surprise at being told it? Rather, Is it conceivable that he should not be astonished, and almost doubt his own ears, to hear such a version of his own poor deeds upon earth from the lips of the Judge Himself? Which of us could imagine those glorified lips addressing himself from amidst the splendours of the Throne, "Thou didst it unto ME," and not be overwhelmed, and scarce able to believe it real?

The opposite of all this, in the case of those on the left hand, requires no comment; but here the claims of the once despised Son of man to the homage of the hearts of men, and every office of love to the least of His disciples for His sake, are not less peremptorily asserted than in the former case, "Ye did thus and thus unto Me-Come, ye blessed : Ye did it not to Me-Depart from Me, ye cursed!" As if the blissful or blighted eternity of every indi

we thee an hungered, and fed thee ?" &c. And the
King shall answer and say unto them, "Verily, I
say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto
one of the least of these my brethren, ye have
done it unto Me." Astonishing dialogue this
between the King, from the throne of His glory,
and His poor wondering people! 'An hungered,
and gave Thee meat? Not we; we never did
that, Lord; we were born out of due time, and
never enjoyed the privilege of ministering unto
Thee.' 'But ye did it to these My brethren, now
by you, when cast upon your love on earth below.'
Truth, Lord; but was that doing it to thee? Thy
name on earth was indeed dear to us, and we thought
it an honour too great even to suffer shame for it.
When among the destitute and distressed we dis-
cerned any of the household of faith, we will not
deny that our hearts leapt within us at the dis-vidual of both classes would turn upon his treatment
covery; and when their knock came to our dwell-
ing, "our bowels were moved," as though “ Our
Beloved Himself had put in His hand by the hole
of the door." Sweet was the fellowship we had
with them, as if "entertaining angels unawares;"
all difference between giver and receiver somehow
melted away under the beams of that love of Thine
which knit us together; nay, rather, as they left us
with gratitude for our poor givings, we seemed the
debtors, not they. But, Lord, were we all that time
in company with Thee ?' 'Yes,' replies the King.
That scene was all with Me-Me in the disguise of
My poor ones. The door shut against me by others
was opened by you-" Ye took Me in." Appre-
hended and imprisoned by the enemies of the truth,
ye whom the truth had made free sought Me out
diligently and found Me; visiting Me in My lonely
cell at the risk of your own lives, and cheering My
solitude. Ye gave Me a coat, for I shivered; and
then I felt warm ("naked, and ye clothed Me").
With cups of cold water ye moistened My parched
lips, and when famished with hunger ye supplied
Me with crusts, and My spirit revived-"YE DID
IT UNTO ME."' What thoughts crowd upon us as we
listen to such a description of the Last Judgment!
In the light of this view of the heavenly dialogue,
how bald and repulsive does it appear to represent it
as a dialogue between Christ and heathens, who
never of course felt, or could feel, any stirrings of
His love in their hearts! To us it seems a poor,
superficial objection to the ordinary view of the
passage-which supposes it to be between Christ and
Christians-that Christians could never be supposed
to ask such questions as are here addressed to Christ.
The surprise here expressed is not at their being told
that they acted from love to Christ, but that Christ
Himself was the Personal Object of all that they did to
others, out of love to Him-that they had found
Him hungry, and supplied Him with food; thirsty,
ted His thirst; naked and shivering, and
Kim with warm clothing; paid Him visits
s lying in prison, and sat by his bedside
wn with sickness. Say not, What

of Him upon earth. And what a word is that:
"Depart from Me," as if all heaven would consist in
being with Him-all hell in separation from Him!
In that "ME" lies an emphasis, the nature and
strength of which we shall never fully know till the
scene itself, with its awful issues, shall arrive. But
what a comment does it furnish on those words '
already quoted: "The Father hath committed all
judgment unto the Son, that all men should honour
the Son even as they honour the Father.". And
now for the issues: "And these shall go away into
everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life
eternal." On this we shall merely remark, that if
these words, expressly intended to teach the final
issues of the judgment-the duration of future bliss
and future woe, personal and conscious-do not pro-')
claim them to be both alike unending, no words.
whatever could have done so, even supposing our
Lord meant to teach this. And shall we venture, în
the strength of our own notions of what is just or
worthy of God, to tamper with His teaching, of
whom the Father hath said, "This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased, HEAR HIM?**

and sla

covered 1 when He wa

when laid do Christian does

not know all this, and could feel

Our exhausted space will not admit of any lengthened remarks on

Second, The judgment of the dead, as described in detail in the following grand passage of the concluding book of the Bible:

"And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, dead, the great and the small,* stand before the throne; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire*

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."†

If ever a simultaneous and universal resurrection was expressed, or if language is capable of expressing

We follow here what appears to be the true text.
Rev. xx. 11-15.

Good Words, Sept. 1, :807.)

THE CREED OF CHRISTENDOM.

it, surely we have it here. And yet there are those who limit it to the wicked dead, because, according to their theory of the Second Advent, all the righteous having been disposed of and received into glory a thousand years before this scene is supposed to occur, they have no other than wicked dead to bring up now for judgment. On this point it would be unsuitable to say one word here, as our object, we must repeat, is not controversy with Christians beloved in the Lord; and if we have adverted to it at all, it is but to protest against what would strip this august scene of that breadth and majesty which seem to us so manifestly stamped upon it.

The throne beheld in vision was "great," arresting the gaze of the myriads of Adam's family spread out before it, as the spot whence are to issue their It was "white," denoting the eternal destinies. stainlessness and lustre of its decisions-unspotted by the least caprice, the least crookedness, the least partiality, the least mistake; resplendent in rectitude, "And I saw Him commanding universal assent. that sat in it." He was seen; and so, although "God is judge Himself," it is in the person of the Son that He sits down in the judgment throne. But in what lustre is the Son now arrayed-" from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them!" As if the heavens and the earth would be chased away by the very look of the Judge. "And I saw the dead, the great and the small, stand before the throne." We shall not, indeed, "all sleep, but we shall all be changed" from a mortal and corruptible to an immortal and incorruptible state. "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump," will the living undergo a transformation, equivalent to death and resurrection, at once; and thus may it be said, with strict truth, that "in Adam all die," and that "the dead, the great and the small," here summoned before the throne, are all mankind. And as if to convey this more emphatically, it is added, "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death" (the repositories of the (the world of disembodied dead body) "and hades" spirits) "gave up the dead which were in them each rendering back its proper tenants, to be reFrom the throne united into one person for ever. and the parties at the bar, the seer next comes to "Books were opened"-the the judgment itself. records, on the one hand, of all the deeds done in the body, with every secret thing, whether good or bad; and on the other, of the records of law and duty under which men have been placed, of the opportunities which they have enjoyed, and of all the circumstances by which they have been surroundedaccording to which the life and character of each will have to be decided. "And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books." But "another book was opened, which is the book of life." This is not a book either of actions or of laws, but exclusively of names; for it is said, "Whosoever was not found written in the book Accordingly, of life was cast into the lake of fire "

in another chapter of this book we read, "And all

" and so in a subseshall worship the beast, whose names were not written in the book of life;" quent chapter. Hence this book was not used at all till the judgment was pronounced out of the other "books." For what purpose, then, is it now opened? Plainly, to compare the results arrived at, in each case, according to strict evidence of the life they led here below, with the names of those destined to eternal life, which had been enrolled "from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb slain ;" and thus to proclaim, with awful distinctness, that "known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world," and that "the "And foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His."§ death" (the extinction of the bodily life) "and hades" (the soul's separation from the body) "shall be cast into the lake of fire:-a sublime and singularly bold way of saying that "DEATH ITSELF SHALL "And whosoever was not found written DIE." in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire: This is the second death, the lake of fire." We shall not comment upon this, but leave it to make its own impression.

What next? "From whose face" (says the seer) "the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them." This, however, is manifestly but the result, in a passing word, of the whole transactions of this judgment day; and it is introduced, at the very opening of the description, merely to impress upon the reader by this single touch the awful majesty and resistless authority of Him who will sit down in that throne, when "from His face" -as if it would need but one look when the fitting moment came-" the earth and the heaven shall flee away, and there shall be found no place for them." The detail, however, of all this we have in a special chapter, from the pen of the Apostle of the circumci"But," says the apocalyptical sion, || into the particulars of which we cannot and need not here enter. (after this) "a new heaven and a new seer, "I saw earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away." And so says Peter: "Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." Yes, and there the "Lamb in the midst of the Throne"-instead of disappearing from the stage, and leaving His redeemed to know Him as such no more-" shall feed them and lead them to living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." It is true that "then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father-that God may be all But whatever may be meant by that in all.” mysterious intimation, "the pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, will" (still) "proceed out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." In his mediatorial merit, as the Lamb that was slain, Christ will be for + Ch. xvii. 8.

Ch. xiii. 8.

are to be understood, as is So the words of ch. xiii. plain from the other passage, ch. xvii. 8. § Acts xv. 18. 2 Tim. ii. 19.

2 Peter iii.

All this it was not necessary, nor would it have been fitting, to embody in detail, in the Apostles' Creed, nor indeed in any written creed. In that briefest possible summary of the successive stages of the Redeemer's history, as the Incarnate Son of God, it was enough to say, after His Session at the right hand of God the Father Almighty

"From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead."

But, in attempting to fill up the outline of this glorious article, so far as our space admitted, we have expressed, we fully believe, only "THE CREED OF CHRISTENDOM;" and we have now but affectionately to desire for all our readers that they and we may At"in that day" be “found of Him in peace without spot and blameless."

A JOURNEY IN THE SERVICE OF SCIENCE:

BEING A DESCRIPTION OF THE PHENOMENA OF A TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE, CHIEFLY AS OBSERVED AT GUJULI, IN SPAIN, ON JULY 18, 1860.

FIRST PAPER.

sions and distances of the orbs themselves, the sun and the full moon appear to a spectator on the earth's surface, sometimes exactly, and at all times nearly, of the same size. The distance of the moon from the earth varies considerably, that of the sun varies relatively very much less; consequently, while the sun retains, to an unscientific spectator, sensibly the same diameter, the apparent size of the moon perceptibly changes. The amount of this variation is such, that the diameter of the moon, when farthest from us, appears to be about nine-tenths of the apparent size when it is nearest. We here and elsewhere purposely speak without astronomical exactness, in order not to confuse the reader with numerical details, which would leave no precise impression upon his mind.

The circumstance which in recent times gave the first impulse to the more careful observation of the phenomena of a total solar eclipse occurred about thirty years ago, and was as follows. The late Mr. Francis Baily, then President of the Royal Astronomical Society, and to whom the cultivation of astronomical science by amateurs in England is so deeply and permanently indebted, was induced to take a journey to Jedburgh, in the south of Scotland, from the neighbourhood of which town it was calculated that an annular eclipse of the sun would be visible on May 15, 1836. In those days Astronomers Royal and Superintendents of the Nautical Almanack did not impose upon themselves, as they do now, the duty of furnishing the scientific world with accurate, elaborate, and discreet accounts of the paths and all other important circumstances of solar eclipses, and Mr. Baily seems to have been left to complete much of the necessary work for himself. He took with him to Jedburgh a telescope of considerable dimensions for those days of inferior glass, constructed by Dollond, and we may therefore presume it to have been excellent of its kind-for such a man as Baily was worthy of the best efforts of even such an artist as Dollond. We make this remark because, from the peculiarity of the observations made by Mr. Baily with this telescope, the accurate performance of the instrument has been, as we think on no sufficient grounds, called into question in some high quarters.

From this cause then, namely, the varying distance of the moon from the earth, it follows that if the centres of the sun and moon at any time came together into the line of a spectator's sight, the moon might either exactly fit the sun, or it might more or less overlap the sun, or it might leave a bright little ring of the sun uncovered. In the two former cases there would, to the spectator, be a total, and in the latter case, an annular, eclipse of the sun. But then it happens very rarely indeed that the centres of the sun and the moon can come together exactly into the line of sight at any one place on the earth's surface; and even if they did, the moon is so comparatively near to us, and the apparent fitting of the sun by the moon is in general so nearly exact, that if the observer were to move a few miles from his post, it might easily happen that he would get a peep of some little portion of the bright sun sideways behind the moon; and to him the totality of the eclipse, and with that all the wonders of the eclipse, would then be destroyed. In the course of our remarks we shall have occasion to describe how we ourselves, while involved in the darkness of a totality, could and did plainly see a succession of places at the distance of a few miles from us still accessible to a partial shining of the sun's rays. These considerations, from astro-formed round that part of the circumference of the moon nomical grounds, may perhaps be sufficient for the general reader to understand the main reasons of the infrequency of a total solar eclipse, and also why, when such a phenomenon does occur, it will be total over but a comparatively small portion of the earth's surface.

It is essential also for him to bear in mind, that so long as perhaps even a thousandth part of the sun's disc remains uncovered, the main and the salient features of a total solar eclipse cannot be disclosed. Indeed, it is not many years since nine hundred and ninety-seven parts out of a thousand of the sun's face were eclipsed to the inhabitants of the central parts of England, and yet even in the very few favoured spots where unfriendly clouds did not interpose to prevent all observation, no phenomena of any great interest were discernible. Hundreds upon hundreds of spectators flocked from all quarters to localities which were pronounced favourable for the sight, but an experienced habitué (if there be such) would probably have stayed at his own home.

VIII-43

On this occasion Mr. Baily had observed a phenomenon which it seems, up to that day, had not been seen, and since that day has rarely been obscrved, exactly in the manner, and up to the measure, of the way in which that astronomer has described it. Those who are curious in such things will find the original and most interesting account, with many details, in one of the volumes of the Transactions of the Astronomical Society. Mr. Baily says: "I saw a row of lucid points, like a row of bright beads, irregular in size, and distant from each other, suddenly

66

which was about to enter, or had just entered on the sun's disc." That is, these bead-like appearances were formed just before the entire body of the moon intercepted the greater part of the sun's light, and just as the annularity of the eclipse was on the point of being completed. The formation of these luminous beads, Mr. Baily goes on to say, was rapid, like as if caused by the ignition of a fine train of gunpowder, as the moon pursued her course over the sun's disc. The dark intervening spaces were sketched out into long, black, thick, parallel lines joining the limbs of the sun and moon, when all at once they suddenly gave way," and the beads disappeared. The whole phenomenon occupied about six or eight seconds.

There can be no doubt that the singularity and unexpectedness of this phenomenon excited considerable impatience in the minds of astronomers to observe so remarkable an effect, though, at the same time, some doubt was thrown upon the performance of the telescope employed. The reader probably is aware