my foes too strong for me. My heart misgives me. My courage fails me. I cannot conquer unless thou appear for me, and strengthen me with strength in my soul. Remember, I am thy servant. I have been long in thy family. I love thy children. I sometimes enjoy thy work. But I am weak, beset with fears, and discouraged in the path of duty: oh, remember me ! Re Remember me, for I am in an enemy's land. It is not the country I love and long for. I am in a howling wilderness, where there are few friends, little pleasant food, or refreshing rest. I am in a house of disease and death. All are suffering, and many are dying around me. member my weakness, for it is great; my fears, for they are many; my temptations, for they are violent; my infirmities, for they are numerous and painful; and my present circumstances, for they are very trying. Oh, remember my prayers, and answer them; my desires, and grant them; my wants, and supply them; my labours, and crown them with thine effectual blessing; and my sorrows, and sanctify them. Remember me, though I am so sinful, though I am so unworthy. Remember me, for İ do remember thee, and long for thy presence and thy love. Remember me, for Jesus did so when he suffered in Gethsemane, and died on the tree. Remember me, or I shall be miserable now, and wretched for evermore. No matter who remembers me, if my God does not; or who forgets me, if I have the assurance of thy love and favour. "Remember me, O Lord, with the favour thou bearest unto thy people. Oh, visit me with thy salvation, that I may see the good of thy chosen, rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, and glory with thine inheritance." "O Lord, visit me.' What is life without God's presence! What would the world be if God did not visit us! How could we bear it, if he were to say, "You have had the last visit; I will come to you no more!" But he will see us again, and our hearts shall rejoice. He will come unto us, and he will bless us. Still promises are not enough, if we are really alive to God. We want their fulfilment. We cannot be satisfied unless the Lord comes, and manifests himself unto us. O Lord, visit me and soften my heart. It is hard and unfeeling. I have tried to melt it in vain. I have taken it to Sinai, there it grows harder. I have taken it In to Gethsemane and Calvary, but no place, no scene, no subject will do. It must be thy presence, thy smile, the sense of thy love. Only come unto me, and my hard heart will yield, and flow with streams of penitential tears. O Lord, visit me, and sanctify my temper. It is unlovely. It is trying to myself and others. I have had a long and severe conflict with it, but it is unlovely still. But thy presence will make me meek, gentle, loving, kind-hearted, and good tempered with all about me. my very worst moods, a visit from thee fills me with shame, self-abhorrence, gratitude, and humility; and then I am good-tempered in a moment. O Lord, visit me, and revive my graces. Faith is weak. Hope is languid. Love is unsettled and wandering. A visit from thee will fill me with confidence, raise my expectations, and cause my whole soul to glow with love. Then zeal will burn, repentance will work, fortitude will spring up, and every grace that should adorn the christian character, will be in lively act and exercise. Oh, visit me, and brighten my evidences. They are often so dim, so unsatisfactory, that I can derive no comfort from them. I want to feel sure that I am a christian. To have no doubts, no misgivings. To have every satisfactory evidence in my heart and life; but unless thou visit me, I feel certain Í shall not. Oh, visit me, and cheer my spirits. I am dejected and cast down. My comforts droop and die. I am low, in a low place. Oh, visit me, and confound my foes. They are many. They are powerful. They get access to my heart. They bewilder, confuse, and mislead me. They often cast me down wounded, and fill me with fear and dread. Oh, visit me, and perfect my resignation. I would yield to thy will in every thing. I would prefer thy choice to my own. I would be perfectly satisfied with all thy arrangements. Oh, visit me, and produce this blessed, this desirable state of mind. Beloved, God's remembrance is always fruitful, it always brings us good things. God's visits are always beneficial. They check every evil, nourish every grace, revive every virtue, and satisfy every really good desire. In this short prayer is all we shall want in life or in death. Are you concerned that God should remember you? Could you bear to be forgotten of God? Did God ever visit you in mercy? Has he visited you lately? Can you be satisfied without his visits? Oh, make the prophet's prayer your own, and daily cry, "O Lord, remember me, and visit me!" "Lord, when I quit this earthly stage, "I cannot live contented here, Without some glimpses of thy face; "And if no evening visit's paid, Between my Saviour and my soul, How dull the night! how sad the shade! New Park-Street, London. JAMES SMITH. USING THE APPOINTED MEANS EVEN AGAINST HOPE. "And he said, Thus saith the Lord, Make this valley full of ditches. For thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink, both ye, and your cattle, and your beasts. And this is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord: he will deliver the Moabites also into your hand.”—2 Kings iii. 16-18. It is not for us now to decide on the justice of this war to retain a foreign nation under tribute. Judaism was a theocracy. God was the King of Judea, as well as the God of the Jews and of all men. Hence it was an important object, under the old economy, to shew that the LORD of the hosts of Israel was almighty, and that the "Lords many" of the hosts of the heathen were but the work of men's hands and men's imaginations. While Israel, therefore, was faithful to the Lord of Hosts, "one chased 1000, and two put 10,000 to flight." Their Rock would not sell them. Under the New Covenant He assumes very different titles. "The God of Peace," "The Father of Mercies,"-"The God of all consolation." He displays his New Testament power by enabling his people, not to revenge, but to forgive,-not to shed the blood of their foes, but to soften their hearts by returning good for evil. A consideration shewing the infinite absurdity of designating any soldier governments christian governments! What a singular alliance of kings this! Jehoram the partially-reforming son of the wicked Ahab, the probably heathen king of Edom, and Jehoshaphat the godly king of Judah. Unsafe associations these for the latter! For "what agreement hath the temple of God with idols ?" Unsafe Jehoshaphat soon found it to be. We do not read that he enquired of God whether he ought to join with Jehoram and Edom; but doing it soon brought him into difficulties, which compelled him to "enquire of the Lord." "In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy steps." What we begin without prayer, God will often compel us to finish with prayer. Even when consulting by which way they should invade Moab, Jehoshaphat asks no advice of God. Of his own wisdom, as he thought it, he counsels them not to go straight across the Jordan, but to take a seven days' journey round the Dead Sea. Perhaps he was suffered to choose a difficulty from which God alone could extricate him, to remind him of his neglecting to "enquire of the Lord." Perhaps he was ashamed, before the heathen and the apostate's son, to propose "enquiring of the Lord." How fitly was he in that case reproved! He is made ashamed of his counsel before these very men, and punished with a fear strong enough to overcome all shame. But what an appalling prospect! Three large armies and their monarchs, and all the hapless animals attending the camp, too, all in danger of perishing from thirst, from want of that common element, water. How easy a prey for the Moabites! What danger of a mutiny, and of signal revenge taken on the monarchs (the authors of that war and of most wars) by their own maddened troops! or of the stronger portion deserting, and leaving the enfeebled remainder to the cruelty of their enemies. How heart-rending to the royal authors of all this suffering, to see their people scattered languishing over the burning plain, and to hear their faint and desponding cries! What a change since, in all the pomp of military pride, the strength of three kingdoms, they left their cities, and their final rendezvous, confident in their numbers, and flushed with the hope of spoil! We have room only to notice, however, the means of deliverance. The son of Ahab (v. 10) throws on God the blame of all the suffering around them, and the impending danger. Jehoshaphat, humbled and awakened, seeks a prophet of the Lord; and there is one at hand, "an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew unto man his righteousness." How remarkable the means enjoined by Elisha! How impressively they teach the part required of man, and the part reserved by God to himself in all the dark scenes and trials of life. "Make this valley full of ditches." This salt and rocky valley, in which, should water, contrary to all experience, arise, it yet would be bitter and salt as the Dead Sea itself. Where should the water come from? Not a fountain is near, not a cloud in sight. Yet obey. You are commanded; that is enough; duty is yours. Toilsome, indeed, will the work be to the faint and thirsty men, and hopeless apparently, too; yet arise and do the duty of the hour. "For thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not see wind (to bring clouds), neither shall ye see rain (to fill the ditches); yet the valley shall be filled with water!" "Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded." The ditches are all made. The whole night has passed away,-no rain. The morning dawns for what? To give the Moabites light to attack the languid host? No. "On the fourth watch of the night," after they had been toiling all night, Christ comes to his disciples' help. "In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen." And so now, at the hour of sacrifice, the longlooked for water comes. From whence no one knew. The direction of the stream they could tell; but the fountain, where was that? Yes, where? A modern philosophic descanter on miracles, would have a hundred theories as to the cause. Jehoshaphat and Elisha could have given, we think, the truly philosophical answer. They well knew the CAUSE of causes, and had no disposition to explain away his moral government,-his wielding all material causes in subservience to his moral government of his rational and accountable creatures. They asked for water only. God gave them water, and victory too. How bountiful his encouragements to prayer! When has he given less than he was asked? How often has he given more! Let us thankfully remember the grand lesson of this miracle,— not to hesitate or vacillate in duty, or in using the means appropriate to our situation. We may see neither wind nor water; yet the valley may be filled with water. Let us, then, patiently and obediently prepare for the blessings we have asked. F. CLOWES. THE HEBREW YOUTHS ASSERTING LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE. BY THE REV. J. P. CHOWN. Wondering, the other day, how far back we might be able to trace the principles of Anti-State-Churchism, we were struck with the fact, that it was not just the new-fangled kind of system that many suppose it to be, since it could be found as far back as the reign, not even of one of our own remotest kings, but some six hundred years before the coming of Christ, in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. Yes, just look back with us a moment, reader, and we shall see it. There, then, is the great Statechurch, a golden image, and only an image, mark, though a golden one, without animation, energy, or even life; there is its representative, and oh, how like its representatives in the present day, intolerant, imperious, tyrannical, then it was worship or the fiery furnace, now it is worship or Exeter gaol; there are all the magnates, the wealthy and noble in the land, with the king at their head, paying reverence, and there are the three first Dissenters and Anti-State-Churchmen, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And is it not a glorious position that which is taken up by these men, reader? only three against thousands; but they standing erect like inen conscious of their own integrity and uprightness, these princes and dignitaries, as many of them are, prostrate before a dumb idol, as though bound to the earth by their own self-degradation and abasement. Yes, noble men as they are, there they stand; and though all besides may be engaged in their idolatry, though all the great and mighty are to be found amongst them, yet they look not so much at the worshippers as the object worshipped, they know that is but an image, albeit a golden one, and hence most emphatically and boldly denying the right of any man, king though he may be, to interfere betwixt God and their own conscience, their answer to his command is, "we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the image which thou hast set up :" thus enunciating there on the broad plain of Dura a principle which, though it may have been left to slumber for ages, is now again taken up and advocated by good and faithful men like themselves, a principle which is becoming more and more extensively known and appreciated among all classes every day,-a principle which must and shall diffuse itself through the world, till the last link by which the Church is now bound to the State shall be for ever snapped asunder, and religion, unfettered and free, shall be left to its own native power and influence, to assert its own dignity, to shew forth its own loveliness and beauty, to put forth its own mighty energy, to become, in fact, what God intended it should be, the regenerator of the human family, the saviour of the world. Biblical. HOURS WITH MY BIBLE CLASS. BY THE REV. J. A. BAYNES, OF NOTTINGHAM. No. 5. THE PENTATEUCH. The first five books of the Bible, often spoken of by their Hebrew title, Torah-the Law, are also known by the name of the Pentateuch. This term, as well as the names of the single books, is Greek,-meaning simply, the five volumes. The probability, therefore, is, that it was first used in connection with the Septuagint-the translation of the Old Testament into Greek, so called from the tradition of its execution by seventy learned Jews at Alexandria, 280 B. c. In the Hebrew these books form but one roll or volume, and are divided into portions for Sabbath reading. These divisions were named after the first emphatic words that occur in each. Thus the first section is called "In the beginning;" the second "Noah," beginning with Gen. vi. 9; the third "Go for thyself," Gen. xii. 1. Of these Sunday lessons, Genesis contained 12, Exodus 11, Leviticus 10, Numbers 10, and Deuteronomy 11. Subsequently, in the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, when the reading of the Law was forbidden, the Prophets were similarly divided, and the reading of them instituted for a while, and then combined with the reading of the Law when the restriction was taken away. The Jews read half the section on the Monday, the remainder on Thursday, and on the Sabbath the whole, both morning and evening. The value attached to the Pentateuch may be gathered from the fact, that these writings were deposited in the most sacred place, and guarded with the most watchful care. The prince was obliged to copy it (Deut. xvii. 18, 19); the people were commanded to teach it to their children, and to wear it as "signs on their hands and frontlets between their eyes." Every expression was deemed inspired by the articles of the Jewish creed; and the Jews maintained that God had more care of the letters and syllables of the Law than of the stars in heaven. Hence every individual letter was numbered, and notice taken how often it occurred. That Moses was the Writer of the Pentateuch, we conclude on several grounds. 1. From the unanimous and uncontra dicted testimony of antiquity, as gathered from Jews and Samaritans, Hebrews and Christians. 2. Moses speaks, in many places, of himself as the appointed writer, as, for example, in Exod. xvii. 14, xxiv. 4, xxxiv. 27; Numbers xxxiii. 2; Deut. xxxi. 9, 19, 24: 3. The Old Testament writers refer to it as the work of Moses. 4. We have the crowning testimony of Christ and his apostles, who frequently cite Moses, and quote his words and laws as the words and laws of God delivered by his servant Moses to the people. Such references are to be found in all the Evangelists, -in the Acts,-in the Epistles to the Romans, the Hebrews, and elsewhere. 5. All Hebrew history rests on the authority of these books, and proves that they came from Moses to the people. The contents of the Pentateuch include an account of the creation of the world,the fall of man,-the delivery of the earliest gospel,-outlines of the first annals of the world, a full recital of the Jewish law,and a record of the events that happened to the Israelites, from the time of their becoming a distinct people to that of their departure out of Egypt and of their arrival on the borders of Canaan, the land of promise-embracing a period of 2500 years in its brief survey. It is a wide description gradually contracted: an account of one nation preceded by a general sketch of the first state of mankind. In the book of Genesis we have the paradisaical and patriarchal dispensations,-in the four following books, the Mosaic or Jewish. Nor is it possible for us to remember the darkness which, apart from this narration, rests on the primeval annals of our world and the race with which we claim kindredship, or to note the strange and fabulous records which heathen invention has supplied, without having our spirits stirred to thankfulness, that to us is given this true though brief memorial of the wisdom and the power which first moulded and beautified this fair dwelling-place for man, and then fashioned in dignity and in purity the first father of our family "a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honour, and set above the works of the Divine hands." |