An Earnest Farmer. The inhabitants are chiefly members of the Greek Church, though there are some Roman Catholics, and above a third of the population are Jews, who have 200 synagogues in Jassy. A traveller gives an interesting account of the observance of the Day of Atonement by the modern Jews, as he saw it in Jassy : "About six in the evening we went to two of the largest Synagogues to see the ceremonies of the Day of Atonement concluded. When the sun is setting the Jews pray for the last time, and their crying out is intense, far beyond all their previous supplications; for if they do not obtain pardon of their sins before the stars appear, they believe that they have no hope of obtaining forgiveness for that year. "When about to utter their last prayer a trumpet was sounded like that of the New Year, but only one blast. Then all was over! and forth they came to the light of the risen moon, pouring like a stream from the Synagogue. They stood in groups, all turning their faces toward the moon; for they believe that the spots in the moon are the Shecinah. Each group had a lighted candle, to enable one of their number to read the prayer addressed to the Shecinah in the moon. Some held up their hands, others roared aloud, and all showed by their gestures the intense feeling of their heart. "It was a grotesque scene, to stand amid such a company, each in his high furcap, the tallith round his shoulders, and, generally, his beard flowing over the book he was reading. As we looked upon the crowds of worshippers that filled the spacious court of the Synagogue, and saw their white eyes ever and anon turned up toward the bright moon, we were reminded of the days when the fathers of these singular people forsook the worship of Jehovah and served Baal and Ashteroth and made cakes to the queen of heaven' (Judges ii. 13; Jeremiah vii. 18). "This service being done they appeared as if relieved from the pressure of an overwhelming load, for they had fasted and prayed for twenty-four hours, and they now dispersed in all directions. Many went homewards singing with great glee in the open streets, and shouting aloud to each other Peace to thee, and peace to thee." This is said to be done because their sins are now forgiven. How little they know of pardon, obtained by God's method of justification, which would sanctify and draw the sinner's heart to Him, instead of making it return to folly. 'There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared.' It is not unusual for these Jews to meet the same night in their Synagogue and be merry together, and we soon after saw several public houses open, at whose door we could look in, and there were Jews sitting together drinking rakee, and singing merrily. Thus ended the Day of Atonement. Alas! how changed from the solemn day when the high priest entered into the holiest of all! During the whole ceremony we observed that the people of the town never interrupted them in any manner." An Earnest Farmer. OME forty years ago there dwelt in the village of Longtown, in the county of Hereford, a farmer of the name of Powell. It was a time when the Church of God in this land had not yet awoke to her great mission, and, asleep herself, she allowed God's poor to slumber too. So it happened that at Longtown there was neither pastor nor church; and men lived and died as if there was no God, no eternal and unseen world, no spiritual kingdom. But Mr. Powell was a . sincere believer and an earnest Christian man. So, when he came to his new farm in this neglected spot, his soul was stirred within * A white woollen shawl striped with blue at the edges and having white fringes at the four corners, which the Jews wear over their head during prayer, while they hold the fringes in their hands and frequently kiss them in obedience to the commandment" Speak unto the children of Israel and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments" (Numbers xv. 38). him with a holy grief, as he saw the people living like heathen, and wholly given to covetousness. He at once determined to do his utmost to bring to this forsaken village the means of grace and the hope of glory. He put himself in communication with the Bishop of the Diocese, twice walking a distance of forty miles on purpose to see him. He started a subscription-list for a church, heading it with a very large sum, for him; a sum, in fact, representing three years' profit of his farm. Then by his untiring zeal, through his strong and urgent representations, such as even the most heedless were unable to resist, he succeeded in raising enough to build a church. The work was commenced, and there arose the walls of a little Bethel-a House of God-where never House of God had been before. Rude and plain was the architecture, but it was all they could afford; and it was enough. At length the day long looked forward to by this noble-hearted farmer, the day of the consecration of his church, dawned on the village of Longtown. Powell rose at daybreak-rose with a joyful heart, as of one whom the Lord had prospered. Forth he set, and far he walked over the mountains by a pathless way to a distant village. There he called at the house of a stone-cutter. "Morgan," he said, looking in at the door, "is the cross ready?" "Yes," was the reply, "it is ready; but I'm afeared you'll find it heavy to carry so far." And he gave it to him. It was a plain stone cross, which the stone-cutter had wished to give as a present to the new church. Light it certainly was not, but the farmer little heeded its weight. He remembered One who had borne a far heavier cross for him; aye, and for him, too, had hung bleeding there. So he joyfully carried the sacred symbol of redeeming love away over the hills to Longtown, and entering his beloved church, with his own hands he placed it over the Holy Table. Then turning to those who stood by, he said, "Now I shall die happy." He died within a year of that day, and "died happy, doubtless," added our informant; "for the latter end of his life was in keeping with the rest." His history appears to illustrate in a striking way how much one man, unaided by resources or by opportunities-nay, opposed on all hands, if not by active hostility, yet by the stone wall of dead indifference can accomplish for the glory of his God, and the extension of Christ's kingdom. It also proves the truth of the words of Holy Scripture, that "the memory of the just is blessed;" for the memory of this righteous man is still revered and cherished in that village, which he was the means of so largely blessing. And still, whenever a new scheme of usefulness is proposed, should the people show a lack of interest in it, or a slowness to forward it, the clergyman needs but to remind them of Mr. Powell, and the mere mention of his name is enough to quicken their zeal. And so the good farmer's memory, like light on the Western sky, continues to cheer and warm the hearts of men; and the remembrance of his faith and goodness provokes to love and to good works. "Being dead, he yet speaketh." R. L. B. On the Origin and History of the Bible. BY DENHAM ROWE NORMAN, VICAR OF MIDDLETON BY WIRKSWORTH. Thy Word is like a flaming sword, O'er all the earth, To shatter all the might of sin, The darkened heart to cleanse and win. Lyra Germanica. HE stirrings of religious life, which were much more frequent and wide-spread than is commonly supposed during the Early and Middle Ages, were beneficial in more ways than one. These constant revivals yielded fruits of varied kinds. Not the least important by any means was the increase of zeal in spreading abroad amongst the inhabitants of some new country the doctrines of Christianity, or in the somewhat kindred task of translating into some fresh vernacular language the Books of Holy Scripture. "Who would credit,' exclaims St. Jerome, that the barbarous Gothic tongue should seek the truth of the Hebrew; and while the Greek is dozing or quarrelling, the German should be searching out the sayings of the Holy Spirit?' Again, in another letter, speaking of the spread of truth, he says, 'Lo, the Armenian puts away his quiver, the Huns are learning the Psalms, the frosts of Scythia gleam with the warmth of faith, the armies of the Goths carry along with them the tabernacles of the Church!' Not long after the Latin Version had been sent on its errand by its learned author, there was a cry for the reproduction of its joyous news in other languages and dialects; and most fortunately for the happiness of mankind, there were raised up from time to time men able to satisfy to some extent these yearnings and cravings for the Word of Life. 6 In our own country, where, as we learn from a remark of King Alfred, the ministers of God were earnest both in preaching and in learning,' this desire for Holy Writ in the native tongue was strong and constant; but, as may be imagined, there were at first great difficulties in the way. The mixture of races in this island had brought about such changes in the language, that even, if a willing and competent scholar had undertaken the task of translation, his work would not have been understood by vast numbers of the people. The words quite familiar to the ears of the southern population would have been as an unknown tongue to the inhabitants of Wales and the northern counties. The restless, warlike character of the Saxons, the terrible incursions of the Danes, would greatly hinder the work of translation, and damp even the most ardent desires for the fulfilment of such a task. But even in those dark and terrible days there were those who did not yield to despair -who rather hoped against hope, that ere long the much wished-for treasure would come to their relief. Centuries before, Ulfilas had given to the Goths a translation of Holy Writ in their own tongue; would not some one come forth and give to the Saxons a similar boon? The earliest attempt to satisfy the yearnings of our Saxon ancestors which is known to us, is that which was made by a monk of the Abbey of Whitby, whose name was Cadmon, about the year A.D. 680. This holy man spent a great portion of his life in turning into poetry many parts, if not the whole, of the Bible. In these verses the language of Holy Scripture is often translated into Saxon with a near approach to accuracy; but still, as we may suppose, when tied down to compose a poem or sacred hymn in a certain metre, the translation would often hardly be a correct representation of the sacred text. Some faint idea may be formed of the kind of work which Cadmon did from those metrical versions of the Creed and Lord's Prayer, to be found in Prayer-books of a certain age, as for instance THE LORD'S PRAYER. First Metre. Our Father, who in heaven art, Still, there was a commencement a first endeavour to present, in however imperfect a form, the truths of Holy Scripture in the Saxon tongue. In this relic of antiquity we have a witness to the fact that there were some few, at least, in that wild and lawless age, who were striving to enlighten their countrymen by means of God's Word (Psalm exix. 130). Some years later a smaller, but more exact work, was undertaken by a religious-minded hermit, whose name was Guthlac, of Crowland. He confined himself to the translation of the Psalms into what is called the Anglo-Saxon language, and so great a repute did this little work obtain, that a copy is supposed to have reached Rome. Indeed, some who are well able to form an opinion on such a matter have gone so far as to assert, from certain indications, that a copy of this Saxon Psalter was one of the many books which Gregory the Great sent to Augustine soon after his arrival in England on his missionary enterprise, A.D. 600. A work of this sort would be of immense use to men who came as strangers, enabling them almost at once to hold intelligible spiritual converse with the people whom they had come to instruct and build up the knowledge of God. in Early in the eighth century, about the year A.D. 706, Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, in Dorsetshire, a very learned and holy man, devoted himself to the work of translating the Psalms into AngloSaxon. Nor is this the only good deed which this saintly scholar performed. There are many reasons for thinking that he did a great share of the work in rendering into the vernacular the whole of the Books of Scripture. Within the present century a copy of a Saxon Bible has been found in the Imperial Library at Paris, which in all probability was written about the time when Aldhelm lived; and from sundry identifying notes, there is every reason to conclude that he helped to produce that translation. A translation of the Holy Gospels into Saxon was made by Origin and History of the English Bible. Egbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, who died about the year A.D. 721. A few years later, the Venerable Bede, the Church historian, in the closing days of his life, spent a portion of his time in translating into his native tongue the Gospel according to St. John. The letter in which St. Cuthbert, his young assistant, describes the completion of this last labour of his aged friend and master, on [KING ALFRED TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES.] Ascension Day, May 26, 735, is one of the most touching and pathetic anecdotes of Church history. Bede is represented as spending his dying breath in dictating to his scribe the words of the last chapter of St. John, which he was anxious to complete before his decease. The labours, great as they were, which Bede had borne on behalf of his well-loved Church, were not sufficient if he could not furnish some small portion of God's truth in his native tongue for the comfort and instruction of his countrymen. It is stated that Bede, at an earlier period of his life, had translated the Lord's Prayer and the Psalms into Saxon; but as neither |