dat's de safest way. So when she | ing dar. Don' know how long she want to stop me, I tell'd her to wait waited. She hasn't seen dis chile till I come back, and left her stand- since.'

Scripture Illustrated.

ABRAHAM'S PURCHASE OF

MACHPELAH.

GENESIS XXIII. 3-17.

chase, and finally brought the owner to state definitely his price, which he did at four hundred shekels of silver. Now, without knowing the relation between silver and a bit of barren rock at that time, and in this place, ABRAHAM'S negotiation for a sepul- my experience of such transactions chre is very Oriental and striking. leads me to suppose that this price Such a purchase was quite necessary. was treble the actual value of the There has always been in this country field. 'But,' said the courteous (Palestine) the utmost exclusiveness Hittite, four hundred shekels! what in regard to tombs; and although is that betwixt me and thee?' O how these polite Hittites said, 'Ilear us, often you hear these identical words my lord: thou art a mighty prince on similar occasions, and yet acting among us; in the choice of our upon their apparent import you sepulchres bury thy dead; none of would soon find out what and how us shall withhold from thee his much they meant. Abraham knew sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury that too; and as he was in no thy dead;' Abraham was too expert humour to chaffer with the owner, an Oriental not to know that this was whatever might be his price, he merely compliment. The thing was proceeded forthwith to weigh out the quite out of the question; nor would money. Even this is still common; Abraham himself have consented for although coins have now a defithus to mingle his dead with the nite name, size, and value, yet every dust and bones of strangers, even merchant carries a small apparatus if they had been willing. He knew by which he weighs the coin to see well how to understand the offer, that it has not been tampered with and therefore pressed his request to by Jewish clippers. In like manner be allowed to purchase. In the specifications in the contract are concluding the purchase with Ephron just such as are found in modern we see the process of a modern Ori- deeds, verse 17. I see this negocia ental bargain admirably carried out. tion in all its details enacted before The polite son of Zohar says, 'Nay, me, and hear the identical words my lord, hear me: the field give I that pass between the parties. The thee, and the cave that is therein, I venerable patriarch, bowed down give it thee. In the presence of the with sorrow, rises from beside the sons of my people give I it thee: couch on which lay the lifeless body bury thy dead." Of course! and of his beloved Sarah. He stands just so I have had a hundred houses, before the people, the attitude of and fields, and horses given to me, respect which etiquette still deand the bystanders called upon to mands. He addresses them as beni witness the deed, and a score of pro- Heth, sons of Heth;' and in the testations and oaths taken to seal same words he would address these the truth of the donation: all which Arabs about us now as beni Keis, of course, meant nothing whatever, beni Yemen, according as each tribe just as Abraham understood the true is now designated He begins his intentand value of Ephron's baksheesh. plea with a reference to his conHe therefore urged forward the pur-dition among them as a stranger—the

Scripture Illustrated-Wateredst with thy foot, &c.

413

THE reference here is to the manner of conducting the water about from plant to plant, and from furrow to furrow, in irrigating a garden of herbs. This is both fatiguing and unhealthy work. When one place is sufficiently saturated, the gardener pushes aside the sandy soil between and thus continues to do till all is it and the next furrow with his feet, watered. He is generally knee-deep in mud, and many diseases are thus generated. The goodly land, (unlike the land of Egypt which was dependent on the rising of the Nile for its water,) drank up the rain of heaven, and required none of the drudgery of watering with the foot' to make it fruitful.

very idiom now in use-and this plea | came out, where thou sowest thy seed, and appeals strongly to the sympathies wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of of the hearers. He stood and bowed herbs: but the land whither ye go to possess himself to the children of Heth: it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water from the rain of heaven.'-Deut. xi. another act of respect in accordance 10, 11. with modern Oriental manners. The next step is equally so. He does not apply directly to the owner of the field, but requests the neighbours to act as mediators on his behalf. It is thus still; and nothing can possibly be more annoying to our Western habits and feelings than this. A merchant cannot sell a piece of print, nor a farmer a yoke of oxen, nor any one rent a house, buy a horse, or get a wife, without a succession of go-betweens. Abraham knew this, and applies first to the neighbours of Ephron. How much manoeuvring, taking aside, whispering, nodding of heads, and clasping of hands there was before the real owner was brought within reasonable terms, we are not told; but at length all the preliminary obstacles and conventional impediments are. surmounted according to the most approved style of etiquette, and the contract is closed, in the audience of all the people that went in at the gate of the city. This also is true to life. When any sale is now to be effected in a town or village, the whole population gather about the parties at the usual place of concourse, around or near the gate, where there is one. There all take part, and enter into the pros and cons with

as much earnestness as if it were

their own affair. By this means the contract, in all its circumstances and details, is known to many witnesses, and the thing is made sure, without any written agreement. In fact, up to this day, in this very city of Hebron, a purchase thus witnessed is legal, while the best drawn deeds of a London lawyer, though signed and sealed, would be of no avail without such living witnesses. Dr. Thomson.

THE VALLEY OF ACHOR

FOR A DOOR OF HOPE.

HOSEA II. 15.

THE valley of Achor runs up from Gilgal toward Bethel. There Achan was stoned to death, and by that act the anger of the Lord was turned away from Israel, and the door of entrance to the promised inheritance thrown open. Achor means trouble, affliction, from whence perhaps comes our word ache. Thus the

valley of affliction was the door through which Israel at first entered the land of Canaan, and thus again the Lord, by His prophet Hosca, promised to lead Israel to peace and rest through the valley of trouble. The very indistinctness, (which Orientals delight in,) makes this mode of speaking the more suggestive. The valley of Achor-a door of hope;

not a bad motto for those who through much tribulation enter the kingdom.'

Correspondence.

IS CONVERSION MIRACULOUS? | the eye glazed by death, or the heart

DEAR SIR,-Sinners are described in the Bible as dead; all are said to be dead, so that there is no difference between the moral and the profligate, the gentle and the violent. But the question is, What is meant by that word; what is comprised in that awful state; how are we to regard those lying in it? Some take the word literally and physically, and push its signification to such an extreme that in their idea sinners are as incapable of yielding credence to God, and in fact of understanding His testimony, as the dead are of hearing the voice and being affected by the relations of the living. They speak of sinners as in their gravesas 'dry bones-very dry;' as utterly, and universally, and by their very nature, incapable of even the least movement, motion, or response to God. Their cars are deaf, their eyes are blind, their hearts are gross, stupid, past feeling; they have lost all power of knowing God, and even believing him, and consequently labour under a natural, inevitable, and everlasting inability to receive God's message of love or to be impressed with His manifested goodness and love-as much so as a rotten carcase. Hence they sometimes use the Lord's orders to his servant of old, 'prophesy unto these dry bones' as a fit, and truthful, and literal representation of the gospel ministry; and when it is asked in continuation of the metaphor, Can these dry bones live?' they boldly and consistently reply, No, never! unless the Spirit of God first come and breathe on them, raising them out of their graves and causing them to stand upon their feet, and then imparting to them spiritual faculties or senses, or at least restoring those faculties which previously and by nature are lost, incapable of use-as truly so

as

which discase has ossified, or the hand or arm which paralysis has withered or violence dislocated from its socket. In opposition to this view which, in my opinion, stultifies alike scripture language and living facts, I beg to record my protest, grounded on the following considerations:

The subjects of miracle feel in themselves beyond all doubt that they have been miraculously operated upon, Mark v. 33; and their consciousness, as in the case of the quondam blind man, enables them to defy all the cavils of doubters, infidels, and scoffers, John ix. 25. And all beholders are constrained to exclaim, 'He hath done all things well.' Here God's works speak for themselves; they all praise Him; He gets glory, manifests His glory, and is glorified in them. But how different ordinarily is conversion? Sometimes conversion is so gradual that the subject is unable to remember either time or place, and sometimes it is with so little self-evidencing that the subject questions and debates the fact itself. How many thousands of professed Christians, yea ministers, have used the words even before God,

"'Tis a point I long to know,

Oft it causes anxious thought,
Do I love the Lord or no?

Am I His or am I not ?'

How could this be if conversion were a miracle? Still oftener the life of the convert has sadly failed to demonstrate beyond doubt either to himself or others the great work wrought by the divine hand. According to Calvinism, the convert ought to be a complete, indubitable, exemplary Christian; knowing his election of God, longing after God, palpitating with all divine emotions, reflecting the divine glory, and constraining all around to glorify God in him. Blessed be God! there have been many such, but alas! far more numerous are they (of whose conver

Correspondence-Is Conversion Miraculous?

sion there could be no doubt, and who unquestionably died in the Lord), who have been very inferior in character, and whose deficiencies were glaring and constant sources of sore doubt and fear to themselves. However few such cases, were they but a very small minority, they would still be a demonstration of the falsity of the theory.

415

that conversion is comparable to the quickening of the dry bones seen in Ezekiel's vision, with which it has been so fashionable to resemble it. If the miraculous theory be disproved the whole system falls to pieces, as it must do when once looked upon by the bright, piercing, and melting eye of truth.

The argument is capable of a third

A similar argument may be de-application corroborating the conrived from the Holy Spirit's language clusion already reached. Conversion as addressed to the sinner himself. is ascribed to man as the agent; the Conversion is by some said to be sinner is said himself to turn to God a miracle, the necessary result of and thus to be a rational, spontaneOmnipotence; and yet we read: ous, concurrent agent in the change; "Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?' and now, further, we shall find that which, on the Calvinistic hypothesis, the truth itself is spoken of as posis just as reasonable as to bid the sessing an inherent and efficacious dead Come forth.' The command power, as indispensible to the result implies and is only rational on the and by divine constitution and apsupposition, they could turn; that pointment made auxiliary to its pronothing was wanting to their turning duction. Thus the law of the Lord that God could give. So also in is perfect, converting the soul.' "The Ezekiel we read, If the wicked gospel is mighty to God,' divinely man turn from his wickedness which mighty, the power of God unto he hath done,' &c., which is mani- salvation.' 'The word of God is festly incompatible with a belief that quick and powerful,' &c. By His conversion is miraculous. Still more own will begat He us by the word striking is the language of Paul to of truth.' These are a sample of the the Thessalonians, Ye turned to scriptures which ascribe an invariGod from idols. One so careful of able and native energy to God's the divine glory and so fully satis- truth-an energy tending to convert fied as to the nothingness of man, the soul, 1 Peter i. 23; John xvii. 17. could never have used such language It is not intended by citing these to had not his idea of divine agency contend for a life and power in the been wide as the poles asunder from truth or the gospel separate from John Calvin's. So also of himself and independent of Him who is the he says, 'I was not disobedient to substance and glory of the truth and the heavenly vision,' clearly imply- the gospel, but simply that the power ing he might have been; language, of God unto salvation is never abtherefore, to one who held Calvin- stracted or withdrawn from the gosistic notions, absurdly nonsensical, pel, so that wherever there is the if not profane. Peter, addressing one there is the other likewise; in the multitude, said, 'Repent ye and short, that the association which be baptized, &c., for the remission many describe as sovereign, occaof sins. Save yourselves from sional, and never to be calculated this untoward generation,' Acts ii. upon, is constant, indiscriminating, 38. So also Acts iii. 19, and else- and absolutely certain. The divariwhere. It is not for a moment sup- cation of the divine word and the posed that sinners can of themselves divine Spirit who inspired it, is a apart from divine agency, 'turn,' or fiction of modern times, invented to convert,' or 'repent' (change their serve the exigencies of a theory and minds), but our argument does not conceal its profanity. The reproach require it. All that is contended for of the word being a dead letter' is is, that scripture phraseology is ab- a refinement of religious infidelity resolutely incompatible with the mi- served for a time when the great raculous in conversion or the theory things of God's law have come even