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LIA FAIL, THE STONE OF DESTINY.

The Coronation Chair and Jacob's Stone in

Westminster Abbey.

This ancient historical stone, now resting in Westminster Abbey, beneath the coronation chair, is known also as "Jacob's Stone," the "Stone of Scone," the "Coronation Stone," and is believed to be

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one of the very stones that the patriarch rested his head upon at Bethel, when he dreamed of the ladder to heaven and the angels ascending and descending upon it, as narrated in Gen. xxviii. 21, 22, when he vowed that "if God KEPT him in the way that he was to go, that stone should be God's House." In Gen. xlix. 22, 44, we think there is a distinct reference to this stone of Jacob, whose name

A TYPE OF THE TRUE ROCK OF AGES.

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is also Israel, to the effect that the patriarch dying bequeathed it as an heirloom to Joseph, who inherited the birthright instead of Reuben (1 Chron. v. I.), the first-born,-but the mistranslation of the 24th verse has deprived the passage of its proper meaning, which is "from that time he (i.e., Joseph) kept the stone of Israel." We ask our readers to refer to the following passages in the Bible, Ps. cxviii. 22, 23; Matt. xxi. 42, 43; Isa. xxviii. 16; I Peter ii. 3, 8; and Dan. ii. 34, 45, and without robbing them of the least portion of their spiritual interpretation in reference to Christ, the true "Rock of Ages," we would state that as we find all the symbols used in the Bible were realities that referred to some particular object, such as the Brazen Serpent, the Ark, the Mercy Seat, the Tabernacle, the Paschal Lamb, the Scape-Goat, Aaron, &c. &c., so we see no reason for supposing that the stone so often referred to in Scripture was not some particular stone,-material and tangible, but only to be taken in a spiritual sense.

Lia Fail-The Stone of Destiny.

We cannot do better than give an extract from the geological account of the coronation stone, by Professor A. C. Ramsay, LL.D., F.R.S., Director of the Geological Survey of England, &c., June 19, 1865

:

"The coronation stone consists of a dull reddish or purplish sandstone, with a few small embedded pebbles. One of these is of quartz, and two others of a dark material, the nature of which I was unable to ascertain. They may be Lydian stone. The rock is calcareous, and is of the kind that masons would call 'freestone.' Chisel marks are visible on one or more of its sides. A little mortar was in the sockets in which the iron rings lie, apparently not of very ancient date. To my eye THE STONE APPEARS AS IF IT

HAD ORIGINALLY BEEN PREPARED FOR BUILDING PURPOSES, BUT HAD NEVER BEEN USED (see Ps. cxviii. 22, 23; Matt. xxi. 42, 43; and I Pet. ii. 3, 8).

"It is very difficult to settle the geological formation to which any FAR TRANSPORTED mass of stone may belong, especially when the history of the mass is somewhat vague in its earlier stages. The country around Scone is formed of old red sandstone, and the tints of different portions of that formation are so various that it is quite possible the coronation stone may have been derived from one of its strata."

"It is EXTREMELY IMPROBABLE that the stone has been derived from ANY OF THE ROCKS OF THE HILL OF TARA, from whence it is said to

B

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THE STONE OF SCONE.

have been transported to Scotland; for they, on the authority of Mr. Jukes, Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland, are of carboniferous age, and do not present the texture of red colour characterestic of the coronation stone" (Dean Stanley's "Memorials of Westminster Abbey," App. II., p. 500).

The kings of Ireland were crowned on the above-mentioned stone, Lia Fail, from B.C. 580 to A.D. 487, when it was removed to Dunstaffnage Castle in Scotland, by Feargus More, and used for the same purpose. Kenneth II. (A.D. 840) moved it to Scone in commemoration of the last battle that was fought there with the Picts. Scone thenceforward became the "Sedes principalis" of Scotland until A.D. 1296, when King Edward I. having subdued Scotland, carried it as a trophy in triumph to England, and placed it in Westminster Abbey.

It is interesting to note here that at the Treaty of Northampton, the victorious Scots demanded, amongst other conditions, the restoration to Scotland of Jacob's stone, which was consented to by Isabella and Mortimer in the reign of Edward II. The people of London allowed the Regalia and Crown Jewels of Scotland to be taken from the town; but when the Commissioners attempted to remove THE STONE from Westminster Abbey, all London rose en masse and resisted; the excitement and tumult was so great, that Can our objectors account for this? the stone was left unmolested. Why should this stone have been more precious to the Londoners than all the Crown Jewels of Scotland.

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On James VI. of Scotland succeeding to the throne of England, he and his successors to the present time have been crowned upon "And it. In connection with this custom read 1 Kings xxiii. 3, the king (Josiah) stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord;" also 2 Kings xi. 14, "And when she (Athaliah) looked, behold the king (Jehoash) stood by a pillar, AS THE MANNER WAS; and again 2 Chron. xxxiv. 31. "It is sufficiently certain," says the late Joseph Robertson of the Register House, Edinburgh, in a letter dated July 7, 1866, "that from the beginning of our historical record, about the year 1100, the Scottish kings were inaugurated at Scone by being placed in the royal chair of stone-'in Regem Sedem,' 'super Cathedram Regalem lapidem, &c.'"

The oldest writer who tells the legends of the royal stone is William of Rishanger in A.D. 1292. He thus describes the coronation of King John Balliol at Scone :-"Johannes de Balliolo, in festo Sancti Andreæ sequenti, collocatus super lapidem Regalem, CAPITI SUO dum iret de Bersabee quem JACOB SUPPOSUERAT solemniter coronatur." John of Baliol is solemnly crowned, at the following feast of St. Andrews, having been placed on the royal

THE STONE OF FATE.

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stone, WHICH JACOB HAD PLACED UNDER HIS HEAD, whilst he was journeying from Beersheba.

"The next writer in point of antiquity who speaks of the history of the Stone of Scone is John of Fordun, a canon of the Church of Aberdeen, who was alive in 1386. He tells two stories about it. One is that Milo, king of the Scots in Spain (Scoti is translated wanderers by Sir Walter Scott, Hosea ix. 17), gave it to his favourite son Simon BREK (Baruch? Jer. xlv. 1), the first king of the Scots in Ireland; and that Simon Brek placed it in Tara, where it remained until it was brought to Scotland by Fergus, the son of Erch or Ferchard. He adds, that according to some, Gathelus, the founder of the race of the Scots (so named from his wife Scota, daughter of King Pharaoh) brought the stone from Egypt to Spain. The other story is that Simon Brek dragged it up from the bottom of the sea, along with the anchor of his ship, during a gale on the Irish coast.

"Both stories speak of the stone as of marble hewn into the form of a chair 'in formam cathedræ decisum ex marmore lapidem.'

"Let me add that there appears some reason to suppose that there were two stones at Scone : (1.) the Stone of Fate (Lia Fail), now at Westminster; (2.) a stone chair in which, it would seem, the Stone of Fate was placed when kings were to be inaugurated.

"Nothing is more certain than that King Edward I. carried the Stone of Fate to Westminster in 1296. Yet in 1306, we read that King Robert Bruce was placed in the royal seat at Scone in sede positus Regali'" (Dean Stanley's "Memorials of Westminster Abbey," App. II.).

There was formerly a piece of wood or metal attached to this stone, on which was inscribed the following prophetic couplet :

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"Ni fallat fatum, Scoti hunc quocunque locatum,
Invenient lapidem, regnare tenentur ibidem.”

"If fates go right, where'er this stone is found,
The Scots shall monarchs of that realm be found."

Sir Walter Scott translates as follows:

"Unless the Fates be faultless grown,

Or prophet's voice be vain,
Where'er is found this sacred stone,

The wanderer's race shall reign."

"It was one of these secular predictions," says Dean Stanley,

"of which the fulfilment cannot be questioned.

Whether the pro

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GOD'S PROMISE TO DAvid fulfilled. phecy was actually inscribed on the stone may be doubted, though this seems to be implied, and on its lower side is still visible a groove which may have contained it; but the fact that it was circulated and believed as early as the fourteenth century is certain ("Mem. West. Abb.," p. 64).

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"It (the stone) is the one primeval monument WHICH BINDS TOGETHER THE WHOLE EMPIRE. The iron rings, the battered surface, the crack which has all but rent its solid mass asunder (Note this rock being a type of Christ, I Pet. ii. 3-8, reminds us of the veil of the Temple which at His death was rent asunder, Matt. xxvii. 51; Heb. x. 20), bear witness to its long migrations. It is thus embedded in the heart of the English monarchy-an element of poetic, PATRIARCHAL heathen times, which, LIKE ARAUNAH'S ROCKY THRESHING-FLOOR IN THE MIDST OF THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON, carries back our thoughts to races and customs now almost extinct; a LINK WHICH UNITES THE THRONE OF ENGLAND TO THE TRADITIONS OF TARA AND IONA, and connects the charm of our complex civilisation with the forces of our mother earth-the rocks and stones of savage nature" ("Mem. West. Abb.," p. 66).

Thus we observe that the true, faithful, and covenant-keeping God of Israel has fulfilled His promise to David, literally, unto this day, in the person of our beloved Queen the Empress of India: and spiritually in Him, who reigneth for ever in the hearts of His people of every tribe and tongue and nation (John xviii. 36; Phil. ii. 10, II). Thus, too, we understand that the sceptre has not departed from Judah, as foretold by the dying patriarch (Gen. xlix. 10), and will not until Jesus comes to reign personally upon the earth (Isa. xi. 1-10; Luke i. 32, 33, &c.)

All hail the power of Jesus' name!

Let angels prostrate fall;

Bring forth the royal diadem,

And crown Him Lord of all.

YE CHOSEN SEED OF ISRAEL'S RACE,
Ye ransomed from the fall,
Hail Him who saves you by His grace,
And crown Him Lord of all.

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