The sheep were roasted in pits, the utmost care being taken to observe the injunctions of Moses as to all the details. The pits being covered, silence took possession of the mountain for five hours. After midnight the company were aroused to eat the passover. The strangers were not allowed to approach, in obedience to the injunction that no foreigner or uncircumcised person should be allowed to partake. And now, with ropes around their waists, with loins girded, shoes on their feet, and staff in hand, they ate in haste. They also ate bitter herbs and unleavened bread. Then every particle of the meat and bones was carefully gathered and burned, so that “nothing remained till morning," and the people then returned to their homes.

The minuteness with which they observed the ceremonial law, in various particulars which we have not mentioned, renders the account exceedingly striking. The Samaritans of Nablous have long been a subject of interest to travellers, and there is reason for it. The smoke of the sacrifice has seldom been interrupted in many centuries. Whether it will continue much longer, or whether this little company will disappear from earth, none can tell. They have retained about the same numbers for a long time; and it is noticed by all travellers who have seen and conversed with them, that they inquire very earnestly after other Samaritans, and ask whether there are not some of their religion elsewhere upon the earth. But there are none; and this is, according to Dr. Stanley, the "only one Jewish sacrifice lingering in the world."

THE RELIGIOUS OPPORTUNITIES OF THE HEATHEN BEFORE CHRIST.

I. THE LIGHT OF NATURE.

MISSIONS to the heathen are now recognised institutions of Christianity. The wants and woes of humanity are known with a fulness and exactness, are regarded with an intelligent and earnest sympathy, and are met by an array of well-adapted appliances, which may be looked for in vain in any earlier period of the church, since the age of apostles. Again is that fulfilled" which was spoken by the prophet Joel, And it shall come to pass in the last days, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh;" and by another prophet, "The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Our century is favoured with another Pentecost, the marvels of which are not confined to the disciples "in one place," but are diffused over the worldwide inheritance of the Messiah. The servants, first sent to "them that were bidden," now "go out into the highways and hedges," and gather of every sort. Light, though long delayed, is dawning on the realms of ancient night; distant and desolate shores, strewn with heavenly seed, already glow with harvests of beauty. The outposts of the kingdom of darkness have been carried, and its most powerful strongholds are assailed in the confidence

of faith. But what verdict shall we pronounce upon the PAST of heathenism? Through ages of melancholy vastness, multitudes of our fellow-men, with souls and bodies "fearfully and wonderfully made,"-many of whom have felt themselves to be moral agents, capable of knowing good and evil; to be heirs of an eternal destiny,-to every one of whom salvation or perdition meant essentially what it means to us,-have, apparently, been left without a revelation from heaven. "Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat," is an utterance of our Lord's: but does this alone define the destiny of the countless millions who have worshipped idols? "Are there few," then, "that be saved?" Admitting that the infants of heathen families, dying, are gathered into the bosom of "the good Shepherd," are we content to surrender the adult population of almost all ages to destruction? If so, how do we establish our faith in the "goodness," the "forbearance,” and the "longsuffering" of God, who is loving to all, and whose tender mercy is over all His works? Have we no light upon this awful question? Is it the only possible view, that the good and gracious Being we adore, who has

so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life," has left entire nations, through successive cycles of time, without the knowledge of Himself, or of the great salvation, "which by the Gospel is preached unto us;" has permitted them to believe in demon gods, and many lies of vain terror and treacherous promise; to offer thousands of sacrifices which obtained no expiation, and tens of thousands of prayers which never brought an answer of peace; and, after this life of superstition, and fanaticism, and sin, has surrendered them to the unmitigated woe and despair which appal us even as the deserved destiny of angels who sinned against the light of the throne in heaven, or of men who sin against the light of the cross on earth?

We have put strongly the ground of a favourite objection to the doctrine of the Divine goodness, that we may clearly see with what we have to deal. Some would at once relieve us, by referring the whole question, without further examination, to the sovereignty of God; and by quoting Paul, when he says, "Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth He yet find fault? For who hath resisted His will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?...... What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory?" (Rom. ix. 18-23.) If this language is urged in advocacy of an unconditional election and reprobation of various classes of mankind, we altogether deny its application to the case we now discuss; though, rightly interpreted, it illuminates the whole subject. The Romanist and the Universalist endeavour to escape the difficulty, by asserting a limited and purgatorial punishment of sin hereafter, despite the plain teaching of the Scripture to the contrary. But we cannot so "justify the ways of God to

man."

We allow, that, after the best solution we can obtain of this "strange work," as some have thought it,* there is much of mystery which we must leave for the explanations of eternity. God has given us so many incontestable evidences of His goodness, that we can afford to face some seeming inconsistencies. But we need not, in this day, multiply the difficulties of faith; nor may we affect indifference to problems which have confounded the strong, as well as the weak. If we believe that the Divine sovereignty is beneficent, we can leave to it the destinies of all men, assured that "the Judge of all the earth will do right." But is not our conviction of the goodness of God owing to what we know of His dealings with us? And if we meet a series of startling and stupendous facts, apparently at variance with the conclusion sought, among the very phenomena on which we base our induction, it is not very philosophical to be content, and to "leave it," as some suggest. We mistake what it is that we have "to leave to Divine sovereignty." It is all of God's ordination that sin should become its own punishment; that "the backslider in heart" should "be filled with his own ways;" that a soul of cultivated perversity and unbelief should become incapable of submission and faith; that systems of error and sin should darken the minds of their makers, "the crafty being caught in their own net;" yea, even that the sins of the fathers shall be remembered unto the third and fourth generation. The connexion of cause and consequence in the moral world appears, in many cases, to be so rigid and complete, as to impinge, to human observation, on the laws of free agency. "This is the Lord's doing, and marvellous in our eyes." Yet, as science holds, though it cannot discern the interval, that the atoms of the densest matter do not actually touch; so religion, supported by reason, † and by consciousness, extends the range of responsibility to actions where we cannot discern all the conditions of its application. God may have raised up men, nations, generations, for His purposes; but He" cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man." Therefore, whatever difficulties we allow to be solved by the doctrine of Divine sovereignty, we cannot admit that God has caused nations to exist only that they might sin, and then suffer: for this would be to ascribe to Divine sovereignty (by which, we presume, is meant the exercise of the Divine will, in harmony with its own wisdom and goodness) dispensations which we cannot see to be either wise or good. "Render to God the things that are God's :" but the darkness and corruption of heathenism are man's; and can only be called God's in the most limited sense, inasmuch as He permitted their continuance, that they might answer the ends of justice upon themselves.

Many have "staggered through unbelief," in presence of this supposed mystery of national reprobation. It was among the gigantic shadows which dimmed the faith of that great thinker, John Foster. His Calvinistic premises compelled him to take refuge in a vain hope,—namely, that the future punishment of the wicked will not be eternal.

+ "There can be no wider interval in philosophy than the separation which must exist between the laws of mechanical force and motion, and the laws of free moral action."-Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise, p. 321. Bohn, 1852.

Scripture, while it declares, respecting the heathen, that "God gave them up," announces the "wherefore" (Rom. i. 24, 26, 28) which explains the judgment. All His punitive acts are intended to be lessons of "terror to evil doers;" but if it were impossible for us to see the justice of His dealings with the forsaken Gentiles, though He were "willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known," by enduring "with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction,”—this, the darkest page of providential history, would be without instruction for us. But their calamities are a terrible witness against the neglect and abuse of privilege. Not only threatening and punishment were needed to convince the world of the enormity of sin, but a manifestation of its nature and effects.

Depravity put forth its most desperate developments, and error roved to the most desolate distances from God, that His "goodness and severity" might be displayed in the preservation of the truth on the one hand, and in the punishment of sin on the other. He did not turn the nations adrift until they had "broken His bands asunder," and "cast away His cords" from them. "Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness;" "to vile affections;" ""and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient." The dishonour which man intended against his Maker recoiled on himself and his race.

It is difficult by generalizing to gather any unity out of the chaotic fables, contradictions, and delusions of the heathen religions, except that of a common apostasy from the pure truth. By one sin many fell; but, in heathenism, the "evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God," spread impiety over the entire life of man; carried it into every act, political, social, and private. "Every one turned to his own way." A common misapprehension on this subject is, to regard idolatry as the result of ignorance, more than of depravity. Thus we hear, that the nations could not help making idols, since God refused to them the knowledge of Himself; they must fabricate an image, to fill the vacancy left on the departure of the true Divinity. Now, if we believe the Bible, the contrary was the case. The abomination of idols was in the holy place before the Divine glory utterly forsook it. "There was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy...... Behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there." And, as the Lord's presence only gradually departed from the Jewish temple, (Ezek. viii. 3, 4; ix. 3; xi. 23,) so we may conceive that it lingered on the threshold of the ancient peoples, about their cities and their mountains, until perfect apostasy caused it at length to disappear. Men were demoralized before they were idolatrous; and when "the wicked became old, yea, mighty in power," and abounded in wealth and luxurious sin, then "they said unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways." "So that they are without excuse; because when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful.”

It is desirable, in considering the relation which the moral condition and prospects of the heathen bear to our own views of the Divine justice and

goodness, to inquire into the extent of their religious knowledge and opportunities, and to ascertain (so far as we can) what means were employed in the ages before Christ to recover them from idolatry and sin. The Scriptures show that they had the inner and outer lights of nature. (Psalm xix.; Acts xiv. 17; Rom. i. 20, &c.) Traditions of the first Divine revelation remained with the nations, in varying strength, throughout the long reign of ancient error, as lights shining in dark places. And, at successive periods, Divinely-sanctioned protests against idolatry, and great demonstrations of the existence and claims of the supreme Deity, were granted, to turn men "from these vanities unto the living God, who made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein."

As the great facts and teachings of Natural Theology are the first in time and thought, so they were the first to be perverted by fallen mind.* All credible testimonies concur to establish what is otherwise probable,-that the adoration of the chief objects of nature was the first substitution for the worship of the Creator. Though "the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead;" yet, when men "became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened," it was easy to be captivated by the visible glories of this world of sense, and to ignore the glory of the Invisible. But in many lands, and through many ages, there were some to whom the great works and powers of nature were not ultimate facts, but results of a first and ineffable Cause. Job, whose time and country were not very far distant from those of the early idolaters, exculpates himself and his people from the vile and growing heresy, of which he vividly describes the occasion and character. Many passages in this marvellous treatise show that the contemplation of nature was one of man's early habits, and, until it became the subject of corrupting thought, a fruitful source of religious ideas. Throughout the writings of Heathenism, notwithstanding the ascription of natural operations to fabulous deities, there runs a vein of golden belief in a supreme Deity, whose ways even beclouded reason could sometimes perceive to be "higher than our ways."‡ The very worship of nature is a proof of the strength and vividness with which material facts and laws seized the early imagination; and, while Job and his friends in Northern Mesopotamia, and David in later times from the mountains of Palestine, considered the heavens, the work of God's hands,— the moon and stars, which He had ordained,-we cannot suppose that, throughout the world beside, the same glorious revelation was altogether

Patrick, i. 733.

"If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness; and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand; this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above." (Job xxxi. 26—28.)

Hac igitur et alia innumerabilia quum cernimus, possumusne dubitare quin his præsit aliquis vel effector, si hæc nata sunt, ut Platoni videtur, vel, si semper fuerint, ut Aristoteli placet, moderator tanti operis et muneris ?—CICERO.