculiar people — blest, in a higher degree than ever, 
 with wealth and temporal prosperity — that Jerusalem is to 
 be restored to all its ancient magnificence, and even much 
 greater — and that Jesus Christ is to reign there, in bodily 
 presence, for a thousand years. Moreover, that when He 
 shall come on earth for this purpose, He will first raise from 
 the dead all truly good Christians, who shall have died be- 
 fore that time, and that these, together with the converted 
 Jews, will reign with Him, in great worldly splendor, till the 
 end of the thousand years, when the rest of the dead will be 
 raised, and that the Saints, together with Christ, will then 
 pass judgment upon them." 
 
 It would be difficult to say, whether this statement would 
 be more objectionable to Millenarians, on account of what is 
 omitted, or on account of what is ascribed to them — the order 
 of events, or the language employed to describe them. As a 
 whole, we know of no one who would not repudiate it, as more 
 nearly resembling the views we are constantly called to 
 combat. 
 
 With reference to the omissions, we rather expected to find 
 Dr. Whateley acknowledging his indebtedness to Millena- 
 rians, for the most interesting and forcible portion of his 
 books — that which presents a resurrection from the dead 
 as the hope of the Church. The position itself, and the most 
 forcible arguments by which it is sustained, have been always 
 familiar to those who cherish the hope of Christ's second 
 coming and personal reign. On the other hand, we know of 
 no one, who cherishes that hope, who does not regard the 
 expectation, that "before the end of the world, the whole 
 body of unbelieving Jews will be converted to Christianity," 
 as an idle delusion : or, who does not renounce all thoughts 
 of the Church's worldly splendor and temporal prosperity, 
 as a hideous inconsistency, which crept in when State patron- 
 age and carnal alliances had turned the Church aside from 
 the patient waiting for the Son of God from heaven. Until 
 we met with it in the volume before us, we never heard the 
 suiru-estion, that " the glorified saints, top-ether icith the con-
 
 412 Archbishop Whatcley on a Future State. [Julyi 
 
 verted Jeivs, will reign with Christ ;" though it is an ancient 
 belief that certain glorified saints "shall sit on twelve 
 thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Dr. Whateley 
 is the first, also, from whom we have heard the suggestion, 
 that when the dead shall be raised, at the close of a thousand 
 years, " The saints, together with Christ, will then pass sen- 
 tence on them." 
 
 He has included, in his statement, some points — such as 
 the personal reign of Christ, the first resurrection, and the 
 reign of the risen saints with their glorious Head — which have 
 been advocated by such men, in the Church of which he is a dig- 
 nitary, as Wickliffe, Tyndale, Latimer, and an illustrious suc- 
 cession, down to Bickersteth, Brookes, Villiers, Croly, Mad- 
 den, Simeon, Sumner, and McNeil, of our own day. But, as a 
 whole, the statement is a creation of his own, or of the learned 
 friend on whom he devolves the responsibility of this lec- 
 ture. On the part of the Alillenarians, we cordially indorse 
 his Grace's conclusion : " The whole system, of which I have 
 given a general sketch, appears to be founded on a misunder- 
 standing of Scripture." 
 
 We will not be understood as charging the learned pre- 
 late with intentional misrepresentation, but we do complain 
 of the haste and carelessness which failed to ascertain the 
 views of those whom he undertook to refute. And, while 
 we complain of the carelessness of the statement, we will ven- 
 ture to add, that, even on those points which are correctly 
 stated, the arguments, which the Archbishop attempts to de- 
 molish, are not arguments which were ever employed by any 
 Millenarian of common intelligence. We know many who 
 believe that the saints shall " sit with Christ on His throne, 
 as He also overcame and sat down with His Father on His 
 throne," and who believe that "Christ will give them power 
 over the nations, and they shall rule them with a rod of iron, 
 and as the vessels of a potter shall these nations be broken to 
 shivers, even as He received of His Father ; " but Dr. Whate- 
 ley is the only one who supposes that such a belief " is de- 
 rived chiefly, if not entirely, from a passage in the first 
 Epistle to the Corinthians, (chap, vi.)" We know many
 
 1857.] Archbishop Whatvley on a Future State. 41 
 
 •■> 
 
 who arc seeking "if by any means they may attain unto the 
 resurrection of the dead," and who account them " Blessed, 
 and holy, who have part in the first resurrection ; " hut any 
 of them would furnish Dr. Whateley with more conclusive 
 arguments than he has used against basing such a hope upon 
 the expression, "The dead in Christ shall rise first," (1 Tbess. 
 iv. 13), or upon the passage cited from 1 Cor. xv. After 
 remarking on these passages, as though he had exhausted the 
 proof texts of Millenarianism, while he has not cited one 
 which Millcnarians ever employ as proofs, he adds, as though 
 he were about to close the question finally : " I believe, how- 
 ever, that it is chiefly from the twentieth and twenty-first 
 chapters of the book of Revelation, that the expectations 
 have been drawn, of a literal resurrection from the dead, of 
 pious Christians, before the final resurrection — their splendid 
 reign with Christ, in person, for a thousand years — the literal 
 restoration of Jerusalem, <fcc." The import of these chapters 
 we shall have occasion to examine in another connection. 
 At present, we only remark, that, soJar from the expectations 
 in question, being chiefly drawn from these precious chapters, 
 Millcnarians have always appeared to us to hesitate unduly 
 as to the use of these impressive passages as direct proofs ; 
 and prize them rather as illustrations of their hope after it is 
 established on other evidences. 
 
 Upon the whole, the learned prelate disposes of his antag- 
 onists easily, when he has the statement of their case in his 
 own hands ; but we question, very much, if these opponents 
 will regard his seventh Lecture as a shining exemplification 
 of that rare quality — "An absorbing desire to arrive at the 
 exact truth, and to state it with perfect frankness, and with 
 the just limitation." 
 
 It may become us to speak with modesty and reserve, re- 
 garding one who occupies a prominent position, not only in 
 the world of letters, but as a theological writer ; but we 
 have, still, an humble duty to perform, with reference to the 
 truth of God, when that very position may give currency to 
 perversions of it. In the discharge of that duty, we must 
 Bay, that, however far we believe our author to be above auy
 
 414 Jlrchbishop Wliateky on a Future State. [July, 
 
 intention to pervert the truth, every portion of this volume 
 betrays haste and carelessness, the crudity and superficiality 
 which are evidenced in these imperfect representations of 
 the views and arguments of those from whom he differs. He 
 has, evidently, felt that the vague and hazy sentiment, with 
 which this glorious theme is commonly invested, is hackneyed 
 and effete ; and that, as he expresses it, " there is hardly any 
 subject on which it is so difficult to keep the attention awake, 
 because, imperfect and erroneous as men's notions on it com- 
 monly are, it has lost all the attraction of novelty." He has 
 sought, and, to some extent, perhaps, has succeeded in the 
 search, for something like freshness in the manner of treating 
 it ; but probably the impression left on the mind of the 
 reader, who earnestly desires to know all that may be known 
 concerning the things hoped for, will be, that nothing can be 
 certainly determined regarding them, and that all is left in 
 hopeless obscurity, beyond the simple hope of immortality. 
 There is, indeed, this merit, amid all the indecision to which 
 he conducts his inquiries, that he cherishes a spirit of tolera- 
 tion and forbearance towards different opinions. For exam- 
 ple, in stating the arguments, on either side of the question, 
 regarding the intermediate state, as being a sleep, or a state 
 of consciousness, he remarks : " Each of the two opinions, 
 however, has been held by able and pious men, and I am con- 
 vinced that a person may be blameless in point of faith, 
 whichever of them he inclines to, provided he do not speak 
 too positively on so obscure a point, or demand the assent of 
 others where the Scriptures do not speak decidedly. - ' But 
 then there is little gained by a liberality which is only an- 
 other name for laxity — and by a charity which is in reality 
 indecision. 
 
 The view which this work affords of the prevailing state 
 of mind regarding the hope set before us in the Gospel, is, 
 indeed, a most humbling one. How different from the cer- 
 tainty and exulting hope which pervades the apostolic epis- 
 tles, and which was inwrought in the every-day lives of the 
 ancient worthies, to whom faith was " the substance of things 
 hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." And it is not
 
 1857.] Archbishop Whatelcy on a Future State. 415 
 
 difficult to understand how a Christianity, which looks for- 
 ward into such dimness and obscurity, should be so little 
 elevated above a common-place carnality ; or, to understand 
 how a hope so vague, should be so little influential amid the 
 near and pressing realities of this present evil world. For 
 ourselves, we rise from its perusal with new gratitude to 
 Him, who has graciously led us past " the vague and indis- 
 tinct thoughts respecting it, which flit through the mind of 
 most Christians," to the animating and practical expectation 
 of a coming Saviour and His glorious kingdom. 
 
 We have remarked, that Dr. "VVhateley has attained to some- 
 thing like freshness in the manner of treating the subject, al- 
 though it only awakens expectation to disappoint it. And if 
 we might surmise the source of that freshness, we should say 
 that he appears to have appreciated the force of Millenarian 
 objections against the obscure notions of which he himself 
 complains, and to have felt the force of Millenarian exhibi- 
 tions of the great hope of a resurrection from the dead ; but, 
 from the hastiness of his investigation, he has not followed 
 these objections and arguments to their legitimate conclu- 
 sions. Or, he has not yet been freed from the prejudices and 
 prepossessions of a party opposition to them ; and the at- 
 tempts to rescue the prevailing sentiment from the force of 
 these objections, and to reconcile these exhibitions with the 
 prevailing expectations, only leads him into new inconsisten- 
 cies, and invests the whole subject with new uncertainties. 
 
 For example, Dr. Whatelcy perceives — as who that reads 
 his Bible can fail to perceive? — that the grand hope that is 
 set before the Church is a resurrection to glory, at the 
 coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; but the chief result of 
 this discovery with him, is to involve the intermediate state — 
 the state between death and the resurrection — in perplexing 
 obscurity; and we find him applying those passages and para- 
 bles, which point the expectation of the Christian to the 
 coming of the Son of God from heaven, to a preparation for 
 death. How happy would it be for such a man to realize 
 that the glorious privilege and duty of believers is to pre- 
 pare, not for death, but for eternal life — to look, not for the
 
 41G Archbishop Whateley on a Future Stale. [July, 
 
 king of terrors, but for that blessed hope, even the glorious 
 appearing of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ ; 
 and to travel on with their eye fixed, not on the grave, 
 but on the city which hath foundations, whose builder and 
 maker is God ! 
 
 He has seen enough of this hope to satisfy him that Christ 
 is the resurrection and the life, and, consequently, to reject the 
 idle and barren dream of a natural or necessary immortality, 
 which, in every age, has amused philosophical speculators ; 
 and he has also seen that the Old Testament Scriptures ex- 
 hibit no trace either of these speculations, or of the senti- 
 mental visions of a heavenly state, which have become " hack- 
 neyed in the pulpit," and of which he correctly says, " it is 
 with difficulty a congregation can be brought to listen to it 
 with interest ; " but then the only conclusion to which, witli 
 his prepossessions, this discovery can lead him, is that the 
 doctrine of a future life was not revealed to the Jews, any 
 more than it was discovered by the ancient heathen. The 
 views given on this subject, in the first chapter, are an ab- 
 stract of the ingenious argument of "Warburton, expressed 
 often in Waiburton's phraseology, though probably applied 
 in a manner that Warburton would not have sanctioned. It 
 is very true that modern hackneyed notions of a future state, 
 were not revealed to the Jews ; and that the blessings held 
 out to the Jewish nation, as the reward of obedience to their 
 national constitution and laws, were temporal. But, if the 
 preconceived notions of these prelates had not prevented 
 them from reading God's covenant and promise aright, they 
 would have understood what was the glorious hope, in the 
 faith of which " the elders obtained a good report." 
 
 Dr. Whateley sets out, in his arguments, with some remarks 
 on the declaration of the apostle, that it is " our Saviour Jesus 
 Christ that hath abolished death, and brought life and im- 
 mortality to light through the Gospel." There are, how- 
 ever," he says, " not a few who deny or overlook this truth ; 
 I mean, who maintain, or take for granted, that the doctrine 
 of a future life was revealed to the Jews, and was discovered 
 by the ancient heathen; and, consequently, (for there is no
 
 1857.] Archbishop Whateley on a Future State. 417 
 
 avoiding the consequence), that Jesus Christ did not bring " life 
 and immortality to light." Or, as Warburton himself states 
 it : " If life and immortality were brought to light through 
 the Gospel, consequently, till the preaching of the Gospel, it 
 was kept hid and out of sight. But, if taught by Moses and 
 the prophets, it was not brought to light through the Gospel." 
 
 The sum of this argument is, that if tho faith of God's peo- 
 ple of old reached forward " to the city which hath founda- 
 tions, whose builder and maker is God," if they were taught 
 to look to anything beyond this present life, then the dec- 
 laration of the apostle is not true. We at once, and cor- 
 dially, grant all that Dr. "Whateley, or rather Warburton, 
 claims, regarding the vanity of heathen speculations — re- 
 garding the temporal and national blessings, which were the 
 sanction of the Sinaitic covenant ; and we admit, that in the 
 Old Testament there is as little trace of modern dreams re- 
 garding a future state, as of the speculations of heatlien 
 philosophers. But yet, leaving out all that we find in the 
 Old Testament itself, the same apostle, who declares that 
 " Jesus Christ hatli brought life and immortality to light 
 through the Gospel," points us to the muster-roll of Old 
 Testament believers, and declares, " these all died in faith, 
 not having received the promises, but having seen them afar 
 off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and 
 confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth ; 
 for they that say such things, declare plainly that they seek 
 a country." And we will rather conclude that a Bishop 
 may have given, and an Archbishop endorsed, an erroneous 
 exposition, and constructed a faulty syllogism, than that an 
 inspired apostle has flatly contradicted himself. 
 
 To one who approaches this subject with his mind not pre- 
 occupied with the speculations of men, there is a blessed truth 
 in this inspired utterance, " Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, hath 
 abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light 
 through the Gospel," which these expositors have altogether 
 frittered away. It not only declares to us sure tidings of 
 immortality, but points us to Him who is the resurrection 
 and the life. We have now, not only God's promise, con- 
 
 VOL. II. — NO. VII. a2
 
 418 Archbishop Whateky on a Future Stale. [July, 
 
 firmed by an oath, but the life is manifested that we may 
 have life. We see Him who came " to destroy death, and Him 
 that hath the power of death, that is, the devil," advancing 
 in His victorious course, till, in dying, He conquered death, 
 and, as our representative, actually came forth, the first fruits 
 of them that slept. Now, it is not a mere promise, but an 
 accomplished fact. He was not the first to reveal the prom- 
 ise, but, in Him, the ancient promise of God is fulfilled. Ac- 
 cording to God's promise, He hath abolished death, or ren- 
 dered it ineffectual and vain, in the case of all believers. Ac- 
 cording to God's promise, He hath risen from the dead — 
 life and immortality are not only promised, but are now 
 manifested in a risen Saviour. The resurrection was not 
 only secured, but actually begun, when He, as the first fruits, 
 came forth from the tomb. 
 
 Men often speak as though the Lord Jesus Christ were but 
 a Divine teacher, who made known a truth, which those who 
 preceded Him only conjectured, or who disclosed a secret of 
 nature, which previous researches had not fully ascertained. 
 But the truth is, nature had no such secret to disclose. The 
 more profoundly her secrets were ransacked, the better it 
 was known that she spoke only death and despair to those 
 who had forfeited the favor of God, which is life. Till God 
 revealed His grace, there was no hope for sinful men. Eter- 
 nal life is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, 
 and not an attribute of man's nature, nor an attainment of 
 human merit. 
 
 But, as we have said, Jesus, the Christ, was not the first to 
 reveal the promise of this gift. The Scriptures, from Genesis 
 to Revelation, bear harmonious testimony to God's purposed 
 grace in a promised Deliverer. They have held up to the 
 hopes of believers, in every age, the restitution of all things, 
 an everlasting inheritance, the enjoyment of life in the favor 
 of God, the reign of righteousness and peace, and the pres- 
 ence of Jehovah in eternal relations of love and joy. As 
 widely distinguished from the promise of temporal blessings 
 to the Jewish nation as the ceremonial law is from the free 
 grace of God, this glorious salvation is the theme with which
 
 1857.] Archbishop Whateley on a Future State. 419 
 
 the harp of inspiration is ever vocal, and which kindles the 
 hope and love of successive generations of saints, "who, 
 having obtained a good report through faith, received not 
 the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, 
 that they without us should not be made perfect." New 
 Testament faith rejoices in the hope of the fathers. " Now 
 I stand and am judged," said Paul, before Agrippa, " for the 
 hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers, unto which 
 promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God, day and 
 night, hope to come ; fop whinh hopo'g sake, king Agrippa, 
 I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing 
 impossible with you, that God should raise the dead ? " 
 
 As it was not in the sense of disclosing a secret of nature, 
 so it was not in the sense of first revealing the promise, that 
 Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to light. In all 
 His teachings, He understands the hope as already revealed, 
 appeals to Old Testament proofs of it, and presents himself 
 as the Saviour, in whom these hopes were to be accomplished. 
 Clear and definite as the ancient promise was, it is presented 
 in a very different aspect by His actual appearing. A Saviour 
 come is a very different thing from a Saviour predicted. It 
 is now an accomplished reality — He hath abolished death. 
 Death was the penalty of a broken law, which, but for His 
 interposition, must have rested eternally on the transgressors; 
 but He died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and 
 the law's claims being answered, its penalty must be removed. 
 He hath abolished death, so that it hath no more dominion 
 over Him as our representative ; and, in proof of this, " He 
 is risen." In all this, it must be remembered, He was acting on 
 our behalf. Ours were the sins He bore — ours is the life He 
 has achieved ; and so the apostle argues, " As in Adam all 
 die, so in Christ shall all be made alive ; but every man in 
 his own order ; Christ the first fruits, afterwards they that 
 are Christ's at His coming." Christ and His people are one 
 in this transaction, and the resurrection of the one body is 
 not only secured, but is actually begun. He, the head, is 
 risen, and so life and immortality are brought to light, not in 
 a promise, but in an actual instance and commencement. He,
 
 420 Archbishop Whateley on a Future State. [Jul J, 
 
 who is our life, was seen after His resurrection, and is testi- 
 fied to us in the Gospel. "We have a Divine record, that God 
 hath given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Our 
 Saviour, Jesus Christ, hath abolished death, and brought life 
 and immortality to light in the Gospel. 
 
 We cherish this — the sure hope of eternal life. It is not 
 of nature, but of grace ; not in ourselves, but in Him : our 
 life is hid with Christ in God. There is to the believer some- 
 thing inexpressibly tender, in this complete dependence on 
 Christ, our life. We would not, if we could, have it other- 
 wise. There is a sense of blessed reality in this hope, when 
 we see it in actual accomplishment in Christ. The hope is 
 tangible, and comes home to the heart, death has lost his 
 power, the grave is unbarred, and those who sleep in Christ 
 shall come back to the warm and loving reality of a true and 
 imperishable life. It is a demonstrated certainty — Christ 
 has risen, the first fruits, the pledge and earnest of all the 
 rest, who only await their turn : "And when this corrupti- 
 ble shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have 
 put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying 
 that is written, Death is swallowed up in vistory." 
 
 Dr. Whateley, we presume, is reckoned among the evangeli- 
 cal preachers of the Church to which he belongs, so far, at least, 
 as disclaiming the impious priestly pretensions of the High 
 Church party, and a superstitious confidence in priestly rites. 
 But, in the work before us, we can scarcely discover a trace 
 of what, among us, are regarded as the doctrines of the grace 
 of God, through a crucified Saviour. " Truly good Chris- 
 tians," " pious Christians," &c, are strange sounds in the ears 
 of those who believe that, except a man be born again, he can 
 not see the kingdom of God. And, although there arc some 
 sensible remarks on a variety of popular delusions regard- 
 ing a death-bed, the directions and exhortations regarding a 
 preparation for a future state, are unspeakably more disastrous, 
 in their tendency, than any errors regarding that state itself. 
 The views of Christian faith and life are as cold and heartless 
 as the views of the grand objects of Christian hope, and equally 
 vague and obscure. The Christians of this volume have
 
 1857.] Archbishop Whatelcy on a Future State. 421 
 
 very little resemblance to those whom the apostle describes : 
 " Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access through 
 faith into His grace, wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of 
 the glory of God." It is not surprising that those who see so 
 little meaning in Christ's first coming, should attach so little 
 importance to the hope of His second advent ; or that those 
 who see so little in the cross, should set so low an estimate 
 on the crown ; or that those who seem so little to appreciate 
 the truth of Christian standing, as an apostle describes it, 
 "now are we the sons of God," should have low conceptions 
 of the Christian's prospect, " we know that when He shall 
 appear, we shall be like Him." 
 
 In conclusion, these lectures furnish one more sad proof of 
 the distance to which the professing Church has drifted from 
 her anchorage, and another melancholy view of the unquiet 
 sea on which she is tossed. This volume will pass into ob- 
 livion, with the multitude of ephemeral and superficial trifles, 
 of less pretensions, which the press daily offers to still the 
 painful unrest. Many, allured by a great name, will come 
 to it in the hope that here, at last, their anxious questionings 
 regarding the future state will be satisfied ; alas ! only to 
 find another empty and broken cistern. Well will it be for 
 them, if the disappointment does not provoke them to abandon 
 the search as useless, and to yield to the pressing claims of a 
 world that is passing away, with the lusts thereof. Rather, 
 well will it be, if the disappointment sends them, thirsting 
 and with empty vessels, to the word of God itself.
 
 422 Glorying in the Cross. [Jul j, 
 
 GLORYING IN THE CROSS. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 The cross of Christ was the offensive peculiarity of the 
 Gospel, as it was originally preached to the Jews and Genl iles. 
 To the Jews it was a stumbling block. The ground c f ac- 
 ceptance with God which it presented, was alien to all their 
 notions of a legal and ceremonial righteousness. The claims 
 of a humble and suffering Messiah thwarted all their expecta- 
 tions of a national Saviour, with the fame and prowess of an 
 earthly conqueror. The thought that their long-promised 
 king had died a slave's death, by their own sentence, stirred 
 the lowest depths of their indignation. . To the Gentiles, the 
 claim that the gods of their fathers, the gorgeous rites they 
 celebrated, the temples they honored, the lusts in which they 
 revelled, the literature and philosophy in which they gloried, 
 as exalting them to the level of the immortal gods, must all 
 be abased and abandoned ; and the claim, that immortal glory 
 was to be found only through a poor, despised and crucified 
 Jew, seemed too preposterous to merit serious discussion. 
 
 Human nature has undergone no essential change by the 
 lapse of eighteen centuries. And the divine truth, involved 
 in the cross, meets with no different treatment, now, by the 
 masses of mankind, however the phraseolgy, or outward mani- 
 festation of the offence, may have been modified. For, surely, 
 the truth is not honored by the superstition which finds, in 
 the outward symbol of the cross, a substitute for the idols 
 which it overthrew ; nor by the party zeal which finds a 
 watchword and rallying cry in that which its opponents, 
 while they were an acknowledged majority, made the term of 
 reproach and scorn, just as other successful factions have 
 adopted, as an honorable designation, what was originally 
 a bye- word and an appellation of opprobium. The last insult
 
 1857.] Glorying in the Cross. 423 
 
 reserved for the cross, was to emblazon it on the banners of 
 ambitious tyrants, and to hang it in carven and jewelled 
 mockery among the ornaments of frivolty. 
 
 But, rising far above the low spheres of superstition, parti- 
 sanship and vanity, there is a large and, in a worldly point 
 of view, a most respectable class, who now boast the Christian 
 name, who are as far as any heathen philosophers from ac- 
 cepting the reproach of the cross, and to whom the preaching 
 of the cross, in what we understand to be the apostolic sense, is 
 still foolishness. The holy and loving life of Jesus of Naz- 
 areth, the sublime truths He taught regarding God and im- 
 mortality, the pure and exalted morality He inculcated, the 
 elevating and enlightening influences of Christianity upon the 
 world in which it sojourns, and the patient and heroic con- 
 stancy with which its Founder sealed its verity with His 
 blood — of all this they have a high, intellectual and a;sthetic 
 appreciation. They are often good examples of the influence 
 which they extol, and no one can doubt that society is the better 
 for even such Christianity as theirs. But they keep in the back- 
 ground, or ingeniously explain away the cross of Christ, in 
 as far as it is offensive to the pride, or fatal to the self-right- 
 eousness of the human heart, and as it exposes the utter worth- 
 lessness and hopelessness of the world which lies in the wicked 
 one. They are willing to know Jesus Christ, but not Him 
 crucified. 
 
 A cursory perusal of the New Testament might satisfy any 
 one, that the crucifixion of Christ is much more than a splen- 
 did martyrdom ; and that it is not an adequate representa- 
 tion of Christian faith, to say that in spite of that ignominious 
 death, we recognize Him as the Messiah. This is the very 
 fact upon which our faith lays hold, as the anchorage of all 
 our hopes. Leave everything else, but take this away, and 
 these hopes perish. We might still wonder at His divine 
 power and glory; we might still admire the heavenly beauty of 
 His character, the wisdom of his doctrine, the beneficence and 
 purity of His life : but it would be the vain admiration of a vir- 
 tue which we might not emulate ; the contemplation of a fair 
 vision, whose glory, as it passed, only showed the desperate
 
 424 Glorying in the Cross. [July, 
 
 degradation of our own state, and which left us, where it 
 found us, guilty, undone and hopeless. 
 
 True, He sealed His testimony to the truth with His blood, 
 and, in doing so, left us a copy of meek, patient and unresent- 
 ful endurance. What a copy it is ! Where were ever such 
 sufferings? Where was there ever such patience? "The 
 heaven and the earth, as it were, spoke their resentment of 
 the death of Him who made them, but He was silent. As 
 spices pounded, or precious ointment poured out, give their 
 smell most sweetly, thus His name was as ointment poured 
 forth together with His blood, and, filling heaven and earth 
 with its sweet perfume, was a savor of rest and peace, in both 
 appeasing the wrath of God, and quieting the consciences of 
 men." And even in this particular, was it most fragrant, in 
 that all the torments of the cross, and all the revilings of the 
 multitude, racked Him as it were for some answer; yet could 
 draw no other from him than this : " Father, forgive them, 
 for they know not what they do." 
 
 But He is not to be regarded merely as a martyr. Nor was 
 this precious example the true purpose for which He laid 
 down His life. The apostle Peter, while he points out these 
 incidental aspects of His death, " because Christ also suffered 
 for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps," 
 announces its true object : " Who His own self bore our sins 
 in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should 
 live unto righteousness, by whose stripes we are healed." A 
 martyr has no choice but to suffer, or to betray the truth ; 
 but He lay under no such necessity. In every stage of His 
 progress, and in every aspect of His death, Christ was a vol- 
 untary sufferer. By His own free choice, He came within 
 the sphere of suffering and mortality ; by His own free choice, 
 He who was sinless exposed Himself to the awful consequences 
 of sin ; by His own free choice, He, who wielded omnipo- 
 tence, and could have called myriads of angels to administer 
 His judgments, yielded Himself to the feebleness and malig- 
 nity of men. " Being in the form of God, and thinking it no 
 robbery to be equal with God, He made Himself of no repu-
 
 1857.] Glorying in the Cross. 425 
 
 tation, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found 
 in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient 
 to death, even the death of the cross." 
 
 When we ask for an explanation of this cheerful descent 
 from the glory of a Divine throne, through the various stages 
 of debasement, to the last — the ignominious death of the 
 cross — we find an answer in the sins of His people : " Him- 
 self bore our sins in His own body on the tree;" or, rather, 
 we find an answer in the love of God : " Herein is love, not 
 that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son 
 to be the propitiation for our sins ; " or we find an answer 
 in the righteousness of God, who, for all that love, could not 
 rescue us unless the law was magnified and made honorable ; 
 or, we find an answer in the love of Christ, which passeth 
 knowledge : " The good shepherd lays down his life for the 
 sheep." We lay under the curse of a broken law, and He 
 redeemed us, " by being made a curse for us, as it is written : 
 " Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." " He was 
 made, under the law, to redeem them that were under the 
 law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." On the 
 cross, He offered Himself without spot unto God, and put 
 away sin by the sacrifice of Himself ; on the cross, in our 
 nature, He met the ordeal of Divine wrath, and carried us 
 triumphantly through to the gates of life and glory: when 
 He said, " It is finished," He proclaimed immortality, the 
 second birth-right of all God's children. 
 
 The cross of Christ! Carry your thoughts back to the 
 purpose of everlasting love, and it stretches down a line of 
 living light, which falls in concentrated radiance on the cross 
 of Christ. Listen to the voice of prophecy and promise, from 
 its first utterance in a fallen world, and, as it swells and 
 echoes through the faith of ages, it is but a voice of love, 
 guiding the wanderers of earth, through the long dark night, 
 straight to the cross of Christ. Trace all the lines of Provi- 
 dence, and, from the circumference of the vast circle of human 
 interests, they all converge upon the cross of Christ. The 
 faith, hope and love of generations of saints cluster around
 
 426 Glorying in the Cross. LJuly, 
 
 it'; and, as it stands the badge of infamy, the last and worst 
 that hatred can do, to the eye of faith, 
 
 "All the light of sacred story gathers round its head sublime." 
 
 The heart of adamant can no where else be dissolved 
 in tenderness, if it be not when the disciple, whom Jesus 
 loved, records : "And He " — He who had lain in the bosom 
 of the Father — He who had worn the glory of the uncrea- 
 ted — He who had made all worlds, and bore the sceptre of 
 them — He, the great lover of souls, more wonderful in that 
 love than in creature might — "He, bearing His cross, went 
 forth to a place called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they 
 crucified Him." love beyond degree ! And what a record 
 is that to the man who can say : " He loved me, and gave 
 Himself for me ;" and who, from that cross, beholds Divine 
 love, radiating in grace, and consolation, and hope, till at 
 length, a flood of life, and joy, and glory, it illumines the 
 beauty and blessedness of a world redeemed and renewed ! 
 
 For, as we stand believing and rejoicing before the cross 
 of Christ, it is more than the thought of personal salvation, 
 that awakens our gratitude and kindles adoring rapture. 
 There is the thought of the mighty multitude, whom no man 
 can number, washed in the blood there shed ; the thought oi 
 sin and death, malice and hate, transformed into holiness and 
 life, love and gentleness, by its power ; the thought of the 
 throne that shall be planted where the cross once stood, and of 
 the earth regenerated by the blood which, shuddering, it there 
 drank up ; the thought of the Church, whereby the princi- 
 palities and powers in heavenly places, shall learn the mani- 
 fold wisdom of God. 
 
 Beyond all that immediately concerns the Church itself, 
 we must rise to the highest object of all — the manifestation 
 of the Divine glory. Here, indeed, all the perfections of God 
 are most illustriously displayed. Beyond all that is revealed 
 in the creation of unnumbered worlds, in their vastness, and 
 in the variety of life and beauty by which they are peopled, 
 is the exhibition of the power of God and the wisdom of 
 God, in the cros3 of Christ. Of the wisdom and power dis-
 
 1857.] Glorying in the Cross. 427 
 
 played in creation, though they are infinite, His creatures dis- 
 play some traces ; but, in redemption, we have the riches of 
 God's hidden wisdom. It saves the sinner, without dishonor 
 to the law. It not only saves him from wrath, but makes 
 the guilty innocent, without tarnishing the Divine justice. It 
 not only delivers him from wrath and guilt, but raises him 
 above the rank in which he was originally placed, to a rank 
 above all creation ; for as one with Christ they shall sit with 
 him Him in His throne, while the loftiest angels stand in a 
 circle around it. In redemption, also, we have displays of 
 the power of God more marvellous than in creation. In 
 creation a world was brought out of nothing, and life was 
 awakened out of the stillness of eternity ; but here holiness 
 is brought out of sin, joy out of sorrow, life out of death ; 
 and more rapturous than the songs of praise, which burst 
 from a glad universe in the virgin freshness of its untainted 
 spring, will be the swelling " hallelujahs " which shall eternally 
 ascend from a world redeemed and renovated, in a beauty be- 
 side which " the former shall not be remembered nor come into 
 mind." 
 
 Of the holiness, righteousness and truth of God, compara- 
 tively nothing was known, till the cross testified the exceed- 
 ing evil of sin, the sanctity of His law, the inviolability of 
 His word. "God's just hatred of sin," says Leighton, " did, 
 out of doubt, appear more in punishing His only begotten Son 
 for it, than if the whole race of mankind had suffered for it 
 eternally." Mercy was all unknown, till it found scope in 
 the pardon of sinners ; but surely it can reach no greater 
 height than here, where sin is not only forgiven, but for this 
 end God's only begotten and well-beloved Son is given to us, 
 and for us. And love — how little was known of it in the 
 ceaseless tide of blessedness which it poured on a holy uni- 
 verse, till it found objects in sinners ; and, in so wonderful 
 a manner, was bestowed upon us that we should be called 
 children of God ! Nor was it only in His relations to us, 
 that His perfections were illustrated on the cross ; but, with 
 reverence be it spoken, new relations were established, and 
 new bonds of endearment sealed, between the Father and the
 
 428 Glorying in the Cross. [July, 
 
 Son : " Therefore," said the Lord, " doth my Father love me, 
 because I lay down my life, that I may take it again." 
 
 Nor, in this poor reckoning of what so far passeth knowl- 
 edge, must we forget the fresh glory with which the mighty 
 victor Himself is crowned. Even for Him, who had glory 
 with the Father before the world was, there was fresh glory 
 in the achievement of that great victory. Satan, death and 
 hell are there vanquished, and bound as trophies to the 
 wheels of the Conqueror ; the load of our sins He bore, with 
 the just wrath of an offended God indissolubly bound to it, 
 and it did not crush Him ; the sins of His people, in all ages, 
 before and after, with all their pollution and guiltiness, were 
 there laid upon Him, and He came out of them with a right- 
 eousness so pure and perfect, that His presence now does not 
 stain, but glorifies the throne of God, where He appears as 
 our representative. He willingly, nay joyfully, yields Him- 
 self to the sacrifice, though it involved not only shame and 
 anguish beyond degree, but that soul-conflict which wrung 
 His spirit in the garden, and that awful eclipse, when He 
 cried, My God ! my God ! why hast thou forsaken me ? 
 " The heathen accounted it an ill-boding sign, when the sac- 
 rifices came constrained to the altar, and drew back ; and, on 
 the contrary, were gladdened with the hopes of success, when 
 they came cheerfully forward ; but never sacrifice came so 
 willingly all the way, and from the first step knew whither 
 He was going. Yet, because no other sacrifice would serve, 
 He was most content to be one ; ' sacrifice and burnt- 
 offerings Thou didst not desire, then said I, Lo I come.' " 
 To all the crowns which, as the creator of all worlds, He 
 wore, there is added yet one more glorious than the rest. 
 Even for Him who filled so high a place, there is a new ex- 
 altation in the name of Jesus ; for Him who shared the infi- 
 nite blessedness of the Uncreated, there was a new joy which 
 was set before Him when He endured the cross, despising 
 the shame. 
 
 From the contemplation of the glory with which the cross 
 itself is invested, let us turn to the glory achieved by the 
 exhibition of it in the proclamation of the Gospel ; for the
 
 1857.] Glorying in the Cross. 429 
 
 apostle claims that, to us who are saved, the preaching of the 
 cross is the power of God. There are some who treat the 
 doctrine of the cross as though it were a mere theory, held 
 in reserve, when they are called upon to reconcile the exercise 
 of mercy on the part of God, with His justice and truth ; hut, 
 in apostolic preaching, it is placed in the foreground, as the 
 very fundamental truth of their glad tidings to men, as the great 
 practical and influential truth by which the hearts of men are 
 to be moved ; it is the very lever of their power. And, as- 
 suredly, to a soul awakened to a sense of sin, of the claims of 
 righteousness, and the character of God, no declamatory ex- 
 hortation to amendment, no sentimental representations of 
 mercy, will avail to inspire either penitence or peace. The 
 conviction will remain, that a holy God can not treat sin as 
 an inoffensive thing, trample His own word beneath the feet 
 of a weak clemency, and render the holiness of His law 
 contemptible. Such forgiveness would forever degrade the 
 majesty of God ; and so we must be driven back upon the ancient 
 maxim, " Let justice be done, and the world perish." But a 
 view of the cross of Christ at once speaks peace to the 
 troubled soul ; mercy and truth meet together there ; right- 
 eousness and peace embrace one another ; God is honored, 
 and man is saved. " He who knew no sin is made sin for us, 
 that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." 
 He stood in our place, and we are to stand in His ; our sins 
 became His, and His righteousness becomes ours ; our guilt 
 became His guilt, and His obedience becomes our obedience : 
 so that there is now no condemnation to them who are in 
 Christ Jesus. Paul himself was a remarkable proof that 
 there are no sins which the blood of Christ can not wash 
 away ; and it well became him to testify : " It is a faithful say- 
 ing, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into 
 the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." 
 
 But it would be a most defective exhibition of the power 
 of the cross, which represented it as merely speaking peace 
 and pardon — holy peace and righteous pardon to the guilty. 
 That is the first precious assurance which it conveys to the 
 heart ; but our sanctification is indissolubly associated with
 
 430 Glorying in the Cross. [July, 
 
 our justification ; and the cross, while it speaks so persua- 
 sively of the love of God to us, awakens, as the first emotion 
 of the pardoned soul, our love to God. The soul of man is 
 separated from God by sin, and the carnal mind is enmity 
 against God. We lie under a sentence of exile, and while 
 guilt forbids our return, the dominion of sin turns us away 
 from Him. Christ exhausted that sentence of exile, when, 
 on the cross, He cried, " My God ! my God ! why hast Thou 
 forsaken me ? " He has put away sin by the sacrifice of Him- 
 self, and so removed the barrier that withstood our return. 
 But this is not all. He suffered for us to bring us to God. 
 The melting, conquering, constraining power of the love there 
 displayed, its divine persuasiveness, wins the wanderer home. 
 He reconciles us by His cross, having slain the enmity thereby. 
 The very essence of that enmity, and the hindrance to that 
 reconciliation, is sin ; and the object of Christ's suffering for 
 us was that we, being dead to sin, might live to righteousness. 
 Under its transforming energy, that which was the ruling 
 influence of our being can no more move us than if we were 
 dead. On this death a new life from heaven is breathed into 
 the soul, the very element of which is love to God ; and love 
 to God is the sum of all holiness — the essence of all true 
 happiness. The views we have presented of the cross of 
 Christ, will show what moral power there is in it to win the 
 heart from sin to God ; but, beyond all this, there is a divine 
 power of the Gospel, which no effort of reason can fathom — 
 by which we become dead with Christ, and are quickened 
 and raised up, and made to sit together in heavenly places 
 with Christ. Paul had the proof of this in his own ex- 
 perience, when he could say, " I am crucified with Christ, 
 nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." He 
 had the proof of it along all the course of his apostolic labors. 
 He had seen the bitterest enemies of God reconciled by the 
 cross ; he had seen those who were far off brought near ; he 
 had seen the most polluted idolaters washed, and purified, and 
 sanctified. In consolation, in the deepest sorrows through 
 which mortals were ever led ; in hope, amidst the blackest 
 darkness that ever frowned upon a mortal pilgrimage ; in
 
 1857.] Glorying in the Cross. 431 
 
 triumphant exaltation, amidst the hardest conflict in which 
 the courage and constancy of man was ever tried, he had 
 seen and known the power of the cross of Christ. In assured 
 hope, in prelibations of bliss, in the most vivid revela- 
 tions of coming glory, he anticipated its issues in honor and 
 immortality, when it shall be seen to what a crown the cross 
 was the way ; and when those for whom Christ suffered, and 
 who have suffered with Him, shall reign with Him, joint-heirs 
 of all things. 
 
 Is it mavellous that he who has seen the cross of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, standing thus illustrious in the glory of God, 
 shedding life and light upon a perishing world, and forming 
 the basis of a glorious high throne which is forever and ever, 
 should refuse to glory in anything else? Others may boast 
 what they have done, he will boast of what Christ has done. 
 Before that cross, ashamed of his own sinfulness, he gloried 
 in the perfect and everlasting righteousness of Christ. But 
 shall he, only in silent satisfaction, rejoice in the Saviour he 
 has found, and, by his silence, virtually assent to the world's 
 condemnation of the Lord our righteousness ; by his silence 
 withhold the praise, with which heaven and earth shall one 
 day be vocal ; and, by his silence, conceal from the perishing 
 the fountain of life ? Is the renewed heart of adamant ? or 
 is it the heart of Christ himself? When the children sang 
 hosannas, the Lord said, " I tell you if these should hold their 
 peace, the very stones would immediately cry out." And all 
 nature would cry out, if souls redeemed should hold their 
 peace, or ever cease to glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ.
 
 4i2 The Personal Anti-Christ. [July, 
 
 THE PERSONAL ANTI-CHRIST. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 The prophecies relating to Anti-christ have, with great 
 unanimity, been interpreted by Protestant expositors as re- 
 lating to Popery; yet it is no novelty to understand them as 
 relating to a person who is yet to arise, in whom Satan is to 
 find an arch-representative on earth, and in whom the infidel- 
 ity and corruption of the last age are to find a leader. On 
 the contrary, the popular interpretation is an after-thought of 
 the Reformation ; and, since all corruptions of the truth and 
 opposition to it must possess many features in common, it is 
 not surprising if earnest Reformers should have found the 
 corruptions of Rome described in the predictions of the com- 
 ing of Satan's masterpiece. The family likeness of error is 
 frequently indicated in Scripture. Thus Paul, when he warns 
 us of the Revelation of that Man of Sin, the son of perdition, 
 intimates to the Thessalonians, " The mystery of iniquity doth 
 already work ;" and John, speaking of the future coming of 
 Anti-christ, says, " Already there are many anti-christs." 
 
 In the early ages of Christianity, the expectation of the 
 manifestation of a personal Anti-christ seems to have been as 
 extensive as the expectation of the personal return of Christ. 
 As an example of the manner in which the Fathers spoke on 
 this point, we quote the sentiments of Irenaeus. Though we 
 rest nothing upon his authority as proving our position, it is 
 proper to remind the reader that Irenasus had listened to the 
 instructions of Papias and Polycarp, two disciples of John, 
 the disciple whom Jesus loved. He, quoting in support and 
 illustration of his doctrine the very passages we shall have 
 occasion to use in this article, maintains that Anti-christ is 
 the designation of an individual whom Satan shall pre-emi- 
 nently use as his instrument, who shall reign for three years
 
 1857.] The Personal Anti-Christ. 433 
 
 and a half ; that, in support of the impious claims of this arch- 
 impostor, the false prophet, aided by demons and ministering 
 spirits, shall work miracles by which he shall deceive those 
 that dwell upon the earth ; and that, at last, the usurper shall 
 be destroyed by the coming of Christ, in the six thousandth 
 year of the world's history. This is a fair representation of 
 the prevailing views of those early times. 
 
 We have, in previous articles, had occasion to show, on 
 scriptural authority, that the Jews, still in unbelief, shall be 
 restored to Palestine, and shall be established there as an in- 
 dependent state, before the consummation of the affairs of 
 this world. This must be kept in mind, because it is during 
 the existence and prosperity of this Jewish state that Anti- 
 christ shall appear ; and his authority will be acknowledged 
 by the Jews, according to the prediction of the Lord, " I am 
 come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not : when 
 another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." 
 
 The Lord and His apostles plainly predict the apostacy of 
 Christendom, and describe their corruptions as waxing worse 
 and worse, until, like the Jews before them, in the abuse of 
 God's goodness, His judgments overtake them, and they are 
 cut off. In the history of the Church, and in its present con- 
 dition, we can trace the fulfillment of these predictions. The 
 leaven of corruption is gradually pervading the mass, till, in a 
 general corruption, it shall be ripe for the final manifestation 
 of evil. This is the mystery of iniquity which already works, 
 and which shall reach its climax in that Wicked One. To 
 this, also, the ungodliness, tyranny and lust of Gentile supre- 
 macy are tending. The corruption and impiety of Church 
 and State arc the very elements which shall be concentrated 
 in his malignant character and reign. 
 
 Throughout the Scriptures, both of the Old and New Tes- 
 taments, we find predictions of the appearance of the great 
 leader of impiety and of opposition to Christ. The identity of 
 the person intended is clearly marked by distinguishing moral 
 characteristics and historic relations. When he is spoken of 
 in the apostolic epistles, it is as one whose character and 
 doom are matters of familiar belief. Paul, for example, 
 
 YOL. II. — NO. Til. B2
 
 434 The Personal Jlnti-Christ. [Jul/, 
 
 speaks of him as " that man of sin," " that Wicked One f 
 and John says, " As ye have heard that Anti-christ shall come.''" 
 In these and similar passages, his appearance is alluded to as 
 an event universally known and expected. 
 
 In these allusions there is nothing, certainly, which suggests 
 that the apostles are speaking of a system and not of a per- 
 son. On the contrary, all ordinary usages of language are 
 violated, when they are understood otherwise than as allusions 
 to a person. But, even if, by any laws of interpretation, they 
 could be shown to refer to a system, we should still maintain 
 that the characteristics given are not those of Popery. How- 
 ever Rome has perverted Christian doctrines and ordinances, 
 its Bishop can not be said, any more than any other ecclesias- 
 tical dignitary, to oppose or exalt himself above all that is 
 called God, or that is worshipped. However arrogantly the 
 Popes have usurped authority, and however their flatterers 
 may have strained the language of adulation, he does not sit 
 in the temple of God, blasphemously showing himself as God, 
 and claiming divine worship. Nor can we discover, either 
 in the past history or present condition of the Pope, the work- 
 ing of satanic power in miracles, and signs, and lying won- 
 ders. The utter inapplicability of every feature of this de- 
 scription will be more apparent, when we come to examine 
 the predictions of the Old Testament, to which the apostle 
 evidently alludes. The description here, as elsewhere, is of 
 an individual who appears, runs his career of wickedness, 
 and perishes at the personal appearance of the Lord in 
 glory. 
 
 In the vision of Nebuchadnezzar, a great image, composed, 
 in its several parts, of four different metals, represents the 
 succession of four universal monarchies — the Babylonian, 
 succeeded by the Medo-Persian ; the Medo-Persian, succeeded 
 by the Grecian, and the Grecian, succeeded by the Roman. 
 This great image is represented as finally broken in pieces, 
 by the stroke of a stone, cut out of the mountain without 
 hands ; which, after the destruction of the image, increases to 
 a great mountain, and fills the whole earth. This is inter- 
 preted as a symbol of the kingdom of God, which breaks in
 
 1857,] The Personal Anti-Christ. 435 
 
 pieces and destroys all other kingdoms, and which lasts for- 
 ever. This stone has, erroneously, been explained to signify 
 the Gospel, or the Christian Church, in the present dispensa- 
 tion. We style this explanation erroneous, amongst other 
 reasons, because the fact of its being cut out without hands 
 emphatically excludes human instrumentality, while the use of 
 human instrumentality is a distinguishing feature of the present 
 dispensation ; because the time of the contact of the stone with 
 the image is subsequent to the division of the Roman Empire, 
 while Christiarity came in contact with the Roman Empire 
 in its unity, and in the height of its glory; because the aim of 
 Christianity is to convert and save, whereas, the stone does 
 not change the character of the image, but utterly destroys 
 it, so that no place was found for it ; because the stone does 
 not accomplish its mission against the image by a gradual 
 expansion till it displaces it, but, on the contrary, completes 
 the destruction of the image before it begins to expand ; be- 
 cause, as a matter of fact, the Roman Empire did not fall by 
 Christianity, but by inroads of barbarians ; and because the 
 Roman Empire has not been destroyed and swept away, in 
 the manner described in the prophecy, but, though in a frag- 
 mentary state, it still actually exists, and has not, in any 
 sense, or in any measure, been superseded by the kingdom of 
 heaven. The stroke of the stone, and the destruction of the 
 image, are evidently yet future. 
 
 But let us examine, more particularly, one feature of the 
 vision. The stroke falls upon the toes of the image, that is, 
 according to the inspired interpretation, when the empire is 
 divided among ten kings that shall arise. By the terms of 
 the interpretation of the analogous vision of Daniel, these ten 
 kings are represented by the ten horns of the fourth beast. 
 These ten kingdoms are as distinct as the four kingdoms that 
 precede them, and this definite division takes place and con- 
 tinues till the destruction of the whole. But no such division 
 of the empire has yet taken place. Expositors have vainly 
 endeavored to enumerate the ten kingdoms among the sover- 
 eignties of Europe ; and if, at any time, they could find Eu- 
 rope divided into precisely ten kingdoms, it would not answer
 
 436 The Personal Anti-Christ. [July, 
 
 the demands of the prophecy, for Europe is but one section of 
 the empire. 
 
 In a former article, we pointed attention to this feature 
 of the symbol, that the two legs of the image strikingly 
 represent the two sections of the empire, the eastern and 
 western — a distinction, not in name only, but in language, 
 manners, and civilization. Greece gave language and char- 
 acter to the East, as Italy did to the West. The division was 
 ultimately recognized in the election of two emperors ;: and,, 
 since the fall of Rome, it has been perpetuated in the Latin and 
 Greek Churches. Following out the symbol, not only is the 
 whole Roman Empire, both East and West, divided, but, aa 
 five toes are on either foot, five of these kingdoms must be 
 sought in the East, and five in the West. Present commotions 
 point to the accomplishment of this prediction. The various 
 parts of the ancient empire are being brought into close alli- 
 ance ; and, while the West is preparing to aid in the reorgani- 
 zation of the East, French arms are reclaiming the portion of 
 the empire that lay in Africa. 
 
 In Daniel's vision, recorded in the seventh chapter of the 
 book designated by his name, we have the description of a 
 little horn, that arose on the fourth beast, which had eyes 
 like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things : 
 and, because^of the voice of the great things which it spoke, 
 the beast was slain, and the body destroyed, and given to the 
 devouring flame. It is also described as waging war with 
 the saints, and prevailing against them, until the Ancient of 
 Days come. This is divinely interpreted as a symbol of a 
 king that shall arise, and he shall speak great words against 
 the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most 
 High, and think to change times and laws ; and they shall be 
 given into his hands for a time and times- and the dividing 
 of times. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away 
 his dominion, to consume and destroy it unto the end. One 
 ean scarcely read this description, without being struck with 
 the identity of this personage and the son of perdition, spoken 
 of by Paul. In character, historical relations, and doom, they 
 ftre the same. There is the same opposition to God, the same
 
 1857.] The Personal Anti-Christ. 437 
 
 ampious self-exaltation, the same assumption of Divine preroga- 
 tives ; both are found in the exercise of their blasphemous 
 sovereignty, at the coming of the Lord to establish His ever- 
 lasting kingdom; and, while Paul describes him as being 
 destroyed by the brightness of Mis coming, in the vision the 
 throne of the judge is described as like the fiery flame : "A 
 fiery flame issued and came forth before Him." Understand- 
 ing this little horn as a -symbol of that man of sin, the son of 
 perdition, we perceive how the apostle could speak of his 
 appearance and doom as matters of familiar expectation 
 with believers of the Bible. 
 
 The little horn came up among the ten horns. According 
 to the inspired intepnetation, " the ten horns out of this fourth 
 kingdom, are ten kings that shall arise, and another shall 
 arise after them." But we have seen that the division of the 
 Roman Empire into these ten kingdoms is yet future ; and, 
 since Anti-christ arises after these tan, his appearance is yet 
 future, and the little horn can not be a symbol of Popery- 
 Besides, it is the symbol, not of a priest, but of an infidel and 
 blasphemous king, who pyts down all worship but the wor- 
 ship of himself. The issue is not the destruction of the little 
 horn merely, as though the system of Popery were to perish, but 
 the destruction of the beast itself, which is the symbol of earthly 
 sovereignty. That sovereignty is forever abolished, and the 
 kingdom of heaven takes its place. This is in marked contrast 
 with the symbolized doom of the preceding empires. The other 
 beasts had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were pro- 
 longed for a season and time. Babylon, Persia, and Greece, 
 each in turn lost the supremacy of the earth ; but Babyloa 
 did not cease to exist, when Darius, the Mede, took the king- 
 dom ; nor did Persia cease to exist, when Alexander conquered 
 Darius ; nor did Greece ocase to exist, when Rome snatched 
 the sceptre of the world. But in the last overthrow all is 
 ended : there is no more Babylon, or Persia, or Greece, or 
 Rome ; the kingdom of this world is to become our Lord's and 
 His Christ's. 
 
 The prophetic account of Anti-christ becomes more pre- 
 cise in the eighth chapter of JJaniel, where we have a predlc-
 
 438 The Personal Anti-Christ. [July, 
 
 tion of the conquest of Persia by Alexander, and the division 
 of the empire among his four generals. Daniel is then in- 
 structed as to what shall be in the last end of the indigna- 
 tion ; " for at the time appointed it shall be." The prophet 
 is specially cautioned to understand that the vision has refer- 
 ence to the time of the end. The students of prophecy may 
 here learn a great lesson. Prophecy is the unfolding of the 
 great purpose of God in Christ ; and the great issues of his- 
 tory are revealed only as they bear on the consummation of 
 that purpose. Inspiration does not chronicle, beforehand, the 
 paltry strifes and schemes of earthly heroes. The potsherds 
 of the earth may strive with the potsherds of the earth, but the 
 prophets of God have a higher mission than to record their 
 dark deeds and magnify bloody names. A simple sentence 
 tells the history of Persia and Greece ; and, from the division 
 of the latter into four kingdoms, all is a blank, till, after the 
 lapse of two thousand years, these four kingdoms appear 
 again. Then, we are informed, " in the latter time of their 
 kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king 
 of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall 
 stand up ; and his power shall be mighty, but not by his own 
 power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and prosper, and 
 practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. 
 And through his policy shall he cause craft to prosper in his 
 hand ; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace 
 shall he destroy many: he shall also stand up against the 
 Prince of princes ; but he shall be broken without hand." 
 This description applies to no person who has as yet appeared j 
 for we can not say, of any period of the past, that the trans- 
 gressors had come to the full, or that the last end of the in- 
 dignation had come. We must again look into the eventful 
 future; and is it difficult to recognize the marked lineaments 
 of that son of perdition, the horn that spoke great things, 
 whose look was more stout than his fellows, in the king of 
 fierce countenance ? The self-exaltation, the blasphemous 
 usurpation, the destruction of the saints, all are the same. 
 " lie shall stand up against the Prince of princes," is but a 
 paraphrase of the name "Anti-christ." But, if so, thin not
 
 1857.] The Personal Anti-Christ. 439 
 
 only do we know, from the former vision, tliat five of the ten 
 kingdoms will be found within the eastern division of the 
 empire, but four of these five will be the four ancient divisions 
 of the Grecian Empire restored : then, not only is it evident 
 that Popery is not the Anti-christ of the prophecies, but Anti- 
 christ will not arise in the West, but out of one of these four 
 kingdoms in the East. Again, it is evident that when Anti- 
 christ appears, he will find the Jews in Palestine, and their an- 
 cient worship restored ; for we are told that he shall take away 
 the daily sacrifice, and cast down the sanctuary. Here, also, 
 we recognize Paul's description, that he opposeth and ex- 
 alteth himself against all that is called God, and that is wor- 
 shipped ; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, 
 showing himself that he is God. 
 
 In the eleventh chapter we have a still more detailed ac- 
 count of his career, as the king who shall do according to his 
 will ; and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself against 
 every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the 
 God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accom- 
 plished. " At last he shall plant the tabernacle of his palace 
 between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain ; yet he shall 
 come to his end, and none shall help him." Here, also, Israel 
 is in Palestine. Anti-christ attempts to establish himself in 
 Jerusalem, and to set up his worship in the temple of God j 
 to which the Lord alludes, in Matt, xxiv., when he speaks of 
 " the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel tho 
 prophet, standing in the holy place ;" which, as we learn in 
 the Apocalypse, is an image of himself, which Anti-christ 
 shall set up as an object of worship. 
 
 In Revelation, xiii., we have a description of an impious 
 power, in which the leading characteristics already noticed 
 will at once be discovered. The last form of Gentile sove- 
 reignty is here seen as a beast, which unites the distinctions 
 of the empires which have passed away — the leopard, the 
 bear, and the lion. The ten crowned horns are controlled 
 by one of the heads representing a blasphemous personage, 
 to whom, as we learn elsewhere, the ten kings yield subser- 
 viency. In the description of Daniel, he is said to be mighty,
 
 440 The Personal Anti-Christ. [July, 
 
 but not by his own power. John teaches us the import of 
 this expression, for we are told that " to him the dragon gave 
 his own power, and his throne, and great authority." We 
 have the same features as before ; the mouth speaking great 
 things and blasphemies, the opposition to God, the persecu- 
 tion of the saints, and the claim to Divine worship. He is 
 aided by the false prophet in securing the homage of man- 
 kind. The picture of delusion, in this vision, is appalling ; 
 and, when we read it, we can understand how our Lord should 
 say of the signs and wonders of the false Christ and the false 
 prophet, " they shall deceive, if it were possible, the very elect." 
 In the trial between Elijah and the priests of Baal, the mira- 
 cle, by which he demonstrated that Jehovah is God, was by 
 calling down fire from heaven ; and the false prophet shall 
 be enabled to show even this miracle, in support of the claims 
 of Anti christ. 
 
 The East will be the peculiar seat of his power, and the 
 theatre of these delusions ; but his influence will not be 
 limited to the immediate seat of his power — "By peace he 
 shall destroy many:" and John instructs us that " all who 
 dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not 
 written, from the foundation of the world, in the book of 
 life of the Lamb that hath been slain." Among other means, 
 by which his influence will be extended, is the control he will 
 exercise over the commerce of the earth. We are led to 
 anticipate unexampled commercial prosperity, and the deepest 
 infatuation of speculation, as the characteristics of his reign ; 
 and, if we may judge by present appearances, this land will 
 not lie behind in the mad chase of wealth and luxury, which 
 the reorganization of the East will stimulate. Can we hope 
 that there will be piety or virtue left, to refuse a share of that 
 wealth, if it may be obtained by doing homage to the image 
 of Anti-christ? 
 
 Wliat would this be but to give form and distinctness to what 
 is already the mournful fact? The snare of prosperity has 
 already been spread ; multitudes have, in fact, if not in form, 
 renounced Christ for the gilded bait. The dark features of 
 that reign of ungodliness arc but the maturity of the tenden-
 
 1857.] The Personal Anti-Christ. 441 
 
 cics of our own day, and only bring out into vivid manifestation 
 the iniquity which is partly veiled and held in check by the 
 name of Christianity — a veil which every day grows thinner, 
 a check which every day grows feebler. There are now two 
 parties on earth, those who are for Christ, and those who arc 
 against Him ; and, of the latter, Anti-christ is but the great 
 antitype under whom they will be gathered, in the maturity 
 of their ungodliness, for a last onset against Christ and His 
 Church. In the last form unbelief will be more awful to 
 witness, but, in reality, not different in essence, nor more fatal 
 in its consequences to individuals, than the common rejection 
 of Christ in more favored times ; they equally end in everlast- 
 ing destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory 
 of His power. 
 
 Protestants have interpreted all these things as referring to 
 Popery, and, in turn, Papists have applied many of them to 
 Protestantism. But Popery, assuredly, is not the only form 
 of apostacy. Every merely nominal Church is doomed to 
 share the overthrow of Popery, as a partner of her sin ; the 
 instruments of their overthrow will be the indignant nations 
 of the earth. But, let it be remembered, the agents of that 
 overthrow will not be the less the enemies of Christ. A 
 party zeal against Popery must not be mistaken for Chris- 
 tianity. According to the prophecy, those who destroy ropery 
 will next make war upon the Lamb.
 
 442 Chapters from an Unpublished Biogiaphy. [July. 
 
 CHAPTERS FROM AN UNPUBLISHED BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Amid domestic and social comfort of the purest kind ; in 
 the pleasing associations of the Church and the class-room ; 
 in the invigorating prosecution of the prescribed course of 
 study, and amid evangelical labors which were crowned with 
 encouraging success, Mr. Maclay arrived, as it appeared to 
 him, too speedily at the close of his three years in the semi- 
 nary — a period which, in prospect, seemed such aweary pro- 
 crastination of the day of active usefulness. He was about 
 to go forth, finally, from his mother's fireside as his home — 
 to part from pastor and Church, and all the prized friends of 
 his youth. He was going to encounter the trials and respon- 
 sibilities of a pastoral life, which he could estimate more 
 justly than young ministers usually can. The attainment of 
 the great aspiration of his life was not unmingled joy to him. 
 But he was comforted with the assurance that he went to 
 meet these trials, followed by the affections and prayers of 
 many who loved him for his Master's sake. 
 
 In addition to the other favors which he had received at 
 Mr. Haldane's hands, and which he is always happy to ac- 
 knowledge with gratitude, he mentions a most considerate 
 attention which was paid to all the students at the close of 
 their course. An annual stipend was paid to them, during 
 the three years of their attendance at the seminary, sufficient 
 to pay all their ordinary expenses ; and it was intended that, 
 so soon as they left the seminary, they should be supported 
 by the Missionary Society, unless they were immediately set- 
 tled over Churches able to sustain them. But, that they 
 might all go out into the world without embarrassment, Mr.
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography, 443 
 
 Hal dane presented each of them with a check for £5 sterling. 
 This sum, with characteristic disinterestedness, Mr. Maclay 
 at once paid into the treasury of the Missionary Society. 
 
 We should scarcely be excused in proceeding with our nar- 
 rative, without some more particular notice of John Campbell, 
 a truly remarkable man ; but not so much by the possession of 
 rare endowments, as by the accomplishment of a great amount 
 of good by the industrious application of an ordinary ca- 
 pacity. He, like Mr. Ewing, was a native of Edinburgh, 
 born about the same time, and of parents in similar circum- 
 stances and of similar character. He, also, was educated at 
 the Higli School, and was in the same class with Sir Walter 
 Scott ; to whom, after both were celebrated, though in very 
 different ways, he wrote a characteristic letter, in which he 
 says : "You have got prodigious talents, and also the ear of 
 the public to an extent that few ever had. These talents, of 
 course, you have from the God of heaven ; and must know it, 
 from the advantages you had in your youthful days. I think 
 you might use them to better purposes than I have observed 
 you to do. You might interweave with your publications 
 more of the important truths of the Gospel, of which you are 
 not ignorant, and in a way likely to be useful." "You have 
 got to the pinnacle of fame in this passing world, which, I 
 dare say, you feel to be a poor thing, unable to cure either a 
 head or a heart-ache. I think, could you turn your fine tal- 
 ents more to the glory of God and the immortal interest of 
 mankind, you would not only amuse, but benefit the world." 
 
 lie had no strong predilection for classical studies, and in 
 course of time abandoned them to engage in mercantile pur- 
 suits. After the death of his parents, he was received into 
 the family of a pious uncle, and was at an early age the subject 
 of religious impressions. In speaking of his early convic- 
 tions and struggles, he says : " I felt within me a wandering 
 and wicked heart, and resolved to root it out. I applied myself 
 to this work with the utmost diligence. Night and day did I 
 watch its emotions, but the more I watched it the more 
 wicked did it seem to become. Many a serious look did I 
 take of that promise in Ezek., xxxvi. 20, respecting a new
 
 444: Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [July; 
 
 heart and a right spirit. Could the contents of that promise 
 have been procured by purchase, had I had the wealth of the 
 Indies, the whole would have been, as I thought, readily 
 parted with for a new heart. But, in all this, I was evidently 
 seeking for righteousness by the works of the law. I was 
 attempting to do what nothing but the almighty arm of the 
 Saviour could accomplish." For two years he maintained 
 the vain effort to produce something within himself as a claim 
 to heaven ; but, at last, a partial discovery of the suitableness 
 of Christ afforded some measure of peace. " I did not," he 
 remarks, " see that hope in Cnrist, alone, produced and main- 
 tained evidences of grace, but thought it necessary first to 
 search for evidences, and then to proceed to hope in the atoning 
 blood of Jesus, as a person entitled, on this ground, to hope." 
 His experience in this state was that of thousands. His mind, 
 was drawn from Christ to pore on his own feelings, and he 
 was continually vaccillating between hope and despair. He 
 had no idea that the belief of saving truth was saving faith. 
 His juvenile diary is filled with penitential mourning, and the 
 expression of doubts and fears; and again and again he asks, 
 " What shall I do to be saved? " after some momentary gleam 
 of comfort. 
 
 For many weary years this conflict continued, relieved by 
 occasional seasons of enjoyment. He engaged in active en- 
 deavors to do good, and enjoyed the correspondence and 
 friendship of such men as Thomas Scott, John Newton, and 
 Abraham Booth- He became the first publisher and distribu- 
 tor of tracts in Edinburgh, and took a lively interest in all 
 efforts to spread the knowledge of the Gospel. His own 
 light increased, and with it his zeal ; he established Sunday 
 schools, and, upon his acquaintance with Capt. Haldane, was 
 emboldened to address congregations in the surrounding vil- 
 lages. His industry was almost incredible ; besides the care 
 of his business, and of the sick and orphans, he carried on a 
 correspondence enough of itself to waste the health of any 
 man, who had only the night at his command for writing. 
 He was the drudge of the new societies which began to spring 
 up. We have already referred to his connection with Robert
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 445 
 
 Haldanc, the part he acted in the Tabernacle movement, and 
 his relation to the theological school, where he ultimately be- 
 came a pupil. 
 
 On the close of his studies, he became pastor of a Congre- 
 gational Church at Kingsland, in the suburbs of London, and 
 immediately entered, with his whole heart, into all the be- 
 nevolent schemes which had their centre of management in the 
 metropolis. On his visit to London, previous to his settle- 
 ment, he notices the introduction, to the friends of missions 
 in London, of Mr. Frey, the converted Jew, who afterwards 
 removed to this country, was baptised by Dr. Maclay in New 
 York, and, as a Baptist minister, closed a long life of labor 
 at Pontiac, Michigan, in 1851. Mr. Campbell, during the 
 visit referred to, attended public worship at Surrey Chapel, 
 when Rowland Hill led up a young man to the pulpit and 
 said : "This is a son of Abraham, from Prussia, whose heart 
 the Lord hath opened. He comes well recommended from 
 Prussia and Holland. He is accepted as a missionary, and 
 will now pray with us. His name is Mr. Frey. He is not 
 very familiar with our language, wherefore I hope you will 
 make all due allowance for him." Mr. Campbell remarks, 
 "Almost the whole congregation wept when Mr. Frey prayed 
 for his Jewish brethren." 
 
 Among other means of usefulness, he instituted, soon after 
 his settlement at Kingsland, the Youth's Magazine, a work 
 whieh was signally useful, and which many aged Christians 
 still remember as the welcome monitor of their youth. He still 
 continued to make tours through the provinces to preach the 
 Gospel to the poor ; and, amid all his other labors, found it ne- 
 cessary to betake himself to the drudgery of keeping a school, 
 in order to keep out of debt. While engaged in this manifold 
 usefulness, the London Missionary Society elected him to 
 take charge of their African Missions, on the death of Dr. Van- 
 derkemp. Alter due deliberation, he accepted the charge, and 
 was formally set apart to the mission. Dr. Waugh preached 
 on the occasion, from the text, "As I have been with Moses, 
 so will I be with thee." The concluding passage of the ven- 
 erable man's address has been preserved by a hearer : "Could
 
 416 Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [July, 
 
 I place the prophet Isaiah at the base of one of the mountains 
 of Africa, which you, my brother, are about to visit ; and if, 
 while he gazed on its varied scenery, an earthquake were to 
 rock it from its deep foundations, until, like the Numidian 
 lion, shaking the dew-drops of the laud of Ham from his mane 
 in the morning, it threw off from its hoary and heaving sides 
 the forest, and flocks, and hamlets of huts, and cliffs crowned 
 with lichens and lign-aloes ; and were a whirlwind to rush in at 
 that moment, scattering the broken and falling masses in mid 
 air, as if playing with the sand-clouds and columns of the 
 desert ; still, the voice of the prophet, could it be heard amidst 
 the convulsive war of elements, would exclaim, ' Though the 
 everlasting mountains bow, and the perpetual hills be scat- 
 tered, yet will I rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of 
 my salvation ! ' Go, my brother, and do thou the same, what- 
 ever dangers you meet in Africa. As God was with Vander- 
 kemp, so will He be with thee, Campbell." 
 
 Having accomplished, satisfactorily, the immediate object 
 of his mission, he returned to England, but was soon after 
 induced to pay a second visit to a country whose spiritual in- 
 terests always Jay near his heart. On both of these visits 
 he penetrated far into the interior, and collected materials for 
 a very interesting narrative of travel and adventure, which 
 is known to many readers here. On Ins return from the 
 second visit, he resumed his pastoral charge at Kingsland, 
 and remained with his attached people till his death, in 1840, 
 in his seventieth year. A friend, who visi'ed his deathbed, 
 asked if he was happy; he answered : " The debt is all paid ; 
 the sufferings of Christ have discharged it, and, therefore, I 
 am free, and have peace with God." The same friend thus 
 describes the last scene : " The sun had just set, and the last 
 gleams of light, struggling through the window, fell upon his 
 bed. There was a sweet smile passing over his countenance 
 as the curtain was removed ; and as the attendant bent over 
 him, he drew two or three short and rapid breaths, and then 
 lay motionless and silent. Again he breathed quickly and 
 smiled ; then heaved a gentle sigh, and all was still once 
 more. It was the stillness of death."
 
 1857.] Christ Crucified and Crowned. 447 
 
 CHRIST CRUCIFIED AND CROWNED. 
 
 I. 
 
 Lamb of God ! our souls adore Thee, 
 
 As upon Thy face we gaze; 
 There the Father's love and glory 
 
 Shine in all their brightest rays; 
 Thy almighty power and wisdom 
 
 All creation's works proclaim ; 
 Heaven and earth alike confess Thee, 
 
 As the ever great I am. 
 
 Son of God, the Father's bosom 
 
 Ever was Thy dwelling-place; 
 His delight, in Him rejoicing, 
 
 Partner of His power and grace. 
 the wondrous love and mercy ! 
 
 Thou hast laid Thy glory by, 
 And for us hast come from heaven, 
 
 As the Lamb of God, to die. 
 
 Lamb of God! when we behold Thee, 
 
 Lowly in the mangor laid, 
 Wandering as a homeless stranger, 
 
 In the world Thy hands had made; 
 When we see Thee in the Garden, 
 
 In thine agony of blood, 
 At Thy grace we are confounded, 
 
 Holy, spotless Lamb of God! 
 
 When we see Thee as the victim, 
 
 Bound to the accursed tree; 
 For our guilt and folly stricken, 
 
 All our judgment laid on Thee; 
 Lord, we own, with hearts adoring, 
 
 By the witness of Thy blood, 
 Thine is love which passeth knowledge, 
 
 Bleeding, dying Lamb of God.
 
 i i 8 Christ Crucified and Crowned. [.July, 1857. 
 
 II. 
 
 Lamb of God ! in glory seated 
 
 High upon Thy Father's throne, 
 All Thy gracious work completed, 
 
 And the mighty victory won ; 
 Every knee in heaven is bending 
 
 To the Lamb for sinners slain ; 
 Every voice the chorus swelling, 
 
 ''Worthy is the Lamb to reign." 
 
 Lord, in all Thy power and glory, 
 
 Still Thine eyes and thoughts are here, 
 Watching o'er Thy ransomed people, 
 
 To Thy heart forever dear; 
 Thou for us art interceding, 
 
 In our Father's house above, 
 And a place for us preparing, 
 
 Glorious as Thy mighty love. 
 
 Lamb of God! in power and glory, 
 
 To this weary earth return; 
 All Thy foes shall quail before Thee; 
 
 Those who now despise Thee, mourn ; 
 And Thy saints shall rise to meet Thee, 
 
 On Thy peerless throne to reign ; 
 Theirs the crown, but Thine the glory, 
 
 Lamb of God, for sinners slain.
 
 WAYMAMS IN THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 AUGUST, 1851. 
 
 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY FROM DAVID 
 TO THE CAPTIVITY. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 To preserve the knowledge of Himself and the remembrance 
 of His promised mercy from being swallowed up in the prevail- 
 ing idolatry, and to prepare the way for the development 
 and execution of His great purpose, God called Abraham 
 and his descendants into a complete seclusion from the rest 
 of the world. In due time his descendants were organized 
 as a distinct nation, and received a constitution and laws 
 from Jehovah, their King, divinely adapted to secure the great 
 ends of their national existence. And, thus organized, the na- 
 tion and all its institutions formed a typical prediction of 
 Christ and His kingdom. 
 
 When God made a national covenant with the Israelites, 
 at Sinai, it was understood that, in the event of their loyalty, 
 He stood pledged to secure their prosperity. In case of their 
 disobedience, He threatened to chastise them by war, pesti- 
 lence, and famine, until, if they continued to rebel against 
 VOL. II. — no. viii. c2
 
 450 The Light of Prophecy [August, 
 
 Him, they should be driven from their desolated homes, and 
 scattered among the heathen. 
 
 The history of the nation is the fulfillment of this covenant 
 in its promises and threatenings, accompanied with the most 
 astonishing displays of God's long-suffering and mercy. Pros- 
 perity always smiled upon their obedience, and forgiveness 
 always greeted their penitence ; while calamity followed on 
 the track of disobedience, although a loving forbearance 
 seemed loth to inflict deserved judgment. To render such 
 an administration impressive and intelligible, God raised up 
 a succession of prophets, who warned the people of approach- 
 ing calamity, that, when it came, they might know that the 
 hand of God was upon them for their sins ; and that they 
 might trace either prosperity or adversity to Jehovah. "Be- 
 cause I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck as an iron 
 sinew, and thy brow brass, I have even from the beginning 
 declared it unto thee : before it came to pass I declared it 
 unto thee, lest thou shouldst say, ' Mine idol hath done them, 
 and my graven and molten image hath commanded them.' " 
 Thus the prophecies, which relate only to the national affairs 
 of Israel, had a higher object than the gratification of a 
 % prying curiosity ; and the prophets were not mere fortune- 
 tellers, but high officers of state, absolutely necessary to the 
 Theocracy. 
 
 "All nations," says Bishop Sherlock, "have had, and still 
 have, their turns of prosperity and adversity ; and God thinks 
 not Himself obliged to account to them for the measures of His 
 providence toward them. But the case was otherwise with 
 the Jews ; for God, having established a covenant with them, 
 •on temporal promises and temporal curses, the very execution 
 of the covenant, on God's part, required Him to appear and 
 openly administer the promises and penalties of His law, to 
 procure the happiness of the people when obedient, and to 
 inflict the punishment due to their iniquity. Hence it is that 
 He directs them, in the way of temporal happiness, by the 
 voice of the prophets, and gives them open warning of all 
 evils which He brings upon them, that they may see Him, in 
 every instance, performing the word of His covenant. Every
 
 1857.] From David to the Captivity. 451 
 
 prophecy from God spoke in the language of Moses'' song : 
 1 See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no God but Me : 
 I kill and I make alive ; I wound and I heal ; neither is there 
 any that can deliver out of My hand.'" 
 
 Since the affairs of the nation had ultimate reference to the 
 fulfillment of God's covenant with Abraham, tho prophets, 
 who interpreted the will of God to His people, unfold to us 
 the progress of events towards the accomplishment of our 
 hopes. They were not only the prophets of the future, but 
 historians of the past ; for though, after the book of Joshua, 
 the historical books of the Old Testament bear no name, we 
 know that these books are authorized compilations from the 
 records made by the prophets. Thus we read : " Now the acts 
 of David, first and last, behold they are written in the book 
 of Nathan, the prophet, and in the book of Gad, the seer," 
 referring to the concluding portions of Samuel. The names 
 of Abijah, Shemaiah, and Iddo, are also mentioned as writers 
 of the Chronicles. Again, we read : " Now the rest of the 
 acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah, the son of Amos, 
 write," referring, probably, to the second book of Kings. 
 
 Of the earlier utterances of the prophets we have but scanty 
 records. During the administration of the judges, the office 
 of the prophet was, for the most part, limited to the interpre- 
 tation of God's will in passing events. But, with the con- 
 firmation of the covenant with David, the foundation was 
 laid for ample instructions regarding the great plan. The 
 prophets of God had already been introduced to a leading 
 position in the government ; the priesthood had become thor- 
 oughly corrupted under Eli, and God raised up, in Samuel, 
 a prophet, to " do according to that which was in His heart." 
 Faith turned from the priest to the prophet, and was sustained, 
 not by that which was in existence, but by that which was in 
 prospect. God, for a time, ruled in Israel by Samuel, but the 
 wilful people speedily rejected his administration, and de- 
 sired a king ; an act of rebellion which, as we have seen in 
 a former article, God overruled to the advancement of His 
 gracious purpose. He chose David to be king, and mado 
 him, so to speak, His viceroy. The kings administered the
 
 452 The Light of Prophecy [August, 
 
 government as the representatives of Jehovah, and were also 
 regarded by God as the representatives of the nation. There 
 was the same general office to be discharged by the prophets, 
 under the kings, as there had been under the judges ; but, in 
 addition to this, they had now their highest service in unfold- 
 ing the last and most glorious view of the purposed grace ; 
 and, as the corruptions and calamities of the nation multi- 
 plied, it was their privilege to sustain the hearts of the faith- 
 ful, by a clearer revelation of the better things to come. 
 
 We find, therefore, from the commencement of the period 
 of which we speak, a successsion of prophets of a higher 
 order, beginning with Samuel ; and we find a numerous 
 body, upon whom the spirit of prophecy rested, associated 
 in a company, known as the schools of the prophets, under 
 the presidency of some one distinguished by God. We have 
 no particular account, either of the institution of the college, 
 or of the special object of their association. The notion, that 
 young men were placed there to study prophesying as an art, 
 is not to be tolerated ; at least, not until the office was en- 
 tirely perverted. Warburton somewhat dogmatically asserts : 
 "An inquirer, of either common sense or common honesty, 
 would have have seen it was a college for the study of the 
 Jewish law only; and, as such, naturally and properly a sem- 
 inary of prophets."* Although this does not so very plainly 
 appear, there is good reason to believe that the law was the 
 object of their associated inquiry, along with all that God 
 had revealed to man. Their diligent search after " what, or 
 what manner of time the Spirit of Christ that was in them 
 did signify, when it testified, beforehand, the sufferings of 
 
 * It is a curious illustration of the extent to which a man's own favorite 
 study, or absorbing pursuit, may influence his views of a question, to 
 compare this positive assertion of Warburton's with the equally unhesi- 
 tating onclusion of Lowth, respecting these schools : " Though the 
 sacred history affords us but little information, and that in a cursory 
 manner, concerning their institutes and discipline, we, nevertheless, un- 
 derstand that a principal part of their occupation consisted in celebrating 
 the praises of Almighty God, in hymns and poetry, with choral chants 
 accompanied by stringed instruments and pipes."
 
 185?. j From David to the. Captivity. 453 
 
 Christ, and the glory which should follow," may have been 
 prosecuted jointly. Doubtless, also, mutual counsel and com- 
 munion attracted such men to one another, especially in times 
 of general declension. 
 
 It has been made a question, whether these schools were of 
 Divine appointment, or whether they were expedients, similar 
 to those which have been adopted under the present dispen- 
 sation, for training teachers for the Christian Church. How- 
 ever tliis question may be determined, it is evident that the 
 association was not inconsistent with the Divine will ; and, 
 that, so long as it was conducted with a view to the glory of 
 God, the Spirit honored it by His presence. At the same 
 time it is in the highest degree instructive to us, that these 
 schools became the source of the most grievous corruption. 
 At first, doubtless, they were means of extending the knowl- 
 edge and the fear of God ; but when the men of God who 
 presided over them were removed, the institutions that had 
 been under their direction survived, retaining the influence 
 of the past ; and those who issued from them, came to the 
 people with a claim which usage had rendered venerable. 
 Those who entered these associations, in the days of their 
 purity, were doubtless those in whom God had put His 
 Spirit ; but it is easy to understand how the institution 
 would degenerate into a school where men were educated 
 for a profession, till, at last, we find the prophets as sternly 
 denounced as the priests, by the true witnesses whom God 
 raised up in times of apostacy. " Behold, / am against the 
 prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues and say, ' He 
 saith.' " 
 
 We can not now dwell upon the extent to which these pro- 
 fessional prophets used the influence of an office to aid the 
 apostacy, to flatter popular corruptions, and to oppose the true 
 prophets of God. But we can not pass from the subject, 
 without respectfully urging upon those more immediately 
 concerned, the warning of such facts, against the danger of 
 abusing theological institutions, and against the cultivation 
 of a professional sentiment. It is not an unauthorized appre- 
 hension, that error and declension may proceed from those who
 
 454 The Light of Prophecy [August,, 
 
 are accredited as teachers within the Church. "But there 
 were false prophets among the people, even as there shall be 
 false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable 
 heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring 
 upon themselves swift destruction." 
 
 Though God, as we have remarked, employed the prophets 
 in the administration of the national affairs, we should do 
 great dishonor to their office did we not look to its higher 
 functions. The covenant of grace is seen through the cove- 
 nant of Sinai, as the substance is seen through the shadow; 
 and the prophets, in dealing with the one, necessarily looked 
 to the other. Beyond this, God employed them directly to 
 keep Christ, and the glories of His kingdom, before the eye 
 of faith. "Yea, and all the prophets, from Sammel and those 
 that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise fore- 
 told of these days." Nor are we to regard the prophets as 
 mere unreflecting vehicles of the truth concerning Christ. 
 As we have suggested, probably in their schools, or, at all 
 events, in their individual capacity, they earnestly studied 
 the glad tidings they proclaimed, and with longing desire 
 looked forward to Christ's day. " The testimony of Jesus is 
 the spirit of prophecy." 
 
 The kingdom of Israel reached the climax of prosperity 
 under Solomon. The close of his reign was obscured by sin 
 and folly, and the national glory began to decline. Upon 
 his death the kingdom was divided. The ten tribes, known 
 as the kingdom of Israel, soon fell into decay and disap- 
 peared. The kingdom of Judah, which remained to the 
 family of David, was corrupted, and, through various re- 
 verses, approached the deep sorrow of their captivity in 
 Babylon. This was the time when true faith needed the 
 support of hope. The present was dark with impending 
 wrath — the only consolation was in the future ; and God in 
 mercy hung out a brighter light to cheer the growing dark- 
 ness of the long night. With the plainest announcement of 
 His coming judgment on the rebellious nation, He joined the 
 most distinct assurance of the coming of Him who was to be 
 the glory of Israel, the desire of all nations, and a light to
 
 1857.] From David to the Captivity. 455 
 
 lighten the Gentiles ; and the remote future glows in the 
 radiance of 11 is everlasting kingdom. 
 
 In anticipation of approaching calamity, the prophets novr 
 also began to commit their predictions to writing. Tho 
 earliest books of prophecy wore those of Joel, Amos, and 
 Hosea, though the arrangement of tho books in our Bible 
 may lead to a ditferent conclusion. The study of these books 
 would be aided by noticing the date of each. The expression, 
 "The beginning of the Word of the Lord by Hosea," has been 
 supposed to intimate that his was the first. But the expression 
 will scarcely bear the conclusion ; and it is probably beyond 
 our power to determine which of these three was the earliest. 
 Hosea, Amos, Joel, Mieah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Isaiah, Jere- 
 miah, and Habbakuk wrote previous to the carrying away of 
 the Jews into Babylon ; Ezekiel, Daniel, and Obadiah wrote 
 during the course of the Captivity; and Haggai, Zechariah, 
 and Malachi, after the restoration of the Jews to their own 
 land. What remains of this article we devote to a cursory 
 view of prophecy, from the reign of David to the Captivity, 
 with the intention of resuming the subject at a future time. 
 
 We have already said that God, as King of Israel, employed 
 the prophets to intimate His will, and interpret His dealings 
 with His people. During the period of which we speak, tho 
 prominent themes of national prophecy were the dispersion 
 of the ten tribes, the captivity and restoration of Judah, and 
 the utter abasement of the kingdom in its apostacy. When 
 Solomon mingled idolatrous rites with the worship of God, 
 God warned him that He would rend the kingdom from his 
 successor. " IJowbeit," said He, "I will not rend away all 
 the kingdom, but will give one tribe to thy son, for My ser- 
 vant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, which I havo 
 chosen." Accordingly, on the death of Solomon, all tho 
 tribes, save Judah and Benjamin, were established as a separ- 
 ate kingdom, under Jeroboam, who had been a favorite at 
 the court of Solomon. To secure the allegiance of his peo- 
 ple, Jeroboam forbade them to go up to Jerusalem ; and, as 
 a substitute for the temple, he erected shrines at Dan and 
 Bethel, where golden calves were set up as symbols of tho
 
 456 The Light of Prophecy [August, 
 
 Divine presence. Through growing degeneracy this king- 
 dom hastened to ruin ; but, amid abounding iniquity, God 
 multiplied His warnings, and furnished extraordinary sup- 
 port to His true people. In fact, the prophets of Israel seem 
 to have been more numerous and powerful than thoso of 
 Judah. 
 
 Under the second Jeroboam a period of national pros- 
 perity was followed by luxury and oppression, which called 
 down the Divine displeasure, and then the series of written 
 prophecies began to appear. Amos, a rude shepherd, and not 
 attached to the schools of the prophets, was called of God to 
 announce approaching judgments. His prophecies have been 
 compared to a thunder storm, which rolls over the surrounding 
 kingdoms, touches Judah in its progress, and then bursts in 
 all its fury on Israel. Anticipating the event by two centu- 
 ries, he says : ,; I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall 
 devour the palaces of Jerusalem." But the burden of his 
 strain is the guilt and punishment of Israel. " Therefore will 
 I cause you to go into captivity, beyond Damascus, saith the 
 Lord" — a prediction which was literally fulfilled when, as we 
 read in 1 Kings, " Israel was carried away out of their own 
 land into Assyria, until this day." Equally explicit are the 
 annunciations of wrath by the mouth of Hosea : " Israel is 
 swallowed up. Their golden calf shall also be carried into 
 Assyria, for a present to king Jared." 
 
 Contemporaneous with these prophets Isaiah exercised his 
 high vocation in Judea. Bishop Lowth, speaking of his written 
 .prophecies, says t " That he may properly be said to afford 
 the mo,°t perfect model of the prophetic poetry." It were an 
 endless task,, and entirely misplaced here, to quote the testi- 
 monies which critics r who regard him simply in the light of 
 a poet, have rendered to the elegance and sublimity, the 
 beauty and force of this book. " In his sentiments," says one, 
 14 there is uncommon elevation and majesty; in his imagery, 
 the utmost propriety, elegance, dignity, and diversity; in his 
 language, uncommon beauty and energy, and, notwithstand- 
 ing the obscurity of his subjects, a surprising degree of clear- 
 ness and simplicity." His visions anticipate the downfall of
 
 1857.J From David to the Captivity. 457 
 
 the throne of David, the captivity of Judah, and the disper- 
 sion of Israel. The conqueror of Babylon is mentioned, by 
 name, one hundred and fifty years before his birth ; and the 
 restoration of the Jews to their own land is foretold. 
 
 Succeeding Isaiah, and approaching him in sublimity, if 
 not in elegance, Jeremiah describes the circumstances of the 
 Captivity more minutely as it drew near. Thus its duration 
 is expressly limited : "After seventy years be accomplished 
 at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word to- 
 wards you, in causing you to return to this place." Our limits 
 do not permit us to enter at large into these national prophe- 
 cies. "We have quoted one or two from different prophets, 
 chiefly as examples of their manner, and to give distinctness to 
 this division of our subject, when we come to view the higher 
 aspects of their office. Before advancing to these, it may bo 
 proper to remark that the predicted return from Captivity 
 was limited to Judah. The ten tribes disappear from the 
 page of history, and Judah was restored only on account of 
 the promise that the Messiah should come of that tribe. 
 Judah was restored, but the throne of David still lav desolate: 
 the temple was rebuilt, but the Shekinah never returned. 
 The most remarkable interposition of God preserved a feeble 
 people, through all the great revolutions of empire, till Shiloh 
 came, and then the temple was razed to the foundation, and 
 the people scattered to the winds of heaven, as they are at 
 this day. 
 
 In their warnings of judgment coming on the rebellious 
 nation, the prophets of God never lost sight of the ends of 
 the national existence. Speaking in the name of Jehovah as 
 King of Israel, they never forgot that he was also the God of 
 Abraham — the covenant-keeping Jehovah. In their rebukes 
 of sin, and their exhortations to repentance, they constantly 
 look beyond things seen and temporal, and derive motives 
 from the gracious and ultimate relations of God to man. 
 In fact, while it was their office to enforce the national law, 
 and to interpret God's dealings with His chosen people, they 
 are careful to guard the people against the delusion that their 
 descent from Abraham, or their national covenant, or any ex- 

 
 4< r >8 The Light of Prophecy [August, 
 
 ternal distinction, would secure to any man a participation 
 in the blessings of the everlasting covenant. They early 
 taught the distinction which our Lord makes in the expres- 
 sion, ''an Israelite indeed ;" or, as Paul expresses it, "they 
 are not all Israel who are of Israel." God declares by them 
 that He has no pleasure in mere sacrifices and oblations, new 
 moons and sabbaths. Though these were His own institu- 
 tions, they were empty and worthless, unless as they expressed 
 the faith of the worshipper, and conducted the soul to the new 
 and better covenant. The people were always prone to do 
 what the great body of Jews did in our Lord's day — to per- 
 vert the promise of a Sav'our into a mere promise of a tem- 
 poral deliverer; and so, with hearts estranged from God, 
 they yet presumptuously looked for the predicted time of His 
 advent. To such a daring perversion of the blessed hope 
 Amos addresses the rebuke : " Wo unto you that desire the 
 day of the Lord ! To what end is it ? To you the day of the 
 Lord is darkness, and not light." 
 
 The line was as distinctly drawn then as it is novi, between 
 the believer and the unbeliever. The characteristics of the 
 merely outward Jew very closely resemble those of the merely 
 nominal Christian, even to their scoffing at the promise of 
 Christ's coming. Thus Isaiah speaks of those who say, in 
 their impious scorn, " Let Him make speed and hasten His 
 coming, that we may see it ; and let the counsel of the Holy 
 One of Israel draw nigh, that we may know it ; " just as the 
 apostle represents the scoffers of the last days as saying, 
 " Where is the promise of His coming? " But, at all times, 
 there were scattered among the carnal and idolatrous Jews, 
 true believers, who lived by faith, and looked for the conso- 
 lation of Israel. Then, as now, they were a humble few, de- 
 scribed as poor and contrite ones, suffering reproach and 
 persecution from the profane masses. 
 
 It was an important office of the prophets to cheer the 
 remnant, by renewed assurances of the security of their trust: 
 41 When He shall appear to your joy, and your brethren that 
 hated you shall be ashamed." In times of corruption, when 
 they foretold God's desolating wrath, they assured the faith-
 
 1857.] From David to the Captivity. 459 
 
 fnl that nothing could invalidate God's covenant. The most 
 exulting descriptions of the might of the Redeemer and the 
 glory of His reign, are coupled with the most appalling pre- 
 dictions of the doom of an apostate nation. Thus Amos, 
 when he announces God's judgment on the ten tribes — " I will 
 sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted 
 in a sieve" — intimates God's final grace: "In that day I 
 ■will rais^ the tabernacle of David that is fallen ; I will turn 
 again the captivity of my people Israel, and I will plant them 
 in their own land " — a prediction which, in Acts xv., we are 
 taught to refer to Christ in the glory of His kingdom. ?o 
 Hosea, while he intimates that the rebellious people shall be 
 as chaff which is driven with the whirlwind out of the thresh- 
 ing-floor, and as smoke out of a chimney, announces to the 
 faithful remnant God's gracious purpose : " I will ransom 
 them from the power of the grave ; I will redeem them from 
 death : death, I will be thy plague ! O grave, I will be thy 
 destruction ! " which Paul applies to the resurrection of the 
 just. Joel, also, when in that degenerate age he predicts the 
 judgments of heaven on the ungodly, announces the era of 
 salvation in prophecies which Peter shows had an incipient 
 fulfillment on the day of Pentecost. "With still more remark- 
 able plainness, Isaiah, on the eve of the Captivity, Jeremiah, 
 who witnessed that calamity, and Daniel, who was one of the 
 children of the Captivity, speak of the glory of Christ's 
 kingdom. 
 
 Their prophecies display a unity of design in the whole 
 revelation. There is but one covenant advancing to matu- 
 rity, one salvation revealed, and one faith cherished in them 
 all. We have many references to earlier revelations of grace, 
 and a uniform harmony with them. The promise of the Seed 
 of the woman appears in Isaiah : "A virgin shall conceive 
 and bring forth a son." The degradation of the reptile form 
 of the tempter, in the original sentence, "Dust shalt thou eat 
 all the days of thy life," is seen in the prophetic view of mil- 
 lennial triumph, "dust shall be the serpent's meat." The at- 
 tempt is vain to cite the numerous references to the covenant 
 which God made with Abraham. Even temporal blessings
 
 460 The Light of Prophecy [August, 
 
 suggest the remembrance of " the covenant which He made 
 with Abraham, and His oatli unto Isaac, and confirmed the 
 same unto Jacob, for a law to Israel, for an everlasting in- 
 heritance, saying : ' Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, 
 for an everlasting inheritance.'" But the covenant with 
 David is the grand basis of their revelations of coming glory. 
 They unfold its particulars, confirm its certainty, and assure 
 believers that no temporary reverses can defeat the hopes of 
 those who trusted in the Lord. 
 
 These prophets fully unfold the character and office cf the 
 comiug Saviour. They exhibit Him, not as an ordinary de- 
 scendant of Abraham or David ; but, while they teach His de- 
 scent from these patriarchs, in accordance with God's promise, 
 they constantly exalt Him above all ordinary humanity. " His 
 name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the everlasting 
 Father, the Prince of Peace." He is styled " Jehovah our 
 Righteousness." And, to say nothing of the Divine attributes 
 with which He is everywhere invested, the Father Himself 
 says : " Thy throne, God, is forever and ever ! " It is true, 
 the prophets were ignorant of the interval that should elapse 
 between His suffering for our sins and His reign in glory; 
 but our Lord Himself reasons with His disciples, as though it 
 could not well have escaped the notice of a reader of Scrip- 
 ture, that they spoke " of the sufferings of Christ, and the 
 glory that should follow." They taught the worthlessness of 
 animal sacrifices in themselves, and led men to think of their 
 typical and prophetic meaning. They furnish touching de- 
 scriptions of His humiliation and agony, and point out their 
 vicarious nature, as our sins were laid upon Him. The love 
 of Christ, in the depth and reality of His sufferings, is best 
 portrayed in the prophetic outpouring of His heart-woes; for 
 example, in some of the Psalms, which record the particulars 
 of His unparalleled grief, in language the most melting and 
 pitiful. In other prophecies the most minute particulars of 
 time and circumstance are foretold, so that the most incredu- 
 lous arc left without excuse, if they fail to recognize, in Jesus 
 of Nazareth, Him of whom all the prophets bore witness. In 
 like manner the glory of the Conqueror is described in the
 
 
 
 1857.] From David to the Captivity. 461 
 
 most exalted strains. In triumphal songs, such as angels 
 might sing, they hymn the conquests of His arm, and the 
 righteousness, peace, and holiness of His eternal reign. A 
 wide distinction is drawn between His universal dominion 
 and all other sovereignties. The conquest and establish- 
 ment of His kingdom is no project of corrupt ambition, which 
 goes forth trampling upon all right, bending all interests to 
 its selfish aims, and surrounding itself with empty and ephe- 
 meral pomp; but a purpose of mercy and righteousness, which 
 transforms a world of sin and wo into the abode of holiness 
 and joy. The reign is ushered in by a display of the riches of 
 God's grace, and is achieved by a power which strikes down 
 nothing but evil, and sweeps away every vestige of wrong. 
 Beside the righteousness of the sceptre, and the extent and 
 splendor of the realm, the enemy vanquished, the evil eradi- 
 cated, and the ruin repaired ; holiness brought out of sin, joy 
 out of sorrow, life out of death, are its trophies. The 
 prowess and the love of the victor shall be celebrated in the 
 same song. It shall be perpetuated in righteousness ; love 
 shall be universally triumphant; "holiness to the Lord " shall 
 be inscribed on all possessions, and the glory of God shall 
 be the aim as well as the result of every action. 
 
 The prophets clearly point out the seat of dominion, here, 
 in the seats of man's original dominion, in the land of Abra- 
 ham's inheritance, on the site of David's throne, on God's 
 holy hill of Zion. The eartli shall be purged by the fires 
 that go before His face. The wilderness shall bloom like 
 Eden, and the desert like the garden of the Lord. Even the 
 inferior creation shall be subdued, and shall share the joy. 
 Creation shall bud forth in a beauty that shall cast Eden 
 into shade, and man, once lost and undone, shall walk through 
 its scenes of new-created loveliness in a dignity of which 
 Adam, in innocence, was but the infancy. 
 
 The prophets, also, appreciated the world-wide scope of the 
 covenant. They joyfully anticipate the time when He, whom 
 God gave as a covenant to the people, shall also be a light 
 to lighten the Gentiles. Esaias is very bold, and says, " I 
 was found of them that sought me not, and was made mani-
 
 462 The Esscnes. [August, 
 
 fest unto them that asked not after me." At the same time 
 they bring special comfort to the faithful in Israel, by an- 
 nouncing the time when all Israel shall be saved. 
 
 They foretold the prolonged judgments of God on the pro- 
 longed unbelief of the chosen people, ending in the over- 
 throw of Jerusalem, and the subsequent dispersion. But they 
 predict, also, their marvellous preservation through centuries 
 of oppression. Marvellous preservation, indeed 1 Every other 
 conquered people merges in the race of the conquerors ; but, 
 without visible organization, in the face of unrelenting perse- 
 cution, this people remain like the fragments of a wreck scat- 
 tered on the waves that brought destruction. No greater 
 sign can ever be witnessed. And for what are they pre- 
 served ? God has revealed the answer : " I will take the 
 children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be 
 gone, and will gather them on every side. I will make them 
 one nation, in the land on the mountains of Israel, and one 
 king shall be king over them all." 
 
 THE ESSENES 
 
 BY JOHN HOGG. 
 
 The Essenes, in name, character, and religious profession, 
 were the legitimate successors of the Assidians, who are repre- 
 sented, in the books of Maccabees, as being exceedingly zeal- 
 ous for the strict observance of the law. This party first ap- 
 peared after the return from Babylon, when the Syrian kings 
 endeavored to compel the Jews to adopt the idolatrous cus- 
 toms and manners of the heathen. Those who took part with 
 the heathen against their countrymen were styled the ungodly 
 and the uricked, and were regarded as fit objects of universal
 
 1857.] The Eisenes. -J63 
 
 execration and contempt. A large number of patriots, under 
 the leadership of the brave Maccabees, took up arms in defence 
 of their country and religion, when, after a severe and pro- 
 tracted struggle, aided by their courage, local knowledge, 
 religious enthusiasm, and especially by the Divine blessing, 
 they ootained a complete victory over their enemies. The 
 Assidians were the most devoted of the patriotic party, who 
 sometimes bravely defended themselves from their enemies, 
 but who more frequently retired into deserts, disgusted with 
 the degenerate manners of the age, that they might conform 
 more strictly to the requirements of the law. They seem to 
 have been Nazarites for life, and, in keeping with their sacred, 
 consecrated character, they practised frequent ablutions, in 
 order to guard against accidental pollution ; they abstained 
 from wine, and were clothed with a white garment, emblem- 
 atical of priestly purity. They were usually styled the right- 
 eous, as contrasted with the ungodly and the simters, who had 
 symbolized with the heathen — an expression, the meaning of 
 which is defined and limited by describing them as men " vol- 
 untarily devoted to the law." 1 Maccabees, ii. 42. 
 
 It will be easily seen, from the preceding sketch, that the 
 Assidians and Essenes, if not identical, were at all events 
 closely allied to each other. The origin of both names is in- 
 volved in much uncertainty. Philo, the Jew, gives it a Greek 
 origin, and derives it from Eonos, (oaiog-), holy, descriptive of 
 their ascetic purity. Others derive it from the Chaldic aser, 
 to heal, since the Essenes profe~sed to cure both bodily and 
 mental diseases. But the most likely conjecture is that the 
 word is derived from the Aramaic word Asehai. to bathe, in 
 consequence of their daily washings, in order to guard against 
 the mere possibility of pollution. They claimed a sort of 
 priestly standing, in consequence of which the most ordinary 
 transactions of every-day life assumed a religious character. 
 They were clothed, like priests, in a white garment, and every 
 morning they bathed themselves in pure water, to insure 
 bodily purity, in imitation of the priests, who submitted to a 
 similar ceremony before discharging their functions in the 
 temple. In consequence of ihese high pretensions, they looked
 
 464 The Essenes. [August, 
 
 on their ordinary meals as a species of religious observance ; 
 their table was regarded as an altar, and their food as an 
 offering to God, similar to the Passover, which was both a 
 feast and a sacrifice. There was, therefore, no necessity of re- 
 pairing to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices, when every man was 
 a priest, and every meal was a sacrifice ; and hence they of- 
 fered the sacrifices of praise, instead of slain victims. This 
 seems to have been the reason of their abstaining from mar- 
 riage, as, in this mystic theology, the female was regarded as 
 the emblem of voluptuousness and impurity; and hence their 
 ranks were filled up with new converts, who were attracted 
 by the purity of their lives and the strictness of their discip- 
 line. Joscphus, however, mentions a party among the Es- 
 senes who observed the institution of marriage, which they 
 seem to have regarded as a duty. To guard against being 
 imposed on by mere pretended sanctity, they put those females 
 whom they thought of marrying, on trial for three years; and, 
 if both parties were satisfied at the close of that period, the 
 marriage took place. 
 
 The Essenes, like the monks of the middle ages, shunned 
 the society of their fellows, and retired into deserts and soli- 
 tudes. " They dwell," says Pliny, in his Natural History, 
 " along the Dead Sea, avoiding such proximity to its waters 
 as would be hurtful. They are a solitary people, and more 
 wonderful than any other, as they are without females, eman- 
 cipated from sexual intercourse, having no money, dwellers 
 among palm trees. Their community is daily renewed by 
 new comers — persons who are weary of life, and who flee to 
 these retreats from its stormy waves. Thus a people, among 
 whom a birth is never known, (incredible as it may appear), 
 remains unimpaired through successive ages ; so prolific to 
 them is the weariness of life which is felt by others." Their 
 habits were, throughout, retiring and peaceful. They were 
 either husbandmen or mechanics, but they deemed it unlawful 
 to carry or manufacture weapons of war. They had all 
 things in common, so that none were rich, and none were 
 poor. It was a common maxim among them. " What is mine 
 and what is thine belongs to thee." In order to guard against
 
 1857.] The Essene$. 465 
 
 imposition, they had a secret sign, or pass-word, like several 
 modern societies, so that the members of the same society 
 could recognize each other. 
 
 This sect was distinguished by their carefulness in admit- 
 ting members into their society. All applicants were put in 
 probation for twelve months, and, if they were approved at 
 the close of that period, after taking a fearful oath not to 
 divulge the secrets of the society, they were admitted to the 
 lowest grade of membership. The oath taken at initiation 
 was the last oath which they ever took, their strongest assev- 
 eration henceforth being yea, yea, and nay, nay ; and, as a fur- 
 ther confirmation of their views, they said, with a great deal 
 of truth, that the man who was not to be believed on his word, 
 was not to be credited on his oath. In excluding unworthy 
 members, no sentence was valid, except confirmed by a hun- 
 dred votes ; and, as all food not prepared by an Essene was 
 thought to be polluted, the excluded member, if not speedily 
 restored by repentance, was left to perish with hunger. But 
 all within the community were treated as brethren; and so 
 strictly was this principle carried out, that there were among 
 them no slaves, or servants, but, in a spirit of mutual love 
 and concession, they served one another. But, in spite of all 
 these professions of mutual esteem, the spirit of self righteous- 
 ness was strongly developed. The sect was divided into four 
 grades, or ranks, regulated by the ascetic purity which it was- 
 supposed each individual had attained ; and, if one of the 
 highest class touched, even by accident, one of the lowest, the 
 former was deemed polluted, and had to wash himself in 
 water. Thus the lurking pride of the human heart manifested 
 itself, amid its loudest professions of humility, so that the 
 language of the life and the heart was : li Stand by, for I am 
 holier than thou." 
 
 It appears from the accounts of Josephus and Philo, that r 
 among the Essenes, religion and business were mutually 
 blended. They rose before it was light, and, having abstained 
 from all ordinary conversation, as soon as the sun rose they 
 devoutly turned their faces towards him, when they offered 
 up to God prayers, and chanted hymns handed down in their 
 
 TOL. II. — SO. Till. D2
 
 466 The Essenes* [August, 
 
 sect, praying that the sun's beams migfrt fall on nothing impure. 
 They then repair to their work, under overseers, till noon, 
 when, after having bathed themselves in cold water, they 
 enter the eating room, and, after a priest has invoked the Di- 
 vine blessing, they partake of a simple meal. When their re- 
 past is finished, thanks arc returned to the Giver of all good, 
 and all resume their former employments. In the evening 
 another meal, with similar observances, concludes the business 
 of the day. On the Sabbath, they meet together in their syna- 
 gogues, read a portion of the law, which is explained by the 
 most learned in the party. So strictly was this day observed 
 among them, that they would not perform even deeds of 
 mercy, or remove a vessel from one room to another, and 
 sometimes they have been slaughtered by their enemies, rather 
 than defend themselves by an appeal to arms on that day 
 which they deem most holy. 
 
 This remarkable society was kept together by a class of 
 secret, mystic doctrines which every member took a solemn 
 oath not to divulge. These mysteries were contained in books 
 written by the founders and fathers of their society, and which 
 were thought to be possessed of a secondary kind of inspira- 
 tion. But, as all their ancient writings have perished, we 
 must rest satisfied with the small amount of information, 
 on this subject, to be derived from other sources. They had 
 a peculiar doctrine respecting angels, for the candidates who 
 presented themselves for admission were required to take an 
 oath not to reveal the names of the angels which should be com- 
 municated to them. They had also a peculiar belief respect- 
 ing the soul. Agreeing with a common sentiment of the age, 
 they thought that the soul descended into a terrestial prison, 
 and that, on its being liberated by death, it regained its primal 
 rabode of bliss. They maintained, in common with others, that 
 the name Jehovah — " the great and dreadful name Jehovah thy 
 <God" — wa s too sacred to be pronounced, except by the high 
 priest, in the most holy place, on the annual day of atonement. 
 They affirmed that some of their number, by means of dreams, 
 •could foretell the future, and that, by the use of certain herbs 
 And magical stones, they could heal diseases and cast out
 
 1857.'] The Essenes. 467 
 
 ^devils. These pretensions gave them great credit with the 
 'common people, firmly bound them to each other, and rendered 
 £hem faithful to their principles and sect, in spite of the fiercest 
 persecution. 
 
 The Essenes, in consequence of their retired habits, -are 
 aiever mentioned in the New Testament. They had no peliti- 
 •cal influence whatever; they seem never to have come into 
 •contact with ear Saviour, and hence they are not even al- 
 luded to in His discourses. But some have maintained that 
 they are referred to in Paul's epistles — that the errorists 
 anentioned in Colossians, and the pastoral espistles, were Es- 
 senes, who corrupted the Gospel by endless genealogies, and 
 whose unsound maxim was, in opposition to the Gospel, which 
 Reaches that all things are equally clean : w Touch not, taste 
 not, handle not." And assuredly, if we were certain that Philo's 
 work, entitled, " On a Contemplative Life," was genuine, and 
 not the work cf a Gnostic Ebionite Christian of the third 
 ■century, this thing would be exceedingly plausible. But -re- 
 cent critical investigations have rendered it almost certain 
 that the Therapeutae were a Christian sect, and that the Con- 
 templative Life was written as if Philo had been the author, 
 en order to induce the Jews to become Christians. 
 
 The peculiar kind of Essenes, described in Philo's Contem- 
 plative Life, were composed both of males and females, iwbt 
 lived in monkish celibacy, -en the borders of the Lake 
 Maoris, in Egypt. The males were called Therapeutae, and the 
 females, Therapeutiedes. derived from a Greek word to heal, 
 as their peculiar vocation was to cure the diseases of both 
 soul and body. They built their houses in the country so 
 near each other as to obtain assistance in any sudden emer- 
 gency, such as in an attack by robbers, and that they might 
 the more effectually supply each other's necessities. In every 
 house there was a shrine, or monastery, where each member 
 of the household performed his private devotions, both morn- 
 ing and evening. " When the sun is rising," says Philo, 
 41 they entreat God that the happiness of the coming day 
 may be real happiness, so that their minds may be filled with 
 heavenly light ; and when the sun is setting, they pray that
 
 468 The Essenes* [August, 
 
 their souls may be entirely lightened and relieved of the bur- 
 den of the outward senses." In the interval between morning 
 and evening, they meditate on the Divine laws, and intermingle 
 the secular duties of life with symbolical expositions of Scrip- 
 ture. In addition to the Word of God, they studied books 
 written by the founders of the sect, for whom they seem to 
 have claimed a sort of secondary inspiration. But they were 
 not wholly occupied in mystic contemplation ; for " they com- 
 posed psalms and hymns to God in every kind of metre and 
 melody imaginable." " During six days, each of these indi- 
 viduals, retiring into solitude by himself, philosophises by 
 himself in one of the places called monasteries,, never going 
 outside the threshold of the outer court, and indeed never 
 even looking out." 
 
 The manner in whieh the Therapeutas observed the Sab- 
 bath seems to have been, peculiarly solemn. The place where 
 they met on the Sabbath day was divided into two depart- 
 ments, one for the men and another for the women, so that 
 the latter could hear what was said without being seen. As 
 soon as they have entered their sactuary, " they sit down in 
 order, according to their ages, with all becoming gravity, 
 keeping their hands inside their garments, having their right 
 hand between their chest and their dress, and their left hand 
 down by their side, close to their flank ; and then the oldest 
 of them who has the most profound learning in their doctrines 
 comes forward and speaks with steadfast look and with stead- 
 fast voice, with great powers of reasoning, and great pru- 
 dence, not making an exhibition of his oratorical powers,, like 
 the rhetoricians of old, or the sophists of the present day, but 
 investigating with great pains, and explaining with minute 
 accuracy, the precise meaning of the law, which sits, not in- 
 deed at the tips of their ears, but penetrates through their 
 hearing into the soul, and remains there lastingly; and all 
 the rest listen in silence to the praises which he bestows upon 
 the law, showing their assent only by nods of the head, or 
 the eager look of the eyes." These religionists practised the 
 greatest abstinence and self-denial, on the six days of the 
 week ; but on the seventh, in deference to the sacred eharac-
 
 i«57,] The Essmes. 4<S9 
 
 ter of the day, they partook only of plain bread and a seasoning 
 of salt, which the more luxurious season with hyssop, and their 
 drink is water from the spring. 
 
 The pretended Philo gives an account of the feasts of the 
 Therapeutic, essentially the same with Tertullian's statement 
 respecting the meals of the early Christians. He informs us 
 that, before sitting down to the table, they stand in a row, 
 when one of the elders asks a blessing on the meal. The 
 men recline on cushions on the right side of the table, and the 
 women -on the left, and, having no slaves in their community, 
 they are waited on by the younger members of the community. 
 The only beverage used at these feasts is water; cold water 
 for the generality, and warm water for the old men who have 
 been accustomed to a more luxurious way of living. " The 
 table, too, bears nothing which has blood, but there is placed 
 upon it bread for food, and «alt for seasoning, to which also 
 hyssop is sometimes added as an extra sauce for the sake of 
 those who are delicate in their eating." At the table it is the 
 duty of the president to direct attention to some passage of 
 Scripture, or to propose some doctrinal question, for the com- 
 pany, which either he or any other competent person might 
 answer. At the conclusion of the feast, some one rises up 
 and sings a hymn of praise to God, "-either such as he has 
 composed himself, or some ancient one of some old poet ; for 
 they have left behind them many poems and songs in trimeter 
 iambics, and in psalms of thanksgiving, and in hymns, and 
 songs at the time of libation, and at the altar, and in regular 
 order, and in choruses, admirably measured out in -various 
 and well 'diversified strophes." E very one present sings iiis 
 hymn, when the men and women take up the burden at the 
 close of each verse. 
 
 The closing part of this description evidently refers to the 
 Lord's Supper, a circumstance which is sufficient to identify 
 the Therapeutae with a Christian and not with a Jewish sect. 
 "When each individual," says the false Philo, "has finished 
 his psalm, then the young men bring in the table which was 
 mentioned a little while ago, on which was placed that most 
 holy food, the unleavened bread, with a seasoning of Bait,
 
 4T0 The Esseneti [August, 
 
 with which hyssop is mingled, out of reverence for the sacred 
 table, which lies thus in the holy outer temple ; for on this- 
 table are placed loaves and salt without seasoning, and the- 
 bread is unleavened, and the salt unmixed with any thing: 
 else, for it was becoming that the simplest and purest things 
 should be allotted to the most excellent portion of the guests, 
 as a reward for their ministrations, and that the others should 
 admiresimilar things, but should abstain from the loaves, in. 
 order that those who. are the- most excellent persons may 
 have the precedence." We are also informed that this sacred 
 festival was kept up during the entire night, when the women; 
 and the- men, in two separate choruses-, under their respective- 
 leaders, sung hymns of various kinds to the praise of God. This 
 was said to be in imitation of the Israelites passing through 
 the Reef Sea, who, when they saw their enemies lying dead 
 on the- shore, or engulfed in the sea, sung a hymn of praise, 
 " MoseSj the prophet, leading the men,, and Miriam, the proph- 
 etess, leading the wemen.' 7 ' Theiir manner of singing is thus 
 described : " They sing hymns, which have been composed in. 
 honor of God, in many metres and tunes, at one time all sing- 
 ing together, and at another moving their hands and dancing ins 
 corresponding harmony, and uttering in an inspired manner- 
 songs of thanksgiving,. and at another time regular odes, audi 
 performing all necessary strophes and antistrophes." At the- 
 rising of the sun they offer their united prayers to God, and, 
 having their piety and; their good resolutions strengthened?, 
 they retire to their several abodes. 
 
 It is evident from this sketch of the Therapeuta?, takea 
 from Philo r s "Contemplative Life, "" that they were a Chris- 
 tian sect, and that the real author of the work personated 
 Philo, in order to. recommend Christianity to the favorable 
 consideration of the Jews. It was probably composed by 
 some Gnostic writer, about the end of the second or the be- 
 ginning of the third century, in praise of a monkish life. We- 
 learn from Cyprian, who wrote about that time, that men 
 and women devoted themselves to-perpetual virginity, and that 
 these holy men and ivomen lived frequently in the same ho-usc, 
 that they might be of mutual advantage to each other, and
 
 1857 J Early History of the United Brethren. 471 
 
 where scenes took place alike disgraceful to morality and re- 
 ligion. In support of this opinion, it is alleged the word 
 monastery, which occurs twice, could not have been under- 
 stood in the time of Philo ; the presbyters seem to have been 
 the pastors in the Christian Church; the hymns point to a 
 Christian origin, both in the composition and mode of sing- 
 ing; and the sacred festival mentioned is an obscure descrip- 
 tion of the Lord's Supper. The language, also, in which these 
 religious observances are descrioed is very similar to that 
 employed by Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Cyprian, when 
 recommending to the heathen the Christian religion. It fol- 
 lows, therefore, from these and similar considerations, that 
 the Therapeutas were Christians, not Jews ; and, consequently, 
 their history is one of the best accounts which we possess of 
 the manners and worship of the early Christians. 
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE UNITED BRETHREN. 
 
 BY T. H. NEWTON. 
 
 The Moravians, Bohemian Brethren, or United Brethren, 
 are supposed, by many, to have originated with one of their 
 most illustrious members, Count Zinzendorf, of Saxony, in the 
 last century. The inquirer into history, however, dates their 
 commencement at a period very far earlier than the renowned 
 nobleman, missionary, and bishop. This early history we shall 
 now endeavor to trace. 
 
 The records of their primitive establishment and opera- 
 tions are very meagre and fragmentary. From the best au- 
 thorities, we collect the following particulars of their rise 
 and progress : Paul the apostle had preached in " Illyricum: "
 
 472 Early History of the United Brethren. [August, 
 
 " From Jerusalem, and round about * unto Illyricum, I have 
 fully preached the Gospel of Christ." Rom., xv. 19. Titus 
 had visited the same region for the same purpose. 2 Tim., 
 iv. 10. Amongst the Thessalonians, also, there were eminent 
 saints, as Paul so far commends them as to say, " they were 
 ensamples to all believers in Macedonia and Achaia ; " and 
 not only there, but " in every place your faith to. God-ward is 
 spread abroad." 1 Thess., i. 7, 8. 
 
 The supposition is, therefore, strong that, even in apostolic 
 times, the Gospel had passed into the countries bordering 
 upon these mentioned, and that in Bohemia there was sown 
 the precious seed. Many were the changes, however, which 
 took place then among nations. It was a time of wander- 
 ings and commixtures ; of emigrations and irruptions ; of 
 warfare and civilization ; of barbarism and luxury; of trans- 
 formation. Bohemia, Hungary, and countries allied, soon be- 
 came the abodes of warriors, hardy and rude, rushing in from 
 the north, on their way to make a prey of Rome. We can 
 not wonder, therefore, if the growth of Christianity should be 
 nearly crushed beneath the hoofs and wheels of the chariots 
 and steeds of Mars. Such seems to have been the case, and 
 little is known of the ecclesiastical condition of these coun- 
 tries, save that they were claimed by the Pope of Rome as 
 parts of the universal Church, and also by the Greek Church, 
 whilst they were, with perhaps here and there an excep- 
 tion, heathen in their blindness, joined to their idols. Thus 
 they remained till the ninth century. A special Providence 
 did for them what lazy Romish priests refused to. War ap- 
 pears to have been the instrument, yet it is not agreed as to 
 the mode of its use. There are writers who attribute the 
 change of religion to an exchange of prisoners. In 814 a 
 king of Bulgaria invaded a Christian province. The chances 
 of war left certain Christians in the hands of the heathen 
 chief, whilst his sister fell to the Christians. The princess 
 was taught Christianity at Constantinople, and the captive 
 
 * I beg leave to alter, and hope to improve, the common punctuation 
 of this passage.
 
 1857.] Early History of the United Brethren. 473 
 
 Christians made converts in Bulgaria. When, therefore, the 
 princess returned to her home, it was to plead for the intro- 
 duction of Christianity into the whole country. She related 
 what she had seen, also, of the superiority of Christian art ; 
 and the king wished for both teachers of art and instructors 
 in morals. 
 
 The same Providence that had opened the door for truth, 
 had prepared the persons to enter with it. These were two 
 brothers, of great talent and ardent zeal. The one was a 
 learned scholar, the other a proficient in the art of painting. 
 They were born in Thessalonica, and, being acquainted with 
 the language of their neighbors, were fitted in every way to 
 be the first instructors of these heathen tribes. Ur?der the 
 patronage of the Empress Theodora, then in power, these two 
 brothers were sent to Bulgaria. Methodius, the younger, was 
 the painter : Cyril, or Constantine, was the scholar. Metho- 
 dius drew representations of Scriptural scenes ; his brother 
 explained them. In this lively way were these untutored 
 persons won to delight in Scriptural studies. In this simple 
 manner, the manner of wise philosophy, were they brought 
 from darkness to light. This light was not hid under a 
 bushel. The benefits it brought soon became evident. Ad- 
 joining tribes wished to cast aside idolatry. They begged 
 for instructors. 
 
 Soon the same two brothers, having had their places in Bul- 
 garia filled by others from Constantinople, were found in Bohe- 
 mia and Moravia, planting the Rose of Sharon in these deserts 
 of the north. God made it bloom and spread. Books were writ- 
 ten, churches erected, regular worship was performed, schools 
 were put into operation, and the Bible was translated into 
 the language of the people. This was done by the Greek 
 Church, then more apostolic than now. 
 
 Romish authors announce that their missionaries had at- 
 tempted the conversion of these people ; but, owing to their 
 domineering spirit, and to their persistence in using the Latin 
 language for worship, they entirely failed. These hardy sons 
 of Bohemia loved too well their mother tongue and native 
 liberty to freely give up both.
 
 474 Early History- of the United Brethren. [August, 
 
 Unhappily, about this time, a difficulty sprung up at Con- 
 stantinople regarding its See. The Queen's brother was 
 guilty of adutery and incest. The faithful Ignatius refused 
 him, on this account, the Eucharist ; and that on the day of 
 Epiphany, when he came in s'ate to partake as a member of 
 the court. 
 
 Bardas felt the censure, but looked upon it as an indignity 
 instead of a hint to reform. He, therefore, resolved upon re- 
 venge. Knowing the fast friendship of his sister, Theodora, 
 for the sterling Ignatius, he saw it to be requisiie to over- 
 throw her influence prior to the overthrow of the Patriarch. 
 With a callous malignity, which the gratification of bad pas- 
 sions always begets, (Hos., iv. 11), this monster man sought 
 to detract his own sister's character to her own son. (Bower's 
 Histy. of Popes, ii, 230). Bardas represented to Michael that 
 Theodora was ambitious, managing, and restless for supremacy 
 in the empire. He advocated her deposition and removal to 
 a religious house. Michael, weak, effeminate, and fond of 
 living undisturbed in pleasure, gave orders for his mother 
 and his sisters to be secluded in a convent. Ignatius re- 
 monstrated. Tiiis Bardas had looked for, and made it seem 
 to be a conspiracy between the Patriarch and the maternal 
 Empress. The enraged Michael deposed straightway the 
 Bishop, and secluded the women. In passing we may add, 
 God's justice overtook Bardas by the hand he had turned 
 against his pious sister. Michael soon grew jealous of the 
 power which his uncle was really striving alter, and ordered 
 him to be put to death. In the room of Ignatius, Photius had 
 been installed. Being removed from the army to the highest 
 rank in the Church, to please Bardas, this irregular elevation 
 caused strife, both at home and with the Pope, Nicholas of 
 Rome. This strife became so absorbing, that distant and fee- 
 ble missions were neglected. Some of the Sclavonic tribes, 
 therefore, who were not cordial to the Greek Empire, and who 
 desired a religion less self-denying, and more like the one they 
 were urged to leave, embraced this opportunity, and sent an 
 embassy to Rome for Romish instruction and teachers. Doubt- 
 less Romish emissaries had previously aided in this movement
 
 1857 J Early History of the United Brethren. 475 
 
 towards the chair of St. Peter ; for they had looked with jeal- 
 ousy on the success of the Greek missionaries ever since they 
 possessed the region. The Pope, ot course, received the em- 
 bassy with favor and with joy. He was willing to grant 
 everything desired by the inquiring Sclavonians. He com- 
 mends the chief for baptising many against their will : " 1 
 glorify you for having maintained your authority, by put- 
 ting to death those wandering sheep who refused to enter the 
 fold. You have not only not sinned by showing a holy rigor r 
 but I congratulate you on having opened the kingdom of 
 heaven to the people submitted to your rule. A king need 
 not lear to command massacres, when these will retain his 
 subjects in obedience, or cause them to submit to the faith of 
 Christ ; and God will regard him in this world, and in eter- 
 nal life, for these murders." After such instruction regard- 
 ing charity and brotherly love, very acceptable to the vanity 
 of this scarcely more than pagan man, the Pope goes on to- 
 tell the converts : " You must feast on Sunday,, not on Satur- 
 day; abstain from labor on the festivals of the Holy Yirgin r 
 of the Twelve Apostles, the Evangelists, St. John the Baptist,. 
 St. Stephen, and the Saints whose memory is held in venera- 
 tion in your country." They were not to gamble, nor hunt,, 
 nor trifle, nor juggle, during Lent ; but they need not abstain 
 from bathing, as the Greek custom seems to have been, on 
 Fridays ; but they were not to eat meat. " Laymen, as well as- 
 the clergy, might bless the table, before eating, by making the- 
 sign of the cross. And a Christian must not touch game 
 killed by a pagan." " Before declaring war, you should assist 
 at the sacrifice of the mass, and make rich offerings to the 
 churches ; and, instead of a horse's tail for a military ensign r 
 take the cross of Christ." De Cormenin, i, 245. 
 
 This is a sample, afforded by a Romish historian, of the- 
 precious truth offered to these sons of heathenism. Its empti- 
 ness is pitiable. Nor did it fail so to appear to those who ha<$ 
 received the truth, as it was in Jesus, instructed by the more 
 evangelical brothers of Thessalonica. Thev had the Word of 
 God in their own tongue. They loved the truth thereof bet- 
 ter than life. They refused the Latin mummeries and masses,
 
 4:16 Early History of the United Brethren, [August, 
 
 and preferred the faithful exposition of God's oracles. Strong- 
 minded, robust by nature, they refused submission to Rome, 
 even when threatened by temporal princes. Efforts were 
 made to discredit the character of Methodius, now in Mora- 
 via, and, being naturally nearer the Pope's sovereignty, he re- 
 paired to Rome itself, fairly represented matters to the Pope, 
 and got the papal sanction for conducting worship in the pop- 
 ular tongue. Meantime his brother had died. John VIII. 
 sat in the chair, called St. Peter's ; and, as political troubles 
 were then rife, it might have been, to save himself from greater 
 ones, that he was so lenient. But he writes : " We have in- 
 terrogated your venerable archbishop, Methodius, whether the 
 symbol of orthodox faith is believed and maintained, accord- 
 ing to the holy Roman Church. 7 ' And, being satisfied, he 
 commands all u Presbyters or deacons, or any orders of clergy, 
 whether Sclavic or not, who belong within the bounds of thy 
 province, to be especially subject and obedient in all things 
 ordered by our confrere, your archbishop, so that they do 
 nothing against his conscience" At length, the Sclavonic let- 
 ters, discovered by the former philosopher, Constantino, (or 
 Cyril, before mentioned), in which they resound God 7 s praises, 
 " we command to be justly proper. And I command that the 
 praises and works of our Lord Jesus Christ shall be narrated 
 in that tongue. Since," he continues, " he who made three 
 principal tongues, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, created also 
 others to His own praise and glory." (Geisler, ii, 131). Al- 
 though after Popes forgot this sensible maxim, the Moravians 
 never. They spread these pure doctrines into Bohemia, and 
 round about ; and they lodged in the heart of the people till 
 the Reformation, despite the faggot or the stake. 
 
 When Pope John XIII. founded the Bishopric of Prague, 
 and made the use of the Latin ritual one of the conditions, 
 still the native opposition was so strong that the stipulation 
 never was complied with. In 1058 even Latin monks had to 
 be introduced to attempt its enforcement, when the Duke 
 interfered, five years after, and restored Sclavic monks. Such 
 was the desire generally expressed for the Scriptures and 
 Scriptural knowledge. The party, however, which we are
 
 1857.] Early History of the United Brethren. 411 
 
 especially considering, went still further, and refused the 
 Latin language, and Latin monks, and the Latin Pope. They 
 submitted only to Jesus and His laws. With shades of purity 
 and its opposite, caused by imperious circumstances, these wit- 
 nesses continued to testify for God till found by similar 
 confessors driven by persecution from the valleys of Peid- 
 mont. The Sclavic Christians, on the authority of Jones, (ii f 
 190), seemed tenacious of the Greek Church. It is not likely 
 that their leaning was more than formal, as they received the 
 Waldenses as brethren in Christ. They all remained, with- 
 out attracting much notice, in the mountains, those glorious 
 old safeguards of the Church, (celebrated even by David as 
 such), and in other retired situations. They thus served the 
 God of their fathers with peaceful consciences, awaiting the 
 call of Providence from their retreat. This took place after 
 the Council of Constance. The stake which consumed John 
 Huss was the beacon fire, whose beams, penetrating every 
 evangelical abode, reflected the path of duty to all who loved 
 Christ and liberty, and brought them to a common centre. 
 Forty thousand assembled in view of Huss r ashes, and to- 
 gether broke bread at the supper of our Lord. (Jones, ii, 
 205 ; Mosh., ii, 458). More fierceness than is defensible 
 grew out of these events, terminating in a religious warfare, 
 often called the Hussite "War. Nevertheless, much said and 
 written may well be set down for inimical distortion and ex- 
 aggeration. But, if there was violence with the commotion, 
 who can wonder, since the grievances complained of were 
 so various, so chronic, so extensive ? The oppressed were of 
 all grades in life, of all shades of character; the oppressors 
 were scornful, mocking, callous, contemptuous. 
 
 The measures they sought to impose were of the least de- 
 fensible kind, since even the army under John Ziska were 
 content to include in their demands : " I. That God's Word 
 might be preached to the people in its purity and simplicity. 
 II. That the sacred supper might be administered in both 
 the elements. III. That the clergy might be reclaimed from 
 the pursuit of wealth and power, to a life and conduct be- 
 coming the successors of the apostles. IV. That greater ox
 
 &7"8 Eer/y Histcry of the United Brethren. [August, 
 
 mortal sins might be duly punished." (Mo-sh., ii, 459, 460; 
 and Geisler, iii, 360). These were simple demands to take 
 men's lives for asking ; nor can we wonder that Hie peti- 
 tioners resisted unto blood, when their -own life was consid- 
 ered the forfeit of their requests. The Romish Church had 
 even promised " forgiveness of sins to any who should kill 
 a Bohemian heretic." Providence, however, favored their 
 cause, and they finally obtained certain concessions, but with 
 occasional outbreaks of persecution against fthem. In the 
 year 1457, according to Jones, (ii, 208), the various orthodox 
 Bohemians formed themselves into a body; organized into 
 ithe Unitas Fratrum. (Geisler, iii, 374). They obligated them- 
 selves to sound church discipline ; to suffer anything for the 
 .truth and for conscience sake ; and not to repel persecution 
 by physical force, but to use the armor of righteousness only, 
 prayer, the Word, and remonstrance. It is remarkable that 
 this organization was effected partially through a wicked 
 archbishop, who ironically suggested it, supposing the per- 
 sons were of too little principle to adopt it. (Geisler, iii, 
 374). They settled on a waste, between Moravia and Silesia, 
 and soon populated it with pious emigrants, who hoped to 
 •enjoy quietly their religion and their homes. (Jones, ii, 215, 
 <fcc). Many Waldenses joined them in their Church and set- 
 tlement. Here they would have passed their lives in peace 
 and heliness, but the evil one still kept his malicious eye 
 upon them. For no cause were the ruffians of the Pope set 
 upon them, and they, unresisting, according to their compact, 
 were led like sheep to the slaughter. In the cold of winter 
 they were driven from their homes. The sick were pulled 
 from their beds into open fields and left ; they were accused 
 ©f treason, and, not confessing it, were dragged at the tails of 
 horses, and quartered and burned. The few again " escaped 
 to the mountains," and amid their kind refuge kept alive the 
 holy flame till the full day of religious liberty at the Reforma- 
 tion. Some escaped to Poland and other foreign countries, 
 and were ready to co-operate with the general reformers of 
 the sixteenth century. Dr. Murdock.in Mosheim, asserts that 
 .even in A. D, 1500 the Bohemian Brethren had in Saxony,
 
 1857.] Early History of the United Brethren. 47$ 
 
 where they had labored since the time of Huss, nearly two 
 hundred houses of worship, and were favored with many of 
 the nobility. The Protestants of great Poland were chiefly 
 Bohemian Brethren. (Note in Mosh., iii, 183). And in refer- 
 ence to the union of Lutherans and Moravians, Dr. Mosheim 
 himself uses the following : " The Bohemian Brethren, as 
 they are called, or the Moravians, who were descended from 
 the better sort of Hussites, and had adopted some peculiar 
 regulations, designed especially to guard against the reigning 
 vices, upon hearing of Luther's efforts to reform the Church, 
 sent envoys to him as early as 1522, soliciting his friendship. 
 Nor did Luther find anything very censurable in their doc- 
 trines ©r their discipline." (iii, 183). Taking this admission, 
 and a true one only, we can clear our Moravian friends from 
 a charge which this same Mosheim brings against them in his 
 history, (vol. 2, pp. 453, 466); on the last of which Schlegel 
 comments to confirm the text. 
 
 By a comparison, it readily appears that the " brethren of 
 the Free Spirit" are confounded with " Unitas Fratrum." 
 The former were only a small excrescence, and not a normal 
 manifestation of the true reformers. It is a pity, if not 
 a shame, to confound them. Some of the United Brethren held 
 pre millennial views of the Second Advent, and are roundly 
 berated by the Lutheran historian therefor. But, thanks to 
 light and liberty, we can not afford, in our day, to class Bicker- 
 steth, Brooks, Cummings, M'Cheyne, Bonar, D. Lord, &c, wiuh 
 heretics, because they believe in the personal reign of Jesus 
 upon the earth. 
 
 Luther, indeed, seemed troubled with the Moravians chiefly, 
 or only, because of their really better views regarding the 
 Eucharisiical presence. In truth they and the Lutherans did 
 form a species of union, the Brethren consenting to keep in 
 the background their doctrine of the " presence ; " but it was 
 not of long continuance. 
 
 The Brethren, after various changes, gained, in the begin- 
 ning of the seventeenth century, an act of toleration from the 
 Emperor of Germany, Matthias ; not, however, without hav* 
 ing violently suffered in the reign of Rodolph preceding.
 
 480 Early Ili<tory of the Unihd Brethren. [August, 
 
 Bohemia was then depopulated from three millions to four 
 hundred thousand. (Brown's Hist. Miss, i, 284). This act 
 of toleration, however, did not last long enough to benefit 
 them largely. The fifteenth Gregory was bent on restor- 
 ing his Church. He founded the Propaganda, and, offering 
 Ferdinand II, who had succeeded Matthias, two hundred 
 thousand crowns and his blessing for his persevering as- 
 sistance in the exterminating war, to work went Ferdinand 
 and the merciless mercenaries of the Pope, and pillage and 
 slaughter followed them. Cohorts of Romish fiends spread 
 through Bohemia ; " soldiers and monks made general bat- 
 tles, burned farm-houses, violated girls, polluted young chil- 
 dren, sparing only those who called themselves Catholics. 
 By these means Caraffa saw the number of abjurations daily 
 increase, and he could soon announce to Gregory that Bohe- 
 mia was entirely subject to the Holy See. The same occurred 
 in Moravia. Notwithstanding the active opposition of the 
 citizens, Cardinal Stien drove from the province the sect of 
 the Moravian Brothers, who numbered more than fifteen thou- 
 sand individuals, male and female, and who were much cher- 
 ished for their mild and patriarchal manners." (De Cor- 
 menin, ii, 295). These persecutions led to the extinction of 
 the patience of the Bohemian Protestants. They took up 
 arms, which led to the loss of Bohemia to its Protestant 
 Prince, and to the thirty years' war of Germany. (Mosh., iii, 
 286). 
 
 By this the flock of the United Brethren was wholly scat- 
 tered, and well nigh extinguished. But its organized labors 
 were not yet ended. It had not yet done the work of God. 
 He, therefore, recalled its scattered members in due time ; 
 and, marvellously marshalling them under the lead of Zin- 
 zendorf, they have gone forth to the ends of the earth, exem- 
 plifying with singular fidelity their primitive practices and 
 feelings. The spirit of Cyril and Methodius seemed to re- 
 vive again in their modern followers. And they have used 
 science, labor, philanthropy, philosophy, the Word of God, all 
 to contribute to the great work of doing good, and of pro- 
 moting God's glory. Unobtrusive, unostentatious, unselfish,
 
 1857.] On the Exist nee and Attributes of God. 481 
 
 they seem lost in the cause of mankind and of their Master. 
 May the persecutor never again be able to interrupt their 
 work, or harass them even in their designs of charity. 
 Rather, would we wish and pray, may no spirit of persecu- 
 tion ever again arise. May it be tamed, repressed, by the 
 universal Spirit of God, and the presence of Him who shall 
 destroy it " by the brightness of His coming." 
 
 DISCUSSIONS ON THE EXISTENCE AND 
 ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS 
 
 Familiarity with this discussion renders us, m some meas- 
 ure, insensible to the solemnity, may we not well say the aw- 
 fulness, of the attitude of a creature questioning the existence 
 of the Creator, or treating it as though it were not yet con- 
 clusively ascertained ; as though mankind were still accu- 
 mulating proof towards the point of absolute demonstration j 
 or, at least, as though they were warranted in demanding 
 additional light before doubt shall be silenced, and before 
 universal faith may be demanded. The plea, indeed, is r that 
 man is progressive, and that the resources and tactics of infi- 
 delity are continually changing ; and that, consequently, our 
 argument or defence must keep pace with that progress, and 
 must accommodate itself to these changes. The plea itself 
 seems an acknowledgment that positive grounds of belief 
 have not yet been reached ; for a truth, positively proved, 
 can be affected by no subsequent testimony or objection. 
 
 There is uncertainty somewhere, as a modern writer owns r 
 when, in justification of the continued discussion of the subv- 
 
 YOL. II. — NO. VIII. B2
 
 482 Discussions on the [August, 
 
 ject, he urges, " It is not too much to expect that the united 
 efforts of Christian writers will at length establish princi- 
 ples which will command general assent, if not with others, 
 at least among themselves." The uncertainty is not regard- 
 ing the character of Jehovah, in the minds of those who, by 
 Jesus Christ, " do believe in God," but in the conclusions of 
 Christian writers, who abandon the proper ground of faith 
 for a vain attempt to search out the Almighty by their own 
 faculties. Nor, as we believe, have such writers made a 
 single step towards certainty, by all that modern science has 
 contributed to their resources, or modern ingenuity to their 
 arguments. They have forsaken certain knowledge for con- 
 jectures and speculations, where every fresh inference is the 
 parent of a new doubt. 
 
 We had designed to review the more recent contributions 
 to this branch of theological literature, but find that such an un- 
 dertaking would lead us beyond the limits and away from the 
 proper purpose of this journal. We now beg to offer, instead 
 of a detailed review, a few general observations on what ap- 
 pears to be the true and Scriptural method of dealing with 
 the question, which, we claim, is not to regard revelation as 
 subsidiary to the light of nature, but to regard revelation as 
 the positive demonstration of a truth which nature exemplifies 
 and illustrates. 
 
 In the discussions of which we speak, it is taken for granted, 
 or maintained, that human reason may attain to the knowl- 
 edge of God from His works, and to the assurance of immor- 
 tality from the constitution of man, and the evident design 
 of his Creator. We venture humbly to inquire, therefore, 
 first of all, whether we can, by searching, find out God. and 
 whether, unaided by revelation, we can travel up by creation 
 to the Creator ? We might find a short answer to the ques- 
 tion in the Scriptures, but, before presenting it, let us briefly 
 examine the claims of natural theology. 
 
 Natural theology, in its widest sense, includes the professed 
 discovery of the existence and attributes of God in creation 
 and providence, and the professed discovery of His will con- 
 cerning His creatures and their duty to Him, irrespective of
 
 1857.] Existence iind Attributes vf God. 483 
 
 revelation. The question before us is, could we, in our pres- 
 ent state, have made any such discoveries? Familiar as we 
 are from infancy with the idea of a Supreme Intelligence, of 
 infinite power, wisdom, and goodness — an idea which finds 
 most abundant corroboration in all within us and around 
 us — it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to realize the condi- 
 tion of the human mind where the idea has not been commu- 
 nicated. But we may be aided in our conceptions by a con- 
 sideration of the actual state of large portions of the human 
 family. 
 
 When we examine the world dn which we exist, the evi- 
 dences of design appear to us so broad and impressive, the 
 design and the manner of its execution display such resources 
 of wisdom and might, that we at once say it is impossible not 
 to recognize an intelligent agent there. The argument, as 
 Lord Brougham states it, is : " Had I to accomplish this pur- 
 pose, I should have used some such means, and so we infer an 
 intelligence like our own, though incomparably more power- 
 ful and more skillful." On a superficial view it seems that 
 no sane mind could escape the inference. A missionary to 
 South Africa, Mr. Moffat, the father-in-law of Dr. Livingston, 
 speaking of the difficulties which he encountered in endeavor- 
 ing to instruct the native tribes, says : " I am aware that the 
 popular opinion is that man is a religious being, and that 
 wherever he is to be found there also are to be traced the 
 impressions, and even convictions, of the existence of a God. 
 Such were my own views when I left my native knd, and, 
 entertaining such views, I persuaded myself that I should dis- 
 cover rays of natural light, innate ideas of a divine Being, in 
 the most untutored savage. So great was the force of early 
 prejudices, that it was a long time before I could be induced 
 to embrace what I once considered an erroneous view of the 
 subject. When I asked the opinion of Mr. Campbell, (John 
 Campbell, of Kingsland), he replied : 'Ah, sir, the people of 
 England would not believe that men could become like pigs 
 eating acorns under a tree, without being capable of looking 
 up to see whence they came.' " Mr. Moffat found, after hours 
 of patient endeavor to convey to them the simplest notion of
 
 484 Discussions on the [August,. 
 
 a Creator, that they would ask in utter bewilderment, "What 
 is it you wish to tell us ? " Their most intelligent chiefs ex- 
 pressed their astonishment that a man, whom they accounted 
 wise, should vend auch fables for truths, and repeated hi* 
 statements to their people amid shouts of laughter. Con- 
 verts to Christianity, when questioned regarding their for- 
 mer views, stated that they had not the faintest impression 
 regarding a God, or a future state ; and would add, with deep 
 emotions, " You found us beasts, and not men." Dr. Vander- 
 kemp, also, mentions it as a decisive proof of the atheism of 
 the Kafirs, that they have no word? in their language to ex- 
 press the idea of a God. After a full investigation of the- 
 subject, the missionary concludes that all the knowledge of 
 Divine things existing in any natioa, from the refined Greek 
 dbwn> through the numberless shades of polytheism, to tho 
 rudest barbarity, is to be traced to revelation, written or 
 traditional, and not to intuitive ideas or inferences from 
 nature. 
 
 The gross conceptions of idolaters, in all lands and : ages,, 
 furnish as decisive evidence on this subject as the absolute- 
 ignorance of these African tribes ; for assuredly the divinity 
 of stocks and stones is not the intuitive idea or the rational' 
 inference of natural theology; and, beyond the gross supersti- 
 tions and monstrous fables of their mythology, these idolater* 
 have no more conception of a Divine Being than the Kafirs, 
 who have no word in their language to express the idea. 
 But we dto* not need to go to heathen lands to find men, living 
 amid all the evidences of design in creation, without a thought 
 of a Creator. The asylums for the deaf and dumb furnish 
 ample proof of what the human mind is without instruction 
 as to the being of God! • and the home missionaries of large 
 cities have dragged to light instances of darkness as profound 
 as that which Mr. Moffat found in Africa. 
 
 But the natural theologian will appeal from rude to culti- 
 vated races. When he does so- he plainly concedes that the 
 idea of God is not intuitive, and that the inference of an in- 
 telligent agent, from the evidence of design in creation, is 
 not so simple as at first was claimed. He admits tMt the-
 
 31 857-] Existence and Attributes of God, 485 
 
 ?bulk of mankind, if left to themselves, must be destitute of 
 the knowledge of God. With reference to the cultivated 
 races, though we can not easily decide, in every case, whence 
 their knowledge is derived, their cultivation implies that they 
 tiave been instructed on the p©imt in question. When we 
 •contrast the views of modern philosophers, on the being and 
 attributes of God, with the views which prevailed among the 
 most cultivated nations of antiquity, we may learn that much 
 of what natural theology claims as its own, is pilfered from 
 the Scriptures which it insults and denies. Even in that an- 
 tiquity which preceded the diffusion of Christianity, we can 
 trace the remains of revelation handed down by tradition, or 
 received from the Jews. Neither in ancient nor modern times 
 have we an instance of a nation, among whom every trace of 
 irevelation had been lost, recovering the idea of a God. We 
 know, also, kow vague and -obscure were the speculations -of 
 the wisest heathens regarding the Deity. Notoncof these 
 reached the idea of a Creator. In fact, their doctrine of the 
 •eternity of matter was far more positive than any opinion 
 they held about a Divinity. Whenever we discern an eleva- 
 ted thought on the subject, we can trace the influence of 
 revelation ; as Tertullian, a -defender of Christianity in the 
 second century, taunts his heathen assailants : " Which of your 
 poets, which of your sqphisters, have not drank from the 
 fountain of the prophets ? " These philosophers could ex- 
 pose the folly of idolatry, but they could not substitute the 
 knowledge of the true God. They could ridicule the vulgar 
 superstitions; but, in doing so, they often la«ughcd or reasoned 
 themselves into atheism. 
 
 If it were possible for unaided reason to arrive at the con- 
 clusion that the universe was produced by an intelligent 
 agent, it can scarcely be pretended that reason could dis- 
 cover the attributes of the true God. The world is not in 
 its original state ; sin has entered and the curse followed ; 
 and it must do injustice to the Creator if we infer His char* 
 acter from what we see or experience in a fallen world. If 
 a beneficent end argues a benevolent agent, evil and discord 
 argue a malevolent agent. The heathen followed the prin-
 
 486 Discussions on the [August, 
 
 eiples of natural theology, when they peopled the Pantheon 
 with the patrons of lust and the perpetrators of crime. Nafe- 
 tural theology, in our day, has borrowed from Christianity 
 some notions of the actual state of things, and attempts to* 
 reconcile the contradiction which perplexed the ancients. 
 But, even now, it can not be pretended that the works, which 
 illustrate the Divine wisdom and power, teach to unaided 
 reason the truth regarding the justice of God. The suffer- 
 ings of the best of men, and the prosperity of the wicked, 
 seem inconsistent with this attribute. A world of sin and 
 pollution can only testify of the holiness of God in its over- 
 throw. To the Christian everything, even in a fallen world, 
 testifies of God's goodness. He sees everywhere, not only 
 design, but beneficent design ; the misery that is in the 
 world he traces not to the design of the Creator, but to the 
 sin of the creature. But he who rejeets Revelation, can not 
 reconcile the existence of misery with the goodness of God, 
 amy moye iihaB he can? reconcile unpunished sin with the jus- 
 tice of God. To unaided reason the world is a bundle of 
 eontradictions ; everything there that teaches the justice of 
 God must deny His mercy. If God be just and holy, and if 
 man is sinful, reason would conclude that he can not escape 
 eondemnation ; and this conclusion does not alarm men, only 
 because they have no firm conviction that there is a just and 
 holy God. 
 
 Were we to admit that reason can infer the existence and 
 attributes of God from His works, this inference would not 
 amount to a knowledge of the one living and true God. Let 
 us suppose that a man of cultivated taste, and capable of a high 
 appreciation of art, were conducted into an apartment where 
 a magnificent picture was exhibited. The conception and 
 execution of it revealed the highest genius and skill ; the 
 subject and its treatment revealed a noble and benevolent 
 nature, but no mark or signature revealed the artist's name. 
 Our connoisseur may be supposed to gaze with rapture on the 
 work of a master ; and the delight with which he contem- 
 plates the picture would necessarily be mingled with ad- 
 miration of the unknown genius which produced it, and with
 
 1857.] Existence and Attributes of God. 4S7 
 
 a certain sympathy and affection for the noble qualities which 
 had found such an eloquent expression. But, with all this 
 admiration and affection, if you ask him, " Who painted that 
 picture ? " his answer must be, " I do not know him." What- 
 ever he may conclude regarding the character and genius of 
 the artist, he can not reason himself into an acquaintance 
 with the person, and iar less into any personal relations to 
 him. As little can natural theology discover that the maker 
 and monarch of all is Jehovah, who says, in the Scriptures, 
 " I am God, and there is none beside me." An intelligent hea- 
 then well expressed this truth when he said, " I perceive that 
 there must be a God who made all these things, but, alas, / 
 do not know Him! " 
 
 The student of nature may be awed by the display of power, 
 or moved by the display of goodness, in the works of the un- 
 known Deity; but the Deity of which he speaks is an ab- 
 straction, whose will can not influence, whose love can not 
 attract — with whom he can have no true communion or fel- 
 lowship. The knowledge of human nature in the abstract, 
 or any inferences regarding the characteristics of an unknown 
 artist, is something very different from a personal acquaint- 
 ance and personal relations with a man as a father, a brother, 
 or a friend. Natural theology not only argues the existence 
 of Deity, but professes to discover proofs of a personal Deity — 
 just as our connoisseur would trace, not only human genius, 
 but the genius of an individual man in the picture ; but, even 
 to demonstrate the existence of a personal Deity, brings us 
 no nearer to an acquaintance with Jehovah, the living God. 
 He made Himself known to man in Eden, and communed with 
 him. After the fall, He revealed Himself in mercy, and man 
 was admitted to His presence. To after ages He made Him- 
 self known as the God of Abraham, Jehovah, the Lord of 
 hosts. At last, in the threefold relations of Father, Son, and 
 Holy Spirit, He stands revealed, in all His perfections, to the 
 faith and hope of His people. No one can claim to know God» 
 who does not know Him in these relations and perfections, any 
 more than the readers of this can profess to know the father 
 of the writer, whose name even has never reached their ears.
 
 488 Discussions on the [August, 
 
 This important distinction may be learned in the Scrip- 
 tures, which do not discuss the nature of the Deity, nor rea- 
 son about His attributes in the abstract; but God there 
 speaks to us, is presented to our trust and love, admits us to 
 His confidence, and reconciles us to Himself. The natural 
 theologian, with his conclusions regarding a great First 
 Cause, regarding His attributes, and regarding our duty and 
 destiny, is like the superstitious people of Athens erecting an 
 altar to the unknown God : in the Scriptures that unknown 
 God manifests Himself to us. In distinction from all the 
 fictions of human imagination, from the idols of human intel- 
 lect, as well as the idols of human hands, Jehovah is made 
 known as " the most high God over all the earth." The 
 Scriptures do not argue that there must be a great First 
 Cause, but at once say to mankind, " Know ye that the Lord, 
 He is God." God avows " they shall know," not that there is 
 a God, but " that I am God." To this, faith responds, not in 
 the admission of the existence of a Deity, but in loving recog- 
 nition of Jehovah, " Thou, even Thou, art Lord alone ; Thou 
 hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts ; 
 the earth, and all things that are therein ; the sea, and all 
 that is therein ; and Thou preservest them all, and all the 
 hosts of heaven worship Thee." 
 
 In marked distinction from our own mode of existence, and 
 consequently from anything that we could have conceived, 
 Jehovah is revealed to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to 
 whom the attributes and acts of the one Lord are ascribed ; 
 and yet each of them is revealed as filling a distinct place in 
 the economy of existence and of human redemption. No one 
 pretends that the light of nature has discovered the Father, 
 the Son, and the Holy S] -irit ; and yet, where this discovery 
 is not made, the one living and true God is not known. The 
 Scriptures, accordingly, denounce that man as an atheist, as 
 one without God, who denies these relations : " Whosoever 
 denicth the Son hath not the Father ; but he that acknowl- 
 edged the Son hath the Father also." Our Lord's teaching 
 on this point is most explicit, as has been admirably shown 
 by Alexander Carson, in The Knowledge of Jesus: " ' If ye had
 
 1857.] Existence and AltribuUs of God. 489 
 
 known Me, ye would have known my Father also.' The Son 
 came forth from the bosom of the Father, to give the knowl- 
 edge of God to man ; and, in communicating this knowledge 
 to us, lie hath sent the Spirit as His witness. Without this 
 testimony there can be no true knowledge of God ; ' Where 
 no vision is the people perish.' Neither the testimony of our 
 senses, nor the conclusions of reason, can conduct us to Him, 
 whom to know is life everlasting. ' For what man knoweth 
 the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him ? 
 even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of 
 God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but 
 the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things 
 which are freely given to us of God.' " 
 
 All true knowledge of God is derived from Revelation ; the 
 boasted light of nature is darkness till the true light shines. 
 It is only by faith that we know that the worlds were framed 
 by the Word of God ; so that things that are seen were not 
 made of things that do appear. Human reason never discov- 
 ered this elementary truth. It may be urged that Scripture 
 itself teaches that God's works declare the glory of their 
 Maker : " For the invisible things of Him, from the creation 
 of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things 
 that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that 
 they are without excuse." This passage is represented as 
 teaching that the being and attributes of God are so clearly 
 revealed in creation, that men are without excuse if they fail 
 to know Him. But, on an exact consideration of the passage 
 in its connection, it will be found that the apostle charges on 
 mankind, not a failure in the subtle act of reasoning from a 
 visible creation to an invisible Creator, but that, when God 
 had made Himself known to them, they obscured, corrupted, 
 and finally obliterated the truth. He does not accuse them 
 of careless or defective logic, but of a proud rejection of Di- 
 vine revelation, in reliance on their own intellectual powers. 
 They abandoned the ground of faith for the ground of human 
 reason ; and their reason, the slave of their passions, led them 
 down, from the glory of the incorruptible God, to an image 
 made like to corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed 
 
 *-
 
 490 On the .Attributes and Existence of God. [August, 
 
 beasts, and creeping things. The apostle represents them as 
 inexcusable in thus losing the knowledge of God, when they 
 had a memorial of His perfections continually before their 
 eyes. God revealed Himself; He did not leave man to find 
 Him out. From the time of the creation He, though invisi- 
 ble, had made Himself known, and everything bore witness 
 to His revelation ; and this was the guilt of man, that " when 
 they knew God, they glorified Him not as God." They set 
 up reason against faith, and, becoming vain in their imagina- 
 tion, their foolish minds were darkened. 
 
 The believer is the last to slight the manifestation of God's 
 glory in creation and providence ; on his eye alone does the 
 light of nature fall ; in his ear alone the heavens declare the 
 glory of God. Day unto day uttercth speech, night unto night 
 showeth knowledge ; but, so far as carnal men are concerned, 
 the voice falls upon the ear of the dead — the light falls upon 
 the eyeballs of the blind. In the language of Pascal, " They 
 who are enlightened by Revelation, immediately discern the 
 whole system of things to be no other than the workmanship 
 of God whom they adore ; to them the heavens declare God's 
 glory; by them the invisible things of Him are clearly seen. 
 But when that light is extinct, men see but clouds and dark- 
 ness on the face of nature, and they are deaf to her voice." 
 
 We would call men away from the uncertainty and bewil- 
 derment of human speculations, to the certainty and simplicity 
 of a Divine revelation. There only can God be known. The 
 Deity of natural theology is an idol of human intellect, for 
 which men forsake the true God as much as though they 
 bowed down before an image which their hands had fash- 
 ioned. When the Scriptures testify that the carnal mind is 
 enmity against God, many carnal men claim that they are 
 not conscious of any enmity against God. Bat then they 
 speak of the Deity which they have feigned for themselves — 
 a fiction decked with attributes according to their own taste 
 or judgment. Their enmity to the God of the Bible is mani- 
 fested in their preference of their own speculations to God's 
 truth. We would lead men to the light of the knowledge of 
 the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ ; a light which is
 
 1857.] Bonar r s Desert of Sinia. 491 
 
 also life ; a knowledge which reconciles the apparent contra- 
 dictions of nature and Providence. In Christ we perceive 
 God, in His- infinite glory and unchanging love, working out 
 a great design amid apparent disorder, bringing order out of 
 confusion, life out of death. In Christ, not only are His attri- 
 butes combined in infinite loveliness, harmonized in love 
 itself, but God is known as love to us, and the knowledge 
 is salvation and eternal blessedness. " This is life eternal, to 
 know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou 
 hast sent." "And we know that the Son of God is come, and 
 hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that 
 is true ; and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus 
 Christ. This is the. true. God and eternal life." 
 
 BONAR'S DESERT OF SINAI. 
 
 BY JAMES IN G L IS. 
 
 This volume, unopened, is welcome alike for its subject and 
 its author. Could we choose our guide, either to Mount Sinai 
 or Mount Calvary, we can think of no one, within the range 
 of private friendship or popular authorship, whom we would 
 prefer to Horatius Bonar. His cultivated taste, pure and vig- 
 orous imagination, and varied accomplishments ; his profound 
 study of the Sacred Oracles, both in the library of the scholar 
 and the closet of the man of God ; above all, his ardent piety, 
 his exalted conceptions of the righteousness of Jehovah, and 
 his glowing experience of the love of Christ, form a combina- 
 tion of qualities which have rarely been carried to the field 
 of Eastern research, and which promise results at once ac-
 
 492 Sonar's Desert of Sinai. [August, 
 
 ■eeptable to the uian of taste, and profitable to the Christian 
 reader. 
 
 We should not feel at liberty to occupy these pages with 
 the mere tribute of private friendship, if that may be called 
 friendship which, on his part, was the generous solicitude 
 of a Christian minister for the conversion of an impenitent 
 youth, who then poorly appreciated, but now can never for- 
 get, his labor of love. But it is no less agreeable, that grati- 
 tude conspires with a conviction of public duty, when we 
 place before our readers some particulars of the life of one 
 who is already known to them as a charming Christian writer, 
 but who, in his more immediate sphere, is more attractively 
 known as himself a living epistle of Christ. We only regret, 
 for the reader's sake, that memory is not more accurate, or 
 present sources of information more ample. 
 
 The broad seal of the Divine approbation on the prayerful 
 fidelity of Christian parents, may be seen on every page of 
 the history of Christianity, from the time that Paul wrote to 
 Timothy, " When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith 
 that is in thee, which first dwelt in thy grandmother Lois, 
 and in thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee 
 also ; " and, after all the shafts of ridicule have been ex- 
 hausted against the domestic discipline of the Covenanters 
 and the Puritans, there remains, undisturbed, an abiding tes- 
 timony to the value of the family altar and sanctuary, in the 
 history of many of the most distinguished saints, to whom 
 might be addressed the language of Paul : ' ; From a child thou 
 hast known the Scriptures which are able to make thee wise 
 tinto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus." 
 Nothing, indeed, could be more inconsistent with the truth 
 taught in Scripture, or with the principles on which the dis- 
 cipline of which we speak was based, than to suppose that 
 grace is, in any sense, hereditary, or that it is communicated 
 by external rites and ceremonies. Yet Christian parents 
 will not be insensible to the abundant encouragements which 
 the Lord furnishes to their prayers and their assiduity, in 
 seeking to lead their children to the cross. 
 
 In Scotland, as in this country, there are names which,
 
 1857.] Sonar's Desert of Smwi. 495 
 
 throughout successive generations, occur in the annals of the 
 Christian ministry. In many cases there is good evidence 
 that, by no mere profane choice of a profession, but by the 
 call of the Holy Spirit, the son has succeeded the father in 
 ministering to the Church of Christ. Of such a lineage, whose 
 honors are not emblazoned in books of heraldry, but recorded 
 in the book of God's remembrance, Mr. Bonar is descended. 
 The family is of old standing and high repute in Perth- 
 shire, Scotland. His great great grandfather was " good old 
 Bonar," of Torpichcn, mentioned by Whitfield, in his journal 
 of 1743, in connection with the great revival at Cambuslang. 
 His grandfather, John Bonar, was minister of one of the par- 
 ishes of the picturesque city of Perth, and is still remembered 
 as the author of an able essay on " Judas Iscariot as a Wit- 
 ness for the Truth." His father, James Bonar, of Edinburgh, 
 was Solicitor of Excise in Scotland, a scholar, a gentleman, 
 and a Christian. It may, in some measure, serve to illustrate 
 the character of his parents, and of their family discipline, to 
 mention that, besides Horatius, three brothers occupy promi- 
 nent positions in the Free Church of Scotland, and are known 
 as among the most devoted and evangelical of its ministers. 
 Of these Andrew is best known in this country, as the author 
 of the "Life of McCheyne, of Dundee," and of a "Commen- 
 tary on the Book of Leviticus." It may be proper to men- 
 tion, in this genealogical enumeration, that Mr. Bonar, of 
 Larbert, frequently mentioned in McCheyne's memoirs, is a 
 cousin of the family. Mrs. Burns, wife of the Rev. Dr. Burns r 
 of Knox's College, Toronto, is also a cousin ; a lady less 
 known, indeed, to fame, but not less esteemed, in her own 
 circle, as one who labors with them in the Gospel. 
 : Horatius Bonar is a native of Edinburgh, where he received 
 the best education which Scotland could afford, first at the 
 High School, and then at the University. Throughout the 
 whole of his course he displayed superior abilities and appli- 
 cation, and carried off the 'highest honors. Rarely has a 
 young man completed a course of study with a higher repu- 
 tation, or enjoying social advantages that opened up a more 
 flattering prospect to worldly ambition ; and rarely hare all
 
 4'94 Bonar's Desert of Sinai. [August, 
 
 such allurements been cast aside, in a spirit of more complete 
 self-denial, for the humble paths of evangelical devotion. 
 
 "We have heard of no special circumstances regarding his 
 conversion to God, but know that, in answer to the prayers, 
 and by God's blessing on the vigilant and earnest endeavors of 
 his pious parents, deep religious impressions were made -on his 
 mind at an early age ; and from early youth he has maintained 
 a consistent Christian character. Neither have we any ac- 
 count of the manner in which he was directed to the Chris- 
 tian ministry, though we may conclude that, when he cast 
 from him the flattering worldly prospects to which we have 
 referred, for the sphere which, to carnal eyes, must appear 
 lowly and repulsive, he acted under the strongest conviction 
 of a spiritual vocation. 
 
 He entered the Divinity Hall at a most propitious period. 
 As the biographer of McCheyne remarks : " Under Dr. Chal- 
 mers for Divinity, and under Dr. Welch for Church History, 
 a course of four years afforded no ordinary advantages for 
 enlarging the understanding." But, beyond all intellectual 
 advantages, God was employing these truly spiritual men as 
 His instruments in preparing for a revival of true religion, 
 throughout the parishes of Scotland, by means of a race of 
 Gospel preachers, who, in their class-rooms, were training to 
 succeed the cold and lifeless formalists who had long dishon- 
 ored the pulpits of Scotland. He was not more favored in 
 the character of his instructors than in the character of his 
 fellow-students. Among these were Robert McCheyne, An- 
 drew Bonar, (his brother), Walter Wood, William Wilson, 
 George Smeaton, W. B. Clarke, now of Quebec, Henry Mon- 
 crieff, the grandson of Sir Harry, of the West Church, Edin- 
 burgh ; though several years their juniors, yet united in the 
 same associations,William Couzins, JohnFairbairn, who unites 
 the chaste elegance of Leigh ton with the severe virtue of the 
 Cameronians, and John Lillie, of New York, far separated 
 from the rest in the scene of his life, but ever cherished by 
 them in its warmest memories. All these are names that will 
 be remembered in the religious and literary annals of their 
 country; and of some of them it is a pleasure to write, though
 
 1857.] Bonar's Desert of Sinai. 405 
 
 we may pay them no other tribute of affection. These young 
 men, in their religious and literary associations, were silently 
 and unwittingly paving the way for the manifestation of spir- 
 itual life and vigor, which necessarily burst the restraints of 
 an ecclesiastical establishment, and found scope to expand in 
 the Free Church. 
 
 Before the completion of their studies, these associates in 
 the truth began to apprehend the service which the age de- 
 manded of them, and began to exercise those gifts which have 
 been so signally owned of God in the advocacy of the Gos- 
 pel. Mr. Bonar was one of the projectors, and for some years 
 was the editor, of the " Presbyterian Review," an able and 
 truly evangelical quarterly, which, from 1832 to 1844, held 
 up the banner of Christian doctrine and practical godliness. 
 In this and other periodicals he wrote, though anonymously, 
 many able articles in vindication of the principles which led 
 to '' the disruption," as it was styled, and the organization of 
 the Free Church. He has subsequently edited the London 
 Quarterly Journal of Prophecy, to which he has contributed 
 many of its best articles. 
 
 The reputation and influence which would have opened up 
 the path of worldly ambition, would readily have secured to 
 him a prominent position in the Church of Scotland, had out- 
 ward distinction been in any way his aim. But he had far 
 other objects in view; and, with a self-denial which was re- 
 markable, even in the circle of pious young men with whom 
 he was associated, he sought rather the lowliest place, and 
 the field of severest toil, where, as many warm friends thought, 
 his fine talents and accomplishments were to be ingloriously 
 buried. 
 
 One of the loveliest spots, in that region of legend and ro- 
 mance in which the genius of Sir Walter Scott found first a 
 cradle and then a field, and where the minstrel himself at last 
 found a tomb ; a region which other poets as gifted, though 
 not so widely celebrated, have made vocal with song, is the 
 site of the town and ruined abbey of Kelso. Many circum- 
 stances have conspired to render that region an object of 
 pitiful interest to the Christian, as it is of romantic interest
 
 496 Sonar's Desert of Sinai. [August, 
 
 to the man of letters. Its spiritual destitution attracted the 
 attention of Mr. Bonar; and, foregoing every temporal ad- 
 vantage within his reach, he went thither, as a home mission- 
 ary, at the close of his studies, and at once entered upon that 
 career of earnest evangelical toil, which we believe will yield 
 him many for a crown of rejoicing in the day of the Lord 
 Jesus. 
 
 With all his varied attainments, Mr. Bonar was not the 
 preacher of the cultivated and literary, but, as he followed in 
 the footsteps of his Master, the poor had the Gospel preached 
 to them. Of the godly, whose souls were nourished by his 
 spiritualty, the ungodly, who were disturbed in their sin by 
 his simple earnestness, and the profane, who sneered at what 
 they styled his fanaticism, there were few or none who so 
 much as suspected his literary standing ; or who imagined 
 that the lowly missionary, who seemed to spend his days in 
 carrying consolation to the home of poverty and sorrow, 
 and the entreaties of mercy to the hovel of wretchedness and 
 vice, was at that time conducting the organ of the evangeli- 
 cal party in Scotland, and writing those powerful articles 
 which were moving the slumbering spirit of the "Auld Kirk," 
 like the echoes of a trumpet voice from the heroic ages of 
 her history. We can not trace the steps by which a church 
 was first gathered and organized at Kelso, for, by the time 
 we witnessed his labors, a large congregation was already 
 assembled in a beautiful and commodious edifice, erected 
 chiefly by the liberality of James Nisbet, the London pub- 
 lisher, who was a native of Kelso, and deeply sympathized 
 with Mr. Bonar's efforts to shed abroad the light of the Gos- 
 pel on its dark places. 
 
 The character of this congregation, as we first saw it, spoke 
 volumes of the nature of the missionary's labors, and of the 
 power of the Gospel. Along with a fair proportion of the 
 most spiritually minded of all classes in the community, at- 
 tracted by a sympathy with his labors, and by a desire to 
 enjoy the advantages of his edifying ministry, were a num- 
 ber of men and women, collected from the lower strata of 
 society, now " washed, sanctified, justified in the name of the
 
 1857.] Bonar's Desert of Sinai. 497 
 
 Lord Jesus, and by the spirit of our God." As an exam- 
 ple, we can still recall the impression made by one familiar 
 face, which habitually appeared among the circle of aged 
 men and women who clustered more immediately around 
 the pulpit. The border region, of which Kelso is a sort 
 of capital, is a stronghold of the Gypsy tribes that still 
 linger, in a state of semi-barbarity, among the most cultiva- 
 ted races of Europe. In the summer months they lead a 
 wandering life, visiting the various fairs, peddling crockery 
 and tin-ware, and encamping in green lanes and unfrequented 
 nooks, from which they make noctural raids upon the hen- 
 roosts, game preserves, and graineries of the neighborhood. 
 Among these was a hoary patriarch, whose massive frame and 
 forbidding countenance was a terror to school boys, if not to 
 their seniors, who, with a numerous retinue of children, grand- 
 children, and great grandchildren, frequently pitched his tent 
 in our village green. During the inclement winter months 
 they sought the shelter of a fixed home in Kelso. There, out- 
 cast and shunned as such a tribe was by others, they had been 
 sought out by Mr. Bonar; nor were his labors in vain in the 
 Lord. One of the first figures that arrested attention, on our 
 attendance on his ministry, was that of the patriarch Gypsy, 
 clothed and in his right mind. 
 
 Those of our readers who are acquainted with the life and 
 correspondence of Robert McCheyne, have a very good concep- 
 tion of the general tone and spirit of Mr. Bonar's ministry; for 
 the circle of friends, of whom we have spoken, had drunk into 
 the same spirit, they walked by the same rule, minded the 
 same things, and their intimate correspondence and frequent 
 interchange of services gave a certain common character tO' 
 their ministrations. Without detracting from others, we be- 
 lieve that, in labors, Horatius Bonar was more abundant than 
 they all. Besides preaching thrice on the Lord's day, almost 
 every evening was occupied with a Bible class, lecture, or 
 prayer -meeting, or with preaching in some destitute village. 
 His custom, at the time of which we speak, was to rise early 
 to gain a few undisturbed hours for devotion and study; some 
 five hours at mid-day were devoted to diligent pastoral aad 
 VOL. II. — no. vin. f2
 
 498 Bonar's Desert of SinaL [August, 
 
 missionary visits, during which he might have been seen going 
 from door to door in the most obscure portions of the town. 
 The later hours of the day were given to Christian society, 
 conversation with inquirers, and the meetings mentioned 
 above. Saturday, except when the sick and dying required 
 his attention, was consecrated to a devotional and studious 
 preparation for the services of the Lord's day. 
 
 These labors, like those of his friends in various parts of the 
 country, were blessed to an extensive revival of religion, ex- 
 tending from the year 1839 onwards. This movement, which 
 cheered the hearts of God's people, disturbed the deathlike 
 decorum of Moderatism ; and so alarmed some of the presby- 
 teries, that a hostile committee of inquiry was appointed, who 
 sent a series of queries to those ministers in whose congrega- 
 tions revivals were reported to have occurred. From Mr. 
 Bonar's communication to this committee, we quote his re- 
 ply to a question regarding the means which had been em- 
 ployed, and the character of the preaching which preceded 
 the awakening : 
 
 "By the preaching of the Word on Sabbath; by prayer-meetings 
 through the week; by the efforts of visitors, both male and female; by 
 the circulation of tracts and books ; by the zealous exertions of the elders 
 of the parish; all these, though each in a different measure, have had 
 their share in helping forward the work of God among us. 
 
 "Various circumstances, especially the pressing a near and immediate 
 salvation upon the people; the infinite fullness and completeness of the 
 work of Christ for the taking away of sin ; the absolute necessity of con- 
 version; the work of the Holy Spirit, His love, grace, and power — these 
 truths formed the prominent themes of the ministrations here, and they 
 have been much blessed." 
 
 Among other means of usefulness adopted by Mr. Bonar, 
 was the issuing of a series of earnest tracts, known as the 
 " Kelso Tracts," some of which have been reprinted in this 
 country. Many of them have been greatly blessed, especially 
 one of the earliest of the series, entitled, " Believe and Live." 
 They are not all written by Mr. Bonar. Among those con- 
 tributed by his friends, we remember with especial pleasure 
 a tract entitled, Sin Put Away by Christ, by Mr. Purves,
 
 1857.] Bonar\ Desert of Sinai. 499 
 
 of Jedburgh, a minister somewhat more advanced in years 
 than most of those we have named, but of a kindred spirit, 
 and whose labors have been crowned with similar blessings. 
 All this while, it will be remembered, Mr. Bonar had the 
 editorial care, either of the Presbyterian Review, or the 
 Quarterly Journal of Prophecy, and was taking a leading 
 share in all the public movements of those who, in the Church 
 of Scotland, were set for the defence of the Gospel. It is 
 from the midst of such varied activities, and the pressing 
 anxieties of such a charge, that he has, from time to time, 
 given to the press those volumes which have delighted and 
 odified the saints on either side of the Atlantic ; have con- 
 veyed consolation to so many wounded spirits ; have so well 
 advocated and defended the great truths of our faith and hope ; 
 and, what is to him probably the least concern, earned for 
 himself an imperishable name among the evangelical and 
 Millenarian writers of this century. 
 
 Mr. Bonar is now probably about fifty-three years of age. 
 He is, as we remember him, rather under the average stature. 
 Fifteen years ago his figure was compact, and, though he bore 
 some traces of his studious habits, his general appearance 
 gave an impression of energy and endurance. His complex- 
 ion is naturally florid, his features strongly marked, and his 
 face, altogether, markedly of the Scotch type. In his eye 
 there is a depth of contemplation ; in his countenance the 
 benignity and earnestness of warm affections ; his manners are 
 refined, and in his whole demeanor there is more of the air 
 of a man who has come directly from communion with heaven 
 than any one we remember, except, perhaps, his friend Robert 
 Murray McCheyne. His own description of the children of 
 God, in The Night of Weeping, vividly recalled his own 
 portrait. 
 
 Since it was our happiness to sit in his parlor and 
 listen to his loving voice, he has added to it its crown iDg 
 ornament, a wife, who is, indeed, an help-meet for such a 
 minister. She is the sister of Mary Lundie Duncan, whose 
 name is a familiar one in many American households ; and in 
 her, both the gifts and graces, which seemed prematurely ex-
 
 500 Bonar's Desert of Sinai. [August, 
 
 tinguished in her lamented sister, are revived. Their father, 
 Mr. Lundie, was a man of remarkable talents, the friend and 
 fellow-student of Lords Brougham and Landsdowne and their 
 associates, who have performed so distinguished a part in the 
 public affairs of Great Britain, during the first half of this 
 century. Mr. Lundie was regarded as amongst the most 
 brilliant among them ; but, when they started on the career of 
 ambition, he was led, by the grace of God, to consecrate his 
 talents to the cause of Christ. He became minister of the 
 parish of Kelso, where he died- suddenly in the prime of life, 
 before Mr. Bonar commenced his missionary labors there. 
 
 Mrs. Lundie subsequently married Dr. Duncan, the author 
 of a series of volumes on the Seasons, which have had an ex- 
 tensive circulation in this country. She belongs to a talented 
 family, the Greys, of Milfield Hill, and has earned a name for 
 herself as a Christian authoress. She is well known in the 
 United States, to which she is bound by many ties of friend- 
 ship, originating in her deep interest in Matthias Bruen, a 
 beautiful memoir of whom was probably her first appearance 
 in the world of letters. Mary, her eldest daughter, married 
 a son of Dr Duncan, who occupies a respectable position as a 
 scholar, and a high place as a Christian minister. Mr. Dun- 
 can is the author of a Hebrew and English Lexicon, arranged 
 upon a plan exceedingly convenient to students of that lan- 
 guage. In the first part the words of the Old Testament, in- 
 cluding the Biblical Chaldee, are given in alphabetical order. 
 In the second part there is a copious English vocabulary, 
 with the corresponding ancient or rabbinical Hebrew, de- 
 signed as an aid to writing exercises in translations of Eng- 
 lish into Hebrew. He is likewise the author of a Hebrew 
 Grammar, upon a new plan. Those who have read the let- 
 ters of Mary Lundie Duncan, will understand by what ties 
 the wife of Dr. Bonar is bound to the scene of his labors, and 
 what twofold associations secure her a welcome in the homes 
 and hearts of his people. 
 
 The common themes of his pulpit ministrations may be 
 seen in the quotation from his reply to the queries of the 
 committee on revivals ; though it is necessary to add to that
 
 1857.-] Bonar' s Desert of Sinai. 501 
 
 enumeration the various topics of experimental religion and 
 practical godliness, which rendered his preaching especially 
 acceptable to the spiritually minded, which the occasion of 
 that reply did not lead him to mention. It will Toe understood 
 that, while he presses a near and immediate salvation upon 
 perishing men, a free as well as a full Gospel, he does not shun 
 the distinct recognition of the Divine sovereignty and the 
 electing love of Jehovah ; nor does he obscure that truth by 
 vain endeavors to reconcile it with rational views of human re- 
 sponsibility. We know not by what means, but somehow, in 
 the providence of God, the circle of fellow-students, of whom 
 he formed one, were directed to the study of unfulfilled 
 prophecy, and probably all of them were Millenarians. Some 
 of them are known as able advocates of that blessed hope of 
 the Church. In McCheyne's remains some sermons on this 
 subject are given ; Andrew Bonar gives it prominence in 
 most of his writings ; Walter Wood has published an able 
 defence of Millenarian views ; W. B. Clarke contributed one 
 or two of the most interesting papers in the first volume of 
 Waymarks in the Wilderness. Mr. Bonar, in addition to sun- 
 dry tracts, his papers in the Quarterly Journal of Prophecy, 
 and abundant references to this truth in all his works, has 
 written an able and most conclusive reply to David Brown's 
 unscrupulous assault on these views and expectations. Ae 
 may well be supposed, this truth occupies a prominent place 
 in his preaching. While he faithfully preaches the things 
 concerning the name of Jesus, he does not withhold the things 
 concerning the kingdom of God ; and, as a great practical 
 matter, urges the saints to watch for their Lord as those who 
 know not at what hour He may come. 
 
 His manner of preaching may be gathered, in some meas- 
 ure, from his more practical and less elaborate writings. 
 The tracts of which we have spoken appear, in many cases, 
 4o be notes of his ordinary sermons ;' and from these it will 
 be understood how completely the man himself is hidden be- 
 hind the cross of Christ, how every literary aspiration is re- 
 pressed, and with what unadorned simplicity he endeavors to 
 address the truth, as it is in Jesus, to the humblest of hie
 
 502 Bonar 7 s Desert of Sinai. [August, 
 
 hearers. His notes are apparently few, and his discourse, in 
 language at least, extempore, plentifully illustrated by ap- 
 propriate quotations from Scripture, which he reads from a 
 pocket Bible almost constantly in his hand. It is not neces- 
 sary to add that there is an utter absence of anything like 
 oratorical display. His manner is dignified and solemn, 
 while it is- simple and winning ; and, though his discourses 
 overflow with unpremeditated beauties, they are ushered in 
 by no flourish of trumpets, and never distract attention from 
 the great object of the speaker. His discourse holds fast 
 the attention of old and young in his audience, and if the 
 youngest fails to understand him, it is because the natural 
 mind perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, because 
 they are spiritually discerned, never because his pure and 
 unambitious Saxon outreaches their comprehension. 
 
 Such, rudely sketched, is the man whom we were pre- 
 pared to follow to the desert of Sinai. The book we must 
 leave to another opportunity. The friendly reader will 
 not be surprised that we should have lingered over these 
 reminiscences. We have done so the more readily, in the 
 hope that the example of practical Christianity may not be 
 without its uses to those who are called to kindred toils. 
 This, it will be evident, we have had more in view than the 
 literary estimate which might have been a more fitting intro- 
 duction to a critical notice of a book of travels*
 
 1857.] Chapters /rem an Unpublished Biography. 503 
 
 CHAPTERS FROM AN UNPUBLISHED BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 BY JAMES I N G L I S 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Among other advantages of the plan of sending out the 
 students to preach, during the progress of their studies, was 
 this : The churches became acquainted with them, so that 
 when their course was completed, a field of labor was for the 
 most part in readiness for them. The Home Missionary So- 
 ciety undertook to find employment and support for them, 
 but scrupulously avoided anything like interference with the 
 free choice of the people in the settlement of pastors. Be- 
 fore the expiration of his last term, no less than seven churches, 
 and these among the most prominent in the body, had ad- 
 dressed calls to Mr. Maclay to become their pastor. But he, 
 desiring only to do good, decided, with the approbation of 
 the Committee of the Society, to settle in Kircaldy, in Fife- 
 shire, where there was no church, but great religious destitu- 
 tion, and where a large door of access to the people seemed 
 open to him. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1802, in the twenty -fourth 
 year of his age, he proceeded to Kircaldy, and commenced 
 the stated ministry of the Word, in connection with two or 
 three humble but devoted Christians, who had long prayed 
 that a faithful testimony might be borne to the Gospel in the 
 midst of the neglected manufacturing population of the place. 
 A large hall, belonging to Mr. Birrell, an extensive flax- 
 dresser, who was favorable to the cause, was hired on easy 
 terms, and was fitted up as a temporary place of worship. 
 Pains had been taken, by the ministers and leading members 
 of the popular churches, to excite prejudice against Mr. Hal- 
 dane, and so against the young minister who came among
 
 504 Chapters from an Unpublislved Biography. [August, 
 
 them, with a heart full of love, to preach Christ and Him 
 crucified. Their attempts, however, only awakened curiosity, 
 and many went to the Hall with no better motive than to 
 hear what this babbler might say; and, in many instances, 
 those who went to scoff remained to pray. The character 
 and spirit of the preacher was a living refutation of all cal- 
 umny; and the truth, which he preached with self-evidencing 
 power, came home to the very heart of a Scottish commu- 
 nity, in which still lingered the memory of something better 
 than the barren speculations of a hireling clergy. The place 
 was soon crowded to overflowing. At almost every service 
 multitudes left without being able to find admission even to 
 the stairway. The little company of friends, who received 
 him at his first arrival, was strengthened by the accession of 
 several men of known piety, who had long mourned over the 
 corruptions of the Establishment. Several others came to a 
 knowledge of the Saviour ; and, in the month of September, 
 eight months from the opening of the hall, they organized a 
 Congregational Church, consisting of thirty-six men and one 
 woman. 
 
 The Church, on its organization, unanimously elected Mr. 
 Maclay to be their pastor, and he was solemnly ordained to 
 that office. An account of the services at his ordination 
 we find in the Edinburgh Missionary Magazine, of that 
 year: 
 
 u The ordinance was observed by the church with fasting and prayer. 
 The Rev. Ralph Wardlaw commenced the exercises with prayer and read- 
 ing the Scriptures. The Rev. Mr. Grant delivered the introductory dis- 
 course, from Matthew, xvi, 24, Mr. Haldane made a statement of the 
 causes which first led to the invitation of Dr. Maclay; and, having put 
 the usual questions to him, to which he returned satisfactory answers, he 
 was solemnly set apart to the great work of the ministry with the cus- 
 tomary observances. The Rev. Mr. Collison addressed him from Ephe- 
 sians, iii, 3. Mr. Haldane delivered a discourse on the importance of 
 church discipline and purity of communion. In the afternoon Mr. Ward- 
 law preached from John, xii, 23, and in the evening of the same day Mr. 
 Collison concluded the services with a discourse on the character of the 
 godly and ungodly, with their respective conditions and prospects, aa 
 they are depicted in the first Psalm."
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 505 
 
 On the week following his ordination Mr. Maclay left for 
 Glasgow, and on October 5, 1802, was married, by Mr. Ew- 
 ing, to Miss Mary Brown, daughter of William Brown, Esq., 
 merchant, in that city. This lady had for years been a devo- 
 ted member of the Congregational Church, and, in its various 
 activities, had already discovered those qualifications which 
 rendered her an efficient helper of her husband's long pastoral 
 life, till her death, in New York, in 1848. After a journey 
 which, compared with the swift and easy conveyance of the 
 present day, was somewhat adventurous, for they were tossed 
 about in an open boat at the mercy of wind and waves, in a 
 storm on the Firth of Forth, they arrived at their new home, 
 as he remarked, in a letter to a friend, " drenched as though 
 we had been dipped seven times in Jordan; but the unaffected 
 kindness of our friends changed it, after all, into a warm wel- 
 come." One in faith, and fully sympathizing with each other 
 in their views and aims, the commencement of their united 
 life was happy and prosperous. 
 
 One who had so well filled the place of a son and a brother, 
 was well prepared for all the future relations of life. It was 
 not a novel position for him to be at the head of a household, 
 and the home of the young couple was not only a happy one 
 to themselves, but an attractive one to their friends. They 
 were situated on the principal line of travel from the north- 
 east of Scotland to the metropolis, and being, as every bishop 
 should be, given to hospitality, their little circle was fre- 
 quently enlivened by the visits of ministers and evangelists, 
 and both their influence and enjoyment were constantly en- 
 larged. 
 
 Their connection with the Church at Kircaldy was a pecu- 
 liarly happy one. The Lord blessed the ministry of his 
 servant, and increased him with men as a flock, so that the 
 Church was soon enabled to build a neat and substantial 
 place of worship, which still stands on a pleasant site, near 
 the sea shore, in what is called the Links of Kircaldy. They 
 entered the new house in January, 1804, and, though it was 
 capable of containing twice as many people as the hall, it 
 also was soon filled to overflowing. It was just at this pe-
 
 506 Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [August, 
 
 riod of opening prosperity that events occurred to give a 
 new direction to Mr. Maclay's life, and brought his connec- 
 tion with the Church to an unexpected close. 
 
 At an early period of his Christian life he had read, with 
 deep interest, Crantz's History of the Moravian Missions, in 
 Greenland, and almost his first thoughts of the Gospel min- 
 istry had been that he might occupy some humble place in 
 the missionary field. This interest in the heathen was kept 
 alive by the early accounts of the labors of Carey and his as- 
 sociates in India, and by the Baptist periodicals, which took 
 the lead in the advocacy of the great enterprise to which the 
 Christian world was then just beginning to awaken. At a 
 still later period his impressions were deepened by reading 
 Andrew Fuller's Life of Samuel Pearce. What was at first 
 the natural impression of a young Christian, in favor of a 
 work which had suddenly opened up to the enterprise and 
 heroism of the Church, ripened into a settled purpose to de- 
 vote himself to the Lord in this blessed service, should the 
 way be opened to him. We have mentioned his understand- 
 ing on this point with a fellow-student, and so decided was 
 he in this purpose that, when the Church elected him to the 
 pastoral office, he stated to them the exercises of his mind 
 regarding foreign missions, for seven or eight years ; but, as 
 there seemed at that time no opening in that direction, he 
 expressed his willingness to become their pastor, with the 
 distinct understanding that he should be released, should 
 the obstacles be removed which prevented him from going 
 abroad. 
 
 The obstacles referred to were those which the East India 
 Company had thrown in the way of Mr. Haldane and his 
 associates. We have seen how, in the providence of God, 
 their way had been hedged up, and, instead of going to dis- 
 tant lands, they had directed their energies and resources 
 to the destitution of their native country. Congregational 
 Churches had now been planted in the principal towns and 
 villages of Scotland ; a great evangelical work had been per- 
 formed, which now extended to the remotest Highlands and 
 Islands ; and nearly two hundred faithful ministers had been,
 
 1857.] Chapters from ar>\ Unpublished' Biography. 50T 
 
 through Mr. Haldane's judicious liberality, scattered over 
 the land ; . Now, when the first pressure of the home destitu- 
 tion had been met, the churches, true to the missionary spirit 
 in which they had originated, began to think of the perishing 
 heathen. The churches in Edinburgh published, in the year 
 1804, their intention to send out two missionaries to the East 
 Indies, provided suitable men could be found ; for it was 
 hoped that a better spirit prevailed among the Governors of 
 the East India Company, and that Mr. Haldane's motives 
 and character were better understood than they were when 
 he first projected his mission. Mr. Maclay remarks : " When 
 I read the announcement in the Missionary Magazine, my 
 heart bounded for joy." 
 
 Without loss of time he went to Edinburgh to confer with 
 the pastors of the churches there. He stated to them the ar- 
 dent desire which he had long cherished, the purpose he had' 
 formed, and concluded by offering himself to the churches for 
 the service. His character was too well known, and his- 
 qualifications were too highly appreciated, to leave them in 
 any hesitation about accepting the offer, and he was at once 
 asked to select a companion from among the ministers of 
 their connection. As our readers know, that choice was al- 
 ready determined. John Patterson had left the Seminary at 
 the same time with his friend, and was now pastor of the 
 Church at Cambuslang, with the most encouraging prospects of 
 success ; but he was not a man to draw back from their mutual 
 purpose, when the opportunity of carrying it into effect was 
 fairly presented. In reply to the letter which was written to 
 him by the friends in Edinburgh, at Mr. Maclay ? s instance, 
 he promptly offered himself for the work. 
 
 The Church at Kircaldy, strongly attached to their young 
 minister, and sanguine as to the prospects of his ministry in the- 
 place, strenuously opposed his removal. Mr. James Haldane 
 reminded them of the case of Samuel Pearce, who wished to go 
 out to India; but the Church in Birmingham, from excessive at- 
 tachment to the man, refused to let him go, and in two months- 
 God took him away by death. " Besides," he added, " what 
 iniquity have you found in Jesus, to lead you to distrust Him,
 
 508 Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [August, 
 
 and to fear that He will not supply the place of one whom 
 you give up for such a service? " The Church appointed a, 
 meeting for fasting, prayer, and consultation, at the close of 
 which, when he told them that his conviction of duty was 
 unchanged, they gave their consent to his departure, and the 
 connection was dissolved with mutual affection and respect. 
 
 Both of the candidates for missionary work had, in course 
 of their previous studies, discovered qualifications which ren- 
 dered it probable that, in a heathen land, they might do sig- 
 nal service as translators of Scripture ; and, with this view, 
 they were recommended to spend two years, at the Univer- 
 sity of Edinburgh, in the critical study of the original lan- 
 guages of the inspired Records ; and for this the liberality of 
 Robert Haldane furnished them with pecuniary means. They 
 engaged in their studies with ardor, and, under the influence 
 of so high a motive, outstripped all their fellow-students. 
 Their superiority excited the meanest jealousy in the mind 
 of the Professor of Hebrew, who, as a minister of the Estab- 
 lished Church, cherished the bitterest feelings towards the 
 new sect. The indignity and gross injustice with which this 
 bigot treated two deserving young ministers, led Dugald 
 Stewart, who was Professor of Metaphysics and Moral Philo- 
 sophy, to express a resolution that he would thenceforth, to 
 the utmost of his influence, oppose the appointment of any 
 minister of the Church to any chair in the University, except 
 that of Divinity — a resolution to which he adhered to the 
 close of life ; and his influence did much to effect a revolution 
 in the whole system of appointments in that ancient seat of 
 learning. The missionaries elect embraced the opportunity, 
 also, of studying French, Anatomy, the Practioe of Medicine, 
 and other branches of science which might prove useful to 
 them in their new sphere. 
 
 During this period they enjoyed many advantages, both re- 
 ligious and social, which tended to the elevation of their 
 character, and which were not without an important influ- 
 ence in their future career. At the house of Mr. Haldane 
 they were introduced to the choicest society of that day. 
 Many men, distinguished in the literary world, and still more
 
 1*857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 509 
 
 of those whose names have come to us associated with tho 
 benevolent enterprises of that time, formed a circle in which 
 all that was refined in taste, and exalted in piety, lent their 
 charms to conversation. It was here that Mr. Maclay formed 
 the acquaintance of Andrew Fuller, who was in the habit of 
 visiting Scotland, in his annual tours, to promote the interests 
 of the Baptist Missionary Society. Men of all countries and 
 denominations, whose hearts were alive to the great cause to 
 which Mr. Haldane had devoted his fortune and himself, found 
 a congenial resting place under his hospitable roof. And it 
 was no trifling advantage to be introduced there as friends- 
 of the family, and as candidates for a service which occupied 
 a large share of attention in such a circle. 
 
 They were connected with the Congregational Church, of 
 which James Haldane was one of the pastors, and enjoyed 
 his most enlightened ministrations. They had the opportu- 
 nity of listening, also, from time to time, to the most illustri- 
 ous pulpit orators of Great Britain and Ireland who visited 
 the Scottish metropolis. Among these Dr. Maclay frequently 
 recurs to the preaching of Andrew Fuller as being peculiarly 
 impressive, though he was destitute of all the graces of style 
 and address which are considered essential to a popular ora- 
 tory. Though the prejudice against Baptists was at that time 
 very strong, there was that about Fuller which never failed 
 to disarm it, and the pulpits of all denominations were open 
 to him ; in some cases the ministers of the National Church 
 braved the sneers of their brethren, and the censures of eccle- 
 siastical courts, that their congregations might enjoy the bene- 
 fits of his faithful preaching ; not that his doctrinal views 
 were, in all respects, indorsed, for the Haldanes themselves 
 viewed his theology with distrust. In a letter to Dr. Maclay, 
 dated so late as 1842, James Haldane writes : "I have heard 
 that Mr. Fuller's views of the universality of the atonement 
 are becoming universal in America. I am sorry for it. It 
 appears to me a great error, and, in fact, sets aside the atone- 
 ment altogether." 
 
 A fair explanation between such men as James Haldane 
 and Andrew Fuller, would have justified the remark of the
 
 510 Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [August, 
 
 latter, upon a review of a discussion of this very topic : "The 
 greater part of those things wherein you seem to differ, may 
 be owing to a difference in the manner of expressing your- 
 selves, or to the affixing of consequences to a principle which 
 yet are unperceived by him who holds it." One thing is certain, 
 it must have been a grievous misapprehension which charges 
 a man with " setting aside the atonement altogether," who 
 has written so much to illustrate its absolute necessity, and 
 who found in it the only and the all-sufficient consolation of 
 a dying hour. Whatever differences might be found in their 
 systems of divinity, there would be found little difference in 
 the answer they would have given to the inquiry of an awak- 
 ened sinner, " What must I do to be saved ? " Neither had 
 any apprehension of the consequences of allowing the other 
 to occupy his pulpit. These remarks must not be understood 
 as countenancing indifference to the standard of Christian 
 doctrine. We must contend earnestly for the faith once de- 
 livered to the saints, but we must not confound " the faith " 
 with " our opinions." Perhaps it was making too high an 
 estimate of our nominal orthodoxy, to say that Ma*. Puller's 
 views are universally prevalent. At all events, we have more 
 need of the circulation of " Haldane on Romans " than " Ful- 
 ler on Sandemanianism," among our young preachers. 
 
 God was, in His providence, preparing Mr. Maclay and 
 Mr. Patterson for singular usefulness, but in (fields far distant 
 from that to which they were looking. When their course 
 of preparatory study was nearly completed, and they were 
 looking forward with eager expectation to the hour when a 
 cherished hope would be realized, it became apparent that 
 fresh hostility had been awakened in the government of Brit- 
 ish India towards Christian missions. The Baptist Mission- 
 aries already on the ground were obliged to seek refuge from 
 the persecutions of their countrymen, in the Danish settlement 
 of Serampore, a name that has become a household word with 
 American Baptists since the days of Judson and Rice. This 
 official hostility was instigated, it would appear, chiefly by 
 the intolerance of ministers of the Church of England, who, 
 in their oomfor table sinecures as chaplains of the East India
 
 1857.] CJmpters from an Unpublished Biography. 511 
 
 Company, felt rebuked by the zeal and success of the mission- 
 aries. These men were willing to use the violent antipathies 
 of infidel and profligate officials against the humble messen- 
 gers of a pure Gospel, and the vilest calumnies were used to 
 arouse a storm of indignation, which found an insulting voice 
 in the English Parliament. 
 
 The Congregationalists of Edinburgh reluctantly aban- 
 doned the Eastern Mission for the present ; and the mission- 
 aries elect, sorely afflicted and crushed in spirit, were com- 
 pelled to look for other spheres of action and suffering. At 
 this juncture some of the friends of Divine truth among the 
 Congregationalists of New England, alarmed by the rapid 
 spread of Unitarian sentiments among the ministry of that 
 body, had opened a correspondence with Mr. Haldane, whose 
 zeal and devotion had become known among the pious on this 
 side of the Atlantic. They had requested him to send a few 
 men of talent and established principle to recruit the thinned 
 ranks of their evangelical preachers. Now that the door 
 was closed to them in India, it was proposed to Messrs. Mac- 
 lay and Patterson to go to the United States. Mr. Patter- 
 son preferred to accompany Mr. Henderson, another fellow- 
 student, on a mission to the continent of Europe, and ulti- 
 mately established himself at St. Petersburg, where he was 
 instrumental in founding the Russian Bible Society. During 
 his long residence in that city, he superintended the printing 
 of the Bible in upwards of twenty different languages spoken 
 within the empire, and of circulating vast editions in most of 
 them. His career of usefulness was interrupted through the 
 influence of the Jesuits, who succeeded in exciting the fears 
 of the leaders of the Greek Church, as to the probable conse- 
 quences of the indiscriminate circulation of the Scriptures. 
 The late Emperor, also, pursued a very different policy from 
 his father, and positively interdicted all missionary efforts, 
 and all Bible societies, within his dominions. Dr. Patterson 
 at last returned to his native land, and spent the later years 
 of a useful life in honorable retirement at Edinburgh. 
 
 Dr. Henderson, also, laid the foundation of a high reputa- 
 tion by his labors in diffusing the Scriptures over the north
 
 512 Chapters from an UnjouUished Biography. [Aug., '57. 
 
 of Europe. He published a history of Iceland, and an ac- 
 count of his travels in Russia, which met with a very favorable 
 reception by the literary world. He is now President of the 
 college at Highburg, where he succeeded Dr. Bogue, and 
 has earned a high place among the Biblical scholars of 
 England. 
 
 Mr. Maclay, in conformity with the wishes of the Congre- 
 gational Missionary Society, decided on coming to the Uni- 
 ted States. At every step of his course in this matter the 
 overruling and guiding providence of God was singularly 
 manifested. Boston was the original point of his destination. 
 He had parted from the Church and his numerous friends, and 
 only awaited the hour of embarkation. Before they were 
 finally appointed to sail, the ship, in which he had engaged 
 his passage to Boston, was condemned as unseaworthy, and 
 the only other vessel which was to sail that season from the 
 Clyde for America was bound for New York. It was de- 
 cided that he should go on board this vessel, and then travel 
 overland from New York to Boston, rather than delay his 
 departure till the following summer. 
 
 The day before they left the Clyde a letter was put into 
 his hands from Mr. James Haldane, enclosing one which had 
 just been received from three gentlemen of New York, request- 
 ing that one of the preachers, who it was understood were 
 about to be sent to America, might be directed to come to 
 that city. It was stated that a favorable opening presented 
 itself there for preaching the Gospel and gathering a Congre- 
 gational Church. Mr. Haldane, in his letter, suggested the 
 propriety of visiting these friends, and, if it should appear 
 desirable, remaining in New York during the winter months ; 
 several other preachers were to follow in the spring, one of 
 whom might occupy the field in New York, and Mr. Maclay 
 might then proceed to Boston, as originally intended..
 
 WAYMAMS IN THE WILDEMESS. 
 
 SEPTEMBER, 1851. 
 
 THE SUFFERING AND GLORIFIED MESSIAH. 
 
 Isaiah, lii. 13 — 15; and Isaiah, liii, 1 — 12. 
 
 BY JOHN HOGG. 
 
 The exposition of these important passages has taxed the 
 ingenuity and critical skill of those who have determined to 
 exclude Christ from the Scriptures. Some explain the Ser- 
 vant of Jehovah as meaning the entire body of the Jewish 
 people; others, the pious portion of the nation ; while a third 
 class understand it as referring to the collective body of the 
 prophets. But, without entering into a specific refutation of 
 any of these theories, it is sufficient for our present purpose to 
 remark, that the Servant of Jehovah is described as a per- 
 son — " a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; " a soul 
 is ascribed to him — " He shall make his soul an offering for 
 sin, He shall see of the travail of His soul ; " as exhibiting a 
 marked contrast to the rest of mankind in His spotless holi- 
 ness ; and He is finally represented as dying, and as laid in a 
 grave. He is variously described as a prophet, priest, and 
 king ; as making atonement for the heathen nations, and as a 
 
 VOL. II. — no. ix. g2
 
 514 The Suffering and Glorified Messiah. [Sept., 
 
 substitutionary sacrifice, whose severe sufferings should con- 
 fer on the sinner healing and peace. It is manifest that such 
 a description as this can only, with justice, be applied to Him 
 whom the " Father hath consecrated and sent into the world." 
 Such was the opinion of the ancient Jewish Church. This is 
 evident from the Chaldee Paraphrase of Jonathan Ben Uz- 
 ziel, which is attributed to the apostolic age : " Behold my 
 servant, the Messiah, shall act prosperously, shall be exalted, 
 increased and multiplied exceedingly. The house of Israel 
 has hoped for Him many days." In another Jewish produc- 
 tion, of somewhat later date, it is said: "This is the king, 
 Messiah, who is high and honorable, and exalted exceedingly; 
 higher than Abraham, more honorable than Moses, and more 
 exalted than the serving angels." That this was also the 
 prevalent opinion, during our Lord's personal ministry, ap- 
 pears from the fact that this passage forms the groundwork, 
 or foundation, of the New Testament doctrine of atonement 
 and satisfaction for sin ; and with an obvious reference to the 
 passages, " Surely He hath borne our griefs: He shall sprinkle 
 many nations," John the Baptist pointed out the Saviour to 
 the attention of his countrymen, saying : "Behold the Lamb 
 of God that taketh away the sin of the world." The Messianic 
 exposition was likewise universally maintained by the Chris- 
 tian Church from the earliest period of its history till towards 
 the end of the eighteenth century, when Socinians, in common 
 with modern Jews, had recourse to other explanations, in order 
 that they might more plausibly deny the Scriptural doctrine 
 of sin, as rendering necessary the recognition of our Lord's 
 supreme divinity in connection with His making a true and 
 proper atonement for sin. 
 
 Jehovah, in the fifty-second chapter, gives a short account 
 of the person, character, work, and final success of His right- 
 eous Servant. Though the kingly office is here generally con- 
 cealed behind the priestly, yet the Father represents His Son 
 and Servant as a king, as if to show that both offices were 
 blended in the mysterious constitution of His Divine person. 
 He affirms that His Servant should deal prudently, or be emi- 
 nently successful ; and that, as the result of His judicious
 
 1857.] Tfie Suffering and Glorified Messiah, 515 
 
 government, He shall be exalted and extolled, and made very- 
 high. This prediction was fulfilled in our Lord's resurrec- 
 tion from the dead, in His ascension into heaven, and in the 
 proclamation of His Gospel among the heathen, in conse- 
 quence of which, multitudes, in every country and in evory 
 clime, have "become obedient unto the faith." But it shall 
 receive its final accomplishment when all His enemies shall 
 be made His footstool ; when those who refused to bow to 
 His sceptre of grace shall be broken by the rod of His power; 
 and when the herald angel shall shout to the wondering uni- 
 verse : " The jubilee of creation has dawned ; " " The king- 
 doms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord 
 and of His Christ." 
 
 This glorious prospect was the joy set before the Saviour, 
 in consequence of which " He endured the cross, despising 
 its shame." As soon as the Saviour's mediatorial reward 
 was distinctly stated, He appears on the scene, when Jehovah 
 addresses Him, -describing the nature of His atoning death in 
 contrast with His future glory. la order to bring out the full 
 meaning -of the passage, it ought to be translated : " Though 
 many are struck with astonishment at Thee — His appearance 
 is disfigured more than that of any man, and His form more 
 than that of any of the children -of men — yet shall He 
 sprinkle many .nations." The parenthetical clause is thrown 
 in by the prophet, giving the reason why many were shocked 
 at Messiah, while the rest of the sentence is the direct ad- 
 dress of Jehovah to His righteous Servant. The contrast 
 might be thus stated without the intervention of the explana- 
 tory clause : " Though many are struck with astonishment at 
 Thee, yet shall He sprinkle many nations." The many who 
 are struck with astonishment at Messiah's appearance are the 
 Jews who rejected Him, whiie the many nations are the 
 heathen who received the Gospel ; and hence the full force 
 of the contrast is : as a single people has despised Him, so 
 the whole world shall bear Him in admiration. And this 
 prediction is in perfect harmony with other prophecies which 
 affirm that Israel shall not be gathered ; that only a remnant 
 of the covenant people shall be saved ; that the isles, or the
 
 516 The Suffering and Glorified Messiah. [Sept., 
 
 most distant heathen nations, should embrace the Gospel ; and 
 that kings and princes should yield the Redeemer willing 
 homage. 
 
 Jehovah next describes His Servant as a high priest, 
 making atonement for the heathen. " He shall sprinkle many 
 nations." The word rendered " sprinkle," under the Mosaic 
 law, means to sprinkle blood, water, or oil. When the 
 anointed high priest sinned, he was commanded to take a 
 bullock, and to sprinkle its blood seven times before the 
 Lord, and before the vail of the sanctuary. On the great 
 annual day of atonement, the sprinkling with blood was one 
 of the most important rites; and it is evident, from the entire 
 narrative, that the sprinkling with blood, and the making of 
 an atonement, are interchangeable and equivalent expressions. 
 "He shall sprinkle it — the blood of the goat — upon the 
 mercy seat, and before the mercy seat. And he shall make 
 an atonement for the holy place." Leviticus, xvi, 14 — 19. 
 The sacrifice, in fact, was not considered as made till its 
 blood was carried by the high priest into the most holy place 
 and sprinkled on the mercy seat. It is, indeed, admitted that 
 water was sprinkled on the recovered lej >er, and on the per- 
 son who had accidentally contracted ceremonial uncleanness; 
 but the water derived its symbolical value from its being 
 mixed with the ashes of the burnt-offering. " For an unclean 
 person they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purifi- 
 cation for sin, and running water shall be put thereto in a ves- 
 sel." The meaning, therefore, of the phrase, " He shall sprinkle 
 many nations," is, He shall make atonement for the heathen; 
 an atonement including satisfaction for sin, and the purifica- 
 tion of the sinner's heart. Thus the apostle Paul connects 
 the sprinkling of blood with water as necessary to a complete 
 atonement, and as if he intended to teach the important truth, 
 that "Christ gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us 
 from all iniquity." " If the blood of bulls and of goats," says 
 he, " and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanc- 
 tificth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the 
 blood of Christ purge your conscience from dead works to 
 serve the living God." In reference to both these component
 
 1857.] The S-uJfering and Glorified Messiah. 517 
 
 parts of an atonement, we read in the New Testament of 
 " the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ ; " the hearts of 
 believers are said to be " sprinkled from an evil conscience, 
 and their bodies with pure water; " and the apostle describes 
 his converts as coming " to the blood of sprinkling which 
 speaketh better things than that of Abel." The Messiah's 
 severe sufferings are also connected with His making atone- 
 ment for the heathen, showing that He himself was at once 
 the priest and the sacrifice — that "He purged our sins by 
 Himself. " 
 
 As part of the reward of Messiah's sufferings, He shall be 
 greatly reverenced by the heathen. " Kings," and not merely 
 ordinary persons, " shall shut their mouths at Him," express- 
 ive of their deep reverence. The laying the hand on the 
 mouth is an Eastern expression <or deep reverence and hu- 
 mility; and hence Job, in describing the days of his pros- 
 perity, says, "Princes refrained from talking, and laid their 
 hand on their mouth." The reason of this reverential sub- 
 mission is, " That which had not been told them shall they 
 see, and that which they have not heard shall they consider;" 
 a passage to which our Saviour refers when He reminds His 
 disciples, " 1 tell you that many kings and prophets have 
 desired to see these things which ye see, and have not seen 
 them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not 
 heard them." This prophecy was partially fulfilled by the 
 rapid diffusion of the Gospel among the heathen after the 
 day of Pentecost, so that in less than one hundred and twenty 
 years, after our Lord's resurrection, Christianity had been 
 proclaimed in the principal countries of the then known 
 world. And, though the world in general lies wholly in the 
 arms of the wicked one, yet the time is coming when the 
 many, and not the few, shall be turned to the knowledge of 
 the truth ; when kings shall be nursing fathers and queens 
 nursing mothers of the Church, and when holiness and truth 
 shall reign in every heart. 
 
 At this important period in the prophetic vision, the Mes- 
 siah makes His soul an offering for sin, when the sacred 
 writer draws a veil over the awful scene. He then heard
 
 518 The Suffering and Glorified Messiah. [Sept., 
 
 the Church recapitulating and enlarging on the preceding 
 topics, in which we have an account of the Saviour's birth, 
 sufferings, and His atoning death, as present events, while 
 His mediatorial reward is still described as future. The 
 poirvt of time, therefore, which the prophet occupies, is that 
 awfully mysterious hour when heaven, earth, and hell waited 
 and watched, with intense anxiety, the progress of events, 
 and when the Lord of life lay cold and stiff in the arms of death, 
 We have, therefore, an account 
 
 I. Of our Lord's 3evere sufferings. Isaiah, liii, 1 — 3. The 
 Jews rejected the Messiah on account of the apparent mean- 
 ness and obscurity of His descent. He is not compared ix* 
 the graceful palm tree, nor to the sturdy oak, nor to the 
 magnificent cedar that raises its branches on high, but to* 
 a tender plant, and to a shoot out of a dry ground. We 
 have here an obvious reference to the eleventh chapter of 
 Isaiah : " There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of 
 Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots." The 
 meauing of both passages is, that Messiah should spring from 
 the royal family of David, after it had been reduced to its- 
 lowest point of depression, with this difference, that while 
 the first passage brings out more distinctly His descent from 
 David, the latter states the apparent hopelessness of the case; 
 for a fallen tree may sprout through the seat of waters, but y 
 as if to preclude the possibility of hope, the ground round 
 the stump is dry and barren. This language perhaps con- 
 tains an allusion to our Lord's helpless childhood, when, at 
 His birth, there was no room for Him in the inn, and when 
 He was hastily carried by His parents into Egypt, to escape 
 the sword of Herod. But it is only in the estimation of men 
 that the Saviour is without form or comeliness. "He shall 
 grow up before him," or, according to the correct reading, 
 "before them" — the Jewish people — intimating that it was 
 in the sight of the people, and not in that of God, that He was 
 a root out of a dry ground. He was as much the object of 
 His Father's complacency, when He hung on the cross of 
 ignominy, as when seated by His side on the throne of uni- 
 versal dominion.
 
 1857.] The Suffering and Glorified Messiah. 519 
 
 The sufferings of the Messiah were remarkable for their 
 unparalleled severity. All the expressions used in this chap- 
 ter denote the most bitter and intense anguish, increasing in 
 intensity and force as the description advances; just as a 
 winter torrent dashes with increasing violence from cliff to 
 cliff till its waters are beaten into foam. He is the most 
 despised and the most rejected of men : a man of sorrows, a 
 man of whom it might be affirmed that pain or sorrow was 
 the most distinguishing characteristic; an accpiaintance of 
 grief, one who is as familiar with grief as with a bosom 
 friend ; and, to mark the deep abhorrence with which He was 
 regarded by the world, it is said : " We despised and did but 
 esteem Him as one that hides His face from us." This lan- 
 guage originally refers to the leper, who was compelled, under 
 the law, to cover his upper lip, or face, and to cry out, when 
 any one was approaching, " Unclean, unclean." The leper 
 was excluded from all society, except that of unfortunate be- 
 ings like himself. He was compelled to live in a separate 
 house, called, in the Hebrew idiom, " the house of freedom," 
 meaning that he was as good as dead and in his grave, where 
 he would be free from all human control. Thus it is said of 
 Uzziah, who was smitten with leprosy for intruding into the 
 priest's office : " He was a leper until the day of his death, 
 and he dwelt in a several house ; " literally, " a house of free- 
 dom, being a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the 
 Lord." 2 Chronicles, xx, 21. Thus the Saviour says of 
 Himself, in the Psalms : " I am counted with them that go 
 down into the pit : I am as a man that hath no strength : 
 free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, 
 whom thou rcmemberest no more : and they are cut off from 
 thy hand." Psalm, lxxxviii, 4, 5. The meaning of such lan- 
 guage is, that the Jews should regard the Messiah with that 
 abhorrence and aversion which they usually manifested to- 
 wards the leper, whose touch equally entailed defilement and 
 death. The leprosy is a striking emblem of sin, viewed in 
 relation to its polluting character and malignant tendencies, 
 and hence the Jews regarded our Redeemer in the light of a 
 sinner as well as a sufferer. " We did esteem stricken, smit-
 
 520 The Suffering and Glorified Messiah. [Sept., 
 
 ten of God, and afflicted," or plagued, the word which is 
 always employed to describe the condition of one who is 
 infected with leprosy. 
 
 II. The Messiah's sufferings were substitutionary. Isaiah, 
 liii, 4 — 7. The connection between sin and suffering is neces- 
 sary and inseparable. It is the dictate alike of reason and 
 revelation, that if man had never been a sinner, man could 
 never have been a sufferer. The modern infidel dogma which 
 traces suffering and death to the laws of nature, and not to 
 personal guilt, proceeds on the supposition, either that the 
 laws of nature are independent of the will of God, which is 
 downright atheism, or that His moral government is a series 
 of unrighteous acts. Since, then, holiness and happiness, sin 
 and misery, are the uniform law of God's moral government, 
 how did Christ suffer at all, much more how did He suffer so 
 severely? The Jews meet the difficulty by maintaining that 
 He was a great sinner, that He was guilty of treason against 
 Cassar, and of blasphemy against God, and that, like any other 
 criminal, He only received the just reward of His deeds. 
 But, as the evangelists conclusively prove that He was per- 
 fectly innocent, that He was a " lamb without blemish and 
 without spot," the only solution of this moral enigma is : 
 " Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." 
 
 The Messiah is described as a sacrifice for sin. To bear 
 sin is a phrase derived from the Levitical law, showing that 
 the victim was substituted for the actual offender, so that the 
 former bore the sins of the latter, and the latter, in default of 
 such an exposition, is said to bear his own sins. The sin- 
 offering was intended to bear the iniquity of the congrega- 
 tion, to make atonement for them before the Lord, and the 
 scapegoat was set apart to bear all the iniquities of Israel 
 into a land not inhabited. To render the sacrificial rite 
 more impressive, the hands of the offerer were placed on the 
 head of the victim, as he confessed over it his sins, implying 
 that his transgressions were transferred to the victim, and 
 that he owed his forfeited life to its substitutionary suffer- 
 ings. As the antitype of the sin-offering, Christ bore our 
 griefs and carried our sorrows, endured their penalty and
 
 1857*] The Suffering and Glorifud Messiah. 521 
 
 bore away from us the sentence of condemnation; a fact to 
 which the apostle Peter refers when he says : " Who His own 
 self bore our sins in His own body on the tree." 
 
 The Saviour's atoning death bears a distinct relation to 
 the injuries which sin has inflicted on the soul. It is an 
 atonement suited to our spiritual necessities, .and it com- 
 pletely meets our entire case. The prophet, therefore, first 
 describes sin. The word transgressions, derived from a word 
 signifying to rebel, denotes aggravated wickedness ; while 
 the original word sin is derived from a root which means to 
 bend, as if the individual were approaching the proper object, 
 though in a zigzag direction, instead of a straight line, and 
 it refers to that numerous class of sins which unconverted 
 men misname frailties and imperfections of nature. Our sins 
 are also described as a wound which requires help and heal- 
 ing ; as a sickness, or malady, which, if not cured by the 
 balm in Gilead and the physician there, must terminate in 
 the pangs and agonies of the second death. And, as the 
 climax of misery, the sinner is compared to a lost sheep; a 
 strong figure, which implies conscious, helpless, and appar- 
 ently hopeless misery. The sinner, like the lost sheep, can 
 wander from the fold of God, but he can not wander back 
 again. Once a wanderer, he wanders on forever, till re- 
 claimed by the shepherd's care. In order to meet our des- 
 perate case, the Saviour was wounded for our transgressions 
 and bruised for our iniquities; ilis wounds cure the deep 
 gashes inflicted by sin on the soul, and, as the good shepherd 
 of the sheep, He goes into the wilderness after the lost and 
 wandering one, and brings it back to the fold of Cod. T, us 
 He is styled, in the New Testament, our peace; since, by His 
 death. He has broken down all distinction between Jew and 
 Gentile, and bound all mankind into one great brotherhood ; 
 since He has preached peace to both Jews and Gentiles; since 
 He has reconciled man to the angels, and, as the climax of 
 blessing, He has slain the enmity of the human heart and 
 reconciled man to his God. "He is our peace who hath 
 made both one." 
 
 The Saviour's sufferings, though severe, were voluntary.
 
 522 The Suffering and Glorified Messiah. [Sept., 
 
 " He was oppressed, and He was afflicted," or rather He hum- 
 bled Himself. "He opened not His mouth;" He did not 
 justify Himself, though innocent ; neither did He upbraid 
 His murderers with their injustice, cruelty, and ingratitude. 
 " He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter; " He manifested 
 the same mute gentleness and uncomplaining resignation as 
 does the lamb when brought to shed its blood. But there is 
 also an oblique reference to the paschal lamb, the great an- 
 nual sacrifice and festival of the Jewish nation ; for the 
 phrase should be rendered, " He was brought as the lamb to 
 the slaughter," in which a definite, well known lamb is 
 pointed out. Thus our Redeemer is repeatedly styled, " The 
 Lamb of God," and the apostle Paul comprises the pith and 
 marrow of the greater part of this chapter in a single sen- 
 tence, when he says: "Christ our paschal lamb is sacrificed 
 for us." 
 
 III. The Messiah's mediatorial reward. Isaiah liii, 8 — 12, 
 " He was taken from prison and from judgment," does not 
 mean that He was hurried by His enemies from one unright- 
 eous tribunal to another; for the description of our Lord's 
 sufferings is already concluded. By the terms prison and 
 judgment, we are to understand sufferings in general. The 
 word rendered " taken " is that which, in the original, is ap- 
 plied to the translation of Enoch, and to the ascension of Elijah 
 into heaven. Hence the meaning of the clause will be, Mes- 
 siah was taken by God into heaven from the midst of His 
 severe sufferings, preparatory to His receiving the reveren- 
 tial homage of His people, so that He is made head over all 
 things for His body the Church. Who shall declare His gen- 
 eration? The word "generation," in Scripture, denotes the 
 race of man, taken in a good or bad sense, entirely according 
 to the connection. In the first sense we read of the genera- 
 tion of God's children, of the generation of the righteous, and 
 of the generation of the upright. The righteous are called 
 "His generation" — the generation of Jehovah's Servant — ■ 
 be use they have been purchased by His blood. They con- 
 stitute part of His mediatorial reward, styled, in this chap- 
 ter. " His seed," on account of whom He willingly "became
 
 1857.] The Suffering and Glorified Messiah. 523 
 
 obedient unto death." The number of His people is so 
 great that the prophet asks, " Who shall declare His genera- 
 tion?" Who shall enumerate the hosts of the redeemed? 
 Tims, when John saw the redeemed around the throne of 
 heaven, they appeared as a great multitude which no one r 
 neither man nor angel, could number. This mediatorial re- 
 ward was conferred on our Redeemer, because " He was cut 
 off out of the land of the living : for the transgressions of my 
 people was He judicially smitten." His reward is the result 
 of His obedience unto death. 
 
 The prophet, having described the Messiah's reward in 
 general terms, next descends to particulars. The lowest 
 point of His humiliation consisted in His being laid in the 
 grave, and then was the fir3t step of His exaltation. " He 
 made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His 
 death." Our Lord was accused by the Jews of blasphemy 
 against God, a crime which, by the Mosaic law, deserved 
 death by stoning ; and it invariably included an ignominious 
 burial. "He that blasphemeth God," says Joscphus, in rela- 
 ting this law, "let him be stoned, and let liim be hung on 
 a tree all that day, and then let him be buried in an ignomin- 
 ious and obscure manner." But, as blasphemy against Jeho- 
 vah was not a crime according to the Roman code, our Lord 
 was accused of treason against Caesar; and, as the punishment 
 of this alleged crime, He was crucified between two malefac- 
 tors — between two parties probably convicted of both rob- 
 bery and murder. Now, it was customary with the Romans 
 either not to permit persons who were crucified to be buried 
 at all, or only to be buried on the spot where they were put 
 to death. But the overruling providence of God brought it 
 to pass that " there should be given Messiah a grave with the 
 wicked, and with a rich man in His death," intentionally 
 with the wicked, but really with a rich man. As a proof of 
 the exactness with which prophecy is fulfilled, it may be 
 noted that the word "wicked" is in the plural, while the 
 word "rich" is in the singular, showing that while Messiah's 
 enemies intended He should be buried with malefactors, yet 
 He was, in fact, buried in a grave purchased by His friends
 
 624 The Suffering emd Glorified Messiah. [Sept., 
 
 and adherents, but in a grave owned by Joseph of Arimathea 
 a rich man. The real reason why He obtained an honorable 
 interment was " because He had done no violence, neither 
 was any deceit found in His mouth." 
 
 Messiah's mediatorial reward was inseparably connected 
 with His atoning death. In order, therefore, to a proper 
 understanding of the subject, the prophet recurs to our Lord's 
 expiatory sufferings. " It pleased Jehovah to bruise Him ; " 
 He did not merely permit others to inflict these unparalleled 
 sufferings on His Son and Servant, but His own hand dealt 
 the dreadful blow. The typical reference to Isaac was real- 
 ized when Abraham was commanded not to employ one of 
 his servants, but was himself to sacrifice his son on one of 
 the mountains of Moriah. And, though Christ suffered se- 
 verely from the contradiction of sinners, and the rage of 
 devils, yet His Father's wrath was the chief element that 
 was poured into His cup of wormwood and gall. But the 
 Saviour knew, in the depth of His suffering, that if He made 
 His soul an offering for sin, He should see His seed — His 
 spiritual posterity — and the pleasure of the Lord should 
 prosper in His hand. 
 
 The atonement made by the Messiah consists in His making 
 His soul an offering for sin. " When Thou shalt make His 
 soul an offering for sin." The word rendered " offering for 
 sin," denotes trespass-offering, including, in this passage, all 
 those sacrifices whose professed object is to make atonement 
 fur the sins of others. Under the Mosaic law, the blood, as 
 the seat of the soul, or living principle, was that part of the 
 slain animal that properly constituted an atonement. " The 
 life of the flesh is in the blood ; and I have given it to you 
 upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls ; for it 
 is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." Lev., 
 xvii, 10 — II. In consequence of the typical connection that 
 subsists between blood and sacrifice, the Israelites were pro- 
 hibited from eating blood, under any circumstances, but were 
 commanded to pour it out on the ground as water. In the 
 primitive ages, those converted from heathenism to Chris- 
 tianity were commanded to abstain from blood, and from
 
 1857.] The Suffering and Glorified Messiah. 525 
 
 pollutions of idols, and from fornication ; a connection which 
 shows that the command to abstain from blood was not a con- 
 cession to Jewish prejudices, but because the blood was that 
 which constituted the sacrifice. It was, therefore, only the 
 blood of the slain victim that was carried into the most holy 
 place, on the annual day of atonement, and sprinkled on the 
 mercy seat. It is thus evident that making the soul an offer- 
 ing for sin, is equivalent to the subsequent phrase : " He hath 
 poured out His soul unto death." Now, in the New Testa- 
 ment, we frequently read of the blood of Christ, of the pre- 
 cious blood of Christ, which at once satisfies the demands of 
 law and justice, and at the same time purges the sinner's con- 
 science from dead works to serve the living God. But it is 
 the soul that resides in, or is essentially connected with the 
 blood, that is viewed as the medium of atonement; and hence 
 Christ is said to give His soul, or His life, for the sinner. 
 " The good Shepherd giveth His soul for the sheep." Thus 
 Christ is said to have given Himself, to have purged away 
 our sins bv Himself, and to have washed us from our sins in His 
 own blood. And, to complete the parallel between the Messiah 
 of the Old Testament and the Christ of the New, the Servant of 
 Jehovah offers Himself. The correct rendering is : " If He 
 will offer His soul a trespass-offering, He shall see His seed ; " 
 making it manifest that our Redeemer is both priest and 
 sacrifice. 
 
 The address of the Church is finished. But Jehovah again 
 recapitulates the leading topics adverted to, as a proof that 
 His Servant's Avork was accepted. He affirms that Messiah 
 shall see of the travail of His soul —the result of His suffer- 
 ings — and shall be satisfied. "By the knowledge of Him- 
 self shall He justify many." The heathen are contrasted witli 
 the Israelites, who are uniformly described as one. But our 
 Redeemer's mediatorial reward consists in His being re-in- 
 vested with the glory which He had with the Father before 
 the world was, in seeing His spiritual seed, and in universal 
 empire. Jehovah, therefore, promises, as a preparatory step: 
 " I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall 
 divide the spoil with the strong." This language clearly
 
 526 The Suffering and Glorified Messiah. [Sept., 
 
 intimates that Messiah, as a mighty conqueror, shall destroy 
 empires and overthrow nations, previous to the establishment 
 of His own everlasting kingdom. It was predicted that He 
 should smite the earth with the breath of His mouth, and 
 with the breath of His lips He should slay the wicked one ; 
 language which Paul applies to the destruction of Anti-christ: 
 " That wicked one whom the Lord shall destroy with the 
 breath of His mouth, and with the outshining of His com- 
 ing." This prediction is, therefore, still future. It affirms 
 that Christ shall wage successful warfare, and divide the 
 spoil, as a proof that His enemies are completely destroyed ; 
 and then His kingdom, as His mediatorial reward, a true and 
 proper theocracy, of which the Jewish dispensation was only 
 a type, shall be established on the ruins of empires. 
 
 The meaning of Jehovah's address evidently is, that Mes- 
 siah, as a part of His mediatorial reward, shall not only be 
 the head of His Church, but shall also be elevated to the su- 
 preme government of the world. " He must reign till He 
 hath put all enemies under His feet." This elevation is the 
 reward, not merely of death, but of atoning death; and hence, 
 on the ground of His vicarious sufferings, He ever lives to 
 make intercession for us. As a high priest He offers the sac- 
 rifice of Himself, and then, on the foundation of that perfect 
 oblation, He intercedes for us in the court of heaven. But the 
 sufferings and the reward, the cross and the crown, are in- 
 separably connected, and hence Jehovah says : " He shall 
 bear their iniquities, therefore will I divide Him a portion 
 with the great." " He became obedient unto death, even the 
 death of the cross, wherefore God also hath highly exalted 
 Him, and hath given Him a name that is above every name ; 
 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things 
 in heaven, and things in earth, a,nd things under the earth."
 
 1857.] The Close of Old Testament Prophecy, 527 
 
 THE CLOSE OF OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY. 
 
 BY JAMES I N G L I S . 
 
 We feel, at every advancing stage, more painfully how in- 
 adequate are the limits to which we are restricted, for even 
 an outline of the expanding glories of the prophetic revela- 
 tion. And now, when we come, in a single article, to speak 
 of the course of prophecy, from the Babylonish Captivity to 
 the closing of the Old Testament canon, we can do little 
 more than point out the fact, that the last of the prophets 
 only more fully unfolds the one great plan of which all the 
 prophets have spoken. But, in order to appreciate these 
 closing revelations, it is necessary that we keep distinctly in 
 view the relations of the people whom God chose to be His 
 people, to the great plan itself. 
 
 As has been elsewhere remarked, God made Israel the cen- 
 tre of His earthly government, so that even the profane his- 
 tory of nations centres around that wonderful people. Egypt, 
 Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, all contend for Is- 
 rael's land, are known in connection with it, or actually get 
 their full imperial position when they obtain possession of it. 
 Though clouds of dark traditions, scarce pierced by modern 
 researches, hang over all the rest of the nations and obscure 
 their history while they reveal their existence, in the neigh- 
 borhood of Israel all is light. The light of Israel's history is 
 shed on all the nations around them. It is preserved almost 
 with modern accuracy, when a few fragments scarce res- 
 cue from entire oblivion other ancient histories. We have 
 to disentomb the remains of Thebes and Nineveh, to get 
 at the history of their ancient monarchs, and to know 
 their dynasties ; while, by God's providence, that which 
 gives some historic data to the glories of Mizraim and Ashur,
 
 528 The Close of Old Testament Prophecy. [Sept., 
 
 confirms in its details that of which we already have the 
 minutest particulars in Israel's authentic history. We find, 
 yet fresh, on the lore-covered walls of the country of the 
 Pharaohs, the very kinds of overseers over the Jews, making 
 their bricks, of which Moses speaks in the book of Exodus. 
 Modern research alone has given the place and importance 
 to those countries which the Scriptures already assigned 
 them. 
 
 Until the apostacy of the chosen people was complete and 
 confirmed in the face of all God's long suffering ; until the 
 throne of David was overturned, the symbol of the Divine 
 presence withdrawn from Jerusalem, and the nation itself 
 dismembered and carried away captive, a universal Gen- 
 tile monarchy was impossible. But when Nebuchadnezzar 
 achieved his victory over the Jews, Babylon at once reached 
 the pinnacle of earthly glory, and the king issued his decrees 
 to all people, nations, and languages, that dwell on the earth. 
 What, in Scripture, is styled " the time of the Gentiles,'' then 
 commenced. That Gentile supremacy was established, which, 
 under one form or another, was to continue until the day 
 when the kingdoms of the world shall become our Lord's 
 and His Christ's. 
 
 Israel thenceforth is seen in a new attitude, degraded, sub- 
 servient, and outcast, though most marvellously preserved, as 
 a separate people, through all the revolutions of empires. 
 Through all their previous waywardness, and reverses, God 
 had still acknowledged them as His ; and, though He chas- 
 tised them for their iniquities, He still magnified His for- 
 bearance in maintaining their relations to Him. But now 
 He designates them " Lo ammi '* — not My people. Ezekiel, in 
 vision, saw the glory of the Lord depart from the Temple and 
 city; and though, in God's appointed time, the children of the 
 Captivity returned to Judea and rebuilt the Temple, the 
 shekinah never illumined its desolate sanctuary, and they 
 began to realize the predicted judgment of an insulted God : 
 "For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a 
 king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and with- 
 out an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim."
 
 1857.] The Close of Old Testament Prophecy. 529 
 
 Before the Captivity God had announced, not only the over- 
 throw of the throne on which the degenerate successors of 
 David had dishonored His name, but had predicted that it 
 should continue desolate, until He shall come whose right it 
 is; " and/'" said God, " I will give it Him." Meanwhile, as we 
 have observed, supreme power was committed to the Gentiles. 
 In the language of Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar: " Thou, king r 
 art a king of kings, for the God of heaven hath given thee a 
 kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever 
 the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field, and the 
 fowls of the heaven, hath He given into thine hand, and 
 hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of 
 gold." 
 
 While the chosen people remained in the land that God 
 had given them, the prophets of God had a two-fold office 
 to discharge : First — They rebuked the rebellious nation,, 
 warned them of the calamities with which Jehovah would 
 visit their transgressions, and interpreted God's providential 
 dealings with them. Second — As God's prophets, having the 
 testimony of Christ, they upheld the faith of true believers, 
 by unfolding God's gracious design,, which was not affected 
 fey the failure of the nation, nor by the consequent judg- 
 ments of God. The nations might rage, and the kings of the 
 earth combine, yet God would set His king on His holy hilL 
 Judah might be carried away captive, Zion might be plowed 
 like a field, and the mountains of the Lord's house be as the 
 high places in the forest ; yet, in the last days, " the moun- 
 tains of the Lord's house shall be established on the tops of 
 the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills." This 
 consolatory office of the prophet was never so much needed 
 as now, when the dark days of captivity had come ; and be- 
 sides, mow that the prophets of God were brought in contact 
 with the Gentile power, it became necessary to exhibit the 
 course of Gentile history, in its relation to the accomplish- 
 ment of the covenant. This was necessary, both for the sup- 
 port of faith, and for the maintenance of the truth in the 
 presence of the heathen. God, in His providence, prepared, 
 among the children of the Captivity, witnesses of His truth, 
 
 TOL. II. — KO. IX. H2
 
 530 The Close of Old Testament Prophecy. [Sept., 
 
 to bear testimony in the very palace of the first vain-glori- 
 ous sovereign who wielded the sceptre of Gentile supremacy. 
 Moved by the pride of conquest, Nebuchadnezzar directed 
 that some of the children of the royal family and of the 
 princes Judah, should be trained for the service of his court. 
 Among these was Daniel, who, even as a youth, manifested a 
 heroic faith and incorruptible integrity, which places his 
 name among the most exalted saints of antiquity. Ezekiel, his 
 contemporary, mentions him with Noah and Job, as patterns 
 of righteousness.. He was educated in all the science and 
 literature of that age ; and, beyond all ordinary attainments, 
 God endowed him with the spirit of prophecy. Thus accom- 
 plished, he was introduced to the court of the Babylonian 
 monarch, and was speedily exalted to the highest honor and 
 power. It would be difficult to find a more illustrious in- 
 stance of faith and purity, than in the character of Daniel, 
 flourishing in that most unpropitious atmosphere. A captive 
 youth, raised to the first place of confidence and influence 
 at the corrupt court of three monarchs, Nebuchadnezzar, Bel- 
 shazzar, and Darius, he never stooped to flattery, never cringed 
 for favor, but fearlessly uttered the most unpalatable truths, 
 in ears accustomed only to unmeasured adulation. He cher- 
 ished unalterable patriotism, under all the obloquy and adver- 
 sity of his own people, but yet displayed unswerving fidelity 
 In every trust committed to him by their conquerors. No 
 allurements could win him, no danger deter him, from the 
 most scrupulous observance of the law of God ; nothing could 
 induce him even to disguise the fact that he was a worship- 
 per of Jehovah. On the eve of promotion to the first place 
 in the empire, and with a cruel death staring him in the face, 
 lie braved the king's decree; and, disdaining to conceal the 
 fact, " With his window open toward Jerusalem, he kneeled 
 and prayed, and gave thanks unto God as aforetime." When, 
 in terms of the royal decree, he was cast into the lion's den, 
 he met the danger unmoved, and was taken out of the den 
 unhurt, because he believed in God. This was the explanation 
 of his spiritual heroism, as well as of his miraculous deliv- 
 erance. What was man's condemnation against God's ap-
 
 1857.] The Close of Old Testament Prophecy. 531 
 
 proval ? What the honor which Nebuchadnezzar could be- 
 stow compared with the glory of an everlasting kingdom ? 
 Faith looked to an invisible God, and triumphed in a sure 
 salvation. Nor to any mere mortal has higher assurance of 
 Divine favor been vouchsafed than to Daniel, in the message 
 of Gabriel, who was sent forth at the voice of his supplica- 
 tion, " for thou art greatly beloved." 
 
 We have already had occasion, again and again, in these 
 pages, to refer to the remarkable visions and interpretations 
 of this book, in which the course and termination of Gentile 
 sovereignty are foreshadowed ; and we do not now dwell upon 
 their exposition. We make the general remark, which ap- 
 plies not to the prophecies of Daniel alone, but to all the pro- 
 phecies of Scripture, that they will certainly be misinter- 
 preted, if any attempt is made to find in them a continuous 
 and minute view of the history of nations. The great object 
 of prophecy is the comfort and support of God's people amid 
 the trials and temptations through which they must enter the 
 kingdom. The nations of the earth are brought into view 
 only as they have some relation to Israel or the Church, in 
 the accomplishment of God's judgments or His grace. In 
 Daniel, for example, they are seen chiefly in relation to the 
 Jews ; first, on the accomplishment of God's judgment in the 
 desolation of the city, after the rejection of Messiah ; and 
 then, after a long period of darkness and silence, in the last 
 end of the indignation, when the Jews are again assembled 
 in unbelief at Jerusalem, the Gentile power again appears in 
 array against the Lord and His anointed ; and, after a period 
 of trouble, such as there never was since there was a nation, 
 until that time, the Lord interposes for the final deliverance 
 of His repentant people, Gentile sovereignty is forever abol- 
 ished, and the reign of righteousness, peace, and love estab- 
 lished. This is the consummation which is reached in every 
 vis-ion and prophecy. And it is here that we find the unity 
 of revelation, which we have remarked in the whole course 
 of prophecy. The conquering Saviour, before whom evil is 
 utterly destroyed and all His enemies swept away, the tri- 
 umph of His power, and the universal sphere of His glory,
 
 53.2 The Close of Old Testament Prophecy. [Sepfe^ 
 
 the universality, perpetuity, and: blessedness of His kingdom, 
 in which man shall be saved, the earth blessed, and the name 
 of Jehovah glorified, are the same announced in Eden, re- 
 vealed anew to Abraham, in God r s sworn covenant, con- 
 firmed to David, and attested in all the prophets. The king- 
 dom, which the God of heaven shall set up, which shall not 
 be destroyed, but it shall break in pieces and consume all 
 other kingdoms, and it shall stand forever, is the same of 
 which He says : " Yet have I set my king on my holy hill of 
 Zion. Ask of Me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine 
 inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy pos- 
 session. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron ; Thou 
 shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." That one 
 like the Son of man, who came with the clouds of heaven, to 
 whom was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all 
 people, nations, and tongues, should serve Him, His dominion 
 is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and 
 His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, is He whom 
 the psalmist invokes : " Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O 
 most mighty, with Thy glory and Thy majesty. And in Thy 
 majesty ride prosperously, because of truth, and meekness, 
 and righteousness ; and Thy right hand shall teach Thee ter- 
 rible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the 
 king's enemies, whereby the people fall under Thee. Thy 
 throne, God, is forever and ever; the sceptre of Thy king- 
 dom is a right sceptre." 
 
 It can not escape observation, that the great burden of 
 these predictions rests upon the scenes which usher in the 
 coming triumph ; and, throughout the books, continual refer- 
 ence is made to a period which is expressively designated 
 " the time of the end." The futility of all efforts to find, in 
 these predictions, the intermediate history of nations, is mani- 
 fest from the assurance given to Daniel : " For the words are 
 closed up and sealed till the time of the end " — the time to 
 which they refer. It is amid the scenes that are opening 
 upon us that we are to find their great lessons illustrated. 
 Well for us if we be found among the wise who shall under- 
 stand. The veil is lifted up from the close of all earthly
 
 1857.] The Close vf Old Testament Prophecy. 533 
 
 history; the kingdoms of this world have all but run their 
 course of ungodliness ; the way is preparing for the return of 
 the Jews to Jerusalem, and then the final distribution of 
 sovereign power will be effected. The opposition of Satan 
 will find its grand embodiment in the man of sin, and its 
 grand confederacy in the league of the kings of the earth 
 with him ; Israel will pass through the last and deepest 
 waters of affliction, when, at last, a long despised but now 
 longed for Saviour shall appear, and scatter all His ene- 
 mies as chaff before the whirlwind. In the triumph which 
 succeeds, the people of God are taught to find their hope and 
 ■consolation amid all present trials. As in the case of Abra- 
 ham and David, the faithful Daniel is dismissed with the 
 assurance of a personal participation in the glory he has fore- 
 told. After a safe repose, he is assured that he shall " stand 
 in his lot in the end of the days." A man's lot was his share 
 in the inheritance of the promised land ; and the expression 
 assures Daniel of his share in the everlasting inheritance, and 
 of his resurrection from the dead in order to its enjoyment. 
 The prophets who received the testimony of Christ, subse- 
 quent to the return of the Jews from captivity, whatever the 
 more immediate occasion of their predictions, all point the 
 hopes of the faithful to the same great deliverance of the 
 future, which they descry beyond the great tribulation. Hag- 
 gai anticipates the shaking of earth and heaven, the over- 
 throw of the throne of kingdoms, and the destruction of the 
 strength of the heathen. Zecharias is very minute in his de- 
 scription of the apostacy and suffering of his people, and 
 their subsequent repentance; of the combination of the Gen- 
 tiles against them, and the apparent triumph of these insolent 
 invaders ; of the appearance of the Lord, and all His saints, 
 for the deliverance of Jerusalem in her extremity. The 
 very spot, on which the descending conqueror shall alight, is 
 pointed out : " His feet shall stand on that day on the Mount 
 of Olives." After a brief but terrible conflict with the assem- 
 bled nations, His sceptre shall be universally owned, and 
 "holiness to the Lord" shall be written upon every pos- 
 eessioia.
 
 5H The Close of Old Testament Prophecy. [Sept., 
 
 Malachi closes the sublime testimony of ancient prophets' 
 with the most withering rebuke of sin, and the most emphatic 
 warning of judgment upon priest and people. No prophet 
 was to arise after him, and there was now no hope for Israel 
 until the advent of the promised Saviour. Upon that event 
 the expectation of the faithful was now fixed. They were 
 left in the attitude in which the event found a few, among 
 the many faithless, " waiting for the consolation of Israel." 
 Salvation is promised to the Jews after all their defection, if 
 they received Him as their king ; but, failing in this, God 
 threatens to come and smite the land with a curse. He came 
 and was rejected ; and beneath that curse the land now lies. 
 The day of triumph is deferred till the times of the Gentiles 
 also shall be fulfilled. God is not slack concerning His 
 promises ; and, away beyond all present apostacy and deso- 
 lation, a day of triumph is seen. Ushered in, indeed, by deso- 
 lating judgments upon all the ungodly, but issuing in deliver- 
 ance and joy; for " to you that fear My name," saith the Lord, 
 " shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His 
 wings." Both the Old and NeW Testament closes with warn- 
 ings of the terror of that day to the world, and assurances of 
 triumph and glory to the people of God. And, however dif- 
 ferent the degrees of light in Which they stand revealed, the 
 objects of faith and hope, in all ages, are the same. This is 
 the lesson With which we close the book of Old Testament 
 prophecy — uniform, harmonious and' consistent in its testi- 
 mony; cumulative in light and power; and, with still expand- 
 ing grace, guiding us to the manifestation of the Life and the 
 Light — to the Word made flesh, who dwelt among us full of 
 grace and truth. 
 
 We defer, to a later period of our investigation, a full in- 
 quiry into the relations of Israel to the final accomplishment 
 of God's gracious purpose. Meanwhile, we remark that the 
 touching exhibition of God's mercy, in the restoration of a 
 portion of the race from the Babylonian Captivity, only fur- 
 nishes additional proof of the hopeless condition of fallen 
 humanity. Judgment and mercy alike failed to heal the 
 backslidings of the favored people. Righteousness could not
 
 1857.] The Close of Old Testament Prophecy. 535 
 
 be by the law. Never was God's providential care more re- 
 markably illustrated towards them than in the preservation 
 of their existence, as a separate people, during the period of 
 their restoration. Naturally feeble and defenceless, no effort 
 to extinguish their national existence prevailed. Alexander 
 the Great could not win them by favor; Antiochus could not 
 extirpate them by violence. Made tributary to Rome, they 
 yet maintained their peculiarities till the main end of their 
 restoration was accomplished, and Jesus, the Christ, the Son 
 of David, the Son of Abraham, appeared. 
 
 All God's dealings with them centred in Christ. All their 
 types forshadowed Him ; all the prophets heralded His com- 
 ing ; all events paved the way for Him ; and faith should 
 have been prepared joyfully to welcome Him. But all the 
 advantages they possessed, and all the cultivation bestowed 
 on them by God Himself, only served to show what human 
 nature is. He came to His own, and His own received Him 
 not. They killed the Prince of Life; and His death, the crown- 
 ing act of Israel's apostacy, brought upon them the threatened 
 judgment. The Lord has scattered them among all people, 
 from one end of the earth unto the other. Among these na- 
 tions they find no ease, neither can the sole of their feet 
 have rest ; but the Lord has given them there a trembling 
 heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind. 
 
 Yet, even here, God will find occasion to show the riches 
 of His mercy. Predictions of their dispersion are not so 
 abundant as predictions of their complete restoration and 
 enjoyment of interminable blessings under their once despised 
 King. The day is coming when they shall say, Blessed is He 
 that cometh in the name of the Lord. In the glorious re- 
 sults surely Jew and Gentile alike shall have occasion to ex- 
 claim : "0 the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and 
 knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, 
 and His ways past finding out ! For who hath known the 
 mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor? or who 
 hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed to him 
 again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all 
 things, to whom be glory forever. Amen."
 
 536 Comparison of the Christian [Sept,, 
 
 COMPARISON OF THE CHRISTIAN WITH THE 
 GRECIAN COURSE. 
 
 BY JOHN HOGG. 
 
 The Greeks, from the earliest period of their history, cele- 
 brated games, in which athletic exercises formed the principal 
 part, and where a prize was occasionally bestowed on literary 
 eminence. Hesiod informs us, that on one occasion he ob- 
 tained the prize for poetry; and Homer represents the vari- 
 ous chieftains, of the heroic age, contending with each in the 
 chariot, or foot race, while their respective followers were 
 engnged in boxing, wrestling, shooting with the bow, and 
 fencing with the spear. These games were intermitted during 
 the period that elapsed between the heroic and historic ages, 
 and they were afterwards revived, ostensibly out of respect 
 to ancient customs and institutions. The little state of Eleia 
 instituted the Olympic Games, in the neighborhood of Mount 
 Olympus, in obedience, as they alleged, to the Delphic Ora- 
 cles. The Pythoness, in the name of the god, commanded 
 these games to be celebrated at the close of every fourth 
 year; that the various Grecian republics should cease to fight 
 with each other during the festival, and till they could re- 
 turn to their own homes ; that the Eleians should be the 
 judges, and, as a reward of their piety, their territory was 
 pronounced sacred, and the severest curses was denounced 
 against invaders. These games soon became extremely 
 popular, so that, previous to the Christian era, a victory at 
 Olympia was deemed scarcely less honorable than a Roman 
 triumph. Thousands congregated to them from all parts of 
 Greece, and the various states vied with each other as to 
 whose champions should obtain the greatest renown. In 
 imitation of the Olympic Games, though they never attained 
 to equal distinction, were three others instituted, under the
 
 1857.] With the Grecian Course. 537 
 
 patronage of the state in which they were located — the Del- 
 phian, the Isthmian, and the Nemian. The Isthmian games 
 were celebrated every four years, in the neighborhood of 
 Corinth, and the other two were under the direction of the 
 Delphians and the Augeans. All these games were held at 
 intervals of four years, each taking its year between the 
 Olympic meetings, so that every summer there was a festival 
 common to all Greek freemen. 
 
 The exercises and the rewards, in all their contests, were 
 essentially the same. In the Homeric age, the rewards were 
 exceedingly valuable ; but, in later times, the crowns were 
 composed of fading leaves, showing that the real reward con- 
 sisted in the honor, and not in any sordid consideration. 
 The exercises consisted in leaping, running, throwing the 
 quoit, darting, and wrestling, to which the chariot race was 
 sometimes superadded. 
 
 Since the Grecian games were so celebrated throughout 
 the world, it was natural for Paul, when writing to Greeks, 
 to compare the superior honors of the Christian to the Olympic 
 course. " Know ye not," says he, when writing to the Corin- 
 thians, " that they who run in a race run all, but one receiveth 
 the prize? So run that ye may obtain. And every man that 
 striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now 
 they do it to obtain a corruptible crown ; but we an incor- 
 ruptible." 1 Corinthians, ix, 24 — 27. The argument of this 
 passage is : If the aspirants for honorable distinction among 
 men cheerfully submit to the most painful sacrifices, and to 
 the greatest privations, how much more should those submit 
 to trials and hardships who contend for an immortal crown, 
 and a kingdom that can not be moved. But the force of the 
 apostle's reasoning will be still more apparent, when we con- 
 sider the points of resemblance that subsist between the 
 Christian and the Grecian course. 
 
 I. Preparation, in both cases, was requisite. Those who 
 contended in the Grecian race course had to submit to a long 
 period of preparatory discipline. They abstained from every 
 species of food that had the slightest tendency to relax the 
 system ; all wines were prohibited, and almost every species
 
 538 Comparison of the Christian [Sept., 
 
 of hardship and fatigue were endured that could fit the mind 
 for suffering, and the body for exertion. Before commencing 
 the contest, the runners laid aside their garments lest they 
 should impede their progress ; their bodies were anointed 
 with oil so as to make them flexible; and then they ran with 
 all their might in order to obtain the prize. Now, the be- 
 liever, in consequence of the race that he requires to run, 
 must not only avoid what is sinful in itself, but also every- 
 thing that has the slightest tendency to mar his heavenly 
 course, or to check the upward wrestling of his feelings and 
 affections to the throne of God. Some indulgences may not 
 be in themselves sinful ; but if they have the tendency to 
 render him less watchful and less attentive to his eternal in- 
 terests ; if they fix his affections more firmly on a perishing 
 world, and engross his time to the exclusion of eternal reali- 
 ties, then it is his duty as carefully to avoid such pleasures as 
 would the Grecian racer any enjoyment that might unfit him 
 for contending successfully in the course. Thus Paul exhorts 
 the Hebrews : "Lay aside every weight and the sin that doth 
 so easily beset us ; " the sin to which we are peculiarly prone, 
 and which would as effectually deprive them of the heavenly 
 crown as a weight, or the long, flowing robe of eastern coun- 
 tries would mar the speed of the racer, and exclude him from 
 the much envied reward. " Every man that striveth for the 
 mastery is temperate in all things." 
 
 II. In the Grecian games, the course was carefully marked 
 out, and judges were appointed to decide the prize. The 
 competitors were required to run in the course that had been 
 previously marked out, with the greatest minuteness and pre- 
 cision ; and whoever deviated from that path, for a single 
 instant, forfeited the prize, though he might first reach the 
 goal. In allusion to this circumstance, Paul writes to Timo- 
 thy: " If a man strive for the mastery, yet is he not crowned, 
 except he strive lawfully." " So run," says he, when writing 
 to the Corinthians, " that ye may obtain ; " implying that a 
 man may run in such a manner as not to obtain the prize. 
 Now the believer must run in a prescribed path, in a way 
 which, commencing at the foot of the cross, is destined to tcr-
 
 1857.] With the Grecian Course. 539 
 
 urinate in everlasting glory. He is commanded to " run the 
 race set before him," and, like Moses, he must have respect 
 unto the recompense of the reward. This is " the good old 
 way" travelled by patriarchs, apostles, and martyrs, who, by 
 the light and the lustre of a holy example, still guide many 
 a weary pilgrim to the city which hath foundations, " whose 
 builder and maker is God." As distinguished from such in- 
 dividuals, many run with earnestness and vigor, and yet come 
 short of the promised reward. Some try to merit heaven by 
 their own deeds, and they presumptously imagine that they 
 can safely appear before God in a creature's righteousness. 
 Others think that they can effect a compromise between the 
 law and the Gospel, and that if they do what they can, Christ 
 will do the rest. They regard our Redeemer, not as their 
 Saviour, but the maker up of their deficiencies, who only puts 
 them in the way of saving themselves. Such individuals run 
 with alacrity and perseverance; but, because they are not in 
 the prescribed path, they come short of the promised blessing. 
 IIT. The crown was placed full in view of the ancient racer, 
 as an inducement for him to strive to the very utmost. The 
 crown, made of pine leaves, was placed before the judges on 
 a tripod, so as to be seen by both spectators and competitors. 
 Under the influence of such motives, the contest was fre- 
 quently so keen that the successful candidate only reached 
 the goal by a single foot, or neck, or the stretching out of 
 his hands before his rivals ; and, in instances not a few, the 
 conqueror has expired in the arms of victory. To such des- 
 perate efforts, Paul alludes in his epistle to the Philippians : 
 " This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are be- 
 hind, and reaching forth to things which are before, I press 
 toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in 
 Christ Jesus." In order to induce the believer to put forth 
 his utmost efforts, so that " no man take his crown," the Sa- 
 viour exhibits the bright recompense of reward, and when 
 his race is ended, and the victory won, he shall receive the 
 crown of righteousness that fadeth not away. Thus Paul, 
 anticipating his martyrdom, speaking of his career under the 
 double figure of a race and a battle, says : " I have fought the
 
 540 Comparison of the Christian [Sept», 
 
 good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith ; 
 henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, 
 which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me at that day, 
 and not to me only, but to all those also that love His ap- 
 pearing." 
 
 IV. The competitor, in the ancient games, was surrounded 
 by his friends, who stimulated him to exertion. At the Olym- 
 pic Games, vast multitudes assembled from all parts of Greece, 
 so that the sight must have been truly imposing. The numer- 
 ous candidates felt that the eyes of assembled Greece were 
 upon them ; and they were excited to the utmost exertion by 
 the voice and presence of brothers, kinsmen, and countrymen, 
 whose feelings were roused to the highest pitch of intensity, 
 and who felt as if their own and their country's honor were 
 bound up with that of their victorious fellow-citizen. Paul 
 employs an argument, derived from this very circumstance, 
 to induce the Hebrews to run the race set before them. " See- 
 ing we also," says he, " are compassed about with so great a 
 cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin 
 that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with perseverance 
 the race set before us." In the preceding chapter, the apos- 
 tle brings under review a " great cloud of witnesses " — a vast 
 number of Old Testament worthies — who had run the Chris- 
 tian course, and then entered upon their eternal reward. He 
 then speaks of them as the spectators of our actions, and as 
 cheering us on in our path to heaven. It is a reality, as well 
 as figure of speech, when Paul represents all the pious of past 
 ages looking down on his converts, and waving their palms 
 of victory to induce others to follow them along the narrow 
 path by which they have gone from a dying world to an in- 
 corruptible crown. Expanding this idea, Cyprian, in the 
 third century, thus beautifully exhorts his converts : " "Why 
 are we not in haste to see our country and home, to greet our 
 elders ? There awaits us a multitude of those whom we love, 
 fathers, brothers, and children, who are secure already of their 
 own salvation, and concerned only for ours. What mutual 
 joy to them, and to us, when we come into their presence and 
 into their embrace ! "
 
 1857.] With the Grecian Course. 541 
 
 It was necessary that the runner, in order to obtain the 
 prize, should continue his exertions till he reached the goal. 
 Hence the apostle remonstrates with those who appeared at 
 first to outstrip many competitors, and who yet stopped short 
 in their Christian career. " Ye did run well, who did hinder 
 you ? " He speaks of running with patience, or rather with 
 perseverance, the course set before us. This language une- 
 quivocally proves that, if we would obtain the promised re- 
 ward, we must " hold fast the beginning of our confidence 
 steadfast unto the end." The prize is not promised to the 
 racer who fights and is at last overcome, but to the conqueror. 
 " To him that overcometh," says the Saviour, " will I grant to 
 sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame and am 
 sit down with my Father on His throne." 
 
 V. In both the Olympic and Christian course, the victor 
 is crowned and highly honored. In the ancient games, after 
 the decision of the judges, the victor was crowned at the 
 sound of a trumpet. He received the congratulations of his 
 friends and countrymen, and was regarded as the happiest of 
 mortals. He was conveyed in an ornamented chariot to his 
 native city; part of the wall was sometimes broken down for 
 his reception ; he was exempted from all taxes, and a portion 
 was given for his sustenance out of the public treasury. Now, 
 Christ is the righteous judge who will confer on the believer, 
 at the termination of his course, the crown of immortal 
 felicity. At the sound of the archangel's trumpet, the dead 
 in Christ shall spring immortal from the tomb; they shall be 
 crowned in the presence of that universe that witnessed their 
 arduous struggle, and they shall be honored by the angels as 
 the excellent ones of the earth — as Jehovah's jewels. 
 
 But, notwithstanding these points of similarity that ob- 
 tained between the Olympic and Christian course, there are 
 many points of striking diversity. In the Grecian games all 
 slaves were prohibited from entering the lists, and only those 
 of pure Greek origin were permitted to contend for the prize. 
 But, in the Gospel, there is no distinction of country or of 
 clime. There is neither Jew nor Greek, circumcision nor un- 
 eircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ
 
 542 Comparison of the Christian [Sept., 
 
 is all and in all. While the religions of heathenism divided 
 men into various races, essentially superior and inferior to 
 each other; and while the Jewish religion, instituted by God 
 himself, drew a broad distinction between the Jews and the 
 rest of the world, the Gospel addresses all, without excep- 
 tion, as sinners ; and the Saviour speaks to all in the same 
 gracious language : " Him that cometh to me I will in nowise 
 cast out." 
 
 In the Grecian games, though all contended in the race, 
 yet only one received the prize. " They who run in a race 
 run all, but one receiveth the prize." But the case is very 
 different with the believer; for the heavenly reward is equally 
 conferred on all who strive lawfully. Thus Paul reminded 
 Timothy, that the Lord Jesus would not only give the crown 
 of life to him, but to all those also who love His appearing. 
 Instead of this feeling of absolute certainty, lulling the Chris- 
 tian into a fatal lethargy, till the period of effort is past, it is 
 intended to excite him to more vigorous and persevering ex- 
 ertions, forasmuch as he " knows that his labors shall not be 
 in vain in the Lord." 
 
 The victor among the Greeks was crowned with a garland 
 of perishing leaves ; while the believer receives a crown of 
 life that fadeth not away. The crown, in the ancient con- 
 test, was a garland of parsley, or pine, or olive leaves. In 
 itself it was of no value whatever, and it soon faded on the 
 wearer's brow. Hence Paul says, when contrasting the Chris- 
 tian with the Olympic crown : " Every man that striveth for 
 the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to 
 obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible." The 
 apostle Peter describes the believer's inheritance as " incor- 
 ruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away." Heaven is 
 described under the figure of a crown, but epithets are given 
 to it, and descriptions are superadded, which show that it far 
 transcends the highest earthly dignity. An earthly crown 
 is, in its own nature, perishing, and the greenest laurels fre- 
 quently wither on the brow; but heaven is styled an incor- 
 ruptible crown, which, instead of losing its lustre by time, 
 shall glow with ever growing radiance as eternity itself rolls
 
 1857.] With the Grecian Course. 543 
 
 on. It is a crown of life, as distinguishing it from the dia- 
 dem of dying mortals, and it imparts a happy existence to its 
 wearer; while mournful experience has borne out the truth 
 of the sentiment respecting the highest earthly dignity: " Un- 
 easy lies the head that wears the crown." It is a crown of 
 righteousness as contrasting it with those earthly crowns 
 which are purchased by blood, and secured by iniquity; a 
 crown of glory which elevates man to the true dignity of his 
 nature, and which confers a joy whose maturity is supreme 
 bliss. 
 
 The inference which Paul deduced from this subject is : 
 If the competitor in the ancient games contended so earn- 
 estly for a garland of pine leaves, how much more eagerly 
 should the believer contend for a crown that can not fade, 
 and a kingdom that can not be moved. The honors of earth 
 may either never be obtained, or, if possessed, they may never 
 impart the pleasure they promised. In prospect they flatter, 
 but in possession they deceive. They appear, like the dis- 
 tant mountain top, illuminated by the setting sun, gilded with 
 resplendent glory; but, when we toil up the steep ascent and 
 reach the wished-for spot, instead of the delightful arbor and 
 pleasant flowers which fancy had painted, it is cold, and bleak, 
 and cheerless, and far less comfortable than the sheltered 
 plain we left below. Such are the choicest pleasures of this 
 world. But the enjoyments of religion never fade; for they 
 are styled glory — there is a play on the Hebrew word glory, 
 which also signifies tceight — a weight of glory — an exceed- 
 ing weight of glory — an exceeding, yea, even an eternal 
 weight of glory, in comparison of which the severest and 
 most protracted sorrows and sufferings of time shall appear, 
 in the retrospect, as a very little thing. 
 
 The apostle Paul, when contemplating this magnificent 
 prospect, sometimes expresses the deepest solicitude lest he 
 should come short of the promised reward. " I keep under my 
 body, and bring it into subjection," says he, referring to the 
 temperance and self-denial practised by the runners, or the 
 athlete in the ancient games, "lest that by any means when 
 I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."
 
 544 The Life and Solace of a Waiting Church, [Sept., 
 
 The word preached means to cry as a herald ; the reference 
 being to the crier, or herald, who invited others to contend 
 for the prize, and as he might be cither a slave, or a foreigner, 
 he would be prohibited from entering the lists. Now, Paul 
 expresses the deepest solicitude and concern, lest, after having 
 acted as a herald, in inviting others to run the Christian race, 
 he himself should be ultimately rejected. This language 
 teaches the fearful truth, that an unconverted minister may 
 preach the Gospel to others, and thus become the instrument 
 of their salvation, while his own soul is lost. He may be 
 merely a pipe to convey the water of life to others, without 
 deriving from it any material or saving benefit. He may be 
 a mere helpless, bloodless, fleshless skeleton, holding in its 
 bony fingers a lamp to guide the onward path of other, while 
 it is incapable of deriving the slightest advantage from its 
 cheering radiance. It is a thought too appalling to be lightly 
 contemplated, that a minister may act the herald's part with 
 fidelity, and invite others to the Saviour, and be himself an> 
 eternal reprobate. 
 
 THE LIFE AND SOLACE OF A WAITING CHURCH, IN 
 THE FINAL COMING OF HER LORD. 
 
 BY T. H. NEWTON. 
 
 Professor Bush, in commenting on the early prevalence of 
 Millenarianism, ventures to put forth the subjoined sentiment : 
 " Is it any disparagement to the wisdom of the Most High, 
 that He should so have framed the word of truth that certain 
 portions of it might be susceptible of an interpretation which, 
 though natural, was not necessary, though fallacious, was yet
 
 1857.] In the Final Coming of her Lord. 545 
 
 feasible, and adapted to minister, at particular seasons and 
 under peculiar circumstances, the most solid support and con- 
 solation to its disciples? " Such views are not confined to- 
 Mr. Bush ; but are neither just nor creditable, and deserve 
 more pity than respect. It is not only a reflection upon the 
 intelligence, veracity, and honesty of the early confessors 
 themselves, but can not fail of that " disparagement of the 
 Most High," of which Mr. Bush thinks his theory clear. "We 
 never learned from God's Word itself that it had been made 
 to fill with a " natural, feasible," though " fallacious " delu- 
 sion, a set of men in a particular era ; yea r according to Mr. 
 Bush, the very first persons who adopted the Scriptures as a 
 rule of faith and practice ! That the primary object of the 
 Bible is to delude, may suit the insinuating genius of Gibbon 
 (who really makes the insinuation, and is perhaps the father 
 of that by Bush) ; but we can not conceive how it may be 
 countenanced by any one who holds that the Scriptures are 
 able to make one " wise unto salvation," and " thoroughly 
 furnish him to all good works." And, to call it the " wis- 
 dom " of God to make direct dupes of men, by addressing to 
 them words of the nature of these innuendoes, seems rather 
 to level Divine wisdom to the recourse of a crafty witling, to 
 an amiable cunning, an innocent Jesuitism ; to anything but 
 the majestic, pure wisdom of Him w T ho is the Father of lights r 
 and who has no " variableness, neither shadow of turning." 
 And how the " most solid support and consolation " could, by 
 any process, be extorted from what was intrinsically decep- 
 tive, ambiguous, and mythical, is again beyond any ingenuity 
 or accomplishment familiar to us, or supposable in the case. We 
 can not conceive anything which can afford any solid support 
 or consolation, but truth itself. If this were really the Word 
 of God, we could well lay it aside, so far as its connection 
 with eternity were involved, as " old wives' fables," instead of 
 building on it as a sure foundatieaa, the pillar and ground of 
 the truth. It is the office of the "truth to make us free," and 
 not to bring us into bondage to a pious fraud. We can not, 
 therefore, tender the least sympathy to the Professor, when 
 ie delivers this additional piece of sacred metaphysics : " We 
 
 YOL. II. — HO. IX. 12
 
 546 The Life and Solace of a Waiting Church, [Sept., 
 
 have no difficulty in supposing that the Millenarian error was, 
 in a peculiar manner, winked at, in the early ages of Chris- 
 tianity, and the belief of it was calculated to produce, and 
 did produce, results of a most auspicious character." "We 
 must wholly dissent from Mr. Bush's metaphysics, inasmuch 
 as it is not the province of error to achieve good ; nor is it 
 error's due to receive praise. And, further, we believe, surely 
 and simply, God's statements set forth in His own Oracles, 
 and that they teach just the reverse of all this. They positively 
 warn us against building on sand ; against building, even on 
 a good foundation, with hay, or stubble, or wood, as the super- 
 structure will be tested by fire, as well as the foundation by 
 water. We believe, confidently, that, in taking the Bible in 
 its simple teaching, we are not following a mere " cunningly 
 devised fable," but that we are following a heavenly chart, 
 which will do aught but guide us into winds of doctrine, or 
 wreck us upon the subtle sands of craft or error. Nor can 
 we altogether understand how " the Millenarian error was, 
 in a peculiar manner, winked at, in the early ages of Chris- 
 tianity." We are told that, in a time of ignorance, God did 
 wink at a certain practice ; that is, treated it with forbear- 
 ance. But we are assured that we, in these last times, that is, 
 under the New Testament dispensation, are passed beyond 
 the era of ignorance, and that, therefore, we may look for no 
 winkiug. And the apostle Paul, by attaching to his asser- 
 tion the solemn assurance of the last judgment by Jesus 
 Christ himself, gives a particular denial to any such unwor- 
 thy hypothesis. This precludes, therefore, any winking at 
 error, either from the Divine Judge, or His apostles, or His 
 followers ; allowing which, would reduce them both to dupes 
 and hypocrites. It is sad that those who should be teachers 
 of others, run so easily into positions which directly impeach 
 good morality, and which so flatly oppose the direct teach- 
 ings of God's Word. It is the part of those who know not 
 God ; those who fear Him cleave to the " law and to the 
 testimony." 
 
 As an advocate of the literal reign of our blessed Master 
 upon the earth, which was the animating hope of those ancient
 
 1857.] In the Final Coming of her Lord. 547 
 
 disciples, whom Prof. Bush and others deem to have been 
 advantageously duped by their entertaining error, we can not 
 but rejoice to notice the testimony which these opponents give 
 to the excellent joy which their hope imparted. The mistake 
 of these ancient saints lay in their miscalculating the time of 
 Christ's earthly reign, and not in the actuality of the reign 
 itself; which Bush calls, with another singular obliquity, 
 one of the " grosser forms of prophetic truta." We gladly 
 acknowledge that the conception of Christ's second advent is 
 fraught with joy. The doctrine is essentially fitted to impart 
 joy; it was revealed for that explicit purpose; not only for the 
 first professors, but for the saints in all time — until He come. 
 To the believer it is no small joy to anticipate his own per- 
 fection. This life is a life of trial, affliction, sorrow, grief, dis- 
 appointment, heart-burning, doubt, and dismal shade, notwith- 
 standing his share of peace given not as the world giveth ; 
 and despite glimpses of holy, heavenly rest and satisfaction; 
 even favored as he is with the bright cheer of celestial light, 
 which the Saviour lets down upon His humblest child from 
 His glorious abode at the right hand of God. His privileges 
 are precious, but dashed withal. He is a son of God, but 
 also a child of sorrow. He is promised sufficiency of every 
 good, but that good he scarce discerns — yea, often mistakes 
 and asks amiss. He is promised and possesses the Spirit, but 
 he is still encumbered with the flesh. He is promised songs 
 in the night — good, hearty, joyous songs— but he is also 
 compelled to chant dirges of most gloomy strain, or groan 
 forth requiems of bitterest melody. He walks by faith, is 
 held by a heavenly hand ; this is a privilege — a favor — 
 grace ; but only by contrast with those who walk with no 
 guide; for this favored one treads a desert — a narrow way 
 set with a hedge of thorns. He marches expecting victory, 
 but through a battle field ; he must fight if he would win. 
 He expects a crown, but he must for some time bear tLe cross. 
 
 Burns sang : 
 
 « I've seen yon weary winter sun 
 
 Twice forty times return ; 
 
 And every time has added proofs 
 
 That man was made to mourn."
 
 §& The Life and' Sblace of a? Waiting CTiurcE, [Sept, 
 
 But the language of the believer is often as sad and mel- 
 ancholy: 
 
 ** When I turn my eyes within, 
 
 All is dark, and vain, and wild • 
 Filled with unbelief and sin, 
 
 Can I deem myself a child ? 
 If I pray, or hear, or read, 
 
 Sin is found with all I do f 
 Ye that love the Lord indeed, 
 Tell me, Ib it thus- with you? ** 
 
 0*r he 13 found bemoaning thus in the languishing stages 
 ®f his pilgrimage : 
 
 ** I would' not live alway, thus fettered' by sin ; 
 Temptation without and corruption within : 
 E'en the rapture of pardon is mingled with fearey 
 And the cup of thanksgiving with penitent tears." 
 
 Even the apostles groaned, along with the whole creation, 
 sending forth an uninterrupted dirge of wailing and sorrow, 
 down to the end of the present dispensation. The vision- 
 favored apostle, even though carried to the light of the third? 
 heavens, saw no perfect happiness till the dawn of full redemp* 
 tion — to wit : " the redemption of the body," Doubtless the 
 soul, in its intermediate state, is free from' pain, and sin, and 
 sorrow. Lazarus was comforted in the bosom of Abraham ;. 
 he was happy; he would not have exchanged his situations 
 for the late sores, and scorns, and crumbs of earth. Away 
 from his poor, decaying, insulted body, he was far happier 
 than with it. Yet, in the proper sense ©f the word, his happi- 
 ness waa not perfect. It was yet lacking. The grand seal 
 of salvation was yet wanting, the redemption of the body* 
 Its reunion with the spirit. This is taught in the great resur- 
 rection of Jesus. Not till then had He led captivity captive - t 
 not till then had He shown that the grave appeared in vain ; 
 not till then had He written that new song of triumph : "O 
 death I where is thy s-ting? O grave ! where is thy victory? " 
 And how desirable, how refreshing, to hope soon to enter 
 upon that victorious enjoyment. Till this be accomplished, 
 fche whole creation groaneth, for till then the curse is not?
 
 1857.] In the Final doming of Tier lord. 549 
 
 fully removed. It need not make us wonder, then, tliat the 
 ancient saints should manifest a holy impatience to eee that 
 ■day of joy when Christ sliould be crowned Lord of all, the 
 Tittermost parte of the earth being His, and His saints enjoy- 
 ing the felicity of a full redemption with Him. No wonder 
 if, amid the instruments of torture, constructed 60 frequently 
 and so malignantly about them, they should sigh for the burden 
 «oon to be removed, and repeat so often, "Even -so come, Lorfl 
 •Jesus; come quickly!"" They <3Id not desire a thousand years 
 of longer separation from their bodies, but wished to be 
 •clothed upon with the house from heaven, that no remains of 
 •death should sorrowfully confront them ; but that " mortality 
 might be swallowed up of life." To these holy sufferers, 
 these persecuted heirs of salvation, this -early entering into 
 such a state of perfection, and forever leaving their former 
 disabilities, was a true source of solace, anticipation, and 
 comfort From its nature it must be so. A thousand years 
 as only as a day to Crod, but to do one of Sis creatures. 
 
 Doubtless a great-expansion will attend the human faculties, 
 when the creature, -saved and glorified byigrace, shall see Jesus, 
 and be like Him. It doth not, indeed, fully appear tons what we 
 shall be. But we 6hall still be finite. A thousand years of -more 
 exalted bliss may by no means beconsidered as of -no account. 
 It is far better to be with Christ, a. perfect human being, than 
 to be with Him a disembodied spirit, and the body yet wait- 
 ing in bondage, in hope of deliverance. Fruition must be 
 preferable to expectancy. These and related truths were 
 fresh and operative in the minds of the primitive people of 
 God. All their graces were lively. They could easily die for 
 the sake of the Lord Jesus. They could suffer the loss of all 
 (things for Him, and count them but dung- For His sake 
 ithey sold their ; possessi®ns ; for His sake abandoned fame 
 and friends. They lived as in His presence, with their 
 " conversation in heaven ; whence they looked also for the 
 Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ ; who shall 'change," says the 
 waiting, and lioping, and suffering apostle, " our vile body 
 that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, accord- 
 ring to the working whereby He is able to .subdue all things
 
 550 The Life and Solace of a Waiting Church, [Sept., 
 
 to Himself." The apostle expects that he will be " perfect " 
 when he arrives at that period of triumph and rejoicing — 
 when with his Redeemer he shall stand in the latter day 
 upon the earth. Then shall death be swallowed up in vic- 
 tory. We must insist that a thousand years of such victori- 
 ous bliss, which the second advent of Christ insures to the 
 believer, is, when so apprehended, calculated to inspire more 
 than common ardor. It is especially calculated to be the 
 life and comfort of the Church "in the wilderness." 
 
 When Voltaire came to his last end, and the transitory 
 felicities of earth were found unable to give him further at- 
 tendance, in wild desire he exclaimed : " Doctor, I will give 
 you half of what I am worth, if you will give me six months to 
 live ! " Six months is an almost inappreciable period com- 
 pared with a thousand years ; and Voltaire's months were 
 only the usual, comfortless, alloyed ones of the world. If 
 Voltaire sighed so ardently for this as a superlative boon, 
 much more should God's saints aspire to a happiness of two 
 thousand times greater duration, and incomparably superior 
 in degree. A thousand years of life with Jesus — of a life 
 unsullied by tears — undefined by sin — disencumbered of the 
 curse! what is it! or rather what is it not to a believer^ 
 contemplation? We can not wonder that the primitive con- 
 fessors, harassed, tortured, " destitute, afflicted, tormented," 
 should cast a longing, aching look, through the vistas of per- 
 secution, to the period when Jesus should Himself give to 
 their labors such a termination as to place them beyond the 
 possibility of a recurrence of suffering, and crown them with 
 the crown of life, the only full reward of their adhesion to 
 the cause of their despised King. 
 
 Nor must we overlook another consideration conjoined 
 with the last. There is not merely the reward of personal 
 gratification, but the blessed prospect of the complete tri- 
 umph of the cause of the cross. The troubles of the Church 
 are personal to every member of Christ's spiritual body. The 
 fluctuations of the Church militant give pain to the earnest 
 laborer for her progress. Sad to the believer's heart is it to 
 know that, under the leadership of any but its Head, the
 
 1857.] In the Final Coming of her Lord. 551 
 
 Church is but in the wilderness. It is only on the way to 
 the land of promise; the oasis, however pleasant to Israel, 
 is not Canaan itself. God has not, in His Word, led us to 
 look for the final triumph of the Gospel until His second com- 
 ing. Then He comes to exercise His kingship, not to suffer 
 humiliation, without sin, unto solvation ; to destroy by the 
 brightness of ITis coming all that now exalt themselves 
 against Him. His foremost enemies then will be favored if 
 even covered with rocks and mountains, and will ask it as a 
 boon. Now, however, mockers take courage by the delay of 
 His coming, and torment the children of His own household. 
 They that live godly shall suffer persecution until the present 
 dispensation be changed. That is the order till the end, 
 when " time shall be no longer, and the mystery of God be 
 finished." With all his rejoicings, the zealous servant of Je- 
 hovah is found very often, with his harp on the willows, 
 weeping, whilst taunted to sing in a strange land. The con- 
 version of the world is found to be a slow process, even under 
 our new, glorious, ministration of the Spirit. 
 
 Thus writes the lion-hearted reformer: "A clandestine but 
 most dangerous persecution is now going on against us. Our 
 ministry is despised. We ourselves are hated, persecuted, and 
 Buffered to die of hunger. See what is now the fate of God's 
 Word." " The nobles only think of extorting ; the towns think 
 but of themselves ; so that the kingdom is divided against 
 itself, just when it should be confronting the legion of un- 
 chained devils which compose the Turkish army. The world 
 has been sated with God's Word, and taken a strange anti- 
 pathy to it." This was when the translation of the Bible was 
 scarce dry from Luther's pen, when it should have been sup- 
 posed most precious. Was it wonderful that such experiences 
 drank up Luther's cheerfulness, and left his cup dashed with 
 bitter dregs? What now was his solace in these times of 
 desperation ? Was it the hope of a brighter day, the last 
 one of this dispensation? Nay: but when pointed to the 
 " better things to happen in the next fifty years of the world," 
 his reply was : "God forbid, it would be worse than all the 
 past. Good God ! come with the day of judgment! I would
 
 552 The Life and Solace of a Waiting Churchy [Sept., 
 
 eat this chaplet (of flinty agates), to have it be to-morrow." 
 " I do believe that I am the great trumpet which announces 
 the coming of our Lord. Therefore, weak and failing as I 
 may be, and small as may be the sound that I can make the 
 world hear, my voice rings in the ears of the angels of hea- 
 ven, who will take up the strain after us and complete the 
 solemn call ! Amen, and amen ! Then ' there will be a new 
 heaven and a new earth,' much larger and vaster than in our 
 day." " I trust these are all signs of the approaching end 
 of all things. Grace and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 The world hastens to its end. 71 
 
 These extracts are not made from any second-hand comj ila- 
 tion, quadrated to the views of some ardent Millenarian, who 
 might wish to have the influence of Luther's testimony to the 
 belief in Christ's second advent, and with it the millennium 
 and true glory of the Church. It happens well that Michelet, 
 one least likely to make excerpts from the reformer to suc- 
 cor modern Chilaism, has brought out the sentiments of the 
 apostle of the great reformation. And by them we are led 
 plainly to the true ground of his hope and solace amid the 
 clouds that hid the Church's glory from his present view. 
 This hope gave life to his labors, and persistency to his for- 
 titude. It was an anchor to his soul, sure, too, and steadfast. 
 He knew the world too well — he saw men too really — he un- 
 derstood God's divine plan too thoroughly — not to see and feel 
 just as he did. Only the Lion of the tribe of Judah is capable 
 of opening this grand and final page of the providence of God. 
 
 John Knox ardently desired the world's conversion, as all 
 must willingly admit. He laboriously endeavored to bring 
 it about. His faith can not be impeached when it is remem- 
 bered how its power made him fearless before rulers, and un- 
 flinching in the presence of opposition. Yet he had fainted, 
 if the world's conversion must be accomplished by the ma- 
 chinery of the present dispensation. For, says he : " To re- 
 form the face of the whole earth, never was, nor ever shall be, 
 till that righteous King and Judge appear for the restoration 
 of all things." He labored and waited, was comforted and sol- 
 aced by that" blessed hope," the bright appearing of the Lord.
 
 1857.] In the Final Coming of her Lord. 553 
 
 Chalmers, whose loyalty to Jesus and whose theological 
 soundness no one can question, (for his abundant labors will 
 eternally follow him and speak his praise), never expected 
 the new heavens and new earth from the operation of the in- 
 strumentalities of the present dispensation. He must, there- 
 fore, have ceased to act therefor, from the simple sinking of a 
 heart made sick by hope deferred. Yet his herculean activities 
 were kept up to their intensest strain, animated by the cor- 
 dial "of that blessed hope" (to give his own words): "The 
 coming of our Lord, who will destroy all adversaries, and 
 will dissipate every darkening influence, by the brightness of 
 His appearance. I desire to cherish a more habitual and 
 practical faith than heretofore in that coming, which even 
 the first Christians were called to hope for with all earnest- 
 ness." Who knew more accurately the resources of thc^ pres- 
 ent dispensation, and the power of the Spirit of Jehovah, 
 than he who reformed the religion of a nation? who founded 
 a church organization more abounding in primitive activity 
 than any which exists? who, instrumental!}', laid the founda- 
 tion of its prosperity, and eliminated from its constitution the 
 elements of its weakness, and from its charter the interpolal ions 
 and decrees of men ? We can not lightly leave unestimated the 
 abiding convictions of such men as Luther, Knox, and Chal- 
 mers ; men who dared the heat of battle, and who endured 
 the severest toils, and who cheerfully submitted to "si>oiiing 
 of goods" :or the kingdom's sake. Nor must we leave un- 
 heeded the peculiar hope, the ruling feeling, the guiding star, 
 that gave impulse to their convictions, energy to their ac- 
 tions, and aim to their whole life. They knew the Spirit of 
 power, now as uble to convert as ever; they were < onscious 
 that God's Word was still the sword of the Spirit ; they knew 
 that God had still men in His Church instinct with desire to 
 reform — men mighty in the Scriptures, imbued with human 
 learning, skilled in controversy, practical in what belonged 
 to moving the human will, oratorical, logical, brilliant ; men 
 who were unrivalled by any other men of any other profes- 
 sion ; knew of the elegant exposer of the sly and industrious 
 Gibbon ; of the astute metaphysicians who had untied the
 
 554 The Life and Solace of a Waiting Church, [Sept., 
 
 sophistical knots of that chief priest of scepticism, Hume ; of 
 the men who had cast aside the shafts ol ridicule thrown by 
 the Voltaires, and Rousseaus, and Paines, the notorious cham- 
 pions of irreligion ; of men versed in antiquity, able to ex- 
 pose false testimony; they all knew that the age each lived 
 in, which each moved and stamped, was equal to itself. 
 But they also saw how small the impression each and all 
 could effect. They rather labored like Sysiphus, toiling but 
 doing comparatively nothing. They had learned, too, from 
 the sure word of prophecy, that thus it must continue to the 
 end. Wheat must be corrupted by tares, both growing to- 
 gether, to the end of the world. With all the golden pros- 
 pects of a so-called spiritual millennium, associated with 
 it must be a "falling away; '' " the love of many is to wax 
 cold," and because iniquity abounds ; as, in the demoralized 
 days of Noah, they ate, drank, and sensualized, so shall it be 
 at the coming of the Son of man. Shall He find faith on the 
 earth? But by His appearing shall righteousness shine forth, 
 and the desert blossom as the rose. Then shall His cause 
 and people be triumphant, they being kings and priests with 
 Him, and all nations shall flow into His glorious kingdom. 
 Uncertainty shall be replaced by realization. The bread cast 
 upon the waters shall be seen btfore, and not after, many days; 
 for a child then shall so thrive on Divine nourishment as to 
 seem one hundred years old. There shall be no danger of re- 
 trogression, but the truth shall prosper. Persecution shall be 
 no probability, for " the government shall be upon the shoul- 
 ders" of Him who has all power, and who turneth as He 
 will the hearts of the children of men. 
 
 Such are some of the considerations that have given life, 
 and joy, and confidence to the missionaries of a later date. 
 Theirs has not been the enthusiasm of a new and untried 
 scheme, gilded by religious romance. But missionary experi- 
 ence of more than fifty years has still left much land to be 
 possessed. In that time how little has been accomplished. 
 Popery goes as proudly as ever. As many as ever still pro- 
 fess Mohammed to be God's prophet. China and India are 
 still pagan, and the disturbances of cruel wars, and the poi-
 
 1857.] In the Final Coming of her Lord. 555 
 
 son of intrigue between rival Christian nations, makes a 
 strong antidote to the success of the real Gospel of Christ. 
 
 Hence -writes the late Rev. W. M. Lowrie : " I have adopted 
 many of the Millcnarian views in regard to the second advent 
 of Christ ; they seem to make many things, which were dark 
 before, much more plain and encouraging. I find much satis- 
 faction in them. I have lost none of my confidence in preach- 
 ing, but have felt it increased by means of these views." 
 
 So the more experienced and ardent Dr. Poor, of Ceylon, 
 asserts his conviction " that the second advent is to take place 
 at the introduction of the millennium ; and that Christ is 
 coming to redeem the earth." 
 
 Thus feel and think the men who shrink not from toil, but 
 bear the burden and heat of the day; men earnest for the 
 hour when all nations shall know God's salvation. And thus 
 is it, too, with multitudes less noted but equally zealous for 
 the spread of universal grace. They now behold depression, 
 but by faith see victory perched on the banner of their King, 
 when He comes to lead His own battles, going forth conquer- 
 ing and to conquer. 
 
 Thus, too, it appeared to the pre-millennial poet, when lie 
 
 wrote: 
 
 "And suddenly 
 
 The armies of the saints inibannered stood 
 
 On Zion's hill. ***** 
 
 And with them stood the Lord, clad like n man 
 
 Of war, and, to the sound of thunder, led 
 
 The battle on. ***** 
 
 The Beast, the lying Seer, dominions fell." 
 
 And then 
 
 "Jerusalem grew, 
 
 And underneath her boughs the nations lodged, 
 
 All nations lodged, and sung the song of peace. 
 
 Disease was none ; the voice of war forgot. 
 
 Justice and Mercy, Holiness and Love 
 
 Among the people walked, Messiah reigned, 
 
 And earth kept jubilee a thousand years."
 
 ■$5& Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. '[Sept^ 
 
 CHAPTERS FROM AN UNPUBLISHED BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 BY JAMES INGLI6. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 In all the leading steps of the life we have thas far traced, 
 the guidance ©f Divine Providence is remarkable ; and ia 
 sione more than the last mentioned, which led to most im- 
 portant results. Here was a zealous and devoted minister, 
 seeking a field of usefulness, with a simple view to the glory 
 of God. He did not wait to be directed by imaginary reve- 
 lation and mysterious impulses. He Imd a purpose which he 
 followed with resolution and perseverance; but, as he acts 
 binder no blind or stubborn self-will, events arise to modify 
 ihis plans ; and we at last discover a hand that was insensi- 
 bly leading him towards an end that was altogether out of 
 sight in the commencement of his career. Mr. Maclay delib- 
 erately prepared for the mission to India. When his labori- 
 ous preparation was completed the door wasclosed, and the pur- 
 pose was reluctantly abandoned. The state of religion in New 
 England demanded the services of just such a man, and he 
 Iiad completed his arrangements to emoark for Boston. Again 
 the purpose was thwarted by the failure of the vessel. The 
 only other vessel, in which fee could cross the Atlantic, was 
 ibound for New York, and he takes that route to reach his 
 destination. And then came the application of the friends 
 in that city, and the suggestion that he should make a brief 
 stay there. God, however, as the issue shows, was leading 
 him to New York as his permanent field of labor, and an- 
 other train of circumstances was employed to keep him 
 there. 
 
 The original intention had been that Mr. Balfour, another 
 fellow-student and fellow-laborer, should accompany him to
 
 2857.] Chapters from an Unpu5lisRed Biography. 55T 
 
 Boston ; but on the eve of their embarkation he fell and broker 
 Ms collar bone, and it was necessary that he should remain 
 in Scotland till the following spring. After receiving Mr,, 
 Haldane's letter and its enclosure, Mr. Maclay arranged that, 
 in accordance with the suggestion it contained, he should 
 spend the winter in New York, and if he should succeed in 
 collecting a congregation h® would resign it to Mr. Balfour, 
 ©n his arrival, aad then proceed to Boston. Spring came,, 
 and Mr. Balfour, with two companions in the ministry, sailed 
 for New York. The vessel in which they sailed was cast 
 away on the coast of Nova Scotia, where they remained, for 
 a time, preaching the Gospel ; and when at last they reached 
 New York, they fosrnd that, daring the delay, a church had 
 been constituted, and Mr. Maclay was happily settled as ito 
 pastor. 
 
 The relations of England and America, the conveniences 
 of transatlantic navigation, and the common estimate of emi- 
 gration, were very different in 1805 from that of 1857. The- 
 Bndertaking of our missionaries was then a formidable one- 
 and they left Scotland with the same sense of self-sacrifice- 
 that would now be experienced in undertaking the most dis- 
 tant and perilous mission. The condition and prospects of 
 the United States were then so little understood, and the 
 representations of the religious condition of the country 
 which called for aid were so gloomy, they imagined they 
 were cutting themselves off from friends and kindred, and 
 from all that was mos* prized in Christian fellowship and 
 privilege. In the spirit and with the aim of missionaries, 
 Mr. and Mrs. Maclay, with their two children, sailed from 
 the Clyde on October 28, 1805. The voyage, as was antici- 
 pated at that season, was tempestuous and perilous ; but, 
 through the goodness of God, they were brought to their de- 
 sired haven, filled with gratitude for their preservation, and 
 with hope in view of a field of labor, which most agreeably 
 disappointed their fears. 
 
 During the voyage public worship had been regularly main- 
 tained, when the state of the weather would permit; and 
 Mr, Maclay r s first sermon in New York was a farewell ser-
 
 558 Chapters from an Unpublis/ted Biogiaphy. [Sept., 
 
 mon on board the ship as she lay in harbor — a sermon mem- 
 orable for its solemn impression on a number of friends in 
 New 1'ork, who went on board to attend worship along with 
 the passengers and crew. His letters of introduction secured 
 him a cordial welcome among the evangelical ministers of 
 the city, who keenly felt the alarming progress of error and 
 infidelity, and so were well prepared to extend hearty en- 
 couragement to one who came to strengthen the hands of the 
 orthodox party among the Congregationalists. Their pul- 
 pits, as well as their homes, were opened to him, and he was 
 favorably introduced to the Christian public, by preaching 
 in several of the churches, while his friends made arrange- 
 ments for his regular ministrations. 
 
 The demoralizing and infidel tendencies of an era which 
 had been inaugurated by the blasphemies of the French Re- 
 public, had reached the shores of the New World. In the 
 minds of multitudes here, as well as there, liberty came to be 
 associated with irreligion. The city in which Tom Paine 
 had sought a last resting place, at the close of his troubled 
 and guilty life, was not free from the awful contagion. He- 
 strained in its first public manifestations by the force of pre- 
 vailing religious sentiments, infidelity had taken a form which 
 did nominal homage to Christianity in the establishment of a 
 professedly Universalist Church. But the disguise had been 
 thrown off, and for two years their minister had been openly 
 reviling and ridiculing the Bible. The society had neither 
 principle nor party feeling enough to maintain their regular 
 meetings. The congregation had gradually dwindled away, 
 and their meeting house, which stood on Rose street, opposite 
 to the present meeting house of the Society of Friends, was 
 advertised for sale or to rent. The three gentlemen who 
 had corresponded with Mr. Haldane, and to whom Mr. Ma- 
 clay presented himself on his arrival, seized upon this as a 
 providential opening, and, with his concurrence, rented the 
 building for fifteen months. 
 
 The preaching of the Gospel, in this citadel of infidelity, at- 
 tracted much attention, and secured the warm interest of 
 Christians of every name. A worthy old Baptist lady, who
 
 1857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 559 
 
 had heard of the happy change, hastened to hear the new 
 preacher, and got there on the last evening of the infidel's 
 occupation of the pulpit. Utterly confounded by the blas- 
 phemies which he uttered, she yet listened patiently in the 
 hope (hat he was only stating the arguments of the enemy in 
 order to refute them. At length, unable to restrain her 
 indignation, she rose and lifted up her testimony against the 
 iniquity, while she walked backwards towards the door, and 
 left the house, under the impression that the reported change 
 was a mere ruse of the infidels to attract a congregation. 
 Her mistake was explained to her, and she attended on the 
 following Lord's day, when Mr. Maclay preached from the 
 text, " My kingdom is not of this world." The aim of the 
 preacher was to show that the kingdom of Christ was heav- 
 enly in its origin, constitution, and government, and was 
 never designed to embrace any but those who were born from 
 above. At the close of the services she was introduced to 
 him and said : " You will yet be a Baptist. It is impossible 
 for you to preach that doctrine and carry out your principles 
 without being a Baptist." 
 
 Almost from the beginning a large congregation attended 
 on his ministrations ; and, so soon as the friends could form 
 a deliberate judgment of the claims and prospects of the 
 field, a church was constituted of thirteen members, who 
 unanimously elected him their pastor. The place of meeting 
 was soon crowded to overflowing. The little band were 
 loving, faithful, and earnest, and God was pleased to add to 
 the church, almost daily, of sinners converted through a 
 preached Gospel. 
 
 Mr. Maclay's position was, in many respects, interesting 
 and agreeable. His own character, and the tone of his 
 preaching, in contrast with that of many preachers around 
 him, attracted the sympathy and confidence of the spiritually 
 minded of all denominations. The ministers of the city found 
 in him a judicious, affectionate and earnest fellow-laborer, 
 whose fidelity to his own convictions was infinitely elevated 
 above sectarian rivalry. Ministers and people gave a hearty 
 God's speed to one who promised to prove an efficient advo-
 
 5G0 Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [Sept., 
 
 cate of the truth as it is in Jesus, against the encroachments 
 of error and infidelity. He had come, also, provided with 
 letters of introduction to the parties who, in the New World, 
 were worthy representatives of the cause which had enlisted 
 the energies of the Haldancs, Newton, Hill and Fuller, in the 
 Old World. Among them were Dr. Mason, David Bethar, 
 Isabella Graham, &c. 
 
 Three years were spent thus usefully and happily, when a 
 question arrested his attention, the decision of which led to 
 a change of all his plans, and a severance of his cherished 
 ecclesiastical relations. In the course of his ordinary prepara- 
 tions for the pulpit, a difficulty occurred to him in the exposi- 
 tion of a passage of Scripture in which the ordinance of 
 baptism was mentioned. He laid aside the text and selected 
 another passage for the subject of his discourse ; but he could 
 not set aside nor silence the inquiry which had been awak- 
 ened in his mind. On communicating his perplexity to Mrs. 
 Maclay, he found that it had long occupied her attention, 
 though she had suppressed her convictions on the subject. 
 He earnestly studied the Bible, sought light and guidance in 
 fervent prayer, and sought the counsel of the most judicious 
 of his brethren in the ministry; but still the conviction gained 
 strength that there was no warrant in the Word of God for 
 the practice he was following. A rumor of his perplexity 
 reached the Church, and he thought it best to be frank with 
 them, and request them to unite with him in a prayerful ex- 
 amination of the teaching of Scripture regarding this impor- 
 tant ordinance. The result may be best related in his own 
 language : 
 
 " In the face of all my reluctance to sever myself from the Congrega- 
 tional body, to interrupt my promising relations to the church in Rose 
 street, and cast myself among a people of whom I was almost wholly 
 ignorant, I was led to a firm conviction that believers are the only proper 
 subjects of baptism, and immersion the ordained act. I stated my con- 
 clusion to the church, and was publicly immersed on the twenty-first day 
 of October, 1808, by the Rev. John Williams, then pastor of the Olive 
 Street Church. Mrs. Maclay, and eighteen members of the church, were 
 immersed by him on the Lord's- day following. I continued to preach in 
 Rose street to crowded congregations. Besides my own congregation,
 
 2857.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography.. 56 1 
 
 many members of other churches were led to* examine the subject; and? 
 the examination, in many cases, resulted in a conviction that infant bap- 
 tism is not found in Scripture. Those of the church who remained Pedo- 
 baptist saw that a large majority of the members would be baptized, and 
 became alarmed lest we should claim the meeting house. I called them 
 together and stated that it' they who- remained Pedobaptists were willing 
 to give up the building to us, we would reimburse all they had expended 
 on it; but if they were unwilling to do this, we would relinquish all claim 
 upon the property. We felt as Abraham did when there was a strife be- 
 tween his herdsmen and those of Lot, when he said : 'Let there be no 
 strife between me and thee, and between my herdsmen and thy herds- 
 men, for we be brethren. If thou go to the right I will go to- the left, and 
 if thou go to the left I will go to the right. The whole land i» be- 
 fore us.' 
 
 " This assurance gave perfect satisfaction to our brethren, and we pre- 
 pared, with mutual affection and respect, to sunder a connection which had 
 been very precious to us all. When we resolved to organize a Baptist 
 Church, we requested the use of the meeting house for the purpose. Our 
 brethren refused it, alleging that we had enjoyed so much happiness to- 
 gether beneath that roof that it was now more than they could bear to sit 
 by and see us united into another church. In these circumstances we 
 hired a large room in James street, capable of accommodating five hun- 
 dred persons. I preached a farewell sermon from 2 Cor. xiii, 11 : 'Fi- 
 nally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind,, 
 live in peace ; and the God of love and peace be with you.' 
 
 "On the morning of the third Lord's day, in February, 1809*, I bap- 
 tized six believers, who> with those who had been previously baptized by 
 Mr. Williams, were constituted and acknowledged a regular Baptist 
 Church- Within, a few months- the whole of the Rose Street Church were- 
 baptized, except five or six individuals ; and thus we entered on a new 
 career, in which we enjoyed a continued revival for eight years, during 
 which the Lord blessed His Word to the conversion of many sinners. 
 The brethren whom we left in Rose street, after having in vain endeav- 
 ored to unite in calling a minister, dissolved the church and sold the 
 property. Before offering ft for sale publicly, they proposed we should 
 purchase it, but we had concluded rather to purchase lots on Mulberry 
 street, and contracted for the erection of a house more suited to our 
 prospect*," 
 
 In the painful struggle and sacrifices attending this transact 
 tion, Mr. Maclay was aided by the counsel and sympathy of 
 the Rev. John Williams, who administered the ordinance of 
 baptism to him and his wife, and presided at the subsequent 
 organization of the church. Mr. Williams, the father of ths 
 
 TOL. II. — ho. ix. k2
 
 562 Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. [Sept., 
 
 Rev. W. R. Williams, of the Amity Street Baptist Church, 
 New York, was a native of Wales, born and trained among 
 a similar race and in similar circumstances with Dr. Maclay, 
 whose senior he was by some ten years. He had been converted 
 at an early age, and united with the Independent or Congre- 
 gational Church, under the care of Dr. Lewis, a learned and 
 godly minister. He was encouraged by his pastor to preach 
 occasionally, and was from the first regarded by his brethren 
 as giving promise of eminent usefulness. In his twenty-first 
 year he had been led to examine the subject of baptism, and, 
 after protracted discussions with his kind pastor, he joined 
 the Horeb Baptist Church, in Wales. This church soon 
 'learned his worth and elected him to be their pastor, and 
 there he labored with great acceptance and success for sev- 
 eral years. He was induced to emigrate to America, in hopes 
 of being useful to his countrymen who had sought a home in 
 the New World, and who were cut off from the ordinary 
 imeans of grace in this country by their ignorance of the Eng- 
 lish language. 
 
 When Mr. Williams reached New York, in 1795, the Olive 
 Street, or the Lafayette Str-eet Church, as it was then called, 
 was a little company, meeting in a small, unfinished wooden 
 building, seated with benches. In this house Air. Williams 
 received permission to assemble his Welsh brethren and 
 preach to them. This led to an acquaintance with the lead- 
 ing members of the church, who., in spite of his limited ac- 
 quaintance with the English language, soon understood his 
 sterling worth .and great scriptural attainments. They en- 
 couraged him to apply himself to the mastery of English, 
 and he did so with -such assiduity that he was soon enabled 
 to preach acceptably to an American congregation. After a 
 trial of three months, he became pastor of the Church, which 
 was greatly prospered under his care. The church edifice 
 •was again and again enlarged, and, what was better far, a 
 pious, zealous, and enlightened people were united with him in 
 maintaining the doctrine and ordinances of the Church. Ho 
 is spoken of, by those who still cherish his memory, with the 
 warmest affection, .as of.g<reat simplicity an<l wisdom, meekness
 
 i-8'57.] Chapters from an Unpublished Biography. 563 
 
 and energy, gentleness and decision, finely balanced. His 
 talents were of a high order, and, though he wanted the pol- 
 ish of a classical training, his mind was enlarged by an ex- 
 tensive course of reading, and his attainments in theology 
 approached the rank of learning. As a preachor he pos- 
 sessed unusual power, and, with all his disadvantages of (man- 
 ner, he found willing hearers among the cultivated and re- 
 fined. In his relations to his flock he became peculiarly en- 
 deared to them by the tendernessof his sympathy, the holiness 
 of his walk, and the fidelity of his watch-care. In private 
 3ife his sincerity and kindness won the lasting regard of all 
 who knew him. " Indeed," says his biographer, " the man- 
 ner in which he carried the temper of Christianity into the 
 ^duties of every-day life, gave a uniform beauty to his charac- 
 ter which was irresistibly pleasing." 
 
 Such was the man whose friendship welcomed Mr. Maclay 
 to his new sphere, and who rejoiced in the accession of a con- 
 genial fellow-laborer, in a field where a Baptist minister 
 might look for many trials. An intimacy sprang up between 
 them of the closest and holiest friendship, which was never 
 dimmed by doubt or difference, till, in 1825, Mr. Williams 
 fell asleep. Twenty -five years after their separation, Dr. Ma- 
 clay had occasion to speak of that friendship, on an occasion 
 of deep interest to him. The Hudson River Baptist Associa- 
 tion originated in the counsels of the two friends ; and at first 
 was composed of four churches, the Olive Street and Mulberry 
 Street churches, in New York, with the churches at Hudson 
 and Poughkeepsie. These four had increased to sixty-five in 
 1850, and it was deemed expedient to divide it into two asso- 
 ciations. An address was delivered by Dr. Williams to the 
 united Association, and addresses on behalf of either division 
 by Dr. Hodge, of Brooklyn, and Mr. Baldwin, of Troy. Dr. 
 Maclay concluded with a few solemn and affectionate re- 
 marks. "Great changes," said he, " have taken place since I 
 took up myiresidence in this city, forty-five years ago. I am 
 the only survivor of the ministers who formed this Associa- 
 tion. We were four in number. The three who are gone 
 were dear friends of mine, whose loss I deeply feel j and
 
 56i Chapters from an Unpublisloed Biography. [Sept. r 
 
 chiefly my constant associate and counsellor, John Williams, 
 whose son has spoken to us to-night, and whom I love for 
 his own and his father's sake. For twenty-five years we 
 visited each other every week, and during that period we 
 never had an unpleasant word nor, I believe, an unpleasant 
 thought between us. His loss was a severe one, not to 
 me only, but to the churches. He was one of the best 
 preachers and best pastors, and one of the most godly men I 
 ever knew." 
 
 We have often heard Alfred Bennet describe the closing 
 scenes of the good man's life. Mr. Bennet was providentially 
 in New York, and had set out early on his way to church on 
 Sunday morning. On the street he met a friend who told 
 him that Mr. Williams was sick, and, as there was yet some 
 time before the hour of public worship, he thought he would 
 call and inquire more particularly. He found the pastor in 
 his study, reluctantly absent from his place in the sanctuary 
 on that day, and engaged in reading Edwards on the Affec- 
 tions. After some conversation, he complained of fatigue, and, 
 requesting Mr. Bennet to enjoy himself with a book, retired 
 to an adjoining bed-room. He lay down, but soon became 
 uneasy, and expressed a wish to rise-. Mrs. Williams assisted 
 him to- a. chair, and, alarmed by his appearance, called for Mr. 
 Bennet, who hastened to his side and found that pulsation 
 had ceased. Without a groan or a struggle he ceased to 
 breathe. A writer, in the Baptist Magazine of that day, 
 says : 
 
 * There wa» a beautiful adaptation in many of the accompanying cir- 
 cumstances of his death. The time — the morning of the day of the 
 Lord, the place — a room that had often witnessed his secret and fer- 
 Tent prayer, the morning sun streaming down its golden brilliancy, the 
 resplendent serenity of the sky, the stillness of the hour, ere dissipation 
 and riot were abroad in the streets of the great city — all in their peace, 
 purity, and brightness seemed to unite frr shedding a glow of holy tri- 
 umph upon the last moment of the departing saint. Moment, we say, 
 for it was but a moment ; and a hand, too gentle to be felt, had loosed 
 the silver chord and broken the golden bowl ; and he, that scarcely an 
 hour before had spoken of uniting in the worship of the congregation, 
 ceased to be a dweller on earth."
 
 1S-5T-.] Sonar's Desert of Sinai. -565 
 
 The same writer thus concludes his sketch : 
 
 "The eye that saw him a cripple peasant boy on the mountains of 
 "Wales, would not easily have detected in him the seeds of future great- 
 ness, the stamina of moral and intellectual strength. But the Eye that 
 marks the sparrow's fall, and guides the wandering! of every mote of 
 dust that dances in the sunbeam, saw otherwise. God had marked and 
 chosen him for a leader of His Israel. The eye of an unseen, and as yet 
 unacknowledged, Providence, was on his early path. Its care shielded 
 him from danger, and fixed the course in which his character should be 
 Formed. The hand of his heavenly Father meted out to him the afflic- 
 tions that should exercise, and the consolations that should support him. 
 That hand brought him, at an early age, into the ways of His command- 
 ments, and led him in safety and peace in all his journeyings through his 
 native land, * by a way that he knew not; ' it finally conducted him over 
 the waste of waters to a foreign shore, and fixed him, against his own 
 expectations, as a city set on a hiH, a burning and a shining light.*' 
 
 BONAR'S DESERT OF SINAL 
 
 BY JAMES INGLIS. 
 
 There is a marked difference between these notes of a 
 spring journey from Cairo to Beersneba, and the volume of 
 travels, over nearly the same route, which we had occasion 
 to notice in a former number of the Waymarks. Mr. Bonar 
 makes no pretension to the elaboration and erudition which 
 Mr. Stanley's work displays. The one is written with care- 
 ful preparation in the study after the journey is ended ; the 
 other, as the author informs us, consists of "notes taken on 
 the spot, generally on the back of a camel, and extended af- 
 terwards." The latter may prove more ephemeral, but, after 
 all, it may the most valuable contribution to our libraries ; 
 for that which we ask from an eye witness is not learned
 
 £66 Bonar r 's Desert of Sinai. [Sept,, 
 
 dissertations, but accurate observation and faithful descrip- 
 tion. Without pretension or effort, Dr. Bonar's notes inci- 
 dentally reveal his varied ; accomplishments, and his extensive 
 acquaintance with ancient and modern literature. In the 
 apt and elegant quotations, and the habit of tracing an idea 
 or a phrase through various authors, we seem to discover the 
 influence ©f a happy plan, adopted by Profe9sor Pillans, to> 
 cultivate the taste of his pupils, and lead them to a nice ap- 
 preciation of classical beauty of style. We allude to hi& 
 favorite exercise for the summer vacation : to take a poem — 
 for example the Eneidi— and collect parallel passages in 
 other poets, ancient or modern. The exercise never failed 
 to awaken intense interest, and those who engaged in it 
 carry the traces of it to* theiu graves. We venture to com- 
 mend it to the notice of classical teachers and classical 
 students^ 
 
 But,. beyond all 1 question of elegance op elaboration, Dr: 
 Bonar's notes possess merits and interest of unspeakably 
 greater importance ; and his superiority to Mr. Stanley, and' 
 many other travelers in whose footsteps he followed, is in the- 
 sound evangelical substratum of all his reflections, the high- 
 toned piety which unobtrusively gives a character to every 
 page, and the established and unquestioning confidence in 
 Divine revelation which regulates every conclusion. Dr.. 
 Bonar did not go to Sinai, or Calvary, to seek evidences or 
 confirmation of the truth of Scripture, which with him was 
 already the surest of certainties ; nor does he ever profanely 
 exercise his ingenuity in explaining away or correcting the- 
 oracles of God. He does not bring the Bible to the test of 
 his own conclusions ; but, knowing that all Scripture is given* 
 by inspiration of God, he tries his conclusions by that infalli- 
 ble standard — a particular in which our most celebrated bibli- 
 cal geographers and travelers in the lands of the Bible have 
 grievously failed. 
 
 Our traveler left his lovely home, on the banks of the- 
 Tweed, at the fall of the leaf, and, after a five months' tour,, 
 returned when " the May breeze, coming freshly down the 
 river, brought good news of sunshine and summer" — an inci-
 
 1857.] Bo?mr's Desert of Sinai. 567 
 
 dent which must have suggested those beautiful verses, " The 
 Time to Meet," in his Hymns of Faith and Hope, with which 
 we are almost tempted to adorn this page. London, the Eng- 
 lish Channel, the French Custom House, Paris, Lyons, and 
 Marseilles are despatched in two pages ; and the first pause 
 of the traveler is at Malta, where he begins to discover foot- 
 steps of the apostle, and the remoter traces of those holy 
 associations which lead on to Jerusalem, the centre from 
 which they emanate. Here, also, on the outskirts of these 
 associations, are to be discerned the proofs, which thicken as 
 you approach the centre, of the hollowness of that religion of 
 place, which a false Christianity has endeavored t® substitute 
 for the religion of the heart. "On the spot where Paul is- 
 said to have kindled the fire there is a small church built,, 
 which, however, we merely looked at from the distance. It 
 was the scene itself, and not man's poor attempts to adorn it, 
 that fixed our eye. As we left, we turned round again and 
 again to gaze upon a spot so beautiful in itself, and so rich 
 in holy memories. But when shall Paul's ' good news ' be- 
 preached again to all the inhabitants of the island, wliese- 
 every village, and street, and church contains some tradition, 
 of his visit, and some memorial of his name ? " 
 
 A week was pleasantly and profitably spent among the many- 
 aged antiquities of sunny Malta, and then we find our trav- 
 eler " on board the Alma for Alexandria, with a gregale wind 
 and a rough sea." Five days more, and the early dawn gradu- 
 ally grew brighter, " till, like a solid sphere of flame, the sun 
 came up in his strength behind the low, broad land of Egypt. 
 We had seen suns as bright, perhaps, and mornings as calm ; 
 but it was our first morning in the East, and that sun brought 
 with it the memory of other sans, long set — the suns of ages 
 past, that had risen over the same level sands, and lighted 
 up the same blue sea. Land, sea, sun, and sky were all the- 
 same as in the days of the Pharaohs. One age had gone and 
 another had come, but the land had altered little. The old 
 race had passed away and a new one risen, but here was- 
 Egypt still ! " 
 
 Dr. Bonar can not but linger for a little in his hurried tour
 
 568 Bernards Desert of Sinai. [Sept., 
 
 over Egypt, with all its wonders — where the discoveries of the 
 antediluvians are preserved, and a genius, original, fertile and 
 gigantic in its efforts, has left monuments which dwarf all other 
 antiquities. " In Egypt," says our author, " all is great — her 
 temples, her palaces, her pyramids, her obelisks, her statues, 
 her tombs. With nothing vast by nature but her river, she 
 has reared for herself monuments of greatness to which earth 
 shows no equal. For what is the Coliseum, or the Parthenon, 
 to the temples of Dakkeh, Kalabshi, Ibsamboul, or Karnak ? " 
 To the Christian there is no country, save Palestine, invested 
 with greater interest. "The Bible is full of it. From the 
 time of Abraham down to the day when God's own Son was 
 here, how many blessed feet have trodden it. Strange that 
 Egypt should be the nurse of Christ, the refuge of his infancy 
 against the wrath of Herod." 
 
 But what a humbling picture is it, when, from all these 
 noble monuments and hallowed memories, we turn to the 
 present moral and social condition of the country. A spir- 
 itual darkness, thick as that preternatural darkness which 
 might be felt, broods over it ; and, under its present misera- 
 ble ruler, the ancient prophecy is fulfilled : " The Egyptians 
 will I give over into the hands of a cruel lord, and a fierce 
 king shall rule over them." We must, however, hasten over 
 the traveler's illustrations of its spiritual darkness and social 
 misery, as well as his visits to the antiquities of Egypt, its 
 pyramids temples, and monuments, to our acquaintance with 
 which he contributes no novelty, though his descriptions are 
 graphic, and his reflections impressive. 
 
 Eight days after his landing at Alexandria, we find Mr. 
 Bonar and his three friends departing from Cairo, with a 
 retinue of some nineteen swarthy Arabs, and a corresponding 
 number of camels and dromedaries, to make trial of desert 
 traveling and tent life, on the way to the promised land. 
 They are soon on the route which Pharaoh took in his pursuit 
 of Israel. Then they catch a glimpse of the Red Sea, where 
 "we could discern three large vessels riding at anchor. Yet 
 across that blue stripe, and probably just at the point where 
 these vessels were lying, moved the hosts of Israel, those very
 
 1857.] Bonar s Desert of Sinai. 569 
 
 waters rising up on their right and left to form a liquid wall, 
 and the pillar-cloud moving before them to lead them through. 
 Each part of the scene seemed sacred — desert, mountain, sky." 
 It should be known by all readers of the Bible, that the 
 route of the Israelites was not the direct route to Sinai. They 
 need not have approached the Red Sea; but God not only 
 led them by a circuitous path to the Sea, He conducted them 
 down its western shore till its waters were fairly interposed 
 between them and their destination, and till their way was 
 hemmed in by a mountain. Unless God's purpose was to 
 show His power, both to Israel and their enemies, by a great 
 miracle, the direction of their march was an inexcusable 
 blunder. " Deny the miracle," says Dr. Bonar, " and you 
 make this circuitous route a piece of reckless folly, or pure 
 ignorance, on the part of Moses. Dilute the miracle till you 
 have brought it to a minimum by means of an extraor- 
 dinary ebb tide, and you still have the march to account for, 
 in a way which brings no glory to God, and allows small 
 credit to Moses for anything but incapacity." He then ad- 
 ministers the following merited rebuke to a class of travelers 
 who are constantly exercising their ingenuity in getting rid 
 of the miraculous in Scripture history: 
 
 "How little is gained by assailing one miracle in a book which relate* 
 a thousand ! What a poor thing it is to clip and pare off all the edges of 
 miracle in order to make it look like a natural event! And what a cow- 
 ardly state of mind is indicated by the attempt to reduce a miracle to its 
 minimum before consenting to believe it, or to avow your belief of it. 
 The admission of the smallest amount of the supernatural is in truth the 
 admission of the greatest amount, for the direct interposition of th> Di- 
 vine arm to raise or to smooth a ripple, which would not otherwise have 
 been raised or smoothed, is as truly a miracle, as to cleave the broad 
 ocean in twain. The question of the miraculous is not as to the amount 
 of power put forth, but as to the direct interference of that power. Why 
 should a man who believes in a God be afraid to believe in a miracle ? The 
 Bible is a narrative of miracles, and you can only drive out the supernat- 
 ural from its events by thrusting the non-natural into its words." 
 
 It is mortifying to hnd Dr. Robinson, to whom in other 
 respects we owe so much, allied with German rationalists in 
 the class to whom such a reproof is administered. Dr. Bonar
 
 570 Bonar's Desert of Sinai. [_Sept. T 
 
 refutes Robinson's theory by actual observation of the char- 
 acter of the Red Sea. But the most forcible argument is 
 found in the explicit language of Scripture itself; and Dr. B. 
 shows that this language is not relieved from the implication 
 of falsehood, if the passage is not miraculous, by denying the 
 verbal inspiration of the narrative : "Attach what value you 
 please to the words, still the meaning is as obvious as any mean- 
 ing can be; and it is with the meaning, not with the value or 
 quality of the words, that our argument has to do." He con- 
 cludes his argument with a paragraph, which we commend 
 to the notice of those who are disposed to tamper with the 
 plenary inspiration of the Divine Oracles : 
 
 * { The denial of verbal inspiration to the Scriptures may seem a light 
 thing, but let it be remembered that it is founded on the assumption of 
 their verbalinaccuraey ; and it is almost superfluous to say that inaccu- 
 racy of words involves inaccuracy of thought and statement, so that, ac- 
 cording to the deniers of verbal infallibility, the Bible, though its author 
 is God, contains inaccurate language, deals in inaccurate statement, and 
 utters inaccurate thought. Other books are admitted to speak correctly 
 the words and sentiments of their authors, but this alone does not convey 
 either the words or thoughts of its author, but many things inconsistent 
 with truth, and at variance with the author's mind ! The denial of verbal 
 inspiration may facilitate the rationalist in evading all that he is noc in- 
 clined to believe, and may free him from certain trammels which are 
 felt to be oppressive, but, founded as it is upon the assumption of in- 
 accuracy in word and opinion, it can only lead to an utter denial of 
 the whole book itself, if not to a denial of Him whose revelation it pro- 
 fesses to be. 
 
 " If the Koran does not contain Mahomet's words, and does not accu- 
 rately represent his sentiments, of what value is it as- an exposition of 
 Mahommedanisn? If the Bible does not utter the words of God, and if 
 it does not accurately represent His mind, of what use is it as a revela- 
 tion from God? And what must be His character, who could give to Hia 
 poor blind creatures a volume professing to come from Himself, yet want- 
 ing in that most essential of all things in authorship, a true statement of 
 facts, and an accurate representation ©f the author's mind 2" 
 
 Once fairly entered on the desert, and following the foot- 
 steps of the Israelites towards Sinai, the descriptions in the 
 notes, though without effort, are impressive, and have an air 
 of reality and vivid truthfulncsss. Every step suggests illus-
 
 1857.] Bonar r s Desert of Sinai. 571 
 
 trations of Scripture to a mind well stoned with Scripture. 
 Nor is it the history of the past, alone which these scenes re- 
 call : prophecies of the future arc often sugge&ted, either by 
 some feature of resemblance or contrast in the actual scene- 
 to that which is predicted. A fine example of this is found 
 in the notes of a Sabbath spent among the palm trees of Elim. 
 It is an oasis in the desert, where a small stream winds along; 
 among palms and tarfas for some miles. That verdure in. 
 the midst of such barren wastes naturally recalled the pre- 
 dictions regarding the great things which shall be done for 
 these wastes, in the times of the restitution of all things- 
 The quotation of these predictions leads to the following 
 weighty reflection : 
 
 "Looking on a scene such as that hefore us> it seemed altogether nat- 
 ural to understand these words literally. No-doubt it maybe allegorized,, 
 (for what is there in Scripture that may not be subjected to this process,, 
 seeing the first chapter of Genesis and the first of Matthew have been 
 turned into myths? ); a natural change may be the apt figure of a moraV 
 change; but it is so only because it is itself a real thing. The physical' 
 restoration must be literal, in order that it may be the figure of a spir- 
 itual renewal. Adam was the figure of Him who was to come because 
 he was a real man — literally what Scripture says he was- So the renew- 
 ing of the barren sands may be a figure of man's regeneration to God, 
 but it is so in virtue of itself being literally true. And why should it be- 
 thought an incredible thing that God should literally restore creation? 
 Why should it be counted unlikely that Arabia should become like Syria, 
 a region of streams and showers, a land of roses and myrtles — that 
 the wilderness should flourish as the garden of the Lord ? Who shall 
 
 hinder that 
 
 'this earth 
 
 Shall all be Paradise, far happier place 
 
 Than that of Eden, and far happier days? ' 
 
 For ( He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground' 
 into water-springs ; and there He maketh the hungry to dwell, that they 
 may prepare a city for habitation, and sow the fields, and plant vineyards,, 
 which may yield fruits of increase.' (Ps. cvii, 35)." 
 
 In his journey Dr. Bonar very frequently notes striking 
 illustration of the language, the imagery, and allusions of 
 Scripture ; and of no portion more frequently than the book 
 of Job, which, he says, is " the book of the desert as truly as
 
 572 Bonar's Desert of Sinai. [Sepk, 
 
 Ecclesiastes is the book of the palace, Proverbs the book of 
 the city, Canticles the book of the garden, Romans the book 
 of the altar, and the Apocalypse the book of the temple." 
 We have not space for examples, nor can we follow the trav- 
 eler from one stage to another of the Israelitish pilgrimage. 
 Every one acquainted with the topography of that region, is 
 familiar with the inscriptions on the rocks of Mukatkb, the 
 written valley. Dr. Bonar reviews the discussion of the 
 origin >of these inscriptions, which he carefully 'examined ^ 
 and, without speaking positively, he suggests that they may 
 be traced to Phoenicia. The fiel'd has not yet been fully ex- 
 plored, and seems to present an attractive object of research 
 to the multiplying host of oriental travelers. 
 
 We should gladly give fuller extracts from Mr. Bonar's 
 account ol Sinai itself. Our readers are aware of the diffi- 
 culty of determining which of several lofty peaks was that 
 upon which Jehovah descended at the giving of the law. Mr. 
 Bonar inclines to the most prevalent belief that Jebel Masa is 
 the true Sinai, which, though not by any means the highest, 
 is the centre-peak of the range. It is approached by the 
 Wady-Er-Rahah, " the valley of rest," where Israel pitched 
 their tents before the Mount in the wilderness of Sinai. Idle 
 traditions are fastened upon every peak, or hollow, or granite 
 boulder. What pains these monks have taken to divest Sinai 
 of its majesty? " Yet," as Mr. B. well remarks regarding 
 these conflicting traditions, " thus, perhaps, God has hid the 
 mountain of Moses as He hid his body, lest it might be wor* 
 shipped. These fables and fooleries may have hindered a 
 greater amount of superstition than they have fostered. It 
 might have been worse for the world and worse for the 
 Church, had the true cross really been found at the irue Cab 
 vary, or had the broken tables of the law been lound lying 
 scattered at the base of Sinai." 
 
 At the foot of the mountain is a convent where travelers 
 find entertainment for man and camel. Here our little com- 
 pany took up their abode until they had completed their 
 examination of this wonderful spot. We have an interesting 
 account of a Sabbath spent there, and, on the Monday morn-
 
 185>7.] Bon am' s Desewtf of Sinai. 5TS 
 
 ing following, the party started for the top of Jebel Musa, 
 Of his own ascent Dr. Bonar says : 
 
 " I pushed upwards. One or two chapels I passed at different halting- 
 places. They were in miserable disrepair, but scribbled over in the in- 
 side with the names of pilgrims and travelers. Then came the fine hollow 
 or basin more than half way up the hill, in the midst of which stands the 
 old cypress, called Elijah's tree, hard by which there is a well or circular 
 pond, containing a little water. The chapel of that prophet is also shown 
 here. It is out of this mountain-wady that the rugged top ot Jebel Musa 
 rises like a cone out of the hollow of some vast crater. Up to this Joshua 
 and the elders of Israel ascended along with Moses. Here they halted 
 while he went up * into the mount,' and waited for his return. It was 
 here that « the nobles of Israel did eat and drink.' (Exod. xxiv, 11). It 
 was here that ' they saw the God of Israel, and under His fe»t, as it were, 
 a paved work of sapphire-stone, and as it were, the body of heaven in its 
 clearness.' The multitude, who stood afar off below, only saw the 'de- 
 vouring fire ' on the top of the mount, but the elders were allowed a nearer 
 vision of the glory, and brought directly under it, to the foot of the great 
 central peak which the fire was girdling round, and on which the she- 
 kinah rested. Only Moses was allowed to ascend that highest peak, and 
 to pass into the very midst of the glory. The people thus stood in ' the 
 outer court ; ' the elders in the ' holy place ; ' Moses in ' the holy of holies.' 
 This singular valley or circular hollow, so far up the mount, explains 
 those passages in the Scripture narrative which speak of Moses, and 
 Joshua, and the elders, leaving the people and ascending the hill — and 
 again of Moses leaving the elders and going up to stand before God. So 
 far as I am aware, the other mountains fixed on. by iome as the true 
 Sinai— Serbal, Sasafeh, Katherine— have no such resting-place. This 
 much, at least, may be said in favor of Jebel Musa." 
 
 The grey top of Sinai was reached in an hour and a half. 
 The view from the summit is one of utter barrenness and 
 desolation, an unbroken horror, a savage sublimity, unre- 
 lieved by any soft feature in the landscape — a forest of 
 hills — " a land of darkness and of the shadow of death." 
 
 Beyond Mount Sinai, after proceeding through a succession 
 of valleys and mountain gorges, the desolation of the wilder- 
 ness begins to be mitigated. The party at length turned aside 
 from the ordinary route of travelers, and, missing Petras, vis- 
 ited Beersheba, the home of the patriarchs, with an account 
 of which we must conclude our extracts :
 
 -£74 Bonar's Desert of Sinai. [Sept., 
 
 "But this river-bed is the boundary of Palestine. We shall not at 
 tpresent step across it. We leave the entire land for another journey and 
 another volume. The tribes of Simeon and Judah lie before us, but we 
 do not, in the meantime, enter on their territories. 
 
 "For some days past we have been traversing the land of the patri- 
 archs ; for the border-land that lies between the desert and Palestine may 
 well be honored with that name. It is the region which they specially oc- 
 cupied when they were * strangers and pilgrims on the earth.' (Heb. xi, 
 13). No doubt they did sojourn, at times, in the land itself; but this 
 southern territory, less preoccupied and less exposed to hostile assaults, 
 they seem to have preferred. Of Jacob this may not appear altogether 
 true, but of Abraham and Isaac we may say that this was the country 
 which they knew best, and in which they dwelt longest. 
 
 "The home of the patriarchs was here — of Isaac especially, who took 
 up his dwelling by the well Lahairoi, (Gen. xxiv, 62); and the history of 
 this region is a history of the patriarchs. Just as the desert has only a 
 history of forty years, the time when Israel was there; so this ■ south 
 country' has a history of little more than a century, the time when the 
 •two elder patriarchs had their sojourn in it. 
 
 " They builded no cities in it, for their dwelling was in tents, and with 
 .these they were content. Their faith rested on a city which hath founda- 
 tions, and until it should arrive they were satisfied with the tent alone. 
 Here Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, lshmael and Hagar lived. 
 [From this it was that Isaac was led up to Moriah, like a lamb for sacri- 
 fice ; for, as Jerome notices, Abraham must have been living here and 
 ,not in Hebron at that time, else he would not have taken three days to 
 reach Jerusalem. In after ages the Romans came and occupied the coun- 
 try, making roads through its whole length, and building cities on the 
 slopes of its valleys. But of their doings here we know little. Cities and 
 temples, and in later ages churches, rose where the tents of the patriarche 
 had been pitched ; but these have passed away. Not a stone is left upon 
 another. 
 
 " The patriarchs, though they chose it for their residence while living, 
 did not take it as their abode when dead. They built no tombs, they 
 hewed out no sepulchres for themselves or their children. Their dust was 
 to be conveyed to Canaan, and rest in the cave of Machpelah. They 
 might live and they might die in the land of strangers, but not in it would 
 they be buried. Their b©nes must be gathered to their fathers, and their 
 dust sleep in a soil which they could call their own. A resting-place in 
 death was more to them than a dwelling-place in life. The latter was of 
 little moment, seeing they were strangers here ; but the former was of 
 much, seeing it bore upon their resurrection-hope, and of that hope they 
 desired to testify by their guarded dust and rock-hewn sepulchres. 
 
 "There were no goodly mountains here, like Carmel, or like Lebanon.; 
 nor any streams such as Jordan or Kishon ; nor any lake sueh as that ei
 
 1857.] Sonar's Desert of Sinai. 575 
 
 Galilee. There was nothing to mark the country in any special way. 
 There were no great features to form a fatherland round which their affec- 
 tions or their patriotism might entwine themselves. Nor was it a land 
 flowing with milk or honey. It was a fruitful land, no doubt, but a plain 
 and unambitious territory, very much like the lowly men who occupied it. 
 It was less likely to be coveted than most lands, by the stranger, so that 
 here they might sit down in peace, and pass the few days of their pilgrim- 
 age in unmolested calm — walking with God, while they walked with each 
 other, in these quiet vales. 
 
 "It was not the land of the palm or the olive; the vine, the fig, the 
 pomegranate preferred the warmer air or the richer soil. It was a land 
 of pasture, nothing more — a land where, like Abel, they might feed their 
 flocks without toil or care — with less of the ancient curse — the 'sweat 
 of the face,' (Gen. iii, 19), than they might have had on more fruitful 
 plains. It was a land suited for nothing but the unbustling life of shep- 
 herds — the life that leaves most leisure, and affords most opportunity, 
 for fellowship with God. Egypt was the land of those who had their por- 
 tion here, and with it they had nought to do. The d >sert was the region 
 of the wanderer, living on miraculous manna from heaven, and water from 
 the rock, but neither the wandering nor the miracle was to be their por- 
 tion. Canaan was the place of the settled habitation, where in the well- 
 built cities their children were one day to rest ; but that rest was not to 
 be their lot. Here, however, was a land unlike all of these, just as their 
 mode of life was to be unlike all that went before or should follow after. 
 It was just such a land as suited them, the land of the stranger and the 
 pilgrim. How well did the country and the dwellers suit each other! 
 How beautiful does this nice, this gracious adaptation show forth the 
 wise and watchful tenderness with which the God of Abraham, and 
 Isaac, and Jacob, provided for His chosen family during that time when, 
 in His unexplained purpose and providence, He left them still outside the 
 goodly land. Nor is the simplicity with which they trusted His faithful- 
 ness and followed His guidance less to be noted. It is worthy of our imi- 
 tation; and, remembering this, we gaze and gaze again upon that narrow 
 strip of land, where the footsteps of faith have left so visibly their inef- 
 faceable imprint. For these things were 'written for our learning that 
 we, through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might hold fast 
 the hope,' (Rom. xv, 4), even as did these patriarchs, in the midst of far 
 thicker clouds and keener trials of faith than we have known. 
 
 "Tk-is home of the patriarchs was not within sight of Jerusalem ; but 
 it was far removed from Ur of the Chaldees, out of whose idolatry they 
 had been rescued. It was not within sight of Lebanon, but it was beyond 
 the vision of Sinai and its awful fellows. Yet though Jerusalem and Leb- 
 anon were far out of sight, still the promised land was near. Its hills were 
 always within view. So that, while waiting here for the time when God 
 was to lead them in, they could keep their eye upon its heights, or BOnie-
 
 576 Bonar's Desert of Sinai. [Sept., 1857. 
 
 times pass across the boundary to wand«r over, or for a season to pitcb 
 their tents upon its sunnier plains. Surrounded by deserts on every side, 
 they would be cheered by the perpetual vision of a land flowing with milk 
 and honey, clothed with the olive and the vine — a land in which their 
 children, and their children's children, if not themselves, were in coming 
 days to dwell. 
 
 " Since Abraham first left his home on the banks of the Euphrates, he 
 had known no certain dwelling-place. Sure of a resting-place some- 
 where, because God was beckoning him on, yet not sure of it anywhere, 
 till he should sit down in Canaan, he was content to move or to rest as 
 God should bid him. And though it was on Canaan that his heart was set, 
 yet, next to Canaan, he seemed to have preferred this region to all others. 
 More truly still did it suit Isaac's gentle spirit. It was fitted to be the 
 home of quiet faith, such as his, and of family tendernesses such as be de- 
 lighted in. He chose it, therefore, for his place of sojourn, and most 
 truly might it be named the land of Isaac. Once and again the world 
 broke in upon him, and would hare striven and quarreled with him ; but 
 be resisted not. He retired before the quarrelers ; he departed from the 
 scene of strife, content to be wronged for the sake of peace and love. 
 Yet in retiring before the injurers, he marks his sense of the evil and the 
 wrong, by the names he gives to the scenes of the strife, calling the one 
 Esek (strife), and the other Sltnah (hatred). And then, when he gets 
 beyond the region of contention, he gives vent to his satisfied feelings by 
 the name Rehoboth (room), which he affixes to the undisturbed resting- 
 place in which he is now permitted to sit down. 
 
 " It was not the land of miracles. God did no mighty work here ; nor 
 did great events occur, save that once or twice an angel passed across its 
 fields in his ministry of love. It was the land for the unfolding of simple 
 faith — faith that grows out of no sign nor wonder, but roots itself in the 
 sure promise of the El-Shaddai, Tear not, I am thy shield and thy ex- 
 ceeding great reward ; ' and, so rooting itself, anticipates the fuller grace 
 of after days, 'Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.* 
 (John, xx. 29)."
 
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