artist. The critical among his hearers judge his sermons strictly as works of art, while the unlettered class do not appreciate, and are neither instructed nor moved. It is a mistake to say that he has been educated away from the people: it is more just to say that he has been miseducated for his duties. If gifted with fine literary taste he will interest the few, but move none: deficient in literary skill, he will neither move nor interest any, and will speedily drop into obscurity, a clerical failure. In the simple matter of preparing men to reach the people through the offices of the pulpit, the seminaries might, perhaps, improve on prevailing methods. If the students could by some means be brought, throughout their seminary course, into more frequent and direct contact with assemblies of common people than they now are, putting into public address something of what they are daily acquiring in the lecture-room, the rhetorical and elocutionary results of their training might, perhaps, be more satisfactory than they now are. Practice makes perfect; but it must begin before habits are irresistibly fixed. But, finally, there is one respect in which, it seems to me, the work of the seminaries could be much more advantageously done than it now is. Manifestly, we have too many seminaries. They can all continue to be maintained only at a great waste of both men and money. Several of those now sustained by single denominations could be consolidated into one, with advantage to all concerned. But more than this: if the seminaries belonging to single sects within a given radius could be thus consolidated, and then all those of the different sects be brought at some common centre into such immediate proximity to one another that the students could attend the lectures of any of the professors in each whom they might find it most profitable to hear, certain good and appreciable benefits might accrue from the change. Among the benefits that might be counted on may be mentioned: 1. A great saving of men, and of money needed for salaries and libraries. All denominations are now suffering from the drafts made on their pulpits for men to fill professors' chairs. Each seminary wants the best men, and insists on having them. The proposed consolidations and neighborhood arrangements would set a very considerable body of able men at liberty to return to the pulpit, and would put much larger collections of books, at great diminution of cost, within the reach of the students. 2. It would bring together as professors, with mutual stimulus, the best scholars and ablest men that the denominations represented could furnish.. 3. Established, as the seminaries would be, at the great centres of thought and population, they would be sufficiently numerous, though much fewer than at present, to prevent the accumulation of excessive numbers, and yet would bring together enough to warrant a healthy enthusiasm, which many of the smaller seminaries, from fewness of students, necessarily lack. 4. While each denomination could make ample provision for instruction in its own distinctive tenets, there would be other departmentssuch as Hebrew, Old Testament Exegesis, Christian Apologetics, Homiletics, and pastoral duties-in which all could unite, with great saving of expense; or, if there were several professors in each of these departments, students could resort to the one or more whose instructions should prove most profitable; and those without hearers could retire. 5. Should any denomination fear lest some of its students, through too free an interchange of thought, should swerve from its creed, let it remember that the sooner it is freed from one who does not understand its creed, or, understanding, does not heartily accept it, the better. There would very likely be marches and countermarches in the exchange of sects; but such changes had better occur during student life than later. Doubtless also there would be mutual compensations in losses and gains. 6. The intellectual and social intercourse of the young ministers of different sects, purified and nurtured by a common religious spirit, might be expected to go far towards abating that narrow spirit of sectarianism which now encumbers, cripples, and disgraces our common Christianity. He is to be pitied, who, having seen only the narrow horizon of his own little seminary and of his own little church, thinks he has measured the universe of religious truth. Nothing is so dogmatic as ignorance. Other advantages from the proposed consolidations and combinations will, of course, occur to the reader: so, also, will many objections. It will be easy to criticise the proposed scheme adversely; but this I must leave to those who are to follow in this interchange of views. VII.-LEAVES FROM A PREACHER'S NOTE-BOOK. NO. V. BY ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D., PHILADELPHIA, L. The Grand Messianic Poem of the Old Testament is contained in the latter 27 chapters of Isaiah-xl.-lxvi. Rückert, and others after him, divide this sublime poem into 3 books or sections, each ending with a refrain which marks the division: "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked," etc. The middle chapter of the middle section is the liii., which is one grand presentation of vicarious atonement. Thus the very location of this chapter marks the centrality of this doctrine. It is also curious to note that the first five verses of chapter xl. contain the germ of truth expanded in the entire poem: 1. The Pardon of Iniquity: 2. The Revelation of the Divine glory; and, 3. The Ultimate Results on "all Flesh." Within the compass of this poem a careful, discerning reader will find Christ in His three offices-Prophet, Priest, King; all the great truths of redemption crystalizing about the atonement, and the outline of the whole course of prophecy. Those who would leave the Old Testa ment out of our studies have evidently never studied Isaiah.. We venture to say, that, as a commentary on the New Testament, no other work can compare with it. LI. Versatility is not to be coveted where it implies a lack of concentration. An anonymous writer has left us a very discriminating comparison of two great British statesmen. He likens Canning's mind to a convex speculum which scattered its rays of light upon all objects; while he likens Brougham's to a concave speculum which concentrated the rays upon one central, burning, focal point. LII. The golden pen and the silver tongue are seldom combined. Thomas F. Marshall, the "Kentucky orator," maintained that fine speaking, writing and conversation depend on a different order of gifts. "A speech cannot be reported, nor an essay spoken. Fox wrote speeches; nobody reads them. Sir James Mackintosh spoke essays; nobody listened. Yet England crowded to hear Fox, and reads Mackintosh. Lord Bolingbroke excelled in all; the ablest orator, finest writer, most elegant drawing-room gentleman in England." 1. In mind-on the point 3. In will-on point of LIII. Not far from the Kingdom of God.-Mark xii: 34. of conviction. 2. In heart-on point of persuasion. decision. Yet here lies the greatest peril. To come so near and then turn away, involves deeper damnation. Nowhere is the Spirit so easily and fatally repelled as at the point where it would require only a grain of sand to turn the scale! Almost saved is almost lost! Almost persuasion is almost perdition! LIV. Eternal Life is the present possession of the believer. John iii: 36; v: 24; vi: 47, etc. He who looks lives; his perfect recovery is assured, if not immediate. He who was struck with death now lives. He is passed from death unto life, into life. The germs of all the future purity and glory are in him already; and it is now only a question of development. Eternal life is to be judged primarily by quality, not quantity: the first is a matter of regeneration; the second, of sanctification. The perfect saint is potentially in the penitent sinner, from the instant of his looking unto Jesus. LV. The Paradoxes of the Christian life. Lord Bacon says, in his essay on the "Different Characters of the Christian": "A Christian is one that believes things his reason cannot comprehend, and hopes for things which neither he nor any man alive ever saw; he believes three to be one, and one to be three; a father not to be older than his son, and a son to be equal with his father; he believes himself to be precious in God's sight, and yet loathes himself in his own; he dares not justify himself even in those things wherein he can find no fault with himself, and yet believes that God accepts him in those services wherein he is able to find many faults; he is so ashamed as that he dares not open his mouth before God, and yet comes with boldness to God, and asks him anything he needs; he hath within him both flesh and spirit, and yet he is not a double minded man; he is often led captive by the law of sin, yet it never gets dominion over him; he cannot sin, yet can do nothing without sin; he is so humble as to acknowledge himself to deserve nothing but evil; and yet he believes that God means him all good," etc. This whole essay is so remarkable that even Richard Porson could not comprehend it, and thought Bacon must have fallen into a sudden fit of skepticism or mental aberration. LVI. The Bible emphasizes service to Christ. This is the real teaching of that misunderstood paragraph in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, iv: 11-13: "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for (unto, or in order to) the work of the ministry (service, ministration), for (in order to) the edifying of the body of Christ." Though the two Greek prepositions are translated by the same English word "for," they are not the same, nor have they the same force. Accordingly the vulgate renders: "ad consummationem sanctorum, in opus ministerii, in ædificationem corporis Christi.” The teaching of the passage is plain, that these respective gifts of apostles, proph ets, etc., are meant to secure the perfecting of the saints in serviceableness. Conybeare and Howson translate thus: "He gave some to be apostles, and some prophets," etc., "for the perfecting of God's people to labor in their appointed service, to build up the body of Christ." LVII. The secret of success in reaching men lies partly in studying the law of adaptation. In watching a wheelwright at his work, I observed how careful he was never to draw his spoke-shave or drive his plane against the grain; yet how often in our endeavors to influence men are we careless about the fitness of times, occasions, places, ways and means! We do not make a study of human nature and the particular methods of approach, adapted to each new object of effort, and so we often work against the grain. LVIII. The highest reward of service is perhaps the privilege of having been of service. Napoleon gave his soldiers, after a famous battle, a simple medal inscribed with the sentence, "I was there," and the name of the bloody field; yet money could not buy from his veterans this little memorial of their part in the campaigns of the great warrior. To have been a soldier in the wars of God under the leadership of Jesus, will of itself be honor enough to a redeemed soul. Let us remember Horace's line: "Exegi monumentum perennius ære. I have reared a monument more enduring than brass." LIX. The enmity of the carnal mind may be shown in many ways. (Luke xiv: 18-20; Matt. xxi: 33-39, etc.) 1. Levity and frivolity: "made light of it." 2. Neglect: "one to farm, another to merchandise." 3. Malignity: "beating," and 'stoning," and 'killing" messengers. 4. False humility: unbelief, fearing to trust even God's promise. 5. Pride: self-righteousness; scorning the wedding garment. 6. Atheism: denying any claim of God. "Who is the Lord?" etc. LX. Always test argument by common sense. What is called "metaphysics" is often only a beclouding of a hearer's mind by subtleties that are meant to confuse and bewilder. A certain case at law turned on the resemblance between two car wheels, and Webster and Choate were the opposing counsel. To a common eye, the wheels looked as if made from the same model; but Choate, by a train of hairsplitting reasoning and a profound discourse on the "fixation of points," tried to overwhelm the jury with metaphysics and compel them to conclude, against the evidence of their eyes, that there was really hardly a shadow of essential resemblance. Webster rose to reply. "But, gentlemen of the jury," said he, as he opened wide his great black eyes, and stared at the big twin wheels before him, "there they are-look at 'em!" And as he thundered out these words, it was as though one of Jupiter's bolts had struck the earth. That one sentence and look shattered Choate's subtle argument to atoms, and the cunning sophistry on the "fixation of points" dissolved as into air. LXI. Many a charitable deed is purposed, but never completed. Baron Munchausen says that it was so cold, one day in Russia when he began to play a tune on his trumpet, that half of it froze in the instrument before it could get out; and a few months afterward he was startled, in Italy, to hear of a sudden the rest of the tune come pealing forth! What a blessing might come to the world if those who have had benevolent purposes in the past might get thawed out and let us have the rest of the tune! LXII. A curious conception of delirium tremens. A reformed drunkard, who had suffered from four attacks, told me that he was "satisfied that the horrible creatures which surround the victim of mania a połu are not mere phantoms of his own imagination, but realities;" and the reason he gave was that "the uniformity of their character, with different victims, precludes the idea of their being the products simply of a diseased fancy." He maintains that, if so, they would take different shapes, according to the peculiar temperament and characteristics of the individual. He believes them akin to demoniacal possession. VIII-WAS PAUL THE CHIEF OF SINNERS? BY PROF. E. J. WOLF, GETTYSBURG, PA. ST. PAUL'S mastery of logic and language has never been questioned. If, however, the authors of the late revision are entitled to all the praise that has been given them, the great Apostle's rhetoric falls, at least in one passage, below that of the average schoolboy. He is made to say, according to the Revisers, as well as by King James' Version, that he had been a "blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious." (1 Tim. i: 13.) The distinction between a blasphemer and a persecutor is evident; and Paul had, in his opposition to Christ, notably enacted the rôle of both; but what additional adverse behavior is implied in his having been "injurious" must remain an enigma to those who accept this as a proper translation. To blaspheme the name of the Lord and to persecute Him through His Church imports, one would think, so clearly the idea of injury, that it is quite superfluous for Paul to add after this confession, that he was "injurious." Either this third term, assuming it to be a correct translation, is subjoined as but another expression for both designations previously given, or else it is merely redundant verbiage-an infirmity with which the vigorous and terse style of the Apostle is not ordinarily chargeable. It certainly adds no new idea and gives no additional force to the acknowledgement of his blasphemy and persecution. Were such a sentence to occur in an uninspired author it would be justly criticized as flat, awkward, meaningless. The Apostle was never guilty of such literary slovenliness. Why the Revisers did him this wrong of putting such language into his pen, is a question, which even at this late day, they are earnestly challenged to answer. Paul's words are βλάσφημον καὶ διώκτην καὶ ὑβριστήν. The latter term is doubtless from the same root as vяɛр and means one that is overbearing, contumelious, derisive, insolent. Give the word its proper English equivalent, a despiser, and we have a striking climax. Recalling his former opposition to the Lord Jesus, and recognizing the magnitude of the divine mercy that availed for him, the Apostle confesses that he was a blasphemer-by words he reviled His divine name, and a persecutor-by acts he made havoc of the Church beyond measure, and a despiser—in his heart he held Jesus in derision. His enmity to Christ culminated in scorn and contempt. Luther, and the recent German Revisers, apprehended the correct meaning of vßpiórýs and by rendering it "Schmäher," they have faithfully reproduced the Apostle's elegant and strong rhetoric. This rendering serves likewise to solve another difficulty that has arisen from the context of this passage. While magnifying the mercy that saved him, Paul is led to call himself the chief of sinners. All manner of exegetical ingenuity has been applied to this expression in order to show that the Apostle did not mean what he said. Yet such was the terrible realization of the unparalleled gravity of his offending, that he offers two extraordinary reasons for the fact of his having experienced mercy under circumstances that were without parallel. The first reason was his ignorance of the full import of his bitter and contumelious opposition to Christ. And the second was that in him as chief (poro, the same term is repeated, leaving the sense unmistakable) God's boundless grace (τὴν ἅπασαν μακροθυμίαν) might exhibit itself for the comfort of future peni |