In proceeding with the illustration of figurative language, it may be further observed that the moving cause is sometimes put for an intermediate cause, and must be interpreted accordingly. Thus in Acts i. 18, we read that Judas "purchased a field with the reward of iniquity:" and, on this occasion, it is necessary to consult the details of this transaction in Matt. xxvii. 3-10; from which passage we shall see that the meaning is, that Judas was the cause of a field's being purchased with the reward of iniquity." Sometimes too a fictitious cause is put instead of a real one, for the sake of giving proper energy to the expression. Thus the real cause of the destruction of the armies of Sisera was the sword of the Israelites, (Judges iv. 16;) and the fatal nail of Jael was the cause of the death of Sisera himself, (Judges iv. 21.) Yet in the sublime song of Deborah it is said, "The stars in their courses fought against Sisera. The river Kishon swept them away." Neither the stars, however, nor the river Kishon were the instruments of destruction, as may be ascertained from the details recorded in the preceding chapter. One subject, however, strikes us on this occasion; namely, the impossibility of applying the fictitious cause in a minutely subdivided state. We cannot even apply one species of destruction to the stars, and another to the river; but we must take these poetical expressions in the mass. In short, every thing went wrong with Sisera, as much so as if the stars, and rivers, and all creation had, in awful concert, become his implacable foes. The same general observations will apply when the cause is real, and the effect fictitious. Nor should figurative language in general be minutely analyzed, as the object of such language is to present to the mind what is powerful by accumula- ̈ tion, rather than what is weakened by diversity or disunion. Hence when our Lord said concerning his disciples, "Behold my mother and my brethren," it was obvious that he did not mean that one portion of his disciples was his mother, and the other his brethren; but the Saviour meant that every true disciple was inconceivably dear to him. "For," says he, "whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the SAME is my BROTHER, and SISTER, and MOTHER," (Matt. xii. 50.) The next subject that requires our attention is the interpretation of figurative language founded on resemblance. With respect to such language, therefore, it may be observed that the properties of the figure are not to be all indiscriminately applied to the object intended. Thus the name of Elijah, applied to John the Baptist, will not warrant our applying to John every thing said and done by Elijah. For Elijah's life was a life of prodigies: whereas it is expressly said, "John did no miracle." With respect, however, to the points of resemblance really intended, Scripture itself presents them to us. Thus the angel Gabriel said concerning John the Baptist, Many of the children of Israel shall he turn unto the Lord their God. And he [John] shall go before him [Jesus] in the SPIRIT and POWER of Elijah." Lukei. 16, 17. 66 "But why," an unbeliever will say, "should John think that such trivial circumstances were calculated to produce BELIEF?” John himself has furnished the answer;- "These things were done," says he," that the Scripture should be fulfilled, A BONE OF IT SHALL NOT BE BROKEN." John xix. 36. sistance from Joseph's interpreta- meaning was involved in the cirtion of Pharaoh's dream; for cumstance that not a bone of the that interpretation was not the paschal lamb was to be broken. result of human efforts but of Yet this fact was actually a preDivine inspiration.-It may then diction that when Jesus should be be observed, that when Joseph crucified between two malefachad told Pharaoh that there tors, his death would be distinwould be first seven years of guished from theirs by the cirplenty, and then seven years of cumstance, that not one of his famine, and that these seven bones would be broken: and the years of famine would consume Apostle John was an eye-witness the produce of the seven former of the accomplishment of this preyears; and when he had also ex-diction, and lays great stress upon plained the doubling of the what he saw, "in order," says he dream, he seems to have exto those whom he addressed, hausted the prophetic intimation." THAT YE MIGHT BELIEVE.” All the rest, therefore, was the necessary appendage of the essential symbols.-If the kine are to arise, they must arise somewhere. The river, therefore, is selected as being familiar to the mind of an Egyptian. Again, when the fat kine became stationary, what could be more natural than to place them feeding in a meadow? If also the ears of corn are to be blasted, there must be a cause; and to what object could this task be assigned with more propriety, than to the East Wind? Joseph, however, in his explanation, takes no notice of the River, or Meadow, or East Wind. Therefore in elucidating the meaning of symbols, or of parabolic language, regard is to be had to the prominent features, or to such symbols as are introduced for their own sake; and the mere necessary appendages are to be considered as having no counter-the striking coincidence of the part in a literal interpretation. We must be careful, however, not to make the limits of interpretation too narrow. For though, for instance, we should readily acknowledge that the paschal lamb prefigured Jesus the Lamb of God, it would not perhaps strike us that any prophetical There was, moreover, connected with the paschal lamb another circumstance, which might not have been considered essential, had not the fulfilment led us to such a conclusion. For the time of the Passover perfectly coincided with the time of the " passing over" of the destroying angel; and the Passover was, in Holy Writ itself, so associated with previous occurrences, as to lead the mind back to the FOURTEENTH of Abib, when the Israelites were delivered from their bondage. Yet who can observe time of sacrificing the paschal lamb with the slaughter of the Lamb of God himself, without observing, at the same time, the accomplishment of a prophecy, both as to the MONTH and the DAY of the month? Nay, the NINTH HOUR, at which our Lord's sufferings were termina ting, was the very hour at which it was customary for the Jews to begin to slay the Paschal Lambs. For such is the hour distinctly stated by Josephus.-Or should we turn our attention from the Ecclesiastical Year to the Civil Year, we shall have a coincidence scarcely less striking. For if our Lord was crucified on Friday the third of April, in the year thirtythree, that day, by computation, appears to have been the TENTH day of the SEVENTH MONTH, according to the Civil Reckoning;* for the Jewish months consisted of thirty days each, according to the Scriptures;† and the first re-appearance of the Moon that began the Civil Year must have been on Thursday Evening the 25th of September, Josephus considers the months mentioned in Scripture in connexion with the flood, as months of the Civil Year; but, in other cases, he considers the months enumerated as belonging to the Ecclesiastical Year. Thus it appears evident that he believed the Scriptures included instances of both reckonings; and this circumstance will account for a difference in the day of the month, even when the month itself undergoes no change in its denomination. Thus in the 52nd of Jere miah we read of transactions that took place on the 10th day of the fifth month and on the 25th of the twelfth month; [according to the Ecclesiastical days; —and in the 25th chapter of the second book of Kings we read, [according to the Civil days,] that the very same transactions took place on the 7th of the fifth month, and on the 27th of the twelfth month. In short, as the first appearance of the Moon at the Vernal Equinox was, upon an average, 176 days after the first appearance of the Autumnal moon, the days of the Ecclesiastical Month would, most frequently, be four days beforehand from Abib to Tisri, and two days behindhand from Tisri to Abib. + See Gen. vii. 11, and viii. 3, 4. from which passages we learn, that 150 days elapsed from the 17th of the second month to the 17th of the seventh month. in the year thirty-two, as the TO To proceed, however, to other particulars, we may observe that another remarkable coincidence happened on the Sunday after our Lord's crucifixion. For the wave-offering was always offered on "the morning after the Sab The Day of Atonement was the tenth day of the seventh month, according to the Ecclesiastical Reckoning: but from the coincidence of the dates with the Civil Reckoning when the great Atonement was made by Jesus our Great High Priest, we are led to suppose that the time of such Atonement was predicted not only by the Passover, but actually by the annual entry of the Jewish High Priest into the Most Holy Place, Providence having adopted a multiplicity of devices to point out a day that has no parallel either in time or eternity. bath"* that elapsed within the | Sunday the ensuing day of Pente period of seven days during which unleavened bread was to be eaten. The wave-offering, therefore, not only prefigured Christ as rising from the dead, but it actually pointed out the day of the week on which his resurrection was to take place; and even if our Lord's resurrection happened in another year, nothing can destroy the coincidence. To proceed, finally, to one more very striking coincidence, we may observe that the Scriptures distinctly state that the day of Pentecost was to be observed as a Sabbath; and yet they state with equal clearness that the same sacred day always fell on a Sunday, or "the morrow after the Sabbath :" and they further state that this Sunday was seven weeks from the day on which the waveoffering was presented. So that, under any circumstances, the memorable day of Pentecost was on a Sunday, and on the 50th day of our Lord's resurrection. Thus, as the Wave-Sheaf, or first-fruits of Barley Harvest, were always offered on a Sunday; so the two Wave-Loaves, or first-fruits of Wheat-Harvest, were offered on that day of the week which was, in due time, to become the Christian Sabbath. According then to the day of the week thus anticipated, CHRIST became the "FIRST-FRUITS of them that slept," (1 Cor. xv. 20 ;) and on *Josephus seems to have understood that the day intended was the morrow after the Festival Sabbath; and such indeed was the day of our Lord's resurrection, because the day before happened to be both a Festival Sabbath and the Weekly Sabbath, (John xix. 31.)-But any one who reads Lev. xxiii. 15, 16, will see that the 50th day of the presentation of the wave-sheaf was also "the morrow after the sabbath," and that seven such sabbaths intervened. cost, the kingdom of heaven was opened to all Believers, both "JEWS and PROSELYTES;" and thus from among the descendants of Abraham and persons of Gentile origin, was collected a present to the Lord of Hosts," even the FIRST-FRUITS of that glorious harvest when not only the fulness of the GENTILES shall be gathered in, but when " ALL ISRAEL shall be saved; as it is written, there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." Rom. xi. 26. and the sight was truly edifying to see this Hindoo convert in his simple native dress in the pulpit pleading with his countrymen, and beseeching them to be reconciled to God. Krishna-Pal was born in a part of Chandernagore, called Bura Gram, somewhere about the year 1764, for he used to relate that he was a boy four or five years old at the time of the famine in Bengal in 1769-70. His "As a private christian, Krishfather's name was Moolukchund- na stood high among his brePal; his mother's Nulita. Agree- thren, as well as among Euroably to the customs of the Hin-peans, by all of whom he was redoos he followed his father's cognized as an upright and truly trade, who belonged to the choo- sincere and amiable christian. tur, or carpenter cast. "In consequence of distresses "Krishna was, for some time, in his family, which had embitterthe disciple of the Malpara Go-ed many of his last days, Krishna sai, but afterwards became a follower of Ram Shurun-Pal, of Ghospara. "After his conversion to christianity, he became a laborious minister, and carried the news of salvation from the mouths of the Ganges to Benares, and beyond the extremities of the Company's territories to the east, and in most of these places he had seals to his ministry. was anxious to go and live in "As a preacher, Krishna was truly evangelical in his views. He preached Christ, none but Christ, and Christ, the suffering, the atoning Saviour. He would often tell his countrymen. how Justice and Mercy embraced each other in the undertaking of the Redeemer. He would contrast with wonderful effect, Christ washing the feet of his disciples, with the Hindoo spiritual guide, having his foot on the disciple prostrate at his feet. He would dwell with delight on the divine properties of the Redeemer, proving from thence that he only was the true Gooroo, and would confirm these descriptions by reading to his "When asked about his atheathen auditors the Redeemer's tachment to Christ, he said, sermon on the mount. His me-Whither can a sinner go, but unto thod was mild and persuasive; Christ? And when the same question in another form was put * This name denotes one of the flock of Krishna, the Hindoo idol, pal meaning a flock. It ap to him, he said, Yes, but he loves me more than I love him.* |