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A NEW BIBLE FOR THE PEOPLE;

OR, THE HIGHER CRITICISM IN POLYCHROME. FIFTY years ago the ordinary belief of the ordinary man in Christendom was that the world had been created in six days about six thousand years ago. Even to-day there are millions of good people who regard any suggestion that the process of creation was a much more continuous, elaborate, and at once ancient and modern affair than was implied by the legend in Genesis, as savouring of infidelity.

THE SCIENTIFIC GENESIS OF THE WORLD

In face of the story of the rocks, and the evidence afforded on every page of the book of Nature, there is no room for doubt that the world is a much more composite affair, and one infinitely more marvellous, or if you like miraculous, than the globe which was supposed to have been turned out spick and span, finished in every detail as the result of six days' handiwork of the Divine Artificer. Between the publication of the "Vestiges of Creation" and the present day there lies a great battlefield covered with indefensible positions once occupied by the retreating force of the champions of verbal inspiration, out of which they have been turned, not so much by any direct attack as by the gradual increase of our knowledge of the world. This increase, day by day, has rendered the stronghold, so passionately defended by good men and better women in the last fifty years, as untenable as the tide renders the sand castles of our childhood. The dismayed and discomfited defenders, driven back before the flowing tide, find to their amazement that, after all, their faith in the living God and in the divine mission of Christ survives the loss of all the outworks which they at one time believed to be indispensable for the maintenance of faith in the invisible and eternal.

AND OF GENESIS ITSELF.

For some time past, the educated world has been passing through a similar period of trial in relation to the Bible itself. That battle which is usually described as raging around the results of the Higher Criticism of the Biblical text is now pretty well fought out with the same result as that of its predecessor. The learned world has come to the same conclusion about the Bible as the geologist fifty years ago arrived at about the world. Instead of the Bible being divinely inspired in every detail and the finished work of Infinite Wisdom, as it has been held to be by many preceding generations, it is now declared that the Bible itself, as we have it, is as much a growth as the world which it interprets. As there is evidence of a long series of periods during which the world was slowly being fashioned into a place fit for the habitation of man, so the variety of texts in the Sacred Writings show a not less stratified formation which can be distinctly perceived by modern scholarship. Hitherto, however, the knowledge of this discovery has been confined to the cultured few. The great masses of the millions of mankind, who attend church on Sunday have never appreciated the extent, much less the significance, of this discovery. But that period of ignorance is about to pass, and the Book which will act as a revelation of the new basis on which the theory of inspiration must rest is

the "Polychrome Bible," a most interesting account of which is published in the American Review of Reviews for December.

PROFESSOR HAUPT AND HIS WORK.

This article, written by Mr. Clifton Harby Leavy, entitled "Professor Haupt and the Polychrome Bible," describes an attempt, which will probably be a brilliantly successful attempt, to display the results of the Higher Criticism of the Scripture texts by the aid of colour. Mr. Leavy says:

Six years ago the plan of the "Polychrome" Bible was first announced, although some years must have been consumed in perfecting that plan. The originator of the idea, we might call him the general of the scholarly forces, was Professor Paul Haupt of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Professor Haupt was but thirty-two years of age then, but to the scholarly world appeared to be much older, for he had already accomplished a very large amount of research covering a very broad field of endeavour. No matter when the thought took shape and form, it was an answer to a crying necessity felt in two quarters. The "King James' Version" is three hundred years old, filled with mistranslations, obsolete words and incomprehensible Hebraisms. The "Revised Version" lately produced, has not removed these obstacles, controlled as it was by English conservatism. The cry has gone up from all sides for a "Bible that we can understand" without dictionary and glossary. The new version was designed, primarily, to meet this reasonable demand.

There was another cry, equally insistent, if not so general, for an understanding of the critical theories about the Bible: "What are the critics trying to do?" And the "Polychrome Bible" seeks to answer this question fully and fairly.

A NEW TRANSLATION OF A NEW TEXT.

Believing that the Bible is the greatest and grandest literature known to man, they feel that it should all the more be cleared of all stupid accretions and presented in its pristine clearness and beauty. We have happily passed that age in which it was believed that good will alone was sufficient for interpreting the Bible....The general editor wished to present this summary in such a shape that "he who runs may read.” It would be invaluable to the scholar, but it must also be intelligible to the ordinary reader of but little culture. To this end he devised a special plan of publication, remarkable for simplicity and effectiveness. Since the time and conditions of composition bear so important a relation to these writings, forming their actual background, he determined to indicate the various periods and authors by printing the text and the translation upon backgrounds of different colours. Hence the name Polychrome, many coloured. As his coadjutors, Professor Haupt selected the leading scholars of the world, many of whom had devoted their lives to the special study of certain books, which were, of course, assigned to them.

DR. HAUPT'S COADJUTORS.

Among Professor Haupt's coadjutors in England are Canon Driver, Dr. George A. Smith, Dr. Paterson, the Rev. C. J. Ball, Professor Cheyne, and others. Mr. Leavy then gives the following account of the way in which the Polychrome Bible will be printed :

The entire work will probably be completed within two or three years, affording much food for thought and broadening our conception of the Bible not a little. Each book is separate and distinct, accompanied by all needed explanations of colours and text, so that each may be read leisurely as it is issued. The historical and literary introductions prefaced to cach book form a most valuable aid to its comprehension.

HOW THE COLOURS ARE USED.

A cursory glance at the parts issued will afford us some idea

of the mode of presentation. The dates are, of course, before the present era, and the colours in brackets indicate the colour of the background, as explained: In Genesis the most ancient document is the "Prophetic Narrative" [purple, 640], made up of the Judaic document composed [850] in the Southern Kingdom, and the Ephraimitic [650] composed in the Northern Kingdom. The older strata of the Judaic [dark red], the later strata [light red], and the Ephraimitic [blue] form the greater part of the text. These are supplemented by the expansions of the writer of Deuteronomy [green, 560-540], with the Priestly Code [plain, 500], its later additions [brown] and extracts from a still later Midrash, or popular expansion [orange]. So, seven different elements are found in the first book of the Bible, not to mention glosses (relegated to the foot-notes) and editorial additions.

In Leviticus we find only the Priestly Code [plain] as the basis, with some later strata [brown] and the Book of Holiness [yellow, 570], so called from its care for ceremonialism.

Joshua is considered as belonging to the Pentateuch, thus giving us a Hexateuch, or six books compiled from the same documents. The same colours appear as in Genesis.

In Samuel the primary document is the old Judaic [plain]. with later additions [light red], as well as the old Ephraimitic [dark blue, 750] and its later accretions [light blue]. These were combined by some editor [650], who made certain additions [light purple]. There are also traces of the Deuteronomist [light green], and still later additions by a second editor [414, yellow]. Extracts from a late Midrash [orange] and the songs [light orange] complete its various elements.

The work of the " Chronicler" appears uncoloured in Chronicles, but he utilises some ancient sources not extant in the Old Testament [dark red], together with parts of the Old Testament [light red]. Later additions appear [dark blue], together with the latest sections [light blue].

The "Chronicler," too, has given us much of Ezra-Nehemiah [plain, 300], to which earlier [dark green] and later [light green] additions have been made. The bases of the book are the "Memoirs of Ezra" [dark blue, 425] with some modifications [light blue], and the "Memoirs of Nehemiah "[dark red, 425] with certain modifications [light red]. Other documents of their time [dark purple, 430-410] have also been utilized, together with some later additions, as well as an Aramaic document [yellow, 450].

In Daniel the background is left plain, the Hebrew portions being printed in black ink, the Aramaic in red.

In Psalms the headings are in red ink, and the text in black.

In Job the device of coloured backgrounds is again necessary. The genuine utterances of Job form the greater part of the text, but parallel compositions [blue] are found, besides some polemical interpolations [green] directed against the tendency of the poem, and other interpolations [red] conforming Job's doctrines to the orthodox idea of retribution. The speeches of Elihu (Ch. 32-37) appear as an appendix to the book.

Jeremiah realizes in its arrangement, the dream of many Bible students who have hoped for a proper arrangement of that Prophet's discourses in chronological order.

For no

greater havoc has ever been made of sense and consistency than the jumble of the prophetic speeches as set down in the accepted versions. The book is divided into three sections, the first containing Jeremiah's discourses delivered during a ministry of twenty-three years. The second comprises a collection of the biographical chapters concerning Jeremiah's life. Finally, some sections written by neither Jeremiah nor his biographer. Read in this order the personality and power of the Prophet come to us almost like a new revelation.

But it is in the Book of Isaiah (advance sheets of which have been kindly submitted) that we appreciate fully the importance and utility of this critical edition. It may be said to be the crowning work of Professor Cheyne's life-long devotion to the study of this single great book. For the last thirty years he has been studying Isaiah, and has published three exhaustive books upon the subject. It may be stated, without exaggeration, that it would be impossible to find any other man so vell fitted as he for this task, and the result proves it. For it is discriminating, careful, exact and

scholarly, throwing new light upon much that was hitherto obscure. Each speech or poem has an appropriate heading and the date of its composition, as nearly as can be determined. It is indeed a masterpiece.

WHY FRANCE DWINDLES.

PERHAPS the most valuable paper in the Westminster Review, for December, is Mr. Stoddard Dewey's on the depopulation of France. He reviews M. Edmond Deschaumes' "Bankruptcy of Love." M. Yves Guyot "estimates roughly that one-fifth of the families of France have no children, and that this state of things is regularly against the will of the parties concerned"; but the writer approves M. Deschaumes' conviction that the gradual depopulation of their country is due to the deliberate refusal of French men and women to become parents. Among causes leading to this unwillingness are mentioned (1.) the legal difficulties in the way of marriage which are so numerous in France; (2.) the social tradition which makes a dowry necessary to a daughter's marriage, and gives preference to a son's career

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a daughter's dowry; (3.) the barrack life, during the natural pairing-time, which teaches the soldier to do without a wife, and to practise nameless vices, whence sterility ensues; (4.) corsets and want of exercise which make maternity fearfully dangerous; and (5.) the sense of duty which makes provision for a child for life an obligation. Where this is not seen to be possible, children are not born. Increase of taxation has made this possibility more remote. What is wanted is a change in the laws, fiscal, military, and civil, which will check the voluntary diminution of the number of births.

The spectacle of an entire nation, by collective legislation and individual volition, deliberately resolving to dwindle away is one of the tragic paradoxes of modern times. Yet if the decay be still under control of the individual and collective will, there is hope of a change; and Mr. Dewey concludes with a strange speculation as to the salvation which the working classes may yet bring to France

Much that has been said applies only to the middle classes. The census already shows that it is mainly the working men -the labourers for days' wages-who are propagating the French race. Here is a new problem in Democracy. The French working man is least affected by bourgeois traditions; vet, as by sheer force of multiplication he pushes his way up. he becomes middle-class himself-il s'embourgeoise. Will Democracy, then, by breaking down the traditions which are striking at the race's life, bring a remedy to this curious national disease? If the working classes, as the fittest to survive, finally transform France, it is possible that the natural struggle for national existence has still undreamed-of solutions to our political problems.

It may be added, that when vice and selfishness and artificial life refuse to propagate their species, and parentage is only assumed by the morally fit, the perfectibility of the race will soon pass out of the region of conjecture into that of ascertained fact.

The

"SOME Natural Artillery" is the title of a pleasant little study by Rev. Theo. Wood in the Sunday Magazine. The Japanese fish known as the beaked Chaetodon shoots drops of water on insects out of reach, and so brings them into the water, where they form an easy prey. Archer-fish similarly projects its watery missile at an object three or four feet distant. The bombardier beetle discharges from the rear a puff of bluish-white smoke, a spray of pungent and acrid liquid, accompanied with a detonation.

THE HERO OF DUTCH AFRICA.
STORIES ABOUT PAUL KRUGER.

MR. BIGELOW contributes to Harper's Magazine for December an extremely interesting although somewhat fanciful picture of President Kruger. He tells us that Oom Paul resembles a cow when in repose, but a lion when he is roused. If you wish to know what he is like we have to make a composite portrait of Abraham Lincoln and Oliver Cromwell with a fragment of John Bright about the eyes, and Benjamin Franklin's mouth. Then Mr. Bigelow proceeds to spin many interesting yarns concerning the prowess of Paul Kruger in his early days. He says he has received them partly from Paul Kruger himself, partly from Dr. Leyds, and very largely from intimates who were authorised to tell what they knew. Kruger, it seems, has rather a small head and high shoulders, but he stands six foot high, and has remarkably long legs, which he used to be able to use better than any other man of his time.

HOW KRUGER RACED HORSES AND KAFFIRS.

For instance, here is the story I have from an eye-witness, just as he told it: "It is also a fact that the President could run as fast as a horse. I remember once that he had a dispute with his friend Jacobs, owing to the President stating that he could run as fast as a horse. The result was that the President ran against a horse, with a rider on it, for a length of seven or eight hundred yards, and actually outran the horse." This would seem incredible had I not heard the tale confirmed by Kruger himself, who is most reluctant to speak of his own doings. He must have been about eighteen years old at that time.

On another occasion he ran a foot-race against the pick of the Kaffir chiefs. There were large prizes of good cattle. It was a long whole day's run across country, past certain wellknown landmarks-amongst others his own father's house. Young Kruger scon distanced all his pursuers, and when he reached his father's house he was so far ahead that he went in and had some coffee. His father, however, was so angry at him for running across country without his rifle that he very nearly gave his son a flogging. But he made the boy take a light rifle with him when he left to finish his race.

On sped young Kruger, the Kaffir braves toiling after him as well as they could. They threw away their impediments as their muscles weakened; their path became strewn with shields, spears, clubs, and even the bangles they wore on their legs and arms. But, in spite of it all, Paul Kruger kept far ahead of them; and as the day waned he found himself so completely master of the situation that he commenced to look about for an antelope which he might bring into camp by way of replenishing the larder.

HOW HE FACED A LION

This

He saw through the tall grass a patch of colour, which male him think that it belonged to a buck taking his ease. He aimed and pulled the trigger; but the gun missed fire and instead of an antelope, there bounded up a huge lion, who had been disturbed by the sound. The two faced each other, the lion glaring at Kruger, and he returning that glare by the steady gaze of his fearless eyes. The lion retreated a few steps, and Kruger made as many steps forward; then Kruger commenced slowly taking one step backward, followed by a second, and then a third. But the lion followed every movement of Kruger, keeping always the same distance. work was getting to be very wearing, not to say dangerous, particularly so as night was coming on and no sign of relief. Slowly and cautiously Kruger prepared his musket for a second shot. He raised, aimed, and pulled the trigger, but again there was only the snap of the cap, and Kruger saw himself face to face with a lion, and no weapon but the stock of a useless rifle. The last snap of the lock had so infuriated the wild beast that he made a spring into the air and landed close to Kruger's feet-so close, indeed, that the earth was thrown up into his face, and he expected to be in the animal's grasp.

He raised his gun to deal the animal a blow, but at this the lion retreated, glancing sullenly over his shoulder, until he was about fifty yards away; then, as though by a sudden impulse, the beast broke into a furious gallop and disappeared over the next hill.

Kruger joyfully resumed his race, and, in spite of all that happened, easily carried off the prize from the Kaffir chiefs.

-AND DROWNED A BUFFALO.

Kruger was also famous for his skill with the rifle. Indeed, he would have challenged the best of Buffalo Bill's outfit and given a good account of himself. An old friend of Kruger told me, of his own knowledge, that Kruger was once on horseback and chased by an infuriated buffalo. His horse was a good one, but on this occasion had become rather fatigued, and the buffalo commenced to gain. The unequal chase promised to end disastrously for the horse and its rider, for the buffalo kept gaining, and would soon have his horns in action. Then Kruger performed a feat which his old friend recalled to me with great pride. He turned in his saddle, raised his rifle, took deliberate aim while his own horse was in full gallop, fired, and the buffalo fell, shot straight through the forehead.

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But Kruger himself never lets one suspect that he has done these things; and to look at him in church one would think that he had been trained for the post of deacon or churchwarden. Another story equally strange was told me by the same friend. It happened on the same day on which the previous adventure occurred. He had been chasing another buffalo, and his horse had brought him close up to his victim. denly the huge beast put his foot into a hole, and fell head over heels into a wallow. Kruger was on top of it in a moment, horse and rider and buffalo rolling pell-mell in the same big puddle. But Kruger was the first to collect his wits. He sprang at the head of the buffalo, seized both its horns in his hands, and while the beast lay upon its side, twisted its neck so as to force its nose under water; and thus, after a struggle of sheer strength, Kruger killed the buffalo by drowning it. I had heard this story already in Cape Town, but would not believe it until I had the President's corroboration of this extraordinary feat.

Kruger, it seems, was also a famous elephant hunter in those early days, and his exploits, according to Mr. Bigelow, would have made him worthy to be ranked with the heroes of Fenimore Cooper.

THE DUKE AND THE CATTLE HERDER.

The following story, if not true, is at least well invented :-

Sir James Sivewright, the Minister of Public Works in the Cape Colony, told me that he once called upon Kruger with a certain duke, who was by no means conceited, but was somewhat deficient in diplomatic address. The conversation, as I recall it, ran about as follows. Of course it was conducted by means of an interpreter.

Duke: Tell the President that I am the Duke of have come to pay my respects upon him."

and

Kruger gives a grunt, signifying welcome. Duke, after a long pause: "Ah! tell him that I am a member of the English Parliament."

Kruger gives another grunt, and puffs his pipe.

Duke, after a still longer pause: “And-you might tell him that I am-er-a member of the House of Lords-a Lord -you know."

Kruger puffs as before, and nods his head, with another grunt.

Duke, after a still more awkward pause, during which his Grace appears to have entertained doubts as to whether he had as yet been sufficiently identified: "Er-it might interest the President to know that I was a Viceroy." Kruger: “Eh! what's that-a Viceroy?" Duke: "Oh, a Viceroy-that is a sort of a King, you know."

Kruger continued puffing in silence for some moments, obviously weary of this form of conversation. Then, turning

to the interpreter, he said gruffly, "Tell the Englishman that I was a cattle-herder."

This closed the interview.

THE BOERS AND THE ENGLISH.

When Mr. Bigelow met Mr. Paul Kruger he says he embraced him in his great bovian gaze, and wrapped him in clouds of tobacco. His first words were not reassuring.—“ Ask him," said Kruger, "if he is one of those Americans who runs to the English Queen when he gets into trouble." Mr. Bigelow says that the Boers have such an exaggerated impression of their prowess that they seriously believe that if America had gone to war with England, the United States would have done well to have invoked the protection of the Transvaal Republic. They no longer speak of making war with England. They refer to such an event as going out to shoot Englishmen as they might go out for antelope and other game. There is no life of President Kruger to be found in the Transvaal, and the President will no longer allow himself to be photographed. Dr. Leyds had in vain endeavoured to secure material for a biography, but to the amazement of every one Com Paul consented to be drawn," and the result we have in this paper, which is one of the most interesting in all the December magazines.

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A SPORTSMAN FROM HIS YOUTH UP.

Little Paul was seven years old when he shot his first big game, and eleven years old when he killed his first lion. His first battle with human beings was waged when he was only thirteen. Kruger is descended, not from a Hollander, but from a German, and he spells his name, not Krüger (with two dots), but Kruger. The curious thing is that the English pronounce it rightly while all the Boers pronounce it as if it were written Krieger in German, with the pronunciation of the English "ee." His father fired the first shot at the English under Sir Harry Smith at Boomplatz in 1848. When a boy he was full of daring, and helped in building the first church at Rustenberg. He stood on his head at the highest point of the uppermost beam, to the alarm and scandal of the whole community. This, however, was but a small thing in his way, for an old friend declares that he had frequently seen him stand on his head in the saddle holding on to the stirrup-strap with his hands, while the horse was in full gallop. He is a man who writes with difficulty, and who reads very little excepting the Bible. He has a text for every trouble, and he says that no other book but the Bible has ever influenced him. In his own phrase he has no chance to read books. He was always campaigning or fighting lions. Mr. Bigelow asked which he preferred, African lions or British lions? "No choice," he said gravely; "they are both bad." In his seventeenth year he acted as a substitute for the magistrate known as a Field Cornet, and from that time onward he has steadily pressed upwards until he is now at the top of the tree.

HIS CONVERSION.

His conversion occurred when he was thirty-two years of age, and the story of it is thus described in the words of an intimate friend :

"One time he [Kruger] had a struggle with religion, and became troubled in spirit. Of a night he gave his wife a few chapters to read in the Bible, and then went suddenly away for some days, never coming home. This was about 1857 (when Kruger was therefore thirty-two years old). Some men went out to look for him, and when in the mountains they heard somebody sing, but did not take any special

notice, and returned, telling that they had heard somebody sing. Then they came on the idea that it might have been the President, and they went out again, and found him almost dying of hunger and thirst; even to such an extent that they had to take the water away, lest he should kill himself by drinking too much at a time.'

All this is narrated by the man who was then Kruger's intimate friend at Rustenberg. 66 When we took him with us," continued the old friend, "he was so weak with hunger, thirst, and fatigue that we could hardly keep him on his

horse.

"Ever since then he showed a more special desire for the Bible and religion. He was a changed man altogether. He lived for religion, telling us that the Lord had opened his eyes and showed him everything. His enemies often talked about this sudden change, but he never took any notice. They often made fun of him, but he let everything pass in silence.

"This incident was the turning-point in his life."

HOW HE AMPUTATED HIS THUMB,

He is a strict member of the Independent Congrega tional Church. Mr. Bigelow tells many stories of him for which I have no room; but I must mention his account of the famous amputation of his thumb, which seems to have been a much more serious operation than is usually believed. Every one knows that he cut off his thumb, but it was generally believed he did it when he was left by himself on the veldt. The truth is different. When his thumb was shattered by the bursting of his gun, the flesh began to mortify, and the doctor who was called in insisted that it would be necessary to amputate his arm half-way up. To this Kruger objected, on the ground that if he lost his arm he would never be able to handle a gun again. 61 Then," ," said the doctor, "I must cut off your left hand." Kruger objected, whereupon the doctor departed in wrath, saying he would have nothing to do with the case. On hearing this, Kruger got his jack-knife, sharpened it carefully, so that it became as sharp as a razor, and then laid his thumb upon the stone, and cut it off himself at its extreme joint; but to his chagrin the flesh would not heal, so he again laid his hand upon the stone, and this time carefully cut away all the flesh about and above the second joint of the thumb, and this time the flesh healed, and his hand was spared. Much later in life, when he was in Lisbon, he was greatly troubled by an aching tooth. After bearing it for a time he took out his penknife and cut the tooth out of his jaw. Kruger is evidently very tough.

So Mr. Bigelow concludes his paper by comparing Kruger to Ulysses, and Field Marshal Blucher and Andreas Hofer. He alone, says Mr. Bigelow, is equal to the task of holding his singular country together in its present state.

CHRISTMAS Would scarcely be Christmas to many people without Raphael Tuck and Sons' charming novelties for the season. It is truly a wonderful collection of new patterns which they have sent in for our inspection this year-a collection in the production of which a whole army of artists, engravers, printers, and packers must have been engaged, There are cards and calendars, boxed goods and booklets, toy books and texts, and in every series the same dainty and artistic display. The platino panels, the mezzotint and photogravure portfolios and the collotype leaflets will be amongst the most popular of the cards, but it is impossible to enumerate even the best. Every stationer's shop will be gay with them before these lines are printed.

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