us "that though in malice we must be children, in understanding we ought to be men." And this saying of his has the widest range. Not only in the understanding of religious truth, but in all the exercise of the intellectual powers, we have no right to stop short of any limit but that which nature, that is, the decree of the Creator, has imposed on us. In fact, no knowledge can be without its effect on religious convictions; for if not capable of throwing direct light on some spiritual questions, yet in its acquisition knowledge invariably throws light on the process by which it is to be, or has been, acquired, and thus affects all other knowledge of every kind.

If we have made mistakes, careful study may teach us better. If we have quarrelled about words, the enlightenment of the understanding is the best means to show us our folly. If we have vainly puzzled our intellects with subjects beyond human cognizance, better knowledge of ourselves will help us to be humbler. Life, indeed, is higher than all else; and no service that man can render to his fellows, is to be compared with the heavenly power of a life of holiness. But next to that must be ranked whatever tends to make men think clearly and judge correctly. So valuable, even above all things (excepting only godliness), is clear thought, that the labours of the statesman are far below those of the philosopher in duration, in power, and in beneficial results. Thought is now higher than action, unless action be inspired with the very breath of heaven. For we are now men, governed by principles, if governed at all, and cannot rely any longer on the impulses of youth, or the discipline of childhood. We quote these able remarks from Dr. Temple's Education.

Professor Jowett, in a paper on the Religious Tendencies of the Age, observes:

There is a wide distinction between the interpretation and the application of Scripture. The latter is of much wider extent than the former. "Interpretation is the province of few; it requires a finer perception of language, and a higher degree of cultivation, than is attained by the majority of mankind. But applications are made by all, from the philosopher reading God in History, to the poor woman who finds in them a response to her prayers, and the solace of her daily life. In the hour of death we do not want critical explanations; in most cases those to whom they would be offered are incapable of understanding them. A few words, breathing the whole sense of the Christian world, such as 'I know that my Redeemer liveth,' (though the exact meaning of them may be doubtful to the Hebrew scholar); 'I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me;' touch a chord which would never be reached by the most skilful exposition of the argument of one of St. Paul's Epistles."

Serpent Worship.

SERPENT WORSHIP.

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There is scarcely a heathen nation that has not adopted some deity in the form of a serpent. Among those who were foremost in this form of idolatry were the Egyptians, who built chapels underground, where they carefully fed and worshipped them. In the time of Herodotus, serpents were kept tame at Thebes, adorned with jewels, and consecrated to Jupiter. When they died they were buried with divine honours, and placed in urns in the temple of Jupiter.* And, according to Elian, they were admitted into the houses of the Egyptians, and there treated as household gods. It is said that Jotham, king of Israel, built much on the wall of Ophel, that is, the serpent God; and this animal was the form under which the Cnaphis or Agathodæmon of the Egyptian pantheon was worshipped by the inhabitants of the Thebaid.

But, although this creature was worshipped by many nations in the east, the Babylonians, Arabians, Scythians, Phoenicians, Macedonians, and many others; yet in India, and more particularly on the coast of Malabar, this form of worship attained its greatest height of absurdity. The king of Calicut, who was formerly the most powerful of all the Malabar princes, and whose title was no less than "God upon earth," was so much enslaved by the worship of this creature as to have temples built purposely for them, where they were held sacred and made the guardians of all their houses, persons, and property. So highly was the serpent considered in the east that, wherever it was figured or painted, the place was held sacred, and the ground consecrated; and the most exalted honour that could be conferred upon a hero was to style him "born of a serpent." Thus, Alexander the Great, who suffered himself to be called God, and Scipio Africanus, were both said to be born of serpents. So likewise was the companion of Cadmus, the giant in Homer, and a certain prophet in Pausanias; nay, whole tribes went by the name of serpent. This was the case with some people inhabiting Cyprus and around the Hellespont. Even in the primitive church there was a sect called Ophites, because they worshipped the serpent that betrayed Eve, and therefore ascribed supernatural knowledge to that animal.

But the most probable origin of Serpent-worship would seem to take its rise in the corrupt and perverted constructions which were put upon the history of Adam and Eve by heathen nations, many of which seem to have received sufficient intimation of this event, and of the record made by Moses, to account for many strange perversions which we read of in mythology. Indeed, in the

Euterpe, lib. ii. He states also that another serpent was worshipped in a tower at Miletus, in Egypt, where there was a priest and other officers attending it. It was fed daily with meal and honey.

Phoenician theology the creation is described almost in the same manner as that of the pentateuch.

SYMBOLICAL FIGURES FROM NINEVEH.

The visitor to the British Museum who curiously examines the winged bulls, lions, and other mysterious figures from Nineveh, can scarcely fail to be convinced that they are not mere sculptural ornaments but symbols of certain mysteries and ceremonies of the primeval religion of Assyria. The era of these sculptures is so remote, and the traditions respecting them so obscure, that the inquiry into their signification is difficult, and the conclusions arrived at unsatisfactory: still some attempt has been made to penetrate the mystery which surrounds them. The chief mythological figures are the winged bull with a man's face; the winged lion with a man's face; the winged man with a fir-cone in one hand and a square basket or vessel in the other; and a man with the head and wings of an eagle or hawk. The hypothesis which Mr. Ravenshaw, in a paper read to the Asiatic Society, maintains with respect to them is, that they are, as already surmised by Mr. Layard, the originals of the cherubim of Ezekiel; that they were likewise the originals of the apocalyptic beasts of St. John; and that, slightly modified, they were afterwards adopted, and are now used, as the symbols of the four Evangelists. Further, that they were originally invented by the Magi and Chaldeans as astronomical symbols of the equinoctial and solstitial points; that they represent in fact the four seasons-spring, summer, autumn, and winter; and perhaps also the four winds and the four elements.

In support and illustration of these views, the writer enters into an examination of the passages in the Old Testament and in other writings, regarding the cherubim, showing that there is no authority in Scripture for supposing them to be bodiless infants, and comes to the conclusion that the face of a cherub was in reality the face of a bull. At an early period of the Christian Church these winged animals were adopted as the symbols of the Four Evangelists. The winged lion was assigned to St. Mark, as the symbol of strength; the winged ox to St. Luke, as the symbol of sacrifice; the eagle and chalice to St. John, as the symbol of contemplation; and the winged man with a cup and hatchet to St. Matthew, as the symbol of power. The employment of these figures as astronomical symbols formed the next branch of inquiry, and the conclusions were that the colossal bulls are symbols of the sun in Taurus, or the vernal equinox; that the winged man is Mitra or Serosh, the guardian of the autumnal equinox; and the winged man-lion and eagle-headed man the symbols of the solstices, being the four cherubim who watched the gates of Heaven, and upheld the Zodiac.

Evidences of Christianity-Changes in Opinion. 235

As regards the other mythological figures, it is probable that the man with a goat in his arms represents the constellation Capricorn, and the fish-god, that of Pisces. All the names of the gods found in the Nineveh inscriptions will probably, on further inquiry, prove to be the names of constellations, stars, or planets, chosen as the guardian angels of nations, kings, or individuals. The mystic tree, which forms so conspicuous an object in the sculptures, has evidently some astronomical signification. The number of its rosettes or leaves vary considerably, but never exceed thirty; and the winged circle, or the new moon and some stars, are generally seen above it. Hence it seems probable that these trees were orreries showing the month, day, or season which is being celebrated by the winged figures or priests who are represented in connection with them. The winged circles or eyes, which are frequently placed above the sacred tree, and seem to form the principal object of adoration, so closely resemble the winged globes on the portals of the Egyptian temples, that it is difficult to disbelieve the identity of their origin. At first they were probably typical of time, but came afterwards to be looked upon as the symbols of Ormuzd, the active creator and source of all good. These speculations may appear more curious than profitable; still it cannot be uninteresting to inquire what were the ideas of men 3,000 years ago, when the earth was comparatively young; to learn what were the traditions of Asia as to the origin and destiny of the human race, and what notions were then entertained as to the Creator and Governor of the universe.

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY-CHANGES IN OPINION.

If we compare the general tone, character, and pretensions of those works which, in our schools and colleges, have been regarded as the standard authorities on the subject of "the Evidences," we must acknowledge a great change in the taste or opinions of the times from the commencement of the last century to the present day; which has led the student to turn from the erudite folios of Jackson and Stillingfleet, or the more condensed arguments of Clarke On the Attributes, Grotius de Veritate, and Leslie's Method with the Deists, the universal text books of a past generation, to the writings of Lardner and Paley; the latter of whom, in the beginning of the present century, reigned supreme, the acknowledged champion of revelation, and the head of a school, to which numerous others, as Campbell, Watson, and Douglas, contributed their labours. But more recently, these authors have been in a degree superseded, by a recurrence to the once comparatively neglected resources furnished by Bishop Butler; of so much less formal, technical, and positive a kind, yet offering wider and more philosophical views of the subject; still, however, not

supplying altogether that comprehensive discussion which is adapted to the peculiar tone and character of thought and existing state of knowledge in our own times.

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At the present day, the "evidential" view of miracles, as the sole or even the principal external attestation to the claims of a Divine revelation, is a species of reasoning which appears to have lost ground even among the most earnest advocates of Christianity. It is now generally admitted that Paley took too conclusive a view in asserting that we cannot conceive a revelation substantiated in any other way. And it has been even more directly asserted by some zealous supporters of Christian doctrine that the external evidences are altogether inappropriate and worthless.

CHRISTIAN REVELATION-WHY FIRST GIVEN TO THE WEST.

If

It has been customary to argue that, à priori, a supernatural revelation was to be expected at the time when Jesus Christ was manifested upon the earth, by reason of the exhaustion of all natural or unassisted efforts for the amelioration of mankind. The state of the world, it has been customary to say, had become so utterly corrupt and hopeless under the Roman sway, that a necessity and special occasion was presented for an express divine intervention. Our recently enlarged ethnographical information shows such an argument to be altogether inapplicable to the case. we could be judges of the necessity for a special divine intervention, the stronger necessity existed in the East. There immense populations, like the Chinese, had never developed the idea of a personal God, or had degenerated from a once pure theological creed, as in India, from the religion of the Vedas. Oppressions and tyrannies, caste-distinctions, common and enormous vices, a polluted idolatrous worship, as bad as the worst which disgraced Rome, Greece, or Syria, had prevailed for ages.

It would not be very tasteful, as an exception to this description, to call Buddhism the gospel of India, preached to it five or six centuries before the Gospel of Jesus was proclaimed in the nearer East. But on the whole it would be more like the realities of things, as we can now behold them, to say that the Christian revelation was given to the western world, because it deserved better and was more prepared for it than the East. Philosophers, at least, had anticipated in speculation some of its dearest hopes, and had prepared the way for its self-denying ethics.Dr. Williams; Essays and Reviews.

THE HOLY THORN AT GLASTONBURY.

This miraculous tree grew in the grounds of the famous abbey of Glastonbury, in Somerset. The tradition is briefly, that when