only the movement of the hands and heard the striking of the hours. But this apparent suppression of a doctrine was, in fact, but the necessary preparation for its reappearance in a clearer light, and as resting on a firmer basis. Men were to begin with belief not in the immortality of the soul, but in the eternity of God, who had revealed Himself by the new name of the I AM THAT I AM. They were to be made to feel, as in the Psalm that at least represents the thoughts of Moses, the man of God, that a thousand years were with Him as a watch in the night; that He is God from everlasting and world without end (Psalm xc. 1-4). But the thought of that eternity ennobled rather than depressed man's life. In some way or other he felt that he was called upon to share it. It stirred him to "apply his heart" unto a wisdom which was not of earth, to believe in a love which endured to a thousand generations, to pray that the glorious Majesty of the Eternal might be with him and with his children (Psalm xc. 12-17). And unless we are to say that our Lord was reading into the teaching of the older Scriptures what was not really to be found there, there was in that other revelation, "I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob," the proclamation, or at least the suggestion, of a yet higher truth (Matthew xxii. 32; Exodus iii. 6-16). He is not the "God of the dead, but of the living," and would not have described Himself by a name which seemed to speak only of the past, unless that past had been perpetuated in the present, and was to be continued in the future. To Him all that ever lived are living still. He is their God for ever and ever. But this method of reserve was not to be thrown completely aside, even when Christ brought immortality to light. Even then, though the teaching was to be explicit enough as to the blessedness which would await those who could reaily learn to live in Christ as the branches live in the vine, it was to be anything but explicit as to what would await those who had not learned to live in Christ, whether because they could not from want of opportunity, or would not from want of will. And even as to devout Christians, though the teaching was in some respects explicit, in other respects it was very inexplicit. Whether their future state was to be a sudden and complete transformation into blessedness, or a gradual and progressive transformation, was not explicitly taught, but left to the light afforded by suggestion and inference. And accordingly on all these subjects, it was by piecing together suggestions and drawing inferences in the spirit of what had been explicitly taught, that the teachers of the Church proceeded, some of them, like Augustine and Gregory of Nyssa, making very rash inferences on very imperfect data, and drawing quite opposite conclusions, while others more prudently contented themselves with general principles, and with interpreting the hints thrown out by apostles so different in their general style of thought as St. Peter and St. Paul, on the work effected by Christ in the world beyond the grave. What these hints, we can hardly call them more than hints, were, Dr. Plumptre has explained very clearly in commenting on the passages in which first St. Peter and then St. Paul affirm a descent of Christ into the world of spirits: And (1) let us look more closely at the words which helped at once to fix the truth in men's minds, and to determine the thoughts which they connected with it. The Apostle has been led through what seemed at first a train of simply ethical counsels, to the example of the meekness and patience of Christ. But he cannot rest-no Apostle could-in the thought of his Lord's passion as being only an example, and so he passes on to speak of its redeeming power. It was a sacrifice for sins; in some mysterious, transcendent way, vicarious. Its purpose was nothing less than to bring us Jew and Gentile alike, as both embraced by the atoning love-to bring mankind to God. But then the thought rose up before him that the work looked backwards as well as forwards; that those who had fallen asleep in past ages, even under conditions that seemed most hope. less, were not shut out from hope. Starting either from a widespread belief among the Jews as to the extent of the Messiah's work; or from the direct teaching of his Master after of truth which were revealed to him not by flesh and blood, but by his Father in heaven, he speaks of that wider work. The Lord was "put to death in the flesh," but was "quickened in the spirit." That cry, "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit," was the beginning of a new activity. He passed into the world of the dead to be the herald of His own victory. As our Lord, in speaking of God's judgments in the past, had taken the days of and the cities of the plain, as representative Noah and the destruction of Tyre and Sidon, instances of what was true of countless others, so does St. Peter. The spirits of whom he thought as hearing that message were those who had been unbelieving, disobedient, cor rupt, ungodly; but who yet had not hardened themselves in the one irremediable antagonism to good which has never forgiveness. The words, taken by themselves, might leave us in some doubt as to the nature and effect of that proclamation. But it is surely altogether monstrous to think, as some have thought, that He who a short time before had breathed the prayer, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do;" who had welcomed, with a marvellous tenderness, the cravings of that Resurrection; or from one of those flashes the repentant robber; who had felt, though but for a moment, the agony of abandonment, as other children of God have felt it without ceasing to be children, should pass into the world of the unseen only to tell the souls of the lost of a kingdom from which they were excluded, a blessedness in which they had neither part nor lot, to mock with the proclamation of a victory, those who were only to be crushed under the chariot-wheels of the conqueror. We have not so learnt Christ as to think of that as possible. But whatever doubt might linger round the words is removed by the reiterated assertion of the same truth a few verses further on. That which was "preached also to them that are dead" was nothing else but a gospel the good news of the redeeming love of Christ. And it was published to them, not to exempt them from all penalty, but that they, having been judged, in all that belonged to the relations of their human life, with a true and righteous judgment, should yet, in all that affected their relation to God, "live in the spirit." Death came upon them, and they accepted their punishment as awarded by the loving and righteous Judge, and so ceased from the sin to which they had before been slaves, and thus it became to them the gate of life. So, the Apostle says to his disciples, it should be with them, in times of calamity and persecution. They were to arm themselves with that thought, and so to cease from sin, as those who were sharers in the sufferings and death of Christ, crucified, buried, risen again with Him, accepting pain, privation, ignominy, as working out a like purification even in this present life. (2) The teaching of St. Peter helps us to understand what else would seem a strange interruption to continuity of thought in the passage in which St. Paul speaks most clearly of Christ's descent to Hades. He is dwelling mainly on the gifts that had been bestowed upon the Church by her risen and ascended Lord. But that word "ascended" leads him to pause abruptly. Men were not to think that the work of Christ in the unseen world was limited to that which followed His ascension. "Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.' Hades and the Heaven of heavens, had alike felt the glory and the blessing of His presence. At His name had bowed every knee, not of men only on the earth, or angels in heaven, but those who were, as men thought, beneath the earth, the spirits of the dead. The words, then, of the Apostles lead us to the belief of a capacity for repentance, faith, love for growth, discipline, education, in those who have passed away. We have no sufficient grounds for limiting the work on which they dwell to the representative instance or the time-boundaries of which they speak. ing which has arisen on this subject, it may fairly be said that in these passages, and in the few parables and lessons in which Christ himself touches on the state of those who have passed away from earth, are to be found all that can be asserted as in any sense recording the teaching of revelation on the subject of the world beyond the grave. As Dr. Plumptre points out, our Lord does certainly teach by implication that there are sins which will be forgiven in the future state which have not been forgiven in this. Moreover, he directly asserts that there is one sort of sin which will neither be forgiven in the future state nor in this, the reason apparently being that it is a kind of sin which precludes the possibility of penitence. But even on this subject there is more of suggested and mysterious warning than of direct and explicit teaching. How the various Churches and schools have developed these hints into dogmas far more distinct and positive than the hints on which alone they could be legiti mately founded, Dr. Plumptre, in the course of his very interesting work, shows us with much ability, adding some wise criticisms on the hastiness and over-confidence of the inferences so frequently drawn. But what is the net result of the book? It is undoubtedly this, that there are a certain class of passages in Christ's teaching which unquestionably suggest a future state of suffering destitute, if not of all ultimate hope, yet of all immediate hope, as the consequence of earthly sin; that there are other passages in his teaching which explicitly enforce the doctrine that every one who had not full light will be dealt with mercifully, and that only those who sinned against light will be dealt with severely; further, that there are passages in St. John's Gospel ("I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me"), and several in St. Paul's Epistles, anticipating the time when God shall be all in all, suggesting the prospect of a complete ultimate triumph of God over evil. Thus we are left with what seems some. thing like a contradiction in the language of different Christian teachers, some of them dwelling on the awfulness of a final moral catastrophe, with no light beyond, and others of them dwelling on the more distant prospect of a light to spring up, even in that darkness. Dr. Plumptre does not ask, as we cannot help asking, how far this admitted appearance of con In spite of the great mass of the learn- tradiction, in the drift of Revelation, is From The Lancet. consistent with Revelation at all. Is it intelligible that a true gospel should NURSING AS A FINE ART. speak through one of its chosen teachers FEW facts in reference to the sick and a threat in which there is no undertone of their welfare are more noticeable than the hope; and should speak through another development of the art of nursing in reof its chosen teachers a promise in which cent years. Twenty years ago nursing there is no undertone of dread? We can was a luxury very much monopolized by only say in reply, that not only in the ut- hospital patients, and even in their case terances of different mouths. is there this the luxury was somewhat of a coarse tendency to teach what appear like incon- character. There were, of course, good, sistent truths, but also in the utterances kind, and wise women in those days who of the same mouth. Christ deliberately had quick sympathies with the sick, and tells his disciples that with men that is whose presence and ministrations in impossible which is not impossible with wards were like those of a mother or a God, for with God all things are possible. good angel, but they were not plentiful, He deliberately tells them to say, after they and the work done was often performed had done all that is commanded, "We are unskilfully and untenderly. It is not unprofitable servants," and yet commands pleasant to recall what must have been them to be "perfect, even as their Father the sufferings of the sick in earlier days in Heaven is perfect." He deliberately in poorer hospitals, especially in poor-law tells them that his gospel is the gospel of hospitals, when given over for the night to peace, and yet that it will bring not peace the care of a nurse not considered good on earth, but a sword. He deliberately enough for day duty, and who prepared tells them that he who is not with them is herself for her nocturnal work by copious against them, and again that he who is not potations of beer. The cry for a cup of against them is with them. His method, water or for a change of posture by a as far as we understand it, is to fix the thirsty or restless patient was often unminds of his disciples on the full signifi- heeded, or only heeded to be rebuked. cance of the moral principle which he is When kindness was not at fault, intelliputting before them, whether it be full of gence was often wanting, and superstition promise or of terror, and not to distract and ignorance had it all their own way. their attention from it to any other. If he The best proof that this is not an exagger is speaking of the downward path, he ation is to be found in the prejudice which shows how infinitely more difficult every still survives against professional nurses. step down renders every attempt to turn There are large numbers of educated peoback. If he is speaking of the love of ple who would not consent on any terms God, he shows how infinite in resources, to have a "hospital" nurse. It can beyond what we can understand, is the scarcely be imagined that their objection redeeming love which goes in search of is to the training received in hospitals. the lost, and seeks to reclaim them. For It must be traceable to experience of the our own parts, we should say that the only old order of nursing, or to the survival of teaching that can be effective is this kind some of its bad traditions. The old order of teaching, though it seems to result not of nursing is not quite extinct. Practiunfrequently in logical contradictions. tioners of any standing could still give inLook at the path of evil, and there ap stances of nurses whose coarse ignorance pears to be no hope. Look at the love of and unkindness brought discredit on the God, and there appears to be no fear. order, who put the wrong end of the clini Look at both, and we cannot tell which cal thermometer into the mouth, who predominates, so full of evil augury is the seemed to think less of the patient than of inevitable momentum of the downward themselves, who conceived of nursing as career; so full of promise is the inexa calling requiring a large amount of stimhaustible mercy of the infinite love. So far from such contradictions suggesting to us that it is not Revelation with which we are dealing, we doubt whether, human nature being what it is, it would be possible for God to reveal truth to us without revealing what would suggest the most opposite conclusions, according to the different points of view from which we put our questions and try to construct our augury. ulant, and who disgusted all the other members and servants of a household by the assumption of airs of superiority which neither their nursing powers nor their general intelligence justified. It is well worth the attention of all persons interested in nursing as a calling and in the welfare of the sick to consider the reasons for the existence of a still great amount of prejudice against trained nurses. Some of it is to be explained by and from other sources, Egypt was one of the most advanced nations of the earth — probably had long been so and was the centre of commerce and civilization. In a certain sense it was, and is, the geographical centre of the earth. The trade of all the Eastern nations lie open to it, by way of the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea. The trade of the Mediterranean and the West came to it at Alexandria, or its then equivalent port. The trade of eastern Africa came directly from the Nile. Cairo can friends would call the "hub of the universe," in a commercial sense. All the most treasured products of the world were gathered there, and from thence they were redistributed. How was the redistribution effected? In part certainly by the trading fleets which congregated there, including the famous "ships of Tarshish" too hard a view of their function in coming into a house, and by the absence of sympathy, sometimes sympathy even with the patient, who is treated too mechanically, as a mere model requiring dressing or bandaging. But a more common fault is the want of sympathy with friends, and the exaction of too much service from servants who are probably already overtaxed. It would be unreasonable to expect perfection in nurses. The very training they are subjected to gives them that little knowledge and that familiarity-"grand Cairo "- was what our Ameriwith big words which are apt to spoil simplicity and to produce conceit. But after all this criticism and it is neither illnatured nor unjust truth compels us to say that medical men owe very much of their greater success in treatment to the greater efficiency of nursing, and that that patient who with an acute or prolonged disease refuses the help of a good nurse, not only does an injustice to the members of his household, but sensibly diminishes the chances and the rate of his recovery; and that for one nurse who is selfish or inconsiderate or incompetent, there are ten who are serviceable and sympathetic, and who add infinitely to the comfort of a sick room and to the good chances of a patient. Every now and again one meets with a nurse whose art is in every sense a fine art, and in whose way of making the bed of a patient, preparing his food, or dressing his wounds, there is an element of genius that is missing in all the boasted art of men. That this is likely to be a more and more common experience it is quite reasonable to hope, seeing the number of capable and refined women who give themselves to this work and to the training of others for it; and to the help which earnest and distinguished members of our own profession afford in the educa. tion of nurses. Nursing must, in truth, be a fine art, or it is nothing. It is a calling in which coarseness is almost a crime, and in which every duty should be done delicately and lovingly. The presence of heavy headed and heavy-footed people with hard hands and harsh voices in a sick-room is the best illustration possible of an error loci. From The Science Monthly. THE TRADE OF ANCIENT EGYPT. FROM four to five thousand years ago, so we know from the Scripture records now believed by the best authorities to have sailed from Spain, and not from the far East as was long supposed. Now while Egypt occupies so central a position regarding the water ways of the world, a glance at the map shows that it occupies an equally central position in relation to inland routes. From Cairo the great trading caravans periodically took their course into the several nations of the then world. On the north-east, by way of the Syrian Desert to Palestine and Asia Minor; by the east, over the same desert to the val ley of the Euphrates, to Persia, Turkestan, India, China; by the south-east, to Arabia generally, including the famed city of Mecca; by the west, over the Libyan Desert, to the great cities of northern Africa. It was perhaps at a later date that they visited the eastern shores of the Baltic. King Solomon, who did so much to revive the trade of the Hebrew nation (Judea), did not rely upon maritime trade alone. He either built, or more probably simply fortified, Baalbec and Palmyra (the latter especially) as caravan stations for the land commerce with eastern and southeastern Asia. At the same time, it is clear that trade was carried on between Babylon and the Syrian cities. As a general rule it may be stated that in all cities where the markets are found to have been held outside the gates, the trade has depended upon caravans. No inland city could flourish in the way of trade that was not periodically visited by trading caravans. At the present day, as visitors to Cairo know, an extended commerce is kept up with the interior of Africa by means of caravans. I. THE HERO OF LEPANTO AND HIS TIMES, . Blackwood's Magazine, Saturday Review, Engineering, |