warm truthful sympathies, in which the "incorruptible seed” of truth and virtue will germinate and grow. Secular philanthropist! I give thee credit for purest motives, and I yield to none in my admiration of thy ingenuity in constructing measures for the world's improvement, and of thy zeal in seeking to work them out; but I have no faith in any of thy efforts to make man as man one whit the better. Thou art only patching the rotten garment; thou art only seeking to purify the streams whilst the fountain is filthy in its springs; thou art only lopping off a few branches from the upas-and thereby strengthening the roots, and striking them deeper in the soil; thou art only anointing with thy salves the few eruptions on the outside of the body, whilst the whole current of blood is poisoned in the vital veins. Thy work is a quackery, under which I fear our poor humanity is getting worse. "Marvel not that I say unto thee, ye must be born again." The world wants moral renovation ;— nothing less. The subject teaches us :—

:

Thirdly The inestimable value of the gospel to mankind. The philosophy of our nature shows, that there is no other instrumentality on earth that is at all suited to effect this moral renovation, and all history demonstrates that nothing else has ever done it. The cross of Christ is the soul-renewing force. Herein is a marvellousness of divine plan. The cross which required all the depravity of the world to erect, has in it a power to destroy all the depravity of the world. That in which all evil found its climax is that in which all evil shall find its death. That which the principalities and powers of darkness in the human heart built up, shall one day "triumph over them all and make a show of them openly." The blow which the hellish spirit inflicted in the Crucifixion rebounds, and will bruise the very head of the world's serpent. The cross on which Christ was crucified is to crucify the world unto itself.

"Hail! Son of the most High, heir of both worlds,
Queller of Satan! On thy glorious work

Now enter; and begin to save mankind."-MILTON.

The Genius of the Gospel.

ABLE expositions of the Gospel, describing the manners, customs, and localities alluded to by the inspired writers; also interpreting their words, and harmonizing their formal discrepancies, are, happily, not wanting amongst us. But the eduction of its WIDEST truths and highest suggestions is still a felt desideratum. To some attempt at the work we devote these pages. We gratefully avail ourselves of all exegetical helps within our reach; but to occupy our limited space with any lengthened archæological, geographic, or philological, remarks, would be to miss our aim ;— which is not to make bare the mechanical process of scriptural study, but to reveal its spiritual results.

SECTION SIXTY-SIXTH :-Matt. xix. 23-26.

"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible."

SUBJECT:-The sad Condition of Wealth-loving Men.

SOME time ago we endeavored to expound in the "Homilist"* the narrative which gave rise to this exciting and solemn conversation between Christ and His disciples. Our space on the present occasion will scarcely allow us to do more than bring out with prominence the three solemn facts which are contained in these words. They teach :

I. THAT THE DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF A WEALTH

LOVING MAN'S SALVATION ARE VERY GREAT. We say a wealth-loving man, for to such the Heavenly Teacher refers, and not to the man who merely possesses riches. In Mark's gospel indeed it so stated. It is the man "who trusts in riches,”—the man who sets his heart upon them, and holds * Vol. vi. p. 333.

them as the chief good. He who has wealth, and holds it in subordination, will find it rather facilitate than hinder his salvation. His wealth will purchase for him books, leisure, and all the necessary provisions of spiritual culture and development. It is not wealth per se that is the obstruction, it is the love of it. The difficulty, which the man who trusts in his riches will find in the way of salvation, Christ represents in this passage in a strong and startling way: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle," than for such a wealth-loving man to enter into the kingdom of God. Some expositors have very gratuitously substituted in their translation of this passage the word cable for "camel," in order to avoid what they considered the unwarrantable extravagance of the language as it stands in our version. But the expression is manifestly proverbial as Dr. Kitto has shown.* Now the difficulties in the way

"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle,' &c. Lightfoot and others have shewn, that to speak of a camel or other large animal-as an elephant, as going through the eye of a needle, was a proverbial expression, much used in the schools, to denote a thing very unusual or very difficult. Thus, in a discourse about dreams, to intimate that they do not exhibit things of which the mind had no previous conception, it is said, 'They do not shew a golden palm-tree, or an elephant passing through the eye of a needle.' Again, to one who had delivered something which was thought very absurd, or scarcely credible, it was said, 'Perhaps thou art one of the Pombeditha (a Jewish School at Babylon) who can make an elephant go through the eye of a needle.' Thus also, the authors of an edition of the book of Zohar express the arduous nature of their undertaking by saying, in the name of our God, we have seen fit to bring an elephant through the eye of a needle.'

"A similar form of expression, or indeed the same, may be traced very extensively in the East. In the Koran, 'Until the camel shall enter the needle's eye' (ear in Arabic), occurs in the same sense. 'Narrower than the eye (ear) of a needle,' is still applied to business of a difficult nature; and even in India, an elephant going through a little door," or through the eye of a needle,' are proverbial expressions of the same import. Some of these illustrations are important to fix the true force and meaning of the expression; and all shew the error of several Greek transcribers (followed by some trans

of salvation to the man who trusts in his wealth may be illustrated by the following considerations :

First The disposition of heart, and habits of life, which such a state of mind engenders. The man who is wealthy and trusts in his wealth, is almost sure to become proud, selfsufficient, unsympathetic, worldly, and indifferent alike to the claims of society and the institutions of religion. The man who trusts in his wealth, and who has more than heart can wish, is likely to "set his mouth against the heavens."

Secondly: The teachings of the Divine revelation on the subject. Moses warned the children of Israel against the

lators), who, not understanding the expression as it stood, took the liberty of supposing it a mistake, and therefore altered káμnhos ‘a camel, to κάμιλος a cable,' producing the reading, 'It is easier for a cable to go through the eye of a needle,' &c. See Lightfoot and Gill, in loc.; Michaelis's Introduction, vol. p. 131; Burckhardt's Arabic Proverbs, No. 396, &c.

"The real origin of such a proverb is a question respecting which many conjectures have been offered; a few of which we may here repeat. The Rev. F. J. J. Arundell, in his Discoveries in Asia Minor (ii. 119-123), says: 'As we ascended the hill, I saw something shining on the road, which proved to be one of the needles used by the camel-drivers for mending their camel-furniture. It was about six inches long, and had a large, very long, eye. It had evidently been dropped by one of the conductors of a caravan which was some way a-head of us. This association of the needle with the camels at once reminded me of the passage which has been considered so difficult to be illustrated: 'It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.' Why should it not be taken literally? As the usages of the East are as unvarying as the laws of the Medes and Persians, I can easily imagine that even the camel-driver of Rachael carried his needles about with him to mend 'the furniture,' and the equipment of a camel-driver in those days could not well have been more simple than at present. . . The needle, from its constant and daily use, must have held a prominent place in his structure of ideas and imagery; and as we all know how fertile the imaginations of these camel-drivers were in furnishing us with proverbs and legendary tales, why may not the impracticability of a camel's passing through the eye of his needle have been a common expression to denote an impossibility?

Vol. IX.

.....

3 E

tendency of wealth to injure the soul. (Deut. viii. 11, 14.) Solomon says, "He that trusteth in his riches shall fall.” (Prov. xi. 28.) Christ says, "The deceitfulness of riches choke the word." (Matt. xiii. 22.) Paul says, "They that will be rich fall into temptation." (1 Tim. vi. 9.) James says, "The friendship of the world is enmity with God." (Jas. iv. 4.) And John says, "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John ii. 15.) Such is the testimony of the Bible.

"Another explanation, as ingenious, but much less natural and probable, is indicated by the same writer: "Every body has heard of the obelisks of Alexandria, called the Needles of Cleopatra-a name, I apprehend, anciently given to them and similar obelisks. These are usually erected at the entrance of temples. If two such obelisks were existing at Jerusalem, and so close to each other as not to admit the passing of a laden camel, and passable only by the traveller on foot, the proverb might have had its origin from hence.

"Of the same kind, but much more probable, is the explanation suggested by Lord Nugent, in his Lands Classical and Sacred, i. 326. Entering Hebron, he says 'We were proceeding through a double gateway, such as is seen in so many of the old eastern cities,—even in some of the modern ; one wide-arched road, and another narrow one by the side, through the latter of which persons on foot generally pass, to avoid the chance of being jostled or crushed by the beasts of burthen coming through the main gateway. We met a caravan of loaded camels thronging the passage. The drivers cried out to my two companions and myself, desiring us to betake ourselves for safety to the gate with the smaller arch, calling it Es Summ el Kayút,'— the hole or eye of the needle. If-as, on inquiry since, I am inclined to believe this name is applied, not to this gate in Hebron only, but generally in cities where there is a footway entrance by the side of the larger one, it may perhaps give an easy and simple solution of what in the text (Mark x. 25) has appeared to some to be a strained metaphor; whereas that of the entrance-gate, low and narrow, through which the sumpter-camel cannot be made to pass unless with great difficulty, and stripped of all the encumbrance of his load, his trappings, and his merchandize, may seem to illustrate more clearly the foregoing verse,' How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!' It also applies itself to several other passages by which our Saviour illustrates a similar subject: 'Enter ye at the strait gate,' etc. (Matt. vii. 13, 14), and others."