showed the kindliest interest in all around. He manifested the most delicate consideration for the comfort and feelings of others.

"On Sunday special prayer was offered for him in the Brixton Chapel, where he was wont to worship, and in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, where Mr. Spurgeon prayed for him as a beloved brother, and cried, "Lord, he whom Thou lovest is sick; make haste to help him,' and when I brought him the message of love and sympathy from Mr. Spurgeon, who bade him be of good cheer and sent him word that his own seasons of illness were times of deepest despondency, he seemed to be cheered and strengthened.

"The physician assured us that he was making daily progress. We trusted in the rallying power of his physical resources, and believed that his valuable life would be prolonged and preserved to advanced years. True, his nights brought him no rest, and at times his whole frame quivered with his struggles in breathing, yet no one thought him critically ill. But he himself could not be brought to say that he was better. Meanwhile his spirit was tender and trustful, and he was always ready for prayer and the Word. He would say, 'It is such a comfort!' "His expressions regarding himself and his work were characteristic of his habitual state of humility of mind and meekness of heart. He disclaimed all goodness in himself, and would say, 'I feel utterly unworthy, but my trust is in Christ.' The blood of Christ was a constantly recurring theme. A favourite niece said to him, 'Uncle, perhaps after this illness your health will be better than ever.' He answered, 'Yes, I have heard of persons being better than ever after a serious illness.' Then after a pause he added, 'But it may lead to an entrance into the better world, for which I am very unworthy. But I expect through the merits of Jesus Christ to enter in . . .' On Tuesday night, the 12th, he rested quite well, and on Wednesday morning the physician found him so much better that he did not think it necessary to make an afternoon call. But toward evening he became restless, got out of bed, and walked unaided to the chair in which he died. His swollen feet and limbs were a source of anxiety to him. Then came another severe attack, arising from failing heart power, and the sound of the Bridegroom's approach fell on his quick and watchful ear. As we gathered round him he called for prayer, and himself joined in supplicating grace and strength according to his need. He then said, 'You have gathered to see me die.' We all sought to cheer him with assurances that he would soon be better. I said, 'Never fear, dear Doctor. You wil have an abundant entrance into the kingdom.' His mind turning to death-bed triumplis, he replied, 'I do not ask that. Let me only have peace. My testimony is my life. The physician, who had arrived, sought to arouse the heart's activity. He was suffering from cardiac dyspnaca-difficulty of breathing from enfeebled heart action. Still no immediate danger was anticipated. Our eyes were holden. As he spoke of parting with his Canadian friend, he said, 'I shall be translated. When next we meet it will be above.' Still later the Rev. Marmaduke Osborn, his associate in the Mission-House, called and offered prayer-in which he most fervently joined. Still there were no apprehensions for his life. But after midnight he became rapidly worse, and the heart, that had always rallied before, refused to do its work. He asked feebly, 'Am I going, doctor?' The physician, with a sigh, answered, 'Yes.' Then his heart turned to the human in love and to the Divine in trust. His devoted wife, who had watched over him with unspeakable affection day and night through all his illness, with breaking heart asked, 'Have you a message for me, my darling?' and he said, 'I have loved you fondly; love Jesus, aud meet me in Heaven.' Morley was with them. She thought of the absent son, and said, And Percy?' 'Tell him to love Jesus and meet me in

heaven.' And yourself, how do you feel?' I feel that Jesus is a living reality; Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.' One heavenly smile, one rapt and upward glance, and the head dropped; there was silence, broken only by the sob of a widow, and William Morley Punshon was no more. His spirit had passed upward to the bosom of God. For him we need shed no tear or rend a garment in token of our grief. He has departed to be with Christ, which is far better.' Gone in the maturity and plenitude of his power, gone from his work and from us who loved him so well. In the full tide of his fame and usefulness, when he seemed to be needed most, the church has been bereft of its chief ornament. His sun has gone down in the splendour of high noon, and no words are more fitting and appropriate to his departure than his own eloquent reference to the sainted Alfred Cookman : He went home like a plumed warrior, for whom the everlasting doors were lifted, as he was stricken into victory in his prime; and he had nothing to do at the last but mount into the chariot of Israel and go "sweeping through the gates, washed in the blood of the Lamb."""-Methodist Recorder.

THE REVISED NEW TESTAMENT.

WE Confess it difficult to speak with moderation of the infatuation (for surely it is nothing less) which led the Revisers to interfere with the words in [the Lord's Prayer,] which are most familiar and most dear to every Christian heart. Four separate changes are made in these petitions, and in one only is there a change in the idea. That needs to be dealt with on entirely different grounds, and is capable of a defence, which certainly could not be urged for the others, while, at the same time, it is open to a still more severe attack. Looking at the other three first, what difference is there between the petition, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," and "Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth." There is no doubt a shade of distinction between "Forgive us our debts as we forgive," and "as we have forgiven our debtors," but was it worth while to disturb the text for it? So with the change from "Lead us not into temptation," to "Bring us not into temptation." In truth, none of these emendations were necessary, none are of any appreciable benefit, and consequently, we contend, none are justifiable. As to the final one, "Deliver us from the evil one," our objection to it is exceedingly strong. It is true that if the Greek Fathers have authority at all, it must be as to their own language, and that they interpret the words in the sense now given to them. But no one would deny that the sense is admissible; the question is whether it is the only one possible. Granted that the one view is as legitimate as the other, the Greek fathers were sure to prefer that which directly refers to the agency of the "evil one." But it does not follow that this ought to be decisive for us, especially now that the usage of centuries has established the other translation. We do not care to argue which is the most probable, for we hold that nothing but absolute certainty would justify such a change, and for absolute certainty we suppose the most strenuous defenders of the new version would hardly contend. We fully admit that they were bound to make it clear that all the best scholarship of the day was in favour of the rendering they had adopted, but would it not have been sufficient for their purpose to have retained the old reading in the text and given special prominence to the new one in the margin? The argument is so nicely balanced that we do not challenge the decision, however much we may regret it.

We regret the multiplication of small unmeaning alterations, because of the prejudice certain to be awakened, and of the unfair use to which the assailants of the New Testament are sure to turn. They will not care to tell the people unable to discriminate themselves how many of these changes are due to over-refinement

or pedantry, and how little they really mean. Sufficient for them to set forth the fact, and use it as an instrument of attack. The result may also be to discredit other alterations; which stand on a very different ground. Thus we have had objections already started to the adoption of the word "love" instead of charity in 1 Cor. xiii, and The Spectator, in its usual gushing style, tells us we "should never think of reading St. Paul's magnificent praise of the highest of all virtues with the translators' word 'love' substituted for the great word to which that passage has, it may be said, given birth." But the question is, whether the Apostle does really intend to celebrate the glory of what is called by a certain school "charity," or whether the quality which he thus exalts (whether rightly called "love" or not) is not something different in its essence from that tolerance of diversities of opinion which often comes perilously near to utter indifference. But in truth, the journalist throws up the sponge when he says, "Charity means one thing in the thirteenth of 1 Corinthians, and another thing in the rest of the language. The new translation tells us what would have been the newest word if that passage had not, as it were, given a new birth to an otherwise very inappropriate word." On such a principle it would have been impossible to make a faithful translation at all. It is, in truth, the exaltation of mere sentiment into a canon of criticism. Charity, as is confessed, does not express the idea of the Apostle, unless we ascribe to it a special meaning for the chapter, and that means that it does not convey the sense at all. There is an element of affectionateness, as well as self-forgetfulness, which enters into the Apostle's eulogy.-The Congregationalist.

SPEAK THE TRUTH.

FOR a schoolmaster, or one in authority, it seems specially hard to confess an error, and yet such a confession often raises him in the estimation of his subordinates, and binds him to them with stronger cords of affection and respect. I once read somewhere a very interesting narrative of such an experience by school and schoolmaster, illustrating this, and also the beauty and nobleness of character and truth.

Two boys were in a school-room together, when some fireworks were suddenly exploded. When the master questioned them, one boy at once denied it; the other, Bonnie Christie, would neither admit nor deny it, and without further questioning he was severely flogged. When the boys were alone again, he who had escaped said :

"Bonnie, why did you not deny it?"

"Because there were only we two in the room, and one of us must have lied." "Then why not say, 'I did it ?'"

"Because you said you did not, and I pity a liar, and will never tell of him." When school resumed, the boy marched up to the master's desk, and said: "Please, Sir, I can't bear to be a liar; I let off the crackers," and then burst into tears.

After a moment's pause the master, hand in hand with the culprit, before the whole school, walked down to where young Christie sat.

"Bonnie Christie lad," said the master, "he and I have come to beg your pardon; we were both to blame."

The school was so hushed they might have heard Bonnie's big boy tear-drops fall on his copy-book, as looking up with the tears on his cheek—such tears as the severest flogging would never have forced from his eyes-he gently said, "Master for ever," and the glorious shout of the scholars made the rafters ring, as the master's eyes grew dim with tears.-Sunlight and Shadow.

Brief Notices of Books.

Garden Graith; or, Talks among my Flowers. By SARAH F. SMILEY. Second Edition. Hodder & Stoughton. (Price 3s. 6d.)

NOTEWORTHY for its fine spiritual insight, and its great beauty and fervour of expression.

The Life and Times of Sir Walter Raleigh, Civilization. By CHARLES K. TRUE, D.D. leyan Conference Office. (Price 2s.)

Pioneer of Anglo-American
Sixteen Illustrations. Wes-

THE story of the brave, witty, adventurous, noble, yet unfortunate Sir Walter Raleigh is graphically told. Readers will get vivid glimpses of the stirring times of the Elizabethan period. A splendid book for boys.

Sermons to Students. By L. D. BEVAN, LL.B., D.D. R. D. Dickinson.

DR. BEVAN'S finished style and vigorous thinking are seen in this volume to great advantage. Some points that are seldom touched on are here dealt with in a masterly manner.

The Devil-Drink Family.—Father! Mother! and their Hundred and One Children. (Price 2d.)

"Who's Boss Here?" (Price 2d.)

Good News! Bad News! (Price 1d.)

THESE pamphlets are all by the Rev. P. B. Power, M.A., the author of the "Oiled Feather," and are published by Messrs. Hamilton & Co., and also by Messrs. Partridge & Co. Mr. Power's pen has lost none of its skill. His tracts can all be read with pleasure, and circulated with advantage.

The Coming Prince, the last Great Monarch of Christendom. By ROBERT ANDERSON, LL.D. Hodder and Stoughton. (Price 7s. 6d.)

SOBER, ingenious, able, learned, yet somehow the impression left in our mind, after studying this book, is unsatisfactory, the author having failed to convince us of the correctness of his views on some main points, and in others, we regard him as wholly mistaken.

The Prophet Jonah. By the REV. SAMUEL BURN, author of "A Humble Companion to the Pilgrim's Progress." Hodder and Stoughton. (Price 75. 6d.) THIS is an instructive volume, but as the style is not attractive, and as the thinking is not very original and powerful, we doubt the wisdom of publishing it, when several works on the subject might be named of much greater literary and theological power.

The Christian's Plea against Modern Unbelief. A Hand-book of Christian Evidence. By the REV. PROFESSOR R. A. REDFORD. Hodder and Stoughton. (Price 9s.)

THIS Hand-book probably covers more ground than any similar work ever before published. Its special value will be found in its comprehensiveness and completeness. The multiplication of these evidential works is quite a sign of the times. It is a proof of the existence of a wide-spread unbelief, differing in many respects from the scepticism of any previous time. The Christian apologist has yet to appear who will do for this age what Bishop Butler did so well for his. The attacks of infidelity have not only to be parried, but the war has to be carried into the enemies' camp.

THE

BIBLE CHRISTIAN MAGAZINE.

:0:

THE REVISED VERSION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

No. I. THOUGHTS SUGGESTED BY THE PREFACE.

'HE value of a book and the character of its author may frequently be conjectured with considerable accuracy from the Preface. The gay humour, and charming simplicity of Goldsmith, and the wit of Cervantes, are nowhere more conspicuous than in the Prefaces to their best productions. This rule applies, I think, with peculiar force to the Revised Version of the New Testament of 1881. A committee of twenty-four scholars of very high, if not of the highest order, undertook the revision with a full sense of the importance of the work, and a determination, by God's help, to do it honestly and well; they worked slowly and patiently, accounting toil and delay as nothing, if only accuracy might be assured; and now, after more than ten years' labour, they speak of their achievement with singular modesty, but with the evident satisfaction of having, to the best of their ability, "done what they could." Reckless orators may see in all this an opportunity for saying what they conceive to be something smart; but men of sober judgment will recognise in it a promise of good. We purpose examining the book with some minuteness, that we may be able to judge for ourselves how far this promise is likely to be realised. It will be a task of no small difficulty; we shall be puzzled, and pleased, and vexed in turns; for it is quite certain that every honest critic will frequently be disappointed, and sometimes pained. Perhaps, however, no two critics will exactly agree in the passages they disapprove; still less will they agree in the emendations they suggest. My conviction is, that the one opinion held

B