asked themselves those scrutinizing questions which Christian humility, or even common modesty, would have suggested, how many painful absurdities might the world have been spared! But the importance of subduing a spirit of pride is yet greater as respects the heart, than as respects the understanding. A student who, in a vain-glorious spirit, weaves a system of confident interpretation, is too apt to follow up his speculations by a display of various anti-Christian tempers; particularly haughtiness and dogmatism in defending his own positions, acrimony and contempt in attacking those of his neighbour, and disingenuousness in not admitting the evidence that opposes his system, and in palliating the objections which he cannot but know lie against it.

2. Repress vain and useless curiosity. Vain curiosity mixed intimately with the first temptation which assailed the human race; and it has never since ceased to spread its snares. But Prophecy was not intended to gratify our cu riosity its purposes, as we have already seen, are of an infinitely higher character. We violate its spirit, therefore, when we use it for the futile object of attempting to become prophets ourselves, instead of waiting patiently for the fulfilment of the Divine predictions. The injurious effects of this unlawful attempt to pry into futurity, need not be enumerated; and in addition to its direct evils, it produces the collateral mischief of arming the ridicule of the scoffer and riveting the preju dices of the infidel. It would be too. harsh to suppose that to mere curiosity alone, unsanctified by any higher principle, we are indebted for the innumerable prophetic lucubrations which have been from time to time poured forth, to be speculated on to-day, to be disproved by events to-morrow, and the next day to be forgotten; but it would neither be harsh nor untrue to maintain that the effect of such unfoundCHRIST. OBSERV. No. 259.

ed speculations, however laudable the motives of the writers, has been often truly disastrous. The events of our own age, and the personages who pass by us as our contemporaries on the stage of life, will naturally present themselves under the largest angle in our field of vision; and there is always great danger of our bending Prophecy to foretel what seems to our curiosity most interesting for us to know. But if the Almighty had intended us to make this minute application of his predictions, he doubtless would not have concealed their purport in the impenetrable darkness which usually hangs over the unfulfilled prophecies of Scripture. Let us therefore beware of attempting rudely to tear aside that veil which the all-wise Disposer of events has fixed expressly to exclude our unhallowed gaze. The event will be the only satisfactory interpreter of the prediction: and till that arrives we ought to rest satisfied with the general and bumble possibility, or conjecture, which alone, in most instances, we are permitted to form.

3. Guard against rashness of interpretation. The Prophecies are not a puzzle for our ingenuity, which we are at liberty to put together in various ways, till we light upon one that happens to prove correct. It is a great sin, and we ought to feel it to be such, to misrepresent the words of that infallible Spirit by whose inspiration the Prophecies were given. It is not necessary that the Christian should understand every passage in the Bible; but it is indispensable that he should not seek to cloke his ignorance by temerarious expositions.

4. Read the Prophecies, like all other parts of Scripture, practically rather than speculatively. Few Christians need concern themselves to write, or even deeply to study, elaborate human schemes of prophetic interpretation; but since all may and should read the Prophecies themselves, they will find it of great importance to view them as connected with the faith and duties, 3 I

the hopes and fears, the consolations and afflictions, of individual believers. All the prophecies which relate to Christ or his church, to nations or particular persons, to past or present or future times, have a meaning, or, as I may say, a spiritual moral, which the humble Christian who seeks for the improvement of his heart, in all that he reads, will not be slow in discerning. The spirit of one prophecy thus brought home and applied by faith, whether for doctrine, for reproof, for consolation, for edification, or for correction in righteousness, is of more value than reams of well-furbished hypotheses, and cold, even though correct, speculations on the unseen possibilities of futurity*. 5. Read the Prophecies in their due proportion. This part of Scripture is not "all or nothing :" it has its object, its end, and its relative bearing; and it is to be studied, like every other part, as a portion of one comprehensive whole. Some persons scarcely read the Prophecies at all: others would seem to read little else. Now it cannot be right either, on the one hand, to slight them, or, on the other, so to study them as to neglect the more direct points of faith and duty. The study of prophecy, like the study of mathematics, may be so conducted, or rather misconducted, as to banish every other topic. The Bible itself may • These remarks are not intended to discourage the diligent study of Prophecy, whether fulfilled or unfulfilled. The judicious reader will readily draw the line between those interpretations which are right and eminently useful, and those

which are either exceptionable or at least only secondary. He will discern, for instance, a wide difference in point of interest and utility between those exalted prospects which Scripture plainly unfolds, respecting the advancement and final triumph of the mediatorial kingdom of Christ, and a barren dissertation respecting the day and hour when this long hoped-for consuramation shall arrive. The latter, if we could ascertain it, would chiefly minister to our curiosity, without benefiting the soul; whereas the event itself is abundantly fraught with warning, instruction,

d consolation to every Christian mind.

thus be made a book of mere theory and amusement. The mind may be employed about the Turkish empire or the French Revolution; the effusion of the vials, the slaying of the witnesses, or the battle of Armageddon; till the speculatist is in danger of forgetting that the Bible speaks in every page to himself,that it is a revelation to him, warning him to make his own calling and election sure, to flee from the wrath to come, and to be daily living as one who believes in those most plain and simple of all predictions, the threatenings of God against sinners, and his promises to the returning penitent in Christ Jesus.

6. Walk closely with God.-The necessity of this suggestion will appear from that declaration in the book of Daniel: "Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be made white, and purified, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand." The external sources of biblical information, it is true, are open to the wicked as well as to the righteous; but there will always be a distaste for every truly devout study, except where the affections are set upon heavenly objects: and should Prophecy or any other scriptural topic form the subject of research, however splendid may be the literary success, it will be attended with no spiritual benefit. We cannot study Prophecy as it ought to be studied, if we are not reading for purposes infinitely more exalted than amusement or the mere acquisition of information. The Prophecies exhibit the character of God and his providential dispensations; and to enter into their spirit, we must "acquaint ourselves with God, and be at peace." Indeed, this remark applies to the whole of the sacred volume; for it is a fact proved by daily experience, that "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." Much that proud learning and casuistry cannot settle is instinctively reconciled by the simple skill of "an honest and good heart.”

led persons to consider them as relating to that king." (p. 98.)

Here are two assertions: first, that must be translated to or concerning, and cannot be translated of; secondly, that David signifies The Beloved, and ought to be so translated. The only reason which Mrs. Schimmelpenninck gives why must be rendered to or concerning, is because the former rendering supports, in her opinion, the spiritual interpretation of the Psalms. But if the reader will turn to p. 91 of Mrs. Schimmelpenninck's work, he will find this assertion, that cannot signify of, confuted by the authoress herself. She there translates the same words 717 7101, "a Psalm of the Beloved." She also translates 5 of, (p. 90); "of the Son," (p. 92); "of the Beloved," though possibly it may be replied, that of, in these is meant as tantamount to belonging to or concerning. So much for the sense of the particle, which, it is well known, has the several meanings of for, to, of, concerning, into, &c.

passages,

But further; "The word David," saysMrs.Schimmelpenninck, "means "The Beloved;"" and accordingly, in the titles of the Psalms, this lady has generally translated "for or "concerning the Beloved." The greater portion of the Psalms have been so uniformly attributed to David, and the words have been so generally rendered, "a Psalm of David," by almost every translator of ancient and modern times, that it requires, one would think, no small strength of argument to prove them all wrong, and that the true sense of a title which occurs so frequently has but lately been discovered. But what are the proofs by which this new translation is supported? After the words quoted at the beginning of this paper from p. 86 of her work, our authoress, adds, "As a proof of this, Ezekiel, who lived nearly five hundred years after the death of David, King of Israel, prophecies,-I will set one Shepherd over them, and he shall feed

them: even my servant David, he shall feed them, and be their shepherd; that is, the good Shepherd of whom Isaiah speaks, chap. xl. and John, chap. x.' She then refers to

Ezekiel xxxiv. 24, Acts v. 31, &c., and adds; "Numerous other instances may be found by the reader at his leisure: it is needless here to multiply them. These sufficiently prove that David is a name given to the Messiah, in the prophetic part of Scripture, of which the Psalms are a principal part," &c. These passages, however, merely prove, what I believe no Christian doubts, that under the name of David, the Messiah is frequently referred to in holy Scripture. But the point in question is, not who is designated under the name of David, in the writings of the Prophets, but what is the correct and grammatical translation of the words 7. Let us recollect that Mrs.Schimmelpenninck charges our translators with uniformly mistranslating the titles of the Psalms, "in violation of the plainest grammatical rules of Hebrew." Now as Mrs. Schimmelpenninck appears to read Hebrew with the vowel points, she must, doubtless, be aware that in the pointed Hebrew 717, Dôd,and 7, David, are two different words; and though Dôd signifies beloved, David never has that sense. She must also, doubtless, know that our version was made from the pointed Hebrew. But even setting the points (which have unhappily fallen too much into disrepute) out of the question, it should be observed that in the two books of Chronicles, and also in the passage quoted by Mrs. Schimmelpenninck herself from Ezekiel, chap. xxxiv. 23, the word is not 717, but 77, a word differing in the unpointed as well as the pointed Hebrew from 717, and which is never used to signify beloved. Our translators, then, in rendering the words in a Psalm of David, have not only given the plain and obvious meaning of the words, following almost all preceding transla

tors of ancient and modern times, but have given the only intelligible translation which the pointed Hebrew original would admit; and therefore I conceive that, in this instance at least, their integrity and ability stand unimpeached. Nor, indeed, do I see how the affixing the words "A Psalm of David," to Psalms which are universally admitted to have been written by him, can any more obstruct their application to the Messiah, than the name of Babylon in the Revelations can impede the application of the prophecies respecting Antichrist to the see of Rome; or the name of Jerusalem, in the prophecies of our Saviour, can prevent our referring them, in a higher and more important sense, to the destruction of the world, and the final consummation of all things. Having entered so much into detail on the title of the Psalms, it will be necessary only to make a few observations on one more of Mrs. Schimmelpenninck's new translations. The 54th Psalm bears the following title, in the AuthorisedVersion: "To the chief Musician on Neginoth, Maschil, a Psalm of David, when the Ziphims came and said to Saul, Doth not David hide himself with us?" The original, according to Mrs. Schimmelpenninck, is, "To the conqueror over stripes, an instruction concerning the Beloved, when the spies came and said to the infernal powers, Doth not the Beloved seek protection from us?" It might perhaps be sufficient to leave this new translation, unsupported as it is by the least shadow of proof, to its fate, without a single comment. I will, however, offer a few brief remarks. Our translators, in common with many eminent commentators, considered the Psalms as composed by David, and sent for the service of the temple, directed, not "dedicated," to the prefects of the different kinds of music, or to

• "Strange as the device appears, to represent a sovereign dedicating his compositions to the precentor of his band." Biblical Extracts, p. 88.

the priests who officiated in the service of the temple. The word musician, as Mrs.Schimmelpenninck rightly observes, is not found in the original Hebrew. It was added by our translators, to make the sense more plain in English, as is often done in other parts of the Bible. The word ny has the different senses of prefect, president, conqueror. It would have been rather more literal, if our translators had rendered the words, "To the Prefect on Neginoth, or the stringed-instruments." The word wn is commonly supposed to signify an ode conveying instruction; but as the sense of this word and of Neginoth is somewhat doubtful, they are left untranslated in our version. The heading of the Psalm, (if I may use this expression, to distinguish it from the title) evidently refers to 1 Sam. xxiii. 19: "Then came up the Ziphites to Saul, to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself with us in strong holds in the wood, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon?" Nor does it by any means follow, that, because the Psalm was composed on that particular occasion, it cannot relate in a secondary and more important sense to Christ.

Let us now consider the new translation. First, never signifies stripes. pulsatio fidium, pulsatio musica, modulatio, Buxtorf. Modulatio, canticum, symphonic, Schindler. Pulsatio, instrumentum pulsatile, Taylor. Surely, Mrs. Schimmelpenninck has not mistaken the word for y, which does signify stripes. Secondly, she gives to by, without any authority, the sense of Dy. See her note. Thirdly, bw, with two letters differently pointed, would signify the place of departed spirits, but cannot admit of the translation of the infernal powers. See the lexicons on

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I think it will be needless to extend this inquiry further, though numerous examples of equally erroneous rendering might easily be adduced from the new translations