to prove a doctrine, depends upon the audience to which we preach. Most of our audiences admit, for example, the existence of God. Stop to prove this doctrine to them, and the tendency will be to make Atheists. If we stop to prove anything, we admit that it is not certainly established. It would seem to be a mistake for God to go into an argument to prove His omnipotence. It is better to assume what all admit. We may illustrate and apply such doctrines; the more the better. If we attempt to fortify an admitted fact by argument, we weaken it. When we were on our homeward voyage in the City of Paris, a Scotch Presbyterian was among the passengers. On the Sabbath, he preached a sermon, in which he sought to prove that God is not willing that any should perish. The Bible had said that so long before, he did not need to weary our patience with trying to prove what we all believed most heartily. How much more effect his sermon would have had, if he had assumed this truth, and illustrated it, by some of the many illustrations, suggested by the circumstances in which we were placed. One great power of the dissenting preachers in London lies in their accepting the truths of the Bible as established beyond a peradventure, and wasting no time in useless arguments to prove what every one believes, but proceeding at once, on the basis of these admitted truths, to ply men with exhortations to duty. We may need, for purposes of instruction, to state the arguments for admitted doctrines, but it should be done in such a way as to seem to be for instruction rather than for simple proof. If we assume that men do not believe what they do believe, we shall be likely to provoke unbelief.

But it is of vital importance that we present the doctrines in such a way as to show their value and application in all the routine of common life. The lawyer seeks to apply the law to specific cases. The preacher should seek to apply the doctrines of the Bible to the acts of men. Doubtless the age does not require dogmatic discussion, but it does require that the doctrines of the Cross be so unfolded, that they shall enter into and mold the life of men. This is largely the preacher's

business. He is appointed to declare the oracles of God. He must preach doctrine, if he would preach at all. If there is a tendency to ignore these solid foundations of faith, it is unfortunate for the strength and power of the pulpit. These are the only unfailing source from whence can be drawn the materials which belong to a sermon. Style, rhetoric, oratory, are without avail, if doctrinal truth be not declared. We must preach the Cross; but how can we, if we do not unfold, illustrate, and apply its doctrines? The preacher has no right to let anything crowd out of the pulpit the supremacy of the Gospel. That is the place to prove the practical value of the great truths of the Bible. If the preacher does not do it, who will? We are persuaded that the only way to rear a race of stalwart Christians, is to feed them the strong meat of the Word.

ARTICLE V.

THE SAMA-VEDA.

Nearly a hundred years have passed since the British East India Company caused a translation to be made from Sanskrit, through the Persian, into English, of a portion of the native Indian laws, with the design of better governing their newly acquired subjects. This translation, executed by eleven. Brahmins, was the first introduction of Sanskrit literature to the notice of Europeans. A few years later Sir William Jones, who had been before interested in oriental studies, went to Calcutta and began the study of the language. He was followed by other scholars, and from time to time translations of the epic and dramatic poetry of India appeared.

The discovery of such a mass of literature hitherto hidden from western eyes naturally excited the greatest enthusiasm. It was believed that a mine had been opened which would

yield richer ore than Greece or Rome. But further researches did not justify such great expectations, and the interest gradually declined. But as yet Europeans were acquainted with the later and more artificial literature. The oldest, and to us most instructive, had not been discovered, or at least not explored. Colebrook, who succeeded Sir William Jones, and who was one of the most acute and learned Sanskrit scholars of that or of any subsequent period, had indeed seen and examined the Vedas, but he gave it as his opinion that they contained nothing of great value. It is to Friedrich Rosen, a professor in the University of London, that we owe our first exact knowledge of a portion of these sacred books. In the year 1838 he prepared a translation of an eighth of the hymns of the Rig-Veda, but unfortunately he did not live to see it published. Possessing unusual fitness for his work, his early death was an irreparable loss to the cause of learning. But he did enough to reawaken an interest in Sanskrit studies. India was searched for manuscripts, and by the munificence of the King of Prussia, and by the active co-operation of the East India Company, a large number was collected in the Royal library at Berlin, and in the British Museum. Thus the language became accessible to all who were interested in the antiquities of the race without the necessity of making a pilgrimage to India. Scholars from all parts of Europefrom Germany, France, England, Russia, Denmark - and a goodly and increasing number from America, have not been slow to avail themselves of these advantages, and to contribute their much or their little to the difficult work of exhuming and reconstructing a civilization so remote in time and so isolated in place. As some of the results of these labors we have the beginnings of a Science of Language; we have more correct ideas of the origin and distribution of races; we have also convenient editions of all the Vedas, and editions of the most important works of the later literature. Indeed the zeal for printing has sometimes been unwise, and has produced works which might well have been left in the manuscripts.

Before beginning a description of the Veda whose name

heads this article, it may be well to premise a little concerning the Vedas in general, for the benefit of those who have not made language a special study. Both by the testimony of their own literature, and by the fragments of history which we can gather from other sources, we are enabled to conclude that the present dominant people of India are not the original possessors of the land, but that their primitive seat was in some region farther north; that they belong to the same stock as the great civilized nations of Europe and America; and that while the ancestors of the Persians, Greeks, Romans, Germans, etc., took up their march westward, the ancestors of the Hindus removed to the south, and, entering India at its northeast corner, the only place where Nature had left a gap in her impregnable mountain-wall, settled upon the banks of the Indus. From the very beginning they seem to have been devoted to religion. Though this tendency must be ascribed partly to native genius, yet the gigantic forms and powers of nature in that region were calculated to impress them. They were familiar with heaven-touching mountains, mighty rivers and vast plains; with a tropical sun, tropical storms, and tropical vegetation: The sun, the deep blue sky, the dawn, the storm, seemed to them manifestations of more than human power, and in time received their homage as gods. The emotions thus excited - thankfulness for blessings received, and longing for protection and prosperity- -were expressed in poetic strains. Some of these hymns they doubtless brought with them into India, but most of those which have been preserved were doubtless composed while they were settled upon the banks of the Indus. After the hymns had been used for a long time in connection with sacrifices to the gods, they came to be regarded as somehow essential to the efficacy of the offering. They were agreeable to the ears of the gods, and enticed them down to partake of the proffered food or drink. Thus it became necessary to collect the hymns which were current in the various districts, and to determine what should be the authorized version. These hymns and, later, much literature connected with them, were called the Veda, or

"Knowledge," since they were supposed to contain the germs and groundwork of all wisdom. But as many hymns were composed after the first collection had been made, and particularly as a varied arrangement and selection of them was needed to meet the requirements of the ceremonial, four collections were made, which have been known by successive generations of Hindus for many centuries as the four Vedas. The influence of these sacred books upon the religious and intellectual life of India has been incalculable. They have furnished texts for commentaries and commentaries upon commentaries without number. Though the childlike expressions of faith and devotion which they contain have been distorted and misapplied by a designing priesthood, and have furnished a starting-point for the wildest vagaries, yet no system of philosophy or ethics has survived in India, which has not been founded really or nominally upon the Vedas. Buddhism, which originated in an attempt to overthrow this tyranny of tradition, and which at one time seemed likely to subvert the established faith, was finally compelled to yield and to seek refuge in other lands.

Of the four Vedas, the Rig-Veda or "song" Veda is the most valuable, since it is the largest, most miscellaneous collection, and, for the most part, the one which contains the oldest hymns. It embraces the songs with which the ancestors of the Hindus "implored prosperity for themselves and their herds, greeted the rising dawn, celebrated the battle of the god of the thunderbolt with the powers of darkness, and praised the help of the celestials who rescued them in their contests."

The second, as the order usually stands, but probably the first to be collected, is the Sâma-Veda, of which we are to speak presently. The third is the Yajur-Veda, which contains not only hymns, but also formulæ in prose, for the performance of the offering. The use of prose determines its later origin. The fourth is the Atharva-Veda, which is evidently the latest of all. Instead of the simple trust in the protection and good will of the gods which inspired the earlier