of the
Church, where this is desired by clergy and people, is not open to any
well-founded objection, and will tend to promote a more intelligent
knowledge of Holy Scripture"? And further, was not this adopted by the
Lay House of our Province, even when a few doubting voices were heard
{123}, and an interpretation given to the word "use," in the form of a
rider, which, I can confidently say, never entered into the minds or
thoughts of the members of the Upper House? Indeed, though I do not wish
to criticise the decision of the House of Laymen, their appended words of
interpretation fall to the ground. If "use" is to mean "occasional
employment of Lessons from the Revised Version, where, in the interest of
more accurate translation, it is desirable," can any Lessons be found
where the interest of more accurate translation is not patently
concerned? If this be so, what meaning can we assign to "occasional
employment"?

We see then plainly, if we are to be guided by the judgement of the
venerable body to whom the authoritative inception of Revision is alone
to be assigned, that the way to its use in the Public Services of the
Church is open to us all--_where such use is desired by clergy and
people_. Now let us take these words seriously into our consideration.
They clearly mean, however good the Version may be, that there is to be
no sudden and precipitate use of the Revised Version in the appointed
Lessons for the day on the part of the minister of any of our parishes.
If introduced, its introduction must not be simply when it is desired by
the clergyman, but when it is also desired by his people. So great a
change as the displacement of the old and familiar Authorised
Version--for it amounts to this--in the public reading of Holy Scripture
in the Services of the Church, in favour of an altered form of the old
Version (though confessedly so altered that the general hearer would
hardly ever recognize the displacement)--so great a change ought not to
be made without the knowledge, and further, the desire of the
congregation.

But how is the desire for the change to be ascertained? So far as I can
see, there can be only one real and rightful way of bringing about the
desire and the manifestation of it, and that is by first of all showing
simply and plainly how, especially in the New Testament, the alterations
give life, colouring and reality to the narratives of Evangelists, force
and lucidity to the reasonings of