teaching of the Church in these words: "To doubt willfully any one article of faith, or to enter on the examination of any dogma with the intention of suspending belief until the conclusion of such examination, would be for a Catholic a deadly sin." The atmosphere of our free America has made this a difficulty, even for Catholics. An Englishman, writing for a Catholic periodical* his impressions of American Catholicism, mentions the independence of the American character as "prejudicial to Catholicity." "American notions" have to be set aside in Church matters. This the American "resents," and his "independence of mind has a tendency to force its way into a sphere where independence is inadmissible."

I cannot forbear to put over against this doctrine, which obstructs God's revelation, bars human progress, and seals up all truth, a few sentences by that Samson of the Reformation who broke loose from this bondage and freed the world, Martin Luther:

When Christ calls upon his people to beware of false prophets he recognizes not the right of the pope or the councils, but that of all Christians, to decide upon doctrine. . . . No one can command the soul unless he knows how to direct its way to heaven. This no man can do but God alone. Therefore in matters that concern the salvation of the soul nothing but the word of God is to be taught and received. . . . Every man believes as he believes at his own peril, and must see to it that his faith be right. For as little as another can descend into hell or ascend into heaven for me, so little can he believe or not believe for me. †

There have been some pitiable cases of submission to error where there was knowledge of the truth, because the authority of the Church permitted no alternative. What words could indicate more abject dependence than these: "The pope has no rival in his claims upon us. . . . If we give him up, to whom shall we go? Can I put my soul into the hands of our gracious sovereign, or of the Archbishop of Canterbury?" + This is not the utterance of an ignorant slave, but of the most brilliant mind of the Roman Catholic Church, John Henry Newman, Cardinal.

* "The Month," vol. xxxii, pp. 357-373.

+ Sprecher's "Groundwork of Lutheran Theology," 1879, pp. 87, 88.
"Answer to Gladstone," p. 52.

ART. VIII.-BIBLICAL HERMENEUTICS.

Biblical Hermeneutics.

A Treatise on the Interpretation of the Old and New Testaments. By MILTON S. TERRY, S. T. D. New York: Phillips & Hunt. Cincinnati Walden & Stowe. 1883.

THE position of the Bible in the history of the world is unique. It belongs to no one age. It is the property of no one nation. It is pre-eminently "The Book for all Times and for all Peoples." It has been translated into most of the languages of this many-tongued earth, and no sooner does it become known than it lays a spell on the people, attracting many readers, and completely changing the current of their thought and the character of their lives. This book never grows old. The most "advanced thought" never leaves it behind. It is as fully adapted to the people of the nineteenth century as to those who handled with reverence the papyrus or the parchment on which the first editions of its various parts were written. The study of its pages has given birth to thousands of volumes in the past. Many of those volumes are ranked among the choicest treasures of earth's literature to-day. The publication of Dr. Terry's work is convincing demonstration that the interest in the study of the book has not abated.

What is the secret of this lasting interest in this book? It contains some of the most ancient records of our race. No writer can treat on the early history of man without referring to its pages. Of all ancient documents its statements are the most reliable. On many of the things related we have no light from any other sources. As its narratives bring us into connection with the times and events chronicled by other historians, they are found to be accurate in the main, and where apparent discrepancies are presented, careful investigation and fuller information remove the discrepancy, or indicate that the statements of this book are more accurate than the histories with which they are compared. Modern discoveries have afforded convincing evidence of its singular accuracy on some points in which it had been supposed to be inaccurate. Where its statements are still called in question, as in the story of the creation, theories alone, not attested history, are placed in opposition to it, and most thoughtful students will admit that the

biblical narrative affords at least as rational an account of creation as any cosmogony yet presented for the acceptance of mankind, and one that in its details is at least as "thinkable" as any modern atheistic conception of creation.

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The position of the book in the literature of the world is not less peculiar. It contains the earliest specimens of many styles of composition. We have alluded to its history. Portions of that were written more than a thousand years before Herodotus, who was regarded by the Greeks as the father of history. The lyric poetry of the Hebrews was in its golden age nearly a thousand years before the birth of Horace. Deborah sang a model of a triumphal song full five hundred years before Sappho was born. The author of Ecclesiastes discussed the problem of evil five hundred years before Socrates in the Dialogues of Plato. The epithalamium of the Canticles, is nearly a thousand years older than Ovid's "Art of Love." The Book of Esther was a venerable fragment of biography, more strange than fiction, at least twelve hundred years old, at the dawn of the romantic literature of Europe. The Proverbs of Solomon are by eight hundred years more ancient than the treatises of Seneca."*

The antiquity of the book entitles it to a distinguished place in human literature. But this is not its chief claim to attention. Apart from its history and its literature, its treasures are inestimable. It touches on the most important interests of man. It professes to come to him from God, and to impart to him light on subjects which he admits to be of the greatest moment to him-subjects which he cannot keep from his thoughts, which are necessarily related to his nature. It tells him about God, his own spiritual nature, of life beyond the grave, and of a future judgment. It tells him of sin-its nature and terrible consequences; and unfolds to him the method of salvation, offering its teachings as a guide to peace of conscience and everlasting happiness. It comes as a code of morals, setting forth what God requires, and demanding man's obedience its very claims force it into notice. No man can afford to neglect such a book: it challenges attention. Hence in every age it has engaged the thought of men, and drawn out some of the most gifted minds in the study

*Phelps, "Men and Books."

of its pages. At the present day the interest in the study of these Scriptures is greatly quickened. The character and claims of the Book are investigated with a clearness and a wealth of scholarship never previously brought to bear on any other book. This is not a sign of lessened respect for its teachings, or of diminished confidence in its authority. On the contrary, the searching examinations to which these records are subjected attest in the strongest manner that men feel that the contents of the book supply some reasonable basis for the claims put forth on behalf of its divine origin, and make it their duty and interest to do all they can to ascertain and understand what is the foundation on which these claims rest. Hence men desire to possess the very words of the authors of the several portions of this wondrous book. The study of the sacred text has developed into a science. Borne on by a noble enthusiasm, specialists in this department of sacred literature have sought for early manuscripts of the Scriptures as men hunt for concealed treasures. The story of their adventures while in pursuit of the object of their quest has, not inaptly, been called "the romance of the manuscripts." As the result of their persistent toil in ferreting out ancient copies of the sacred books, scanning with care those manuscripts when found, comparing the various readings presented, weighing the evidence on which each reading rests, as cautiously as the merchant weighs the finest gold, and selecting that which comes forth from the testing furnace most approved, the labors of such men as Mill, Bentley, Bengel, Wetstein, Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Scrivener, Westcott and Hort, have, in all probability, secured for the present age, a text nearer to the very words written by the inspired penmen than it has been permitted any age of the Church from the days of the apostles to possess.

The importance attached to these labors is evinced by the interest excited by the publication of the Revised Version of the New Testament. The demand for that work was unprecedented. The execution of the work has been severely criticised. Some of those criticisms are undoubtedly deserved. This is but to admit that the work is not perfect. When all reasonable deductions for these blemishes have been made, the work of the revisers stands forth as a noble contribution to

biblical science. The most prejudiced of intelligent biblical scholars, if asked by one whose limited education confines him to a translation into the English language, in what book he would find the most correct representation of the original text of the Testament, could scarcely hesitate to reply, "Read the Revised Version." The debt of students of the Bible to the men who have devoted their time and energies to the study of textual criticism is incalculable.

Having obtained a correct text, the next thing to be sought for is to ascertain the correct meaning of that text. This, and nothing but this, is the word of God. We may have the very words in which the oracle was uttered, yet those words may prove not merely useless but even misleading, unless they are correctly interpreted. It is essential to a correct understanding that the precise meaning of the words be known. Hence the importance of a suitable lexicon. We have several lexicons of the Hebrew language, and not a few devoted specially to New Testament Greek. It is in this department that the student of Scripture encounters one of his most serious difficulties. Christianity as a new revelation created a vocabulary peculiarly its own. Its heralds introduced some new words. But, for the most part; they employed words already in use, imparting to them a new, richer, fuller meaning, ennobling the words by their adoption into the language of the kingdom. The compiler of such a lexicon as is needed must give full attention to what has been happily designated "the language-molding power of Christianity." Perhaps it would not be going too far to say, that the greatest desideratum to the student of the New Testament at the present time is a really good lexicon of New Testament Greek. The biblical scholar who will furnish such a work will confer a lasting benefit on many, and one that will encourage not a few to study the Greek text with more persistent earnestness.

The grammatical peculiarities of New Testament Greek are not few. The very genesis of the dialect, and the circumstances of the authors, necessitated this. A knowledge of those peculiarities will be a great help to the interpreter of the sacred text. In this department, if we are not yet furnished with all that we could desire, we have very valuable help in

grammars of Winer and Buttmann, especially as they have