but in addition it accuses the theist of an irreverence from which the agnostic starts back aghast. Why should we worship the human attributes-intelligence, will, love?" Why is such idolatry any better than that of wood or stone?" says one. In solemn awe, rather, let us approach the shrine, and render mute adoration to "Something" of which it is an insult to affirm intelligence, a contradiction to ascribe will-power, and blasphemy to attribute love. We might as well say-yes, we do say-give us the senseless stone. If we must worship, if it is a part of nature to wor ship, and if the highest attributes known to mind are such that they cannot co-exist in the Divine Being, give us, then, the stone. That, at least, can be seen by human eyes. But is it not better to admit that the primary principles of thought, the principles which compel our minds to think in one way rather than in another, which force us to assert that a thing cannot both be and not be at the same time," are eternal principles; that they are the principles under which the First Cause itself retains its self-consistency? Let us say that the gem of truth given us in the structure of our minds is a gen many sparkles of which are obscured in the evolution of its setting, but which, undimmed and unending, glitter in the perfect light of the Divine understanding. If we cannot know all, let us admit the little we can know If we cannot conceive the highest attributes of the Creator, let us admit that somewhere in the unsearchable depths of His being exist the highest attributes known to us, the attributes without which God would not be God. After our reason tells us that there is a Being all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, let faith, doing her perfect work, give us a God whose wonder, glory and majesty "eye hath not seen nor ear heard." Harriet M. Snell. ARTICLE II. John the Baptist. WE enter the season when the Christian world celebrates the birth of the Saviour. It may be with interest and profit that we dwell on some of the conditions which environed the people to whom the advent was made. In so doing our attention is specially directed toward the bold herald, John the Baptist, the "voice in the wilderness preparing the way." Though the divine glory first shone in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not, it is probable that our appreciation of Christ is heightened as we understand the customs and intellectual life that distinguished the peculiar people to whom the divine glory was made manifest. - Both sacred and secular writers lend assistance in the study of this remarkable man, the worthy successor of Isaiah and Elijah, at once the last and greatest in the grand procession of Israel's prophets. Of priestly descent, the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth, he shared from youth the advantages of the house of Levi. When John was born Palestine was subject to priestly rule. According to the Talmud there were no less than twenty-four thousand priests in Jerusalem and vicinity, chiefly maintained by the offerings of the people. The theory of priestly suc cession was searching. Genealogy must be established, and the candidate must be of perfect form of body and possess the At the age of requisite accomplishments in the Jewish law. six years every child was instructed in the Hebrew Scriptures. When he was ten he was supposed capable of receiving the higher instruction from the celebrated doctors of the law. The people had ceased to speak to any extent the Hebrew language. From the time when Alexander swept through Palestine, and made the sacred land tributary to the Grecian Empire, the people gradually acquired the vernacular of their masters until Hellenic Greek was everywhere spoken.1 "Our nation look on this sort of accomplishment " (viz, the pursuit of learning and The Pharisees had become the dominant religious sect,though it is evident from the trial of Jesus and that of Paul that Sadducees were included in the great court of the Sanhedrin. From the Pharisees rose a distinct order which in the estimate of every Hebrew was invested with special sanctity. This was the order of Rabbis. By the common assent of the people its members held all the offices of note under the hierarchy. They accepted only their maintenance. The order was popu lar, from being open to any of merit. To speak in disrespect of a Rabbi was to invoke divine vengeance. He had only to enter a house, and peace was supposed to visit the family. In all matters he must be consulted. Though a student of the law he was chiefly occupied with tradition. Apart from the rabbis there were twenty-four courses or families of priests. Their duties pertained more particularly to the temple service, in which the rabbis took no part. Among the one hundred and forty conditions of priestly qualification was that which required the candidate to be of blameless moral character. Prophetic denunciation, however, leaves no room to doubt the corruption of this ecclesiastical aristocracy. To distinguish from those who were insincere and unworthy, the Record is careful to state of the aged priest Zacharias of Hebron, and his wife Elizabeth, that "they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." speaking Greek) as common not only to all sorts of freemen. but to as many of the servants as please to learn them." Josephus' Antiquity of Jews xx. xi. 2. "It was as little permitted that the hated Gentile should learn the Hebrew language or read the Law. St. Jerone expatiates on the trouble and cost he had at Jerusalem and Bethlehem to get a Jew to help him in his Hebrew studies." Geike's "Life of Christ," i. p. 67. "Ever since the days of Alexander the Great, alike in the contact of Jews with Ptolemies and with Seleucids, Hellenic influences had been at work in Palestine. Greek was, indeed, the common medium of intercourse, and without it Jesus could have had no conversation with strangers,-with the centurion, for instance, whose servant he healed; or with Pilate, or with the Greeks who desired an interview with him in the last week of his life." Farrar's "Life of Christ," i. p. 42. "The Jews came in contact with the Greeks only at and after the Macedonian conquests, and were, therefore, conversant only with the later Greek. They learned it from the intercourse of life, in commerce, in colonies, in cities like Alexandria, where the inhabitants were drawn together from Asia as well as from Greece; and it was, therefore, the spoken language of common life. . . The Jewish Greek has not un aptly been termed Hellenistic." Dr. Robinson, Preface to Gr. Lex., p. 5. Filling the priestly office in his course of the temple service, the devout Zacharias engages in prayer, when the angel Gabriel announces to him that he is to be the father of the heraldprophet. Unable to master his doubt, he is made speechless until the message is fulfilled in the birth of the child, who is named John. The father prophesies the delivery of Israel, and that his son shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare his way. With concise statement we are then told that "the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.” For men to voluntarily assume the life of a recluse in Palestine and other parts of the world, was no uncommon spectacle. Speaking of this in connection with those sects eminent for self-denial and piety, Josephus says, "When sixteen years old I contented myself with hard fare, underwent great difficulties and went through them all. When I was informed that one whose name was Banus lived in the desert and used no other clothing than grew upon trees, and had no other food than what grew of its own accord, and bathed himself in cold water frequently, both night and day, in order to preserve his chastity, I imitated him in these things and continued with him three years." At what time John became an ascetic we have no means of knowing. It is evident that for many years before his public appearance in a prophetic character he was a lone tenant of the wilderness. The son of Zacharias would enjoy high privileges of instruction from one of the most faithful of the Hebrews; and as the law enjoined obedience to parents, it becomes highly probable that the son remained at the Hebron home until his maturity, gaining all the law and the prophets, and being taught the sacred traditions so far as a foremost priest of the house of Levi and a lineal descendant of Aaron was able to give them, as well as receiving the records of antiquity as preserved by secular historians. Roman law recognized the majority of males when twenty-five years of age, and as Judea was now in the empire of Tiberius this may have been the date at which John became a recluse. We know that he was six months older than Jesus, who began his ministry when thirty years of age. This estimate would allow John a residence in the wilderness of five and a half years. The period marked a crisis in the world's history. By the highest functionaries of the Roman court social abominations were practiced with open insolence. Pride, greed and lust were given utmost license. The nation was profaned. The country was the spoils of a shameless dynasty. The preceding century had chronicled atrocious crimes. The wars of the Maccabees, of the brothers Aristobulus and Hyrcanus, and the coming of Pompey and the Roman horde to desecrate with their presence the Holy of holies,-forbidden all but the high priest; all this was fresh in the minds of those who in faith waited for the consolation of Israel. Cæsar had given control of the east to Antony, who became the willing tool of the fair and voluptuous Cleopatra. Then followed the murder of all whom Cleopatra denounced; Herod's flight from Jerusalem, which became the prey of plunderers; his return under Roman protection; his unholy marriage with Mariamne; the slaughter of his enemies and the selling of many of the inhabitants of cities and towns as slaves; and lastly came the infamous reign of Herod who murdered both his wife and sons. The principal of the rabbis, his most formidable enemies, he strangled. Surely, there was an extreme demand for the exhortation, "Repent ye." The wilderness of Judea could have been only the region lying between the Judean mountains and the backish waters of the Dead Sea, extending nearly as far north as Jerusalem and to the desert on the south. Four streams carry the waters of springs through vast gorges in chalk and limestone. The mountains abound in natural caverns. In this solitary region lived the coming prophet in solemn communion with nature and God, subsisting on locusts and wild honey, and drinking the pure waters of the hillsides. Self discipline achieved he at length lifts his voice in the presence of the people, exclaiming, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." His face is bronzed from the exposure of the mountains and |