you. My displeasure will be averted. You shall escape my judgments which I inflicted on your fathers. I will manifest my favour towards you, and bestow upon you my blessing!' The frequent repetition of the phrase "the Lord of hosts," cannot be overlooked. It is of unusually frequent occurrence in the first eight chapters of Zechariah, and occurs not fewer than three times in this one verse. It seems to be intended to intimate, not only the authority with which God spoke; but also the absolute certainty of the accomplishment of every word which proceeded from his mouth. It was well fitted also to inspire the mind of the people of God with unshaken confidence in his supreme, and resistless power. If the Lord had been sore displeased with their fathers, it was of immense importance that the returned exiles should beware of imitating their example. Hence they are next admonished, "not to be like their fathers, to whom the prophets cried, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear nor hearken unto me, saith the Lord."

The "prophets" and the "fathers" here referred to, are those who lived before the captivity. To the latter, God sent his servants to warn them of their danger, to expostulate with them, to entreat them to turn from their evil ways, and abandon their wicked practices. But in vain. They turned a deaf ear to the voice of God, and

"Though woo'd and aw'd, chastised and blessed,
Continued flagrant rebels still."

And thus they had brought upon the nation the dire calamities which were inflicted upon it by Nebuchadnezzar, and during the captivity. The awful danger of such a course is impressively pointed out by the question of verse 5th, "Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?" This question is not intended to suggest anything connected with the state of the prophets and fathers in the invisible and eternal world. The interrogative form of address sometimes implies a strong direct assertion. It is so here. It is equivalent to 'They do not live for ever,' so that the meaning of the prophet is, 'Your fathers are no more. They are dead, and not any longer to be found on earth. And the prophets, they also are gone. Death has swept both away.' This assertion of the mortality of men-of all classes of men-is designed to stand in contrast with the word of God. Hence, it is added, "But my word and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us."

66 My words and my statutes," or decrees, here obviously mean the Divine declaration and purposes, to punish the Jews who lived before the captivity, and at the time of it, if they did not repent. These "decrees" he made known to them by his servants, the prophets. There is a thrilling emphasis in the question, "Did they not take hold of your fathers?" An appeal is made to facts. They are pointed back to the history of their fathers; and the question is,- Were not my words fulfilled? Did not my purposes take effect? Did not my judgments overtake your fathers?' God is a God of truth; and though judgment is his strange work, yet he has revealed his wrath from heaven against the workers of iniquity; and the history of his dealings with his people illustrates the truth of the threatening, as well as the certainty of the promise. The effect of the execution of judgment upon the fathers was, that "they returned" and said,—“Like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us." It is difficult to determine the precise extent of the influence of the Divine judgments upon the minds of the Jews, here expressed by the term "returned." In its idiomatic use, before another verb, the original word simply expresses the repetition of the action described by the verb. But that it implies something more here is very manifest. The direct reference is, to the captives in Babylon; and we know that many of them, at least, were deeply humbled under the mighty hand of God; repented, and turned, with contrite hearts and weeping eyes, to Him. (Psalm cxxxvii.) It is well known that the captivity

cured them, as a people, of the sin of idolatry; and they were compelled to acknowledge, that the Lord of hosts was true; and as in regard of the promise, so also in reference to the threatening, not one word had failed of all that the Lord had spoken. These statements were well fitted to arrest the attention of the returned exiles, and were intended to warn them, lest, following in the steps of their fathers, they should involve themselves in similar judgments. But they are equally fitted to warn us. What things were written aforetime were written for our learning. Rebellion and impenitency in us, expose us equally to the Divine indignation. God's purpose to punish sin is fixed and unchangeable. It is only by turning unto Him that we can avert from us his judgments, and escape destruction. The Lord says to us, "Turn unto me, and I will turn unto you!" Let the Divine judgments on those who have gone before us stimulate our efforts. Let us remember that He is ready to receive us, and so sin shall not be our ruin.

N.

THE INFIDELITY OF THE WORKSHOP.

THE common people heard Jesus gladly. His preaching, both as to its matter and its manner, came home to their circumstances and their feelings with a degree of force it seldom carried in the case of the wealthy and the prosperous. The main strength of Christianity, so far as it receives strength from man, has always lain in its acceptance by the industrious classes; for although some of the brightest specimens of christian character have, in every age, been found, as they are found still, among those who have devoted great worldly wealth and high position in society to the cause of the Gospel, yet the poor man's influence, multiplied according to the proportion in which poor men abound, mounts far above what can be claimed for the "not many wise, not many rich, not many noble," who have devoted themselves on the altar of christian service.

That the Gospel should be regarded with peculiar favour by the working classes, is not difficult to account for. Struggling in the battle of life-often finding it a battle to obtain as much as shall keep body and soul together-begging of his richer neighbour, and often begging in vain, "for leave to toil"-finding himself frequently on the brink of want, while yet he sees plenty around him-ever the first to suffer in any depression of trade, any extensive political change, or any dearth of provisions, the working man is constantly in need of a comforter, such as the Gospel professes to be. Allow that much of the distress of the hard working poor is of their own causing-that many of them are careless and improvident in prosperity, "earning like horses and spending like asses,"-it is beyond a doubt that many others will have to continue poor, in spite of their best endeavours; for even after they have begun, as they think, to be doing well for the world, a prolonged fever, a family bereavement, a stagnation in commerce, shall suffice to throw them back into a position of want. And what resource have the poor against these oft-recurring calamities? Will they try the Socialist combinations, by which some would have them believe poverty is to be banished from the earth, and everybody is to have everything he can desire? All past experience has proved these schemes to be a delusion and a snare. Will they attempt political revolution? If they do, and if in the first step they seem to succeed, it will only be to find, in all likelihood, as the nation best acquainted with such changes has more than once found, and is finding at this day, that in overturning one kind of tyranny they are making room for another and a worse; and that whoever may be gainers by the new order of things, the industrious classes are sure to be losers. Whither, then, shall they turn for comfort? "O! the hope of Israel, and the Saviour thereof, in the time of trouble!" To whom shall they go but unto Thee? In the clear and well-authenticated testimony of Jesus, which stands out solid rock amidst the fleeting billows and empty spray of the schemes and projects of this world, they may find that strong consolation which they need.

And yet, in our day, so far as concerns Great Britain, it is among the working classes chiefly, not to say exclusively, that we meet with the open denial of the truth of the Gospel. In many a neighbourhood, where the inhabitants are dependent mainly on rough manual labour, the people in more comfortable circumstances may

be seen, with few exceptions, to attend religious ordinances more or less regularly on Sabbath; while, of the working class, the larger proportion scarcely ever see the inside of a church once in a twelvemonth. "The view from the sick-chamber, of a street inhabited principally by artizans, during the time of Sunday morning public service, is very melancholy. Ministers of the Gospel hardly suspect what numbers are strolling indolently about-not ragged drunken fellows either, but intelligent-looking working people, arrayed in their best clothes, with wives and sweethearts by their side. Every country walk in the neighbourhood presents a similar spectacle. It is not to be inferred that these Sabbath-strollers are all deliberate unbelievers; for most of them, it is probable, have never taken so much thought about Christianity as to have reached any distinct conclusion in regard to its truth or falsehood. But these are the material out of which each successive race of open infidels is formed. They are following the courses for which infidelity, when formally proposed to them, is welcomed as a plausible vindication, a composing draught to a wakeful conscience; and if, to obtain relief from the tedium of the mis-spent Sabbath, they resort to discussion with the scoffer, who is nowhere more likely to be met than in such walks, the circumstances predisposing them to the contagion leave but a slender hope of their escape. Standing in the way of the sinner, it is an easy and a natural step to mount into the chair of the

scorner.

But it is not on the Sabbath alone, or when he might be supposed to be courting temptation, by wilfully neglecting christian ordinances, that the working man is exposed to the seduction of infidel principles. In the intervals of his daily toil, or even while it is going on, if noise or watchful overseers do not hinder, he may have occasion to hear, or to take a part in, the strife of tongues concerning the claims of religion. The professedly christian youth, not well grounded in the knowledge and love of the Gospel, who is thus brought into contact with infidels zealous for the triumph of their principles, breathes an atmosphere of poison, and no wonder if his religion, such as it is, soon languish and die.

"Others may have it in their power to keep out of the way of danger; not so the working man. Day after day, and week after week, and month after month, incessantly will the workers in a shop be exposed to hear the christian religion assaulted with all the weapons which infidelity has practised long with too much success. How many among those who, from being professed Christians, have become avowed Deists, may trace the cause of the change to this source! The mischief done in this way by even a single individual of talent, who is a ready talker and of attractive conversation, and who has-as is commonly the caseall the arguments used by infidels, together with the formidable auxiliaries of jest, jibe, ridicule, raillery, insinuation, misrepresentation, etc., ready at any moment for use, is immense. By this necessary consequence of their condition, as society is constituted, a great proportion of the working people in a city may be brought under the pernicious influence of a comparatively small number of men of infidel principles, and by this means has infidelity stretched forth its iron hand and grasped those who otherwise would have been out of its reach; for many of them would never have read any of its publications, nor attended any of its lectures and discussions. The spirit of unbelief which, among other things, the mighty impetus given to the public mind, roused to energy and active exertion, found in this condition of the working classes a ready conductor, by which its power was sent to their humblest and to their most peaceful abodes; and thus were the principles of infidelity spread among working men."+

Workshop infidelity is seldom of a very profound description. Sometimes, though but rarely, it is atheistic, and then it displaces the Maker and Ruler of the universe by some easy and familiar process! "I never see a cat tormenting a mouse, but I see a proof that there is no God," is one of its demonstrations a posteriori,-benevolently investing irrational creatures with the sensibilities of rational ones, and then making the incongruous image a proof that the world created itself! But this enormous negation, though sometimes conceived in the brain and uttered by the tongue, finds too much resistance in the native instincts of the human heart, ever to be very dangerous with young workmen; and infidelity, to become popular, must assume a less skeleton-like form; which accordingly it does, in the creed of the Deist. Admitting that there is a God-it denies the interposition of God's providence in the affairs of this world-and specially it de

*Green's Prize Essay on the Working Classes.

Spears' "Creed of Despair."

nies that he has interposed by a direct revelation of his will. "If God has spoken, why," it demands, "is not the universe convinced?"-taking for granted that conviction always follows proof; though plainly, what it holds to be the strong proofs of the absurdity of the Bible have failed to convince anybody but unbelievers! The Deist of the workshop, following the leadership of Voltaire, Thomas Paine, Richard Carlyle, and others, holds the writings of Moses to be a tissue of fables, like the fictions of the Chinese and the Hindoos, invented to flatter a people, by ascribing to them a highly ancient descent. The narrative of the creation he holds to be disproved by the facts of astronomy and geology. The miracles of Scripture he divides between the arts of jugglery and oriental romancing. But though false and fabulous in everything it relates that would imply its divine origin, he maintains the Bible to be a faithful record in whatever seems to disparage the characters it would teach us to respect. The faults of Abraham and Jacob, David and other scripture saints-the extirpation of the Canaanites by an alleged Divine command-the debasement and perversity of the Hebrew race-the whole system of Jewish government, through the instrumentality of priests, and under the alleged direction of Heaven-these and other representations of the Old Testament, he treats with bitter scorn. His views of the New Testament, and the Divine Redeemer, whose history and doctrine it unfolds, are sometimes expressed in the same terms of bitter ribaldry which he employs concerning the Old; but generally, perhaps, he speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ with some measure of respect. Let us hear, on this point, a working man's description of the Deist of the workshop :

"A very general idea prevailing among the least rancorous of the infidel class may be gathered from the following statement: Jesus, the son of Mary by Joseph, was a person of studious habits, amiable temper, and unexceptionable morals. Being a man of observation and reflection, and imbued with fine sympathies, he was moved by the hapless condition of the oppressed masses of the Jewish population, to attempt the reformation of public morals, and thus to elevate the poorer classes to a better condition. In the course of his endeavours to effect this object, he gave, by his honesty and plain-speaking, mortal offence to the Pharisees and ruling men of Jerusalem, who therefore resolved upon his destruction, and having falsely accused him to the Roman ruler, abandoned him to the fate of a criminal.' Others less lenient in their judgment, pronounce him an impostor, or pretended prophet, leading a band of ignorant fanatics through the country, with the ultimate view of placing himself, through the suffrage of the people, at the head of the priestly party. Others, again, denounce him as a slave of ambition, aspiring to the throne of Judea; while some allow him the character of a good patriot, working unweariedly and well, actuated by the stedfast determination of eventually freeing his countrymen from the Roman yoke. But these are all borrowed opinions, and may be found severally set forth in the works of infidel writers. The holders of these unfounded notions have never seriously applied to themselves the question, What think ye of Christ?' Nor are they likely to do so until the necessity-the paramount urgency of the necessity for something better than the power of reformer or patriot is presented to an awakened conscience.

6

"It need hardly be stated that the claims of the New Testament as an inspired book, are rejected by the Deist with sovereign contempt. He knows the entire history of the 'forty gospels,' and he sneers at the notion that a catholic council should select, by some species of conjuration, the four only true narratives, and consign all the remainder to oblivion. He believes just as much of these narratives as help him to a notion of the events of the time, and even these he receives cum grano, inasmuch as the narration of a miracle is with him undoubted proof either of the falsehood or gross superstition of its author-either of which qualities renders him unworthy of credence.

"As a religion (all religions, however, being unnecessary to a right reasoning community) he considers the religion of Christ, as set forth by himself, the best; but he has a very different appreciation of the Christianity of the present day, in which he can see but very few points of resemblance to that promulgated by its original founder. He contends that the corruptions of Christianity began with its earliest disseminators, and that of all the deadly foes to the simplicity, and consequent usefulness of that religion, the man called Saint Paul was the first, the most fanatical, and the worst. He sometimes even declares that he might himself have been a Christian, but for the infernal doctrines with which that man has trammelled and sophisticated a simple and beautiful system of morality and brotherly love; and he marvels much that any one can be found to admire the insane reasonings, or adopt the unfounded conclusions, of this rabid and dogmatic bigot."*

Infidel opinions are propagated among working-men, not only by conversation, but by lectures and discussions, and by a cheap press. "The works of the most

* Charles Smith's, "The Shadow of Death."

6

celebrated writers," says Mr Spears, formerly quoted, " are sold either in volumes, or in parts or numbers; the price of the last being generally twopence. Thus the writings of Paine, Volney, Mirabaud, &c., are made to suit the means of working people. Such parts of the works as relate directly to the subject of infidelity are printed in a cheap form, seldom exceeding one shilling. In this manner are sold Hume's Essay on Miracles,' Voltaire's Important Examination of the Holy Scriptures," and others. The works of R. D. Owen, and a great number of essays, pamphlets, and periodicals by various modern authors, are in the same way printed at a price that the poorest may be able to obtain them. There are in each large city, one or more booksellers' shops, where the books sold are principally works of this description; they are published in London, thence supplied to these booksellers, and thus distributed over the kingdom."

And how most effectually shall Christians, in the Spirit of God, raise up a standard against these inroads of the enemy? To convert infidels by argumentation is, we fear, a task next to hopeless. The evil spirit in this instance, will go out by no other door than the one by which he came in ; and that was not the head but the heart. The love of sin, and the desire to cloak it from the observation of faithful conscience, lead to the wish that the Bible were untrue; and the wish is father to the thought. The exposure of false reasoning will seldom be of much avail, unless, at the same time, the conscience be helped to assert its authority; but if, through the afflictions and alarms of providence, conscience be re-instated on its throne, the intellect will see more clearly to do its office of apprehending truth. "There are voices," beautifully observes Mr Smith, "which may reach his heart, though he be deaf as the adder to that from human lips. From a sick couch-from a dying bed-from an infant's grassy grave, or an honoured parent's tomb, the self saine warning accents may arise that resounded in olden time through the wilderness of Judea ; and, as did the voice of the desert prophet, may herald the coming of Him who is yet mighty to say-to save even the infidel and the scoffer * * * There come times of dejection and humiliation, even for the proudest; the storms of adversity and sorrow that sweep in wintry wrath the surface of society, may reach him as well as another; and when he is cast down to the ground in the solitary face to face struggle with personal calamity, it is no great marvel if the fabric which pride alone had suffered to rear and to maintain, be shivered at the blow." But while waiting God's time for bringing home truth in his own way, it becomes Christians to watch carefully lest they themselves be strengthening the hold of error upon the unbeliever's mind. To regard him, on the one hand, with complacent approval, as if we reckoned his unbelief no very important matter after all; and, on the other hand, to frown upon him continually as if our reprobation of his error made us careless as to any means of convincing him of the truth, are equally to be avoided; and yet to steer a middle course between them is sometimes no very easy task. Above all, Christians had need to see that they are not fortifying him in his prejudices against the Gospel, by the inconsistency of their own lives with its divine and holy precepts, a cause which, as they who best know life in the workship attest, tends more than any other within the control of Christians themselves, to aid the diffusion of infidel principles among our working men.

To strengthen the young and inexperienced against the assaults of the scoffer, it is well that he have ready access to such works as Bishop Watson's "Apology for the Bible," and Leslie's "Short and Easy Method with the Deists," as well as new publications appearing from time to time, adapted to new turns of the deistic controversy. But it is still more important that he be well grounded in his knowledge of the Bible itself. Our Lord used no other defence in meeting the great tempter; and if a man have the word of God dwelling in him richly, he will usually find in it enough either to turn back at once the assault aimed at him, or to maintain himself firmly on the ground of his faith, till he have time to examine more fully, the point assailed.

For the principal quotations embraced in this paper, as well as for many of the facts embodied in our own remarks, we are indebted to a volume entitled "Prize Essays on Infidelity," just issued under the sanction of the Evangelical Alliance, by Messrs Partridge and Oakey. The volume includes two essays-" The Shadow of