far higher degree, with the inspired, writers of God's Word. Their mental character, bound up, as it always is, with physical temperament and the incidents of life, appears as clearly in their writings as does that of ordinary writers in theirs. The style and habit of thought of St. Paul differ as entirely from those of Peter, and those of St. James from both, and those of St. John again from all, as the style and habit of any mere human author from those of another. And thus it is, among other gracious purposes in this variety, that God's Word is able to lay hold of so many differing sympathies, and to strike its roots among the infinitely various mental characters of men. And not only so, but thus also is the individual Christian able, by studying his Bible, to see divine truth, not through one medium only, but through many; to appreciate it on all its sides, and become well-furnished unto the kingdom of heaven; prepared for all the trials by which the different parts of his own being must be tried in the course of perfecting his faith." But while this is the case, how common is a mere indiscriminate use of Scripture? How few know any distinction, for instance, between the narratives of the four Evangelists? As an illustration of this distinction, we give the following long but very interesting extract from the lecture on THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FOUR GOSPELS. "Take the gospel of St. Matthew. The peculiar gift of the Holy Spirit to this apostle was the recording, in all the fulness of their majesty, of our Saviour's longer and more solemn discourses. In the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters, we have the sermon on the mount; in the tenth, the missionary discourse to the twelve, sent forth to teach and to heal, reaching onward in its prophetic import to the latest ages of the Christian ministry; in the eleventh, that wonderful discourse concerning John, where, answering the question, Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another?' our Lord, having described the office of the law and prophets and the Baptist, cried, saying, 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' 'I am He that should come, and ye need not look for another.' Then in the twelfth chapter, we have His reply to the blasphemy of the Pharisees against Him; in the thirteenth, the wonderful series of noble parables, the commencement of His adoption of that method of teaching, opening with the sower sowing his seed, carrying onward the similitudes through each successive age of Christendom, and concluding with that last sitting down on the shore of time, and emptying the net of the Church. In the sixteenth, again, we have the answer to Peter's confession expanded at length; in the eighteenth, the beautiful exposition of the child-like spirit, ending with the parable respecting the necessity of Christian forgiveness. And so we might proceed, with a great discourse at every turn, till we come to the grand climax of all, His denunciation of the false formalists of Israel in chapter xxiii., ending with His final departure from that temple, which was no longer His but theirs, left now unto them desolate;-and followed by the solemn prophecy of chapter xxiv., the two prophetic parables of chapter xxv., and its sublime close, where only Jesus reveals himself as the King on the throne of His kingdom, and proclaims the final doom of all nations gathered before Him. The characteristic of St. Matthew's gospel is majesty, and that principally manifested in the discourses of our Lord. His depictions of incidents, as compared with those of St. Mark and St. Luke, are generally but scanty: in some cases, if we had not the other Evangelists to fill them out, we should hardly gather the peculiar instruction, which from them we learn the history was meant to convey. This, it is true, is most plainly to be seen in matters which occurred previously to his own call as an apostle, and which we may well believe that he related more generally and summarily than those which he himself witnessed; but the same character, that of less grasping minute details, and giving more the general view of incidents, prevails throughout. In one remarkable instance, and in some minor ones, the chronological order of events is inverted by him. The one great instance is, in his relating our Lord's visit to the land of the Gergesenes, and the casting out of devils there, in chapter vii., whereas we know, from St. Mark, that it happened on the evening of the day when all those parables related in chapter xiii. were spoken. "If we now proceed to the gospel of St. Mark, we shall find almost every characteristic varied. "St Mark's gospel is not an abridgment of St. Matthew's; but it is a wonderful, independent record of distinct character and spirit. "Its character is distinct: for, whereas the first Evangelist is for the most part, as I said, in his narrative, summary and general; the second is most minute, vivid, and particular. Everything, even including those matters which are lightly passed over, is given with the graphic touches which betoken an eye-witness, of fervent spirit, and deeply impressed with what he saw and heard. Almost all the descriptions how our Lord looked, what gestures He used, what exact words He spoke in the vernacular dialect of Palestine, are derived from St. Mark's gospel. If you follow out this clue for yourselves, you will find a mine of interest, in which much treasure will reward your search. "The spirit, also, of St. Mark's gospel must be noticed. St. Matthew's was the Gospel of our Father's kingdom; St. Mark's is, as its first verse declares, 'the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God' Before, it was Jesus the Fulfiller; but here there is, for the most part, no backward look on type and prophecy; the Son of God stands personally and alone, as the central figure, busied in His work as the Redeemer. Let me give you just two characteristic points of comparison. First, as to fulness and character of narrative : MATTHEW ix. 1. And He entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into His own city. And behold they brought to Him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee.' MARK ii. 1. And again He entered into Capernaum after some days: and it was noised that He was in the house. And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door and He preached the Word unto them And they come unto Him bringing one sick of the palsy which was borne of four. And when they could not come nigh unto Him for the press, they uncovered the roof where He was; and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed whereon the sick of the palsy lay. When Jesus saw their faith, He said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.' "Next, as to both character of narrative and spirit-St. Matthew dwelling on the fulfilment of prophecy, St. Mark adducing the spiritual power of the divine Son of God: MATTHEW viii, 16. When the even was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils: and He cast out the spirits with His word, and healed the sick. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.' MARK i. 32, And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto Him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils: and all the city was gathered together at the door. And He healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew Him.' "St. Mark relates very few of our Lord's discourses; but those few are given with wonderful solemnity, and with all their impressive repetitions, the sound of which evidently still haunted the ear of the writer. "It was ever believed in the ancient Church, that St. Mark was the companion, and secretary or interpreter, of St. Peter, in his ministry; and certainly the internal character of his gospel may well agree with the idea that it constitutes the substance of the testimony of that apostle. Warm-hearted as we believe him to have been, full of love to his Divine Master, close to Him on the very occasions which this Gospel depicts so minutely, we may regard much of it, at all events, as contributed by him who was the most valuable, as he would be one of the most impressible of eye-witnesses. "The record of St. Luke consists of two parts: the former treatise and the latter treatise; the one known to us as his Gospel, the other as the Acts of the Apostles. And these two, by one who would drink second draughts of Scripture, should be treated together. "In narrative, St. Luke is exactly what we might have expected from his own declaration in his preface, where he describes himself as having accurately traced down all things from the first. His narrative, accordingly, is derived from various sources, to which he was led by the inspiration of the Spirit. The large and important opening portion, so distinct in style and character, seems to have been a written record, perhaps, from some internal tokens, drawn up by the mother of our Lord herself, and preserved in the holy family. The rest is of a mixed character-sometimes wonderfully minute and precise, sometimes summary and general, but all put together with the most patient care and accurate attention, with precise dates and notes of order, where such were required; and less certain sentences of connexion, where the events do not follow one another, but merely relate to the same period of our Lord's ministry. "We know St. Luke to have been the constant companion of St. Paul. St. Paul was eminently the apostle of progress. We ever find him in advance of the Church, and, in his own striking words, 'forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth to the things which are before.' And both in his gospel and in the Acts, St. Luke is of the same on record which may set forth Him who was in the beginning, whose glory was manifested in the flesh by His conflict with unbelief, whose love, eternal as His power, persisted through all the weaknesses and all the treacheries of His own disciples, triumphing gloriously in this, that He laid down His life for His friends,-sealing that triumph by the satisfaction of the doubting apostle, by the triple restoration of the triple denier carrying it onward to all future disciples and all future time, by His last recorded admonition, 'Follow thou me?' Do we want a gospel which shall be, at the same time, the gospel of the Pastbeginning before the world-of the Present, giving us our Lord in all His personal fulness of grace and truth, the Bread of Life, the Water of Life, the Light of the World,-of the Future, telling us of our ascended Saviour abiding with us by His Spirit, the Comforter, speaking of Him in whom whoso believeth shall live though he die, and announcing the hour when all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God and come forth; a gospel which shall proclaim to us Jesus as the Son of God, the Son of man, the Saviour of sinners; a gospel of wisdom, of power, and of love, which shall twine together in one threefold cord all that has gone before, and bind it indissolubly on our hearts? Behold it in the gospel of St. John-that divinest utterance of the voice divine-that sublimest, and yet simplest portion of God's sacred Word! ward spirit. His is the gospel of the new dispensation. The joyous hymns which ushered it in; the simple shepherds who heard them; the prophecy of Him who was to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel,'-these all belong to the character and the subjects of the coming age, not to the fulfilment merely of that which was gone by. He grasps all humanity in Christ, and brings all humanity to Christ. She who loved much and was forgiven much, is only found here. The whole of the chapters describing that last great progress to Jerusalem, in which the Lord appears eminently as the friend of publicans and sinners, are only here. The world-wide parables of divine love, the lost sheep (in its fuller form), the lost piece of money, the lost son, are only here. The parable of the Pounds, to shew that the kingdom of God was not immediately to appear, is only in this gospel. The Ascension, in all its details, and with all its consequences for the future, is only here. It is the Gospel of the Saviour, who is Christ the Lord;' the Gospel of the FUTURE-of the man who went down to his house justified, because he cast himself as a sinner before the merciful God: the gospel which leads on to St. Paul, with all his glorious testimony of free grace, and pardoning love, and the sanctifying Spirit. And St. Luke's second treatise carries on the same spirit and character. Its argument is found in our Lord's words in chap. i., 'Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of earth.' This order is strictly observed in its narrative. First, we have the great apostle of the uncircumcision opening the door of the Church to the Jews, then to the Samaritans, then to Gentiles. Next, the greater apostle of the circumcision, his wonderful conversion, his course through perils innumerable, from Jerusalem round about unto Illyricum, until finally we leave him in the metropolis of the world, though a prisoner, yet 'preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.' Thus in our three narrative gospels, we have St. Matthew the Evangelist of the fulfilled kingdom; St. Mark the Evangelist of the ever-abiding personal Son of God; St. Luke the Evangelist of the New Covenant: we have the Gospel in its past, in its present, and in its future. Is something yet wanting to combine all these? Some PEACE AND WAR. Last week came one to the county town, And play the game of the despot kings, For each is at war with mankind. Ah! God, for a man with heart, head, hand, One still strong man in a blatant land, TENNYSON. (Maud) SACRED POETS. I.-GEORGE HERBERT. (Continued from page 136.) LIKE all whose orthodoxy is borrowed | May'st rule it, as thou list: and pour the shame, from the Holy Scriptures, Herbert has a due amount of moral as well as doctrinal teaching in his works. We shall now quote several passages of strong practical bearing from his "Church Porch." And in doing so, we may remark that there have been times in the history of the Christian Church, when the moral has been generally neglected for the dogmatically doctrinal while individuals are often found with mere theoretical tendencies, who either cannot teach, or are not willing to teach morality as it is inculcated in the gospels and epistles. But there have been times too when morality has been taught, or rather attempted to be taught, without any reference to the holy truths on which it is founded. And nothing can be more unsuccessful. It is like teaching one to read who has not been taught the alphabet. Attempts to divorce the moral from the spiritual, are unhallowed. The two are inseparable. Men may dispute as to the manner of teaching the one or the other; but until they know how to combine them, and to see their intimate relation, everywhere, and always, and in all circumstances, their argumentation on the subject is of little value. Which it would pour on thee, upon the floor; It is most just to throw that on the ground, Which would throw me there, if I keep the round. Shall I to please another's wine-sprung mind, Yet, if thou sin in wine or wantonness, Frailty gets pardon by submissiveness; When thou dost tell another's jest, therein Play not away the virtue of that name, The cheapest sins most dearly punish'd are; If thou wilt die, the gates of hell are broad: Fly idleness, which yet thou canst not fly Into a bed, to sleep out all ill weathers, Art thou a Magistrate? then be severe : If they dare try, a glorious life, or grave. O England! full of sin, but most of sloth; Thy Gentry bleats, as if thy native cloth Some great estates provide, but do not breed The way to make thy son rich, is to fill But if thy son can make ten pound his measure, When thou dost purpose ought, (within thy power,) Be sure to do it, though it be but small: Do all things like a man, not sneakingly : Look to thy mouth: diseases enter there. Who keeps no guard upon himself is slack, Lose not thyself, nor give thy humours way: By all means use sometimes to be alone. Who cannot rest till he good fellows find, He breaks up house, turns out of doors his mind. Be thrifty, but not covetous: therefore give Never exceed thy income. Youth may make Even with the year: but age, if it will hit, Shoots a bow short, and lessens still his stake, As the day lessens, and his life with it. Thy children, kindred, friends upon thee call Before thy journey fairly part with all. Yet in thy thriving still misdoubt some evil; Lest gaining gain on thee, and make thee dim To all things else. Wealth is the conjurer's devil; Whom when he thinks he hath, the devil hath him. Gold thou may'st safely touch; but if it stick What skills it, if a bag of stones or gold By any art, yet to be purchased. None is so wasteful as the scraping dame : By no means run in debt: take thine own measure. Who cannot live on twenty pound a year, The curious unthrift makes his cloth too wide Spend not on hopes. They that by pleading clothes Do fortunes seek, when worth and service fail, Would have their tale believed for their oaths, And are like empty vessels under sail. Old courtiers know this; therefore set out so, As all the day thou may'st hold out to go. In clothes, cheap handsomeness doth bear the bell. Wisdom's a trimmer thing than shop e'er gave. Much curiousness is a perpetual wooing, In Conversation boldness now bears sway. Be sweet to all. Is thy complexion sour? |