day. As these meetings were admirable places for retailing news, "to proclaim a thing upon the house tops," came to signify the proclaiming it in the most public manner, and on the place where it would be most likely to obtain a rapid circulation. Any piece of intelligence thus promulgated would be sure to have reached every corner of the city in the space of a few hours. A secret coinmunicated in the privacy of the closet, if once divulged upon the housetop soon became public property.

9. "And immediately his leprosy was cleansed, and Jesus saith unto him, see thou tell no man, but go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony unto them." [Matt. 8-4]. Here we have an allusion to the way in which the Jews treated those who were infected with the leprosy. Leprosy is a cutaneous disease of the most malignant kind, and is common in Judea and other warm countries. It is one of the most loathsome and appalling maladies which a beneficent God inflicts upon his creatures. In the days of our Saviour it was almost incurable by human means, for the science of medi. cine was then in its infancy. This disease was so infectious, and so difficult to heal, that the Mosaic Law commanded all leprous persons to be excluded from the cities and from the society of their fellow men. They had even to wear a badge of distinction to warn others not to approach them--and they were banished into the country and into desert places. How miserable must have been the lot of these wretched beings, doomed to expulsion so long as their malady lasted-no kindly voice to whisper comfort, or gentle hand to administer a healing cup! No wonder that our Great High Priest who "had a heart capable of being touched with a feeling of our infirmities," was always ready to exert his miraculous healing influence for the benefit of these sorely-afflicted and outcast children of mortality. How heartless and unreasonable was that law which insisted on the banishment of these creatures for a thing which was not their fault but their misfortune-an affliction sent upon them by the hand of an inscrutable Providence, and not brought on by their own misconduct! These unhappy men were not permitted to return to society, until the priest who officiated in the Temple at the time pronounced them cured, and received the customary offering of two birds. If they were "cleansed," they were restored to their kindred and friends; but, if the disease were not completely eradicated from their frame, they were sent back once more to their cheerless exile.

10. "And thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." [Matt. 1-21.] Here we have an allusion to the Jewish mode of giving names to children. In this respect Jews and Christians differ much. When a Christian father dedicates his child to Almighty God by the outward rite of Baptism, he calls it after some relative or friend, or, perhaps, gives it the name of some benefactor of his family to whom he wishes in this way to mark his gratitude. Sometimes too, vain and aspiring parents, believing that "that there is something in a name," call their children after men who have distinguished themselves in their country's history-who have been eminent in the camp, the church, the senate, the bar, or in the more secluded but not less useful walks of literature and science, foolishly imagining that somewhat of the lustre of the great namesake may descend upon the head of “the helpless innocent!" Not so was it with the Jews. They gave names to their offspring descriptive of some peculiar circumstances attending the child's birth, or indicative of some important work which that child was destined to accomplish in his after life. Hence all Hebrew proper names include in them short sentences, and can be translated into English. Let us take a few examples. In I. Chron. 4-9. we read "And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, because I bare him with sorrow." The word Jabez means "sorrow or trouble," and this child derived his name from the circumstance that, at the time of his birth, his mother was in great affliction, and she gave him a name which, in after years, would often remind her of her past sorrows.

In like manner the son of Abraham and Sarah was called by the very opposite name of Isaac, which means " laughter," and this child was so called from the fact that his birth was a source of pe culiar rejoicing to his parents, who had arrived at such an age that they did not expect to be blest with a child at all.

The name of Jacob, likewise, was changed by God himself to Israel, which means "to wrestle or to prevail with God," and this good man's name was altered to record the fact that he had "power as a Prince with God and with men, and that—he had prevailed over them."

So also the son which Hagar bore to Abraham was called Ishmael, which means "God hath heard," and this descriptive appellation was given to the child because "God heard the mother's affliction," and comforted her under the jealousy and persecution of her mistress. [Genesis 16-11.]

We read also of a child born in the reign of Ahaz, which was called Emmanuel, which, when translated into English, means "God is with us." Ahaz was king of Judah; he was threatened with an attack from the united sovereigns of Syria and Israel, and, fearing that he would be overcome by them, he sought aid from God, which God graciously promised. As a sign or proof that this promise would be fulfilled, He told him that "a virgin would conceive and bare a son" [Isaiah 7-14.] and before that Son would have arrived at the years of discretion "the land which he abhorred would be forsaken of both her kings." This promised Son was to be called Emmanuel, or "God is with us," inasmuch as he was a pledge that "God would be with" Ahaz, to rescue him from the hands of his implacable foes.

This same name was, long afterwards, and as I conceive, with great propriety, given by the Evangelist Matthew to our Saviour as descriptive of the circumstanees under which he was born; for, at the time of his birth, "God was to be with" the world by conferring on mankind great spiritual privileges and advantages through Christ.

Just, after the same Jewish custom, was the Messiah to be called "Jesus" [in Greek, the same as Joshua in Hebrew, a name which is once applied to Christ in the Acts of the Apostles-] which means "Saviour" in English, on account of the important work which he was destined to achieve, viz.-"to save his people from their sins."

But, the Jews gave names to places as well as to persons descriptive of something remarkable about them. It is not necessary. to multiply instances, but I shall give two as a sample. The town in which our Saviour was born is called Bethlehem, which means "House of bread," and it was so called because it was situated in a fertile country where the inhabitants were blessed with abundance of provisions. The capital city of Judea is called Jerusalem, which means "peace is possessed or provided." Its original name was Salem, where Melchizedeck was king. To this word Salem, which signifies "peace"-was prefixed the Hebrew word "jireh," which signifies "to provide"-so that the name came to be Jirehsalem, or, as it is now spelled, Jeru-salem. It is interesting to examine the derivations and meanings of the Hebrew names of persons and places, and to know the real or supposed reasons for which these names were originally applied.

11. "Then took they the body of Jesus and wound it in linen

clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury"— [John 19-40.] Here we have a reference to the Jewish mode of interment. The Jewish burying places were outside the walls of their cities, and were sometimes caves or holes dug in the ground, and sometimes sepulchres or tombs cut out of the face of a rock. These sepulchres had shelves round the sides on which the bodies were laid, and the door was closed by a stone cut to fit the place. As putrefaction soon begins in hot climates, the funeral generally took place on the same day on which the person expired. There was no physical difficulty in this, as the preparations for interment were so simple and easily made. The bodies of the deceased were embalmed with spices, such as frankincense, myrrh, and aloes, to preserve them a little longer from decomposition. When the deceased had been wealthy or distinguished, or when the friends wished to treat his memory with peculiar respect, large quantities of aromatic plants and seeds were used, and we are told that in the case of our Saviour, Nicodemus expended so much as one hundred pounds weight of spices in embalming his body. These spices were applied to the body by means of linen cloths rolled round it. This will explain the statement of Simon Peter who, when he went into the sepulchre after Christ's resurrection, "saw the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that had been about his head not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself." The "linen cloth" referred to was employed to wrap the spices round the body; and the "napkin" to roll round the head. The Jews did not enclose the corpses in coffins, as we do in the present day, but merely embalmed them and laid them on a shelf; so that we can have no difficulty in understanding how easy a matter it was for one miraculously resuscitated to disentangle himself from his grave-clothes, and descend from the shelf on which he had been placed.

J. M.

OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY OF PRESBYTERIANISM, IN IRELAND.

The town of Strabane is situated in, "the far West," of the Province of Ulster, amidst a rural population long accustomed to receive the creeds and catechism of their Church, without inquiry and without hesitation. I cannot say, positively, that, hav

ing secretly planned an assault upon the open and growing heresy of the Synod, the leaders of the Calvinistic party had so contrived, by their votes at the meeting of the preceding year, as to secure a favorable battle-field for their onslaught: but I afterwards learned from unquestionable authority, that great exertions had been madə to procure a large attendance of "good men and true," from the proper localities, around Strabane. Of those exertions abundant evidence was afforded by the unusual circumstances of a crowded meeting-house, and the attendance of the clergy and laity of other churches. We, of Southern and Eastern Ulster, who, owing to the great distance, had only attended in comparatively small numbers, were at first surprised by a spectacle so singular, and a popular excitement for which we were unable to account; but the secret gradually oozed out, and we learned that Unitarianism was then and there to be summarily exterminated. Such a rumour, however, we could scarcely credit; for, we knew that, in the Code of Discipline which had been unanimously adopted, just three years before, an express Rule existed, which had been carefully designed to prevent hasty discussions, or the possibility of carrying any important measure by surprise. The rule runs thus"All matters originating before the Synod shall be first submitted to the Committee of Overtures, and stand on the Synod's Books, for one year at least."

We soon discovered, however, that our deliberately framed laws were merely sneered at, even by him who held the pen that wrote them, as "cobwebs which no Christian man would permit to obstruct his progress to a right end ;" and the assault was commenced on the very first day of the Synod's meeting, by an attempt to deprive the able, generous, and upright William Porter, of the Clerkship of the Synod, which he had held for upwards of ten years, and whose duties, as freely admitted by those who proposed his dismissal, he had discharged with unequalled talent and efficiency. And of what crime had Mr. Porter been guilty, that he was to be thus summarily, invidiously, and without warning, deprived, in the evening of life, of fully one-third part of his annual income? His only crime was, that he plainly told the truth, upon his solemn oath, when examined by the Commissioners of Education Inquiry!" He had simply sworn what every member of the Synod perfectly well knew to be the fact, at the time of his appointment to the Clerkship, in the year 1816-" that although he set out in life with what are esteemed to be orthodox sentiments, he had since