Their solitary watch on tower and steep; To-morrow! the mysterious, unknown guest, I dare not ask; I know not what is best; In one thing we are disappointed. The "Poem on Slavery" so earnestly and beautifully expressed the poet's abhorrence of the national crime that we were prepared for a worthy chant of triumph over its downfall. It may be that the shadow of the war is yet so deeply overcast as to forbid the utterance of exultation. The conflict itself furnishes the theme of two touching pieces "Christmas Bells" and "Killed at the Ford." former runs thus: The Then pealed the bells more loud and deep : The Right prevail, With peace on earth, good-will to men!'" This good-will born of war we confess we cannot quite understand, excepting, indeed, upon the principle of Mr. Longfellow's compatriot, whose words (referring, however, to another war) may not disadvantageously compare with the last of the foregoing verses : "Ez for the war, I go agin it, I mean to say I kind o' du,- I sign to thet with all my heart,- Sometimes upon a powder-cart." We cannot but acknowledge, with all our sympathy in the general tone of Mr. Longfellow's writings, that we do not find in them that calm, consistent view of life which a firm hold of Christian dogma would impart. Here, too, the general effect is vague and uncertain. In poems which deal so much with the varying experiences of life's history, we would like oftener to hear some echo of the triumphant "I know in whom I have believed." But the generation is speculative, doubting; preferring a merely sentimental religion to the forms of doctrine which the Churches have to give it. Ages of faith have passed; another is to come: perhaps not yet; when it dawns it will bring its poets; but among its heralds we can scarcely reckon Mr. Longfellow. UZZIAH-HIS SIN AND PUNISHMENT. THE story of Uzziah is one of those narratives which earnest pious Christians sometimes wish they could altogether blot out of the Bible. On two points it runs directly counter to our modern habits of thought and feeling; habits of thought and feeling which have been formed in us by the teaching and influ ence of the Gospel. Uzziah's sin in its formal aspect appears much like our duty-that, namely, of protesting against the claims of an exclusive priesthood; claims which must be resisted if men and nations are to be preserved from certain degradation, and from hopeless separation from God. An enfeebled morality, again, resents all records of Divine judgment: it startles, it shocks us to read of the avenging stroke of leprosy. It is one of the great blessings of the Bible that it does run thus impartially athwart all prejudices; refusing to accommodate itself to any, even our most sacred traditions; that it compels us to study its narratives patiently and submissively, and will not allow us hastily to reduce its teachings to our own conventional standards. Its difficulties are ever the key to the deepest mysteries of our lives and of God's rule. The "door" will "open" at length to him who continues "knocking." It is the object of this paper to show that the story of Uzziah is, in substance, a human much more than a Jewish story; to indicate how it touches at various points on the life we are living from day to day. We first affirm, broadly and emphatically, the sole High Priesthood of Christ, and the universality of the lesser priesthood. The New Testament is decisive on this point. All who have "tasted that the Lord is gracious" "are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." The New Testament speaks of differences of gifts in the Church, of administrations and operations; but not of any exclusive rights to office. Each man has to bring for himself his offering of prayer and praise immediately to God. Christian ordination services are only acts whereby the congregation recognizes and welcomes those whom God has fitted to help their brethren; the fitness is itself the call. Whatever lessons the story of Uzziah has for us, it is not intended to prevent any whom God has enabled to edify his brethren, from using his gifts privately, in the social circle, or in the Church. The Jewish priesthood was part of a system which, partial indeed and temporary, was yet a real dispensation of God. Exclusiveness was one mark of this dispensation. The words which give solemn urgency to the second commandment, "I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God," run as a spirit throughout the whole Jewish worship. Of all the nations of the earth, He chose one through whom to reveal Himself. Of all the Jewish cities, He fixed on one as the place of worship. Of all the Jewish tribes, He consecrated one to the priestly office. There are many indications that a larger purpose underlay this system of restriction. Side by side with the exclusive priesthood there existed the prophetic office; not confined to any class of men, but filled, as God called them, by old men and maidens, young men and chil dren, husbandmen and citizens, priests and princes. This, and not the priesthood, is the true type of the Christian ministry; and as the history advances, the prophets wax, while the priesthood wanes, in influence. A freer spirit was ever asserting itself among the restrictions of Judaism; God was thus preparing His people for the large, the universal comprehensiveness of the Gospel. But while the restrictions lasted, they were to be revered; the Temple and the priesthood were not to be profaned by the intrusion of unconsecrated men, whose pride prompted them to rush in and demand a part in these services. We may see some meaning in the fact that a restrictive system like the Jewish precedes the freedom of the Gospel. The everbroadening energies of grace rest upon the deep foundations of eternal righteousness. Before men could even understand the love that redeems by the manifestation of itself in sacrifice, they must know the sanctities into which they are redeemed. God awakened the sense of holiness in men by calling them to carefulness, and reverence, and obedience. The infinite distinction between holiness and profanity is embodied in forms adapted to the childhood of the race. An order that must not be transgressed, restrictions that are not to be disregarded-these develope the sense of reverence that at length fixes itself in the character of the great and holy God. Then when the sentiment of sanctity is confirmed, when the presence of God is felt to be a hallowing thing, it is revealed that nothing is common or unclean; that God's presence hallows every circumstance and every life; that God's name is to be always sanctified, and by every man. The priesthood was a call to worship-a mode of impressing men with the "holy and reverend name" of God. When the sentiment of reverence and the habit of worship are fully disciplined, the Apostles of Christ proclaim to all who believe" Ye are the holy priesthood; ye are all priests unto God. The priest whom you have been taught to honour is the type of yourselves; God has sanctified you all to the service of which He began to teach you when He consecrated the tribe of Levi to Himself." Rightly to apprehend Uzziah's sin, we must remember through what barriers he had to break before he could resolve to do this thing. He had to disregard the direct command of Jehovah that the priests alone should burn incense on His altar. He had to despise the history of his people, to refuse the solemn lessons that he had learned from childhood. He was defiling his own sacred things; the Jewish history was the history of his own people, the charter of his own blessings; the Temple and the priesthood were the solemn ordinances of his own worship. He was impiously defying the holy name by which himself was called. It was an act of direct and daring sin; of wilful disobedience to his own conscience; of contemptuous disregard of the word of Jehovah Himself, and to him. Therefore it was,--because his rebellion was so great, his defiance of his convictions and his God so flagrant, that the Lord smote him, and he bore till death the mark of the curse that fell on him for his impiety. “Uzziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah did. And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper." The arts of war and peace flourished under his rule. He extended his borders; husbandry and commerce were enlarged under his sway. "And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvellously helped, till he was strong. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction." What is all this but just a history daily repeating itself among us? The influence of godly training and holy companionship are seen in the prudence, and diligence, and sobriety which command success and reputation. The modes of life which the influence of the Gospel forms, which are the tradition of Christian households, are just those which conduct to happiness and honour, Continuing, however, mere modes of life-pious influences not finding their fulfilment in actual godliness-the very prosperity they bring is a fatal danger; being lifted up with pride, men fall into the condemnation of the devil. Mere worldly prosperity is often the prelude to daring impiety. It is a perpetual question how to "remove" the "hireling" spirit out of the Church. Men whose ships bring them wealth, whose plans in business succeed, come to fancy themselves fit for any place of responsibility in the Church; what airs they give themselves; how many are their assumptions; how they despise meeker and more lowly men; how self-reliant they grow, and impatient of rebuke, and vain, and indifferent to Christ's self-denying call! Others, too, are eager to confirm their judgment of themselves; their self-complacency is flattered instead of checked. Churches love to pay honour to men of wealth; choose for places of special service, not those of pure heart, and fervent faith, and lowly self-denial, but those who have succeeded in business, and whose plans, it is therefore thought, must needs be followed in Church operations. This is a real fellowship of Uzziah's sin. Uzziah was a good king, but he was a bad priest; he was not the priest whom God had chosen. Men whose godliness, and integrity, and Christian conduct have won them respect; men who in all things are Christ's servants, and whom He has therefore made stewards of much, are most valuable helps in all the ordinances of Christian |