September 15

Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this. - Ecclesiastes 7:10.

“REMEMBER,” says Moses, “the days of old; consider the years of many generations.” And he extends this injunction to the beginning of the world:-“Ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth.” And we can do this; we have some information concerning the very earliest period of the human race. With regard to those who lived before the flood, indeed, our information is very brief and partial, not likely to gratify curiosity; but after the flood, with regard to the new world and the division of nations, and especially the concerns of one particular people, from whom, as concerning the flesh, the Messiah was to come, we have ample materials; and we have the advantage of knowing that these accounts are to be depended upon, because they were written by “holy men of God, who wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

Before the close of revelation, however, we have also several useful pieces of uninspired civil history, and in great abundance afterwards, so that we can easily run back through ages and generations. For it is not with us as it is with some countries, where former times are only known by tradition, or by a few rude monuments of earth or stone. With the documents we possess, we can inquire concerning the former days. Only, in doing this, there are three cautious we should be careful to regard. The first is, to see that our aim in this be not only, or principally, mere amusement; but that we endeavour to derive lessons, mental and moral, and religious instruction, from the characters and the events recorded.

Secondly, We must be careful how we place implicit confidence in history, and endeavour to distinguish between fiction and truth. We know how hard it is to ascertain facts, even with regard to what occurs in our own day and in our own neighbourhood, and that we must inquire again and again, and how, while we are examining, one thing drops off after another, till at length the reality scarcely bears any correspondence with the report. What then must the greater part of all ancient history be? And in nothing is this caution so necessary as in ecclesiastical history, which was nearly all written by the parties themselves,- that is, churchmen, popish churchmen, who always endeavoured to exalt themselves at the expense of others, and to represent any who differed from them as heretics, schismatics, or infidels. Hence a man familiar with such history has ventured to say, though extravagantly, that “all ecclesiastical history is one continued lie.”

Thirdly, We must relinquish the prejudice which Solomon assails when he says, in our present motto, “Say not, What is the cause that the former days were better than these?” No, the thing is not true; we ought to be wiser than the ancients, for we are much more ancient than they. Certainly the world is older now than it was ages ago. Surely mankind are not incapable of intellectual or moral progression and social improvement. Were the former days better than these as to benevolence and charity? Where were then the asylums for the blind, and various other institutions which have risen up to meet the necessities of suffering humanity? Were the former days better than these in the administration of justice with regard to civil liberty? How much better understood now are the rights of subjects and the limits of rulers! Were the former days better than these as to religious liberty? How little, formerly, were the rights of private judgment and of conscience understood! And were the former days better than these as to religion? What trammels has religion not thrown off in the fooleries of the past,-in the subtleties of the schools, in the enactments of superstition, in the decrees of councils, and in a thousand useless and silly decrees and controversies!

We may, therefore, well say, “The lines are fallen unto us,” not only in “pleasant places,” but in pleasant times; “and we have a goodly heritage.”