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THE COMPANIONS OF OUR LORD.

II. JOHN THE BAPTIST.

(Continued from page 252.)

INCE John represents the literal truth of the Divine Word, his office as the Baptist is peculiarly appropriate. For it is this truth which accomplishes the purification by means of repentance and reformation of which baptism is the type, and which arms the soul to endure with patience, and to resist with victory, the temptations which form its secondary significance. Thus also are explained the severe reproofs of John's preaching, his stern asceticism, his rigorous fasts. For the external sense of Scripture, addressed as it is to man in his impenitent and unconverted state, necessarily abounds in the language of prohibition and repression; its first purpose being to induce cessation from evil, since without this it is utterly in vain to expect any satisfactory performance of the duties of goodness. Like its historical foretype, also, the letter of the Word is frequent and emphatic in testifying that its mission is merely preparatory; that after it must come the superior authority and the profounder work of the spirit and life of Divine truth, which constitute the very presence of the Lord Himself in the soul, and which are effective, not alone of the negative though indispensable virtue of abstinence from wrong, but of positive growth in the love and practice of right. The literal precepts of Scripture, like John's baptismal water, cleanse the outward character and conduct by the external processes of repentance and reformation. By His Spirit of Truth (John xiv. 17), however, the Lord renews and builds them up from within, thus accomplishing in the soul His Divine work of regeneration, and administering His more vital baptism "with the Holy Ghost and with fire" (Matt. iii. II).

A knowledge of the representative character of John the Baptist fills with spiritual significance and value some parts of the Gospels which would otherwise possess but a personal and biographical interest. A striking example is afforded by the words our Lord spake concerning him to the multitudes: "What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send My messenger before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee" (Matt. xi. 7-10). Striking as are these illustrations when applied to the various fallacious expectations with which the Jews resorted to John's ministry, how much profounder is their meaning if they are interpreted in connection with that literal sense of Scripture of which he is a type! For no cause more often frustrates the purposes for which this is intended by the Lord than the foolish, mistaken anticipations which men entertain of its nature and operation.

To some it is nothing better than a frail reed, quivering in each passing breeze. Scanning its language superficially, and judging it merely by the appearances on its surface irrespective of the Diviner wisdom which underlies them, they find it a ready instrument of every caprice, and even of absolute and most gross error. Indeed, if the Scriptures are regarded simply as teaching natural knowledge, or if the varying aspects of the letter are accepted without reference to the doctrines which explain and reconcile their seem

ing discrepancies, this abuse is inevitable. Under such circumstances each one takes as much of the Word as suits his convenience because it favours his desires, while other statements and precepts, which cannot be bent into conformity with his wishes, are either rejected or ignored. Thus there are no iniquities so flagitious, no pretensions so monstrous, but that a fancied support and justification have been found for them in the pages of the Bible. The dogmas which claim for a human priesthood the control over admission into heaven or hell, or which blasphemously affirm the eternal reprobation, by our Father in the heavens, of millions of beings created for His glory, and utterly helpless to avert the doom to which He has been described as predestinating them; the persecutions waged alike by the Romish and the Reformed Churches; even the abominations and extravagances of Mormonism and similar organized delusions; have all been sustained by an uncandid appeal to sundered scraps of the literal sense of Scripture, parted from their context, and divorced from that inner spirit which is their living soul, and the essence of their Divinity and worth. None can profit, therefore, by the ministry of the spiritual John the Baptist, who, in their wilderness condition of unregenerate naturalism and evil, resort to it in expectation of seeing "a reed shaken with the

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Different, but equally mischievous, is the folly of those who look for "a man clothed in soft raiment." A wider contrast than that between the weak and rustling reed, and a gorgeously apparelled courtier, is scarcely possible; and, of course, the spiritual difference intended must be proportionally great. Before the Lord has censured too low an estimate of the literal sense of Scripture: now, in a manner, He condemns too high a standard. Soft raiment would have ill suited either John's rough life in the desert, or his wild and mixed audience. The craggy precipices and tangled thickets of the Jordan would have torn to tatters any clothing less serviceable than his homely camel's hair; while his hearers would have scouted a preacher of austere self-denial bearing on his person proofs of his own disregard of the rules he sought to impose on them. Yet sceptics sometimes complain that the spiritual herald in the wilderness is not arrayed in a manner just as inappropriate. They marvel at the plainness in outward aspect of a revelation which claims to be from God. They cavil at the roughness of its composition, the bluntness of its diction, the childlike simplicity of its science and philosophy. They apply to it the tests by which they judge Tyndall or Huxley, Froude or Tennyson; and finding it deficient according to these measures, they repudiate its Divine authorship, and patronizingly pronounce it a collection of writings venerable for their antiquity, valuable as a monument of past thought and literary skill, but very mythical if regarded as history, and utterly puerile in their attempts to account for the commencement of the natural universe, or for the origin of the various species of animals by which it is inhabited. Such strictures are just as irrelevant as if a citizen of Jerusalem had returned from the wilderness with complaints that John wore shaggy camel's hair instead of purple and fine linen. For, like John, the letter of Scripture is intended to reach mankind at their very lowest. And the refinements desired by its hypercritical censors would unfit it for this purpose. If written to suit the aesthetic tastes or scientific attainments of to-day, how could it have appealed to Jew or Gentile at the date of the Incarnation? or how would it satisfy minds educated to the standard of a thousand years hence, when Tyndall and Huxley may be as far outstripped as their splendid acquirements already surpass

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the attainments of a thousand years ago? If the infinite wisdom had furnished a revelation containing on its surface nothing but absolute and highest verities, could any finite minds have ever received them? To communicate itself to men, Divine truth must assume forms accommodated to their capacities: preaching in the desert, it must don the desert garb. It is not given as a guide in natural philosophy, or political history, or ethnology. These physical subjects the Lord teaches by physical methods, which it is the province of the students of the physical universe to interpret. His Word, on the contrary, is a revelation of spiritual and Divine truth, which is adapted to the receptive ability of all, and which, in the outermost letter of the Scripture, is rendered available for the very darkest and grossest. At the same time, however, by virtue of its internal sense, which underlies the letter in every part, this revelation is likewise adjusted to the requirements of all orders of finite intelligence both upon earth and in heaven. Rise, Rise, therefore, to a perception of the inward spirit of the Bible, and its form and vesture will acquire a beauty and refinement adequate to the demand of the most exacting criticism; just as the Incarnate Word, seen by the corporeal vision of His disciples, appeared as the lowly suffering Son of Man, whereas, when discerned through their spiritual eyes on the Mount of Transfiguration, "His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light" (Matt. xvii. 2). "They that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses," not in the wilderness, where lies John's scene of labour. Advance out of the wilderness into the royalty of true intelligence; pass from the external ministry and watery baptism of the literal herald into the spiritual consecration and interior thought and love imparted by the Divine Regenerator to whom John bears witness; and the camel's hair and leathern girdle will vanish in the splendour of the honour and majesty in which the Lord our God is clothed, and in the surpassing glories of that light wherewith, as by a garment, He is covered (Ps. civ. I, 2).

"But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet." A prophet, as we have previously stated, is the symbol of Divine truth, or of that doctrine by which the Divine truth is communicated and enforced. To resort to the letter of the Word as to a prophet, therefore, or for the sake of its doctrine of Divine truth, is a wise and legitimate purpose. Yet even this is not the whole of the dignity and use of the spiritual Baptist. He is "more than a prophet; for, betaking ourselves to the pages of Scripture for instruction and knowledge, we receive in addition the succour of our heavenly Father's love. The Lord is Himself present in His Word, and has access thereby to every seeking heart. "I will call upon God," says the Psalmist, "and Jehovah shall save me " (lv. 16). In our feebleness and necessity we fly for refuge to God, the Divine truth, but it is Jehovah, the Divine love, who blesses our prayers with deliverance. We go forth expecting to find a prophet, and we are not disappointed, but we discover "much more than a prophet" (Luke vii. 26); not only a Teacher for the understanding, but a Consoler in our sorrows, a Strength in our weakness, our Good Physician and Shepherd, our Saviour and Redeemer, our loving gracious Father. "For," adds the Divine Speaker, "this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send My messenger before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee."

(To be continued.)

JOHN PRESLAND.

THE QUICKENING AND DEATH OF SEED. “How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?" (I Cor. xv. 35.)

HE Divine Word very plainly teaches man's immortality, but the nature of his resurrection yet remains in great obscurity even in the Christian world. A rational conviction of man's resurrection to immortality is not very general. While man is ignorant of the nature of the soul, and its relation to the body, he must of necessity be in obscurity respecting man's resurrection. If the soul is not seen to be an organized form receptive of life, the body will be considered the only organism which constitutes man a living being. And hence when the nature of spirit and of man as a spiritual being is not understood, it is essential to the Christian faith, and no doubt of the Divine Providence, that man should believe in the resurrection of the material body. But with those who are inclined to doubt, there is danger of falling into the lowest form of materialism and of denying altogether man's immortality. When a man who stands on the negative side witnesses the total destruction by death and decomposition of the only organic form which constitutes man a living being, it appears to him impossible that man can be immortal, and he seeks triumph over the believer by the question, "How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?" The rational inquirer, whether on the negative or positive side, can hardly be satisfied by being told that Omnipotence can bring forth the atoms that have been dispersed and again build them up into a human form, breathe life into it, glorify it, and fit it for an eternal existence in the spiritual world. Such a doctrine does not satisfy the rational inquirer. He has no faith in omnipotence without order. Human beings are raised up by the Creator, but always according to Divine order. We are not justified in believing that a human body will ever be rebuilt by a promiscuous jumbling together of atoms that once constituted it an organism receptive of life. We see in the end for which man was created a manifestation of the Divine love, and in the wonders of organic development there is manifested an infinity of wisdom. From an infinite desire to create united to an infinity of wisdom, or an infinite knowledge how to do it, results omnipotence. If a living body could be formed without the orderly process of organic development, it would not require omnipotence to create and sustain living beings. According to our judgment the Apostle gives a very clear, rational, and satisfactory answer to the questions cited above, if his meaning be not distorted by a false theory: "That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat or some other grain: but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed his own body" (1 Cor. xv. 36-38). The Apostle in his illustration here plainly alludes to the natural body of man which is sown and his spiritual body which is raised. But how can man's natural body and its sowing, be compared with a seed and its sowing? Some will say the comparison is plain enough, for as the seed is sown in the ground and springs up again a new and living object, so the natural body of man is placed in the grave, and at the general resurrection will rise therefrom a living and spiritualized being! This view of the subject, however, is so preposterous that we cannot regard it as worthy of any serious refutation. If we are to understand the Apostle as meaning that the natural body is sown when it is dead, we are driven to the con

clusion that he supposed seeds may also be sown when dead! Surely this is not worthy of the great Apostle. The sower knows he must sow living seeds. We should get as much from sowing some inorganic substance as we should from sowing dead organisms; and we might as well sow the carcass of a horse or dog, as the dead body of a man, in the expectation that one day a spiritual entity would rise therefrom. A seed must be sown when it has life or there can be no quickening, so also man's natural body must be sown alive or there can be no quickening or resurrection. It is therefore certain that by "a natural body is sown," the Apostle could not mean "a dead body is placed in the grave." A seed that A seed that is worth sowing, in expectation of having a plant spring therefrom, consists of a living embryo, with food to nourish it in its embryonic state, properly enclosed and protected by integuments. Each kind of plant has food stored up in quantity and quality peculiar to itself, and exactly suited to its requirements. The integuments are also so formed as to give the necessary protection to the embryo, and afford means for its exit when the time comes without injuring the newly-developed root and stem. As the Apostle says, "God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed his own body." In a good seed the embryo plant has latent vitality, and the body of the seed, if it cannot be said to be living, remains intact in a peculiar state of preservation so long as the embryo is dormant, and should it be in any way injured the embryo must start into active and manifest life or perish.

Evidently what the living embryo plant is to the seed the living soul is to man; and the coming forth of the living embryo by a gradual process of development, and putting off its external covering to commence a distinct and higher degree of existence, and live an essentially useful life, is clearly enough representative of man's preparation for immortality by means of his natural body, his putting it off and resurrection therefrom to a distinct and higher degree of existence, where he will be able to perform the essential uses for which he was designed by

creation.

"That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die," does not necessarily mean that death is the cause of quickening. Dying and quickening, or death and resurrection, appear to be simultaneous. The separation of soul and body is death in the natural world and resurrection in the spiritual. When a seed vegetates, the quickening of that which is internal is the cause of the death of the external. And so with man, if he had continued to live according to Divine order, the departure of the fully-prepared soul for immortality would have snapped the thread of life from the body and caused its death. "Human life from infancy to old age is nothing else but a progression from the world to heaven, and the last, which is death, is the real transit" (A. C. 3016). "If man had lived the life of good, in this case his interiors would be open to heaven. . . . And hence the man would be without disease, and would only increase to ultimate old age, until he became altogether an infant, but a wise one; and when in such case the body could no longer minister to its internal man, or spirit, he would pass without disease out of his terrestrial body into a body such as the angels have" (A. C. 5726). Thus it appears that if man had continued to live according to Divine order he would have attained a ripened physical old age by regeneration, actually becoming by the process a young immortal incapable of living in a natural body any longer. In such case the body must of necessity be put off, having served its use to the end, and being no more capable of any longer containing the soul prepared

for heaven than the testa of the seed can contain the

plant when its roots are drawing nourishment from the earth, and its leaves are expanded to the immediate influence of heat, light, moisture, etc., of the atmosphere. If, therefore, man had passed from earth to heaven according to the laws of Divine order, the death of the natural body would have resulted from being put off by the soul as being incapable of serving it any longer; not the struggling violent death caused by disease as now, but the calm and easy death of the last sleep. It is in this manner that a seed dies. The rupture made in the external covering of the seed by the expanded radical, and the bursting of the whole of the integuments by the expansion of the ascending plant, does no violence, as everything is so formed as to be in readiness for the event. It is simply putting off that which is of use no longer. But man did not continue to live according to Divine order, and the Lord has in mercy provided that, although the body be prematurely destroyed by moral and physical disease, the immortal embryo spirit shall find reception and careful nurture in its own world. I am not aware that anything corresponding with this ever takes place in a vegetable seed naturally. And it is a question whether, if the external covering of a seed be prematurely destroyed by violence, the young embryo plant could be preserved and developed; probably in some cases it could by the application of advanced scientific knowledge, and if so it would represent the preservation of those who die in tender years by the wonder-working power of Him whose tender mercies are over all His works.

As the Apostle speaks of man's natural body as being sown, and compares its sowing with the sowing of seed, there must be a time, a distinct period, when man in his natural body is sown. This period must be when he is born into the natural world. Having passed through an embryonic life in his mother's womb preparatory to his life in the natural world, he has now, as an immortal being, to pass through another embryonic life preparatory to his life in the spiritual world. This embryonic state should, according to Divine order, continue till man becomes a "wise infant" prepared to enter heaven, his eternal home. If it be objected that "threescore years and ten" is too long a period to be compared with the time that intervenes between sowing the seed and its appearing above the ground a new object, we think the objection is not valid. We may take the average time which a seed takes to enter upon a new state as seven days, and the average length of the life of an annual plant as seven months. But we might take the longest lived perennial and the comparison would not in the least suffer. What is the period of "threescore years and ten" compared with that which never ends? Again, if it be objected that the life of the embryo plant is too circumscribed, being confined within the limits of the integuments, to be compared with the natural life of man as he lives and breathes freely in the wide open air without let or hindrance, we think the objection is wholly unfounded. The embryo plant is certainly confined by the integuments, which, however, expand by the absorption of moisture to nourish the young plant and give it room to prepare to enter upon a new state of existence; but the plant when grown has a very helpless and limited existence, having its roots fixed in the ground it is naturally confined to that locality, and has to submit to any kind of treatment it may meet with from man or beast, and can seek no shelter from inclement weather. And man, although his natural life be lengthened to "threescore years and ten," his existence here is circumscribed by the laws of space and time. He feels the bonds and strives against them. His thoughts and affections fly

instantly to those he loves however far it may be, in whose presence he desires to be, but the laws of nature forbid it. He has, as it were, to drag himself through space and wait-O how long!—for some desired event to transpire. In the other life none of this bondage will be felt. With those who live in the order of heaven no affection will be left ungratified, and no thought will be blunted and thrown back upon its subject, but both will find their foundation and stability in the transpiring of desirable events without having to wait for the slow movements of the hand of time. Man, having cast off the material body, which of necessity must be confined to the laws of space and time, will be able to expand his powers, and become a delighted recipient of the Divine bounties. Thus he will be enabled to live in the continual performance of the essential uses which constitute the source of heavenly happiness. The spiritual body in which he now lives in heaven is spoken of by the Apostle as "the body that shall be," and he can no more return into the body that was sown than the full-grown plant can return and be again confined by the integuments or external body which was cast off and died when the plant itself was quickened. R. G.

ST. OSYTH.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.
"Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas."

CHAPTER XII.
THERE shall we find a more beautiful and

exact image of calm and tranquillity than the ocean in repose! Things habitually tranquil cannot possibly supply it so well as one that is apt to be tossed and troubled. Hence the Latin æquus, smooth or even, a word sometimes referred to ɩkòs, resemblance, but which certainly has its proximate affinity with æquor. Equus, whence "equal," literally signifies "resembling smooth water;" figuratively, even, regular, justly and harmoniously balanced. When we speak of things being "equal," it is a comparison of them to the ocean at such times as the halcyons build; and when we speak of an equable disposition, or of equanimity of temper, it is in reality describing those characters by similarly pointing to the smooth mirror of an unruffled sea, or of a still and quiet lake. And it does not end here. For as smooth water always best reflects the gliding clouds and the objects on its banks, so do we find the correspondence still holding good in regard to the aptitude for receiving fair impressions from without, which is possessed by the calm and even-tempered soul. "The mind," says Plato, "when free from tumult, reaps the pleasures proper to itself, the truest and sincerest that can be." Compare what is said by the Psalmist, on the foundation of this image of the good shepherd :"The Lord maketh me to lie down in green pastures, He leadeth me beside the still waters," that is, When I trust in Him, He gives me the heavenly tranquillity of soul which quiet and transparent waters image. The effect of the picture is considerably heightened when we reflect on the correspondence between stormy or troubled waters and a mind disturbed and unsettled by guilt or passion. "The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest." This leads us to the word iniquitas, the negative of equity, one of the most expressive metaphors in the language. In its literal translation iniquity means unevenness or roughness of surface, whether of land or water. Livy speaks of the iniquitas of an inhospitable country. With Cicero it becomes a metaphor for heavy obstacles. Lucretius, in his opening invocation, laments

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Sweet as is the spectacle of the sea in repose, how grand when it breaks upon the shore in crested surf! People are accustomed to call these great waves "horsemen." Lord Byron speaks of laying his hand upon the ocean's "mane;" he compares the pleasant tossing of a bark in full sail to the action of a horse that "knows its rider;" ships are constantly described as "riding at anchor" and "riding out the storm." Surely there is something more in this than can be called accidental? Perhaps it will some day help to explain why Neptune was fabled to have presented mankind with the noblest of quadrupeds. In ancient times the horse was regarded as a symbol of the sea. When at full speed it was figurative of a ship running before the wind. Hence it seems not impossible that in ap, apas, may be found also a clue to the origin of inоs, which word, by permutation of ƒ and 9, exists in Latin as equus, the source of equine, equestrian, and equerry. In some of the Gothic languages the horse is called by the congenerate name of ag, formed from which last, by an error similar to that which made "an eft" into "a newt," we have the English "nag.”

66

i to

Paternity implies energy, vigour, and power, and these in turn lead to and imply possession. On the primeval ab rest accordingly the Sanscrit ap, to obtain, and the Latin habeo, in Anglo-Saxon habban, whence the English "have."* Habit, habitude, habitation, inhabit, denote that which we hold, possess, or "have" as our personal property. In possession of wealth, rightly understood, or as denoting wealth in respect of mind and feeling as well as in respect of gold and silver, is implied "happiness," which again literally denotes "having." The Hebrew, Greek, and Latin words for "happy" carry the same physical signification. bhah, the Hebrew term, stands in Eccles. v. 10 for "abundance;" in Ps. xvi. 3 for "delight;" in Ps. cvi. 5 for "gladness." Homer applies the epithet pákap at one time to a rich farmer, at another to the felicity of the immortal gods. Felix (whence felicity) in Virgil continually denotes productive or rich, just as infelix is constantly put for "barren." Thus, felicibus ramis, "with luxuriant boughs;" infelix oleaster, "the unproductive wild olive." The correspondence is illustrated every day in conversation, as when we say "happily endowed," meaning richly or plentifully. To be made happy, and to make her one's own, are synonymous for the gaining of a wife. It is for the same general reason that possessions are called by the figurative name of "goods." Cicero, speaking of the equivalent Latin term bona, says he wonders whence it arose, seeing that true riches consist not in money and chattels (Paradoxes, i. 6). From habeo, through habilis, comes "able," another expressive metaphor, "able" signifying the power which is identified with

* This ancient word existed also in Greek, for Hesychius proves that äßeis was employed in the same sense as exeis, particularly by the Pamphylians.

the idea of "father" in its complex signification of originator and sustainer. Hence, by another step, ability and enable, and with prefixes implying negation, unable, disable, inability. Our "behaviour" is the way in which we hold, conduct, or "have " ourselves. A "haven," a place where ships can get good and safe anchorage, figuratively any place of safety, an asylum in time of trouble, is that which holds or contains whatever takes refuge in it. The "haft" of a knife is that by which it held or "haved." In French the initial aspirate of the Latin is dropped, habeo becoming avoir, whence comes avec, a contraction of avez que, "have that." By permutation of h and g, as in "hortus" and "garden," have becomes give. "Give it me" is the same as "Let me have it." From "give" comes in turn the conjunction "if," originally spelt "gif." "If it be fine" is literally "given it be fine," that is, "having fine weather" we will do so and so.

The verbs to be, bide and abide, are also originally derived from ab, father, since "being," that is, life in its highest quality and vigour, is in paternity naturally implied. Our "abode" therefore is where we have our "being." Recognising the idea of "father" as the soul of the word "abide," how beautiful becomes the disciples' touching entreaty: "Abide with us, for it is towards evening, and the day is far spent"!

"Abide with me; fast falls the eventide ;

The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide :
When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me!

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies;
Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me!"

Be, when used as a prefix, still implies the same thing, as in because, beside, besiege. The preposition by is of similar purport. By night and by day, literally mean "being" night and "being" day. To bid is to order to remain or "be" where you are; thence to ask, intreat, demand.

*

Again, by reason of its implying energy, vigour, and power, ab or "father" becomes a figurative appellation, in innumerable ways, of cause, origin, and beginning. Not to pursue the subject tediously, let it suffice to refer to certain prepositions. Most of the prepositions which in the Indo-Germanic languages denote such relations as above, superior to, by reason of, on account of, are traceable to this identical root; conclusively proving that while no words seem to have less of the figurative or poetical in their nature and substance than prepositions and conjunctions, none are more truly and essentially metaphorical. The fact was originally brought to light by Koerber, who developed it in connection with the Hebrew language. Subsequently it was taken up by Horne Tooke, who in his celebrated work, the "Diversions of Purley," established it in regard to the English prepositions. It is an error, therefore, to suppose that Horne Tooke was the pioneer, though it is quite likely that his discoveries were original as regards English words of the class referred to. Immeasurably remote from the sounds and forms of objective nature as many of the prepositional words now appear to be, their connection therewith is indisputable : like all other words, they carry with them the sheen of ancient poësy. In many cases, it is true, the parentage has not yet been ascertained, but the testimony of those of which the history is known, is quite sufficient to attest the character of the remainder. Whenever the veil which time has spread over them is drawn aside, there is not one that does not show itself a metaphor of excellent beauty, * Lexicon Particularum Ebræarum, Jena, 1712.

because founded on a natural agreement. The words of this class referable to ab are the Græco-Latin io, iov, ¿‡', аñо, ap', εñɩ, sub, suf, etc., with the Gothic af, auf, op, uf, ufa, ufan, ufon, etc. In English we possess it in the thence derived up, upper, upward, upmost, above, of, etc. The fragrance "of" the rose is the sweet smell "haved" by the rose. LEO H. GRINDON.

A FEW WORDS ON CONFIRMATION. N the review which appeared in your last of "The History of Confirmation," lately published by the Rev. William Jackson, Vicar of Heathfield, Sussex, the reviewer takes occasion to express himself unfavourably to the introduction of a "rite analogous to Confirmation" into the recognised services of the New Church. Having read carefully the remarks of the writer, J. D. B., the impression they have made upon me is the conviction that we have in his paper rather the expression of feeling than of consideration and mature judgment. He admits in the early part of his remarks the justice of what New Churchmen have stated as to what they seek in the uses of a rite of Confirmation. No admission could be more complete. We quote it: "In the various discussions that have taken place in the New Church in England, those who have advocated the adoption of a rite analogous to that of Confirmation" have generally assumed that the chief uses to be performed by such a rite would be found in the preparatory instruction of young people in the doctrines of the Church, in the steadying influence of a public profession of faith, and of an earnest desire to become children of God. Against these things no reasonable objection can be taken."

Here is really the whole case as stated by New Churchmen; and against this, says J. D. B., NO REASONABLE OBJECTION can be taken.

Why, then, does he object? The whole case, as far as the New Church rite proposed requires, is granted; and the ground of objectors as far as reason goes has gone from under them.

J. D. B. then enumerates some superstitious views in relation to Confirmation taught in the Anglican and Greek Churches, but what have we to do with these?

We are not to reject the Trinity because these Churches teach a Trinity of three separate Divine persons; nor the Resurrection because these Churches teach the Resurrection of dead bodies. The true position of the New Church as it appears to us is to occupy the whole ground occupied by decaying Churches, but with truth and goodness instead of with error and corruption.

The reviewer says, "It appears to us that this rite of Confirmation is intimately associated with the doctrines of Baptismal Regeneration and Apostolical Succession."

Be it so. But the New Church does not reject Baptism because of the error of Baptismal Regeneration; nor does she reject a Ministry because of the error of Apostolical Succession. Why, then, should we not seek the uses of a rite of Confirmation with the teaching and training connected with it, while at the same time rejecting any errors or superstitions associated with it

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