him, beam like a star of hope through the drowning darkness of that dismal night. This was the love which thawed his pen, when the moan of wintry winds made him miss the cloak he left at Troas, and impelled him to write to Timothy a testamentary entreaty to 'hold fast' the truths which were hastening himself to martyrdom. Devotedness to Christ is a principle which never dies, and neither does the diligence which springs from it." Pp. 51-54.

Again, in a similar strain, he thus speaks of the necessity of having the eye fixed on Christ,-the necessity of really knowing him as our Redeemer, in order to a truly fervent spirit.

"It is an eye fixed on Jesus which kindles the fervent spirit. An unconverted man is not happy. There is a dull load on his spirit-a dim cloud on his conscience-he scarcely knows what he would be at— but he certainly is not happy. If a considerate man, he is aware that there must be a joy in existence which he has not yet struck out,—a secret of more solid bliss which he hitherto has not hit upon. He is not at peace with God. He has not secured an explicit reconciliation with his Creator and Sovereign. God's frown is upon him,—a frown as wide as is the sinner's universe. Go where he may, he cannot get out into the clear day-light of a glad conscience and a propitious heaven. And it is not till he finds his way into the Goshen of the Gospel, the sun-lit region on which the beams of God's countenance still smile down, through the door-way by which an ascending Saviour entered heaven; it is not till, from the gross darkness and palpable gloom of a natural condition, a man is led into the grateful light and glorious liberty of the sons of God; it is not till then that he knows the ecstasy of undiluted joy, and the perfection of that peace which passeth all understanding. It is not till the Spirit of adoption makes him a child of God that he thoroughly feels himself a man; and it is in the sweet sense of forgiveness, and in the transporting assurance that he is now on the same side with Omnipotence, that he first breathes freely. The thrill of a sudden animation sweeps through all his frame; and, encountering an unwonted gaiety all around him, he perceives an unwonted energy within him. with God has brought him power from God, and with the Lord he loves to dictate there is no work which he is loath to do; and with that Lord upon his side, none which he cannot hope to do. The convict-labour and hireling-tasks of the alien and bondsman are exchanged for the free-will offerings and affectionate services of a son and a disciple. Reconciled to God he is reconciled to everything which comes from God; and full of the love of Christ, he courts everything which he can do for Christ. 'Come, labour, for I rather love thee now. Come, hard work and long work, I am in a mood for you now. Come, trials and crosses, for I can carry you now. Come, death, for I am ready for thee now.' His relation to Christ has put him in a new relation to everything else; and the same fountain which has washed the stain from his conscience, having washed the scales from his eyes, an inundation of light and of beauty bursts in from the creation around him, which hitherto was to him as much an unknown universe as its Creator was the unknown God; and the boundless inflowings of peaceful images,

Peace

and happy impressions, and strong consolations, dilate his soul with an elasticity, an enterprise and courage as new as they are divine. He has found a Saviour, and he is happy. The Lord Jesus is his friend; and his spirit, once so frigid, is become a fervent spirit. His new views have made him a new man." Pp. 91-94.

What is there, after all, worthy of an immortal being but a life in earnest ? Less than this may do for the beasts that perish, but nothing less than this will do for the being that is to live for ever. May this precious little work be like a trumpet-voice, to call Christians of every name, and especially the ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ, to a life in earnest. We shall soon be passing into eternity, and should we not be in earnest ? Can we afford to trifle? Have we time to be idle? The Master had none,-shall the servant have?

ART. IV.-The Biblical Cabinet. New Series, Vol. III. The Books of Moses Illustrated by the Monuments of Egypt. Translated from the German of Dr E. W. HENGSTENBERG. By R. D. C. ROBBINS of Andover. Edinburgh: Thomas Clark. 1845.

A WORK abounding in fresh illustrations from the monuments of Egypt, cannot fail to be interesting. The very fact that we have such a work before us, harmonizes with the many remarkable occurrences of the present day. Every one is now awake to perceive that there is some great development of God's mind and purposes about to be made over all the earth. Everywhere there is the restless, feverish motion, that indicates change at hand,-and there is a universality in these movements, that more than all gives note of preparation. We cannot help numbering among those occurrences that strike a reflecting mind, the unexpected and very numerous discoveries that have been made in eastern lands, and countries that are recorded in Scripture. The three kingdoms with which Scripture deals most,-Assyria, Egypt, and Palestine,-the regions where the church of God was cradled, educated, and grew to its manhood,— have all of late years been opened up to our view in a new manner. As to Palestine, every one knows how it has become of late an open and well-traversed field*-measured, and described, and painted to

Yet still it is true, Thou hast been forsaken and hated, but no man passed through thee,'-1. Because that has been a fact for ages. 2. Because its commerce with other lands has entirely ceased; our caravans no longer pass through Israel's land-even as we see fulfilled in the case of Edom, Isa. xxxiv. 10, None shall pass through thee.'

the eye, till its chief scenes are as familiar to us as our own land. But now Egypt also has come into view, and is furnishing its stores of Scriptural illustration. Assyria, too, is inviting attention; its rocky fastnesses preserving, as in a rough cabinet, documents to prove the minute veracity of the chroniclers of Israel, who spoke of Haber, a river of Gozan,' to which Israel was carried captive, and which now, at length, is found bearing the very name that it bore more than twenty centuries ago, when captive Israel first saw its waters gliding on to the valleys. Its ancient capital, Nineveh, seems meanwhile ready to unlock its treasures; * for already have an immense variety of paintings of an historic character, and cuneiform inscriptions, waiting to be deciphered, been brought to light, and laid before the learned. And in all these cases, there has been something singular in the instruments used to bring about the results. The Lord sends at one time to France and Italy for skilful and persevering men, to open up Egypt's monuments; then, at another, brings his messengers from America, to measure Palestine, and climb the Assyrian hills; or overrules the natural taste of a French consul at Mosul, to lead him to laborious and expensive excavations.

But it is with Egypt we have at present to do. Nothing could be more undesigned than the evidence brought forward from the monuments, temples, and catacombs of Egypt. Without any other design than simply to be accurate to the utmost, in giving to the public the result of their labours, Champollion, Rosellini, and others, spent their days in researches of this sort. They had no bias in favour of the Divine record; they were portraying things as they found them, and this they did enthusiastically. But all the time an overruling Providence was employing them as his hewers of wood, and drawers of water.' They were unconsciously doing the work of the tabernacle. As when Gibbon wrote his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire-with prejudices, however, so fearfully biassed against the Word of life, that any reader could at once know that historic partiality in him ever leant to infidelity-his pen was unconsciously drawing up a record of events, that has furnished most plentiful stores for illustrating the fulfilled portions of the Apocalypse. Howbeit, he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so.' Isa. x. 7.

6

We are told that on one occasion, Champollion landing at Carnac for an hour or two, about sunset, took a hasty view of its magnificent halls. It was a hurried visit, and the day nearly gone, yet few of

* Is this another sign in the heavens ? It is at least appropriate that in these last days the world should be reminded of Nineveh; and, while surveying its antiquities, should remember the solemn call to repentance that once rung through its streets and palaces- yet forty days!'

VOL. XVIII. NO. I.

E

his visits were more really important. He had scarcely entered to snatch a view of the sculptures and paintings, when his eye rested on a row of sixty-three prisoners. He at once pointed out in the third line of the row, the figure of a king of Judah. Each figure was symbolical of a nation, or city, or tribe; and he deciphered on this row the inscription, Judah melek Kah,' i.e. king of the country of Judah. It was in such undesigned ways as this, that all the evidence for Scriptural truth was brought to light.

6

In an age like ours, wherein all the forces of neology and infidelity have been mustered against inspiration, is there not peculiar satisfaction, in the fact that the Lord is calmly revealing stores of evidence suited to the occasion? There is providence in the time wherein these stores come to light. The inquiring spirit was first sharpened and roused to activity, and then the broad fields of Palestine and Egypt were thrown open to the search. The advocates of revelation had long held up their case to the view of the world; and when these new fields were opened, in they rushed, certain of finding great spoil. When infidels in France, and neologians in Germany, were forging their weapons, and dazzling the eyes of many with their glare, He who sitteth in the heavens allowed them to indulge their mad rage, and foam out their shame; and then, in silent majestic providence, swept off the sand from Egypt's temples, and the mists of ages from the cities of Palestine, presenting a refutation of all the insinuations of infatuated men. True, he does it silently-but there is expressive meaning in the look which he thus casts on these unbelievers. It is the look which he to Peter that he is now giving to a scornful world; in silence he would draw them by his long-suffering, half-upbraiding love. But it is also a forewarning of what he will yet do. The Lord will come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.' These many proofs of his truth, wherewith he fills the earth, shall be his witnesses on that day; and he has multiplied these proofs, and will do so still more, because the day is at hand.

6

gave

A pert neologian in Germany, Peter Von Bohlen, dared to ap pear before the learned men of his day, with a work in which he thought to prove that the Pentateuch was not of very ancient date, because (as he said) it was full of blunders in regard to all Egypti an customs and facts. Thus he boldly asserted that the Egyptians did not use brick in their buildings, and that Moses had forgotten this, and transferred the bricks of Babylon to Egypt, in his narrative of Israel's bondage! Well might Hengstenberg say, We can scarcely trust our eyes when we read such things. For the truth is, we are literally overwhelmed with proofs of the abundant use of brick in Egypt.' The monuments abound in such buildings

6

walls, tombs, houses, granaries, pyramids. They were made under the king's direction, and many bricks have on them the stamp of the king in whose reign they were made. And it is very remarkable, that more bricks have been found bearing the name of Thothmes III., whom Wilkinson supposes to have been the king of Egypt at the time of the Exodus, than of any other period. But dashing recklessly on, Peter Von Bohlen asserted that sheep were not found in Egypt, though Moses mentions them in Abraham's history. Here, again, every history of Egypt confutes him; and Taylor well says, that such an assertion, in regard to a country where the ram was notoriously an object of worship, is as extraordinary an instance of theoretic rashness as neology has ever produced. In fact, they abounded. A scene from a tomb near the pyramids of Ghizeh, bearing the name of king Suphis, or Cheops, who reigned a century before Abraham arrived in Egypt, represents a shepherd giving an account of the flocks committed to his charge. First come 834 oxen, then 220 cows, 3234 goats, 760 asses, 974 sheep. The steward leans on his staff, with a dog by his side, and scribes are writing the statements made. The same neologian, in like manner, laughed at the free intercourse in society, represented in Genesis, as enjoyed by Egyptian females. But the paintings discovered there abound in representations of actual life to the same effect. In some entertainments, ladies and gentlemen are found in the same apartment, mingling together with all the freedom of modern Europeans. There is incontrovertible evidence on the monuments that the female sex in Egypt were honoured, educated, and as free as in modern society.

The assertion of such adversaries covered themselves with confusion. Their shallow research and oftentimes their profound ignorance, sufficiently exposed them. But not only were they harmless; they unwittingly became useful. Their assertions led to inquiry; and this inquiry once begun found room to revel delightfully amid the records brought to light. It was a light matter now to chase the foe from the field; trophies must be set up, and the strength of the superior host must be exhibited on the battle-field. The suggestions of these reckless men led on to a discovery of facts that all shed undesigned light on Scripture testimony. Hengstenberg entered on this field, and has given in the volume before us a singularly important exhibition of evidence in support of the minute accuracy of Scripture records, even where Herodotus, and Pliny, and Plutarch, are found erring.

We may adduce some specimens. Rosellini brought from Thebes many of the bricks made in the brick-fields of that place, having on them the stamp of Thothmes IV., the fifth king of the eighteenth dynasty. These bricks always have straw mingled with them, as Exod. v. 7 states of those made by Israel; and a small portion