2. Adam during six hundred and five years could discourse it to Canaan, and Canaan could discourse it one hundred and seventynine years to Noah. 3. Adam could rehearse it for five hundred and thirty-five years to Mahaleel, who had two hundred and twenty-four years to intrust it to Noah. 4. Adam had four hundred and seventy years to instruct Jared in these sublime facts, and Jared was contemporary three hundred and sixty-six years with Noah. Through these four distinct channels Noah could receive a distinct account from Adam. 5. Adam lived till Methuselah was two hundred and forty-three years old, time enough surely to obtain an accurate knowledge of all those facts pertaining to the dawn of created existence; and Methuselah lived six hundred years with Noah, and one hundred years with his three sons. And once more: 6. Adam lived to see Lamech, the father of Noah, till he was fifty years old, and Lamech lived with Noah five hundred and ninety-five years, with Shem, Ham and Japheth. Through these six channels the account could be brought down to the time of the flood. All the generations from Adam to the flood were eleven. Of all these Adam was contemporary with nine, Seth nine, Enos ten, Canaan ten, Enoch nine, Methuselah eleven, Lamech eleven, Noah eight, Shem and brothers four. Thus there were never less than nine contemporary generations from Adam to the flood, which would give in one lineal descent eightyone different channels through which the account might be transmitted. WEALTH OF THE PATRIARCHS. IT is well that we should entertain some distinct ideas respecting the real condition of the patriarchal fathers as to wealth and power. The history dwells so little on these matters, that it requires some experience of the corresponding condition of life, as it still subsists in the East, to apprehend the force of the few intimations which do incidentally transpire. There are probably few readers who conceive further of Abraham's establishment than that it consisted of one, or at most, two or three tents, with some half-a-dozen servants, and flocks of sheep and other cattle feeding around. Now this is altogether wrong. His encampment must have formed, so to speak, quite a large village of tents, with inhabitants equal to the population of a small town or a large village. Great numbers of women and children were to be seen there, and some old men; but not many men in their prime—these being for the most part away, from a few to many miles off, with the flocks, of which, immediately around the tents, there was probably less display than the lowest of the common estimates of Abraham's station would assume. We are told that Abraham was "very rich," and it is stated of what his riches consisted, but we are not told of the quantities of these riches he possessed. However, by putting things together, we may arrive at some notions not far from the truth. We have the strong fact to begin with, that Abraham is treated by the native princes and chieftains of the land as "a mighty prince" -an equal, if not a superior to themselves. Then we learn that his house-born slaves, able to bear arms and to make a rapid march, followed by a daring enterprise, were not less than 318. A body of such men can be furnished only by a population four times its own number, including women and children. We can, therefore, not reckon the patriarch's camp as containing less than 1272 souls; and this number of people could not well have been accommodated in so few as a hundred tents. Now, as to the cattle, one of the most tangible statements we can find is of wealth of the same sort, which, in or about the same age, rendered Job "the greatest of all the men of the east," making some allowance for the fact that Job was not exactly a nomad shepherd, but cultivated the ground also, and had a fixed residence. His wealth consisted of 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 1000 (500 yoke of) oxen, and 500 asses. Now, it appears to us that the wealth of a camp whose chief numbered above a thousand dependants could not well have been less. Let us, however, test this by another computation. Jacob, when he was returning to Canaan with the pastoral wealth he had gained during his twenty years' sojourn in Padanaram, set apart a selection from his stock of animals wherewith to placate his offended brother. Now, as we know the number of the animals in this costly offering, we should have something to go by if we could tell what proportion this present bore to the whole. Was it a tenth, the proportion which Abraham thought a fit offering to a king? We think it was probably more, because Esau feared to impoverish his brother by taking so much from him, and was only prevailed upon to do so by Jacob's declaring that he had still enough. Take it, then, at one-fifth. Now, it is hardly to be supposed that the wealth which Jacob had been able to acquire by his twenty years' service in Mesopotamia was at all comparable to that which had been formed by Abraham in the course of more than thrice the time, on the basis of a large inheritance, and enhanced by his acquisitions in Egypt; and still less to the same property as increased during a long lapse of years by Isaac; and least of all to the property which was formed when Jacob's own separate acquisitions were added to the paternal stock. Let us therefore make what, under the circumstances, is a very moderate Camels and colts, 30 150 450 500 These calculations appear to us to be corroborated by their near coincidence with the account of Job's wealth. The only serious difference is in camels, and that is very great. The difference as to sheep is more apparent than real; for although Job had twice the number of sheep assigned to the patriarchal family, he has no goats, and the patriarchal goats and sheep together form a number only 300 less than the 7000 sheep of Job. FOR PARENTS. OBSERVE the conduct of earnest parents. In addition to the communication of knowledge, they admonish, entreat, warn, and counsel. They direct the reading of their children, and watch carefully what books come into their hands. They analyse their character, and make themselves intimately acquainted with their peculiarities of disposition and tendencies, that they may know how to adapt their treatment to each. They encourage habits of subjection, modesty, reflecThe chief difference is caused by either the tion, conscientiousness, frankness, and, at the extraordinary abundance of camels in the ac- same time, respect for all, especially for themcount of Job's wealth, or the extraordinary selves. They dwell on the pleasures of religion, deficiency of these animals in the stock of and the miseries of sin. They repress faults, Jacob. We have counted the foals in the and encourage budding excellencies. They estimate of the latter, and yet the number is speak to them of the honour and happiness small in proportion to that of other animals. of good men, not only in another world, but Upon the whole, we incline to think that in this. They endeavour to implant the fear Jacob, coming from Mesopotamia, where to of God, the love of Christ, the desire of holithis day camels are few in comparison withness, in their hearts. Everything is done to those possessed in and on the borders of Arabia, had not the usual proportion of these animals, and that, with respect to them, the estimate formed on the basis of his present to his brother does not adequately represent the wealth of the patriarchs in Canaan. There is every probability that the number possessed by them was as large in proportion to their other cattle as in the case of Job. It cannot fail to strike the attention of the most cursory reader, that horses, which form so important a part of the modern Bedouin's possessions, are altogether absent in the statements of the same kinds of wealth belonging to Abraham, Jacob, and Job. It is scarcely possible that the animal should have been unknown to them. In fact, although Job did not possess horses, his book contains the most magnificent description of a war-horse that has ever been given (Job xxxix. 19). Again, although there is no mention of horses among the animals which Abraham received from the king of Egypt, this cannot well be owing to the want of them in that country; for they are found in the most ancient sculptures, and are in this very book mentioned as present in the funeral procession of Jacob from Egypt to the land of Canaan. The truth probably is, that horses were in these early ages used render religion attractive, and yet to exhibit it as a holy and an awful reality. They watch the conduct, look out for matter of commendation and of censure. In short, their object and aim are the real, right, permanent formation of the religious character, the character of the genuine Christian. Parent, you are always educating your children for good or for evil. Not only by what you say, but by what you do not only by what you intend, but by what you are-you yourself are one constant lesson which many eyes are observing, and which many a heart receives into itself. Influence, power, impulse are ever going out from you: take care, then, how you act. Let me then here remind you of the immense importance of three things: first, Parental Example. What example is so powerful as that of a parent? It is one of the first things which a child observes; it is that which is most constantly before his eyes, and it is that which his very relationship inclines him most attentively to respect, and most assiduously to copy. Every act of parental kindness, every effort to please, every favour conferred softens a child's heart to receive the impressions which such an example is likely to stamp upon the soul. Vain, worse than useless, is that instruction which is not followed up by example. Good advice, when not illustrated by good conduct, inspires disgust. There are multitudes of parents to whom we should deliberately give the counsel never to say one syllable to their children on the subject of religion, unless they enforce what they say by a better example. Silence does infinitely less mischief than the most elaborate instruction which is all counteracted by inconsistent conduct. It is no matter, either of wonder or regret, that some professing Christians discontinue family prayer. How can they act the part of a hypocrite so conspicuously before their households, as to pray in the evening, when every action of the day has been so opposed to every syllable of their prayer. Oh, what consistent and uniform piety, what approaches to perfection, ought there to be in him who places himself twice every day before his household at the family altar, as their prophet, priest, and intercessor with God. It seems to me as if the holiest and best of us were scarcely holy enough to sustain the parental character, and discharge the parental functions. It would seem as if this were a post for which we could be fitted only by being first raised to the condition of spirits made perfect, and then becoming again incarnate, with celestial glory beaming around our character. What an additional motive is there in this view of our duty, for cultivating with a more intense easnestness the spirit of personal religion. Would you see the result of parental misconduct, look into the family of David. Eminent as he was for the spirit of devotion, sweet as were the strains which flowed from his inspired muse, and attached as he was to the worship of the sanctuary, yet what foul blots rested upon his character, and what dreadful trials did he endure in his family! What profligate creatures were his sons and who can tell how much the apostasy of Solomon was to be traced up to the recollection of parental example? Parents, beware, I beseech you, how you act. Oh, let your children see religion in all its sincerity, power, beauty, and loveliness; and this may win them to Christ, judge his house for ever, for the iniquity which he knoweth ; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not" (1 Sam. iii, 13). Poor old man, who can fail to sympathise with him under the terror of that dreadful sentence, which crushed his dearest hopes and beclouded all his prospects? but the sting, the venom of the sentence, was in the declaration that a criminal unfaithfulness on his part had brought upon his beloved sons ruin both temporal and eternal. All this destruction upon his children, all this misery upon himself, was the consequence of weak and criminal parental indulgence. Doubtless this began while they were yet children; their every wish and every whim were indulged, their foolish inclinations were gratified; he could never be persuaded that any germs of malignant passions lurked under appearances so playful and so lovely; he smiled at transgressions on which he ought to have frowned; and instead of endeavouring kindly but firmly to eradicate the first indications of pride, anger, ambition, deceit, self-will, and stubbornness, he considered they were but the wild flowers of spring, which would die of themselves as the summer advanced. The child grew in this hotbed of indulgence into the boy; the boy into the youth; the youth into the young man; till habit had confirmed the vices of the child, and acquired a strength which not only now bid defiance to parental restraint, but laughed it to scorn. Contemplate the poor old man sitting at the way-side upon his bench, in mute despair, his heart torn with self-reproach, there listening with sad presages for tidings from the field of conflict. At length the messenger arrivesthe doleful news is told. The ark of God is taken, and Hophni and Phinehas are slain. His aged heart is broken, and he and his whole house are crushed at once under that one sin-the excessive weakness and wickedness of a false and foolish parental indulgence. Parents, and especially mothers, look at this picture, and tremble: contemplate this sad scene, and learn the necessity of judicious, affectionate, firm, and persevering discipline. it seems rather a mockery than a solemnity To all this, add earnest, believing, and persevering prayer, Let family devotion be maintained with regularity, variety, affectionBut there is another thing to be observed, ate simplicity, and great seriousness. As conand that is the mischief of excessive indulgence. ducted by some, it is calculated rather to disRead the history of Eli, as recorded by the gust than to delight. It is so hastily, so pen of inspiration. The honours of the priest-perfunctorily, and so carelessly performed, that hood and of the magistracy lighted upon him. He was beloved and respected by the nation whose affairs he administered, and to all appearance seemed likely to finish a life of active duty in the calm repose of an honoured old age. But the evening of his life, at one time so calm and so bright, became suddenly overcast, and a storm arose which burst in fury upon his head, and dashed him to the ground by its dreadful bolts, Whence did it arise? Let the words of the historian dealare, "I have told him, said the Lord, that I will there is neither seriousness nor earnestness. On the other hand, how subduing and how melting are the fervent supplications of a godly and consistent father, when his voice, tremulous with emotion, is giving utterance to the desires of his heart to the God of heaven, for the children bending around him! Is there, out of heaven, a sight more deeply interesting than a family gathered at morning or evening prayer, where the worship is what it ought to be when the good man takes RAIMENT. the "big ha' Bible," and, with patriarchal grace, reads to the household the words of heavenly truth? And then the hymn of domestic gladness, in which even infants learn to lisp their Maker's praise-not better music is there to the ears of Jehovah in the seraphim's song, than that concord of sweet sounds; and last of all the prayer-oh! that strain of intercession in which each child seems to hear the throbbing of a father's heart for him! Ah! when this is the type of the families of professors; when family religion is conducted after this fashion; when the spectator of what is going on in such households shall be compelled to say, "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!" when earnestness, after beginning in the soul of the Christian, shall communicate itself to the parent, what a new state of things may we expect in the Church of Christ!-The Rev. J. A. James. THE BIBLE AND REFORMS. MERCY. 141 THE molten sea, the shewbread, the bright lamps, the sweet incense, the smoke of the sacrifices, Moses's chair, Aaron's breast-plate, the preaching of the cross, the keys of the kingdom of heaven: do not all these proclaim mercy? Who would ever enter into a sanctuary, hear council, search conscience, look up to heaven, pray or sacrifice, name a God, or think of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God, if there were no mercy? Do not all visions, revelations, covenants, promises, messages, mysteries, legal purifications, evangelical pacifications, confirm this? Yes, mercy is the air in which we breathe, the daily light which doth shine about us, the gracious rain of God's inheritance; it is the public spring for all the thirsty; the common hospital for all the needy; all the streets of the church are paved with these stones; yea, the very presence-chamber is hung with nothing but this curious arras: what would become of the children, if there were not these breasts of consolation? How should the bride, the Lamb's wife, be trimmed, THE Bible contains the only true principles if her bridegroom should not deck her with of reformation. The Church is the divinely these habiliments? How should Eden appear constituted reforming body; the Bible, the like the garden of God, if it were not watered divinely appointed instrument for effecting by these rivers? It is Mercy that doth take reforms. Human ingenuity and philosophy us out of the womb, feed us in the days of have sought out "many inventions," by which our pilgrimage, furnish us with soul's stock, to produce human reforms; but they never close up our eyes in peace, and translate us have succeeded, and they never will succeed. to a secure resting-place. It is the first petiThey have not the principles with which to tioner's suit, and the first believer's article, construct an enduring fabric. They may the contemplation of Enoch, the confidence raise a mushroom edifice, and it may look asof Abraham, the Syrophenician's physic, big as the tower of Babel, and seem to reach to heaven-but it is only Babel after all. Would we see the world reformed we must ply it with the Bible. We must see that the Bible is brought within the reach of every family on the face of the earth; and as its purifying leaven works in the corrupt mass, it will work out a thorough, never-failing refor mation. The reason is obvious: the Bible alone has the power to transform moral character a power which belongs to no other code, system, or book in the wide world. By other means men may be made to observe certain conventional rules, and to bind them selves together by certain external rites or observances, and certain outward reformations may be produced. But this is quite another thing from transforming character. Nothing short of Bible truth, the keen blade of the Spirit, can reach down into the deep and dark recesses of the heart, probe it to the core, disgorge its corruption, and thus purify the fountain of the moral affections, and make the vile person liberal and the churl bountiful. It is the mighty power of Divine truth that changes the lion into the lamb, makes the drunkard sober, the profane man pure, and the knave honest. This alone can work a radical, lasting reform, Mary Magdalene's lover, St Peter's tearstancher, St Paul's scale-dropper, the expedient of the penitent, the ecstasy of the reconciled, the saint's hosannah, the angel's hallelujah: by this Noah swam in the ark, Moses was taken out of the bull-rushes, Jonas lived in the belly of the whale, the three children walked in the fiery furnace, and Elias was taken up in a fiery chariot. Órdinances, oracles, altars, pulpits, the gates of the graves, and the gates of heaven do all depend upon mercy. It is the load-star of the wandering, the ransom of the captives, the antidote of the tempted, the prophet of the living, and the ghostly father of the dying: there would not be one regenerate saint upon earth, nor one glorified saint in heaven, were it not for mercy.-Reeves' "God's Plea for Nineveh, 1657." RAIMENT. ONE day, while walking with a friend, Gotthold met a young man dressed in the extreme of fashion, and could not help looking back at hitn, and exclaiming with a sigh, O Righteous God, what will be the issue of this rage for novelties and vain show? How happens it that the world more and more seeks her honour in disgrace, and her wisdom in folly? I often think of what the Holy Spirit says (Acts xxv. 23) of Queen Bernice, viz., that she came "with great pomp" (orig. phantasy). The reigning fashion seems to me to be of the same phantastic character. There is hardly any one who now considers it a sin to wear a mask, and conform to the world. But, inquired his companion, can there really be so much sinfulness in the changes which dress undergoes? In itself, replied Gotthold, dress belongs to the class of things neutral. It makes a man neither better nor worse in the sight of God, it draws upon him neither the Almighty's favour nor frown; still the coat shews what the man and what his heart is. Can you doubt, that many a one, in his gay attire, cut according to the newest style, is an idol to himself? With what pomp and pride he struts along, and fancies that none makes so fine a figure. Though one bow ever so soon or so humbly to him, yet he, on the contrary, scarcely deigns to return the salutation. In this way, the old man, whom we are bound to crucify with his affections and lusts (Gal. v. 24), is warmly clothed, expensively ornamented, and idolatrously reverenced. The money given to supply the wants of a needy brother is wastefully squandered, and the word of God in the heart choked among thorns. He whose frame of mind is such, that he is always lying abased at the feet of the Omnipotent-he who does not despise a Christian neighbour, though in poverty and rags he who is ready at any hour, in obedience to the will of God, to exchange the finest suit for the beggar's cloak or the deathbed shroud, may, perhaps, without sin, wear costly raiment. But how the children of the world, with all their swelling pomp, shall contrive to enter in at the strait gate which leadeth unto life, must be left for them to try, if they will have it so. My God! naked came I into this world, and naked must I again depart out of it. While my life lasts, give me the food and raiment convenient for me. If my rank or office require a better dress, disengage, at least, my heart from it, and make me unconscious of what I wear. My soul desires ornaments of a different kind. Let the blood and righteousness of Christ be my badge and robe of honour. -Gotthold's Emblems. A BELIEVER'S GOLDEN CHAIN. 1. Hear the best men; read the best books; keep the best company. 2. Meditate often on the four last things; death, which is most certain; judgment, which is most strict; hell, which is most doleful; heaven, which is most delightful. 3. Set the watch of your lives by the Sun of Righteousness, Mal. iv. 2. 4. Be willing to want what God is not willing to give. 5. Crucify your sins, that have crucified your Saviour. 6. Do you bless God most who are most blessed. 7. Fear not the fear of men. 8. Cleave thou closest to that truth which is choicest. 9. Acquaint yourselves with yourselves. 10. Do good in the world with the goods of the world. 11. Improve that time which will be yours but for a time. 12. Learn humility from Christ's humility. 13. Be upright Christians. 14. Let it be thy art in duty to give God thy heart in duty. 15. Be diligent in the means, but make not an idol of the means. 16. Take nothing upon trust, but all upon trial. 17. Take those reproofs best which you need most. 18. Labour more for inward purity than for outward felicity. 19. Live in love, and live in truth. 20. Set out for God at your beginning, and hold out with God until your ending.—Thos. Dyer, about 1630, Author of "Christ's Famous Titles," &c. NEGLECTING THE GREAT SALVATION. MOST of the calamities of life are caused by simple neglect. By neglect of education children grow up in ignorance; by neglect a farm grows up to weeds and briars; by neglect a house to decay; by neglect of sowing a goes man will have no harvest; by neglect of reaping the harvest will rot in the field. No worldly interest can prosper where there is There is nothing in earthly affairs that is neglect ; and why may it not be so in religion? valuable that will not be ruined if it is not the concerns of the soul? Let no one infer, attended to; and why may it not be so with therefore, that because he is not a drunkard, he will be saved. Such an inference would or an adulterer, or a murderer, that therefore be as irrational as it would be for a man to infer that because he is not a murderer his farm will produce a harvest, or that because he is not an adulterer therefore his merchandise will take care of itself. Salvation would be worth nothing if it cost no effort; and there will be no salvation where no effort is put forth.-Barnes. PRAYER. PRAYER, like Jonathan's bow, returns not empty. Never was faithful prayer lost at sea. No merchant trades with such certainty as the praying saint. Some prayers, indeed, have a longer voyage than others; but then they return with a richer lading at last.-Gurnall |