How beauteous are thy beams, O consecrated morn, My Jesus, it is Thou, the true, the eternal Sun; I greet Thy sacred day, the day of wonders, Lord, This was Thine Easter morn of victory o'er the grave: Shed forth Thy Holy Ghost, as on the Church of old Give eyes which shall, undimm'd, the Saviour God discern, Lips which in holy songs to Thy sole praise shall burn, Grant above all a heart which, like the fertile ground, Good Shepherd, nurture me amidst Thy pastures fair; I hunger, feed my soul with Thy own heavenly bread; Make me Thy fruitful branch, O fertilising Vine, Ne'er let me from Thy word, the spotless mirror, turn Be this day on my heart afresh impress'd and seal'd!.. When Thy stern law this rock with crushing hammer smites, And may that healing grace whose gentleness invites, So wend I to Thy courts, beneath Thy gracious eye, How amiable, O Lord, Thy tabernacles are! How does my soul find rest within the hallow'd dome! Lord, when I pray, unfold, to me, Thy heart, Thy heaven; Lord, let not drowsy sloth becloud and dim the soul, Let Thy kind Spirit's dew on many a soul distil, Hear Thou their feeblest prayer, hear ours who intercede ; O teach the suffering world Thy holy love to' invoke, This day Thy grace invites: O let me to Thy courts When by Thy word, anew, instructed, warn'd, consol'd, Thus may I hallow still, most gracious triune Lord, BY THE REV. J. HILES HITCHENS, F.R.S.L., &c. DOUBTLESSs the reader of this paper feels, with the writer, that the grand old volume of revealed truth, which our fathers prized so highly and taught us to call a "precious treasure," discloses all that is necessary to man's salvation, that by it the thoughtful and devout student may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works." But in so thinking we are at variance with many of our fellow-men, and with some whom, we confidently hope, we may denominate fellow-Christians." The Romish Church, by the decision of the Council of Trent, places tradition on the same level with the Holy Scriptures; and teaches that the unwritten word should be accepted with the same reverence and submission as the written truth. As Protestants, we have, as we believe, many strong and satisfactory reasons why we object to make tradition of any fundamental importance in spiritual matters. Among these reasons is the fact, which experience has taught us all, that an unwritten report will not long retain its primitive character and complexion. Indeed, it has become a hackneyed adage that "a story never loses in carrying." Mr. Carlyle 1 well says, As a specimen of these take the one referred to in the heading of this paper. Down the long stream of time, for about eighteen hundred years, there has been floating the report that a certain mysterious individual treads this globe, on whom the king of terrors has no power; that he exists by supernatural means, and shall continue his wanderings in the wide world till the final hour in the history of the present economy. The name of this fabulous personage has varied. He has been styled Cartaphilus, Ahasuerus, Josephus, and Isaac La Kedion. Now the earliest account of this legend is in Roger of Wendover's Chronicles, under date 1228. In that year an Armenian archbishop arrived in our country and was handsomely entertained at the Monastery of St. Alban's. The conversation was prominently directed to the state of the churches under the archbishop's care, when presently a monk, who sat near the Metropolitan of Armenia, enquired, "if he had ever seen or heard of the famous person named Joseph, that was so much talked of, who was present at our Lord's crucifixion and conversed with Him, and who was still alive, in confirmation of the Christian faith." The archbishop affirmed that the report of the existence of such a person was correct; and subsequently his interpreter made the following statements to one of the abbott's servants. "My master well knows that man, and a little before he journeyed to the west, the said Joseph ate at his table, whom he had often seen and heard speaking. In the time of the passion of Jesus Christ, when, having been taken by the Jews, he was brought before the Governor Pilate in the Prætorium, to be judged by him; Pilate finding no cause of death in him, said to them, 'Do ye take him, and judge him according to your own law.' But as the Jews continued to clamour yet more loudly, he dismissed Barabbas according to their petition, and delivered to them Christ, that he might be crucified. While the Jews were drawing Christ without the Prætorium, and when he had come to the gate and was passing into it, Cartaphilus, porter of the Prætorium to Pontius Pilate, struck Him on the back with his fist in a contemptuous manner, and mocking Him, said, Go Jesus, go quicker why do you delay?' Whereupon Jesus, looking back on him with a severe countenance, said, 'I go, and thou shalt wait till I return.' Therefore, by the word of God, the aforesaid Cartaphilus is still waiting, he having been aged about thirty years at the time of the passion of our Lord; and ever as soon as he arrives at the age of one hundred years, he is seized, as it were, with an incurable infirmity, and is ravished in a sort of ecstacy; and upon recovering his senses finds himself again returned back to the same age at which he was in the year when our Lord suffered so that he may truly say with the psalmist, My youth is renewed like that of the eagle.' When the Catholic faith increased, this same Cartaphilus was baptized by that Ananias who baptized St. Paul, and was called Joseph. He frequently sojourns in Armenia, and in other regions in the east, living among the bishops and other heads of the Church a man of holy conversation and piety, speaking little and with cir cumspection-saying nothing except when required by the bishops and holy men; and sometimes he relates concerning the things of antiquity, and the circumstances of the passion and resurrection of Christ, and of the witnesses of the resurrection-those, namely, who arose with Christ from the grave, and went into the holy city and appeared unto many. He also speaks concerning the apostles' creed, and their division and ministry; and this without any laughter or levity, or any sign of disbelief-being rather occupied by grief and fear of the Lord, ever expecting the advent of Jesus in fire, and the judgment of the world, and fearing lest at the last trial he should find Him still angered against him whom he had provoked by derision. Many men come to him from the most distant parts of the world, rejoicing to see and converse with him-among whom, if there be any worthy, he briefly answers their questions. He refuses all presents that are offered to him, being content with moderate food and clothing; and he places all his hopes of safety in this that he sinned in ignorance, and that our Lord prayed that His Father might pardon His murderers as unknowing what they did; and that St. Paul, also sinning in ignorance, nevertheless obtained pardon; as also Peter, who denied the Lord through frailty; while Judas, who through iniquity (i.e., through avarice), betrayed the Lord, hanged himself, and, his bowels gushing out, thus ended his wretched life without hopes of salvation. For these reasons only Cartaphilus hopes for salvation." } Such is the tradition of the Wandering Jew. It is an admixture of truth and error-enough truth to make the legend taking with the foolish; enough error to make it absurd and valueless to the wise. If such an experienced son of Abraham exist, he might be a capital arbitrator in some of the controversies which disturb the various sections of Christendom. If this paper should meet the eye of the venerable invulnerable old gentleman, we most heartily beg him to put in an appearance. venture to say that the Churches of our country, with profound gratitude and gratification, will unanimously elect him to pay a morning visit to M. Renan, and others of the rationalistic school. We But whence comes this tradition? Is there a scintilla of truth about it? Was there anything which led to its origin, and if so, what? In all pro bability the source of the legend may be found in John xxi. 22; where Jesus addressing Peter, concerning the disciple whom He loved, said, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me." For immediately afterwards it is added, "Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, he shall not die; but, if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?'" The precise meaning of the Saviour's words concerning John continues to be a matter of dispute. Some there are who maintain, with St. Augustin and Bede, that the Lord Jesus gave an intimation of the different circumstances in the departure from this world of Peter and John. Peter should follow Christ to a death by crucifixion, but John should tarry till peacefully removed by the decay of nature. Others conclude that the coming of Christ, of which the Saviour spoke, points to the destruction of Jerusalem and the planting of the Churches; and that Jesus taught that John was the only disciple who should be alive when the time-honoured city shared its humiliating doom. Toward this interpretation we are very strongly inclined. But whatever might be the meaning of our Lord's words, we presume very few students of Holy Writ now believe, what Lavater is represented to have learned by a visitation"-that John is still living. If any do, we must declare, with all charity, that theirs is a very uncharitable belief. We would wish the noble man, who was firm to his principles when others forsook the Master, and who, standing by the cross in Christ's final moments, willingly undertook the charge of the mother of Jesus, |