Character of our version. Of the result of their labors the editor of the "Annotated Paragraph Bible" remarks: "It would be too much to affirm that it is not susceptible of improvement; but its general excellence is attested by the fact, that with all the diversities of opinion on religious subjects, and the controversies which have been carried on between different denominations of Christians in our country, all have agreed in appealing to the same version, and none have, in any matters of consequence, objected to it.” discovery of printing. The revival of letters upon the introduction of the art of Effect of the printing, especially the quickening influences of the Reformation and the influential example of Luther; the appeal from a professedly infallible Church to the inspired records of truth; the differences of doctrinal opinions in the Reformed Churches, all seeking their justification in the letter of Scripture; the searching examination given to the mythical fables, forming the beginning of all profane history; the extraordinary advances made in all the physical sciences, some of them apparently showing discrepancies and contradictions in the statements of the Bible; altogether turned with great zeal the thoughts and studies of scholars, both friendly and unfriendly, to the original sources of the records of a divine revelation. Impelled by the two strongest of human passions, hatred and love, the work has been going on until the present day. From ancient libraries, institutions of learning, rabbinical schools, and convents, gathered with the most persistent and patient labor, every scrap of manuscript containing the whole or portions of the various versions of the Examination of the original sources. The effect of this investigation feared at first. Those fears unfounded. Bible, which we have already described, has been examined and collated; every site of the occurrence of scriptural incidents has been visited; human history has been reviewed; the hieroglyphics of Egypt and the sublime revelations of the earth's strata have been made to yield up their long-hidden secrets in these extended investigations. When this sifting and exhausting examination of the received Scriptures commenced many good men looked upon it with anxiety, fearing that the popular confidence in the genuineness and purity of the text might be destroyed. Their fears were unfounded. The Bible, like pure gold, only shone the brighter after the fiery trial. "A wonderful divine ordination," says Olshausen, "has preserved it to us without any essential injury through a succession of dark ages. It exerts at the present day upon all minds receptive of its spirit the same blessed, sanctifying influence which the apostles claimed for it eighteen centuries ago. How, then, can these sacred books suffer from careful historical inquiry respecting their origin? Investigation must rather serve to confirm and fully establish belief in their purity and genuineness.” 52 When the learned Professor Bengel, of Tubingen, announced the forty thousand various readings which had been obtained from the different manuscript Bengel. copies of the New Testament collated, it was feared at first that an entirely new version would be required; but it was found upon examination that the sense of the authorized edition was scarcely altered by them all; no previously held 52 Olshausen's Commentaries, vol. 1, p. 80. Variations of No doctrine affected. or contested doctrine was affected in the slightest measure, and only one important passage, the well-known seventh verse of the fifth chapter of the First Epistle of John, relating to the three witnesses, was found to be sustained by so few original versions as to be marked unreliable. But the doctrine of the triune personality of God is not affected by the loss of this proof-text. Upon the result of these careful collations of original authorities Olshausen remarks: "Now that all the manuscripts have been read and accurately collated, there is no further occasion for fear that somewhere or other something new may be discovered which will thrust the old, loved Bible aside." 53 Some of these "various readings," considered of the most value, have been introduced into side columns in our reference Bibles, and sometimes, although rarely, they shed considerable light upon the text. No further fear. these varia tions. Of the fifty thousand various readings which at the The nature of present time have been collected, the most of them are simply differences in orthography, punctuation, or a change in a particle, as and for also; and in the tenses, numbers, and cases of the words. Says Prof. Norton, in his work upon the genuineness of the Gospels: "It seems strange that the text of Shakspeare, which has been in existence less than two hundred and fifty years, should be far more uncertain and Prof. Norton upon the " rious read. ings." va corrupt than that of the New Testament, now over eighteen centuries old, during nearly fifteen of which it existed only in manuscript. The industry of collators and commentators 53 Olshausen's Commentaries, vol. i, p. 80. indeed has collected a formidable array of 'various readings' in the Greek text of the Scriptures, but the number of those which have any good claim to be received, and which also seriously affect the sense, is so small that they may almost be counted upon the fingers. With perhaps a dozen or twenty exceptions, the text of every verse in the New Testament may be said to be so far settled by the general consent of scholars that any dispute as to its meaning must relate rather to the interpretation of the words than to any doubts respecting the words themselves. But in every one of Shakspeare's thirty-seven plays there are probably a hundred readings still in dispute, a large proportion of which materially affect the meaning of the passage in which they occur." We may, then, answer the question with confidence, that we have in our English Bibles the revelation of God's will as it was given to the holy men that received it. Question an swered. CHAPTER IV. INTERPRETATION: GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. THE term hermeneutics, from the Greek word used by THE the apostle Paul, and translated the "interpretation of Hermeneutics. tongues," is the title used to designate the science or art of interpretation. The grand office of biblical interpretation is to discover lical interpre tation. Office of bib- the exact teaching of the Holy Spirit in the words uttered by inspired men. It is not its province to inquire how far any preconceived opinion finds justification in the Scriptures of truth, but simply and always "what the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify." There are many peculiarities in the construction and character of the book which render its interpretation difficult, and require the closest and most careful study. Its first publication in the idioms of tongues foreign to our own-its constant allusion to customs unfamiliar to our days—its singular varieties of style, historical, poetical, prophetical-its sublime supernatural revelations of truth and spiritual life—all together make it a volume which study can never exhaust, and which it can never enter upon without the most enriching results.3 Peculiarities of book rendering its interpretation difficult. 11' Cor. xii, 10. 21 Peter i, 11. Dr. Stowe remarks in his inaugural address upon the "Interpretation of the Scriptures," when he entered upon his duties as a professor at Andover: “We |