MISCELLANEOUS. A WORD FOR THE RAMBLING HEARER. Be sure to be regular in your hearing. "Take heed how you hear" (Luke viii. 18), and "take heed what you hear" (Mark iv. 24), and from both will follow, that you must take heed whom you hear too. Hear those that are most knowing, and best able to instruct you those that are most sound, and least likely to mislead you. Do not choose to put your souls under the conduct of blind guides. Seek for the law at their mouths whose lips do best preserve knowledge (Mal. ii. 7); and when you have found such, keep close to them. Settle yourselves under the guidance of some faithful pastor, upon whose ministry you may ordinarily attend. That running to and fro, which is usual among us, is quite another than what Daniel speaks of, and, I am sure, is not the way to increase knowledge.-Dan. xii. 4. Rolling stones gather no moss. Such rovers seldom hit upon the right way. Such wandering stars may be soonest bemisted. They that thus run from one minister to another, may soon run from one opinion to another, and from one error to another. I dare safely say, you may get more sound knowledge of the things of God by constant attendance upon the ministry of one of less abilities, than by rambling up and down to hear many, though of the greatest gifts. It is a great advantage to your gaining knowledge, to hear a minister's whole discourse, and be able to take up the full design of his work, and not merely to hear in transitu ["in passing"] by snatches-to pick up here a notion and there a notion, or hear one man's doctrine in the morning, and another's application in the afternoon. It is no wonder if men that run to and fro be "tossed to and fro." They that are so light of hearing may easily be " carried about with every wind of doctrine."Eph. iv. 14. The Word of Christ seldom dwells in such vagabond hearers.-Cripplegate Lectures. GEMS FOR CHRISTIAN MINISTERS. HELP me, thou Friend of sinners, to be nothing, to say nothing, that thou mayest say and do everything, and be my all in all.—Whitefield. We want nothing but the return of apostolical simplicity, self-denial, and love, to bring Pentecostal effusions of the Spirit upon our ministrations. Bridges. Our preaching ought to be above the rate of moral philosophers. Our divine orator should fetch not only his speculations and notions, but his materials for practice, from the evangelical writings; this he must do, or else he is no minister of the New Testament.-Edwards. Steep your sermons in your heart before you preach them.-Felton. Choose rather to touch than to charm-to convert than to be admired-to force tears than applause. Give up everything to secure the salvation of your hearers. Gisbert. You must rather leave the ark to shake as it shall please God, than put unworthy hands to hold it up. -Bacon. Our work is to open the oracles of God, even those sacred profound things that angels search into; and if God did not help us, we might soon sink under the weight of such a burden.- Watson. Antonius, archbishop of Florence in the fifteenth century, after a long and laborious life, often in his dying moments declared, as he had frequently done in health, "To serve God is to reign."-Church History. Let your life be a commentary on your sermons.— Lamont. 419 WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH OUR MONEY? I REMEMBER a circumstance which took place at the burning of the steamer "Washington." One of the passengers, on the first alarm of fire, ran to his trunk and took from it a large amount of gold and silver coin which he had carefully stowed away, and loaded his pockets, ran to the deck, and jumped overboard. As a necessary consequence he went down immediately. His treasure was his ruin. So we have got to swim in order to reach the kingdom of heaven; and who can estimate the folly of loading our pockets with the gold and silver which must inevitably carry us under? Great riches hedge up the way to eternal life; and God has shown his mercy in providing an outlet for them, so that they shall not drown us in perdition. It is worthy of thought, that when his people, in years past, would not avail themselves of this natural outlet, God opened a mighty waste-gate. Almost in the twinkling of an eye, the accumulated wealth of Christians vanished into smoke, at the touch of his finger. The waste-gate is again shut; prosperity has returned to all our borders. Let us beware lest, by neglecting the natural channel, we lose our souls, or compel the Lord to open it again. Liberality takes the poison out of riches.- Wisner. ENERGY OF CHARACTER. I LATELY happened to notice, with some surprise, an ivy, which, being prevented from attaching itself to the rock beyond a certain point, had shot off into a bold elastic stem, with an air of as much independence as any branch of oak in the vicinity. So a human being thrown, whether by cruelty, justice, or accident, from all social support and kindness, if he has any vigour of spirit, and is not in the bodily debility of either childhood or age, will instantly begin to act for himself, with a resolution which will appear like a new faculty.-Foster. Miscellaneous. A LITTLE error of the eye, a misguidance of the hand, a slip of the foot, a starting of a horse, a sudden mist, or a great shower, or a word undesignedly cast forth in an army, has turned the stream of victory from one side to another, and thereby disposed of empires and whole nations. No prince ever returns safe out of a battle, but may well remember how many blows and bullets have gone by him that might easily have gone through him; and by what little odd, unforeseen chances death has been turned aside, which seemed in a full, ready, and direct career to have been posting to him. All which passages if we do not acknowledge to have been guided to their respective ends and effects by the conduct of a superior and a divine hand, we do by the same assertion cashier all providence, strip the Almighty of his noblest prerogative, and make God, not the governor, but the mere spectator of the world.-South. WHEN the poet Carpani inquired of his friend Haydn, how it happened that his church music was always so cheerful, the great composer made a most beautiful reply: "I cannot," he said, "make it otherwise. I write according to the thoughts I feel; when I think upon God, my heart is so full of joy that the notes dance and leap, as it were, from my pen; and since God has given me a cheerful heart, it will be pardoned me that I serve him with a cheerful spirit." The reader who is acquainted with the works of Haydn will bear testimony to the practical truth of this anecdote.-British Magazine. PROSPERITY is a bad nurse to virtue-a nurse which is like to starve it in its infancy.-South. Daily Bread. FRIDAY. "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, he will sustain thee." — Ps. lv. 22. He has pardons to impart, Grace to save thee from thy fears: See the love that fills his heart, And wipe away thy tears! Till you come to Christ, peace cannot come to you. Christ and peace are undivided. You have tried other ways, you have tried duties, and no rest comes; why will you not try the way of faith? Carry the burden to Christ.-Flavel. SATURDAY. "To everything there is a season."-ECCLES. lii. 1. Though it is precept, not providence, that makes duty, yet providence points to duty-to the time and season of it. Much of our duty lies in complying with the opportunity and occasion that providence gives for the doing of this or that good work. We are never more obliged to our duty, than when we have the fittest opportunity to perform it; and we must eye providence in this. It is the prerogative of God to appoint times and seasons, not only for his own purposes, but for our duty. He appoints the day, and the things of the day-what and when it shall be done. Should you order a servant to do a business to-day, and he should not do it till the next day, would you not count such an one a disobedient servant, because he observed not your time?-Vinke. SABBATH. Hear the word of the Lord."-JOSH. lii. 39. It is not enough to say, We are all present to hear the sermon; but you must say, with Cornelius and his company: "We are present to hear all things commanded us of God." And in a special manner you must be ready to hear and obey his "great command, of believing on the name of his Son," which is the great end of preaching and hearing. Wherefore, when Christ knocks by his word at the door of your heart, be ready to open and welcome him in with joy. Say to him, as Laban to Abraham's servant : "Come in, thou blessed of the Lord; wherefore standest thou without?" Though, alas! I cannot say what follows: "I have prepared the house," yet, Lord, come in and prepare it for thyself; and though "I be unworthy that thou shouldst come under my roof," yet a word from thee can cleanse and repair the house, yea, and " prepare an upper room" for thyself. Lord, speak the word, and it shall be done. Willison. MONDAY. "The love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”— ROM. viii, 39. Poor helpless souls the bounteous Lord Relieves, and fills with plenteousness: He sets the mournful prisoners freeHe bids the blind their Saviour see. "Behold, how he loved him!" could they say when our Saviour shed but a few tears for Lazarus; but much more, when he shed all the blood in his body for our souls, we may well say: 66 Behold, how he loved them!" Go with Christ a little-cannot ye watch an hour with him? To contemplate this, go into the garden-to the judgment-seat-to Golgotha. Behold him on the cross-hear his strong sighs and groans-they will break thy heart, if anything will; and broken it must be. "And why did God suffer his beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased,' to be thus tormented ?" Why?- God would rather afflict him for a time, than lose our souls for ever. "And why did Christ, who might have chosen other-i wise, so freely give his cheeks to the smiters?" Why? only he had set his love upon our souls, which he would not suffer to perish.-Vinke. TUESDAY. "Now is the day of salvation."-2 Cor. vi. 2. Like a woman I have heard of, who, when her house was on fire, was very busy in saving of her stuff-carrying out with all her might as much as she could. At last she bethought herself of her child, which was left in a cradle; but when she returned to look after that, she found that the fire had destroyed it: and there she was, first aware of her preposterous care for her goods before her child, ranning up and down as one distracted, crying: "My child, my child!" as David for his son Absalom. So, alas! when it is too late, all that neglect their souls in this life will howl out in the midst of their scorching flames: "O my soul, my soul! I would I had died for thee, my dear and precious soul!"-3. WEDNESDAY. "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth."-HEB. xii. 6. Wash out my stains, refine my dross, Nail my affections to the cross; Hallow each thought; let all within Be clean, as thou, my Lord, art clean! The devil deals with unwary men, like some cheating gamester, who, having drawn in an unskilful and wealthy novice into play, suffers him to win awhile, at the first, that he may, at the last, sweep away all the stakes, and some rich manors to boot. It is a great judgment of God, to punish sinners with welfare, and to render their lewd ways prosperous: wherein, how contrary are the Almighty's thoughts to theirs! Their seeming blessings are his heavy curse, and the smart of his stripes are a favour too good for them to enjoy. To judge wisely of our condition, it is to be considered, not so much how we fare, as upon what terms. If we stand right with Heaven, every cross is a blessing, and every blessing a pledge of future happiness: if we be in God's dis favour, every one of his benefits is a judgment, and every judgment makes way for perdition.-Hall. THURSDAY. "I am thy shield and exceeding great reward.-GEN. xv. l. He calls a worm his friend- Every individual Christian hath a propriety in a community; as every person enjoys the whole sun to himself, so every believer possesseth whole God to himself. The Lord hath land enough to give all his heirs. Throw a thousand buckets into the sea, and there is water enough in the sea to fill them; though there be millions of saints and angels, there is enough in God to fill them.- Watson. THE CHRISTIAN TREASURY. 421 ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURE EVIDENCES. BY THE REV. JAMES TAYLOR, ST ANDREWS. THE question, How do you know the Scriptures | character, and work. Now, on examining these to be the Word of God is one of paramount im-records of antiquity, we find that the books of portance to the best interests of mankind, and the New Testament are quoted as the producyet we have no reason to doubt that there are tions of the writers whose names they bear, by many professing Christians who are totally Christian authors of the first century, several unable to return to it a satisfactory answer. of whom had known and conversed with the Their belief in the inspiration of the Bible is apostles and immediate disciples of Christ; founded, not upon knowledge, but upon tradi- that they were uniformly spoken of in terms tion and authority. It was long ago observed expressive of the highest respect, as inspired by Baxter, that "few Christians among us have compositions; that they were publicly read and any better than the Popish implicit faith on expounded in the religious assemblies of the this point, nor any better arguments than the early Christians; that they were in very early Papists have, to prove the Scriptures the Word times collected into a distinct volume, and disof God. They have received it by tradition- tinguished by appropriate names and titles of godly ministers and Christians tell them so-it respect; that commentaries were anciently is impious to doubt of it; therefore they believe composed upon them, harmonies were formed it. Though we could persuade people never so out of them, and translations of them were confidently that Scripture is the very Word of made into different languages; that they were God, and yet teach them no more reason why received, not only by orthodox Christians, but they should believe this than any other book to by heretics of various descriptions, and were be that Word, as it will prove in them no right appealed to as authorities in matters of doctrine way of believing, so it is in us no right way of and controversy; that even the early adverteaching." It must be evident that a super-saries of Christianity have never questioned structure based on such a foundation will not stand in the day of temptation and trial; and at the present moment, when the abettors of error and impiety are manifesting such unwonted activity and zeal-when Infidel and Socialist publications are widely diffused, and the most strenuous efforts are made to lead the young and inexperienced to make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience, it surely concerns every Christian that he be able, and "ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh him a reason of the hope that is in him." the genuineness of the sacred books, but speak of the Gospels as the composition of the evangelists; that formal catalogues of the Scriptures were formed by private individuals, and by councils, from which it appears that the same books were then received which are at present acknowledged; and, finally, that they were carefully distinguished from all spurious productions. "When Christian advocates merely tell us," says Paley, "that we have the same reason for believing the Gospels to be written by the In pursuing our inquiries into the inspiration evangelists whose names they bear, as we of the Sacred Scriptures, the first point to be have for believing the Commentaries to be considered is, Are these books genuine? in other Cæsar's, the Æneid to be Virgil's, or the Orawords, are they the writings of the persons whose tions Cicero's, they content themselves with names they bear, or to whom they are ascribed? an imperfect representation. They state noNow this must be ascertained precisely in the thing more than what is true, but they do not same way as the genuineness of any other an- state the truth correctly. In the number, cient writing is determined by an examina- variety, and early date of our testimonies, we tion of contemporary testimony. We go back far exceed all other ancient books. For one to the period at which the work in question which the most celebrated Greek or Roman bears to have been written, and inquire whether writer can allege, we produce many." So nuit is mentioned, or quoted, or referred to in the merous and ample, indeed, are the testimonies writings of those who either lived in the same of the early Christian writers to the genuineage, or so little posterior to it that they must ness of the Sacred Scriptures, that, according have had ample opportunities of forming a to Dr Lardner, there are more and larger quocorrect opinion on the subject. The same plantations of the New Testament in the writings of must be adopted when we come to inquire into Tertullian alone, than there are of all the works the genuineness of the Sacred Scriptures. We of Cicero in writers of all characters for several must appeal to the Christian writers of the first ages. ages to determine whether or not these writings were composed by the apostles and disciples of Christ, and by them delivered to the world as an authentic account of their Master's life, and No. 36. We have no reason to believe that the early Christians were easily induced to acquiesce in the claims made in behalf of certain books to be received as inspired compositions, or that October 31, 1845. these claims were either admitted or rejected without discrimination. The interests they had at stake were of too great magnitude to make it at all likely that in a matter of such transcendent importance they would act either carelessly or rashly. They had left all to follow Christ. For his sake they had forfeited all they once held dear in life-the favour of their relatives and friends-the hope of wealth, and fame, and preferment, of ease and security; and had subjected themselves to contempt, and ridicule, and scorn-to open and violent hostility-to the dungeon, the cross, and the stake. Can we believe that, in these circumstances, they would have risked their all upon an uncertainty that they would have periled their happiness here and hereafter, without exercising the utmost care in distinguishing whether the records of the life and doctrines of Him to follow whom they had left everything dear and valuable, were genuine or false? We know, in point of fact, that the primitive Christians were cautious and discriminating in acknowledging the authority of those writings which claimed to be regarded as part of the inspired record. In the early ages there were many spurious Gospels and Epistles, claiming to have proceeded from the Spirit of inspiration, whose claims were rejected. We know, likewise, that the authority of some of the books which have been admitted into the Sacred Canon was called in question by some. But, as it has been justly said by Dr Dick, "these facts, instead of creating any suspicion with respect to our present Scriptures, serve to confirm us in the belief that they are authentic. They prove that the Church did not rashly give credit to the pretence of inspiration, but examined it with the most scrupulous care; in consequence of which caution, some inspired books were not at once received in every part of the Christian world, and others which assumed the names of apostles, being found spurious, were rejected. A proneness to believe, and a disposition to scepticism, are alike unfavourable to the discovery of truth. The primitive Church neither received nor rejected all the books which laid claim to inspiration, but admitted or excluded them after the evidence on both sides had been maturely considered. A spirit of discrimination was exercised; and we may have the greater confidence, therefore, in the canon which was finally agreed upon.” The genuineness of the books of the Old Testament is established in a precisely similar man ner. In the days of our Saviour we find these books existing, and arranged in three classesthe Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings -an arrangement to which he seems to have alluded, when he said to his disciples: "These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me."-Luke xxiv. 44. This testimony is corroborated by that of Philo the Jew, of Alexandria, who was contemporary with our Saviour, and who quotes or refers to nineteen books of the Old Testament, and by the evidence of Josephus, the Jewish historian, who was contemporary with the apostles. We can trace these Scriptures three hundred years before the advent of Christ, to the time when they were translated into Greek; and in that translation, known by the name of the Septuagint, are the same books that are at present found in the Hebrew copies of the Scriptures. It can not be doubted that they were in existence at the termination of the Babylonish captivity, about which time the canon was completed by the writings of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi; for the "Book of the Law of Moses" is often referred to in the writings of Ezra and Nehemiah. It was publicly read, in their days, in the congregations of the people; and, in obedience to its precepts, the Jews put away the strange wives which they had married. It existed in the days of Josiah, when a copy was found in the temple-probably the identical copy which Moses deposited in the tabernacle. We trace it in the reign of Hezekiah, when all things were done "according to the Law of Moses, the man of God;" and in the reign of Jehoshaphat, who sent judges through the land, who had "the Book of the Law of the Lord with them," and "taught the people." It must have been composed prior to the separation of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah-a period of three hundred and seventy-seven years from the captivity, and nine hundred and seventy before the birth of Christ, otherwise it is impossible to account for the existence of the Samaritan copy, and for its reception as an inspired record by the revolted tribes-the hereditary hostlity between the rival communities rendering the reception of the Jewish books by the Sa-i maritans at any later period altogether impossible. Moreover, the Law of Moses was unfavourable to the designs of the Israelitish monarchs. It allows no separation of tribes. It supposes all the descendants of Jacob united in one body-having one law, one ritual, one high priest, and one place of worship, to which they were all commanded to repair three times a-year. If, then, it was not acknowledged by the Ten Tribes before their separation, we cannot conceive it possible that it could have been received by them after that event had taken place. It must have existed in the reigns of David and Solomon; for we find the former, before his death, charging the latter" to keep the statutes and commandments, the judgments and testimonies of the Lord, as it is written in the Law of Moses." It must have been composed before the commencement of the monarchy; for the form of government which it exhibits is not regal. It notices kingly government as an innovation which the people would introduce, and lays the kings under restrictions which must have been equally irk ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURE EVIDENCES. 423 ness of the books of Moses may be drawn from the manner in which they are arranged. They are written, for the most part, in the manner of a journal, exactly as an eye-witness would be likely to write, but very different from the manner in which the compilation of an author, writ some to their sensuality and their ambition. During the succession of the judges, the law of Moses was the rule according to which they governed the people; and this was the charge of Joshua to the Israelites: "Be ye very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, that ye turn noting in a later age, would have been constructed. aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left." All the other Jewish books, therefore, pre-suppose the existence and truth of the books of Moses; and "unless the whole history of the Israelites be rejected as a forgery-and on better ground we might reject the history of the Greeks and Romans-the repeated references which are made to the Law of Moses, plainly with no design but to appeal to it as the law of the land, furnish sufficient evidence that it existed not as a tradition, but in writing from his own time down to the close of the Old Testament Scriptures." We cannot, indeed, as in the case of the New Testament Scriptures, prove the genuineness of the books of Moses by the testimony of contemporary writers. If there were any at that remote period, which may reasonably be doubted, their works and their very names have long since been buried in oblivion. "The Jews, as a nation," says Bishop Sumner, "were always in obscurity-the certain consequence, not only of their situation, but of the peculiar constitution and jealous nature of their government. Can it, then, reasonably be expected that we should obtain positive testimony concerning this small and insulated nation from foreign historians, when the most ancient of these whose works remain lived more than a thousand years posterior to Moses? Can we look for it from the Greeks, when Thucydides has declared that, even respecting his own countrymen, he could procure no authentic record prior to the Trojan war? or from the Romans, who had scarcely begun to be a people when the empire of Jerusalem was destroyed, and the whole nation reduced to captivity?" When Heathen writers, however, such as Tacitus and Juvenal, do speak of Moses and his Law, they do so in a manner which plainly indicates that they regarded his writings as genuine. If we turn from the external to the internal evidence for the genuineness of the books of Moses, we find that the style is of a simple character, agreeing with the supposition of a remote age, and that the tone and structure of the composition are such as we might expect from a man placed in the situation in which it represents Moses as placed. "The order of discourse," says Jahn, "is not everywhere the most convenient; it frequently runs on in broken and unconnected fragments, many of which are wound up with distinct conclusions. All this shows a writer distracted by a multiplicity of business, writing not continuously, but with frequent interruptions, and in the constant anticipation of interruption." Another conclusive argument for the genuine "The Pentateuch, not only in connection with laws, records the occasions which respectively gave rise to them, but in later passages it repeals laws prescribed in earlier, or changes or abrogates them; a course in which it is not easily conceivable that any one should proceed who did not live at the time of their enactment, repeal, or change." Compare this with the manner in which the very same events are narrated by Josephus: "All things," says he, " are written by me as he [Moses] left them, nothing being added for the sake of ornament, nor which Moses did not leave; but I have made the innovation of arranging everything agreeably to its subject. For by him the things written were left without arrangement, just as he had obtained them severally from God." In precisely the same manner are the details given respecting the construction of the tabernacle. In the first place, the most minute directions are recorded as to the manner in which it was to be constructed, as if for the purpose of instructing the artists how to perform the work; and then, with the same minuteness, it is related how these orders were executed; whereas Josephus confines himself to a description of the general arrangement and effect of the edifice, as we would naturally expect a writer to do who lived after its construction. We can account for these differences only on the supposition that the accounts given in the books of Moses were written by an eye-witness, and by an eye-witness whose business it was to superintend and direct every circumstance of what he has described. This Finally, unless we admit that "the Book of the Law of Moses" was in reality written by the great Jewish legislator, it is impossible to account for its reception by the Jews at any subsequent period of their history. If it was not the work of Moses, it must be a forgery imposed upon the nation in his name. could not have been done during his life, or shortly after his death. If a forgery at all, it must have been fabricated at a period long subsequent to the age of the Jewish lawgiver. And if so, how can we account for the universal credit and authority which it obtained among the Jews? The events which it related were of the most remarkable kind; and the laws and institutions founded on them were so important, and of such a singular nature, that they never would have been received by any nation unless supported by the clearest evidence, and prescribed by an authority entitled to implicit obedience. They inculcated the performance of rites and ceremonies minute, tedious, and burdensome. "They prescribed usages |