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If "Science" do not "shrink" from such wretched twaddle, we do, and turn with grateful hearts to the Mosaic record of Creation; thank God that He has not left us to the bewilderment of worthless traditions!

STET.

Biblical Criticism.

By Rev. CHARLES WILLS, M.A.

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.-EMENDATIVE RENDERINGS.

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Chap. xxi. (continued).-26. Then Paul taking to him the men [avopas], the next day having purified himself with them, went into the temple [ro iepov], announcing the fulfilment of the days of purification, until there was offered for each one of them the offering. 27. But when the seven days were about ending, the Jews of Asia, having seen him in the temple [iep❤], disturbed all the crowd, and laid hands on him, 28. Crying, Men [avopes] of Israel, help. This is the man [avoρwπos] that teaches all everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place and besides brought Hellenes into the temple [iepov], and has made common this holy place. 29. For they had seen before Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him, whom they thought that Paul brought into the temple [iepov]. 30. And the whole city was moved, and there arose a running together of the people; and seizing Paul they dragged him without the temple [iepov]; and straightway the doors were shut. 31. And while they were seeking to kill him, tidings went up to the præfect [lit. chief of a thousand] of the cohort, that the whole of Jerusalem was disturbed. 32. Who at once, taking soldiers and centurions, ran down upon them: but they, seeing the præfect and the soldiers, ceased beating Paul. 33. Then the præfect approaching seized him, and commanded to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he might be and what he had done. 34. And some shouted this, others that against [him (that is, Paul)] in the

crowd; he, not able to know the surety for the uproar, commanded him to be brought into the fort. 35. And when he came upon the steps, it came to pass, that he was borne by the soldiers by reason of the force of the crowd. 36. For the multitude of the people followed, crying, Away with him. 37. And about to be brought into the fort, Paul says to the præfect, Is it permitted me to say something to thee? And he said, Dost thou understand Hellenic ? 38. Art thou not then the Egyptian who before these days made a commotion, and led out into the wilderness four thousand men [avdpas] of assassins? 39. But Paul said, I [emphatic] indeed am a Jewish man [av@pwros] of Tarsus, of Cilicia, of a not insignificant city a citizen: And I beseech thee, allow me to speak to the people. 40. And he having allowed him, Paul standing on the steps, beckoned with the hand to the people. And great silence coming, he spake to [them] in the Hebrew language, saying:

Chap. xxii. 1.-Men [avdpes], brethren, and fathers, hear my answer now to you. 2. And hearing that he was speaking to them in the Hebrew language, they the more kept quietness. And he says, 3. I indeed am a man, a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but nourished up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, trained according to the exactness of the fatherly law, being [vaрxwv] a zealot of God, as all ye are to-day; 4. Who persecuted this way unto death, binding and giving into prisons both men [avdpas] and women, 5. As also the High Priest witnesses to me, and all the company of elders: from whom also having received letters to the brethren, I was going to Damascus to bring them that were there, bound to Jerusalem, that they might be punished. 6. But it came to pass to me, going and nearing Damascus, about mid-day, of a sudden there lightened from heaven a great light around me.. 7. And I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? 8. But I [emphatic] answered, Who art thou, Lord ? And he said to me, I [emphatic] am Jesus the Nazarene whom thou persecutest.

9. And they that were with me the light indeed beheld and were put in fear, but the voice heard not of him speaking to me. 10. And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, Arise, go into Damascus, and there shall be spoken to thee concerning all [things] which are ordered thee to do. 11. And when I did not see for the brightness of that light, led by the hand by my companions, I came into Damascus. 12. But a certain Ananias, a man [avyp] devout according to the law, well witnessed by all the Jews settled [there], 13. Coming to me and standing by, said to me, Brother Saul, look up. And I [emphatic] the same hour looked up upon him. 14. And he said, the God of our

will, and to see the 15. For thou shalt

Arise

fathers made thee ready to know his Just, and hear the voice of his mouth. be witness to Him to all men [av@pwrоvs], of what thou hast seen and heard. 16. And now what art thou about? to be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling upon his name. 17. And it came to pass when I had returned to Jerusalem, and as I was praying in the temple [iep@] I became in a trance; 18. And saw Him saying to me, Hasten and go quickly out of Jerusalem; because they will not receive thy witness concerning me. 19. And I [emphatic] said, Lord, they [emphatic] understand that I [emphatic] was imprisoning and scourging throughout the synagogues them that believe on thee; 20. And when was shed forth the blood of Stephen thy witness, I was even standing by and consenting, and keeping the garments of them that were slaying him. 21. And He said to me, Go, for I [emphatic] will send thee out to the Gentiles afar. 22. And they heard him as far as this word, and lifted up their voice, saying, Away from the earth with such a man, for it is not right for him to live. 23. And as they were clamouring and casting [up] their garments, and throwing dust into the air, 24. The præfect commanded him to be brought into the fort, saying that he should be racked with scourges, that he might come to know for what reason they thus cried upon him. 25. And when they had stretched him out with thongs, Paul said to the centurion standing by,

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Is it allowed you to scourge a man [av@pwπov], a Roman and unjudged? 26. And the centurion having heard, coming near announced to the præfect, saying, What art thou about to do? for this man is a Roman. 27. Then the profect coming near said to him, Tell me, art thou [emphatic] a Roman? He said, Yea. 28. And the præfect answered, I [emphatic] for a great sum got this citizenship. And Paul said, But I [emphatic] am even [free] born. 29. Straightway then stood away from him they that were going to rack him. And the præfect feared having come to know that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him. 30. And on the morrow, purposing to know the certainty about what he was accused by the Jews, he loosed him, and commanded the chief priests and all the council to come together: and bringing Paul down, set him among them.

The Preacher's Finger-Post.

VICARIOUSNESS OF GOSPEL

PHILANTHROPY.

"For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh."-Rom. ix. 3.

school, including Dean Alford, Dr. Wordsworth, and Mr. Jowett, are agreed, says Professor Plumptre, "that the words can mean nothing else than this: That for his brethren's sake, his kinsmen according to the flesh, St. Paul was willing to accept all that is involved in the

THAT the feeling expressed in this remarkable passage was either felt prior to the apostle's conversion, or was a momentary ebullition after-thought of everlasting conwards, is a view of the passage which critics of a colder nature have endeavoured to maintain. But in doing this they have had to do much violence to the laws of language. Critics of every

demnation, eternal separation from his Lord; yea, craved with a passionate earnestness that it might be so.". We take the words as expressing in the strongest way the vicariousness of Gospel phi

lanthropy, and they suggest three ideas concerning it—

I. ITS STRONG SUBSTITUTIONARY CRAVING. Paul wishes here to suffer for the sake of his brethren. All love is in a sense substitutionary. It suffers for others. It puts the soul of its possessor in the place of the loved sufferer, and makes it a conscious participator in the agony. The more love a being has in a world of suffering, the more vicarious agony he must endure. Love loads us with the infirmities and sorrows of all around. All loving and sympathetic natures are bearing about with them the griefs and sorrows of others; they weep with those that weep. Christ came here with an infinite love for the whole world; and by an eternal law of sympathy He suffered for the world. there is, moreover, a craving in love to suffer instead of its object. Does not the mother desire to suffer instead of the babe that lies on the bed of anguish Substitution of this kind is the law of love. *** II. ITS SELF- SACRIFICING POWER. The Apostle not only desired to suffer instead of his brethren, but to suffer the greatest evil, to sacrifice his all for them. He desired to be Anathema from Christ. What does this involve? "Terrible enough," says the

But

eloquent author already quoted, "would have been that word Anathema, accursed from Christ,' if it had brought with it only the thoughts which a Jewish reader would have associated with it. To come under all the curses, dark and dread, which were written in the Book of the Law; to be cursed in waking and sleeping, going out and coming in, in buying and selling, in the city and in the field; to be shunned, hated as a Samaritan was hated, shut out from fellowship with all human society that had been most prized; from all kindly greeting of friends and neighbours. This was what he would have connected with the words as their least and lowest meaning. The Christian reader, possibly the Jewish also, would have gone yet further. The apostle's own words would have taught him to see more. To be 'delivered unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh;' to come under sharp pain of body, supernaturally inflicted, and to feel that that excruciating agony or loathsome plague, was the deserved chastisement of a sin against truth and light, and to be shut out from all visible fellowship with the body of Christ, aud therefore from all communion with Christ himself; to

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