How from the other; that the man who maintained that Mary hath not given birth to a God, and yet that the being she hath given birth to is divine, must also maintain that a duality of persons as well as natures n.ust characterize that being. When thus accused, Nestorius said, he did not deny that Mary was the mother of Jesus Christ according to the flesh, but he would not use a form of expression that implied the belief of her divine nature. And as to the second charge, he denied it utterly, and taught publicly that "in Jesus Christ there were two natures, but one person for ever." By command of the Emperor Theodosius, however, he was tried on both these charges, by a council convened at Ephesus. "It was skilfully arranged, that Ephesus should be chosen for the decision of a difference respecting the dignity of the Virgin, since popular tradition had buried her in that city, and the imperfect Christianity of its inhabitants had readily transferred to her the worship which their ancestors had offered to the goddess Diana." By this council he was condemned, and though for awhile they shrank from putting their sentence into execution, yet he was ultimately deposed from his episcopal office and banished, first to Petrca in Arabia, and afterwards to an oasis in Upper Egypt, where he died about the year 439. He was buried in a city in that district known by the name of Chemnis, or Panopolis, or Akhmin, and the malice of his enemies porsevered for ages, and probably still docs, in casting stones against his sepulchre, and in propagating the foolish tradition that it was never watered by the rain of heaven. It is said that the holy fathers who condemned him in the council were unanimous, as perhaps they were, being all of one party at the outset, and not having heard the defence of Nestorius. The first burst of their pious indignation found vent in words like those "Anathema to him who does not anathematize Nestorius. The orthodox faith anathematizes him. The holy council anathematizes him. We all anathematize Nestorius the heretic. All the earth anathematizes the unholy religion of Nestorius. Anathema to him who does not anathematize Nestorius!" His friends disputed the fairness of his trial and the justice of his condemnation, and not without some show of reason, inasmuch as Cyril was both accuser and judgo in the council, and carried into the office so little show of impartiality, that he refused even to wait for the arrival of the bishop of Antioch and others, who were held friendly to Nestorius, and proceeded to pronounce sentence while the meeting was thus yet incomplete. After publishing the condemnation of the indefended patriarch, and causing through its own dissensions some sanguinary tumults in the city, the council was at length dismissed by Theodosius, in these words" God is my witness that I am not the author of this confusion. His Providence will discern and punish the guilty. Return to your provinces, and may your private virtues repair the mischief and seandal of your meeting." The adherents of Nestorius maintained his cause and opinions after his death, and many who had sat at his feet and received his instructions, now boldly resolved to follow in his footsteps and imitate his faith and zoal. In a celebrated school in Edessa, the reputed birth-place of Abraham, where many Persian youths were taught, the doctrines of Nestorius were warmly espoused by the pupils. This led to the breaking up of that establishment and the return of those youths to their native country, where they found a deep sympathy with the cause they had embraced already existing, and the doctrines they had received already professed; and from that time those holding the views Nestorius had died for became the principal Christian scct in Persia. Thus we can easily understand why the name "Nestorians" was chosen to designate those primitive Christians of the East, when their opponents wanted to brand them as heretical schismatics. From this slight sketch of the Nestorian controversy it will be evident that the whole record is of a painful and humiliating character, and the more so, as it is probable that both Cyril and Nestorius had exactly the same practical faith in a Divine Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, which is shared with them by millions who never heard of their disputes. CHAPTER IV. We may now briefly describe what the religious bolief and practices of the Nestorian church aro. It has been said that, "isolated amongst the remote valleys of Kurdistan, and cut off from all intercourse with other Christian communities, they have preserved almost intact their primitive faith. Corruptions may have crept in, and ignorance may have led to the neglect of dectrines and ceremonies; but, on the whole, it is a matter of wonder that, after the lapse of nearly seventeen centuries, they should still be what they are." Probably this is mainly to be accounted for by their great reverence for the holy Scriptures, their acknowledging their supreme authority, and holding, with ourselves, that no doctrine or practice is essential to salvation which is not found therein or proved therefrom. This, too, has made them the fortunate possessors of those ancient and valuable manuscripts to which we have referred. There are no sects in the East, and few in the West, who can boast of such purity in their faith, or of such simplicity in their forms of worship. Such as they are to-day in these respects, they have been for long ages; and what they are to-day, or profess to be, we havo abundant means of ascertaining. The profession of faith, which they repeat twice every sabbath in their services, is that which the fathers of their church adopted, and differs but little from the creed known as the Nicene Creed; indeed there can be but little doubt that it was originally the same. Dr. Layard gives it entire, thus: "We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, creator of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten of his Father before all worlds, who was not created; the true God, of the true God, of the same substance with his Father, by whose hands the world was made and all things were created; who for us men and our salvation descended from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost, and became man, and was conceived and born of the Virgin Mary, and suffered and was crucified in the days of Pontius Pilate, and died, and was buried; and rose on the third day, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of his Father, and is to come again and judge the living and the dead. And we believe in one Spirit, the Spirit of truth, who procecdeth from the Father, the Spirit that giveth light; and in one holy and universal church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting." They have, moreover, an impressivo liturgical service, in which the divinity of the Messiah is set forth, THE NESTORIANS. and the great truth of the atonement is embodied, The patriarch is chosen from one family, and lives * Mar Elias, a Nestorian bishop, died December 6, 1863, aged eighty-five years. He appears to have been so remarkable a character, that one of the missionaries compares him to Polycarp. Speaking from an intimate acquaintance for the period of a generation, Dr. P rkins says: "The conversation of Mar Elias has been eminently in heaven,-more so than that of any mortal I have ever known. The Bible was the chief range of his and consulted in the appointment of a bishop, but his The description of a sabbath spent among the Nes- tion, "O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise; for thou desirest not sacrifice, elso would I give it; thon delightest not in burntoffering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." The liturgy is now chanted in the ancient Syriac language, which is quite unintelligible to the common people; and this being done, one of the offi ciating priests reads a portion of the gospels, and gives a translation of it, which he accompanies perhaps by some explanations or legendary stories, of which they have many, and this constitutes the preaching. The service being now brought to an end, the congregation embrace one another, as a symbol of brotherly love and concord, and leave the place without the least noise or confusion. In passing out, each person receives at the door a very thin piece of bread rolled together, and inclosing a morsel of meat. This represents the love feast of the early Christians. Before passing from this subject, it should be observed, that although the ordinary public service is conducted in a language almost unintelligible to the congregation, yet they have certain prayers that are familiar to all, and persons devoutly disposed may be seen retiring to a corner of the church to pray in secret. "On sacramental occasions the bread and wine are consecrated in the sanctuary, or holy place, and then brought out by a priest and a deacon, while each communicant goes forward in rotation, and partakes of a small piece of the bread from the hand of the priest, who holds a napkin to prevent any particles from falling as he puts the morsel into the mouth of the recipient; and then he drinks of the wine, which is held with great care by the deacon, so that not a drop shall be spilled. But there is none of that idolatrous adoration of the host so characteristic of the mass of the Romanists, and of the other oriental churches. On the contrary, there is almost a scriptural simplicity in the observance of this solemn ordinance." An eye-witness tells us that the priest who had officiated in the prayers and instruction of the congregation first partook of the elements, and then invited him to partake. Hitherto,' says he, "I had never partaken of this ordinance with the Nestorians; but to have declined, under present circumstances, would have done as much injustice to my own feelings as to theirs." The same Christian remarks: "Though there was painful evidence of a great want of spiritual life, I was encouraged to hope that some almost smothered sparks of vital piety were still burning upon those altars. There was still much in their character and circumstances of deep and lively interest; my heart was drawn out towards them in warm affection; and seldom have I commemorated the dying love of Christ under circumstances more deeply interesting than among these primitive Christians in the wild mountains of ancient Assyria." 66 THE PULPIT IN THE FAMILY. SIN DETECTED. "Be sure your sin will find you out."-Numb. xxxii. 23. HERE can be no truer words. The circumstances in which they were spoken were simply these. When the people of Israel were drawing near to the promised land, the tribes of Reuben and Gad, who had, we are told, a very great multitude of cattle, were struck with the fitness of the land of Gilead, east of the Jordan, for pastoral purposes, and asked Moses to give it to them for their inheritance. Moses asked them in effect whether it was right that the other tribes should have all the labour and peril of crossing the Jordan, and conquering the nations on the western side of it, while they sat down at their ease to enjoy a region which cost them neither toil nor danger. He warned them at the same time against following the example of their fathers, whose unbelief and moral cowardice had brought on them the displeasure of God. They replied that they would build folds for their cattle and cities for their children, but that those of them who were fit for war would accompany their brethren across the Jordan, and aid in subduing the land, and that they would not return to their homes till all the other tribes had acquired possession of their inheritance. Moses now consented to their proposal, but warned them solemnly of the consequences of failing to fulfil their engagement. "If ye will not do so," he said, "behold ye have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out." His words are as true to-day as they were three thousand years ago, and I propose to show how it is so very certain that sin will find out the sinner. 1. No sin is ever committed without the presence of two witnesses. Many forget this. They choose the darkness for their evil deeds, and think no one sees them. Or, if they are in the light, they look around eagerly and carefully to see if there is any one near, and if they can see no one they think they are all safe, they may do as they like. But this is a great mistake. You have never thought a thought, cr done a deed, but in the presence of two witnesses; and in every instance these witnesses make an exact record of the deed, and attest it as certainly as if they signed it with their hands. These witnesses are God and your own conscience. You may go where there shall be no living thing but yourself-solitude the most complete-but God is there. His eye is full upon you. And every emotion of your heart, and every thought of your mind, and every deed of your hand, lies as exposed to his view as if you stood before his throne in heaven. He is a witness to everything. And so is your own conscience. You may try to bribe it to shut its eyes, or to be silent, or to forget. And your bribe may succeed for a time. But conscience is apt to repent of its unfaithfulness in shutting its eyes when it should look, and in holding its tongue when it should speak. And you can never be safe from being found out by any sin of which conscience has at any time, or in any circumstances, been the witness. With such witnesses as these to everything, you may be sure, that no sin, however secretly committed, will fail to find you out. When Achan stole the wedge of gold and the Babylonish garment from the spoils of Jericho, he believed that no one saw him, and he had no fear of the consequences. And no one but God did see him-God and his conscience. But that was enough. When Gehazi followed after Naaman, and said that two young men of the sons of the prophets had just arrived from Mount Ephraim, and begged him to let him have a talent of silver and two changes of raiment for them, he thought himself beyond the possibility of discovery, quietly deposited the gifts of Naaman in his house, and then went, and, most innocent like, without a blush or a guilty look, stood before his master, Elisha. "Whence comest thou?" said Elisha to him; and he pretended he had been nowhere. But God had seen him, and had miraculously enabled the prophet to follow him with his mind's eye, though not with his body's eye. And Elisha said to him: "The leprosy of Naaman shall cleave unto thee and unto thy seed for ever." And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow SIN DETECTED. His sin found him out. When Ananias and Sapphira told that lie about the value of their property, they thought it would never be found out, for no one knew anything of it but themselves. But God knew it; he heard their lie; he revealed it; he punished them. Their sin found them out. So depend on it, will it be with every sin committed before two witnesses, God and your own conscience will be sure to bring you to account some day or other. 2. Very many sins are of a kind to produce their own punishment, and this adds to the certainty that our sins will find us out. Just as sced, when sown in the ground, produces its own proper fruit, so do many sins. You may let the seed alone after you have sown it, never look after it, never think of it, even forget that you have sown it, but it will spring up, day and night will it grow, and in due time the fruit will be seen. Just so is it with many sins: sins of the bodyfor example, drunkenness, and gluttony, and other bodily sins-are as sure to produce disease as if you deliberately took poison. Mental sins work out their own punishment just as certainly. Selfishness, envy, covetousness, hatred, malice—these, by their own natural action, are sure to make a man miserable. In all the universe it has never been found that these mental lusts and happiness have gone together. The production of wheat from wheat seed is not more certain, than the production of misery, real soul-misery, from them. Indeed, instead of saying that many sins are of a kind to produce their own punishment, we may say with confidence that all sin produces its own punishment. Let men banish God from their hearts, and walk after the light of their own eyes, in their own evil ways, sin is sure to find them out sooner or later; sure to involve them in misery here or hereafter, from which there is no escape. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." 3. There is another thing that adds to the certainty that sin will find out the sinner-and that is the great judgment day which God has appointed to wind up the affairs of this world. Many things are not punished in this world according to their deserts. In fact, nothing is punished here according to its deserts. There is just enough of earthly punishment to teach men that they are under the government of a holy God, to whom sin is very displeasing. The fruits of sin are just enough in this world to let men know that it is an evil and a bitter thing to depart from God. But it is in the great day there will be made the full disclosure of the dreadfulness of sin and of God's indignation against it. In this world, so far as appearances go, you would sometimes suppose that sin escapes punishment altogether. That is, you cannot see how it has been punished. But even if it did escape in this world, the two witnesses of all our deeds are sure to meet us at the judgment-seat, to tell the tale of our sins, and to convict us. God and our own conscience will be there, and by their testimony our sin is sure to find us out at last. Then in this world the seed we sow seems to spring up very slowly. The man that knows nothing of how slowly the acorn, or even wheat grows, might visit the spot where he has deposited his acorn or seed, morning after morning, and seeing nothing above ground, might conclude it was never to grow. And so it is with men in regard to their sins. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the children of men is set in them to 733 If it does do evil." But the harvest is sure to come. What then should you do in view of these things? You should dread sin, and treat it as your enemyyour worst, and indeed your only enemy. In whatever guise it comes, whether as an angel of light or in all the hideousness of its true nature, whether it tempts you with promises of good or threatenings of evil, treat it as your enemy. Its enmity to you, its opposedness to your true interests, is hellish and unmixed. Don't listen to it. It is evil and only evil. And never by any process can you extract good from it. Would you be safe you must oppose and resist its very beginnings. Let it gain one advantage over you, and it will soon gain a second and a third. But it is not enough that we should dread sin as our enemy, and do constant battle with it all our life. We are already sinners. This fact we cannot undo. The Bible says it. Our own consciences say it. We have not loved God with all our heart. We have done ten thousand things that are contrary to God's will. What shall we do? If we were warning pure angels in heaven against sin by telling them that sin is sure to find out the sinner, we know what they would have to do-just to avoid it, never to do it. But we have done it already. And the awful truth stares us in the face that sooner or later sin finds out the man that is guilty of it. Then what shall we do? But for the mercy of God, we could do nothing but weep tears of bitter despair, and lie down in eternal sorrow. But God has had mercy upon us. He willeth not that any should perish, for he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He has sent his Son to die for us, and by the virtue of his death to redeem us from our guilt and from eternal death. God is deeply in earnest when he says, "Be sure your sin will find you out." He is equally in earnest when he says, Christ has died for your sins, he is able to save you, believe in him, trust in his sacrifice, commit your souls to him, and you shall pass from death unto life. He beseeches you who are young not to grow up with impenitent hearts and sin-loving souls, but to repent now in your youth, and to look to Jesus to take away your guilt, that it may not fall upon you in the day of judgment, and to root out of you the love of sin, that you may be prepared to spend your eternity in a holy heaven. Let young and old obey the call of mercy. Hear him saying, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Take with you words, and turn unto the Lord, and say unto him: "Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously." Then pardoned, freely pardoned, you will render to him the praises of your lips and of your lives, and make it your study, through his own grace, to adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour. THE PRIMITIVE RACES OF PALESTINE.* THE primitive races of any country, however often it may have been overrun by foreign invasion and settlement, are hard to be extirpated, and especially where, as in the case of Palestine, nature itself offers them many facilities for escaping danger. In a country of tangled hills, with the sea on one side, the desert on two others, and its northern boundary shut in by the labyrinths of a mountain chain, successive immigrations From the German of Ewald. 2 731 THE PRIMITIVE RACES OF PALESTINE. of new tribes only added fresh layers to the mass of its | oak; and Og and Sihon, the towering monarchs of the population, without perhaps entirely destroying the traces of any of an earlier date. In the more northern and more fruitful parts of the land, on this side the Jordan, the aboriginal inhabitants were very early subdued by the Canaanites, and so mingled with them that very little separato mention of them survives. But it was different on the other side of the river, especially towards the south. Here we find traces of a people who, though distinct aliko from the Hebrews and their connected tribes and from the Canaanites, maintained their independence even in post Mosaic times, the Horites, or dwellers in caves, of the district of Edom, which is very much a country of cavernous hills. In Gen. xxxvi. 20, they are expressly called the original inhabitants, and must have formed considerable communities, since a list of their chiefs is given in the following verses. The Ishmaelites at an early period invaded their retreats, and destroyed them as a nation. Expelled from their fastnessos, they had only the wilderness for a home; and it is a question whether they sank altogether to a subordinate position, or whether it is they who in after centuries reappear as the gigantic races of eastern Canaan, against whom Moses led the warriors of his people. Kough, plundering tribes, their life seems to have developed their physical frames to a size which became their special characteristic in the eyes of the Hebrews, as the stature of the Gauls was the wonder of ancient Rome, and that of the invading Danes the terror of our own ancestors. The general name for this huge race was the Rephaim, which means the giants; and the first notice of them occurs in the statement of their residence at Ashteroth Karnaim (the place of the worship of the horned Ashteroth)† and of their being overrun by Chedorlaomer in the days of Abraham. In this earliest record we already find the Horites mentioned as having suffered defeat at the same monarch's hands; and the tribes related to the Rephaim, or rather the separate branches of the nation,-the Zuzim and the Emim are included in the list of subjugated tribes, the former being assigned a district now unknown,-called Ham, and the latter the district afterwards known as Moab, where their capital was Shaveh Kiriathaim, "the double city of the plain." The Zuzim were apparently the Zamzummim of later times, and reappear with the Emim in the days of the conquest. On the west side of the Jordan they lived separate till that time in the midst of the land, in the territory afterwards assigned to Ephraim, and at Jerusalem, in the neighbourhood of which, even in the eighth century, a valley had its name from them.§ In the southern districts, also, round Hebron and from it to the coast, they maintained their ground for long, keeping Hebron for their capital, and known to the Hebrews as the sons of Anak. Hebron had its original name from the father of Anak, the founder of their dominion in that region. At the time of the early Judges, however, it would seem that the rule had been divided among three brothers, and thus weakened, so that it was casily destroyed by the tribe of Judah.T It is worthy of notice, in thus gathering the notices of these long-perished races, that other tribes are mentioned as inhabiting the same places,-those spoken of as the Amorites, and that the same gigantic size is ascribed to them. Amos speaks of their height as like that of the cedar, and their strength as like that of the eastern Jordan, are spoken of as of their stock.* But this rises from a double name applied to the one set of tribes; for Amorite is only a name taken from their local characteristics, and means simply moutaineers," without having any reference to their i tional origin or their physical peculiarities. The Amalekites were another of the aboriginal racs of this lordly stock. In the life of David wo find Li attacking their bands in the extreme south-west of the land. They were originally so numerons as to bur given a name to the primitive races collectively, but had fallen low by the days of David. Along with the little kingdom he invaded in the far south, another, which appears to have stretched in a narrow stri westward from Judah to Joppa, maintained itself, i spite of Philistine and Hebrew, even to the reign of Solomon. Their chief town was Geshur, which some say was Gaza. That there was another Geshur, called fr distinction "the Syrian," in the extreme north, east of the Jordan, seems to imply the existence of still a other fragment of the nation in that region. Such widely-scattered remnants appear to point to a time when the race had been spread right and left over the whole Jordan-land to the Euphrates, and south to the Red Sea. They were still contesting supremacy with the Canaanites when Joshua appeared, and were not subdued until he turned his arms against them. From some names which still survive, and from the fact that, when broken and beaten back by the Hebrews, the fugitives fled to the coast-towns of the Philistines, who were a people kindred with the Jews, and that they seem to have been admitted to friendship and military rank, as in the case of Goliath and his family: and from the fact that the islands of the Levant we to a considerable extent peopled with Shemitic people, it appears certain that this whole great primitive rare, and those who had thus pressed even beyond the ms land, were Shemitic, and thus of the same great division of mankind as the Hebrews themselves. Sabbath Choughts. THE PRESENCE OF JESUS IN OUR JOYS. "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cans of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory, and his disciples believed in him.”—John ii. 11. Where was it that Jesus performed "this beginning of miracles?" It was at a marriage, a time of feasting, an cecasion called and his disciples;" and his presence shows us that he whe of joy. He had been invited to this marriage-"both Jesus was is "a very present help in trouble" is also willing to be very present with his people in their joys, if they seek to hallow them by inviting him to be there. But even this marriage, this happiness is not enough, even at its best, for the satisfying of time of joy, was a time of need: "they wanted wine." Earthly hearts that are made for heaven. Then did Jesus show his care and love for those who had invited his presence; he "manifested forth his glory," he supplied their every need; and while he gave wine, he also gave faith; for here first we read the words so often afterwards repeated by St. John, as miracle after miracle confirmed his Divine mission, "his disciples believed on him." Does not this proof of the care of Christ for his people invite us to go to him at all times, "in all time of our wealth, as well as in all time of our tribulation?" We need him in our joys es well as in our griefs. The wine of life is soon exhausted; but if he is present with us, he can turn the water even now into that "good wine" of spiritual joy, which shall be for us a type of that fruit of the vine which they shall drink with him new in his Father's kingdom. 66 Josh. ix. 10. |