hadrach, i.e. "the
messenger of the king;" Mishael he called Meshach, i.e. "the devotee of the
goddess Shesach." He showed his cunning in this, and a historical testimony
to the potent influence of a name.

By this same rule of correspondence, Adam doubtless named, by order of his
Creator, the things of nature as they struck his senses.

"He specified the partridge by her cry, and the forest prowler by
his roving,
The tree by its use, and the flower by its beauty, and everything
according to its truth."

The Hebrews obeyed the same law in naming their children. With them there
was a sacred importance attached to the giving of a name. For every chosen
name they had a reason which involved the person's life, character or
destiny. Adam named the companion of his bosom, "woman because she was
taken out of man." He called "his wife's name Eve, because she was the
mother of all living." Eve called her first-born Cain (possession) "because
I have gotten a man from the Lord." She called another son Seth
(appointed,) "for God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom
Cain slew." Samuel was so named because he was "asked of and sent to God."
God Himself often gave names to His people; and each name thus given,
conveyed a promise, or taught some rule of life, or bore some divine
memorial, or indicated some calling of the person named. Says Dr.
Krummacher on this point: "Names were to the people like memoranda, and
like the bells on the garments of the priests, reminding them of the Lord
and His government, and furnishing matter for a variety of salutary
reflections. To the receivers of them they ministered consolation and
strength, warning and encouragement; and to others they served to attract
the attention and heart of God." This was right, and fully accorded with
the economy of the Hebrew home, and with the conception of language itself.

Would that the Christian home followed her pious example! But Christians
now are too much under the influence of irreligious fashion. Instead of
giving their children those good old religious names which their fathers
bore, and which are endeared to us by many hallowed associations, they now
repudiate them with a sneer as too vulgar and tasteless. They are out of
fashion, too common, don't lead us into a labyrinth of love-scrapes and
scenes of refined iniquity, and are now only fit for a servant.

Hence instead of resorting to the bible for a name, these sentimental