Lyra Apostolica. Γνοῖεν δ', ὡς δὴ δηρὸν ἐγὼ πολέμοιο πέπαυμαι. No. XVII. CHRISTIAN CHIVALRY. I. "SILENCE, unworthy! how should tones like thine God hath no need of waverers round His shrine : The murmurings swell and heave of sad remorse ; II. Wash thee, and watch thine armour: as of old Three summer nights outwatch'd the stars on high, And Fame far hovering with immortal beams. And more than prowess theirs, and more than fame; Of an approving God, a righteous aim, An arm outstretch'd to guide them and to bless': Firm as steel bows for angels' warfare bent They went abroad, not knowing where they went. III. For why? the sacred Pentecostal eve Had bath'd them with its own inspiring dew, And gleams more bright than Summer sunsets leave The Spirit's chosen heralds o'er all lands Bore the bright tongues of fire. Thus, firm and few, CORRESPONDENCE. The Editor begs to remind his readers that he is not responsible for the opinions ACCIDENTAL HARMONIES OF SCRIPTURE WITH CIRCUMSTANCES. "I would, with Aristotle, define rhetoric to be the art of finding, on every occasion, whatever is proper to persuade......So that the truths the preacher may propound may be heard with most attention, may be best understood, and may be remembered for the greatest length of time." DEAR SIR,-The readers of the British Magazine will be aware from whence the above motto is taken. I hope the author of that very interesting paper (in your September number), "The Ancient and Modern Pulpit compared," will not consider my abridgment as any garbling of his words. I borrow them because they seem to serve particularly well as an introduction to my present subject. Has an intelligible title been prefixed to it? If not entirely so, let me proceed to make it such. In watching the manifold-it might not be exaggeration to say the inexhaustible excellencies of the prescribed appointments of our church service, it has been long a practice with me to look out for casual fitnesses to be perceived between the parts of Scripture read in church on any given Sunday and the particular circumstances of the day or time, if any there shall chance to be. The time of harvest, e. g., will at once explain my meaning. Whether or not it was designed in the arrangement of the fixed lessons, or in the selection of gospels, to keep an eye to a fluctuating occasion, may, perhaps, be doubtful. It seems beyond all fair dispute, that there is great appropriateness to such a time discernible in some of the appointed services for the fourteenth Sunday after Trinity; which Sunday, in the natural course of things, is likely often to coincide with the in-gathering of the fruits of the earth in due season. And a selection for the fifteenth Sunday, of Matthew, vi. 24-34, for the gospel, may readily be construed into a further quiet device for the securing at least something in harmony with that recurring exercise of Providential care and bounty to man; so that, if the earliest of these two Sundays should not square with the occasion of thankfulness, the net (if I may so express it) might be spread for a second cast. I do not mean to lay extravagant stress on what may be a fanciful idea altogether; but there is something not unpleasant in the thought, and it is capable of good. But to proceed with my lucubration. Whatever be the measure of designed coincidence, any or none, certain it is, in point of fact, that in my own parish, the falling of the first-named Sunday this year exactly met the close of harvest. I know not what may be the happier experience of other clergymen, but it has always seemed to be my own lot, to find Divine service worse attended-in other words, God's visible honour less duly ren dered during the time of harvest, than at any other of the whole year. I do not say this in unkind or unreflecting severity. The question, even if the fact be granted, is one which may admit of much forcible explanation on behalf of the labouring classes. Still, even the apparent neglect is very painful; and the extent, at any rate, to which it is allowed in some places, is wholly inexcusable. Having this feeling, you will not wonder that I should have been impressed by the concurrence of Jeremiah, v. 24, and the miracle of the ten lepers, on the very day most suitable for directing the gratitude of a Christian flock in one immediate special channel. To seize upon these points accordingly, and couple them together," not," as I persuade myself, "by constraint, but willingly," and with a strict attention to the just analogy of Scripture,-appeared to correspond with that appliance of rhetoric commended in my motto. Whether what thus was said may be "remembered for the greatest length of time," is more than may be answered for; but a discourse thus framed was "heard with much seeming attention," and was apparently "well understood." And such has always struck me as the case, when a like use has happened to be made of any special harmonies between the Scriptures of the day and the occasion; which general result it is, not any single instance, that seems to be the point worth offering to the reflection of your clerical readers. Such applications of the word of life, when made with reasonable circumspection, must have a tendency, one would believe and hope, that is extremely desirable-namely, to bring the Scriptures home to our own doors, our own fields, our own firesides; to clothe it with a living character; to make us feel its power as a daily rule and law of life; to shew that all and every part of it not strictly ceremonial is meant, in practical and beneficial ways at every turn of our necessities, for us and for our children; and, in particular, to fix and to increase a proper reverence for the exceeding richness in instruction of the Old Testament. It is to be observed further, that very seldom will a chance occur, admitting of this mode of teaching, in which the Psalms will not be found to lend much valuable help. Thus, in the special instance here exhibited by way of specimen, it happened that the fourteenth Sunday after Trinity fell on the last day of the month; in which particular case the difficulty was, not to discover passages which might be fitly interwoven with the thread of the discourse, but to refrain from using too many. Nor is it with a reference to Scripture alone that such a practice may be thought deserving of attention; but it has always seemed to me an excellent, and quite uncontroversial, method of setting forth peculiar advantages belonging to the church. Many are the occasions on which a favourable ground may thus be taken for shewing quietly to minds open to conviction, how surely faithful a dispenser of the word of life our wise and nursing mother is; how much she wishes all her children to hear and understand the Scriptures; opening to them every treasure there contained, but suppressing or withholding none. Where else, it may be asked, without contentiousness, are any equal chances to be found of just instruction in the whole counsel of God. But I must not allow my letter to run on to too great length. To return, therefore, for a moment to one of the particular appointments for the fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, viz., the fifth of Jeremiah, I have been the more willing to advance a plea for that chapter, by reason that a hint has been thrown out, in a published volume, which has obtained considerable circulation, that other chapters possibly might be selected (for reading aloud) more edifying to a Christian congregation. Of course, such points are always more or less a matter of taste as well as judgment. For my own part, I doubt the possibility of fastening on many chapters which ought to be attended to with a more solemn reverence and godly fear. On one most painful topic of it I will remark, that-quite agreeing in the censure justly passed on our reckless Lord Chancellor in the same number of the British Magazine already quoted (pp. 313, 314), deprecating his levity of speech, on every score-I must in sorrow think that the police reports alone of the metropolis afford calamitous and undeniable proof of an alarming prevalence of sin against the seventh commandment, among those classes of society which commonly appear at those subordinate tribunals, the police offices. How far the prophet's language, in the fourth and fifth verses of the chapter, may rightly be applied, at this point, to carry on the argument, no man may lightly venture to pronounce; but to confess the truth, I do fear that this is one among the branches of grievous sin, for which there is but too much reason to conceive it possible that judgments are fast gathering upon this seemingly infatuated nation. Can it take France so much for an example, and have things otherwise? This is becoming a digression. May I, without provoking controversy, add briefly, in conclusion, that one prevailing motive with me for thus inviting attention to the particular line and manner of occasional instruction from the pulpit here suggested, is a strong individual dislike of the too popular theory of preaching always on the broad fundamentals of the Gospel, and on little else? I know this is a hazardous confession, and one which must be made "warily in these dangerous days;" but you, at least, will think too kindly of your correspondent, to believe that he is one who would encourage any to be ashamed of the cross of Christ, and, for the rest, even let it take its chance. The opinion, at any rate, has not been hastily formed; and he who offers it is not inaccessible to conviction, if it can be proved wrong. I am, dear Sir, yours truly, R. B. Sept. 8, 1834. THE END OF THE AGE. γενεα, SIR,-The several papers in the "British Magazine," relative to the true meaning of the word induced me to examine accurately the whole passage in the Greek Testament, when it appeared to me that the difficulty was not created by the word yevɛa, but that a false translation of another word was the means of throwing difficulty and darkness over the prophecy. The word which I conceive to be mistranslated is yɛvnra, which is rendered in our English Bible "fulfilled ;” but which I cannot find to be used, in that sense, either by the writers of the New Testament or Septuagint; it is part of the verb γινομαι, nascor, gigno, and is by no author used to denote the final and complete accomplishment of a prophecy embracing all the circumstances that are described, but the beginning, and instead of " fulfilled," should be translated " commence," or "begin to take place," the events having their origin or commencement, as a man commences his life when born. Whenever the final accomplishment of a prophecy, or series of events, is intended to be expressed, we find that the writers of the New Testament always make use of distinct words, either part of the verb πληρόω, “ fulfilled,” or τελεω, Οι τελειοω, from τελος, “ finis," "end," shewing that all the circumstances of a prophecy had been fulfilled, or that a series of events had come to an end. Most of the writers of the New Testament were in the habit of quoting from the Septuagint, and it is probable they used Greek words in the same sense that the writers of the Septuagint had done; and we find that when they wished to express "fulfilment" and "final accomplishment," they made use likewise of part of the verbs Anpow Οι τελεω. There is, moreover, a passage in St. Luke, that clearly proves that the evangelist did use the word yevηTaι in a sense to denote the commencement of a prophecy. When the angel came to Zecharias, he not only gives him a promise that he shall have a child, but describes the leading events of that child's life, his character, and offices-" that he should drink no wine-that he should turn many of the Jews to the Lord that he should go forth in the spirit and power of Elias, and make ready a people prepared for the Lord"-here are a series of events foretold, embracing the whole period of St. John's life; and on Zecharias inquiring Whereby shall I know this? the Angel answers, "You shall be dumb till ravra yεvηTaι." Now we find that his mouth was opened eight days after St. John's birth, at the commencement of those events that had been foretold; and, therefore, we see clearly that St. Luke, in using ravra yevηraɩ, intended to express that Zecharias should be dumb till the commencement of those events; and mark the sense we should affix to the yɛvnrai, in the 21st chapter, viz., that as Zecharias was to be dumb till he saw the commencement of those circumstances that had been promised, so the apostles were assured that this generation shall not pass away till they saw the commencement of those events, as in the one case so in the other, St. Luke never intending to express the final accomplishment. If I am correct in this translation, all darkness in the passage vanishes, and a clear and easy interpretation of the prophecy may be given, differing indeed from that given by most of the commentators, but harmonizing perfectly with the prophecies of the Old Testament, with the declarations of St. Paul, and the Revelations of St. John. I, therefore, beg to submit, through the medium of the "British Magazine," this proposed alteration in the translation for the opinion of your learned readers; for if it is admitted to be correct, it will clear away all difficulty from a portion of Scripture which has hitherto been but imperfectly understood. I have the honour to be, &c., &c.,. G. F. |