exceedingly impetuous and rapid, and imparts a whirling motion to dust,
sand, water, and occasionally to bodies of great weight and bulk,
carrying them either upward or downward, and scattering them about in
different directions. Whirlwinds and water spouts are supposed to
proceed from the same cause; their only difference being, that the
latter pass over the water, and the former over the land. Both of them
have a progressive as well as a circular motion, generally rise after
calms and great heats, and occur most frequently in warm latitudes. The
wind blows in every direction from a large surrounding space, both
toward the water spout and the whirlwind; and a water spout has been
known to pass, in its progressive motion, from sea to land, and, when it
has reached the latter, to produce all the phenomena and effects of a
whirlwind. There is no doubt, therefore, of their arising from a similar
cause, as they are both explicable on the same general principles. In
the imagery employed by the sacred writers, these frightful hurricanes
are introduced as the immediate instruments of the divine indignation:
“He shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living and in his
wrath,” Psalm lviii, 9. “God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far
off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind,” Isaiah xvii, 13. “The
Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are
the dust of his feet,” Nahum i, 3. All these are familiar images to the
inhabitants of eastern countries, and receive some elucidation from the
subjoined descriptions of English travellers. “On the 25th,” says Bruce,
“at four o’clock in the afternoon, we set out from the villages of the
Nuba, intending to arrive at Basbock, where is the ferry over the Nile;
but we had scarcely advanced two miles into the plain, when we were
enclosed in a violent whirlwind, or what is called at sea the water
spout. The plain was red earth, which had been plentifully moistened by
a shower in the night time. The unfortunate camel that had been taken by
Cohala seemed to be nearly in the centre of its vortex; it was lifted
and thrown down at a considerable distance, and several of its ribs
broken; although, as far as I could guess, I was not near the centre, it
whirled me off my feet, and threw me down upon my face, so as to make my
nose gush out with blood: two of the servants, likewise, had the same
fate. It plastered us all over with mud, almost as smoothly as could
have been done with a trowel. It took away my sense and breathing for an
instant; and my mouth and nose were full of mud when I recovered. I
guess the sphere of its action to be about two hundred feet. It
demolished one half of a small hut, as if it had been cut through with a
knife, and dispersed the materials all over the plain, leaving the other
half standing.” “When there was a perfect calm,” observes Morier,
“partial and strong currents of air would arise, and form whirlwinds,
which produced high columns of sand all over the plain. Those that we
saw at Shiraz were formed and dissipated in a few minutes: nor is it the
nature of this phenomenon to travel far; it being a current of air that
takes its way in a capricious and sudden manner, and is dissolved by the
very nature of its formation. Whenever one of them took our tents, it
generally disturbed them very materially, and frequently threw them
down. Their appearance was that of water spouts at sea, and perhaps they
are produced in the same manner.” And Burchell remarks: “The hottest
days are often the most calm; and at such times the stillness of the
atmosphere was sometimes suddenly disturbed in an extraordinary manner.
Whirlwinds, raising up columns of dust to a great height in the air, and
sweeping over the plains with momentary fury, were no unusual
occurrence. As they were always harmless, it was an amusing sight to
watch these tall pillars of dust as they rapidly passed by, carrying up
every light substance to the height of from one to even three or four
hundred feet. The rate at which they travelled varied from five to ten
miles in the hour: their form was seldom straight, nor were they quite
perpendicular, but uncertain and changing. Whenever they happened to
pass over our fire, all the ashes were scattered in an instant, and
nothing remained but the heavier sticks and logs. Sometimes they were
observed to disappear, and in a minute or two afterward to make their
re-appearance at a distance farther on. This occurred whenever they
passed over rocky ground, or a surface on which there was no dust, nor
other substances sufficiently light to be carried up in the vortex.
Sometimes they changed their colour, according to that of the soil or
dust which lay in their march; and when they crossed a tract of country
where the grass had lately been burned, they assumed a corresponding
blackness. But to-day the calm and heat of the air was only the prelude
to a violent wind, which commenced as soon as the sun had sunk, and
continued during the greater part of the night. The great heat and
long-protracted drought of the season had evaporated all moisture from
the earth, and rendered the sandy soil excessively light and dusty.
Astonishing quantities of the finer particles of this sand were carried
up by the wind, and filled the whole atmosphere, where, at a great
height, they were borne along by the tempest, and seemed to be real
clouds, although of a reddish hue; while the heavier particles,
descending again, presented, at a distance, the appearance of mist or
driving rains.”
WHITE, a favourite and emblematical colour in Palestine. See HABITS.
WIDOW. Among the Hebrews, even before the law, a widow who had no
children by her husband was to marry the brother of her deceased spouse,
in order to raise up children who might inherit his goods and perpetuate
his name and family. We find the practice of this custom before the law
in the person of Tamar, who married successively Er and Onan, the sons
of Judah, and who was likewise to have married Selah, the third son of
this patriarch, after the two former were dead without issue, Gen.
xxxviii, 6–11. The law that appoints these marriages is Deut. xxv, 5,
&c. Two motives prevailed to the enacting of this law. The first was,
the continuation of estates in the same family; and the other was to
perpetuate a man’s name in Israel. It was looked upon as a great
misfortune for a man to die without an heir, or to see his inheritance
pass into another family. This law was not confined to brothers-in-law
only, but was extended to more distant relations of the same kind; as we
see in the example of Ruth, who married Boaz after she had been refused
by a nearer kinsman. See SANDALS.
WILL. “In his primitive condition as he came out of the hands of his
Creator, man was endowed with such a portion of knowledge, holiness, and
power, as enabled him to understand, esteem, consider, will, and to
perform the true good, according to the commandment delivered to him:
yet none of these acts could he do, except through the assistance of
divine grace. But in his lapsed and sinful state, man is not capable, of
and by himself, either to think, to will, or to do that which is really
good; but it is necessary for him to be regenerated and renewed in his
intellect, affections or will, and in all his powers, by God in Christ
through the Holy Spirit, that he may be qualified rightly to understand,
esteem, consider, will, and perform whatever is truly good. When he is
made a partaker of this regeneration, or renovation, since he is
delivered from sin, he is capable of thinking, willing, and doing that
which is good, but yet not without the continued aids of divine grace.”
Such were the sentiments of the often misrepresented Arminius on this
subject; to which is only to be added, to complete the Scriptural view,
that a degree of grace to consider his ways, and to return to God, is
through the merit of Christ vouchsafed to every man. Every one must be
conscious that he possesses free will, and that he is a free agent; that
is, that he is capable of considering and reflecting upon the objects
which are presented to his mind, and of acting, in such cases as are
possible, according to the determination of his will. And, indeed,
without this free agency, actions cannot be morally good or bad; nor can
the agents be responsible for their conduct. But the corruption
introduced into our nature by the fall of Adam has so weakened our
mental powers, has given such force to our passions, and such
perverseness to our wills, that a man “cannot turn and prepare himself
by his own natural strength and good works to faith and calling upon
God.” The most pious of those who lived under the Mosaic dispensation
often acknowledged the necessity of extraordinary assistance from God:
David prays to God to open his eyes, to guide and direct him; to create
in him a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within him, Psalm li, 10;
cxix, 18, 33, 35. Even we, whose minds are enlightened by the pure
precepts of the Gospel, and urged by the motives which it suggests, must
still be convinced of our weakness and depravity, and confess, in the
words of the tenth article, that “we have no power to do good works
pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God preventing us,
that we may have a good will, and working with us when we have that good
will.” The necessity of divine grace to strengthen and regulate our
wills, and to coöperate with our endeavours after righteousness, is
clearly asserted in the New Testament: “They that are in the flesh
cannot please God,” Rom. viii, 8. “Abide in me,” says our Saviour, “and
I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in
the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, and ye
are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth
forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing,” John xv, 4, 5. “No
man can come to me, except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him.”
“It is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good
pleasure,” Phil. ii, 13. “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
think any thing as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God,” 2 Cor.
iii, 5. “We know not what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit
helpeth our infirmities,” Rom. viii, 26. We are said to be “led by the
Spirit,” and to “walk in the Spirit,” Rom. viii, 14; Gal. v, 16, 25.
These texts sufficiently prove that we stand in need both of a
prevenient and of a coöperating grace. This doctrine we find asserted in
many of the ancient fathers, and particularly in Ambrose, who, in
speaking of the effects of the fall, uses these words: “Thence was
derived mortality, and no less a multitude of miseries than of crimes.
Faith being lost, hope being abandoned, the understanding blinded, and
the will made captive, no one found in himself the means of repairing
these things. Without the worship of the true God, even that which seems
to be virtue is sin; nor can any one please God without God. But whom
does he please who does not please God, except himself and Satan? The
nature therefore, which was good is made bad by habit: man would not
return unless God turned him.” And Cyprian says, “We pray day and night
that the sanctification and enlivening, which springs from the grace of
God, may be preserved by his protection.” Dr. Nicholls, after quoting
many authorities to show that the doctrine of divine grace always
prevailed in the catholic church, adds, “I have spent, perhaps, more
time in these testimonies than was absolutely necessary; but whatever I
have done is to show that the doctrine of divine grace is so essential a
doctrine of Christianity, that not only the Holy Scriptures and the
primitive fathers assert it, but likewise that the Christians could not
in any age maintain their religion without it,--it being necessary, not
only for the discharge of Christian duties, but for the performance of
our ordinary devotions.” And this seems to have been the opinion of the
compilers of our excellent liturgy, in many parts of which both a
prevenient and a coöperating grace is unequivocally acknowledged;
particularly in the second collect for the evening service; in the
fourth collect at the end of the communion service; in the collect for
Easter day; in the collect for the fifth Sunday after Easter; in the
collects for the third, ninth, seventeenth, nineteenth, and twenty-fifth
Sundays after Trinity. This assistance of divine grace is not
inconsistent with the free agency of men: it does not place them under
an irresistible restraint, or compel them to act contrary to their will.
Our own exertions are necessary to enable us to work out our salvation;
but our sufficiency for that purpose is from God. It is, however,
impossible to ascertain the precise boundary between our natural efforts
and the divine assistance, whether that assistance be considered as a
coöperating or a prevenient grace. Without destroying our character as
free and accountable beings, God may be mercifully pleased to counteract
the depravity of our hearts by the suggestions of his Spirit; but still
it remains with us to choose whether we will listen to those
suggestions, or obey the lusts of the flesh. We may rest assured that he
will, by the communication of his grace, varied often as to power and
distinctness, help our infirmities, invigorate our resolutions, and
supply our defects. The promises that if we draw nigh to God, God will
draw nigh to us, and pour out his Spirit upon us, James iv, 8; Acts ii,
17, and that he will give his Holy Spirit to every one that asketh him,
Luke xi, 13, imply that God is ever ready to work upon our hearts, and
to aid our well-doing through the powerful, though invisible, operation
of his Spirit: “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the
sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth;
so is every one that is born of the Spirit,” John iii, 8. The joint
agency of God and man, in the work of human salvation, is pointed out in
the following passage: “Work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling; for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of
his good pleasure,” Phil, ii, 12, 13; and therefore we may assure
ourselves that free will and grace are not incompatible, though the mode
and degree of their coöperation be utterly inexplicable, and though at
different times one may appear for a season to overwhelm the other. This
doctrine has, however, been the subject of much dispute among
Christians: some sects contend for the irresistible impulses of grace,
and others reject the idea of any influence of the divine Spirit upon
the human mind. The former opinion seems irreconcilable with the free
agency of man, if held as the constant unvarying mode in which he
carries on his work in the soul of man, and the latter contradicts the
authority of Scripture; “and therefore,” says Veneer, “let us neither
ascribe nothing to free will, nor too much; let us not, with the
defenders of irresistible grace, deny free will, or make it of no
effect, not only before, but even under, grace; nor let us suffer the
efficacy of saving grace, on the other hand, to be swallowed up in the
strength and freedom of our wills; but, allowing the government or
superiority to the grace of God, let the will of man be admitted to be
its handmaid, but such a one as is free, and freely obeys; by which,
when it is freely excited by the admonitions of prevenient grace, when
it is prepared as to its affections, strengthened and assisted as to its
powers and faculties, a man freely and willingly coöperates with God,
that the grace of God be not received in vain.” “All men are also to be
admonished,” observes Cranmer, in his “Necessary Doctrine,” “and chiefly
preachers, that in this high matter they, looking on both sides, so
temper and moderate themselves, that they neither so preach the grace of
God that they take away thereby free will, nor on the other side so
extol free will, that injury be done to the grace of God.” And Jortin
remarks: “Thus do the doctrine of divine grace and the doctrine of free
will or human liberty unite and conspire, in a friendly manner, to our
everlasting good. The first is adapted to excite in us gratitude, faith,
and humility; the second, to awaken our caution and quicken our
diligence.”