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THE DEAD SEA.

The following account of a recent visit to this scene of judgment, is from the pen of a correspondent of the Daily News:

"At midnight the loud tolling of the convent bell called the brethren (of St. Saba) to their nocturnal devotions in the chapel; thence the strong swell of some three dozen manly voices musically chanting the litany, came rolling in upon us with sleep-dispelling effect till an hour before dawn, when, having imbibed a fortifying draught of hot coffee, and made the usual small contribution to the convent treasury, we took leave of these hospitable St. Anthonies, and proceeded on our way to the Dead Sea. Odd patches of the gloomy lake were visible from time to time, as we rode over 18 miles of even more barren and scorched mountains than those we had already crossed; but it was not till we were within a quarter of a mile of the beach, that the whole sheet of its waters fell at once under the eye. Here, heightened and confirmed, did the idea of utter desolation strike the minds of all: a deathlike repose seemed to hang over everything, and the only traces of vegetation that could be seen were a few half-withered bushes of camel-thorn on the edge of the plain, and the green line of trees and jungle that marks the winding course of the Jordan downwards from the Sea of Galilee. For a distance of thirty yards from the water, the shore was deeply furrowed, as if by the action of former and higher waves, and strewed with drifted wood bleached almost white by the sun. At nine o'clock the heat was becoming oppressive, and we lost no time in making preparations for a bathe. For several hundred yards in the water the lake was no more than five feet deep, but this was sufficient to test the alleged marvellous buoyancy about which travellers have said and written so much; and the result enables me to add our

joint testimony to that which has been given by others. Each of us did our utmost to sink by lying flat upon the water, with perfectly empty lungs, by twisting ourselves up into all possible shapes, and by endeavouring by the strongest downward pressure to get below the surface; but in vain. In fact, as one of my companions remarked, if it had been possible to raise a sail, we might have skimmed across the lake without the movement of a limb. So also of the nauseous bitterness and sliminess of the

water, I have read no account that at all exaggerates the actual fact: putrid sea water intensely salined might perhaps resemble it in taste, but nothing short of a solution of glue mixed with rancid oil, could equal the stinking clamminess with which it adheres to one's skin, hair, and beard; matting, when it dries, the hair in such a way that it requires no little subsequent labour to effect its disentanglement and purification. The smarting effect upon the eyes and the inner membrane of the nose, was intensely painful; and the general result of the bathe was extreme lassitude and stiffness for nearly half an hour after. After a collation under the shade of our Arab's cloak, raised canopy-wise on four pieces of driftwood, we again mounted, and turning our backs on this Judean Avernus, cantered rapidly over the plain towards the point at which the Jordan is usually visited the spot fixed by tradition as that of the Saviour's baptism by John. The distance from the sea to this point is about three miles, and over the whole of the route we trod not upon a single blade of grass-vegetation, in fact, there was none. On all sides the ground was whitened with a saline crust-such as I had before met with in the great plain of Tabreez-brought out by the action of the sun after rain, from a soil strongly impregnated with this mineral."

BETHLEHEM.

J. N. L.

"FAR away to the east rises the conical hill where Herod died, and now we mount the ridge of which that hill is the eastern extremity, and crowning the crest of the opposite ridge is a long line of houses, with the massive and lofty convent. There was a shout which ran down the long file of horsemen, followed by deep silence-' Bethlehem!'

"It is a wild bleak hill, amidst hills equally bleak-if bleak may be applied to hills which are terraced with vineyards; in autumn, of course, rich and green, and which now in part wave with corn. One only green plain, I believe, of grass, hangs

behind the town. But what most arrests the eye is the elevation of the whole place, and, above all, that most striking feature,

which was to me quite unexpected the immense wall of the mountains of Moab seeming to overhang the lower hills of Judah, from which they are only separated by that deep mysterious gulf of the Dead Sea. Well might Moses from their summit overlook the Promised Land. Well might Orpah return as to a near country-and Naomi be reminded of her sorrows. Well might her descendant David choose their heights as the refuge for his aged parents when Bethlehem was no longer safe for them."-Stanley's Sinai and Palestine.

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We insert the following letter, which has been sent to us for this purpose, in the hope that the Satan-deluded author of the pamphlet referred to, and his approving readers may see it, peruse it, and take warning ere it be too late :

2, Little's Lane, Wolverhampton. 7 Oct., 1856.

To Mr. Charles F. Jones. Sir,- Having recently received from you a very singular pamphlet, called "Marriage and Morals in Utah," I am constrained to say a few words upon it to you. This I do both as Christian man, and as a servant of the Lord; not as being appointed to any office, or as giving forth the sentiments of any class of persons.

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Observe! I do not write in the tone of offence, or as one

offended, but with much pain and sorrow of heart that anything so defiling and injurious to the truth should have emanated from any class of persons calling themselves "saints" (holy persons), and should ever have been wickedly fathered upon the character of the ever blessed God, the object of all true adoration and worship.

In this pamphlet I am pained to observe that there is nothing said about what can give relief to a troubled conscience; about the calling of "saints" to heaven, and their walking worthy of that "calling"; and about the person and work of the Son of God but only about the perpetuation of our species, and the desire to get possession of as wide a space of the earth as possible; as if our whole destiny and need were met in such carnal wretched pursuits as these. Is it not monstrous that anything so low and grovelling can occupy "saints" (and that too in

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laying down principles for the government of a new state), and can be made the subject of their teaching? How suited to inflame the passions of the carnal heart, from the dominion of which Jesus came to deliver us.

had to the traditions which would explain what was obscure in Moses.

Now on the occasion, when the question concerning the resurrection was put to Jesus, the Pharisees and the Sadducees And because a species of polygamy was permitted in early had sunk their differences, in order to crush him whom they times, yet, after its condemnation by our Lord Jesus Christ believed to be their common enemy. They wished to catch (after the folly and sin of man have made his own desire mani-him in his words; to draw him on to say something upon fest), it is assumed in this pamphlet, that polygamy is still which a legal charge might be founded. By placing before him to continue; and to this, abominable adultery is added. It is the difficulty concerning the woman and her seven husbands, further intimated that this is what is meant by the "everlasting they thought they might entangle him in his talk. For if he covenant," although it is quite plain that that covenant had refused to evade this difficulty-either as the Sadducees did, by to do with the earth, and that even to this day it has not re- denying the resurrection, or the Pharisees, by appealing to the ceived its full accomplishment. "Now to Abraham and his traditions (and his own unvaried teaching proved that he would seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as adopt neither expedient)-then they concluded he must find of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ," Gal. | fault with the book of Moses itself; either because of its silence iii. 16. "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent respecting the resurrection, or for its proposing a law which led forth his Son ...... to redeem," &c., iv. 4-6. Is it, then, to so perplexing a result. more wives, or redemption, that poor, fallen, and degraded man wants. And yet, alas for the blindness of such writers! it is taught in this pamphlet, that marriage and the earth are what we are to be occupied about, and not redemption. And when God says to the "saints" at Corinth, 2 Epis., v. 17, "Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new"; i. e., of course, only to real Christians, here are other self-called "saints," according to your pamphlet, teaching that it is the old creature we are to be occupied about. With you it is the old Adam, the earth, and more wives; with God it is the new creature, the Second Adam, the Lord from heaven, 1 Cor. xv. 47. Does such a perversion of the truth come from heaven or hell?

Sir, it is shocking to father such sentiments as these upon a holy God," who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and who cannot look upon sin"! And were I not instructed from Holy Scripture to believe that such things should come in these "last days," I should indeed wonder that hell itself could ever invent things so truly wicked and defiling as those recommended in your pamphlet. Let me solemnly remind you of what is said of false prophets and teachers: "To the law, and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light (morning, see margin) in them," Isa. viii. 20. Such doctrine is not of the morning, but is of the night and "darkness," John iii. 20, 21. "If any man, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel than that which I have preached......let him be accursed," Gal. i. 8.

Let marriage and morals in Utah" be what they may, it will soon be seen that "many will come and say, Lord! Lord! | open to us....but then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me," &c., Matt. vii. 15-23. And further on in time, "the heavens will pass away, and the elements melt with fervent heat," &c., 2 Peter iii. 10. We want something that will secure us then and now! What has marriage and morals to do with meeting the need of the human conscience, furnishing an adequate object for new-born affections, and lifting a poor soul into the presence of God, and giving him the assurance that God loves him in Jesus?

I could say much more, but forbear, praying that a holy and merciful God may rebuke the daring impiety of the Mormons, and in his great mercy rescue them from their delusion. "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them who are lost," &c., 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. With proper estimation suited to the case,

I am, Sir, yours truly,

RICHARD TIMLEY.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. THE words which Jehovah spake to Moses were quoted by the Redeemer, because they expressed that general sense of the Old Scriptures which the Sadducees forgot, and on account of which forgetfulness they "denied the resurrection from the dead." They based their creed upon the fact that the law of Moses makes but small, if any allusion to any such a resurrection.

The Pharisees-the academical opponents of the Sadducees -admitting the same fact, turned it to their own account, by pretending that the law, by itself, was insufficient to prove their doctrine of a resurrection, and that recourse must therefore be

The Saviour avoided this dilemma with a skill which called forth the admiration of some of his opponents. For, said he, Moses himself, i.e. the law, in its entire and obvious import, supposes that God had blessings to give to his friends which, in this life, they never obtained. The law promised possession of Canaan: the patriarchs did not obtain those promises. Therefore he who called himself the God, specially of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and who yet did not give them the blessings of the law during their life, must have intended to bestow those blessings, which he had sworn to give them, in some other way.

If the patriarchs died and never were to rise again, what had
Jehovah done for them? If they reappeared on the earth,
Jehovah had still the blessings to bestow upon them; he still
could fulfil the promise of giving to them the good land.
Yours, &c.,
W. H. J.

That the Lord in Matt. xxii. 31, was proving the resurrection of the dead, rather than the existence of the Spirit, as some have taken it, is evident from his words: "As touching the resurrection of the dead," (or as it is in Luke, "Now that the dead are raised,") "have ye not read, . I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Mark! He did not say, I was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when they lived; nor, I am the God of the spirits of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; but, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now the spirit of Abraham is one thing, and Abraham himself is another; as the spirit of a man, his unclothed state is not the man, it is only one part of him; as the body (whether natural or spiritual) is the other, both together forms the man; so if Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were dead (and God is not the God of the dead), and God declared himself to Moses as their God, it follows then, one of two things, either that the three patriarchs (not their spirits, a part of them), were living, and to be so, their bodies must have risen, or that they should rise at some future time, and God spoke anticipatively and in the divine certainty of that event, as being the God of the living. But there is more than this (and for the sugges tion, I am indebted to a Christian brother), viz., that the faithfulness of God is connected with their resurrection, because God made with them certain unconditional promises, not only to their "seed," but to them individually and personally, that they (as well as their seed) should possess the land of Canaan -the promise was, "To thee and to thy seed." These pronises the patriarchs never realized (whatever the children of Israel did in part, or will do when the heir, the true seed," comes), they wandered about and confessed they were strangers and pilgrims in the very land promised to them; so Moses at the bush would be reminded of the promise and God's faithfulness to fulfil, when he proclaimed himself as their God, as it must necessitate their resurrection, in order to obtain possession of that country which God had given them.

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No wonder, then, the multitude were astonished at his doctrine, and the Scribes said, Master, thou hast well said; when out of the very letter of the "law" they boasted of and by that very father Abraham they trusted in, Jesus could indisputably

* See also a valuable pamphlet on the "First Resurrection." 24.

prove, not only a resurrection, but the necessity of one, which many of the denied.

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For proof we, however, may refer both to Old and New Testament Scripture. We see God's promise to Abraham, Gen. xiii. 15, and xvii. 7, 8—to Isaac, xxvi. 3, to Jacob, xxviii. 13, in which the land was given to each, to thee and to thy seed." (Compare Acts vii. 5, and Heb. xi. 13-10). Shewing how they never received or enjoyed the land for a possession; and although we understand that they looked by faith beyond the earthly promise, and sought a heavenly city (prepared for all the children of faith, though God has "provided some better thing," a higher glory for us, the church, as being the body and bride of Christ), which they will have at the same time, and in association with the church; nevertheless the good thing, the earthly blessing, they will obtain also, because faithful is he that has promised; and may God by his Spirit lead us into all truth, for his name's sake.

Our Study.

E. I. H.

The Life of Luther, written by himself; or, the Autobiography of Luther, in passages extracted from his writings, including his experiences, struggles, doubts, temptations, and consolations; with additions and illustrations. Collected and arranged by M. Michelet. (W. H. Collingridge, London.) The first part of the title of this book is a misnomer, which is contradicted by the second part. The author is a Roman Catholic, a fact which he avows in his preface. The work consists of extracts from the writings of Luther, which, no doubt, would be exceedingly valuable in composing a biography of that eminent man; but which, in their detached state, as here given, do not really constitute what may be honestly denominated a Life of Luther. If these extracts be honourably and truly made, they are certainly very interesting, as giving us an insight into his real history as a Christian, a reformer, a citizen, and the father of a family; but separated, as they are, from the context where they occur in his writings, they are extremely liable to misconstruction; and we fear that the author, from his religious bias, is too likely to fall into this error. The book, however, with all its disadvantages, is a remarkable testimony from the hand of an avowed enemy to Protestantism, in favour of one of the greatest lights of the Reformation. In a future edition, we would desire to see some passages expunged, which offend both decency and propriety.

hope that even thus the wrath of man shall praise the Lord. As for the poetry, or hymns as they are cailed, we shall cite Mr. Binney's opinion in our notice of his letter.

Non-Conformist Theology; or Serious Considerations for Churches, Pastors, and Deacons; being Seven Letters to the Principals and Professors of the Independent and Baptist Colleges of England. By John Campbell, D.D. (London: W. H. Collingridge.) This is the next pamphlet, we believe, in the order of the "Rivulet Controversy." It contains Dr. Campbell's defence of the Morning Advertiser; his review of Mr. Lynch's hymns, and proof that they are Unitarian in their tendency; his remarks on Mr. Anderson's opinion of the Dissenting ministers in London; his observations on the new theology called Negative, or Christless; and his exposure of Rationalistic and Unitarian principles. We cannot approve of the spirit in which this pamphlet is written, nor can we endorse his opinion concerning the Nonconformist colleges in general, though we believe there are some which deserve the praise he has indiscriminately bestowed.

The Gospel Cottage Lecturer: addressed to the Spiritually Poor. Part XIX. (London: W. H. Collingridge.) This little publication is very much to our mind. This part contains four lectures on "True Spiritual Worship," and one lecture on Rev. xxii. 17. We like the plainness and simplicity of style adopted in its pages, and the pleasing and persuasive unction of gospel truth, with which it seems to abound.

Sunday and the Sabbath; or the Lord's Day of the Apostles compared with the Sabbath of Moses. By W. H. Johnstone, M.A., Chaplain of Addiscombe, &c., &c. (London: D. F. Oakey.) A calm and dispassionate view of the Sabbath question. The author endeavours to prove "that Sunday gradually grew into a Sabbath, while Saturday as gradually ceased from being observed in the Christian Church"; and we think that he has proved his point. The inference is plain "that a divine law like that of the Sabbath cannot be abrogated." We do not of course subscribe to all the arguments which he has employed to demonstrate his proposition; but we agree in some of them, and consequently in his conclusion. We have elsewhere, we think, employed a stronger argument for the observance of the Sabbath by all men, Christians, Jews, and Gentiles, than any he has adduced; but we rather like the way in which he makes the Jewish Sabbath slide into the Christian Sabbath.

Negative Theology: Analysis of the Letter of the Rev. Thomas Binney, addressed to the Congregational Union of England and Wales, &c., &c. By John Campbell, D.D. (W. H. Collingridge, London.) This may well be entitled " Negative Theology," seeing there is no theology in it, but as the author says "a root of bitterness," whereby many are in danger of "being defiled." The personalities and private matters brought to light in this pamphlet, would have been more wisely buried in oblivion. The rule of the Christian church, Matt. xviii. 15-17, appears to have been forgotten by all parties. It is an old saying, "Save me from my friends"; this controversy suggests an improvement in it, namely, "Save me from myself."

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The Church of God; to which is added, Christian Husbandry. By Ambrose Serle. (Co. Waterford: Bonmahon Industrial Printing School, and W. H. Collingridge, London.) We are glad to see such excellent books as this, issuing from a typographical establishment in Ireland, and we hope that they will have an extensive circulation in that rising country. The cheap dissemination of books on true religion will, in combination with the practical agricultural improvements now adopted by Irish capitalists, do more good in a few years, to the Roman Catholic population, than all the nostrums of their priests have Mr. Binney's Letter to the Members of the Congregational done for centuries. We hope the young Irish printers will be Union of England and Wales, &c., &c. (Ward and Co., London.) more careful to avoid errata; there are too many in this volume. The following passage appears to us to be the best in this pamThe Controversy on Important Theological Questions; between phlet, which is the fourth on the "Rivulet Controversy the Eclectic Review, the Rev. Newman Hall, Rev. Thomas I think I have a right to speak about this painful controversy. Binney, and the Rev. Messrs. Henry Allon, James Baldwin I am one of the fifteen; I am the oldest of them; and my name Brown, &c., &c., on the one side, and Mr. James Grant, Editor has been printed in large letters to catch the public eye. I of the Morning Advertiser, on the other. Reprinted, with might rest something on these particulars; but I would only additions, from the M.A. Ninth Edition. (W. H. Collingridge, say that I, perhaps, can more freely and fittingly than some London.) This is the celebrated pamphlet which was the others, venture to utter those things which seem to me to origin of the "Rivulet Controversy." It contains Mr. Grant's require to be said. I wish, then, to say this, that I think there review of Mr. Lynch's pretended Christian Hymns, his exposure have been errors on all sides. Now, let us honestly put the of The Eclectic Review" for praising the said hymns, the matter so, and let us see whether we cannot come to a good "Postscript" to that Review, signed by fifteen congregational understanding. In the first place, the author of the book erred. ministers in defence of Mr. Lynch and his poems, the observa- It was an error to call his poems hymns; and it is an error to tions of Mr Grant on the Postscript, the Eclectic, and the use them as such in public worship. In the next place, there Patriot, and his remarks on the prevalence of pernicious errors were errors on the part of the fifteen. It was an error to issue among the Dissenters. Although we much disapprove of the a protest at all; things had better been left to take their course. spirit in which this Controversy has been carried on, yet we It was an error for the protest to say all it did, because some believe that some important facts have been elicited; and we of it could be known only by those on peculiar terms of intimacy

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with the person defended; and, further, there were words, if not expressions, somewhat incautious, to say the least."

Mr. Lynch still uses the pretended hymns in public worship, in his chapel!

Notes of the Month.

the Salt Lake, and then questions will arise which will demand either obedience to the common law of the United States, or resistance to it; and the latter will produce the history of the first Mormon settlement over again, only on a larger scale, with greater violence, and less choice of a desert to fly to."-Times.

THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

The Watchman's Warning to the Churches: a Fearful View of those rapid ministerial declensions from the Truth, and the widespread of Arminian, Pelagian, and Socinian Heresies. By Veritas. We have received a pamphlet, entitled "The Mission House (W. H. Collingridge, London.) There is a good deal of truth Letter," containing a "Brief Review of Recent Proceedings," in this pamphlet; but it is couched in peculiar language. The in relation to the Rev. Ebenezer Davies, of the Caledonian reader must be acquainted with the technical phrases of theo-Road Chapel, and his accusers. We confess that we have read logians before he can thoroughly understand it; it should have this pamphlet with mingled feelings of pain and grief. The been written in a plainer style, so "that he may run who attempt to crush a man and destroy his usefulness on an unreadeth it." The view of the various modes of admission into founded accusation, as this appears to be, cannot be too strongly heaven, delivered at p. 18, is, in our opinion, enough to frighten reprobated. We entirely agree with the remarks of the Rev. any poor man from attempting to get there. We always thought Joseph Ketley on behalf of Mr. Davies, especially where he that God was no respecter of persons; but according to some, it says: "Not only have ecclesiastical nationalities become unseems to be the reverse in this matter! How different are the popular, by reason of their proud self-exaltation, as if 'above words of Christ, Matt. xi. 28-30; John vi. 37; and Rev. xxii. 17. all that is called God or that is worshipped'-but those purer combinations of Christian men, whose origin is referred to their pious repudiation of human assumptions of authority over conscience; and those societies and associations which have sprung from the loftiest motives and holiest aims for the present and future welfare of mankind; even they are but too apt to grow out of due proportion, they gradually depart from the practical exemplifications of their professed principles, and establish the adage to which observation has given rise-that 'huge ecclesiastical societies are huge tyrannies." Without going into the particulars of this extraordinary case, we think the following challenge, if not accepted, will tell fearfully against a society which has hitherto stood very high in public estimation :-"I understand that some of the Directors of the Missionary Society are beginning to entertain serious doubts as to my having written the Mission House Letter. Let them, with their minds open to conviction, ponder well the facts stated in this pamphlet, and their doubts will soon become certainty of my innocence. Let them acknowledge that they may have been misled, and manfully withdraw the charge. By that means they will put an end at once to a most painful controversy, which otherwise will not terminate with even my life."

THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.

THE Controversy with this Society about its impure versions of the Bible, still continues. A pamphlet leaf has just been sent us, headed with the question, " Is not the British and Foreign Bible Society transformed into a Protestant and Popish Penance Society?" and containing a letter which lately appeared in "The London Monthly Review, and Record of the London Prophetical Society," from the pen of the Rev. James Kelly, dated Putney Heath. This paper states that, for some time past, corrupt versions of the Bible have been in circulation, on the continent in the German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese languages; and that these versions are circulated by the agents of the British and Foreign Bible Society; that this is done, not because sounder [query, sound] versions in these languages are not to be had, for they are in the Society's depository; but that the Committee advisedly and deliberately choose to use the corrupt versions in preference to the pure.

The defence set up by the Committee for this awful dereliction of their duty both to God and man, is the following, in their own words: "The Committee have sought to treat the subject as practical men-not as a body of learned Critics, to which they make no pretensions. They have selected and employed versions, as in their best judgment and in the fear of God, they have thought most adapted for circulation among the people immediately in view-seeking to be satisfied as to the general fidelity of each version, but not deeming it to be within their province to attempt any material alteration or correction." The paper referred to, very properly asks the following questions: "How can we circulate a lie although it be to bait the truth? Is it to be endured that the Word of God, of which the good providence of God has constituted England the chief dispenser to the world, shall be adulterated in its very elements, in the translations sent forth from Christendom's great Bible Society?"

MORMONISM.

"The beginning of the difficulties that will prove the destruction of the Mormon community, has appeared; the Supreme Court of Utah has decided that the organic act extends the common law over the territory; and the act, being of the nature of a constitution, the common law overrides all the statutes of the Mormon Legislature. The decision renders polygamy as illegal in the territory as it is in the States, and invalidates all the laws made by order of Brigham Young. As soon as his community, now possessing the license of isolation, comes into contact with the advancing population of the States, the Theocracy is doomed: it will have to be extinguished, as a social, even more than a political necessity, perhaps in blood. Two systems of law cannot exist side by side, and that which violates the principles on which all the civilized society of the world is founded, must disappear. Separation from the "Gentiles" cannot be kept up by men who are Gentile in race, and saints only by self-declaration; time will bring the ordinary world to

THE CONGREGATIONAL DIS-UNION OF ENGLAND AND WALES.

"BEHOLD, how great a matter a little fire kindleth." Of these words, we are forcibly reminded by the present aspect of affairs in the "Congregational Union." The review of a little volume of poems called "The Rivulet," in the columns of a newspaper, has threatened the dissolution of the Union; and if the obsti nacy of the opposite parties into which it has thus been divided, be not soon overcome, the doom of the Union is sealed. The late private meetings of the ministers of the body at the Milton Club, have, as we understand, not only failed to restore peace and union between the contending parties, but, as is often the case, separated them more than ever.

Printed leaves of bitterness are flying about, recriminations are multiplying, and strangers with no friendly aim are stepping in among the combatants. Mr. Lynch, the cause of all this controversy, has been harshly and unfairly handled by Dr. Campbell, and this has been resented in a style that brings no honour to the writers. Pamphlets are increasing so fast in number and in bitterness, that people will very soon get tired of the matter, if they are not so already; and then the combatants will stand in a very sorry plight before the public, both as men and as professing Christians.

If this controversy is not soon terminated, it will be advisable to go to the root of the disease, in the manner of Junius Secundus, who, in 1850, wrote that prophetic warning to the Congregational Dissenters of England and Wales, entitled "Congregational Dissent as it is and as it ought to be." His prophecies have been more than verified; and an article shewing their fulfilment, with a comment on the whole state of things as they now exist, after a lapse of six years, seems to be loudly called for. Such an article, from the pen of Junius Secundus himself, would tell with wonderful effect on the present rupture, and might tend to bring those combatants to reason, who seem to have forgot their duty to one another as Christians, and who are rending the body of Christ asunder by their unholy warfare.

Reviews.

THE TYPES OF SCRIPTURE.

No. I. HISTORICAL GLANCE, AND GENERAL
PRINCIPLES.*

EVERY intelligent Christian will allow that the subject
of types is of deep interest and importance. Notori-
ously, however, many shrink from it as if it were
forbidden, dangerous ground, shrouded in perpetual fog,
through which at intervals, some gleams of sunshine
pierce with difficulty. Not that this tract of Scriptural
study is not rich, and varied, and attractive. No line
of things in the Bible abounds more in living instruction,
in appeals to conscience, in comfort to the heart, in
confirmation of faith so much the stronger in the end
because indirect in appearance. All one's old knowledge
of that blessed book abides, as far as it was real; but
with a true insight into the types, comes a fresh and
super-added light, which attaches the affections and the
mind with immensely increased tenacity to the Word of
Not merely is it sweet to ponder over the scenes,
the beings, the circumstances of the past, and the ways
of God displayed in them: all this is enhanced when
their typical aspect is laid hold of. Like the bread
which multiplied under the hands and word of Christ;
and yet after the thousands had fed, more is left to
be carefully gathered up at the end, than existed at
the beginning when none had eaten. If then the types
have been commonly neglected, it is because they have

God.

been ill understood.

To this neglect the Greek fathers, and even the graver Latins have largely contributed; not intentionally of course, but through their lack of spirituality and sound judgment. Under their labours, if we may judge from their remains in many and ponderous folios, the field produced a crop, large perhaps, but mingled with baneful and unsightly weeds. Scarcely less luxuriant and capricious in their fancies, though far more redolent of Christ, were the divines of the seventeenth century, such as Cocceius and Witsius abroad, or Matther and Keach at home. For instance, if we select from the writings of Augustine, the greatest light of patristic antiquity, we have in his work on the gospel of St. John (Tract. xxiv. cap. vi. 5,) the following typical view of the miraculous loaves. The five loaves are taken as the five books of Moses,-not wheaten, but of barley, because they pertain to the Old Testament. As is barley, so is the letter of that Testament, with a rough and tenacious integument, but the marrow within. The lad that carried them and the two fishes, is conjectured to be Israel, carrying their burden with childish feeling, but not eating. The fishes are supposed to set forth the two anointed offices of Priest and King! This is certainly a match in extravagance, if not in the quantity of minute resemblances, to Guild, who, according to Dr. Fairbairn, reckons up no fewer than

The Typology of Scripture: viewed in connexion with the entire scheme of the Divine Dispensations. By Patrick Fairbairn, Professor of Divinity, Free Church College, Aberdeen. Second Edition, much enlarged and improved, vols. i. ii. Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1854. 2. Synopsis of the books of the Bible, vol. 1, Genesis to Esther.

London: Gregg.

No. 7. Vol. I.- December 1, 1856.

forty-nine typical links between Joseph and Christ, and seventeen between Jacob and Christ. Now while we assuredly gather that Joseph is, for reasons which may appear another time, an eminent figure of the Lord, we agree with our author that such superficial analogies as these writers make much of, are unworthy to be considered as types. "Thus Jacob's being a supplanter of his brother, is made to represent Christ's supplanting death, sin, and Satan; his being obedient to his parents in all things, Christ's subjection to his heavenly Father and his earthly parents; his purchasing his birthright by red pottage, and obtaining the blessing by presenting savoury venison to his father, clothed in Esau's garment, Christ's purchasing the heavenly inheritance for us by his red blood, and obtaining the blessing by offering up the savoury meat of his obedience, in the borrowed garment of our nature," &c., (vol. i. p. 30).

From those who in ancient or in modern times had

thus slipped out of the place of safe and humble inquiry into that of hasty guess-work, the reaction was too easy into the cold rationalistic theology of the eighteenth century, which blighted, almost indiscriminately, "the precious" and "the vile" of their predecessors. Indeed, it was not the typical portions of Scripture merely which then suffered an eclipse. Christ Himself was most indistinctly, if at all seen as the sun of the Bible system; and very naturally, that which prefigured him and his work, sank in like proportion. Hence it has almost come to be an axiom among the popular guides of the day, "that just so much of the Old Testament is to be accounted typical as the New Testament affirms to be so, and no more." (Prof. M. Stuart.) "By what means," says Bishop Marsh, “shall we determine, in any given instance, that what is alleged as a type, was really designed for a type? The only possible source of information on this subject is Scripture itself. The only possible means of knowing that two distant, though similar historical facts, were so connected in the general scheme of divine Providence, that the one was designed to prefigure the other, is the authority of that book, in which the scheme of divine Providence is unfolded." So too Mr. H. Horne and many more. A principle narrower or more arbitrary can hardly be conceived. For it demands no profound research, nothing more than a careful reading of the New Testament, to observe that the way in which it mentions some Old Testament personages or events, in no wise excludes others from a typical relation. Rather does it give us samples, some plain, and others more obscure. Far from discouraging, the New Testament stimulates the fullest and minutest investigation of the Old, the Holy Ghost using both as the perfect source and standard of revealed truth.

If it were merely meant that we must not in our inferences from a given type, overstep the teaching of dogmatic Scripture, none could object. If we were thereby exhorted to caution, where no express warrant labels the type, the counsel would be valuable. But it is plain, if one read Genesis without bias, that Adam and Eve have no marks there which so unequivocally distinguish them from Cain and Abel, that the former pair, and not the latter, had a typical design. One of

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