The forms of life were at first few and simple. In the course of ages they have become multitudinous and complex. But in this almost infinite variety, every species, and every individual of the species, retains. its conformity to the original type. Thus all the individuals, though perhaps differing widely in form, size, color, and many other outward characteristics, are related to each other, as well as to the type from which they sprung. To ascertain and establish these relations is the mission of the scientist.

But, besides all this, the unity of scientific truth is now a well-established fact. Astronomy, geology, botany, zoology, chemistry, optics, physics, mathematics, and other branches of science, are now so linked together-so interwoven, so to speak, with one another that the proficient in any one branch must know a good deal of all the rest. No new fact is discovered in any department which is not found to be related to the facts in all the rest, and to aid in the understanding of them all. In a word, the truth is one.

As we said in beginning, if the Bible be indeed the Word of God, we should expect to find it characterized by the same laws of relation, progression, and

unity which rule in the works of God. It is only of late that this has begun to be recognized. A few earnest students, chiefly in England, have demonstrated that this correspondence exists, and have made considerable advances in the scientific investigation of Holy Scripture. But in the theological seminaries, and in most of the various commentaries, the methods of study and exposition are similar to those which prevailed in natural history a century ago. The habit of preaching from, and the being trained to preach from, isolated texts, instead of comprehensive scriptural exposition, is largely accountable for this. The Scriptures are like a mighty tree, with roots, trunk, branches, leaves, sap, and fruit. Scientific study would recognize the common life which permeates the entire tree; would seek to understand the various developments of this life as shown in the different portions of the tree, and to recognize the relations, distinctions, and appropriate functions of every part. But that which is called systematic theology cuts down the tree, and re-arranges its several constituents in rectangular piles, according to their length, size, shape, and color, and places upon each pile its appropriate label. As each school of theology

assorts these heaps of fragments differently, it is not wonderful that there is a war of creeds. In preaching, the clergyman too frequently first selects his subject, and then pulls out from the appropriate pile the text that he thinks will fit it. Nor is it strange that there should exist a conflict between science and religion. This conflict will disappear when the ultimate facts on both sides, with their relations have been ascertained. Meanwhile, the Bible suffers more at the hands of its professed defenders than of its avowed assailants.

The present book is an attempt to investigate and explain a short passage of Scripture in conformity with the principles of interpretation we have been endeavoring to set forth. The theory of the work is expressed in the words of the Apostle Paul, which form the motto on the title-page, and which Dean Alford translates: "Combining spiritual things for spiritual persons." The idea conveyed in these words is exactly that which we see carried out in natural science,—that of bringing isolated facts into their divinely-ordained combinations. The book is, however, only an attempt. It has been written piecemeal, in moments pinched from the edges of a very

busy life. The best hope of the writer is, that some one, with greater learning and better opportunities, will be led to do well what he has now tried to do with but imperfect success.

In the investigation of any passage of Holy Scripture, the first requisite is to ascertain exactly what it is that God has revealed. For this purpose, literal translations of the passage under review (Chapters I. and II. of the Epistle to the Hebrews), and of the various texts quoted in the book, are offered to the reader. No claim is made for these, except that they are meant to be, as nearly as possible, an exact literal transcript of the meaning of the original Greek. The basis of these translations is Wilson's "Emphatic Diaglott," but every other authority accessible to the writer has been consulted.

It has also been assumed that words are used by the inspired writers in their ordinary and obvious sense. Neither exact literalism nor strained spiritual meanings have been followed. Many Greek words have come to have what is called a theological or New Testament meaning, quite foreign to the sense in which they are used by profane writers, or in which they were employed in conversation at the

time the Christian Scriptures were written. These meanings have become attached to these words since that time; and we have therefore not considered them as inspired.

There are also some English words, such, for instance, as "repentance," which have entirely changed their meaning since the Bible was translated. It has been sought to replace these by others, whose present usage more correctly conveys the sense of the original.

The present authorized Version is, in many respects, a paraphrase rather than a translation. Important shades of meaning are conveyed in the use or omission of the definite article,-in tenses and numbers, and in the use of different words for which the translators have used but one English equivalent. It will be seen that some important deductions have resulted from the consideration of these differences, which appear only in a literal translation.

The essay on the "Episode of Evil" is designed to give a comprehensive view of the truth brought to light in the investigation of the Scripture which forms the subject of the book.

Inasmuch as the commonly-received view of " eter