give me at that day, and not unto me only, but unto all them that love his appearing." On, my brothers, on! The powers of darkness and of death oppose us and laugh defiantly at us poor struggling mortals; but we shall master them, we shall tread them beneath our feet, we shall yet be 66 more than conquerors through Him that loved us;" we shall shout our triumph in the gates of heaven, and then we shall have fought right bravely and right well the battle of our life. REVISION AND NEW TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE. I AM perfectly sure that the satisfaction which all must feel at the elevation of your long-tried teacher Mr. Bickersteth to the place of a chief minister in that Church to which he belongs will more than compensate for any disappointment which any may experience by my acting as his substitute and as your lecturer for this evening. I have selected the subject of the lecture, because it happens to be that on which my mind has been lately most employed. The subject is perhaps in itself abstract; I hope my treatment of it will not be felt dry or dull; certainly the matter is possessed of an importance at the present moment, and in the prospect of future changes, that it is impossible for me to exaggerate. There are two points I am anxious to prove; and I trust I shall receive your earnest attention while I endeavour to do so. The first is that the present Greek text of the New Testament-that, for instance, edited by Professor Scholefield, the basis of which was that of Erasmus in 1535, or rather of Robert Stephen's folio in 1550, called the common Greek text, is in present circumstances and notwithstanding some defects, the best text extant. The second is, that our own translation, that of 1611—the translation it is our privilege to have and I trust daily to read -is, compared with all other specimens, and considering existing disputes, debates, and controversies, by far the best, and instead of there being any reason for material change, there seem to be overwhelming reasons for holding it fast in all its integrity. I need not tell you that before the invention of printing the only way of perpetuating the sacred volume was by what is called writing on vellum or parchment, or a sort of cotton paper,-a process extremely laborious, and carried on at considerable expense; but because laborious and expensive each manuscript came to be valued as paintings of great masters are valued by their possessors at the present day. These manuscripts, it is unnecessary to add, are, like all human things, subject to decay, as well as other destructive agencies. But who do you think were the greatest destroyers of the manuscripts? Not the mice, nor the rats, nor the waste and wear of time, but a number of gentlemen called by Cardinal Wiseman the "luminaries of Christendom," popularly known by the name of monks, who had so little reverence for the Gospels written on vellum by the successors of the Apostles that they were in the habit of writing over them the legends of saints; and modern chemistry has only recently discovered the process by which the Romanism, that is, the monks' legends, may be effaced, and the Protestantism, that is, the Evangelist's Gospel beneath, may come up in all the splendour of its first kindling. These manuscripts, which are restored from the monks' obliterations are called palimpsest manuscripts. Other destroying agents are time, friction, dirt, and similar agencies of decay which it would be needless to specify in detail. I may also state as matter of fact, that we are not in possession of a single manuscript the very penmanship or hand-writing of an Apostle or Evangelist. We have not one such manuscript at the present time. If we had I am sure that learned and accomplished scholar, Mr. Alford, would prefer such a manuscript |