THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIRLE. Las Casas and other friends spoke up now for "Columba," but it was too late-the mischief had been wrought. And all had been done, as is quite evident, with entire innocence and naturalness. Had the prominent thing in connection with Columbus's discoveries been the continent instead of the islands, and had not his fame been under so great an eclipse at the time of his death and for quite a period afterward, and had Spain pursued a less selfish, exclusive, secretive policy in regard to all its information about the New World, it would not have been left to other lands to name the continent and to take from Spain's great admiral this deserved recognition. THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. Like all divine inspirations, like all life, it is an impenetrable mystery. Life is God's secret. For a man therefore, to lay down his imperative definition of scriptural inspiration, to graduate the degrees of it in different kinds of Scripture, history prophesy, or psalm, to dogmatise about its special differences from other operations and inspirations of spiritual life, is simply presumption. We do not attempt to define the mystery of the Incarnation, to put its modus into a proposition, to say what, in the incarnate Christ, the human elements and the divine elements are and how they act in combination. We simple accept the Incarnate whole. We do not attempt to discriminate the elements of human life, body soul, and spirit; to say exactly what belongs to each, or how they act in combination. It takes a body to keep a soul. We do not attempt to define life even in a plant or an animal. We do not attempt to reduce to a definition the mystery of 21 the new birth, the regeneration of the soul of man by the Holy Spirit of God; to discriminate in the processes of faith, of prayer, of holy resolution and striving, how much exactly is the inspiration of the divine Spirit, and how much is the working of our own natural thought and feeling. Nay, who shall say how the divine upholding works in our physical movements? We never think of attempting definitions of these things. The inspiration of "holy men of old, who wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," is also a conjunction of the divine and human. Čan anything be more preposterous than to attempt to reduce it to definitions? When a man says to me, "The inspiration of the Bible writers in no way differs from the inspiration of other genius-of a Shakespeare; a Milton, a Pascal, a Bunyan"-I simply reply, "How do you know? When another affirms that the Bible is the word of God in such a sense that every thought, every sentence, every word, every letter, is a veritable dictation of the Holy Spirit, again I ask "How do you know? It is nowhere said so." While the one theory denies the supernatural element in Scripture; the other theory denies the human element, and makes it merely a divine ventriloquism, an artificial imitation of various forms of literary genius from which my reverence shrinks. Judging from the actual product-the book as it lies before me, which is my only means of judging-it is neither. It is an incarnation of 'the divine in the human.-Henry Allon, D. D.--"The Indwelling Christ and other Sermons. A sudden lie may be sometimes only manslaughter upon the truth; but by a carefully constructed equivocation, truth always is with malice aforethought deliberately murdered.—Morley. For the Young People. DO NOT TEMPORISE. Temporising, to save one's self from brave and instant choice of the right is useless. In Thomas Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus" there is a very wonderful chapter on "The Everlasting No." There is surely such a thing in morals as an everlasting no againt wrong. And as plainly evident as the fact that there must be an everlasting "No" against wrong is the place where this everlasting "No" ought, even thunderously, to be uttered; and that place is plainly and precisely the place where what we know to be a tempting, urgent wrong begins to solicit. Just in that place and just at that instant ought this everlasting "No" to sound with most distinct articulation, and as with the vividness of a lightning flash. In Dr. Holmes's "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" there appears a certain character named John, who soliloquises with himself in this fashion: "Now there are three Johns, my John -what I know of myself; other people's John--what other people think of me; and the real John-God's John." The test by which the other Johns must stand or fall is "the real JohnGod's John." And the test by which God discovers what sort of a real John, John is, is whether John utters this everlastfng "No" to the wrong soliciting. How wise are these words of the great Bishop Butler: "In all common ordinary cases we see intuitively, at the first view, what is our duty, what is the honest part. That is the ground of the observation that the first thought is often the best. That which is called considering what is our duty in a particular case is very often nothing but endeavoring to ex plain it away. Thus those courses 80 they would see to be corruption, de the In morals first thoughts are best thoughts. Say the everlasting "No" and have done with it. Do not temporise. "SING UNTO THE LORD.” And to This is the binding exhortation of "the sweet singer of Israel." how frequently do we come upon such words in the Psalms! Elsewhere the same thought and injunction is expressed. And it suggests the fact that there is a natural proneness sing unto some one besides the Lord during times of religious worship. Was not the Psalmist himself often tempted during the hours of worship to sing unto man instead of the Lord? No doubt of it. There is not a Christian who makes a practice of singing at religious services but what is under a greater or less temptation to sing unto the ears of those in the room. Very often also are we inclined to sing for our own pleasure. We fail to put our heart's homage into our sacred songs, and make the melody unto the Lord. We are thinking of the beauty of the tune and sweetness of the music, and of its effect on the hearers. Oh, how much sin we commit in the act of singing during hours set apart for Divine worship! Our singing nothing less than a mere farce and a pretense of worship. It is full of pride and vanity. Our greatest effort is "AULD LANG SYNE." is to sing so as to please men. We think more of offending their ears than we do of offending our Lord. Our minds are on human hearers rather than the Divine hearer. See how it is with the most choirs. They often look for human praise of their efforts, and think that they are not duly appreciated unless the pastors and others speak fine things of their singing. Well, if choirs ought to be praiaed for their singing, why should not the congregation praise the pastor for his prayers? One is as reasonable and right as the other. If praying be part of worship, so is singing; and if one should be complimented, so should the other. But the fact is neither should be complimented. We should both sing and pray unto the Lord, and unto Him alone. "AULD LANG SYNE." "Auld Lang Syne" is a well-known song and as popular on this side of the ocean as on the other. An interesting statement regarding its origin, poetry, and music, has just been made by Mr. James Dick to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. The earliest germ of the song is, it seems, found in an anonymous poem of the fifteenth century, preserved in the Bannatyne Manuscript, 1568. The title of the poem, "Auld Kyndness Forgett," is in modern Scottish "Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot." The second song on the subject known to exist is printed in Watson's collection, published in 1714, entitled "Old Long Syne," in twelve eight-line stanzas. The third song is Allan Ramsay's "Auld Lang Syne," first printed in the "Tea Table Miscellany," 1724. The first record of the present wellknown version is in Burns's letter to Mrs. Dunlop, 17th Dec. 1788, enclosing a copy of the verses as "an old song 23 which has thrilled through my soul." Five years afterwards he sent a copy to George Thomson, and about the same time another copy to James Johnston, for the "Scots Musical Museum,' in the fifth volume of which it was printed for the first time in 1797, about five months after the poet's death. That there was an old rustic song with a chorus similar to Burns's song is suspected, but all attempts to discover the smallest traces of it have been fruitless. As to the music of "Auld Lang Syne," there are two tunes-an old one which Burns knew, and the mod ern one first printed with Burns's words in 1799-three years after his death, in Thompson's "Songs of Scotland." Thomson rejected the old time-worn tune, and replaced it with a variation of another melody, which had been then for many years popular. The modern melody did not become immediately popular, but during the last fifty years it has so progressed in favor, that it is now the widest spread social song in the Anglo-Saxon language-Pall Mall Gazette. A VEGETABLE CATERPILLAR. The very close relationship between animal and vegetable life has been often noticed. The sponges have much in common with both animals and plants. The imitative forms of insects, which make butterflies of Borneo resemble the leaves of trees, are well known to most readers in natural history. All these observations go to prove that the same general laws are at work in the animal and the vegetable world, and that these same general types prevail in creation so far as the conditions of life allow. Attention has recently been called to the Aweto of New Zealand as one of these puzzling products of nature. In the early stage of its growth it is a perfect caterpillar, growing to the length of three and a half inches. It is always found in the neighborhood of the Rata-tree, a large scarlet-flowered myrtle, and habitually buries itself a few inches under ground. When the Aweto is fully grown, it undergoes a wonderful change. The spore of a vegetable fungus fixes itself directly on the caterpillar's neck, takes root, and grows, like a diminutive bulrush, from six to ten inches high, without leaves, and with a dark-brown head. This singular stem penetrates the earth over the caterpillar, and stands up a few inches above the ground. The root grows at the same time into the body of the insect, exactly filling every place without altering its form in the slightest degree. It simply substitutes a vegetable for an animal substance. As soon as this process is completed, both the caterpillar and fungus die, and become dry and hard. The thing is then a wooden caterpillar, so to say, with a wooden bulrush standing up from its neck. NATURE AS A TEACHER. Agassiz used to say that he had no time to make money; too many men seem to have no time for anything else. The sublime pageant of Nature passes before their eyes, and they do not see it; the wonderful drama of life is enacted about them, and they are oblivious of it. Stars, woods, seasons, human comedy and tragedy, are no more to them than to the beasts that perish. And yet these men, who ccorn God's universe and refuse its marvellous gifts are called successful! Was there ever a more malicious irony! Nature takes small account of conventional standards. She has her own test, and she knows no other. The open eye and soul, the mind at ease with life, the heart at peacethese are the things she demands from all who understand and love her. Overspread with beauty as with a garment, disclosing truth at every step, overflowing with vitality and force, holding within herself what men need for sustenance and education— among all our teachers is there another with so much to bestow? The test of success applied by Nature is a simple one, and easily made. Do you know the beauty of open skies and the mystery of woods? Are these and kindred things rest and refreshment to your soul? Do you long for them when they are denied, and rejoice in them when they are present? If you cannot meet this test, write yourself down a failure. For Nature is one of God's great teachers, and to reject life's teachers is to defeat the very ends for which life is given. A KNOWLEDGE OF THE TIMES. A preacher of the gospel needs to study his times-the difficulties and the mental attitudes of his hearers, only less than the Word of God. It has often been noticed that the Hebrew prophets cannot be understood without a knowledge of the peculiar social, political and religious conditions of their age, and that the early Christian fathers show the most acute apprehension of what was in the minds of their adversaries. They are an example for religious teachers of to-day. The average sermon to skeptics which we have met with is ineffective because the preacher does not understand the position of those he addresses. It is doubtful if a greater service could be rendered Christianity to-day, in a didactic form, than a masterly exposition of Christian truth that would meet the scientific and philosophical difficulties current in our day, but the man who does this service must know BLIND EYES OPENED. ACTER. 25 thoroughly what he is talking about, THE FOUNDATION OF CHARand the mental posture of those whom he is addressing toward the matter he discusses. There is no place so remote from the centres of civilization that it does not need just such exposition of Christian truth. BLIND EYES OPENED. A little boy was born blind. At last an operation was performed; the light was let in slowly. When, one day, his mother led him out of doors, and uncovered his eyes, and for the first time he saw the sky and earth, "Oh, moth er!" he cried, "Why didn't you tell me it was so beautiful?" She burst into tears, and said: "I tried to tell you, dear, but you could not understand me." So it is when we try to tell what is in the Bible. Until the spiritual sight is opened there can be no understanding of spir itual realities. mine The Psalmist prays: "Open Thou eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law." What is the foundation of character? Obedience. Where does it begin? In the cradle. life where obedience is not the fundaIs there any situation in mental law of growth? No; we live morally as we live in obedience to laws; not because disobedience is a crime that brings legal penalty, but because obedience to law is a necessity to that inner life that makes the soul's harmony; obedience within us, that is a part of our being. is the expression of the divinity that is That man who lives in obedience to the laws administered by his fellows, who knows no law within himself is a poor type of manhood. "Thou shalt love" is the outcome of "Thou shalt not" given to the world from Sinai. When this lesson is learned we shall have men and women not held in check by fear of the law, but by the power of obedience to that inward grace that marks them as the conscious children of God. Notes and Comments, &c. BY CORRESPONDING EDITORS. THE ENCROACHMENT OF THE UPON THE WELSH BY REV. FREL EVANS, D.D., (EDNYfed), I love Wales, the Welsh and the Welsh language. Those who depreciate the Welsh as a language, and speak slightingly of it, are ignorant of its striking peculiarities and many beauties. In a jocular way it is spoken of as the language of paradise, but leaving all this aside, we look upon it as a glorious tongue. For the manifestation of stormy passion, and of tender pathos, it is like Goliath's sword, there is nothing like it. It is more studied now than at any previous period; Welsh periodicals were never as numerous as at this present day, and its literature will always command the attention of the scholars of the future. In Wales it holds its own, and more. The English gains ground but not by driving the Welsh from its own home, except in a very few localities. But in this country it does not hold |