Page images
PDF
EPUB

has elsewhere* expressed it, that "the Romish Missions have left to us the Mahomedan World, unbroken and entire."

Sunday, Nov. 9, 1823-We had Divine Service

* Anniversary Sermon before the Society: 1821: p. 24; where the following reasons are stated. "We will point out two circumstances, which mainly contributed to prevent the success of the Romish Missions in Mahomedan Countries; and which will at the same time explain the ground of our fairer hopes.-The first error was, that they never gave the Scriptures freely to the people: they did, indeed, translate the Scriptures into the universal language of Mahomedanism-Arabic: in this they have hewn wood and drawn water for those who may follow them; but this work was intended for the use of their Missionary Clergy, not for general distribution. The copies of this book are now somewhat rare in the East: they are not in the hands of Mahomedans, but in the Libraries of Christian Monasteries; and, in these Monasteries, I have found Romish Missionaries, who have spent several years in Syria and Egypt, and yet cannot read the Arabic Bible. This folly of casting away the sword-or rather of fastening in its scabbard the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God-will not be ours. As Prostestant Missionaries of the Church of England, we find ourselves necessarily and most beneficially connected with that Institution, which all nations will one day call, the Blessed we willingly labour for the Bible Society; and, in return, that Society liberally supplies us with the Scriptures.-Another impediment to the Romish Missions in Mahomedan Countries, arose from their unceasing spirit of contention with the Native Christian Churches: they entered the East, professing Amity, but claiming subjection to the Papal Supremacy; and those, whom they should have secured as Allies, they converted into Enemies forfeiting thus all rational title to success; and too often, in fact, presenting to Mahomedans a spectacle of derision, and to genuine Christians an object of grief, indignation, and shame. .We shall not thus address our Brethren of the Eastern Churches : WE were not the first to embrace and pay honour to the Christian Revelation to THEM, we owe the rudiments of our Christian Education: we caught the living coal from their altars. When, therefore, the Missionary Soul shall have been poured out in large measure, by the Holy Spirit of God, on our National Church, THEIR Prelates and Clergy will be hailed by ours-their friendship will be cultivated, that we may all unite in eclipsing the Crescent by the Cross; in building up a spiritual Jerusalem; and in elevating the wretched posterity of Ham to a participation in the evangelical blessings of the descendants of Shem and Japheth. Such are our plans; and, labouring in faith and prayer, we cannot doubt of full success, in the appointed season."

with our servant, and preached in Italian. In the evening, we had brotherly conversation and prayer. Our subject was the Christian's first love. (Rev.ii.4.)

REMARKS ON THE SITE OF NAZARETH, ILLUSTRATIVE OF LUKE IV. 29, AND JOHN i. 46.

The following morning we took our departure for Tiberias; but, before quitting the account of Nazareth, the Author will add two observations, relative to its situation, which may tend to throw some light on passages of Scripture.

[ocr errors]

Nazareth is situated on the side, and extends nearly to the foot of a hill, which, though not very high, is rather steep and overhanging. The eye naturally wanders over its summit, in quest of some point from which it might probably be that the men of this place endeavoured to cast our Saviour down (Luke iv. 29): but in vain: no rock adapted to such an object appears. At the foot of the hill is a modest simple plain, surrounded by low hills, reaching in length nearly a mile; in breadth, near the city, a hundred and fifty yards; but, further on, about four hundred yards. On this plain there are a few olive-trees and fig-trees; sufficient, or rather scarcely sufficient, to make the spot picturesque. Then follows a ravine, which gradually grows deeper and narrower; till, after walking about another mile, you find yourself in an immense chasm with steep rocks on either side, from whence you behold, as it were beneath your feet, and before you, the noble Plain of Esdraelon. Nothing can be finer than the apparently-immeasurable prospect of this Plain, bounded to the south by the mountains of Samaria. The elevation of the hills on which the

spectator stands in this ravine is very great; and the whole scene, when we saw it, was clothed in the most rich mountain-blue colour that can be conceived. At this spot, on the right-hand of the ravine, is shewn the rock to which the men of Nazareth are supposed to have conducted our Lord, for the purpose of throwing him down. With the Testament in our hands, we endeavoured to ex-' amine the probabilities of the spot; and I confess there is nothing in it which excites a scruple of incredulity in my mind. The rock here is perpendicular for about fifty feet, down which space. it would be easy to hurl a person who should be unawares brought to the summit; and his perishing would be a very certain consequence. That the spot might be at a considerable distance from the city, is an idea not inconsistent with St. Luke's account; for the expression, thrusting Jesus out of the city, and leading him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, gives fair scope for imagining, that, in their rage and debate, the Nazarenes might, without originally intending his murder, press upon him for a considerable distance after they had quitted the Synagogue. The distance, as already noticed, from modern Nazareth to this spot is scarcely two miles—a space, which, in the fury of persecution, might soon be passed over. Or should this appear too considerable, it is by no means certain but that Nazareth may at that time have extended through the principal part of the plain, which I have described as lying before the modern town: in this case, the distance passed over might not exceed a mile. It remains only to note the expression the brow of the hill, on which their city

[ocr errors]

was built: this, according to the modern aspect of the spot, would seem to be the hill north of the town, on the lower slope of which the town is built: but I apprehend the word hill to have in this, as it has in very many other passages of Scripture, a much larger sense; denoting sometimes a range of mountains, and in some instances a whole mountainous district. In all these cases the singular word Hill," "Gebel," is used, according to the idiom of the language of this country. Thus, · Gebel Carmyl, or Mount Carmel, is a range of mountains: Gebel Libnân, or Mount Lebanon, is a mountainous district of more than fifty miles in length: Gebel ez-Zeitûn, the Mount of Olives, is certainly, as will be hereafter noted, a considerable tract of mountainous county. And thus any person, coming from Jerusalem and entering on the Plain of Esdraelon, would, if asking the name of that bold line of mountains which bounds the north side of the Plain, be informed that it was Gebel Násra, the Hill of Nazareth; though, in English, we should call them the Mountains of Nazareth. Now the spot shewn as illustrating Luke iv. 29 is, in fact, on the very brow of this lofty ridge of mountains; in comparison of which, the hill upon which the modern town is built is but a gentle eminencé. I can see, therefore, no reason for thinking otherwise, than that this may be the real scene where our Divine Prophet, Jesus, experienced so great a dishonour from the men of his own country, and of his own kindred.

t

Another passage relative to this place, namely, the question of Nathanael (John i. 46)-Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth ?-which seems

*seen.

to have been almost proverbial, is not, to my mind, well accounted for by any Expositor that I have Some have attributed the phrase to that scorn, with which Galilee was viewed by the Jews; who held that out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet (John vii. 52): but Nathanael, himself a Galilean, being of Cana, was not likely to have quoted this reproach: nor does there seem any propriety, even if he admitted and quoted the reproach, in the idea of his fixing it upon another contiguous town of his own district. Others refer to the base conduct of the men of Nazareth toward our Lord, as sufficiently proving that it must have been a place of very vile character. Still the question remains, Whence should Nazareth acquire this bad repute with its neighbours; and that to so high a degree, as to merit the severe question of Nathanael? Perhaps there may have been circumstances, to us unknown, in its history, the knowledge of which would at once clear up the point*. In the absence of such information, it has occurred to me as no unlikely conjecture, that the very position of this town might, in some measure, account for its ill character. It was a kind of frontier-town. It was frontier in three

Whitby, in his Notes on Matthew ii. 23, illustrating also John i.46, quotes from Buxtorff and Abarbinel, that "there was among the Jews a celebrated thief, called Ben Nezer; and, in allusion to him, they gave this name to Christ. So Abazbinel saith; The little horn mentioned Daniel vii. 8, is Ben Nezer, that is, Jesus of Nazareth.' And this title of Nazarean, both the Jews and the enemies of Christianity gave always, by way of contempt, to our Jesus." This single fact of one notorious thief, named from Nazareth, does not seem sufficient to have, alone, established the bad character of the town. It is observable, however, that it accords with the view taken by the Author of the probable manner in which Nazareth obtained its pre-eminence in infamy. This celebrated thief was, no doubt, one among many of that character,

« PreviousContinue »