members of the same mystical body. "If we walk in the light, as God is in the light, we have fellowship one with another." 4. But lastly, the fellowship spoken of in the text includes imitation.-The Christian is a "follower of God:" he is "conformed to his image:" he not only calls himself a disciple of Christ, but he has the Spirit of Christ: he copies his example, he treads in his steps, he devotes himself to his service. For communion with God is not merely a devout abstraction of mind; it does not imply a life of idle so litude and contemplation. No: it leads to the practical exercise of every Christian grace and virtue; and to an endeavour to transcribe all that is imitable in the Divine perfections in the whole character and conduct. Is God, for example, a being of perfect truth? The man who holds communion with him will endeavour also to be sincere and without guile. Is God perfectly holy? The Christian will seek to be holy also. Is God allwise? The Christian will be anxious for that wisdom which cometh from above, the wisdom which descends from the Father of lights. Is God a being of infinite love? Does he delight in diffusing happiness? The Christian, in addition to his return of gratitude to God, will be willing to spend and be spent to promote the interests, especially the spiritual interests, of mankind: he will think lightly of his personal sacrifices of ease or inclination to benefit the souls or bodies of his fellow-creatures; and, like his Divine Master, he will, as far as lies in his power and is compatible with his station in life, go about doing good." In these his acts of kindness and charity he will further seek to re. semble his Saviour by his lowliness and humility. He will be gentle and forgiving; and the same mind will be in him which was also in Christ Jesus. Especially will his communion with God lead to an imitation of that resplendent part of the Divine character, a hatred of all sin. "If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth." The Apostle instructs us, that those who are "followers of God, as dear children," have "no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness." And here, as throughout the whole subject, we have a practical test by which to ascertain our real character; for if a man should profess to enjoy the raptures of an angel, and did not evince in his life something of the fruits of an imitation of his Saviour, so that men might take knowledge of him that he had been with Jesus, his profession would be but vain, and his pretended communion with God nothing more than hypocrisy or the workings of an overheated imagination. Secondly. But it is time that we should inquire, in the next place, into the best means of promoting this fellowship.-While we remain upon earth, there will always be much to separate between the Christian and his God: even at his best estate, he can see only through a glass darkly, and not, as in heaven, face to face. He will therefore always need every possible assistance to keep up this divine intercourse, Time will not allow at present of dwelling at large on the various helps which God has given us for maintaining communion with him; but I shall briefly mention a few of the principal ones, leaving each of you to follow up these short suggestions in your private meditations, and to endeavour to bring them into daily practice. In the first place, then, begin with seeing that you possess that which is the foundation of all true communion with God-a renewed heart. Till you are brought into a state of agreement with your offended Creator, there can, as we have seen, be no fellowship. Make then your calling and election sure: turn by repentance to Him: rest by faith on the atonement of your crucified Saviour, and pray for the renewing and sanctifying influences of his Holy Spirit. Thus founded on a right basis, make diligent use of the assistances which God has provided for preserving communion with himself. Endeavour to " grow in grace, and in the knowledge of your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Study his word; for this is the record of his will,-the medium by which, as it were, he converses with you, and tells you how you may walk and please God. His intercourse with you will not be by means of any new or special revelation, but by the disclosures already made in his word, as they may be applicable to your case. Cultivate diligent habits of secret prayer; for it is by prayer that you address God, as God addresses you through his written word. And, in addition to the regular exercise of private devotion and public worship, be frequent in those silent ejaculations of the heart, which may be lifted up at all times and in all places, whenever a difficulty or danger, a mercy or an affliction, a temptation or a deliverance arises to prompt them. Strive further to keep in mind the constant presence of God; and this not only in your fixed seasons of prayer and serious meditation, but amidst the daily business of life. This will greatly assist in stopping up the avenues of temptation, and in checking a careless, irreligious, and worldly spirit, which is highly detrimental to communion with God. As far as you have opportunity, avail yourselves of moments of religious retirement, for the purpose of self-examination, and the cultivation of spiritual affections; and even when you are in the world, and are exposed in the lawful discharge of your duties in life to the dangers arising from worldly society, endeavour to be "in the world as not of the world," having your heart and your conversation in heaven. Strive in all things to keep a good conscience, both towards God and towards man. Beware of the first ap proaches of sin; set a watch over your spirit; be ever on your guard against evil tempers, and endeavour to turn all the occurrences of life to the purposes of spiritual edification. Let the glory of God, the welfare of your own soul, and the good of your fellow-creatures, be near your heart; and be ever on the watch for opportunities of promoting them. Seek to grow in penitence, in faith, in humility, in resignation, in disinterestedness, and in the discharge of every active duty of your exalted vocation as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Thus will your character become assimilated to his; thus will he manifest himself to you as he doth not unto the world, who know him not, and have no desire to live to his glory; and thus, above all, will you be gradually prepared, by the sanctifying grace of his Holy Spirit, for the enjoyment of that better world where your communion with God, now so broken and imperfect, shall be for ever complete and uninterrupted. To the Editorofthe Christian Observer. THOUGH your pages are generally characterized by a preference for what is plainly revealed in Scripture, and is practical in its tendency, above what is doubtful, or, if known, would minister chiefly to the indulgence of curiosity, I would yet trust that the following remarks on Saul's visit to the witch of Endor (related 1 Sam. xxviii.) are not wholly unsuitable to your columns; as they have for their object the explication of a scriptural narrative which has caused much perplexity to commentators, and has been laid hold of by sceptics to cast contempt on the inspired text. A chief difficulty that arises from the consideration of this narrative, is, that there should have existed a number of persons who possessed the power of raising the spirits of the dead; so that the peace even of departed saints was liable to be interrupted by them. That persons apparently of this description did amount to a considerable number, we may fairly infer from ver. 3. Commentators, with the intention of obviating this difficulty, generally remark, that these people acted under diabolical influence, and raised up, not the identical spirits they pretended to invoke, but representations of the deceased, actuated perhaps by evil spirits. But this explanation appears very objectionable. In the first place, it makes an assumption altogether unsupported; and next, it leaves one part of the difficulty as formidable as the other,—namely, that this supernatural power should have been suffered to be possessed by considerable numbers of persons, and this not for any valuable end to be answered by its exertion, but in express opposition to the declared will of God. It appears to me that an explanation much more simple and natural may be given.. If the narrative be carefully examined, it will be found to contain no evidence whatever of Saul's having seen Samuel; but, on the other hand, strong ground to conclude that the apparition of the seer was not seen by the king. From verses 12, 13, and 14, it appears, that though the woman saw, or pretended to see, Samuel ascending out of the earth, and so distinctly as to be able to describe both his person and his dress, yet Saul saw him not, but had to refer his inquiries to her in order to ascertain whether the spirit raised were the one he wanted. Some commentators, and among these Matthew Henry, think that Saul was in another apartment. Perhaps it may be thought, from the latter part of ver. 14, that though the vision' was not visible to Saul at first, yet it became so immediately after the answer to his question. Our version does indeed say, "and Saul perceived that it was Samuel" but the expression is incautiously rendered; the verb in the original is T, "he knew;"' that. is, he knew him to be that prophet, from the description of him which the woman had just given. Mátthew Henry agrees with me, that "Saul was not permitted to see any manner of similitude himself, but must take the woman's word for it,” and only "perceived that it was Samuel by the woman's description," his own over-heated imagination supplying the rest. From the practice of this woman, we may fairly infer that of the whole class of this description of persons. They did not in fact raise any apparition; and though they pretended to do so, they did not pretend to render the alleged apparition visible to those who consulted them. But it will be asked, how could the deception be carried on? how could the inquirer be made to imagine that he was conversing with a spirit, if it were actually the case that no such spirit were present? Now it strikes me, that were this query put to a person altogether unacquainted with the transaction in question, and he were desired to account for it by a natural cause, he would immediately reply, that it might be effected by ventriloquism: and though my readers may smile at the idea, and think me a little fanciful in venturing to urge it, yet that this was the actual source of these deceptions appears to me extremely probable on several grounds; and I think my opinion is in some measure supported by an examination of the original term. The Hebrew term by which persons of the description of the witch of Endor are designated is bya, mistresses of the '8. The root whence this word is derived, sig: nifies "to swell." Hence its meaning of uter, "a bladder," in Job xxxii. 19; and Buxtorf quotes the Rabbi Aben Ezra to shew that its signification of Python, which he gives it in this passage, and indeed in every other, is naturally derived from this meaning, “quod ex tumido ventre quasi ex utre oracula depromeret." Beza, as quoted by Leigh, in the Critica Sacra, accounts for its meaning in the same way, and adds, that the "spiritus immundus, ex illorum ventre, de præteritis presentibus et futuris interrogatus, respondeat." But what will, I think, be considered the most decisive evidence that this is the original signification of the word, is, that in the Septuagint, with the exception of the above-mentioned place in Job, it is universally rendered by EYYασrρivos, ventriloquus. Now this translation, it must be recollected, was made nearly three cen. turies before Christ, and ought consequently to have great weight, as impostors of this kind were then frequent; and though the translators might not have been aware of the imposition, but have ascribed the voice to the agency of an evil spirit, yet they were perfectlycapable of describing the manner in which it was apparently performed. Nor is it an objection peculiar to the above explanation, that some supernatural and divine power was exerted over the woman, supposing such to have been the fact; for this is a difficulty that applies with equal force to every other supposition which commentators have brought forward. None, however widely they are disposed to extend the limits of infernal agency, dare confer on it the power of disturbing the rest of departed saints. It appears however to me, that the circumstance may be accounted for in a simple and obvious manner, on the supposition of Divine interference. The woman seems to have begun in her usual way, pretending to call up the spirit. But Providence, if this view be right, had a design to accomplish, unknown to her. On a sudden, the appearance of Samuel was presented to her mind's eye; and so totally was she unprepared for this, that "she cried out with a loud voice," and, being possessed with the true spirit of divination, instantly recog-, nized Saul under his disguise. There would be great harshness and improbability in supposing that the Almighty made use of this CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 256. woman's supposed ventriloquism in the conversation which afterwards took place. Having turned, if the above hypothesis be correct, what she intended for a juggle into a reality, his infinite power might produce the voice, or, if necessary, the appearance, of Samuel, in any way he pleased. With that point my argument is not necessarily concerned. It is not, however, proved, after all, that any supernatural agency, either Divine or satanic, was employed. It has been often alleged, that it is very possible that the whole was a contrivance of the woman's, in concert with a confederate-perhaps with one of David's secret adherents, unknown to David-or one of Saul's own attendants, who was averse to his master's measures; that she knew from the first who was her visitor; and that her crying out with a loud voice, and her pretending suddenly to discover the dignity of Saul, were but feints; and lastly, that the whole subsequent prediction, as Matthew Henry thinks, was merely a probable guess, founded on the circumstances of the case, and intended perhaps to drive Saul to despair and self-murder. Making the necessary distinction between what is said in Scripture and what Scripture itself says, the whole has been resolved into a juggle; and if so, the idea of ventriloquism may greatly assist in forming a solution of the difficulty. The infantile state of knowledge in those days precludes all idea of those inventions in optics, acoustics, or other branches of science, by which, in modern times, much more difficult juggles might be, and have been, contrived for the purpose of curious experiment. The woman's remark, that she saw gods ascending out of the earth seems very like acting a part to terrify Saul, as we can scarcely suppose, merely on her testimony, that there was any such appearance; and if this was a jug. gle, why might not her assertion about Samuel be the same? If, however, she really saw any thing, 2 G or Saul either, might it not be either her own confederate acting the part of the apparition, or some person in, the secret of Saul's intended application, who, unknown to her or to Saul, had contrived the stratagem? In such a case, the idea of ventriloquism is rendered unnecessary. Let it not, however, be inferred from the preceding remarks, that the existence of diabolical influence is intended to be denied. Far from it; for we have express scriptural evidence to prove this influence, in the powers, for instance, displayed by the Egyptian magicians. But from this very fact, a knowledge of mankind would naturally lead us to expect that such powers would have many imitators; and all that is here contended for is, that the by come under this description, whether by means of ventriloquism, or by whatever other mode of popular deception. B. S. To the Editorofthe Christian Observer. A CONSTANT reader of the Christian Observer would be much gratified to see from the pen of some learned correspondent a concise well-digested reply to the following query :In studying the prophecies, what rules can be laid down for ascertaining which of them refer exclusively to the people of Israel or Judah; which of them have a farther reference to the kingdom of the Messiah in general; and which of them, in addition, relate to the spiritual circumstances of individual believers either under the Old or the New dispensation? A satisfactory solution of these points would go far towards determining some controversies which have of late been much agitated, especially as regards the respective shares which the Jews and Gentiles are entitled to claim in the promises of Scripture. Some of the prophecies will, upon strict examination, be found applicable to one only of the three points enumerated in the query; others may apply to two; and others, probably a very considerable number, to all three,-to the Jew primarily to Messiah's kingdom figuratively-and to the whole Israel of God by just scripexact bearing and boundaries of tural implication. To ascertain the this interesting subject, with a view especially to the spiritual edification which individuals may derive from the prophetic parts of Scripture, is the object of the inquiry of A CONSTANT READER. MISCELLANEOUS. LETTERS WRITTEN DURING A JOUR- Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. I NOW send you my concluding packet of letters written during my late journey through North America. It consists of three letters, comprising my route from Portland in New Hampshire to New York. Had I originally had any intention of sending my epistolary communications to your repository, I might probably have been inclined to introduce into them a larger proportion of specific must now leave my readers to fill up. religious remark and allusion; but I this chasm for themselves. If I have not always detailed my more serious moralisings, I have endeavoured so far to act the part both of a Christian observer and a Christian reporter as to furnish a variety of facts and incidents replete with high moral and Christian interest, and which a well informed and religious |