Molesworth's (J. E. N.) Nature and Development of Government in the Early Christian Church Monro's (Rev. E.) Fulfilment of the Ministry Monro's Letter to Mr. Gladstone on the true Province of Education in PAGK 136 136 Thompson's (Sir Henry) Hints on the Duty of Diocesan Inspection 200 Wordsworth's (Rev. Christopher) Lectures on the Apocalypse Question of Passive Communion 260 385 Wright's (Thos.) History of Ireland 66 AND ECCLESIASTIC. CHURCH BELLS. The Bell: its Origin, History, and Uses. By the Rev. ALFRED GATTY, M.A., Vicar of Ecclesfield. London: Bell. 1848. It has become customary to stigmatise with the opprobrium of superstition every attempt to consider material substances as things which may become hallowed and religious by being solemnly set apart for the service of GOD. There is a strong feeling in the Protestant mind, generally, that nothing external can in any sense be holy or sacred--that there are no holy places, nor holy vessels, nor even holy bodies. The ALMIGHTY, it is said, is only concerned with spiritual and internal religion. He cares not for anything outward; He entirely dispenses, and would wish us to dispense, with all degrees of form and ceremony. External reverence does not please Him. To ask His blessing upon any work of human art-to dedicate that work to His especial service, and to consider it as henceforth separated from profane uses-this is the essence of a corrupt system of religion, and to trifle with GoD rather than to do Him honour. However plausible this theory may appear, and however skilfully supported by specious argument, it is, in itself, radically unsound. It springs from that system of spiritualism, which has overrun a large portion of the Christian world, and which, wherever it has appeared, has brought along with it rationalism, irreverence, and the sceptical spirit. The theory, too, is wholly destitute of Scriptural authority. There is not a passage in Scripture which can be fairly quoted in its support; whereas, both in the Books of the Law and in the New Testament itself, there is much to bear out the opinion, that the MAKER of the universe exercises a providential care over inanimate matter, and therefore cannot look with indifference upon VOL. VII.-JANUARY, 1849. B external things-that He once was pleased to give minute directions about the making of cups and vessels, and garments, and instruments to be employed in the service of His Sanctuary, which is a proof that His Almighty Mind does not disdain to regard even such trivial matters-that as everything we do is to be done to the glory of GoD, the art of man is likewise to be employed to His glory; so that, consequently, it is an act of piety to offer to Him. the curious devices of man's ingenuity and skill, to ask His blessing upon their formation, to present them to Him with prayer, and to regard them from the time of their presentation as vessels sanctified and "holy unto the LORD." It will appear from these remarks, that we are about to treat the subject discussed in the work before us, in a different spirit from that displayed in its pages. The author of this little volume gives us some light and not uninteresting sketches of "the bell;" but he writes in a frivolous tone, and as if his subject could supply a momentary amusement, but no permanent edification. We shall attempt to go over the same ground, although, as we have said, in a different spirit, trusting that our readers will receive in a similar spirit of faith and reverence, the following imperfect sketch of the origin and uses of one of the most remarkable inventions of human art. That bells have been known and used, both as ornaments of dress and instruments of sound, from the most remote antiquity, there is abundant evidence to prove. The earliest mention of them occurs in three passages of Holy Scripture. In Exodus xxviii. 31-35, we read, "And thou shalt make the robe of the ephod all of blue. And there shall be a hole in the top of it, in the midst thereof; it shall have a binding of woven work round about the hole of it, as it were the hole of an habergeon, that it be not rent. And beneath, upon the hem of it, thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about the hem thereof; and bells of gold between them round about: a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe round about. And it shall be upon Aaron to minister; and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the LORD, and when he cometh out, that he die not." Again, Zechariah xiv. 20, " In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness unto the LORD." But the marginal reading has bridles for bells, with which the Septuagint agrees; so that this passage hardly applies. However, in Ecclesiasticus xlv. 9, the verse in Exodus is thus referred to, " And he compassed him with pomegranates, and with many golden bells round about, that as he went there might be a sound, and a noise made that might be heard in the Temple, for a memorial to the children of his people." It thus appears that bells were used by Divine appointment in the Jewish Church, as a part of the High Priest's sacerdotal dress; and that the sound of them was to be a memorial to the children of his people." They were not employed for any other purpose. In summoning the people to the religious assemblies, the Jews used trumpets instead of bells: according to the ordinance of the LORD, "Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them; that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps. But when the congregation is to be gathered together, ye shall blow, but ye shall not sound an alarm. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow with the trumpets; and they shall be to you for an ordinance for ever throughout your generations." (Num. x. 2, 7, 8.) The smaller kind of bells (tintinnabula) were known to the Greeks and Romans, and, according to Porphyry, to the people of India. They are alluded to by Plutarch, Lucian, Plautus, Martial, Juvenal, and others.* Augustus Cæsar is said to have placed small bells on the top of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus; and similar ones were suspended from the tomb of King Porsenna, which, oscillating with the wind were heard at a great distance off. But at what period the larger kind were invented, and when they were first adopted by the Christian Church, are questions which appear to have given rise to diversity of opinion amongst learned men. It is certain that in the early times of Christianity, bells were not used to call the people to the public prayers; because, being continually exposed to persecutions, the primitive Christians were frequently obliged to meet by stealth, and at night-time, in the most secret and quiet manner. As the Church became more numerous and less liable to be assailed by sweeping persecutions, many inventions were adopted for the purpose of calling the faithful to the public assemblies. In Egypt and in Palestine they appear to have used trumpets, after the manner of the Jews. It was the custom in some monasteries for the monks by turns to go about to every one's cell, and with the knock of a hammer to call the brethren to prayer. In Brand's "Popular Antiquities," it is mentioned as a relic of this custom, that "in many of the colleges at Oxford, the Bible clerk knocks at every room with a key, to waken the students in the morning before he begins to ring the chapel bell."+ Bingham tells us, that "in the monastery of Virgins, which Paula, the famous Roman lady, set up and governed at Jerusalem, the signal was used to be given by one going about and singing 'Hallelujah,' for that word was their call to church, as S. Jerome informs us." The Greeks employ wooden boards, or iron plates full of holes, which they hold by the middle in the left hand, while with the right they strike it with a mallet, and so contrive by a succession of strokes, "nunc * See Du Cange, Gloss. in Verb. Campana. Also Bona, de Rebus Liturg. L. I. cap. 22. Brand, Observations on Pop. Antiq. Vol. II. p. 131 note. Bingham, Book viii. chap. 7. |