which, in vertical section, as you look at it, is the Hebrew letter, and as such letter, used in the compound, the word thus framed becomes a modification of jod, he, vau, he, or Jehovah, to make it Joshua. The name as given in the text is יהושע wherein, guided by the points, the changed form as found in the Mount, and therein worked out, is the synonym. The work is a transfiguration on the Mount, the parties to the work being Jehovah, Moses and Joshua,-it being the prototype of the New Testament second edition of the same thing in vaguer description. He is first styled the Son-of-Nun, in this passage:-"When Moses entered the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses, face to face-as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp:-but his servant Joshua TheSon-of-Nun, departed not out of the tabernacle." The word Nun, is a determination of the new changed name, with its use. "The Man-even-Jehovah measure" was 113×5-56.5X10. The new term is but a reiteration of the same measure in its concrete form of N UN, or 565, at once, as designating the jod he vau he of the new name, to show that the middle letter balancing the division of the letters, is to be disregarded, as affecting the measure, in other words, it simply determines a new mode of use of the Man-even-Jehovah measure. All this will becorne clear in the description of "The Lord descending on Sinai." The diagram of Jehovah in His Dwelling was shown to be a circle divided by a five pointed star into five equal spaces of 355 each, the diameter being 565,-(this N U N) or 56.5×10, or Jehovah Himself, and as just shown, this diagram is the base of one of our crowning circles on Sinai, in this Joshua use,- -as Son of Nun. The work all fits. The use of the name Joshua in the text is an enigma, a riddle, a sphinx. Like Melchizedek he is introduced without genealogy or parentage. The first mention of it is when Moses commands Joshua to fight Amalek. He is then spoken of most obscurely considering the exalted office he is made to assume, viz: that whereas the leaders and people are made "to stand afar off,” he is found to be in the very top of the Mount with Jehovah and Moses without going there. The Lord said to Moses:-"Come up unto the Lord, thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; "-(observe, 73, five times which is 365)" and worship ye, afar off. And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the Mount, and be there. And Moses rose up,-and his servant Joshua; and Moses went up into the Mount of God (Alhim). And he said unto the elders, Tarry ye here for us, until we come again." The transfiguration takes place, and then, or after that, in the presence of the changed form of Jehovah meeting him face to face, in the tabernacle, this changed form is now named by Moses, "Son of Nun," or Fish, the prototype of Jesus. In the obscure mention of him he is called merely a young man, about the camp. He is spoken of as a man, and called the servant or minister of Moses,-yet the actual word given (Ex. 24, 13,) is, or M'sháratho, where the word may be feminine signifying "his female minister,” from certain mysteries in the context. The first indication of him, however, is in the use of a substantive, an attribute of Jehovah, in Exodus 14, 13, where Moses says:-"Stand still and see the Salvation of the Lord," where the word is ny- (sic), again a feminine noun, àth J'shuath. The small values of this word give the sum of 26, which is the values of the letters jod, hé var hé, of Jehovah's name ;-so, that, it is not alone as an attribute but as the equivalent of the Name that the word is used; as if he had said:"And see Jehovah-Jehovah!" which identical use does, in fact, shadow forth the double use of the name, to work out the measuring use of the Name at Sinai, as will be more fully shown. LINES Composed and Inscribed to Bro. T. S. Parvin, of Iowa. BY ROB MORRIS, POET LAUREATE. Brace up, old Hero, for the coming trial! Upon life's stricken field you've battled long; With many a blow, 'neath many harsh denial, You've won your fame, your record true and strong; Soon the decisive moment long awaited; The evening shadows closing on the field; Your life, for other lives so consecrated, Has He not made Himself your arm and shield? Vol. 68.-No. 2.-2. BURNS' TAM O'SHANTER. BY DR. ROB MORRIS. This extraordinary production, considered by many as the best of Burns' writings, was composed at Ellisland, during the year 1790. The suggestion of it was in a conference with an antiquary, Captain Grose, who was writing descriptions of the ancient buildings of Scotland, and who agreed to make a drawing of Alloway Kirk if Burns would compose a poem appropriate to the place. Captain Grose was a most courteous, affable, and engaging man. He had met Burns at the house of a mutual friend, Mr. Kiddel, a famous collector of antiquities, and had become interested in his account of the ghostly traditions and witch-stories associated with Alloway Kirk. The kirk was close by the cottage in which Burns was born, and in its grave-yard his father lay buried. Doubtless the poet, when a lad, had often wandered among the graves that hem in the old building, and had heard the blood curdling incidents which he interwove in his poem. In my visits to this and surrounding places in 1878, I found the auld kirk roofless, but with strong walls which might readily be utilized for another building. The bell remains under its strong arch at the eastern end of the church. The area of the church, about 18 by 20, has been seized by the neighboring families,-under what authority I have not learned, for a burial place. In Chambers' Journal, 1833, it is said "the little area of the graveyard is absolutely crowded with modern monuments referring to persons, many of whom have been brought from considerable distances; and even the neighboring gentry are now contending for departments in this fold of the departed." Shanter is a place of no importance, between Colzean and Turnberry, some twelve miles or more from the town of Ayr. The original Tam o' Shanter was a man named Douglas Graham, a dealer in malt, and much given to the use of strong drink. In attending at Ayr, on market days, he was accompanied by a souter (shoe maker) named John Davidson, a man of kindred tastes. The latter is immortalized as Souter Johnnie. The two were accustomed to tarry at the taverns in Ayr and return home at the most unseasonable hours. Burns, in school-days, had lived at Kirkoswald, and was acquainted with those bibulous men, their grotesque habits and adventures. It is the opinion of many biographers of our poet as intimated in the opening paragraph, that this celebrated poem was written at one sitting-struck off, as it were, at white heat and at one heat. But I have a pamphlet in my possession, presented me by Mr. John Baird of Glasgow, in which a different theory is presented. The author of this brochure, Mr. Porteus, printed at Maybole, Scotland, thinks that the poem Tam o' Shanter was composed, at least set up, scaffolded, and strong pieces fitted in, while Burns was a resident at Kirkoswald, and not in 1790, at Elliston. There he only filled in the gaps, polished the work with last inimitable touches, and gave it to the public. Mr. Porteus says: "It is evident that when Burns asked Grose to put Alloway Kirk in his sketches, he had already put his hand to 'Tam o' Shanter.' He had not only the genius of a poet, but also the tact of one, and knew how to bring out his pieces to best advantage. Grose told him he would put the old ruin into his book if Burns would write anything upon it fit to preserve its remembrance. This was exactly the kind of answer the Poet wanted: Tam and his Drouthy Crony were already on the canvas; he had only to brush up the original draught which he had made at Ballockneil and add a few finishing touches to make it fit for the public. Burns was a man of far better sense than to ask Grose to put the insignificant old kirk among his famous scenes had he not had something further in view." Some persons may consider this discussion of little or no interest. With me, a writer of verse, the question is this: was Burns likely to have composed at one time a poem containing so many particulars? I think not. His love-songs, practically all alike, might have been dashed off on the saddle, under a shady tree, or upon a tavern table and the wonder not be so great; but a compacted piece like Tam o' Shanter, with scores of local traditions in wrought, was not to be built up in that style." Rome was not built in a day," says the adage, neither was "Tam o'Shanter." This, at least, is the opinion of the present writer. Be it as it may, the poem was published in Grose's work in connection with the plate of Kirk Alloway, and Grose added a note, which, at this late day, reads strangely: "To my ingenious friend, Mr. Robert Burns, I have been seriously obligated. He was not only at the pains of making out what was most worthy of notice in Ayrshire, the county honored by his birth, but he also wrote, expressly for this work, the pretty tale annexed to Alloway Church." This poem which Captain Grose styles "a pretty tale," has been eulogized for nearly a century as among the best of Burns' works. Chambers denominates it "the much admired"; Walter Scott uses the term "inimitable"; Byron says that of all Burns' production this is his "opus magnum"; Cunningham declares the poem "matchless." Other authorities have exhausted the vocabulary of literary praise in allusions to Tam o' Shanter. And now for the poem itself: Of brownys and of bogilis full is this buke. GAWIN DOUglas. (1.) When chapman billies leave the street, And drouthy neebors, neebors meet, As market-days are wearing late, (2.) This truth fand honest Tam o' Shanter, (3.) O Tam! had'st thou been sae wise, As ta'en thy ain wife Kate's advice! A blethering, blustering, drunken blellum; |