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THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.

power which propels the planets in their course

-causes the sea to ebb and flow, gathers the clouds into a heap, sends forth the forked lightning, and causes the soft rain to fall upon the earth; whether it is by this spiritual instrumentality, invisibly operating throughout the universe, that what we call Nature is maintained and governed or whether the ministrations of angels are used only on those supernatural occasions when Almighty GOD wills to reverse Nature's usual courses-to stop the earth in its orbit, to drown it in a flood of waters, to send the destroying pestilence, or, when His will is done, to stay the plague, to announce His messages of mercy, to save some faithful servant from disaster-what may be the limits of the angelic ministry, we know not. Only we know, on the authority of our LORD, that there exists a body of spiritual beings, whom we see not, employed by the great GOD, as the agents of His Will, and instruments of His mercy. There can be no question about this in the mind of every one who believes the Bible, and the fact approves itself to all our notions of inherent probability.

I am afraid I shall be thought very ungrateful to Dr. Farrar for insisting so much on these blemishes in his generally valuable work. But just in the present critical position of men's minds, it is a most serious drawback that a man

THE GOSPEL MIRACLES.

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like Dr. Farrar should not uphold the integrity of GOD's Word, but seem to sanction the too common notion that we have a right to pick and choose for ourselves, and believe what we please and reject what we do not like. On what possible plea can it be urged that we should accept the wonderful account of our LORD walking on the sea, and reject the equally, but not more wonderful account of the demoniac and the swine -when both are recorded by the Evangelist in the most positive terms? Moreover, the incident of the passing of the devils into the swine is valuable as proving the personality of evil spirits. It is just this arbitrary criticism of Holy Scripture which is gradually contributing to sap the foundation of Christianity.

E

CHAPTER V.

CHRISTIANITY SUFFERS EVEN FROM WELL-MEANING PHILOSOPHERS.-PROFESSOR MAX MULLER'S LECTURE ON

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THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION."-THE PILLAR OF THE CLOUD.-CHRISTIANITY REGARDED AS ONE OF MANY RELIGIONS.-PRIMEVAL RELIGION.

Ir may be questioned whether less actual harm is not done to the cause of Christian Truth by the most rabid atheist and infidel than by the half-hearted support and vague speculations of men of whom it would be uncharitable to say that they were not Christians. Violent attacks on Christianity put faithful men on their guard, who are apt to be beguiled by plausible novelties and modern subtleties. Take the following passage from Professor Max Müller's recent lecture on "The Science of Religion,"-"What to us is a heavenly message, a godsend, was to them (the ancients) a winged messenger: what we call Divine guidance they speak of as a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way, a pillar of light to give them light—a refuge from the storm, a shadow

MAX MULLER'S PHILOSOPHY.

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from the heat. What is really meant is no doubt the same, and the fault is ours, not theirs, if we wilfully mistake the language of the ancient prophets." (P. 43.) The Professor is scarcely candid here. What are the facts? "The angel of GoD which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them, and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them, and it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these." Surely these circumstantial details are not mere figurative expressions for Divine guidance.

When Dr. Colenso plainly tells us that the facts recorded in Ancient Scripture are "unhistorical," i.e., untrue, our best feelings are indignant at the spectacle of a bishop of the Church betraying the religion which he professes to teach; but when a philosophic layman, professing great regard for the Bible, at least as an ancient book, does precisely the same thing by quietly setting aside its meaning under pretext of philological science we are much more likely to be deceived.

Another mode in which damage is done to the cause of Christian Truth even by persons who would be hurt, and justly so, if they were accused of being its enemies, is by ranking Christianity

1 Exodus xiv. 19, 20.

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CHRISTIANITY NOT ONE

as one amongst many religions, all of which have an equal claim to be called religions. Professor Max Müller, indeed, repudiates the notion. "Those," he says, "who would use a comparative study of religion as a means for debasing Christianity by exalting the other religions of mankind are to my mind as dangerous allies as those who think it necessary to debase all other religions in order to exalt Christianity." (P. 37.) And yet the disclaimer of such an intention does not in the least remove the evil which unconsciously, perhaps, he perpetrates.

Take the following passage, "According to a well-known passage in Diodorus Siculus, the Egyptians believed their laws to have been communicated to Mnevis by Hermes; the Cretans held that Minos received his laws from Zeus; the Lacedæmonians, that Lycurgus received his laws from Apollo. According to the Aryans, their lawgiver, Zathraustes, had received his laws from the Good Spirit; according to the Getæ, Zamolxis received his laws from the Goddess Hertia; and according to the Jews, Moses received his laws from the God Iao," (p. 151,) [the name which the Professor thinks fit to give to the Omnipotent JEHOVAH.]

This is false analogy. No comparison can be drawn between the true religion and others: they are not to be named together. In the words of