go back to savage barbarism, or go forward under the light of a sound education. Take your choice, and act accordingly,

It is a serious inquiry, how many the ignorant and covetous have prevented from becoming extensively, eminently, and permanently useful, by their fanaticism and penuriousness? The providence of God has thrown upon our hands a numerous progeny, and has said to us as a Church, Take those children and nurse them for me. Shall we, for fear that much learning will make us mad, throw those out of our enclosure upon the wide world, and then expect God, in a miraculous way, to take them up and thrust them back upon our hands, whether we will or not? How preposterous is this! If, therefore, you wish your sons to shine in the Church of God, let them receive the polish of an academical education; and then may you look up to God with a pious faith, and expect him to call and send them forth in quest of lost souls. Then may you expect to see them digging in the golden mine of Gospel truth, and spreading before you those rich gems with which it abounds. These shall be the ones who shall be qualified to search out those truths which lie deeply imbedded in that inexhaustable mine. Then shall not your ears be stunned, and your heart wounded by an awkward and affected display of a learning that is false, with a philosophy which "dazzles only to blind," and with an air of importance which is the offspring only of inexcusable ignorance coupled with a disgusting vanity. If the heart be sanctified by grace, and the mind imbued with knowledge, the tongue will speak forth the words of truth and soberness, with an eloquence and pathos which shall enlighten the understanding, at the same time that it moves the affections to "things above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God."

But we cannot better express ourselves upon this branch of the subject, than by adopting the language of the last General Conference. That enlightened body, in their Pastoral Address, have taken the following enlarged view of this subject:

"The next thing to which we would call your attention, as connected with our prosperity, is the cause of education. We rejoice to witness the growing interest which has been felt and manifested in this branch of our work for a few years past. In the cause of education we include Sabbath and common schools, academies and colleges. Experience and observation, if not, indeed, the common sense of every individual, demonstrate, that unless we provide the means of education for our children and youth, they will be led from us to other communities, where these means are more abundant, and are put within the reach of every one. Should this unhappily be the case, the consequence is inevitable, that the children and the youth of our community will depart from us, and we shall be compelled to mourn over the melancholy fact, that they will have been brought under the influence of doctrines and usages which we honestly believe will be injurious to their present and future happiness. Such, indeed, is the eager desire for intellectual improvement, and the facilities for its attainment in other directions, that unless we furnish means to gratify this laudable desire, our children and youth will avail themselves of those thus offered them from other quarters, and be induced to throw the

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weight of their influence into an opposite scale. This consideration admonishes us of our duty in this respect, and in a language which cannot be misunderstood, reminds us of our high obligations to enter more fully and unitedly into this field of labor.

In many places we fear that Sabbath schools are either entirely neglected, or but partially attended to; while in others these nurseries for juveline improvement are suffered to languish for want of that attention to their interests which their importance demands. We would therefore urge upon all concerned, a steady, active, and uniform attention to these appendages to the Gospel ministry. Nor are we less solicitous that all our brethren and friends should be mindful of their duty in selecting such teachers for primary schools as shall secure to their children the double advantage of elementary instruction and religious and moral improvement.

But it is to the higher branches of education, such as are taught in academies and colleges, that we would especially call your attention. Of the former we have under our patronage upward of twenty-of the latter, seven, and two others are in contemplation. Though the academies may be sustained without drawing largely upon the pecuniary resources of our people, and may therefore be safely multiplied to an indefinite extent, yet it is manifest that colleges, in order to answer the end of their institution, must be liberally endowed. And such is the condition of our country in respect to these institutions, that though some of the state legislatures have made small endowments for their support, we must depend chiefly upon our own resources for their continuance and prosperity. Hence, to increase their number without adequate funds in hand or in prospect, for their support, is to weaken their influence, if not ultimately to endanger their existence.

Such, however, is their importance to the interests of our community, so closely are they identified with our character as a Church, and so intimately connected with our other institutions which are deemed essential to our growth, and to that influence which we ought to exert over the public mind, that we cannot but regard it as a sacred duty to nourish and sustain them by all the means at our command. If, indeed, at this crisis of our history, when these literary institutions have just begun to put forth their energies, and to exert their improving influence upon our youth, and upon the Church generally, they should be allowed to languish for want of pecuniary means, the effect would be to throw us back for years in this branch of intellectual and moral culture. This is an event, however, which we cannot allow ourselves to anticipate without very painful emotions, but which can only be prevented by a united and simultaneous action in their favor, by our wealthy and benevolent friends. That there is ability in the Church adequate to sustain a suitable number of these nurseries of learning, and fountains of knowledge, were proper means adopted to call it into active exercise, we cannot doubt; and we, therefore, affectionately exhort all the annual conferences, within whose bounds colleges are established, or who have pledged themselves to aid in their support, to exert themselves in this laudable work, to make haste to redeem their solemn pledges; and we would also invite the attention of all our brethren and friends to a hearty co-operation in whatever

measures may be devised by the conferences to establish these institutions upon safe and permanent foundations, not only by contributing of their substance for their support, but also by patronizing them as extensively as their means will allow, by sending their sons to be educated, as well as by offering their fervent prayers to God for his blessing to rest upon them."

We cannot but indulge the hope that these sentiments, coming as they do from the highest judicatory of the Church, and enforced as they are by all those considerations which a just regard to the welfare of the present and future generations can urge, will have their merited weight upon the minds of all our readers. For what has already been done on this subject, we record our gratitude, and conclude by offering our fervent prayers that God may continue to smile upon our efforts in this cause, and abundantly bless our youthful institutions, and all to whom their interests are confided.

ART. III.-LUTHER AND THE GERMAN TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE.

MARTIN LUTHER, as is well known, was an Augustinian monk, a Saxon by birth, and though of poor and obscure parentage, received a good classical education, considering the age of mental darkness in which he lived, and for several years was professor of philosophy and divinity in the university of Wittemberg. He possessed so vigorous an intellect that one of his principal enemies had to acknowledge, "Friar Martin has a fine genius." He was a man of unbending integrity, fearless courage, untiring perseverance, and of considerable genuine piety. The purity of the motives, however, by which he was actuated in originating the Reformation, has been rashly assailed by the elegant historian, Mr. Hume; and by others of less information, of as little candor on such subjects, and of equal opposition to Biblical Christianity.

But this foul blot, of having acted from feelings of resentment, produced by disappointment, in not being permitted to publish indulgences, which was done in that part of the country by the infamous Tetzel of the Dominican order of monastics,-which infidels and the bigoted adversaries of the Protestant religion have meanly endeavoured to fix upon his Christian character, has been wiped away by the hands of more impartial narrators of the times.

There is a striking similarity, in some points at least, between Luther, the great Saxon reformer, and John Wesley, the eminent English revivalist; and between the first reformation, in which the former was the principal instrument, and the second, in which the latter was so honorably and successfully engaged for more than half a century. They were both learned men; one a professor in a German university, the other a diligent student, and some time fellow of Lincoln college, Oxford, in England. One found in the library of his monastery a neglected copy of the Holy Scriptures, and studied it so closely that his monkish companions were astonished at his intense application and his wonderful success in the

acquisition of knowledge; the other, in company with his brother Charles, Mr. Morgan, and Mr. Kirkham, though not confined within the walls of a cloister, spent some evenings each week in reading carefully the Greek Testament, and became so attentive to the means of grace, and to their whole exterior conduct, as to gain in the college, by way of derision, the appellation of "the godly club." They were both violently persecuted by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of their respective countries; but the persecutors of Luther were Catholics, while those of Wesley were generally Protestants. Both translated the Scriptures into the vernacular tongue of their countrymen, and wrote commentaries. By the first a visible change was produced in the aspect of popery; by the second, an entire revolution in the moral condition of the Establishment. The Church of Rome was fast asleep in the midst of her abominations; and the Church of England, beside her immoralities, had lost the spirit and substance of religion, in the letter and shadow. The reformation of Luther has spread and exerted a beneficial influence over almost every country in the world, except Pagan and Mohammedan; and that of Wesley and his faithful followers has stamped some of its prominent features on all the orthodox Protestant Churches in Christendom.

But Luther possessed not the deep piety, the clear views of evangelical doctrines, the discriminating, logical mind, the perfect selfgovernment, and the extensive almsgiving spirit of Wesley. He was very well calculated to give a powerful shock, at the first onset, to the hierarchy of Rome; but not properly qualified to follow up that assault in a prudent manner, by devising a better system, watching the openings of Providence and the signs of the times. He came down over the rough surface of popery, as the mountain torrent rushes impetuously over the craggy rocks in its course; with this difference, that he broke down and bore on before him the absurdities of the whole system. But he was not the most suitable person to cut out a new channel, deep, wide, and even, for the stream of evangelical truth to flow in; and, indeed, the Christian princes of Germany, favorable to the cause of the reformation, were apprized of this, and therefore selected Philip Melancthon, the calm, pacific, judicious associate of Luther, to draw up the celebrated Augsburg Confession of Faith, for the government of the Churches.

No sooner, however, had Luther himself experienced the blessed tendency of the Holy Scriptures to enlighten the mind, correct erroneous sentiments, and better the heart and conduct, than he formed the praiseworthy design of translating the word of God into the common language, for the general benefit of his brethren, particularly in the lower ranks of life. He began with the seven penitential Psalms, the vi, xxii, xxxviii, li, cii, cxxx, cxliii; and styles the whole book of Psalms "a little Bible," and the summary of the Old Testament. Next in order appeared the New Testament; then the Pentateuch and the other historical books of the Old; these were followed by the poetical books,-including the entire book of Psalms, and the four major and twelve minor prophets. This translation was commenced in A. D. 1517, and ended in 1532; consequently he was engaged in it about fifteen years. In revising

this version of the Scriptures, he was assisted by several eminent professors and other learned men, among whom the pious and amiable Melancthon occupied a very conspicuous place.

The circulation of this translation of the Bible among the inhabitants of highly favored Germany, aided the infant cause of Protestantism more efficiently than perhaps all the other efforts of the justly celebrated reformers. Well did the Roman Catholics know this, and well they know it still! Hence their unwearied exertions from the very dawn of Luther's day-and, indeed, for centuries before it-to the present hour, to keep the word of Truth, in the vernacular tongue, out of the hands of the common people. It is the sword of the Spirit; it is the source of light; and "knowledge is power." But their song has been, and they have sung it to the tune of the "dark ages,"-"Ignorance is the mother of devotion!" Let knowledge be in the heads of the priests, and gross darkness cover the minds of the people; and power will be in the hands of the former, while the latter will crouch submissively to the nod of the tyrannical lords.

The Epistle of St. James was at first rejected by Luther, because it appeared to favor the Romish doctrine of justification by works; and to contradict the doctrine of justification by faith alone in the death of Christ, advocated by St. Paul. So was likewise the Revelation of St. John; because it appeared to him incomprehensibly mysterious. But after he had been taught the truth more perfectly, he changed his mind.

Mr. Horne states that Luther's Bible, as it is generally called, became the basis of ten other translations, viz., the Lower Saxon, in 1533; the Pomeranian, in 1588; the Danish, in 1550; the Icelandic, in 1584; the Swedish, in 1541; the Dutch, in 1560; the Finnish, in 1642; the Lettish, in 1688; the Sorabic, in 1728; and the Lithuaman, in 1735;—on each of which he has made some useful observations in his Introduction to the Critical Study of the Holy Scriptures-large edition.

It would require several lengthy articles, rather than a single sheet of the contracted limits of the present, to notice fully the numerous important passages of Scripture, in the Old and New Testaments, of which the German translation differs materially from the English;—a difference, however, that in no considerable degree affects any particular fundamental doctrine, or moral precept of the Bible, unless we except, as to one passage at least, the Divinity of Christ; and, as to several others, the doctrine of predestination. But the last of these is not viewed as one of the essentials of Christianity; for certainly a rigid Calvinist and a rigid Arminian can both enjoy the love of God, and gain heaven, notwithstanding their firm adherence to directly opposite religious creeds. I will therefore select but a few of the many examples I have noticed in reading the German Bible, compared with the English, which will immediately be recognized by those who are familiarly acquainted with the sacred writings.

It is very remarkable that the verb rendered curse, and in some places blaspheme, in the English, is I believe invariably translated "bless," in the German. For instance, 1 Kings, xxi, 13, “ Naboth did blaspheme God and the king," is rendered by Luther, "Naboth