Eastern versions of the Bible suffer the least. The Eastern habits and languages being, for obvious reasons, more stable than those of the West. But from the changes which have passed upon the languages of Europe, the vernacular versions, understood according to the present acceptation of their terms, frequently put into the mouth of the sacred writer propositions most foreign to his sense; and lead the unwary reader into false and hurtful conclusions. Strong examples might be adduced from our English Bible; but our limits forbid the detail.

Further. The art of printing has multiplied books, we had almost said, into a nuisance. The multiplication of books has, in its turn, vitiated the art of printing. It has sunk from an employment for talents and erudition, into a mere mechanical craft. The voracious demand for books rendered this unavoidable. United with the boundless circulation of the Scriptures, with the quick succession of editions, and with the low price at which the copies must be furnished for common use, it has increased the number of typographical errours beyond all count. Some of these are of such a nature as to pervert the meaning of the passage, yet to preserve grammar and sense, and to defy correction from the context. Let us mention a curious instance. In 1 Cor. vi. 4. The apostle says, "If ye have judgments of

things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the Church !" One of the editions has it, "set them to judge who are best esteemed." A glance at the original detects the mistake. But, setting this aside, no man could tell with certainty, whether we should read " least,' or "best;" and a hundred critical arguments might have been mustered to show that the wrong reading is the better.

Besides; there are many things, and those of importance, in every language, which disappear, or rather never appear in a translation. We know that this is doubted, denied, and even laughed at by many. We cannot help it. It is the privilege of ignorance to laugh; of insincerity, to misrepresent; and of captiousness, to doubt. Leaving them in the possession of their several honours, we combine the suffrages of all candid scholars. There is a colouring, a vivacity, a vigour, a comprehension, a pungency of idiom, a felicity of reference in the structure of a word or the peculiarity of a phrase, which never can be transferred. There is a clear opening of sense to an eye practised in the original, which a thick cloud mantles the moment it passes into a version. There is a precision of construction obvious to a scholar of taste, the causes of which are more a matter of feeling than of argument; and though perfectly decisive, are too delicate to be perceived by the

uncultivated sense. Yet, in their effects, they tinge and beautify the whole discussion of a subject.

In conclusion. The adversaries of evangelical truth and hope, are much addicted to the practice of assailing our faith through the medium of criticism. What they want in solidity, they make up in boldness and in show. When you press them with the subject, they will

criticise all your heavy

matter away into the thin air of metaphor; little concerned if, in following up their principle, they criticise God himself into a figure of speech. When you press them with a plain text, they will flout at the translation, abuse the translators, and hear nothing but the original. When you produce the original, as little to their comfort as the translation, they smell a corruption in the text, and it must be purged by manuscripts; any manuscript being good enough to amend or discard an orthodox expression. When the manuscripts are rebellious, which commonly happens, unphilosophical Christians as they are, they must receive the castigation of critical acumen, i. e. the guesses of an Arian or Socinian mender of the Bible, are to sway our consciences in the question of heaven and eternal life; or we are to be degraded from the rank of rational believers to the pitiable plight of bigots, fanatics, and simpletons.

To repress this effrontery, and to shield the

community from the assaults of this rabid fury; as well as to meet the several exigencies enumerated above, there is no effectual means but the living teacher skilled in the original tongues, and imbued with the correspondent learning. The times awfully demand it. And if such employment does not require a separate profession for the ministry, and able and educated men in it, there is not, and cannot be, a human occupation to which every human being is not always and every where equally competent.

239

CHURCH OF GOD.

No. X.

Ministry.-Qualifications.

To a critical knowledge of the original tongues, a scribe well instructed in the kingdom of God must add an extensive acquaintance with facts necessary for explaining scriptural subjects.

These facts are greatly diversified in their nature, and are to be gathered from various provinces of human research. The more immediately important may be classed under the general heads of historical and physical facts.

To the historical class belong

1. Annals; which record distinguished events, ecclesiastical, civil, political, military, commercial,

&c.

2. The government, resources, and institutions of a country.

3. The biography of famous individuals.

4. Public and private customs and manners.