hastiness of decision. If the subject is to be considered, let the matured and experienced Christian become the interpreter.

We may perhaps be inclined to renew this subject in some future Numbers; it is one that we consider as not only interesting in itself, but deeply important to a CHRISTIAN EXAMINER, on account of its bearings on the religious public; and while we pray in humble trust, that "the increase" of true, vital, practical and experimental "knowledge" may be the result of the "many running to and fro in the earth," we would raise our voice against the mistaking of bustle for progress, and confidence of interpretation for depth and profundity of views. If we are permitted to present our readers with the sentiments entertained on the different parts of unfulfilled prophecy, by the most eminent writers on the subject, it may serve to expose the uncertainty of all theories however specious, and the unreasonableness of dogmatising on topics, whose full development "the Father," in the plenitude of his own wisdom, hath, with their "times and seasons," placed and reserved "in his own power." When such men as Faber and Cunningham, and Frere and Maitland, are found to differ on many most essential parts of their respective systems,* it would ill become us to dogmatise, or to substitute for their doubts our crude convictions: when properly appreciated, indeed, the school of Prophecy would seem to be that of modesty and moderation, where human reason might feel its incompetence, and human learning its unfitness, to penetrate into the councils of the Most High, and where, amidst all the jarrings of discordant systems, the wearied spirit may rest with humbled confidence in the wisdom that planned and the power that will produce light from the obscure of Prophecy, order from its apparent confusion, Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good-will among men! That this may be the result of every such examination, is the ardent prayer of him who has traced these desultory observations.

We lately opened a reply to Mr. Maitland's pamphlet, "By a Member of the Church of England," and read as far as the following passages, when our readers will not be surprised that we closed the book, with mingled feelings of surprise and regret :

"I think it is probable that the three ribs of the bear, "in the mouth of it," between "the teeth of it" are the triangle of the square, or perhaps that only of the forty-seventh proposition of the first book of Euclid, which is not a type of evange lical truth, nor of the equal truth of the holy law, but only the apparent truth of this world, viz.-Lex Talionis, or Truth unto death, not " Truth in love."... "The same symbol may allude to the captivity of the Jews, who had the square and cube of the holy law implied in the right L triangle, (who remained separate and undigested into the body of the lion and the bear, and were at last cast out or dropped, at the return from Babylon.)" pp. 22, 23.

Such is modern interpretation!

RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

SYMPATHY DERIVED FROM EXPERIENCE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER.

SIR-There is no sensation more bitterly felt, no complaint more frequently or more poignantly uttered, than a want of sympathy in others in times of sorrow, misfortune, or affliction. Sorrow is rendered more acute, misfortune more overwhelming, and affliction more distressing, when accompanied by the conviction that few are found disposed to pity or compassionate.

Such indeed is the emptiness of all human happiness, and such the inconsistency of every human enjoyment, that the happiest amongst us is so entirely engaged by a series of private ills, and private disappointments, as to leave little time or inclination to participate in the various griefs and trials experienced by those around him. Each one considers himself as injured, and few are munificent in the distribution of that which they think but too scantily apportioned to themselves.

Yet, rare as is its existence, and lamented as is its absence, there is a principle in the human heart which does compassionate suffering, and alleviate affliction-which feels the pang experienced by another, and sweetens the cup of misery, by dividing its contents. To have felt the smart of affliction's rod, to have been individually exposed to sorrow and misfortune, to have personally experienced the various failures, griefs, and disappointments, to which every human creature is obnoxious: this weans the mind from a consideration of its own calamity, and inclines it to compassionate and sympathise with the sorrows of another. The sole prop and sustenance of a family is removed, his widow and helpless orphans are reduced to the extremities of hardship or dependence-the sailor falls a victim to the tempest, and the soldier perishes on the rampart; but such events are related and listened to with all the indifference attendant on every-day occurrences, and as unworthy of more note than a listless question or a trifling observation. Of human miseries, some are negligent, some unconscious. The votary and enjoyer of wealth and opulence knows little of the privations, little of the misfortunes attendant on poverty and indigence; luxurious tables, and warmed apartments, incline their possessor to little consideration of cold and hunger, nakedness and starvation. Some shut their eyes against scenes of misery, while others consider themselves justified in absenting themselves from their country and their home, and enjoying their dear-bought luxuries at a distance from the wretchedness from which they have been extracted. Thus (except where that principle prevails which teaches the culpability of forgetting to do good and to communicate) benevolence seems almost exclusively confined to the lower orders of society they mitigate misfortune, because they have experienced something of its bitterness; and they alleviate distress,

VOL. VI.

2 T

because they concur with the sentiments of the poet-" Haud ignara mali miseris succurrere disco." Some only are disposed to pity, yet pity is not sympathy; sympathy implies a' participation of sorrow, and a participation of calamity; but pity, although it be considered as a passion of gentle, virtuous, and benevolent minds, "must, however, be acknowledged to indulge only such sensations as are not, on the whole, disagreeable to ourselves." * It is sensibility like this that excites the lively interest and intense anxiety, which are commonly displayed in the perusal of some foolish novel or romantic story: some are affected to tears, some are moved to pity, some, they might say, to sympathy; but this only is certain, that such sensations are neither disagreeable nor unwelcome, as they are willing, on the first opportunity that offers, to renovate and re-excite them. The great, the benevolent Howard, the ornament of his country, and the idol and example of every votary of charity and munificence, was not contented with devoting his time and expending his property in his humane exertions; but, journeying far beyond the extensive limits of his country, occupied himself in discovering the silent seclusions of misfortune, and in visiting the public haunts of misery and wretchedness. Of such indispensable necessity is a personal acquaintance with calamity, to him who devotes his time and his attention to mitigate affliction and alleviate distress.

It is by the application of such a principle as this, that the apostle concludes his exhortation (Heb. iv. 14.) to trust and confidence in the merits of the Saviour. Paul, whose experienced and philosophic mind enabled him most accurately to follow the interior workings and misgivings of the Christian heart, was well aware that no feature in the Redeemer's character is more frequently disbelieved, and more commonly mistaken, than his perfect union of human frailty with Divine Omnipotence; and while many adored him as the Lord of Heaven and creator of the universe, few only regarded him as the participator of every frailty, passion, and misfortune, to which human nature is obnoxious. The once shipwrecked mariner can commiserate the situation of one exposed to like imminence of peril, to like despondency of danger; because, through experience of its horrors, and acquaintance with its miseries, he knows that they are neither the hyperbolical description of a poet's fancy, nor the exaggerated picture of a coward's imagination. And is it a wonderful or incredible matter that our divine Redeemer should commiserate those afflictions, and sympathise with those calamities, the bitterness of which he has tasted, and the acuteness of which he has experienced? No his spirit melts at human sorrow, his soul compassionates human frailty, his righteousness is an atonement for human guilt, and his merits an expiation for human transgression and these benefits have no cessation; unlike the glow of human sympathy, a meteor in a summer's sky, they keep pace with their Eternal Author, inasmuch as more intense sympathy

* Johnson.

is derived from more intense experience, and as the cheering beam of divine benevolence exceeds the bright but feeble ray of human philanthropy.

T.

ON THE NAME "JESUS."

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER.

SIR-The observations on the name JESUS by Bedell, in your Number for November last, will, I think, meet with the approbation of every one who understands the subject. They revived in my recollections a train of evidence respecting the Divinity of our Lord, which I had once followed out for some length, and which would appear worthy of some attention. The evidence is of that kind which arises from incidental mention, a description of evidence, with the force and conclusiveness of which those who have read "Paley's Horæ Paulina" must be familiar, and fully satisfied.

JESUS, according to your Correspondent Bedell, is Jehovah the Saviour. Now, we read in

Titus i. 3." According to the commandment of GOD our Saviour.” i. 4. "The Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour."

ii. 10. "The doctrine of God our Saviour."

iii. 4. "The love of God our Saviour.”

iii. 6. "Through Jesus Christ our Saviour.”

In three of these passages the title of Saviour is applied to the Supreme Ruler of the universe in a sense applicable to such a Being only, plainly implying all the omnipotence of the Godhead. Again, this title, without any warning or note of limitation or exception, is given also to the Lord Jesus Christ: We are bound, therefore, to suppose, that, in the mind of the Apostle, the Two Persons stood in a perfect relation of equality; i. e. that JESUS CHRIST IS GOD.

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In chap. ii. 13. both titles of GOD and SAVIOUR are combined upon the same blessed Person. Wardlaw, in his Anti-Socinian Sermons, remarks on this text, with perfect justness, that the rendering given by our translators must, in their minds, have implied this, and have been fully equivalent to the more correct translation, 'Our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ." The translators were men of too deep acquaintance with the original language, to have missed the meaning here; and the probability is, therefore, that they gave the meaning of the original in a phrase, which, in their time, would have unambiguously conveyed it. At 2 Pet. i. 1. the construction of the original and the rendering are the same as in this place: but it is remarkable that they give there as a marginal reading the translation, which we wish

* Perhaps some one had objected to their mode of rendering, and the marginal note was added to satisfy the objector.

for here our God and Saviour. A French translation, printed at Frankfort on the Mayne, A. D. 1712, gives the passage in Titus, our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ; and a black-letter edition of the English Bible, A. D. 1578,, has at 2 Pet. i. 1. in the text the marginal reading of the present editions.

I am, Sir, yours, &c.

B.

BIBLICAL CRITICISM.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER.

66

SIR-A few days ago, as I was reading Bishop Burnett's Commentary on the First Article, I perceived the following words: That St. Paul commences or ends all his epistles with " Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ;" and he actually quotes numerous passages to prove this assertion. Now, Sir, if the worthy Bishop had more carefully considered the subject, he would have perceived that the apostle commences his epistles to Timothy and Titus only with those beautiful words, Grace, mercy, and peace ;" and that St. Paul begins all his epistles to the churches (that to the Hebrews only excepted) with merely "Grace and peace." The other day a young friend inquired of me the reason why the Apostle changes his introductory benediction in writing to individuals, (Timothy and Titus)? I could not (even in my opinion) give him a satisfactory answer. But perhaps, Mr. Editor, if you would have the goodness to insert this query in your next publication, it would procure an answer from some of your correspondents for my inquiring friend.

L. M.

BIBLICAL CRITICISM.-MATT. xxi. 44.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER.

،، And whosoever shall fall upon this stone, shall be broken ; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder."- Matt. xxi. 44.

MR. EXAMINER-I feel rather diffident in sending this criticism to you for insertion, as every commentator (learned and unlearned) have taken a view of the subject different from the one I now propose for your consideration; but, Sir, I consider any thing that elucidates or explains the Scripture is useful. The passage upon which I mean to offer a few observations appears to me to refer to the two advents of our Lord. Immediately after the first advent, blind and ignorant men kept looking up to heaven, in expectation of another Messiah-another Christ. Christ became a stumbling block to them, over which they fell,