instant revulsion the new comer started back, for instinctively he felt that it was 'the house which inclineth unto death.' In much agitation he exclaimed, 'Oh, where are you going?' and he entreated his companion to come away. That companion only laughed and went in, and as our friend sought his way back to his lodging he felt very desolate. It was a cold and dreary night, and in his disheartened mood he thought that London must be a devouring monster, which swallowed up whatever came into it, and changed it into the likeness of its own deformity. Here in a few months it had made a virtuous youth a profligate, and, as if walking amidst snares and pitfalls and strange mysteries of iniquity, he trembled for himself. The whole thing was too painful for him till he went into the sanctuary. But next Sabbath he inquired his way to Swallow Street. There he found the worship which he had learned to love beyond the Border, and as he listened to the earnest sermon he began to feel, 'God is in this place.' The little church brightened into a Bethel, and helped to cheer the following week; and then came an introduction to the minister, and a class in the Sunday school, and the acquisition of one good friend after another, till at last the streets, which at his first arrival were haunted by gloomy phantoms and cruel ghosts, grew populous with brethren in the Lord; till he who had himself been so graciously preserved became distinguished for his efforts in preserving and strengthening younger brethren.

"It was on the fiftieth anniversary of that eventful day that our venerable friend, his heart overflowing with gratitude to God, told us this incident. By that time he was an honoured citizen, and his name well known throughout the churches. Numbers of ministers and missionaries knew him. Many widows and orphans knew him. Nearly all our religious societies and benevolent institutions knew James Nisbet."

Genesis xxiii. 4.-"BURY MY DEAD OUT OF MY SIGHT."

1623. Repugnance to look upon the Dead.-The Indian custom is to bury the dead as quickly as possible; and so strong is their aversion to see the change which the last enemy produces on the countenance, that it is the practice, as soon as the person has expired, for the relatives to paint the face red, that the change may not be seen even during the few hours occupied in making the grave.

2 Peter i. 16.-"WE HAVE NOT FOLLOWED CUNNINGLY DEVISED FABLES. 1624. The Pentateuch-its Authenticity. - Following up the argument for the "genuineness of the Pentateuch," Dr. Angus proceeds :

“The evidence of the authenticity of the Pentateuch is no less decisive; though, as many of the events are recorded only here, it is necessarily less comprehensive than similar evidence in the case of ordinary history.

"Several of the historical statements of the Pentateuch are confirmed by the traditions of ancient nations.

"In proof of its general accuracy, Josephus appeals to various public records, and to books extant in his time (A.D. 70), confirming in this way the history of the flood, of the delivery from Egypt, and of the expulsion of the Canaanites. Creation completed in six distinct days, or in six distinct periods; the division of time into weeks, the seventh day being holy; the state of innocency or the golden age; the promise of a mighty Deliverer; the flood; the ark,-are traditions preserved among nearly all nations, and have been shown to exist in the East, though strangely disguised, in the very age when Moses lived. Faber's 'Hora Mosaicæ,' i., 1—136; Graves On the Pentateuch,' i.; Sir William Jones's Works; and Maurice's Hindostan.' See other traditions in S. Turner's 'Sacred History,' i., and Kitto's 'Daily Bible Ill.,'-' Antedil.' and 'Patriarchs.'

"A new kind of proof has sprung up in our own days. It has been said, for example, that the following customs or allusions are Asiatic, and not Egyptian, or are later than the exode,-building with bricks, Exod. i. 14; keeping asses-animals odious to the Egyptians; the presence of eunuchs, implied in the name given to the captain of the guard, Gen. xxxvii. 36; the freedom of domestic life implied in Gen. xxxix. ; the use of wine, which Herodotus says was not made in Egypt; of rings and other ornaments, xli., xlii.; the appointment of stewards, xliii. 16, 19; xliv. 1; the custom of sitting at table, xliii. 32. All, however, have been confirmed by the discovery of ancient Egyptian monuments. Bricks are still found with the names of the oldest Egyptian dynasties stamped upon them. To the art of wine-making Rosellini devotes a section of his work; and upon the very monuments whence his illustrations are taken appear eunuchs, stewards, ornaments, and entertainments,

exhibiting habits of social intercourse, and modes of sitting, such as the Pentateuch implies.

"That the Egyptians shaved, Gen. xli. 14, and carried burdens not on the shoulder but on the head, xl. 16; that shepherds were treated with great contempt-the butts of Egyptian wit; that caste existed; that foreigners were naturalized by clothing them in the celebrated Egyptian linen, Gen. xli., xlii., are facts confirmed by ancient sculptures, or expressly mentioned by Herodotus as peculiar to Egypt.

"See Hengstenberg's Egypt, and the Books of Moses.'

"The statements of the Pentateuch are confirmed, moreover, by the facts of history (a), ethnography (6), and geology (c), so far as these have been clearly ascertained.

"(a) No nation has credible, or even intelligible, records extending earlier than the flood. The dynasties of Egypt run up, on the largest interpretation, no higher than B.C. 2200 (Champollion). The reign of Yoa, the first Chinese emperor mentioned by Confucius (B.c. 450), cannot be earlier than B.C. 2500; nor is there any historical certainty till the year B.c. 782 (Klaproth). The celebrated chronology of India reaches no higher than B.C. 2256, and then we have Buddha himself, the representative, perhaps, of Noah (Col. Tod). Such is the testimony of witnesses who have examined the most ancient chronological systems avowedly without any leaning to the Pentateuch.

"(b) Ethnography, in its threefold division, philological, physiological, and ethical, is equally in favour of the Mosaic account. The mythological systems of India, China, Greece, and Scandinavia are really identical (Sir W. Jones); while Shemitic nations are all monotheistic, indicating, in each case, identity of origin. All known languages, it is admitted, are reducible to a few families, the Indo-European, the Shemitic, the Ugro-Tartarian, the Malayan, the Transfengetic, which are chiefly monosyllabic; the American, and the African. Chev. Bunsen and Mr. Schön have already traced the Egyptian and several of the African dialects to a Shemitic origin. The American languages are proved to be chiefly Asiatic, and the ablest scholars find, among all, such affinities as bespeak original unity (so Humboldt, Klaproth, F. Schlegel, Balbi, Herder). Philologically and physiologically, 'the human race,' says the lastnamed, 'is a progressive whole, dependent upon a common origin.' 'With the increase of knowledge in every direction,' is the last testimony of Dr. Pritchard, we find continually less and less

reason for believing that the diversified races of men are separated from each other by insuperable barriers.'

"(c) Nor is geology an unimportant witness. One of its clearest lessons is the recentness of the 'last great geological change.' The present state of the globe' cannot date much farther than five or six thousand years' (Saussure, Cuvier, De Luc)."

Job ii. 10.-"THOU SPEAKEST AS ONE OF THE FOOLISH WOMEN

SPEAKETH."

1625. Eastern Contempt for Women.-Job may have used the expression "foolish" in the sense of wicked; folly being a term not unfrequently synonymous with "wicked" in the Scriptures; or he may have adopted the contemptuous form of speech so often used towards women in Eastern countries. "In all parts of the East," says Roberts, "females are spoken of as being much inferior to men in wisdom; and nearly all their sages have proudly descanted on the ignorance of women.

"In the Hindoo book called the Kurral,' it is declared, 'All women are ignorant.' In other works similar remarks are found: 'Ignorance is a woman's jewel.' Female wisdom is from the evil one.' 'The feminine qualities are four,-ignorance, fear, shame, and impunity.' 'To a woman disclose not a secret.' 'Talk not to me in that way; it is all female wisdom.'

Ezekiel xliii. 8.- IN THEIR SETTING OF THEIR THRESHOLD BY MY THRESHOLDS, AND THEIR POST BY MY POSTS, AND THE WALL BETWEEN ME AND THEM, THEY HAVE EVEN DEFILED MY HOLY NAME BY THEIR ABOMINATIONS THAT THEY HAVE COMMITTED: WHEREFORE I HAVE CONSUMED THEM IN MINE ANGER."

1626. Thresholds. - Burder remarks "that the threshold of the palace of a living prince, and that of a person deceased, are held in great esteem, and are supposed to be the places where those who propose to do them honour prostrated themselves, touching them with their foreheads in token of solemn reverence. Probably, for this reason, Ezekiel calls the sanctuary the threshold of God, and temples of idols their thresholds. It is certain that the modern Persians make the threshold in particular the place where their devotees pay their reverence to their entombed saints. Thus,

immediately after the sixth distich, inscribed on the front of the famous tomb at Com, follows this: Happy and glorious is the believer who through reverence shall prostrate himself, with his head on the threshold of this gate, in doing which he will imitate the sun and the moon.'"*

"The Hindoos have a very solemn oath connected with the threshold of the temple. If a man is accused of any great crime, he goes to the temple, makes his prostrations, and then approaches the threshold; he pauses, then steps over it, declaring at the same time that he is not guilty of the crime laid to his charge. It is therefore very common to ask a person who denies anything he is suspected to have done, 'Will you step over the threshold of the temple?' The Lord, in His severe denunciations, by the prophet Zephaniah, against the Jews for their idolatry, says, 'In the same day also will I punish all those who leap on the threshold;' from which it appears that they also used thus to take an oath, or to perform some other heathenish ceremonies. But the threshold is also sacred in private houses it is not propitious for a person to remain on it, neither to eat, sneeze, yawn, nor spit whilst there. Should they do so, the people in the house will throw water upon them to prevent the evil.

"I must not forget to notice the pointed observations of the prophet Ezekiel on the same subject. He beheld that 'the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house.' In the preceding chapter the prophet gives a fearful description of the idolatry of Israel, and that the glory of the Lord had gone from the cherub, in contempt of their idolatry; or to indicate its nature, shows that he is gone to the threshold, and is about to depart from them. When the glory of God was about to return to the temple, the sin of Israel hindered it, and the prophet exhorted them to repentance, and the Lord reproved them for 'setting their thresholds by His threshold.' They have even defiled My holy name by their abominations.' At length the judgments of the Lord were denounced against Moab, Ammon, and Assyria; for the prophet Zephaniah says, 'Nettles and saltpits' shall be amongst them; that Nineveh shall be like a wilderness, that flocks shall be in the midst of her, and that desolation shall be in the thresholds.'" +

* Chardin.

† Roberts.

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