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hibitions; and, amidst the exclamations of { assert, "We patiently bear all the mischiefs intolerable anguish which were extorted from which are brought upon us either by man or his victims, condescended to stoop to his fa- devils, even to the extremities of death and vorite position and employment of a chariot- torments, praying for those that thus treat us, teer. Perhaps the groans he heard were according as our great Lawgiver has commusic to his ears. It may have been that manded us."* What Eusebius remarks in a he preferred such soul-sickening sights to the general description of the hard usage which natural and artificial beauties with which his Christians met with during the times of peropulence and extortion had surrounded his secution, applies particularly well to them of vast imperial home. It is certain that he was that early period of trials in the Church: pleased with them, because he thought they "They were betrayed and butchered by their were serving to divert the attention of the own friends and brethren; but, as courageous people from his guilt. champions of the true religion, accustomed to prefer an honorable death in defence of the truth before life itself, little regarded the cruel usage they met with in it: but rather, as became true soldiers of GoD, armed with patience, they laughed at all methods of execution; fire and sword, and the piercing of

cutting and burning of limbs, putting out eyes, and mutilation of the whole body, hunger, and digging in mines, chains and fetters; all of which for the great love that they had to their Lord and Master, they accounted sweet

ever. Nay the very women in this case were as courageous as the men, many of whom undergoing the same conflicts, reaped the same rewards of their constancy and virtue."† Like the holy apostles they left the presence of those who condemned them, "rejoicing that

That portion of the Christians who were crucified, probably were thankful that of all the means of execution that one was assigned to them which made them in one respect like their Divine LORD. They remembered that it was their privilege to glory in the cross: to it they traced the end of the great SAV-nails, wild beasts, and the bottom of the sea, 1OUR'S sufferings; and through the atonement He made upon it, was the excellence of their hope. What a favor therefore that they were permitted to die upon an instrument so honored by them notwithstanding it was considered by the Romans base and degrading-er than any happiness or pleasure whatsoa punishment fit only for the vilest and most abandoned of mankind. And that they might indeed die like their LORD, how many repressed the exclamations of pain which were constantly rising to their lips, and gave themselves to the devout exercises of prayer and supplication until their souls were freed fromthey were counted worthy to suffer shame their distorted tabernacles of clay! It can- for his name." In their very last hour and not be venturing too much to say that some amidst their greatest sufferings they could say such there were who, like St. Stephen, in with the experienced and fervent St. Paul, their last extremity, were allowed to "see the "Being justified by faith, we have peace heavens opened, and the Son of man stand- with GOD through our LORD JESUS CHRIST: ing on the right hand of God." For like the by whom also we have access by faith into first martyr, they were confessors of the true His grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in faith, and confirmed by their death the testi-hope of the glory of God. And not only so, mony of their lives. With the most eminent but we glory in tribulations also."§ When of the sufferers in this far-reaching persecu offered an escape from the tortures which tion, (St. Paul,) they could emphatically and awaited them if they would but renounce the joyfully say, that as to them to live was Icause and service of their Master and RECHRIST," So" to die was gain." DEEMER, like Moses they chose "rather to suffer affliction with the people of GoD, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;

Their deportment under their fiery trial proved the excellence and sufficiency of their faith, and illustrated and sustained the cause to which they were devoted. With Justin Martyr, in a somewhat later day, they could

esteeming the reproach of CHRIST greater many who now "in time of temptation fall riches" than the world with all its power away!"* Their sufferings, though indescriand resources could convey. Their fate bably great, by the manner in which they was written in blood: but their constancy bore them, were converted into a "crown of and endurance gave them a renown co-equal glory which fadeth not away:" while the in continuance with the Gospel itself; and power and magnificence of their base impetheir names being transferred to the Book of rial persecutor have served to render his Life, are garnished with especial light and ne me as conspicuous in the records of infamy beauty by Him who is ever willing to say to as his station was exalted. They live in the those who here "act well their part" as grateful remembrance of millions who believe Christians and look for acceptance with the that by their heroic endurance of the sufferFATHER through Him, " Well done good andings which were their portion, they helped faithful servants enter ye into the joy of your Lord."t

to establish the reign of "the faith once delivered unto the saints." He is remembered These primitive martyrs are like stars in as the one whose character and conduct most the great ecclesiastical system of which fully embodied all the elements which comCHRIRT is the centre and sun. They bor-bine to make a malignant hater of the LORD row their light from him; but then how OF GLORY and his priceless redemption, a bo beautifully they shine! How calmly and trayer of trusts most sacred and the perveryet reprovingly they look down upon the veryter of them to the vilest ends, and the serlarge proportion of the members of the Church vant of a combination of revolting propensiwho in these days "seek their own, not the ties just low enough to render him a fierce things which are JESUS CHRIST'S!" What and unscrupulous persecutor of the Church an amazing contrast with the pusillanimity, of the living GOD. defections, hypocrisy, and betrayals of the

R. C.

The choicest blessings settle on thy head,

Dear daughter! that e'er crowned a father's prayer,
Thy Heavenly Father's providential care,

And that rich treasure of the Spirit, shed
In thy regeneration, aye increased;

Till all thy course o'er life's rough sea is sped,
And to thy haven thou art safely led,

From every wave of sin and woe released.

This is to thee a joyful festival,

While all about thee hail thy natal day;

And I, though suffering, thankfully recal

Eight years in which thy sweet infantile play,

Winning caresses, artless sympathies

Have helped my joys to swell, my sorrows ease. 8th August, 1842.

J. J. R.

THE "HIDDEN MANNA" AND THE WHITE STONE."

F my readers will not think, tension, the holy admonition and incitement I tax their endurance, I will widen their application to every Church in again ask their attention to every age. a theme somewhat kindred 1. The first gift assured is the "HIDDEN with the last I offered them, MANNA." When the Israelites saw the "food -an apocalyptic promise to one of of angels" rained in abundance around their the seven Churches of Asia Minor: tents in the wilderness, they gave it the name in which, as before, language appar- of " manna," and thus the heavenly viand reently obscure may easily be resolved ceived an earthly appellation. This bread," into ordinary and profitable edifica- both providential and miraculous, was bestow tion. It runs thus: "To him that overcom-ed for their necessity in the desert, and con

eth will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a New Name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it."

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tinued, while, for sins there committed, they were withheld from reaching the promised land. To keep this wonderful favor in remembrance, Moses was ordered to fill a golden vessel with the manna, which was ever to be preserved. The precious memorial was deposited by the mystic Ark, perhaps in it, in the inner apartment of the tabernacle, called the "holy of holies." And as this apartment of the Sanctuary was never enter

Great are all the promises of God and of Christ; and great are all the privileges of the faithful: and we justly regard as inestimable the gifts of the "hidden manna" and the 'white stone" inscribed with the "New Name" of HIM who will for ever call us His. But we need not narrate these benigned or seen by the people, never by the levites promises with mere ignorant wonder. The or even the priests, but only by the highlanguage is figurative, yet the figures are priest on only one day in the year, the vessel readily opened by comparing it with other of manna, like the Ark and all around it, was. scriptures. It belongs to a portion of the "hidden," concealed. In which fact we have sacred volume in which figures abound. The the origin and the primary explanation of the style of St. John in his other writings is usu- appellative "the hidden manna." ally plain, while in the book of Revelation, his dim disclosures are full of metaphors and highly poetical. In part, the figures of this book are prophetic; and prophecies are intended for the proof of Christianity, when, in after ages, they are fulfilled. But this part of the book is not predictive, i. e. the epistles to the angels of the seven Churches. Those Churches, though planted by apostolic labor, and having still near them one living apostle, had become degenerate, and that culpably; and therefore most of them are warned to "repent," and all to "overcome." Yet they had not so deeply fallen as to render their condition hopeless; and hence the encouraging promises, if they will but rouse from their apathy, and return to their early zeal and their "first love." And, by an unforced ex

Of this food the Saviour promises to "give" His conquering people. As, however, when He gave them His "body and blood" to be sacramentally received, He imparted not His actual flesh, nor opened the very fountain of His heart, but conferred their equivalent sacrificial substitutes, so the "manna" He will bestow, is that of which the contents of the ancient golden vessel were but a symbol. The heavenly aliment for the body was an emblem and a vehicle of heavenly reflection for the soul,-for St. Paul terms it "spiritual meat." The extraordinary nutriment, like (and with) the water from the typical "rock," had the nature of a sacrament, being a sign, and, if duly received, a means of grace. And thus the meaning of the first named gift isan increment in the divine life, a peculiar

assured to those who "overcome" in all Churches to the end of time.

growth in the vital power of sanctity, a liberal supply of inward strength and refreshment from above. This is the manna hid' Combining thus a reference to the manna in the Holy of Holies in heaven. Jesus, our sacrament and to the altar sacrament, we reaHigh Priest, has entered there: and there,dily enlarge further the allusion of the "hidoffering, not a shadowy atonement as did the den manna," and comprise the expected heaJewish pontiff, but the real and perfect Sac-venly sacrament of the "tree of life." To the rifice, the golden vessel of grace hath become victor-saint will be given to "eat of the tree His; and from that Sanctuary He distributes of life which is in the midst of the paradise the hallowing nourishment to His faithful of God." Of the purport and benefit of this people. wonderful privilege hereafter, mortals comprehend but little. So far however as the gift of the "hidden manna" is future, it may be held cognate, or identical, with the inward grace of the sacramental "tree" of the celes

And thus, in the "hiding" of this “manna,” there is no studied mysteriousness, nothing to repel inquiry,—and also, nothing to entice to an overawed and dim contemplation in prostrate hankering for the marvellous. As referring to grace in the present life, the "hidden manna" is as intelligible as other favors of the Sanctifier. And as connected with the heavenly beatitude, it is involved in no greater obscurity than pertains unavoidably to the whole immortal condition, which cannot be fully disclosed to men till they have passed the gate of death.

Besides this general signification of the “hidden manna,” it has a further and specific applicability. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead . . . . I am the living bread which came down from hea-tial garden-city. ven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world... for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. . . . this is that bread which came down from heaven." As the manna of divine communion and strength was inwrapped in the sacramental food of Israel, so is it inwrapped in the altar viands of Christians, which are constituted the body and blood' of the Victim. These the visible manna was not; but as coming from heaven, and being "spiritual meat," grace-giving food, though not a sacrificial re- 2. The other gift, promised to the worthier past, it so far foreshowed them: and thus the brethren at Pergamos, is “a WHITE STONE, hidden manna" imports (by due extension) and in the stone a New Name written, which the completest benefit and virtue of the high- no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." est sacrament. Christ Himself is there given, This "white stone" with the undivulged in all His efficacy and most perfect commu- Name" inscribed, is thought by some to nion.- He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh allude to the engraved ticket used for admismy blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him."sion into the heathen temples at the ancient The "hidden manna" is of course not outward, but the inward grace and the eternal vitality of holy ordinances, especially of the eucharist,—those only who have the "new heart and new spirit" being capable of its reception. This invisible food of the soul was promised to the perseveringly faithful in the Church at Pergamos; and it is equally

* Griesbach rejects (“jugulates") as “spuricus" the words payev año, "to eat of :" but the omission of that phrase need not alter the sense. Nevertheless, it meagers the robustness of expression, which might tempt fevered theology to pervert "the hidden manna" to the cause of sacramental superlation.

idolatrous festivals. If this be so,-which may well have been the fact, as the converts in Pergamos had seen gentilism in great magnificence, then, to receive such a pass from the Saviour is a token of admittance to the heavenly worship, in all its grandeur and all its ecstasy. And in this view, the meaning of the promise is-that the faithful, passing beyond the earthly courts of the Church, will certainly "enter into the joy of their Lord."

Another meaning however agrees better with the "white" color of the "stone," and The word may therefore be preferred. stone," pov, means, 'a little stone;' more

not its purport, not its origin or occasion, not its unearned relation, can we "know," till we cease to be what we are, till (it may be presumed) we are advanced beyond further requirement of His reinstating function. Whatever it be, it will be "to the glory of God the Father," "that God may be all inde **

particularly, the kind used anciently in bal- ( well add a higher "Name" to those now prolotting for a popular sentence. St. Paul de-mulgated:-but whether this thought gives clares, of his former persecution of the breth-the key to the apocalyptic promise, we preren, "I gave my voice [my pebble, npov] tend neither to determine nor conjecture,— against them:" Acts xxvi. Of course, a only this, there is a clear opening for a "New "white" pebble declares in favor of the in-Name" for the Messiah. Not the " Name," Idividual concerned. In some old governments, this ballotting involved life and death, and every citizen might deposit a white or a black token, to absolve or to condemn the person tried; and, as the one or the other prevailed, the sentence was punishment or pardon. The word may stand for the resulting vote or suffrage itself. In the verse quoted, not the community, but the King of saints gives a benign sentence in the same manner. And thus interpreted, to receive the "white stone" is to have the clear future signet of assured favor and acceptance by the Redeemer.-For

Regarding the New Name" as that of our Divine Redeemer, the gift is full of meaning. Jehovah called His Church and people by His Name.-His Name was called upon them. Thus, when the priests stood to bless the chosen people, "they shall put my Name upon the children of Israel:" and Jeremiah pleads for them this exalted gage, "we are called by thy Name; leave us not:" the certainty of favor, strictly true of only the heavenly body, is forensically declared of the earthly, "bring every one that is called by my Name, for 1 have created [new-created, morally regenerated] him for my glory." And the reverse holds of adversaries of the Church, "Thou never barest rule over them, they were not called by thy Name,' 99 or,

On this token of pardon and merciful approbation a "name" is "written." It is called "a new name:" and, as our Lord is elsewhere declared to have a " New Name" hereafter, we infer that the "Name" inscribed “in” i. e. on the "stone" is His. What it is, it obviously is vain to conjecture,-for "no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it," the Name. As yet, we are acquainted with the Saviour in only His labor of humiliation, and in the exaltation and exalted func-thy Name was not called upon them.' Of tions to which that profound humiliation in- the Bridegroom it is announced, "this is His troduced Him,—not broadly in His inherent Name whereby He shall be called, Jehovah and essential Majesty. And, at present, al-our Righteousness,"—and of the Church, His most all His titles express His low estate, bride, "this is the Name wherewith she shall "the Son of man," the Lamb of God," or be called, Jehovah our Righteousness." (Jer. His office as the Mediator, as "the Christ," xxiii. 6. xxxiii. 16.) And the heavenly spouse "the Saviour," "the Shepherd," the "Priest;" of the Lamb, and each one individually of her even as Lord, He is the mediatorial Lord, children, receive His "New Name," which and as King, He is a priest upon His throne." He will confer in the "high day" of His When however, in the last day, He shall be everlasting nuptials, when, "all-glorious fully proclaimed as "God over all," when within, and her clothing of wrought gold," the entire work and administration of redeem-she shall enter into the King's celestial paling intervention shall be past,-when man noace.'

finally given the saints, will be their token of completed and eternal adoption as the sons of God. The wicked, though once His children by admission into His earthly household, have

longer ranks as a fallen being, and Christ The New Name" of the Redeemer, thus hath put off His priestly garments, for the robe of pure sovereignty, then will He be revealed to His elect in a character and a glory (perhaps as of the Unity, being thus far viewed rather as of the Trinity) more transcendant than here they can imagine, and may

Numb. vi. Jer. xiv. Isa. xliii. lxiii.