A WESTERN newspaper bears under its title the legend, " This paper is printed for the people now on earth." Too many Inen and women in our churches, and out of them, seem to think that the Bible, and particularly the Old Testament, has a message for those who are not only " not of this world," but not in it. Even the Old Testament prophecies are read too much merely as history or as revealing the life of the times in which they were delivered. This is essential to a correct understanding of

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... r contents, but we should bear in mind that, while the events to which they refer may be "out of date," the principles laid down are not. These Old Testament reformers were commissioned to denounce the sins of the times and to pronounce divine truth for all time. The paraphrasing of Scripture is helpful, both because a passage must be carefully studied in order to express the thoughts in our own words, and because the attempt to paraphrase leads us to realize how much more is contained in the Scripture phraseology than in any words that we can choose. If we try this with the first chapter of the Gospel according to John, we shall not deceive ourselves into thinking that any paraphrase is equal to the original. Another exceedingly interesting and helpful method of bringing out the very pointed and practical character of the Old Testament prophecies, and also the eternal truths which they proclaim, is by bringing their prophecies " up to date. " Imagine Amos, for instance, living in our day, preaching in America, seeing evils similar to those which he denounced, and wishing to impress the same truths. How would he have talked? What particular evils would he have decried? What figures of speech would he have used? What nations would he have mentioned? 37I