By the Rev. NEIL MACINTYRE, Glendale.
(Continued from page 146.)
THE next translation which appeared was the “Geneva Bible.” This Bible was the first complete translation from the original languages into English. During the bloody reign of Queen Mary, whose pronounced Romanism cost many a saint of God life and liberty, a number of godly and learned men fled to the continent, and in Geneva found a home and welcome. Amongst the number of refugees were Whittingham, whose wife was Calvin’s sister; Coverdale, the indefatigable Bible translator; John Knox, “who never feared the face of man,” and many others. They at once commenced a new translation of the Bible, and in 1557 the New Testament was completed. In 1560 the whole Bible appeared, and soon became exceedingly popular—rapidly passing through, we are told, more than a hundred editions. It was addressed to “The brethren in England, Scotland, and Ireland,” and was first published in quarto size, but afterwards was sent out in various sizes. On account of the rendering of Genesis iii. 7, “They sewed fig-tree leaves together and made themselves breeches,” this Bible came to be nicknamed “The Breaches Bible.” The popularity of this Bible may be estimated from the fact that it was printed and circulated frequently for more than thirty years after the publication of the authorised version of 1611.
About eight years after the Geneva Bible was published, a revision of the “Cranmer,” or “Great Bible,” appeared, and was called the “Bishop’s Bible.” This name originated from the fact that Archbishop Parker, of Canterbury, was the master-mind in the preparation of this revision, assisted by about fifteen scholarly men. Various portions of “Cranmer’s Bible” were assigned to these learned men, the whole being subject to the Bishop’s own personal supervision. It was used in the Churches for many years. The last edition of it was published about 1606, but when the Authorised Version appeared, it soon fell into general disuse.
In passing, we may draw the attention of our readers to the “Douay Bible,” which Bible is used by the Roman Catholic Church. The priests being baffled in their efforts to stop the circulation of the Word of God, resolved to execute a version of their own. Accordingly, William Allyn, Gregory Martyn, and Richard Bristow translated and printed at Rheims, in 1582, the New Testament. This translation was made from the Vulgate, and has all the defects of that translation. In 1609 the whole Bible was completed and printed at Douay, by Laurence Killam. Hence the name “Douay Bible.” Words and expressions are often used in it with a view to gain scriptural countenance for Romish doctrines rather than to set forth the true meaning of Scripture. For example, the word “repent” is translated “penance.” Mary is said to be “full of grace” instead of “highly favoured” (Luke i. 28). Jacob is said to have “adored the top of his rod” instead of “leaning upon the top of his staff.” This version was no doubt originally intended to counteract the Geneva Bible, but it had little success.
We have considered the different versions of the Bible presented to the English-speaking people, which now, to a large extent, are left behind and fallen into disuse. The “Authorised Version,” which falls next to be noticed, has stood the test of three hundred years, and is as popular to-day in our midst as ever.
The history of our “Authorised Version” is rather interesting. In the year 1604 a conference was held, known as the “Hampton Court Conference,” to consider the grievances complained of by the Puritans. Little was done, however, to meet their difficulties, but in the course of the proceedings the Puritan Dr. Reynolds proposed a new version of the Bible. It was felt by all parties that sooner or later an entirely new version must be prepared, and the King’s (James I.) cordial approval of Dr. Reynold’s proposal silenced any opposition from the conformist party. The measures adopted to secure a new version of the Holy Scriptures were of the most complete and satisfactory kind. A Committee of fifty-four (forty-seven only acted) were appointed, among whom were Drs. Reynolds, Andrews, and Myles Smith, and others hardly less celebrated for their learning. Of this Committee fifteen met at Cambridge, fifteen at Oxford, and seventeen at Westminster. Their method of working was as follows:—Each member took a chapter, wrote out all the changes he thought necessary, and at the next meeting of his company he read out his suggestions. Then a general discussion followed, and what appeared best to all would be taken.
In 1611, the result of seven years’ labour, the “Authorised Version” appeared. It is unrivalled for its simplicity, for its force and vigour of language. It is, in fact, a compendium of literary excellencies, and what is still better, a faithful and accurate translation of the very words of the Holy Ghost. Dr. Myles Smith was appointed to write a preface which is not now printed in our Bibles. A sentence may here be given from the preface. It says—”They trusted in Him that hath the key of David, opening and no man shutting; they prayed to the Lord, ‘O let Thy Scriptures be my pure delight, let me not be deceived in them, neither let me deceive by them.'”
On the whole, the wise measures adopted, and the number and character of the translators engaged in the work, inspired general confidence, while the translation itself—so accurate, so artless, yet withal so vigorous in style and diction, commanded universal love and respect, and has continued to do so for now nigh three hundred years. The “Bishop’s Bible,” and the “Geneva Version” which was in use when the “Authorised Version” appeared, soon went out of date and fashion.
We now come to the last Version of the English Bible, which is called the Revised Version. It was issued in the year 1881. The movement for a revision of the Authorised Version commenced on May 6, 1870, in the Convocation of Canterbury. In preparing this version, a Committee was appointed composed of members from England and Scotland. These met regularly in the Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster. Soon after the formation of the English Committee, another was organised in America for the same purpose, and in conjunction with the English one. The American Committee met in the Bible House, New York. Both Committees were in constant and confidential correspondence, so that, as far as possible, there might be mutual agreement in the results of their combined labours. Both the English and the American Committees were divided into two sections, one having the Old and the other the New Testament. The English company on the Old Testament consisted of twenty-seven members, with Dr. E. H. Browne as chairman. The New Testament company consisted of twenty-five, Dr. Ellicott, Gloucester, acting as chairman. The American Committee on the Old Testament consisted of fourteen members, Professor W. H. Green, of Princeton, chairman. On the New Testament Committee there were thirteen members, with Dr. T. D. Woolsey, New Haven, Conn., chairman.
No doubt there were able and scholarly men on both Committees, but it is questioned by many competent persons if the Revised Version is an ample reward for all the time and scholarship spent upon it. It certainly does not bear the marks of the piety and manifest reverence for the Word of God which distinguished the revisers and translators of the Authorised Version, and to all appearance it will never come to be regarded as anything more than a critical help to the study of the sacred Scriptures. Its irritating and needless changes grate upon the ear of the reader, and even in making useful corrections it has failed to maintain the grace of that style which characterises the Authorised Version.
Dean Burgon, who, it may be said, gave its death blow to the Revised Version, in dedicating his book, “The Revision Revised,” to the Hon. Viscount Cranbrook, says, “My one object has been to defeat the mischievous attempt which was made in 1881 to thrust upon this Church and realm a revision of the sacred text which I am thoroughly convinced, and am able to prove, is untrustworthy from beginning to end.” Again he says, “It is to me simply unintelligible how a company of scholars can have spent ten years in elaborating such a very unsatisfactory production.” And again, “The revisers are observed to separate off the last twelve verses of the Gospel of Mark from their context, in token that they are no part of the genuine gospel.”
In view of all this, it is safe to say that the last attempt at a revision of our Authorised Version has been a complete failure, and we trust that many years will pass ere another attempt is made to improve it.
The Duty of Giving Away
A STATED PROPORTION OF OUR INCOME.
By WILLIAM ARTHUR, A.M.[^2]
(Continued from page 143.)
I PLEAD FOR THE GOSPEL’S SAKE, that it may be fitly represented. That is not its own word; but one almost fears to use its own, it is so strong. “That ye may adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour in all things.” Adorn that doctrine! See it so pure, so bright, lovely in the likeness of its Author, and then say where is the life that is to be to it, not a veil to dim its beauties, not a spot to mar its charm, but an ornament—what a jewel is to the brow of a fair woman, an attraction for eyes and admiration!
Where is the life that really adorns the gospel? Surely it is not that of a man who calls himself a Christian, and yet to whom no one will turn in his need, as to a certain friend, for body or for soul. Alas for that man from whose door a neighbour in distress instinctively turns away; to whom collectors in any holy work never think of going! Oh, who would rest under a roof upon which no man’s blessing comes? Not long ago one rich man was letting a splendid seat to another rich man, and, mistaking the character of his customer, he stated, among the many attractions of the place, this great attraction—”And their are no charities!” Ah! lay not your dying head on that man’s pillow!
I plead for the gospel’s sake, that it may be diffused. The Lord’s commission is, that we “go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” “To every creature!” Let us remember this injunction. While a human being lives to whom the good tidings of great joy have never been told, our commission is not executed. How much has been done already towards its execution? Half the race of man, and more, are this day without preachers of the gospel! And even within Christian lands, numbers of holy works for which the need is reproachfully plain remain undone, because the Church of God is not sufficiently self-denying to give the means. It is easy to sympathise with missions; to applaud earnest speeches, and kindle with lively hymns.
But listen! the winds are sweeping, and have been sweeping from the beginning, over the peaks of the Himalaya and on the shores of Lake Tsad. Now it is the rustle of the breeze, now the shock of the tempest ; but listen ! Does either sound on the ear of the heathen the name “JESUS?” The waves are rolling, and from the beginning have been rolling, on the shores of Fiji and of Japan ; but does either the gentle ripple, or the boom of the mighty wave, sound the word “Mercy?”
No ; if the story is to be told, it must be told by the voice of living men. And whence are the means to come, to send forth messengers to tell the tidings of grace “to every creature?” Dr. Morgan, in his Essay, has said that some such change as was effected in science by the discovery of gravitation, or in mechanics by that of steam, would be effected in the powers of the Church for good by the general adoption of the observance for which we plead. And whether we look at your wealthy Establishments or our poorer Societies, it is certain that were all their members but brought up even to the practice of giving a tenth, then would the ability of your Establishments to flood the earth with Christian agencies be increased to the astonishment of mankind ; while our Societies, though in a lower degree, would put on a new and hitherto unheard of, might.
We are drawing near to the hour when we shall take flight from this shore for another. At whatsoever moment we depart, many other souls, from all lands, will be departing too Who would wish that in the flight of souls of which he will be one, the majority should be of those who had never heard of Jesus? If this is not to be our case, if that name is to sound on all ears, and to be invoked in all tongues, up and be earnest ! Spare not your goods, that the poor in soul may be rich at last.
I plead—reverently it must be said—FOR THE LORD’S SAKE. It is true that all idea of giving a benefit to Him is for ever excluded. “Is it any gain to him that thou makest thy ways perfect?” The sun He has set in our firmament has rejoiced our world from Adam until now. On him all its beauty and its life depend. Now that he is hidden, the rose has no blush, the lily no whiteness, the meadow no green ; a cheerless gloom reduces them all to sameness. To-morrow when he reappears, all the beauties of the landscape will come forth anew. Suppose that then we were all seized with an impulse of admiration, and desired to show how much we valued his services to man, not all the powers of our race could send him up a ray to make him grander.
He is the emblem of His Maker. In one eternal outflood benefits stream from Him upon His creatures. Life, joy, redemption—all come from Him. After ages of daily debt, were all our race this moment seized with a passion of gratitude—did every human heart ask, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits?” then, though every bosom throbbed, and every hand strained, we could not add one ray to His glory, one step to the elevation of His throne, one hairbreadth to the extent of His dominions, or one moment to the duration of His reign. Inhabiting eternity, He sits “in the high and the holy place,” as far above our power to benefit as to injure Him, equally incapable of accession and decay.
Yet He intrusts to us interests that are dear to Him ; and, therefore—
I plead for the Lord’s sake, that His image may be worthily reflected.
The inanimate works of His hand tell much of His strength and skill ; the lower animals much of His wisdom to contrive and His might to control : but all this they tell not to themselves, but to their superior—man. They are but works of His, not children, who can show His image, or be “partakers of the Divine nature.” From them man can learn nothing as to his Maker’s mind on moral questions, on the points wherupon the deepest anxieties of the conscience turn—right and wrong, justice, pardon, judgment, and the future. It is only through man that his fellow-men can see the image of God—man, that wonderful creature whose complex nature unites the lowest to the highest worlds, bringing matter, animal and spirit, into one being—a being who, on one extreme, is equal with the clod, and on the other, by the communing of the Spirit, reaches to the throne of the Highest. In him, and in him alone, the image of the holy God may be so reflected that men here shall learn to “glorify their Father who is in heaven.”
But how does he reflect this image who, professing to be a child of God, is yet known to delight in holding and in storing, but to feel a pain in giving ? Nothing can be more strictly opposite to the Divine nature than this. The unceasing action of that nature is to pour out unrequited bounties. Return or gain it knows not ; and so does it delight in bounty, that no man gives to another in the Lord’s name, but He counts the deed as done to Himself. Blessed is that human being in whose goodness some mind first discerns glimpses of the goodness of God !
I plead for the Lord’s sake, that His claims may be vindicated.
I have already said that many who are willing to look upon Him as God of the world to come feel as if this world’s property was not so directly His and under His hand. For the Creator’s glory and the creature’s rest, it is needful that all be taught that the gold and silver, the harvest’s yield, flocks, herds, and fisheries, are all His property ; that whatsoever man has in his hand is there only in trust and stewardship, not created nor yet retained by his power ; that a Hand unseen can at any moment empty his hand, and a Mind unseen blight the fruit of a life’s prudence by the mistake of a day. Go, then, and assert the Lord’s claims ; go and teach man’s stewardship, not in word, but in deed. Steadily devote the first-fruits of all wherewith you may be entrusted to holy uses. Let your daily actions say in your neighbour’s ears, ” Freely ye have received, freely give !”
I plead for the Lord’s sake, that His due praise may be rendered.
In speaking of the effect of Christian liberality, St. Paul tells us that it does not stop at those who are benefited, but passes on, in a certain sense, to the Lord Himself—”abounds by many thanksgivings to God.” To abound does not mean to suffice, but to more than suffice; not only to fill a vessel, but to wave out, or overflow from it. Thus, when an act of Christian goodness fills a suffering heart with joy, it not only thanks the human hand that comforts it, but overflows in the words, “THANK GOD.” There is an ear, an open ear, which never closes to the cry of want; but when it listens from heaven to the children of men, to hear if there be any that thank God, often it listens in vain—often hears praises for the creature, murmurs and blasphemies for the Creator. Oh, would you count it a little thing if, through your own deeds, that ear ever and anon heard a fervent “Thank God?” Of all the hands that make melody, none raises such music as his whose touch on the heart-keys of the despairing changes a murmur into a thrilling “Thank God!” Give, then, freely give, that some poor man who was ready to think that charity was dead on earth and mercy in heaven, may bless you; and, feeling that it was God who sent you to his side, may cry, “Thank God!” Give, freely give, that the sons of heathen fathers, of cannibals and demon-worshippers, may make scenes which have echoed only to whoop or yell, or din of orgies, resound with the Christian “Praise God!”
I PLEAD FOR YOUR OWN SAKE, that you may prosper. The habit of stedfastly giving first-fruits of all you receive, tends to prosperity, by the double force of a natural means and a Divine blessing. As a natural means it works by promoting order and economy. One reason why many tradesmen fail is that they do not, in due time and with sufficient frequency, ascertain precisely where they are. He who is determined that all his increase shall pay its first-fruits to the glory of his Saviour must ascertain what that increase is. Again: one reason why many persons of fixed income are miserably before their means, is because they have never carefully apportioned to each branch of their expenditure its due share of their income. Were one portion held sacred, on which no claim whatever should touch, an efficient check would be set up against random living.
The habits of order and economy thus acquired would work together with the blessing which is assured to him who honours the Lord with the first-fruits of all his increase. That a man living steadily up to this principle will prosper I have no manner of doubt. The very night before I left London, I asked a valued friend of mine who had adopted the principle of giving away a tenth in early life, and whom the prospering hand of God had raised from humble beginnings to a position of great and valuable influence, if he ever knew a case in which a man had set out on that principle, and persevered in it, and then failed in life. He answered, “Not one.”
Worldly men are often led to doubt whether a blessing does attend the labour of a pious man; for they see men who profess religion suddenly brought down. But they must ask whether these men have been faithful to their religion. It often happens that one who begins life well, and is liberal while he has little, yields to that fatal tendency, which is strong in all, to love money in proportion as it increases. As they become richer in hand, they become poorer in heart. As they acquire more they give less. Since coming on this platform (Dublin), a letter has been put into my hand, referring to a case of one who had when poorer been in the habit of giving a pound to a certain good work; now that he is wealthy he gives half-a-crown. And only the other day I heard of a miserable creature, who is what we call a very rich man, who, when applied to in a very urgent case by two ministers for a family in need, did at last promise five shillings. But meeting one of the ministers afterwards, he told him he found he could not give it; for he had so many houses, and had now to pay an increased tax, that he could not spare so much. Ah! how such copper souls are to be pitied! But these cases only represent a large class. And is it to be wondered at that if religious men thus allow gold to choke up the springs of feeling, the Lord should smite them? You worldly men, do not judge by such cases! These men were false to their religion, and it is fitting that a blight should overtake them—indeed, that blight may be their salvation. But he who steadfastly sets apart for the Lord the first portion of all his gains, checks his love of money on the threshold; and by increasing the proportion as his gains increase, he checks the terrible bent to a progressive love of it; so that it is safe for himself, and good for the Church, that he should prosper. But how can he prosper who gives a tenth of little, but, when Providence makes it much, thinks his tenth too much to give? Even to that depth of baseness can one poor nature go. Such men, not only in substance, but in very form, “rob God,” and may be met by Him with that stark and frightful charge. And if it may be said of other wrongful modes of getting wealth, surely it may of this: “As a partridge sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not, so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.”
I plead for your own sake, that you may escape the curse of a carnal mind. It is possible for a man so to drown his spiritual powers in sordid passion that the soul within him ceases to have any action but for concerns of the market. Of its high faculties he cannot rob it: it is, and it will be, a soul, with the inherent lights and forces of a soul. But all these he presses into the ignoble service of self-gathering. It still has its judgment, capable of deep and holy themes; but this is kept ever poring upon problems lying within the three columns—pounds, shillings, and pence. It has its imagination; but this, instead of taking flights to a better country, only dwells on more gold, more houses, more land, more state. It has its fear; but this, forgetting all things really fearful, shudders at nothing except losses. And even its hope, though unquenchable, aspiring only after property, does not wing the soul for heaven, but earths it deeper in self. Thus the poor soul is totally shut out from its native air, and the whole man sinks into a machine—a most wonderful and elaborate machine, worked by spirit-power, for the single use of scraping, scraping, scraping gold!
What, you applaud this! It is far too true to be applauded. There are hundreds of souls in Belfast just like that; and if you would not have your soul degraded into mere spirit-power for working a gold-rake, spring up, and, appealing for help to the Spirit who is over all, go and teach your hands to do works of generosity, instead of teaching your soul to do works of self.
I plead for your own sake, that you may increase in purity and heavenliness of mind. It was our Redeemer who first showed the way to make money a means of inclining our affections toward the inheritance of the saints in light. He said, “Sell that ye have and give alms; provide yourself bags which wax not old” (is not this what you would covet? “bags which wax not OLD?“), “a treasure in the heavens, where not thief approacheth nor moth corrupteth.” Now, mark the philosophy of this: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” So that by gradually laying up your treasure in heaven, your heart will gradually follow it there; and thus money, which some treat as capable only of being a bond and a burden, may become to you a connecting wire with the Throne of retributions, and a stimulant to hope for “the resurrection of the just.” A farmer who loves to see a full barn, and also to receive in market the price of his crops, yet foregoes the market and reduces the store in his barn, casts away his precious grain out of his hand, out of his sight, and leaves it buried, lost as to immediate return, trusting it wholly to the bosom of earth and the eye of Heaven. What effect does this portion of his treasure produce upon him? It turns his thoughts away from the barn, from the market—from the pride of the one and the gold of the other. It leads his eye often up to the heavens, and his thoughts forward to the coming harvest-day.
Go, then, and sow, not sparingly, but bountifully. Foregoing the proud store, foregoing the present recompense, cast your treasure out of your grasp, out of your sight, cast it with a broad hand and a glad heart; leave it there unseen, in the soil of eternity, and under the suns of heaven. Even here the fruit will be that, by degree, your mind will set itself more strongly on the joys that never wane; and when the harvest-day sets in how many will be fain that they had sowed as you!
I plead for your own sake, that you may have some good of your money even to eternity. In the passage just referred to, our Redeemer shows how we may, by a heavenly use of earthly goods, lay up treasure in heaven. An apostle tells us of another treasure which, by means of money, we may “heap together for the last days.” But this is a treasure of “miseries which shall come upon you.” He who, to amass wealth, keeps back the labourer’s hire, or falls into other “fraud”—surely not excepting the fraud which deprives the Lord of the beneficent use of His own gifts—is, in heaping up money for this world, heaping up “treasure for the last days.” While the gold and silver distributed for the Lord’s sake, to benefit the souls and the bodies of men, will all be found turned into incorruptible treasure “at the resurrection of the just;” this gold and silver, which no thank-offerings hallowed, and no poor man blessed, on which the eye of the needy looked wistfully, and for which the works of God’s Church appealed in vain—this, too, will reappear; its “rust shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire.” This, O money-lover, is the way in which you have heaped treasure “together for the last days!”
“Oh, I have not been selfish! It is not for myself I have got something together. I know I must have it. It is for my children I have saved.” Well, perhaps it would have been a blessing to your children had they been left just with the means of honourably starting in life—the rest depending, under God, on their own conduct. Perhaps the stores you have painfully gathered will breed contentions over your grave, and then hurry your children to folly and to sin—ay, perhaps, to poverty.
You have saved for your children! We are ready to admit that in this, if moderately done, you are a public benefactor; for he who finds a family competing with the poor in the labour market, and leaves it in a condition to employ them instead of competing with them, does a general service. But while you have been saving for your children, what have you saved for yourself? In a week your will may be read; and is it possible that all the savings of your life are invested where they will then be in the hands of others, and nothing invested where it will come to account for you? As with our life, so with our money: he that saveth his money shall lose it; and he who, for the Lord’s sake and the gospel’s sake, loses his wealth shall find it. The only money we save for ourselves is what we give to the Lord. From the moment you depart hence—and how long is that moment away?—not one farthing of all you ever handled will remain to you, except that which you freely gave away. When all the rest is in the hands of others, this will abide for you, and at the great day will be apportioned to you, in new forms, and with wondrous increase, before all eyes that ever counted gold, or even melted with benevolence. Then, if you would save anything for yourself, if you would have any enjoyment from your possessions beyond this uncertain life, go and “put on Christ;” let your own character disappear under His; your own modes of judging and acting give place to His. Give yourself first to Him, and then to the Church and the good works the Church has to do; and then shall you “lay up in store against the time to come.”
“Ah, but I should not like to die poor!” Not like to die poor! For my part I should wish to die rich.
WHO DIES RICH? He
who, whether he leaves much, or little or nothing behind him, has treasure laid up in heaven. He dies rich.
WHO DIES POOR? He who, whatever he leaves behind him, has nothing laid up before him. He dies poor.
[^2]: This excellent address was delivered about fifty years ago in the Victoria Hall, Belfast, the Bishop of Down in the chair.—ED.