'I wish to ask you whether you would apply the title of Redeemer of Jacob to any but God?'

'What then does Jacob mean by that expression, "God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God that fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads." Gen. xlviii. 15, 16. Who is this redeeming Angel?'

You will not say it is our Messiah, at any rate,' observed Alick; for according to you he is far above all created angels.'

'True, he is so; but in his character of one appointed and sent on an especial work by his Father, I do allow, in this instance, the application of the term Angel, which signifies a messenger, to him.

'Now I remember,' said Alick eagerly, 'little as yet I know of the Bible, I remember a passage that explains this. When Moses led my fathers up out of Egypt, the Holy One said to him that he would send an angel to deliver them, whom they were to obey. This proves that power could be given to an angel, for a special purpose, to redeem the people from temporal evils.'

'I am delighted, my dear boy, to hear you proving scripture by scripture. Now let us look at that passage; you will find it in the twenty-third chapter of Exodus, the twentieth and following verses. Read it attentively.'

Alick read; "Behold, I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him and obey his voice, provoke him not;

for he will not par

don your transgressions: for my Name is in him.

But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries." This is what I alluded to; and it is very plain.'

'It is very plain, Cohen,' said Captain Ryan, solemnly, and I beseech you to ponder it deeply. The glorious King who will yet come to reign over you, and us, and over the whole earth, the Messiah, the Anointed One, He it was who first brought your fathers into the good land which we hope shortly to visit: the land given by covenant to Abraham and his seed; and into which the Angel-the messenger of that covenant led them. I now ask you, do you know the meaning of that great and terrible name by which God revealed himself to Moses; which your people avoid pronouncing, and which, therefore, I never pronounce to them. Do you know the high import of this name?' and he pointed it out to him in Hebrew.

'I know it imports greater things than we can utter,' replied Alick.

Is it not expressive of self-existence, of eternity, of unchangeableness,-in short, is it not altogether incommunicable? would it not be blasphemy most fearful in any creature to assume to himself that awful name?'

'Who would, who could dare to do it! We reject your Nazarene, because he ventured to claim it, and we are shocked at you for supporting that claim.' 'And we support it, Cohen, as much on the strength of this very passage as any other. This Angel is one sent; that is clearly expressed: and of this Angel it is declared that the great, the awful, the incommunicable Name IS IN HIM. To him they are required to

yield obedience, not because God, as then speaking to them, will punish disobedience offered to his appointed vicegerent, but because "HE will not pardon your transgressions." The power of forgiving sins resides in him; and who can forgive sins but God alone? Obedience is to be rendered unto him by the command of God, who elsewhere has repeatedly said, that he will not give his glory to another; and the people are cautioned not to provoke him, because, evidently, the power to punish resides independently in him. This is indeed He to whom the Father says, in the forty-fifth Psalm, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." This is he of whom it is said in the second Psalm, "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the right way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him." Yes, and "Cursed is he that putteth his trust in man, and maketh flesh his arm."

Alick listened with deep attention: I do not deny that you have startled me very much: but I have no doubt our learned men have found another meaning for these expressions.'

'They have done their utmost to explain them away, of course; and hence it is that though Moses, who testified of Christ, is read in the synagogues every Sabbath day, you cannot perceive his meaning

the veil is on your hearts. In the day when you shall turn to the Lord, rejecting all the glosses and perversions of men, and desirous to be taught of Him alone, in that day the veil shall be taken away, and you shall clearly see what is now hid from your eyes. All that I ask of you is an unprejudiced examination of your own scriptures, with incessant

prayer to God that he would illumine and direct your mind. He alone can reveal himself to you; and if you will not ask for such revelation, surely you despise the gift, and must expect to be left in darkness. Secret prayer over the word of God can do nothing but good. He will not lead you into error, nor suffer others to lead you, if you humbly commit yourself to his teaching and protection.'

'That is my great comfort. You, or others, may bid me look in the Bible for evidence to establish a false doctrine; but if I do it in earnest prayer to God, he will make my search the very means of strengthening me against what is wrong.'

'Exactly so; and if I wanted to deceive you, the last thing I should do would be to send you to the fountain of truth, the light that maketh manifest.'

'I shrank from your doctrine before,' resumed Alick, because I would not recognize my Messiah in a crucified man: now, because I dare not regard him as the Most High God. What a strange mystery is this!'

'All creation is a mystery: the finger with which you now turn over that leaf is a mystery most wonderful, most incomprehensible. How comes it, Cohen, that at the very moment when your mind conceives a purpose of investigating what stands on the next page of the book, at that very moment your finger, the immediate loss of which would not in the smallest degree lessen or affect your intellectual powers, executes the purpose of your mind, with accuracy, dispatch, and facility not to be surpassed? Oh, contemplate for a moment the magnificent mysteries that enwrap the lowest of his visible works, and then think what must be the unfathomable mysteriousness

of the awful Creator Himself? Remember, He has revealed to us in that book what we are to believe; and be content to credit' what he says, to receive what he gives, and to wait for a different stage of being before you essay to comprehend what must, in our present state, be utterly incomprehensible.'

'But now, Captain Ryan, if I am to believe without understanding, why should I reject what the Papists believe?'

'How can you ask such a question! I bid you yield undoubting credence to all that God declares in the Bible; and one of the plainest, most unmistakeable things there revealed, is the abhorrence in which the Lord holds idolatry. The Bible, my dear friend, is the universal key; with it, we unlock the fetters that bind the poor Romanist; and set him free with it we unlock the casket that the Jew holds closed, and exhibit to him the treasure that he was unconscious of possessing.'

They had now reached their temporary abode, and found Mr. Cohen so much indisposed as to require all Alick's attention. He expressed an anxious wish to find himself on the homeward way, and talked of immediately proceeding, by a vessel bound for Jaffa, whence he could readily obtain a passage to Alexandria, and thence to England as he might wish. Captain Ryan saw how deeply Alick felt this proposed separation, and how he shrank from leaving his parent in the hands of strange shipmen; he therefore conferred with his wife, and came to the decision that as they were under no particular necessity to pursue the route they had entered on, it would be right to follow out a path seemingly marked for them; and the result was the embarkation of the whole party in