HINTS FOR STUDYING THE BIBLE.

The great mass of believers in God's Word can know it only in their own tongue. To them the translation they have is the Bible. It reflects, indeed, much discredit on their religious instructors, if they are not fully aware that prophets and apostles have left their writings in Greek and Hebrew,-languages no longer spoken, not even the Greek, in the same dialect as in New Testament times; yet, to the multitude of our fellow-countrymen, the English Bible is practically the Word of God. So far, in truth, do they carry this feeling, that many are rather annoyed than pleased, by the suggestion of emendations and corrections; their favourite expressions are, perhaps, interfered with, or some shades of unpleasant doubt hover over their minds, as to the fidelity of the whole translation, if particular passages may be amended. All such doubts are quite needless. Our English Bible is, at the same time, capable of a thousand emendations, and yet is a most noble and admirable translation, and fully to be depended on by all who love it. The vast majority of improvements which can be made, would only make the sense clearer, not alter it; would render the thought more easy of apprehension, not give us a different one: the ecclesiastical words, such as church, baptize, bishop, retained by the monarch's order, we are now so used to that it would not suit even all Baptist ears to exclude them, and we know their right meaning: the antiquated words (which we have already fully explained in "The Church") were better modernized, perhaps: and after deducting these three classes, which do not affect the integrity of the version, the number of passages is truly small in which our translators really mistook the sense of the sacred original. Of those translators, be it never forgotten, that the martyr Tindal is the chief. The fulsome flattery bestowed upon the loathsome king James, and the arbitrary bigot Elizabeth, should be replaced by a page to the memory of the man who, by God's grace, in the teeth of Henry the Eighth and his bishops, and at the cost of his life, "determined that English ploughboys should be wiser than a superstitious and corrupt clergy."

To return, however; one object in expressing so strongly our confidence in the version of the Bible which we daily use, is to introduce a few cautions and hints which may aid our thoughtful and devout young friends in ascertaining from it the mind of the Spirit. While a knowledge of the originals of Scripture facilitates enquiry, and is, in some cases, indispensable; yet let the reader who knows no language but his own feel assured that inexhaustible treasures are fully opened to him in his plain English Bible.

We may drop a caution, in the first place, against a habit, partly arising from our sense of the supreme excellency and value of the Bible, that of reading it only in small portions, as chapters, or half chapters, or a single verse. We pay the Scriptures the homage of reading a little of them before our social or private devotions. And we are right. To listen to some word from God ere we address him, is a natural preparative to entering his presence, and often must suggest to us "how to pray and what to pray for." Yet if we do only this, especially if we limit ourselves to the more devotional parts of the Bible, it rather hinders a more intelligent and comprehensive acquaintance with it, and, further, may cause misapprehension of the meaning of particular passages. There is not a book of Scripture, which we should not understand better if we read it through attentively once or twice at least, without stopping. The recurrence of the same phraseology in different connections would throw much light on expressions before dark or ambiguous, while even the parts previously well understood would appear more interesting and instructive when viewed in their connection with the whole of which they form a part. A single sculpture may be beautiful, but how much more so when seen in its place in the building for which it was designed.

A remark, kindred with the last, may be made on interpreting each writer as much as possible by himself. Whatever the nature of inspiration, it is clear that it did not in the least interfere with the peculiar style of each writer. Each wrote, so far as expression is concerned, precisely as he would have done without inspiration. Isaiah and

Jeremiah, Paul and John, differ in style just as all other writers differ; and even the connections of thoughts and the illustrative figures are various in each. Inspiration plainly used the faculties and words of each writer. The Holy Spirit did not create one uniform style for himself, but put the treasures of Divine truth in earthen vessels. Hence, with the sacred penmen as with other writers, each is his own best interpreter. While, as agents of the same Spirit, one general and grand harmony of intention and thought runs throughout all revelation, yet each writer's own thoughts and language are most closely connected with each other. Paul is best explained by Paul, John by John. When we enquire, indeed, what are the great and common truths of "our most Holy Faith," we, of course, reply, those which may be found in every book in the New Testament; but if it be a question of the phraseology or meaning of a single passage, then the first light should be sought from other parts of the same writer.

These remarks suggest the need of care in the use of Concordances. The same word is not used every where in the same sense. Indeed the explanations appended to many words in "Cruden's Concordance" would teach this to all who use it. Yet we apprehend no mistake is more common than that of merely verbal illustration.

The passages in which any particular word occurs are enumerated as if they all bore equally upon the elucidation of a text. This is to "number arguments, not to weigh them."

Perhaps one of the most serious mistakes into which the unpractised are thus led, is that indicated by the expression, "it may mean "thus or thus, because such a meaning can be found perhaps elsewhere. A certain interpretation may be quite good theology, may seem very ingenious too, may suggest some pleasing, practical, or devotional thoughts, thoughts just, perhaps, in themselves, yet, however true in itself, it may not be the truth of that particular passage. The more ingenious it seems, the less likely to be correct. The natural, not the ingenious, is the only object of the honest interpreter. Considering the course of thought in the context, extending perhaps through several previous or subsequent chapters, considering the writer's thoughts on the same subject in other places,-taking into account, also, any peculiarities of his time and its customs connected with the matter, then, what can we naturally understand him to mean ?-this is the golden key which the profoundest scholar and the plain Sunday school teacher alike must

use.

We must defer further remarks till another number.

"NONE OF US LIVETH TO
HIMSELF."

BY THE REV. JOHN TODD.

What does God teach us in his works? What is the lesson which he there bids us read concerning the great end of life?

On the frail little stem in the garden hangs the opening rose. Go speak to it. "Why do you hang there, beautiful flower ?"

"I hang here to sweeten the air which man breathes,-to open my beauties to kindle emotion in his eye,-to shew him the hand of God, who pencilled every leaf and laid it thus carefully on my bosom. And whether you find me here to greet him every morning with my opening face, or folding myself up under the cool curtains

"But suppose you hung on the distant mountain side instead of the garden ?"

"Why, then I should live in brightness under the bare possibility, that man might direct his footsteps there, and smile to see me there already awaiting his arrival; or that other spirits might see that God loves to give so freely, that he throws his glories even on the desert in vast profusion. Even there I should not live to myself."

Beside yon highway stands an aged tree, solitary and alone. You see no living thing. near it, and you say, Surely that must stand and live for itself alone."

"No," says the tree: "God never made me for a purpose so small. I am old. I

have stood here more than a hundred years. In the summer I have spread out my arms and sheltered the panting flocks which hastened to my shade. In my bosom I have concealed and protected the brood of young birds as they lay and rocked in their nests. In the storm, I have more than once received in my body the lightning's bolt, which had else destroyed the traveller. The acorns which I matured from year to year, have been carried far and wide, and groves of forest oaks can claim me as their parent. I have lived for the eagle which has perched on my top; for the hummingbird that has paused and refreshed its giddy wings ere it danced again like a blossom of the air; for the insect that has found a home within the folds of my bark; and when I can stand no longer, I shall fall by the hand of man, and I shall go to strengthen the ship which makes him lord of the ocean, and to his dwelling to warm his hearth and cheer his home. I live not to myself."

On yonder mountain side comes down the silver brook, in the distance resembling the ribbon of silver, running and leaping as it dashes joyfully and fearlessly down. Go ask that leaper, "What are you doing there ?"

"I was born high up the mountain; but there I could do no good; and so am hurrying down, running where I can, and leaping where I must, but hastening down to create the sweet valley,-where the thirsty cattle may drink, where the lark may sing on my margin,-where I may drive the mill for the convenience of man, and then widen into the great river, and bear up his steamboats and shipping, and finally plunge into the ocean, and rise again in vapour, and perhaps come back in the cloud to my own native mountain to live my short life over again. Not a drop of water comes down my channel on whose bright face you may not read, 'none of us liveth unto himself.""

Speak now to that solitary star that hangs in the far verge of heaven, and ask the bright sparkler, "What are you doing there ?"

Its voice comes down the path of light and cries,

"I am a mighty world. I was stationed here at the creation, and had all my duties marked out. I was among the morning stars that sang together, and among the sons of God that shouted for joy at the creation of the earth. Aye, I was there

When the radiant morn of Creation broke, And the world in the smile of God awoke,

And the empty realms of darkness and death Were moved through their depths by his mighty breath.

And orbs of beauty and spheres of flame
From the void abyss by myriads came,
In the joy of youth, as they darted away,
Through the widening wastes of space to play.
Their silver voice in chorus rung,

And this was the song the bright ones sung''Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty;-just and true are all thy ways.'

"Here, among the morning stars, I hold my place, and help to keep other worlds balanced and in their places. I have oceans and mountains, and I support myriads of immortal beings on my bosom, and when I have done all this, I send my bright beams down to earth, and the sailor takes hold of the helm and fixes his eyes on me, and finds his way across the great ocean. Of all the countless hosts of my sister stars who walk forth in the great space of creation, not one, not one lives or shines for herself."

And thus has God written upon the flower that sweetens the air,-upon the breeze that rocks that flower upon its stem,-upon the rain-drop that refreshes the smallest sprig of moss that lifts its head in the desert,— upon the ocean that rocks every swimmer in its deep chambers,-upon every penciled shell that sleeps in the caverns of the deep, no less than upon the mighty sun which warms and cheers millions of creatures that' live in his light,-upon all his works He has written, "None of us liveth to himself." And, probably, were we wise enough to understand these works, we should find that there is nothing-from the cold stone in the earth, or the minutest creature that breathes-which may not, in some way or other, minister to the happiness of some living creature. We admire and praise that flower which best answers the end for which it was created, and bestows the most pleasure. We value and praise that horse which best answers the end for which he was created; and the tree that bears fruit the most rich and abundant. The star that is the most useful in the heavens is the star which we admire the most.

Now, is it not reasonable that man-to whom the whole creation, from the flower up to the spangled heavens, all ministerman who has the power of conferring deeper misery or higher happiness than any being on earth-man who can act like God if he will-is it not reasonable that he should live for the noble end of living-" not to himself, but for others ?"