Hence, like a chain of gold, their pride they bear,
And bold oppression is the robe they wear.
Voluptuous ease is in their looks; their fond
And towering wishes they have gone beyond.
Corrupted by excess, they spurn restraint,
Oppress the lowly, and contemn the saint.
Their haughty blasphemies the heaven defy;
And their tongue preys on all beneath the sky.
The good are turned aside, and, forced to drain
The cup of bitterness, they thus complain:
"Doth God concern himself with things below?
Or can it be the Most High doth not know?
See, how the impious prosper-sinners these,
Who grow in wealth, and live in splendid ease.
Then where is virtue's gain, where the defence
Of honest worth, the meed of innocence?
My days with constant sorrows have been fraught,
And every morn has some fresh trial brought."
-Should I such language hold, Lord, I should be
A traitor to thine Israel and Thee.

Yet still, the mystery my mind revolved,
Remained too hard to be by reason solved:
Till in the house of God I sought relief,
And into self-reproach was turned my grief.
There was I taught their end. I saw them stand
On slippery heights, a yawning gulf at hand.
How in a moment are the proud cast down,
Consumed beneath the terror of Thy frown!
E'en as a dream the cheated mind forsakes
On waking, when, O Lord, thy wrath awakes,
So shall the pageant of their greatness seem
Shadowy and vain, a scarce-remembered dream.
Thus was I troubled: I was sick at heart
Through my own folly: till Thou didst impart
A better mind, I lay beneath the rod,

E'en like the brutes who cannot know their God.
Yet, still Thy gracious presence did enfold me,
And by my right hand, Lord, thou didst uphold me.
Through this dark world Thy word shall be my guide,
Till in Thy glory I am satisfied.

For whom have I in heaven, or who can now
Be on this earth my trust, my joy, but Thou?
What though my flesh, and heart, and life decay;
God is my strength, my all-sufficient stay,
A portion that shall never fade away.
The base apostates who their God forsake,
Thy righteous vengeance shall at length o'ertake.
But be it mine near Thee, my God, to dwell,
And, as I trust in Thee, of all Thy works to tell.

The object of the present Translators, we have already re

marked, is very different from that which has been aimed at in these metrical versions. The principles of translation which they have adopted, has led them scrupulously to retain all such Hebraisms as are either not liable in themselves to be understood, or have been rendered intelligible by familiar use. With regard to those principles, they have not fully explained their views.

Upon the laws of grammatical interpretation,' they say, the Translators cannot now enlarge, without losing sight of their immediate object. Of the extreme importance of those laws, they are fully aware. In fact, at the commencement of their labours, they contemplated adding a regular series of philological notes. But this idea was afterwards abandoned; and these notes will, probably, form, at some future time, the substance of a separate publication.' p. vi.

We shall await that publication with considerable interest; and in the mean time, we have felt it right to abstain from minute philological criticism on these Translations, and to reserve our observations upon the system of translation to which they are conformed. The merit of the work must be judged of in relation to what its Authors have purposed. They have not aimed at producing an elegant, idiomatic version, or such as might compete with the Authorized Version in the collocation and modulation of its periods; but they have furnished the Biblical student with a translation valuable as being independent and original, fresh drawn from the Hebrew, the result of much assiduous study and extensive learning, and one which will, therefore, be of great use in illustrating the text, and, compared with other versions, in fixing its true import. It is by the multiplication of such contributions to Sacred Literature,and the humblest efforts of the kind are entitled to the thanks of the Christian world,-that we may hope at length to obtain a Public Version as unexceptionable in point of fidelity as in propriety of expression.

We must, however, contend that, whether in prose or in verse, an English translation of the Scriptures ought to be pure English; that nothing is gained by that sort of halftranslation, which, under the idea of literal fidelity, presents to us something which is neither English nor Hebrew,-renderings so uncouth, and phrases so remote from the conventional idiom, that a school-boy who should so translate Homer or Xenophon would be turned down in disgrace. It is very remarkable, how rarely learned critics have proved themselves competent translators. Profoundly versed in Greek, Hebrew, or Latin, they have seemed strangers to the art of English composition, and have discovered a singular awkwardness in conveying the results of their acutest philological investigations. Learning and judgement are the prime requisites in a Biblical

critic; but to these, the translator must add eloquence and purity of taste, or he will fail to do justice to either his text or his readers. The beauty and sublimity of the sacred writings, the qualities which, apart from their inspiration, raise the compositions of Moses, of David, and of Isaiah, above all Roman and all Grecian fame, are, we need not be reminded, of inferior consideration, compared with the matter of Revelation, the awful burden of prophecy, and the saving knowledge which the word of life communicates. Still, they form a characteristic feature of the Book of God, and a portion of that internal evidence by which its Divine inspiration is attested; and this species of evidence, let it be remembered, becomes proportionably obscured and weakened by a mode of translation which sacrifices perspicuity to a spurious fidelity, and dignity of expression to philological precision. While, then, we would protest against placing Biblical criticism, on the one hand, under the ban of the Church, on the charge of neologistical tendencies, we must also raise our voice on behalf of the Hebrew Muse, the eldestborn of Poetry, the handmaid of Devotion, the sister of Prophecy, who appears to us to have suffered cruel injustice at the hands both of learned and of unlearned translators. We know, indeed, that to speak of the Psalms and other portions of the Hebrew Scriptures as poetry, will sound in the ears of some persons like the language of Neology: as if to exalt their merit as compositions, was to lower their inspiration. Pity that these watch-dogs of orthodoxy cannot distinguish a friend from a foe; but they must bark on. We shall close this article with one more specimen of the sacred poetry of the Hebrews'-no matter whence obtained-in which, we venture to hope that the sentiments and spirit of the original will be thought to have been preserved with as much fidelity as in the most literal prose version, or in the most diffuse and ornate paraphrase.

PSALMS XLII, XLIII.

As for the distant water pants the desert's fleet gazelle,

So longs my heart for Thee, O God!-within Thy courts to dwell.
Like her I thirst, but thirst for thee, the source of life and joy.
O when among Thy saints again shall praise my tongue employ?
But here my tears have been my drink, my solace night and day,
While, Where is now thy God? I hear the taunting heathen say.
I think upon the happy days, and mourn the Sabbaths fled,
When to the house of God with songs the joyous train I led.
Yet why dejected, O my soul? Why faint beneath the rod ?
Hope on, for I shall praise Him still, my Helper and my God.
But, O my God, the thought of Thee with grief my bosom fills,
Here, beyond Jordan's fountains, amid Hermon's rocky hills.
Around the gathering waters roar, and glen to glen replies:
But deeper waters whelm my soul, and floods of trouble rise.

Once in Thy loving kindness blest, swift flew my days along:
Amid the watches of the night, Thy praise inspired my song.
But now I
cry, O God my Rock, why hast thou cast me off,
To groan beneath oppression and endure the impious scoff?
Keen as a sword the cruel taunt, repeated day by day;
Where is the God he trusted in? my foes insulting say.

Yet why art thou cast down, my soul? Why faint beneath the rod? Hope on, for I shall praise Him still, my Helper and my God.

Judge Thou my cause; right me, O God, against a ruthless race:
O save me from a treacherous foe, unprincipled and base.

For Thou my strength, my fortress art: Why hast Thou cast me off?
To groan beneath oppression, and endure the impious scoff?
Send forth Thy light and truth, O Lord, to point and guide my road,
To lead me to Thy holy mount, even Thy blest abode.

Then at Thine altar, O my God, my harp and voice shall raise,
To Thee, the Author of my joy, triumphant hymns of praise.
Then why art thou cast down, my soul? Why faint beneath the rod ?
Hope on, for I shall praise Him still, my Saviour and my God.

Art. V. 1. Considerations respectfully submitted to the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, on the present Crisis of its Affairs. By a Secretary of an Auxiliary Bible Society. 8vo. pp. 28. London, 1831.

2. The Character of the Bible Society as a Religious Institution; considered in a Letter addressed to the Hon. and Rev. G. T. Noel, occasioned by his Letter to Lord Teignmouth. By Clericus. 8vo. pp. 44. Price 1s. London, 1831.

3. Circular addressed to the Members of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and of the various Auxiliary and Branch Societies, and Bible Associations, by a Provisional Committee formed on the 20th of May, 1831, at 32, Sackville Street, London. pp. 3.

WE had not intended to advert again, at least for the present, to the subject of these publications; but pamphlets, letters, and resolutions are pouring in upon us, which, if noticed at all, require to be promptly noticed; and the activity of the agitators calls for a corresponding watchfulness and decision. This specious and insidious Circular', the manifesto of the Sackville Street junta, bearing as it does the signatures of nearly eighty respectable individuals, claims a distinct, though brief examination.

The Circular invites our serious and deep consideration to eight 'Resolutions', which we shall take up seriatim.

1. That we whose names are undersigned, do form a Provisional Committee, with power to add to our number, for the purpose of

VOL. VI.-N. S.

T

uniting in such measures as may induce the British and Foreign Bible Society to re-consider the decision of the late Anniversary General Meeting of that Institution, and to bring about a separation in point of Membership from those who do not acknowledge the Scriptural doctrine of the Holy Trinity.'

This is, we believe, the first time that a provisional committee was ever formed, not for the purpose of instituting a society, but with the avowed object of disturbing an institution long established, by forcing upon it the views of an inconsiderable and defeated minority. This provisional committee is nothing better than an organized conspiracy, how specious soever its object, which, if successful, would overturn the whole management of the Society. Formed in direct and open opposition to the venerable President, the episcopal and other vice-presidents, (with the exception of Lords Mandeville and Lorton,) the officers, and the elected committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, all of whom have deliberately recorded their opinion, and are staked to the present constitution of the Society, the effect of what this junta are proposing to themselves, if not their aim, must be, to turn out the whole body of patrons and directors, who, if thus overborne and counteracted, could neither with honour nor consistency retain their connexion with the Institution. But that such is the actual aim of some of the confederates, is matter of notoriety. The following is the language of Robert Haldane, Esq., in his last furious bull against the Bible Society Committee.

Such is the manner in which the Directors of the British and Foreign Bible Society have directed themselves in the whole course of their proceedings. And I ask, if it be possible, in the history of the whole world, to produce an example of charges so multiplied, and of such weight, and magnitude, and criminality, being brought against the managers of any other society? Yet, after all, how little do we know of their practices-how short a way have we been able to trace them! But from the little we have seen of their public transactions, and from the glimpse we have had of their secret operations, a scene has been disclosed unparalleled and unprecedented. Religious principles have been outraged, religious duties have been violated, and religion itself has been trampled upon, and exposed to the scorn of men and to the derision of infidels. And they who have been guilty of all these delinquencies, although fully and publicly convicted of them, refuse to this hour to make any acknowledgement or confession of their faults. Does it become any Christian to support or countenance such a Committee? In doing so, is he not betraying the cause which it is his duty to support? And does he not become a partaker of other men's sins? ... Can any of their supporters affirm with a good conscience, that they are not incompetent and disqualified for the duties of their office?. It might have been expected, considering