134 66 THE BATTLE OF THE BOOKS. which to rest that conclusion. That seventy lineally descended souls went into Egypt is admitted, and it may be granted that some two millions left after a lapse of 215 years. But in this there is no difficulty, nor even evidence of any extraordinary increase. There is not one word in the whole Pentateuch to warrant the Bishop's assumption, that the whole of the two millions were lineal descendants of Jacob. The sandhill upon which he builds his castle is found upon p. 18, where he writes, I assume that it is absolutely undeniable that the narrative of the Exodus distinctly involves the statement, that the sixty-six persons out of the loins of Jacob, mentioned in Gen. xlvi. AND NO OTHERS, went down into Egypt." We have carefully looked at Gen. xlvi. Ex. i. Deut. x. and find no authority for the words, "and no others." Let the reader examine the entire Pentateuch and he will not find any. As a family register the record contains only the names of lineal descendants, and in the very nature of the case retainers would not be included. Even the wives are not counted, for only two, who were in particulars noted, are named, and the Bishop thinks it very remarkable that over fifty males should have only two wives among them. He makes what he considers the silence of the narrative proof that no others went down, and by so doing proves himself unworthy of confidence, for mere silence is never proof. But he has not even the silence of the Pentateuch for an excuse, as Gen. xlvii. 12, reads, "And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father's household, with bread, according to their families." What can reasonably be understood by household as opposed to brethren but servants or retainers--persons not lineally descended from Jacob? Is it reasonable to conclude that Jacob went down into Egypt without servants? To suppose him thus destitute would be to shut our eyes to all we know of patriarchal life. "Abraham armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen." These, of course, according to Gen. xvii. 13-14, were numbered with the tribe by circumcision. In Gen. xviii. Abraham's children and household are distinguished the one from the other-" And I know that he will command his children and his Harbinger, April 1, '63. household." If, then, in the case of Abraham house and household include his sons and hundreds of armed retainers, why must the same words when applied to Jacob and his followers mean those lineally descended, and no others? The possessions of Abraham passed to Isaac (Gen. xxv. 5), including, of course, servants bought and born in his house. Is there not every reason to conclude that the possessions of Isaac in like manner passed to Jacob? We know that Jacob had "much cattle, and maid-servants and men-servants" (Gen. xxx. 43, xxxii. 5.) Why are we to suppose that in going down into Egypt they were all left behind, more so as we read of Joseph, his father, his brethren, and the household? It is, then, clear that the number of persons who went down to Egypt, but not included in the seventy, may have been three times, or even ten times, that number. These persons would be counted in the tribes, and their descendants swell the number of the great host that were brought out at the Exodus. Thus the Bishop's sum re-added up is found wrong in every line. The next chapter is headedREPLIES TO KURTZ, HENGSTENBERG, AND OTHERS. In this chapter our last argument, as given to some extent by Kurtz, is noticed, and the Bishop gravely gives as his leading answer, "There is no word or indication of such a cortége having accompanied Jacob into Egypt." This is his old plea, "If not mentioned, it could not have been." He also argues, that if Jacob had possessed servants "his darling Joseph, at seventeen years of age, would not have been sent all alone and unattended in search of his brethren.' Poor simple-hearted Bishop! is all the answer required. Kurtz, however, makes the retainers several thousands. Against so large a number some objections would lie which would have no force if a smaller and more reasonable number be supposed, and against which the Bishop's reply to Kurtz and others answers nothing. We have, then, shewn that Dr. Colenso has erred in supposing the Pentateuch to give no ground for affirming extraordinary increase-that he drops out two of the grandsons of Jacob, and thus makes a difference of over 30,000 Harbinger, April 1, '63. HYMN. -that he counts as the second generation that which is the first, and consequently falls short by omitting the last-that he takes no account of the fact, that with the fourth generation there were still alive a considerable portion of the third-that, also, in the case of Dan, he counts the first generation for the second, and again drops the last-that he reckons upon the basis of four generations only for all the families, whereas there is Bible proof of cases of from five to ten-and that he assumes, without a shade of proof, that only seventy persons went down into Egypt. 135 of retainers of which Kurtz speaks, and not demanding even hundreds, we insist that there is nothing to render improbable the supposition that Jacob and his sous went down with one hundred retainers, numbered in the tribes but not counted in the families. But even taking the retainers at 53, you have then 106 males who went into Egypt instead of 51, as assumed by the Bishop. Then the number might have been increased, and no doubt was, by the incorporation of men of Egypt during the first and second generations, when Joseph was held in honor and the Egyptians most friendly to the Israelites. We are thus relieved from placing the average at anything like eleven sons, as that number would only be requisite upon the supposition that we start with the 53, whereas the persons might have been double, or twice double, that number. Next month we hope to finish the Bishop's volume, we shall then be prepared to shew him a few of the things he will have to dispose of before he can demolish the Pentateuch. COMMUNION WITH BY-GONES. D. K. ONE ray of moral and religious truth is worth all the wisdom of the schools. DOING right is a strong clue to cheerfulness of spirit. FRETTING never brought us a bless-One lesson from Christ will carry you who are too enlightened to follow this higher than years of study under those celestial guide. ing. Pray, and then go forth believing. LABORING for Christ is the sweetest work this side of beholding him. READING the Bible floats us on the river of life, and gives us many a beautiful prospect of the land and society we are expecting to inherit. All is certainty in those sacred enjoyments. To be silent, to suffer, to pray, when we cannot act, is acceptable to God. A disappointment, a contradiction, a harsh word received and endured as in his presence, is worth more than a long prayer. HYMN. WHEN grief o'erwhelms my fainting mind, | And hail the promise oft forgot And dark my prospects be, Then in that hour oh! let me find Thy grace sufficient, Lord, for me. When Satan would my hopes remove, And lead my heart from Thee, Then in that struggle let me prove Thy grace sufficient, Lord, for me. When persecution rages hot, My soul to Thee would flee, Thy grace sufficient, Lord, for me. And then-sweet thought-oh! may I feel H. P. 136 REVIEWS, CORRESPONDENCE, &c. Harbinger, April 1, '63. REVIEWS, NOTES ON PASSING EVENTS, CORRESPONDENCE, &c. THE TEMPERANCE CONGRESS OF 1862. London: Tweedie, Strand. OVER two hundred demy 8vo pages, and physiological, well worth the price well got up, and supplying an amount -two shillings and sixpence. of information, historical, statistical, THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND TEMPERANCE MAGAZINE, A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENCE. Weeks and Co. Paternoster Row, London. AN ADDRESS ON PRACTICAL SYMPATHY AND PROMPT BENEFICENCE, delivered in Liverpool, in aid of the Lancashire Relief Fund, by T. GUTHRIE, D.D. London, Nisbet and Co. Berners-street. THIS pamphlet is published, price sixpence, that the profit may be given to the Relief Fund, and those who have much or anything to give may be the better for reading such lines as "Ladies and gentlemen, Nature herself teaches us to sympathise with suffering; and, save our conscience, nothing distin. guishes us so much from the beasts that perish as fellow feeling. Not that they have no feelings; they have those belonging to parents and offspring. It is not in the tangled forest where the lioness roars that parents neglect their young, or the young their parents. For such crimes against nature we must repair to the haunts of men-to the wretched drunkard, who spends his earnings in the beer or spirit-shop, and leaves his children to starve to yon youth, who gratifies his brutal vices, and yon girl, who indulges her pas sion for dress, at the expense of venerable parents, whom they cast on the cold charity of the world. It is amongst men that nature is violated, not in the realms of savage life; in such a scene as Dr. Kane describes, where the bear faces the hunters A with her cub behind her, and protects it | arms; with looks-for his lips were black with the most anxious care, till, pierced and speechless-that seemed to cry-by many wounds, she falls a sacrifice Mother, mother, give me bread!' to maternal love; and the shaggy nurs- rough sailor, who had kept and concealed ling, on sceing its mother sink bleeding a shell-fish for his own last extremity, on the snow, no longer seeks escape, but, looked on the child; the tears started to touching the rough sailors with pity, leaps his eye; he raised his rough hand to wipe on her dead body, and offers brave but fee- them from his cheek; and then, drawing ble battle for the mother that had died for it. out his prized last morsel, put it to the lips But though the lower animals have feeling, of the dying boy. I don't know where he they have no fellow-feeling. Have not I seen sailed from-perhaps from your own port the horse enjoy his feed of corn, when his -I know neither his name nor his creed; yoke-fellow lay a-dying in the neighbouring but, Sir, I know this, that I would rather stall, and never turn an eye of pity on the my soul were bound up in the same bundle sufferer? They have strong passions, but with his, than with the souls of those who no sympathy. It is said that the wounded go to chapel or to church, and, having no deer sheds tears; but it belongs to man bowels of mercy, heap money while other only to 'weep with them that weep,' and men are dying of starvation. (Applause.) by sympathy to divide another's sorrows Till she has sunk into the lowest depths and double another's joys. (Loud cheers.) of selfishness and sin, Human Nature could When thunder, following the dazzling not enjoy the banquet when hungry faces flash, has burst among our hills, when the were staring in at the window (hear, hear), horn of the Switzer has rung in his glo- and not the music of tabret and viel filled rious valleys, when the boatman has shout- the air, but the low moanings of manly sufed from the bosom of a rock-girt loch, fering, and the weeping of mothers whose wonderful were the echoes I have heard children cry for bread and they have none them make; but there is no echo so fine to give them. (Applause.) The Gospel or wonderful as that which, in the sym- of Jesus Christ directs us to love even our pathy of human hearts, repeats the cry of enemies-if they hunger, to feed them; if another's sorrow, and makes me feel his they thirst, to give them drink; and pain almost as if it were my own. (Ap- though human nature may not be great plause.) They say, that if a piano is struck enough to forgive an enemy, she is kind in a room where another stands unopened enough to pity a sufferer, and to symand untouched, who lays his ear to that pathise with suffering. Give her way, will hear a string within, as if touched by then! Yield to her generous impulses! the hand of a shadowy spirit, sound the If not Christians, let us, at least, be men same note. But more strange how the-be brothers! Act here as you would strings of one heart vibrate to those of another; how woe wakens woe; how your grief infects me with sadness; how the shadow of a passing funeral and nodding hearse casts a cloud on the mirth of a marriage-party; how sympathy may be so delicate and acute as to become a pain. Human nature is fallen, and I am not in the habit of unduly exalting it; yet, regarded from this point of view, it presents Some vestiges of a departed glory- the last lights of sunset. Let me illustrate this by an example, over which I can fancy the angels bending with admiration. A boat of castaways lay on the lone sea drifting on a shoreless ocean; bread they had none; water they had none; no ship, no sail hove in sight. Among the dead and dying a boy lay clasped in his mother's were you in presence of a miserable wreck men hanging in the shrouds; every wave threatening to engulf them; their hands pitifully stretched to the shore; their cries for help wafted on the wind, and heard above the roar of breakers could do nothing else, you would pity them If you you would pray for them. But if you could do more, you would gallop off for the life-boat, leap into her, or hire men to man her; follow her with eager interest; and as now lost in the trough, and now riding on the top of the sea, she came back with her living freight, oh! who would not throw open their houses to the rescued, chafe their limbs, leave their own beds to couch them, and thank God that night on their knees that they had had a hand in saving them that were ready to perish ?" THE DUTY OF LAYING BY FOR RELIGIOUS AND CHARITABLE USES, A STATED PROPORTION OF OUR INCOME: AN ANALYSIS OF 2 COR. VIII. 9, BY R. S. CANDLISH, D.D. London, Nisbet, Berners-street.Also, same publisher, THE DUTY OF GIVING AWAY A STATED PROPORTION OF OUR INCOME, BY W. ARTHUR, A.M. "That all these THE first is a very complete exami- | Dr. Candlish shews, nation of Paul's entire plea, in which motives and appeals in Paul's hands 138 REVIEWS, CORRESPONDENCE, &c. are turned to account for the giving1, Emulation; 2, Self-esteem; 3, Gratitude; 4, Prudence, and a reasonable regard for what is equitable; 5, A sense of honor, before men as well as God; 6, A feeling of being bound to make good a friend's boasting; 7, Ambition a noble desire to obtain, and turn to account, the largest supplies of the Divine bounty; 8, Zeal for the glory of God." In the second W. Arthur marks very important considerations, as While, however, we do not contend that to let 'riches increase' is forbidden, or even that to permit that increase to an indefinite amount is contrary to clear Scripture, we do contend:-That not to give any part of our income is unlawful: That to leave what we shall give to be determined by impulse or chance, without any principle to guide us, is unlawful: That to fix a principle for our guidance, by our own disposition, or by prevalent usage, without seeking light in the Word of God, is unlawful: That when we search the Scriptures for a principle, the very lowest proportion of our income for which we can find any show of justification, is a tenth of the whole: That, therefore, it is our duty to give away statedly, for the service and honour of our God, at the very least, one tenth of all which He commits to our stewardship." With the above we hold except in the obligation in every case to give a tenth. Here is a man who earns but ten shillings weekly, while his family need fifteen. We dare not demand one shilling, and leave him with only nine. But surely, taking the average in a church of any size, less than a tenth ought not to be given. Still where can a church be found which gives even a twentieth? Before we get back to the Jerusalem order of things, the Fellow ship must become a very different affair from what it now is. The author adds: "As to the grounds on which the duty rests. Let us suppose, that it does not rest on any grounds whatever; that the idea of such a duty is without foundation; that we are each at liberty to choose what proportion of his possessions he shall give away, from the nearest approaching to nothing upwards; so that if one give a tenth, another a ninetieth, and a third one thou sandth part, they differ not in this, that one is liberal, the other covetous, and the third a wretch; but in this, that one is liberal, the other less liberal, and the other less so still; each of them practising a vir Harbinger, April 1, '63. tue, a voluntary virtue, only in various degrees. This is the plain meaning and practical application of a notion which floats ed in vague language by many excellent in undefined thought, and is often expresspeople,- -a notion about Christianity leaving the amount of liberality to the private will and disposition of each individual. If this view be correct, then it follows that in Christian morals we have one virtue which has no minimum limit, no expiring point; which continues to be a virtue down to within a hairbreadth of nothing, no matter how largely mixed with the opposite vice. Shall we apply this principle to the other virtues? for instance, truth? Are we not apt to think that, however much truth may be in a statement, if mixed with a little deception, the virtue of it is gone? And as to honesty, Do we not feel whatever amount of honesty may be in a transaction, if mixed with any cheating, the virtue is destroyed? And are we to hold that any miserable gift, somewhat short of nothing, which a covetous man may give, is yet an act of liberality, though in a low degree? Is liberality the one virtue which Christianity has abandoned, in this cold world, to every man's whim, and never pronounces violated, so long as tis not totally renounced and abjured? Surely there is some point far short of nothing, at which gifts cease to be 'liberal,' and begin to be vile' at which a giver ceases to be 'bountiful," and deserves to be called a 'churl!' It is ordained by Christianity that giving shall be both bountiful and cheerful. It does that we give; we must give much. He not satisfy the demands of our religion that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly.' This refers to the amount of gifts; but having decided that the amount must be unsparing, Christianity is not even then content; that unsparing amount must be given with a cheerful heart, 'not grudg ingly or of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver.' One of the oddest things in all argument is, that this passage is sometimes resorted to as a cover by those who claim liberty to give away as little as ever they please. Let them turn to the passage (2 Cor. ix. 5-7), and they will see giving shall be on a bountiful or a sparing scale. That it is not to be sparing, and is to be bountiful, is settled; and then a cheerful heart is commanded in addition. The twofold requirement is a gift not spar ing as to amount, nor grudging as to feeling. One may cheerfully give a sparing gift who would grudge a bountiful one; and one who, from 'necessity,' from pressure, or shame, gives a large gift, may grudge while he gives. Do not spare when you give, and do not grudge when you make sacrifices! This is the voice of a passage |