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of their base or trivial pursuits; when he observes individuals who, with respect to the visible profit of their lives, appear to be only born to eat and to drink, spending their days in idle tranquillity,and long outliving others, whose continuance in the world seems of the greatest importance to the best interests of society; he is sometimes almost ready to murmur at the dispensations of an all-wise Providence. He is in danger from a temptation, similar to that which prevailed for a time against the holy Psalmist, when his feet had almost gone, and his steps had well nigh slipped; because he was envious at the foolish, when he saw the prosperity of the wicked. When he attempts to know this to compre. hend the reason of this dispensation -it appears at first too painful for

him.

But these presumptuous feelings of discontent the Psalmist felt it to be his bounden duty to oppose; and it is ours likewise, whenever we are in danger of being overcome by them.-Perhaps the following considerations may prove of some use in assisting us to combat them with

success.

And, 1. We should begin with rectifying our temper and views with respect to that numerous part of society whose vice, selfishness, or indolence we cannot but deplore. As Chris tians, we must ever feel it our duty to wish well to all men-to pray for

all men.

Instead of repining, therefore, at the protracted existence of worthless or useless characters, we may safely and quietly leave them in the hands of their Creator and Judge. We are entitled to hope, generally, that they are spared by a gracious Providence for the purpose of being addressed with farther calls to repentance and amendment; and we ought to rejoice in the longsuffering which affords them these continued opportunities of salvation. And if, on the other hand, we cannot but fear that such opportunities will continue, in numerous instances, to

be slighted and abused, we have at least no cause to envy the condition of the culprits, however prosperous and desirable it may seem in a mere worldly point of view. How infinitely preferable is the lot of the youngest Christian, who has been snatched away in the very blossom of his prospects of usefulness, compared with the final state of the sinner who, being an hundred years old, shall be accursed!

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2. To calm our discontent, let us reflect upon those tokens of general obscurity and mysteriousness which pervade all our views of God's moral government of the world. This mysteriousness is observable in a variety of particulars; in the permis sion of so much evil, physical and moral, inseparable from our present existence; in the rise and fall of governments; in the apparently partial nature of some of the Divine dis pensations with respect to the moral and religious improvement of mankind; in those unavoidable obstructions and impediments, arising often from the unforeseen course of events, which either defeat or retard the best-laid plans for the advancement of human happiness; the untoward distribution of wealth, power, and influence, whereby those born to the highest stations in society are too commonly the worst quali fied for performing the duties of those stations. These appearances, together with others which might be noticed, are doubtless very mysterious, and evidently belong to a system of Divine government of which we have a very imperfect knowledge. Why should we wonder, therefore, that, to this catalogue of the arcana of Providence, another circumstance must be added; name. ly, the sudden or premature removal of individuals eminent for their piety, talents, and usefulness? What is there in this particular dispensation which should greatly surprise us? Does it not accord exactly with the rest of the Divine pheno mena, which must ever remain in a

the general obscurity which at present hangs over the Divine government of the world to shake our be lief of a superintending Providence, all-wise and all-righteous, working all things after the counsel of its own will. We should not, therefore, permit ourselves to be too strongly affected by one particular feature of this obscurity. When the hemisphere is consigned to the empire of night, we only look for the imperfect lustre of moon and stars, and do not expect, in any quarter of the heavens, to see traces of the sun.

great degree inexplicable, while we they have been made the humble inknow but in part, and only see through ́struments of performing.—-There a glass darkly? We do not suffer may appear cause for lamentation that their lives were not prolonged for the purpose of enabling them to do more but is there no ground for thankfulness that they have been enabled to perform so much? We seldom judge rightly of events, when we judge of them under the pressure of strong feelings, whether of a painful or pleasurable kind. The eye of admiration is apt to magnify the importance even of a good man, while he lives and painful regret for the departure of useful talents will lead us rather to the prospect of future loss, than to the calculation of past gain and advantage. We resemble misers, who think not of their hoarded treasures in possession, when they have failed in some promising speculation, upon the success of which they had reckoned with certainty. This conduct is neither grateful nor reasonable. We should think a little of past usefulness, not so much with a view to regret the loss of it, as for the purpose of exciting our thankfulness that it has been vouchsafed for so long a period. The term of it has, perhaps, been short; but it might have been still shorter. In many instances, too, life has been abridged by those very exertions, the loss of which we deplore. This consideration must, I admit, in one point of view, tend to enhance grief; but, taken in another light, it is not altogether devoid of something like consolation. While we deeply regret that useful exertion should hurry any one to the grave, we cannot avoid considering, at the same time, that, even if longer life had been granted, the total amount of usefulness might not have proved greater at its close; in other words, that a life of moderate length, spent in great exertions, may be no less useful, than one of longer continuance for the same individual, in which the daily exertion had been less.

It is impossible for us to discover the wise reasons of Providence in removing from us the excellent of the earth; some, long before they have run the usual race of life, and others when just starting in their career of noble and dignified pursuit. It would appear that some have been removed for the punishment of a guilty race, because the world was not worthy of them. Others may have been taken away out of mercy to themselves, when circumstances were about to arise, or temptations to befal, which would have blunted their activity and impaired their usefulness. Of all this, however, we at present know nothing. We only know that a day is coming, when all seeming inconsistencies will be fully rectified, when what now appears crooked will be made straight, and when we shall be brought to confess, with adoring thankfulness, that though clouds and darkness were sometimes round about Him, yet righteousness and judgment were always the habitation of his throne.

3. When reflecting with sorrow and perplexity upon examples of depart. ed excellence, and when disposed to murmur at their firemature removal from the world, let us turn back our eyes upon the past lives of such characters, and survey the good which

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4. We ought to consider, that when the Almighty is pleased to remove, at a premature age, sundry useful and excellent members of society, He is able to supply their loss by raising up others, and that, in point of fact, He has never yet been found wanting to the exigencies of his Church in this respect. This, doubtless, is a consoling and animating consideration. From past experience we have good reason to hope and to expect, that there will always be found a supply of men of exalted piety, talents, firmness, moderation, and benevolence, ready to espouse the sacred cause of true religion and virtue; to make an unpresuming, yet able, active, and persevering stand in support of all that is honourable and useful in society; and to bend their efforts towards that greatest of all results (a result not, I trust, quite so hopeless as many seem to imagine) -the intellectual, moral, and religious improvement of mankind in general.

But-5. The very circumstance of the premature death of eminent and useful individuals is calculated to excile increased ardour and activity in the minds of those survivors who are best qualified for supplying the loss of such characters, by treading in their steps. This is an effect which may rationally be expected to display itself in minds of a noble and exalted cast, especially when the views of such minds are seconded by the important advantages of youth and health. As Elisha wished for a double portion of the spirit of the ascending prophet, doubtless because he foresaw that nothing short of such a gift would enable him to supply the loss of so distinguished a character in the Jewish nation, such minds will be disposed to pour forth a like supplication in behalf both of themselves and others, upon witnessing the sudden or permature departure of individuals eminent for talents, piety, and usefulness. To

say the least, events of this nature must be admitted to furnish a loud call to increased prayer, exertion, and activity, on the part of the young, the able, and the pious. And, in this manner, may Providence sometimes point out the most effectual remedy for those breaches which it has been pleased to make in the Church, by giving an additional stimulus to the zeal of others, who, but for these breaches, might have continued less active, and prove less useful supporters of the best interests of mankind.

There are doubtless various other considerations which might be mentioned, calculated to quell the murmurings, and remove the fears of the zealous Christian upon these melancholy occasions. He may dwell with satisfaction upon the early joy to which his deceased brother is admitted, and upon the many trials which, by his premature removal, he may probably have escaped; upon the indubitable right which the all-wise Sovereign of the universe possesses both to give and to take away; upon the firm persuasion that he doth all things well; and, lastly, upon the view of such afflic tive dispensations, as tending to exercise, in a profitable manner, the faith and patience of the Church in general. These considerations, however, I barely mention, not because they are not most important, but because they appear more trite and obvious than those upon which I have principally dwelt.

I cannot but think that it is our duty to seek for rational and scrip tural topics of consolation upon the loss of eminent individuals; because such topics tend to invigorate the mind, by preserving it from that unsettled languor of despondency which is the most formidable check to all useful exertion. At the same time I am far from denying that, upon occasions of this kind, there must always be real ground for lamentation and regret. The loss

1815.] Affinities of Scythians as connected with the Prophecy of Gog. 141

of such men as a Thornton, a Bowd- the rivers, which either united, or ler, and a Buchanan, is not easily sprang, in Eden, their traditions consupplied, And it is always just cerning the origins of principal naground of sorrow to the community tions are unworthy of credit. His at large-sorrow how much more inference appears to me by no means exquisitely felt by the relatives and deducible from his premises. We friends of the departed! When we know,, from the New Testament, behold those, who from their talents that, before the time of Josephus, the and disposition, seem well qualified Jews had fallen into preposterous to enlighten and adorn their country, conceits, on subjects of much greater and who from their age give the pro- importance than the situation of mise of many years of piety and use- the terrestrial paradise: but it does fulness to come,-when we behold not follow, that the sacred Historisuch called away, at a short sumans and scriptural Prophets misapmons, from the stage of life, where they had just begun to act a conspicuous and noble part, we immediately ask ourselves, How are such men to be replaced?

I will now conclude these observations with the well known Apostolic injunction, which is very applicable to Christians in all periods of the Church Be ye stedfast, unmove. able, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

I am, Sir, &c.

F.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

THE rejoinder of AN INQUIRER, in your Magazine for January, to my remarks on his former letter, on the prophecies concerning GoG, seems to require that I should offer to you some evidence on the genuine affinities of the ancient Scythians, whom Josephus states to have been descendants of MAGOG.* I shall, therefore, attempt to treat the subject so as to render it the most congenial with the design and character of your very useful publication, that circumstances may admit.

The Inquirer infers, that, because the Jews formed absurd notions of

Allow me to correct an error (either of the pen or the press) in my former let. ter. It was Antioch (not Aleppo) that was primarily named after Magog.

plied the names, by which they recorded, or predicted, the fates of surrounding nations. In many instances, we know them to have been correct the nations and places of which they wrote being still called, in Asia, by the same names that are used in the Bible; although they have long been known to Europeans by different appellations. In every other instance, sound reason, which is always consistent with the tenor of Divine Revelation, requires us, therefore, to admit, that the ancestry of principal nations was known to the Jews, till the close of prophecy. At that time, the Scythians had attained the zenith of their celebrity; for Herodotus, who alone accurately and minutely describes them, was contemporary with Nehemiah, and pro bably with Malachi. About two centuries earlier, the Scythians had penetrated to Palestine; for one of its towns retained, from them, the name Scythepolis. The Jews may surely, therefore, be admitted to judge, whether the Scythians, or a totally different nation, were designated by their historians and prophets, under the appellation MAGOG.

Instead of entering in detail, on proofs that the Slavonic, and not the Gothic nations of Europe, are of Scythian origin, (which would be unsuitable to your publication,) I am happy that it is in my power to refer your correspondent, and those among your readers, who may feel curiosity

discussed. Dr. Pritchard, in his "Re- guard against being unde

searches into the Physical History
of Man," (8vo. published by Arch,
1813,) has clearly demonstrated, pp.
478, to 484, that the Scythians and
the Sarmatians were correlative; and
that the Slavonic nations are their
descendants. The proof of the ne-
gative, that the Goths were not de-
scendants of the Scythians, is far
from being so difficult as your cor-
respondent has supposed. It natu-
rally, and necessarily, follows the for-
mer proof. We well know, from
the invaluable translations extant, of
parts of the New Testament, by
Ulphilas, what language was spoken
by the Goths and a tyro in glosso-
logy may know that language to be
radically different from any of the
Slavonic dialects. Obvious radical
affinity of language is, in most cases,
the plainest evidence of national iden-
tity; and obvious radical disparity of
language that of national distinction.
The same
arguments, therefore,
which prove the Slavonic nations to
be of Scythian descent, prove infal-
libly that the Gothic nations are not

SO.

Should these remarks excite in any of your readers, a desire to trace the actual origin of the Gothic na. tions, Dr. Pritchard's work, pp. 485, to 502, may afford them ample satis. faction.*

As the Inquirer" professes to have closed his correspondence, and as (notwithstanding our difference of opinion on the foregoing topics) I heartily agree with him in thinking Mr. Penn's interpretations of prophecy very objectionable, I should here end this communication; but that, in vindicating the national origins recorded by Josephus, and re

His only mistake of this branch of discussion consists in regarding (as most En glish Antiquaries do) the Goths as radically different from the ancient Celts, who were only an earlier migration of the same great mation, according to Strabo's testimony.

support either of these au implicitly, in other respects

Dr. PRITCHARD's histo searches are subservient to a physiological description; both parts of his discussio very valuable information, ar much ingenious argument, no means admit them (as sumes) to be demonstrative first human pair were N Had he paid due attention history, it might easily have him against so unwarrantab tion.

Of JOSEPHUS's writings, exceptionable part is his ch which, it is the more need juncture to expose, becaus been unfortunately chosen HALES, for the basis of his and learned publication, lat pleted. The dates which in various parts of Josephu contradict one another, in grossly as to render it not tain that they have been wil rupted, but extremely dif conjecture what they origina Dr. Hales has attempted (bu unsuccessfully) to reduce t consistency with the chrom the SEPTUAGINT, which known to differ widely and tically from that of our Bibles. The avowed aim learned writer, is to estal former, in opposition to th and it appears to be only in render Josephus an efficien the Greek translators of th that he labours to reform credit the dates of the Jev torian.

The question, whether w to consider the Hebrew supplying a genuine series nology, from the Creation return of the Jews from (with a few errors, or on

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