Page images
PDF
EPUB

enforce the cause of Christian union, and to sustain the social and relative duties; to bring God's ordinary providence-national, social and individual-to the light of past experience, and to aim at the best interpretation of the signs of the times in which we live; and, finally, to discover some indications of Christ's coming and kingdom, by comparing the manifestly typical features of past Divine interpositions in human affairs, with the extraordinary events amidst which our lot is cast."

The present is the first quarterly part of the series. It contains thirteen Lectures, and from this my fellowChristians will be able to form some judgment as to the execution of the plan which I proposed to myself—they will be able to decide whether the work should be encouraged, abandoned, or transferred to abler hands. To "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" be all the glory of the undertaking and of its success. Whatever be the issue, I shall rejoice if attention is directed to the leading idea which I have endeavoured to illustratethat "the testimony of Jesus" is the spirit of all revelation, and of all providence.

SAMUEL ABRAHAM WALKER.

ABERDEEN, February, 1852,

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

*Any of these subjects can be had separately, in Tracts, and
Monthly Parts, from the publishers of the present volume.

1

THINGS NEW AND OLD.

LECTURE I.

ADAM.

MAN AS HE WAS AND SHALL BE.

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”—Gen. i. 26.

"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."—Gen. ii. 7. WE have a fearful interest in the history of Adamthe first man who inhabited this earth after its creation. That history includes the history of the whole human race of the earth which so many successive generations of men have trodden, from which they have sprung, and to which they have returned, and out of which they have all laboured to draw supplies of present enjoyment and future good-of sin and its curse-of christianity, with all its prospective glories to God and blessings to man-of eternity, with its momentous provisions of happiness or woe. Adam's history is a key to human thought, feelings, affections, motives-to the varied features of earth and conditions of the human family in all ages-to the dealings of the Allwise with His intelligent creatures-to the groanings and travailings of all living things here. below and to the hopes, prospects, and expectations by which the tide of man's history has been kept in never ceasing ebb and flow from the creation to the present time. Numerous and comprehensive are the subjects of enquiry and reflection embraced in the apparently brief account which the Bible supplies to

us of the first man. following:

Among them we may select the

I. HIS CREATION, which, we observe, was-

1. A deliberative act, exercising invention, skill, labour. The triune Jehovah said, "Let us make man "-all other objects were produced with a word, "Let it be" and it was; but man, the noblest and the last of creation's works, and for whom all others were prepared, is artistically moulded into form and feature "after the image of Him who created him," Col. iii. 10. A pause seems to occur in the process of creation, during which the Omnipotent is represented as exercising speech and thought upon the greatest effort of creative power and wisdom yet to be made, and this, by design, to assist man in his calculation of the dignity of his exalted nature.

2. Out of the dust of the earth; and hence his name Adam, that is, earthy-" the first man is of the earth, earthy," 1 Cor. xv. 47. And this it would have been his wisdom to remember that he might ascribe his value, not to his materials, but to his workmanship; and hence all the glory of his being to his Aimighty architect. But because he and his posterity have been induced to forget this, they return to dust, and a new Adam, "the Lord from heaven," has been substituted for him, who, with his spiritual offspring, the subjects of a new creation, are rescued from the dust by the glory of the Father, and shall shine forth as the sun for ever in His glorious kingdom.

3. In God's likeness. As a viceroy is assimilated in an inferior degree to the monarch whom he represents, so Adam, earth's supreme ruler under God, was created after His image, in righteousness and true holiness, Eph. iv. 24; in knowledge, Col. iii. 10; in uprightness, Eccl. vii. 29; in every moral and intellectual quality, by which he might reflect the divine character, and prove a delight to Him who made, endowed, and blessed him for Himself, Prov. viii. 31.

II. HIS RECEIVING THE BREATH OF LIFE. Observe: 1. Man received his life immediately from God Himself, who breathed it into his nostrils. "The Spirit of God made him, and the breath of the Almighty gave him life," Job xxxiii. 4. He was thus taught how valuable that life was, being directly from

« PreviousContinue »