66 "four-I think I may be justified when I say that the third principle at which we aimed-the expression of opinions, only after the fullest and most varied consideration—was thoroughly and faithfully observed. 66 66 'I now pass, in the last place, to a few remarks on the nature and characteristics "of the Revised Version itself. Much, I need not say, as the Preface which is "prefixed to the Volume really tells this with a fulness and a detail that leave little to be added on the present occasion. Perhaps, as before, it may be "best for me to gather up my remarks into the form of two or three general "comments. Permit me, then, to say that these three characteristics will "certainly be found on every page of the Revised Version-thoroughness, "loyalty to the Authorised Version, and due recognition of the best judgments of antiquity. 46 66 66 "Our version is certainly thorough—thorough both in regard of the text "and the rendering. That thoroughness, from the rules which I but recently "read, was to be regulated by the principle of faithfulness in regard of the "translation, and a due regard to decidedly preponderating evidence in the case "of the Greek text which we regarded as the basis of our rendering. Faithfulness and decidedly preponderating evidence are, of course, both of them expressions which admit of a great variety of interpretations, and, in a numerous body like that of the New Testament Company, were certain to "receive them. Without any enumeration of these varying shades of opinion, it may be sufficient to mention, as the general result, that the revision, both "of the Greek text and of the Authorised Translation, has been thorough, "and up to a full standard of correction. And it would have been a great misfortune if it had been otherwise. A timid revision that had not the nerve to aim at comparative finality, but was simply suggestive of a renewal of "the process when the public mind might be judged to be again ready for it, "would have had a very unsettling effect, and really would have frustrated the very progress that it contemplated; for such a kind of revision would be "used as a standing argument against any revision at all. Moreover, to modify a high standard, in some subsequent review, is a process compara"tively easy; but to elevate a lower and tentative standard, in the case of a 'translation of the New Testament, would be found, if attempted, a work of 'such peculiar difficulty that it would be very speedily abandoned. No such "misfortune has happened to the Revised Version. It represents as full a 66 measure of correction as is required by faithfulness, fairly estimated, but not more than that. The minor changes by which it is marked are certainly 66 numerous, but all have only one common object-the setting forth with greater clearness, force, and freshness the language and teaching of the inspired original. 66 66 66 "Eleven years ago I gave alarm by the estimate which I then formed of the "amount of change that would be needed; and, I remember, I led my brother "of Salisbury to say that my words would frighten people from one end of the "land to the other. If the estimate was deemed to be alarming, I fear I may alarm still more when I state the actual results, and compare them with "what was then only anticipated. I comfort myself, however, with the "thought that when you go to the revision itself these alarms will speedily be "dissipated. What I stated as the very lowest estimate was six changes for 66 66 66 46 every five verses; one of these six changes being for critical and textual 66 reasons. What has actually taken place is an average for the Gospels of 'between eight and nine changes in every five verses-somewhere about one 66 and a half (or three in every ten verses) being for critical changes. As 'might be expected, the average for the Epistles is still higher. It appears "to amount to about fifteen changes for every five verses-one and a half, as "before, being due to critical changes. I have formed this calculation on a rigidly accurate examination of the Revised Version of the Sermon on the "Mount and the General Epistle of St. James, two connected portions of Holy Scripture containing each about the same number of verses. "Yet, with all this thoroughness of revision and numerically high standard "of correction, the effect to the general hearer or reader will really hardly be perceptible. This is due to the second characteristic of our version, its per"sistent loyalty to the Authorised Translation. To any candid reader nothing "will be more patent than this throughout the whole Volume. Our words in "the Preface will show the great reverence that we have ever felt for that " venerable version, and our practice on every page will show how, even when "words may have been changed, our reverence has shown itself in such a "careful assimilation to the tone and rhythm of that marvellous translation, “that the actual amount of change will scarcely ever be felt or recognised. "Sometimes this has been effected by the choice of a word of the same rhyth"mical quality as that which it displaced; sometimes by a fortunate inversion; "sometimes by the reproduction of a familiar and idiomatic turn; sometimes by the preservation of the cadence even when more than one of the words "which had originally helped to make it up had become modified or changed. “In a word, our care throughout has been, while faithfully carrying out re"vision wheresoever it might seem needed, to make the new work and the old "so blend together that the venerable aspect of the Authorised Version might "never be lost, and its fair proportions never sacrificed to the rigidity of a merely pedantic accuracy. 66 66 "The third characteristic of the version-due recognition of the best judg"ments of antiquity-though not equally patent, will, I hope and believe, 66 66 666 rarely be looked for in vain. In all more difficult passages we have ever given especial heed to the great early versions, and to the voice, wherever it "could be heard in the same language as that which we were translating, of primitive and patristic antiquity. In many of those passages, perhaps, on "which hereafter we may be most severely criticised-as, for instance, in the deliver us from the Evil One' of the Lord's Prayer-it will be found that we are but reproducing that which had always been the interpretation of the best and earliest writers of the Greek-speaking Primitive Church. We have 'thus sought to tread the old paths as well as the new, and, while never "neglecting modern scholarship, have never reversed old interpretations with"out such a clear amount of contextual or linguistic authority as rendered such a reversal a matter of distinct and indisputable faithfulness. 66 66 Such, in general outline, is the revision which I have had the honour of "placing before you. Whatever may be its faults and shortcomings, it has "been done faithfully, and it has been done prayerfully. Its pages bear the "results of long-continued and arduous labours; but those labours would have 6. 66 "been as nothing if they had not been hallowed and quickened by prayer. "Such is this revision of 1881; not unworthy, I trust and believe, to take its place among the great English versions of the past; not also without the 'hope of holding a place among them of honour, and, perhaps, even of pre"eminence. But those things belong to the future. For the present it is 'enough that I commend this Volume to the favourable consideration of your "Lordships, and ask for it your fatherly prayers." 66 BRETON FISHER'S PRAYER.* "Mon Dieu, protégez moi, mon navire est si petit, et votre mer si grande! How shall I sail across in bark so frail ? O endless waves, O feeble quivering sail, THE ATTAINMENT OF KNOWLEDGE. -Whatever tends to ameliorate the condition of man or to increase his means of happiness, is not merely profitable, but useful and necessary. When the hours of labour cease and a man seeks rest for his wearied limbs, and relaxation for his mind, what gratification equal to that which, while it imposes no labour of body, unfolds to him the precepts of the moralist, the experimental knowledge of the philosopher, or the history of his own species in the details of past ages? Relieved from the tediousness which is the constant attendant on the leisure hours of the ignorant, except indeed when they are indulging in riotous excess, or are lost to consciousness in the torpidity of sleep, the man who devotes his leisure moments to the cultivation of his understanding feels the importance of that knowledge; the stock which is received in small but daily additions, rises above the practice of those vices which are not only the bane of prosperity and health, but constitute the foundation of the greatest of all slavery. The fact is indisputable, that the greatest of human enjoyment arises from the cultivation of our capacities and the * By M. M. H., in The Preacher's Lantern, vol. i. p. 730. attainment of knowledge; as a man, from the very constitution of his nature, is exposed to the necessity of making provision for the employment of his thinking, as well as for his bodily powers, whatever tends tɔ increase his knowledge must have a direct tendency to increase his usefulness to others, and consequently his own happiness. THE FOLLY OF PRIDE.-The Rev. Sidney Smith, for many years one of the contributors to the great English Reviews, thus discourses on the folly of pride in such a creature as man: After all, take some quiet, sober moment of life, and add together the two ideas of pride and of man; behold him, creature of a span high, stalking through infinite space in all the grandeur of littleness. Perched on a speck of the universe, every wind of heaven strikes into his blood the coldness of death; his soul floats from his body like melody from the string; day and night, as dust on the wheel, he is rolled along the heavens, through a labyrinth of worlds, and all the creation of God are flaming above and beneath. Is this a creature to make for himself a crown of glory, to deny his own flesh, to scoff at his fellow, sprung from that dust to which both will soon return? Does the proud man not err? Does he not suffer? Does he not die? When he plans, is he never stopped by difficulties? When he acts, is he never tempted by pleasure? When he lives, is he free from pain? When he dies, can he escape the common grave? Pride is not the heritage of man; humility should dwell with frailty, and atone for ignorance, error, and imperfection. really great things. He may be the cleverest of men-he may be brilliant, entertaining, popular; but he will want weight. No soul-moving picture was ever painted that had not in it depths of shadow. "HAVE FAITH IN GOD."-When Bulstrode Whitelock was embarked as Cromwell's envoy to Sweden, in 1753, he was much disturbed in mind as he rested in Harwich on the preceding night, which was very stormy, while 66 66 he reflected on the distracted state of the nation. It happened that a confidential servant sleptin an adjacent bed, who, finding that his master could not sleep, said, “Pray, sir, will you give me leave to ask you a question? Certainly." 'Pray, sir, don't you think God governed the world very well before you came into it?" "Undoubtedly." "And pray, sir, don't you think that He will govern it quite as well when you are gone out of it?" "Certainly." "Then, sir, pray excuse me, but don't you think you may as well trust Him to govern it as long as you live?" To this question Whitelock had nothing to reply, but turning about, soon fell asleep, till he was summoned to embark. 66 SABBATH REST.-Would that all tired people did but know the blessed rest there is, in fencing off the six days from the seventh; in anchoring the business ships of your daily life as the Saturday draws to its close, leaving them to ride peacefully, upon the flow or the ebb, until Monday morning comes again. Oh, the delight, the lull of feeling-" No need to settle this question, no need to think of this piece of work for a whole long, sweet thirty-six hours!" HE Forty-second Anniversary of this NATIONAL INSTITUTION was held at the City Terminus Hotel, Cannon-street, London, on Wednesday, the 1st June, 1881, His Grace the DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH, K.G., President of the Society, in the chair. Amongst those present were-Captain the Hon. Francis Maude, R.N. (Chairman of Committee of Management), Captain Vincent Budd (Deputy-Chairman, and Chairman of Finance Committee), Admirals Sir Claude Buckle, K. C.B., Hon. Francis Egerton, M.P., E. G. Fishbourne, C.B., and J. C. Prevost; Captains Moriarty, R.N., E. S. Adeane, R.N., C.M. G., W. Dawson, R.N., H. Shuttleworth (Trinity House), John Steele, F.R.A.S., D. Mainland, J. J. Holdsworth, T. L. Porteous, S. Jarman, R.N. R., and Thos. Tribe; Rev. B. Doyle, Rev. Jas. White, Rev. A. Styleman Herring, Rev. G. Dorey, Rev. F. F. Statham, J. Holt Skinner, Esq., J. Kemp Welch, Esq., Alfred Eames, Esq., F. A. Ormsby, Esq., J. H. Lydall, Esq., E. Unwin, Esq., and L. Pennell, Esq., &c., &c., with a number of ladies, |