sistency of their conclusions. Not only is our authorized English version received, as we say commercially, "with all faults," by a large portion of its readers, but with all the hereditary and educational prejudices of our childhood. Even the advanced author of one of the notorious "Essays and Reviews" has gone with the stream in assuming that the tower of Babel was built to enable our forefathers to get beyond the reach of a second deluge. We do not instance this because we believe the motive to have been a friendly one towards Inspiration, but simply to show how deeplyseated is the bias towards these traditionary riders on the Bible-text.

To give another illustration. Every old-fashioned reader of the Bible, as a matter of course, takes the field on behalf of the Unicorn-mane, tail, tassel, collar, gold chain, and all -just as he is traditionally represented in the royal arms; though, so lately as old John Lydgate's time, that creature was described as an "antelope." And why? Simply because it is supposed-and only supposed-that the Scriptures describe such an animal; and, therefore, with a love as tender as that which a mother feels for her idiot or illformed offspring do these Bible-nurses watch over its very mistranslations and glosses, lest the sacred text, which is altogether guiltless, should suffer from the unbelieving raillery of its foes. Thus Swan, in his "Speculum Mundi,"-a work now out of date, but formerly a text-book at Cambridge-contends not only for the existence of this onehorned anomaly, but tells us, moreover, that the horn is a very rich one -"excellent and of surpassing power," and possesses the singular virtue of expelling poison from the water which the creature is about to drink. We have even

in our own day many authors who go softly in the wake of these ancestral prejudices, telling us virtually to beware of facts lest they should cross the creed of our babyhood, and compel our belief before it has been scrutinized through our grandmother's spectacles. "A solemn prayerful study of geology," says a writer of this school, "cannot be wrong; but great watchfulness and caution are required." Let us improve the hint. A glance at the midnight heavens cannot be wrong, provided you see there no heterodox planet-no infidel group of stars.

To return, however. To stake the credibility of the Bible on the orthodoxy of the unicorn would be not only dan

gerous but perfectly gratuitous. Let the careful reader consult every text in which the animal is mentioned, and rejecting the italics of our version, he will find that none of them refer to a beast with only one horn. True it is, that in our Latin and Greek translations (which are no more inspired than the English) a creature, popularly called by a name signifying "one-horn," is referred to; but the name may have been given with as little reason as that which in the present day designates a poor beetle a "death-watch," an unoffending bird the "goat-sucker," or the "water-wagtail bold," a "dish-washer."

Men, otherwise truly great and fully abreast of the age, too often share this weakness, and fall into the error of overcarefulness for God's truth. Dipping into Dr. Raleigh's discursive homilies on Jonah, we were surprised to find a mind like his gratefully accepting, with reference to the "great fish," such evidence as that of the huge fossil teeth found in the Mediterranean. "If," says he, "God could speak to the fish, we can thank it, and turn our thanks into the form of kindness to all creatures. The creature is dead and gone. Perhaps some of its teeth may be among those fossil teeth which have been found in great numbers on the shores of Malta and Sicily, and which are allowed by naturalists to belong to a larger race of fishes than the existing ones!"

We should hardly have expected so retrograde an allusion in the present day. Old John Ray, in his "Dissolution of the World," might press these glossopetræ into his service two centuries ago as proofs of the Deluge, but the reference seems unworthy of the advanced philosophy of the day, especially as no petrified or fossilized remains belong to a period so recent, by many ages, as that of the prophet of Nineveh ; or could be referred to any existences of the post-diluvian, or even the post-Adamite period. The allusion is therefore injudicious, as betraying an uneasy hankering after a “larger race of fishes than the existing ones," and thus laying open a weak side to the adversary. Paleontology had no more to do with Jonah's time than blue-skinned Britons and Druidic rites have to do with ours; and what a fearful leverage it gives the sceptis, to plead in apology for a Scripture fact, a conjecture that falls to pieces when looked at from a geological stand-point.

But this, by the way only. We might refer to many books, which, written with the best intention, seem to us very

likely seriously to compromise the originality or dignity of Scripture truth. Let us select as a type, "Stones Crying Out" -an appeal to the written rocks of Sinai, in confirmation of the story of Israel's wanderings in the wilderness. This work is an "improvement," in the pulpit-sense, of the facts and deductions very modestly and fairly stated in the Rev. Charles Forster's "One Primeval Language." The variety of opinions entertained by men of great learning and research as to the antiquity and value of these inscriptions, would, of itself, be almost sufficient to render any reference to them, as authorities, undesirable, as we are not likely to settle a question of fact by showing how widely dissentient. are the opinions of the best informed upon the subject. Our work proceeds upon the basis that these "written rocks" were engraved by, or bear a cotemporary reference to, the Israelites during their long wanderings in the wilderness. But to this theory there are so many and such grave objections, that it seems most unsafe to base on it any conclusions that may jeopardize the credibility of the inspired record, by shifting the onus of proof to memorials of such doubtful origin and antiquity.

Our objections to this interpretation of the "written rocks" are so many and so grave, that we cannot but think those who adopt it are doing ill service to the cause of Revelation, which has not only no need of such helps, but is far better without them. They are briefly these―

First We only know them to be as old as the sixth century of the Christian era.

Second: Though some of the characters have a faint resemblance to the Hebrew, the language is almost uniformly Arabic.

Third: The type and key of these characters are found in the famous Rosetta stone, which dates twelve centuries later than the period at which it is assumed that they were written.

Fourth: A still more serious objection to this hypothesis is suggested by the tenor of the inscriptions themselves. Is it at all likely that the wandering Israelites would thus record their own shame with " an iron pen in the rock for ever," and describe themselves as 66 66 'kicking," "reviling," "slothful," "muttering," "biting," "railing," "cursing," "vociferous rebels," according to Mr. Forster's interpretation.

Fifth: And as certainly would their pious leader, and his

associates in office, have recoiled with horror from the idea of scrawling carelessly, again and again, upon the face of the savage rock, the ineffable, incommunicable name of Jehovah, so frequently occurring, according to the reading approved of by our Bible-nurses.

This last difficulty seems absolutely insurmountable; but whether we have made out our case or not, we trust enough has been said to show the expediency of letting well alone and allowing the Bible to take care of itself.

Biblical Criticism.

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.-EMENDATIVE RENDERINGS.

Chapter xx. 1.-And after the uproar was over, Paul, having called to [him] the disciples and taken leave [of them] went out to go in Macedonia.

2. And having gone through those parts, and exhorted them with much speech, he came into Hellad.

3. And when he had been there three months, a plot of the Jews coming up against him as he was about to set sail into Syria, he thought it best to return through Macedonia.

4. And there followed with him as far as Asia, Sopater, son of Pyrrhus, a Berean, and of Thessalonians, Aristarchus, and Secundus; and Gaius, a Derbean, and Timothy, and the Asiatics, Tychicus, and Trophimus.

5. These going before, awaited us in Troad.

6. And we sailed away from Philippi, after the days of the unleavened, and came to them into Troad within five days, where we tarried for seven days.

7. And on the first day of the week, when we were assembled to break bread, Paul reasoned with them, about to depart on the morrow, and extended the speech until midnight.

8. And there were many lamps in the upper-chamber where we were assembled.

9. And a certain youth by name Eutychus, sitting upon the window, being borne down in a deep sleep, Paul reasoning long while, having been borne down by the sleep, fell down from the third story, and was taken up dead.

10. But Paul going down fell upon him, and embracing [him] said, Make no wail, for his soul is in him.

11. And having gone up again and broke and tasted the bread, and harangued much until dawn, thus he went out. 12. And they brought the boy alive, and were comforted not a little.

13. And we (emphatic) going before to the ship, set sail for Assos, thence being about to take up Paul, for so he had ordered, being about himself to foot it.

14. And when he fell in with us at Assos, taking him up, we came to Mitylene.

15. And having sailed from thence, on the following day we came down over against Chios; and the other day we reached Samos; and having abode at Trogyllium, the next [day] we came to Miletus.

16. For Paul had judged to sail by (that is, to pass) Ephesus, that it might not happen to him to spend time in Asia; for he hasted, if it were possible for him, at the day of Pentecost, to come to Jerusalem.

17. But from Miletus sending to Ephesus, he called for the elders of the Church.

18. And when they were come beside him, he said to them, Ye (emphatic) understand from the first day that I came into Asia, in what way I was with you all the time.

19. Serving the Lord with all lowlimindedness, and tears, and temptations, which befel me through the plots of the Jews:

20. How I did keep back nothing of what was useful, so as not to announce to you, and to teach you in public, and in houses,

21. Earnestly witnessing both to Jews and Hellenes the repentance toward God, and the faith toward our Lord Jesus.