parison, our vote would be given decidedly, all things considered, in favour of the Old Version. Viewed as English composition, ch. xvii. is a mill-stone around the neck of the Revision, which alone outweighs all its minute improvements, and renders it unfit for general adoption; since it really turns into an ingenious puzzle for Greek scholars one of the noblest passages in the whole compass of the Word of God. We admire the motives and the spirit of the Five Clergymen; but the chief conclusion we should draw from their labours is, that there is little hope of any large improvement on the Authorized Version by the judgment of the best living scholars, at least for many years to come. Les Adieux d'Adolphe Monod à ses Amis et à l'Eglise. Paris: Meyrueis. 1857. No doubt a large proportion of our readers have already been touched and edified by this holy and thoughtful volume. To those who may not have met with it, we will do the service of commending it to their notice, and at the same time give ourselves the indulgence of dwelling for a little while among some of the reflections which it suggests. man. Adolphe Monod died on the 6th of April last year, after thirty years' ministry in the Reformed Church of France, and after two years' illness, in which he bore the discipline of intense and increasing suffering. Six months before his end, his family were informed of the issue to be expected; and without absolutely surrendering all idea of recovery, he yet disposed himself as a dying. He decided to receive the Holy Communion every Sunday, as a means of grace "trop negligé et très-puissant ;" and one of his discourses expresses strong regret for the scanty and infrequent use of it in the Reformed Church in France. From thirty to forty persons were present on these occasions, including, besides his own family, as many of his friends and others who desired the privilege of being present, as could be conveniently admitted. An invocation, a hymn, a prayer, a chapter from the Bible, preceded the communion, after which he delivered a short address, sometimes with a power of voice and manner which surprised, sometimes with an appearance of weakness and difficulty which still more deeply moved his auditors, who had latterly to remain standing around his bed in order to catch the failing accents. It was not done without incurring the cost. "I suffer much," he would say, "on the Sunday evenings, but it is a sacrifice which I cheerfully offer to my God;" or he was heard to breathe the prayer, "If it must be by redoubled pain that I gain the privilege of preaching thy word, thy will be done." And truly this cost was not incurred without a recompense. Besides the satisfaction which his own heart found in the sweet employment, besides the impression which he must have seen on the countenances around him, his words have now gone forth even to other lands: they will lie on many beds of sickness, and be held by many trembling hands; and that loving thoughtfulness of other children of affliction, which appears in his prayers and discourses, will fulfil a wider mission than he imagined, while by these last words he still "comforts others with the comforts wherewith he himself was comforted of God." The Addresses are preserved to us by his children, who reproduced them in writing from extended notes before the exact impression of his actual words had faded from their minds; and they add the assurance of a fidelity, for which the sacredness of a father's last words would be a sufficient pledge, and of which we need no witness but the natural living language, sometimes vigorous and touched with the power of the orator, sometimes wavering and failing, but always breathing of "the abundance of the heart" from which it comes. It will be expected that discourses uttered from the death-bed, amid great suffering, and in the presence of the symbols of redemption, should be marked by a spiritual rather than by an intellectual character. Yet are they the language of one who is a thinker by nature and habit; and who, if he has not then the leisure to elaborate thought or construct argument, yet cannot express his faith and love without disclosing a mind that has been accustomed to search and to "give the reasons of the hope that is in it," and to exercise on the things of Christ the powers of a superior intellect. In order to avoid giving our readers a mere succession of unconnected specimens, and to secure some continuity of thought, we will now gather, from different parts of the volume, some extracts upon a single subject-the written Word of God." First, as representing the depth of his feelings with regard to the Holy Scripture, we will give the short address (numbered V.) in which, by simply recounting his own impressions on a particular occasion, he seeks to transfer the same impressions to the hearts of his hearers : Quelques Mots sur la Lecture de la Bible. "J'ai la coutume, dans cette circonstance, d'adresser aux amis qui ont la bonté de se réunir autour de moi quelques paroles d'exhortation chrétienne. Mon état de souffrance me prive aujourd'hui de cette consolation. Je me borne à vous citer un fait d'expérience chrétienne qui pourra vous amener à réfléchir salutairement sur le prix de la Parole de Dieu, et je le prends en toute simplicité dans ce qui m'est arrivé cette semaine. Dans une des mes nuits où j'ai beaucoup souffert et peu dormi, vers la fin de la nuit, à quatre heures et demie, je m'étais établi dans mon lit avec l'espoir de prendre quelque repos, lorsque j'invitai mon veilleur, un de ces bons jeunes gens qui ont la bonté de me consacrer une partie de leurs forces, à me lire un chapitre de la Parole de Dieu. Il offrit de me lire le huitième de l'Épître aux Romains. J'acceptai, mais en le priant, pour avoir la suite des idées, de remonter jusqu'au sixième et même au cinquième. Nous lûmes de suite ces quatre chapitres v. vi. vii. viii, et je ne songeais plus à dormir, tellement mon attention, mon intérêt, mon admiration étaient appelés par le langage céleste de saint Paul, je veux dire du Saint-Esprit parlant par saint Paul. Puis nous lûmes le neuvième, et les suivants, jusqu'à la fiu, toujours avec un intérêt égal et soutenu; et puis les quatre_premiers, pour ne rien laisser en arrière, et avoir lu l'Épître entière. Deux heures environ avaient passé dans cette lecture, et je ne songeais plus qu'à écouter la Parole de Dieu et à en profiter; et le Seigneur pourvut dans sa bonté à ce repos qui m'avait manqué. Mais je ne saurais vous dire combien je fus frappé, dans cette lecture de l'Épître aux Romains dans son ensemble, de ce cachet de divinité, de vérité, de sainteté, de charité et de puissance qui est empreint sur chaque page et sur chaque mot. Nous sentions, mon jeune ami et moi, sans nous être d'abord communiqué nos pensées, que nous entendions parler du ciel; et qu' indépendamment de tous ces témoignages qui attestent l'inspiration et l'autorité divine de l'Écriture, elle se rend à elle-même, comme JésusChrist à lui-même par ses œuvres, un témoignage pleinement suffisant. Nous avons senti aussi combien il est utile de lire l'Écriture dans son ensemble, et combien on perd à n'en prendre que des portions, des fragments, des versets détachés. On ne comprend un livre qu'en le lisant de temps en temps dans son ensemble. Cela nous fit comprendre qu'on doit faire deux études de la Parole de Dieu : l'une d'ensemble, pour produire en nous l'impression si bénie que nous venions de recevoir, et l'autre de détail, pour se rendre compte de chaque verset et de chaque mot. Mais l'impression principale fut une impression d'humiliation. Nous nous disions l'un à l'autre : Comment! nous avons un trésor tel que celui-là auprès de nous, et nous négligeons d'y puiser! Nous venions de passer deux heures dans le ciel; nous nous trouvions transportés, non-seulement au milieu des meilleurs d'entre les hommes, des organes inspirés et privilégiés du Saint-Esprit, mais des anges élus, et dans la société de Jésus-Christ; et nous avons résolu, en plaçant cette résolution sous la garde de celui qui peut seul protéger les résolutions de ses enfants, de nous livrer avec une toute autre ardeur à l'étude de l'Écriture; de lui sacrifier, s'il le faut, une foule de lectures instructives et utiles, mais qui ne sont pas comparables à la Parole de Dieu; et de vivre avec cette Parole comme nous souhaitons de vivre avec Dieu luimême, parce que la lecture de cette Parole inspirée par l'Esprit de Dieu est comme un entretien avec Dieu. Je vous recommande, mes chers amis, la Parole de Dieu constamment et profondément étudiée et méditée. Elle nous élèvera au-dessus de tout le reste; elle sera la force de notre vie, la joie de notre cœur, et notre consolation puissante dans la vie et dans la mort, par Jésus-Christ. Je le demande pour vous comme pour moi. Amen." (pp. 25-28.) It is a natural narrative of an experience in which many can sympathize. How true it is, that the same passages which we often read with a comparatively faint appreciation of their power and beauty, and with a frequent necessity for rousing and fixing our attention, will at other times take us as it were by surprise, shine out upon us in unexpected glory, and make upon our minds an impression of depth, and fulness, and majesty, which no words can adequately render! These are moments when our own consciousness assures us of the living power of the Holy Spirit, opening our eyes to behold wondrous things out of His law. How rightly and wisely, too, does the dying teacher suggest the use to be made of such moments, in resolutions for a larger and deeper study of this mine of blessings; though it is not to be expected that that study will always yield such sensible rewards, or be attended by such vivid impressions. Especially we would commend to the reader the observation on the loss which people sustain who study the Scripture only in fragmentary portions and detached texts, and the recommendation of a double study of it, in the mass as well as in detail, in its inward relations and longer processes of thought, as well as in its separate lessons. We are persuaded that that recommendation is needed by many who read the Holy Word with devout feeling and practical purpose. It is often observed of uneducated minds, that they are but little sensible of connexion and continuity of thought, and that they carry away (from a sermon, for instance) the distinct impressions only of particular sayings. But it should not be so with educated minds which, in proportion as they have the capacity, are also laid under the duty, of a larger and more comprehensive study of the inspired writings. In the course of such study, not only will a fuller meaning appear in parts which had seemed less fruitful of instruction, but a greater point and force will be perceived, even in the favourite texts and passages which had seemed to have an isolated completeness. If we may venture an illustration, we will suppose the book of the prophet Habakkuk to be read in the two different ways to which we have alluded. First, the reader is struck by many remarkable and pregnant sayings, each of which is food for meditation :-"Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look upon iniquity."-"The just shall live by his faith.""The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him."-" Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vine," &c. &c. Such sayings have a sufficiency of power, and a completeness of meaning, when taken singly by themselves. But even their meaning and power is vastly increased when the reader has seen the gist, and gone with the current of the whole inspired composition, and thus recognises the place which these sayings hold in the progressive development of thought. How glorious, for example, do the last verses appear, when we reach them as the conclusion to which a troubled and perplexed mind has at last ascended. The prophet began with the words, "O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out to thee of violence, and thou wilt not save? Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance ?" He beholds with amazement the progress of heathen conquerors desolating the earth, and sweeping nations, "as fishes of the sea,' with their "net and their drag;" and marvels how such things are suffered by Him who "cannot look upon iniquity." Then, "standing upon his watch, to see what God will say unto him," he is instructed in the lessons of faith and patience, and beholds in a vision things which are to be waited for, and, though they tarry, will surely come-woes decreed for the oppressors of men and insulters of God. Then arises the triumphant "Prayer upon Shigionoth," in which, instead of the marching of human invaders, he beholds the awful march of a conquering God; and concludes with the voice of triumphant trust, in which his cries of anxiety and perplexity have ended, and which shows the servant of God in the fulness of his faith, lifted above the influence of present scenes and the power of present circumstances. "Though the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Thus exalted in spirit, and springing to higher ground, he may well feel that "the Lord God is his strength, making his feet like hinds' feet, so as to walk upon high places.' Our readers must pardon us for throwing in this short illustration of a thought which we desire to impress. It appeared to us that an instance was better than an argument; and, instead of further developing that (of the Epistle to the Romans) from which M. Monod drew his suggestion, that it might be more serviceable to borrow one from those parts of Scripture in which the continuity of thought is not so plain, and which people are more generally inclined to read upon (what we may call) the single-text system. One cause of the limitation of Scripture-reading to this system is, no doubt, that which our dying teacher points out in another address on the same subject. Among the papers entitled "Regrets d'un Mourant," is one on the use which might be made of the Holy Volume, from which we extract the following valuable words: : "Oh! comment pourrons-nous entourer ce livre d'assez d'attention et de respect! Sans doute, ce n'est pas la vérité qui nous sauve, mais c'en est le chemin; ce n'est pas le salut, mais c'est le livre qui nous révèle notre salut, sans lequel nous ne pourrions jamais le connaître, et par lequel, à proportion que nous l'aurons mieux connu, nous connaîtrons mieux aussi Jésus, le Sauveur de nos âmes. Nul chrétien ne contestera la vérité de ces principes; et pourtant qu'ils sont rares ceux qui étudient profondément les Écritures! La plupart les lisent superficiellement et se bornent à quelques grandes vérités générales, au lieu de pénétrer toujours plus avant et de se rendre compte de tout, autant qu'ils le peuvent, selon qu'il est écrit: Les choses cachées sont pour l'Éternel |