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in the Bible. The truth is, the lexicon is only a work of convenience, presenting the meaning of the word to the eye of the student at once, without putting him to the necessity of ascertaining the usage, and thereby evoking its true meaning.

When the student has advanced so as to be able to read, it may be only imperfectly, he should continue this reading exercise, both with and without the aid of the teacher. He should do it thoroughly and constantly. Every word should be fully investigated and understood. The excellent lexicon of Robinson of the New Testament Greek, and that of Gesenius of the Old Testament Hebrew, should be used. Any of the Greek grammars in common use will enable the student to solve all the forms found in the Greek Testament, and Nordheimer, Gesenius, or Green's Hebrew grammar, will answer for the Hebrew.

Constant reading or repetition must now be resorted to. It is a question among teachers which is the better plan: whether a specified number of verses daily, with repetition of the lessons of the preceding day, and a review at the end of the week, or whether the student's constant advance, say a part of a chapter each day, would not be better. We incline to the latter plan. Let the student advance along carefully, as his time will permit, till he has read fifteen or twenty chapters in Genesis. Then let him covenant with himself to read an entire chapter each day, making a clavis of every difficult word, writing it down in a blank book with its meaning. Let him mind to read aloud as he proceeds, and he will soon be surprised at the progress he makes, and at the mastery he attains over the forms of the language. Let him proceed thus through the historical books, then the poetical, then the pro phetic, till all are finished.

We would recommend substantially the same course with the Greek. Let the Gospels be read first, in course or in harmony, then the Acts, then the Epistles and the Apocalypse. All the original Scriptures should thus be read before the student leaves the institution to enter fully upon the work of the ministry. The constant interruptions of the pastoral work will be likely greatly to interfere, especially with the study of Greek and Hebrew. The entire Scriptures should

be carefully read, therefore, before the student finishes his

course.

Such habits and such an amount of reading will give the student such a command of these languages that he will afterward go on easily. The new views of difficult passages which arise will constantly stimulate him and attract him to his Hebrew Bible and Greek Testament. They will not stand in his book-case gathering dust from week to week, and from month to month. They will be his intellectual meat and drink, and will be constantly under his hand. Instead of going to commentaries, such a biblical student will go directly to his Hebrew Bible or his Greek Testament to solve any difficult passage, or to determine the meaning of his text. Commentaries, in fact, will be pretty much ignored by him. Instead of bowing down to them, he will be their conscious master. The Bible itself will be his interpreter. He will be often surprised and delighted with the fact, plainly discovered, that the Book of God is its own best interpreter. The interdependence of the old covenant and the new will more and more appear. He will not need to read any treatise to convince him that the Bible is inspired: his daily reading of the divine word will convince him of this. And inspired he will see it to be in the highest sense, not in its thoughts only, but also in its words; and he will further see that any man denying the verbal or plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, must be set down as a superficial student therein.

It does not materially militate with this doctrine of plenary inspiration, that many errors have crept into the sacred text in the course of so many transcriptions and of so many ages. It has been well said that not a single doctrine, nor a single precept of Holy Scripture has been obscured thereby. But why should such a fact disturb the doctrine of inspiration? What is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord? Where there is so much pure wheat, why trouble ourselves about a few grains of chaff? Said the pious Bengel, "What if now and then a grain of this millstone fall into the meal? an influence so slightly vitiating is of no practical account."

87. FURTHER ADVANTAGES OF THE STUDY OF THE SACRED LANGUAGES.

The great advantage gained to the preacher by a thorough knowledge of the original Scriptures, already stated and illustrated, is the moral and intellectual power it gives to him as an advocate and defender of divine truth. It remains for us to state, by way of support of this general advantage, a few others more specific.

And first, such an attainment enables its possessor to cope with learned objectors as well as pretenders to learning, and especially with learned Jews. Jerome, in his letter to Sophronius, says, “A Jew, when disputing with you, and wishing to elude the arguments which you adduce, will affirm as often as you quote any passage of the Old Testament,' It is not so in Hebrew.'" (See Jahn on the "Study of the Oriental Languages," p. 1.) The mouth of the preacher is then sealed; whereas he ought to be able to say, "Sir, let us look at the Hebrew." The objector is then confused, if not convinced; at least you have secured his respect, and if you do not become the means of saving a sinner from the error of his ways, you will at least shut up his mouth.

as now.

Another advantage is, that we cannot always trust the English version, nor indeed any other version, for they all have their faults. The translations are not inspired. They all partake of human weakness. Besides, our version is more than three hundred years old. Passages which were dark then, or at the time it was made, are understood now. Neither the Hebrew nor Greek were so well understood then Oriental customs and idioms are at the present time better known. All that relates to Bible lands has undergone renewed investigation within the last forty years, and new light has everywhere been thrown upon the divine word. These facts could be illustrated and proved by a thousand passages. A skillful hand going through our English Bible, simply correcting its errors and clearing its dark passages, would make a most interesting and profitable work. In order to make such corrections and to understand the criticisms on which they are founded, a knowledge of the original becomes necessary. It thus becomes needful that a minister who would measure

up to the fullness of his responsibility, should become conversant with the sacred languages. He is liable every day to meet with men and opinions, which, unanswered, shake the very foundations of revelation, and thus God's word, and religion itself and its ministers, fall into contempt.

Finally, Christian ministers themselves, unless they carefully study their texts in the original, are likely to go astray. For example, we once heard a minister undertake to discourse upon Exodus ii, 2, "Let every man borrow of his neighbor," etc., and "let every woman borrow of her neighbor jewels of silver, and jewels of gold," etc. He soon found himself in difficulty on the word "borrow." And the longer he dwelt upon it the more dark and difficult the passage appeared, and his audience was finally relieved by a frank acknowledgment that he did not understand the text. If he had consulted his Hebrew Bible, he would have seen at once that the root, rendered borrow, means simply to ask. Hence the simple meaning is, that the Hebrews asked of the Egyptians, as a gift, their jewels of silver, etc. Hence they were under no obligation to return them. Again, a minister many years ago preached and published a sermon on Romans vi, 17: “But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin." The object of the sermon was to show that God was to be thanked for sin! A simple inspection of the structure of the passage in the original would have revealed the true meaning, namely: that though the Roman Christians were formerly servants of sin, God was to be thanked that now they were obedient to the Gospel.

Öthers of the old divines often fell into such errors, especially when they attempted to quote proof-texts, often quoting passages entirely irrelevant to the point in hand. So it must be with every minister who cannot or will not see with his own eyes, when called upon to sustain from Scripture any Christian doctrine. We reserve the consideration of some objections for another number.

ART. IV. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.

Twoice-told Tales. 1837. The Snow Image and Other Twice-told Tales. Mosses from an Old Manse. The Scarlet Letter, A Romance. 1850. The Blithedale Romance. The House of the Seven Gables, A Romance, The Marble Faun, A Romance of Monte Bene Porta. Ticknor & Fields: 1864.

WE began our existence, as a distinct people, but little more than two centuries ago, when a few men and women, with decided partiality for their own ways and opinions, landed on the shores of what is now New England. All American history, poetry, and romance, are crowded into the brief period of two hundred years. The Indians were dwellers on the same soil which we now possess, yet their legends are those of a foreign people. The history and literature of England, both before and since the setting westward of the great American current, belong to another nation than ourselves, notwithstanding a reputable newspaper recently laid claim. to Shakspeare as an American writer, because he flourished before the separation of the colonies from the mother country. Two centuries are a brief period for the rise and progress of a national literature. There are some materials for history and poetry, for both the present and the past furnish materials for them. But he who would make romance out of materials gathered within years so recent, must possess creative genius. He has not merely the pleasant task to "hold the mirror up to nature:" for as actual events and natural scenes are not yet sufficiently remote to wear a romantic dress, the author must create the mist which shall magnify objects of ordinary size to dimensions suitable for romance. The novelist, as he depicts the manners of the living age, has material before him which he has but to weave into such a woof of fiction as may best subserve his purposes. The romance, transcending the limits of the real, or even of the possible, must be projected from the vigorous imagination of the author. It depends for success and permanent popularity upon its perfection as a work of art.

At the head of romance-writers in the English tongue, stands Nathaniel Hawthorne. The scenes of nearly all his produc

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