Page images
PDF
EPUB

books of other nations are carefully studied and compared with the inspired volume. All the great writers on Biblical history have been laid under contribution; and very much interesting but obscure matter is collected from both ancient and modern authors concerning the Geography, Antiquities, Botany, Natural History, Meteorology, &c., of Eastern lands. Notes of Biblical criticism and interpretation are also occasionally added. The jottings yield valuable information concerning Science, History, Government, Arts, Religion, Domestic Life, Agriculture, Trades, Travel, Obsolete Words, Difficult Passages, and indeed concerning everything which is introduced to our notice in the Sacred Word. The work will be of the greatest value to Bible Students, Sunday-school Teachers, and Ministers. It is arranged in short paragraphs, each of which is headed with a description of its contents, and the text of Scripture which it is intended to explain or illustrate; and very copious Indices, both of the Subjects and of the Scripture Texts that are illustrated, will put its stores of information at the ready service of the reader.

BIBLICAL THINGS NOT GENERALLY KNOWN is issued in Monthly Parts, price 3d. each, and can be obtained from any Bookseller or Newsvender, or from the Publisher,

ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.

RECENT BOOKS FOR TEACHERS & PREACHERS.

Now ready, price 7s. 6d., post free. CYCLOPAEDIA of ILLUSTRATED ANECDOTE: Moral and Religious. Containing a vast collection of Authentic Anecdotes on a wide variety of subjects, arranged and classified ready for reference. In Two Vols., with Illustrations and Maps, price 3s. 6d. each, post free.

THE BIBLICAL MUSEUM. A COMPLETE COMMENTARY, on an Original Plan, consisting of NotesCritical, Homiletic, and Illustrative -on the Holy Scriptures, for the use of Preachers. By the Rev. J. COMPER GRAY, author of "Topics for Preachers," &c. New Testament Section, 5 Vols., 4/6 each Vol., post free; Old Testament Section, 2 Vols. published, 5s. each Vol., post-free. In extra cloth, crown 8vo., price 5s. post free. The HANDBOOK of BIBLE WORDS Atlas, all in one, saving the cost of these books

Being a Popular Guide to the Deriva-
tion and Meaning of the principal
Words found in the Scriptures. By
Rev. HUMPHRY F. WOOLRYCH,
M.A., Hebrew Prizeman of the
University of London, with an Intro-
duction by Rev. J. J. STEWART
PEROWNE, B. D., Canon of Llandaff.

TOPICS for PREACHERS AND

TEACHERS. By J. COMPER GRAY.

This valuable work constitutes a Bible Dictionary, a Bible Manual, a Bible Text Book, a Commentary, a Concordance, and a Biblical

and the time in their use.

Now ready, price 3s. 6d., post free.
The NEW MANUAL of SUNDAY
SCHOOL ADDRESSES. A Com-
prehensive and Suggestive Collection of
Outlines of Addresses, adapted for Sunday
Schools, for Gatherings of Working Men,
Missionary Meetings, Ragged School
Festivals, &c., &c.

ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.C.

Agate's wife, who always seemed to me so proud and distant, came up to me with a glowing face, and fairly ngratulated me. She did it like a Lady, too, and like a friend. There was nothing patronizing about her. And there were several others to whom I know my position makes no difference. They prize me for what I am. Yet what a price to pay for learning the value of true friendship!" added Laura, with a deep sigh.

66

I met Aggie Doyle to-day, and she wouldn't speak to me,' ," said Alice, Laura's sister, who had come into the room and overheard the last remark. 66 Why shouldn't she speak to me, I wonder?" "Because your sister is a clerk in her father's shop," said Laura, somewhat bitterly.

"That's no reason why she should treat me so," the child replied. "Of course it is not, nor is it any reason why Lizzie, her eldest sister, should utterly ignore me. I always liked her so much, too. But to-day she came into the shop and passed me with such a sweeping glance, after I had prepared a smile and a welcome for her. Mr. Doyle had been so kind since papa's death that I looked for better treatment from Lizzie. That, I confess, has wounded me; and I shall have to meet her so often!

66

"But never mind. I must remember my place," she added, rather bitterly. "I have to work for my living now-but I will be proud of it! Good-bye, old life of lazy ease! Good-bye, old worthless friends! Your coldness cannot hurt the real me it is only the worthless young lady of fashion who feels it, and she is slowly departing this life."

So saying, she sat down gaily to the tea table, and soon forgot all about the toil and the slights of the day.

"Have you filled up all your invitations?" asked Lizzie's eldest

brother, one of the firm of Doyle and Co., some days after the preceding conversation took place,

Lizzie was arranging a hundred or more tiny, cream-coloured envelopes, which she tied together with some pretty, bright-hued ribbons.

"I believe so," she replied, with a smile. "I have asked every young lady of my acquaintance, and I think our party will be the finest of the season-if papa will only have the carpets taken up in the west rooms, and the floors chalked. Rutger will do them for ten pounds, and you have no idea how beautifully he works!"

"I think father will not refuse you that," her brother replied. “I'll speak to him about it.'

"Oh, thank you, Al! Then I'm sure he will have it done. I have asked him for so many things that I was almost afraid to ask for more."

66

By the way, have you invited Laura Stanley?" her brother asked, as he was going out. "Of course not," said Lizzie, with assured emphasis.

66

"Of course not? And pray, why not ?" he asked, standing still. 'Why, Al, what an idea! She wouldn't expect it. Our shopgirl! father's clerk! I wouldn't have her for the world!"

66

Then, if you are sure she wouldn't come, you might have sent her an invitation out of compliment," her brother replied.

"I don't consider her an acquaintance," said Lizzie, loftily; and Al walked out of the room with an abrupt shrug of the shoulders.

Presently her father came in. "Lizzie," he said, "I particularly wish you to send a note of invitation to Laura Stanley."

"Papa, you don't mean it ?" exclaimed Lizzie, chagrined.

66

Indeed, I do mean it. What, slight the daughter of one of my most cherished friends because she

66

has come down in the world in a Oh, Al, of course you shall money point of view! I should have it! I am to have a sister, despise myself for it."

"But, papa, she won't come," said Lizzie.

“Never mind whether she will come or not. Write an invitation. I will take it to her."

Lizzie sat down, pale and angry, to write the note. After all her boasting of having "cut the Stanleys," it was very hard to be obliged to invite Laura. Her cheeks grew hot as she indited the polite little missive, while she remembered the many times she had openly ignored her to whom it was addressed. She would have disobeyed had she dared-would even have withheld the note after it was written, had her father not stood by to take it himself. It was indeed humiliating.

Later, her brother Al came to her. "I should like an invitation, Lizzie, for a young lady of my acquaintance," he said, in a quiet voice.

"Who is she?" "The young lady whom I asked to be my wife," he smiling.

have

said,

then? I'm so glad! What is her name? Is she in town? Will she be sure to come? I'm sure I can't think of anybody!" And then she paused, puzzled at his shrewd smile.

[blocks in formation]

She sank down, covering her face with her hands.

"I was afraid she might feel the slight so keenly," he said, softly, "that I hurried matters a little. So you need not be afraid now that she will not come. Will you not prepare an invitation ?"

"I have. Papa has carried it to her. But oh, AĨ, a clerk !"

"A noble woman," said her brother," who dares face the sneers of her set,' and take an honest position for the sake of those who are dependent upon her, rather than whine about her former dignity, and live upon charity! I wish there were more like her." So Lizzie was forced, for once in her life, to eat humble pie.

THE LAMB OF GOD.

BY THE REV. THOMAS HENSON.

THE sudden, startling appearance of a new preacher is always the signal for popular excitement, especially if he has a new truth to proclaim, or utters an old truth in a new form. To this John the Baptist could not be an exception. His appearance and his preaching filled the country with wonder and inquiry. Just as the eddying circles on the water into which a child's hand has cast a stone widen out to the utmost limits, so this excitement respecting John and his theme extended, till it reached all the extremes of society. John's followers multiplied so greatly, and the influence of his doctrine spread so rapidly, that popular feeling began to regard him as possibly the coming Messiah. The Sanhedrim, partly to satisfy their own curiosity, and desirous to give an authoritative note to guide public feeling, sent an official deputation to demand information from him as to his claims and pretensions. John's answer, "I am not the

Christ," was not enough; and they asked not only who he was not, but who he was.

It was but little they understood when he told them, "I am a voice crying in the wilderness," and that Messiah was standing among them. Two days after, when Jesus, having spent forty days in the wilderness in fasting and conflict, returned, and appeared among the people on the eastern bank of the Jordan, John proclaimed Him to them as "The Lamb of God."

Jesus was the subject of many types, prophecies, and promises in the Scriptures. As Abraham and his son were approaching the place where the father's faith was to endure its severest test, and gain its greatest triumph, Isaac, seeing the sacrificial preparations, but no victim, asked, "Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" "My son," said his father, "God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering." The ram found in the thicket did not exhaust the meaning of these words. Just as the sun is sometimes concealed by dark clouds, and then bursts forth in full-orbed splendour, so was Christ, the Lamb of God, hidden in those words and in the ram which Abraham found; and now here, on Jordan's bank, after long ages, He is openly proclaimed to the people.

It was

The Paschal lamb of the Israelites prefigured Christ. slain, and its blood sprinkled on the doorposts of the houses, so that the angel of judgment, seeing it, should pass over the people within. So Christ's blood was shed that through all the ages there should be a "blood of sprinkling," under which penitent, believing sinners may escape the impending doom of sin. All who on that terrible night were within the blood-sprinkled doors were safe from the destroying angel, while the judgment fell upon every house where the blood was not seen. So all who are found under the blood of Christ by faith shall live eternally, while all who neglect it will by that neglect bring the terrible judgment upon themselves. By the blood of Jesus, the believer has boldness to enter into the presence of God; but those who refuse or neglect the personal application will in vain plead the sacrifice.

We must not linger to point out the relations of the Paschal lamb to Jesus, but remark that He was also beautifully pre-figured in the daily morning and evening sacrifices. They were to be of the purest of the lambs in the flock; Christ was "the lamb without blemish and without spot." Evil men tested Him by every human device, and good men watched Him with loving eagerness, but no one found sin in Him.

The Paschal lamb did not die as an expiation, but these did; and in this also they typified the expiatory death of Christ. They were continual sin offerings for the people; but Christ, by His one offering, perfects for ever all who believe on Him. It is a strange delusion which denies the expiatory character of Christ's death. The sufferings and death of Jesus were much more than an example or a moral

expedient to impress men with a sense of Divine love. Why was He wounded, if not for our transgressions? Why was He bruised, if not for our iniquities? Why do the apostles speak so much of the blood, the cross, and the propitiation of Christ, if there were not in them an atonement for sin? If the long procession of sin offerings and sacrifices were shadows of something better, where is the substance, if not in the substitution and sacrifice of Jesus? To assign any other end empties the Bible of its meaning, and deprives the guilty of hope; or, as Robert Hall says, "It makes the gospel the greatest imposition on common sense that ever was presented to the world; it would combine the most pompous pretensions with the most meagre reality of all existing compositions."

Nor must we forget that the perpetuity of these morning and evening sacrifices has a peculiar relation to the perpetual fulness of the one offering by Jesus Christ. Their savour and incense must never cease. There was in them a daily confession, a daily prayer, and a daily expiation. They were, however, but shadows; and we must follow the shadow till we grasp the substance. We now have Christ, who, by one perfect offering of Himself to God for us, perfects for ever all who come unto Him. At His feet, and through Him, we must still be daily worshippers. They were always deficient ; He is ever all-sufficient.

"He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth." Of whom spake the prophet this-of himself, or of some other man? Had the Ethiopian known the Lamb of God, he would not have asked that question. To what could John the Baptist refer more straightly than to this when he pointed to Jesus as "the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world"? But what is the prophet's point? He has spoken of iniquities all laid upon Him; he pictures Him as bearing our grief, carrying our sorrows, wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, enduring our chastisements, and feeling our stripes. It pleased the Lord to put Him to grief, and to make His soul an offering for sin; and He bore all this not for Himself, but for us-us sinners; He bore it with the silent meekness of the lamb. He complained not; He called for no vengeance upon wicked men, at whose hands He suffered. Possessed of all power, with legions of angels at command, He made no resistance, but suffered Himself to be led away to death. With the consciousness that He was "the Lion of the tribe of Judah, he went as a lamb to the slaughter."

The Book of Revelation is essentially the book of the Lamb. The position and the figures change, but it is the same Being. "I beheld, and lo! in the midst of the throne and of the four living ones, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain" still the Lamb, but no longer the suffering One; though still bearing the marks of the cross, He is enthroned, with power, knowledge, and authority, and adored by all the multitudes of the heavenly

« EelmineJätka »