pression of vain-glory, and which exemplifies a character the very reverse of his own. We may ask, in these circumstances, whether the judgment of such a man against the Scriptures is entitled to much weight or consideration? The Scriptures condemn the selfishness which was dearest to his heart. Is it strange that, in revenge, he should condemn the Scriptures? THE ANNALS OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE. (Continued from page 346.) WE proceed next to give some account of our present authorized version. Soon after his arrival in England, James I., by royal proclamation, called "a meeting for the hearing and for the determining things pretended to be amiss in the Church." This led to "The Conference at Hampton Court," in January 1640. In that Conference Dr. John Rainolds proposed a new translation of the Bible, and the proposal met with the king's approbation. Fifty-four learned men were selected, but only forty-seven sat down to the work. These were divided into six sections, to each of which a certain portion of Scripture was intrusted. Two of these sections were to sit at Westminster, two at Oxford, and two at Cambridge. Certain instructions or rules were given to the translators, among which were the following: "Every particular man of each company to take the same chapter or chapters; and having translated or amended them severally by himself where he thinketh good, all to meet together, confer what they have done, and agree, for their part, what shall stand. As one company hath despatched any one book in this manner, they shall send it to the rest to be considered of seriously and judiciously. If any company, on the review of the book so sent, shall doubt or differ upon any places, to send them word thereof, note the places, and therewithal send their reasons: to which, if they consent not, the difference to be compounded at the general meeting, which is to be of the chief persons of each company at the end of the work. When any place of special obscurity is doubted of, letters to be directed, by authority, to send to any learned man in the land for his judgment in such a place." The translators seem to have set about their work immediately. Four years was occupied with the first revision of the sacred text. When that was completed two men from each of the six sections, or twelve in all, met in London, and spent nine months in a second revision of the whole Scriptures. The work was then put to press, and the printing occupied about two years more, so that the revised translation was not published till 1611. Such is the history of our present authorized version. In the Long Parliament in 1653, a bill was introduced for a new English translation of the Bible out of the original tongues," but nothing was done in the matter. Walton, when publishing his 66 Polyglot in 1656, seems to have contemplated The British and Foreign Bible Society was formed in 1804. Its object was to circulate the Word of God without note or comment. From the period of its formation till 1844, it had printed and circulated nearly sixteen millions of copies of the Word of God. Of these nearly ten millions were in the English language. During the same period, above four millions of copies more have been printed and circulated in Scotland; and by general sales, unconnected with Bible Societies, there have been given to the public nine millions of copies; making in all twenty-two millions of copies of the English Scriptures printed and circulated since the commencement of the present century. In reference to the number of copies of the English Bible, and the extent to which it is perused, we shall give some interesting extracts from the preface to Mr. Anderson's volumes: Notwithstanding all that has been printed and sold for more than two centuries and a-half, the number of English Bibles and New Testaments separately, which have passed through the press within the perfect recal lection of many now living, has exceeded the number of souls in Britain! It has been more than double the population in 1801. employed incessantly every lawful day, or 313 days in Should we suppose the printing-presses to have been THE OLD COLLIER. the year, and for ten hours daily, throughout the four seasons of all these years; then has it been moving, on an average, at the rate of more than three copies of the Sacred Volume, whether of the Bible or New Testament separately, every minute; or five hundred and sixty thousand four hundred annually! But the speed at first, or for several years, was slow, when compared with that which followed. For some time past it has nearly doubled, so that, in the space of twelve months the press has sent forth more than a million of copies; or say above nineteen thousand every week, above three thousand every day, three hundred every hour, or five every minute of working time! At this rate there has been producing equal to an entire volume, and such a volume, in less than twelve seconds! But if the English Bible be so distinguished for the number of its copies, it is equally, or rather more so, by the extent to which it is now being read. With the exception of the most remarkable of all people, the Jews, the English-speaking population has become the most widely diffused of any branch of the family of man. To many, no doubt, it might seem too bold, were we at once to affirm that the English Bible is at present in the act of being perused from the rising to the setting sun. The assertion might appear little else than a figure of speech, or an event to be anticipated; and yet this is no more than the half of the truth. The fact, the singular and unprecedented fact, demands deliberate reflection from every British Christian, whether at home or abroad. This Bible, at this moment, is the only version on which the sun never sets. We know full well that it is actually in use on the banks of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence, as well as at Sydney, Port Philip, and Hobart Town; but before his evening rays have left the spires of Quebec or Montreal, his morning beams have already shone for hours upon the shores of Australia and New Zealand. And if it be reading by so many of our language in Canada, while the sun is sinking on Lake Ontario; in the eastern world, where he has risen in his glory on the banks of the Ganges, to the self-same Sacred Volume many, who are no less our countrymen, have already turned. We have thus sketched the progress of the English Bible from the manuscript edition by Wickliffe, and the first printed edition by Tyndale, to the present times-from the clandestine introduction of the first copy from the Continent in 1526, to the millions of copies annually pouring from the press in the few years prior to 1846-from solitary individuals stealthily reading the Sacred Volume in peril of being burned for so doing in the days of Henry VIII., to the period when all round the world there exists in an unbroken series, during every day, and every hour of every day, the reading of the English Bible by countless myriads of the English race, speaking the English language. What a progress, and in what a cause! EARTH'S CONTRASTS. WHAT strange contrasts this earth of ours presents! It seems to be the middle spot between heaven and hell, and to partake of the character of both. Beings from both are found moving over its surface, and scenes from both are constantly occurring upon it. The glory from one, and the midnight shades from the other, meet along its bosom; and the song of angels, and the shriek of fiends, go up from the same 359 spot. Noonday and midnight are not more opposite than the scenes that are constantly passing before our eyes. The temple of God stands beside a brothel, and the place of prayer is separated only by a single dwelling from the "hell" of the gambler. Truth and falsehood walk side by side through our streets, and vice and virtue meet and pass every hour of the day. The hut of the starving stands in the shadow of the palace of the wealthy, and the carriage of Dives every day throws the dust of its glittering wheels over the tattered garments of Lazarus. Health and sickness lie down in the same apartments, joy and agony look out of the same window, and hope and despair dwell under the same roof. The cry of the new-born infant, and the groan of the dying, rise together from the same dwelling; the funeral procession treads close on the heels of the bridal party; and the tones of the lute and viol have scarcely died! away, before the requiem for the dead comes swelling after. O, the beautiful and deformed, the pure and the corrupt, joys and sorrows, ecstacies and agonies, life and death, are strangely blent on this restless planet of ours! But the past and future presents as strange contrasts as the present. What different events have] transpired on the same spot! Where the Indian's wigwam arose, and the stealthy tread of the wolf and panther was heard over the autumn leaves at twilight, the population of New York now surges along. Where once Tyre, the queen of the sea, stood, fishermen are spreading their nets on the desolate rocks, and the bright waves are rolling over its marble columns. In the empty apartments of Edom the fox makes his den, and the dust of the desert is sifted over the forsaken ruins of Palmyra. The owl hoots in the ancient halls of kings, and the wind of the summer night makes sad music through the rents of once gorgeous palaces. The Arab spurs his steed along the street of ancient Jerusalem, or scornfully stands on Mount Zion, and curls his lip at the pilgrim wearily journeying to the sepulchre of the Saviour. The Muezzin's voice rings over the bones of the prophets, and the desert wind heaps the dust above the foundations of the Seven Churches of Asia. O how good and evil, light and darkness, chase each other over the world!-J. T. Headley. THE OLD COLLIER. A MINISTER, giving an account of a pious old collier, narrates the following circumstance: In the cause of missions he was deeply interested; the tenor of his actions showed that it lay near his heart, and that he was anxious in some way to be instrumental in carrying forward the benevolent operations. When the anniversary meetings of the district were being held in the several places of worship in the neighbourhood, he was generally present at them all; allowing no trivial matter to deprive him of the luxury of the feast he was there accustomed to enjoy. As an officiating minister was going to one of these meetings, he overtook the old collier on the road, who put into his hand a brown paper parcel, very securely packed, and tied and sealed, with an injunction not to open it until after the chairman delivered the introductory speech. The meeting, as usual, commenced with prayer. Next followed the chairman's speech; it was a very good speech, well adapted to the occasion, but to the minister it appeared very long, for he was wishing to open the brown paper parcel. Presently the time came, the chairman finished his speech, and introduced another speaker to the meeting, when the minister sitting by his side resolved to satisfy his curiosity, by learning the contents of the brown paper parcel. Out came the penknife-snap went the string, and lo! on opening it, the brown paper parcel became changed into a white paper parcel, having on it the inscription in bold letters, "WE ARE ALL INSIDE, SIR." All inside, thought he. And pray, who are all you inside? To work again went the penknife, prepared to make a valiant assault upon these mysterious "all insides." The reader may imagine his surprise on discovering them to be eight silver coins, equivalent to five dollars, offering themselves for missionary work, accompanied with the following letter: "DEAR SIR,-We have been in many different places, and in many very different companies and conditions, not always the most respectable. At last, one by one, we have come into the possession of our present owner, who has put us aside for a while, and now offers us to the Lord of missions, if you will accept of us for his service. We are yours faithfully, from "AN OLD COLLIER. "N. B.-We have no objection to go abroad, as any country or climate will suit us." In a corner of the church sat the old collier studiously observant of the countenances of the audience, to ascertain if it were probable that many others would be disposed to engage inside places on an embarkation to the Heathen. A day or two afterward, the last meeting in the district was held, and an appropriate sermon was preached from the words "The end." The old collier returning home under a deep impression produced by the subject, said to a young friend with much emphasis and solemnity, as though he had a presentiment of his own approaching dissolution, "Who can tell? perhaps the end may be near to some of us." And so it proved. The next morning as he was descending the pit, a large stone fell upon his head, and the accident terminated fatally. He was numbered with the dead, and his happy spirit took its flight to the regions of purity and bliss, where he that soweth and he that reapeth rejoice together. TWO KINDS OF PRAYER. WHEN Luther first set himself against the torrent of idolatry and corruption, in the year 1517, assuming a task, to human view, as hopeless as for a man to set his shoulder to a mountain to remove it, he communicated his designs to a wise and prudent friend, who had as deep a sense of Romish corruption as he. But that friend advised him to abandon his design, and retire to his cell, and pray, Lord have mercy on us! He would pray him into a state of despair, unbelief, and inaction. But Luther more effectually prayed, Lord have mercy on us! when, believing the promises of God, he put forth efforts corresponding with his prayers. The one prayed and did nothing, because he believed that God could or would do nothing. The other "acted" and prayed, and in faith took hold of God's strength, and the work was done. He put his shoulder to the mountain, yea, to the seven hills on which Antichrist had laid his throne, and, weak as he was, yet in God's strength he made the mountains tremble, shook the foundations of the throne of the Beast, and gave him a deadly wound, from which he never has, and never will recover. When we pray that prayer, Lord have mercy on us, we profess to believe, that however desperate our case may be to the human view, it is not beyond the power of God; and the prayer engages us to obedience to the commands of God, while we appeal to his power and grace.-N. E. Puritan. CHANGES OF FORTUNE. A MAGNIFICENT column was commenced by Napoleon upon the heights near Boulogne, to commemorate his celebrated intended invasion (of England). The column is now finished, and its history should afford a salutary lesson to the princes of the earth. As Bonaparte never accomplished his invasion, so he never finished his monument. But when the Bourbons came back to the throne of France, they resumed the prosecution of this magnificent work, with a design to make it a monument of their restoration; but before they could complete it, they were driven from the kingdom; and Leuis Philippe has finished the column as a memorial of his eleva tion to the throne from which both Napoleon and the Bourbons had been banished.--D. Fisk's Tracels. Fragments. "Faith is a hearty credit of whatever God hath said, be that what it may." A cold assent, so far from being saving faith, is criminal. The assent, so far as it goes, is right; but the coldness of it is criminal, and even detestable. Now what constitutes the Gospel is "good news!" but whatever faith a wicked man may have in it as a piece of news, he has none in the goodness of it; he is therefore an unbeliever in the very essence of the Gospel, or in that without which it would not be the Gospel. Men may believe many things concerning Jesus Christ and his salvation, but they only amount to their simple existence, without taking in their adhering qualities. But as the Scrip tures as fully reveal what they are, namely, their real excellency, as that they are at all, I conclude, they who do not believe the one as well as the other, dis believe a great part of the report of the Gospel, yea, the very essentials of it. Many sweeten an error with truth, to make men swallow it more readily. If Satan fetter us, 'tis indifferent to him whether it be by a cable or a hair; nay, perhaps the smallest sins are his greatest stratagems. The work of the ministry is truly honourable; but, like the post of honour in a battle, it is attended with peculiar dangers. by having one jewel set in it; similitudes should be A whole discourse may be considered acceptable sought to clothe our ideas. Sermons should be well studied; nothing but wellbeaten oil for the lamps of the Golden Candlestick. We are most sure in those points we have most doubted in. heaven, by which the Father bore witness to Christ, It is observable, that all the three voices from were pronounced while he was praying, or very quickly after it. THE CHRISTIAN TREASURY. 361 FAMILY WORSHIP. BY J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNE, D. D., GENEVA with asking the Holy Spirit to impart to every heart the fruits which he has promised for his Word. "As the rain cometh down, and the snow, from heaven, and returneth not thither,, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void; but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it." Another act of worship is, prayer in common, or together. It is true that there are good written prayers; but can you not pray to God aloud yourself? You know very well how to speak to a friend; why should you not know how to speak to God? Is he not your greatest and most intimate friend? How easy is it to approach him when it is in the name of Christ crucified that we come! "Thou art near, O In the first place, the Word of God should if nothing has been given to you, be content be read, and sometimes, perhaps, other Christian books. In how many families that admirable book, that Book of the nations, has been in all ages, and is still, the most precious of treasures! In how many dwellings has the Bible diffused righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, and submission to all authorities appointed by God! The various books which compose the Bible are almost all of a different nature from one another; it were difficult to have a greater variety in one volume, though the same Spirit of God is in each. This circumstance makes it remarkably appropriate for the nourishment of families; and hence so many poor and obscure families in Protestant countries, possessing that book, do without any others, and by it are brought to the acquisition, not only of eternal life, but of a remarkable intellectual development. The child, the old man, the woman, and the fullgrown man, alike find something to interest | Lord," says David. "While they are yet them there, and to lead them to God. There speaking," God has said, "I will hear." If you is something for every situation in life. What can pray in secret, can you not pray aloud? Do abundant consolation have all troubled and not be so anxious about what you shall say. afflicted, but faithful souls derived always from "Prayer requires more of the heart than the the Psalms of the Royal Prophet! It is well to tongue, more faith than reasoning." How can read throughout some book of the Scriptures; it be otherwise than salutary, when, for inbut it is not necessary to follow the order instance, a father or a mother prays aloud for the which the different books are placed in the Sacred Volume. On the contrary, it is, perhaps, best to turn from the New Testament to the Old, and from the Old to the New; from one of the Prophets to one of the Epistles of the Apostles, and then to one of the historical books of the Old Testament. It is desirable that the person who reads should make some リ remarks on the passage read. You know how to speak about any other book that you read; is it only here that thoughts and words are wanting? Do you find nothing there that is applicable to the state of your heart, to the situation of your family, to the character of some one of your children? Read that book always, not as a history of past times, but as a book written for you, addressed to you now; you will readily find circumstances and occasions which render it suitable. Nevertheless, From vol. of tracts trar.slated by Dr. Baird of New York, No. 31.* children who are present, and enters into detail respecting their sins before God, asking him to give his help and his grace? And how often a family is in a situation in which it is called upon to offer up prayer unto God, for deliverance, for assistance, for consolation! "Ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart," saith the Lord. A third act of worship which ought, if possible, to form part of domestic devotion, is singing. In these days man has associated singing with his occupations, and especially with his pleasures; but to praise God was certainly its primitive object. It is to this that the Royal Prophet consecrated it, and shall not we do likewise? If so many profane things are sung in some houses, why should we not sing to the honour of the God who has created and redeemed us? Still more, if sacred hymns are sometimes sung for the sake of the beauty of the sound, shall they not be sung with humility and fervour to celebrate the Lord? " Admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." . . . . in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people!" Happy for time, and happy for eternity! How can you hope to meet with those whom you love near Christ in heaven, unless with them you seek Christ on earth? How shall you assemble as a family there, if you have not as a family attended to heavenly things here below? But as to the Christian family which shall have been united in Jesus, it will, without doubt, meet around the throne of the glory of Him whom it will have loved without having seen. It will only change its wretched and perishable dwell But, my brethren, if you wish to erect an altar unto God in your house, you must, first of all, erect one in your own heart. And is there one there? I ask you, my brethren, is there one? Ah! could I draw back the veil, could I now penetrate into the hearts of those who listen to me, what would I see? or, rather, O Lord! what must thou see in our hearts-thou, from whom nothing is veiled, and before whoming for the vast and eternal mansions of God. all things are naked and visible? In your heart, my dear hearer, I see an altar erected to pleasure and worldliness; there you offer up your morning sacrifice; there you sacrifice, especially in the evening; and the incense arising from it intoxicates and bewilders you even at night. In your heart, my dear hearer, I see an altar erected to the good gifts of this world, to riches, to Mammon. In yours, my dear hearer, I see an altar consecrated to yourself. You are the idol whom you worship, whom you exalt above everything else, for whom you wish for all things, and at the foot of whom you would fain see all the world kneel. My brethren, is there an altar in your hearts erected to the only living and true God? Are you the temple of God, and does God's Spirit dwell within you? So long as there is no altar erected to God in your souls, there can be none in your houses; "for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" Be converted, then, in your hearts! Die to the world, to sin, to yourselves even, and live to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Immortal souls, Christ hath redeemed you at a great price! He gave his whole life on the cross for you. Learn, then, “that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again." "Wherefore come out from among idols, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." happy is that family, my brethren, which obraced that God who says, "I will dwell Instead of being a humble family of the earth, united to the whole family of heaven by the same ties, it will have become an innumerable and glorious family. It will surround the throne of God with the hundred and forty-four thousand, and will say, as it said on earth, but with joy and glory, " Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power." O my brethren, if but one father or mother would now resolve to meet together in the presence of the Lord; if one single person not yet bound by domestic ties were to resolve to raise an altar unto God in his own house when he shall be so bound, and would, in some future day so act, that abundant blessings would descend upon him and his, I would give thanks: unto God for having spoken! Dear hearer! may the Lord so affect your heart that you may now exclaim," As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." THE PREDICTIONS OF MALACHI. IN a previous article on the times of Malachi, we showed how closely in this respect the writings of that prophet, the last of the Old Testament, join themselves to the Gospels, the first of the New. The representation given in both alike of the prevailing religious character of the Jewish people, is that of a proud and conceited Pharisaism-boastful of its title to God's favour, and its attainments in his service, utterly mistaking the whole nature of his true worwhile chargeable with the most grievous failures, and ship and service. If we look also to the predictions of this prophet, we find an equally close relation subsisting between the last of the Old and the first of the New Testament books; for few as the predictions were which he uttered, they are those which more especially meet us at the commencement of the Gos pel history; and it seems as if the earlier events in with an immediate reference to what had been fore! the dispensation of the New Testament were ordered told in Malachi, In none of the prophets are the circumstances connected with Christ's appearing, the character in which he was to manifest himself, and |
