Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: II. THE ORIGIN OF THE TOKEN. A Token has been exactly defined as "a sign, mark, or remembrancer of something beyond itself. A pledge that something then specified shall be done or given." When God brought Noah out of the ark, He said, "This is the token of the covenant which I make between Me and you,—I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token between Me and the earth." We find tokens of various kinds often repeated in His dealings with His chosen servants and His people. It may be noted here, that from the first time the word is used in the Authorized Version of the Bible, "This is the token of the covenant," (Gen. 1x: 12) to its last mention by St. Paul, (2 Thess. 1n: 17) "mineown hand,—the token in every epistle," the word is invariably " a token for good," with one terrible exception, (Mark x1v: 44) "he that betrayed Him had given them a token." In the Apocryphal Book of Tobit there is an excellent illustration of the use of Tokens in daily life. My black-letter copy of 1584 refers to the practice more plainly than the common version. Tobit lends his friend Gabael ten talents of silver " under an handwriting." In his poverty many years afterwards, he remembers the loan and commissions his son Tobias to recover the money from Gabael, " and give him his handwriting again." Tobias objects, that he is a stranger to the debtor and asks (Tobit v: 2) "what token shall I give him?" Tobit makes answer .a.. -zchirographum, which is still in his possession, will be sufficient evidence that Tobias is the proper person to receive the silver. All which proved to be correct. Gabael acknowledgedand redeemed his token by prompt and full payment of the debt. In all ages, and among all nations, there was a constant endeavor to invent a suitable emblem which wo...