Short Sermon. them out of the world, but that He should keep them from the evil that was in the world. While therefore we may say that certain practices are sinful, and that certain people who do not make even a profession of godliness are ungodly, it is as undesirable, as it would be impossible, to point with the finger and say, 'the world is here,' or 'the world is there.' To attempt to do so would be doubly hurtful, ministering, on the one hand, to spiritual pride and conceit, and depriving, on the other, the careless and the godless of the quiet, but oftentimes powerful, influence of Christian example. To overcome the world, then, is not to go out of it, but in it to keep oneself unspotted from it-to do its business, but not in its spirit-to mingle with its intercourse, but not with its motives—to abstain from excess even in things lawful-to remember the danger even in things needful-to have our conversation in heaven and our affection set on things above, while our time is spent among things below-to be content to live and work for Christ, but willing, when God calls us, to die and be with Christ-this is to overcome the world-this is (like our Master) not to shun the encounter, but to meet the enemy on the appointed field, there to fight him, and there to foil him. III. And how is this to be accomplished? The text tells us by faith.' 'This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.' And the Apostle gives us a definition of faith, viz., 'the evidence of things not seen, the substance of things hoped for. In other words, it makes things unseen evident, as though they were seen. It makes things only 'hoped for' before, as much enjoyed as though they were substantial. Bearing in mind this definition, it is not hard to understand how faith enables the believer to overcome the world. Without faith we know nothing but of the things of this world. It is thus that the Saviour describes the natural man. When speaking of the coming judgment, and when likening the careless state in which men would be found, then, to the state in which they were found when the flood overtook them in the days of Noah, He says of the latter, they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they married and were given in marriagethings belonging solely to the world of sight and sense. By which Christ meant to say, that they had no other thoughts, they lived no higher life, the things temporal were the only things they saw, and things earthly the only things they hoped for. And is not this our state by nature? How many people now live for nothing but the things of time and sense! What an aimless state! Its only end, if we look to no Future, the echo of the words, as we stand over the coffin that is lowered into the grave, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.' But if there be a Future, an offended God, and a judgment to come, a state how appalling! Now in this, the natural state of man, the world is the victor. But contrast this with the believer's state. Put side by side the men of this world and the men of faith, and on which side, when they have met, has always lain the victory? In the long struggle between Moses and Pharaoh, which throughout spoke with the voice of authority, and which finally had the mastery? When Ahab met Elijah on Carmel and in Naboth's vineyard, on which side were the calmness and the courage? When the prophet Daniel stood before Nebuchadnezzar, interpreted the writing to Belshazzar, or answered King Darius from the lions' den, on which side lay the dignity? Or when Paul, the prisoner, was brought bound into the presence of Felix on the judgment-seat, was it the prisoner or the judge that trembled ? These are some of the victories which faith always gains over the world without, when the two meet in conflict, but they are not the victories that are the most difficult for the believer to win. He has enemies to fight in the world within him far more dangerous than any he can meet in the world without-sinful lusts, carnal appetites, earthly-mindedness, pride and conceit, ignorance of God, hardness and blindness of heart. Over all these faith gives the victory. When the sinner has been convinced by the Holy Spirit of his sin and of the just anger of God, it leads him to the Saviour, and persuades him often, through many doubts and fears, that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin. Through the same Spirit, it changes his heart from being, in the Bible language, earthly, sensual, devilish,' and makes it heavenly, spiritual, and partaker of the nature of God. Through the same Spirit, it leads him to the Word of God for direction in all his ways, and to seek the glory of God in all his works. It makes him dread to grieve, to vex, or possibly even to quench the inward workings of that heavenly friend and guide. And all this, faith accomplishes by so bringing into the soul the interests of a higher and a lasting world, that they dwarf to insignificance the passing interests of this. To his opened eyes, the world is ever full of the ministering spirits of the King of kings. For him, Death has no terrors, for he looks calmly on to scenes beyond the grave. He hears the trumpet sound, he sees the great white throne, the open books, the countless crowd of the rising dead, the multitude assembled before the judgment-seat, and, in the language of the Apostle, he cries, through faith in triumph, O Death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.' May this experience be ours at those times when we all shall need its blessedness, at the hour of death and the day of judgment! We have all surely felt the strivings of God's Spirit within us against the power of this lower world. Let us beware how we resist these heavenly strivings. Let us ask God's help, that we may sit loose to the attractions of this world of sense. Let us make diligent, prayerful use of the means of grace, seeking especially through them the workings of God's Holy Spirit. Let us cultivate in the soul the unseen life that belongs to the unseen world, preparing now for the kingdom, where we hope to dwell for ever, and that we may be strengthened to maintain the Christian's fight and to win the Christian's crown; let us pray continually, Increase, O Lord, that faith in me, which alone can enable me to overcome the world.' BY LORD HOUGHTON. I stood one Sunday morning Her hand was on a Prayer-book, But above the Cross there glisten'd A golden coronet. For her the obsequious beadle Her footsteps seemed to glide. WRITTEN SEVERAL YEARS AGO. There might be good thoughts in her, But after her a woman Peep'd wistfully within, Of weakness, pain, and sin. The few free seats were crowded,- "God's house holds no poor sinners Old heathendom's vast temples Confounds all human state. The aisles of blessed Peter Save only in that England, There, too, each vast Cathedral Within the holy gloom,- Who shall relieve this scandal Iconoclastic rage, Who to this Christian people On the Origin and History of the English Bible. BY DENHAM ROWE NORMAN, VICAR OF MIDDLETON-BY-WIRKSWORTH. Read, then, but first thyself prepare So twice each precept read shall be, A.D. 1600-1611. PETER HEYLIN. N the later years of Queen Elizabeth's reign there were many very learned men devoting their time to Biblical studies. It would seem as if the religious fervour of the age could not be content with what had been already done by Tyndale, Coverdale, Rogers, or the Bishops. Individual scholars who could discern faults here and there in every revision which had been made, were not backward in pointing them out for correction in any future attempt at amendment. An increasing number of clergy in the Church of England, whose only authorised copy was the translation called the Bishops' Bible, were most anxious that further efforts should be made towards attaining an English translation of the Holy Scriptures which Origin and History of the English Bible. should be free from many of those evident blemishes which were contained in their public copies. On the accession of James I. to the throne, these private desires assumed a more urgent character. Those who felt them were bold enough to come forward publicly into the presence of the King at the Conference held at Hampton Court in January, 1604, and make known their wish for a fresh revision of the Scriptures by eminent and honest scholars. There was scarcely any opposition made to this reasonable request, as all who were present there must have been aware that the Bishops' Bible, or the Genevan Bible, or Coverdale's Great Bible, was here and there incorrect in its rendering from the original Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. A few scornful words from individuals could well be passed over as harmless, seeing that the long hoped for work was about to be undertaken by competent men under royal authority. Not many months after this conference, the King had obtained a list of names of men well qualified for the task, and had entrusted to them the duty of thoroughly and efficiently reviewing and revising the text of the English Bible, and presenting to the people what to the best of their ability they considered the true Word of God in the English tongue. Andrews, Reynolds, Barlowe, Overall, Duport, Bedwell, names known far and wide as representatives of acute scholarship and deep learning-these were the hands unto which was committed the labour of satisfying the just wants of earnest and truth-loving people; and never perhaps did companies of scholars, divided into groups as these forty-seven were, work more harmoniously and satisfactorily together; the sense of responsibility would seem to have weighed upon the mind of each reviser, and constrained him to use his best endeavours for effecting a perceptible improvement on all former translations. There was a certain number of instructions forwarded to the men who had been selected for the work, for their guidance; and on the receipt of them, it appears each individual gave himself up to the labour with a ready will. By the end of the year 1604, many of the revisers were fully occupied on the separate portions specially assigned to their care, searching out for every particle of information which might throw light on dark and difficult passages; and gleaning here and there scraps of wisdom, ancient and modern, which might serve to clear up points hitherto doubtful and unsettled. The wide field of Scriptural learning thus thrown open to industrious workers was travelled over again and again in quest of grains of truth, and no corner seems to have escaped the vigilant and practised eyes of these eminent and unselfish men. The Bishops' Bible, issued in 1572, was to be the ground-work of the new version. This text found ready to hand was to be changed as little as possible, and was on no account to be altered unless the Hebrew or Greek was plainly mistranslated. Every available source of information might be freely used to perfect the text in existence; manuscripts might be collated; the writings of the old Church Fathers might be compared; the more recent vernacular versions in French, German, Italian, Spanish, might be investigated, scholars, native and foreign, might be consulted; in |