bravely in to her destined haven. Long ago that voyage was ended, of which every living Jew is a standing wit ness; a double miracle thus, of prophecy reaching downward, and a dispersed nation reaching upward, and both centering in the coming of the Son of Man.

As to whether Jesus is the Messiah of the Jews, and whether he based his religion upon the teachings of Moses and the prophets, there appears to us no room for argument, since Christ himself claims to be the Messiah of prophecy, and to have come " to fulfil the Law." He repeated the Rabbinical dictum, that until heaven and earth. should pass away, no one iota of the law should fail. As a man, he attended in every particular, not only to the essentials, but, as far as possible, to the forms of the religion of his country. But he denounced the perversity which made the form supplant the spirit; and summed up the whole meaning of law and prophets in the two great rules of moral perfection-love to God and to one's neighbor,23 which he incorporated into his system in the further development of revealed religion.

With the appearance of Christ, the account of the Jewish branch of the church of God properly ends; but we should omit an important part of the general topic, did we not more directly bring into view the relation of the dispensation of Moses to the dispensation of Christ.

To affirm that there is a close connection between the scriptures of the Old Testament and the scriptures of the New, is to repeat what has been already stated, and what every person who has ever read either of them must know is true. In the words of Dr. Jowett, the English theologian, we say:

"The New Testament is ever Old, and the Old is ever entwined with the New. Not only are the types of the Old Testament shadows of good things to come; not only are the narratives of events and the lives of persons in Jewish history written for our instruction; not only is there a deep-rooted identity of the Old and New Testament in the revelation of one God of perfect justice and truth; not only is the law fulfilled in Christ to all them that believe; not only are the spiritual Israel the true people of God; a still nearer, though more superficial connection is formed by the volume of the Old Testament itself, which, like some closely-fitting vesture, enfolds the new as well as the old

23 Mackay's Progress of the Intellect. Vol. ii. p. 375.

dispensation in its language and imagery; the words themselves, as well as the thoughts contained in them, becoming instinct with a new life, and seeming to interpenetrate with the gospel." 24

These facts, as we conceive, prove that Christianity was no abrupt transition, but that its idea and shape had their root in Judaism. It is impossible to get a full view of the plan of God for the redemption of man, except by including God's dealings with Israel. The world could not have had the religion of Christ until after it had had the religion of Moses, or some form of religion similar to it. But while the dispensations of Moses and Christ are thus closely connected and intertwined each with the other, neither can be justly estimated until each is considered separately. "Judaism is not Christianity, nor is Christianity Judaism; and the Scriptures of the two religions are separable, and must be kept separate, if their relation to each other is to be faithfully traced. To confound the two, as if they were identical, is not the way to trace their mutual relations." 25 Christianity is no school of Judaism. The vital principles of the Old Testament have become dead letters to the remnant of Israel. tianity has absorbed all the living elements of Judaism, so that it is now but the worthless husk, or the shapeless fragments which remain when the image of truth is completed.

Chris

Comparing each with the other, we may say, Judaism was characteristically ceremonial and outward, while Christianity is characteristically spiritual and inward; and hence the former had "commandments contained in ordinances," while the latter enjoins "worship in spirit and in truth." Judaism was local, allowing sacrifice in only one place; while Christianity is universal, confining the worship of God" neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusa lem." Judaism is shown by its own records to have been temporary; Christianity is seemingly as far in advance of the world now as it was when first revealed, eighteen hundred years ago, and contains within itself the highest evidence that it is the religion for all time.

Before dismissing this topic, it is proper that something should be said with respect to the types of the Old Testa

24 Jowett on Romans. p. 353.

25 Higginson's Spirit of the Bible. Vol. ii. p. 165.

ment.

One claims especial notice, since it is made the basis of a prominent theological error. We refer to the sin or trespass offering. Of sacrifice, or offerings in general, something has been already briefly stated. We have seen that they were expressions of legal obedience to God, the head of the nation.

The question before us is, was "sin offering" an exception to this otherwise universal rule? that is, was the act of sacrifice an acknowledgment of subjection to the law, or was it a substitute for deserved punishment? Plainly it was the former. The offence against the moral law was not touched by the ceremony of outward respect for legal authority. Shame, reproach, degradation, the whole extent and scope of the moral and social penalty, must remain in force. These sacrificial customs, then, let it ever be distinctly understood and remembered, were not offerings for sin as sin; they did not remove the guilt, or atone for the offence, or serve as substitutes for it; they merely placed the offender right before the law. On this point we are happy to be able to quote the testimony of the author of "The Spirit of the Bible," though, in his broad statement, he seems to confound the means of forgiveness with the method of forgiveness. He says:

"Now, the grand distinction of Judaism as a sacrificial system, above all other sacrificial religions of the world, is found in the use made of the sin-offering. While all other sacrificial religions have made bloody sacrifices the means of supposed atonement for moral guilt, Moses restricted their use to the sins of ritual or ceremonial uncleanness. The heathen idea that the blood of an innocent animal would atone for crime,-the idea so teeming with immorality, and leading even to human sacrifices as atonements for great crimes committed by great people,—was utterly repudiated by the law of Moses. His sin-offerings were a perpetual protest against that most wicked and debasing, but almost universal idea. The law never enjoined, never allowed a sacrifice to be offered for murder, theft, homicide, or any civic or moral offence whatever. And the intelligent Jew never imagined that his sacrifices had any such power." 26

Is it not strange that the Christian world should have gone back to heathenism to find out the meaning of 26 Higginson. Vol, i. pp. 216-17.

the word sacrifice, as it is used in the New Testament; or that they should so sadly have failed to perceive that the Jewish church, in every part, is a national protest against the idea of inward purity by outward offering, and that it is expressly stated, and the statement is quoted by Paul, -that "it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin?" Interpret the word sacrifice in the light of the Old Testament, and there is no element of substitution or expiation of sin in it; if the writers of the Gospels employed the word in any such sense, they must have gone outside of "Moses and the prophets" to find it. Did they do this? Did Christ come to "fulfil the law," and yet repudiate one of the fundamental distinctions between that law and the idolatry it was revealed to overthrow? Most certainly not. The Scripture does indeed say: "The Lamb of God taketh away the sin of the world ;" and there is a most welcome and noble thought in these words, when we read them as they stand; but if we strike out, as in effect many do, the word "sin," and insert "penalty of sin," so that the passage will read, "the Lamb of God taketh away the penalty of the sin of the world," we express an idea which cannot find justi fication between the lids of the Bible. No; Christ did not die to destroy the relation between sin and moral death. He did far more, and far better than this. He made a complete surrender of himself,-of his whole being to God. Than this, there is no higher sacrifice. Representing the world, in his death on the cross, he pledged the loyalty of humanity to the will of God. Looking into the mystery of the future, he went into Calvary as the high priest of the world, and made an offering, "once for all."

Our

The lesson which the Jewish church addresses to our day is faith in God. No lesson is needed more. belief is too systematic and precise; it lacks spiritual life, polarity, inspiration. It centres in nothing. We admire, but do not believe; we think, but do not feel; we talk, but do not realize; we speculate about God, but do not connect our individuality with God. The being we wor ship is a long way off; the God of the Hebrews was near at hand. The moment we open the book of Genesis we find, not speculations about God, but a record of God.

He is creating the world according to a certain order; making man in his own image, and thus on to the close of the Pentateuch. Everywhere God is acting, speaking, doing. We agree with the author of "Religions of the World," when he says, "that there is nothing in Christianity so primary and fundamental as this belief; (the pervading presence of God;) nothing which it is so necessary for us to assert in the simple, practical language of the Old Testament, and not to dilute by any modern phrases or unreal substitutes." To which we may add: whenever to any people this belief in God shall become a mere phrase, to that people the life of Christianity is gone.

It is said by those familiar with the subject, that there is no word in the Hebrew language which signifies to believe. The form of statement is, know and reflect. Christianity has introduced this new word, and offering it to us as the vehicle of our thoughts, says, Believe; but not less know and reflect. "Lord, we believe; help thou our unbelief." Of all the blessings included in the promise to Abraham, this is our present need,-faith; faith which shall be no mere phrase out of a book, no conventional utterance, no mere denial of other men's faith, but a real perception of the great truth, fundamental to all other truth, that God is; that he governs among the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth;" is visible in the present course of history; shall be more visible in the future, and all visible in "the dispensation of the fulness of time."

W. H. R.

ART. XXII.

Literary Notices.

1. The New American Cyclopædia: a Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge. Edited by George Ripley and Charles A. Dana. New York: D. Appleton and Company. 1858.

WITH the exception perhaps of the mammoth work of Agassiz, no other contemporaneous American publication makes any ap