whelmed with taunts and jibes, and covered with disgrace. Where the courage of the boldest fails, theirs, indeed, seems to take a loftier bearing. History is full, indeed, of heroes of many kinds, but no book so abounds with them as the Bible, nor do they anywhere else assume so lofty and so sacred a type. Among these it is the heroism of piety, of faith, of obedience; in the world it is often only the heroism of reckless daring, or of boundless ambition. The world's heroes conquer cities, but God's great men conquer themselves.

We do not mean that all, or even any, of these great characters of the Bible are perfect men. They are human like ourselves; they are, indeed, only men of like passions with ourselves, raised into a high sphere of excellence by the power of faith and obedience toward God. And nothing is more striking than the honesty of the Bible in narrating, without extenuation, the failings and sins of God's own people. It is a token both of the historic truth and. the divine wisdom of the record. The lives of these men of God are presented to us as human lives unfolding, growing, and maturing in grace and goodness, under the leadings of a divine Providence and the sanctifying power of the divine Spirit. The fact that God uses imperfect men, and even sometimes turns their mistakes and wrong doings to the furtherance of his own plans, is never used to justify, or even to palliate, their errors or sins. Though subsequently a Solomon may be born of Bathsheba, and become the glorious successor of David, yet the adultery is not forgotten or condoned, but is severely condemned and punished. The wicked fraud of Rebekah and Jacob in the imposition on Isaac is narrated, but both are condemned, and bring upon themselves serious punishment; strife and bitterness were brought into the household, and sorrow fell upon herself and her son. To her unhappiness arising from the absence of her favorite son, to him banishment from his home and mother, were the consequences of their mutual deception and fraud. Among God's great men is Gideon, the type of moral courage and of unambitious and unselfish heroism; but there is also Samson, the hero of physical strength. But Samson is not held forth as a model, but as a warning; showing how extraordinary gifts from God may be abused by strong sensual passions; and the greatest hero, by dallying in the lap of pleasure, may be shorn of his strength and renown.

We are, indeed, too apt, while wondering at the greatness of character and the lofty heroism of the characters described and eulogized by the pen of the sacred historian, to forget that, after all, these were but men, and to ascribe their superior character and greatness entirely to miraculous power-a divinely imparted quality—as if the man was a mere passive instrument that could act no otherwise than he did. This would be to lift them out of the sphere of our sympathy, and place them beyond all power of influence and inspiration as examples for us. We must not forget that they were like ourselves, with the same hopes and fears, the same dread of suffering, and the same shrinking from danger and from incurring vast responsibilities. Nor should we forget that, though God often chooses "the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty," yet for great deeds he selects great souls. God's methods with men in the olden time do not differ in kind from his methods with us in our own day. He chose his instruments; they were men; by his providence and grace he made them such instruments as he could use, but still left them men. But though he found it necessary, in the early, half-barbarous age of the world to bring about events by miraculous interposition and miraculous influences upon men, yet neither the instruments themselves nor the designs differ in any way from those we now behold. Whether the instrument be Moses, or David, or Isaiah, or Augustine, or Luther, or Wesley, it is God working out his plans through great men. The former are just as much men in human history as the latter, although we are inclined to look upon them simply as inspired and miraculous characters. The only difference in them is, that the former perform their great deeds under the explicit and direct direction of God, and the latter theirs under the guidance of his providence and the leadings of his Spirit. Hence the humanity of these instruments of God is as evident. in their lives as is the miraculous and divine which leads and assists them in their great deeds and lives.

The individuality of these men is apparent to us; their peculiar traits of character, their dispositions, their culture, are visible in all their works. Indeed, most of them seem to have been chosen for their peculiar work from the very adaptedness of their peculiar character for the special work and mission to which. they were called. They impress us at once as the right men in

the right places. Moses and Isaiah, Abraham and David, could not change places. As far as we are acquainted with the characters of the apostles, they seem to have been chosen of Christ as representative men; that is, men representing certain great distinct classes, each marked by strong characteristics. "John," says Dr. Schaff, "is unquestionably one of those highly-gifted natures, endued with a delicate, contemplative mind, lively feeling, glowing imagination, and tender, loving heart. He knew how to communicate in the most simple, childlike dress the profoundest truths which furnish the maturest thinkers inexhaustible materials for study." James, the brother of our Lord, is of that large conservative class who, when they accept the new, do not wholly relinquish the old. Calm, prudent, and conciliatory, he labors more to harmonize and consolidate than to make aggressions. Peter, a man of intense feelings and affections, represents those bold, impulsive characters of great energy and practicality, who would be leaders in whatever circumstances they might be thrown. Thomas is a natural skeptic, who believes nothing except on the most undoubted testimony, and must be not only an eye-witness of marvels, but must test them before he accepts them, anticipating the scientific skeptic of even the nineteenth century. Paul is conscientious, thoughtful, rational, argumentative. Each of these God uses in his own place, and in accordance with his own character and capabilities. We thereby receive from them the complete and many-sided presentation of Christianity.

The heroes and martyrs of the Bible, then, were men with the same hopes and fears and emotions that belong to men of every age, and it was designed that they should awaken in us the same personal interest and sympathy. Simply as men, they are entitled to as high a place on the scroll of fame as the heroes of any other age or nation; and as the moral heroes of the race, whose passage through life has cast one broad beam of light over the earth, they deserve a far higher place in history and are worthy of immortal praise. In the Bible the lives of these great men are fragmentary and scattered, the narrative being interrupted by various events occurring at the same time but with which they had no immediate connection. It is the work of the sacred biographer to select out of the mass of sacred history every thing of interest belonging

to each individual, either directly stated or referred to, and bring them into a connected narrative. The Bible is the great, and in one sense the only, source of information. Still, the increasing knowledge of ancient customs, geography, and languages, and poetry, and the further light obtained from contemporaneous history, enable the writer to discover new points of interest, and to bring out into bolder relief the individual traits and actions of these great men. Such has been the course pursued by the eminent men who have sketched the lives contained in this volume. Such names as Dr. Guthrie, Dean Stanley, and Bishop Oxenden are a sufficient guarantee that the work has been done faithfully and eloquently.

Doubtless the great object of sacred biography is to set before us the lives of God's saints as examples and inspiration for our "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness;" but no part of it more so than the lives of the grand saints of old. "While I mused," says one of them, "the fire burned;" and it is not in the nature of things for a Christian man to sit down to his Bible, and turn to the history of its saints, and hold communion with them, without imbibing somewhat of their spirit. As he muses on their virtues and piety he will feel, in holy desires, the fires that glowed in their bosoms kindling and burning in his own. In the faith of Abraham and the chastity of Joseph, the meekness of Moses and the patience of Job, the piety of David and the fidelity of Daniel, in the zeal of Paul and the love of John, we see what attainments others have reached, to what height of grace we ourselves may aspire. We cannot contemplate such characters without admiring them, nor can we long admire without desiring to resemble them. Nor need we fear to aspire so high. The course to which God calls the humblest Christian is one grander than they attained. Should we reach their height, far above us as they now seem, we shall not yet have attained, nor be already perfect. Far above them all stands Jesus, the perfect example, calling to us still," Come ye up hither." So, then, "leaving Abraham binding his son on the altar; Job sitting amid the ruins of all his fortune and the graves of all his children, bowing submissively to God; David descending from a throne to tune his harp and fill a royal palace with sacred melo

dies; Daniel on his knees, with a window thrown open to Jerusalem, within eyesight of malignant spies and earshot of the lions ravening for their prey; Elijah on Mount Carmel, with his back. to the altar of God and his face to a hostile world, 'among the faithless faithful only he,' leaving these grand spectacles below, let us still look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." Forgetting the things which are behind, let us press forward to the mark of the prize of our high calling in Jesus Christ. The goal is this: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

The real secret of these great lives is their consecration to the will and purposes of God. They are consciously under his protection and guidance. They are supported by their abiding trust in his providence. Their prosperity, they feel, comes from him, and in adversity they are confident that he has not forsaken them. They move forward in the unfailing faith that their lives are ordered of God. Hence they are strong, faithful, heroic, and patient. So we may feel that God has a plan concerning every one of us. Our lives do not move on at haphazard, neither are they altogether shaped by our own choice; but the Lord had a purpose in bringing us into being, and is directing our lives toward the fulfillment of that purpose. His purpose toward his people is always good. We can, indeed, frustrate the moral end of our creation, by our perversity and our sin; but if we adapt ourselves in submission and obedience to the will of God, he will perfect that which concerns us. He will not abandon his own plan. It matters not that he is so great and high and we so insignificant. He who clothes the lilies and feeds the birds of the air, and watches over the minutest laws and processes of the physical universe, thinks upon his children with a father's watchful and forecasting love. When we find ourselves in trouble we may not infer God has forsaken or forgotten us. Our path may lie through the sea; but he will make the waters as a wall upon the right hand and the left. Our way may lead through the valley of the shadow of death; but he will go with us; his rod and staff will comfort us. The very trials of life, disciplining our hearts to a loftier faith, separating us from a worldly into a spiritual life, may be a means of perfecting that which concerneth us in the wise and holy purpose of God.

These great men of God are our examples, our forerunners in