Be not conformed to this world, but be ye trans-aging to know that at least in some cases our call formed by the renewing of your minds." Urge to repentance, our command to believe on the Son him to renounce his covetousness which is idolatry, of God, our exhortation to a life of holy obedience, to disentangle himself from the engrossing engage- which are now met with a stubborn "I will not," ments of the world which are his snare, to ease will yet be turned into a cordial and joyful "I himself of its cares which are his burden, to dismiss will," and that the sinner, who is now so exceedhis vain ambition which is his tempter, to be con- ing fierce that no man can tame him, will yet be tent to be poor if he may be rich in faith, to be found clothed and in his right mind, sitting at the despised by men if esteemed by God, to lose the feet of Jesus. It is cheering to know that the world if he may gain his soul, to seek the pearl of very call of this sermon that now falls lifeless upon great price which in all his merchandize he has many an ear, or quickens many a heart only into not found, to sell all that he has that he may buy active opposition to the truth, may yet start beit, and take up his cross and follow Christ; in fore the soul now rejecting it into living power, short, deliver to such a man the message of the slay its enmity, and by the Spirit, working with parable, "Go, work to-day in the vineyard." And the word and providence of God, turn it from what, ere you have concluded its announcement, darkness to light, from the dominion of Satan to is the rising resolution of his soul, his answer pre- the service of the living and true God. For pared and ready to meet your message? It is years indeed the seed now sown may lie buried that of the first son to his father-"I will not." and dormant in the heart, overlaid by the vices of Ah, how often does this withering soul-chilling a corrupt nature, and choked by the manifold cares "I will not" return back upon our ears as the only of this world. It may be lost for a season even to answer to our Gospel ministry. Surely of all the recollection of him who heard it, and its still men our speech, as ministers of the Gospel, is the small voice drowned amidst the whirlwind roar of most contemptible, our arguments the least per- the world and the passions. Yet, like Lazarus in suasive, and our words words of nought. For his tomb, it is not dead, it only sleepeth. In rewho so often plead and yet are so often refused, liance on the Word of God before us, we would who so urgently ask and yet are so perseveringly confidently hope that in some providential hour of denied, who employ by turns so many means of sickness or of sorrow, in some season of bereavepersuasion, who so command, exhort, entreat, be- ment, or personal affliction, or worldly misfortune, seech even with tears, as the ambassadors of or overwhelming calamity, in some period of unChrist, and yet are repelled by the cold unfeeling usual stillness when the soul is permitted to speak harsh reply, "I will not." The world pleads, and to itself, will the call of this very sermon be heard, thousands ensnared by its wily arguments return and in some heart now callous to its truths, and the cordial reply, "I will." Pleasure pleads, and obstinately resisting its invitation, revive with a ten thousand, seduced by its soft and silvery tones, power that will melt it into contrition, and disecho back to its call, "I will," and follow in its arming it of its opposition, lead it in willing subtrain. Covetousness pleads, and to its hoarse and jection to the cross. "For as the rain cometh croaking voice a company which no man can num- down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth ber, respond a cheerful obedience, and follow at not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it the beck of the god of this world. Ambition | bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the pleads, and to its trumpet-tongued voice the great sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be men, and the mighty captains, and the men of that goeth forth out of my mouth, it shall not rerenown, and the spirits of high enterprize, and of turn unto me void, but it shall accomplish that heroic and noble daring, assemble as to a field of which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing chivalry, and as the marshalling of troops to a whereto I send it." battle. But where is the gathering when the ambassadors of the Son of God, standing amidst their fellow-men, beseech them, in Christ's stead, to be reconciled unto God,-where the convinced hearers exulting in the joyful intelligence and hastening to swell the train of the followers of the Lamb? Here and there amidst the crowd of listeners, a faint voice is heard to whisper, "Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest," but still the louder reply is given, and the more determined resolution goes round until it break forth into the all but universal answer of man to the Gospel message, "I will not." But the same passage which records the first son's rejection of the Gospel records also his after repentance. Whilst his "will not" might cast down in despondency the ministers of the Gospel, the information that "he afterwards repented and went," forbids their ever despairing. It is encour It is of all truths the most cheering to Christian parents who, amidst discouragements and manifold repulses, are labouring until Christ be formed in the souls of their children, to be told of this first son that "he afterwards repented and went." It may be that a parent's faith shall be tried and his spirit wounded, notwithstanding his daily solicitude and ceaseless prayers for the spiritual regeneration of his child, by a heartless and hardened "I will not." It may be that the obstinacy of his child shall grow with his very attempts to soften and subdue it, and that he is to witness in it the triumph of the evil heart of unbelief over the counsels of parental wisdom, and the instructions and warnings of parental piety. Let not that parent despair. He may water his couch with his tears, and his grey hairs may descend with sorrow to the grave, but when the green sod of the valley has covered him, and his bones have mingled with his parent earth, and his memory has well-nigh been forgotten amongst men, his words may arise as from the ashes of the dead, quick and powerful, and, sharper than a two-edged sword, subdue the soul of his once perverse and prodigal child, and convert the long and oft repeated "I will not," into a repenting and penitent "I will." This same truth that the first son afterwards repented and went, is of all others the most cheering to Christian members of families, who, in the meekness of wisdom and the patience of faith, are labouring and praying for the conversion of ungodly relatives. You think you have tried every avenue of approach to the heart of your relative. You have addressed to him by turns every motive of tenderness or of terror which the Gospel supplies, it seems to you as if you had exhausted the weapons in the armoury of God, yet, alike in seasons of prosperity and adversity, of trouble and of peace, of sorrow and joy, your message has been met with an undisguised and constantly recurring "I will not." Upon this you despond, your heart sinks within you, your faith almost fails, and you are ready to say, why should I labour in vain, and spend my strength for nought. "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God." Ye have sown in tears, and ye may never behold the reaping in joy. But what though the harvest be late, and yourselves be gathered, ere it is reaped, into the garner of God. Despair not of the seed of the Word, continue to sow, and sow in faith, for thou knowest not which seed shall grow or which shall die; and as thou sowest amidst sadness and tears, remember that the first son who said, "I will not," "afterwards repented and went." But the reply of this first son is not confined to scandalous profligates, notorious sinners, and Goddenying infidels. It is the answer of all men to the message of the Gospel, until the Spirit of God writes his law in their hearts, and puts the new language into their lips, "lo I come to do thy will, O my God." The believer, strongest in faith, and most confirmed in grace, will recognise his former image reflected in the reply of this first son, and out of the revived and vivid representation of his past unbelief, may gather the profitable materials for present humility and gratitude. Indeed, we know not a consideration more fitted to preserve his heart in a habitual, lowly, penitent, thankful, and tender frame, than the thought, I have stood amidst the rebellious -I have slighted the Saviour's love-grieved his spirit, and done despite unto his grace; I have looked unmoved upon his crown of thorns, and his bleeding brow, and his marred countenance, and his wounded side, and his pierced hands and feet, and his soul rent with an anguish which made the earth quake, and from which the sun withdrew its light, and I have heard his voice of compassion, "Come unto me and I will give you life," blending with the narrative of his sufferings, and yet to all I have replied with heartless insensibility, "I will not." And that the believer may add to these materi als for devout gratitude, and habitual humility, and tenderness of heart, let him reflect that just the more frequently, in the days of his unbelief, he had repeated his obstinate refusal, he had been disqua lifying himself for ever accepting the invitation, or yielding to the command, "Go, work in my vineyard." By every refusal, his heart was hardening itself to refuse again, and yet, after this process had long continued, and his spirit had grown accustomed to rebel, when he had prepared himself as a vessel fitted for destruction, God in infinite mercy, and by the mighty power of his Spirit, turned him into a vessel of glory, and made him meet for the master's use. O, are there not materials for thankfulness and humility, in the fact that when he had set himself on fire round about, then God snatched him as a brand out of the burning, that when his brow was iron, and his face brass, and when he had made his heart hard as the flinty rock, then God pierced it and caused the waters of contrition to flow forth,—that when he was stiff-necked and rebellious, and like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, even then God turned him, and he was turned, and made him willing in a day of his power? Happy, thrice happy, is he who has received the gift of repentance, after having long refused it, whose earlier days, though spent amidst the despisers and the wonderers, is found, in his later years, at the foot of the cross, who, whilst guilty of the disobedience and rebellion of this first son, illustrates also his after repentance, and who, though late, is yet found, ere the shadows of evening have gathered around him, and his day departed, yielding obedience to the command of his father, 66 Go, work in my vineyard." OXFORD MEMORIAL OF CRANMER, RIDLEY, AND LATIMER. THE attention which has oeen called to the "Tracts for the Times" has already been productive of good. 66 A careful examination of their contents has satisfied many readers, that the principles they contain will rapidly lead back their supporters to Popery. "The writers of these works," said an eminent prelate lately to one of his clergy, put the church and the sacra ments in the place of Jesus Christ: so does the Church of Rome." We trust, therefore, that the words of the immortal Chillingworth will be heard in every part of our country, and be engraven on the hearts of multitudes: "The Bible, and the Bible alone, is the religion of Protestants.' That a reaction has taken place at Oxford in favour of the principles of the Reformation, is beyond dispute. The proposed erection of a church in that city, in grateful remembrance of the sufferings unto death of the three revered prelates, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, is a powerful demonstration of Protestant feeling. The speeches of Dr Macbride and the Margaret Professor of Divinity, at a recent meeting at Oxford, are also deeply interesting. The former remarks: It is with peculiar satisfaction that I here preside over a meeting assembled to honour the memory of three of the holy army of martyrs, whose enlightened and tem perate zeal, and piety, and learning during life, and Christian constancy in death, mainly contributed, under God's providence, to restore scriptural purity into our Church. If that portion of the Church, as happily reformed, rejecting the authority of tradition, acknowledges as the only rule of faith the Word of God-if her articles and homilies, in opposition to Roman corruptions and philosophical denial of the truth, einbody the essential doctrines of the Gospel-if our Book of Common Prayer has retained what was edifying in the ancient liturgy, rejecting carefully what was erroneous or superstitious-may we not point to these pre-eminent prelates as the chief human agents in this glorious and blessed work? may we not ascribe our temperate and cautious Reformation to the simple piety of Latimer, the learning of Ridley, and the moderation of Cranmer ? I rejoice, therefore, that it is your determination that, after the lapse of nearly three centuries, a tardy act of gratitude should be paid to the self-denying servants of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who literally obeyed his injunction, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do;' and that now, at length, in the very town in which they suffered as heretics, a monumental structure is to arise, which shall record to distant generations the triumph of their cause, and recall to recollection the encouragement of Father Latimer to his companion in the flames, Be of good comfort; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.' I cannot but think, that it was providentially reserved for our days, when the Church, whose yoke they had shaken off, has come forward so boldly and so powerfully to oppose the Reformation, for us to raise a permanent memorial, which shall prove, I trust I may say, not merely a local, an academical, or county, but a national, avowal of our attachment to its principles and its doctrines." At the same meeting, the Margaret Professor of Divinity said, "he trusted that, notwithstanding any partial discouragements or opposition, such a building would arise, as might demonstrate to the world the triumph of genuine Protestant principles, which was the more necessary at this moment, when the followers of the Church of Rome were making daily exhibitions of their increasing power, rearing edifices, and endeavouring to propagate their errors in every part of the country. He trusted, too, that the building would be a marked remnant of that candle which Bishop Latimer said they had lighted in England, and which he hoped, in God's name, would never be extinguished." The Master of University College, Dr Plumptre, observed, that "he could not conceive that the carrying out of so great an undertaking should be limited exclusively to those who belonged to the Established Church, because there were many who differed from it, but who admitted and valued the blessings of that Reformation, which the pious martyrs mainly assisted in effecting." Attachment to the great principles of the Reformation is, indeed, extensively diffused. Let us, then, labour perseveringly for their promotion; let us give the widest circulation to suitable books and tracts exposing the errors of Popery; and let the language of the Church of England, in her sixth article, be sounded through the land: "Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to De required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary for salvation." The motto of every Christian should be, "REVELATION, AND NOT TRADITION." A remarkable contrast to this avowal of regard for the great principles of Protestantism, was presented in circumstances which lately occurred in France. It appears from the Roman Catholic Journals, that on the 8th of September 1838, there took place the inauguration of a statue, given by the Archbishop of Paris, to perpetuate the conversion of M. le Prince de Bénévento. The origin of this superstitious offering is thus related :— In a visit which the prelate made, during the previous year, to La Delivrande (Calvados,) he observed a marble column, on which were inscribed many miraculous cures, obtained through the interposition of the Virgin Mary. At that time he made a vow, to crown this column with a statue of her, if he obtained the conversion of M. de Talleyrand. His efforts during the dying hours of the prince, having, as it is said, been successful, the prelate has performed his vow. The statue is in bronze, and represents Mary praying for the sinner. Her feet are placed on a serpent, which she crushes; thus substituting her for the great Redeemer, who came to destroy the works of the devil." The inscription on the globe, which serves to sustain it, is," Faithful Virgin, rejoice with me, I have found my sheep which was lost. 17th May, 1838." At the back appears another, stating that the statue has been erected according to the vow of Hyacinthus Ludovicus de Quelen, Archbishop of Paris for the eternal salvation of Prince de Talleyrand! 66 CHRISTIAN TREASURY. The Influence of Habit.-Habits are formed by the repetition of individual acts; and the ample range, to which the influence of their agency extends, comprehends the intellectual and moral, as well as the active powers. In each and all of these comprehensive classes of powers, what we have done once, we do more easily and readily the next time. What we have done very frequently, and regularly, we at last get the habit of doing. We do it spontaneously, and without any effort, or perceptible interposition of the will. No effort indeed is either used, or is requisite. It matters not whether the thing be good or evil; whether it be right or wrong, either morally, intellectually, or mechanically: whether it involve the practice of virtue or vice; the right or the wrong exercise of the mental faculties, or the mere operations of a mechanical trade. In all cases habit becomes, in the language of the just and admonitory proverb, a second nature. It is to be particularly remarked, also, that it does not follow, in order that a habit be established, that the exercise of it give pleasure. The mere establishment of it secures its continuance in all ordinary cases; and to act in opposition to it, or to do any single act contrary to the habit, requires a strained and watchful effort. Even the laborious and degrading operation of the tread. mill, having become habitual, may seem to solicit into activity the energies of its abject victim. The same remark equally applies to intellectual and moral habits. tain associations and trains of thinking, having become habitual to us, determine the order in which our ideas shall follow, and connect themselves with one another, and even the mode in which they shall be expressed. Hence every disciplined mind has his system; and every practised writer his style. Having said thus much of the nature and agency of habits, we may observe that the all-pervading influence of this agency may be traced through the principles on which men act, and the characters of the authority to which they bow; and that too, whether these principles be good or evil, and whether submission to that authority be honourable or degrading. This influence facilitates and sweetens the progress of religion and rectitude; and inures to the opposite courses, and, in some measure renders them necessary, long after they have ceased to give forth the animal gratification, or whatever it may be, for the sake of which the reckless giddiness of youth first prompted to the adoption of them. It matters not how irrational the thing may be that has gained the ascendancy over the unthinking mind. When habit is once established, it exerts its influence unquestioned. Cer Hence it is, that we see men-and these too, not naturally devoid of understanding-whirled along in the giddy maze of endless frivolity and palpable absur dity, without one effort of resistance, or without seeming to imagine, that they had resigned any of those vestiges of departed greatness, that have still survived the fall. REV. DR CORMACK, (Barzillai the Gileadite) The Love of God.-When a poor lost soul is brought home to Christ and has all his sins forgiven him, and is made a child of God, it will take up a whole eternity to express and declare the greatness of that love. EDWARDS. He After two days he will revive us; in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. Hosea vi. 2, 3.-The Christian should learn to believe the Spirit of truth, the Word of God, the voice of Christ surely, before the father of lies, and the suggestions of mere flesh and blood. To the which, methinks, thou shouldest be easily persuaded, and then all the mist of thy spiritual miseries would be quickly dispersed. It is a mighty work to get any softness at all, or true repentance for sin into the heart of a man, it is naturally so stony, and the devil such a stirrer, so that most men are mere strangers to its workings. Yet for all that, when this penitent sorrow is once sincerely on foot in an afflicted soul, so endlessly and on every side are we pressed with the policy of our great enemy, that we are forward to feed upon tares still, and are still too wilful in refusing to be comforted. Satan then will be ready to say, Thou seest now, thy conscience being enlightened, that thy sins are so horrible and heinous, that they are too heavy for thee to bear,-there is no way But for thee, but to sink into horror and despair." "Come what sayeth Christ? Nay, now is the season, unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' Here now if thou wilt believe the voice of Jesus Christ rather than the sophistry of Satan: if thou will come to him when thou art called, thou shalt be presently lightened. Yea, but saith thy cunning enemy, thy heart hath been so hardened in sin 64 heretofore: now such a cloud of darkness hath seized upon it that there is no hope or possibility. But what saith the Word? "Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning." It is he alone that can most easily change the dismal midnight of thy present misery into the glorious midday of sweetest peace and lightsomeness of heart. Yea, but, said the tempter farther, thou hast lien long upon the rock of guilty horror, had much counsel, and been under the hands of many spiritual physicians, and yet no comfort comes. And what then? "Since the Hear what the Spirit of truth tells us : beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, besides thee, what He hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him." Waiting patiently for the Lord's coming to comfort us, either in temporal or spiritual distresses, is a right pleasing and acceptable duty and service unto God, which he is wont to crown with multiplied and overflowing refreshings when he comes. They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength." Nay, and shouldest thou die in this state of waiting, if thy heart in the meantime sincerely hate all sin, heartily thirst for the mercy of God in Christ, and resolve truly upon new universal obedience for the time to come, thou shalt certainly be saved, because the Holy Ghost saith, Blessed are all they that wait for him.' -BOLTON. The Christian Race.-Begin the Christian race from Affliction, We have, indeed, experienced the bene. ficial effects of affliction, if it has brought us to the source and fountain of all true happiness, if it has given to future and invisible objects the predominating in. fluence, which from their importance and magnitude they ought to obtain over those that are visible, or if it has the effect of animating us in our Christian course, whether this be brightened by sunshine or darkened by storin. ON THE TRANSMISSION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES, FROM THE TIME OF EZRA TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA. PART II. BY THE REV. ROBERT SIMPSON, A. M., Minister of Kintore, Aberdeenshire. 3. THE early institution of synagogues gave occasion to the multiplication of copies of the Old Testament Scriptures, and therefore contributed to secure their preservation and accuracy. The origin of synagogues has become involved in considerable obscurity; but it is sufficiently manifest that they existed from a very ancient date. Some have even affirmed, that traces of their existence may be discovered in the sacred writings long before the destruction of the first temple. And we, no doubt, find a few passages which might be so interpreted as to countenance this opinion. (2 Kings iv. 23. Psalm xxvi. 12.) In one instance, the word synagogue expressly occurs in our English version, (Psalm 1xxiv. 8;) as the same Hebrew term, however, is differently rendered in other places, nothing decisive of the point at issue can be inferred from the meaning it has been made to bear in this case by our translators. The schools of the prophets have sometimes been thought to resemble synagogues; though they had obviously more the cha racter of seminaries of sacred learning, than of places of worship; and their principal use seeins to have been to train up teachers of religion under the tuition of some venerable or inspired instructor. But it ap pears to be agreed on all hands that the Jewish syna gogue did not assume the form which it exhibited in the days of our Lord and his apostles, till after the Babylonish captivity. These religious assemblies for public worship, on the footing we here speak of, were probably first established in foreign cities by Jews who had taken up their residence there; and who, being cut off by distance from joining in the solemn services of the temple at Jerusalem along with their brethren, were led to supply the deprivation by meeting together to read the Scriptures and engage in other religious (Ezek. xxxiii. 31.) or at Shushan, (Esther iv. 16.) if The practice may have begun at Babylon, exercises. After this course was at first from indeed it was unknown before. adopted, when or however it may have originated, it became requisite, for the sake of good order and general edification, that the service should be conducted according to some fixed plan. Regular lessons, the law only, but afterwards also from the prophets, were therefore appointed for every Sabbath of the year. And a copy of the Sacred Record, Pentateuch, was reckoned indispensable to the forma tion and continuance of a synagogue. This fact, we or at least of the the cross, and whenever you faint or grow weary look may observe, makes it pretty evident that such insti back to it.-ADAM. tutions did not exist in the days of Jehoshaphat; be cause had they been then in being under the same regulations, it would have been unnecessary for the officers of that prince to carry with them copies of the | law to the places they visited. The deep and universal impression, that the great national calamities, which had befallen them, were occasioned by their neglect of the divine ordinances, led the pious Jews after the captivity to attend very strictly to the reading of the inspired writings; and from the same feeling, doubtless, synagogues were speedily erected throughout Judea and in Jerusalem itself. When Antiochus Epiphanes issued his decree peremptorily enjoining conformity on the part of all his subjects to that form of idolatry which he had established, the religion of the Jews was the main object of his persecution and hatred. And perceiving that the religious observances of that people were all professedly founded on the law of Moses, he gave a special command for the utter destruction of that portion of the Jewish Scriptures. The rigour with which this impious mandate was followed up no doubt proved the means of annilulating many copies. The details, however, of this cruel persecution sufficiently show that the tyrant did not accomplish his purpose, and imply, moreover, that synagogues were then in existence. For, while too many of the Jews yielded a more or less reluctant compliance with this sacrilegious decree of their oppressor, all the devoted servants of the God of their fathers, who escaped the sword of the persecutor, fled to the mountains and remained there, suffering the greatest hardships, till, headed by Mattathias, they marched into Judea, and restored the worship of the true God in all the cities and towns which fell into their hands. Now, is it not probable, in the very highest degree, that these intrepid and pious men would carry with them, into their hiding-places, copies of that holy book, for attachment to the principles of which they endured so much? And when they came forth from the fastnesses of the desert, where could they revive, as we are informed they did, the observance of religious ordinances but in the synagogues of the provincial towns that came under their influence, the capital and temple being still in the possession of their deadly foes? (1 Maccabees ii. and iii.; Josephus Antiq., book xii. 7, 8.) But as it is not to be supposed that so great a multitude of persons, nobly resolute in the defence of their religion, would be unprovided in their retirement with that book from which they drew support in adver- | sity, and on which also their civil institutions, as an independent people, were directly based, so it is explicitly stated, in authentic history, that they recovered copies of the law from the hands of the enemy. This fact is most circumstantially related. Some of the copies they got possession of again in this way, we are told, were polluted, through the inventive malice of their adversaries, with pictures of the heathen gods. All such, therefore, could be available only for the purpose of facilitating the writing out of other copies, as far as they could lawfully be applied even to that. But those manuscripts of the law, of which there were yet some, that were not thus contaminated, on being recovered, were restored to their for...er uses, the chief of which doubtless, was that of being read in the synagogues. In confirmation of these views, another circumstance deserves to be here mentioned. Down to the date of the persecution now referred to, the law only was read From the Gospel history it is obvious that synagogues 4. The well known rivalry which early arose between the Jews and the Samaritans, and continued to the days of our Lord, rendered one side a check upon the other, and so tended to preserve the Scriptures entire and uncorrupted. After the carrying away of the ten tribes by Esarhaddon, King of Assyria, colonies of strangers, chiefly Cuthites, were settled, by order of that prince, in the land of Israel. It appears from the sacred narrative that great inconvenience was experienced by these new settlers from the ravages of wild beasts, (2 Kings xvii.) In order to remedy this evil, a device, futile in itself, but in perfect accordance with the absurd notions of heathenism, was resorted to, which, however, was overruled by the providence of God, so as to pave the way for the introduction of true religion. An Israelitish priest was sent amongst these ignorant foreigners to instruct them in the observances of the Hebrew ritual. But we are not informed whether this priest carried with him a copy of the law or not. there is no evidence that he did, it is generally believed that the instructions he communicated were merely oral, and it may be, on his part, derived wholly from tradition. These people, in their religious services, now exhibited a most incongruous mixture of Judaism and idolatry. They feared the Lord, and served their And as |