says Chrysostom, they were delivered to those continually present with them.-Pinnock's Analysis of New Testament History.

For those fond of going into the history and use of words it may be added that the reader of the gospel in a cathedral church used to be called a gospeller, and that it was a term of reproach applied by the Papists to the first Reformers; and by the same term the followers of Wycliffe were known. In Milton we have "gospelled," one obedient to the precepts of the gospel."-W. H. W.

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CHRIST'S ARGUMENT FOR HIS DIVINITY.

MARK ii. 10, 11.-" But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins (He saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house."

THE reasoning of our Lord here is thus put by Archbishop Trench in his work on the miracles :-"From this which I will now do openly and before you all, you may conclude that it is no 'robbery' upon My part to claim also the power of forgiving men their sins." Thus, to use a familiar illustration of our Lord's argument, it would be easier for a man, equally ignorant of French and Chinese, to claim to know the last than the first; not that the language itself is easier, but that in the one case multitudes could disprove his claim, and in the other hardly a scholar or two in the land.

THE SCENE OF CHRIST'S TEMPTATION.

MARK i. 12, 13.-"In the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness and was with the wild beasts." (See also Matt. iv. 1;

forty days, Luke iv. 1, 2.)

WHAT wilderness ? The word indicates an unfrequented and probably a barren and wild region. Tradition has said that this wilderness was that of Judæa, and a spot lying a little north of the road from Jerusalem to Jericho is pointed out to travellers in search of places identified with events in the life of our Lord as the scene of the temptation; but in this case, as in others accepted by a too ready faith, this tradition is open to question. Was a road so travelled as was that from Jerusalem to Jericho in the days of our Lord a harbour for wild beasts? And was any place near to such a road a place where there was any likelihood of perishing of hunger ?

There is a wilderness elsewhere in which Moses had fasted forty days, (Exod. xxxiv. 28), and where Elijah had in like manner fasted (1 Kings xix. 8). Both were types of Christ and their work; the one as giving the law, and the other as restoring it, prefigured the more blessed work of the Saviour.

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It was in this wilderness, not in that as known by the modern name Quarantania, where Christ was tempted. Readers of Bishop Middleton's "Doctrine of the Greek Article" will probably call to mind a passage in that book in which observations from the learned Michaelis are quoted with approval. Not a desert," Michaelis says, "but the desert, which must suggest to the mind of the reader the great desert of Arabia in which the Israelites wandered for so many years, and in which Mount Sinai is situated." (See also Dean Alford's Greek Testament on Matt. iv. 1.)

NAMES OF SATAN.

MARK i. 13.-" Tempted of Satan."

The following are the names by which Satan is distinguished in Scripture, with their meanings:

Satan, which signifies adversary, Luke x. 18; the Devil (diáßolos) always occur in the singular, signifying slanderer; Rev. xx. 2. Apollyon, which means destroyer, and Abaddon, Rev. ix. ii.; Beelzebub, the prince of devils, from the god of the Ekronites, chief among the heathen divinities, all of which the Jews regarded as devils, 2 Kings i. 2; Matt. xii. 24; Angel of the bottomless pit, Rev. ix. 2.; Prince of this world, John xii. 31; Prince of darkness, Ephes. vi. 12; a roaring lion, 1 Peter v. 8; a sinner from the beginning, 1 John iii. 8; Accuser, Rev. xii. 10; Belial, 2 Cor. vi. 15; Deceiver, Rev. xx. 10; Dragon, Rev. xii. 7; Liar and murderer, John viii. 44; Leviathan, Isa. xxvii. 1; Lucifer, Isa. xiv. 12; Serpent, Isa. xxvii. 1; Tormentor, Mat. xviii. 34; God of this world, 2 Cor. iv. 4; he that hath the power of death, Heb. ii. 14.—Hodge's "Outlines of Theology."

The derivation of the word translated Devil (diaßoλos diabolos) in itself, implies only the endeavour to break the bonds between others, and "set them at variance;" but common usage adds to this general sense the special idea of setting "at variance by slander." In the application of the title to Satan, both the general and special senses should be kept in view. His general object is to break the bonds of connexion between God and man, and the bonds of truth and love which bind men to each other. They attribute selfishness and jealousy to the Giver of all good. The slander of man to God is illustrated by the Book of Job (Job i. 9-11; ii. 4, 4). In reference to it Satan is called the 'adversary" of man in 1 Peter v. 8., and represented in that character in Zech. iii. 1, 2; and more plainly still designated in Rev. xii. 10, as "the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night."

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JOB XXXviii. 22." The treasures of the snow."

Snow Crystals.-Captain Scoresby, a celebrated arctic traveller, examined a number of snow crystals, and has drawn the figures of ninety-six varieties, some of which are described in our cut. He says:"The extreme beauty and endless variety of the microscopic objects perceived in the animal and vegetable kingdoms are perhaps fully equalled, if not surpassed, in both particulars of beauty and variety, by the crystals of snow. The principal configurations are the stelliform and hexagonal; though almost every variety of shape of which the generating angles of 60° and 120° are susceptible may, in the course of a few years' observation, be discovered. Some of the general varieties in the figures of the crystals may be referred to the temperature of the air; but the particular and endless modification of similar classes of crystals can only be referred to the will and pleasure of the First Great Cause, whose works, even the most minute and evanescent, and in regions the most remote from human observation, are altogether admirable."

ESTHER Vi. 8, 9.-"Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to that they may array the man withal whom the king de

wear

lighteth to honour."

A Gift of Royal Apparel.-" A dress of honour still in the East accompanies promotion in the royal service, and otherwise forms the ordinary medium through which princes and great persons manifest their favour and esteem. In Persia, where perhaps the fullest effect is in our own time given to this usage, the king has always a large wardrobe from which he bestows dresses to his own subjects or foreign ambassadors whom he desires to honour. These dresses are called 'Kelaats;' and the reception of them forms a distinction which is desired with an earnestness and received with an exultation only comparable to that which accompanies titular distinctions or insignia of knighthood in Europe. They form the principal criterion through which the public judge of the degree of influence which the persons who receive them enjoy at court, and therefore the parties about to be thus honoured exhibit the utmost anxiety that the kelaat may, in all its circumstances, be in the highest degree indicative of the royal favour. It varies in the number and quality of the articles which compose it, according to the rank of the person to whom it is given, or the degree of honour intended to be afforded; and all these matters are examined and discussed by the public with a great degree of earnestness."

In illustration of this subject we introduce a cut which exhibits the ceremony of receiving such a dress. The person who is to be invested has proceeded to the appointed place to meet the bearer of the dress of honour, where a tent has been pitched for the occasion. Standing opposite to the favoured person, the king's commissioner commences the ceremony by pressing to his forehead the royal order, which he is about to read previously to the presentation of the dress. The dresses presented by the ancient kings of Persia were such Median robes as they wore themselves, and which none might wear but those on whom they conferred them. The privilege of wearing such a dress, therefore, formed a permanent distinction of a very high order. It was death for any one to wear the king's own robe; and it is therefore an instance of the ambition of Haman that, supposing these honours were intended for himself, he should have made such a proposal. It was an honour which, from its extraordinary character, was beyond all things calculated to express the most pre-eminent favour and distinction, and render it at once visible to all the people. DR. KITTO.