that God whom you have offended, and who now offers to be reconciled, this is the time convenient. With that Saviour who this day holds out His arms of invitation, saying to you, O sinner, "Come unto me," this is the time convenient. With that gracious Convincer who this moment makes you anxious in order to make you happy for ever, to-day, this hour, is the time convenient. Oh then harden not your heart! With God this is the day of grace-this is the accepted time-let it be to you also the convenient season, and then it will be the day of salvation !

IV.

The Father of History.

THE BOOK OF GENESIS-CHAP. I.-L.

ONE of the most delightful books which ancient Greece has handed down to us is the History of Herodotus. With its old stories of Persia, Egypt, and Babylon-with its romantic episodes and amusing anecdotes-with its clever sketches of character and its interesting details regarding countries which the writer actually visited, all given off with matchless simplicity and freshness, in a style free, open, and flowing, it forms a repertory of entertainment and instruction of which the reader never wearies, and to which, all its credulity and superstition notwithstanding, we return from time to time with affectionate gratitude. Its nine books, dedicated to the nine Muses, are said to have been publicly read over to the Athenians, who rewarded the recital with a vote of ten talents (£2400); and, Homer excepted, no Greek author has taken such hold of succeeding generations as he whom, with fond con

sent, they have agreed to call "The Father of History."

There is no risk that we shall pluck a leaf from these ancient laurels if we remark that there is another more strictly entitled to the epithet. For the true Father of History we must go back a thousand years before the days of Herodotus; and the fact that it forms a portion of the sacred canon is no reason why we should close our eyes on the historic value of the first book of the Bible and its many incidental charms.

We have already so far traced the history of Moses. Born in the midst of mournful circumstances, but miraculously preserved, we have seen him brought up amidst wealth and luxury and brilliant expectations; we have seen him initiated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and have no doubt that geometry and the movements of the heavenly bodies, with the jurisprudence and chronology of that wise and ancient people, became familiar to his mind. But although adorned with these "Egyptian jewels," we have seen how his heart continued leal to his own people, and how, disdaining the bribes of ambition, he quitted the tyrant's palace a Hebrew and a patriot. We have seen how the active and athletic frame into which his goodly childhood had grown, prophetic of a green and energetic old age, was animated by the soul of a hero; and in our last lecture

E

we saw that patriot and hero come out the noblest style of manhood,—a saint renouncing the pleasures of sin, a believer casting himself on the protection and promises of God. We saw him an exile and an outlaw, escaping to a sublime but lonely region, and finding an asylum in a good man's tent, where, amidst simple pursuits, domestic affections, and the society of those by whom the true God was known and worshipped, Egypt and its enjoyments, if not Egypt and its captives, could easily be forgotten.

Here it was, we have little doubt, that he wrote the Book of Genesis. How much of its information lingered in the memory of the Israelites, how many of its narratives and incidents had, with other patriarchal traditions, come down in the family of Jethro, it is idle to inquire, because impossible to ascertain. Enough for us to know that it is a portion of that canon to which the Saviour pointed when He said, "Search the Scriptures, for they are they which testify of me;" and of which St. Paul declares, "They are all given by inspiration of God." And we may just add, that with what has recently come to light of Egyptian theology and cosmogony, it is the last book which an Egyptian, or one learned in no other "wisdom" than theirs, could have written.

There are two ways in which the Book of Genesis throws light on its author. It helps to show us what manner of man he was, and it shows how far

he was furnished for the work God had given him to do.

True, the book is inspired, but it is all the more expressive of its author on this account. Believing as we do the plenary inspiration of Scripture, we deprecate the theory which confounds a true inspiration with a mere mechanical instrumentation. An organ is an instrument. To the hand of a mighty master it yields effects which it might never otherwise have entered into the heart of man to conceive, but when that hand is withdrawn it falls mute and dead. Before Milton or Handel touched it, it was not thinking of Bethlehem or Messiah, and now that the strain is ended there is no longer any actual sympathy between the engine and the theme which it discoursed so grandly. But a mind, if it be an instrument, is also a great deal more. With its intelligence and will, with its affections and feelings, when God uses as His instrument the mind of man, He does homage to the laws with which He has Himself impressed it, and brings it into unison with His own; and setting aside the exceptional cases. of Balaam and Annas, we may safely affirm that when God condescends to give forth His mind through the minds of our fellow-men, the prophecy and the character of the prophet are in keeping. Glorious gospels are not proclaimed by fierce and fiery Hildebrands, and great tribulations are not