and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." However, now, as in

the days of old, whilst sin abounds in many quarters, in some grace doth much more abound. God is commissioning some of His called and chosen ones to bear witness to THE TRUTH, in the same manner as in olden times; namely, by means of diagrams sketched according to the teaching vouchsafed in His HOLY WORD.

We were led to dwell upon this important theme by the examination of two diagrams which came under our notice. One was designed by Mr. Rice Hopkins, and the other by Mr. George F. Trench, a nephew of the Archbishop of Dublin. We wish that it had been in our power to reproduce both those diagrams in our pages, so interesting and instructive do we consider them, but we regret to say that we find the reproduction impracticable. All we can do is to tell our readers that the former, which is entitled THE HEAVENS, furnishes a chart of every dispensation, from the old Creation to the NEW HEAVENS AND NEW EARTH. It has been lithographed in the form of a leaflet, and published by Donald Ross, 2, South Clerk Street, Edinburgh. The Earl of Carrick has enJarged it to four yards in length, and to upwards of a yard in width; he uses it for the purpose of instructive lectures. Those lectures have been greatly blessed to many of the higher classes of society. Some of those classes who have seldom or ever read the BOOK of books, have-since God's mysterious dispensations have been explained to them by the noble lecturer-began to study it with interest and profit. Others again to whom the Bible has been, in many parts, incomprehensible, do now find it— through the illustrations afforded by the lectures on the firstnamed diagram-by searching it diligently and prayerfully, the rich treasures which lay hid in the Sacred Volume. What we have said respecting Mr. Rice Hopkins' diagram may also be predicated of the one designed by Mr. George F. Trench. Though somewhat different in arrangement, it is the same in aim. To prepare and make ready the way of the Lord Jesus Christ, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at His second coming many may be found acceptable in His sight.

7 1 Cor. i. 18-31.

NOTE.

THE SPIRIT OF RABBINICAL JUDAISM.

THE Jewish Chronicle for Friday, the 16th of last month, contains an article, which is so suggestive of serious thought, and which so irresistibly takes us back to the Judaism in Jerusalem at our Saviour's first coming, that we think it our duty to reproduce that article in these our pages, that our readers may ponder over it in all seriousness, especially at this present time. We reprint the article without note or comment on our part.

A THREATENED EXCOMMUNICATION.

"Jerusalem is the city of excommunications, and the communities of the Perushim and Hassidim have acquired quite a notoriety for the zeal and ability with which they wield this weapon against any one who should have the misfortune to incur their displeasure. Only dare to look askance at any of the great rabbis there, holy men who say prayers by the yard, know all the fables and superstitions of the Sohar by heart, valiantly oppose all efforts for the promotion of education and find means to dispose of the communal income in a manner which shall benefit men of their stamp, while the mass, the real working classes, remain uncared for-only look askance at these great and pious rabbis, or dare to say that they are not exactly the shepherds to tend the flock, and you are sure to be struck by their thunderbolt. Being plaintiffs, judges, and witnesses in their own cause, the process is a very simple one. Three disciples of the wise of genuine Polish manufacture are always at hand. The formula of excommunication is ready, so it need only be proclaimed, and a mob, instigated by them and saturated with their own bigotry, will soon make the martyr feel the weight of the rabbinical wrath. The latest victim threatened with this thunderbolt is, as we learn from his columns, the editor of the Habazeleth, a Hebrew weekly journal published in the Holy City. The editor is a little too outspoken for these rabbis. He lifts up too high the veil shrouding in the dark some of the proceedings of these saints. He lets in too much light. One week he sings the praises of the Jaffa Agricultural School, and

advises parents to send their children there to learn some honest trade, and not to throw them upon the halukah. Another time he takes the rabbis to task for the partiality with which the halukah is distributed. A third time he allows a correspondent to show up the heartlessness of these leaders who manage to dispose in a mysterious manner of the bulk of the tax raised upon meat; and a fourth time some one ventures in his columns to hint at the desirability that a public account should be rendered of the manner in which certain trusts have been discharged. Of course these are unheard-of reforms. To cast suspicion upon a disciple of the wise, who has perhaps spent the whole day in bootless disputes on sacred topics in the Medrash and passed the night in holy vigils, is an unpardonable crime. So, we are told, the awful personage who is guilty of all these abominations, is threatened with excommunication, and mobs are instigated to menace him with personal outrages and with the destruction of his printing-press. Unfortunately, we here in England can afford him no protection. He must fight the battle for himself. He must be prepared to be a martyr to his convictions. Such has been the fate of all pioneers in a good cause. Persecution has been the lot of all reformers; and Jews, unfortunately, form no exception in this respect, and least of all Hassidim, notorious for their fierce hatred of all progress and the fanaticism with which they persecute all its advocates. But at the same time he may be assured of the sympathy of all those who have the real welfare of the Palestinian Jewish community at heart, who would like to see it raised in the scale of civilization, who would like to see it governed with enlightenment, truth and integrity, confusion to be replaced by order, cringing abjection to the so-called princes by self-help, honest labour at least placed on a par with idle lounging in the medrash, and an adequate portion of the sums received from the benevolent expended in the support of a good school for imparting to the young a sound secular education. After this we may fully expect to be excommunicated ourselves. But we sincerely trust, should such be the case, we shall survive the curses, even as many before us, befallen by a similar fate, have survived them. At all events we should have the comfort to know that we find ourselves in a very goodly company."

CORRESPONDENCE.

JOB xix. 25-27. AMOS ix. 12.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE HEBREW CHRISTIAN WITNESS AND PROPHETIC

INVESTIGATOR.

DEAR SIR,-I have had in consideration the passage in Job xix. 25-27. I hav been looking into the Commentary by Adam Clarke; he says there has been much controversy upon the words therein given as uttered by Job; but his own belief is, that when Job spake those words he was under inspiration, and spoke them prophetically.

I have by me a translation of the Old Testament into French by a very learned Jew S. Cahen, of Paris. He seems to think the words have no reference to the Redeemer, but to posterity which should arise from the dust and vindicate the honour and character of Job.

There is also another passage in the prophet Amos, ch. ix. 12: "That they may possess the remnant of Edom.

Boothroyd, a very good commentator, leaves out Edom, and instead, gives the words which we have in our New Testament, "That the residue of men might seek

after the Lord."

I should be very much obliged by the favour of your translation of the verses,
Ever yours sincerely,

J. BOWRON.

The passage in Job you ask about, according to our reading it, represents the patient, long-suffering patriarch, not only as having had a practical knowledge of the REDEEMER'S past mercies towards him, but that he had also a sure and certain hope of the resurrection from the dead. We render the twenty-fifth verse as

follows:

"But I have known my LIVING REDEEMER, and He shall at length abide upon earth." Job had evidently learnt much about that Redeemer from his grandfather Jacob. (Gen. xlviii. 15, 16. Compare this with our vol. for 1875, pp. 375-8.) As regards the twenty-sixth verse we think it better to furnish our note on it from our Annotated Hebrew Old Testament (see p. 209.)

"The difficulties which the student experiences, on reading the authorized version of this passage, are by no means trifling. Every one knows that the words printed in italics are not to be found in the original; the strictly literal rendering, according to the construction put upon the verse by our translators, would therefore run thus :

'And after my skin, destroy this,

Yet in my flesh shall I see God.'

"To say the least of it, it is hard to be understood.' The three words in italics, arbitrarily introduced,—though, worms, body,—make the passage by no means more intelligible.

"The erudite author of the marginal readings felt the difficulty, and therefore proposed another translation, which is :

'After I shall awake, though this body be destroyed,
Yet out of my flesh shall I see God.'

"By an effort of violent criticism, i might be translated my awaking; but it will require a mind of an extraordinary structure, to turn into though this body be destroyed.

"The difficulties seem to have originated with the misapprehension of the proper meaning of the verb here. Instead of translating it according to its primitive signification, namely, to surround, a foreign sense has been palmed upon it, viz., to destroy. Job no doubt meant to say thus::

"That is, with my bodily eyes.

"Thus the literal meaning demonstrates a connecting link between this verse and the preceding one. (See note in loco.) The authorized version and the marginal reading seem to lack that link. The Patriarch exclaims,—

'But I have known my LIVING Redeemer,
And He shall at length abide upon the earth.'

"But would you know when this at length is to take place? It will come to pass when the shaking of the dry bones shall take place, when bone to bone shall be joined, when sinews and flesh shall come upon them, and skin cover the same; that is, when the skeleton of my mutilated body shall be raised a glorified body. In other words :'And after my skin has returned, this shall be ;

And out of my flesh shall I see God.'

"(Compare notes on Ezekiel xxxvii. 6; on Isaiah xxv. 8, 9; xxvi. 19; lii. 8.) "The most ancient translators have evidently put this construction upon the verse under consideration. The Chaldee paraphrase runs thus :

ומן בתר דאתפה משכי תהא דא ומבסרי אחמי תוב אלהא :

'And after my skin is healed, this shall be ;

And out of my flesh shall I see the return of God.'

"E does not mean here inflated, as some suppose. "The Syriac version translates the word by the equivalent s which means surround, wind round. The Vulgate has the following version of the Patriarch's prophetic exclamation:

'Et rursum circumdabor pelle mea,

Et in carne mea videbo Deum meum.'

"Jerome evidently knew not what to do with the word, and therefore omitted it. He might have turned it to good account by translating it erit hoc.

"Good tried to make sense of the passage by prefixing a ton, and made an Arabic noun of the word. The correction may be ingenious, but it is far-fetched, and far from correct.

"Job's mind, like that of his grandsire's Jacob, evidently identified the REDEEMER with GOD,"

with pity,

The twenty-seventh verse we translate as follows: "Whom I shall see in my behalf; and mine eyes have already seen, though not [those of] a stranger. [For which] my reins in my bosom yearned vehemently." The import of this verse appears to us to be this: I, Job, not only believe that I shall see my REDEEMER-GOD at the Resurrection, but I maintain that, in a certain sense, I have already known my LIving Redeemer. Mine eyes have seen Him when no stranger's eyes beheld Him. I have moreover known Him by the consummate yearnings for Him which I felt within me.

The verb, construed here by the translators of the A. V. in the sense of to consume, has also the signification to desire vehemently—notwithstanding that all Lexicographers have missed it. The expression intimates that the person who craves for an attainment is willing to die, or end his days on earth, if he could but realize the attainment. Something like the phrase which has obtained the use amongst a certain class, "I am dying to see him.' It is in that sense that the verb should be translated in Psalm lxxxiv. 2 (Heb. version 3), "My soul longeth, yea, it vehemently yearns," not fainteth. It should be so rendered in Ps. cxix. 81, 82, and in Ps. cxliii. 7.

"

We are not surprised at M. Cahen's-like other Jewish annotators-objecting to the self-evident interpretation of this sublime apostrophe respecting the Redeemer of the World, and the experience of the redeemed. If Jewish paraphrasts accepted the legitimate construction they would have to own that THE REDEEMER and are convertible terms for the God of Israel. But since the Jewish national rejection of Jesus, Jewish exegets have laboured to deny the glorious fact.

As regards Amos ix. 12, there can be no doubt whatever that St. James (Acts xv. 17) quoted the genuine and original version of it, which was clearly the following: