in the future life; but the days and reign of the Messiah will be passed here upon earth, and all things will proceed in the same course as they do now, except that the Jews shall be restored to their kingdom. For the former sages have taught that in the days of the Messiah this will be the principal difference, that all the other nations of the earth will be subjugated to Israel."

Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon, commonly called Maimonides, was born at Cordova, in Spain, A. D. 1131. He became famous in all the learning acquired in his days, and made great proficiency in the mathematics and astronomy of his age, in logic, rhetoric, metaphysics, and natural history. He was also an eminent physician, in which faculty he acquired high celebrity in the court of the monarch of Egypt; and where his practice was extended far and wide amongst great persons, that came from all quarters to consult him. He studied the philosophy of Aristotle and Plato, wrote treatises on these abstruse subjects; and, in short, left no region of knowledge unexplored, as far as knowledge was open in that dark age.

Amidst these vast intellectual labours, he also studied, first and chiefest, all the lore of his own religion, entering deeply into the speculations of the doctors of the law and the traditions of the ancients, so that he became himself a chief doctor in Jewish theology, and published many treatises on divinity, the greater part of which are now in existence, either in print or in manuscript. Some of these are well known to the learned, and have been published, with notes and explanations. The chief of his works is the Yad Hachazakah, which is considered the completest digest of Talmudical law that has ever been produced by the Jewish doctors, and which displays his judgment and tact in a most favourable light, that he should have been able to produce so clear and able a digest out of such a heap of filthy, incongruous, and confused rubbish. The extracts, however, from his treatise on repentance will abundantly display his profound ignorance on the true knowledge of God; and will amply illustrate the saying of Paul, that "the world by wisdom knew not God.” What do we see in this treatise but the natural man, whether that natural man be Jew, or heathen, or Roman Catholic, or nominal Protestant? The epitome of all the doctrine in this treatise is, that a man can save himself by his own good works, stands in need of no mediator, and can put away sin by his own sacrifices. It is a distinct and formal denial of justification by faith and that, apparently, in intentional opposition to the New Testament; for, in the thirteenth clause of the third chapter, in giving a list of heretics, he places last on the list "those who worship another God besides God himself, and make use of him as a mediator

between themselves and the Lord of the world." But, alas! poor Maimonides, like many a popish doctor, and, like the authors of the Oxford Tracts, knew not the Divine power and holiness of the law of God, to imagine that by virtuous resolutions and penances they could satisfy the demands of the law; neither did he know the object of the law to bring in sons to Abraham by driving them to faith: "for the law entered that the offence might abound: but where sin abounded grace did much more abound; that, as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord."

We shall resume this subject in our next number.

46

POETRY.

ICHA BO D.

1 SAM. iv. 20, 21.

They said unto her, Fear not, for thou hast borne a son but she answered not, neither did she regard. And she named the child Ichabod; saying, The glory is departed from Israel."

Surely thy monumental name,
Recording Israel's sin and pain,
Thy father's crimes, thy country's shame-
Surely it ne'er was given in vain :
Methinks I see thee, sad and slow,

Wandering where solemn feasts were kept,
Rebuking, with thy joyless brow,

The mirth that woke when vengeance slept.

And when, in sackcloth's sordid shroud,
Assembling in the holy place,
Thy chastened nation sadly bowed,
Beseeching pardon, strength, and grace,
Thou wert a solemn sight to see,

Thou Nazarite of sorrow's shrine!
The mother-vowed might yet be free-
A whole life's separate lot was thine.

And when thy right of riper years

Had shown (alas, that both were vain!)
For woman's wild and fruitless tears,

Manhood's stern struggle with the chain;
I see them kindling at thy words,

Rousing to fierceness from despair,
And grasping idly to the swords

Their jealous foes forbade to wear.*

Wert thou with holy Samuel there,
When, on a sad but blessed day,
The Israelites, with fast and prayer,
Put all their stranger gods away?
When Mizpeh† saw the land deplore
Her sins, with penitential wail,
And solemn vows renewed once more
God's worship for the praise of Baal.

When man's pale face, and woman's shriek,
Proclaimed the unholy spoiler nigh,
No terror blanched thy flushing cheek-
No quailing in thy stedfast eye :
When hearts mistrustful sought to flee,
Thy face a stern rejoicing showed,
As who should say, "Stand fast and see
If Dagon or the Lord be God."

He speaks in thunder! Fiercely driven
Across the darkened face of day,
The flashing vengeance-bolts of heaven

Cleave through the heathen ranks their way :-
Methinks I see thee in the throng,

Struggling and slaying in the tide,

Like a young lion, swept along
By mountain floods from Jordan's side.

1 Sam. xiii. 19-22.

† 1 Sam. vii. 5-12.

Then thou, the monument of wrath,
Returning from the finished strife,
Mightst mark the pillar in thy path,
Record of Israel's ransomed life,
For there her monarch's power was shown-
His might in cloudless glory shone ;
And thou mightst lay thy birthname down
On Eben-Ezer's triumph-stone.

Whate'er thy deeds, whate'er thy fame,
The silent grave hath claimed its trust;
A single word preserves thy name—

Four thousand years are o'er thy dust;
And vainly should we now essay

To find what man can never know. How many a one, in this our day,

Might bear thy title on his brow!

Not for earth's glory, soon decayed,

And all unworth a thought or sigh—
No! but to mark bright promise fade-
Life spring-tide passing fruitless by;
For souls at ease, though unforgiven ;

For conscience wrapped in fatal sleep;
For pleasures bought with hopes of heaven-
For these thine eyes in blood may weep.

Nor shame thou for the manly tears,
Whether for friend or stranger shed;
Or poured for youth's misguided years,
Or o'er the hoary sinner's head :
Weep as the wail of Israel rose,

When darkness veiled her glorious day,

And her ark dwelt among her foes;

But in thy sackcloth kneel and pray;

And faint not, though the strife be long,

And trouble pour with wave on wave;

He that in ancient days was strong

Is yet omnipotent to save.

When man is weak, and full of fear,

The strength of God's right hand is shown

Thy fainting hands may still uprear

In victory's hour the triumph-stone.

J. H.

251

GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.