existence that "shall never know decay," pant only to lose all existence by becoming a particle of God. The doctrine of these two sentences is plainly a ray of earlier light still flitting among the shades that had fallen so thickly. Besides this truly Hindu division of heaven into caste-asylums, they enumerate popularly four heavens, one for each member of the Triad, and one for Indra. Bramha's heaven is Satyaloka, the Realm of Truth, where the creator dwells royally with his swan-drawn chariot, and where only Bramhans are received. Vishnu reigns in Vakunta, a sublime mountain in the north, into which all the excellent are admitted irrespective of sect or caste. Shiva too, the Destroyer, has his heaven, Kylasa, a glorious mount of silver, which, like that of Vishnu, is free for all the good. But the favourite heaven of all is Sevarga, where in the region of the air Indra reigns over the three hundred and thirty millions of gods, and wherein abound the dance, the song, and all sensual joy. (To be continued.) REVIEW. The Sanctification of the Sabbath illustrated and enforced in a Series of "Tracts for the Times," by Ministers of various Denominations. I. By the Rev. Ralph Wardlaw, D.D. II. By the Rev. John Jordan. III. By the Rev. Andrew Thomson, B.A. IV. By the Rev. David King, LL.D. Pp. 16 each. Partridge and Oakey. (Concluded from page 205.) THE Rev. John Jordan, in the second of the series, confutes those who say that there are no traces of a Sabbath in the primitive world, and on that allegation raise another, "That therefore it had no existence until it was appointed by the law of Sinai." But, if the sacred historians had been totally silent, what then? Could it have been inferred from their silence, that no such institution existed? By no means. After the giving of the law of Moses, there was profound silence as to this particular for about six hundred and fifty years; but no one will venture to infer from the want of literal reference to this precept of the Decalogue, that it was not delivered to Moses. However, it is not conceded to those objectors that there is such a silence in the inspired volume, nor such an absence of tracing in the traditions of antiquity; and Mr. Jordan applies himself to demonstrate the contrary. He marks two periods: the antediluvian and the postdiluvian. During the space of sixteen hundred and fifty-six years, which, even according to the ordinary computation, elapsed from the creation to the deluge, no history was written; and the only record relating to that period is contained in the first six chapters of the book of Genesis. It would be unfair to press for the production of adequate evidence out of so scanty a store; and so much the greater, therefore, is the satisfaction of him who can point to vestiges of this institution, within so small a compass. There is a phrase in Gen. iv. 3, which appears to Mr. Jordan, as it has always appeared to some, to indicate the termination of a week. The phrase is, "at the end of days," and is rendered in the text of our Bible "in process of time." The truth is, that the plural "days" is used in Hebrew to express any lesser period of time. It may be a year, (and this came in later Hebrew to be the usual acceptation,) or a shorter period, as of the sojourn of a guest. The conjecture, therefore, which refers the word in the place now cited to a week, is by no means unlikely; and in our tract, is well supported by admissible suggestions. Philological confirmation, however, would be more valuable; and we think, that even this may be found in the same book of Genesis, a book in which, above all others, we are likely to find forms of speech corresponding with the earlier condition of the world. The division of time into weeks was primitive. The astronomical period, and its correspondent designation "year, or return," could not have been settled until after a series of observations. But the traditional account of the murder of Abel was probably handed down in language closely resembling that of the first narrative. A week is the only period of time noted by days. Months and years were measured by moons and suns. And if "days" here is equivalent with week, and "the end of days" is the last of them; we have a use of the word similar to that of Genesis xxiv. 55; where the brother and mother of Rebekah ask that she יָמִים אוֹ עָשׂוֹר ,may remain with them before setting out on her journey "days or ten;" which ought, perhaps, to be translated "a week or ten days," instead of the rendering of our Bible, in either text or margin. Certainly the Samaritan Pentateuch supports the idea, that "days" here is a small portion of time, by the various reading, manifestly inferior to the true one, a few days or a month." In short, the probability of this conjecture grows upon us on reflection, notwithstanding the objection which at first arises from an apparent disagreement with the usage of later Hebrew. ימים או חדש 66 The frequent employment of the number seven is mentioned, and instantly encounters a reasonable repugnance in the present day, against arithmetic argument; an unwillingness to receive theological deductions from the calculations of Gematria, a corrupt word, by which the cabbalists meant geometry. But, after all, a question does recoil on us. Where could the familiar, not mystic, use of this number to express frequency or multiplication have originated, except in some well-known association with that number? Such an association existed in the enumeration of days, and we can, therefore, readily admit, that the frequent use of this number most probably indicates the hebdomadal division of time. We cannot imagine any other origin of the constantly recurring phrases, "seven times, sevenfold, seventy-and-seven," in the course of sacred history. But the deepest trace of this division lies in the specification of days, in the history of the Deluge. Mr. Jordan gives a careful and very interesting analysis of that diurnal record, and shows, not by conjecture, but by plain comparison of dates, the punctual recurrence of the same days of the week, necessarily corresponding with the dates of the months. Indeed, the mention of weeks appears on the face of the history: but the evolution of weeks, by the comparison of all the dates; and the reasons given for supposing that on Sabbath-days the rain ceased, the raven was sent forth, then the dove, and that on a Sabbath, too, the dwelling in the ark terminated; and that on a first day the family left the ark, and entered on their labours in the second world, can only be appreciated after a candid and attentive perusal, which they well deserve. We are now to enter on the second, or postdiluvian, period, and unite the testimonies of secular historians, poets, traditions, and antiquities, with that of the inspired writers. Here the vestiges are deep and frequent. Mankind were divided into three grand sections, consisting, respectively, of the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth; which furnish so many main channels of tradition, now to be examined. "The Jews," or, to speak more correctly, the Hebrews, are of the race of Shem. To them were committed the oracles of God, and in the sacred volume are found both incidental allusion, and express mention of facts, touching the subject; but we pass over these, as already anticipated, but necessarily cited in the Tract. "Amongst the families of Japheth," the traces are, "in some instances, remarkably strong;" but the sources of information are named, rather than quoted: which the excellent author would have felt bound to do in a more learned disquisition. But we refer again to his authorities. Homer lay before him, who wrote his poems not less than nine hundred years before Christ, and frequently speaks of the seventh day as felicitous, for the termination of a work, for example, or the beginning of a voyage. Εξῆμαρ μὲν ἔπειτα ἐμοὶ ἐρίηρες ἑταῖροι Δαίνυντ', Ηελίοιο βοῶν ἐλάσαντες ἀρίστας. "Then, for the space of six days, my beloved companions ate with me, having killed the choicest oxen of the Sun; but when Saturnian Jupiter gave the seventh day, then again the raging tempest called, and we too embarked, and launched upon the broad sea, without delay, rearing the mast, and spreading the white sails." (Odyss. xii. 397.) Hesiod is referred to, as he was by Eusebius in his "Evangelical Preparation." The seventh day is with him, also, auspicious and sacred. Αἵδε γὰρ ἡμέραι εἰσὶ Διὸς παρὰ μητιόεντος. Πρῶτον ἕνη, τετράς τε, καὶ ἑβδόμη, ἱερὸν ἦμαρ. "For these days come from prudent Jove. First the new moon, then the fourth, and the seventh, sacred day." (Dies, 5.) But in order to appreciate the value of these, and similar citations, as well as to obviate misconception, it must be borne in mind that the Greeks did not divide their time by weeks, nor was that division adopted by the Romans until some time after Christ. The sanctity of the seventh day, therefore, did not arise from any septimanal division, but from a religious veneration continued by tradition from the earliest times. At the deluge we find the division by moons, of all others the most obvious, and therefore universal; and also an independent succession of weeks, which Mr. Jordan shows to have been observed by the Patriarch, and which were closed, no doubt, by acts of worship. But when the weekly division, not indicated by any natural sign, ceased to be marked by worship of the true God, the calculation of its return was no longer thought necessary, and the remembrance became indistinct. A general notion that God, or some Divinity, had blessed the seventh day, was all that remained; yet, by remaining, although but obscurely, attested the existence of some primitive institution, from which only it could have proceeded. Perhaps the confusion of weeks by subordination to months, began before the separation of the families of Shem and Japheth; for there is a remarkable similarity in the traditional vestiges found in the Shemitic and Japhetian "channels." The former of these included the ancient Persians, amongst whom, however, the trace of a primeval Sabbath was far clearer, in the impression, so to speak, of weeks on months. For their week was altered, so as to agree with the month, and its religious character was perpetuated, not by poets, but in the kalendar itself. Their month consisted of thirty days. Each day was named after an angel, who was supposed to be tutelary on that day. But the first day was always called after Hormuzd, the good God, agreeably to the principle acknowledged by Hesiod, Ηματα δ ̓ ἐκ διόθεν πεΞυλαγμένος, "Marking the days (in succession) from Jupiter;" and according to the religion of the Hebrews, with whom the new moon was a holy day, the eighth day was Dey-ba-dur, or, as Hyde explains it, God with Dur, an angel so called. The fifteenth was Dey, or God, with Mipo. The twentythird, when one day was added, to make four of those weeks, with the first or most holy day, fill up the month, was Dey, again, with Din, and in another eight days Hormuzd returned again. The dedication of four days in each month to God, observing the early sabbatical division as nearly as possible, is an irrefragable proof that such an observance had existed independently of the lunar month, and shows that as the month could not possibly be adapted to the week, the week was altered to suit the month. In this arrangement, too, we recognise the first step in departure from the pure patriarchal worship, and remember that just at that distance from the truth did the ancient Persians stand. We add these illustrations of Mr. Jordan's views of the traces of the Sabbath, who now goes on to observe that the use of seven, as a number of excellence, was prevalent with Greeks and Romans, and that the Saxons, our own progenitors, have left us a week still bearing the names given to it from their own mythology, a system "which evidently must have had its origin in the highest antiquity." The Hindoos, also of Japhetian origin, have always retained the original week, and, "in some of their oldest and most genuine records, we find the number seven employed by them much in the same way that we have noticed in the Scriptures and classical writers." And a remarkable septuple arrangement of the walls of their pagodas appears to be an embodiment of the ancient preference for that honoured number. In vain do we look for historical records among the sons of Ham. Yet it is known that when they inhabited the plain of Shinar, they built a tower, consisting of seven stories, which is carefully described by Herodotus; and the pyramids of Egypt, sacred structures, convey further information to the same effect, which is compendiously presented as follows: Whoever examines the plan of the pyramids, which is to be found in the great French work, Description de l'Egypte, must observe, that on the same level with the great pyramid, and on a platform apparently prepared for them all, there are placed, at equal intervals along the southern side of its base, six lesser pyramids, all of equal size; and thus we have not only the number seven indicating its mystical use again, but while the six small pyramids denote the six days of labour, the mighty and majestic seventh pyramid elevates itself to the heavens, an appropriate symbol pointing to the heavens, and intimating expressively that the glory of the seventh day far transcends that of all the other six. Mr. Jordan does not ask the reader to accept the preceding details as direct evidence in favour of the Sabbath, but only as corroborative and substantiating. He combats the unfounded notion that the history, in the second chapter of Genesis, of the institution of this ordinance, was a mere prolepsis, an anticipation of the commandment given on Mount Sinai, and eloquently descants on the preciousness of this most gracious boon, Whereby, in the midst of man's toilsome life, throughout its whole span, and beshrew even the curse, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground," his Maker has mercifully secured to him one seventh portion of his whole life, to be enjoyed by him one day in every seven, where on he may rest his wearied body, and refresh his wearied soul, and, separating himself from the present life, its labours, troubles, trials, and temptations, may be "in the world, but not of the world," turning his thoughts to holy and heavenly contemplations; exercising his mind and hopes in eternal aspirations; hallowing, by his thoughts, engagements, and devotions, the day which God has hallowed to himstlf; and thus, by doing the will of God, so learning that the doctrine is of God, that he himself becomes sanctified in remembering the Sabbach-day, to keep it boly. This grant is not, as some esteem it, a mere formal observance, a burden heavy to be borne; but it is a PRIVILEGE, -a common RIGHT of man. Like all other testaments of God, it is liable to misconception and abuse; and those who understand not its enjoyment, misrepresent its nature. Being carnally minded themselves, they cannot comprehend a blessing which is only to be discerned spiritually. But this alters not its character, nor may depreciate its value. God has ordained it, and man cannot annul it. "He hath blessed, and who shall reverse it ?" "Yea, let God be true, and every man a liar." And though all should reject, despise, and forget it, yet it endures irrevocable except by God himself. After some judicious practical observations with which this interesting little pamphlet concludes, we come to the third by the Rev. Andrew Thomson, B.A., designed to show that the Sabbath is not a mere Judaical appointment, and that the Sabbath law has not been abolished or relaxed. It is worthy of constant observation that the advocates of dominant ecclesiastical authority, authority which demands the first hearing, leaving the word of God to be consulted afterwards, have not generally been eminent for sanctification of the Lord's day. Such men as Paley, Spencer, and other Protestants of the same school, have most injuriously mistreated this subject, by lowering the sacred day down to the level of humanly appointed festivals; speaking of Sundays and other holidays, in the same manner as they reduce the fourth commandment into compendium in Italy, by writing, Osservate le feste, "Observe the feasts!" Mr. Thomson contributes a counteractive, by combating Dr. Paley's position, who maintained that the Sabbath was first given to the Jews (or rather Hebrews) by Moses; a position which we find stated almost in the same words in the Trent Catechism, where the Priest is instructed to carefully teach his parishioners wherein this commandment agrees with the other nine, and wherein it differs from them: that "this certain difference appears, that the other precepts of the decalogue are natural and perpetual, and cannot be changed in any respect."* Paley's argument from the alleged silence of early sacred history, is met, as in a preceding Tract, and triumphantly refuted. A brief, but complete, refutation of other objections follows, from which we transcribe one paragraph, containing a valuable induction from the sacred text. Dr. Paley's other assertions are equally questionable. He says, that no permission is recorded to dispense with the Sabbath, during the captivity of the Jews in Egypt; but what if it should appear that one reason for the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt was that they might have liberty to keep the Sabbath, and to present those * Certe igitur illa differentia videtur, quod reliqua Decalogi præcepta naturalia sunt, et perpetua, neque mutari ullâ ratione possunt.-Cat. Rom. De iii. Præcepto Decalogi. |