(1) It is "He said fault with, as "not well sustained." But Scripture writers paint character from life;-and life is often inconsistent. Some fifteen years before this indeed, Abraham had firmly believed, and his faith had been "counted to him for righteousness." How inconsistent to doubt now! There are, however, two or three considerations which may extenuate this. the thought of the heart that is here recorded. in his heart, Shall a child be born?" &c. When we distinguish between this and what he said audibly to God in his prayer, the conclusion to which we come is, that if all biographies were written in this way, the subjects of them would much oftener appear inconsistent than by the method which at present obtains. (2) The natural obstacle to the fulfilment of the promise, was greater now than on the previous occasion;-himself and his wife being some fifteen years older. (3) He had to discharge from his mind a belief which he had long nourished and cherished. Let us suppose any one of us to be called to pass through a similar trial. Something that has for years been a part of our religion, our faith, we are suddenly required to give up, told that it is all a mistake-as Abraham was in effect told, as to his belief, that Ishmael was the child of promise-how we should cling to it! How hardly we should part from it! How sceptical we should be! Why we see it even now! Demonstrate never so clearly from the Bible itself, that the true child of promise, to us as well as to Abraham, is from the "free woman," and not from the "bond slave," and we still cling to the old, traditional, hereditary bondage. "0 that Ishmael might live before thee!" In this prayer we discern :— II. ABRAHAM'S IMPATIENCE. How natural it was! We take delight in seeing our children rising into youth and manhood, and anticipate the time when they will fulfil our choicest expectations. For thirteen years Abraham had watched Ishmael's growth, and seen him ripening for a glorious future. His hopes concerning the promise have been almost at noonday, and now they are put back to dimmest twilight, nay to darkness itself. Supposing him not to doubt the ultimate fulfilment, yet to be thus put off! "After he had patiently endured he obtained the promise; but now his impatience shows itself in the passionate plea which he puts up for Ishmael. The present Ishmael is better than the promised Isaac. How hard it is to have the present turned into a blank, and only the promise of a prize in the future! To see the schemes of years turned in a moment to foolishness, to have to retrace our steps and begin all anew; watching the slow progress of events, and counting the monotonous tickings of the dull clock of time! "Seize the main chance," say the world and the world's spirit within us. "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush !" Let us have our portion now. Give it to us with labor and with sorrow if it must be so; but above all things do not ask us to wait! So Esau despised his birthright. So did not Moses the "great recompense of reward"; so did not Christ; who for the joy set before him, endured the cross," &c. And so did not Abraham, though for awhile the struggle was sore within him. Faith in the end triumphed over unbelief, and patience over passion. He hearkened unto the word of the Lord, and in the self-same day "fulfilled his commands." Great need have we all to use the old prayer-meeting formula, "Teach us how to pray, and what to pray for." Subdue our impatience, and give us the spirit of resignation, and choose thou our inheritance for us: if it may be so, let Ishmael live before thee; but in thine own way, and in thine own time fulfil to us thy gracious promises! If we are perverse and blindly importunate in our important prayers, our God may give to us what we ask in judgment rather than in mercy. "God answers sharp and sudden in some prayers, and thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face. A gauntlet with a gift in it." But from them that walk uprightly he will withhold no good thing. "He that spared not his own Son, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Vol. IX. 2 R III. ABRAHAM'S NATURAL AFFECTION. Consider what he was called on to do-to transfer his hopes and future glory from a lad of thirteen to an infant yet unborn. It would seem to him at first to involve a transfer of natural affection. All the father speaks out in this prayer, "O that Ishmael might live before thee!" Perhaps too, he imagined that to make room for another, Ishmael must die. How could he bear to see the lad's strong frame wrung with disease, or to see his mangled and ghastly corpse brought in from some of the field-sports in which he early took delight? It seemed not to enter into the mind of Abraham, or at least only as a remote possibility, that in the purposes of God there might be room for both. But in truth to Abraham's natural affection no violence is to be done. a son indeed and thou shalt and laughter of thy house. "Sarah thy wife shall bear thee call his name Isaac, the gladness And as for Ishmael," &c. Our God heareth prayer, even when mixed with elements of our imperfect and selfish natures. many of the He is indeed often too good to give us what we ask, but He gives us more and better. He will not substitute our Ishmael for Isaac, but with His blessing gives us both. SUBJECT:-A True Character. J. W. LANCE, "Behold I lay in Zion," &c.-Isa. xxviii. 16, 17. Analysis of Homily the Four Hundred and Sixty-second. "A FIRST Christ is the foundation of a good character. stone." He is the model, the medium, the main-spring, of all moral excellence in man. "The foundation" is tried, precious, sure. Secondly: Believing is the rearing of a true character. "He that believeth.' Man moves by motives, and motives are formed by beliefs. Thirdly God is the judge of a true character. (1) He measures it by the law of rectitude. He lays "judgment" to the line, &c. (2) He tests it by the dispensation of His Government. "Hail shall sweep away," &c. Truly, "Other foundations can no man lay," &c. Theological Notes and Queries. OPEN COUNCIL. [The utmost freedom of independent thought is permitted in this department. The reader must therefore use his own discriminating faculties, and the Editor must be allowed to claim freedom from responsibility.] TRIBUTE MONEY. REPLICANT. In answer to E. J. J., p. 375. We think that the article on Matt. xvii. 24-27, in the general principles which it advocates, as set forth in its leading divisions, constitutes a sufficient reply to the original question of E. J. J. The passage in Matt. xxii. 21, records a reply of our Lord, which appears to be conceived in the same spirit. Cæsar was in possession of the imperial throne. He was at the head of civil government. Without advocating the Divine right of kings, we may say that to civil government it is the duty of individuals to submit, and that one mode of this submission is paying taxes. Not the subject, but the government, is responsible for the purpose to which taxes are appropriated. head of a family to his children and servants. First the family, then the clan or tribe, then the kingdom. Christ restores the representation of the Divine relation to its original pure form. He, almost uniformly, calls God "Father." Again, it is evident that paternity involves government; that the father is of necessity a kind of king, that He must have righteous laws impartially administered, to preserve the order and peace of His household. Yet these laws themselves are dictates of love, of which righteousness is only a certain aspect. Thus it appears that "The Father" is the most comprehensive name of God in His relation to us; that it includes all which is necessary for the heart and the conscience. [We also insert another reply.] REPLICANT. In answer to QUERIST No. 21, page 377. According to the vulgar notion every calamity that men experience, is a "judgment;" that is, a penal infliction. But we learn from this, one of the earlier records of the Divine disposition towards man, that our Divine Father inflicts calamity on His human children not as a 66 punishment" but actually to preserve them from punishment. His "scourge" is not a penal, but a corrective, one. Man is "chastened by pain." He does not expiate sin therewith. The object of the infliction is to save his soul and to preserve his life from the steel of the military or other executioner. See Job v. 18. Whatever expiation is necessary God Himself will provide. (v. 24.) So long as man deviates from the "light of the living," and persists in walking according to the darkness of human uncertainties, the rod, the corrective rod of calamity, will be used "to withdraw him from his purpose," until he repents and returns. (v. 22) This is plainly the expe 66 rience of the oldest time and the language of its most ancient record. It is also in perfect accord with the last scriptural doctrine, which declares that we are "scourged," "chastened," corrected," not to expiate our offences but "for our profit." (Heb. xii. 10.) Hence we may exactly infer that punishment in the strict sense of the term is never inflicted by the Divine Magistrate in this life, and can only commence after death. This is certainly the general principle. If any objector can adduce any scriptural example of a divinely inflicted calamity of a temporal kind, where the object was certainly penal and not simply corrective, I should be obliged by its full exhibition. Though the paternal relations of God to Man include, and are inseparable from, the magisterial, as in the patriarchal times, when Noah was both father and ruler over all living, yet the Divine Magistracy in this life is exercised not "to condemn but to save."-W. FRASER WAlle. Queries to be answered in our next Number. 23. If self-sacrifice, in order to obtain felicity for another, be the sublime of virtue or spiritual excellence, is it as such, an attribute of good? If so, was it to remain eternally unmanifested? Would not the creature, in the latter case, have at least manifested a higher degree of excel lence than his creator? H. F. HALLE. In 24. When redeemed souls are translated to that house in which there are many mansions, are we to conclude that they can never again fall into sin? If so upon what grounds can such a faith be intelligently entertained? Heaven there are angels of many degrees. Redeemed souls become angels. Angelic beings are free agents-their adoration and service being voluntarily rendered. Angels of the highest order having fallen, may not the redeemed ? Or are we to infer that redemption has necessarily and clearly effected such a change or development in the angelic economy, that the man-angel unlike other spiritual beings, can never transgress, fall away, or rebel? P. M. H. The Pulpit and its Three Handmaids. HISTORY, SCIENCE, ART. A PRAYER OF SIR WILLIAM JONES. Eternal and incomprehensible Mind, who by Thy boundless power, before time began, createdst innumerable worlds for Thy glory, and innumerable orders of beings for their happiness, which |