X.

CHAPTER VII.

Death-appalling in his train

115

CHAPTER VIII.

Death-arrested in his progress, and finally de

DEATH

ON THE PALE HORSE.

INTRODUCTION.

THE Holy Scriptures are a revelation of those
truths which could never have been apprehended
by unassisted reason. They propose to our un-
derstandings facts and doctrines the most sublime
and interesting that can occupy the attention of
the human mind; they unfold a system of moral
government the most equitable in its require-
ments, and awful in its sanctions; they exhibit a
plan of redeeming and sanctifying mercy admirably
adapted to meet our necessities as apostate and
guilty creatures; and they afford to the weakest
believer the richest consolations, and the most
animating promises, under all the trials of life,
and in the prospect of death and eternity. Many
of the truths, however, which are made known to
us in the Sacred Oracles are so entirely unseen,
and so difficult of comprehension, by beings ac-
customed to receive their notices of things through

B

the medium of the senses, that the Holy Spirit,
in condescension to our infirmities, has illustrated
the nature of Christ's spiritual kingdom on earth,
and the invisible realities of another world, by
metaphors taken from the material universe with
which we are surrounded. Hence, a great part
of the language of Scripture is symbolical and
figurative. All sensible objects, from the sun,
that glorious luminary that traverses and adorns
the heavens, to the insignificant seed that lies
buried beneath the clods of the earth, are seized
upon, and employed to give substance to invisible
things, and presence to distant realities.

When Jesus Christ, that great Teacher sent
from God, became an inhabitant of earth, and
exercised his public ministry among men, he ex-
plained the great principles of his spiritual empire,
and unveiled the hidden glories of the one world,
and the torments of the other, in a style of language
most calculated to arrest the attention, inform the
understanding, and interest the heart.
"He
spake to the multitude in parables:" and so
generally was this the case, that the Evangelist
adds, "without a parable spake he not unto
them." By objects in nature with which the
senses are familiar; by an allusion to the customs
and manners of the country in which they resided;
by a touching appeal to the several relations
which constitute the bond and charm of social

life; and by the local scenery with which they were surrounded; this incomparable Instructor enlightened the ignorant, reclaimed the vicious, and convinced the sceptic. This mode of instruc tion has many advantages; and that it should have been adopted by Infinite Wisdom is proof of its intrinsic excellence. By interesting the imagination, it seizes and keeps alive the attention; it conveys a truth into the mind before passion or prejudice is raised against it; and, by simplifying the most abstruse and difficult subjects, it renders them easy of comprehension to the meanest capacity. It invests the spiritual world with all that is grateful to the taste, captivating to the ear, beautiful to the eye, and fragrant to the smell: and then it leads us on to anticipate a state of excellence as far beyond all this, as the substance to the shadow, as the momentous reality to the ideal vision.

The communications which were made to the prophets, and which they were required to deliver to others for their instruction, warning, or encouragement, were principally by appropriate and significant symbols. Either in dreams or visions, certain pictures or images were presented to the mind, strikingly illustrative of the facts which the Deity purposed to reveal. When the communication was intended to be obscure, the imagination of the prophet was strongly excited, leaving so

the medium of the senses, that the Holy Spirit, in condescension to our infirmities, has illustrated the nature of Christ's spiritual kingdom on earth, and the invisible realities of another world, by metaphors taken from the material universe with which we are surrounded. Hence, a great part of the language of Scripture is symbolical and figurative. All sensible objects, from the sun, that glorious luminary that traverses and adorns the heavens, to the insignificant seed that lies buried beneath the clods of the earth, are seized upon, and employed to give substance to invisible things, and presence to distant realities.

When Jesus Christ, that great Teacher sent from God, became an inhabitant of earth, and exercised his public ministry among men, he explained the great principles of his spiritual empire, and unveiled the hidden glories of the one world, and the torments of the other, in a style of language most calculated to arrest the attention, inform the understanding, and interest the heart. "He

spake to the multitude in parables:" and so generally was this the case, that the Evangelist adds, "without a parable spake he not unto them." By objects in nature with which the senses are familiar; by an allusion to the customs and manners of the country in which they resided; by a touching appeal to the several relations which constitute the bond and charm of social