Of compensation. If we lose, we gain,
And if we gain, we lose. So rolls the world:
The hand of Justice holds the eternal scale.
If we are happy in the world's esteem
Perchance we have a secret sore within.
If great, we may behold a skeleton
Taking its place behind us at the board
To give us warning that the end shall be.
If we are sane, we feel our sanity

In care and sorrow and perennial toil.

If we are mad, just Heaven looks pitying down,
And sends us dreams that shame realities."

The practical inference of our theme is obvious:-be thankful. Take comprehensive views of things. Remember the bright as well as the dark side. God is wonderful in working and excellent in counsel. Praise ye the Lord.

Harlow.

T. R. S.

THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET HABAKKUK.

THERE is no mention of this prophet in any other portion of the Hebrew Scriptures. He himself gives no indication of time in his book, consequently the date can be determined only by comparing the subject of his prediction with the Jewish history. He foretells the invasion of the Chaldæans, and that as an unexpected, almost incredible thing (i. 5), he must therefore have prophesied long before that invasion,-before anything had happened to make the Hebrew rulers afraid of the King of Babylon. The beginning of his book is a prayer to God on account of the violence and oppression which the invasion was appointed to punish; and hence it might be inferred that he lived but a short time before the fulfilment of the threatening. But the statement in 2 Kings xxiv. 3, removes the necessity of this inference, and makes the prayer and prophecy of Habakkuk as suitable to the reign of Manasseh as to the reign of Jehoiakim. If he prophesied in the latter reign, it must have been in the earliest part of it, for Nebuchadnezzar came up against Jehoiakim before he had reigned seven years, and if so, it is strange that he makes no reference to the recent invasion by Pharaoh Nechoh, neither in rebuke of the obstinacy of the Jews, who would not learn from one chastisement, nor in illustration of the fierceness of the Chaldaeans. The expression in ii. 3, moreover, would be hardly appropriate in speaking of an oracle that was to be fulfilled in less than seven years, but would be necessary if

fifty years, embracing the reigns of Amon, Josiah, Jehoalaz, and Jehoiakim, were to elapse before the "set time" of the vision. It appears, then, that Habakkuk was amongst the prophets of the reign of Manasseh, mentioned in 2 Kings xxi. 10—15.

The style in which Habakkuk writes is another reason for assigning to him the earlier date. His poetry is of the highest order, and his language is that of the best age of Hebrew literature. His style corresponds with that of the earlier rather than that of the later prophets. It will bear comparison with Isaiah much better than Zephaniah's, though Zephaniah flourished in the early part of the reign of Josiah.

The book written by Habakkuk, an original translation of which is given below, contains:-—

I. A Prayer, respecting the corrupt state of the Hebrew

nation.

II. The Oracle, threatening the invasion, and describing the invaders.

III. The Prophet's prayer thereon, submitting that the Chaldæans were more unjust than the Hebrews. Also the prophet's determination to wait for a further revelation which he might "set against" the former.

IV. The Second Oracle, confirming the first, pointing out the safeguard of the just, and declaring, in addition, the future ruin of the invader.

V. An Ode, denouncing woe against three crimes of the Chaldæan, in three stanzas corresponding in form, each containing a denunciation, a statement, and a reason. The powerful line at the end of the Second Oracle is added by way of refrain.

VI. A Satire on Idolatry; with a demand for reverence in the presence of Jehovah.

VII. A Psalm, introduced and followed by a prayer by the prophet. The prophet alarmed by the "message" threatening the Chaldæan invasion, encourages himself by listening to a choral narrative of God's wondrous works of old:-1, the descent on Sinai and the journey through the wilderness; 2, the conquest of Canaan; and 3, the defeat of hostile attacks, and the arrival at the Great Sea. Then, confessing how he had "trembled" when he "heard,"-he, who ought to have been calm and confident in God,-the prophet professes his perfect faith, his triumph in Jehovah.

The aim of the translator has been to set this book before the English reader in the terseness and vigour of the original. Hence, the rendering is literal, the order of words has been preserved as strictly as possible, and no attempt has been made to soften the sudden changes of construction. It appears to the translator that many of the Hebrew inversions may be allowed,

and even preferred, in poetic English prose. The arrangement in parallelisms and stanzas is not artificial, but, it is hoped, is the natural representation of that rhythmic arrangement of the thoughts in which Hebrew poetry consists.

THE VISION WHICH HABAKKUK THE PROPHET SAW.

I.

How long, Jehovah, shall I implore,
And Thou dost not hear?

-Shall I cry out unto Thee, Violence!
And Thou dost not aid?

Why dost Thou show me fraud?
And grievance dost gaze upon?

And oppression and violence are before me,
And there is strife, and contention rises.

And so benumbed is the law,

And judgment doth never issue,

Because the violent is environing the righteous,
And so issues judgment perverted.

II.

Look among the nations! and gaze,
And wonder-yea, wonder!

For a work I work in your days;

-Ye will not believe when it is told.

For lo! I raise up the Chaldæans,

The nation bitter and impetuous,

That marches through the breadth of the earth
To seize habitations not its own.

Terrible and dreadful is he ;

From himself his judgment and his decree issue ;—
And swifter than leopards are his horses,

And keener than wolves of evening,

And proudly leap his horsemen.

And his horsemen from far do come,

They fly as an eagle hastes to devour ;
The whole nation comes for violence,
The crowd of their faces is the sirocco,
And gathers as the sand captives.

And he at the kings does scoff,

And princes are a jest to him;

He at every fortress jests,

And casts up earth and captures it.

Then he goes on in his thought and transgresses and

becomes guilty,

This his might becoming his god.

III.

Art Thou not from everlasting, Jehovah?
My God, my Holy One,-let us not die!

O Jehovah, for judgment Thou hast constituted him,
And, O Rock, for chastisement Thou hast appointed him.

Purer eyes hast Thou than to look upon evil,

And gaze at grievance Thou canst not:

Why gazest Thou at plunderers?

Actest dumb when the wicked devours The more righteous than he?

And makest man as the fish of the sea

As the creeping thing, which has no protector? All of them with the hook he pulls up,

He sweeps them with his net,

And gathers them with his seine :

And so he is glad and rejoices,
And so he sacrifices to his net,

And burns incense to his seine,

Because by them dainties are his portion,
And his food is rich.

And so shall he empty out his net,

And continually to slay the nations never spare?

At my post I will stand,

And will set myself upon my citadel,

And I will watch to see what He will reveal to me,
And what I shall set against my complaint,

IV.

And Jehovah answered me and said :

Write the vision and engrave it on tablets,

That one may run in reading it;

For still the vision is for a set time,

It hastens to the end, and does not deceive,

Though it tarry, wait for it;

For it surely comes; it does not delay.

Behold, the proud, his soul is not tranquil in him,

But the just in his trust shall live.

And moreover (write) that through wine he is a plunderer, An insolent man, and does not rest;

Who enlarges, as the grave, his appetite,

แ

And he is like death, and is not satisfied;

But gathers to himself all the nations,

And seizes for himself all the peoples;

Will not these, all of them, take up a song upon him,

And a satire-proverbs about him, and say?—

Woe to him acquiring what is not his!-how long?

And increasing for himself the store of pledges."

Will they not suddenly rise up, usurers for thee?
And awake, distraining on thee?

And thou wilt be for booty to them?
Since thou spoilest many nations,

All the remainder of the peoples shall spoil thee

sometimes make known their wants as decisively and emphatically as if the lips moved and the tongue spoke. To take another exemplification of physical compensation: it is well known that many suffer from colour-blindness. The nice distinctions in shade, the delicate differences in various hues, are lost upon them. Sometimes the defect in vision is so great that they cannot distinguish green from brown, or pink from blue. We have known such instances within our own circle of acquaintances. That this is a hindrance to much æsthetic pleasure, and even a serious disqualification for certain branches of commerce, as that of a draper, every one must acknowledge. But it is a curious fact that colour-blindness is frequently counterbalanced by remarkable aptness in appreciating beauty of form. The man, therefore, who is not able fully to appreciate a painting, can do full justice to a statue or a piece of sculpture.

Referring once to the topic of these remarks, a friend asked us if we had noticed the amiability of deformed and crippled persons. We replied that we had not. Taking the hint, however, we examined into the matter, and the result is that we are compelled to confirm the observation. As far as our own experience goes, we have usually found that bodily malformation is often counterbalanced by social and domestic excellencies. The poor

creature that jerks along on unequal legs, or has a humped back, or has lost a useful limb by disease or accident, generally has a kind heart. Such are usually cheerful, too. Some of the happiest human beings we have met with have been confirmed invalids. We remember one especially. She had been confined to her house, a helpless cripple, for nearly two score years; she was poor; she often had severe pain. And yet she always seemed content, and we have, again and again, gone from her door self-condemned that with health and activity we were not so thankful.

That physical suffering is often a blessed moral culture and an effective spiritual helper we all know. Cases are by no means uncommon in which sickness of body has led to health of soul. The outward man has suffered that the inward man might be " renewed day by day."

2. As respects social position and pecuniary possessions there is compensation. We are not about to enter on a crusade against money. Wealth is good. Pounds, shillings, and pence are not to be sneered at as necessary evils. They may be the means of bringing almost every kind of blessing, therefore they are not to be denounced, as some folk would have us believe. It is quite time we had done with the senseless tirades which ever and anon are raised against what, in itself, is a boon. Nevertheless, if the rich occupy a vantage ground from which the poor are excluded, the poor are not altogether without compensation.