thereby prevented the appearance of irregularity; that with one exception, and that we verily believe from misrepresentation, unintentional we doubt not, none have opposed it; and we trust to see the plan, matured and extended by the wisdom and zeal of our bishops, carried into effect through every diocese in the country.

Another remarkable feature in the present year, has been the introduction of preaching in the Irish language. We believe it is Lord Bacon, who remarks in some of his condensed treasuries of wisdom, how singularly men have for centuries avoided discoveries which were lying before their eyes. Irish preaching is a case in point, and we now look with astonishment at our former attempts to win the confidence and affection of the Irish, when we had no common medium to address them, when with all our zeal and all our religion, we were to them "as barbarians." If it be obvious, that spiritual ideas can only be communicated through the medium of the language familiar to the people, and in which they think; if the ordained mode of communicating spiritual ideas be by the reading of the Scriptures and the preaching of the Word, then it would seem as clear as a mathematical deduction, that the Scriptures should be circulated, and that sermons should be pronounced in that language: yet until the year 1829, this necessary conclusion had escaped the attention of the Christian public in Ireland, and it remained for the present year to prove, and for such men as Beamish, and Gregg, and Seymour, to exemplify the power of Gospel truth, in the language of the heart and the understandings of the people. Ai now no secret; Popery is seeking to turn the discovery to its own purposes, Sermons in frish, are now being preached by priests and friars in the Irish districts-Tracts are translated and circulatedCobbett's History of the Reformation is said to be in progress, and if Protestantism do not exert itself, this language will have been perpetuated to her shame and defeat. We hope there is no such event awaiting us ;—we trust the importance of the measure will commend itself to those to whom the guardianship of the Church is committed, and that under their sanction and direction, the rising class of clergy in the Irish districts, will be enabled to become really the pastors of their people; we know that one of our bishops, himself an Englishman, has strongly recommended the study of the language, and if his influence and example do not induce our University to supply proper means for its cultivation, we trust the activity and zeal of private individuals will supply that glaring deficiency in an Irish college. Such are our wishes and our feelings, and we do believe that this relic of "bye-gone times" has been left in Ireland by Providence, to afford us new facilities* in the conversion of our countrymen.

The progress of education in Ireland has on the whole been encouraging, though variable. The influence of the Roman Catholic

* We refer those who are interested, or who are ignorant upon this most im portant subject, to a small pamphlet," Reasons, Authorities, and Facts," compiled by the Secretary of the Irish Society.

clergy has as usual been employed, and in many instances successfully, but when the cause seems to retrograde in one quarter, it has acquired strength in another. We feel convinced of two important facts; that the people, using that term in its fullest sense, are strongly disposed to attend Protestant schools, and that if the Protestant gentry employed a little of their influence and energy in the cause, the priest, whose power is now tottering, would find himself unable to exhibit effectual opposition. The former of these opinions we collect from the fact, that whenever and wherever the Protestant school is thinned, it has always been by the exertion of the priest, not by the convictions of the people, and that it has been accompanied by demonstrations of the sincerest regret on the part of the sufferers; we infer it too, from the fact, that schools supported by Protestants have been attended by Roman Catholics, in spite of the opposition and ecclesiastical denunciations of their clergy. The people know their interests, and where their children will be best taken care of, and thither they will, if possible, send them. The second of our convictions results from our knowledge of facts; we do know instances in which perseverance and common sense have obtained a triumph over bigotry, and we would infer that the same instruments would at all times produce the same effect over the same foes. We are convinced that the peasantry feel that they have followed to their own detriment, their political and priestly leaders, and that the influence of the landlord and the gentry, is felt far more efficaciously thar it was before they had smarted under the lessons of experience. We shall mention a fact that has come to our knowledge; a genfleman living in a purely Roman Catholic country, and connected with the Roman Catholic gentry, attempted along with his sisters to establish a school on his property; the priest interfered, and his spiritual denunciation was followed by the usual effect, the school was emptied. Our friend did not despair; he kept the school-room open; he circulated tracts, he scattered the Bible, he went among the people, and the result of his labours has been, that he has day schools, and Sunday schools, and night schools; that he has adult classes, Irish schools and English; that he himself instructs; that the Bible is read and explained in rooms crowded with Roman Catholics, and that so little opposition is now offered to his system that he seems to have completely overpowered it. This is certainly not a picture that would suit the whole country; in many places there are no Protestant gentry, in others, none of the spirit and perseverance of the individual we have alluded to; but we have mentioned the fact, to show that the blessing of the Lord upon exertion and perseverance, even in a most unpromising soil, will be effective to produce good. Thinly scattered as our gentry are, the results of their residence in their native land, seem to be still more rare and scanty, but were they disengaged from the trammels of party, and the chains of political slavery, did they feel the responsibility assuredly placed upon them, did they apply the means suggested by common sense, and a regard to the souls of their tenantry, we believe that such instances would not be uncom

VOL. IX.

3 G

mon; we know that priestly influence would bend before the legitimate influence of the aristocracy, and Ireland would become a land of schools and Bibles.

We shall now conclude our remarks, already more detailed than we intended, by adverting to an opinion which is now current, that it is the intention of our Government to institute a general system of education for Ireland, similar to that which the late Commismissioners of Education Inquiry proposed, and attempted without success. Against such a plan we must protest, as Protestants and as Britons. Any system that would legitimate the exclusion of the Scriptures from general education, would seem to us repugnant to the very principles of the religion we profess, and any political device that would hand over our Roman Catholic countrymen to the heartless dominion of their own clergy, would be in fact excluding them from the pale of British civilization, and the blessings of British information. We know not a sin more crying than the neglect of a people, except it be the sanctioning general education without a reference to religion, excluding that which is to be the foundation stone of all education, without which the people cannot be informed, cannot be moralised; and yet any general national plan for Ireland must be liable to this objection. Experience has taught us that no concession on this subject, short of uncontrolled influence or separation would please the Roman Catholic clergy, nay, the more we advance in concession, the more exorbitant become their demands.Kildare-place Society, is constructed on the most liberal plan consistent with even an external reverence for the Scriptures, and Kildare-place is honoured by the especial vituperation of the clergy and laity of that Church. During the late commission every exertion that could be suggested to conciliate was made; a Select Committee was formed by the bishops, of clergymen who were to select extracts from the Scriptures, taking care that not one controverted passage that bears a different aspect in the Douay translation, from that it carries in the Authorised version should be admitted, and thus a book on which all Christian sects might join was produced, yet the reply was, that no book selected from the Protestant version, a version in every point of view incomparably superior to the Romish, could be permitted. Concession could go no farther, patience itself was worn out, and the two Commissioners who had alone proved themselves to be Protestants, seceded from the attempt. Is it to be renewed, is Protestantism to be sacrificed, is principle to be thus deserted, and the clergy forced to become the involuntary agents of a system repugnant to their consciences and feelings We trust not; we trust that the principle of Scriptural education, the best and surest basis of a nation's greatness will not be thus deserted, or if any attempt of the kind be made, that Britain and Ireland will speak their sentiments in such a manner, that no statesman will be found to believe that expediency is on the side of error.

In fine, notwithstanding the deep and awful gloom that is settled on Ireland, we cherish sanguine hopes; we have the cause of God and man

with us; we have the feelings and resources of Protestant England with us; we have the experience of ages that truth must conquer error; we have the prayer of every friend of his country and his species; we have the promises of him "who is not a man that he should lie.' Already do we see our future success, in the spirit of inquiry that is abroad, in the not disguised attachment of the people to Protestant schools, in the new born intellectual feeling of the peasantry, in the new machinery that is applied to the assault of error, in the success that has blessed the exertions of the friends of religion. It is the interest of the agents of disorder to keep up the sad and awful storm that sweeps about us and around us, but tempest and agitation are not the natural state of the atmosphere; they pass away, and the face of nature is covered with a radiance the more vivid and glorious for the very fury of the whirlwind. So is it in the moral world, and as nothing is permanent that is not true, we may trust the prevalence of error has its date and limit assigned, for— "the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand for ever."

RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

BIBLICAL CRITICISM.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER.

SIR-Your correspondent, has shown himself, at least, as competent as T. K., to the task of discussing a question of Biblical Philology. There is not much, if any, difference between the view he gives of the passage, and what I have suggested to be the intention of our translators. His words are these, "to whom coming, as unto a living stone-a foundation possessing life inherent and underived, 'ye also, as lively stones' as portions of that spiritual fabric, not only possessing life derived from that foundation on which ye rest, but also showing forth that life in your walk and conversation." That our translators meant by the distinction between living and lively, to mark a difference between life underived and life derived, I am much inclined to believe. The difference in the translation of the same word, in the same sentence, cannot be supposed to have been accidental; and there seems to be no more reasonable mode of accounting for the fact, than by admitting such an intention to have guided their decision, in the rendering of the passage: but though this may account for the variation in question, 1 much doubt if it will justify it. As the Apostle did not vary his term, though he wrote in a language furnishing words for every diversity or modification of thought, so in my humble opinion, ought not the translators to have varied theirs, especially as the uniformity

could not have been objected to, as rendering the passage either obscure or ambiguous.

I very much doubt whether the participle of which way is one of the inflections, can with propriety be translated lively, in any sense which has ever been given to that word. There are but three places in which our translators have felt themselves called upon to translate this participle by the English word lively, and in each of these places living would suit the sense. The passage in 1st Peter, in which the word is connected with hope, seems to be that to which the present translation is most suitable: but as the word living as applied to hope bears an appropriate sense, it would seem best to translate the word even in this place, according to its indisputable sense in almost, if not, every other place. There should be a clear necessity for giving two different translations of the same word, in the same sentence, in order to justify its being done.

I am, Sir, truly yours,

T. K.

BIBLICAL CRITICISM-1 Cor. xv. 22-24.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER. SIR-It is with much diffidence that I make the following suggestion, and I address it to you, in the hope that some of your learned correspondents will be induced to examine into its merits; as I feel anxious to have this novel interpretation (as I take it to be) of an important passage either confirmed or satisfactorily refuted. Let me intreat, however, that any one who may favour me with his observations on it, will impartially examine the text, with a view to determine the meaning of its Divine Author, and from that to regulate his opinions; and will not, as is too commonly done, endeavour to force the sacred text into a conformity with his own preconceived notions. If the meaning which I have been led to give to this text be correct, the opinion that Christ will personally reign on earth, that his reign will be preceded by a partial resurrection, and followed by the general one, cannot, I think, be disputed. It does not, however, follow, that the wild notions which have been grafted by Mr. Irving and his followers on this (I believe) Scriptural opinion, should all be established along with it. At any rate the text should be examined without reference to these notions.

The Greek words are, ἐν τῷ χριστῷ πάντες ζωοποιηθήσονται. ἕκαστος δὲ ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ τάγματι. ἀπαρχὴ χριστὸς, ἔπειτα δι χριστῶ ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ αὐτοῦ. εἶτα τὸ τέλος, ὅταν παραδῷ (or rather παραδιδῷ) τὴν βασιλείαν κ.τ.λ.

This I translate as follows:-" In Christ shall all be made alive : but every man in his own order;-the first fruits, Christ;-afterwards they that are Christ's, at his coming;-AFTERWARDS THE LAST (or REMAINING) PART of the dead, WHEN he shall deliVER UP (or AT HIS DELIVERING UP) the kingdom," &c. I render εἶτα