tion changes it into Shouphoo! Humboldt, according to our old friend, "Good Words" (Feb., 1867, p. 127), rolls both names into one, calls him Cheops-Chufu, and assigns to him the date of 3400 B.C., with about as much reason as usually regulates the chronology of our German Egyptologists. Perhaps, like his colleague, Bunsen, he "wanted time" for some purpose of his own. Very candidly, indeed, does Dr. Rowland Williams confess the chevalier's weakness in such matters. "He wanted time for the growth of Jacob's family into a people of two millions, and he felt bound to place Joseph under a native Pharaoh." ("Ess. and Rev.," p. 57.) So he brought Abraham into Egypt a thousand years too soon, and quietly extended the sojourn of the Israelites in that country to fourteen centuries, in spite of the express declaration of the Bible to the contrary.

In this way, and on equally good authority-the authority of sheer caprice-do these mystics adjust "Egypt's place in universal history."

Though the discovery of this wonderful key was regarded as the crowning glory of hieroglyphic literature, many of its symbols appear to have been understood long before, or at all events had had meanings assigned to them, which have been very little improved upon down to the days of Wilkinson and Bunsen. These conventional signs are various-figurative, symbolic, demonstrative, imitative, duplicative, pronominal, and "like some riddles," or resembling our heraldic rebuses; and most Egyptian inscriptions are interpreted by their aid, doubtful as it is, rather than by such as are purely phonetic.

Let us give a specimen of the chop-logic style in which these mixed inscriptions are made out. Here is a long scroll, written vertically, which our Egyptologists thus somewhat freely translate :—

"Hi! hi! Oxen! tread the corn faster!

The straw for yourselves, and the corn for your master!" Now, lest the uninitiated should suppose this song to have been read off fluently and satisfactorily, we will show the whole process by which this sublime result is arrived at.

The first character is assumed to be phonetic, and stands for H. It is followed by an expletive, or demonstrative, sign, representing a man with a stick, in the act of driving cattle; below which occurs the common sign of a fore arm, supposed to indicate action. The letters T N, said to mean ten, or

"you," twice repeated, the duplicative sign, and the figure of an ox, with the plural indication below it, conclude this first member of the stave. The same characters are then repeated, followed by three phonetic signs, or letters, T H 9, supposed to mean toh, or straw, below which is an imitative sign, and other figures usually read as the letters, R M S,* but to which no special meaning is here assigned by our interpreters. The picture of a man seated, a measure or vessel jetting out grains, or points, presumed to represent corn, and followed by the plural sign, come next in order. The letter A, with another plural sign, which, on no authority at all, is guessed to mean masters," and a repetition of the poor overworked ten-you-wind up this precious scroll. All, therefore, that the utmost ingenuity can make out is just this-H' you! you! H' you! you! oxen. H' you! you! H' you! you! straw, grains, men, you ("a" with plural sign), you.

66

Thus it will be seen that out of fifty-two characters, six only can be made out on the phonetic principle, the others being mere guess-work, with the very doubtful corroborationof a picture or two; or, what may be more scientifically described as representative or demonstrative signs.

One other reputed source of information regarding ancient Egypt remains to be considered-her written records or history proper. Rejecting the trustworthy and sensible narrative of Herodotus, our Egyptologists appear to pin all their faith to Manetho, or the old Egyptian Chronicle, probably because they give them a much longer chronology. Their genealogies are literally endless! The latter contains thirty dynasties in one hundred and thirteen descents, during the long period of thirty-six thousand five hundred and twenty-five years. The other begins with the reign of Hephæstus, comprising "seven hundred and twenty-fouryears and a half, and four days;" but squares matters by afterwards crowding seventy reigns into as many days!

If to all this we add that Manetho lived but a few centuries before the Christian era, and is only known to us through still later writers, who contradict each other, we should not have had any very great confidence in his means of informa

Let us suggest that the letters are R, M, P, for mpre, corn or grain. That one of the letters is doubtful, that they are transposed, and that they come in the wrong place, are matters of little note to a thorough Egyptologist.

tion, even had the internal evidence of his chronicle been more satisfactory than it is.

After a long and thoughtful study of these so-called sidelights of Revelation, we cannot but think that a kind of judicial imbecility has befallen those who venture to make use of them in "derogation and depravation" of the sacred oracles. They have turned away from the truth, and have been turned unto fables; and the caution of Rabshakeh seems in one sense, as needful to them as it was to Hezekiah, "Behold thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which, if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it." STET!

Biblical Criticism.

By-Rev. CHARLES WILLS, M.A.

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. EMENDATIVE RENDERINGS.

Chapter xxi. 1.-And when it came to pass that we sailed having withdrawn from them, we came with straight course to Cos, and the day after to Rhodes, and thence to Patara. 2. And finding a ship passing over to Phoenice, embarking, we sailed. 3. And sighting Cyprus, and leaving it behind on the left, we navigated to Syria, and sailed to Tyre; for there the ship was unlading the freight. 4. And finding out the disciples, we abode there seven days; who said to Paul by the Spirit, that he should not go on to Jerusalem. 5. And when it came to pass that we had fulfilled the days, going out we went, all with wives and children, setting us forward, until without the city; and bending our knees on the seashore, having prayed, 6. We withdrew from one another, and [we] entered the ship, but they [emphatic] returned home; 7. But we [empathic] having finished navigating, from Tyre reached to Ptolemais, and greeting the brethren we abode one day with them. 8. And on the morrow going out, we came to Cesarea; and going into the house of Philip the Gospeller, who was of the seven, we abode with

him. 9. Now this man had daughters, four maidens, prophesying: 10. And as we abode on many days, there came down from Judea a certain prophet, by name Agabus. 11. And coming to us and taking the girdle of Paul, having bound his own feet and hands, he said, This saith the Holy Ghost, The man [avdpa] whose is this girdle, thus in Jerusalem the Jews shall bind, and shall deliver into the hands of Gentiles. 12. When then we heard this, we [emphatic] as well as they of the place, besought [him] that he should not go up to Jerusalem. 13. And Paul answered, What do ye weeping and quite breaking my heart? for I [emphatic] am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. 14. And when he would not be persuaded, we were quiet, saying, The Lord's will be done. 15. And after those days, having made all ready, we went up to Jerusalem. 16. There came also some of the disciples from Cesarea with us, bringing Mnason, a certain Cypriot, an old disciple, with whom we might be guests. 17. And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. 18. And the next [day] Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders came thither. 19. And having greeted them, he set forth one by one what things God had done among the Gentiles by his ministry. 20. And they having heard, glorified God; and they said to him, Thou beholdest, brother, how many myriads there are among the Jews of them that have believed; and all are [vπapXovoi] ready zealots of the law. 21. And they were informed concerning thee, that thou teachest all the Jews among the heathen to stand off from Moses, telling them not to circumcise [their] children, nor walk according to the manners. 22. What then is to do? at all events the multitude must come together, for they will hear that thou art come. 23. This then do which we tell thee: there are with us four men [avdpes] having a vow on themselves: 24. These take to thee and purify thyself with them, and bear the cost for them, that they may shave their heads; and all will know that of what they have been informed of concerning thee nothing is [true], but thou

walkest also thyself keeping the law. 25. But concerning the Gentiles that have believed, we [emphatic] wrote, judging that they keep no such thing, except that they beware both of idol-sacrificed [flesh], and blood, and [what is] strangled and fornication.

Misapplied Texts.

By Rev. WM. WEBSTER, M.A., late Fellow of Queen's College,
Cambridge. Joint Editor of Webster and Wilkinson's
Greek Testament, &c., &c.

(No. I.)

"The simplicity that is in Christ.”—2 Cor. xi. 3.

ANY passages of Holy Scripture are perpetually quoted in a sense very different from that which the sacred writers intended they should have. We thus lose much of the instruction which we ought to derive from the holy men who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Some of these erroneous applications may be traced to the defects and inaccuracies of our authorised version; but many arise from the want of careful attention to the context, and from the unfortunate habit of being led by the sound, rather than the sense.

In 2 Cor. xi. 3, we have the expression, "the simplicity that is in Christ." These words have passed into a proverb. They are heard continually from the pulpit and the platform, in addresses to the throne of grace, alike in the great congregation and the social circle. I have never, however, heard any one attempt to give an explanation of the sense in which he used these words, and I fear that many would be sorely 'puzzled if we ventured to ask them, What mean ye by "the simplicity that is in Christ ?”

Many would interpret these words as an admonition to hold fast the truth as it is embodied in Jesus, in his person, his work, based on the historical facts of his incarnation, his obedience to the law, his cross and passion, his resurrection and ascension, his appearance before God for us as our repre