conduced greatly to the imagery which he employed (i. 2; ii. 13; iii. 4, 5, 8; viii. 2). When regard is had to the literary excellence of this prophecy, our surprise is very great, that such a piece should have proceeded from one who had led a 'shepherd's slothful life.

The explanation is to be found, partly of the general culture which the Hebrew system communicated generally, partly in the fine natural endowments of Amos, but chiefly in the inspiring influence which the idea of God generally, and his direct operation on Amos specifically, so strongly exerted. One specimen of the workings of this influence may be pointed out in the grand conceptions of the Deity displayed in chap. ix. 1-6. The unprejudiced reader who can compare the varied excellences of Amos with other contemporary literary productions, will be led to the conclusion, that the Hebrew prophet does not, all things considered, suffer in comparison even with Homer in point of expression, while in moral tone and spiritual truth he far surpasses all Greek and Roman lore.

The prophecies of Amos were directed chiefly to the ten tribes of Israel (vii. 15). He also spoke to Judah (ii. 4), as well as to other neighbouring kingdoms, as Ammon, Gaza, Damascus, Moab, Edom (i. ii). The aim of the prophet was, by announcing the divine punishments against the enemies of Israel, as well as against Israel and Judah themselves, to awaken them to a sense of duty, and lead them to the service of the Almighty.

AMPHIPOLIS (G. encompassed city), a city in the eastern part of Macedonia, lying near the month of the river Strymon, which flows into the Strymonic Gulf, now the Gulf of Orphano. It was an Athenian colony, and in the time of the Romans the metropolis of Macedonia Prima. It now bears the abbreviated name of Emboli. Paul passed through this city on his way to Thessalonica (Acts xvii. 1).

ANAK, ANAKIM (H. huge), a primitive tribe of Canaan, that held the south of the land on the hill country of Judah, on spots which imagination and fear may have peopled with more and worse inhabitants than those that really existed, the rather as the Anakim lay in the way of the Israelites when they wished to enter Canaan. The 'sons of Anak' seem to have had as their centre, Kirjath-arba, which was afterwards called Hebron (Josh. xi. 21). They were divided into three clans, Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, of whom the twelve men sent to survey Canaan gave a terrific report (Numb. xiii. 28). Indeed they are described as not only a formidable but a gigantic race (Deut. ii. 10; ix. 2. Josh. xiv. 15). They were cut off by Joshua, and driven out by Caleb; so that there were none left, save a remnant in Gaza, Gath, and Ashded (Josh. xi. 21, seq.; zv. 14).

ANANIAS (H. Jehovah hath given). — I. Ananias, son of Nebedæus, was made high priest by Herod, king of Chalcis, A.D. 47. Having got mixed up in the contention between the Jews and the Samaritans, he was, at the instance of the latter, sent to Rome to answer for his conduct to Claudius Cæsar. Ananias seems to have returned with credit, and retained his office till it was given to Ismael, son of Phabi, who came into office just before the departure of Felix, and held it during the whole government of his successor Festus. Ananias was stabbed in the Jewish war, by one of that band of assassins who were so conspicuous in it. Paul was brought before this Ananias in the procuratorship of Felix. He was so irritated by Paul's declaring (Acts xxiii. 1, 2), 'I have lived in all good conscience before God to this day,' that he ordered the apostle to be struck in the mouth. Paul, with a burst of pardonable indignation, exclaimed, 'God shall smite thee, thou whited wall:' which prediction, as the above narration shows, was amply fulfilled. After this, Ananias went with Paul to Cæsarea, to lodge a complaint against him before Felix; but the latter postponed the affair, placing Paul in the charge of a Roman centurion (Acts xxiv.).

II. Ananias, a Christian of the early church at Jerusalem, who, conspiring with his wife Sapphira to defraud the brethren, was with her miraculously struck dead. The community of Christians at Jerusalem seem to have entered into a solemn agreement to sell their property, and devote the proceeds to the service of the church. Ananias, having disposed of his property, kept back some of the money, and offering the rest, as if it were the whole, to the apostle, was severely reproved, and immediately struck dead. His wife Sapphira, coming in soon after, met with the same fate. Had Ananias chosen to keep his property, he was at perfect liberty to do so; but it was no longer his own: he had alienated it from himself to pious purposes; and, under these circumstances, he sinned towards God, and not towards men. Besides, as, whatever he put into the common stock, he would, with the rest, live on its resources, so he intended to rob the really destitute; taking his full share of the public property, in return for only a part of his own. seems to have thought this disposal of 'a part of the price a good and profitable investment. So early did the lust of gain invade the church. The conduct of Ananias combined the vices of cupidity, lying, and hypocrisy, and, especially in the yet weak infant church, demanded signal punishment. The conduct of Peter has been unjustly blamed: he has been accused of inflicting a punishment exceeding the offence. But Peter had nothing to do with the death of Ananias. By the hand of Heaven alone the blow was. dealt, and Peter was Dot even the instrument

He

Some disbelievers in miracles have endeavoured to explain this away, by supposing that Ananias and his wife died of apoplexy, brought on by shame and mortification. But the improbability of this theory is its best refutation (see Acts v. 1-11).

III. Ananias, a Christian of Damascus (Acts ix. 10; xxii. 12), to whom the Lord appeared in a vision, directing him to lay his hands on Paul, and restore his sight. Ananias was not taken at random for the honourable office of consecrating the apostle to the Gentiles: for, while a Jew, he was held in high esteem; and when he became a Christian, he was distinguished for his piety. Paul, as was natural, continued to regard Ananias with affection and respect. There is a tradition that Ananias was the first who preached Christianity in Damascus, and that he held the office of bishop in that city. It is said that he was stoned to death by the Jews in bis own church.

AMULETS (A. hangings).-In a day when animal magnetism, mesmerism, magnetic rings, and other similar remedies, are eagerly resorted to, we have no right to wonder, tha:, in the earlier periods of the world, men ascribed a great curative and preservative power to articles which were thought to possess hidden and mysterious attributes. Hence arose the custom of wearing amulets as a protection against witchcraft, the evil eye, and ordinary diseases. This custom pre vailed throughout the East, and seems, indeed, to be a natural attendant on a state of ignorance regarding natural laws. The 'Ephesian writings, alluded to in Acts xix. 19, were supposed to act as talismans. Besides pieces of parchment bearing certain letters, such as phylacteries, &c. (Deut. vi. 8), precious stones, and metals in various shapes, particularly of an ornamental kind, as ear-rings and bracelets, were employed as instruments of this superstition. The Hebrews were not free from the delusion. In Gen. xxxv. 4, we find Jacob, in putting away the strange gods of his household, taking 'the ear-rings which were in their ears,' and burying them under an oak (comp. Isa. iii. 18, seq. and Ezek. xiii. 18). At the same time, the Israelites do not seem ever to have sunk so low in superstitious notions and practices even as some (so called) Christians, and certainly appear to advantage when compared with other ancient

uations.

A modern exemplification of this superstition may be drawn from practices observed by pilgrims, on occasion of the annual visit to the Jordan, made in commemoration of the Saviour's baptism :-'Willow branches and canes, cut from the banks, were baptized in the sacred stream; as were a multitude of beads, crucifixes, bracelets, and other trinkets, which had already been consecrated by being laid in the holy sepulchre. Many of the pilgrims-the largre portion-had

provided themselves with shrouds, to be preserved for their burial, or for the use of their friends, which they dipped in the river, and thus endowed with peculiar virtues. A coarse cotton stuff is used for this purpose, manufactured at Jerusalem. It is exhibited for sale in the court of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The purchasers, who were very numerous, carried it from the stall of the vender to a priest, stationed for the purpose within the church, who took it through a window, and muttered a brief prayer over it, for which he received a piece of silver. From the priest, and with his benediction upon it, the consecrated web was borne to the holy sepulchre, to imbibe another blessing from being placed in contact with its cold marble; and to-day it received its final endowment of supernatural virtues, by being immersed in the water of Jordan. By such dévices are multitudes of thinking, immortal beings, who bear the Christian name, secking a remedy for moral pollution, and providing for the urgent demands of a future state of existence' (Olin's Travels, vol. ii. 220).

ANATHEMA (G. offered).-In the word devoted (from the Latin votum, a vow) is found the root-idea of anathema, which is to vow. Both in Hebrew and in English, to devote is properly to vow, that is, to vow or give a thing to God in such a sense, that it is cut off and separated from the ordinary purposes of life, and reserved solely for religious uses. These uses have varied with time, country, and circumstances; and so devoted things and persons have, in being applied to these uses, been either destroyed, made to produce a revenue, or reserved for service. When, for instance, so large a portion of the land of England was in mortmain (mortis manu, in the hand of death), -applied exclusively to religious purposes,-it was anathema-devoted, severed from the ordinary uses of life. And so, when, during Catholic days, the richest presents of gold, silver, and precious stones, highly wrought by art, were given to the shrines of favourite saints, in this country, and suspended sometimes on their images within the shrines. these valuables were anathema- set apart from human ornament, to adorn religious houses, and so to serve God. The Greek word, indeed, properly signifies, something offered; and so set up, placed, or suspended

in the chapel or temple of a divinity. The essential meaning of the term, then, is, set apart for religious purposes: hence, a devoted or accursed thing; a victim, whose life was to be taken; a sacrifice, whether voluntary or otherwise; an oblation; a criminal reserved for punishment.

Lev. xxvii. 28,29, enjoins that every'devoted thing shall be put to death;'-' every devoted thing is most holy to Jehovah.' So in 1 Sam. xiv. 44, Jonathan having, by eating some honey, fallen under his father's curse, is told-Thou shalt surely die, Jonathan ;' he having thus become anathema, an accursed or devoted person. Devoted cattle and fields could not be redeemed: they belonged to the sanctuary (Lev. xxvii. 28). Every thing devoted in Israel shall be thine,'-Aaron's, and, after him, his successors, the priests and Levites (Numb. xviii. 14; comp. Ezek. xliv. 29). Vows appear, in the Biblical as well as in profane and modern history, to have been prompted by critical emergencies. So, when Israel had been beaten by Arad the Canaanite, they vowed a vow unto Jehovah If thou wilt deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.' The text adds the Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities; and he called the name of the place Hormah,' that is, Anathema- devoted to destruction (1 Numb. xxi. 1, seq.). Monotheism was guarded by the penalty of anathema, as every Israelite turning idolater was to be devoted to destruction (Exod. xxii. 20). In the case of an apostate city, the inhabitants were to be put to the sword, as well as all the cattle; but the goods and chattels of all kinds were to be utterly destroyed by fire (Deut. xiii. 16). The anathema was carried into effect on the Canaanites, by utterly destroying the men, and the women, and the little ones of every captured city (Deut. ii. 34; iii. 6. Josh. vi. 17; x. 28, 35, 37, 40; xi. 11). All the silver and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, were to come into the treasury of Jehovah (Josh. vi. 19). Any one retaining any portion of the accursed thing became himself accursed (Josh. vi. 17, 18; vii. 11). Under special circumstances were the cattle saved from death, and taken as a prey, being divided among the warriors (Deut. ii. 35; iii. 7. Josh. viii. 2, 27). Sometimes it was only living things that were devoted (Josh. x. 28, 30, 32, &c.) These laws were in substance revived after the exile; for Ezra made a proclamation, that the Jews who would not put away their foreign wives should have their property confiscated, and be themselves cut off, or excommunicated.

Our knowledge is not such as to enable us to say with precision what the law of devotement was in the Jewish church, in the days of Christ. The progress of civilisation, and

the consequent refinement of morals, had led to the prevention of the shedding of blood, in connection with a vow or curse; and, apparently, the anathema had become a social and moral penalty. Some we know not exactly how many years after his death, excommunication was as follows, which we learn from the works of the Jewish doctors. In the Mischna frequent mention is made of excommunication and the excommunicated. A person dying in a state of anathema had stones cast on his coffin, in token of degradation. An excommunicated person could not enter the temple by the ordinary gateway; nor was he allowed, while under the curse, to shave himself. Two kinds of excommunication-the greater and the lessare spoken of. According to Maimonides, the latter lasted only thirty days, and was unaccompanied by any imprecation; but the severer or proper anathema always involved a curse: and, while the former could be pronounced by one Rabbi, it required at least ten members of the Sanhedrim to pronounce the latter. A person under the anathema or ban, strictly so called, was shut out from all intercourse with others; while the exclusion was, in the other case, only partial, and the commerce was restricted. Persons who lay under it were distinguished by habiliments of mourning.

While, however, we cannot affirm that these exact distinctions and rules existed in the time of Christ, there seem to have then been grades of anathema. In Ezra x. 8, an offender was to be formally separated, with loss of his substance, from the congregation. So, in Luke vi. 22 (when they shall separate you'), our Lord refers to the greater excommunication, or entire deprival of religious and civil rights. But in John ix. 22 (to be 'put out of the synagogue'), the lesser or partial ban is intended (John xii. 42; xvi. 2,)

In 1 Cor. v. 5, the words refer to excommunication, expressed in Paul's phraseology. -'to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus; to these evil influences, which were expressed by the aggregate term world, and personified in the name Satan, -the evil influences of a wicked man's own heart, which, working their natural effects, would destroy the body, and, in the consequent pain and debility, might lead to repentance, and so to the salvation of the soul. This is a case of fornication 1 Cor. v. 1; compare 1 Tim. i. 20).

The noun anathema, and the corresponding verb, occur several times in the New Testament, but more, perhaps, in the old Hebraic sense of a curse or devotement, than in the modern Jewish sense of excommnication. In Acts xxiii. 12, certain Jews are mentioned who had bound themselves under a curse to slay Paul. In Rom. ix. 3, Paul

says, 'I could wish that myself were ac cursed from Christ for my brethren,' where probably the idea is rather of excommunitation. The word rendered accursed in I Cor. xi. 3, is anathema in the original,'No man calleth Jesus accursed.' In 1 Cor. xvi. 22, we read,—'If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema;' that is, if any professed Christian be not so in heart, let him be cut off from the church. The words maran atha have nothing to do with the curse, but signify the Lord is at hand,' indicating, after the prevalent opinion of the day, that Christ was about to return 'to execute judgment' (Jude 14, 15), 'being revealed in flaming fire, taking vengeance' (2 Thess. i. 8, 9). If any one preach any other gospel, let him be accursed,'-anathema (Gal. i. 8, 9; see also Mark xiv. 71).

We find the following very pertinent remarks by Bungener in his History of the Council of Trent,' on the frequent use of this word, anathema, by the Church of Rome. 'That word,' says he, Rome understood, and had always caused to be understood, in the most terrifying sense that it could bear. Anathema, among the Greeks, signified originally deposited in a temple consecrated to a god. Afterwards it meant consecrated to the infernal gods, that is, accursed. In passing over to Christianity this last meaning was aggravated by the idea of a far more terrible hell than that of the Pagans. To be anathema meant to be damned, and to be damned to all eternity.

Will it be said that St. Paul used this expression? In fact, "If any man preach any other gospel let him be anathema " (Gal. i. 9). But besides that, this formula, still quite Pagan, could not have had any very precise meaning under his pen; it is one thing to curse in general, whosoever announces another gospel, and quite another thing to attach this awful sanction to each of the points of detail of which it is maintained that the Christain faith is composed. Then, again, bas the Church necessarily the right to do what an apostle did under the guidance of the Holy Spirit? Every objection to its infallibility-and we have seen whether there be few of them-is an objection to the right of the anathema.' It is farther to be borne in mind, that what Paul anathematises is the crime of preaching another gospel as of Heaven, while Rome reserves her anathemas for those whose reason cannot receive doctrines delivered on her own authority.

The act of anathematising is a very unseemly one for beings to perform who are so frail, erring, and sinful as men. Nor can any one plead an immunity from such a liability to mistake, as disqualifies man for being the judge of his fellow-man. And those who by their true holiness of character approach most nearly to such an immunity, will, like the great Master whom they resem

Per

ble, prefer blessing instead of cursing their brethren of mankind. It is an easy, though a very wrong, thing to anathematise. sons who are in the lowest grade of culture, easily surpass in this unseemly act men that are least disqualified to judge others. Ignorant zeal may outdo the knowledge of an apostle, and the sanctity of a seraph.

The Maronite clergy in the mountains of Lebanon have at their command a fearful word of execration - a word that excites unbounded horror; but its use is rare. This word, applied to an individual, bars every door against him, and cuts him off from all social intercourse. This word the more terrible since its import is left to the imagination-is fra-masson, a corruption of franc-maçon, a freemason. A Christian of Lebanon believes that a freemason is a horrible being, whose soul is devoted to perdition, and who has constant dealings with Satan; possessing a thousand means of working mischief even on the faithful.

The Apostle to the Gentiles has left an exhortation which the Christian church needs no less in this day than it did when it was first uttered, 'Let us not therefore judge one another any more; but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling-block, or an occasion to fall, in his brother's way' (Rom. xiv. 13).

ANDREW (G. manly), one of the first disciples - if not the first-of Christ (Matt. iv. 18. Mark i. 16. John i. 40), and brother (whether younger or older is not known) of the apostle Peter. His native place was Bethsaida, on the Lake Gennesareth, where he with his brother carried on the trade of fishing (Matt. iv. 18). Before he joined Jesus, he had been a disciple of John the Baptist (John i. 35-40). In the evangelical narratives, we find him in constant and intimate connection with the Saviour (John vi. 8; xii. 22. Mark xjii. 3). The Book of Acts merely mentions him once (i. 13) - a fact which, with others of a similar nature, may serve to show, that the accounts of the early church that have come down to us by no means contain the entire history: probably more has been lost than we actually possess. Tradition makes him travel as a missionary into many countries, Scythia, Asia Minor, Thrace, Macedonia, and Achaia; and, at the order of the Roman proconsul, whose wife and brother he had converted, to suffer martyrdom, in the cause of his Master, at Patræ, in Achaia, on the Gulf of Lepanto, on a kind of cross, named, from him, 'Saint Andrew's Cross,' - of the shape shown in the cut (crux decussata).

We here give an engraving of the full fi gure of the apostle Andrew; intending to add one of each of the apostles. These are all taken from the celebrated bronze statues of the Twelve Apostles by Peter Vischer, which adorn the mausoleum of Saint Sebaldus, at

By putting together the evangelical acecunts (Matt. iv. 18. Mark i. 16. John i. 35), we gain the following view of the call of Andrew: Being present when John the Baptist declared,Behold the Lamb of God, and understanding this to mean the Messiah, Andrew, as an obedient hearer of John, immediately followed Jesus.

This was

the commencement of his discipleship. He had passed from the school of John to that of Jesus. Having received and proclaimed the Messiah, he resumed the duties of his calling, in the pursuit of which, on the Gallilæan Lake, he received from the Master his call to the apostleship, when he gave up all, in order to co-operate in founding the kingdom of God.

The calls which our Lord gave to the apostleship were not made indiscriminately. Andrew had received the preparatory disci pline of John's instructions, and appears to have naturally possessed a mind open to the reception of divine truth. How interesting to see John ushering his own disciples into the Christian church! Genuine benevolence keeps the bosom free from the agitations of jealous rivalry.

ANGEL (G. messenger), a Greek word in English letters, which stands as the representative of & Hebrew term denoting one that

is sent. The general conception of the IIabrews was, that God was a sovereign, seated in heaven, surrounded by his angels, or ministers, by whose instrumentality he carried on the government of the world. The reader should, at the first, make a careful distinction between the Hebrew Malach (Greek, Aggelos) and the ordinary term 'angel;' for, though the latter is connected in meaning with the former, it represents, in the mind of a modern, an idea different from what Malach stands for; comprising notions and opinions for which Hebraism, in its early purity, is by no means responsible. Perhaps the distinction may be preserved by translating Malach literally, - namely, as 'messenger, and by adhering to that designation generally.

The great idea of the Bible is, that all things are of God; - an idea which the highest philosophy approves, and which the interests of piety, no less than the instinctive feelings of man's breast, require and welcome. Hence, a particular providence passes into a general providence, in such a sense that the supervision is necessarily particular, because it is universal. "There is a special Providence in the fall of a sparrow.' But auniversal agency on the part of God does not exclude instruments, otherwise human acts would be mere shows and illusions. But if man, so other beings, may be employed in a series of instrumental causes. Thus the employment of messengers is in keeping with the general plan of creation and providence. Man, and all below him, are so employed; why not superior beings? But do such exist? The analogy of nature gives an answer in the affirmative, unless it is thought probable that the scale of being, after rising from the zoöphyte through numberless gradations, stops suddenly at man, leaving unfilled with life the infinite vacuum which is between man and God. There is, in consequence, no antecedent presumption against the doctrine of angels.

The great object of the Biblical writers was to speak of God and man in the relations which they bear, and in which they ought to stand, one towards another. Hence God is the Creator, man the creature; God the Sovereign, man the subject; God the Judge, man the criminal; God the Father, man the son. Whatever is needful to illustrate and enforce these relations, is recorded directly and repeatedly. Extraneous things, or things bearing but slightly on these relations, are either omitted, or partially and incidentally introduced. Accordingly, while the Bible narrates with care the creation of man, and the heavens and earth, it communicates no information as to the origin, or, strictly speaking, as to the nature of God's messengers: their existence, their attributes, their rank in creation, their agency, are all left to be learned inferentially-so far as they