the empire, those under the ban of public opinion. To-day they are reviled, yesterday they were persecuted, and to-morrow they are treated with silent scorn. But whether smiting, sneering, or smiling, it is ever the same God.

hatred of the truth of

The truth is, the battle rages along the whole line of the ages. The uniform may wear out and be changed, but the leaders are ever the same. God is always on the one side and Satan on the other. The Word of God is the watchword of these, and away with it, is the rallying cry of those. If in any age there seems to be an end to the conflict, it is either because the champions of the truth are remiss in duty, or because secret sapping promises better than open attack. The time of peace is not yet. Set it down as one of the fixed facts that permanent quiet is not to be looked for till the last remnant of false doctrine has perished from the earth. For God makes no compromises, and will not suffer any to be made, till the last foe is put under Christ's footstool. Nor will he be satisfied with any mere refraining from attack, or acceptance of statements resembling the truth, while the truth itself is not relished in the heart.

The past and present are alike to an extent never dreamed of by superficial observers. In both, evil practices are arrayed against righteousness, and righteousness against evil practices. In both there is the semblance of peace between right and wrong, which is only a semblance; and in both the opposition between flames out, spite of all attempts to smother it. In all ages the same downward tendencies ever war against piety, and the influence of the world is ever felt on the side of evil; so that, whether it be coarse or refined, boorish or polite, he who would serve God must renounce the world. Always is the same inward conflict with corruption, and the same external contest with the foe. The position of the armies changes with the ages. Their tactics vary with circumstances. The form of their weapons is different. But the conflict is one. Now it is, Transgress, or die; again, Do so, or be penniless; and yet again, Do so, or be marked as one by yourself apart from others. But ever it is the same command; Disobey God, or suffer the utmost evil his enemies can inflict.

If the motives of the man who stands up for Christian truth are maligned to-day, so was it in the days of Baxter and Calvin, of Paul and of our Saviour. If men to-day bring in privily damnable heresies, it is nothing new under the sun. They did the same in the days of Reformers and Apostles. Jeremiah had to fight with false prophets all his life long.

If in our warfare for truth and right, even good men stand aloof, or fail us in our hour of need, could Luther tell of no such hours of darkness? or could Paul be unable to sympathize with our distress?

Elijah also had to flee from the court of the king to the less hostile desert.

If to-day some find their usefulness hindered by false brethren in the Church, does their experience in that line come up to the measure of Apostolic suffering from the same cause?

Whenever men magnify the past at the expense of the present, there is danger lest they feel that it would have been greatly for their advantage to have lived in some previous age, and that they suffer great injury from that arrangement of Providence that makes them live to-day rather than centuries ago. A man, ere he is aware of it, may thus blame God for casting his lot in such evil times. It is unnecessary to show how unfounded are such complaints, or how injurious in their effects on the complainer. But the indulgence of such thoughts leads directly to these results; and though for a time a man may not be conscious of them, yet they may secretly gather such strength that, when brought to his notice, he may justify rather than abhor them.

Such views also lead to discouragement and despair. For if under the government of the all-wise and omnipotent God, the world is ever growing worse than before, and even the Church degenerating from previous attainment instead of pressing toward the mark for the prize of its high calling, what hope is there of the glorious future so long foretold? And if there is so little prospect of that future which God holds out to us in his Word, can he be faithful in other things more than in this? Can I trust those exceeding great and precious promises to the individual if those to the whole Church fail so palpably? What, then, is the influence of such views on all effort for good to men?

If the Church grows worse from age to age, if true piety is ever losing ground, of what use is it to labor for the conversion of the world? Does not that glorious object recede into the distant future instead of drawing nearer? And what a view of Christ does all this involve? He bids us pray, " Thy kingdom come," and then, "Thy will be done on earth as it is done in Heaven," plainly encouraging us to hope that it shall be so; and yet, according to the views before us, instead of bringing about that result, he is moving everything back in the opposite direction. Who can think so and have any heart to toil or pray for the promised millennium? But, worse than all, what sort of a Redeemer must he be who encourages such hopes only to disappoint them?

Views that involve such consequences cannot be true. The former days were not better than these. If this is an evil and adulterous generation, we have reliable testimony that it is not the first of that sort. If some who hear the Gospel to-day are a generation of vipers, they too had predecessors long ago. If we find it difficult to meet the obloquy incurred by standing up for the faith once delivered to the saints, would it have been easier to do the same thing under Nero? or under the surveillance of "the Holy Office," or with Puritans and Covenanters in the days of the Stuarts?

What, then, do those accomplish for Christ who deal out dolorous descriptions of Christian degeneracy and make but the one impression: "Things were never so bad before?" Is there any merit in affirming what is not true? Or is there any incentive to effort in believing such teaching? Better far if, taking things as they are, we gird up our loins and take unto ourselves the whole armor of God, that we may be able to stand in the evil day. Thus armed, let us stand forth good soldiers of a good leader in a good cause. Evils there are, but when did they not exist? Men may tell us they abound, but when were they less abundant? Work is to be done, and hard work; but has there been a time since man fell in Eden when it was not required? Sufferings await the faithful servant. But when or where did God leave his people without some test to distinguish the true servant of Christ from the seeker of his own ease? Is there no secret shrinking from "hardness" under this whining about the degeneracy of our age

?

It has been said of earthly troubles,

"If you gently touch a nettle, it will sting you for your pains;
Grasp it like a man of mettle, and it soft as silk remains."

And the same is true in spiritual things. They whose chief end is to consult their own happiness, will always miss it. Past, Present, and Future will combine to distress them. But the heart armed with the purpose to follow Christ even in suffering -if needs be as he suffered, will find Omnipotence bear it along its appointed course.

But it will be said, "When we find even good men arrayed against us, what are we to think?" Why, that it always has been so. Had Abraham consulted some good man of his day, whether he should go to Mount Moriah, would his adviser have told him go? When Peter told his Master, resolved to ascend the cross, "That be far from thee, Lord," what was the reply? "Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offence unto me, for thou savorest not of the things that be of God, but those that be of men." Suppose Paul had held his peace and not withstood Peter to his face before the Church, where had been our Christian freedom to-day? Or suppose that Luther, instead of manfully doing God's work, had contented himself with berating the times, what had become of the Reformation? If that disciple, whom Jesus loved, testified in his old age, "I wrote unto the Church, but such and such an one receiveth us not," we need not study popularity. In the long run it is easier to please Christ than to suit even good men. If we had more of the spirit represented on that seal, where the ox stands with a plough on one side and an altar on the other, and the motto, "Ready for either," there would be less of gloomy foreboding, and more of wholesome and hearty joy. It is the double-minded man, who is ever glancing at his own comfort, that is unhappy. Paul, when he said, "For me to live is Christ," was sorrow proof. The world has always hated God. The Church has always caused grief to its truest friends, from the days of Moses even until now; and so will it ever be, while there remains a world and the Church is not yet, glorified. Often the servant of Christ will find himself like a soldier, left, by the retreat of his comrades, to fight alone. But he is not alone, for Christ abideth in him and he in Christ; and

if he be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, he will find his labor not in vain in the Lord, and the God of all grace who hath called him unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that he has suffered a while, will make him perfect.

ARTICLE VII.

THE ORIGIN OF THE LATIN VULGATE.

Ir was on the eighth of April, a. D. 1546, that "the sacred and holy, œcumenical and general Synod of Trent, lawfully assembled in the Holy Ghost," passed the following decree :

"Insuper eadem sacro-sancta Synodus, considerans non parùm utilitatis accedere posse Ecclesiæ Dei, si ex omnibus Latinis editionibus, quæ circumferuntur, sacrorum librorum, quænam pro authentica habenda sit, innotescat; statuit, et declarat, ut hæc ipsa vetus et Vulgata editio, quæ longo tot seculorum usu in ipsa Ecclesia probata est, in publicis lectionibus, disputationibus, prædicationibus, et expositionibus, pro authentica habeatur; et ut nemo illam rejicere quovis prætextu audeat, vel præsumat."

"Moreover, the same sacred and holy Synod, considering that no little utility may accrue to the Church of God, if, out of all the Latin editions, now in circulation, of the sacred books, it be known which is to be held as authentic, ordains and declares, that the said old and Vulgate edition, which, by the long usage of so many ages, has been approved in the Church, be, in public lectures, disputations, preachings and expositions, held as authentic; and that no one is to dare, or presume to reject it under any pretext soever." [Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, Buckley's Translation.

The Latin Vulgate Bible, a compilation of translations by known and unknown authors, being thus crowded into the place of the original Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, as the text of common use, authority, and final appeal; and being thus held and used by so large a branch of the Christian Church, it is of importance to know, in outline at least, its origin, history, and comparative purity. It is also a matter of no small interest to notice the beginnings of a book fifteen hundred years old, where