'The children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, we shall die, we shall perish, we shall all perish. Whosoever cometh any thing near the tabernacle of the Lord shall die; truly we shall be entirely consumed.' Num. xvii. 12, 13. Thou wilt in thy mercy lead forth thy people whom thou hast redeemed; Thou wilt guide them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. The people will hear and be afraid; sorrow will take hold on the inhabitants of Palestine. The dukes of Edom will be amazed; trembling will take hold on the mighty men of Moab; all the inhabitants of Canaan will melt away. Fear and dread will fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they will become still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over; whom thou hast purchased. Thou wilt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of their inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. The Lord will reign for ever and ever,' Ex. xv. 13, &c. The following examples will shew that the potential is used with greater latitude, to express the future generally, whether certain or uncertain, near or remote. And God said unto Abraham, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years and also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterward they shall come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.' Gen. xv. 13 to 17. But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; and if ye shall despise my statutes, and your soul shall abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but will break my covenant; I also will do this unto you, &c.' Lev. xxvi. 14. &c. And now behold I am going to my people; come, and I will tell thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days.' Num. xxiv. 14. If an imperative mood is introduced into the narrative, the verb relating to it, which follows, will have a future signification, whatever mode may be used: as, Fear not, for I will be with thee, and will bless thee, and will multiply thy seed for Abraham my servant's sake.' Gen. xxvi. 24. 6 Bring it to me that I may eat, or and I will eat.' Gen. xxvii. 4. 6 It may also be added, that when the verb is used subjunctively or conditionally in reference to a coming event, it must necessarily be rendered in the future tense, whether the indicative or potential mood be employed: as, And if the men should over-drive them one day, all the flock will die. Gen. xxxiii. 13. But if ye will not hearken to us to circumcise them, then will we take our daughter, and we will be gone.' Gen. xxxiv. 17. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, your eyes will be opened, and ye will be as gods, knowing good and evil. Gen. iii. 5. ye walk in my statutes and keep my commandments and do them, then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time.' Lev. xxvi. 3, 4, 5. If a past event is alluded to, then the verb is rendered by the pluperfect; as, 'O! that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments; then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.' Isai. xlviii. 18. 6 6 5. When by the operation of the preceding rules the potential is neither past nor future, then it must be rendered as the potential in other languages. It will admit the application of all the tenses of the potential mood in English, and of some other forms, such as ought, must, &c. as, God is come to prove you, that his fear may be before your faces, and that ye may not sin.' Ex. xx. 20. And they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? can he provide flesh for his people?' Ps. lxxxviii. 19, 20. And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word.' Gen. xxx. 34. Could we certainly know that he would say, Bring your brother down?' Gen. xliii. 7. If I knew certainly that evil were determined by my father to come upon thee, then would not I tell thee?' 1 Sam. xx. 9. Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever,' Psl. civ. 5. Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so that I might have taken her to me to wife, Gen. xii. 19. Thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not be done.' Gen. xx. 9. And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country.' Gen. xxix. 26. In addition to the above it is necessary to remark, that this mood is often translated as the indicative or imperative present: as, 'Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord.' Isaiah i. 18. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.' Gen. i. 3. In like manner the indicative is rendered by an imperative, when it follows the imperative, and in a few other cases; as, 'Speak to the children of Israel, and say unto them.' Num. xv. 7. But think on me when it shall be well with thee, and shew kindness I pray thee unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharoah, and bring me out of this house.' Gen. xl. 14. Here all the verbs in italics are in the Hebrew of the indicative mood. 6 The time of what is denominated the present participle is determined by the same rules as that of the Indicative mood, there is therefore no necessity for repeating the rules or extending the remarks which apply to that part of the verb. With the above five rules, which are thought to be simple in their nature, and easy in their application, the student may peruse his Hebrew Bible with ease, free from the endless perplexity arising out of the vaw conversive system. This part of the subject may be profitably closed by inquiring what sanction the Arabic, which has a close affinity to the Hebrew, gives to this theory, and how far it is supported by sound philosophy. On the first point it may be observed, that the view which has been given of the moods and tenses in Hebrew is confirmed to great an extent by the Arabic as might be expected from the similarity of the languages. To prove this point it will be necessary only to adduce a few examples to shew that the Mází and Mazári of the Arabic, like the y Avar and Thy Athid of the Hebrew, have a present, past, and future meaning. مضارع ماضي Mází is used in the present tense in the statement of general .He who seeks finds من جد وجد propositions and moral maxims as '.The generous man when he promises performs ، الكريم إذا وعد وفا It is always used in a past tense in historical relations; as, w تم ان تيمور جدّد الحزم وصمم العزم على التوجه الى خوارزم Then Tymoor renewed his design, and resolved to direct his course to Khwárzam.' In blessing and cursing, when used subjunctively and conditionally, and in stating things as about quickly or certainly to be done, it is used with a future signification; as خير جزاكم اله عنا كل خـ قبحك اله .May God reward you for all your kindness to us If you oppose her you will ، إن خالفتها هلكت .May God curse you وقال اعلموا يا اخواني اننا قد وقعنا في جزائر الذهب الوحشين وقد .perish أحاطوا بنا وايس للاسبيل على قتل واحد منهم ,And he said, Know ، my brethren, that we have fallen among the islands of dreadful savages, and they will surround us, and there will be no way or possibility of our killing one of them.' Here the words blalanp are future, for when the words were spoken the persons were at sea بعث الله تعالى ملكاً على صورتك and had not reached the shore .reached ام و يجعل ثواب الحج لك الى يوم القيامة God Almighty will send an angel in your form, who will perform the pilgrimage for you every year, and will place the fruit of the pilgrimage to your account in the day of judgment.' Here will send, is Mází future, and Jes will place, is the Mazári future. Here, therefore, as in Hebrew, we have a specimen of the two, when connected together by the conjunction, being the same in point of tense. Mazári is used in the present tense in the statement of general propositions, in describing what is or is supposed to be actually passing at the time, or as the potential present in Hebrew. و قالت يا سيدي Like unites with like ، الجنس يميل الى الجنس ان على الباب رجل وإمرأة ومعهما صغير معلول يريدون دواءه منك 'And she said, Sir, there are at the door aman and a woman, and with them a little sick person, and they are seeking medicine from you.'ll h ، And God commanded, May there فشاء اله ان يكون نور فكان نور be light, and there was light.' و توجهوا الى بغداد as ; كان and لم tense, and when connected with And they turned ، واناس يقلون هلك الوزير هلك الوزير و يدعون عليه to Bagdad, and the people said, Cursed be the Vizier, cursed be the Vizier, and thus they prayed against him. 6 He did ވ When he beat ، لما ضربني كان الناس يفترجون على .not strike him me, there were people rejoicing over me.' In all other cases it is used with a future signification, and may be generally rendered in English by the first future of the indicative, though not unfrequently by the potential and infinitive moods: as, fine house, and I will eat and will drink, and will make merry.' And then I will buy a فعند ذالك اشتري اراحسنة وأكل واشرف واقصف ވ و قرر معهم أن كُلّ من ارسله اليهم يولونه دمارا ويكون إرساله اليهم على قتله شعارا And he agreed with them that whomsoever he sent to them they should murder, and that his sending him should be the signal for ثم إنه جعل يدعو روس الناس ويسقيهم بيده الكاس .his assassination And he began to call the chiefs of ، و يخلع عليهم افخر اللباس the people, and to make them drink with the cup from his own hand, and to clothe them in splendid apparel.' From these examples it appears, that mází and mazári partake more of the nature of moods than of ter.ses; it remains therefore only to shew how the use of the same form of the verb in a present, past, and future tense can be reasonably and philosophically accounted for. Let it be understood that the indicative mood is most commonly used in the past tense, and that what is past is absolutely certain beyond all the power, or possibility of alteration; then if we wish to state the truth, which appears to us as certain as any past event, it seems natural to adopt that form which expresses this certainty, and hence the indicative past, when used to express a moral or religious truth, comes to have a present tense. So if we wish to describe a future event, as certain to come to pass, as absolutely certain as though it had already past, then it seems reasonable to employ the same form to express such certainty, and thus we can account for the indicative past in prophecy coming to be used in a future sense. Again, let it be understood, that the potential mood is most commonly employed in a future sense, and that what is future has a degree of uncertainty resting upon it; then we can easily account for the use of that form of the verb, in describing what may, can, might, could, would, or should be, and thus we can reconcile a potential present with a future tense. The greatest difficulty seems to be in accounting for the potential being used with a past acceptation. This, however, may be done by the law of attraction. It is well known that this law operates extensively in the Greek language, and we cannot perceive any thing unreasonable in the idea that when for variety of style the indicative and potential moods are brought in contact, they should by such attraction and cohesion be regarded as in the same tense. There are instances in which, through the influence of this principle, not only the indicative and potential, the potential and the indicative; but the imperative, the indicative and the potential, all occurring in the same sentence, are influenced by the first and rendered alike; as Gen. lxii. 29. "If now I have found grace in thy sight, put I pray thee thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt.' Here the first verb put is in the imperative mood, the second deal is the indicative, and the third bury is the potential. By the same principle the next verse to be uniform ought to have been rendered thus. 'But let me lie with my fathers, and carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place. This interpretation of the moods being admitted, we have a clear solution of every difficulty, and can philosopically account for the employment of the indicative and potential moods with a present, past, and future signification. II. On the Present State and Prospects of Missions in South Africa. To the Editor of the Calcutta Christian Observer. DEAR MR. EDITOR, I send you, inclosed, an analysis of a letter of Dr. Philip's, of Cape Town, South Africa, addressed to the Secretary of the Princeton Theological Seminary Missionary Society, dated Cape Town, May 2nd, 1833. I confess, that in my own view, it is so mea 463 s |