"Why did he strike you?" Agnes was silent. "Who saw the trouble between you and John?" inquired the mother. "Why, Mary saw it. She'll tell you that John struck me in the face with all his might." "Tell Mary that I wish to see her." Agnes went for her sister. When they returned, the mother said "Now, Mary, tell me about this trouble, with John and Agnes." "You saw him strike me, didn't you, Mary?" said Agnes, with the eagerness of resentment. "I will question Mary," said the mother, "and while I am doing so, you, Agnes, must have nothing to say. After Mary has finished then you can correct her statement, if you wish to do so. Now, Mary, say on." 66 66 Well, mother, I'll tell you just how it was," said Mary. Agnes was teasing John, and John got angry." "And struck his sister?" There was a tone of severity in the mother's voice. "I think the blow was accidental," said Mary. "John declared that it was, and tried his best to comfort Agnes; even promising to give her his pet kitten if she would stop crying, and not make trouble by telling you. But she was angry, and would not listen to him." "Tell me just what occurred, Mary, and then I shall know exactly how far both were to blame." Well," answered Mary, "John and I were playing checkers, and Agnes would, every now and then, steal up behind John, and push his elbow when he was making a move. It worried him, and he asked her over and over again not to do so. But she didn't mind what he said. At last John pushed the board from him, and wouldn't play any longer. He was angry. Still Agnes seemed bent on annoying him. John got a book and sat down near the window to read. He had not been there long before Agnes stole up behind him, whipped the book out of his hand, and ran away. John sprung after her, and they had a struggle for the book, in which Agnes got a blow upon the face. I was looking at them, and I think the blow was accidental. It seemed so at the time, and John declares that he did not mean to strike her. That is all, mother." "Call your brother," said the lady, in a subdued voice. John entered the room in a few moments. He was pale, and looked troubled. "My son," said the mother, speaking without apparent excitement, yet with a touch of sorrow in her voice, "did you strike Agnes on purpose?" The boy's lips quivered, but no answer came through them. He looked into his mother's eyes for a moment or two, until tears blinded him, and then he laid his face down upon her bosom and sobbed. With love's tender instinct, the mother drew her arm tightly around her boy, and then there was silence for the space of nearly a minute. "It was an accident, I am sure?" whispered the mother, placing her lips close to the ear of her boy. "Indeed, it was!" John answered back with earnestness. "My hand slipped as I tried to get my book away from her, and it struck her in the face. I was so sorry!" What less could the mother do than kiss with ardour the fair brow of her boy, against whom, under the influence of anger, she had passed a hasty judgment. She almost shuddered as she thought of the unjust punishment she had come nigh inflicting. "The chief blame, I see, rests with Agnes," said the lady, turning with some severity of voice and countenance towards her little girl, who now stood with the aspect of a culprit instead of an accuser. "It was her fun, mother," John spoke up quickly. "She loves to tease, you know, and I was wrong to get angry." John and Mary went out and left their mother alone with Agnes. When the little girl joined her brothers and sisters some time afterwards, she had a sober face, like one whose spirit was not at ease with itself. She had been guilty of a double wrong, and had come near drawing down upon her innocent brother an unjust punishment. So clearly had her mother brought this to her view, that shame followed conviction, and she was now ready to acknowledge her fault, and promise better conduct in the future. THE "GUEST'S" BIBLE QUESTIONS FOR THE To whom was it said, "Thy father is sick?" Of whom was it said, "He whom thou lovest is sick?" What woman sent word to a king, her father, that her husband whom he wished to put to death, was sick? What prophet said after a vision “I fainted,” and was sick certain days? What charitable woman in the times of the apostles "was sick and died?” In answer to whose prayers was she restored to life? Whom did an apostle leave at Miletus sick? From whose body were handkerchiefs and aprons carried to the sick? What king's son sent letters and a present to a king who had been sick? What is it said that "hope deferred maketh?" Who does Christ say need a physician? Are there any who think they are whole, who are not? Have you ever felt the plague of your own heart? Have you applied to Christ for healing? In what land shall the inhabitant not say, "I am sick?" Published by A. STRAHAN AND Co., 42 George Street, Edinburgh; and E. MARLBOROUGH AND Co., 4 Ave Maria Lane, London, REVISED BY THE REV. NORMAN M'LEOD, D.D., GLASGOW. WEEKLY NOS. ONE HALFPENNY.] [MONTHLY PARTS, THREEPENCE. CHRISTIAN CONSOLATION.* DURING the summer, on western rivers, as you are riding or even wading across the ford, you may see, lying a little below you, great flat-bottomed boats, used for ferrying. During the summer, while waters are low, and men can cross without help and without danger, these craft lie moored to the shore with nothing to do. But when heavy rains have swollen the river, and the ford is drowned out, so that no man may dare to venture it, then travellers are glad to see the clumsy boat swung round, and by cords and poles forced across the swift-running waters for the convenience of those who must pass over. All our emergencies are like streams. So long as we can cross them without help we use the ford. But when our affairs are beyond our own skill or strength, God sends round His promises which had lain along the shore, tied up and disused, to bear us over the black swelling waters. And blessed is he who is willing and able to venture across real troubles upon God's stanch promises. In times of trouble, every Christian man will find wonderful comfort in the Psalms of David. Now their true colours will shine out. The Psalms are like diamonds, which, though bright in the daylight, do not give forth their peculiar brilliance until night and artificial light cause them to flash. And so are those great lyrics of the world, sung, not to any lover's lute, or even Homeric harp, but sung from the chords of the soul itself when God played upon it. They are deep as human life, wide as the earth, and far-reaching as immortality. And in times of trouble men ought to walk in the garden of this book, and comfort themselves with its fruits and flowers. It is not the design of God's promises to help us so long as we can help ourselves. They are like defensive arms which men wear *From "Summer in the Soul," by Henry Ward Beecher, author of "Life Thoughts"-a work displaying many sweet and ripe experiences-just published by A. Strahan & Co. No. 25. in a wilderness among robbers, not to be fired incessantly, but hidden for emergency, and then brought forth for self-protection. They are like a mountaineer's staff, though good for level ground, not meant specially for that; but to be relied on chiefly among rocks and sharp acclivities. What is a man's faith in God good for, which only holds him up when he can hold himself up without help, and breaks under him when he needs to lean upon it? What is a belief in God's special and particular providence worth, if it applies only to fair wea ther and dissolves in storms of trouble? If one will go back to the prophets, to David's experiences, he will find that God's promises were first made to men in the most bitter trials. They are not summer promises. They are not general nor indefinite. They were made to touch exactly such cases as yet occur every day. Are hopes ever baffled? God has balm for that. Is an honest pride sorely wounded? God has spoken consolation for that. Is a man's good name shot at? That, too, has been done to ten thousand men before, and God girded them with promises which held them up. The men have died, but their charmed girdles are left. God's armoury is full of them. Do your enemies triumph over you? There are blessings thick as spring flowers among old grasses for those who suffer evil, and bear it patiently. Now, while men are rowing in darkness, and upon a dreadful sea, they may expect to see Christ coming to them walking upon the water. Or, it may be that He is already in the ship and needs only the uprousing of their grief and prayer to come forth upon the elements, sovereign over their wild tumult! Methinks I hear Christ saying to all His disciples the very words which He variously Another bewails his misfortunes and cries out, "Lord, why is this?" The reply is, "The servant is not greater than his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord." None of us are reduced so low as was Christ for our sakes. And it is a comfort to every penitent heart to feel, at each step down, that he is not going away from light and love, but towards them. pronounced while upon earth. Some are be- through unwonted and bitter trials, it is affectseeching Him to relieve their fear and bringing to see with what royal tenderness God back prosperity. They cannot bear the thorn stoops to comfort them. As a parent that in their side that threatens to reach their convoyed his flock of children, in a flight by heart. But Christ's answer is, "I will not re- night, from a savage foe, would whisper words move the trouble, but my grace shall be suffi- to this one, and cheer that one-now lifting cient to enable you to bear it." up, and then for a little way even carrying some, meanwhile encouraging them and saying, It will soon be light, hold on, and hold out, my brave children, we are almost through; so God hovers about His flock in days of sore adversity, saying, "Be of good cheer; because I live ye shall live also; I will never leave you nor forsake you. I am not angry, nor gone away from you; I chasten because I love you. Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. Ye are my sons. Cast all your cares upon me, for I care for you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither be ye afraid." If God be for you, who can be against you? Think it not strange concerning this fiery trial, as if some strange thing had befallen you. Since the world began, I have scourged every son that I ever received. Blessed is he that endureth affliction. To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God!" Christ lives near the bottom of human life, and that way lies the gate of heaven. They who abase themselves are going towards God. And when Christian men are going down, step by step, nearer the bottom, let them say, "Why not? why should I demand for myself what my Lord and my God gave up freely for my sake!" Men often put questions the wrong way, and when they are bereaved they say, Why should I be afflicted? When they meet losses, they say, Why should I have such misfortunes? But would it not be soberer and more sensible if men should say, Why should not I have trouble? Am I not a man in a world of trial? Am I too good to be touched? Shall all God's elect, since the world began drink of the bitter cup and I claim exemption? What have I done that God should honour me? What use have I made of my strength and wealth that I should demand their continuance? How have I brought up my children, that I should be surprised if God withdrew them from me, and placed them in His own bosom? Shall Christ walk in poverty, and I disdain that experience? Shall He not have whereon to lay His head even, and I complain in the midst of home, food, comfort, and love? How very good a man must be, who can afford to be surprised when God unclothes him of superfluous wealth, and makes him walk as near to the edge of necessity as the best men of the world have done before, and still do! We are not to affect stoical indifference, and still less rail out bitterly at wealth; and seek thus to cover over our disappointment by a false pretence of anger. How much better is Paul's spirit (Phil. iv. 11), "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound. I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me.' Which of these extremes is the more difficult, it is not our purpose to consider. Far more difficult than either is the spirit that can play back and forth between them both. Meanwhile, as God's children are going Wherefore, comfort one another with these words! BURMESE CUSTOMS ILLUSTRATIVE It is the privilege of one who knows the Bible well to render all his other studies subservient to it, and to make all his readings in the great book of nature, and in the books of men, yield their tribute of illustration to the Word of God. This is one of the enjoyments peculiar to those who are familiar with the Scriptures; and the satisfaction is varied and extensive in proportion to the degree of our acquaintance with the sacred volume. The more we know of Scripture, the more ready and frequent will be our recognition of similar or illustrative facts, customs, and sentiments, in other writings; and this recognition, by the frequent recollections of Scripture which it calls up, refreshes the mind, even in its comparatively secular studies and readings, which, in a certain degree, are sanctified by it. To shew how this habit acts, and, at the same time, to impart to the reader some of the benefits we have ourselves derived from it, we will, in this and some ensuing papers, conduct the reader with us through a few books which might not, at the first view, seem likely to furnish satisfactory materials for this exercise. Let us begin with "Malcolm's Travels in the Burman Empire," and with that part of the work which treats of Burmese Leprosy and Lepers. Mr Malcolm states that in Burmah the population is divided into eight classes BURMESE CUSTOMS ILLUSTRATIVE OF SCRIPTURE. 291 The rule seems to have been, that when a man not born in leprosy became infected by that disorder, his children previously born were considered clean, so that they kept themselves separate from him (2 Chron. xxvi. 21); but his children afterwards born, or any children born of a leprous parent, were considered as lepers till they could satisfy the proper authorities that they were not in that condition. "the royal family, great officers, priests, rich | probably others in the same case, even in his men, labourers, slaves, lepers, executioners." time, unless we suppose, which we have no Excluding the last, this division is not, in its reason to do, that the disease was in this ingeneral features, unlike that which prevailed stance miraculous, not only in its transfer from among the Jews under the monarchy. Indeed, Naaman to Gehazi, but in its hereditary chawith the exclusion intimated, we should be racter. But if the leprosy of Gehazi was of disposed to make little other alteration in it, such character, and that of Naaman was not, for the purpose of illustration, than to intro- then the leprosy of Naaman was no longer duce another class, consisting of the family that of Gehazi. But we are told that it was chiefs, or heads of families and tribes. These, the leprosy of Naaman, and not another however, held public employments very gene- leprosy, which clove to Gehazi and to his seed; rally under the kings, and might, therefore, and if so, it is not pressing the argument too be merged in the class of "great officers." far to infer that it was hereditary leprosy, We have selected this fact, however, chiefly and that, consequently, a caste of hereditary for the sake of coming through it to the fur- lepers existed in Syria, and among the Hether statement, that “none of the classes brews, in and before the time of Gehazi. constitute an hereditary caste, except lepers and the slaves of pagodas." The Hebrews had other hereditary castes, or rather orders, namely, priests and family chiefs; but they seem to have also had these two of the Burmese, and no more. The Nethinim, or servants of the Jewish temple, answered very nearly to the slaves of the pagodas; and that their condition was hereditary is very well known. We feel most interested, however, respecting this hereditary caste of lepers. Was there such a caste among the Hebrews? We know that the Hebrew lepers were excluded from towns, and lived apart; but we know, also, that when any one became clean of this disease, he was, after due examination and probation, readmitted to the general society of his fellow-citizens. Such a provision does not exist among the Burmese; and it seems incompatible with the idea of an hereditary caste. Still the idea of establishing such a caste, among a people who do not habitually separate themselves into castes, must, we apprehend, have been founded upon the impression that the children of lepers were themselves leprous. It may not have been always so; but it must have been generally so before such a caste could have been established. Now, a careful consideration of the particulars concerning leprosy and lepers, which the Scriptures contain, may lead to the conclusion that there was something of this kind among the Israelites, with little other difference than that with them there existed a provision for the restoration to society of such as could shew themselves free from the taint of this remarkable malady. In connexion with this subject, the words of Elisha to Gehazi forcibly recur to the mind:-"The leprosy of Naaman cleave unto thee and unto thy seed for ever." (2 Kings V. 27.) This, as we take it, signifies that Naaman's leprosy was of an hereditary and incurable kind. He had been miraculously cured of it; but now it should be transferred to Gehazi and his descendants, without the hope of cure or relief. Now Gehazi and his descendants must, in the course of time, have formed one hereditary caste of lepers of themselves; but there were It is so rarely that we find a satisfactory account of the condition of lepers at the present day, that there is a peculiar interest in the few facts respecting their condition in Burmah which Mr Malcolm furnishes, as they may help in some degree to complete our idea of the condition of the Hebrew lepers, of which we know little more than has been already stated, namely, that they lived apart, but might, when healed, be restored to society. This is his statement :-" Leprosy, in several forms, is seen at the great cities, where its victims collect in a separate quarter, and live chiefly by begging-the only beggars in the country. The general form is that which attacks the smaller joints. I saw many who had lost all the fingers and toes, and some both hands and feet. In some cases the nose also disappears. It does not seem much to shorten life, and is not very painful, except in its first stages. Those with whom I conversed declared that they had not felt any pain for years. In many cases it ceases to increase after a time; the stumps of the limbs heal, and the disease is, in fact, cured. I could not hear of any effectual remedy-it seems in these cases to stop of itself. It can scarcely be considered contagious, though instances are sometimes given to prove it so. Persons suffering under it are by law separated entirely from other society; but their families generally retire with them, mingling and cohabiting for life. The majority of the children are sound and healthy, but it is said frequently to reappear in the second or third generation. Lepers, and those who consort with them, are obliged to wear a conspicuous and peculiar hat, made like a shallow, conical basket. The children, whether leprous or not, are allowed to intermarry only with their own class." The chief interest of the above passage lies in this, that it enables us to discover the object and motive of the minute regulations respecting leprosy contained in the 13th and 14th chapters of Leviticus. They are all framed upon the sacred principle that none but such as were actually subject to a disease supposed to be contagious should be placed under the disabilities and exclusion which it involved; and that, for the benefit of society, none who really suffered under the malady should be allowed unrestricted intercourse with their fellow-citizens. This discrimina tion could only proceed upon a clear apprehension of the signs of complete recovery; and these signs are accordingly pointed out in the chapters to which we have referred with remarkable precision and distinctness. The want of some such rules as were by the divine beneficence imparted to the Hebrew people, would among them, as in Burmah, have had the effect of excluding whole generations of men from the free intercourse of life, on account of a disease which may at one time have affected an ancestor; and of preventing those who, from the impulse of natural affection, might place themselves in communication with a diseased relative, from evermore returning to the society of unafflicted men, although they may never, in their own persons, have known the leprous taint. How small, in comparison, would then have been the benefit conferred by our Lord upon the lepers whom He cured! It would, indeed, have relieved them from the disease; but He could not, by that act, also have restored them to their place in the commonwealth, or have enabled them thenceforth to walk the highways and the streets with freedom, or to mingle with glad hearts with the multitudes that kept holy-day in the courts of the Lord's house. A circumstance has just come under our notice, which seems to afford a further corroboration of our impression that there was a permanent or hereditary condition of leprosy among the Hebrews, although among them this was not, as with the Burmese, the rule, but the exception. The law of Lev. xiii. and xiv. is very minute in its directions respecting the course to be taken by a person when he first comes under the taint of leprosy-how he is to conduct himself while in a leprous condition, and how he is to proceed when he supposes himself cured. Many of these obligations are very onerous; and the afflicted persons might be tempted to neglect or postpone them, were not some heavy penalty thereby incurred. But the Book of the Law does not annex any penalty to disobedience; and we must resort to the Talmud, and other Jewish writings, to know what was the actual penalty in such cases. From this source we learn that the penalty for an infringement of any of the rules laid down in the law was quite severe enough to insure general attention, and to protect society from the dangers which transgression might involve. It was no less than that his leprosy should cleave to him for ever! We are not sure whether it was supposed that the leprosy became permanent and hereditary by a special judgment from God, as in the case of Gehazi; or that the leprosy of such a person was to be held as never to be cured, and that he was never to be examined by the priest, with a view to his readmission to society. Taken either way, it shews or implies that Gehazi and his descendants were not alone in their permanent leprosy; but there was a permanent body of lepers-pos sibly including some persons who, as among the Burmese, were free from disease, not as a necessary effect of their having been lepers, but a penal infliction for disobedience of the law. The condition of the Hebrew leper is described in the following words:"His clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Tarnee, tarnee! (Unclean, unclean!) All the days wherein the plague shall be in him, he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be." (Lev. xiii. 45, 46.) The reader will do well to compare this with the short description of the condition of the Burmese leper which we have quoted from Malcolm. Most of the points coincide in substance, and differ only in some small details. In almost every country where leprosy prevails, the leper is obliged to wear some kind of distinctive dress, so that people may know and avoid him. Among the Burmese his head is covered with a conical cap; among the Hebrews his head was bare; his garment was rent (in front it is understood), in token of his afflicted condition; and, in the presence of a clean person, he stood covering his mouth with his hand, or the skirt of his robe. In addition to which distinction of dress, the leper is, in some countries, obliged to notify his presence or approach by some loud and peculiar sound. In some places a small drum is used for this purpose; in others, the leper strikes a metal dish, or rattles something in it; but the Hebrew leper, when he saw a stranger approaching, or when he found himself near any place of resort, was obliged to keep up his melancholy cry of Tarnee, tarnee!-Rev. Dr Kitto. RELIGIOUS LIFE IN HOLLAND. (REPNUIRTE KIRCHENZEITUNG.) THE peculiar characteristic of Dutch religious life may be said to be its Biblicity and independence. This generally distinguishes those of the Reformed Confession from Lutherans, who are more disposed to depend on their pastors. |