medical term, meaning any kind of a perforation in the body (misprinted" to perforate" in the note in "The New Covenant"). The words rendered" perforation" and "needle," are medical terms used by no other writer than Luke, except Matthew in xix. 24, who employs perforation. Dr. Hobart in his "The Medical Language of St. Luke," traces these terms through the ancient medical writers, and shows their meaning to be" perforation" and "surgical needle." It would not be strictly accurate to render Luke in the same words as Mark. In the old recensions similar terms were in the three synoptists, that is, the common terms for "eye" and "needle," but the more ancient codices from which W. and H. make their recension, record Luke as using technical medical terms for "needle" and "eye," and Matthew for "eye," and they add a link to the chain of proof that the MSS. they use are genuine. Luke was a physician. When we find medical terms employed in an alleged MS. by him, describing an event that the other synoptists describe in other, non-medical words, we find an interesting confirmation of the authenticity of his record. It is the strongest kind of circumstantial evidence (1) to prove that the three evangelists heard the conversation reported, inasmuch as all give the substance of it, while Luke, the physician, gives a medical man's report, and (2) to prove that the oldest codices are genuine, inasmuch as they differ from the more modern in this unexpected particular, just where they should differ.2

Considering that Prof. Forbes is Professor of Greek, this is the most astonishing objection he makes to our version: "The Greek idiom is not followed.” How long since it was made proper in translation to transplant the idiom of a foreign language? To do so would be to render a translation almost or quite unintelligible to the ordinary reader. Suppose we try Prof. Forbes's theory. 1 Cor. xi. 13, "In yourselves judge you, decorous is it a woman uncovered to the God to pray?" or Matt. vi. 9, 10: "Father of us who in the heavens, hallowed

2 Dr. Hobart errs in saying that Luke alone uses the medical term for the eye in the needle. In the old Greek Testaments the three synoptists use the common word for hole, but in W. and H. Matthew and Luke both employ the medical term.

the name of thee: let come the kingdom of thee," etc. Here we have the Greek idiom, but what sort of English is it? Very much like "English as she is spoke." Such translating would compel one to render the German, Ich habe sie gestern gesehen, "I have you yesterday seen; or Wie befinden sie sich," How find you yourself?" It would be very literal, and would preserve the idiom, as Prof. Forbes desires, but such a translation would need to be translated. No doubt it is well for Prof. Forbes in his classes to teach his pupils to be exact and literal in translating, to accustom them to verbal accuracy, but only a merely technical grammarian would adopt such a method in translating a book, and even a first-class grammarian would be incapable of it. The rule adopted by all scholars, and illustrated in all good translations is to give the exact meaning of the original in the idiom of the language into which the version is rendered, and not in the idiom of the original. The retention of the Greek idiom in the Revised Version has been one of the principal faults brought against it by scholars. J. W. Hanson, D.D.

]To be concluded in the January Number.]

GENERAL REVIEW.

Are We Outgrowing Religion?

MANY of the religious journals are taking notice of the fact that even professed Christians and many nominal believers are absenting themselves from the place of public worship, and manifesting very little interest in the institutions of Religion. In the secular press, on the platform, and on the streets, this fact is also brought to our notice by a very different class, who, instead of regarding it as a calamity, consider it as an indication that the world has outgrown the Bible, and can dispense with the Gospel. To them the small and irregular attendance on religious worship is sure proof that Church service is felt to be unprofitable, and is becoming obsolete. Theological unrest, manifest in open protest, and in more quiet but not less sure drifting

away from old dogmas, is popularly supposed to be a forsaking of the very foundations of religion itself, a giving up of all hold upon spiritual realities.

But these are mistaken judgments. They are based on the unwarranted assumption that a temporary diversion from religious interests is a permanent revolt against them; that the abandonment of false notions which, in times of religious ignorance and bigotry, were foisted on the Christian Religion, is an abandonment of the Gospel itself. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Religion gains when anything that renders it harsh and unlovely, no matter how long it may have been associated with it, is abandoned and renounced. It is most efficient as it becomes most kindly and beautiful.

Temporary diversion from religious interests is no new thing, but in greater or less degree has been manifest not unfrequently in the past, and has sometimes occasioned great alarm. A variety of causes have accounted for it, both here and in other lands. A notable instance of this kind in the history of France was called out by the assumptions of a corrupt priesthood, seeking to stifle the voice of reason and to forbid its use in matters of religion. In consequence churches were deserted, God was declared, by act of legislation, to be unreal; the Sabbath was abolished, and the week was protracted to ten days, that business and labor might take the place of the seventh day rest and worship. But it was not long before nature in man revolted. The week came back. The Sabbath, used for a time for gatherings where songs were sung, and addresses made in praise of Reason, gradually became again the day of rest and worship.

At the close of the war for Independence, in this country, the churches of New England were well-nigh deserted, partly on accoun of the demoralization attendant on and following all war, but chiefly in consequence of a natural reaction against the horrors of Calvinism. But a protest rgainst error did not destroy the soul's longing for religious truth; and the Methodist movement was warmly seconded by hundreds who had revolted from the horrible decrees, while the planting of Universalism by Murray and Winchester enlisted the love and zeal of others.

Possibly the present indifference to religious interests, especially manifest in the total desertion of Christian churches by some, and the irregular attendance of many others, may be of the nature of a reaction against a mistaken claim that public worship is an end, rather than a means. It would not be surprising to know that the keen dis

cernment of this false claim had turned aside some whose judgment has correctly taught them that forms and professions amount to little or nothing when so administered and presented as to convey the thought that they are a finality in themselves.

It is probable, however, that while this may account for some instances of the neglect of public worship, we must look elsewhere for the more general reason. It is our opinion that secularism, using the word in its broadest sense, as including devotion to the things of this world only, in all their degrees of good and bad, accounts most largely for the present state of things. The things which are seen and can be handled are regarded by many as the only realities of the universe; and whether they are pleasure or gain, attainment in worldly knowledge, or the gratification of ambition in securing preferment among men, or whatever else may engage attention and effort for immediate use, profit or enjoyment, these are esteemed of more account than any of the instrumentalities of religion, or even than religion itself, which is regarded as but a speculation concerning the unknown.

The dritt and tendency of this at its best is to engross human thought and ambition in acquisitions of intellectual knowledge concerning the universe as merely a material organization, and the actors upon it as but creatures of a day, whose achievements will outlast themselves. At its worst, its tendencies are to sacrifice everything to personal ambitions for gain, place or pleasure. With these as the end, all means are justifiable in securing it. Hence as the shortest road to the end, the element of gambling is put into trade, trickery, deceit and corruption into politics, the immorality of a traffic is no bar to its prosecution, the claims of humanity are of no account as weighed against the enrichment of self.

But the man who cheats himself by this illusion, emptying his heart of the noblest motives, and stifling the grandest springs of action, must, even in the midst of his career, be conscious that he has provided for only a small fraction of himself; and as the number of kindred spirits animated by the same purpose increases around him, can contemplate with horror the public tendencies of such theories and efforts, alike in the body politic, as they dwarf statesmanship to mere political cunning, exchange patriotism to mere party strife for office, and annihilate principles for the sake of success; and in the narrower circles where he has placed his abode, fill all the paths to and from his home with pitfalls for entrapping his own children, invite licentiousness as an ally of intemperance, and at last render even posses

NEW SERIES. VOL. XXI.

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sions insecure, or, if they remain, powerless to ward off or even to mitigate the evils which mere secularism has invited and clothed with power to enslave and degrade us.

Concede, if we must, that the things which make their chief appeal to the spirit that dwells within us, the things of religious faith, duty, and hope, must come out of the catalogue of things that are known, seen, and can be handled; say, if we will, that the spirit itself cannot be thought of as at all different and distinct from the body which it inhabits, and that all our religious theories are therefore but speculations concerning the unseen, we must even then concede, if we are at all thoughtful and wise, that this intangible thing, these unseen forces, these speculative theories. develop the best manhood, making self subordinate to the good of others, secure the most reliable statesmanship, enrich the nation, build up the safest and happiest communities, and put the most joy and peace into our homes.

What a paradox is this! In the presence of such a force, luminous in all history, and especially conspicuous in the planting and establishment of American Nationality; unmistakably witnessed in the career of those who have made the earth better and more glad by their having lived on it; and appealing to our own hearts as able to work out for us the most perfect life, how can we do other than say with the great Apostle, that in spite of all seeming, "the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

To this conclusion we must come. There is no other possible to us if we are conscious of having anything within us that earthly gifts and attainments fail to satisfy. And this consciousness we cannot deny. Settle it in our minds if we may and must, that forces operating in the universe, and laws and principles manifest in material things, account for the order and harmony of the world around us, and are of themselves sufficient to denote the origin of all vegetable and animal life, yet we have thus done nothing towards stifling the soul's cry for the living God, and meeting those needs within us which are as real as bodily hunger and thirst. Call it superstition if we will, the opprobrious epithet does not destroy the fact that man cannot live by bread alone, but needs the Revelation of God and His message of love and tenderness.

In one of the most wonderful books recently published, “Natural Law in the Spiritual World, by Henry Drummond," - noticed in Contemporary Literature in this number is a suggestive chapter entitled Environment," in which it is shown by great force and