guidance of a false theory, they subject the word of God, rather than receive its simple and indubitable teachings.

"And also of them will I take for priests, for Levites, saith Jehovah," v. 21. That priests and Levites are to serve at the temple during the reign of the Messiah, is taught also in other passages. "Ye shall be named the priests of Jehovah: men shall call you the ministers of our God,” chap. lxi. 6. "For thus saith Jehovah, David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel; neither shall the priests, the Levites, want a man before me to offer burnt-offerings, and to kindle meat-offerings, and to sacrifice continually," Jeremiah xxxiii. 17, 18.

33. Comparison: "For as the new heavens and the new earth which I create stand before me, saith Jehovah, so your name and your seed shall stand," v. 22. The seed which is here compared to the new heavens and the new earth are the children of Israel, of whom the priests and other descendants of Levi are a tribe; and the relation in which they are compared, is their perpetuity. As the new heavens and new earth which Jehovah is to create when in the person of the Messiah he assumes the sceptre of the world, and recalls his ancient people to their land, are to remain for ever, so that people are to remain for ever in that relation to him in which they are placed by his covenant with their great ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And this shows, like the prediction, chapter lxv. 17-24, Ezekiel xxxvii. 24-28, and many others, that they are to continue in a corporeal life in an endless series of generations. The redemption to be accomplished of, that race at Christ's coming, is to be an eternal one. In the revolt that is to follow the release of Satan after the close of the period denoted by the thousand years, they are to take no share. It is to be confined, the prediction, Rev. xx. 7-9, represents, to Gog and Magog, the nations of the north. That the earth new created is to be the scene of Christ's eternal reign over the race wholly freed at length from the sway and blight of sin, is taught in many other passages of the Scriptures, Psalm lxxii. 5-17; Rev. xxi. 1-4, xxii. 1–5; Jeremiah xxxi. 31-40.

"And it shall come to pass that from new moon to new moon, and from sabbath to sabbath, all flesh shall come to

bow themselves before me, saith Jehovah," vs. 23. The reason that nations are thus to go to Jerusalem, is that the Messiah is to reign and reveal himself there, and make known his will to those who worship him, as is expressly shown in the parallel prediction, chapter ii. 2-3. "It shall come to pass in the last days, the mountain of the Lord's honse shall be established in the top of the mountain, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say: Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." There is a like prediction also, Zech. xiv. 16-17: “And it shall be that every one who is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to year to worship the king, Jehovah of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the king, Jehovah of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain." The survivors of the host that had gone against Jerusalem to battle are to go there to worship once every year; all other individuals, instead of annually, are to go at least once. No predictions can be more clear and unequivocal than these. They cannot be set aside by any process of spiritualization. And they are in harmony with the doctrine taught most specifically and conspicuously throughout the divine word, that the Messiah is to reign there and reveal himself in his glory to his people. Enthroned there in his majesty, manifesting himself to those whom he has redeemed, and making fresh communications to them of his will, it would be unnatural and inexplicable if the ransomed of other nations were not allowed and required, as well as the Israelites, to present themselves in his presence, and receive tokens of his acceptance and love. It may be on those occasions, that such as are prepared for the transformation will be changed from mortal to immortal. 1 Cor. xv. 52, 53.

"And they shall go forth and gaze upon the carcasses of the men who revolted from me, for their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched; and they shall be a

horror to all flesh," vs. 24. They who are thus to go forth and gaze, are they of the nations who are to go to Jerusalem to worship the king, Jehovah of hosts. The carcasses on which they are to gaze, are those of the hosts Christ is to destroy in Idumea at the time of the deliverance of Jerusalem, chap. xxxiv. 9-10, by fiery eruptions, by which the streams shall be turned into pitch, and the dust into brimstone, and the land shall become burning pitch: it shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke therefore shall go up for ever; from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever." On those flaming fields the carcasses of those who perished are to remain unconsumed; monuments at once of their guilt and of God's justice, designed to strike the hearts of beholders with a vivid sense of the evil of sin; impress them with humbleness, and fill them with gratitude for the grace that, instead of such a doom, has restored them to holiness, and exalted them to a glorious and immortal life in Christ's kingdom.

The prophecy thus terminates, like the Apocalypse, with the second coming and commencing reign of the Messiah in his glory, as the King of kings, and Lord of lords, the new creation of the heavens and the earth, the judgment of his enemies, and the subjection of all the nations to his sceptre.

ART. IV.-SUGGESTIONS RESPECTING THE MEANING OF öws äv in Acts iii. 19. By Rev. H. Carleton.

THE phrase, ὅπως ἄν ἔλθωσι καιροί αναψύξεως, rendered in the common English version of the Bible, "when the times of refreshing shall come," is rendered by many eminent critics "so that the times of refreshing may come." As particularly eminent among this class of interpreters, the writer would refer to Bloomfield, Tittmann, Tertullian, Heinsius, Lightfoot, De Dieu, Raphelius, Doddridge, Dr. A. Clark, Scott, and Olshausen.

The opinion of modern scholars, especially when those

most eminent agree in giving the same rendering to a pas sage of Scripture, has great influence with ministers and laymen, so that they think themselves warranted, on such authority, to set aside that version of the Scriptures, by which alone the word of God is communicated to the many millions of people who speak the English language. This fact might seem to be of such fearful consequence that it would beget distrust and doubt respecting the truthfulness, not only of the common translation, but of any translation which ordinary scholars may make for themselves, did we not know that diversity of opinion can never destroy the inimitable perspicuity of the sacred Scriptures-that no scholar would willingly disgrace himself by such a translation as would be extensively different from the many that have already been made;-that discussion is mainly limited to a few passages, and those for the most part not materially requisite to the confirmation of an essential element of the Christian faith. And yet no one can for a moment doubt that so much of sacredness attaches itself to the translation of the Bible approved by the entire English Church of Great Britain and America, as will, with reflecting and modest Christians, restrain a wanton or thoughtless criticism.

As it is proposed in this article to offer some reasons for retaining the rendering of ws av given in the English version, it may be thought some apology should be made for the seeming presumption in an attempt to prove that the eminent men named above, have made a blunder in being too positive respecting a question of grammar; and yet it will be maintained that the English Bible carries with itself some weight of authority in consideration of the eminent abilities of the translators. To this it may be objected that men engaged in making a translation of the word of God entire could not be expected to devote so much attention to all difficult passages, that their opinion would be equally authoritative with that of distinguished scholars agreeing in the version of a verse or phrase to which their attention has been particularly called, and which they have examined at their leisure, enjoying the benefit of the criticisms of others. It may be further objected that since the days of King James, great improvements have been made in the science of grammar, on account of which the scholars of the

present day enjoy peculiar facilities for accurately solving philological difficulties. The first objection is certainly important: but yet it should not be forgotten that the common English version was made by men who enjoyed many advantages derived from previous translations and discussions respecting difficult passages, of which the phrase under consideration is one, at a time when religious themes constituted the topics of great and universal interest.

But in respect to the claim, that modern scholars enjoy superior advantages over those who lived in the latter part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth and James I., while it is freely admitted that this claim, in respect to some things, is well made, yet in other respects, scholars of the former age had advantages over those of the present day. Grammars and improved lexicons are important helps in the study of language, but should not be regarded as an absolute necessity to a true scholar nor relied upon as unerring guides, and it is worthy of serious inquiry whether there is not a tendency to rely so much upon elementary books that scholars fail to exercise an independent and extensive examination of authors which is essential to high attainments. Every successful linguist must have a grammar and lexicon of his own, made from his private reading and observation of usage.

At the time when the common version of the Scriptures was made, literature was cultivated to a very great extent: Greek scholars were familiar with most Grecian authors. The refined literary taste of the age secured a purity of diction and accurate discrimination, which have made that period the golden age of pure English literature. Such refined taste and culture in the vernacular must have qualified scholars for the study of the endless resources of the Greek language. If we have more scientific grammars, they had more independent and self-reliant grammarians. We refer to Kuhner and Buttman: they referred to Plato and Demosthenes. We trust to Passow, Schleusner, and Wahl, and Bretschneider, on questions of usage: they were able, from their extensive reading and well-trained memory, to produce to their own minds, the facts contained in the language. And it is deemed proper to say that relying upon positive statements made by able scholars, many errors have been