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recognized in this text, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve."

Thirdly: That the action of the will is determined to a great extent by the influences which are brought to bear upon it. Man cannot act intelligently without a motive. There must always be some motive, good or bad. Why we act thus, and not otherwise. In religion God has brought the weightiest motives conceivable to bear upon our wills, to induce us to decide for God. Yet they are not such as to constrain us irresistibly to yield, for that would destroy the freedom of our will, and, consequently, deprive us of the virtue of obedience; nevertheless they are such, if candidly considered, as will enable us to decide for God. He has brought before our minds the essential distinction between sin and holiness, everlasting life and everlasting death, the work of the Spirit and the preaching of the Word, the events of Providence, the examples of the good, heaven and hell, the cross and the judgment, and all the sublime doctrines of the Gospel. Thus man is left without a cloak for his sins, without a shadow of apology for his disobedience. If the soul is lost, it is because it would not choose to serve God. What terrible responsibility rests upon man refusing to serve God, when his conscience and reason prove it to be right; when the Gospel shows how it should be done; when the Holy Spirit prompts him to it and tenders his gracious aid.

III. THE URGENCY OF RELIGIOUS DECISION.

Choose you

this day, whom ye will serve. We should be prompt in

our decision.

First: Because procrastination is dangerous. We know not what a day may bring forth, and sin is very beguiling. You know not that another opportunity will be given you, and even if there should be, that you will be more disposed to accept it than you are now. Hence, "Choose you this day." Secondly: Your advantages will never be greater than they

are now.

You have the Gospel preached to you, the Spirit

to strive with you, God's people to pray for you, his providences to warn you, and Christ to intercede for you.

Thirdly: It is criminal to hesitate to do that which is so manifestly your reasonable duty. If you will not decide while it is a day of grace, you must for ever perish.

L. DAVIES, M.A.

Thinkings by a Broad-Bibleman.

(No. I.)

SUBJECT: Wounders in the House of One's Friends. HAUCER, in one of his wonderful, graphic passages, alludes to

"The smiler with the knife under the cloke."

This seems to be exactly the attitude of many of the false friends of biblical truth. They smile on it, and stab it, or, if they do not quite go so far, they superciliously ignore the paramount demands of Revelation, or give its glory to another. We claim for it, and justly, all that Cowper claimed for it when he wrote

"A glory gilds the sacred page;
Majestic, like the sun:"

It gives a light to every age;
It gives, but borrows none.'

Yet how many, instead of contending zealously for the superlative antiquity and originality of the Bible, are content for it to take a second place, forgetting often how much is involved in this concession. The man is eminently disloyal to the truth who does not ask for every literary fragment, or, in fact, for any document bearing on the subject, the same credentials, external, internal, direct, or circumstantial, as can be adduced in favour of the word of God itself. this is never done. China, India, Assyria, Persia, Egypt, are allowed to have their superlatively ancient books; but not so, or only grudgingly, the poor Hebrew. He whom God made to school the world is degraded into a learner and

VOL. XX.

H

Yet

a copyist. We might bring forward many proofs of this, but content ourselves this month with an example, the more startling, because it comes to us under sanction of a great and good name—that of Dr. Macleod, who, by inserting it in his Good Words for May last, appears to endorse its very grave heterodoxy.

"The Oldest Story in the World" is the title of this choice brochure, which is nothing if not old; and if old, silly, drivelling, and indecent, as such bibliographical treasures not uncommonly are. But we will let the narrative speak for itself.

Anepu and Batau were brothers. The elder "had a house and a wife;" the younger was engaged with him in husbandry. Anepu was peculiarly happy in his cattle; they were so remarkably intelligent-"they always told him where the good herbage was." The younger brother being sent home one day for seed, is treated by the wife of Anepu much as Joseph was treated by the wife of Potiphar, with the same result. On the husband's return home, poor Batau is traduced by the wicked wife, and his brother naturally makes up his mind to kill him without judge or jury. But before this younger brother puts up his cattle, on his return home, one of the heifers tells tales, and a second "follows on the same side." Batau takes the hint, peeps under the door, and, seeing his brother's legs there, sagaciously concludes that the owner of them is lying in wait for him. He accordingly gives chase across the country, followed by his brother. But before the latter can come up with the fugitive, the sun-god, Harmachis, spoils the game by interposing a great stream full of crocodiles. On the morrow Batau clears himself of the scandal, and pacifies his brother, telling him that he and his soul are about to part company, for he is going to place his better part in the topmost blossom of a certain cedar, of which he tells him, with all the sublime magniloquence of an oracle, "as soon as ever the cedar tree shall be cut down, then will it fall to the earth!" Anepu, who must be in very easy circumstances, to spare the time, is to spend seven years in looking for it, and, on finding it, is to plunge it into cold water, and restore his lost brother to life. Anepu returns home in ill-humour, kills his wife, and casts her to the dogs.

In his solitude, Batau meets with the nine gods, who, like sensible fellows, think he should have a wife, which consummation is soon brought about. But, according to the seven

:

Hathors, she is too beautiful to be trusted alone, and her fond husband consequently cautions her against going abroad, lest she should meet the Sea! She yields only a qualified submission, but directs her ramble towards the Cedar Mountains, thinking, no doubt, in her simplicity, that the Sea is not likely to find her there. But Love laughs at impossibilities, and, sure enough, Old Ocean is strolling on the hilltop. He sees her, but she escapes him, though he succeeds in getting a lock of her hair, which fills all Egypt with fragrance, and at length reaches the hands of Pharaoh. He immediately sends out scouts in all directions to find the owner, and she is ultimately brought before him, and becomes his wife. On assuming this new position, she betrays the soul of poor Batau, her husband: the cedar-blossom is cut off, and "he falls away and dies." No matter his brother tries the cold-water cure, and restores him, but not very cleverly, for, contrary to all precedent, his heart is the last thing to move. The meeting of the brothers is a joyful one, but shortlived. Batau, at his own request, is turned into a sacred bullock, and his brother rides home upon his back. He makes himself known to his beautiful wife, who most unnaturally wants to eat his liver, and an attempt is consequently made to kill him; but he has as many dodges as Paupukcewis, and escapes by a miracle. Ultimately she bears the king a son, whom he makes Prince of Ethiopia and viceroy of the whole country, and then, like a good king, "flies to heaven." Then "the other," presumed to be Batau, narrates the whole history and mystery of his life, takes his brother into favour, puts him into his place, and assumes the throne, reigning thirty years as King of Egypt.

We have nothing to say against those dotards who love antiquity for its own sake alone. Let them read and print any nonsense they please, merely because they believe it to have been written, when literature was rare, if not precious. Let them even admire, if they can, "the simplicity, the freshness, the almost biblical style" of this extremely silly narrative. But never let them attempt to do it at the expense of revelation. We are not prepared to give up the claims of the Bible to that superlative antiquity which we believe to be its right, and look upon that man as a traitor who, when he talks of the oldest story in the world, ignores the magnificent poem of Job, or the venerable books of Moses.

Before touching therefore upon graver matters, let us look for a moment at the claims of this "tale of three thousand years ago" to the honourable distinction assigned to it. It purports to have been written for a son of Pharaoh Ramses Miamun, and was regarded as "good enough to be associated with the name of Pharaoh's scribe Kagabu"-" an Egyptian Burke, or Gibbon," according to Mr. Perowne, who stands sponsor for the story!

We have not seen the original manuscript, though we hear it is in the British Museum; but presume it is mainly written in the enchorial or common character of the country, interspersed probably with a few hieroglyphics, phonetic, symbolic, figurative, or demonstrative. We are willing, therefore, to believe that the translation fairly represents the original; and is not so wildly guessed at as in the majority of cases of this kind.

Of the material, we can speak much more confidently. It is written on papyrus, an article unknown in Egypt or anywhere else, until the fourth century B.C. Herodotus describes the use made of this byblos or papyrus plant; but gives no hint that it was employed in the manufacture of paper, and his annotator, Beloe, says that this art was unknown before the founding of Alexandria. Pliny describes the process with all the circumstantiality of a new invention; and it was not until after his time that it reached its climax as a manufacture, or a staple product of the country. We must therefore altogether disallow the assumed antiquity of this papyrus.

Then as to the time of Ramses Miamun, we have a large margin left us. Those who know anything of Egypt, know that this name is " plentiful as blackberries" upon almost all its monuments from the age of the Greek and Roman rule in that country, backwards through several centuries. Ramses Miamun, Ramses Miamun, Ramses Miamun-which is simply Ramses the beloved of Ammon, no very characteristic distinction in the land of Ammon-is inscribed again and again, usque ad nauseam, on the Tablet of Abydus-ten times consecutively amongst the latest names-and in so many other places, that it would be more puzzling to say where it is not to be found than where it is. Not that this frequent occurrence of the name proves anything, as there is precisely the same evidence of the real existence of Osiris, Horus, Anubis, or any other of the "brutish gods of Nile."

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