THE BIBLE.-1836.

Words, sentences, aphorsims, and customs that were significant, and well understood in the days of king James, are now out of use and obscure. Should there be a new translation, according to modern diction, is it not probable that two or three centuries hence it would be as obscure? And is there any hope of improving more from the original, when every century removes both Hebrews and Greeks farther off from understanding their respective languages as they were spoken in the days of the inspired authors?

Would a new translation of the Bible, according to the modern use of words, taken from the most ancient copies of the Old and New Testaments, give us certain information, without doubt, on the question which has perplexed the Christian world for many centuries, "whether Christ died for only a part, or for every soul of man ?" Or is this a mystery, locked up in the treasures of God, in a book not to be read in until we go to another state? as the Jews do not allow their children to read the nine last chapters of Ezekiel, and the book of Daniel, until they are thirty-nine years old. But stop and ponder. Would a certain solution of this question make men any better in this world? If not, would it not be beneath the dignity of Jehovah, to reveal that to men which would be of no service to them?

Would not a new translation of some passages in the New Testament, according to our present dialect and customs, be acceptable? In Matthew, x., 7: And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Read thus: And as ye go, preach to the people, your money is essential to the salvation of sinners, and, therefore, form into societies, and use all desirable means to collect money for the Lord's treasury; for the millennium is at hand. Mark, xvi., 16: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Read: He that has attended Sunday schools, had his mind informed by tracts, contributed to support missions, and joined in societies to support benevolent institutions, shall be saved; the rest shall be damned. Matthew, x., 17: Be ye therefore, wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. Read: Be ye wise as serpents in your guile to deceive men; keep out of sight that ye have to receive part that you collect for your mendicancy; show great concern for poor benighted heathen, but let your neighbors have none of your prayers, exhortations, or alms; but strive to

appear harmless as doves; put on gravity and holy awe; make others believe that ye are too devotional to labor for a living, and that they must labor to support you; for if you do not appear uncommonly holy, you will not deceive the simple and get their money. Acts, iv., 34-35: And brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostle's feet, and distribution was made to every man, according as he had need. This work of receiving and distributing was soon after given to seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. Acts, vi. 3: Would it not be better to read—The convention appointed a board of directors; any man who would cast into the fund one hundred dollars, should be one of them for life, to dispose of the money at discretion, and mark out the destination of the missionaries. Read Acts, xiii., 1, 2, 3, 4, and translate it thus, if the Greek will admit of it: Now there was at Antioch, a convention of Christians, and among them five directors; and as they fasted and prayed, they were moved to select two of them as missionaries, and when they had supplied them with a good outfit, and promised them liberal supplies, to make Christianity appear honorable among the heathen, they sent them forth with a solemn charge to devise all means in their power to keep the money market open, and invent employment for thousands that were longing for agencies. Acts, xx., 33, 34, 35: I have coveted no man's silver or gold; ye, yourselves, know that these hands have ministered to my necessities, and to them that were with me; I have showed you all things, how that, so laboring, ye ought to support the weak, etc. These sentences are so little used in this day of great light, that a new translation is unnecessary.

In observing the course that Christianity is now taking, it reminds me of past events. At the close of the apostolic age, and the age of miracles, philosophy was resorted to for a substitute, and every art and science was called into requisition to make Christianity appear honorable in the eyes of worldly men. Schools and teachers, of various descriptions, were set on motion to weld cold iron and hot together. The persecutions against Jews and Christians, for denying the divinity of the Pagan gods, and the worship of idols, did not stop the gradual and ruinous assimulation of church and world together.

All things being ready, in the beginning of the fourth century, the union was consummated by Constantine the Great, who established Christianity for the religion of the empire, and suffered none but Christians to hold any offices of honor or profit, for whom he made great donations in salaries, temples, etc. At this change, the young preachers, and professors of Christianity greatly rejoiced, but the aged trembled with fear. From that day until this time, with partial exceptions, the Christian church (so called) has been governed by the laws of men. In all these Christian establishments, by legal force, there has been a great number of non-conformists; but they

have been overpowered and reduced to oppression, sometimes to bloody persecutions.

To persecute the greatest fanatics, except for overt acts, is poor policy; it only inflames their zeal, and augments their numbers; but to persecute harmless, peaceable subjects because they do not believe what they cannot believe, and are so honest that they will not say they believe what they do not, is the work of bloody monsters, in the shape of man.

THE SABBATH EXAMINED.

(NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED.)

I have never been able to find out on what part of the globe the Garden of Eden was planted. Geography gives no account of a spot whence four rivers take their rise. It is, therefore, most likely that the flood so changed the bed of rivers, that no such place exists. If it was at or near one of the poles, one entire day was as long as three hundred and sixty-five days are in the middle regions: of course God was six of our years in creating and forming the heavens and earth, and all things therein, and then ceased from his work the following year.

Solar years—lunar months—day and night are measured and established by monuments in the laws of nature. Weeks—watches—hours and moments have no fixed barriers in nature, but arose and exist, either by a revelation from God or the children of men. Years, months, and days are frequently found in the writings of Moses: week only in the affair of Laban and Jacob; and in that place of uncertain meaning. In Daniel, the seventy weeks are supposed to include four hundred and ninety years, taking a day for a year; but whether a week in either of those places intends seven days, I cannot tell. In any case, the week belonged to the calendar of men. God rested on the seventh day of time; no account of

a week.

Though God rested on the seventh day, I have not yet found that he ever enjoined a rest from labor on men for more than two thousand years after creation; nor any account that men ever observed a sevenday rian rest, during that length of time, taking Enoch, Noah and Abraham among the rest.

The solemn feast day of the new moon was ordained by a statute of the God of Jacob, in the days of Joseph in Egypt, (Psalms, lxxxi., 3, 4, 5,) before the Sabbath was appointed, (Exodus, xvi., 25,) and is placed on a level with the Sabbath, (Isaiah, i., 13: Coll. ii., 16,) etc.

The strict observance of the seventh day, as a Sabbath of rest, was enjoined on the children of Israel, with a penalty so severe that the transgressor was not to be fined, whipped or put out of the synagogue, but surely

put to death.* The passover, as well as the new moon, was appointed by an express precept, before the Sabbath, (Ex. xii., 24.

Very soon after the appointment of the Sabbath, it was incorporated into the laws of Moses, and became an integral part of the ten commandments, which were written by the finger of God, on tables of stone.

The law of Moses contains three parts. First. The ten commandments engraven on stone. Second. The sixty precepts written in a book and sprinkled with blood, designed for the government of their commonwealth. Third. Their religious usages, containing bleeding victims, smoking altars, divers washings, and carnal ordinances; to be continued until what they prefigured should take place. Sometimes the whole of Moses' writings, without distinction, are called Moses, or the law.

When it first took rise, to call the ten commandments moral, distinct from the other parts of the law, or why it is continued, I cannot tell.

The word moral is not in the Bible, but it is a word of general use, in these days, and of a variety of meanings. In the religious department, it is used by many divines, to express the eternal rule of right which proceed from the relation that exists between God and men, and between man and man, and that will continue as long as the perfections of God and the faculties of men exist, without change, amendment or repeal. In this point

of light I receive and use the word in my research.

Why men should pay more deference to the decalogue than to the other parts of the law, I cannot ascertain. True, the ten commandments were spoken aloud by God, amidst awful emblems of his power; so also the sixty precepts were written in a book, by a holy man of God, inspired by the Holy Ghost, and sprinkled with blood. When our Lord was asked by a lawyer, which was the first and great commandment, our Lord did not answer him from any of the ten commandments, but from Deut. vi., 5, and Levit., xix., 18, where Moses was not treating of the decalogue.

The law of eternal right and equity is seen running through the Bible like a golden cord, and is binding on all the progeny of Adam, whether they are favored with the oracles of God or not: but it never enjoins on man to do that which the laws of nature render impossible, nor does it ever give way to absolute precepts.

Many difficulties arise against the conclusion, that the fourth commandment, in the decalogue, was of moral obligation.

1. Moral obligations never intermit, but are every day, and all the time binding.

There were twenty crimes punished by death in the laws of Moses, either by hanging, stoneing, or burning, viz: adultery, beastiality, blasphemy, cursing father or mother, enticing to idolatry, false prophesying, false swearing, idolatry, incest, kidnapping, murder, presumption, rape, Sabbath breaking, sacrificing to Moloch, smiting father or mother, sodomy, stubborness of a drunken son, whoredom of a priest's daughter, and witchcraft.