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The Fourth Commandment.

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is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it" (Exodus xx. 8-11). "In reading through the eleventh verse it is extremely difficult to believe that the seventh day is a long period, and the Sabbath day an ordinary day; that is, that the same word day should be used in such totally different senses in the same short sentence, and without explanation."1

This difficulty, fairly met, establishes the verity of the symbolism. The word "day" is not used in two different senses. As the day of toil to man, so is the day of the rest; and as the day of work to God, so is the day of repose. The true difficulty is-God never rested: creation is continuous, no break anywhere, processes now in operation perpetuate the primeval operation. God's life is all Sabbath and no Sabbath. Now, the Mosaic account implies a cessation and change in world-development, there not having been any such change; consequently, Gen. ii. 2, 3, is only ȧvepwaivos Móyos, adapted to early unphilosophical conceptions. Human labour in producing, is a symbol of the Divine act in creating; man's repose is a figure of Godly rest. How long did it take God to create the world? Not so long in the Divine lifetime as a week is in man's lifetime. Grand as is the universe, vast as are its operations, many and various the inhabitants, the whole must be regarded by man as not so great a task to God as a week's work to himself. The days are all the same, and are all symbolical. Suppose that Moses meant For six successive Divine days, in which moments are years, God's hand worked; on the seventh Divine day, not yet concluded (Heb. iv. 3-9), He began to rest. Let all holy men, as made in God's image, observe God's rule. Would not such a meaning add greatly to the force of the Divine command? In it is a moral measure for all time, and the key-note of providential arrangements. In it is a "Essays and Reviews," Mosaic Cosmogony: C. W. Goodwin, M.A.

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Interpretation of the Days.

peculiar majesty, specially suited to the growth of science; and the interpretation, now, affords proof of original inspiration. The sanctity and safety of the Sabbath are not shaken, but assured; built on truthful, not erroneous interpretation. We may not presumptuously take any day we please as a seventh of our time; the day was fixed, first, by Divine command; and, now, is settled by Scriptural example and Christian use. Our days, our weeks, our Sabbaths, our work, our rest, are made holy and linked to God. We may liken them to a ladder, set upon the earth, by which we climb to heaven. They are as a pathway across the territory of time; one end vanishes in the past to possess the antiquities of God, the other is lost in the great world-times of the future. The sacred week has not yet been measured by science, as to its duration; nor comprehended, as to its work; on the use we make of our own day in it depends our weal or woe in future life.

Our conclusion, as to the days' vast extent, receives support from two works lately published on chronology.' The writer shows that the Babylonians were acquainted with a solar period of 1460 years, and with a lunar period of 1805 years. The latter having been discovered by observation, not by calculation, some idea may be formed of the immense antiquity of Babylonian astronomy-already, even in the second millennium before the Christian era, familiar with those periods. The author states that the chronology, as found in the first eleven chapters of Genesis, is “original and unfalsified;" and agrees with the chronology of the corresponding periods of Chaldean tradition. As to the time occupied by creation, where the Bible reckons one hour, the Chaldeans computed 10,000 years. The 7 days, or 168 hours of the Bible, are the 168 myriads of years of the Chaldean historian, Berosus. In the antediluvian period, a Bible-week answers to 5 years, or a "Doss" of months in the Chaldean chronology: the proportion being as 23 to 6000, and 23 years including 1200 weeks. As the divisor 23 occurs three times in the chronology of the

A "Die Daten der Genesis:" Jules Oppert.-(From the "Nachrichten von der k. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen," No. 10, 1877). "Salomon et ses Successeurs:" Jules Oppert. Paris, Maissonneuve & Cie., 1877.

The True Meaning.

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antediluvian patriarchs, so the divisor 6000 occurs three times in that of the Chaldean antediluvian kings. Whether or not further investigation will confirm the antiquity asserted by Jules Oppert remains to be seen. Our own argument has been worked out independently.

We are asked "Why the larger interpretation, supposing it to be correct, was not earlier and forcibly given?" The reply is The true interpretation may have been lost, as the Cheidean History was lost; or we may say-It would have been useless, men could not have understood it. Men, studying nature all these thousands of years, have not attained to a full knowledge of it; no wonder that they are imperfect in interpretation of Scripture. Philosophy has been many ages in progress, yet how little is that progress! We may be sure that a faultless interpretation of Scripture will not be inconsistent with a perfect knowledge of nature. The sacred language is not only for the mass of mankind—incapable of reasoning; but for those who are able to give a reason for the hope that is in them. God's Word abides in the same letter, while reason and science change their language, but it expands within its own limits for verification of the Divine origin, and for contentment of our emotional and intellectual requirements. No addition can be made by human ingenuity to the amount of revealed information; but as we obtain deeper, wider, and more accurate knowledge, the Word of God and the Work of God are found to grow with our growth and to be in perfect accord. The Bible will never be left amongst the childish things which men put away; the vitality, elasticity, and comprehensiveness of meaning, answer all the requirements of life and knowledge; fresh truths are discovered, and hidden depths are continually revealed (Eph. i. 9, 10; Heb. xii. 27, 28; 1 Peter i. 25).

Changes, rightly made, vindicate, rather than impugn, the fact of divine inspiration; and out of the nettle, danger, pluck the flower, safety. To abide by the letter, yet find a larger meaning in it; to hold a natural fact, and see a spiritual reality; to discover that man's day is a microscopic miniature of God's day; is gain not loss. "Scripture cannot be broken." Men may obtain imperfect views; from various stand-points

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take opposite aspects; and truth, being progressive, the knowledge of past and present generations is necessarily incomplete; but this establishes our position: the Book is a mystery, the origin is Divine, the diction is by Inspiration, the substance is of God. Men have been fearful, not fully knowing its depths. A half-civilised world explains it, the interpretation is erroneous; and the Mephistopheles of science rejoice. The unbeliever does not discern in it a mighty spiritual meaning. What of that? The circle of knowledge is extended, physical nature is proved to be God Almighty's material garment, and the unbeliever becomes faithful. Then, though the words of this Book remain the same, the fashion of their countenance is altered; and that which was suitable for the world's childhood, is a fit companion and consolation for its manhood. Theology, shouldered and jostled by the sturdy growths of modern thought, is becoming sturdier; conquering rude malicious opponents, and fascinating the intellectual. Theologians have been too patristic, too sectarian, and have not yet done with their schools; doubtless, the freer Theology of the future, if we are faithful, will move as by the Spirit of God on the face of the waters. Meanwhile Theology bids us follow Nature with unfaltering steps, and to study God's great works and processes for which no measurement nor computation can be found. There were days without sun, a formless abyss, light coming forth from darkness, sky clearing, firmament expanding, hills emerging, waters gathering, and life quickening.

"Oh! I know the hand that is guiding me,
Through the shadow to the light;

And I know that all betiding me

Is meted out aright.

I know that the thorny path I tread

Is ruled with a golden line;

And I know that the darker life's tangled thread,

The brighter the rich design." ANON.

Not unconscious of the argument against our earth's antiquity, drawn from the genealogies of Christ, a few reasons are appended to show that these genealogies do not historically fix the age of the world.

These genealogies prove that the computation of time

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Genealogies of Christ.

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was attended to in early periods; but the variations show that chronology was always subordinate to the greater work of marking the line or family in which our Lord's birth was to be realised. Not even on this account were all the names preserved for it was the practice of the Hebrews to omit names from their genealogies for moral and judicial reasons ;1 and in the times from the patriarchs down to Moses, or even to David, one name sometimes stands for a whole century in the genealogical series. The sojourn in Egypt of four hundred and thirty years has only the names of Levi, Kohath, Amram, Aaron, Eleazar, to correspond to it; and five of the tribe of Judah-Pharez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, and Nahshon. It was also the custom to repeat ancestral names generation after generation: the Pharaohs, Benhadads, Abimelechs of Gerar, show this. Definite round numbers were likewise chosen; for example, from the Patriarchs to David are ten generations (Ruth iv. 18-22); but we learn from other sources (1 Chron. vi. 1) that twenty-two generations existed between Levi and David. Ten generations fill up the interval from Noah's sons to Abram's father; and further back, from Adam to Noah (Gen. xi. 10-26, and v.). Sometimes grandsons and great-grandsons are counted sons (Mat. i. 8): Ozias (Uzziah) was three generations from Joram; Jechonias, son of Salathiel (Mat. i. 12), was really son of Neri (Luke iii. 27); Salathiel is called son of Zerubbabel (Mat. i. 12); but we are told (1 Chron. iii. 19) of a different son: Salathiel being Zerubbabel's grandson, by his daughter Shelomith. A founder's paternity extends, in fact, over all who derive their origin from him (Gen. xxxi. 28-43; I Chron. ii. 50, 51).

Both the Genealogies, by St Matthew and St Luke, are probably not only of Joseph, but also of Mary; and if the Matthan of St Matthew is the same as the Matthan of St Luke, Jacob and Heli were own brothers. St Matthew reduces the seventeen generations, from David to the carrying away into Babylon, to fourteen: leaving out Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah, between Joram and Ozias;

1 The New Testament, Luke iii. 31-38: Bishop Wordsworth.
"Genealogies of our Lord," pp. 57-66: Lord Arthur Hervey.

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