ORTHOEPIC NEW TESTAMENT: IN WHICH THE PRONUNCIATION OF EVERY LETTER IS SHOWN, WHETHER ENGLISH, LATIN, GREEK, OR HEBREW, WITHOUT ALTERING THE SPELLING. BY A METHOD PERFECTLY LEVEL TO THE CAPACITIES BY GEORGE KNIGHT, TEACHER OF ENGLISH, ELOCUTION, GEOGRAPHY, AND GRAMMAR ; EDINBURGH: THE EDINBURGH PRINTING AND PUBLISHING CO. GLASGOW: J. SMITH & SON; M. OGLE; AND W. COLLINS. PERTH: J. DEWAR. DUNDEE: F. SHAW; AND J. CHALMERS. ABERDEEN: BBOWN & CO.; L. SMITH; AND CLARK & SON. LONDON: WHITTAKER & CO. M.DCCC.XL. THE REV. ALEXANDER DUFF, D.D. MY DEAR SIR, CALCUTTA. 1 dedicate this book to you, with great affection as well as with much propriety. When you were in Scotland this year, I had the pleasure of receiving your approbation of the plan, the first idea of which occurred to me some years ago, on reading your very interesting pamphlet entitled, “A new Era of the English Language." It surprised and delighted me to find that the people of India, so wedded to their own customs and ancient superstitions, had become anxious to be made acquainted with the English Language and Literature. I was incited to try some method of lessening their labour in acquiring the pronunciation, by simplifying, and thus facilitating, the acquisition of that part of the language which is most difficult of attainment, and which bars the very entrance; while, by adhibiting the plan to the New Testament, the Word of God might be rendered the easiest, at the same time that it is the very best medium of communicating language. May we not hope that while employed in learning words which are merely signs, the Holy Spirit may infuse the knowledge of the things signified? It gives me much pleasure to acknowledge my obligations to you for the interviews which you were pleased to afford me amidst your various and overwhelming avocations, and for the kind letters which I received from you on this subject. That the blessing of the Almighty, which you invoked upon my labours, may continue to rest upon your unwearied exertions to promote the cause of our Gracious Redeemer, and the best interests of our fellow-creatures, both in time and eternity, is the fervent wish of, MY DEAR SIR, Yours very sincerely, GEO. KNIGHT. Edinburgh, Nov. 5, 1840. JOHN I. 1. IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD, AND THE WORD WAS WITH GOD, Ir the material system of the universe be glorious, and a knowledge of all its de partments important-much more glorious and important to be known in all its parts must be that moral system, for the sake of which alone the material fabric was reared; a system, throughout which the "Sun of Righteousness," as its centre, diffuses the light of heavenly wisdom, and the riches of heavenly joy. And with whatever pity or compassion the philosopher may feel himself entitled to look down upon the untutored peasant "Whose soul proud science never taught to stray, Far as the solar walk or milky way;" and for whom suns arise only to light him to his toils, and set only to leave him to recruit his exhausted strength; with much greater pity and compassion is that peasant, if he has been taught in the school of Christ, entitled to look down on the proudest name that ever science owned, if separated from the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus. A knowledge of the works of God our own unaided efforts are able to attain; a knowledge of God himself, none but God, manifest in the flesh, could reveal; and he surely is a woful monument of the utter perversion of the human mind, who prefers the former of these species of knowledge to the latter-and imagines that he ennobles himself, by extending our knowledge of the things that God has made, while he perhaps sneers at the man who, by studying the work of redemption, is seeking to extend our knowledge of God himself. If Christ be our Prophet, it is no longer a question whether the information which he came to give, be more important than any information which we could acquire without his advent. He has given us the revelation of God, and if we neglect it, or prefer any other knowledge to it, we do so at our peril. The gospel is not one of the things which, if it do us no good, will do us no harm. We must all account to Christ for the use which we have made of the knowledge given; and to each of us it will be the savour of life, or the savour of death. It will save us from our sins, or it will leave us without excuse. If Christ, therefore, be our Prophet, we are bound by the most sacred ties, and under the most fearful sanctions, to attend to his instructions with the most reverential regard; for surely it will not be said that he can be safe, who treats as a trifle that which God became incarnate to reveal. On the Incarnation of the Eternal Word, by the Rev. Marcus Dods. |