doctrines, multitudes of adherents would be gathered | present concerned with the fulfilment of his prophecy
to his standard. When the sword was to hew down
the refractory, and the faithful were promised a para-
dise in which the wine-cup should sparkle and the
cheek of beauty smile, it required no vast shrewdness
to calculate that the pretensions of the false prophet
were likely to be favourably received. Give man a
religion which flatters his pride, or which panders to
his passions, and you will not be long in surrounding
yourself with votaries. But you should carefully ob-
serve how little there is in the doctrine of the cross
which could seem to adapt it for making way on earth.
That all dependence is to be placed on the merits of a
crucified Redeemer; that his death is to be our life;
his blood-shedding the sole procuring cause of the
forgiveness of sin,-these, the glorious and fundamen-
tal truths of the Gospel, are practically the great
stumbling-blocks to its reception. The words of the
apostle have lost nothing of their force in the lapse of
centuries; for to them that perish the preaching of
the cross is still "foolishness." We may go the round
of nominal Christianity, and wherever we find self-
righteousness, or Antinomianism-the idolatry of
works, or the neglect of works (which is just as bad)
-we shall find, that an imperfect reception of the
doctrine of the cross lies at the root of the evil; and
even the indifference and opposition to religion in
general, which characterise the great mass of our com-
munity, are to be traced to repugnance to this doc-
trine. The doctrine can make no compromise with
human pride, and it wages interminable war with
human passion. If I receive it, then, from its very
nature, I become pledged to the crucifixion of the
flesh, with its affections and lusts. If I am an idolator
of intellect, I must throw to the ground the censer in
which I have burnt incense; if I am an indulger of
appetite, I must place a bridle where I have given
the reins; if I delight in accumulating the gold and
silver, I must count as dross what has engaged my
affections. It cannot for an instant be concealed, even
from the dullest of calculators, that, in becoming the
disciples of a self-denying and crucified Lord, we
pledge ourselves to a holy and determined war with
sin; and on this simple account, the whole array of
carnal emotions is in arms against the Gospel. So
that it is not too much to say, that even when the
claims of the Christian religion are outwardly admitted,
the lifting up of the Saviour is virtually the impedi-
ment to his triumphs.

in its largest sense; we have only to observe, that
whilst the preaching of the cross has been and is
"foolishness" to them that perish, to them that are
saved it has been and is "the power of God." In
spite of what we have advanced respecting the anti-
pathy of the men of every age to this doctrine, preach-
ing has been successful in the exact proportion that
it has been the preaching of the cross. When the
ministers of Christ have given out the truth in sim-
plicity when there has been the least of endeavour
to smooth down what is rugged, or to varnish over
what is distasteful to the natural heart, multitudes both
of men and of women have been added to the Church.
And if you combine the facts on which we have in-
sisted the fact, that nothing could have appeared less
likely to produce a moral revolution than the preach-
ing of the cross, and the fact, that nevertheless to this
preaching must be referred whatever moral revolution
has been actually produced-you can hardly fail to
allow, that the Being who uttered our text must have
had a keener view of the future than could be gained
by mere human foresight. He prophesied (if you will
allow me the expression)—he prophesied against pro-
babilities; he affirmed that results could be brought
round, which, on the commonest principles of human
calculation, were sure not to be brought round. He
took, as it were, the offensive part of his system of
religion, the part which every one decides must be
kept in the back-ground, if you would not have the
whole contemptuously rejected; and he declared, that
this very part should be the engine for the subjugation
of the whole family of man, And by thus freeing
himself from all earthly computations, and dealing
with the future as none could have dealt who could
only have applied to its secret the shrewdness of a
guess, or the reckoning of a finite arithmetic, he as
powerfully manifested his Divinity as when he poured
light upon the darkened eye-ball, or hushed the
waters, or broke up the sepulchres: and we commend
it to you all, as a line of argument worth following out
in your own meditations,-the prediction of improbable
results a proof of more than human wisdom. It was
quite improbable the Gospel would prove a sword on
the earth; it was quite improbable that the preaching
of the cross would be effectual and influential preach-
ing. Had Jesus, therefore, spoken only as a man, he
would not have spoken in the very teeth of probabi-
lities: he might have predicted what was false, but at
least he would have predicted what was likely. And
hence we reckon our text amongst those internal evi-
dences of Christianity, which are all the more valuable
because indirect; and connecting the prophecy with
the fulfilment, we feel, that had not Christ spoken by
the Spirit of God, he never could and he never would
have said, "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men
unto me."

Yea, and if you go back, for an instant, to earlier scenes, and remember the difficulties with which Christianity had to struggle at the outset, you will readily discern that the crucifixion of its Founder was of all things the most calculated to shut up the world to an obstinate rejection of his claims. It would have seemed enough to have told the polished nations of antiquity, that the author of this new faith had died as a malefactor, by the hands of his own countrymen, in order to have riveted them to a contemptuous infidelity, and to have for ever closed all inquiry into the truths of those announcements which apostles were busied in proclaiming in their cities. Yet it was in the face of all this apparent likelihood, nay, of this absolute certainty of vehement opposition, that Christ made the representation in our text. We are not at

The Cabinet.

INSENSIBILITY.-Never to ask ourselves what our great want is, or what we should ask of God, if we might have the wish of our hearts, is great blindness and stupidity; and yet it is the case, not only of the grossly irreligious, but of all those who are in the practice of an external work only.-Rev. T. Adams.

VOL. VII. No. 194.

BY THE REV. W. G. MOORE,
Rector of West Barkwith, Lincolnshire.

II.

THE first account we have of any particular act of homage rendered to God, is given us in the words: "And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering; but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect." May we not suppose from hence that the acceptance of Abel's offering, and the rejection of that of Cain, was attributable to the nature of the gift presented by each, and to the state of mind exhibited by the worshippers in the nature of the sacrifice made? If, as there is every reason to suppose, the skins where with our first parents were clothed were those stripped from animals slain in sacrifice, the only mode of approaching their Creator acceptably after their apostacy was by blood.

Sacrifices were, indeed, of two kinds; first, those strictly so called, wherein the offering made was totally destroyed by fire (and these again differed, as being, in some instances, peace-offerings, in others sin-offerings); and secondly, those which were simply oblations, or in acknowledgment of the Divine goodness for the continuance of life, and for the gift of those numberless mercies which made that life a blessing. In discriminating, therefore, between the nature of the tribute paid to the Almighty by Cain and Abel; in con

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ON THE ORIGIN, NATURE, AND PROGRESS | sidering the sacrifice offered by the one, and the oblation made by the other, we shall perhaps arrive at the real cause of the difference made between them by a just and jealous God. The one, Abel, drew near with a sacrifice at once expressive of his guilt, and of his dependence upon the sufficiency of that one great sacrifice for sin, which, in the latter day, should be offered up by the Son of God, and be effective to the release of all who looked to it in faith for the cleansing of their natural pollution, and the gift of perfect righteousness; the other, Cain, drew near with the first-fruits of the earth, which, however worthy of acceptance when preceded or accompanied by a confession of guilt, a deprecation of vengeance, and an acknowledgment of Divine goodness, would, when offered prior to any such confession or acknowledgment, prove only the pride of his heart. A sense of sin is the very first requisite in an apostate creature previous to his re-attaining the Divine favour; and it would surely, therefore, be the intention of the divine Being, in his constitution of a form of worship adjusted to the necessities of fallen creatures, to point out, first, how or in what way such sense of sin should be properly expressed, before he pointed out the means, or would dictate the manner, in which the concomitant feeling of gratitude or praise for daily mercies should be displayed. And as obedience was then the simple rule of life, the summary of the law given for human direction, the transgression of Cain seems to have been a reiterated and gratuitous rebellion against his Maker. This view of the subject is strengthened by comparing the passages wherein the form of worship is mentioned

A A

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AND IRELAND.

as used by Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and the patriarchs, with that expressly ordained at a later period, and concerning which there can be no doubt.*

|

ing public worship unnecessary, nor were they considered as in any way interfering with or prejudicial to it, but in order that each one of their disciples might have some petitions suited to his own particular wants and circumstances, perhaps also to his peculiar tenets. That prescribed forms of prayer were also in use in the Israelitish Church, may be learned from the Pentateuch; for the offering of first-fruits and tenths was to be accompanied by a confession of Divine bounty and goodness, and a declaration that the person presenting it had performed what the law required.* Among the psalms and hymns of David, many are (EUKTIKOL) prayers for common use, solemn addresses to God, adapted to the wants of his people. Thus Hezekiah, it is said, "commanded the Levites to sing praises to the Lord with the words of David and Asaph the seer; and they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshipped" (2 Chron. xxix. 30).

It must not, however, be supposed, that because our Lord, in compliance with the custom of the Jewish rabbins, taught his disciples a form of prayer well deserving the title ascribed to it by one of the Fathers, "the God-taught prayer," he ever intended that its use should supersede that of every other; or that it should necessarily form a part of every other prayer. It was a brief compendium, intended to point out the leading subjects of human petitions; and as it comprises within few words all that God demands and men stand in need of, it cannot be too closely adhered to, whenever and with whatever form we draw near the footstool of our Maker.

""

In the early ages of man's existence frequent mention is made of building an altar, and sacrificing to the Lord, though we have no recorded petition for a very considerable period. At the same time, we are naturally led to believe that as sacrifices were but the outward act, they could only be acceptable or otherwise as they were declaratory of the mind of the worshipper, and his desire to renew the dedication of himself, and all his substance (the just forfeit of transgression), to the service of the Almighty. Sacrifices, indeed, were only offered at some set time, upon some singular event in the lives of patriarchs, upon some signal mark of Divine interference, or upon some striking communication being made to them from on high; while prayer would be a daily duty, without which they could maintain no spiritual communion with the Fountain of light and happiness. The commendation pronounced upon Enoch for walking with God can only be clearly understood by supposing that he worshipped and served God in the prescribed. methods, of which sacrifice was one; and in the habitual exercise of prayer and praise, which was the other.

In short, the head of the patriarchal family was the priest, to discharge every religious service, according to those directions, which were as binding upon all, as, we can have no doubt, they were inculcated upon all. Thus it is said of Abraham, "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment" (Gen. xviii. 19).

Tertullian says, with reference to our Lord's prayer, "God alone can teach us how he wishes to be addressed. The divine use of prayer, therefore, being ordained by God himself, and the dictate of his Holy Spirit, it ascends to heaven by his favour, commending to the Father what the Son has taught." Cyprian says, "Christ, among other salutary admonitions and divine precepts, in which he seeks the salvation of his people, himself also gave us a form of prayer, and taught and advised us what to pray for. He who breathed into us the breath of life, taught us also how to pray-one mark of kindness leading to the expression of others; so that while we address the Father by prayer and supplication taught by the Son, our prayers may the more readily enter into his ears." And again, "What can be more spiritual than the prayer delivered to us

Vide Gen. viii. 20; xii. 7; xxii. 9; xxxv. 13; where we

may observe that building an altar is synonymous with offering by Christ, by whom also the Holy Spirit has

As we descend the stream of time, we find that, independent of sacrifices, of the public acts of obedience and subjection paid by heads of families generally, and by individuals on some special occasions in particular, there were not only stated hours of prayer, but stated prayers for those hours. These were supposed to have been appointed by Ezra, to the number of twenty-two, which number was reduced by Gamaliel, the instructor of St. Paul, to eighteen. It was also a custom among the Jewish doctors to teach their disciples short forms or summaries, which were not put forward with the intention of render

+ That this was the case, we have proof in Gen. iv. 26: "Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord;" as also in Gen. xiii. 4, "Then Abraham called upon the name of the Lord." Compare also Ex. xx. 24; xxiv. 4; xxix. 11-22; xl. 29; Lev. i. 2-31.

Such was Noah's sacrifice, Gen. viii. 20; Abraham's, Gen.

XV. 9.