CHAPTER III.

THE SUBJECT OF THE KORAN CONTINUED, WITH REFERENCE TO THE DOCTRINE OF PREDESTINATION.

IN the Koran, there is nothing interesting in the manner in which Jacob is represented as having been prevailed upon to allow Benjamin to accompany his brothers on their second journey into Egypt to buy corn. Their whole conversation relative to this matter is, in fact, the merest common-place, and concludes by Jacob's saying, "I will by no means send him with you, until ye give me a solemn promise, and swear that you will certainly bring him back unto me, unless ye be encompassed by some inevitable impediment. And when they had given him their solemn promise, he said, God is witness of what we say."

Now let us turn to the Bible, and we shall see, not only with what admirable pathos this circumstance has been recorded, but how pregnant the venerable Patriarch's deportment is with doctrine of the greatest practical importance and utility.

When applied to by his ten sons to suffer their brother Benjamin to go back with them into Egypt,

Jacob's answer, in the first instance, was, "My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone; if mischief befall him by the way in which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.”—Gen. xlii. 38.

Joseph was supposed to be dead, and Benjamin, his only remaining child by Rachael, was dearer to him than life itself. Still the famine was pressing harder and harder upon them, and no corn was to be procured except in Egypt; and seeing that all were looking to him, and that there was no other mode of escape from the cravings of hunger for himself and his kindred, he at length consented to part with his beloved child. But what were the conditions with which this reluctant consent was accompanied? They were such as good sense, an honest heart, sound discretion, and, above all, sincere piety would suggest: "If it must be so now, do this; take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices and myrrh, nuts and almonds; and take double money in your hand, and the money that was brought again in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again in your hand; peradventure it was an oversight : take also your brother, and arise, go again unto the man and God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin." And then, and not till then, having done all that lay in his power, and having craved the

Almighty's protection, he exclaimed, "If I be bereaved, I am bereaved."

It is in the contemplation of such passages as this, that the real value of the Bible, and the obligation to pray that "we may read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it," become apparent. The narrative of the patriarchal family of Jacob, which Moses has handed down to us, would scarcely, at first sight, strike any one as more than an interesting recital of a very remarkable occurrence—remarkable, especially, as being connected with the immigration of the Israelites into Egypt; an event which becomes interwoven with the whole subsequent history of the Jews in so miraculous a manner, that it may well be said that the finger of God is apparent in it, exhibiting, as it does, further evidence of a similar kind to that already alluded to, of the veracity of the whole book in which it is written. For it is here that we begin to trace this wonderful nation, from the going down of Jacob and his family into Egypt, through all their variety of conduct and fortune, to their present dispersion over the face of the whole earth.

Still there is much besides this to be gathered from an attentive consideration of the patriarchal story. There is, as I have said, a doctrinal lesson of the greatest practical importance, to be learnt from it, which is not to be found in the Koran-a lesson which

bears upon it the stamp of inspired truth; and, on which I am the more inclined to dwell, on account of the beautiful illustration which it affords of the obligation, under which we unceasingly live, not to lose sight of that moral responsibility which, at the same time that it recognises an entire dependence upon the will of our Maker, is capable of conferring a ray of dignity on our rational being. There is nothing, I am persuaded, more detrimental to the interests of Christianity than that unqualified doctrine of the Cross, which loses sight of man's moral responsibility; nor any thing more unjust than the imputation, which is sometimes cast upon ministers of the Church of England, that they lay not sufficient stress upon the sincere doctrine.

Not many years since I heard a clergyman, who then occupied the pulpit of an Episcopal chapel in Bath, scandalize his brethren in the ministry, who were not of his own sombre and enthusiastic cast, with the charge of preaching, not Christ, but Moses (so he was pleased to express himself). Now I can with great truth declare that I never read a sermon of a Church of England divine, nor was ever present in a church where a sermon was preached, to which any one, not destitute of candour, would have affixed so heavy a charge. The fact is, that the most enlightened clergymen dwell, some more and others less, on the necessity of working out our own salvation. But the Church disowns the minister, or member, who dares to countenance the doctrine, that this is to be

effected without the preventing and co-operating aid of the Holy Spirit, or, who does not rely, exclusively, for salvation, on the merit of the atonement made for us by our blessed Saviour. Without this (such is the invariable doctrine of our Church), the best man living would be a cast-a-way. "No man's condition," says the judicious Hooker, "so sure as ours (the faithful Christians) the prayer of Christ is more than sufficient both to strengthen us, be we never so weak; and to overthrow all adversary power, be it never so strong and potent. His prayer must not exclude our labour: their thoughts are vain, who think that their watching can preserve the city, which God himself is not willing to keep. And are not theirs as vain, who think that God will keep the city, for which they themselves are not careful to watch? The husbandman may not therefore burn his plough, nor the merchant forsake his trade, because God hath promised 'I will not forsake thee.' And do the promises of God concerning our stability, think you, make it a matter indifferent for us to use, or not to use, the means whereby to attend, or not to attend, to reading? to pray, or not to pray, that we fall not into temptations? Surely, if we look to stand in the faith of the sons of God, we must hourly, continually, be providing and setting ourselves to strive. It was not the meaning of our Lord and Saviour in saying, 'Father, keep them in thy name,' that we should be careless to keep ourselves. To our own safety, our own sedulity

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