Dates in Judges, up to the time of the oppression of the Am- viii. 28; Here we must remark, that in Judges xi. 26, Jephthah speaks of Israel dwelling in Heshbon, Aroer, and the cities along the Arnon, for 300 years; which gives rise to a difficulty, because if we reckon from the first conquest of those cities under Moses, as mentioned in Numb. xxi. 25, that period will be considerably exceeded. If we make the 8 years mentioned in Judges iii. 8, to have formed part of the time of Joshua's administration, it will bring us within three years of the settlement of the Israelites, and the dismissal of the two tribes and a half: but then that can hardly be allowed, when, from Joshua xxiii. 1, we may clearly infer, that up to the time of Joshua's death, "The Lord had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about," and therefore no time of servitude can be reckoned till after that event. If we include the 8 years before alluded to, and add the remaing 11 years of Joshua's administration, the period from the division of the land to the time of which Jephthah is speaking, will be found to be 312 years. Jephthah, however, may have been speaking in round numbers. The oppression of the Ammonites, Judges x. 8.. yrs. mths. 301 0 The remaining dates in Judges, xx. 7, 9, 11, 14, and xiii. 1 Othniel to the death of Samuel to be 458 years and 7 months, which can hardly be considered as repugnant to Acts xiii. 20. (Or if we take the whole of Samuel's administration, 36 years and 7 months.)... The reign of Saul, Acts xiii. 21, (40); but if the other calculation be taken, including the whole lifetime of Samuel, 22.. The reign of David, 1 Kings ii. 11 .. Solomon founded the Temple in the 2nd month of the fourth year of his reign, 1 Kings vi. 1. yrs. mths. 18 7 40 0 40 0 3 1 Total. 596 8 Josephus (Antiq. Lib. viii. c. iii. § 1) states that 592 years intervened between the Exodus and Solomon's founding the Temple; but subsequently (Antiq. Lib. xx. c. x.) says there were thirteen high priests during that interval, whose priesthoods occupied a space of 612 years; which agrees with the number of years calculated by your correspondent, but for the admission of all which I cannot find Scriptural authority,-it seeming clear to me, that the 20 years and 7 months, mentioned in 1 Sam. vi. 1, and vii. 2, or rather 18 of them and 7 months, must be included in Samuel's judicature. The apparent discrepancy in Josephus' two dates of 592 and 612, may probably be caused by his reckoning, in the second place, the whole priesthood of the 13th priest, Zadok, instead of only those years of it up to the time of the foundation of the first Temple while his former calculation of 592, comes short of the 596 years and 8 months, for which I think there is Scriptural proof, by allowing too short a period for the unassociated administration of Samuel. C. L. ON EXAMINING OURSELVES WHETHER WE LOVE GOD. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. THERE is a popular hymn which commences thus : ""Tis a point I long to know, Do I love the Lord, or no?" : Allow me to ask, Is this question scriptural? I might add, subordinately, Is it consistent with reason or experience? Does an affectionate child say to itself, "I long to know whether I love my father and mother?" It knows that it does love them. An unaffectionate child, also, on the other hand, knows that it fails in love, and would not propound such a question. When our Lord said to his humbled Apostle Peter, "Lovest thou me?" he did not imply that there could be any difficulty in answering the question; and Peter, though deeply abased by his late backsliding, yet did not affect the false humility of saying, "That is a point I long to know;" he appeals to the Searcher of all hearts, "Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee." I do not enter upon the controverted question of what is called the doctrine of assurance. There is a sober and scriptural, and there is an inflated and presumptuous, assurance. There is the witness of the Holy Spirit; and there is an antinomian self-confidence. St. Paul says, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." And again, "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." St. John says, "We know that we have passed from death unto life." Similar passages are numerous; and the Church of England, in entire accordance with them, writes in her "Homily of Salvation,' ," "The right and true Christian faith is, not only to believe that the Holy Scripture and the Articles of our faith are true; but also to have a sure trust and confidence in God's merciful promises to be saved from everlasting damnation by Christ; whereof doth follow a loving heart to obey his commandments." The Homily describes this true faith as "a sure trust and confidence in God that a man hath, that by the merits of Christ his sins be forgiven, and he reconciled to the favour of God;" which faith, says the Homily, "No ungodly man can have." An ungodly man may have a false confidence; it is clear, therefore, that the Homily contemplates first our belief of the sufficiency of Christ's salvation; and secondly, of our interest in it, as grounded upon the fact of our having been graciously led to lay hold of it; and this corroborated by our bringing forth the fruits of faith; as is implied, and often expressed, in such passages as those above referred to; as for example, "We know that we have passed from death unto life,"-why ?-"Because we love the brethren." This is one fruit of faith. In this sense we are to examine ourselves whether we are in the faith; and we ought to enquire whether our love is proved by the works of love; and if the Hymn means only this, I concur with the sentiment; but this meaning if it be the meaning-is not clearly brought out in the lines which I have quoted. A LEARNER. DESTITUTION IN THE UNITED STATES, IN REPLY TO MISS SEDGWICK. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. THERE must have been some affectation in the surprise expressed by Miss Sedgwick, (referred to in your Number for November, p. 700), at the mention of the word "struggle;" as if struggling for the means of subsistence were unknown in her country. In no nation is there a more eager struggle, a more intense competition to amass property and " 'go a-head;" but this I admit is not the precise point in question; for Miss Sedgwick refers to the procurement of the bare necessaries of life. The United States being a new country, with a widely-extended soil, and a population not closely packed; no person who has health, and is moral, provident, and industrious, needs be destitute of the ordinary comforts of human existence; but as America is not an Eden from which sin is banished, so neither does it afford the fruits of the earth to the idler, or hold out prospects of competence to the spendthrift or the profligate. Vice produces destitution in America as elsewhere; forsaken wives and starving children are not spectacles confined to the old world; of which the following recent incident is a mournful illustration. I copy it from a New York Newspaper. "A tall, haggard looking woman, not very neatly clad, but with an air of wornout gentility about her, was charged at our Police Court with stealing a brass candlestick worth about two shillings. She sat apart from the other prisoners, and appeared to be deeply stricken with poverty and sorrow. It was evident, however, that she took no interest in her present position, nor cared for the disgrace or inconvenience she might be subjected to, but that her sorrows had a deeper root, and that her heart (alas, what a wretched heart was that) was elsewhere. She sighed continually, but her sighs were suppressed, as if she did not wish them to be overheard; and her eyes were red and hard with weeping, and she would have wept still but that she had no tears to shed: she was beyond that. The poor creature's hair was loose and ragged; her paroxysms, her wrinkled brow and her haggard eye, gave evidence of much mental suffering; and her pinched up, attenuated nose and thin, and hollow skinny cheek, told but too plainly that stark famine had almost done its worst upon her, for she was so much wasted, that there could be but little further effected by the grave and the worms. Her dress consisted of an old tattered gown, and that was all; for the rents here and there made it but too evident that she had no inner garment, and she was also deficient in shoes and stockings. Much as we are used to scenes of poverty and misery, we did not think that there was so forlorn a being in existence, or even that a being could exist and be so forlorn. Her name was Ellen Barclay. "The Court, having disposed of three or four trifling cases, called 'Ellen Barclay,' but received no answer. 'Don't you hear his worship call?' said a watchman. Still no answer. 'Get up,' added the watchman, with an oath, and he was about to lay rude hands on her, when he looked her in her face, but was at once subdued, and almost terrified, by its expression of abstract misery. It was evident the wretched woman was wrapped up in her own agonizing reflections, and that she was not aware of what was passing around her. "Being at length aroused to a knowledge of her position, however, her fit of abstraction forsook her, and she became keenly sensitive; her countenance relaxing from its expression of contemplative suffering, and assuming a mingled air of eagerness, distrust, and solicitation. Do you know what you are confined for, Ellen?' enquired the Court. I do sir, I do,' exclaimed the prisoner, clasping her hands together, and looking as nothing but deep misery and want can look, I do, sir, I do. It is for stealing a little brass candlestick.' Court-You acknowledge, then, that you attempted to steal the candlestick.' Prisoner-'I do, sir,-kill mehang me-do what you like with me,-but oh! for God's sake send some one to look after my children.' Court-'Where are your children?' Prisoner (looking wildly about her)—' Ah, that's it, that's it-I fear they are dead and gone for ever; for they had nothing to wear-nothing to eat-no bed to lie on-and their poor mother in prison.' Court-Poor woman, I pity you, and will have you comforted.' Prisoner-You cannot comfort me, unless you bring me my children. The biggest is only six years old, and they have eaten nothing since Monday. O go, go quick, for I know my babies are dead or dying, as human nature cannot stand so much as they were called upon to suffer.' Court I again ask you where we can find them.' Prisoner—'O, sir, I don't know how to tell you, but I could find it out myself, for it is somewhere close at hand. They are in a long dark hall, under a stairs, where we have lived for a fortnight. For the sake of the Father of mercies, your worship,-permit me to go and find them, and, dead or alive, I'll return, and let you do what you please with me.' "Here the poor creature threw herself on her knees to implore his worship for liberty to go to look for her children, and an officer had been desired to attend her for that purpose, when the door opened, and a watchman entered with an infant in his arms, and two half-naked, trembling little girls, the one about four, and the other six years old, holding on by his coat. Instantly the prisoner sprung to her feet, and rushed towards the watchman, shrieking, Is Dick alive?' and on finding that he was alive, she laughed hysterically, clasped the infant wildly to her bosom, and danced about the office; and, throwing herself upon the form exhausted, she took her two half famished infants in her lap, when they all commenced laughing and weeping together. "Meanwhile, the watchman had told his worship that the eldest girl had called his attention to the children, and that he found them huddled together under a stairs, evidently in a state of starvation, and with nothing to cover them other than the rags they had on. Court-Now, Mrs. Barclay, since you have got your children, will you answer me a few questions, and I'll have you and them properly taken care of. Prisoner-'I will, sir, I'll do anything now; but O! whatever you do, don't part us again.' Court-Never fear: how long have you been in this city?" Prisoner About two months, sir.' Court-How have you supported yourself in that time?' Prisoner-'I hardly know, sir, but we eat very little;-I tried to get work, but no one would employ me, because they said I looked so shabby. I then went to beg, but some people told me they would have me taken up; and others that I was drunk; though, God knows, at the time I was almost wild with starvation, and with hearing my poor infants crying for food. And so, sir, I was driven on by sheer necessity until I did the thing that brought me here.' Court-'What brought you to New York, when you had no friend here?' Prisoner-I came to seek my husband, sir, who deserted me six months ago; when I found him he only beat me; and when I told him that I and my children were starving, he said he wished we were dead.' "Poor Ellen then stated, that for seven years her husband and she had lived very comfortably together in Albany, where they had kept a little store, but that a servant girl whom she had hired to take care of the children, while she herself attended the store, had induced him to go off with her, and to take everything of value that he possessed along with them. From that time she did nothing but pine away, until necessity compelled her to go in search of her husband, whom she knew to be in New York. And we have heard the result. The complaint of the larceny having been withdrawn, the unfortunate family were ordered to be taken care of, and will probably be handed over to the Commissioners of the Alms-house this morning." This painful story is not destitute of a serious moral. It shews that sin every where brings sorrow, not only in the end, (either in this world, or that which is to come, or both,) to the guilty party, but also in its awful results to others; as in this case to the unhappy wife and children. This is a mysterious, but an undeniable allotment of Divine Providence; so that those who urge objections to what Holy Writ says upon the subject (as in the Second Commandment) must equally object to the conclusions of what is called natural religion, and fall back from Deism to Atheism. The Judge of all the earth will do right; and the time will come when he will vindicate his ways, and they will be seen to have been equitable; but in the meantime we must be content to find much that is inscrutable. But my immediate object in narrating the story, was to shew that there is much exaggeration in the statements made respecting the United States of America, as if severe privation was there unknown; and also to suggest, that even in our own country much of the misery which prevails is the consequence of vice, idleness, and improvidence, and would not be known if our population were trained more virtuously and religiously. B. B. A THIRD INTERPRETATION OF THE MOSAIC COSMOGONY. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. A CORRESPONDENT in your Number for last September, seems to take it for granted that geologists attempt to reconcile the account supposed to be given of the creation in Gen. i., with facts of science, either by extending the six days to an indefinite period, or else by supposing that a gap must exist in the account between the period called the beginning and the commencement of the first day. Is he aware that a third class give up the attempt of reconciliation altogether, and have come to the conclusion that the first chapter of Genesis describes only the formation, or setting in order, of the present state of things, and not the proper creation of the world out of nothing: and that, in this view, the first verse is but a heading, or short epitome, of the description which is given in the following verses, or of what is afterwards more fully set forth? In the beginning of the present state of things, God set in order the heavens and the earth-all that belongs to our globe. And when he did so, the earth was without form, and void, &c. It had been thrown into confusion by some previous convulsions, and the heavenly bodies were concealed from it by the consequent state of the atmosphere. Evidently, even from the account itself, the materials of the earth were in existence when God commenced the operation mentioned in the Mosaic narrative. |