of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed."

There we have it, "in six days the Lord made heaven and earth:" it may not be disputed; the words settle it; why debate any more? Yes: then also the verse says, "on the seventh day he rested:" was the Lord tired by what he had done? Moreover, the text says the Lord was "refreshed:" did he have to stop creating for twenty-four hours because of his need of refreshment? This absurd literalism is driving us into a corner.

Once more: the relief in every case seems to be found in the acknowledgment of what has been stated already, namely, that Moses wrote in a colloquial style, and not in a strictly scientific. His descriptions, therefore, are not to be taken as if seen on the heavenly side, but on the earthly; he is giving his own account of what he saw, and a popular and picturesque form of expression is adopted. These "days" a rhetorician would declare to be not God's days, but Moses'. Turn to a somewhat similar phraseology of the apostle John: he had been describing the opening of the seals; at the seventh, he says, "there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." Now, does any one imagine that the thirty minutes was measured up where the book with such a number of seals was; or was the silence of heaven about a half hour, as it seemed to John? It is the same question almost as the other one we are considering: are days and hours and minutes reckoned in heaven? Perhaps Moses had the vision of the creation-work of the first period, at one time, and of the second, at another: who knows? He called those periods by the most natural name that occurred to him in laying such a record as that in Genesis before the world; he was not writing with an exact scientific precision, but with a picturesque and popular freedom in the use of language, just as other authors have chosen in the various books of the Bible. When Job tells us three times, as he does, in three or four chapters, that his "bones" ached, are we silly enough to insist that pain in the human frame is not located in the nerves, as an educated physician would say, but in the bones, as this inspired man is recorded as saying? When Moses writes, that Aaron and Hur held up his hands until "the going down of the sun," shall we insist that the modern astronomers are all wrong in declaring that the sun never does "go down," only the world turns over and makes it seem so-they are wrong, because an inspired man says it did in his day? We explain all that a hundred times a year to our children, by telling them that he spoke about things in nature as they seemed to him. So here: if the scholars ever prove that geology needs and must have long periods of time, more extensive than any notion of twenty-four hours would furnish, then the wise thing to do will be to let them have their own way of showing it.

Now, it will not be best to try to answer any other questions in the present connection. The progress of the discussion so far seems to have settled two great points at least.

First, it makes perfectly clear that this world had a beginning. Here is an end of all those fine-spun and metaphysical speculations about the eternity of matter. The masterly intellects of the last generation were exercised in combatting what now the veriest child in our common schools can disprove. All these dynasties of creatures came at a fixed moment in time, no matter where that will eventually be placed by the patient students who are trying to establish it; they came with a beginning; some of them disappeared with an end. We are able to say where they entered the circle of organic existences, and first opened the eyes of their being on the light of God. Well has it been said in triumph, under the glory and gladness of some late discoveries, that a skeptic who, in this age of the world, would attempt to fall back upon the old fiction

of an infinite series of creatures, as an answer to the revelations of God's Word, would be simply laughed to scorn.

Then, another thing is settled: every discovery in honest science shows that the God of nature and of grace is one and the same. The open admissions of the leaders in the philosophic world prove that some great bodies of scholarly men now prefer to have devout guides. Geology has earned a place among the friends of the Bible. It is folly of prejudice and madness of conservatism to stand and pull back so, while our generous helpers, who know more than we do, are trying to push onward the Gospel. It is better to be “in league with the stones of the field" than to be set stubbornly against them. The day has passed in which pulpit-men can stand up before intelligent congregations and declaim violently against what they call "the horrid blasphemies of geology," "the impious profanations of this science, falsely so-called." Sir J. William Dawson of Canada is a scientist of such eminence in his immediate sphere of geology, that he has but recently been chosen President of the British Association,—the highest assembly of English-speaking scientists. He certainly is entitled to an intelligent opinion-as a scientist-on this subject. Referring to the first chapter of Genesis, he has said: "The contents of this chapter, relating, as they do, to matters which preceded the advent of man, must have been just as much the result of direct inspiration as if they had contained a prophecy of the distant future." Recognizing the fact that many features of this record were extant long before the days of Moses, he believes that its substance "was a revelation to some antediluvian patriarch, perhaps to Adam himself." As to the correspondence of the record with the disclosures of modern science, he says: “It is now generally admitted that the order of creation in the long geological epochs, revealed by scientific investigation, corresponds very closely with that in Genesis."

What is the use of our turning back the hand of good-will offered thus by the highest authority in the world? What is the gain to our creeds or the Scriptures from our insisting that scientists are necessarily a dangerous class of skeptics, when they themselves tell us that the admitted differences between Genesis and geology are by no means vitally antagonistic, and will, most likely, soon be reconciled?

VII.-LIGHT ON IMPORTANT TEXTS.
No. XXXII.

BY HOWARD CROSBY, D.D., NEW YORK.

And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.-Rev. xiv: 13.

THIS passage is used constantly in burial services, as if it referred to the condition of all dead saints. But a careful examination of the context will show the error of this. That the dead saint is blessed and that he rests from his labors, are truths; but these are not the truths here enunciated. The prophet-apostle is describing the judgment of Babylon, whose character is afterward given in the 17th chapter, and shown very clearly to be "the woman (church) drunken with the blood of the saints" and "reigning over the kings of the earth." The saints are encouraged to wait patiently for this issue (ver. 12). And then as their patience is rewarded with the destruction of the Antichrist, the voice from heaven speaks as in our passage.

Notice the words "from henceforth." The Greek forbids their being taken with what follows, as the margin suggests. They refer to the word

"die" and not to the words "saith the Spirit." There is a peculiar blessing to those who die from that time. This at once shows that the death of every pious person is not intended, but the pious of a particular period. Now we cannot suppose that the pious dead of one period have an advantage in resting from their labors over the pious dead of another period. What then is meant? For here certainly a special advantage is given to these here mentioned.

We must remember that this whole book is written in highly figurative language. This chapter is full of remarkable figures. Is it likely that in this verse there should be a sudden abandonment of figure, to be resumed immediately after? If we maintain the figurative language, all is clear. The dead which are dying in the Lord (ἀποθνήσκοντες and not ἀποθάνοντες) are those who are described by the apostle as dead to sin (Rom. vi: 2, 11), dead with Christ (Rom. vi: 8), dead to the law (Rom. vii: 4, and Gal. : 14). They are the believers of that period when Antichrist is destroyed. They will be specially blessed. Why? Because now no longer will their contest with Antichrist weary them, and what they do for Christ will be successful in every particular. Their works will accompany them or follow along with them in their abundant fruits. It will be a day of spiritual peace and prosperity for the church of God upon the earth. Now we see the power of the words "from henceforth." Until Antichrist is slain there must be hard struggle on the part of the church, but when the arch-enemy is destroyed, the church shall enjoy a season of tranquility and abounding success.

These words "from henceforth" really make the passage inappropriate at a funeral. They are there meaningless.

VIII. GEMS AND CURIOSITIES FROM A LITERARY CABINET.-No. VII.

BY REV. ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D., PHILADELPHIA.

123. Wasted time reminds us of the calendars on our tables. Time tears off a new day, but the other side is a blank.

124. In danger the religious instinct asserts itself. Young men justify card-playing as an innocent and harmless diversion. But in the battle of Sunday morning in our late war the soldiers were observed to clean out their pockets before the engagement and throw away their cards.

125. "Magna civitas, magna solitudo.”—Bacon.

126. Not to animals, but to angels, is given the highest life. The greatest genius of the middle ages goes down to the future doomed for his sensuality. 127. France, in the revolution, hung up her motto, "Liberty, equality, fraternity." Napoleon changed it to "Infantry, cavalry, artillery.”—Punch. 128. Sin. There is a difference between sin's presence to annoy and its power to destroy.

129. Ambition sacrificing life. Kirke White, who sacrificed life to literary triumphs, said that if he were to paint fame as crowning an undergraduate after the senate house examination, he would represent him as concealing a death's head under a mask of beauty. He has been compared to a struck eagle, stretched on a plain, viewing its own feather on the arrow; the plumage which had warmed its own nest drinking the last life-drop.

130. The Revelation of the Mystery. Romans xvi: 25. Mystery, in the New Testament sense, is not something which cannot be known or ought not to be known, but which has not been known until it was revealed. It means an

open secret, into which the believer is initiated, which he ought to understand, and of which the minister of Christ is the steward to unfold and explain.

131. The Relation of Old and New Testaments to the Mysteries of God is finely set forth in Augustine's famous saying: "Novum Testamentum in Vetere latel; vetus, in novo patet." The mystery of the gospel mainly rests on four facts: Christ's sufferings, death, burial and resurrection. The Old Testament contained these enigmas of prophecy and history, symbol and sacrament. Bengel says it was like a clock moving in silence and in darkness. The machinery was there-the hands were moving on the dial; but few heard clearly or saw clearly the wondrous things of God. But the New Testament is God's Aenologium,-clock of the ages, with an illumined dial-plate, and a grand apparatus that strikes the hours.

132. These four leading facts of Christ's human career find a foreshadowing in the Old Testament and a symbolic presentation in the New. In the passing over of the sprinkled houses, we have sufferings and death of the paschal lamb; in the passing over of the Red Sea, burial and resurrection in a parable. "In the two sacraments of the New Testament, we have these four facts set forth: Sufferings and Death, in the Lord's Supper. 1 Cor. xi: 26. Burial and Resurrection in Baptism." Rom. vi: 3, 4, 5. (Rev. Dr. F. M. Ellis.)

133. "The Obedience of Faith." Vakо RioTεws, a remarkable phrase, embracing the substance of the whole gospel: Faith, the bond of union with Christ, upon which salvation practically depends; obedience the comprehensive word representing all those good works which are both the fruit and the proof of faith. The emphasis of the New Testament is upon these two words: Faith Obedience. He who puts obedience in place of faith, is self-righteous; he who puts faith in place of obedience is antinomian. We are to believe, and believing obey. Hence Peter, Paul, John, James, all lay stress upon obedience-the believer is to acknowlege Christ as "Lord,”—i.e., Master; the "prophet" to be heard and heeded in all things, upon penalty of death. Insubordination cannot be tolerated any more than unbelief. We are servants, disciples, followers of the Lord Jesus. Every thought is to be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Even Love cannot swallow up obedience; for “this is the Love of God that we keep his commandments." Every true grace, faith, hope, love, finds its incarnation in obedience.

134. The Domain of Science. Three offices pertain to science: 1. Observation. 2. Classification and arrangement. 3. Induction. Its functions are experimental, constructive and inductive. A man who is both safe and scientific in observation may be careless in classification, and illogical in induction. His premises may be sound and his conclusion false. We must beware of the assumption of infallibility by scientific popes. There is a tendency to speak "ex cathedra," to lend the sanction of a great name to a mere theory and substitute speculation for knowledge, theory for fact. But even if a zoologist “calls a sheep's tail a leg, it does not make it so."

135. Liturgical forms, devised by men, have this disadvantage: any human form of prayer is like the shell of the cocoon-the life within will ultimately burst and break through it, or it will hinder and cramp the development of life. No form but those which the Holy Ghost has framed has ever proved elastic and flexible enough for growing spirituality. Even inspired forms sometimes have to give way to "groanings which cannot be uttered."

136. Evolutional development cannot explain two things: the origin of life, or the order in creation. Matter cannot give what it has not got; atoms and molecules had not sensation, instinct, memory, intelligence, reason, conscience. These are something not previously in the molecule. How did they come to

be in man? Whatever development may have accomplished, the introduction into the product of new powers, potencies and possibilities could only be by special act of God. Evolution implies previous involution.

137. Order and liberty. Order prepares for the highest liberty. It scoops out the channel for the fuller, freer flow of liberty.

138. There is a radical evil in preaching whenever it lacks simplicity. The elaborate essay, the philosophical disquisition, is not a sermon.

The highest art in preaching finds its apex in simplicity. And the highest simplicity is inseparable from sincerity. The man who is cold, who lacks deep emotion and sensibility in presenting Gospel truth, brilliant as an iceberg and just as chilling, is never a simple Gospel preacher. The Roman Catholic theologians rightly put among divine gifts the Donum Lachrymarum.

139. "Nomen Sit Omen." Many an enterprise has depended for its succe or its failure on a name; and in issuing a new book, how much hangs on the choice of its title!

Christ appealed to The whole Bible is

140. Heaven and Hell. Future retribution belongs to the scheme of salvation. Vicarious sacrifice introduces us to the Holy of Holies, with the uncreated Glory of the Shekinah. The farther we retire from this, the nearer we approach to the outer darkness which may be felt. Future retribution must be preached as the complement to the Shekinah glory. human fears. Silence here is consent, therefore heresy. full of blood-red pictures of guilt and fire-red pictures of wrath. But it is well to keep close to Bible terms and forms of expression, and to beware of transferring to God imperfect human conceptions. Nowhere is a Bible spirit so needful as in preaching wrath. A wrong disposition in the preacher becomes a discoloring, distorting lens, through which a false image of the truth is conveyed.

141. Civil Baptism. The advanced republicans of France, who already have civil marriages and civil funerals, are now beginning to practice civil baptism. A few weeks ago, at a village in the Indre-et-Loire, the mayor officiated, and pouring white wine on the child's head, pronounced the words, "Pierre Victor, I baptize thee in the name of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. Vive la Republique !"

142. Evolution. They do not speak of shingling a house now-they call it the evolution of the roof. When the cat has kittens they call it "descent with modification." When some of them are drowned, it is "survival of the fittest" and "natural selection."

143. Power of Forgiveness. When the Dauphin, Louis XVII., a child, torn from the arms of his mother Marie Antoinette, was imprisoned in the temple, he was put in charge of Simon, a violent and brutal Jacobin, who indirectly tried to murder the boy by cruelty. He left him to languish in a solitary cell, without amusement, employment or exercise. He had no fresh air, little water, and coarse food flung in at the half opened door. He could not even wash himself, his bed went unmade for six months, and for more than a year his clothes were unchanged. The child was, by this treatment, reduced to the borders of imbecility. Yet, when there seemed likely to be a counter revolution, which should put him on the throne, his brutal jailer, with a satanic leer at him, asked, "What would you do with me, if you found yourself on the throne?" "Je vous pardon erai." I would pardon you! was the angelic answer. Even Simon showed some signs of being touched by the divine pathos of such forgiveness!

144. Preparing to Preach. Bishop Wilberforce, toward the close of life, gave up all direct preparation of sermons, seeking only to prepare himself.