CHAP. XIV. THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING. "Knowing--(to adopt the energetic words Still roll; where all the aspects of misery DANIEL, quoted by WORDSWORTH, in the Excursion "And Moses said unto Joshua, Enviest thou for my sake? Would God, that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!"-NUMBERS xi. 29. They shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying-Know the Lord!-for they all shall know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them." JEREMIAH xxxi. 34. PETER JONES frequently read his BIBLE, not as a duty, but as a delight. To him it was a rich storehouse of Love, Hope, and Faith. But though the character and habits of his mind were practical— though he was fond of searching into the origin and the meaning of all that struck his attention-he was not a controversialist. He had an instinctive abhorrence of intellectual pugilism—of fighting for mere fighting's sake-and cared very little as to the value of any dispute respecting the precise meaning of this word, or the exact signification of that phrase. Any thing which threw light on an ancient custom, which illustrated habits of thought, and corrected erroneous notions, arising from difference of country and climate, he highly appreciated. But he would not enter into any debate on topics involving questions of no actual utility to the human race. It was in this spirit that he answered a man who burst into laughter at the idea of his believing in a book which taught that Joshua made the moon and sun to stand still. "Now," said Peter Jones, in reply to his antagonist, "suppose that the standing still of the sun and the moon were all a delusion-that it was an old fable which belonged to superstitious times, and had crept into the Bible-suppose all that; and how does it affect the general character of the Book? It teaches purity, honesty, decency—it seeks to lift man out of the mire of his passions, and the filth of his sensuality-it promotes domestic happiness and public virtue-it is full of the noblest poetry, of the grandest sentiments, of the holiest truths-and how can the value and the importance of these things be affected by any pedantic proof, that it was impossible for Joshua really to make the sun and the moon to stand still?" Nevertheless, Peter Jones was not an inattentive or uncritical reader of his Bible. He frequently, in the Old Testament, met with much that staggered his moral sense, and not a little that seemed unintelligible or inexplicable. Those passages in the history of the Hebrew monarchy that seemed to associate Almighty God with fraudulent, lying, and murderous practices, disturbed his moral and mental equilibrium; and when he read of the slaughter, the tricks, and the abominable tyranny of Jehu, he felt that however the house of Ahab, and the priests of Baal, might have been justly punished, the instrument of the punishment could not plead mercy or truth in his own favour. And he was puzzled with a passage which ascribed the gift of prophecy to a king of IDOLATROUS Egypt. The good king Josiah had put down idolatry, and had struggled to raise the character and public spirit of his people-he was one of the best of the kings during the decline of the Hebrew monarchy. Yet when he went out to fight with Necho, king of Egypt, he was slain; and the sacred narrative expressly says, that the good Josiah met his doom: "because he hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God." In one of his critical humours, Peter Jones observed that the two last verses of the second book of Chronicles, and the two first verses of the following book of Ezra, are precisely the same-a mere repetitition. He was disconcerted by this; and sought for an explanation. The most probable one is, that some copyist or transcriber, discovering that he had passed from the conclusion of the second book of Chronicles into the commencement of Ezra, had stopped in his work, made the requisite mark or distinction, between the two books, without blotting out what he had written, and recommenced his work. A comparison of the passages satisfied Peter Jones that this must have been the case. The Book of Chronicles closes abruptly, in the very middle of a sentence, as if the copyist had suddenly found out his error, and had stopped; and then having drawn or made his mark of distinction between the two books, had commenced again. For the second book of Chronicles closes with the words, " let him go up." But in the second verse of the first chapter of Ezra, the repetition of the words shows the signification-" let him go up to Jerusalem.” Peter Jones had learned that in a printing office they had a technical term for the repetition of a pas sage; it is called a double. But in these days of careful reading doubles are not tolerated. A book issued with passages repeated, owing to the gross neglect of the printing office, would be set down as shamefully incorrect, and as reflecting great discredit on those who issued it. 'How, then," asked Peter Jones, "does it happen that such a palpable double has been permitted in the Old Testament. When the transcriber detected his error, was he afraid to strike out what he had written? Then he must have been under the influence of some superstitious feeling. But why should we perpetuate it? There is a vast difference between a blind and almost idolatrous reverence for words, and an enlightened comprehension of their meaning; old people used to slip a key between the leaves of a Bible, in order to see what particular words it would indicate: but we, who know better, use a key of another sort-the key of sober criticism, impartial learning, and extended information. Surely, therefore, the distinction is as great between the copyist who first blunderingly and afterwards superstitiously doubles the words of Scripture, and the enlightened critic who would correct the absurd repetition by striking out the unnecessary words." While Peter Jones was pausing over this topic, the fact attracted his attention that Ezra was the great EDITOR of the Hebrew Scriptures. It is to him that we owe the collection, the collocation, the arrangement, and even the preservation of the books from Genesis down to Ezekiel; and therefore to Ezra does human civilization and knowledge owe a large debt of gratitude. But for him we might, in all human probability, have lost those precious memorials of the early history of our race! The possi bility of such a loss startled Peter Jones; and he turned with eager curiosity towards whatever information he could acquire, which would enable him to appreciate the moral and intellectual character of EZRA, the Hebrew Editor, whom the Jewish Rabbins reckon as a second Moses, and respecting whom it was believed, by some of the Christian Primitive Fathers, that he had actually, by means of a second inspiration, re produced the sacred books, in the order in which they are now arranged. Ezra was, unquestionably, a grave, good man. The calamities of his nation had sunk deep into his spirit, and he attributed them all to the deviation from the strict letter of the Laws of Moses. Yet Peter Jones was struck by one signal instance in which Ezra had misunderstood the spirit of the Mosaic Law; and had, therefore, been the means of inflicting much domestic and public suffering. The patriarchs in the old oriental clannish spirit, or spirit of the tribe, refused to allow their sons and daughters to marry out of the family; and Moses had converted that clannish spirit into the means of effecting a national object. Anxious to preserve the Jews from the contamination of idolatry, he prohibited intermarriages with the people of the land of Canaan. But he mitigated his prohibition by one of those humane refinements by which the Laws of Moses indicate that their author was far in advance of his country and his age. In their wars, Moses permitted the Jews to put the males to death-a barbarous practice, but they were to keep alive the women and the children whom they might take captive; and he also added the specific permission, that if any man fancied a beautiful female captive he might make her his wife. But Ezra did not understand the spirit |