unwarrantable. The very extravagance of the exaggeration adapts it all the better to the prophet's purpose. They might multiply their services to the most unheard of and impossible extent; they might bring their tithes not merely every three years, as the law enjoined, but every three days, and it would do them no good.

In the beautiful description of the heavens, as testifying to God's glory, in Ps. xix, the third verse reads, in our version, "There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard;" as though its universality was the thought insisted upon. Wherever any human speech is found, that is, to all mankind, this voice of the heavens addresses itself. But the italic word, "where," which gives this turn to the thought, has nothing corresponding to it in the original. The true translation is "There is no speech, nor language; their voice is not heard," that is to say, the utterance of God's praise by the skies is not in words; it is voiceless and silent. Its universality is not affirmed until the next verse, "Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world."

In Ps. lxxvii: 13, who is so great a God as our God?-so and our are both in italic, and both weaken the effect. It should read, "Who is a great God like God?" To compare the deities that others serve with our God, and admit that they are great, but not so great as he, does not present them in such decided and glaring contrast as it does to deny at once their greatness and their deity, and to set them over against him who is not merely our God, but God-God, absolutely and exclusively, the only being who can properly be so called.

Ps. civ. speaks of the copious rains, with which God watereth the hills from his chambers, causing grass and herb to grow, and adds verse 16, "The trees of the Lord are full," have drank their fill, that is, from these abundant showers. It is both needless and a belittling limitation of the meaning to add the italic words found in our version, "The trees of the Lord are full of sap."

Ps.

And to add but one more illustration of this point. lxviii: 19, reads, in the common English version, “ Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.” The words, "with benefits," are in italic, and there is no suggestion of the sort in the original. The

load referred to is not from God, but from man, and instead of consisting of benefits, is the burden of oppression. The correct rendering is, "Blessed be the Lord day by day; whoever lays a load upon us God is our salvation;" that is to say, whatever be our burdens he will rescue us.

Art. III. JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION.
BY THOMAS H. SKINNER, D.D., Cincinnati, Ohio.

HUMANLY judging, it was a superhuman undertaking for a few Jews, poor fishermen of Galilee, and Saul of Tarsus, a disinherited son and recent convert, to establish the name and Gospel of Jesus Christ in the chief cities of the Roman empire, and so to establish them as to secure their eventual triumph throughout the whole world.

Here was a new thing upon the earth. There had been nothing like it in all previous history. There has been nothing like it in all subsequent history. No mind could deduce the idea of the actual person and work of Christ from the Old Testament Scriptures, or from anything else. Those who took these Scriptures as the basis of their Messianic expectations, formed a totally different conception both of his person and his mission. Some time after his appearance in the world, there was found to be a marvelous congruity between the Old Testament statements and the living Christ of Galilee. The promises that ran through the Bible, of a Seed that should bruise the head of the serpent; of one in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed; of a prophet, like unto, but superior to, Moses; of a king, in comparison with whom David and Solomon 'were as nothing; of a priest, before whom Melchisedec and Aaron would pale-a priest upon a throne; of a Messiah who should be despised and rejected of his people, and suffer and die as an atoning sacrifice-all this became clear and vivid. But so intermingled and seemingly conflicting were these descriptions, that no Jew, no Gentile, ever had a

just conception of the actual, veritable Christ in his mind. before his advent, and no god or goddess, no priest, no king, no hero, no teacher, no martyr, no mortal, was ever heard of that bore resemblance to him. And since his disappearance from the world, all the "false christs" that arose in Judea, all reformers, and propagators of new religions, such as Mahomet, Swedenborg, Irving, all, of whatever country, name, or pretensions, have been so utterly unlike Jesus Christ as never rightfully to be named in comparison with him. He stands solitary and alone, alike in human history and in human mythology. He was an humble and obscure man, who wrought at the bench of a carpenter till he was thirty years of age, when he became a public teacher and reformer; proclaiming the highest morality ever taught on the earth; enforcing with utmost sanctions and personal example, supreme love to God, and a love to man like that to oneself; a love to the poor and neglected, to enemies and persecutors; honesty, integrity, and universal righteousness; courtesy, contentment, and chastity-all welling up from the secret life of the soul, from a new heart and a holy spirit. He inculcated a nobility, generosity, and magnanimity of character before unheard of, to be evinced in self-denials, self-sacrifices, and consecration to the good of others. And with all his personal humility and unearthly teaching, he boldly and persistently claimed to be the only Son and equal of the Eternal God-omniscient, omnipresent, and almighty-profoundly intimate, yea, one with the Father. He announced himself a King, the King of kings and Lord of lords, possessing all power, rule, and authority in heaven and on earth. The mightiest and proudest monarch and conquerer never dreamed of royalty so supreme, of dominion so vast and enduring. This strange, unique, before unconceived and inconceivable Person, spent three years in his ministry; a ministry filled with words and deeds of surpassing love, a love as incomprehensible as were either his person or his claims. By his strange and unhuman life he brought upon himself the enmity of the priests and rulers and chief men of his people, which culminated in his arrest and trial before Pontius Pilate, followed by an ignominious death, and his burial in the sepulchre of Joseph, of Arimathea.

Such a life, closed by such a death, was utterly unanticipated,

and in itself is a dark and insoluble enigma. He had proved himself possessed of ample power to prevent his execution and death, but he did not use it. He, calmly, for reasons all commanding to himself, chose to suffer, to agonise, to die. As he said, "No man taketh my life from me. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again."

Now, according to the Scriptures, this enigmatical life and voluntary death of Christ are of the very essence of Christianity; and yet, peculiar and marvelous as were that life and that death, had the career of Christ closed with his burial, there could have been no intelligible Old Testament, no New Testament, no Church, no Christendom, no hope of heaven, no fear of hell. His name would speedily have perished from among men. A dead Christ could not make a living religion. A crucified Christ, moldering in the tomb, never could have moved and shaken to its centre and revolutionized the Roman empire, and on the ruins of its idolatry and pagan civilization built up historic Christendom. A dead Christ could awaken neither faith, nor hope, nor zeal, nor sacrifice in his cause. Nothing but disappointment, dismay, and despair on the part of his friends, would follow his final destruction. His death would be a death-blow to any religion he might have pro

claimed in his life.

Thus we reach the one conclusive, all-interpreting, allpowerful fact, that Jesus, crucified, dead, and buried, rose from the dead. He came out of the tomb a living, immortal man. A more stupendous, transcendent event cannot be conceived, and it is impossible to exaggerate its importance. The religion, civilization, and progress of Europe and America are founded upon it. It is an event which throws back its radiance upon the death, life, and birth of Christ, upon all the Old Testament types and prophecies and promises; an event which created the New Testament, and gave vitality to Christian morality and faith and hope; an event which is more and more changing the face of the world, and is destined to purify and bless the earth with peace, righteousness, and all prosperity, and to crown the race with everlasting honor and glory.

This event formed the staple and substance of apostolic disIt was specifically for their testimony to this fact, that the apostles were selected and trained. "Him God raised

course.

up on the third day, and shewed him openly; not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen of God, even to us.' When Judas had hanged himself, Peter declared that "one must be chosen and ordained in his stead, to be a witness with us of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus." The prominence thus given to this event was well and wisely ordered. The condition of the world was such, that, in laying the foundations of Christianity, it became absolutely necessary to insist upon-and establish this as a regnant, outstanding, incontestible fact. It could not be treated as a subordinate and secondary matter.

In later years other truths have been brought to the forefront. In the fourth century the Trinity and the Person of Christ were regarded as of preeminent importance, and absorbed the mind of the church. In the sixth and seventh centuries, the fall of man in Adam, and his spiritual condition in consequence, were the chief topics of thought, writing, and discussion. In the sixteenth century, justification by faith alone, without works, loomed up into singular grandeur and power. Again, in the revolving circle of time, "Jesus and the Resurrection" is emerging into a position of first importance and significance.

There is abroad in the world a vast amount of thought and speculation, whose tendencies and statements are such as to unsettle the Christian faith by unsettling and upheaving its deepest foundations. It is intrenched in the broad and noble domain of science, and is put forth, enforced, and illustrated by minds of unusual power and culture. It has penetrated and impressed large sections of society through books and lectures, magazines and tracts, and newspapers and conversations. In its spirit and tone it is exceedingly dogmatic and confident, often contemptuous and flippant. Its pretensions are enorIt aims at nothing less than the overthrow and annihilation of the venerable fabric of Christianity, and to place itself on the very throne of the universe.

mous.

Unquestionably, the most effective answer to all this would be found in the consistency, beneficence, and blessedness of the lives of professing Christians. Where rare and precious fruits abound, the tree is accounted worthy and vigorous. "So is the will of God, that with well-doing we put to silence † Acts i: 22.

Acts x: 41.