few could hear him at any time without being pleased, instructed, and even powerfully impressed. But the highest honour placed upon his ministry was the eminent success with which God crowned it, in making him the instrument of turning multitudes from darkness to light, and from the power of sin to the service of God. Such was the man whose history and character are but inadequately sketched in this paper. He has now ceased from his labours and gone to his reward. Multitudes had been blessed by his ministry; some of whom-dear in his memory-had before him entered into rest. Did they not welcome him to the partnership of their joys on high? He has gone to rejoin them, gone to behold again the loved Martha Ann,—“ child of his heart,"—whose sweet spirit passed away with the summer flowers of 1840. He died as the Christian minister might wish to die, mature in the graces of the spirit, fresh from the battle-fields of the cross. Those who had been blessed by his ministry accompanied him with prayers and tears down to the brink of Jordan; those who had gone before, joyfully welcomed him over. Thus, in the maturity of his strength and in the height of his usefulness, a brother has been called away, a standard-bearer in Israel has fallen. He was licensed to preach on the 20th day of Dec., 1817, and died on the 9th of Jan., 1849; consequently, he sustained the ministerial office a little more than thirty years. During that time he officiated in eighteen different appointments; preached nearly four thousand sermons; dedicated thirty-eight churches; delivered sixty-five miscellaneous addresses; and, finally, travelled 36,539 miles, and delivered two hundred and seventy-three addresses in behalf of the American Bible Society. But the best of all was, his life and ministry were crowned with the divine blessings, and his dying moments with the divine glory. "Servant of God, well done! Thy glorious warfare's past; The battle's fought, the race is won, ART. II.-THE PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, A PROOF OF ITS DIVINE ORIGIN. II. PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY IN JUDAISM. § 9.-The Old Testament Dispensation. HAVING considered the nature and influence of the Polytheistic religions, we enter the sanctuary of Monotheism, and direct our attention from Greece, and its deification of human nature, to the temple dedicated to the service of the only true God. Paganism has displayed to us the efforts of humanity, spiritually awakened, indeed, but unenlightened by Divine revelation, striving to satisfy its religious wants by means of simple nature, until, compelled to distrust its own energies, it yearned after the introduction of some higher power. We now contemplate an entirely different dispensation, in which God condescends, by word and act, to reveal himself to a chosen people, and approaches continually nearer to a union with human nature, until he actually "becomes flesh." Israel stands encircled by the idolatrous nations of heathendom, like an oasis in the desert. Its history, from beginning to end, is one continuous miracle. And the Jews were chosen to be the recipients of Divine grace, not because they were naturally more righteous than their neighbours, for, as Moses and the prophets abundantly testify, they were a people stiff-necked and obstinate, disobedient and unthankful. To God belongs the glory, who, in infinite compassion, selected this nation to bear and represent his will. The Jewish religion differs essentially from Pagan systems in three respects:-1. Judaism rests upon a direct and positive revelation from heaven; whereas Paganism is the product of purely natural energies. 2. Judaism is characterized by strict Monotheism; Paganism by Polytheism. 3. Judaism is marked by a decided moral character throughout, which imperatively demands that every action shall be performed for God's glory, and that the entire nature of man shall be sanctified; while Heathenism is more a religion of taste, and partly stamped even with a decidedly immoral tendency. To preserve these peculiarities unmixed by Pagan elements, it was absolutely necessary that the Jews, constitutionally inclined to idolatry, should be excluded from all intercourse with. neighbouring nations. The nation was at first comprehended in a single individual-Abraham, the friend of God, and the father of the faithful. From his loins sprang the patriarchs, who were cha racterized by child-like piety and unwavering confidence in God. Through Moses was established afterwards the Theocracy, and this again received, through the prophets, as it were, a personified consciousness. The Jews were not destined to unfold the idea of the Beautiful, as the Greeks; nor of Law, as the Romans. Their laurels were not to be gathered in the fields of science, of art, or of government. Yet, as regards sacred poetry, the Psalms are, for sublimity, depth, and spiritual beauty, infinitely superior to the most classic creations of Greece. The vocation of the Jews was to cultivate the idea of repentance and the fear of God. On this account John the Baptist, who was the personal representative of the Old Testament, commenced his mission with the startling language, "Repent." In order to excite a longing after true inward peace, they were to experience the miseries of life, the destructive power of sin, and the inflexible demands of Divine justice. To secure these purposes, the ten commandments, divinely sanctioned and authorized, which placed in clearer light the moral obligations of man, and imparted strength to the decisions of conscience, were communicated through Moses for their guidance and direction. Having this ideal of holiness continually before their eyes, and commanded to conform their lives to its precepts, they were gradually brought to a consciousness of the terrible disharmony sin had caused in their nature, and of their utter inability to fulfil the rigid demands of law. The law led them to an experimental knowledge of sin, removed the supports of self-righteousness, and excited intense aspirations after a Deliverer who should rescue them from its curse by satisfying its claims. Thus, as Paul says, the law was "a school-master to Christ." But as the law, in itself considered, was adapted to plunge the awakened sinner into hopeless despair, Jehovah graciously condescended to mitigate its terrors by inspiring the penitent with hope by the voice of prophecy, which promised deliverance. This prophetic element, entering largely into the constitution of Judaism, constituted its second characteristic, as a preparatory process for the introduction of Christianity. In this respect it may be called the religion of the future, or the religion of hope. Nor did the subjects of the Old Testament dispensation remain satisfied with their position; regarding it as temporary, and destined to pass away, when the fulness of time had come, they humbly and patiently relied upon the promises of Jehovah, whose words had ever been as pure gold seven times tried. Properly speaking, prophecy is older than the law, which came in between, (Tapεion20ev, as St. Paul says;) for it proclaimed its presence immediately after the fall, in the (so-called) Protevangelium of the serpent and its destroyer; during the patriarchal period it was the predominant element; from the time of Samuel it became the ruling power in the Jewish government. It may be termed the Protestant element in the Jewish theocracy. It accompanied the Israelites in all their wanderings, from their captivity in Babylon to the rebuilding of the temple, proclaiming the judgments of God as well as his pardoning grace, and finally concluding its work by pointing to the coming Messiah as the Saviour of men. At first, the power of prophecy was enjoyed only by the nobles among the people, particularly by the regular prophetic order. In the course of time, however, it was confined to a single individual, who was to combine the three-fold office of prophet, priest, and king. But as the character of the Messiah was described in figures drawn from the theocracy, which were temporally fulfilled even under the Old Testament Dispensation, (so that it, as a whole, became one grand type of his coming,) the people might be disposed to remain content with this partial fulfilment. Severe calamities and oft-repeated sufferings, however, served to reveal the insufficiency of these partial fulfilments, and to direct the people to the future. While the Messianic kingdom was represented as a restoration of the theocracy, the most profound prophets (such as Isaiah, who possessed this power in its highest form) announced to the people that sufferings, and an earnest longing after its appearance, were the necessary conditions of its establishment. As the true Paschal Lamb, the Messiah would save his people from their sins, not only temporarily, but permanently, and reconcile them, once for all, to their offended Lawgiver. With the death of Malachi, the prophetic element vanished, and Israel was left to its own resources for four hundred years. Finally, however, immediately before the fulfilment of the Messianic prophecies, the spirit of the Old Testament reappeared in the person of an individual who was pronounced by Christ himself the greatest born of woman. John the Baptist was the living representative of the law; his convincing sermons, his abode in the wilderness, and his ascetic mode of life, loudly proclaimed the necessity of repentance. He was, at the same time, the representative of the Messianic prophecies, for he pointed his followers to the "Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." Around this divinely commissioned servant of Jehovah were gathered the most susceptible spirits of the rising generation, among whom were some of the Apostles. The disciples of John, who, like Nathanael, were longing for salvation-those souls which silently, but earnestly, awaited the appearance of the promised Messiah, as old Simeon, Anna the prophetess, the mother of our Lord, her relations and acquaintances, and the lovely group at Bethany, with whom Christ lived in familiar intercourse-characters like these must be regarded as the true representatives of the Old Testament in its relation to the Christian dispensation; who, by transcending the carnal notions of the vast multitude, lived in hope, and at last actually saw the end of their hope realized. § 10.-Political State of the Jews at Christ's Birth. Let us now turn our attention to the political condition of the Jews at the time of Christ's birth. The reign of the Maccabees, who united the priestly and kingly functions, and extended the bounds of Judea by the conquest of Samaria and Idumea, was of short duration. Palestine, as well as the entire civilized world, was compelled to do homage to the invincible power of Rome. After the battle at Philippi, 42 A. C., the East fell into the hands of Mark Antony, who, with Octavius and Lepidus, constituted the second Triumvirate. He conferred upon Herod the crown of Palestine, which was reduced to a Roman province, 39 A. C.; and after the battle at Actium, when Octavius became sole emperor, his authority was confirmed and established. Herod was of Idumean descent, the son of Antipater, who was characterized by acuteness and energy, by ambition, and a devoted attachment to heathenism. With his accession to the throne, the Maccabee family, which had been preparing its own destruction by internal dissensions, was finally extinguished. Its last support having been removed, Israel was subjected to the heathen influence of the Roman government, and hastened to meet its doom. Herod himself entertained no affection for his subjects, but endeavoured in every possible way to crush the institutions of the Jews, and establish the religious ceremonies of Rome. His tyrannical conduct excited rebellions, particularly among the Pharisees, who obstinately adhered to the old Jewish customs, and resolutely opposed the encroachments of the king. Nor could he in after years atone for his opposition by promising to rebuild, in greater splendour, the temple on Mount Moriah. His reign, thus embittered by the alienation of his subjects, was rendered more intolerable by the murder of his beautiful wife, Mariamne, a descendant of the Maccabee family. His guilty conscience, goaded to madness by this enormous crime, drove him to despair, and he died of a loathsome disease one year before our When we consider his determined hostility to the Jews, his * But, as it is vitiated by a mistake of five years, about 3 A.D. |