Edition) being in our hands, we will copy a few sentences from the Preface, as illustrating the genuine spirit of Popery in regard to the reading of the Sacred Scriptures by the laity. "This translation of the New Testament into French,' says Amelote, "proceeds upon a principle very different from that which in the last age produced those of Wittemberg and Geneva. They were undertaken by the movement of man; this by the command of the Bishops; and therefore it bears the marks of order and a divine mission. Those, instead of inspiring obedience to the Church, raised the standard of revolt, and the tribunal of private judgment; this, on the other hand, only tends to nourish the faithful in dependence upon their pastors; and it is for the use of those only who shall receive it from the hand of the Church. This sage spouse of Jesus Christ conducts herself differently according to times and places in the distribution which she makes of the celestial bread to her children." He goes on to shew, that ordinarily she gives it to the people only by bits at church, and "with the salt and oil of her explanation." He adds, that "Sometimes she makes a great distinction between laics to whom she communicates this sacred bread; which God destines for her priests, and for those whose docility and constancy in the faith renders them worthy to be their servants." This domineering insolence of the Romish priesthood must revolt every man who is not sunk in abject superstition; and is not content to yield his understanding and his conscience, his mental and his civil liberties, to the unscriptural usurpation of a bigotted and intolerant hierarchy. It is not to be wondered at that multitudes of persons in rejecting priestcraft rejected Christianity itself, which they had never heard of except as thus identified with it. In the awful day when all men shall give an account of their deeds, it will appear no light crime to have thus seized the keys of religious knowledge, and to have usurped the office of the Searcher of hearts, admitting or excluding according to their erring judgment, and, it may be, their selfish passions.

The above details, though tedious, will not be valueless, if they only deepen the impression of the gratitude we owe to God for our own admirable and justly-esteemed version of his holy word. To this hour there is no one generally accredited French translation of the Bible. There are various texts, some better, some worse; but there is not one that is extensively referred to like our own authorised version; which is known and loved, valued and made use of, wherever the English language is spoken. It would be a fearful evil to destroy this large and justlydeserved confidence in the general correctness and excellence of our public version.

One consolation there is in surveying these various French translations, that even in the most defective of them-except in passages wilfully corrupted by the Romanists, and these are comparatively few-the doctrines and the precepts of our holy religion shine in bright effulgence. In this we greatly rejoice; yet it were an effort worth the combined exertions of all faithful Christians who speak the French language, to fix upon one version as the generally-received text; by which many stumbling-blocks would be removed; the book would be circulated more widely and cheaply; and concordances, tables of reference, and commentaries, could be supplied upon an extensive scale, which cannot be the case when the translations do not tally. An improved version by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge has been long in progress; and if in the end it shall be found deserving of general accept

ance, it will be an invaluable boon to all who speak the French language. But no version, in any tongue, is now likely to obtain the extensive suffrage accorded to that which adorns the literature, as well as embodies the faith, of Protestant England,

We have not attempted the impracticable task of noticing all the French versions of Holy Writ, which amount to nearly a score; or of pointing out the merits or defects of particular Editions,-of which, taking in France and Switzerland, and Romanist and Protestant versions, there has been an incredible number-including more than a hundred of the whole Bible for the Protestants of France. We have confined ourselves to sundry particulars bearing upon the Society alluded to by Dr. Hengstenberg; upon the unexplored history of which we shall be glad to receive further information.

ON THE PRONUNCIATION OF CLASSICAL NAMES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

A LITTLE book or table, suitable for teachers in National and Sunday Schools, and for their pupils, inwhich the right pronunciation of the proper names which occur in the Bible is clearly pointed out, would be exceedingly useful. The errors which have been noticed in your pages as frequently occurring in reading one single chapter, (the sixteenth of the Romans) shew that such a manual is much wanted. It should mark invariably the right accent of classical names; but add a note to such words as Samaria and Alexandria, to say that general custom-which it would be pedantic to violate-determines the accent otherwise in reading the English translation. The soft and hard sounds of C and G should be noticed; and suitable directions might be given under such words as Cedron, Cephas, Caesar, and Cenchrea. It might be useful to add when compound words are to be divided, and when run into one; as in Abednego and Omega. Urban should unquestionably be restored to his masculine honours. Are there any other names similarly circumstanced?

PRISCIAN.

Not, we believe, exactly ;—that is, names in which the English pronunciation affects the gender; but there are several, the gender of which is doubtful. Thus, in the chapter so often referred to, at verse 7, in most translations we read Junia, a woman; the word occurring only in the Accusative case; so that it is doubtful whether the Nominative is Junia, a woman, or Junias, a man. The same ambiguity, from the same cause, occurs at verse 15, in the instance of Julia, who is equally entitled to be called Julias; though Origen determined not only that the word is feminine, but that the person spoken of was the wife of Philologus. It is a purely fanciful conjecture; but the Greek and Latin churches regard it as an indisputable fact. As for Junia, if our readers will turn to Volume 15 of that largest collection of lies in existencethe more than half a hundred folio volumes of the Bollandist Lives of the Saints-they will find under May 17 a full account of the life of Andronicus, and "his admirable wife Junia," with the detail of his successful labours in travelling throughout the world to promulgate the Gospel, from the time of

his being, as stated, (without the slightest mark of doubt) one of the seventy disciples, till his death; with the alleged removal of his corpse to a church in Constantinople; and many other things unknown to us blind Protestants. We might trace out, if it were worth while, the alleged history of many other of the Saints passingly mentioned in the New Testament; but we must refer to numerous volumes to find the right person; for in the first half year of the Bollandist Roman Calendar, there are seventeen under the name of Urban, fifteen under that of Julia, with as many Julianas; and so on of many others. Origen's fancy has attained such wide conventional acceptance, even such wary critics and foes to tradition as the continuators of Poole's Annotations, say, "Probably the wife of Philologus." Most of the versions translate Junia and Julia; but the Geneva-English version-once the most popular in England, and which has many excellent renderings, though some are warped by system-for Julia reads Julias. Our copy is, London, 1597; but we suppose this reading is in all the Editions. It is so in Mr. Bagster's, published in 1842, which is a neat fac-simile reprint of the Geneva Edition of 1557. Vernacular Scripture readers will find it very useful for comparison. We mention Editions, for they often vary. Thus Bagster's handsome Hexapla gives, under the Rhemish version, Julia in verse 7 and verse 15. It may have been printed correctly from a Rhemish copy; but we have another Rhemish copy from Mr. Bagster's own press (1823) which gives Junia in verse 7; as it is in the Latin Vulgate, from which that translation is made.

The critics, with much preponderance of manuscripts, read these words with strange discrepancy. Thus, in the authorized English version we have Julia and Junia (which we believe to be correct). The Geneva-English has Junia and Julias. Doddridge has Junias and Julias; Macknight, Junias and Julia; Hammond varies them in another way; but the above may suffice.

In the same verse our translation has Olympas; which is the right Nominative case, if those who circumflexed the Greek Accusative have done so accurately; but the Latin Vulgate renders it Olympiadem (upon no Greek manuscript authority): and the Rhemish and other vernacular versions construe from the Vulgate, Olympias. The Lives of the Saints give us an account of several women under the name of Olympiades.

There is another word in this same verse which is not doubtful, for the Accusative being Nopea, the Nominative must be Nnpeùs; a word which happens to be familiarly known to every beginner in Latin, as being the name of the fabled sea-deity, the father of fifty marine Nymphs, and as constantly occurring in the Latin poets; as for instance in Virgil, where we find it in several of its Greek cases, as Ner-eus, Ner-ei, Ner-e-a; and yet the Geneva translation has it Nereas. It was inadvertent in us last month when this word occurred at the end of a note upon the popular pronunciation of various words in our authorised version, that we did not think of, or turn to, the Greek text, which is Nŋpea (not Nηpɛov), though there is a Roman name Nerius, as we read in Horace. But the word in Romans is unquestionably the dissyllable Nereus; not Nereas, as the Geneva-English version gives it.

It involves no point of faith or practice whether we make these names masculine or feminine; but we ought to retain the true appellations, so far as we are able, as the Holy Ghost indited them by the inspired writers.

REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

REVIEW OF SYDNEY SMITH'S SERMONS.

Sermons preached at St. Paul's Cathedral, the Foundling Hospital, and several Churches in London; together with others addressed to a Country Congregation. By the late Rev. SYDNEY SMITH, Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's Cathedral. London, 1846.