In modern Palestine criminals and men of de-
{)raved life are called muaththarin, ' those who lave been made to stumble ' ; and the .same epithet is applied to such as are in trouble through mis- fortune.
The Cross that made God the sacrificer and suppliant, and called for faith in a Saviour who could not save Himself, was a stumbling-block or offence to the wisdom of the world, and to all its religious traditions (Ro 933, j Qq jej^ 1 p 08).
G. M. Mackie. HIRE. — ' Hire ' (/iicrflcSs) occurs in two passages as the regular payment given for service rendered. In the parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard (Mt 20") it is spoken of the day's wage, the denarius, owing by agreement to the workers. The proverbial phrase, ' The labourer is worthy of his hire ' (Lk 10'), is used by Christ in connexion with the mission of the Seventy. In Mt 10'" rpo^^, ' food,' is substituted for iwrBdi. The latter Greek word occurs again (Jn 43") as the wages of the reaper. It is used in a good sense as the reward of devotion and service to God (Mt 5'- 6' 10", Mk 9*', Lk 6^), as well as to describe the ' empty popu- larity' attaching to the religious ostentation of the hypocrites (Mt G-- =■'"). It is employed (Rev 22'-) of Christ's reward to His faithful followers : ' My reward is with me.'
The term 'hired servant' or 'hireling' (/iicrSurcSs) is used in speaking of Zebedee's servants (Mk 1'-"), and of the false shepherd who deserts his flock at the approach of danger (Jn 10'-- '3). A similar derivative (p.la6iot) describes the father's servants in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15'»). The verb ' to hire ' (/xitrSiw) occurs (Mt 20') of the house- holder who engaged the labourers for his vineyard. See also next article. C. H. Prichaed.
HIRELING.-A hireling
who works for
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HISTORICAL
HISTORICAL
wages, an employ^. Originally synonymous with ' liired servant,' it did not necessarily imply venal motive. Ben Sira was acquainted with clevoted hirelings : ' Entreat not evil thy servant tliat worketh, nor a hireling that giveth thee his life ' (Sir 7-°). Hireling now denotes a wage-earner who manifests ceritain baser qualities of human nature. Christ's use of the word in Jn 10'-- '■' to signify one who, because he cares more for his wages than for his work, proves unfaithful under trial, has determined its evolution into meaning an untrustworthy employ^.
Calvin, who defines hirelings as ' those who retain the pure doctrine, and who proclaim the truth, as Paul says, to serve a purpose rather than from pure zeal,' discusses a question wont to be debated in times of persecution, viz. — Has that man to be reckoned a hireUng who for any reason shrinks from encounter- ing the wolves? He agrees with Augustine that parties may flee * if the public advant^e of the flock be thereby promoted ' (Calvin on John, vol. i. p. 403 f., Edinburgh, 1847).
D. A. MACKINNON".
HISTORICAL. — 1. The word 'history' is am- biguous. It may mean ( 1 ) the course of events ; or (2) any record of the events — a history ; or (3) the science, History, which understands the Avhole. Scientific history is comparatively a young tiling ; but already educated mankind are temliiig to refuse the name of 'a history' to anything under the second head which does not try to fulfil the requirements of science. What fails in that may be a chronicle, or may furnish useful materials to the true historian, but is not really history.
2. The aims of the science of liistory are two- fold. (1) It niu.st get at the facts ; and to do that it must secure, as far as possible, first-hand evi- dence ; (2) it must study the facts in their de- velopment or causation or connexion upon all sides. (1) In its search for first-hand e^^dence, the science of history has different kinds of material to work ^vitll. (a) The oldest material for history is tradition. All knowledge of past events lived at first in human memory before it assumed any more permanent shape. But tradition, unsupported or unassisted, is a bad witness. And in our own region there is no real historical tradition apart from the Chri-stian records, etc. What is pre- tended by Catholicism in that sense is a make- believe, to cover over unwarranted innovations. The furthest admission we can make is that scraps of historical recollection, otherwise lost to us, may sur^ve in Church legends, which were re- duced pretty early to writing (the Thekla legend ?). (i) The best of all witnesses is epigraphy. Biblical learning owes something to this, and may come to owe a good deal more — no one can say. (c) The main source of historical knowledge is literature, —human speech reduced to the ordinary forms of writing. Less durable (as well as less stift') than inscriptions, books are more numerous — so much more numerous, that they enjoy probably a better chance of survival. In our own field the Bible writings, though not al)soluteIy isolated, stand head and shoulders above all other materials in point of importance. This is true on purely historical principles, theories of inspiration apart. (d) At the risk of making a cross-division, we must mention the importance ol foreign tcstiiiiiini/. The