nothing. It shirks the question. It is a mere substitute for serious thought. Let it go, and its authors with it, if this is all they have got for an inquirer after "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

2. But stay, they have more to tell us.

First, of one Michaelis, who found the Peshito a very good version indeed; but some parts were not up to the mark. What mark? That of our Hebrew and the Septuagint, or of some mark of excellence of his own? Which? If the latter, we heed it not. If the former, then we ask, What is the age of existing Hebrew manuscripts, or what the authority of the Septuagint? Can either of them claim superior age or weight to the Peshito? With the Greek odds and ends, out of which modern versions have come, this great man was so little satisfied that he preferred ancient versions of the New Testament to them all. Then if he chose to pronounce against any reading in the Peshito, according to the Hebrew or Septuagint as we now have them, what was his dictum worth? It might so differ and yet give us an abler and better view of what was first written. Secondly, Michaelis has not weighed the tradition which we have above examined, and tried to show its unsoundness, but while admitting the Peshito to be the work of more than one hand, has tried to show that it makes no use of the Jewish Targums, and so must be the work of a Gentile Christian. admit the tradition, and then you get the first part done 600 years before the Targums were made. Then allow the second part of the said tradition, and you get a Christian editor, who, though a Jew, was not a narrow or a slavish one, but has attained a catholicity wider than Peter, or his brothers James and Matthew. Then notice this: that Luke gives a reading from our Lord at Nazareth, which is neither Hebrew nor Septuagint, as now found; and yet it may be the truest of the three. Then when the truth of fact was greater than the old letter, it took the lead with Christ and His Apostle Paul; and so might it with Jude. It is quite possible that he had observed how his brother Matthew wrote the cry on the cross, "Oh God! oh God! why hast thou forsaken me!" This differs from Hebrew in the Psalm xxii., its source; but it is more true to the mental state of the sufferer. Following this law, Jude would sanction departure from the letter of the Exemplar, and yet reach a deeper truth. An apostolic editor having the promised guidance and help of the Paraclete is more than a drudging copyist; for he is divinely led into all truth. And in the New Testament of the Peshito there are many passages richer in apostolic truth and high teaching than any Greek text extant. And then what commendation is given the Old Testament portion by Michaelis de Rosi and many others! Many excellent readings are collected from it where the Hebrew is obscure or defective, so that whoever made it worked well. As to the order in which it was finished, even the New Testament portion was published too early for 2 Peter to be

included therein; so that all must have been out about A.D. 68. Then was the time when the most intense interest through the Roman Empire in Christianity was stirring both Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, or Syrian-speaking people's minds. This called for vigorous effort to spread the written word. Was not the great appeal being heard at Rome-the Jewish Sanhedrim on one part, and on the other a Roman freeman, the great Apostle of the Gentiles? Then among the Hebrews the question was enlarged to this Is Jesus-whom Pilate crucified, but whom Paul affirmed to be alive-the Messiah of whom Moses and the prophets did write? and, if so, is He the Son of God, through faith in whose name we can inherit eternal life? Both Testaments are needed to furnish the answer, just what our tradition states that Jude and Abgarus procured for them. Nor can we ask for a shorter period than thirty-six years to the end of the century for such development as is implied in the rearing of a religious structure, such as the one above mentioned. Christ announced to a great gathering from many regions for the coming passover, at which he suffered, the last test to which He would put the Hebrew people before the ruin of their capital and temple should come. He would send them prophets, wise men, and scribes. Then, as they received and treated these His messengers, so should the end be.

The end came A.D. 70, when there were gathered Jews from all parts of the empire, who suffered in the siege and ruin. But the scribes as well as prophets must have addressed them before the downfall to meet the case. And so it was if in 66 even the Greek and Syrian Scriptures were abroad. But if you put them later you make His word fail. See how it is verified in this tradition! Before the fall of Jerusalem the lines of the scribes had gone out into all the earth, and the words of the prophets to the end of the world. And the Hebrew people had the first and fullest opportunity of accepting the true Christ, or the reverse-of dying in their sin. The majority chose the latter, and remain a monument of judgment unto this day, notwithstanding the theology of the biographer of Lord George Bentinck, Earl Beaconsfield.

Exchang'd for Earth's distractions, wild and fierce ?
As fiercely dash the tempest-surging waves

Against a ship distress'd while rolling in
Upon a wild, and rock-begirted shore;
And howling blasts drive madly on

The helpless quiv'ring bark and trembling crew

To certain wrack, perchance, a violent doom:

So, like to this, full oft appear to me

The whirling strifes, the schemes, and sins of men,
Which, driving madly on the heedless age

To its disruptive ruin and collapse,

Appal my heart.

Behold its vexing cares,

Its bick'ring strifes, its raging passions, too,
And venom speech, all set on fire of hell;
The cuts and shifts of restless competition;
The honey'd words, so fair in sound, yet nought
But varnish to the hidden loathsome lie;
The shams and tricks deceptive, which allure
The eye, yet sting the soul with deadly pain

When stands the cheat revealed-wrought in the name
Of Christian faith and love!-an angel's mould,
But filled with Satan's craft, and Satan's art:
Vain man is found in all, and first, and last,
And God, but little feared, or sought, or known,
Or His good hand required to aid their steps:
For man needs not a God save for a name,

A creed! More perfect are men's thoughts than His.
Expedients men must have to make things work
Both smooth and well His word will not allow.
The good old way is worn and out of form.

The busy age requires a newer path

Of wider bounds; so that the swaying steps
Have freedom joined with safe and prosp'ring aim!
Such are men's thoughts, and such their cunning skill.
Will God then change His plans for such as these,
The pathway formed by His most perfect will
And loving counsel with Himself and Christ?

The war and strife in lands remote and near,
In words and arms of mighty force and aim;
The nations arming for the coming day,
To prove the dominating pow'r for all:
The rise and rapid strides of Satan's lies,
And wonders of his supernatural art:
What men call visits from the spirit world-
Vain mutt'rings of confusive sense from those
Whom men suppose are dead, yet live a life
Of idle folly,wilder, and more strange
Than lived by such when clad in mortal clay!
The lawless breaches wrought in England's church,
In ritual borrow'd from the Tiber's shore ;
These are the waves and wildering storm-winds
That drive the heedless age, nor heed the helm
Of wise and holy counsels all divine;

And thus reveal the signs of coming wrack!

The day draws near, yet slowly runs the time, While days and weeks and months and years roll on

And on their circling round of weariness.
Around true hearts the contest thickens fast,
And more and more severe the wounds received,
Though fast the blows fall hurtling back again.
Yet foes spring up afresh on ev'ry side.

Hard rain their furious blows upon the shield,
The sword-hilt cleaves still closer to the hand
While giving back the conqu'ring thrust or blow,
Till foes fall thick around. Yet seems the rest

Not near; for still more thickly on they press,
Or rise again the contest to renew :

And so the fight goes raging on and on.

Thus are Thy servants placed, O Lord, our Chief: And weary grow of this incessant strife.

Yet, O Thou blessed Christ! our glorious Head,
'Tis as Thy mouth declared e'en from the first.
Thou, Conqueror of sin, and hell, and death,
Did'st say, that "as the Master, so must be
The servant;" yea, and more, that "in the world
Ye shall have tribulation." Thou camest not
To win our hearts with flatt'ring words of ease;
The "rest remains ; "-the dear reward of pains
And service done for Thy dear blessed Name,
When earthly strife and earthly toil are done.

We know it well, O Jesu, Fount of Strength!
Nor do we deem Thee absent in the fight,
Nor think Thy promise fails us in our need,
When hotly pressed with many enemies;
Or walk on dang'rous ground beset with snares
And pitfalls deep: Nor do we doubt Thy word
Of grace, which bears aloft our darling hopes
Above the whelming floods of strife and war,
That

Thou wilt come: and where Thou art there shall Thy servant be."

No, Lord: it is not this

Which wholly makes our plaint and fond desire.
The sailor battles with the raging waves,
The soldier presses hard the stubborn foe,
For country, home, and loved ones dear:
And we a deeper yearning know than these.
We long to be with Thee, to see Thy face;
To enter on that holy reign of peace
Which Thou wilt usher in when Thou to earth
Again shalt come, with all Thy happy saints
In glory crown'd, clothed with immortal bloom.

But now we daily look, and yearning pray
For Thine approach, while Hope still sings her sweet,
Yet quiv'ring song, to lull the tender pain;
And Faith grips firm the promis'd word of grace,
And leans on Him whose ev'ry word is sure.

We love Thee, Lord, for well we are assured