the same man in the world, we find his religion is like the same jar discharged, useless, cold. The real religious element is not like the electricity in the jar that explodes with noise, it is felt giving fertility to every soil, balance to the orbs in the sky, and beauty and harmony to all around. Its voice may not be heard; its thoughts may not be uttered; and yet it acts, and influences, and moulds our conduct in every sphere into which God in his providence may call us. "Thou God seest me" is the great practical prescription for being religious, not in the sanctuary only, but everywhere. Forget not this thought. May the Holy Spirit write it upon our inmost hearts. May it haunt us, if wicked, until we be what we should be; and if we are God's children, may it be ever like a sweet understrain full of melody, sanctifying, sustaining, comforting, until faith shall be lost in fruition, and the conviction of the truth in the realization of it, for Christ's sake. Amen. CHAPTER XIII. THE SARACENS AND HAGARENES. "Truth for ever on the scaffold, Wrong for ever on the throne; Keeping watch above his own." "For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free-woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the free-woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free-woman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."—GAL. iv. 22, to v. 1. IT is important to notice that Paul recognizes, in his Epistle to the Galatians, Moses, the writer of the Book of Genesis, as alike authentic and inspired of God. St. Paul tells us, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God," therein obviously alluding to the Old Testament Scripture. In the passage prefixed, he observes, the Scripture saith, thereby calling the books of Moses Scripture, and teaching us that the Old Testament, like the New, is not the conceit or the invention of man, but the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. It is, therefore, plain that both Testaments, though they seem at times in antagonism, like the overshadowing wings of the cherubim over the mercy-seat, look to the same Christ, are inspired by the same Spirit, and are illuminated by the rising beams of the same Divine glory. In the words of St. Paul I may observe, by way of prefatory remark, there is suggested an explanation of words which have been the subject of so much dispute, "This is my body." Let us read along-side of this the words of the sacred penman, This is "an allegory; for these are the two covenants". that is, this Hagar and Sarah are two covenants; and again, in the twenty-fifth verse, "This Agar is Mount Sinai." Now nobody in his extravagance or folly would dream of saying that Hagar is transubstantiated or converted into Mount Sinai the woman into a mountain; but we say truly and reasonably, "Hagar signifies Mount Sinai" "these two mothers signify two covenants;" and thus we have a precedent for translating the very same peculiarity of phrase after the same model in other parts of the word of God, although it must be too plain that the secret of this perversion of a single passage is a previously defined and adopted dogma, not an honest interpretation of the word of God. I do not think that Hagar and Sarah were really meant to be types all that the apostle states here is that they may be used as exact and expressive illustrations of two distinct dispensations, covenants, or systems. He says, “Which things are an allegory;" that is, we may build upon the basis of the literal history illustrative matter, most appropriate, which will make what I am about to explain, says the apostle, more clear and intelligible. Every one knows that a fact is always the most beautiful mirror from which to reflect a bright truth, that one secret of the popularity of our Saviour's preaching was that he levied contributions upon all nature, and made the harvest with its golden grain, the sea with the chimes of its multitudinous waves, the pebbles that were tossed by the billows, the trees that made music in the storm, and the flowers that looked up in adoration to the sky - all lesson books from which he struck out beautiful, and therefore popular and instructive, truths. So the Apostle Paul seizes a fact in revelation, as the Saviour seized phenomena in nature, and makes it the pedestal of important and instructive lessons. This Hagar is used, we perceive, in this passage as an illustration of Sinai, or the dispensation of pure law;- Sarah again is used as the illustration of Sion, Jerusalem, or the dispensation of pure gospel; and it is by contrasting Hagar, which is law personated with all its issues, with Sarah, which is the gospel personated with all its promises, that we shall be able to see that law and gospel are in their natures correlatives, and antagonisms as to the mode of a sinner's acceptance, though in perfect harmony when brought together, and seen and looked at in a higher light. The Arabs, who are the descendants of Ishmael, were originally called Hagarenes, from Hagar their mother, but they took it as an insult that they should be thought the descendants of Abraham's second wife, and wishing to be made and deemed what is untrue, they have called themselves Saracens, and we give them the name of Saracens to this day; that is, they have laid aside the name of Hagarenes, from Hagar their real mother, and they have taken the name of Saracens, from Sarah, the princess, Abraham's first wife, who they say was their true and only mother. The history of these Hagarenes, or, as they call themselves, Saracens, may be seen on reading the Apocalypse, where as the locusts they came forth from the bottomless pit, and made such havoc among the ranks of degenerate Christendom, and therein attest what formidable opposition the Hagarenes, or the Saracens, as they call themselves, have carried on against the Christian church, the children of God, the true Saracens. دو The children of Hagar, accepting the figurative interpretation that the apostle gives, are the carnal, earthly worshippers, with no interest in the promises, no spiritual feelings, no hope of the inheritance of Abraham. The children of Sarah are, again, the children of the promises Christ's children, and therefore Abraham's children, who have a regenerated nature, and hearts big with the hopes and the expectancies of a kingdom that passeth not away. You have the Hagarene, or the descendant of Hagar, in the outcast Jew, who still clings to the husk, after he has lost the kernel, and in the followers of the false prophet, whose only shout is, "God is One, and Mahomet is his Prophet; we have the Hagarenes also embodied in all that pride themselves on antiquity, prescription, mere succession, form, ritual, ceremony, and nothing more. On the other hand, we have the Saracens, that is, the true Saracens, not the Hagarenes, or the children of Abraham, in all who worship in spirit and in truth, who rest upon the same rock, who are baptized in heart unto the same Divine name, who have been adopted into the family of God, and are the heirs of the promises, and therefore Abraham's children, God's family, Christ's brotherhood, and expectants of the kingdom of heaven. We are Hagarenes by nature, and Saracens by grace; we are born into the family of Hagar, we are born again into |