The satisfaction. Different parties, not Baptists, | our heart discouraged because of the way.' have expressed to me their surprise that, in We are nevertheless not unobserved. The so short a time, and under all the circum-eye of the Eternal is upon us. stances, I had succeeded in gathering around me the little congregation that now worships in our chapel. Elder Brother from the right hand of the Majesty on high beholds us with affectionate solicitude. Holy angels who saw "Here I must visit a good deal from house the agony, the bloody sweat, and the to house. But this is not labour that is death-dimmed eye upon the cross, atnew to me. And I have the pleasure to tend continually, as ministering spirits, state that, as in my sub-stations, the upon our footsteps. Thus the isolation we common people hear me gladly,' so my so often mourn is far from real. Ours is a labours from house to house, among the companionship of the most select and pripoor, are well received. But verily they vileged kind. And, further, our time is are poor-poor to an extent I never wit-now short. On some of our heads the nessed before. Those whom I formerly frost of years is rapidly increasing. Infirthought badly off would, in comparison mities multiply, and bid us set our houses with many here, be considered quite affluent. Among such I must give all the aid in my power. If you help not the body of those who are sick or in want, you speak in vain to the soul. But my means are small in comparison with the demands. Would that those who can would help a little, especially now! Let in order. But, precious thought, there is before us a land of pure delight.' A kingdom and a crown await the conquerors. It is the Father's house which opens to receive his wayworn children home! us, then, during the brief interval that yet remains, be up and doing. Ear never heard, eye never saw, imagination, with all "I have little, as you see, to begin with its witchery of description, never pictured, here; but I am not easily daunted. Should reward like that our Master is about to beGod honour me here, as in former stations, stow upon us. Let us, then, gird up ourloins to build up and establish a centre of evan- anew, and enter the good fight with fresh gelistic effort, he shall verily have the glory. ardour. There is poetry, as well as prose, In his name I have set up the banner.' even in our work. We stand, in a moral I am prepared for difficulty and conflict. sense, in the Thermopyle of the British It is my desire to work while it is called empire. Like those of old, when the darts to-day. To me I feel the night is not far of their enemies darkened the sun, ‘we distant. Various remembrancers continu-fight in the shade.' But the bow of our ally admonish me to this effect. The ancient artist, anticipating an eternity of fame, was careful in perfecting his work. May I and my fellow-labourers in this much misunderstood but most important field, act ever under the strong impulse of a kindred feeling. Our work is with the Lord, and our reward with our God. We have nothing to expect, and we ought to expect nothing from men. We have no prestige on account of our country. It yields us little glory. It is not Hungary, for whose liberty a Kossuth nobly battles; it is not some of those justly remembered scenes of conflict, in respect to which 'distance lends enchantment to the view;' it is only Ireland, the synonym of whatever is unworthy and contemptible, the residuum of the nations, the hotbed of superstition, the footstool of Rome. Yet, after all, every drawback only adds to the importance of the work. And there is yet a good time coming.' Even the Irish are included in the Saviour's love. Ireland shall yet stretch out her hands to God.' Happy they who by prayer, contributions, or personal efforts, promote, to any extent, an issue so near to the Father's heart! Oh, my partners in this holy enterprise, we are few, and too often faint, and Leader returns not empty. Ireland shall "Deeds of great men all remind us Footprints which, perhaps, another, Let us, then, be up and doing, "A WORD IN SEASON." THE attention of Christian ladies is respectfully called to the following correspondence. The first letter, addressed to the Secretary,. is from one of the most constant supporters of the Baptist Irish Society :— “DEAR SIR,—I inclose a copy of a letter | lished? It would surely excite the symfrom. relative to the box of pathy of some good people. clothing; and as the cold weather is approaching it occurred to me whether you might not, through the columns of the magazine, make an appeal for our poor Irish friends; for surely there are few families in the denomination who could not give some one or two articles of clothing; and I believe many ladies would gladly give their own cast-off wardrobes were they at all aware of the value they would be to our poor Irish friends. "Would it not be well to name some persons who would be willing to receive small contributions of this kind, in certain districts, as many might send two or three articles who could not make up a parcel? I hope to send a package before very long for Mr. 's other stations, although I fear not so large as the last, as it will consist chiefly of new clothing this season, which I will forward to you in due time for him. Might not some part of the inclosed be pub Copy of a letter received from "MY DEAR MADAM,—Our kind and good Secretary has sent to me your valuable parcel of clothing, for which I am indeed very grateful. It was a most opportune and valuable gift, to myself as well as to other poor friends of Jesus. "I will tell you how we raise the fund for the clothing, which is entirely in our own family, as it may be useful to you in suggesting it to others. My little folks have each a box for different societies, one of which is for our Irish friends; and these are always brought forward on the first day of the week,' before they leave the dinner table, when all are expected to contribute something; and by this means a fund is raised very easily; and it is surprising how soon pence get to shillings in this simple manner. I mention this because I think if some of our Christian families were to adopt some such course, their children would not only be interested, but the funds of our societies very easily and very much increased. I must beg you to excuse me trespassing so much on your time: but I really feel much more ought to be done than is done, and especially for poor Ireland." dear child is still in danger; so that you see, dear friend, how acceptable was your parcel; and did English friends know the value of such gifts to us they would feel thankful to the Lord for putting it into their hearts to send. Many a poor person stays at home from preaching for want of raiment; and many a poor person will be warmed by the flannels sent. You will be glad to know that the Lord is blessing me in my work, and that he gives me health and strength to preach and visit very much and very extensively." CONTRIBUTIONS. The list is necessarily deferred in consequence of the Secretary's absence from London. SUBSCRIPTIONS AND DONATIONS will be thankfully received by the Treasurer, THOMAS PEWTRESS, Esq., or the Secretary, the Rev. CHARLES JAMES MIDDLEDITCH, at the Mission House, 33, Moorgate Street; or the London Collector, Mr. W. F. CAREY, 1, Vernon Terrace, Portobello Road, Kensington Park; and by the Baptist Ministers in any of our principal towns. THE BAPTIST MAGAZINE. DECEMBER, 1858. THE OMISSIONS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. In our last number we adduced a variety of instances in illustration of the statement that many facts which we might naturally expect to find recorded in the Bible are omitted there, and we argued that these omissions cannot have resulted either from accident or from ignorance on the part of the writers. Our present object is to show that their very silence may be instructive-that what they omit, as well as what they teach, may have its lessons for us. 1. We think that the omissions of the New Testament furnish a slight, but not altogether worthless, argument in proof of the fact that the evangelists wrote under Divine superintendence. We find four historians composing four distinct and separate narratives of the same series of events. The Person whose life they were about to commemorate passed thirty-three years on earth; yet, strange to say, they confine their history to the last three years, and pass over the first thirty. They omit just those details which natural curiosity makes us wish to know, and which all other biographers have been eager to communicate. Manifold as are the differences between the gospel histories and all others in respect of what they communicate, yet more strikingly do they differ from them in respect of what they withhold. And this applies not to one but to all. By a sort of tacit understanding they record and omit the same things. Though they occupied such different points of view; though the special aim of each differed from that of the rest; though they each contemplated a side of our Lord's character, person, and work unlike that of the others; forming, in the words of Origen, a "four-sided gospel;" yet we find that they all work within exactly the same limits, and pass over without mention exactly the same things. How is this to be accounted for? It could not result from accident. It might have been deemed accidental if our remarks had applied to one only. But that four should have done so cannot be explained upon the supposition of a casual coincidence. It cannot result from ignorance, for John at least, who wrote his gospel long Thus it is that the gospel stands "four square" with a side fronting each side of the spiritual world. Matthew, addressing the Jews, reveals the Messianic king; Luke, the Greek, reveals the man; Mark, showing the power and vital force of truth; and John, its attractive and subduing love. Matthew exhibits the Jewish and subordinate; John, the spiritual and divine in our Redeemer; Mark, his authority over nature and devils; Luke, his personal history as man. In all combined, Jesus is represented as the Messiah, the Teacher, the Father, the Brother, and the God.—Bible Hand-Book. By Dr. Angus. VOL. II.-NEW SERIES. 3 N after the others, was undoubtedly in a position to have supplemented their narratives, had he seen fit to do so. Why, then, should they have withheld those particulars which their natural feelings would prompt them to record, and which all their readers are most desirous to learn? We think the only adequate answer to this question is that in these matters they were withheld by a Divine influence, controlling and restraining them. Their silence may furnish us with what has been well styled, "negative internal evidence" to the fact of their inspiration. If left to follow the impulse of their own minds, they could scarcely have failed to write the history of these things; but as in the missionary labours of Paul and his companions," the Holy Ghost suffered them not." The argument thus derived from the silence of Scripture will not be materially affected even though we should find ourselves unable to assign adequate reasons for it. We may infer the fact of design in the reserve imposed upon the New Testament writers, even though we should fail to discover what that design was; just as a barbarian who should pick up a chronometer, or other complicated piece of mechanism, would be quite sure that it was put together for some purpose, though he should be ignorant what it was. Nay, in a certain sense, it is true that the more recondite and obscure the reason for the reserve, the stronger the evidence of a Divine influence acting upon them from without, because the less likely that purpose is to have occurred to their own minds. We think, however, that sufficient reasons can be discovered, why the record has been restricted within the prescribed limits. 2. Let it be remembered that the gospel is intended to set Christ before us in a certain specific character. It does not furnish us with a biography in the ordinary sense. Its subject is one "whose goings forth have been of old even from everlasting;" and it only relates to us such portions of his heavenly and his earthly history as may suffice to convince us that he is our Saviour and King. No more is told us than is necessary to establish this. An infinity of things might have been recorded as to his existence before time began, or respecting his actions in our world's history prior to his incarnation, or concerning the transactions of his earthly life subsequently to it. A merely human historian possessing knowledge of the facts would infallibly have recorded them. But there is a Divine economy in the revelation of God. We saw, in our last paper, how the imagination of man ran riot in an extravagance of miraculous feats when they began to compose apocryphal gospels. The same applies to the legendary histories of saints in the Papal Church, which abound in a purposeless and wasteful prodigality of thaumaturgic wonders. Contrasted most strikingly with this natural tendency to excess stand the divine reserve and economy, we had almost said parsimony, of miracles as recorded in Scripture, where we find at once a manifestation and "a hiding of his power." "Each miracle is wrought with some ethical or spiritual purpose, and has a profound ulterior meaning. Precisely so is it as respects the histories of the gospels. Those facts, and those only, are recorded which illustrate his work as our Saviour and Lord. An anonymous writer in one of the earlier numbers of Kitto's "Journal of Sacred Literature" thus sums up the facts of the gospel record. As his object was somewhat different from that we have in view, we abridge and slightly modify his summary so as to bring it into more distinct harmony with our point of view : "But let us examine the revealed incidents in the biography that appear like isolated rocks piercing the dark waves of silence. First we have our Lord's birth, then his circumcision at the eighth day, the presentation in the Temple at the fortieth, the adoration of the Magi, the flight into Egypt and return to Nazareth, then an interval of eleven years, the visit to Jerusalem, another interval of eighteen years; from which time the narrative is comparatively full and consecutive. To these notices of our Lord's personal history we may add the genealogies. Now, all these points taken up by the inspired historians (except the adoration of the Magi) may be shown to have the closest connec tion with the Levitical types and ordinances. The infant of the early chapters of St. Luke is the future priest, the member of the house of Israel. How accurately is his parentage recorded! What careful proofs of the purity of his virgin mother! The genealogies prove his royal ancestry, and thus, in connection with the priestly office to be hereafter assumed, supply the conditions essential to the priest after the order of Melchizedec.' The future priest must be circumcised on the eighth day: he must be presented in the Temple on the fortieth, and the offerings made as prescribed by the law of Moses-for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.' The descent into Egypt perfected the typical connection of our Lord with the Jewish nation, so as to make the prophecy equally applicable to both: Out of Egypt have I called my Son.'* Our Lord's first appearance at a paschal feast is the next break in the silence. This, also, has a distinct connection with his keeping of the whole law; for he had now reached the age at which every male Israelite was brought up to the Temple, 'to appear before the Lord.' Then, when entering upon his thirtieth year, the period at which the priest commenced his functions, he came up and demanded baptism, as the consecration to the work upon which he was about to enter as King and Priest to his Church." To render the foregoing enumeration exhaustive and complete it is only necessary to add the appearance of the angels to the shepherds, and the adoration of the Magi. The spiritual import of these two incidents is obvious. The first shows that the babe of Bethlehem is the Lord of angels. His incarnation was not an event of merely local, provincial, or mundane interest; but one of universal concernment in which all heaven sympathised and rejoiced. The adoration of the Magi, again, has been universally regarded as symbolical of the call of the Gentiles, and their admittance to the blessings of salvation. If space permitted, it would be easy to carry out this train of remark to a much greater length, and apply it to the events of our Lord's public life, showing that the more detailed narratives of the last three years preserve the same jealous silence and reserve as to all that does not bear upon his mediatorial work. The gospels, we repeat, do not pretend to give a detailed biography of the "man Christ Jesus." They simply select those events which connect him with the types and promises of the older dispensations, and set him forth ast our King, Prophet, Priest, and Sacrifice. Everything essential to this manifestation is recorded. Everything else is omitted. Here it may be objected that these remarks only define the limits of the silence and the omissions of Scripture; that we have simply pointed out the rule according to which certain things were omitted and certain others recorded; but that we have not explained the reason of the omissions, nor shown why these limits were imposed. This we cannot do fully, but the following suggestions may be taken as contributions towards an answer. 3. The omission of less important details gives increased prominence and effect to what is revealed. If the gospel histories had resembled the ponderous biographies of modern times, in which every trivial particular is recorded, the special work of Christ as our Saviour would have been less distinctly and vividly presented. The silence and reserve of the narrative concentrates our attention upon just those points which it is absolutely essential for us to be familiar with. If Switzerland rose by a gradual ascent from the level plains of Germany and France up to an altitude of fifteen thousand feet above the sea, that sublimity and majesty which concentrates the interest of the visitor upon Mont Blanc would be lost. * Greswell shows with much probability, that our Lord was a year old when he left Egypt; that after a residence of 215 days in that country, corresponding to the years of the Israelitish bondage, he set out for the land of his birth on the feast of the Passover, thus accurately maintaining the parallel. In whatever degree this calculation may be depended on, it confirms the reason alleged for a break in the silence observed by the Evangelist. |