holy, and consistent does it appear, when regarded in its true character of a physical intimation of his power and love in spiritual operations. In Comus, one of the most perfect poems ever written, Milton uses the expression with infinite beauty to denote the tranquillizing powers possessed by the music of the lady's guardian angel,— 'Who with his soft pipe and smooth-dittied song Well knows to still the wild winds when they roar, The passage has a fine parallel, too, in the Eneid, (i. 148-160.) where Or summer's noontide air.' 88. Another simple derivative of st is the word 'staff,' the uses of which in language exhibit some strikingly beautiful results of men's intuitions of correspondence. Primarily, a staff is an instrument which enables a person to stand firm, by reason of the support which he derives from leaning on it. Hence it has come to be used in all ages, as a metaphorical name for food, as when we call bread the staff of life.' Hence it has come to be used also as a term for filial aid given by children to their parents. How often do we hear the beautiful phrase, 'the staff of his declining years.' In the ancient poets there are many examples of this figure. Thus, in Euripides' Hecuba (281) the dutiful Polyxena is termed the ẞákтpov of her aged parents; while Sophocles gives the corresponding name of oкnπтроv to Ismene and Antigone, the affectionate daughters of the poor, blind, old Edipus. (Ed. Col. 848, 1108.) Shakspere also recognizes its full value:-The boy,' says Launcelot, was the very staff of my age.' (Merchant of Venice, ii. 2.) The circumstance of the staff being called in the Greek by names not founded upon st, does not in the least interfere with the truthfulness of the correspondence, inasmuch as whatever names may be given to things, their representative character must always be the same. 89. It is obvious from these universal usages of the word 'staff,' that the essence of the signification or correspondence of a staff is that of power. This shews us, accordingly, why a staff or sceptre is given to kings as a symbol of dominion. It also explains the origin of the different kinds of maces and batons, as used from time immemorial, to symbolize authority, and termed the staff of office.' So incomplete, indeed, is the idea of majesty or power, unless the staff be present, that the Jews, when mocking our Saviour prior to the crucifixion, not only put a crown of thorns upon his head, but a reed in his right hand,’— the most bitter mockery of the whole. For a reed is the natural emblem of impotence and weakness, and in meaning is thus the remotest possible from that of the staff. In Anglo-Saxon stafian signified 'to command." From being the symbols, these things thence denote the authority itself. Ovid, for instance, when he would speak of laying aside the dignity of empire, calls it 'Sceptri gravitate relicta.' (Met. ii. 847.) Another beautiful illustration occurs in Talfourd's Ion ::- So resolv'd, so young "Twere pity he should fall, yet he must fall, Or the great sceptre which hath swayed the fears Of ages, will become a common staff For youth to wield, or age to rest upon, For the same reason, enchanters and magicians are uniformly represented as bearing what is the same thing virtually, a wand. Homer, accordingly, gives one to the famous enchantress Circe, (Odyssey, Book 10.) and the same is the case with the magicians of the Arabian Nights. Mercury also had his virga, with which he procured or drove away sleep at pleasure. Without their wands, enchanters are further represented as powerless. They are described, therefore, as exceedingly careful not to let them out of their possession. Milton refers to this in Comus: 'What, have ye let the false enchanter 'scape? O ye mistook! ye should have snatched his wand, In stony fetters fixed, and motionless.' 90. Comparing all these things together, it is easy to gather what the word staff' must signify in the Scriptures. For it cannot mean one thing out of them and another in. Accordingly, whenever the word 'staff' is there used in connection with good, it denotes such power as is exercised by God, or by him given to man for spiritual purposes. When referred to in connection with evil, it denotes, on the other hand, the arrogant assumptions and overbearing of the wicked. Examples of the former are frequent; of the latter, rare. Perhaps the most striking is that in Isaiah xiv. 5, where it is said that the Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked.' We have a beautiful example of its higher meaning in the history of David and Goliah. David, when he prepared himself to fight the giant, (who is representative of the strength and audacity of spiritual evil) took his staff in his hand.' In its supreme sense, God himself, who is all power, is here meant. In its secondary sense, it signifies reliance on that power, which can alone carry man successfully through such combats as are in this narrative representatively depicted. Thence, to the Christian, it also signifies the Gospel, which is God in his Word, and which points or indicates the way to victory and life spiritual, and thus confers power. Hence David says for us in the Psalms, Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, yet will I fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff comfort me.' This is the reason also why the Lord commanded the disciples that they should take nothing for their journey save a staff only;' (Mark vi. 8.) meaning that they were to go forth into the world relying solely upon himself for strength to fulfil their mission, and that such is to be our own procedure likewise, if we would be numbered with them. The spiritual sense of the 4th chapter of Kings II,, affords another sublime illustration of its symbolic meaning. 91. The representative character of the staff is further and admirably illustrated in the history of the miracles worked by Moses, all of which are described as having been effected, under the direction of Jehovah, by means of his staff or 'rod.' Aaron also had his rod; and the magicians who attempted to rival him had theirs. For the wicked always seek to imitate the good, and instinctively adopt similar ceremonials and instruments of action. They seek, by conforming outwardly, to acquire the powers in which they are deficient inwardly. But the rods of the magicians are described as being swallowed up' by that of Aaron, (Exodus vii. 12.) further shewing us, by correspondence, that the pride of human intellect ever has to give way before the supremacy of Divine truth. It was Aaron's rod, likewise, that alone budded, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.' (Numbers xvii. 8.) This was significant of the same general principle, as evident from the interior meaning of the context. So extraordinary was the last-mentioned miracle, the staff being made of wood long since cut from the tree, and therefore dry and sapless, that it was manifest nothing short of divine power could H have accomplished it. Hence it became customary with the ancients for oaths of peculiar energy or solemnity to be sworn on the impossibility of such an event taking place in the ordinary course of nature. Achilles, for instance, in Homer, when venting his rage against Agamemnon, (Iliad i. 234-236.)- Ναὶ μὰ τόδε σκῆπτρον, τὸ μὲν ὄυποτε φύλλα καὶ ὄξους Φύσει, ἐπειδὴ πρῶτα τομὴν ἐν ὄρεσσι λέλοιπεν, Ουδ ̓ ἀναθηλήσει. I vow by this staff, which has produced neither leaves nor branches since it first left its parent-stem upon the mountains, and never shall sprout again.' Virgil gives another instance in the oath of friendship sworn by Latinus to Æneas. (Eneid xii. 206—209.) Ut sceptrum hoc (dextrâ sceptrum nam forte gerebat), Matre caret, posuitque comas et brachia ferro. 'As this sceptre (for a sceptre he chanced to hold in his right hand) shall never more with light foliage produce twigs nor shady branches; since, cut from its stem in the woods, it is once for all severed from its mother-tree, and has laid-down-beneath the axe its locks and arms.' 92. There can be little doubt that the story of Hercules' celebrated club growing when he plunged it in the ground, had its origin in the same circumstance; for every fable of the ancient Greek mythology was either a distorted history of some event which the Old Testament correctly narrates; or the embodiment into a kindred allegoric form of some one of the lofty spiritual truths familiar to primæval times. 93. Another interesting derivative from the onomatopoetic st exists in the name of stone, which substance is so called because of its fixity and insensitiveness. From designating physical qualities, the words 'stone' and stony' thence pass to the designation of corresponding conditions of the feelings, as when we speak of a stony heart,' and as illustrated * A beautiful personification, by which the leaves of trees, as they flutter in the wind, are compared to the waving ringlets of a woman. The same graceful simile occurs in Sutton's Clifton Grove Garland :' in the quotation from Homer (section 84). We have another example in Shakspere, (Winter's Tale v. 3) where Leontes says of the statue,— 'Does not the stone rebuke me For being more stone than it ?' Hence, too, the wording of God's promise to the repentant, that he will remove their 'stony heart,' and will give them a heart of flesh.' (Ezekiel xi. 19.) But a stone, from its very character of endurance and fixedness, is the emblem likewise of anything firm and indestructible; and this is by far the most beautiful aspect under which to contemplate its correspondences. All objects have a twofold signification. They correspond, in their high sense, with what is good and heavenly. In their lower, or earthly relation, they denote what is evil. And there is nothing inconsistent, or unintelligible, or perplexing, in this. Take the Sun itself. On the one hand, it ripens the golden harvests, and mediately sustains the earth in life and beauty. On the other, it parches the soil, and raises mal'aria, and is thence productive of the most direful ills. The Wind is, on the one hand, a grateful visitant, bringing innumerable blessings on its wings; on the other, when it swells into a storm, it ravages and destroys with remorseless and appalling cruelty. The correspondence implied, therefore, when an object is cited. in language, may be either good or bad, the context shewing which is meant. 'Wise is he Who scans and construes all in harmony. A sacred side there is to every thing, As given or forbidden, false or true; According to the greater truth involved, One side is always bright, one always dark, Leaflike and moonlike.'-- Festus. Accordingly, when we find the Lord called by Moses the stone of Israel,' (Gen. xlix. 24.) we see that the expression refers not to hardheartedness, but to the solidity and permanence of his attributes: so, too, in Isaiah, (xxviii. 16.) where he is called a tried stone, a precious corner-stone.' In these passages, the correspondence is used in its supreme sense, viz., as denoting God himself. In other places the word is put for his power, his love, or his truth, individually. Thus, when David went down to engage Goliah, he not only took his staff,' but 'five smooth stones out of the brook.' These stones represent the heavenly truths with which we must in like manner arm ourselves, when we would re-enact the shepherd's conduct; this little episode of his life being not a mere piece of ancient history, but a divine and everlasting |