We have long known this useful little book of reference, and rejoice to see its progress and maturity. This is its fourth edition, and, as may well be expected, it has not come to a fourth generation, as it were, without multiplying its store of knowledge, and becoming more weighty and influential. We have called it, indeed, little, for so we first knew it, and it has not increased in stature, for it is of the convenient 12mo. size; but then, like some reverend doctor, it has become more portly, and broader across the back, and contains a great many more leaves, and a large increase of topics, and consists of about 430 pages. We should, however, neglect what is due to a subject of very great importance referred to in the preface, if we did not add that we entirely dissent from all the reasons it contains, and which are not those of the author, but of Dr. Russell, for disturbing the received chronology of the Bible, and introducing a new scheme. The more we know of that chronology which is founded upon the revealed facts of the Bible itself, the more we regard it as correct. The History of the Revival and Progress of Independency in England since the Reformation. By J. FLETCHER. Vol. IV. London: J. Snow. THIS Volume is the concluding one of a series relating the "History of Independency," that is, the system of church polity and its results maintained by the Congregationalists; and it deserves well from its style and mode of composition to rank in the class to which it claims to belong. The great work of Neal, the historian of the Puritans, is to general readers cumbrous, though to the student of history it is invaluable. This work, if less pretending and appearing in a more modest form, is, for that very reason, the better adapted for being generally read and thought over, as its facts and details, as well as its philosophy deserve. The Jamaica Missionary; a Life of W. Knibb, sionaries, which the author is about to publish, in continuance of a series commenced last year, entitled "Biographies for the Young." A better subject to commence with could hardly have been selected, for the incidents in the life of William Knibb, the hater of slavery, and the preacher of righteousness, are striking and captivating. The plainness and simplicity with which it is written make it intelligible to any child, while the circumstances and the letters contained in it render it a most profitable and spirit-stirring narrative. Missionary Stories from the South-SeasNo. I. May Meetings in the South-Seas. London: S. T. Williams, 29, Moorgatestreet. ALL who love and honour our Lord and Master, and his servants for his sake, must rejoice to help on and encourage those whom they have left behind. The son of John Williams, that blessed martyr for, and faithful preacher of, the truth of God and his Christ, has commenced the publication of a small series, admirably adapted to give to the children of Sunday-schools, and promising to be full of interest and edification. We recognize several names, as the subjects of future numbers, that give every hope of success. These are to be lives of Malse, Chief of Rarotonga, of Papeita, a native teacher of Tamatoa, king of Raiatea, and others in succession. BOOKS RECEIVED. Hymn-Book for National Associations. By Fulness of the Gospel in the gift of Eternal The Jewish Herald. No. 42. Baptism, its Nature, Efficacy, and Improve- Tyler and Reed, Printers, Bolt-court, London. THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL MAGAZINE. THE STREAM OF PROPHECY. TRACES OF THE FULFILMENT OF NOAH'S PROPHECY. (Continued from page 196.) THE language of Divine prophecy is remarkably peculiar. It has its literal meaning, strictly so when the letter is properly understood; and it has also its figurative, or allegorical meaning. As its promises and revelations were commonly delivered in poetry, so these partake somewhat of the nature of poetry, one of the common rules of which is to allow of a part being taken for a whole, an individual for a people, or a city for a nation. Instances of this might be given without end, but it will suffice now to refer to one, which has often raised doubts from not having been thus understood, and which is the one, the fulfilment of which we are now tracing out. "Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant." We have already traced out the fulfilment of this prophecy as applicable to the whole family of Ham, of which Canaan was the representative figure, but we have yet to see its complete and literal fulfilment, when Canaan himself, in his posterity, should bow before the Lord God of Shem, and be compelled to confess, that "verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth." In fact, the time of judgment was now fast approaching. When Abraham and his posterity went down into Egypt the day of wrath had not come, for the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full, and the righteous Judge would not destroy the righteous with the wicked. Still the mystery of iniquity was at work. Idolatry and all its abominations were fast consummating the designs of Satan against man. The day of retribution upon Egypt and judgment upon Canaan came. The enslaved were delivered out of the hands of the Egyptians, and were marched in triumph, after their sojourn in the wilderness, into the land so long promised to them and their forefathers. They had but to go up and enter into possession. Under the command of Joshua their progress was an almost uninterrupted course of success. Without the means of assaulting and battering down the strongholds of the country, which modern warfare has, they were so miraculously led and aided by the very hand of Jehovah, "That haughty Jericho's cloud-piercing wall Sank at the sound of Joshua's trumpet-call;" and some of the greatest of the tribes submitted to ignominious conNEW SERIES, VOL. II.] AUGUST, 1849. H ditions to secure their safety, rather than hazard their lives in a contest, in which they felt that their own vain idols were not deities to be relied upon in presence of the Lord God of Israel. The prophetic hymn of Moses was fulfilled to the very letter, and with it was accomplished the older prediction of Noah. "The people heard and were afraid: sorrow took hold upon the inhabitants of Palestina. All the inhabitants of Canaan melted away." Their strength was dissolved, their glory was departed, all their pride and magnificence were gone, and Canaan became the servant of Shem. The people thus marvellously planted in a day in the land long theirs by inheritance, increased and multiplied in numbers, and continually added to their power and wealth. The mercy and goodness of the God of Abraham, ever mindful of his promises to their father and His friend, were unceasingly exercised in benefiting them, and proving that the Lord God of Shem was among them, and that to bless them. Even their very ingratitude to Him he overruled to be a blessing to them, and when they besought a king, notwithstanding that God was their king, although at first he gave them one according to their own desire, yet he afterwards vouchsafed to them "the man after his own heart," whose wisdom-inspired son, Solomon, raised the nation to such a height of glory, that it became at once the admiration and the envy of the world, so that rulers from the end of the earth came to do honour to it, and those adjacent looked upon its preeminence with covetousness and hate. Meanwhile there were several nations around in whom the same promise was working out its fulfilment, and under the influence of it various kingdoms were rising into great power. Of these the mightiest were the Assyrian, the Babylonian, the Idumæan, the Egyptian, and the Phoenician. All of these were of Shemitic origin, and they all shared in their degree the blessing pronounced upon their great progenitor, and each had especial marks of its origin in the glory and renown to which it attained. It would be impossible here to attempt the very briefest sketch of each, and we shall content ourselves, therefore, with referring to one, whose success has never been sufficiently traced out in the light of this prophecy, and then taking up the first of the four great monarchies that play so conspicuous a part in the predictions of Daniel, in order to see how the power of the race of Shem gradually waned, and that of Japheth rose into eminence. The Phoenicians, to whom we now refer, became, at a period uncertain in history, the possessors of Tyre and Sidon, and the adjacent country. It is remarkable that in the original description of the land of Canaan by Moses, Sidon is apparently excluded, and neither Sidon nor his posterity are ever named among the tribes counted out from time to time as a possession to the children of Israel. It was reserved for another branch of the Shemitic family to supplant the aborigines of Tyre and Sidon, and to become themselves instead the great maritime nation of the race to which they belonged. It is doubtful whence the Phoenicians came, for they are variously reported by Herodotus and Strabo to have migrated from the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. If they came from the Red Sea, their origin was Assyrian; if from the Persian Gulf, it was Elamitic or Persian. That they were, however, This Shemitic is certain from their language, which Jerome represents as allied to the Hebrew, remarking the same of the Punic or Carthaginian, a cognate dialect, but one, he observes, still more remote from the mother tongue. Augustin also makes the same remark respecting the Punic language spoken at Hippo in his time. The conclusion from all this is obvious, and gives us another instance of the wonderful manner in which the providence of God wrought out the predictions of his præscience, by raising up the Phoenician commonwealth in the midst of Tyre and Sidon, and so rendering Canaan in this case also the servant of Shem. Nor was it here alone that they thus accomplished their own destiny, and the word of God. From Tyre and Sidon they spread themselves, both by colonies and by conquests, far and wide, but chiefly along the northern shores of Africa, inhabited by the Libyan or Phutian family of Ham, thus again making Canaan their servant in fulfilment of the prophecy. They first founded a colony at Utica, and subsequently in its immedicte vicinity at Carthage, whence sprang one of the most powerful people that the world has known. The colony at its foundation, like too many of modern formation, had purchased a settlement in Africa subject to a regular tribute, but as it gathered strength it endeavoured most unjustifiably to free itself from this charge. brought on contentions with the Africans, in which the Carthaginians were unsuccessful. Eventually, however, as they felt their power increase, they attacked the Moors and Numidians, and overcame both. Emboldened by these successes, they shook off entirely the tribute which was so galling to their pride, and possessed themselves of a considerable part of Africa, driving back or enslaving the aborigines, and hunting down the race of Ham to make Canaan their servant. They then turned their efforts in another direction, and settled in Sicily. Here, according to Virgil, had dwelt the famous giants, the Cyclops, having one eye only in the forehead, and being of a tawny or swarthy complexion. Making allowance for the fable, and understanding the single eye to refer to some glittering ornament worn on the forehead, as is common with savage men, this description plainly indicates the race of Ham again, who were remarkable for their height and gigantic powers as well as for their sable hue; and again, therefore, in this Phoenician colony in Sicily, we have the race of Shem supplanting that of Canaan. They extended their colonies further, invading Sardinia and reducing almost all Spain. They passed the pillars of Hercules, discovered the Cassiterides, are supposed to have visited Britain, and are believed to have been the primitive colonists and inhabitants of Ireland. They thus seemed to threaten the circumvention of the race of Japheth, which was at this time spreading itself over Europe. But that very race was designed to stay their progress, and itself to succeed to the blessings and privileges of the race of Shem. It had been promised that Japheth should dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan should be his servant. If the first promise had been wrought out as true, so must the second be. The Almighty had spoken, and who should gainsay it? the Lord commanded, and who could let or restrain his word and work?-In vain did Carthage, the descendant of the race of Shem, engage in rivalry with Rome, the descendant of the race of Japheth. In vain were the several Punic, Phoenician, or Carthaginian wars waged or resisted by those who were doomed. In vain had Hamilcar committed his hatred against Rome as an heritage to Hannibal. In vain had Hannibal sworn the most solemn oath to gratify his father's hate. In vain does feeble man ever design or attempt to execute, unless guided and upheld by the providence and the might of the Most High. God had willed and decreed otherwise than man hoped and desired. God had set bounds to the success of the race of Shem even as to the sea, and in his foreknowledge he had predetermined, "Thus far shalt thou go and no farther, and here shall thy proud course be stayed." He had withdrawn his favour from them, and bestowed it upon Japheth, and what the Lord chose who could counteract? Japheth was to enter into the tents of Shem, and Canaan was to become his servant, and the fall of the favoured race was to be accomplished that the elder one might he raised up. To trace out the fall of Shem, and the gradual rise of Japheth, until the full measure of the former's sin was complete in the death of the Messiah, and the latter blessed in the call of the Gentiles to God, must form the subject of our next enquiry. PUNCTUALITY AND REGULARITY INDISPENSABLE. THAT punctuality and regularity of attendance on the part of the teacher are essential to the welfare of a school, is, we think, evident to all who have had any experience in teaching; or who have allowed their minds to refer to the subject. It is almost superfluous, therefore, to attempt an elaborate proof of a truth so self-evident. It may serve, however, to increase our estimate of the importance of punctuality and regularity on the part of the teacher, if we glance at some of the evils arising from a want of these two qualities. The great object of Sabbath-school teaching is the communication of religious knowledge, which, by the blessing of the Holy Spirit's agency, may savingly change the whole character of the child. But time is requisite to effect this. If the knowledge to be acquired is to be acquired consecutively, and if the good received this Sabbath is not to be effaced by his absence on the next—then there must be regular attendance on the part of the scholar; and if he is to receive not the partial, but the full amount of benefit from Sabbath-school instruction, he must be punctual. But irregularity and a want of punctuality in the teacher frustrate the punctuality and regularity of the scholar. Children are characteristically imitative-and, from the depravity of our common nature, they are more ready to imitate our bad than our good qualities. The influence of example is more powerful with them than precept. And hence it almost invariably follows, that irregularity and a want of punctuality in the teacher are imitated and reciprocated by the scholar. It follows almost with the certainty of a fixed law, that the irregular, unpunctual teacher will have an irregular and unpunctual class. Let us attempt to draw a picture. The Sabbath with all its golden opportunities of doing good, has come round, the children have assembled, the incense of praise and prayer has ascended from their Sabbath-school |