day' (1. Cor. iv. 11-14). There were certain peculiar exposures to suffering in the case of Paul; yet he describes here the common lot of the Apostles. Defamation, public scorn, physical hardship, assaults by mobs and punishments by the civil authority, imprisonment, death-this was what they saw before them, and what they actually suffered. Ostracism, with all the indignities and pains that bitter fanaticism can inflict along with it, was the reward which they had to expect for their testimony to the teaching, the miracles, the resurrection, following the death, of Jesus. To suspect them of dishonesty is to imagine that men will fling away property, friends, home, country, and life itself, for the sake of telling a falsehood that is to bring them no sort of advantage.

Hardly less irrational is it to charge them with self-delusion. It has been shown in a preceding article (see Christian Treasury for 1881, p. 152), by internal evidence derived from the Gospels, and by other proofs, that miracles were wrought by Christ. It has been shown that the theory of hallucination will not avail to explain the unanimous, immovable belief of the Apostles in His resurrection. The twelve attended Jesus through His public ministry from the baptism in Jordan to the close. The occurrences which necessarily presuppose the exertion of miraculous power took place in their presence. They were events in which they had a deep concern. The Apostles were not wanting in common sense. And they were conscientious men. They were the men whom Jesus Christ selected to be His companions. Unless, as the enemies of Jesus charged, He was a deceiver,' and most accomplished in the art, how could they mistake the character of these works which, as they alleged, He performed before their eyes?

But as the miracles are the part of the gospel history which, in these days, chiefly provokes incredulity, it is well to consider this topic further. No time need be spent on Hume's argument to show that a miracle is, under no circumstances, capable of being proved. As Mill observes, all that Hume has made out is that no evidence can prove a miracle to an atheist, or to a deist who supposes himself able to prove that God would not interfere to produce the miraculous event in question. We assume the being and moral attributes of God, and we have no call to discuss the character, in other respects, of Hume's reasoning.

We are not called upon to confute the opinion that the first three Gospels-the historical character of the fourth has already been vindicated-were moulded by a doctrinal purpose or bias, since that opinion finds no countenance now from judicious critics of whatever theological creed. The First Gospel contains numerous passages in which the catholic character of Christianity is emphatically set forth (Matt. xxiv. 14, xxviii. 19, viii. 12, xx. 1, seq., xxi. 28, 33, xxii. 40, xxiii. 33,

ix. 16, seq., xii. 8, xiii. 31). 'Our Matthew,' says Mangold, an unprejudiced critic, not at all wedded to traditional views, is, to be sure, written by a Jewish Christian for Jewish Christians,' but he has given us no writing with a Jewish Christian doctrinal bias.' 'The words of Jesus, quoted in Matthew,' says Reuss, which form the doctrinal kernel of the book, are not selected in the slightest degree from that point of view'-that of the Palestinian Jewish Christianity-but go beyond it in a hundred places, and bespeak so much the more the faithfulness of the tradition.' Mark has decidedly outgrown Judaism, but no dogmatic tendency can on this account be saddled on his presentation of the gospel history, as long as it is not shown that Christ Himself did not rise above Judaism, and that the Jewish Christian Matthew looks on Christianity as a development within the limits of Judaism.' In Luke, 'not only does the history of Jesus acquire in general no other significance than in Matthew; nowhere is there disclosed a design to set aside or to overcome an imperfect understanding of it. On the contrary, there occur numerous words and acts, drawn from the general tradition, which, when literally taken, rather wear a Jewish Christian colouring. But here it will be nearest to the truth to affirm that not a party feeling, but the most independent historical research-or, if we prefer so to call it, a thirst for the fullest possible information has governed in the collection of the matter.' The whole charge of being Tendenz-Schriften, which Baur and his school brought against the Gospels, is founded on untenable theories respecting their authorship and order of composition.

If the tendency-theory' no longer calls for detailed refutation, the same thing is true of the attack of Strauss on the credibility of the Gospels, which is founded on their alleged inconsistencies. This attack is acknowledged by judicious scholars to be merely the work of an expert advocate, bent on finding contradictions in testimony which he is anxious to break down. The gospel narratives are wholly inartificial. No compositions could be more open to assault from critics who ignore this character that belongs to them, and labour to magnify the importance of variations which only serve to prove that there was no collusion among the several writers, and no attempt on the part of anybody to frame a story that should be proof against hostile

comment.

(To be continued.)

HE WENT UP INTO A MOUNTAIN APART TO PRAY.-Our Saviour had marvellous resources in Himself, and yet He had need of times of secret prayer. He could not live and do His work without them. How impressive is this His example! Is it strange that if we pray little we are overpowered by sin and the world?

Christ in Metaphor.

There is a Lily, heavenly fair,
In lowly vales of purity,
With meekness far beyond compare,
Unfolding all its charms for thee.

There is a Plant with clustering leaves,
Through summer's heat and winter's snows,
In tints of royal beauty weaves

The robes of Sharon's dewy rose.

There is a Vine, a tender vine,

Once planted 'neath Judea's sod, Whose clusters yield the choicest wine, The life-blood of the Church of God.

There is a Star that never sets,

Through clouds and darkness seen afar: The pilgrim all his grief forgets

Beneath the bright and Morning-Star. There is a Gem that constant gleams When kingly crowns to fragments fall, More bright than planetary beams—

The Pearl of Price outshines them all. There is a Sun that ne'er goes down,

That brightens evermore to bless. 'Mid nature's wreck still shines that sunIt is the Sun of Righteousness.

There is a Lamb that once was slain,

For human guilt the sacrifice; Who, having died, once rose again To plead His offering in the skies.

There is a Lion, King is He

Of ancient Judah's royal line. Repent, submit, and thou shalt see

That all His strength and will are thine.

The lily, rose, the tender vine,

The gem, the star with constant ray, The sun that never knows decline

Still brightening through eternal day, The gentle Lamb that once was slain To set the sin-bound captive free,

Lion of Judah's royal line,

O Jesus! all are found in Thee.

Mrs M. A. W. Cooke.

SEPTEMBER 14.

POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD.

"THE Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.' It often has an influence which the words of men do not have; and it would be well if ministers and other Christians, in their reasoning with unconverted persons, were to depend on it more than they do; and would use it as the sword of the Spirit,' and expect decided results.

6

Some years ago, at the close of a large meeting, a number of persons remained for inquiry. A minister noticed in one of the aisles several young men talking together. He went up to them, and instead of speaking to them all as they were together, he asked one of them to go with him apart. On his doing so, the minister opened his Bible at John iii. 16, and placing his finger near it, asked the young man to read it. The minister then read aloud, ' For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' The eyes of the young man filled with tears, and he bowed his head. After a short silence, he said to the minister, 'You do not know what you have done, sir.' He replied, 'I have read with you a passage from the Word of God.' The young man answered, 'Well, sir, it has broken my heart.' He then added, "When you led me aside, I was telling those young men that this revival work was all nonsense, that it was just getting up an excitement which would soon pass away, and that it was very foolish; and you brought me here, and read that verse to me, and that Word of God has gone to my heart, and has made me altogether different to what I was.'

The minister says that had he known the circumstances with reference to what the young man was doing, he would probably have taken a different course with him; but he is glad that he did not know them, and that he was led to depend simply on the Word of God. It was to the young man the commencement of a new life, and the minister knew him for years afterwards as a living Christian.-W. H., in Boston Watchman.

'AT THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST.'1 Peter i. 13.

Therefore is it a day of grace, all light and blessedness to them that are in Him, because they shall appear in Him; and if He be glorious, they shall not be inglorious and ashamed. Indeed, were our secret sins then to be set before our own eyes in their most affrightful visage, and to be set open to the view of angels and men, and to the eye of divine Justice, and we left alone so revealed,

who is there that could gather any comfort, and would not rather have their thoughts filled with horror at the remembrance and expectation of that day? And thus, indeed, all unbelieving and ungodly men may look upon it, and find it terrible; but to those that are shadowed under the robe of righteous Jesus, yea, that are made one with Him, and shall partake of His glory in His appearing, it is the sweetest, the most comfortable thought that their souls can be entertained and possessed withal, to remember this glorious revelation of their Redeemer.-Leighton.

the means of acquainting them, and through them many others, with the gospel for which he suffered. His captivity was a severe one, yet not the most severe. He had appealed to Cæsar, and had to wait the emperor's convenience, which sometimes extended to years, as it actually did in the Apostle's case. But he was permitted to see his friends and all who came to him; for Luke, in closing the Acts of the Apostles, mentions that the chief of the Jews went to him and heard his defence. His privilege of intercourse was to be prized, but still he could not enjoy the freedom of conversation and comfort from communion with his friends that would have been his had he been at liberty. For there was the soldier to whom he was chained, who would be a great restraint. But Paul was not the man to be discouraged and to give way to gloomy forebodings. He made the best of his circumstances and the liberty that was left to him. His tongue could not be tied; his heart was still full of love to his Saviour; and we may safely picture to our selves the aged Apostle, his face showing traces of his many hardships, telling with all the earnestness of his soul the rough soldier beside him of the amazing condescension of the Lord Jesus Christ, detailing His wonderful life, His cruel betrayal and death, and asserting His resurrection and ascension and present living in heaven. A tale of such wondrous love, told with the beaming face and the earnest eyes, could not but take effect on many a hardened and yet weary heart; and so the gospel of Christ was passed on from mouth to mouth.

Again, the soldiers relieved guard in succession, and thus all the pretorians were made acquainted with the truth. He says 'his bonds for Christ were made manifest in all the pretorium.' Where Paul stayed while in Rome is not definitely known. Some critics' have imagined him a prisoner within the barracks attached to the imperial residence on the Palatine;' and this view is supported, they think, by the greeting sent by Paul at the end of this epistle-'All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Cæsar's household.' Others have fixed his dwelling-place in the great camp, the headquarters of the pretorians, without the walls, to the north-east of the city. Others, again, say that pretorium signifies 'not a place, but a body of men-the imperial guards.' This would explain Luke's statement that Paul dwelt in his own hired house, unless we suppose a house in the midst of a camp. And,

besides, it forms a fit introduction to the remaining clause of the verse-' and to all the rest,' for 'places' is in italics, and therefore not in the original.

The soldiers would speak to the civilians about their prisoner; and, again, the greater part of the brethren who felt emboldened to preach the Word of God would point to the Apostle as a proof of its sustaining and comforting power, as also of its truth, for it was worth suffering and dying for. So it happened that very many in Rome heard the gospel, which would not have been had he and his cause not become notorious through his imprisonment.

The fact of his suffering emboldening the greater part of the brethren to preach the Word of God more boldly and without fear was most encouraging to the Apostle, and proved the truth of his remark, that the things that had happened to him had fallen out rather unto the furtherance (progress) of the gospel. We might have expected other results.

Both pure and unworthy motives caused this. Some, indeed, preached Christ even from envy and strife, and some also of goodwill-the latter from love, knowing that he was set for the defence of the gospel. These recognised the truth of the religion for which Paul was bound; they, further, believed it, were partakers with him of its benefits, were his brethren. They realised, too, the value of the truth, and were no doubt stimulated by intercourse with and exhortation from him to proclaim more widely the issues at stake Moreover, they knew that the burning desire and the great aim of his life was to spread the knowledge of Christ, for his captivity at Rome, his many previous sufferings and persecutions, were all undergone to attain this end; and to show their sympathy with him, to cheer his heart, they braced their nerves, put forth their energies, braved their hearts to greater exertions in the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. They thought on the joy the knowledge of this would give to their beloved friend, and, no doubt, saw many good results. This was the proper motive from which to preach-from love-cheering the Apostle by the fact that, though his single voice was closed, many others were opened to carry on the good work. And his pleasure was his Master's; so that they, in gratifying the Apostle, also gratified his Lord and Saviour.

But there were men who professed Christianity in order to gain other ends. Those