the age of the apostles, it may be observed that Paul, by his early studies and subsequent intercourse with men, doubtless became familiarly acquainted with and could readily use the Hebrew, the Syro-Chaldaic or Aramaean, the Greek, and the Latin languages, and adding to these the Arabic, a knowledge of which he may probably have acquired while in Arabia (Gal. i. 17), immediately after his conversion; and thus furnished, he could, from Italy to Persia, and in short in all the countries which he traversed as an evangelist, intelligibly preach the gospel of Christ to the mass of the people. If he ever went to Gaul or Spain, as we learn (Rom. xv. 24) that he intended to go to Spain, though it is very doubtful if he accomplished that purpose, he might have spent much time in preaching to the Latin and Greekspeaking portions of the people, while he was learning the vernacular of the countries. More probably he was providentially hindered from going thither, because he could otherwise spend the closing years of his ministry more profitably than in learning the languages which would qualify him to preach the word effectively to those barbarous tribes.

Where, or in what languages, the other apostles preached Christianity, we know very little with certainty. They could probably all use the Syro-Chaldaic and Hebrew; and as multitudes of Greeks and Romans, or Jews from Greece and Italy, were then residing at, or visiting Jerusalem and Judea, it is not improbable that most of the apostles could use the Greek and Latin languages more or less perfectly. If they went into other lands where these languages were not available as mediums of communication, they probably learned the vernacular as other missionaries have since done, the process being, perhaps, somewhat shortened by their peculiar zeal and laboriousness. However this may have been in fact, or whatever difficulties may seem to be involved in this view of the subject, it is, we think, contrary to the canons of scripture interpretation, and to sound reason to find a miracle where one is not expressly asserted, or forced upon us by unavoidable inference.

A practical remark or two, in closing, may not be improper. If the view here given of the nature and purpose of the gift of tongues is correct, neither the Christian missionary of modern times, nor the churches which send him forth, can, when they compare their movements with the apostolic missions, excuse their dilatoriness and want of success, by alleging that the apostles and their coadjutors possessed, in the gift of tongues, facilities for immediately and powerfully influencing the minds of men which are not granted to their successors in these later ages. The fact that they were called to preach to people with whose respective languages they were more or less fully acquainted, did, indeed, place them on high vantage ground; and perhaps the miracles which they wrought might sometimes have opened the way for the readier reception of the truths preached; though it is a noticeable fact, that often the very miracles wrought, so far from silencing opposition and operating as a favorable introduction for the truth, actually called forth the bitterest hate and the most unrelenting persecution (Acts iv. 1-7; v. 17, 18; vii; xiv. 3-5; xvi. 19-26). Whatever advantages the apostles possessed in laboring among people with whose languages they were previously acquainted, and in their power to work miracles in confirmation of the doctrines preached, there can be little doubt that these advantages are more than outweighed by the printing press and other kindred facilities for the rapid and wide promulgation of the truth, which are possessed by missionaries of our times.

While no excuse for our tardy manner of prosecuting the missionary work is to be found in any advantages which the apostles possessed superior to those enjoyed by the preachers of these times, just as little reason, it may be again remarked, is there for deferring to enter more energetically and hopefully on the work of giving the gospel to the whole world till some anticipated more favorable period; when, owing to more extended and powerful outpourings of spiritual influences, the conversion of the world to Christ will be rapidly and successfully carried forward, almost

without human agency, and the church will have little more to do than to stand by, wondering, rejoicing, and praising; or, when, in so far as the instrumentality of the church shall in any measure be required, it will be in some easy, convenient manner, without those self-denying, prolonged, exhausting labors which now seem indispensable to any degree of success. Such seems to be the common notionnot very fully spoken out-of millennial progress and triumph in the work of evangelizing the world. But if we read the Bible aright, no such time of simultaneous church inaction and church enlargement and triumph is promised. Both the Bible and history seem to say that the discipline of self-denying toil and conflict is essential to the spiritual life and purity, and consequently to the enlargement, of the church; and her Lord, out of loving care for his people, will, in his wise providence, doubtless see that they have what of these their spiritual thrift requires.

That more rapid and powerful progress of the gospel than what the world has ever yet seen is promised and held in reserve for this or a future age, may be firmly and thankfully believed; not, however, to be effected in such a manner as to supersede the necessity for labor and prayer on the part of God's people; but rather to be accomplished by their intenser struggles, to be rewarded by larger measures of divine influence shed down to insure more glorious success. If a nation is to be born in a day, it is because the prayer, the labor, the self-sacrifice of ages are, so to speak, to be condensed into one day. It is because the hour of Zion's real travail has come. If the windows of

heaven are to be opened, and blessings poured out which there shall not be room to receive, it will be because all the tithes shall have been brought into the Lord's storehouse; not the tithes consisting of our agricultural and manufac turing and commercial gains and products; but of such agonizing prayer, such self-denial and sacrifice, such devotion of self and property, and such holy living as correspond to the great interests at stake.

ARTICLE V.

THE TEMPTATION.

BY REV. LEMUEL S. POTWIN, NORTH GREENWICH, CONN.

"THOU hast had much to say of Paradise lost," said Thomas Ellwood to Milton, "but what hast thou to say of Paradise found?" The poet soon found something to say. The title of his poem was "Paradise Regained," but his real theme was the Temptation of Christ.

"I, who erewhile the happy garden sung
By one man's disobedience lost, now sing
Recovered paradise to all mankind,
By one man's firm obedience, fully tried
Through all temptation, and the tempter foiled
In all his wiles, defeated and repulsed,

And Eden raised in the waste wilderness."— Bk. I.

According to this poem the primary design of Satan was to ascertain whether Jesus was in a pre-eminent sense the Son of God:

"Then hear, O Son of David, virgin-born, —

For Son of God to me is yet in doubt:
Of the Messiah I had heard, foretold
By all the prophets; of thy birth, at length
Announced by Gabriel, with the first I knew,
And of the angelic song, in Bethlehem field,
On thy birth-night, that sung thee Saviour born.
From that time seldom have I ceased to eye
Thy infancy, thy childhood, and thy youth,
Thy manhood last, though yet in private bred;
Till, at the ford of Jordan, whither all
Flock to the Baptist, I, among the rest

(Though not to be baptized), by voice from heaven,
Heard thee pronounced the Son of God beloved.
Thenceforth I thought thee worth my nearer view
And narrower scrutiny, that I might learn
In what degree or meaning thou art called
The Son of God, which bears no single sense:

All men are sons of God; yet thee I thought
In some respect far higher so declared;

Therefore I watched thy footsteps from that hour,

And followed thee still on to this waste wild.” — Bk. IV.

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To accomplish his object Satan subjects Jesus to a twofold series of tests, the one designed to try his human. virtue, the other to try his absolute divinity. In the first temptation, unable to learn his divinity (the miracle of turning stones to bread being declined), the tempter assails the appetite of Jesus with "pompous delicacies":

"Alas, how simple, to these cates compared,
Was that crude apple that diverted Eve!"

He then tempts him with the offer of riches:

"Get riches first, get wealth, and treasure heap;
Not difficult, if thou hearken to me."

Then he tries to awaken a love of glory:

"Think not so slight of glory; therein least
Resembling thy great Father."

Thus, in the view of the poet, the first temptation exhausted the power of Satan to lead Jesus into self-indulgence. The second temptation (following the order of Luke) has regard to the future kingdom. Satan urges Jesus to coinmence to reign immediately:

"Think'st thou to regain

Thy right by sitting still, or thus retiring?"

Then, showing him all the kingdoms of the world, he advises him to attempt a martial kingdom, like the Parthians, commencing with an alliance with them:

"It shall be my task

To render thee the Parthian at dispose."

Then he recommends a kingdom of outward magnificence and luxury, and promises to secure to him the Roman throne.