To walk after the Spirit-To follow the motions of the Holy Spirit, and the counsels of the word of God, Rom, viii, 1.

To walk with God-To live in secret communion with God, acting as in his sight to please and glorify him, Gen. v. 24; vi. 9.

Wash,

Washed,

>Purification

Washing,

1. Moral, Ps. xxvi. 6; lxxiii.

13.

2. Spiritual, Ps. li. 2. Ezek. xvi. 9.

Pardon and sanctification, 1 Cor. vi. 11. Rev. i. 5;

vii. 14.

Water-The grace of the Holy Spirit, Isa. xliv. 3. John iii. 5; iv, 10.

Waters-1. Afflictions and troubles, Ps. Ixix. 1.

2. Multitudes of people, Isa. viii. 7. Rev. xvii.

15.

3. Evangelical ordinances, Isa. lv. 1.

4. The blessings of the Holy Spirit, Isa. xliv. 3. John vii. 37.

Week-Seven years, Dan. ix. 24. Seventy weeks of years, are four hundred and ninety years.

Wilderness-1. General desolation, Isa. xxvii. 10. Jer. xxii. 6.

2. This world of trial, 1 Cor. x. 5, 6. Isa. xli. 18. Wind-1. The operations of the Holy Spirit, John iii. 8. 2. Divine judgments, Isa. xxvii. 8.

3. Desolation, Jer. li. 1; iv. 11, 12.

Winds, Four-General destructions, Jer. xlix. 36. Dan. vii. 2. Rev. vii. 2.

Wine-1. Temporal blessings, Hos. ii. 8. Ps. iv, 7. 2. Gospel provision, Isa. xxv. 6; lv. 1.

3. Divine indignation, Ps. lxxv. 8. Rev. xvi. 19. Wings-1. Protection, Ps. xvii. 8; xxxvi. 7; xci. 4. 2. Evangelical blessings, Mal. iv. 4.

Witnesses-Persecuted churches or their pastors, Rev. xi. 3-6.

Wolf, Wolves-1. Fierce, irreligious men, Isa. xi. 6;

lxv. 25.

Wolf, Wolves-2. Bitter persecutors, Luke x. 3. 3. Avaricious men, professedly Christian ministers, John x. 12. Acts xx. 29.

Women-1. A state or city, Ezek. xxiii. 2, 3. 2. The church of Christ, Rev. xii. 1.

3. The antichristian church, Rev. xvii. 3. Yoke-1. Oppressive servitude, Deut. xxviii. 48. 2. Painful religious rites, Acts xv. 10. Gal. v. 1. 3. The delightful service of Christ, Matt. xi. 29, 30.

4. Moral restraints, Lam. iii. 27.

CHAPTER XV.-CHARACTER and InfluenCE OF CHRISTIANITY, AND ITS CLAIMS UPON ALL MANKIND.

THE Holy Scriptures, as we have seen, are the living oracles of God. They are addressed to perishing sinners, and designed to make men wise unto salvation, through faith in Jesus Christ.

In every point of view in which we can contemplate Christianity, it exhibits to us the perfection of heavenly wisdom, and is incomparably superior to all the systems which have ever been presented to mankind, under the sacred name of religion.

Its institutes have been written by holy men of God, prophets, apostles, and evangelists: they have been confirmed by an innumerable multitude of intelligent, learned, and pious believers, in the character of confessors and martyrs for their truth, divinity, and saving efficacy; and their transforming influence on those who receive the love of the truth, still corresponds with their primitive claims, and demonstrates that they came from God.

The Bible alone has clearly revealed the self-existence, the universal providence, and the infinite perfections of the one only living and eternal God. It has both published and illustrated his holy law, as the immutable rule of moral duty for all his intelligent crea

tion. It announces a future judgment, in which all men shall be righteously rewarded or punished according to their character and their works. It contemplates man in that condition, which all history pourtrays-a fallen, miserable mortal, a guilty transgressor against God. It exhibits to his terrified mind, and brings to his awakened conscience, the rich provisions of mercy, full forgiveness and free justification, through the substitution of an almighty Surety. The understanding of man being darkened, and his heart corrupted, it sends him an omnipotent Sanctifier, whose influence illuminates and purifies the soul by regeneration and sanctification. Christianity thus destroys the deeply rooted enmity of the heart, and brings the alienated rebel to God, as his heavenly Father, to receive the unspeakable blessings of adoption into the family of God, and to enjoy the sweet assurances of immortality in the life everlasting.

This system of sovereign mercy implants the principles and enforces the practice of every virtue which can exalt, adorn, and improve the human character. Even its partial reception has annihilated the cruel barbarities and degrading customs inseparable from former ages. It alone has elevated woman to her just equality with man: it alone has sanctified the conjugal relation; it alone has inculcated the duty, and exemplified the expression of domestic harmony, and of parental and filial affection: it alone enforces mutual forgiveness, confidence, and brotherly love, irrespective of clime, and age, and nation. Christianity binds all classes together in universal sympathy, under a sense of our common necessities, as equally children of the same almighty Parent; and, being Christians, as members of the body of Christ, and fellow-heirs of the grace of life.

Christianity is the angel of celestial mercy to the sons of wretchedness, affliction, and wo; and that even where superstition has been mingled with it. "To the influence of Christianity are to be attributed those asy

lums for the relief of the miserable, which humanity has consecrated as monuments of beneficence. Constantine was the first who built hospitals for the reception of the sick and wounded in the different provinces of the Roman empire.

Christianity has given to us our inestimable sabbaths; thus sanctifying a seventh portion of our days, for the benign purposes of rest, instruction, and devotion. It prescribes our social meetings on the day of the Lord, for cherishing fraternal affection, for increasing rational piety, and mutually to encourage our sublimest anticipations of a glorious immortality at the termination of our earthly sorrows.

The sacred exercises of the Christian Sabbath promote the purest, the most enlarged philanthropy: and they have been the means of constraining the disciples of Christ to care for the souls of others. The immortal welfare of their neighbours, of their fellow-countrymen, and of the whole earth's population, has engaged their benevolent solicitude. It is computed that more than fifty thousand children of the indigent, are, in Great Britain, supported and educated in the principles of the Bible, by means of the bounty of deceased Christians! Not less than a million of the children, chiefly of the labouring and mechanical classes, are collected every Sabbath and by a hundred thousand disciples of Christ, they are gratuitously taught to read and understand the words of everlasting life. Thus they are directed in the paths of virtue by the gospel of salvation, and instructed how they may glorify God and enjoy him for ever.

For the divine purpose of advancing knowledge and religion among all the families of mankind, Christians in Europe and America annually contribute largely. Among the degraded heathen they support many hundreds of apostolical missionaries; to learn their languages, to translate for them the sacred Scriptures, to preach among them the unsearchable riches of Christ, to instruct their children in heavenly wisdom; to show forth to

guilty nations the unspeakable blessings of redeeming grace; and by the only mediator between God and sinners, to lead them to the possession of life everlasting!

Such is the noble spirit, and such the imperishable fruits of Christianity, as contained in the Holy Bible. Its language still addresses equally every child of man; the monarch and the peasant the rich and the poorthe learned and the illiterate-the master and the servant-the parent and the child, are alike invited and commanded to return to the Lord our God, by repentance and faith, in humble sincerity. To believe with the heart the record which God has given of his Son Jesus Christ, is to possess an interest in eternal life; to reject or disbelieve the gospel, is to make God a liar; and how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?

CHAPTER XVI.-GEOGRAPHICAL Gazetteer of the NEW TESTAMENT.

THE geography of the New Testament extends little beyond the countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, or Great Sea. The only seas which are spoken of in the New Testament are, the Sea of Galilee, called the Sea of Tiberias, which is the Lake of Gennesaret; the Red Sea, and parts of the Mediterranean. At the period of our Saviour's ministry, almost all the countries mentioned in the New Testament were included in the Roman empire, or were subject to the Romans. The journeyings of our Lord were limited to the land of Israel. This country, on the western side of Jordan, was divided into three provinces; Judea in the south, Samaria in the middle, and Galilee in the north. Beyond Jordan, on the eastern side, the country was called Perea; in which were situated Decapolis, including ten cities, John i. 28. Mark vii. 31. The missionary labours of Paul were chiefly confined to Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy; though it is believed by many that he visited Spain, Gaul or France, and