From these beneath the downward spiral diminishes to a point in time, yet, so to speak, in parallel order; spheres natural, the manifest effects of creation, with their ethers and atmospheres, their central suns, their ultimate planetary earths, with their productions-mineral, vegetable, animal—to man.

Now that we come to the question, Was creation effected by one act or many the inquiry itself suggests the answer. The order of the universe, as we have seen, necessitates gradual progression; that no effect can take place except in due relation to that which rightly precedes and follows it. Every created thing must be preceded by its end. or aim, bound up with the economy of the universe and by its train of producing causes; it must also form part of a procession of events leading to that grand effect which is crowned by the creation of man in the image of his Maker. We are, therefore, prepared to find in geology, imperfect as its present condition is, the evidence of a series of successive stages in creation, or rather of successive creations, which must have occupied periods of time inconceivable in duration, before this small globe on which we live was prepared for its present inhabitants. From the time when, as it is usually believed, it was launched forth from the bosom of the sun to whirl in a spiral of its own, to the time when its ribs, frames, and girders, the granite, quartz, basaltic, and other rocks which have been formed by the action of fire, were coole and solidified, countless ages must have elapsed. From the time when vapours began to cocl into seas upon granite ledges, at the bottom of which seas layers of solid matter began to be deposited until all the strata which had been formed in water were completed; it is estimated that nine millions of years at least must have elapsed. Twenty-nine different layers or strata are counted as having successively formed the seas and the dry land; in them so many distinct vegetable and animal creations arose, successively higher in degree, but each so discretely different from the others that, as we are told by scientific men, not more than one and a-half per cent of the previous or any former creation comes again upon the scene. Each one prepared the way for and was the basis of a new and higher step, leading up to that raised condition of the earth in which man might appear, and itself become a worthy floor and footstool before the throne of the Most High.

Jersey.

38

TIME.

"ART is long and time is fleeting,"

Old Age to listless Youth oft speaks;
And, like the shades at morn retreating,
The hours give place to days and weeks;
While out of months the years do grow, man,
Time and tide wait here for no man.

Like a stream its banks o'erflowing,
Time follows up its endless theme;
Blessings rich each hour bestowing-
Each little hour man's arts redeem.

You cannot name its progress slow, man :
Time and tide wait here for no man.

Time lost in business hours or leisure,
Is lost to us for evermore;

"Tis not recall'd for brightest treasure,
Earth full-summ'd in her bosom bore.

Then why should moments idly flow, man?
Time and tide wait here for no man.

Now the all-important Present-

To your life's Future is the door;

Learn of the Past: its dark and pleasant
Are to the soul a semaphore-

Quiv'ring on Truth's wings to and fro, man:
"Time and tide wait here for no man."

O, if we knew the art of spending

Each precious hour as we do gold

One moment's fault by the next mending—
In Wisdom we were soon grown old!
Then seek that wondrous art to know, man:
Time and tide wait here for no man.

H. W. ROBILLIARD.

THE PRINCE OF WALES.

BETWEEN the time of our last and of our present number going to press, the Prince of Wales has passed through a most severe illness, the progress of which has been watched by the country with deep anxiety, and the issue of which has been a subject of painful uncer

tainty and deep concern. Only while we write have the worst fears given way to the promises of hope. The graver and more distressing symptoms are subsiding. Tranquil and refreshing sleep has succeeded restless and exhausting wakefulness; and a continuance of these grateful visits of nature's sweet restorer is the first requisite for recruiting the patient's greatly diminished strength, and setting him on the way to perfect recovery.

Several circumstances have conspired to make this visitation a matter of acutely painful interest to the people. The sympathy felt for the sufferer has included, and been greatly intensified by, sympathy for his royal mother and wife. The great personal esteem and affection with which the Queen is universally regarded, and the fact that the same disease which prostrated her eldest son and the heir of her throne was that which made her a widow nine years ago, and on the same day of the same month on which, were the present attack to have a fatal termination, the light of her house seemed in danger of being quenched, cast a double shadow on the path of the good Queen Victoria, and created for her a double sympathy. There was also the sorrow of the young wife, whose virtues had won for her golden opinions, and made her be regarded as one whom the people would delight to honour as their future Queen. Sympathy for these, to whom he was so dear, entered into and intensified the sympathy of which he himself was the immediate object.

There was, however, still another and graver ground of concern. The Prince, as the Queen's successor, was looked upon as the future head of our constitutional Government. And although his death would not, in any degree, have imperilled the principle, yet the breaking of the nearest link in the chain of the royal succession, which had seemed so secure, could not fail to create considerable uneasiness. Happily all the causes of sorrow and alarm may be considered to have passed away. He who has been the object of such deep interest, and the subject of so many prayers, is now, we trust, on the way to convalescence; and should it please the Divine Disposer of events to raise him up from the bed of sickness and suffering, and restore him to health, we may hope that his deliverance may have the intended effect of every such dispensation of Providence, to humble him in the sight of God, and make him desirous of being still more worthy of the Divine favour, and of a Nation's devoted attachment.

40

THE REVISION OF THE AUTHORIZED VERSION.

"JUST as the twig is bent the bough's inclined." However singular a shape a Church's dogma may have assumed, its leaders would fain make all things bend to it, and it is to be feared that in the present Convocation for the Revision of the Authorized Version the history of the past will be repeated. All we can do is to hope that the contrary will be the result, and that, at the close of the labours imposed upon that body, modern ideas will be shown to possess a more tangible form than mere theorizing to dumb walls. Is it to be anticipated that our translators will do their best to make the Bible tally with their peculiar tenets, or that they will act so as to conform their views with the Bible? Let us at least trust that obscure passages, doubtfully worded, and seemingly asserting mere assumptions in matters of dogma, confirmed in after ages by the Church, will be treated in a fair and liberal spirit; and that they will not be rendered still more obscure— according to the letter than that which, with all its outward discrepancies, we have been used to, have studied, have known, and have had an interior perception of, according to its spirit and its consequent life. Let not the Word suffer further violence. We are fully aware that if, under the existing circumstances and surroundings of the case, we were to attempt to convince those concerned of the necessity of a far more extended research than the mere revision of former versions can afford, we should fail-hic labor hoc opus est. But why should the enlightenment of the age in which we live be disregarded? Why should the labours of Swedenborg, for instance, or the researches of Tischendorf, be passed by in silence, when the motives of that silence, which has reigned so long, no more exist? And yet there are passages-very remarkable passages-in Scripture over which a newer, though not entirely a new, light has latterly been shed, but which are nevertheless allowed to remain standing errors, as regards a mere rendering of words, that might easily be corrected. The result of a proper investigation would scarcely be less satisfactory than what has been foreseen by scholars. Of the less glaring errors we say little. We find many passages in which there is no need of such an expert as Tischendorf to prove inexactness in copy or translation. This lack of precision and care has been pointed out before, and our remarks in this paper are confined to a single verse in the book of Daniel.

The Rev. S. Noble, in his Appeal, has occasion to refer to it: "I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."-Chap. iii. ver. 25. This passage has been so rendered as to imply that there was a proper Son of God in the days of Daniel, when Nebuchadnezzar had caused the three pious Jews to be cast into the furnace. "It is certain," says Mr. Noble, "that the words in the original Chaldee, in which language this part of Scripture is written, ought to be rendered 'a son of the gods:' and this is now admitted by all the learned, while it is much more suitable to the character of the speaker, Nebuchadnezzar, a polytheist, and a worshipper of idols. Even if the Chaldee term for God, when in the plural number, will bear, like the Hebrew term, a singular meaning, there is still no ground whatever for calling the heavenly stranger, whom the king saw, the Son of God,' but he ought to be termed 'a son of God'-an angel. Printed, too, as it is, with the word 'Son' commenced with a capital letter, none who are destitute of other means of information can avoid supposing that there was a proper Son of God then existing."

Here is the passage from the black letter Bible of 1625:-"Hee answered and said, Loe I see foure men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the forme of the fourth is like the Sonne of God."

Let us now refer to translations of the passage in other languages, and the result of the examination will be found to be that in nearly every instance the explanation given by Mr. Noble, as above, is borne out to the very letter. Take, for instance, the French version printed by Matth. Berjou at Geneva (1605):—“Il respondit et dit, Voici je voi quatre hommes desliés qui marchent au milieu du feu, et n'y a en eux aucun dommage et la forme du quatrième est semblable à un fils de Dieu."

Here, however, is the Italian edition of 1546, which is not so good:-"Et egli rispose, Ecco che io vedo quattro huomini sciolti andanti in mezzo del fuogo, nulla cosa de corruttione in essi, et la belleza delli quattro e simile al figliuol de Dio."-(Biblia Vulgare nuovamente stampata et corretta, con Venetijs; apud Bernardium de Bindonis Mediolanensis A.D. MDXLVI.)

A very similar rendering to the above, and doubtless one based upon the English version, is the following from the Spanish edition of the Bible published at New York in 1856:-"El respondió, y dijo: He aqui yo veo cuatro hombres sueltos, y paseándose en medio del fuego y no hay en ellos ningun daño, y el aspecto del quarto est semejante al Hijo de Dios."

A Latin version of 1607:-"Respondit et dixit, Ecce video viros quatuor solutos ambulantes in medio ignis, in quibus non est corruptio: forma quarti similis est filio Dei."

From this alone much cannot be inferred, except we judge by the small f. But our view is confirmed by the note on the margin :-"Id est, venustissima et quasi divina: ut Homerus avTi0EOS DEоeikeλos and doyéveis nominat, vide ver. 28:-Proloquutus Nebucadnetzar dixit, Benedictus sit Deus horum, Schadraci, Meschaci and Habednegonis, qui mittens angelum suum eripuit servos suos qui confisi sunt in ipso, quum verbum Regis mutantes exposuerunt corpus suum ut non colerent neque adorerent ullum Deum præterquàin Deum

suum."

The best version, however, which I have met with is a Dutch black letter one of 1637, and, of course, those which have since followed, the spelling being somewhat different:-"Hy antwoordde en seyde, Sier, ick sie vier mannen los wandelende in't midden des vyers, ende daer en is geen verderf aen haer: Ende de gedaente des vierden is gelijck, eenes soons der Goden."

Let us quote, in conclusion, Martin Luther's version, which is identical with the last specimen:-" Er antwortete und sprach: Sehe ich doch vier Männer los im Feuer gehen, und sind unversehrt: und der vierte ist gleich als wäre er ein Sohn der Götter."

In both these instances the rendering is precisely what Mr. Noble would have it to be--"like unto a son of the gods." Let us trust, then, that all such passages will be properly rendered, especially when so many foreign versions present uniform features. H. W. ROBILLIARD.

Jersey.

Reviews.

MARRIAGE A DIVINE INSTITUTION AND A SPIRITUAL AND ENDURING UNION. By the Rev. W. BRUCE. Small 4to, pp. 118; and 18mo, Pp. 118.

THERE is no subject of greater importance than the one discussed in the elegant book before us. The condition of our social life shows on all hands the need of instruction and clear knowledge respecting it. Marriage is generally regarded from the side of its natural uses and social advantages. Rarely, indeed, is its deeper spiritual nature and uses recognised by those who enter