THE MOULD AND THE MEDALLION. A LESSON IN THE CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE. FOR understanding some subjects, and for appreciating some kinds of evidence, a special education is requisite. In order to understand the true theory of the planetary system, the mind must be prepared by a knowledge of mathematics. The Newtonian system would still be the true theory of the universe, even although no mortal could appreciate the proofs on which it rests: but where there exists a competent knowledge of geometry, and where the celestial phenomena are adequately observed, the doctrine of gravitation forces itself on every sane and unprejudiced understanding. In other words, it sometimes needs one truth to pave the way for another. When the Most High was about to introduce into the world the most important of all revelations, He prepared a receptacle on purpose for it. He selected a "peculiar people," and by a lengthened process of instruction He fitted them for understanding His final message, and for giving the first welcome to the world's Redeemer. Had the Advent taken place in Italy or Greece, or in ancient Britain, we can scarcely see how the Saviour could have made His meaning understood, or how He could have demonstrated His celestial mission. Believing in a thousand deities,-believing, too, that heroes and patriots had often been promoted to a place among the gods, had Jesus appeared in such a nation working His miracles of mercy, it would have been supposed that he was just another Hercules or Esculapius, or a god come down in the likeness of men, and who would again go back to his native Olympus. With a most imperfect ethics,-perceiving little harm in fraud and covetousness, in lust and falsehood, and practising without remorse the most atrocious of crimes, they had scarcely first principles sufficient to appreciate the heavenly morality of the Mount of Beatitudes, and had nothing of that "conscience of sin" which longs for a Saviour. And possessed of no prophecies,-taught by no Moses or Isaiah, -they neither looked out for a Messiah, nor did they know the tokens by which to distinguish Him when once He appeared. But for this greatest event of human history God prepared a people and a place; He prepared the Hebrew people and the Holy Land. First of all, He segregated the Hebrew race from all the nations of the world. Enclosing them within a cordon of rites and ceremonies more exclusive than any brazen wall, He planted them in Palestine, and through the long pagan ages He kept them dwelling quite alone. By a process as strange as it was wise and effective, He familiarised them with certain great ideas, and taught them those fundamental truths which it was essential that at least one nation should know. He taught them that God is one; that He is a spirit, infinite and omnipresent, the Creator of all things. And in teaching them the unity and spirituality of the Divine nature, He placed them on a platform immeasurably exalted above the whole of Heathendom. In the absolute and undoubting certainty that there is only one God, and that God is a spirit, infinite and eternal,-the starting-point of a Hebrew child was in advance of the theological goal of a Plato and a Seneca; and in the mere absence of graven THE DARK WORLD'S GOSHEN. 21 images, alongside of the intensest devotion, Palestine presented an aspect all the more impressive that it was entirely unique and unparalleled. He taught them many of the Divine perfections. The gods of the nations were at the best immortal men,-heroic personages, with a mixture of human infirmities and superhuman powers. Most of them were deified monsters or canonised villains,-patrons of murder and theft, and every pollution; and it is no wonder that the worshippers of Kali and Bacchus grew nearly as vile as the almighty brutes whom they adored. But Israel knew that Jehovah is holy. They knew that the great Creator loves truth and purity, and that all His perfections are arrayed against the thief and the liar, the unchaste and untrue. They knew that God is righteous and faithful to His promises; that He is slow to anger and abundant in mercy. And though it was only a single Psalm, like the 103d or the 139th, more true theology, more genuine devotion, more of child-like faith in the Supreme, would be chanted any morning in the Temple in one such Hebrew hymn than could be compiled from the sacred songs of all the neighbouring bards from Hesiod and Homer down to Pindar and Callimachus.* • The processes of this education have been illustrated in a work of remarkable freshness and power, which we recommend to all who have not yet read it, "The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation. By an American Citizen." Nor can the historical books of the Old Testament be perused with thorough appreciation till the reader has his eyes open to this master fact. It is only when he remembers the important end for which the Most High was teaching and training the "peculiar people," that he can see the rationale of the Levitical code, with all its specifications of creatures clean and unclean; and it is only then that he can understand why judgments so severe and terrible followed acts of transgression. It was needful to wean the people from idolatry, and the plague which followed the erection of the golden calf was a sharp and signal lesson. It was all-important to give an impressive view of the Divine sanctity,—the He gave them good precepts, and in the ten commands the Hebrews had a code the most simple, precise, and comprehensive which a people could desire, and issued with all the majestic sanctions of a legislation direct from Heaven. He taught them the enormity of sin. Not that other nations had no sense of sin; but their apprehension of its demerit and its turpitude was faint, even when they felt its danger. But to the Israelite the law of the leper, the scape-goat, the morning and evening sacrifice, the Day of Atonement, and the perpetual ablutions and offerings, were so many mirrors; and in the focus where all the light concentred was that dark and dreadful evil, sin. And of all men then existing, it was only from the heart of a Hebrew that such bitter cries could be wrung, 66 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness; according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." Yet He taught them that sin may be taken away. Such was the avowed significance of each expiatory offering; and the two ideas,-sin and a satisfaction for sin,-were involved in every sacrifice. We can easily imagine the emotions of a Nathanael, or other thoughtful Israelite, on his yearly visit to Jerusalem. From the battlements of the "Beautiful House," the silver trumpets have sounded their peaceful signal, and the mighty portals are flung open for the day. Already the courts are peopled with kneeling groups and immeasurable interval betwixt the sinful creature and the Holy One of Israel; and this impression was instantly produced by the fate of Korah and his confederates, and afterwards of Uzzah. It was essential that all should feel how the eyes of the Lord are everywhere, beholding the evil and the good; and how could Jehovah's omniscience be more effectually taught to a rude and half-reclaimed nation than by the detection and punishment of Achan? A SCENE IN THE TEMPLE. 23 23 solitary Simeons in their morning prayer, and from the fagots on the burnished altar the flame leaps soft and pale to the sunshine;—when, in his gorgeous robes, and with the Twelve Tribes flashing on his jewelled breast-plate, the High-priest solemnly advances, and a Levite leads forward a spotless lamb. It was touching to see it there, and to know its doom; last week sporting amidst its fellows on the green pastures of Bethlehem, and now the only one of its species amidst this strange multitude, for whose fault it is about to suffer, its unused footsteps slipping on the marble floor, but silent and unresisting. Over its head, on which he lays his hands, the High-priest confesses Israel's sins; and then, taking from an attendant the sacrificial knife, next moment the poor firstling bleeds and dies. And as from the altar where it burns great clouds ascend, fragrant with wine and incense, the voice of praise and prayer rises loud and urgent; and, the service ended, Aaron's successor turns to the prostrate worshippers, and uplifting his outspread hands, he says, "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee the Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace,”—and amidst the loud amens the congregation separates, and the courts are clear. And so we might follow the wistful worshipper through the ceremonial of a Passover, or of a personal sin-offering: and in every sacrifice he would see a remembrance of sin. For just as the morning sacrifice reminded him that sure as the favoured land woke up, so depravity went forth to repeat its daily doings: just as the evening sacrifice told him that six hours had not elapsed till from the fermenting surface of a nation's life a miasma had again arisen which needed prayers and sacrifice to disperse its wrath-attracting exhalations: so the Passover proclaimed that in the holiest home of all that Holy Land, there still was guilt sufficient |