(Gen. xl. 10), Von Bohlem remarks: "An important specification of time for the late origin of the narrative is contained here in the dream of the butler, in which the existence of the vine in Egypt is implied; for after Psamaticus, consequently just about the time of Josiah, had its cultivation been commenced in a small degree, and could, in a low country, which at the time of the ripening of the grape is overflowed, find entrance only at some few points." Various theories were proposed for the purpose of removing this supposed difficulty. Some have assumed that in the dream of the chief butler of Pharaoh there is no mention made of wine, but only of drinking the newly pressed-out unfermented juice of the grape. This, however, is merely an evasion of the difficulty, for to say nothing of the fact that wine is elsewhere referred to in the Pentateuch, the employment of a butler, a cupbearer, as a distinguished officer in the royal household, was not at all likely to have taken place if the preparation of the drink had been so remarkably simple as this supposition implies. Others have supposed, with the learned Michaelis, that wine was employed in the Jewish sacrifices expressly to break through any Egyptian prejudice regarding it, and to detach the Israelites still more from their overweaning affection for that country and its institutions. The monumental sculptures have, however, finally settled the question, and it is scarcely necessary to say in favour of the Jewish legislation. On these monuments there is a minute representation of wine growing in all its parts. The dressing of the vinethe watering of its roots to keep it moist-the gathering of the grapes-the conveying them in a basket to the wine vat-the treading them out in the press -the drawing off of the juice, and the compression of the crushed pulp in a bag, so that no part of the precious fluid might be lost. "In the grottoes of Beni Hassan," says Champollion, "are found representations of the culture of the vine. The vintage; the bearing away, and the stripping off of the grapes; two kinds of presses, the one moved merely by the strength of the arms, the other by mechanical power; the putting up of the wine in bottles or jars; the transportation into the cellar; the preparation of boiled wine;" &c. Rosellini, who has a separate section on grape gathering and the art of making wine, says: "Numerous are the representations in the tombs which relate to the cultivation of the vine; and these are found not merely in the tombs of the times of the eighteenth and some later dynasties, but also in those which belong to the time of the most ancient dynasties." "These pictures," he adds, "show more decidedly than any ancient written testimony that in Egypt, even in the most ancient times, the vine was cultivated and wine made." In the representations of the offerings which the kings present to the gods, and of the festive entertainments, the different kinds of wine are distinguished, as among us, by inscriptions or labels on the bottles. In the inscriptions of the times of the Pharaohs, no fewer than seven different kinds of wine are represented. On some of the sculptures men are seen who, unable to walk, are carried home from a feast by their servants, and it would even appear that the ladies were not altogether free from similar excesses. The force of these overwhelming proofs of the accuracy of the sacred narrative can scarcely be said to have been increased by the discovery, in the ruins of old Egyptian cities, of the remains of wine vessels still incrusted with the tartar deposited by wine. The whole history of Joseph, from the period when he was sold by the Ishmaelites to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's guard, down to his death, when he was embalmed and put in a coffin in Egypt, displays," in a very striking manner, the minute and accurate knowledge which the sacred historian possessed of Egyptian manners and customs. We can find space for only a very few examples; but the subject is treated in a very elaborate manner by Hengstenberg in his "Egypt and the Books of Moses," to which we refer our readers. In Gen. xl. 16, we are told that the chief baker or head cook of Pharaoh dreamed that he had three white baskets on his head, and that in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of bake-meats for Pharaoh. The words "white baskets are in the margin rendered "baskets full of holes," and shoul!" be translated" baskets full of hole-bread,”—ie, of bread baked in holes. The allusion is to a mode of baking peculiar to the East. A shallow hole, about six inches deep, by three or four feet in diameter, is made in the ground; this is filled up with dry brushwood, upon which, when kindled, pebbles are thrown, to concentrate and retain the heat. Meanwhile the dough is prepared, and when the oven is sufficiently heated, the ashes and pebbles are removed, and the spot well cleaned out. The dough is then deposited in the hollow, and is left there over night. The cakes thus baked are about two fingers thick, and are very palatable. From the manner in which they are baked, they are called hole-bread. As the process is slower, and the bread more savoury than any other, this kind of bread might certainly be entitled to the distinction implied in its being prepared for the table of the Egyptian king.+ The various delineations of cooking and kitchen scenes on the monuments clearly show that the art of baking was carried to a high degree of perfection among the Egyptians. "It is clear," says Rosellini, that the Egyp tians were accustomed to prepare many kinds of pastry for the table, as we see the very same kinds spread out upon the altars and tables which are represented in the tombs. They made even bread in many and various forms. These articles are found in the tombs,, knead from barley or wheat, in the form of a star, a triangle, a dish, and other such like things." The chief baker dreamed that he carried the bas kets full of bread on his head. Examples of this custom, which is peculiarly characteristic of the Egyptians, are frequently found on the monuments. According to Herodotus, the habit of bearing burdens on the head by the men, is one by which the Egyp tians are distinguished from all other people. "Men," * Clark's edition is preferable to the American one, as it contains some valuable notes by Dr. W. E. Taylor. ↑ See an able article on bread in the Biblical Cyclopædia, vol. 1. 2 MASTER AND SERVANT. says he, "bear burdens on their heads, and women on their shoulders." * In Gen. xli. 14, we are told that when Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh. We might at first sight be apt to imagine that in shaving himself Joseph only performed an act of cleanliness, rendered necessary by his neglect of his person while in the dungeon. But the fact is, that the Hebrews, like all other Oriental nations, except the Egyptians, attached a very great value to the possession of a beard, and to be deprived of this cherished ornament and badge of honour, was a mark of infamy that degraded a person from the ranks of men to that of slaves and women. Joseph, on this occasion, prepared himself for presentation to the king, by conforming to a custom, which both the representations on the monuments and the testimony of ancient writers prove to have been a peculiar and distinguishing characteristic of the Egyptians. "So particular," says Wilkinson, Iwere they on this point, that to have neglected it, was a subject of reproach and ridicule; and whenever they intended to convey the idea of a man of low condition, or a slovenly person, the artists represented him with a beard. Although foreigners, who were brought to Egypt as slaves, had beards on their arrival in the country, we find that as soon as they were employed in the service of the civilized people, they were obliged to conform to the cleanly habits of their masters; their beards and heads were shaved, and they adopted a close cap." 66 66 According to chapter xli. 42, “ Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck; and he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt." We have here an enumeration of the various steps by which Joseph was naturalized among the Egyptians, and invested with the office of vizier. The gift of the seal, or signet-ring, was a matter of special importance. "At the present day," says Dr. Taylor, "public documents in the East are more frequently authenticated by the royal signet than by the sign manual. The seal, however, is a stamp giving an impression with ink, similar to those made for Henry the Eighth and George the Fourth, when disease rendered those monarchs incapable of writing, and is rarely used to give an impression on wax or any similar substance. The bestowing it on Joseph was equivalent to intrusting him with the charge of the administration; because its impression, attached to any document, gave it as much authority as if it had been signed by the king's own hand." The "vesture of fine linen" was a dress peculiarly Egyptian. According to Herodotus, the garments of byssus were considered by the Egyptians as pure and holy, and therefore the priests wore these only; and they were held in high estimation among the other classes of the Egyptians. In reference to this passage, Infidel writers have affirmed, with the most unhesitating * See Hengstenberg, p. 27. 309 confidence, as if it were matter admitting of no doubt. that "these objects of luxury, especially polished stones, belong to a later time." The inaccuracy of this statement has been incontestably proved, not merely by the pictorial representations on the monuments, where necklaces of gold appear as regular ensigns of rank, but by the actual discovery of the necklaces themselves in the Egyptian tombs. MASTER AND SERVANT. BY THE REV. ANDREW THOMSON, A.B., EDINBURGH. SECOND ARTICLE. IV. The fourth and last duty which we shall mention, as due by masters to their servants, is that of CONSCIENTIOUS REGARD FOR THEIR RELIGIOUS INTERESTS. A servant is not a mere appendage of the family, but a part of it. She has come within the enclosure of that sacred circle in which your influence is unequalled either for good or for evil. The duties of your mutual relation are not discharged by the mere payment of wages on the one hand, and the return of toil on the other-a human soul has been brought within the reach of your influence, and if you leave unheeded the great question of its salvation, there is a day coming when "its blood will be required at your hand." We must not allow our judgment on these subjects to rise no higher than the provisions of human legislation, or the low and flexible morality of the hour; "For many a crime, deemed innocent on earth, This states the breadth and length of the rela- And ing her acquaintances, or in strolling in the coun- in "the devout soldier that waited on him continually." To persons of a superficial and frivolous habit of mind, some of these remarks may seem unduly minute, and others extravagantly earnest. We have penned them under a deep persuasion of their importance. Is the fact generally known and pondered, that, taking the entire population of our country, of those between the ages of fifteen and forty, one-fifth are female servants? Viewing them, therefore, even numerically, their importance is great. And this importance is almost inde finitely magnified, when we consider that the morality of servants must very seriously affect the morality of our families, and that the morality of families is the morality of the world. We ascend now to a higher point of obserOvation, and look at the servant as a being possessed of the same moral and immortal nature as ourselves; and we announce the appalling fact, ascertained by most accurate inquiry, that among the inmates of female penitentiaries at the present hour, three-fourths had once been household servants. Is no part o. And even when these wholesome regulations the blame of this to be ascribed to the relaxed of the Christian household have been enforced, authority or the neglect of Christian masters and the half of our duty to our servants has not mistresses? Had they been watched and warnbeen discharged. There should be the syste- ed, instructed and advised-had they been matic instruction of them along with our own gathered around the family altar, and taught to children in the lessons of Christianity, and the remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holyresolution, prayerfully formed, and prayerfully might they not still have been adorning the acted out, that no servant shall depart from paths of an humble virtue, and never have beneath our roof, without an adequate acquaint-known the agony of broken hearts, the pangs ance with the theory, at least, of the Divine method of mercy. There should be brought habitually to bear upon them the hallowed influences of family devotion. Their afflictions, as well as our own, should be recognised in the family prayer. And crowning all, our every instruction should find its interpretation, and all our devotion its meet exponent, in a holy and consistent walk with God in the quiet circle of our own habitations. It is within the bosom of their own families that men appear as they are. There all formality is thrown aside, and all studied attitude forgotten, as too cumbrous and oppressive for such a scene. So convinced was the sagacious John Newton of this, that when he heard a friend on one occasion praising the religious character of another very highly, and appealing to him for assent, his reply was: "I should like to see the man first at his own fire-side." And if even at your own fire-side your conduct prove in a great degree the reflection and confirmation of your doctrine, who can calculate the amount of beneficent influence that you may be privileged to shed around you? Look at that Abraham, who commanded his children and his household after him, and see the reflection of his sanctity in his servant Eliezer of Damascus. Look at yonder Cornelius, and behold the reward and the fruit of his piety of torturing remorse, and the shame of branded and dishonoured names? How many voices' come from those gloomy refuges, to which they have returned with bleeding feet!-how many voices cry from that place where hope never comes "No man cared for our souls!" Awful: thought, to have resting on our consciences the blood of souls! "We are verily guilty concerning our brother." O ye who are masters and mistresses, resolve, in the strength of Divine grace, that no servant shall ever pass from beneath your roof uninstructed, or, by the help of God, unconverted! Let them have reason to refer back to your holy and happy dwelling as the place where, in your example, they saw religion to be real, and felt it to be lovely. Let them, in future life, point back to your domestic training as the perfect model on which they form their own. Let your house, like the sanctuary, be rich to them in holiest remembrances. And remember that ye too, are servants, for "your Master also is in heaven, and there is no respect of persons with him." A part of the service he has intrusted to us is, to bring our house to serve the Lord. And there is an impartial day coming, when we shall appear before him, to be judged of our stewardship. No distinctions shall be known then, but such as are moral and essential. All else, with OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE, &c. 311 their grave-clothes, men shall have put off. myriads of the living particles nestling on a leaf, or None shall rule, none serve. swimming on a drop of water, or burrowing in a grain of sand. "No king, no subject then; unscutcheon'd all, Nothing shall be forgotten, nothing concealed. And we are filling up the history now which is to be unrolled then. Awful thought, impressing, as with the stamp of eternity, the deeds of time. To masters, then, and to servants alike, we address the inspired words of exhortation: "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done; and there is no respect of persons."-Col. iii. 23-25. OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE OF (From Dr. Dick's Theological Lectures.) The first which I shall mention is, that the doctrine of providence supposes God to have his attention occupied and distracted with a multitude of cares, of which some are in danger of being neglected, and all are inconsistent with undisturbed felicity. This was the great argument of the Epicureans, but it can have effect only on shallow minds. Human minds can attend to many and complicated affairs, in quick succession; and were these greatly enlarged, or made equal to those of angels, their sphere of observation, and power of embracing broad and complicated subjects, without fatigue, would be vastly increased. And if God's understanding be infinite, it is competent to attend to all the affairs of the universe without effort. His knowledge must embrace all things, however obscure or minute; and being intuitive, is as easy to him as a glance of the eye. All created things are naked and open before him, with all their essences, properties, operations, thoughts, and designs. It costs him no more labour to know all creatures and events in the universe, than it does a man to see what is under the scope of his eve; nor is the care of all things any burden to him who is almighty, who does all things without effort or fatigue. "The Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not, neither is weary." In the second place, it has been objected that the doctrine of providence degrades the majesty of God by bringing his attention to objects unworthy of him -to a fly, to a mite which the human eye cannot perceive. But it will be acknowledged that such creatures exist, and that by the will of their Creator. If, then, it was worthy of God to give them being, why is it unworthy of him to uphold them? The objection lies not against the care, but against the existence of such creatures. To a man of piety such creatures furnish matter of admiration and praise. God's power is wonderful in the least, as in the greatest of his works. In a fly or an animalcule there are muscles, and nerves, and blood-vessels, and organs of digestion and of sense, and these assembled in a point indiscernible to the keenest human eye. And what a sublime idea does it give of the goodness of God, to think that it communicates itself not only to the angelic hosts, and to the rational inhabitants of our globe, and to the lower animals, but to the In the third place, it is objected that many facts appear to be inconsistent with the wisdom and benevolence of an Almighty Ruler of the world-such as the physical evils which impair the beauty and happiness of creation-the barrenness of many places of the earth-the profusion of weeds and noxious plants -the excesses of heat and cold, of drought and mois ture, and all the calamities to which men are exposed. This objection arises from inattention to the fact that this world is not an abode for innocent beings, where unmixed happiness is to be looked for. It is not an Eden, but the ground that was cursed for man's sake. It is a rebellious province, under the tokens of its Sovereign's displeasure. And these evils existing in the world, go to confirm the doctrine of providence-they are instances of the interference of a righteous God for the punishment of sin. The last objection which I shall mention is founded on the afflictions of the righteous and the prosperity of the wicked. With regard to this I remark, that the righteous are chargeable in the sight of God with many transgressions, which render them worthy of correction. Pure virtue, if it existed on earth, might be expected to have a portion of pure felicity assigned to it; but mixed virtue has no reason to complain at receiving a cup mixed with bitter ingredients. No good man ever makes his own afflictions an argument against the doctrine of providence; because he is conscious that he deserves more than he suffers; nay, so far are the afflictions of the righteous from disproving the care and goodness of Providence, that they are the surest evidences of his love, because their express design is to purify them from sin, and by a salutary discipline to prepare them for heaven. As to the prosperity of the wicked, it sometimes comes with the merciful design of leading them to repentance. At other times it is given, not on their own account, but for the sake of making them the channels of God's bounty to their families, their dependants, their neighbourhood and their country; and sometimes it is given as a token of God's displeasure, and operates as a means of nurturing wicked passions, and preparing the way for a more dreadful ruin. When, as the Psalmist did, we come to contemplate the end of the wicked, we shall not be perplexed with a view of their present prosperity. When we speak of divine providence, we do not mean by it a perfect moral administration. We see only the commencement of things here, and wait for a full development at the proper season. Now men are in a state of trial-having opportunities of doing good or evil; and though they may be treated in part according to their conduct, yet the full retribution will not take place till the season of their trial is ended. There are wise and necessary reasons why retribution is delayed; and the appearances of injustice which have distressed good men, and furnished the bad with arguments against providence, should give us no disturbance. Amidst the darkness which surrounds us, we see enough to convince us that there is a Supreme Governor, and that he loves righteousness and hates iniquity, and that ere long his judgment will be openly revealed. There is sufficient evidence that heaven is on the side of virtue, notwithstanding its trials, and against vice, notwithstanding its occasional success; and we are authorized to believe, that virtue will ultimately triumph, and vice will be expelled from the kingdom of God. "He cometh to judge the earth; he shall judge the world in righteousness, and the people with his truth." (From Leighton.) God fills his own work; he is not only over it, but he is also in it. If we ascribe to him the origin of this fabric, and all things in it, it will be most absurd and inconsistent to deny him the preservation and government of it; for if he does not preserve and govern his creatures, it must be either because he cannot, or because he will not; but his infinite power and wisdom make it impossible to doubt of the former, and his infinite goodness of the latter. It is, to be sure, a very great miracle, merely to know so great a multitude and variety of things; not only particular towns, but also provinces and kingdoms, even the whole earth: all the myriads of creatures that crawl upon the earth, and all their thoughts at the same instant, to hear and see all that happens in both hemispheres. How much more wonderful must it be, to rule and govern all these at once, and that with one glance of the eye! It is a great comfort to have the faith of this providence constantly impressed upon the mind, so as to have recourse to it in the midst of all confusions and all calamities, whether from without or from within to be able to say, The great King, who is also my Father, is the supreme ruler of all these things, and with him all my interests are secure-in every distress, when all hope of human assistance is swallowed up in despair, to silence all the fears with these comfortable words, "God will provide." SAMARIA. God's word: "I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley." And last of all, we had noticed that many of the stones in the valley were large and massy, as if they had been the foundation-stones of a building, and that in many parts of the vast colonnade nothing more than the bases of the pillars remain. But especially we observed, that the ruined church had been built upon foundations of a far older date than the church itself, the stones being of great size, and bevelled in a manner similar to the stones of the temple wall at Jerusalem, and those of the mosque at Hebron, and these foundations were now quite exposed. So that the last clause of prophecy is fulfilled with the same awful minuteness: "I will discover the foundations thereof." Surely there is more than enough in the fulfilment of this fourfold prediction to condemn, if it does not convince, the Infidel. Narrative of a Mission to the Jews. DECEIVE NOT YOUR OWN SOULS. LORD! how generally do the Christians of our age deceive themselves with a self-sprung religion! Divine indeed in the institution, but merely human in respect of the radication and exercise; in which | respects also it must be divine or nothing. What! are we yet to learn that a divine power must work and form our religion in us, as well as divine authority direct and enjoin it? Do all such Scriptures go for nothing that tell us, it is God that must create the new heart, and renew the right spirit in us; that he must turn us, if ever we be turned; that we can never IT is most affecting to look round this scene of desocome to Christ, except the Father draw us, &c.:| lation, and to remember that this was the place where Nor is there any cause of discouragement in this, if wicked Ahab built his house of Baal, where cruel Jezebel ruled, and where Elijah and Elisha did their you consider what hath before been said in this diswonders. But above all, it filled the mind with solemn course. Ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you awe to read on the spot the words of God's prophet, shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. Your uttered 2500 years before: "I will make Samaria as heavenly Father will give his Spirit to them that ask, a heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard; more readily than parents do bread to their children, and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof." and not a stone. But what if you be put to ask often, Every clause reveals a new feature in the desolation and wait long ?-this doth but the more endear the of Samaria, differing in all its details from the deso- gift, and show the high value of it. You are to re lation of Jerusalem, and every word has literally come member how often you have grieved, resisted, and to pass. We had found both on the summit, and on the southern valley, at every little interval, heaps of vexed this Spirit, and that you have made God wait ancient stones piled up, which had been gathered off long upon you. What if the absolute sovereign Lord | the surface to clear it for cultivation. There can be of all expect your attendance upon him? He waits no doubt that these stones once formed part of the to be gracious; and blessed are they that wait for temples, and palaces, and dwellings of Samaria, so him. Renew your applications to him. Lay from that the word is fulfilled: "I will make Samaria as a time to time that covenant before you, which your heap of the field." selves must be wrought up unto a full, entire closure with; and if it be not done at one time, try yet if it will at another, and try again and again. Remember it is for your life, for your soul, for your all. Howe We had also seen how completely the hill has been cleared of all edifices, the stones gathered off it as in the clearing of a vineyard, the only columns that remain standing bare without their capitals; so that in all respects the hill is left like "the plantings of a vineyard"-either like the bare vine-shoots of a newly planted vineyard, or like the well-cleared terraces, where vines might be planted. Still further, we had seen that the ruins of the ancient city had not been left to moulder away on the hill where they were built, as is the case with other ancient cities, but had been cleared away to make room for the labours of the husbandman. The place where the buildings of the city stood has been tilled, sown, and reaped; and the buildings themselves rolled down over the brow of the hill. Of this, the heaps in the valley, the loose fragments in the rude dykes that run up the sides, and the broken columns on their way down into the valley, are witnesses; so that the destroyers of Samaria (whose very names are unknown), and the simple husbandman, have both unwittingly been fulfilling VALUE OF PRAYER. Ir was a memorable saying of Ambrose to the mother of Augustine, when she lamented to him the indis position which her son at that time displayed to a religious feeling: "I have never known the son al lowed to perish for whose soul so many prayers an holy tears interceded." Nor when we hear, in like manner, complaints from parents and teachers, c education, of example, and entreaty thrown away on the levity and stubbornness of those whose hearts thes have desired to soften and meliorate, can we arid sometimes suspecting that their pains might have had a happier effect, if His help had been duly sought for. who only giveth the increase, either to the earthly or spiritual husbandman. |