opposed, by the civil power; nor did it terminate for more than two hundred years. The great sword, therefore, denotes this great contention and strife in the Church which destroyed or weakened the true spirit of Christianity. "I will kill her children with death."*

"And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld,

and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine." (Verses 5, 6.)

The breaking down of Paganism here again lets loose other errors already indeed existing in the Church : but, till then, only in an incipient state. The face of a man considered as a symbol denotes intelligence, and this taken in a good sense would signify the Scriptural knowledge of the triune covenant God; but that it here invites attention to one going forth on a black horse implies the contrary, and with this interpretation the other symbols agree. Blackness or darkness denotes in Scripture a famine of the word of the Lord, or ignorance, error, and sin. Ye are not in darkness; now are ye the children of the light and of the day; if the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness.§

Taken in this sense it is the light of the blind leaders of the blind. And it is here cherished, for the Church recommends or solicits attention to what is coming forward: the words employed in these four seals are those of Philip to Nathanael, when he wished him to recognise the claims of Jesus to the Messiahship.

The term here translated a pair of balances is in every other part of the New Testament translated yoke, which is perhaps its meaning here. A balance denotes justice, not severity, but fairness and equity; but a yoke is nothing less than slavery, which is generally attended with de

ficient or ordinary food, and want of enjoyment and luxury. Here indeed there is nothing to prompt our sympathy, or allure us into imitation, and yet it is evidently recommended by the call, Come and see.

The voice proceeds not from the beasts, but from their midst, viz., from the throne of God and the Lamb. It professes to come from God. The measure (choenix) was about a quart, and was proverbially used to denote the daily bread, perhaps of a slave, but still it was reckoned enough for his subsistence. The word also translated penny is employed in Scripture in the same sense, and denotes a day's wages. Now, so long as the labourer procured the food he needed for his wages, there could be no famine. But he generally subsisted on barley-bread; here, however, he was fed with wheat; or if he declined to deviate from his customary habits his wages procured three times the quantity he required. His penny purchased three measures of barley. Is this like a famine? Some other solution then must be devised. Nor is it implied there was any scarcity of wine and oil. The expression is remarkable. It is forbidden to hurt them. Now, to hurt is, to inflict an injury: it has no reference whatever to want or abundance, nor always to justice or wrong, but means simply to give pain. You can only infer from the prohibition that they were not to be used, and that a disregard of the injunction resembled hurt done to a sentient being. But though it is impossible a famine can exist as long as the wages of a slave purchased three times his ordinary food, yet as wine and oil are prohibited, not indeed from scarcity, but from superstition, a sense of pain, or scrupulosity, a joyless life is evidently described. The yoke also denotes some kind of slavery, whilst the blackness of the horse implies ignorance, error, and sin, or a famine of the word of the Lord, Put all these symbols together, and what do they describe as recommended by the Church, or apparently urged upon it as of Divine authority? It is another feature of the Church in the fourth century, which in various forms has continued

down to the present day; a feature so contrary to the New Testament that it could not be passed over in the description of the great Apostasy. I refer to monkery, self-torture, and asceticism, which originated from ignorance or rejection of the Gospel. Nothing else can account for the substitution of self-torture in the place of the self-denial which Holy Scripture inculcates. God does not require us to put ourselves in pain by a periodical fast, or a voluntary humiliation, under the impression that such selfinfliction is meritorious in His eyes. The self-denial which he requires is to restrain and overcome our depravity when it is awakened in us during our performance of public, private, and domestic duties. Fasting (which the Jewish Church and Christ's apostles employed only on mournful and important occasions), and other acts of self-denial, were perverted in the fourth century to self-righteousness, and put in the place of Christ. If this interpretation be correct, favour with God or the highest Christian life is exemplified by the fare and condition of a slave or labourer. The Christian Church of the fourth century invited attention to, or commended as most acceptable to God, a condition which can only be regarded as slavish. There is little joy beyond mere existence in it. But if this be a satire on the Divine service, it is only a true description of the selftormentor and recluse. An opinion prevailed in the Church, as early as in the second century, that the Gospel proposes two standards of morals, viz., precepts for ordinary Christians, and counsels for the devoted, which latter proposed celibacy, seclusion from the world, and emaciation of the body, as the highest Christian attainments.* The Gnostic opinion that there is something essentially evil in matter so far obtained in the Church, that the following truths were explained away or virtually denied: Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused; I know, and am persuaded of the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself: marriage

* Mosheim, century ii., part ii., chap. iii., sect. 11 and 12.

The

is honourable unto all men.* saints held up for our imitation in the Bible filled the busiest situations of public life, and partook of every enjoyment which this world affords. Daniel, whose history records no blemish against him, was chief minister to several heathen governors to extreme old age. Paul deemed it no derogation from his apostolic office to procure subsistence by working as a tent-maker. In short, Holy Scripture implies that true self-denial is most suitably and beneficially exercised in all the busiest engagements of every-day life. Christians then mistook the mortification of the body for that of the evil principle called by Paul, the body of sin. They imagined that denial of the appetite would destroy the desire to yield to it, and that departure from the busy haunts of life would expel worldliness from the soul, and leave it in the delightful enjoyment of heavenly contemplation. But was it so? It was not. They worked at the wrong end. They meddled with effects, and left their causes to run into wild luxuriance. A holy principle must be wrought within, in order to destroy sin in the life. A perception of the evil and odiousness of sin, is the only foundation of a successful war against it by rooting it first out of the heart, and, as a consequence, from the life. Asceticism in its every form was a departure from the Gospel, and implied an ignorance of God in Christ, and of the joyful hope of immortality, grounded entirely upon the Saviour's merits. I regard these symbols, therefore, as an apt and striking description of heavy ascetic burdens then recommended by the Church, which oppressed the mind, and in proportion, as they prevailed, bereft it, of religious satisfaction andjoy. All these evils existed in the fourth century, and are very forcibly symbolised in this seal. Its character may be described in one word, self-righteousness, in the form of an atonement for felt, tortured, and yet unsubdued iniquity.

(To be continued.)

* 1 Tim. iv. 3, 4.

"THE JEWISH CHRONICLE" ON

THE CHURCH CONGRESS.

THE Anglo-Hebrew Weekly of Friday, the 16th ult., has a somewhat angry leader, under the heading of The Church Missions Congress, anent to the Fourteenth Annual Church Congress, lately held at Brighton. The writer of that article seems particularly displeased at the suggestion of one of the speakers that the Clergy, in whose parishes Jews resided, were bound to attend to the spiritual exigencies of their Hebrew parishioners. We cannot help thinking that the writer's animadversions and strictures owe their origin to a misapprehension and misconstruction of the import of the suggestion. It was never hinted, or insinuated, that the Jews, as a body, were either ignorant, immoral, or dishonest. If such an intimation were attempted, we should have been foremost to proclaim aloud the superiority of the unbelieving Jew, to the mere professing Gentile Christian, in mental culture, morality, honesty, and even in zeal for God. Those of our Jewish brethren who know us

best, are aware of the jealousy with

which we vindicate all those Jewish characteristics, and how ready we are to hurl back any reflection cast upon our people as a nation. A great deal of that irate article is simply malapropos. We feel positive that the speakers at the Church Congress on Church Missions, "especially in relation to modern Judaism," referred solely and entirely to FAITH in the Redeemer of Israel, as the Lord of Hosts; which faith our people, as a nation, have trampled under foot ever since they have rejected Him who was at first sent to themselves, as

the paucity of eminent Jewish be lievers, and the great numbers of eminent Jewish unbelievers, as prov ing anything else but that Christianity was the religion which the Prophets predicted to be the development of Scriptural Judaism. Who are they who are predicted as the Missionaries to the Jewish people? Let the Evangelical Prophet answer the momentous question. Amongst the concomitant events of the close of this

dispensation we read :-" And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord."* "Nations" and "peoples"-who are not supposed to be of the House of Jacob-are the predicted Missionaries to our people, the burden of whose sermon was dictated thus:-" Come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD." This is a most suggestive and significant apostrophe. implies that nations and peoples, disowned by the House of Jacob as belonging to that household, were to be in possession of the LIGHT OF THE LORD, whilst the "House of Jacob," the elect family, was to be deprived for a time, of the LIGHT OF THE LORD. We cannot possibly separate this appeal from Him who proclaimed Himself, saying, “I am the Light of the world!" In connection with this we would quote another prophecy from the visions of the same seer:-" Stay yourselves,

It

*Isaiah ii. 2-5. + John viii, 12; ix. 5.

and wonder: cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath He covered. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: and the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned. Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the precept of men: therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid."* Isaiah is not the only inspired teacher on the subject. Thus was Jeremiah inspired to remonstrate with our people :

"Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth: and I will pardon it. And though they say, The Lord liveth; surely they swear falsely. O Lord, are not Thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God. I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the Lord, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds." The burden of one Prophet more on the + Jer. v. 1-5.

Isaiah xxix. 9-14.

same theme:-" And He said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. And the Spirit entered into me when He spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard Him that spake unto me. And He said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against Me: they and their fathers have transgressed against Me, even unto this very day. For they are impudent children and stiff-hearted. I do send thee unto them, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God. And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them."* regards the paucity of Jewish believers in the Lord of Hosts, the Prophet Zephaniah has been inspired to anticipate the objection based on that circumstance by the following prediction:-" I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the LORD."

As

We would most affectionately ask our Jewish brethren-for we are not their enemies because we tell them the truth-Is there anything in the writings of Moses and the Prophets which could possibly lead them, or any one else, to infer that their spiritual condition before God would be more favourable now, during this present dispensation, under uninspired pastors and teachers, than it was during the former one, when their pastors and teachers were the inspired prophets of Judah and Israel? If Holy Scriptures do not lead up to such an inference-which assuredly they do not-was it treason against the Most High, to suggest that the Church of Christ in this land, who is in the possesion of the LIGHT OF THE LORD, should take up the words dictated by our own prophet Isaiah, for the nations and peoples, and say, "O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the Light of the Lord." Is it not rather treason against the Most High, on the part of the Clergy of this land, to accept the spiritual oversight of

Ezek. ii. 1-5. + Zeph. iii. 12.

parishes, in which there are Jews, and not to invite their Hebrew parishioners in the inspired words of the Evangelical Prophet? We speak as unto wise men, judge ye on it calmly and impartially, as in the sight of God. Our appeal in all things is, in accordance with our motto, TO THE LAW AND TO THE TESTIMONY.

The writer of the article in the Jewish Chronicle, under notice, considers it a great hardship and persecution, that certain Christian people send Christian publications to some members of the Synagogue. We must say that our people are much too easily provoked. When certain antichristian Jewish authors favour us, by post, with their publications,-such, for instance, as the blasphemous Toledoth Yeshu, published by the Jews in London, a few months ago; Nathan Meyer's Panchristianism, &c., after theirkind, we neither whine about it, nor do we feel even provoked. We read them, and make our remarks in the margin of the book, or tract, and feel more than ever satisfied that hitherto nothing has been published which could possibly move us from the TRUTH AS IT IS IN JESUS. When we repel coarse abuse in the manner which it deserves, it is not because we feel, individually, enmity against any one, but because we consider it a conscientious duty which we owe to Hebrew Christians, as a body, to protect them from malicious misrepresentations. The Jews' mis

sionary monthlies, let it be put on record, have never done anything of the kind. We love our brethren with a love which passeth their understanding; albeit our being aware that the more we love them, the more do they hate us. We are no stipendiary friends of Israel. We love our people, because we know all about them. We love them, for the same reason that Saul of Tarsus loved them.*

words. Let him take any sentence and experiment on. He will find that any two words may not be indifferently used, however synonymous they are presumed to be. A shade of difference will give one a greater fitness than another.

There is sometimes a difficulty in bringing out the whole that is struggling for utterance; a single word will not do it. Hence a series of words, especially of qualifying words, are used; because, it may be, no single word will be an enunciation of the speaker's or writer's thoughts. A great idea sometimes makes this an imperative resource.

An opinion might be urged that this is the expedient in the text before us. But a careful consideration of the whole determines the fact of gradations in the process.

In dyeing it is usually necessary to wash from something contracted in the use of the garment: it is then clean. But this is only preparatory; not, however, an unimportant step: not an unnecessary one; not, indeed, anything short of a necessitous measure. Without this the next step would be a failure: yet, the both combined accomplish what is afterwards spoken of as one act. It thus becomes a thoroughly changed article. It was soiled, it is cleansed. It was, perhaps, white; now it is red. Sometimes the plunging of an article into a preparation entirely changes its nature: it was combustible, it is no longer so. Sometimes the combination of two substances changes the nature of both. It is thus with our table salt: any one of its two ingredients would be injurious to the human system; in their chemical affinity they make a good thing: "Salt is good; but if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted?"

Whilst the washing in the blood is the first step in the complete process, and imperatively the first, we make bold to say that to stop here the work would be incomplete. It would, indeed, make man again what he was in the garden of Eden before he fell; but he would be no nearer his Creator than he was then: whereas, by the whole process, or by the whole effect of the one application of the precious blood of Christ, he is, with Christ,