The Massoretic text must of course be taken as the basis of any translation, but it must not be regarded with a superstitious reverence. The ancient versions, especially the Septuagint, must be employed to correct it; and even a temperate use of conjectural criticism must not be excluded. It may be said that these admissions will unsettle simple minds, and cause doubts as to the trustworthiness of the words of Holy Scripture. But nothing is gained by ignoring facts. It has not been part of the plan of Divine Providence to preserve the text either of the Old or of the New Testament wholly free from corruption. An element of uncertainty remains in both, far larger, we believe, in the Old Testament than in the New. Its use is to direct thought from the letter to the spirit, to counteract that letter-worship which has been and may still be a most fatal bar to a real and progressive understanding of the true meaning of the Scriptures. In our next number we hope to offer our readers some criticism of the Revised Version itself. For the present we will only say that first impressions are decidedly favourable. Extreme care has evidently been taken to preserve the archaic colouring of the language of the Authorized Version, and to avoid forming an incongruous patchwork. We may be most thankful that the English company resisted the solicitation of their American colleagues to introduce the modernizations of the English which are recorded in the Appendix. We are disposed to think that they have been somewhat too conservative, and that the best supported rendering has sometimes failed to do more than find a place in the margin. The different translations of identical phrases given by the Authorized Version have sometimes been allowed to stand, though no sufficient reason for the variation appears, at any rate on the surface. But the Revised Version cannot be studied without a growing feeling of gratitude to the Revisers for their long and laborious work, and the conviction that light has been thrown upon many obscure passages of the Old Testament, which may now be read in an intelligible form. The resolution passed by Convocation on the occasion of the presentation of the Revised Version to the Houses on April 30, will, we believe, meet with a general approval : 'That this House presents its hearty thanks to the learned Revisers of the Authorized Version of the Old Testament for the unwearied labour and singular diligence which they have expended during many years in carrying out the weighty task entrusted to them by Convocation. They desire to express their great gratitude to Almighty God for permitting so important a work to have been executed at this time, and they pray that it may be blessed by Him to the increase of the knowledge of His Holy Word by His people.' The comparison of a familiar passage from the principal versions is given, on pp. 458 and 459, to illustrate the gradual growth and development of the English Bible, for the sake of readers who have not access to copies of the various versions. The spelling, it need hardly be said, differs in every edition of the older versions. The Authorized and Revised are added for convenience of comparison. ART. XI. THE CLERGY PENSIONS Report of Committee on Clergy Pensions. (London, 1885.) IN a recent article on 'Clergy Pensions,' we brought our readers abreast of the steps taken, up to the date of its appearance, by the committee appointed at the meeting held in January last, under the presidency of the Archdeacon of Middlesex, to consider the whole subject. We purpose on the present occasion, after examining a quite new suggestion for providing a general pension fund, and touching a few points left for consideration in our former article, to put before those interested in the subject what we may regard as the practical outcome of this whole energetic movement-namely, the proposed immediate establishment on a sound and actuarially certified basis of a 'Clergy Pensions Institution,' from the operation of which, we are ready to believe, results in their special way as financially prosperous, and as widely beneficial, will accrue to the clergy (and to the Church of England through the clergy) as have followed the establishment, more than half a century ago-by the clergy themselves for the clergy themselves of the great Clergy Mutual Assurance Society, which embraces now amongst its members a very large proportion of all the ordained ministers of the Church of England. I. The new and interesting suggestion we have referred to, of a source whence a General Pensions Fund may be 1 Church Quarterly Review, No. 39, vol. xx., April 1885. drawn, reaches us in a short paper printed and distributed by the Archdeacon of Wells. In summarizing the Archdeacon's proposal, we must demur, in passing, to the opinion he expresses that it altogether discards the principle of a compulsory payment'; but this is a point which our readers will best settle for themselves. Briefly stated, then, the Archdeacon's fund would consist of the income of all livings during vacancy that is to say, all income accruing between the dates of an incumbent's death and of his successor's institution. That some considerable fund might arise from this source, if ever rendered available, is obvious; but its amount, we are inclined to believe, would in practice very greatly belie the first calculation of the scheme, and would be at least too uncertain and fluctuating to afford a sound basis of calculation. The Archdeacon, moreover, appears to calculate only on a pension of from 50l. to 60%. (though he adds the words 'and upwards'), and this amount, even if obtained, would go a very small way indeed towards inducing the resignation of any benefices, at all events above the value of, say, 100l. a year. We will give the outlines of the scheme in the author's own words, placing a reference letter to each of those different points of calculation to the uncertainty of which we shall have to call attention. 'The average annual value of each benefice in the Archdeaconry of Wells is 3351. (a). The average period of vacation is two months and fourteen days (b). The amount of income, therefore, that accrues between the avoidance of the late and the induction of the new incumbent is (in round numbers, two months and fifteen days) 697. 165. (c). Out of this sum payment has to be made for the services of a curate, say 251. (d); for accruing liability to rates and taxes, say 10%.; and for first-fruits, average 77. 8s., making a total payment of 427. 85. ; and leaving a balance of 277. 8s. This 'It is this balance which I propose shall be paid to a Diocesan Clergy Pension Fund. As there are twelve benefices vacant in the year (e), the total annual amount received would be nearly 330%. from Wells Archdeaconry alone. From the entire diocese, calculated on the same basis, the amount would be upwards of 700l. might be appropriated, in the first instance, for pensions to those incumbents who had resigned or proposed to resign their cures, under the provisions of the "Benefices Resignation Act" (ƒ). The amount awarded need not necessarily be the same in all cases. Regard should rather be had to the amount of pension received from the benefice. Nor should the pension be limited to incumbents only. The unbeneficed clergy also, who had served in the diocese for a certain number of years, might be considered eligible.' We are not concerned to dispute the advantage which might accrue from the application of these increments of livings to the purposes of a Pension Fund. The Archdeacon himself sees plainly our first difficulty, that he will be taking away a certain 'windfall' from each new entrant on a benefice just at the moment when he is likely very sorely to need it. For no one who knows the necessary outgoings involved in settling one's dilapidation accounts, and all current accounts in the parish he leaves, and the unavoidable drainage of his private resources in fees, cost of removal, and possible dilapidation responsibilities, to be met by peremptory cash payment into Queen Anne's Bounty office, all connected with the change of living, will imagine that the amount accruing between avoidance and induction to the living can be easily dispensed with by the new incumbent. He must either borrow other people's money, or sink some of his own in the exchange. This difficulty, however, may be set aside by the consideration that, after all, the men who will require eventually the pension of 50%. or 60l. will need it still more than the man who is entering upon an average income of 330%. We will not therefore impugn the principle laid down by the Archdeacon, but proceed to consider whether its practice is likely to prove by any means successful. Point (a) gives us the first occasion of doubt. The condition of the Archdeaconry of Wells is probably exceptional, including no great centre of population, subdivided as such centres generally are into a number of modern and poorly endowed benefices; and, therefore, it is plain at the first blush that the average value of livings in that archdeaconry is not a fairly calculable basis for the Church at large. We understand that the true average of value of all livings taken together is only 224/. per annum; or, as nearly as may be, two-thirds only of the Archdeacon's basis. If, then, we take 2247. as the initial value, and calculate the different items on each side of the account, even accepting the average length of avoidance of benefices at two and a half months, we shall find a final sum available very far indeed below that estimated by the Archdeacon to produce pensions of 50% to 60l. On this footing the account would stand thus. Average value of living, 224/.; average length of avoidance, two and a half months; average amount accrued during each avoidance, 467. 13s. 4d. From this, payment to curate, 25%; accruing taxes, 61. 10s.; average payment for first-fruits, 57.; together 36. 10s., to be deducted from a total average sum of 461. 13s. 4d. This would leave 10l. 3s. 4d. to provide pensions instead of 271. 8s.; and if the latter sum be rightly estimated to represent a general pension of 60l., the former would secure very little more than 20/ But we come now to another very serious qualification of the conditions assumed; for it is obvious that should anything occur tending to diminish the period of avoidance the available fund must be proportionally diminished. The Archdeacon puts the average length of avoidance at two and a half months; but a little consideration will show that this cannot be a constant in the calculation. Under present conditions it is the interest of an incumbent, when presented to a new living, presumably of higher value than the one he holds, to postpone his institution as long as he can, for the plain reason that till such institution he is entitled to the income of both livings, the one he vacates, and the one he receives. But, if the income of the new living be retained during vacancy for diocesan pensions, it becomes his interest, instead of delaying a day, to seek institution at the earliest possible moment, so that he may enter as soon as he can upon the larger income of his new living. In this case it is no unreasonable conjecture to say that a month instead of two months and a half would be much more like the average length to which avoidances of livings would be limited. Let us apply the Archdeacon's calculations to such an average period as this. Average net income of benefice, 2247. ; average period of avoidance, one month; average value of accruing income during avoidance, 187. 13s. 4d. From this, payment to curate, Iol.; accruing taxes, 27. 12s.; average first-fruits, 57; together, 177. 12s.; which deducted from 18. 13s. 4d., the average incomings, would only leave an available guinea on each avoidance, to form the nucleus of a pension fund. The consideration of one more point in this matter will show another source not so much of fluctuation as of obvious reduction in the amount to be expected. It is this, that the Archdeacon, while giving us the average number of vacancies occurring in his archdeaconry as twelve annually, has estimated the accruing income of all these on the average value of all the livings, while it is easy to see that, as a rule, the largest livings are the seldomest vacated, and consequently the aggregate amounts accruing during vacancy would be below the average of value assumed. The greater number of large livings are only vacated by death, while the smaller ones, in addition to the chance of the incumbent's demise, are also |