The Jewish Herald.

JANUARY, 1853.

TO OUR READERS.

Ir will be perceived, in glancing over the pages of the present. number of The Herald, that we have made some alterations in the type employed in printing a part of this periodical. We have had communications from some esteemed friends upon this subject, and find that the smallness of the print is a serious obstacle to the perusal of that part of The Herald, which the Committee of the British Society are most anxious should be read, viz., the extracts from the reports of their missionaries, in which the progress and success of the cause are chronicled. Hence the change that has been adopted.

In making this alteration, there will not be any diminution in the amount of intelligence, as, instead of presenting the journals, or "extracts" from them in full, we shall condense the information given, as much as possible, without omitting any points of interest and importance, as it will be seen we have done in the present number, giving, in extenso, such portions as it is found difficult to abbreviate, and which yet deserve to be recorded.

We beg to call the especial attention of our readers to the address of Mr. Ben Oliel, relating to the mission in Northern Africa, which is given in our present number. It has been printed also by itself; and the Committee will be very happy, on application to the office, to supply their friends with copies of it for distribution.

With the labours of another year before them, the Committee earnestly solicit the prayers and generous remembrances of their Christian friends. They feel increasingly convinced that their work is of the Lord, and that earnest and persevering labours cannot fail of an ultimate reward.

NO. LXXXV.

VOL. VIII.

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THE BIBLE; THE GRAND REVELATION OF THE MIND OF GOD.

THERE are two forms of revelation which Jehovah has been pleased to employ in making known His character, His will, and His ways to the children of men. He speaks to them by His works, and His Word; through the books of Nature and of Revelation. Both are the embodiments of thoughts which dwell in the fathomless depths of the divine mind. They are the visible oracles and interpreters of that mind, which but for these expressions thereof would, from the necessity of the case, have eternally remained known only to Himself, hidden and for ever undiscernible by the keenest eye of the mightiest created intelligence.

That both Nature and Revelation admirably fulfil their respective missions, will be evident to the attentive observer. God's name is graven on the everlasting mountains, flames forth in the burning splendour of the sky, gleams amid the transparent loveliness of the tremulous flower, and is proclaimed by ten thousand voices throughout the universe. Ever since their creation have suns, and stars, and systems, in a ceaseless refrain, as they rolled through the azure depths of space, uttered their message to angels and to men. They have proclaimed continually the unity, and eternity, and omnipotence of Him who made them all. Thus Paul referring to these witnesses for the Most High, to them who had no written or oral revelation, says, "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse."

It is true, the character in which the things concerning God were revealed in the works of nature were somewhat mysterious, a species of cyphers that could not be easily read by the idle mind; but were comprehensible by the earnest and persevering student. It is true men saw only through a glass darkly, yet with distinctness enough to leave them, who would avow they saw nothing at all, inexcusable. Creation is one mighty Eolian harp, from which the sweet winds of thought can at any time awake the divinest and most spiritstirring melodies, but from which the dull and silent soul elicits no expressive sound. Beautifully has one of our poets given utterance to this sentiment:

"I read His awful name emblazoned high,

In golden letters on th' illumined sky;

Nor less the mystic characters I see

Wrought in each flower, inscribed on every tree;
In every leaf that trembles to the breeze,

I hear the voice of God among the trees;
With Him in shady solitudes I walk,
With Him in busy crowded cities talk;
In every creature own His forming power,
In each event His providence adore."

But a revelation more perfect, satisfactory, and delightful, has been made to us, through the medium of the written Word. By means of it the mind of God is brought into direct communication with the mind of man, and by its aid we are enabled appropriately to draw nigh to Him. It is a bridge between the finite and the infinite. It is the electric medium along which the divine spark, the living and illuminating thought of God, flits and flashes into our souls; kindling there a flame which can never die, and giving a quickening impulse to that which had otherwise lain dormant or dead within us for ever.

Though immense the distance between us and Him, the effect is instantaneous, the moment our minds are brought into connection with the mind of God. And that which we receive, which is sent from the Holy One to us,-who shall compute its worth? In the reception of a new thought, born in heaven, and transmitted to earth, we receive what cannot perish, what outweighs in value this solid globe, though it were composed of gold. It was not without ample reason therefore that the Psalmist said, "THOU HAST MAGNIFIED THY WORD ABOVE ALL THY NAME."

The phrase by which the Bible is designated, "the Word of God," is significant. By words the thoughts of one mind are conveyed to another. Without this medium, at least upon earth, there could be little or no communion between different persons. In a more perfect state of being there may be an intuitive perception of each other's thoughts, rendering unnecessary the vehicle of vocal language. But here it is required. The Bible is the medium for the conveyance of the thoughts of God to His creature-hence its designation. student of Scripture will remember that the same phrase, "the Word of God," is applied by the apostle John to the Saviour, and for the same reason that it is given to the Bible. What this is silently, He was, in His person, works, and words; the revealer of the mind of God to man. "The only begotten which is the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him,"-fully disclosed or revealed Him.

The

Deprived of the personal presence of the Son of God, which the apostles and the first disciples enjoyed, the Scriptures are

a boon of the highest order. possible to speak too highly. be exaggerated.

Of their priceless worth it is im-
Their infinite importance cannot

In the present article, and some subsequent ones, we design to attempt to justify the expression of the sacred bard, quoted above, and shew how God has magnified His Word.

I. Its truth will be seen, if we look at the provision which God has made for securing, amid all the diversity of the instruments employed in writing the Bible, the most perfect unity of sentiment, and the most harmonious presentation of truth.

There are sixty-six books in the sacred volume; the composition of thirty-six writers, living at different periods, and extending from the first to the last, over no less a space of time than fifteen centuries. Moses, who was the first as well as the most voluminous of all the inspired penmen, wrote six hundred years earlier than any other author whose literary productions are now extant. The writers of the Bible were almost without exception Jews, and in their number were comprehended all grades of intelligence, as well as all ranks of society. Neither prince nor peasant was overlooked; neither youth nor old age was passed by. The list comprises the philosophically instructed Moses, and the accomplished Paul; the student of Heliopolis and the disciple of Gamaliel ; the poet-born David and the rapt Isaiah, whose souls radiated with the light of native genius, and glowed with the inspiration of earth, before they flamed with the higher, the diviner inspiration of heaven; the polished and astute Solomon, the wisest of men; the eagle-eyed and storm-circled Ezekiel, the rushing sweep of whose pinions is "as the noise of great waters, and the noise of a host;" the weeping Jeremiah, he with the pathetic and commiserating soul; and John the disciple on whom Jesus leaned," who wrote as if he drank daily of the fountain of love, and dipped his pen in the hues of calm and glorious sunsets, where the dyes are redolent less of earth than of heaven. These and other men of like noble mould, and heroic grandeur of spirit, with whom we meet among the minor prophets, and the apostles of our Lord, were the chosen ones whom God employed in the thrice-honourable exercise of recording His mind and will for the instruction of the children of men in all ages.

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Yet, whether they were selected from the halls of learning, or the fisherman's bark; from the sheepfold in the Desert, or the ivory throne; from the altar of the Temple, or "the receipt of custom;" we find in all a marvellous unity of sentiment on