there remained not any green thing in the trees, | it a source of unparalleled suffering; and the proor in the herbs of the field, through all the land phet expresses what they feel when they see them of Egypt."

Though the sending ef locusts to Egypt was miraculous, yet the mischief which they did to that country, hardly exceeds that which Shaw, Russel, and Volney, relate that they did to Barbary and Syria. It resembles the scourge which they inflict at this day on the inhabitants of the South of Asia, or North of Africa.

come.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH.

BY THE REV. JOHN CORMACK, D. D.,
Minister of Stow.
No. X.

FAITH AND TRUST DISTINGUISHED-MISCELLANEOUS
ILLUSTRATIONS OF.

THOSE who have cultivated any department of
scientific knowledge will readily admit, that it is
essential to success that they be well acquainted
with its nomenclature; that is, that they be able
to attach clear and definite ideas to the words and
terms which are peculiar to the science they are
studying. In entering upon these illustrations of
faith, accordingly, our first endeavour was to dis-
entangle that word from the technicalities and
obscurities in which it had been involved, and to
lead the reader to mark the way it is employed in
the Bible, the pure fountain of divine know-
ledge, and at the same time to reflect on his own
consciousness, when he believes anything what-
ever. The reason for reverting to this at present,
is to call attention to the proper import of the
word trust, which we shall have occasion to use
with more specialty in this paper than formerly.
We are not unfrequently told that this word sig-
nifies faith in a high, or in its highest degree.
Now, when an error of this kind has once gotten
the sanction of some great and venerated name, it
is generally adopted upon that authority, and is
apt to pass current without examination.

The prophet Joel thus details the ravages of locusts, which he witnessed in Judea : "Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land; a great people, and a strong, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and the cheek teeth of a great lion; a fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth. The land before them is as the garden of Eden, and behind them a wilderness of desolation; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and, as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains, so shall they leap; like the noise of a flame of fire, that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. They shall run like mighty men, they shall climb the wall, like men of war, they shall march every one in his ways, and they shall not break their ranks; neither shall one thrust away another, but they shall walk every one in his path; and, when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. They shall run to and fro in the city, they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses, they shall enter in at the windows thereof." Joel saith of this plague, as Moses had done before him of that inflicted on Egypt: "There hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, to the years of many generations." Well therefore might he call the time at which it came," a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness ;" and the appearance which it made, "as the mourning spread upon the mountains." In similar language, he paints the distress and dismay of the inhabitants of that land, which they visited, "before their face the people shall be much pained, all faces shall gather blackness." Inspired by the awaking subject, he expresses himself in these magnificent terms, "the earth shall quake before them, the heavens shall tremble, the sun and the moon shall be dark and the stars shall withdraw their light." He speaks as if the distress and dismay of the elements of the visible universe corresponded with the doleful condition of its rational inhabitants. By such phraseology" that the ground clave asunder that was under we are merely to understand, that the great as well as small, the influential as well as the insignificant, would be dreadfully alarmed, when they saw clouds of these insects obstruct the light of the sun, and fill the surrounding air.

However strong the language used by this prophet may appear, those who have witnessed the voracity of the locusts, have often since the time of Joel attested its truth. The inhabitants reckon their coming a dreadful calamity, and find

The simplest way to satisfy the reader, on the subject, seems to be this: If faith or belief signified the same thing with trust, then the words might be used interchangeably; that is, wherever the one word occurred, we might substitute the other, without altering the sense, except that we give higher approbation to him who trusts, than to him who simply believes. Let us test the matter thus: In divine revelation we are told of the fall of rebel angels, and of the fall of man through the arch-rebel's agency. Now, we understand what it is to believe this; but how shall any one apply the word trust to the narrative? We belive the reality of the miracles of Egypt, the passage of the Red Sea, and the journeyings in the wilderness; but can we apply the word trust in reference to these facts? Concerning the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, we are told

them and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained to Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them and they perished from among the congregation. And there came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense." Num. xvi. 31-35. In reading this passage, we are filled with horror at

the awful impiety of these wicked men, and stand | a deficieny of trust in the Lord Jehovah, in whom in awe at the righteous judgments of Him, with alone is everlasting strength. whom evil cannot dwell, and in whose sight sinners will not be permitted to stand; and convinced of the divine inspiration of the sacred book where all this is recorded, we believe it so firmly, that nothing can be added to our conviction of its truth. But how shall we, by any possibility, use the word trust in reference to this and similar narratives?

It was my anticipation that this paper would have brought the series to a close, by directing the believer's attention, and, if possible, the unbeliever's, to the inseparable connection between faith and happiness in the present life, as preparatory to the boundless beatitude of the life to come. But the explanations, deemed needful, have occupied more than the expected space, and preclude the possibility of adverting, in any adequate measure, to that important topic, and therefore I shall occupy the remainder of this paper with some simple practical remarks, which, by the blessing of God, may not be unprofitable to the humble Christian, who is desirous of "living as seeing Him who is invisible."

These illustrations are sufficient to satisfy any reflecting mind that trust is not a different degree of the same mental operation as faith or belief, but, in some respects at least, a different thing. Without dilating, where space must be husbanded, we may state that faith, or belief, is a generic term, extending to every thing which we believe, or should believe to be true, whether it refer to We here speak to professing believers, and in the divine perfections, or the divine administra-reference to the things which they profess to betion, to the records of facts, or judgments, pre- lieve. To such a person, being what he professes, cepts, duties, or doctrines, while trust is a specific the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom, term, extending only to a part of these. We which consists in the salvation of immortal souls, may state, therefore, that trust always implies must be a matter of the deepest interest, next to belief, but belief does not always imply trust. that of his own salvation. This being the case, the Faith, or belief, then, is the more comprehensive whole world with its thrones, and crowns, and term. Trust extends only to a class of the ob- sceptres, and all its glittering, but perishing pomp, jects of belief; and what are the objects included can never compare in value to that of the redempin that class may be easily understood by the ap- tion of one immortal soul. Then let me ask this plication of the word in common, as well as in scrip- same professing disciple of Christ, how he acts in tural, language. And I doubt not but the reflect-regard of the extension of that spiritual kingdom? ing reader will come to the conclusion, that, while faith extends to the whole revealed will of God, trust limits itself to confidence in the faithfulness of the divine promises, and the divine administration, in all that concerns the interests and happiness of the individual believer who trusts, whether these things refer to the advancement of the divine glory, in which he can never fail to take a lively concern, or the security of his own true interests for time and for eternity. It is to be observed, also, that trust, like hope, has reference to the future; and, indeed, we might in nothing material err, were we to say that trust is hope that has attained the full conviction that all its objects will be realized.

These remarks may be well illustrated by the language of the Psalmist; "They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever." Psalm cxxv. 1. How beautifully descriptive, as well as striking, is this image! Let the storm beat and the tempest rage, in all its elemental fury, and even hide from our view, for a time, the everlasting hills of that sacred Mount, yet when the calm returns, it speedily stands forth to the eye, unscathed, as all the time it stood unmoved. The fully realized stability we may not often witness as distinctly displayed in feeble flesh, even when largely sustained by divine grace; but that there have been many such instances in the history of the Church, we may afterwards take occasion to show; but, in the meantime, we may confidently remark, that wherever there has been a deficiency in this sublimity of character, when the day of trial puts it to the test, it has always originated in

How does he show his love to souls "dead in trespasses and sins?" How does he show it among the friends with whom he mingles? What is the style of his conversation? Secular affairs must be attended to, and business is a duty and not to be excluded. It has, and should have its place. But what is it in which the man delights? Is he glad to be done with the needful duties, and careful to do them in the spirit of a Christian ? Then what is his next resort? Having attended to his own interests, does he speak to those with whom he associates of infinitely higher interests? And instead of the coldness he felt in secular things,-for we shall suppose him so to have felt, -does he now enter with the whole heart, and with overwhelming feeling, into the spiritual and eternal interests of his friends? We leave the reader to answer for himself.

We next turn the attention of this same man to the little group of smiling happy faces that surround his comfortable fire-side; and we ask him what are the outgoings of his ardent affections toward them? The object of all his toil and traffic is to bring them up in a way suited to the place he holds in society. This is all well; for if a man provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own household, he hath denied the faith," and is not a Christian but an infidel, and "worse than an infidel;" for the wild beasts, that prowl in the desert, would sacrifice their own lives in the support and protection of their offspring. But thou art a professing Christian; and at the baptism of these smiling little ones, thou didst vow to train them up in the nurture and admonition of

CONVERSION OF DR CAPADOSE,

A PORTUGUESE ISRAELITE.
PART II.

From the French, by the Translator of Gonthier's" Devotional
Exercises for the Communion."

I ENJOYED the confidence of my patients, and, by the
blessing of God, was what is called a successful physi-
cian; but, as I had no trust in medicine, I passed
my days in painful constraint. My uncle, that revered
old man, in whose house I was living, seeing me
fatigued with the laborious duties of the day, was not
pleased to find me devoting the hours of the even-
ing to study, for, impatient to engage in some pursuit
more congenial to my taste, than that to which my
profession called me, and only finding myself free at
night, I in this way had contracted those evening habits
which afterwards proved so useful to me. Still, all
this nocturnal labour allowed the frightful void to re-
main in my heart, which rendered my life so wretched.
Not that I felt any disquietude at this time on account
of my sins; no, certainly, for in that case I would have
shuddered to ask God to let me die; but I was under
the burden and curse of sin, without feeling any anxiety
to be delivered, nay, without even suspecting that I

was so.

66

I went one day to visit my intimate friend (Dacosta) who had been lately married. He had just received a letter from the celebrated professor with whom he maintained a literary correspondence. "Would you like to hear his letter read," he said to me, with some very beautiful verses which he has addressed to me?""With all my heart," I replied. These verses, in which he described with energy and unction the glorious hopes of Israel, were truly sublime; they concluded with the following apostrophe:

"Be a Christian, dear friend, and content I shall die." At these words, which were pronounced in a low tone of voice, I felt my indignation rising; my friend did not appear to me to take sufficient offence at them. "Beware," I said to him, "there is a plan formed to seduce us.' -And thereupon, I rose and came away hurriedly. During the whole of that day, my mind remained as it were absorbed and lost in its own refections. I could not conceive how a man of such profound attainments could believe in the Christian Religion, nor how he, who had been for years upon a footing of the closest intimacy with us, without ever breathing one word about Christianity, and who even appeared to have so much veneration for the Old Testa. ment, should suddenly alter his manner, and write to iny friend in this strain. With a heart naturally open to suspicion and distrust, I perceived in all this nothing but a well-concocted plan to ensnare us, and I was pained at the thought that my friend did not share the full amount of my indignation.

of the two Testaments by the fulfilment of the prophecies.

In this way several months passed away, when, finding more and more encouragement to prosecute researches which were every day becoming more interesting, we resolved to accomplish what we had attempted to no effect some years before, but with very different motives and dispositions; in other words, we agreed to meet as often as possible for the purpose of reading together the Scriptures, and of communicating to each other such doubts and reflections as might occur to us. With this view, we retired to a private apartment in my father's house, and it is not without a deep and lively emotion, without adoring the goodrecall to mind those happy moments, those hours so ness and wisdom of the ways of Providence, that I sweet and blessed, which we passed together, as in the presence of the God of our Fathers.

Our zeal and interest in the task which we had prescribed to ourselves, increased as we advanced. My mind, wearied with fruitless researches, now beheld a new and boundless field opening up before it, upon which it entered with that confidence and that irresistible attraction which, at a later period, I clearly discerned to be the act of God the Father's electing love, by which He draws to his beloved Son the soul that is to be saved. This was to me a fact, an experimental truth, before I had ever heard a word about the doctrine of election and preventing grace. This study of the Word of God, became ultimately the strongest desire of my heart, the most crying appetite of my moral being. It was not enough for me to have a of it as a substantial element of life, as the very food speculative knowledge of the truth, I felt the necessity of my soul. Although I had as yet no right apprehension of what was going on in the depths of my heart, still I recollect having had moments of indescribable joy, when I thought I could trace along my path, visible proofs of assistance and protection from above.

myself, engaged in our usual employment, my brother One day as we were sitting together, my friend and surprised us he observed upon the table, along with the Bible which lay open, a Spanish book, the only uninspired work which we read with the Scriptures. He opened the book, and hastily glanced at the titlepage. The title was, A Defence of the Faith of Christians,' by Professor Heydeck. He had read only the first words, 'A Defence of the Faith,' when, throwing down the book, he said to us, "I wonder what you two gentlemen are doing together every day; are you going to become rabbins?" Then, changing the conversation, he went away. We could not but see the hand of God in this; for if my brother had read the whole title of that book, we must have been discovered, or at all events our families would have suspected the object of our interviews.

Upon another occasion, I was in my uncle's library, and always on the look out for something connected with the subject which now wholly engrossed my mind, my eye wandered impatiently over the mass of books before me, if haply it might light upon one which treated of Christianity. At length I discovered a huge folio, entitled, ‘Justini Philosophi et Martyris Opera,' From this day I date the period when I took the that is to say, The Works of Justin, the Philosopher Word of God into my hands, with the serious intention and Martyr.' Although I knew nothing at the time of of examining it. My friend on his part does the same. this author, or of his works, the title of Martyr sugFrom this time, when we had an opportunity of walk-gested to me that possibly I might find something here ing together, our conversations turned upon the pas-relating to the Christian religion. I opened the book, sages of Scripture which had specially engaged our attention. Having commenced with the Gospel according to St. Matthew, I was very much struck in the outset, to find that this Evangelist, far from overthrowing the authority of the Old Testament, makes it, on the contrary, the very basis of his work, and proposes to himself nothing else but to show the unity

and the first article which met my eye was the 'Dialogue with Trypho the Jew.' I read it with avidity, and found in it a succinct exposition of the prophecies regarding the Messiah, which was of great service to me. This was another visible proof of the guiding hand of Providence, and it could not fail to leave a deep impression upon my soul.

One night I was reading the book of the prophet | Isaiah: I came to the 53d chapter, which flashed conviction upon my mind as if I had read it in the glare of a light from heaven. I perceived so clearly the wonderful harmony of the prophetic portrait, in its minutest features, with what I had read in the Gospel, of the character and sufferings of Jesus Christ, that I really believed for the moment that another Bible had been substituted for my own. I could not persuade myself that that 53d chapter of Isaiah, which may be truly called an abridged Gospel, had actually a place among the books of the Old Testament. After so reading it, it was no longer possible for an Israelite to doubt that Christ was the promised Messiah. Whence came an impression so strong, so irresistible, as that which I now felt? for I had frequently read that same chapter unmoved. The true answer is, that formerly I read it in the blindness of nature, but now in the light of the Spirit of God. From this moment I clearly recognised in Christ the true Messiah; and our meditations upon the Word of God assumed a character entirely new. It was the commencement, the dawn of a glorious day to our souls; the vivifying rays of celestial light shone brighter and brighter upon us, dissipating the darkness of our minds, warming our hearts, and affording me at this period inexpressible consolation. I began to see the why and wherefore of so many of the enigmas of life, which had long engaged my attention, perplexing and tormenting me, rather than soothing and instructing me. Every object around me seemed instinct with new life; the end and interest of my existence were entirely changed. Oh, happy days, blest with the feeling of my Saviour's presence! I shall never forget them! Seldom do I read of the journey of the two disciples to Emmaus, without feeling the recollections of those days thronging back upon my mind, when my friend and I met together, and took our solitary walk. Like them, we may say, "Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures?

the identical passage of Isaiah upon which I had just been meditating in private. My soul was deeply affected by this circumstance, and I perceived in it another evident mark of the hand of God. "And why then," I replied, “will we not acknowledge the truth?" At this moment my uncle entered. It was dinner hour. "What question are you discussing?" he inquired. The doctor informed him; and knowing my uncle to be deeply versed in rabbinical lore, asked him what the rabbins said of that passage. "Alas! a tissue of nonsense," replied my uncle, as he rose from his seat. We passed into an adjoining room, where dinner was served up. My heart beat strongly, and I blessed God from my inmost soul, for having allowed me to hear these words from the mouth of a man whose rabbinical knowledge was held in great authority among the Israelites.

All these circumstances, brought about by the wis dom and goodness of God, served to convince me more and more, that in Christianity alone was the truth. But what had been at first only an appetite of my intellectual being, was now become a yearning of the heart. Knowledge no longer satisfied me; I felt that I must have something to love. Now it was that the rays of the Sun of Righteousness, which was rising higher and higher upon us, not only shone with dar zling effulgence upon my mind, but at the same time visited my heart with that vivifying and celestial warmth which quickens us with the life of God. I saw now that it was love that moved the Lord to seek me when lost: I began also to feel my sins, or, to speak more properly, my total wretchedness. But this feeling was in a measure swallowed up in that of the divine love. Thus far was I brought. I had found in Christ my life, the central point of all my affections, and of all my thoughts; the only object capable of filling up the inimortal depths of my heart, the key to every mystery, the principles of all true philosophy, of all truth, the Truth itself.

In proportion as the Spirit of God "shut me up" in I have already said, that, by the direction of God, the faith, I felt myself more unhappy in the situation we had refrained from communicating to any one what in which I was placed;-losing in my uncle's house so was going on in our hearts, and that, confining ourmany hours every day, and so many precious evenings, selves to the reading and investigation of the Word of which I could have wished to have employed in proseGod, we threw aside every other book, with the single cuting my inquiries further into the only subject upon exception of Professor Heydeck's work, which we re- earth which now interested me. Those anxieties which gularly consulted. This learned author had formerly constantly harassed my mind, joined to the ardent debeen a rabbin in Germany; subsequently, he embraced sire which I had to make an open confession of my Popery, and was elected Professor of the Oriental faith in Christ, had the effect of shattering a constituLanguages in the University of Madrid, where, I be- tion, which had never indeed been very strong. My lieve, he still is. His work, which we now had in our uncle having advised me to leave town for some weeks, hands, written in the form of letters, in a lively style, and breathe the fresh air of the country, I gladly comand displaying an intimate acquaintance with the Scrip- plied with his advice. My mother, my excellent motures, contained a defence of Christianity against ra- ther, who had always cherished a particular affection tionalism. The reading of this book was doubly useful for me, insisted upon accompanying me. In this life to us, in as much as we could not fail to observe how of rural repose, which left me at greater liberty to fol that reasoning which distinguished the author, and low my own inclinations, I felt an irresistible desire to which was so powerful and so convincing when grap- open my heart to my kind mother. Accordingly, as pling with the principles and reasonings of a Voltaire we were walking one day alone, I turned the converand a Rousseau, abandoned him entirely when brought sation to the subject of religion; though at first I to the defence of Popery against the doctrines of the trembled and staminered a little. "You see, mother," Reformation. I said to her," that I am a good deal occupied in readWhen I happened to have a leisure hour in the morning the Bible: do you know that the prophecies, after ing, I always retired to read the Word of God in pri- all, may have been fulfilled, and that the Christians vate; for I dared not do so in my uncle's presence. may be in the right?" "He who does his duty as an One day, I had been more particularly occupied with honest man, is accepted by God," was my mother's rethe consideration of that passage in the 7th chapter of ply; "and you, my son," she continued, "beware lest Isaiah: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a you allow yourself to be led away by your enthusiasm, son, and shall call his name Immanuel." I went down and your warm imagination." Upon this she changed stairs from the library, and found an Israelite physi- the conversation, carefully avoiding every thing that cian, a friend of my uncle's, who was waiting for him might again lead to it. I thought that she had not in the anti-chamber. He was engaged in looking over exactly apprehended what I was so anxious to commua new edition of the Bible. " Well," said he, address-nicate to her; but my mother, a woman of a mild and ing me first, "there at least is one fatal passage which we can hardly wrench from the Christians." It was

thoughtful character, treasured up my words in her heart; and, some weeks afterwards, upon our return