UC-NRLF 
 
 B 3 M 
 
 Ti mi 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 .iv*^ 
 
 'nibX. 
 
T 
 
 LIB R^ R Y 
 
 
 I 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, 
 
 ' Receii'ed /'^'Z^st-^ , iSg3 . 
 
 Shelf No. 
 
 Accessions No.-^^ ^■^ f 
 
 <A?- 
 
 -30 
 
 * . «^r 
 
BK 
 
NORMAL ADDRESSES 
 
 BIBLE -DIFFUSION. 
 
 L^» 
 
PUBLICATIONS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 ETON ADDRESSES TO KING WILLIAM IV. 1S40. 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO HAILEVBURY-OBSERVER. 1S40-1842. 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO CALCUTTA-REVIEW. 1845-1885. 40 Essays in 
 
 40 Years. 
 PANJAB REVENUE-MANUAL. 1865. 
 SERIES OF MANUALS FOR GUIDANCE OF NATIVE OFFICIALS IN 
 
 THE URDU-LANGUAGE. 1855 to 1859. 
 REVENUE-LAW OF NORTH-WEST PROVINCES OF INDIA. 1867. 
 CODE OF LAND-REVENUE-PROCEDURE FOR NORTHERN INDL\. 
 
 1870. 
 MODERN LANGUAGES OF THE EAST INDIES. 1878. 
 MODERN LANGUAGES OF AFRICA. 18S3. 
 MODERN LANGUAGES OF OCEANIA. 1887. 
 MODERN LANGUAGES OF THE CAUCASIAN-GROUP. 1887. 
 LANGUAGES OF THE TURKI BRANCH OF THE URAL-ALTAIC 
 
 FAMILY. 1889. 
 LINGUISTIC AND ORIENTAL ESSAYS. Series I. 1880. 
 LINGUISTIC AND ORIENTAL ESSAYS. Series II. 1887. 
 LINGUISTIC AND ORIENTAL ESSAYS. Series III. 1891. 
 PICTURES OF INDIAN LIFE. 1881. 
 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC SHRINES OF LOURDES, SARAGOSSA, Etc. 
 
 1885 and 1892. 
 POEMS OF MANY YEARS AND PLACES. 1S87. 
 THE SORROWS OF AN ANGLO-INDIAN LIFE. 18S9. 
 NOTES ON MISSIONARY SUBJECTS. 1889. 
 BIBLE-LANGUAGES. 1890. 
 CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON, OR THE VARIOUS FORMS OF 
 
 RELIGIOUS ERROR. 1890. 
 BIBLE-TRANSLATIONS. 1890. 
 AFRICA REDIVIVA, OR MISSIONARY OCCUPATION OF AFRICA. 
 
 1891. 
 
NORMAL ADDRESSES 
 
 BIBLE-DIFFUSION 
 
 FOR THE USE OF 
 
 THE YOUNGER CLERGY, AND LAY-SPEAKERS IN GENERAL 
 MEETINGS, TRAINING COLLEGES, AND SCHOOLS. 
 
 ROBERT NEEDHAM CUST, lld., 
 
 h 
 
 VICH-PRESIDENT OF BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE-SOCIETY, HONORARY SECRETARY OF ROYAL ASIATIC 
 
 SOCIETY, 
 
 AITHOR OF 
 
 1. THREE LISTS OF BIBLE TRANSLATIONS. 1890. 
 
 2. AFRICA REDIVIVA, OR MISSIONARY OCCUPATION OF AFRICA. 1891. 
 
 Kol €lSou dWov ayyeXov Trerofieuov ev fiecroupavij/j-aTL, ^^(ovTa 
 EvayyeXiov alooviov evayyeXi'aal eVt tou? Kadrjixevov^ eVt r/}? 7)}?, 
 Ka\ eVi irav edvo<;, Kal (bvXijp, kuI FXcoaaav, Koi Xdov. 
 
 Revelations xiv. v. 6. 
 
 UFI7ERSIT7 
 
 k" Semper, Ubique, ab Omnibus." 
 
 L^rpo 
 
 m.^^ 
 
 ^^' 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1892. 
 

 HERTFORD : 
 
 PRINTED BY STEPHEN AUSTIN AND SONS. 
 
 5 < ^ 5^ 1 
 
 __l^ 
 
TO ALL 
 
 WHO LOVE THE LORD, THE BOOK, AND THE ASSOCIATION, 
 "WHICH HUMBLY, AXD WITH SINGLENESS OF HEART, DEVOTES ITSELF 
 TO THE SERVICE OF THAT LORD, AND THE DIFFUSION OF THAT BOOK, 
 
 THESE ADDRESSES 
 
 ARE DEDICATED BY ONE, 
 
 WHO 
 
 HAS NOT BEEN AFRAID TO WEIGH EACH WORD OF THIS BOOK 
 
 IN THE BALANCE OF SCIENCE, TO HANDLE IT, AND SEE ; 
 
 TO READ ALL THE CRITICISMS, WHICH FRIEND OR FOE HAS WRITTEN 
 
 TO STUDY THE BOOKS OF NON-CHRISTIAN SAGES, 
 
 PROPHETS, AND PHILOSOPHERS ; 
 
 AND YET 
 
 HAS FOUND NOTHING, THAT CAN EQUAL, OR DIM, OR SURPASS, 
 
 THE TREASURE, WHICH WE POSSESS. 
 
 Christmas Day, 1892. 
 
^.jiS^a 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Froxtispiece " the Angels bringing the Gospel to Man." 
 The first Angel represents the Preacher. 
 The second Angel the Reader in Places of Worship. 
 The third Angel the private studier of the Word. 
 
 Title Page. 
 
 Dedication". 
 
 Publications by the same Author. 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 Table of Contents. 
 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 No. I. Continuity of Translation 
 
 No. II. World-wide Diffusion of Translations 
 
 No. III. Translators: Language. 
 
 No. IV. Object : Effect 
 
 No. V. Duty, Privilege, Joy 
 
 No. VI. Education of the World. 
 
 No. VII. Bible-Society Constitution, etc. . 
 
 No. VIII. Limitations of Translation and Diffusion 
 
 No. IX. Foreign Fields of Diffusion . . • 
 
 Conclusion 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I 
 
 19 
 
 29 
 
 5' 
 73 
 89 
 
 H5 
 ^33 
 141 
 
 '59 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 No. I. Population of the World, Geographically 
 
 No. II. Religions of ditto . . . do. 
 
 No. III. Translations of the Bible (part or whole) . 
 
 No. IV. Analytical Abstract of Subjects in Ad- 
 dresses FOR convenience OF REFERENCE 
 
 No. V. Heads of Subjects for an Address 
 
 No. VI. Specimen-Address to a Theological College 
 
 No. VII. Hymn for Bible-Society-Meeting . 
 
 No. VIII. Appeal to the German Nation to found a 
 Missionary Bible-Society .... 
 
 PAGE 
 171 
 
 171 
 
 172 
 
 172 
 178 
 181 
 203 
 
 206 
 
 -^^v»A. 
 
OF THB * 
 
 j.n7ER3IT7J 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 — )-@oc®-(— 
 
 I BEGIN to feel, that my time for delivering Public 
 Addresses is passing away. In the last sixteen years, 
 I have made 515 Addresses in the different towns of 
 England, and at several foreign Capitals, on very 
 different subjects, Religious, Scientific, and Political. 
 Some have extended over an hour : some have been 
 much shorter : some have been from the Pulpits of 
 London-Churches as Diocesan Reader. As I travelled 
 back from Cambridge yesterday, having on that and 
 the previous day delivered three Addresses on the 
 same subject, " Bible-Diffusion," in three different Halls, 
 presenting the subject from three different aspects, the 
 thought came over me in the train, that I might 
 
IXTRODLXTIOX. 
 
 be of use after my tongue was silent, and myself at 
 rest, if I put together materials for a certain number 
 of Normal Addresses, presenting the great subject from 
 every point of view. I am encouraged to this under- 
 taking from the fact, that at the last three meetings I 
 recognised some figures attending all the meetings, and 
 taking notes, and I gathered, that there were to be 
 sermons on the subject on the following Sundays. I 
 have more than once received letters from hard-worked 
 clergymen, thanking me for one or other of my 
 published Missionary Addresses, which fell into their 
 hands, and was of use for their Annual Sermons : 
 possibly these Normal Addresses, or systematically 
 arranged compendia of facts, arguments, anecdotes, and 
 illustrations, may be of use to young persons of both 
 sexes, who have occasion to address assemblies, whether 
 high or low in culture and education. 
 
 I may seem very bold, and somewhat heterodox : 
 my experiences have not been confined to the armchair, 
 and College-Study, but have been extended to the 
 tent, the saddle, and the assemblies of non-Christian 
 people, among whom I resided for nearly a quarter of 
 a century, whom I learnt to love, and whose love I 
 was able to conciliate. I have learnt thus to look at 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 things from the standpoint of an Asiatic and an 
 African, and not exclusively of an European : an un- 
 travelled Englishman is specially addicted to the 
 weakness of looking on his country as the 6fj.(f)a\o<; of 
 the world, and his preconceptions and environment as 
 the law of Nature : my mind is quite as receptive of 
 new ideas, as my eyes are ready to look at new- 
 objects, or old familiar objects from a new point of 
 view, and devour books coming from every section of 
 the religious world. 
 
 I have been the unwilling listener to scores of 
 platform-addresses : the ordained Minister in the country 
 speaks with hearty eloquence of the " Book," but f/ia^ 
 is not the subject, which brings the meeting together, 
 but the " Diffusion of the Book." The District-Secretaries 
 overwhelm the audience with statistical details of the 
 issues : Sometimes the issue of one day is likened 
 to the Eiffel-Tower of Paris : or the audience is 
 crushed by financial details : the cost of paper, printing, 
 the scores ot men and women employed in the work : 
 these facts imply the existence of unlimited resources, 
 and perhaps discourage increased benefactions : such 
 thoughts do not lift up the hearts of the audience to 
 God. It is possible, that the Secretaries know the 
 
Xll 
 
 IXTRODUCTIOX. 
 
 character, and weakness, and susceptibilities of the 
 audience best, and know how to attract new support, 
 and satisfy old supporters : at any rate, such aspects 
 do not come within my experience or favour. The 
 subject should be treated on a much higher level. 
 
 These Addresses are not calculated to be delivered, 
 as a read lecture, or learnt by heart for a spoken 
 Address : their object is to be suggestive to those, who 
 are preparing themselves for the pulpit, or platform, a 
 kind of reservoir, from which each can fill his own cup. 
 Sometimes a quotation might be suitable, or an anecdote 
 be read, and anyone constantly employed in the duty 
 might with profit have an interleaved copy, and note 
 down fresh anecdotes, choice selections from Exeter Hall 
 Speeches, flowers from the nosegay of the Annual 
 Report, and his own meditations during his walks, or 
 on his couch, when his thoughts mount up to the feet 
 of his Master. I heard an old Deputation-Secretary 
 say, that he was fairly pumped out : Alas ! he could 
 not have known of the underground percolation of the 
 water of Grace, which makes the dry field green with 
 a never- failing harvest, and which no time can pump 
 out, for ideas, thoughts, and words, are always rising in 
 a heart truly dedicated to this many-sided subject. 
 
 » . 4t'* Vim 
 
 ^>^:^Jk.^m^ 
 
INTRODUCTION. Xlll 
 
 Particular Addresses should be prepared for different 
 classes of the Community : for the general public, for 
 the younger clergy, for the theological students, for 
 Mothers' Meetings, Young Men's Associations, Sunday 
 Schools, private places of Education of boys and girls. 
 I have in the Appendix given a table of Heads of 
 Subjects, which would enable anyone to work up his 
 notes for an Address suited to his audience : it is a 
 mistake to speak over the heads of an uninstructed 
 audience, or below the standard-level of devout and 
 trained minds. In the Appendix I have inserted a 
 specimen-address for a Training College. For con- 
 venience of reference, I have prepared an analytical 
 abstract of Subjects to assist the preparation of 
 Addresses. 
 
 I have freely quoted extracts from speeches, and 
 writings, of esteemed authorities, sometimes quoting the 
 name, and occasion of delivery, and indicating by 
 inverted commas the quotation, but very much oftener 
 incorporating the carefully collected sentiments of others 
 in my own text, and hoping, if it is worthy, that my 
 text may meet the same fate from those, who come 
 after me : golden thoughts, neatly turned expressions, 
 and telling anecdotes, are common property, and I have 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 used some so often, that I forget from what source I 
 derived them : I have kept clear of statistics and figures, 
 as I have no taste for them : the Annual Report will 
 from year to year supply them fresh and fresh. 
 Extreme accuracy on debatable points is not to be 
 obtained, and profits not for the purposes of these 
 Addresses, even if attained, as they are of a general, 
 popularized, and unscientific, character : however, errors, 
 prejudices, and exaggeration are avoided as much as 
 possible, and as far as I have been able to detect 
 them. May the Lord bless my endeavour ! 
 
 Amidst the concourse, and even concussion, of senti- 
 mental appeals to the hearts of the people on every 
 possible quasi-religious, quasi-benevolent, and often very 
 unwise subjects, the fear is, that the first claim of the 
 unique, and in importance unparalleled object of the 
 Bible-Society should be forgotten, or postponed to 
 interests of a less vital nature : the Platform, Pulpit, 
 and Press, must in this material epoch be powerfully 
 and spiritually worked. Every good earnest man, or 
 woman, is not gifted with the power of impressing with 
 their words miscellaneous audiences : such persons are 
 often better Christians, but none the less not such 
 good speakers, as those, to whose lips by God's 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 Special Grace words come readily. It is of importance, 
 that the Society should publish good selected Addresses 
 by its chief Protagonists of past and present time, men 
 who have uttered words, which are not forgotten by 
 those who have heard them, such as Dr. Thompson, 
 late Archbishop of York, Mr. Spurgeon, the Earl of 
 Harrowby, Canon Edmunds, Dr. Westcott, Bishop of 
 Durham, and many others, whose names I omit for 
 want of space, but which will occur to all, under whose 
 eyes these pages fall : I would add the names of our 
 living friends, Rev. J. Sharp, Rev. W. Major Paull, 
 Rev. Dr. Wright, Rev. T. Aston Binns, Rev. D. 
 Brodie, Rev. James Thomas, Mr. G. T. Edwards, and 
 others, whom I have not heard, but whom 'others 
 have heard : all according to the particular gift lent to 
 them, and their peculiar idiosyncrasies of training, and 
 thought, and experience, present the great subject with 
 success to their audience, as their knowledge is up to 
 date, all-round, and complete, and their hearers feel, 
 that the heart of the speaker is in the matter : while 
 on the other hand the flash-in-the-pan popular preacher, 
 who tells his audience that he has got up the subject 
 by reading some pages of the Annual Report outside 
 the omnibus on his road to the Meeting, does mischief, 
 
 mm 
 
XVI 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and his remarks had better be stored up with the 
 
 words unuttered. Nobody should be asked to speak 
 
 on Bible-platforms, who is in doubt, as to the Book 
 
 itself, and the necessity for the Salvation of dying 
 Souls of the Diffusion of the Book, 
 
 London, Nov. i6, 1892. 
 
' nF THE ''<*'^ 
 
 £4 
 
 OS' 
 
 ^IFOB.' 
 
 ADDRESS No. I. 
 
 On the Continuity of Bible-Translation into the 
 Vernacular of the time from the Return of the 
 Hebrews from their Exile to the present moment. 
 
 "Shall we, whose lamps are lighted 
 With wisdom from on high, 
 Shall we to man benighted 
 The gift of God deny ? ''—Heber, 
 
 We must bear in mind, that Languages have only a certain 
 time of Hfe allotted to them, that they come into existence, 
 develop, fade away, and die. On the other hand the Word of 
 God is everlasting, and was given to man as a Rule of Life : 
 if therefore it is not intelligible to man's understanding and heart, 
 it is useless. The great King of Persia, Xerxes, the husband 
 of Queen Esther, issued letters to one hundred and twenty 
 Provinces to each in their own Language : He died B.C. 465, 
 only 2363 years ago : we know the Languages spoken in those 
 Provinces now, and we know as a fact, that they were not spoken 
 
 I 
 
( 2 ) 
 
 in those Provinces then : so all but two have disappeared owing 
 to two causes, the population dying out, or to their having 
 changed their Vernacular : only two have survived, Hebrew, the 
 sacred Language of Queen Esther ; and Greek, the Language of 
 the Greek race, which had defeated the great King at Salamis : 
 to these two Languages had been committed the Oracles of 
 God. 
 
 When a portion, and only a portion, of the Hebrew Exiles 
 received permission from King Cyrus to return to Palestine, 
 B.C. 536, they brought back the Sacred Vessels, and the Book 
 of the Law, but Emanuel Deutsch, himself a Hebrew, remarks, 
 that there was one thing wanting to Ezra, when he tried to found 
 a lasting Commonwealth on the ruins of Zion, which neither 
 authority, nor piety, nor School, nor Synagogue, could restore to 
 its original power and glory, 
 
 " The Hebrew Language : " 
 
 so it became necessary to translate the Book, that the returning 
 Hebrews might understand it : hence sprang into existence 
 the Aramaic Targums, for they had become accustomed to that 
 Vernacular in Babylon. There was nothing unusual in this : take 
 the familiar instance of the Northmen, who left Scandinavia and 
 settled in a Province of Northern France : in three generations, 
 before their invasion of England, they had forgotten their Norse 
 Language, and spoke French : a few generations after they 
 adopted English. 
 
 This notes the first change of Language, and the substitution 
 
 Jk . m^*. i.i^ 
 
 4ii*-»J\.^r-r-^'^ 
 
( 3 ) 
 
 of a Vernacular, in order that the people might understand, and 
 not depend on the oral interpretation of the Priesthood. How 
 could they hear, if they were not spoken to ? How could they 
 be spoken to, if the Word of God was not in the heart, in 
 the intelligence, and in the mouth, of the speaker, and uttered 
 in such a form, that the hearers could understand it ? With 
 regard to this Aramaic translation it is noteworthy, that our 
 Lord on the Cross quoted the first verse of the XXH Psalm not 
 in Hebrew, but in Aramaic. 
 
 A portion of the Hebrew race seceded from Ezra, and 
 formed themselves into a separate community at Samaria : they 
 had the Pentateuch, the only Book, which they accepted, in 
 Samaritan, and it exists to this day : it is a Language cognate 
 to, but quite distinct from, the Aramaic : Both Languages have 
 disappeared under the pressure of Arabic, which is now the 
 Vernacular of the whole of Palestine. 
 
 In the meantime a large community of Hebrews had settled 
 in the new city on the Mediterranean shore of Eg\'pt, which 
 King Alexander of ]\Iacedon had founded, and named after 
 himself About the year 250, and subsequently, the whole of 
 the Canon of the Old Testament, which had by that date been 
 completed (though some doubt this), was translated into Greek, 
 a Language of the Greco-Latin Branch of the Indo-European 
 Family, and is known as the Septuagint : To the early 
 Christian Church of the three first Centuries this translation oc- 
 cupied the position of the Inspired Text. It is notorious, 
 that the New Testament, which came into existence in the 
 
 ^xaai 
 
( 4 ) 
 
 last half of the first Century after Christ, was written in the 
 same Language. 
 
 But the Church of Antioch in Syria, though a Greek Church, 
 did not feci justified in withholding the Scriptures from the 
 indigenous population, and they freely gave them in the Second 
 Century a translation of the whole Bible in the Syriac Language, 
 a form of speech cognate to Hebrew and Aramaic : this is the 
 venerable Peshi'to version, which has survived to our days. 
 
 And the Church of Alexandria in Egypt, though a Greek 
 Church, was moved by the Holy Spirit to give to the natives 
 of Egypt, the Kopts, a translation of the Book in the Koptic 
 Language in three Dialects in the Second and Third Centuries : 
 this form of speech is totally different both from the Hebrew 
 and Greek, belonging to a different Language Family, known as 
 the Hamitic : these translations have survived to our time : this 
 was the first African Language selected to be a vehicle of 
 Salvation to men. 
 
 Nor does the marvel end here : one Frumentius, a native 
 of Syria, had been captured as a slave, and kept prisoner in 
 Ethiopia, known now as Abyssinia : after many years he obtained 
 his liberty, but his heart had been touched by the sight of the 
 Heathen Ethiopians, and he returned thither in the Fourth 
 Century, as a Missionary Bishop, and translated the Scriptures 
 into the old Ethiopic Language, a Semitic form of speech, 
 which has survived to our days. 
 
 In the meantime the old Latin translation of the Greco-Latin 
 Branch of the Indo-European Family, known as "Vetus Itala," had 
 
( 5 ) 
 
 a large circulation in the Latin speaking portion of the Roman 
 Empire, notably North Africa : It was by no means a perfect 
 version, and had been made from the Septuagint. But a 
 peculiar Grace was giv^en to it : many holy men and women had 
 so appropriated the doctrine contained, had so connected it with 
 their idea of holy life here, and everlasting life hereafter, that, 
 when called upon by ignorant and unsympathetic rulers to give 
 up this Book to be burnt, they refused, and preferred to 
 surrender their own lives. The thought of this makes the 
 heart flutter even in this carnal and degenerate age. At the 
 request of the Bishop of Rome, Damasus, Jerome went to Palestine, 
 acquired the Hebrew Language, and translated the Old Testa- 
 ment, and revised the version of the New. While he was engaged 
 in this duty, the news reached him that Rome had been captured 
 by the Goths, A.D. 410. His translation is the Vulgate. 
 
 In the fourth century Bishop Ulfilas started a Mission among 
 the Goths on the River Danube, and translated the Bible into 
 the Language of the Goths, of the Teutonic Branch of the Indo- 
 European Family, inventing an Alphabet for the purpose : An 
 antient copy of this venerable book is preserved at Upsala, in 
 Sweden, and I have seen it. 
 
 In the fifth century, under the guidance of Miesrob, who had 
 already made translations into the Armenian from the Syriac, 
 young Armenians were sent to Alexandria to learn Greek, and 
 brought back a Greek Version, from which a fresh translation 
 was made into the Armenian Language of the Iranic Branch 
 of the Indo-European Family. 
 
( 6 ) 
 
 In the sixth century the same measures were taken by the 
 Georgian Church to secure translators, who knew Greek, and were 
 able to make use of the Greek Versions : this was the first x\siatic 
 Language, outside the Indo-European and Semitic Families, 
 honoured by being the vehicle of the Word of God. The 
 Georgian Language is of the Caucasian Group. 
 
 Translations of the Bible were made into the x'\rabic Language, 
 a Semitic form of speech, before the death of Mahomet, A.D. 632, 
 whence, as he knew no other Language, he must have gleaned 
 his imperfect and distorted knowledge of its contents, and ap- 
 propriated the central Truth of One God. 
 
 In 735 A.D. the Venerable Bede in the Convent of Jarrow, 
 in the County of Durham, died in the act of giving a finishing 
 touch to the translation in the Anglo-Saxon Language of the 
 Teutonic Branch of the Indo-European Family. 
 
 In the ninth century, as if in fulfilment of a law, which could 
 not be broken, two learned Greeks from Constantinople, C}'ril 
 and Methodius, acquired a knowledge of the Language, spoken 
 by the Slavonic immigrants into South Russia, and translated the 
 Bible into the Slavonic Language of the Slavonic Branch of the 
 Indo-European Family, making use of a special Alphabet invented 
 by themselves. 
 
 In the ninth century came into existence the interlinear glosses 
 in the old Irish Language, which were the work of the great 
 School of Irish monks, who commenced the Evangelisation of 
 modern Europe : this Language belongs to the Keltic Branch of 
 the Indo-European Family. 
 
 -i-.*'/*- 
 
( 7 ) 
 
 Thus at a period antecedent to the Norman Conquest of 
 England there existed seventeen Versions spread over the vast 
 Region from Arabia to Great Britain. They were the spon- 
 taneous efforts of devout Christians. A dark period had since 
 then settled over Europe, but it was a darkness, which preceded 
 the dawn of the Reformation. The Roman Church refused to 
 recognise the great linguistic fact, that the Latin Language had 
 ceased to be the Vernacular of Western Europe. In the four- 
 teenth century a translation was made into the Persian Lan- 
 guage. In A.D. 13S0, Wycliffe completed the translation of the 
 Bible into English. A translation into Bohemian and German 
 had appeared about the same time, and at a still earlier date 
 translations had come into existence in the Provencal and Flemish 
 Languages. 
 
 The invention of Printing, the revival of Learning, the intro- 
 duction of the Study of the Hebrew and Greek Languages, made 
 a mighty change, and the Church of Rome resisted in vain the 
 determination of Protestant Churches to have access to the 
 Scriptures in their own Vernacular. The Latin Vulgate was 
 printed in A.D. 1462 : Erasmus put forth his Greek Testament 
 at Basle in A.D. 15 16, and a French translation was printed in 
 A.D. 1474, a Dutch in A.D. 1477, ^" Italian in A.D. 1471, a 
 Spanish in the Catalan Dialect in 1478. Thus there were 27 Pre- 
 Reformation Translations before the battle was won. 
 
 From the date of the Reformation to the end of the eighteenth 
 century, twenty-nine additional translations came into existence, 
 which it is sufficient for my purpose merely to name. 
 
 ^ 
 
 C3 
 

 Europe. 
 
 I. 
 
 Welsh. 
 
 2. 
 
 Gaelic. 
 
 3- 
 
 Erse. 
 
 4- 
 
 Manx. 
 
 5- 
 
 Basque. 
 
 6. 
 
 Nonvego-Danish 
 
 7- 
 
 Swedish. 
 
 8. 
 
 Portuguese. 
 
 9- 
 
 Rouman. 
 
 10. 
 
 Russ. 
 
 23. Ehst. 
 
 24. Nogai-Turki. 
 
 ( 8 ) 
 
 1 1. Osmanli Turki. 
 
 12. Old Norse. 
 
 13. Lapp. . 
 
 , , T7- Asia. 
 
 14. tinn. 
 
 15. Lithu. ^5- Sinhali. 
 
 16. Pole. 26. Malay. 
 
 17. 18. Wend (2 Dialects). ^7- Tamil. 
 
 19. Magyar. ^8. Formosa. 
 
 20. Romansch. America 
 
 21. Lett. 
 
 22. Karniola. 
 
 29. New England. 
 
 Thus, when the conception of a Bible Society was first enter- 
 tained in 1804, there existed only fifty-six versions. Several of 
 these were absolutely extinct. Several of the Translations had 
 become merely Ecclesiastical vehicles of Ritual, being totally 
 unknown by the people. The old Erse was merely an interlinear 
 Gloss in a Latin Missal. Many were imperfect as translations, 
 and not made from the original Hebrew or Greek. Some had 
 never been printed, nor were worthy of being printed, and of 
 those, which had been printed, the supply was totally inadequate, 
 and the style and material of the book left much to be desired. 
 I leave all allusion to versions prepared by the Bible Societies 
 to Address No. IL 
 
 It will appear on the slightest examination of the list how 
 imperfectly our good ancestors of the Reformation period under- 
 stood the duty, which is now so obvious to us all. It seems 
 never to have entered into the conception of the holy men of 
 the Post-Reformation period, that it was a duty to supply the 
 Mahometan and Heathen world with copies of the Word of God, 
 
( 9 ) 
 
 and in a systematic way to re-introduce it to the knowledge of 
 the Church of Rome, the Greek Church, and the fallen Churches 
 of Western Asia, South India, and North East Africa, and to 
 the remnant of God's chosen people. They were content to feed 
 themselves with the Bread of Life, but it was not revealed to 
 them, or brought home from the pulpit to their consciences, that 
 Jesus died for all, that Christ looked down from the Cross upon 
 the poor Heathen also, and that the so-called dogs had a con- 
 genital right to the crumbs from the Christian Table. Let all 
 objectors to the Bible-Society work out these considerations in 
 their thoughts, and thank God. While the Priest and the Levite, 
 the observer of Ritual, and the advocate of the Apostolical 
 Succession, passed on the other side, the good Samaritan made 
 the subject his own, and the Lord has blessed his poor 
 endeavours. 
 
 In this wilderness of neglect of a sacred duty there were 
 some sweet exceptions. John Eliot's name will live for ever : he 
 went out A.D. 163 1 to the Algonquin Indians, and translated the 
 Bible : he had no linguistic helps : his method was : " Prayers 
 and Pains through Faith in Jesus Christ will do anything." This 
 translation survives as the Language of a dead Nation, but we 
 doubt not, that it is heard among the tongues of the thousands, 
 who are singing the new song before the Throne of the Lamb. At 
 the other end of the world some Dutchmen translated the Bible 
 into Malay of the Malayan Family, A.D. 1723. In South India 
 Ziegenbalg the Dane A.D. 17 14 printed a translation in Tamil 
 of the Dravidian Family. In Ceylon the Dutch printed in 1783 
 
( 10 ) 
 
 translations of portions in the Sinhali language of the Indie 
 branch of the Indo-European Family. Another Dutchman, Gravius, 
 whose name is worthy of grateful remembrance, printed a trans- 
 lation of two Gospels in the language of Formosa of the China 
 Language-Group in the Empire of China. Notices of other 
 translations, for instance, Hindustani, and Nancouri in the 
 Nicobar Islands, in Asia, and of Eskimo in America, have passed 
 under my eye, but they had not reached that standard of 
 positive fact, which I think it right to require to warrant a place 
 in my Catalogue : perhaps some may think, that my actual 
 admissions are too liberal. 
 
 It is a notable fact, that the Anglo-Saxon race on either 
 side of the Atlantic had not wakened to the grandeur of their 
 immeasurable responsibilities up to the end of last century. 
 
 I humbly submit, that it was part of the plan of the 
 Almighty, that His Law, and His Gospel, should be made known 
 to His poor creatures from generation to generation, from zone 
 to zone, in one language after another, as long as eyes can 
 flash with intelligence, and hearts beat with love both to their 
 Creator, and fellow-creatures. I humbly submit, that in taking 
 steps to supply to all Mankind an unceasing supply of this 
 heavenly food we are discharging a duty analogous to that of 
 the Priests, who in the old Tabernacle kept the flame unceasingly 
 burning, and that, those who obstruct the circulation, and mock 
 at the labour expended, occupy a position analogous to those, 
 who obstructed the building of the Temple, and mocked at the 
 builders. 
 
( II ) 
 
 And it is as well to consider the subject from another aspect: 
 The antients did not understand the power, and the limitations, 
 of Language. The Secrets of the Lower, as well as the Higher, 
 Criticism were not revealed to them, and it scarcely occurred to 
 them, that the circumstance of a book being transferred to 
 another Language, and another environment of Scribes, literary 
 customs, and scholastic rules, absolutely prevented any tampering 
 with the text without the certainty of it being detected. Thus, 
 had the Pharisees and Scribes at the time of our Lord attempted 
 to falsify the Prophesies, which were fulfilling under their eyes, 
 the existence of the Septuagint rendered it impossible : So later 
 on, if it had entered into the minds of the Priesthood of 
 mediaeval Rome to falsify the Vulgate, which came into existence 
 at a period one thousand }-ears before the Reformation, it would 
 have been impossible, as no less than twenty-seven different 
 versions were in existence in different parts of the World, and 
 no one then knew where and how they were to be found. 
 
 Mark the circumstances of the Sacred Books of a false 
 Religion, and of a corrupted form of a true Religion : they are 
 invariably shrouded in a Language unknown, or dimly known, or 
 at least one not acceptable to the vulgar. They were enveloped 
 in darkness, placed away in arks of Shittim wood, folded up in 
 silk and precious cloths, shrouded in the death-sheet of a dead 
 language : if read aloud, the meaning was disguised in unin- 
 telligible sing-song chants. The power of the Priests depends on 
 their so remaining, and there is a foolish ignorant prejudice in its 
 favour. The " opus operatum " principle dominates among the 
 
( 12 ) 
 
 Buddhists : The Siamese Monks do not endeavour to make their 
 teaching interesting : They intone verses in Pali, a dead language, 
 and add a commentary in Siamese more obscure than the dead 
 text. What do the hearers care ? crouched on the ground they 
 heap up merit by appearing to listen, and it never enters into 
 their heads, that they would be in the least benefited by under- 
 standing what was read. In Indian Temples, I have stood and 
 listened to such recitations not with feelings of disgust and 
 aversion, but of pity, love, and sympathy. As the old grey- 
 bearded reciter uttered his nasal twangs, the audience bowed 
 their head : they could understand nothing, absolutely nothing, 
 no more than the worshipper at a Roman Catholic Service 
 understands of the anthems, chants, and Scripture readings : but 
 there was a religio loci, which I felt myself; the heart yearning 
 towards the great Creator, a confession of sin, weakness, and 
 dependence on a Power greater than oneself, and a taking 
 refuge in the Everlasting Arms. 
 
 The Word of God is not bound by the lapse of Time, the 
 interval of Space, the hardship of circumstance, the lowness of 
 culture, the evil designs of wicked men, the scofifing of the 
 worldling, the intolerance of short-lived Puppets in power : As 
 the Sun rises to lighten the face of Nature, so by unbroken 
 continuity the Word of God appears to enlighten the Soul. It 
 is like a great Tree, which overshadows the world, and the 
 leaves of which are for the healing of the Nations. Admitting 
 that such was the Divine plan, can we conceive any other 
 method than the one, which I am attempting to describe ? The 
 
 * . 4B'*- i.Att 
 
( 13 ) 
 
 stream might indeed have flowed from the beginning in a larger 
 and swifter volume, but had the Education of Mankind advanced 
 to an extent, which would enable them to drink of the stream ? 
 the progress has been more like that of a glacier, whose advance 
 was slow and certain, and from time to time tiny streams of 
 melted ice flowed out, but in the nineteenth century by a sudden 
 warming of the atmosphere, by the heat of the rays of the Sun 
 on the inert mass, the chains of the Frost have been burst 
 through, and there has been a magnificent out-pouring. 
 
 Two other thoughts suggest themselves : the Greek and Latin 
 languages were after Sanskrit the most perfect machines for 
 perpetuating thoughts, that the World has known : they were all 
 just at this epoch losing their power : the hand of death was 
 upon both the Latin and Sanskrit, and a paralysis on the Greek : 
 new Vernaculars were forming from the contact of the rude forms 
 of speech of the immigrants from the East, and thus Language 
 was slowly elevated to the dignity of expressing great thoughts : 
 English had not yet — not in fact till the Reformation — become 
 the conquering Angel prepared to carry the Gospel : free from 
 all the shackles of grammatical inflection, genders, numbers, cases, 
 moods, tenses, etc., it is destined to be the great Vernacular of 
 the world, spoken by men, who are as free as their Language, 
 and carrying a free Gospel. The Romish Priests of the middle 
 ages were blind, blind even just before dawn ; they had a kind 
 of contempt for the Vernaculars, and hesitated to commit God's 
 oracles to them. They erred in ignorance rather than in malice. 
 
 The second thought is this : in the early days of Christianity, 
 
 ^^ 
 
( 14 ) 
 
 owing to the rarity and costliness of Manuscripts, and the 
 difficulty of deciphering them (which all, who inspect them in 
 the British Museum, will readily admit) and the poverty and 
 ignorance of the majority of Christians, the public reading of 
 the Scriptures was to many the only possible means of acquain- 
 tance with them. I have already alluded to the analogous 
 position of the Hindu and Mahometan to this day : until the 
 time came for translators and written translations, there were oral 
 Interpreters in the early Church : the same phenomenon appears 
 in the post-Exile period as attending the reading of the Jewish 
 Scriptures ; there were interpreters (Meturgemen), who translated 
 orally and explained what was read in the Synagogue : it must 
 have been to our notions but poor food for the hungry soul, 
 but it was all that was possible then, and possible now in many 
 lanes of a large city, and many a remote village : and men 
 used to learn to read fluently without understanding the meaning 
 of a single word : it is narrated, that the Missionary Boniface 
 put up at an abbey in his tours, and the Abbess after supper 
 brought her little grandson forward to read the Vulgate : he 
 read it clearly, and the Missionary asked him if he understood 
 it ; and he replied in the affirmative, and read it again. The 
 Missionary then called him to his side, and interpreted the 
 Latin into Saxon, and the boy was astonished to find, that 
 there was a meaning in the words beyond the mere jingle of 
 the Sound, with which he had been previously satisfied. 
 
 Canon Edmonds remarks, that three things strike our attention : 
 " (i) That the oldest documents of our sacred books are now^ more 
 
 ^ -^1 TfMifflH I'liiiw m *- ■ i 'mm 
 
 4.-.-»'/»- 
 
( 15 ) 
 
 " highly prized than ever as fountains of authoritative truth ; not as 
 " instruments of popular teaching, still less as apparatus for public 
 " worship. (2) There is no trace of the existence of an ancient Church, 
 " however remote in situation, however lowly in intellectual culture, 
 " in which we do not find some trace of a vernacular Bible. The 
 " highest truths in the world have ever entered in at the very lowest 
 " doors, and the doors have always been open to receive them. (3) 
 " While the distribution of the Bible in translations is so wide-spread, 
 " its distribution is also spontaneous. There is no rule, or canon 
 " of council, or decree, enjoining it upon the messenger of the Cross. 
 " It is due to the great spiritual instinct of the Church, which has 
 " never ceased to follow the motto Sempey tibiqne ab onuiibus. No 
 " missionary work is permanent, or satisfactory, that does not provide 
 " the converts with the Scriptures in the vernacular. No vernacular 
 " version can ever be permanent or satisfactory, that is not in the 
 " loyal hands of a living Church." 
 
 All the translations were made spontaneously in obedience to an 
 instinct, to the voice of the Spirit, not to the order of an earthly 
 Sovereign. The Emperor Constantine did indeed order Eusebius to 
 have a certain number of copies of the New Testament made for 
 distribution in the original language, one of which has survived to this 
 day in the Convent of Mount Sinai, and was brought by Tischendorf 
 to St. Petersburg, where I have twice seen it. 
 
 Counting by centuries, we have : — 
 
 The Old Testament before Christ in 4 languages. 
 
 The New Testament in the First century. 
 
 The Syriac and Coptic in the Second and Third centuries. 
 
( 16 ) 
 
 The Latin Vetus Itala in do. 
 
 The Ethiopia in the Fourth century. 
 
 The Gothic in do. 
 
 The Armenian in the Fifth century. 
 
 The Georgian in the Sixth century. 
 
 The Arabic in the Eighth century. 
 
 The Anglo Saxon in do. 
 
 The Slavonic in the Ninth century. 
 
 The Irish interlinear glosses in do. 
 
 The Persian in the Fourteenth century. 
 
 The English (Wycliffe) in do. 
 
 The German in Fifteenth century. 
 
 The Italian in do. 
 
 The Spanish in do. 
 
 The Flemish in do. 
 
 The Bohemian in do. 
 
 The French in do. 
 
 The Dutch in do. 
 
 Some may think lightly of continuity of translation of one book 
 for two thousand five hundred years. Is it so common a phenomenon 
 of literature ? Is there any other parallel ? Have the Books of the 
 Hindu, the Zoroastrian, the Buddhist, the Confucianist, faithful 
 translations from century to century ? Certainly not. I do not wish 
 to undervalue them : in weighing the intellectual wealth of past 
 ages, and the capabilities of antient men of past ages, the 
 world would be poor without them. We are glad, that it came 
 into the hearts of good men to write such good things, but 
 
( '7 ) 
 
 is not this treasure like the gold, which has so man}' ages 
 been buried under the reefs of South Africa and Australia, like 
 the flowers which bloom in an uninhabited desert? Our gold 
 has been minted, and re-minted, as it was handed on from 
 generation to generation, from Nation to Nation. Independent of 
 their respective value, the Ruler of the Universe has given them a 
 different destiny. As regards the Koran, I see it stated this very 
 year, that the Sultan of Turkey's authority in Arabia might be 
 shaken, if he sanctioned a publication of a translation of the 
 Koran into the Turkish language, even in Manuscript. With all 
 Mahometans, who do not speak Arabic, religious instruction has 
 the same effect, as if Christians were to learn the Pentateuch by 
 heart in Hebrew. 
 
 We have the great fact, and we cannot but see the signs of a 
 great design in the fact, that, when Temple and Tower went to the 
 ofround before the advance of the Greek and Roman, who were 
 entirely unsympathetic with the Asiatic and African, all the literature 
 of Assyria and Bab}'lon was buried in the ruins of their cities, 
 and all the learning of Egypt was entombed in sand ; but another 
 fate awaited the one great Book of the Hebrews : their city and 
 their nationality, perished, but the Greek and Roman did not 
 disdain to translate their Book, and its life does not rest on 
 Stele, or Papyri, or baked bricks, in the Museums of Europe, but 
 in versions in many hundred tongues, uttered by living voices, to 
 the comfort of living hearts. 
 
 Another contrast is worthy of record. In 1526 A.D. Cardinal 
 Wolsey seized the English translation of the Gospel printed by 
 
( IS ) 
 
 Tyndall in Germany, and burnt it at the North Gate of old St. 
 Paul's Cathedral. Ten years afterwards Tyndall was himself burnt, 
 and while fastened to the stake he cried out, "Lord ! open the King of 
 England's eyes." In iSco in an obscure Welsh valley little Mary 
 Jones cried out, "Oh! that I had a Bible of my own!" and these 
 wishes formed the keynote of the grand Chorus of Harmony, which 
 )-ear by }'ear has spread in volume, until it is heard over the whole 
 earth: that prayer of TxmdaU's was heard, that wish of the little Welsh 
 girl was destined to be the cause of conveying light and knowledge 
 to millions. Wycliffe put the case very neatly, when he wrote : 
 " Since secular men should assuredly understand the Faith, it 
 " should be taught to them in whatever Language is best known 
 " to them." Our duty is clear, to keep up the sacred continuity, 
 to hand on the lamp : in the Agamemnon of /Eschylus, line 
 312, there is a fine passage : — 
 
 " ToioiS' cToi/jLoi \afi7raBT](j)6pcov vo/jloI, 
 
 " aXA.09 ' Trap aWcov Sia8o;^at9 TrXi^pov/iepoL " 
 
 and a Latin author conveys the same idea : 
 
 " Quasi cursores vital lampada tradunt." 
 
 Dear Horatius Flaccus in one of his beautiful odes predicts for his 
 charming poetry an unlimited diffusion, and he mentions the Nations, 
 whom he imagined hereafter reading them ; but this prediction is 
 true as regards the Bible to an extent a hundredfold greater, 
 and more enduring, and a thousand times more profitable. 
 
ADDRESS No. II. 
 
 On "The World-wide Diffusion of the Scriptures in 
 Hundreds of Languages." 
 
 "The Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the 
 
 sea." — Isaiah xv. 9. 
 
 "The Isles shall wait for His law."— Isaiah xlii. 4. 
 
 In these days these words are fulfilled. What a faint 
 conception the inspired Prophet must have had of the geographical 
 expansion of the round world, and its fourteen hundred millions 
 of inhabitants ! How little he knew of anj-thing beyond the 
 limits of his own country, and his own generation ! Yet the 
 prophesy has come true. There are no more Continents now 
 to discover, and only a limited amount of unexplored interior 
 regions in Asia, Africa, and America : we have left but little 
 for the geographers of the next century to accomplish ; and the 
 Distributors of the Bible have not failed in their duty, at least 
 in the commencement of it, for it will take centuries to com- 
 plete the good work, but_ we have the advantage now of no 
 
( 20 ) 
 
 great linguistic surprises being possible. On the subject of 
 Language see Address No. III. In this Address I keep 
 myself to Geography, the most material of all Sciences in its 
 three developments, Physical, Political, and Anthropological. 
 
 In Europe our work of creation is done : we have but to 
 sustain, improve, and spread, the Eighty Translations, with which 
 the 312^ Millions of the human race, all nominally Christians, 
 have been supplied. It took fourteen hundred years from the 
 day of Pentecost to convert Europe, but now with the exception 
 of the Je^vs, and the kw Mahometans residing in or near 
 Constantinople, all are nominally Christians, but they do not all 
 love the Bible. The Atheist, Agnostic, Skeptic, and Worldling, 
 pass it by, and despise it ; the Roman Catholic Priest forbids 
 his flock to buy copies, and does his best to destroy all the 
 copies, on which he can lay hands : the Members of the 
 Greek and Protestant Churches are more noble, and gladly 
 receive it. 
 
 Of these eighty translations several are dead, and some 
 are used only for liturgical purposes, e.g., Latin, Greek (the 
 inspired N. T.), Slavonic, Anglo-Saxon, Gothic ; and twenty-five 
 are in subordinate dialects of some particular great Language, or 
 sister-dialects of a Language of second or third-rate importance.- 
 Some are moribund, and on the road to extinction : Others are 
 given to the world in strong conquering forms of speech, like 
 the English, which give promise of lasting for ever, having in 
 themselves the power of modif}'ing their forms, and adapting 
 new word-stores. There is not room for much expansion of 
 
( 21 
 
 work in Europe, but for careful rc\'ision and diligent circulation. 
 Several distinct forms of written Character are used, but all are 
 Alphabetic. 
 
 I quote at this place the important remarks of the Earl of 
 Harrowby, President of the British and Foreign Bible Societ}', 
 made in Exeter Hall, j\Ia)', 1890 The real danger of modern 
 times is lest nominal Christians should fall back into Paganism, 
 worse because it is civilized, and amounts to Atheism or Theism. 
 
 " Another important point, to which I wish to call }-our 
 "attention is the tone in regard to religious matters in the three 
 "great Latin countries of Europe, France, Italy, and Spain. A 
 "most interesting report is made on this subject by our colporteurs, 
 " who say, that the best test at the present time is the tone of 
 "the working-classes of Europe, and they go into every quarter 
 " of the country, and among classes of the people, whom no 
 " minister ever reaches. According to their reports there is going 
 " on still more rapidly than ever the alienation of the people 
 " from the existing religious churches of those lands. This is 
 " sad in one way, but it is hopeful in another. The feeling of 
 "alienation from the priesthood in those countries is evidently 
 " growing with tremendous strides, and is producing great changes 
 " in the habits and opinions of the people. Concurrently with 
 " these vast changes comes the report, that more and more they 
 "are willing to buy the sacred books for themselves. If you 
 "compare this state of things with that, which prevailed only ten 
 " years ago, you will find that the bitterness against the ecclesiastical 
 "spirit increases, but that the bitterness against religion generally 
 
( 22 ) 
 
 " is on the wane, as far as our colporteurs report. The spread 
 "of education is enormous in France and Italy. For the first 
 " time those countries are becoming highly educated from the 
 " very lowest ranks, but absolutely without any religious teaching : 
 "the reports state, that the teachers themselves are infidels. 
 " But with all this there is this hopeful sign, that the people 
 "are buying more and more the sacred Book. If they were 
 " accepting copies as gifts, it would not be so much, but, though 
 "this Society gives away a limited numbers of books, it goes on 
 " the principle of selling rather than of giving, so that, when we 
 " tell you of this test of feeling, it is a real test, because the 
 " people sacrifice something in order to get the Sacred Volume. 
 " j\I. ]Monod, with regard to France, says that, he adopts very much 
 " the words of one of his best colporteurs : ' It seems to me 
 " that superstition is not so general as it was, and that what people 
 "call the Protestant faith is honoured by many Roman Catholics, 
 " who ten years ago felt nothing but a bitter hatred against the 
 " Gospel and the Scriptures, which we colporteurs circulate. Blessed 
 " be the Lord for that ! Those times are gone, and the light of 
 " the Gospel seems to spread. The Lord gives me new openings, 
 "and I must hasten to meet them.' Yes, the Society, must 
 "hasten to meet the openings, and I hope that you will do all you 
 "can to help us to meet them. With regard to Italy, what 
 "does our excellent agent say there.? Our Society aims at 
 "making the Bible a household word from the Alps to Sicily, 
 " and this is what we arc doing more and more successfully 
 " every year. That is his report of the work there. Then as 
 
 yWfii 
 
( 23 ) 
 
 " to Spain, the other Latin country, our agent says : ' The fact, 
 
 "which presses on my attention is the quiet but sure advance of 
 
 "the Scriptures all over the land.' All over Spain! What a 
 
 " change ! One rises from the study of the simple, often rude, 
 
 "narratives of the colporteurs, saying to oneself, 'Here is a quiet 
 
 "silent movement, the Bible is passing rapidly into the hands of 
 
 "the people.' Therefore my verdict must be, that there is all 
 
 " to encourage us and nothing to discourage in our work in 
 
 "Spain. Well, my lords and gentlemen, I would beg you 
 
 "to follow up these points in the Report, which gives very 
 
 "interesting details on the subject. Then there is another point, 
 
 " to which I would call attention, the increased local circulation 
 
 "of the Holy Scriptures in Europe. That is what the Society 
 
 "always longed for, and said it meant to withdraw from the 
 
 " countries of Europe as soon as the nations would do the work 
 
 " themselves. We have been withdrawing from Switzerland ; there 
 
 " Societies are springing into life, and the Bible is prospering 
 
 "largely in the hands of the Swiss. Then there is the remark- 
 
 "able fact in connection with Germany, that there never was 
 
 "a greater circulation of the Scriptures in Germany than in 
 
 "the present year. Germany was the centre of the anti- 
 
 " christian criticism of the Bible, and the world was taught 
 
 "from Germany to regard the Bible as an absolutely found-out 
 
 " Book. But we find that the figures of the German Societies 
 
 "have of late years gone up by leaps and bounds. German love 
 
 "of the Scriptures was never greater, apparently, than it is now, 
 
 "say those, who have watched the progress of Germany." 
 
( 24 ) 
 
 Asia presents a still more magnificent spectacle : a population 
 of 800 Millions provided with 103 translations, with a capacity 
 for greatly increasing the number. I enumerate the names of 
 the political divisions so as to bring home to the mind the 
 grandeur of the subject : 
 
 Russia. 
 
 Turkey. 
 
 Arabia. 
 
 Persia. 
 
 India, Nearer and Further, and the Indian Archipelago. 
 
 China and Korea. 
 
 Japan. 
 
 A very small proportion are even nominally Christians : there 
 are Millions, who arc ^Mahometan, Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, 
 or belonging to some lower form of Paganism. Every degree 
 of culture and civilization is included. There is great variety of 
 Race, of Linguistic Family, and of Written Character, Alphabets, 
 and Ideograms. The outturn already made represents the grandest 
 accumulation of sanctified human knowledge, that the World ever 
 saw in times past, or is likely to see in times to come. Among 
 the versions enumerated is the original inspired Hebrew version, 
 and the Hebrew language, though no longer falsely honoured as 
 the mother of all languages, still maintains its position, as the one 
 fountain, from which the knowledge of the Oracles of God have 
 been derived. Some of the translations are of the highest 
 possible type of excellence, and are understood by scores 
 of ]Millions, men of high culture and intelligence, the heirs of 
 an antient civilisation, compared to which the civilisation of 
 
( 25 ) 
 
 Europe is a young plant. As in Europe so in Asia, the 
 Vernacular Bible takes its place as an esteemed Classic, and it 
 will be no more possible to exclude it from the Library of an 
 educated Asiatic than it is possible to exclude Plato, and the 
 Greek Tragedians, from an European Library. In Literature it 
 has left its indelible mark : its higher function of Education 
 will be described in Address No. VL 
 
 The Phenomena presented by Africa are different. The 
 population is estimated, but on no certain data, at two hundred 
 Millions. This is a mere guess : there are fifty-nine translations. 
 The four Regions, North, West, South, and East, are differently 
 situated. The North Region is affected by the contiguity of 
 Asia and Europe : the chief translation in use is that of the 
 Arabic, an importation from Asia, which is not included in the 
 enumeration : the other languages are mostly unimportant, without 
 influence or literature. In the West Region all that exists is the 
 creation of this Century : whether the seed sown will take root 
 is a question, to which no answer can be given : a wave of bar- 
 barism might sweep all away : Christian Settlements at distances 
 from the Coast far in the interior are still in their infancy : some 
 of the Languages brought into subjection are trul}- magnificent : the 
 Printing Press is at work : the circumstance, that every educated 
 Native on the Coast speaks English as his first vernacular, and 
 has his English Bible, is a phenomenon quite peculiar to this Region : 
 other translations will no doubt be added, and the problems pre- 
 sented by the populations of the basins of the Senegal, Niger, 
 and Kongo, are the most interesting and peculiar, that the world 
 
( 25 ) 
 
 has ever seen. In the South Region an European Christian 
 civilisation is unmistakably forming itself, and it may be antici- 
 pated, that in the twentieth Century the Bible will have unlimited 
 diffusion among an African, an European, and a mixed population. 
 The East Region presents different Phenomena. The influence 
 of Arabic, and the Mahometan Religion, and of contact with 
 India, is felt : one lordly language, considerably Arabized, the 
 Sw'ahi'li, has an extensive influence, but, as the interior has been 
 penetrated up to the great Lakes, a great many cognate languages 
 have been revealed, and translations made. The written Character 
 used is nearly exclusively the Roman Alphabet. 
 
 In America translations have been made for the use of eighty- 
 six Millions in forty Languages, the European Languages of English, 
 French, Spanish and Portuguese, which are so extensively used, 
 are not included in this enumeration. Twenty-nine translations 
 are provided for the interesting tribes of the Red Indians, who 
 still survive in the Dominion of Canada, and the United States : 
 their linguistic peculiarities will be dwelt upon in Address No. Ill : 
 A special syllabic written Character has been devised for their 
 use : Perhaps the words " Too Late " rise in our hearts, and come 
 to our lips : it seems an impossibility, that such a peculiar race 
 can co-exist intermixed with, and under the unsympathetic influences 
 of, Anglo-Saxon Colonists. At any rate the Bible Society has 
 done its duty, and from the first year of its existence. 
 
 In Central America four translations represent the extent, to 
 which Christian Europe and North America has been ready, or able, 
 to minister to the spiritual wants of the Survivors of the Kingdom 
 
 s**r. '•'/».■ 
 
( 27 ) 
 
 of Mexico : they too seem doomed. In South America provision 
 has been made in three Languages for translation for the use of 
 Native tribes on the Continent, and one for the poor, weak 
 inhabitants of the Southermost Island of Tierra del Fucgo, in 
 a peculiar written Character, not its own, for it had none. 
 
 In the fairy Islands of Oceania, unknown to the Antient World, 
 and dimly known to the last generation, but now standing out in 
 clear daylight, we find thirty-nine translations for the use of four 
 and half Millions of barbarous Natives, some on the lowest round 
 of the ladder of human culture. The two great obstacles to the 
 diffusion of the Bible are difficulty of access, and hostility of the 
 Priests of the Church of Rome. ]\Iy intimate Survey of the whole 
 world, and study of the great Story of Bible-work, leave me no 
 doubt on this subject. In the four portions of this fairy world, 
 which spreads even up to the gates of the Morning not far from 
 South America, Polynesia, ^Melanesia, ]\Iikronesia, and Australia, 
 access is easy for the translator and the supply of translations. 
 The Middle Ages never threw the dark shadow of a corrupt 
 Ecclesiastical System over these fortunate islands : even now, 
 however, in one or two Islands, which have been appropriated 
 by Romish Priests, a diligent watch is maintained to keep out 
 the Bible, but it is in vain : they might as well attempt to prevent 
 the Morning Sun rising in its glory. 
 
 Our President, the Earl of Harrowby, remarked : " The past 
 " fifty years have almost seen a repetition of the gift of tongues, 
 " because we have produced translations of the Bible in something 
 " like 140 tongues. Many of these were previously unwritten, and 
 
( 28 ) 
 
 " had not known a word of literature before. This is one of the 
 " greatest marvels of the half-century. I don't think I am ex- 
 " aggerating, when I say that that extraordinary linguistic feat 
 " of the literary establishment of this multitude of Languages, by 
 " means of the Bible, is almost miraculous." 
 
 Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, be honour given, but to 
 Thee, Who art the giver ! What shall we render unto the Lord 
 for His mercies during the last ninety years? Exactness of totals 
 is impossible, as year by year additions are made of fresh tribute, 
 laid humbly on the Altar of the Lord, tribute of the first-fruits of 
 Zeal, Linguistic Gifts, and Precious lives, gladly offered, singular 
 devotion, whole-hearted consecration, reflect blessings on the 
 countries, which made the Sacrifice. i.-\ccording to my Language 
 lists compiled, and published in 1890, there were three hundred 
 and thirty-one effective translations, and my pencil notes indicate 
 an addition of twelve in 1891, and I find that 1892 will 
 register an equal, if not a larger, addition, and year by year, 
 when this generation has passed away, those who stand on the 
 brink of the twentieth Century, and look forward to the years, that 
 are yet to come, must lay to themselves the duty of making an 
 annual offering, not unworthy of their opportunities and blessings, and 
 the great character, which they have to maintain. Many translations 
 require careful revision : in some many Books of the Divine Library 
 are wanting, and it may possibly be judicious to limit the supply 
 to a tribe in a low state of culture and intellectual capacity to 
 the most important Books. New Editions in different sizes, written 
 Character, and on different materials, will always be required. 
 
ADDRESS No. III. 
 
 Ox THE Translator, the Translation, the Diversity of 
 Languages, and the Rules laid down for Guidance. 
 
 " I will gather all Nations and Languages, and they shall come to see 
 My Glorj-. " — Isaiah Ixvi. iS. 
 
 " Flow hear we every man in our own Language, wherein we were born." 
 
 —Acts ii. 8. 
 
 *' We do hear them speaking in our Languages the mighty works of 
 God." — Acts ii. ii. 
 
 The original texts in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, were 
 committed to paper or parchment by their inspired writers in 
 the form of written Characters of their period, and by a succession 
 of copies of copies have come down to our time : certain texts 
 were accepted by the Bible-Societies as their standard with certain 
 license allowed to the Translator, so as to make use of all 
 available knowledge acquired by qualified Scholars : notice has 
 been made in Address Xo. i of the early Translators : to men 
 like Jerome in the fourth century, and to Erasmus in the fourteenth 
 
( 30 ) 
 
 century of the Christian era, we stretch out our hands across 
 the abyss of centuries in grateful acknowledgment of the work 
 which the Holy Spirit called them out of the ranks of their 
 contemporaries to do : we cannot pass by without blessing such 
 names as Wycliffe, Luther, Tyndale, Coverdale, and others, who 
 risked their lives in the discharge of their duties, and a debt of 
 gratitude is owing to many others, who before the close of the 
 eighteenth century devoted their talents to the sacred work : with 
 the rare exceptions mentioned in Address No. i these translations 
 were made for the use of European Churches by Pastors or 
 Scholars : but when the Missionary Spirit at the close of the last 
 century was let loose in the world, like the imprisoned Genii from 
 the Lamp, translations were undertaken by IMissionaries in every 
 part of the world, and the Bible-Society became the handmaid 
 to the Missionary Societies, doing this particular work for them, 
 and placing them under heavy obligations. It was then that the 
 venerable names of Carey, Judson, Morrison, and Martin appeared, 
 and later on a whole troop of translators, who in the last seventy 
 years have accomplished the marvellous work recorded in Address 
 No. n. Where can we seek a better ideal of a translator than 
 in the picture, which the Interpreter showed to Christian the 
 Pilgrim (Pilgrim's Progress) ? 
 
 " It had eyes lifted up to Heaven : the best of books in its 
 " hand : the law of truth was written upon its lips, the world 
 " was behind its back : it stood as if it pleaded with men, and a 
 " crown of glory did hang over its head." 
 
 I venture to quote the remarks of Sir Charles Aitchison 
 
( 31 ) 
 
 late Lieutenant-Governour of the Panjab : I am proud indeed of 
 having been a disciple and follower of John Lord Lawrence, 
 but perhaps it is a greater honour to have had men like Sir 
 Charles Aitchison among my own subordinates : 
 
 " These missionaries were men, of whom the world was not 
 " worthy. They gave themselves and all their worldly goods 
 " to the Master's cause, not simply a subscription, not simply a 
 " tithe or a tenth, but literally all. Carey himself wrote, ' I 
 " might have had very great possessions, but have given all 
 " I had, except what I ate and drank and wore, to the cause 
 " of missions, and Dr. Marshman has done the same, and Mr. 
 " Ward likewise.' These men left to the Mission cause a better 
 " legacy than any worldly possessions : they left the translation 
 " of the Scriptures, the unsearchable riches of Christ, in forty 
 " of the vernacular languages of India. Before Carey's time the 
 " Bible was to the Indian people a sealed book. Carey went 
 " out in 1/93, ^"<^> within eight years, the New Testament in 
 " Bangali was published entire. Within eight years more, the 
 " entire Bible in Bangali was published ; and by 1S34, when 
 " Carey died, the whole Scriptures were published in six of the 
 " Indian Languages ; the New Testament in twenty-three more 
 " of the Indian Languages, and portions of Scripture in ten 
 " languages in addition, in spite of the fact that these missionaries 
 " had actually to cut their own punches, to cast their own 
 " type, sometimes even to make their own paper ; and in face 
 " of the fact that their entire printing press and the priceless 
 " manuscripts of their dictionar)- were entircl)' destroyed b}- fire. 
 
( 32 ) 
 
 " Was I wrong in saying that this reads like a chapter in 
 " romance ? 
 
 " To my mind there is no department in which the results 
 " of missionary labour during the last century are more manifest 
 " than in the translation and circulation of the Scriptures. At 
 " the beginning of the century, Bibles were scarce and dear. 
 " Carey's first Bangali Bible cost about £4. A Bangali Bible 
 " can now be had for a few pence. At the beginning of the 
 " centur}', the Bible existed only in some thirty languages ; it 
 " has now been translated, in whole or in part, into something 
 " like three hundred and fifty, to which the Baptist ^Missionary 
 " Society has contributed, I believe, some fifty-six. Now, if 
 " there were no other result of missionary labours than that, 
 " they have conferred an inestimable boon upon the whole human 
 " race, and all the lives, that have been spent in the ^Mission 
 " cause from the beginning till now, would even for that result 
 " not have been thrown away. Apart altogether from the spiritual 
 " aspects of the case, and looking mereh' to the secular side of 
 " it, the philological value of a work like that is simply 
 " incalculable." 
 
 Let me add a word of commendation of this noble army, 
 of whom Jerome was the first and greatest : they were not all 
 Scholars, not all wise, not all successful : the work of some is 
 forgotten : it was the rough translation of the first man, upon 
 which his successors have built a more perfect superstructure : his 
 work, like that of many a good builder of past and present time, 
 lies underneath the soil : but the good bricks made by the first 
 
( 33 ) 
 
 man support the fabric : he hewed the primeval forest : he 
 collected from the mouths of barbarians their words expressive 
 of their thoughts, ranged them in vocabularies, grouped them in 
 sentences, learnt to utter them with faltering voice, and was the 
 first to consecrate them to the sacred use of rendering the Word 
 of God intelligible to a family of His poor children, who had 
 hitherto not known Him, but for whom Christ had died. Glory- 
 to the man, who has translated the whole Bible ! And it is found, 
 that the words of the Bible adapt themselves to any form of 
 human speech, is capable of expression in vocables, which had 
 not undergone the discipline of centuries of literature : some may 
 think, that this was a matter of course : I was once sitting at 
 Banaras in the company of some Brahman Pandits, who were 
 attempting to render into Sanskrit some portion of Macaulay's 
 writings, and they were obliged to abandon the attempt : I very 
 much doubt, whether Mr. Gladstone's speeches could be rendered 
 into the IMonosyllabism of China, or the Polysyllabism of the 
 Red Indian, into Fiji, or Zulu, or even our own familiar Persian, 
 and Urdu : so complicated are the constructions of the great 
 writer and orator : but there is a simplicity in the structure of 
 the Hebrew, which renders it convertible at will into any other 
 form of speech, and it goes without saying, that a sentiment, which 
 has been clothed in Greek, can without difficulty be transferred 
 to any form of articulate sound, and it is a mistake to call any 
 Language barbarian, though spoken by barbarians. 
 
 I have heard a friend on his return from a six months trip 
 to China tell the Committee in good faith, that the position of 
 
 3 
 
 4r^ ^ -^ -- 
 
( 34 ) 
 
 the people of China was unique, that it was Impossible to translate 
 the Psalms into the Languages of China, that the text of the 
 Scriptures was useless without notes and commentaries : but are 
 the people of China different in their intellectual status from 
 other nations, for instance the people of India, who require no 
 such helps, and in whose multiform Languages the Books of 
 the Bible flow like melted gold? Do not such remarks come from 
 the obliquity of vision of the man, who knows China, and 
 nothing but China ? Can we not recall the time, when a 
 celebrated orientalist in 1778 expressed the opinion in good faith, 
 that no translation could be made of the Bible in the Languages 
 of China, because the nature of the Languages would not allow 
 of any translation being made : It is difficult to bring back the 
 mind to the standpoint, whence such an opinion could have been 
 maintained. But others of that period told their friends, that 
 some Languages had no grammatical construction : they could 
 hardly have meant, that the sounds left the mouth at random 
 without being compressed into words and sentences, and grammar 
 consists of Sounds, Words, and Sentences : Some at this period 
 fondly believed, that Savages conducted their affairs by the help 
 of symbols, whistles, clicks, grunts, and gestures : We have got 
 beyond that stage of half-knowledge now, and must admit, that 
 all God's children use articulate speech, and none require any 
 extraneous help, which is not asked for by their fellows. Here 
 let me add a wonderful fact. Each family of Languages has a 
 " soul " of its own : its genius at some remote and unknown 
 period lept out of darkness, and became fixed for ever : The 
 
( 35 ) 
 
 native of China may use English words, but he uses them after 
 his own method : his words must be placed in the precise order, 
 in which the idea rises : there is no suffix to mark the accusative 
 case, and if the order of " the man beat the dog " were departed 
 from, as in Latin and Greek versification, it would be uncertain, 
 who was the sufferer, the man or the dog. The idea that 
 Languages passed through a series of evolution from mono- 
 syllabism to agglutination, and thence on to inflection, is abandoned. 
 A Language-family maintains its idiosyncracy to the end. 
 
 It is opportune to say a word more on the subject of Lan- 
 guages : there are at least two thousand mutually unintelligible 
 spoken at this moment, and more lie behind not yet revealed : 
 the Bible-Society gleans after the great travellers : each in his 
 stride across continents, or in his course from island to island, 
 lifts the curtain of the unknown a little higher, and reveals new 
 wonders. In the great majority there is an entire want of culture, 
 and there exists neither a literature, nor even a written Character, 
 but the machine itself is perfect, logical, and delicately differentiated : 
 There are Languages, spoken by barbarian tribes in India, with as 
 rich a grammatical apparatus as the Greek, and in Africa as 
 euphonious and methodical as the Osmanli-Turki. The Bible is in 
 such environment, really the book, the first book, the first idea of 
 a book, the only book, and the best book : per saUuvt these 
 barbarians have passed from an ignorance of things human and 
 divine, as thick as surrounds a Gorilla, into the glorious light of 
 Revelation, and have learnt to utter with faltering lips sublime 
 truths, which Prophets, and Philosophers, have felt for, and failed 
 
( 3^ ) 
 
 to find, which wise men may have dreamt of in their dreams by 
 night, or reveries by day, and which faithful men saw afar off under 
 the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and were glad. It is a great 
 honour, and an enduring one, conferred on a poor uncultivated 
 Language in Canada, or the Xew Hebrides, or the interior of 
 Africa, a Language only used for the vulgar duties of a very 
 degraded form of life, where indecent words are very frequent, and 
 cruel words very abundant, and decent loving words scarce, suddenly 
 elevated, levelled up, dev^eloped by one, who skilfully handles the 
 potential resources of this undeveloped form of speech, and lifts 
 it up to the supreme honour of being the vehicle of God's message 
 to Man ; the golden censer, in which humble pra}'ers morning 
 and night pass from untutored lips, and contrite hearts, right up 
 to the Throne of Grace : the thought is overwhelming in its 
 grandeur : we do not think enough of such wonderful trans- 
 formations. 
 
 Languages differ from each more entirely than those, who 
 have not studied the subject, can imagine. The old fashioned idea, 
 that at some remote period they all came from one seed-plot, has 
 disappeared, and another idea is gaining ground, that there are 
 several distinct seed-plots, and that j\Ian was created without 
 developed power of uttering articulate sounds, but being endowed 
 with brain power, and so far superior to brute and mute animals, 
 he developed the power of articulate utterances under different 
 environments, and therefore on totally different principles : there 
 is the trace of mind, and logical power, in all : how otherwise 
 can we account for the Monosyllabism of the Chinese, the 
 
( 37 ) 
 
 Polysyllabism of the Red Indians, the agglutinating system of the 
 Turki, the inflecting tendencies of the Arian ; the use of Suffixes 
 by some Languages, of Prefixes by others, and Infixes by a third, 
 such as the Semitic, where the root is stretched out Hke an 
 elastic string, and servile letters infixed. 
 
 Just as their origin is different, so is their life, and the end 
 of their lives : some die early, are trodden, and absorbed by coming 
 into contact with some great conquering Language, like the English, 
 which in its march over continent and islands substitutes itself 
 for the poor undeveloped form of speech of a tribe in a low state 
 of culture : in some cases all the tribe, who speak a language, are 
 killed down. Some beget families of Languages, as the Latin and 
 Sanskrit ; some seem to be barren, and only give out dialectal 
 varieties, like Greek and Arabic : some were made use of early 
 in their career as vehicles of civilisation, and thus have prolonged 
 their existence as dead literary Languages : Great Families of 
 Languages exist, like the Arian, Semitic, Dravidian, Turki, Bantu, 
 etc , which clearly each came from one separate seed-plot ; or great 
 groups of Languages, which cannot be affiliated to each other, or 
 at least have not been so in our present knowledge. And as to 
 the dimly known, or totally unknown. Languages of unexplored 
 Regions, we must leave them to the children now in their cradles, 
 the " enfans terribles " of the Twentieth Century, who will stand 
 on our coffins, think little of our labours, laugh at our failures, and 
 talk of us as old fogies, who knew nothing at all : Empty spaces 
 on our maps warn us of the existence of unrevealed Millions, 
 still living their secluded savage lives, not yet poisoned by European 
 
( 38 ) 
 
 liquors, not yet plundered and put to death by European Geo- 
 graphical Explorers on the Scientific war-path ; not yet shot down 
 by Maxim guns by so-called political Protestants (as at Uganda 
 in 1892); not yet driven like vermin from their land by British 
 Colonists, and great Companies without any feelings of compassion : 
 It seems, as if a great cry were going up to Heaven from every 
 part of Africa for protection and vengeance, when even the fact, 
 that the New Testament has been translated into a particular 
 language, is gravely put forward as a reason for annexing a 
 Province, and enslaving a population. We are as it were standing 
 by the seashore, and listening to the noise of the inarticulate waves : 
 mounted up on a high tower listening to the confused murmur 
 of an unseen crowd below, that floats up to our hearing. There 
 are secrets reserved for the twentieth century, which we shall 
 never know : new Planets gliding into the orb of our vision : new 
 translations of the Scripture will have to be made ; for the end 
 is not yet. Time is on the side of the Bible-Society ; their work 
 will last until the Earth and its Glory passes away. 
 
 The tendency of the age is for great Ernpires, great Nationalities, 
 and great Languages : this is all in the favour of the Bible- 
 Diffusion, for though only 330 out of 2000 languages have been 
 disposed of, yet all the conquering languages, and a great many 
 of the second class, or permanent, languages, have been dealt with, 
 and before the turn of many hundred arrives to be honoured by 
 becoming the receptacle of the Word of God, it will be found, 
 that their day of usefulness is past, that they have been scorched, 
 and destroyed, under the blaze of some great Vernacular. It is 
 
( 39 ) 
 
 impossible to say, how or when this may come about : we have 
 instances, shewing that the lapse of centuries has made no change 
 in the framework of a Vernacular, though many changes have 
 taken place of its word-store : and again, Eg\'pt presents the 
 phenomena of the same race in the same locality having absolutely 
 changed its antient language for another of a different family. 
 All these things are far beyond the power of Sovereigns, or 
 Parliaments, or Churches, or Bible-Societies, to counteract. 
 
 How little should we have known of the existence and nature 
 of many Languages but for the quiet labour of th2 Translators ! 
 over the tomb of one venerable man is recorded the fact, that 
 he translated the whole Bible into a Language, the very name 
 of which was previously unknown : he had found all the tribe 
 savage Pagans, and left them decent Christians. Then again 
 the unsettled speech of many Nations has been settled by the 
 translation of the Bible : no more notable instances can be 
 given of this Phenomenon than that of the English and German, for 
 it becomes the commencement of their literature, and no other 
 book would do it so well. It is not necessary, that the whole of 
 the Old and New Testaments should be translated into Languages 
 only spoken by a few thousand : Selections of certain books are 
 quite sufficient, at any rate, for one or two decades. Money and 
 labour have been thrown away in past years by want of attention 
 to this principle. Many Languages would never have been 
 reduced to writing, would never have survived to later ages, such 
 as the Maeso-Gothic of Ulfilas, the three dialects of the Koptic, the 
 Algonquin of Eliot ; they would have been trodden down under 
 
( 40 ) 
 
 the triumphant chariot-wheels of some more powerful, or more 
 fortunate Language, leaving no track on the sands of time, but 
 for the Scriptures, which have kept some flickering form of 
 speech alive for a season by lending it a spiritual light of its 
 own, and which have given Immortality to other Languages: many 
 mighty forms of speech, in which law was given to Kingdoms in 
 antient days, have perished and are forgotten, because no holy 
 Prophet condescended to make use of them : " Carent quia vate 
 sacro." 
 
 There are a great variety of written Characters, of three kinds : 
 Ideogram, Syllabary, Alphabet : the translator should use a sound 
 judgment in his selection of the written Character : the Roman 
 Character is generally used for all Languages, which never had a 
 Character of their own ; but in North America, the translators 
 have fashioned new Syllabaries, and in South America used an 
 entirely new Alphabet. I am not prepared to give a decided 
 opinion on the expediency of such measures : unquestionably it 
 adds to the difficulties of the future. 
 
 Then again in many Languages there are Dialects, differing 
 from each other in w^ord-store, pronunciation, and even in structure : 
 if there is a standard-dialect, which takes precedence of the 
 others, this is naturally adopted, but, if there are several of 
 equal importance, another question of sound judgment arises as 
 to which should be selected : these brief remarks give an idea 
 of the extraordinary difficulties, which surround the process of 
 rendering God's Word into the Vernacular of the world. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to say, that the money of the Society 
 
( 41 ) 
 
 is not spent in editions of old translations, or the composing 
 of new in the dead Ecclesiastical Languages of Europe, Asia 
 and Africa : where editions exist, copies can be obtained in the 
 Depot by Scholars, or members of the corrupt Churches, who 
 use them, but their preparation is not within the duty of the 
 Bible Society for reasons, which will be fully described in 
 Address No. IV. 
 
 The existence of these antient translations, however, make us 
 realize a Divine Presence through the Ages : all things are 
 changing : boundaries of Empires, existence of Empires, prevalence 
 of Languages : but one thing is not changed : the Word of God 
 abideth for ever. In the Revelation we read (vii. 9) : — " Lo, 
 " a great multitude, which no man can number, of all Nations 
 " and kindreds, and people, and tongues." In those days not 
 the faintest idea existed of the multiplicity of the forms of 
 human speech : in fact I came on a Hebrew Grammar of last 
 century, in which the author gravely states, that there were about 
 sixty Languages in the world, and all derived from Hebrew : 
 As the work grows under the hand of the translator, as the 
 wonderful story is spelt out in new combination of letters, 
 and words, and sentences, or hesitatingly pronounced in new 
 sequences of strange, but euphonious, sounds, and as the Divine 
 conception of Sin, Faith, Repentance, Pardon, and Holiness, 
 impress themselves on the conscience, and intellect, of simple, 
 docile, and sympathetic savages, how the heart of the translator 
 must be gladdened, how his eye is brightened to think, that in 
 the course of ages it has been reserved to him to be the first 
 
( 42 ) ■ 
 
 interpreter of Revelation to souls so long lying out of the way 
 of the Gospel ! 
 
 The first attempts at translation in Languages of races in a 
 low state of culture are often weak : there are no linguistic 
 helps, such as grammars and dictionaries, and the words have 
 to be caught, as it were, alive from the mouths of the people, who 
 cannot understand what the translator is after : Then again 
 abstract ideas such as Love, Patience, etc , have not been developed : 
 it is believed, that 2Co words are sufficient to supply the con- 
 versation in ordinary life of an English villager, so perhaps 
 less would be sufficient for that of a South Sea Islander : 
 Many things actually do not exist, such as sheep, wine, bread, 
 etc. : the Languages, and the ideas, of the speaker have to 
 be developed : many stories are told : I give three : the trans- 
 lator in the Eskimo Language was hard pushed how to render 
 the " Lamb of God," for such things as sheep were unknown : 
 Seals were the familiar objects in Labrador : So he rendered 
 the passage, " the little Seal of God." In South Africa a chief 
 being pushed hard by the translator to give a rendering for 
 Love : " God is Love " : suggested the eatable, which he loved 
 or liked most, which was " Decayed Fish." In New Britain a 
 word for a binding oath not to do something was wanting : 
 a chief struck out the idea of " I would rather speak to my 
 wife's Mother than do such a thing." In countries not in the 
 same or similar latitude to Palestine the translator is hard 
 pressed. Not only the Fauna and Flora are different, but the 
 clothing, the habitations, the customs, the environment of the 
 
 m^y i.ike * 
 
( 43 ) 
 
 people, differ from that of the Bible : how is he to find satis- 
 factory equivalents for names of animals, birds, insects, flowers, 
 precious stones, weights, measures, garments, ordinary expressions, 
 and outward evidence of daily life ? What does the Green- 
 lander, the Melanesian, the Fuegian, know about fig-trees and 
 Camels ? What moral will the precept convey to a tribe totally 
 naked ? " He that taketh thy coat let him take thy cloak also." 
 In some regions the sheep are entirely black : how will the 
 phrase be rendered about " white as wool " ? Wliat is to be done 
 in countries, where the idea of ice or snow does not exist ? 
 These are but specimens of the great difficulties, which the 
 external of human affairs present : when we deal with internal 
 preconceptions and ideas, the difficulty is greater. 
 
 After the first effort, and the test, that the translation is 
 intelligible in the Sunday School, and the Chapel, a first tentative 
 edition is struck off in the IMission-Press by the converts : this is an 
 interesting illustration of the Grace of God on His poor creatures, 
 A Missionary's wife writes how each sheet as struck off was 
 read to the women and girls, and portions committed to memory. 
 The Spirit of God did not fail to apply it to their simple hearts 
 and consciences in His own time and way : the Bible became 
 not only the basis of their religious convictions, but of the 
 moral and social culture, which slowly grew up, and in due 
 time brought forth fruit. It is very sweet to be allowed such 
 peeps into the inner life of these humble tribes : it is, as if we 
 were spying into the chambers of the Ant, or the hives of the 
 Bee : it is the same Power, which regulates the movements of 
 
( 44 ) 
 
 all His poor creatures. After further corrections the translation 
 is sent home, printed by the Bible-Society, and copies sent 
 back : then in due course comes the time for careful revision 
 by a second generation of Missionaries, who are not very merciful 
 to the shortcomings of their predecessors, and representatives of 
 other ^Missions of different denominations, who use the same 
 Language : but finality has not been obtained in any Language, 
 not even in English, French, or German. 
 
 These first efforts of good men must not be despised : we 
 think reverently of the translators of the Septuagint and the 
 Vetus Itala : they had consigned to them a certain portion of 
 the Divine Plan for the Redemption of ^^lankind, and they did 
 it faithfully. In the Hexapla of Origen we come upon the 
 obsolete translations into Greek of Aquila, Symmachus, and 
 Theodotion, but Origen profited by them, and Jerome made use 
 of them, and then their use, like the use of many a sweet 
 flower, died out : Vulgar tongues have been elevated by a 
 Master ]\Iind, and tuned to the expression of heavenly things, 
 ennobled by becoming the vehicle of God's Message to His poor 
 creatures : The difficulty of expressing religious ideas is not 
 so great as might be imagined. Paganism has made mankind 
 familiar with such ideas as the supreme Deity, Mediators, prayer, 
 sacrifice, confession of sin, penance, the Spirit-world. 
 
 Each of the dear good Translators, who unexpectedly, and 
 without any preparation, finds himself chosen by God to make 
 a translation in a new language, writes home in the innocence 
 of his heart, that his language is the most difficult in the 
 
( 45 ) 
 
 world : being devoid of all scientific knowledge, he dwells on 
 the absence of written Character (the presence of which is a 
 stumbling-block in China), of the extraordinary pronunciation, 
 word-store, and mode of describing the relation of idea to idea, 
 which we in Europe call sound-lore, word-lore, and sentence-lore : 
 perhaps he is all the better for being free from knowledge of Latin 
 and Greek Grammar, and for leaning on the Holy Spirit to sanctify 
 his intellect in his blessed work of translation. 
 
 Certain rules have been laid down for the guidance of trans- 
 lators : The Members of the Editorial Committee sit month by 
 month to conduct this part of the business, and there is one 
 Secretary set apart for this particular duty : a certain amount 
 of experience, of a more organised character than that of an 
 isolated Missionary, is thus attained : it is not pretended, that the 
 Members of this Sub-Committee know the particular Language, 
 but they know better than the Missionary the conditions of a 
 good translation, as there are as many as fifty on the anvil at 
 the same time, and the same, similar, or analogous, phenomena 
 or difficulties, arise in all. In the fourteen or twenty Languages, 
 with which ordinary Europeans are familiar, it is a wonderful 
 pleasure to read the same chapter rendered in a distinct vehicle 
 of symbol and sound : the meaning, or some shade of meaning, 
 latent in the Hebrew or Greek, which has escaped a rendering 
 in familiar Languages, is brought out in some barbarous Language : 
 I give one instance : Rightly or wrongly the phrase " Let us make 
 " man " (Genesis) is interpreted by some as indicating the con- 
 ception of a Trinity : Now in Greek there is a Dual number. 
 
 S^ 
 
( 46 ) 
 
 and in some Languages there is a Trial nun;iber, and the 
 Missionaries took credit for using the trial number in expressing 
 the idea of " Let Us Three make man." I only allude to this to 
 illustrate the fact, that some Languages possess a power of 
 expression, which for reasons, which are quite inexplicable, are 
 wanting in others. 
 
 In Lidia there are abundant expressions to represent the 
 great conception of God : in China there is not one : in the 
 attempt of Translators to find such a compound of monosyllables, 
 as would answer their idea, two Schools have arisen, which are 
 hopelessly divided from each other, and the Bible-Society has to 
 please both. So about the word Baptism, and the human name 
 of our Lord, Jesus, and the unpronounceable Tetragrammata, 
 which indicates the Covenant-God, there is constant and irre- 
 concilable dissension : Whatever may be the result of Divine 
 Teaching, the work of translating is beset by all the weaknesses, 
 perverseness, and wrongheadedness, of poor humanity. I some- 
 times reflect with anxiety on the result a century hence of the 
 divergent renderings launched upon the neo-Christian communities, 
 and as notoriously men are servants, or rather slaves, of words, 
 instead of words being the obedient servants of men, there will 
 doubtless be a crop of so-called heresies, or variations of dogma, 
 arising from the angular proclivities of some translator. 
 
 In Address IV. I shall describe the object and the effect 
 of all this labour : let me tarry for an instant on the human side : 
 In a lone hut, or surrounded by swarthy Natives, a translator 
 creates as it were a new literature and brincrs into evidence a 
 
 1 
 
( 47 ) 
 
 new Language, illustrated by the translation of a book familiar 
 to all. A feeling of astonishment rises in the minds of the 
 European linguistic Scholar, when a little book comes by chance 
 into his hands, such as the Gospel of Mark in the Language of Fiji, 
 or Tierra del Fuego, or Karib, or Cree, or Eskimo, or some form 
 of speech of Asia and Africa, of the existence of which no one 
 had heard before : Often have I received letters from Scholars, 
 residing in the different cities of Europe, begging for a copy of 
 some particular translation, of which they had heard : I have a 
 linguistic friend, or rather several friends according to the different 
 branch of Language-study, in every capital, and I gladly satisfy 
 their wishes from the boundless store of the Bible-Society : a 
 thousand pounds could not have produced the specimen of a 
 peculiar, perhaps unique, form of speech, a copy of which I 
 forward at a charge of fourpence : many of them have expressed 
 astonishment : " How do you in London get hold of such wonderful 
 " specimens, not to be attained elsewhere ? " my answer has been : 
 " Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall 
 " be added unto you." — ]\latt. vi. ^t,- The realm of Science is 
 enlarged, new material is given for investigation, the Sum of 
 Human Knowledge is increased ; but the real result will be 
 given in Address No. IV. 
 
 Another sweet feature in the work of translation is, that 
 a new opening is found for the sanctified labours of women : 
 the Phebe, the S}-ntyche, the beloved Persis, the Tryphosa and 
 Tryphena, of modern days, in translating, revising, and correcting 
 proofs during the passing of the copy through the Press : I could 
 
 :e. 
 
( 48 ) 
 
 give many instances, but I refrain, and it is obvious, that the 
 number will be greatly increased as time goes on. Dorcas left 
 behind her perishing vestments for the perishing bod}', and her 
 friends wept over them : these fellow-workers in the Lord leave 
 behind the more enduring clothing in words (some of which 
 will never die) of the Eternal Word, the food of the Immortal 
 Soul, and their friends, when they die, and those, who knew them 
 only by report, will rejoice, when they reflect upon their consecrated 
 labour and sanctified love. 
 
 It is a comfort also to record, that Africans of pure blood 
 have made independent translations in totally unknown Languages, 
 and that in all cases in every part of the world native Christians 
 take a large share in the work of translation : in fact without a 
 native Colleague no European Translator could do his work 
 satisfactorily. I have alwaj's wished, that there should be a list 
 of honour of all translators published in our Reports, including 
 Jerome, Frumentius, Ulfilas, Cyril, down to the present day : of 
 one thing the Translator ma}' be sure : the name of the Preacher 
 may die : his words were written on hearts, which passed away : 
 the fortunate modern translator commits his words not to brass or 
 stone, or bricks of clay to be baked in an Assyrian kiln, but to 
 leaden types and printed paper, which have in themselves the poten- 
 tiality of ubiquitous distribution, of multiplying beyond the power 
 of Roman Emperor in early centuries, or Roman Priest in later, to 
 destroy, and a repetition by mechanical arrangements, which Time 
 can never destroy. The translator must recollect, that his errors, 
 his perversely private interpretation, his theological and Ecclesi- 
 
( 49 ) 
 
 astical weaknesses, will thus come under the scorching light of 
 generations, who knew him not, and who will not spare him : 
 but, if he be guided by the Holy Spirit, even as a little child, and 
 allows no prejudices or partiality to come betwixt his philological 
 interpretation and the paper on his desk, his name will ever 
 sound stirring : he will enjoy a blessed immortality with a company* 
 amidst which the forms of Jerome, Bede, Wycliffe, Erasmus, Luther, 
 and Carey, are conspicuous. As I write, the figures of dear 
 Calvert, Moffat, Wenger, Yates, Eli Smith, Patterson, Droese, 
 Steere, Krapf, Schon, and many others, whom I knew in the 
 flesh, and who are now at rest, rise up before me ; great magicians 
 who have opened out the prospect of a new wonderland to 
 countless millions, and rendered things possible, which seemed 
 beyond the power of Human Resource. 
 
 5^•.^^ 
 
ADDRESS No. IV. 
 
 On "The object of Bible-Diffusion, and the effect upon 
 " the Educated and Civilized non-Christian Races, 
 " as well upon populations low in culture, and 
 " Devoid of Education." 
 
 " A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people 
 Israel." Luke ii. 32. 
 
 " Thy testimonies also are my delight, and my counsellors." 
 Psalms c.xix. 24. 
 
 A Bible Society is a Missionary Society of the highest order, 
 and with the most entire and exclusive devotion : it is the 
 highest and greatest of Missionary Societies : it is the Queen's 
 daughter, all glorious within, while the Missionary Societies are 
 like the Virgins, which bear her company. Moreover the written 
 Word is superior to the voice of the Preacher, for you can always 
 trust the Book, but you cannot always trust the man : the 
 latter is liable to errors : the former can never err ; while the 
 Missionary Society is necessarily restricted to one denomination. 
 
( 52 ) 
 
 and therefore cannot be ubiquitous, the Bible-Society belongs 
 to all the Churches, and is ubiquitous : thus we may judge how 
 vastly grander is the position of a Society, which circulates God's 
 Word to the whole world. 
 
 The saving of Souls, the turning of the heart to God, the 
 rescuing of the brand from the burning, the opening of the eyes 
 of the spiritually blind : such are the sole objects set before us. 
 By our works ye can know us, as all over the world the same 
 story is told about us : the signs of the Ever-Present Lord are 
 made manifest in the blessing, which attends us : we lean not on 
 the arm of Flesh : we do not go about, like weaker folk, and 
 petition unwilling Governments to annex African Provinces, to 
 enable us to sow the seed of the Truth. If any tribe will not 
 accept our Books, we have only to shake off the dust from our 
 shoes, as a witness against them, and go elsewhere. Conversion, a 
 new life, an understanding of the great and precious Promises : 
 this is our great motive, which wins a blessing to those who send, 
 those who convey, and those who receive : and there is a Power 
 greater than Man behind us, a Power supplied by the Holy 
 Spirit, who has blessed our work beyond the fondest conception. 
 He, who spake by the Prophets ever since the world began, 
 has in these last days enabled His poor creatures to glorify 
 Him by publishing His Word in a fresh surrounding of perishing 
 vocables, from Country to Country, and from Language to 
 Language : There may be doubts as to the expediency of some 
 acts of benevolence, or it may appear expedient at one Epoch 
 of a Nation's existence, and not at another : there can be none 
 
( 53 ) 
 
 as to this : We do all we can to resist all attempts of evil 
 men, and secular or religious despots, to limit the use of this 
 great gift to Mankind : we do all we can to advance the 
 expansion of the knowledge of the Word of God by Man- 
 kind. We wish to bring this Book, so full of patience, 
 hope, comfort and faith, to the homes and hearts of 
 every Nation and Tribe, for it is an additional proof of the 
 Unity of the Human Race, that all can understand it, and 
 value it when understood : Churches may vary in their Shibbo- 
 leths : in this Book there is neither variability, nor shadow of 
 turning. 
 
 What could the Missionary Societies do without the aid of 
 the Bible-Society? In early days they did indeed undertake the 
 printing of the Manuscripts sent home by their Missionaries, but 
 it was a drain on their funds, and there was not in their home- 
 establishments that amount of experience of the technical side of 
 the work, the dealing with Printers and Paper-Manufacturers, which 
 is gradually possessed by a Society, to whom such details are a 
 daily duty : Moreover many Languages serve the purposes of 
 different denominations of Christ's Church, and the Bible-Society 
 is the servant of all, and brings them together in the joint per- 
 formance of a sweet duty. We are like the Royal Arsenal of 
 Woolwich, which turns out the great guns, to accompany the 
 different Regiments of the Queen, guns which bring down great 
 fortresses, and disperse mighty Armies, and whose sound spreads 
 far and wide, reverberating through the secret cloisters of the heart 
 of man, if he will but listen. We do not forget, that the Bible is 
 
( 54 ) 
 
 the only adequate expression of God's dealings with the human race 
 in times past : His discipline of His chosen People is but a concrete 
 expression of His mode of dealing with the whole human race. 
 We do not forget, that in that Book, and here we may add in 
 that Book alone, is the Law of Love, leading on to cessation of 
 those tribal wars, which desolate non-Christian races, to the Law 
 of Monogamy dating from the Return of Israel from Exile, and 
 the consequent elevation of women, the awakening of the Heart- 
 Voice, the rendering for Conscience adopted in some Languages ; 
 purity of thoughts, modesty of demeanour, self-control, abstinence 
 from violence and rapine, the germs of civil freedom, the knell of 
 slavery, the respect for human life. 
 
 The Bible is the corner-stone of the Mission-Chapel, the talism 
 of the neo-Christian village : even before the institution of Mission- 
 Schools in Asia, at least in each village, however humble, someone 
 could be found, who could either read, or repeat what he had 
 committed to memory from the lips of another at some gathering : 
 thus some faint impression of the new Idea, that is floating in the 
 atmosphere of men's minds, is conveyed. 
 
 A vision rises before my eyes, as I write, not one of senti- 
 mental fancy or poetic imagination, but the record of sights 
 seen in distant countries many years ago. I see the gathering 
 of a party in the streets of a crowded city, or in the groves of an 
 Island of the Sea : Some one proud of his newly acquired power 
 reads from the little book, which is all his own, some portion of 
 the wondrous events recorded in a series of volumes, which spread 
 over fifteen hundred years : it comes to the hearers as a new 
 
 *'.#.*•- 
 
 -V -..: — . 
 
( 55 ) 
 
 revelation, so absolutely unlike is it to what they may have heard 
 before, of Krishna with his 40,000 Milkmaid-Mistresses ; of Rama 
 slaying lofty giants ; of mountains lifted up on the tips of little 
 fingers ; and hundreds of miles traversed in celestial chariots : in 
 this Book he reads of men, who are of the same dimensions, and 
 characters, and feelings, as those that listen : very erring men 
 indeed without any exception ; but the moral is different : there 
 is a something, which suggests new, holier, loftier ideas, and, 
 when the reader's voice drops into silence, they still lean forward, 
 as if he were still reading, for they are desirous to hear more : 
 the electric power has entered their soul. 
 
 The old, old Story is told to each man in his own tongue, 
 how God made and rules all the world, not this country nor that 
 country: how Jesus lived and died for all: how the Holy Spirit 
 condescends to dwell with all, who do not grieve Him, or drive 
 Him away : and then the Story, the one Story, which enchains 
 all mankind, flows on with the rising and falling cadence of the 
 voice of the speaker or reader, by the lone hill-side, in the 
 crowded room, amidst well wishers, and evil wishers : it evokes 
 feelings from the heart of the hearer never known before : it 
 flows on amidst smiles and amidst tears : smiles at the manger, 
 as the listeners bring up to their fancy the new-born child, and 
 the humble wonder of the Virgin-Mother : tears at the foot of the 
 Cross and at the grave, when they think, that someone has taken 
 away the Lord, and joy with those, that have found Him. In 
 the crowd are antient men of the form and build attributed to 
 Abraham : young women such as the Virgin, or her ancestress 
 
( 56 ) 
 
 Ruth, or the daughter of Jephtha : Matrons like those well-known 
 in Scripture, such as Rebecca, and Deborah, and Elizabeth, and 
 youths in the dawn of their opening life. Yes ; the deep bell 
 may sound from the Hindu Temple in the neighbouring grove, 
 the voice of the Muezzin in the Minaret of the Mosque may 
 reach their ears, calling to ceremonial, unintelligible, prayer; but 
 in this Story there is a greater attraction, and, while hearts are 
 human, and unaffected by the contagion of the world, it will 
 continue so. B}'gone days rise up, as if they were yesterday : 
 things that happened thousands of leagues away, seem very near 
 at hand : human difficulties disappear in the presence of the new 
 Idea of Salvation, and the sound of Glory is ringing in their ears. 
 From Wilson's Missionary work among the Ojibwa in Canada, 
 I quote the account of his reading about the feeding of the 
 4000 : the Red Indians listened intently, indicating their wonder 
 by suppressed ejaculation at the fact, that 4000 could be fed 
 with the few loaves and fishes, but what produced most effect 
 was the account of our Lord being mocked and crucified, and 
 His resurrection : their sympathy with the sufferings of their 
 Saviour was most marked, and their astonishment was most 
 evident, when they heard how the stone was rolled away, and 
 Angels announced to the women the great fact of the Resurrection : 
 It may please some to think, that these simple folk would have 
 been astonished at anything true or untrue : let me give two 
 illustrations of the power of the Book on other classes of God's 
 creatures. In Spain a little Protestant child was taken to a 
 public Hospital to die, and in her last moments she gave her 
 
( 57 ) 
 
 little Testament, which was all she possessed, to the Sister of 
 Charity, a Roman Catholic, who had nursed her. Between the 
 leaves of that little book the Spirit of the Lord was lying, and 
 the keeper of the Bible-Depot in that town remarked with surprise, 
 that during the next few days he sold several copies to females, 
 who stole in after dark. That day Salvation had come within 
 the walls of that Convent : no doubt on the day of confession of 
 these poor women their secret was wrung out of them, and 
 in the presence of the Lady Abbess, and Priest-confessor, there 
 ascended to heaven the smoke of a Sacrifice of burning paper, 
 the unaccepted offering of a modern Cain, who slew his brother: 
 but certain precious promises had been too deeply impressed in 
 the memory of these poor women ever to be effaced, and had 
 been in Faith appropriated by these humble Saints, to whom 
 some day a door by Grace will be found open, which will be 
 shut against the Pharisee and the Priest, who did dishonour to 
 the Word of God. 
 
 At the other extreme of the intellectual and geographical 
 world, we come upon an assembly of gold-diggers resting from 
 their labours at mid-day : some of them had once known, but 
 had abandoned, God. A new digger had arrived that day accom- 
 panied by his motherless boy : in their rough sport some old 
 hands had searched the boy's pockets, and found a little Testament, 
 all that remained of his dead Mother. In mere wantonness one 
 of them began to read aloud, but his fingers and hands were 
 guided by a power greater than his own, for first he read how 
 Jesus came walking on the Sea, and then the story of the good 
 
( 58 ) 
 
 Samaritan. The laughter and oaths had ceased, and all were 
 listening, when the wind blew the leaves over, and the reader 
 found himself reading the awful tale of the Crucifixion, a tale 
 well remembered, though it seemed to have been long forgotten, 
 old but still new : as he came to the last words of the penitent 
 thief, and our Lord's reply, the book fell from his hands to the 
 ground amidst awe-struck silence, only broken by sobs. God has 
 His chosen ones in every assembly of His children : He has His 
 corner in every humble heart : a hoarse voice came up from 
 the rear : 
 
 " Will no one pray? Can no fellow remember a prayer?" 
 
 The fool may have said in his heart, that there was no God, 
 but these men were not fools, and they knew better, that God was 
 in their midst. The echo of far off Sunda}'-Schools, the warning 
 throb of their own death-struggle, perhaps not far distant, 
 stirred into life their dead hearts. As the lad stooped down 
 to recover his lost Testament, he was caught up by strong arms, 
 and ordered to pray. As his childish treble went up to the clear 
 sky repeating the little prayer, which he had often said kneeling 
 at the knees of his ^lother, hats were off, and heads were bowed, 
 and a deep calm fell over the assembly, while the innocent child 
 became the mouth-piece before God, and His holy angels, of these 
 rough emigrants. Not as yet had he learnt to be ashamed of 
 his innocence : not as yet had his lips been defiled with oaths 
 and obscenities, and his little prayer rose up to heaven above the 
 tall pines ; and who can say how many brands can be saved from 
 the burning by the chance contact of one little Testament ? 
 
( 59 ) 
 
 A little volume is often circulated at ^Meetings, and is indeed 
 struck off in hundreds, " the Gospel in many tongues " : it is not 
 meant to be gaped at as a wonder or stored away as a treasure : 
 let me say a word as a linguist, who knows something about each 
 Language represented in these pages, and only values them as 
 vehicles of God's Truth. The uninstructed eye looks on a rich 
 parterre of flowers, and sees nothing but their beauty : the 
 scientifically trained eye notes the different species, the tints of 
 colour, and varied conformation of the petals and leaves : the 
 eye instructed by the Holy Spirit lifts itself up to God, and 
 blesses Him for the rich, manifold and enduring gifts of Nature, 
 renewed year by year, to gratify the children of men by their 
 sight and scent : then they die : 
 
 A?, A?, rai fi a\dxai /*ei', e~av koto, ku—ov o\wvrai ! 
 
 wrote the Greek Poet centuries before Christ came : 
 
 So is it with this little volume : to the scientifically trained 
 eye it tells of Language-families and ethnical races, of dialects 
 and patois, of Languages springing into existence, and Languages 
 dying out, and some few actually dead, no longer passing on the 
 lips of men. To the eye, enlightened by the Spirit, it tells of 
 the goodness of God, which never has changed, and which 
 embraces not only His chosen people, not only the mighty and 
 learned, but all and every race and tribe. Luther read out 
 aloud his German version to mark how it sounded : Jerome 
 spouted his Latin in his hut in Bethlehem : the Septuagint- 
 Fathers called to each other, as they rounded off each precious 
 
( 6o ) 
 
 Greek phrase : Pharisees and Sadducees read their portion from 
 the Synagogue Rolls, and interpreted them in the Targums : the 
 Ethiopian Eunuch certainly read his Isaiah sitting in his chariot : 
 we know the very passage, which our Lord read in the S}'nagogue 
 at Nazareth. We throw our thoughts back over the intervening 
 centuries, and mark Ezra reading in the Great Synagogue in 
 restored Jerusalem : still further back we seem to hear the 
 words dictated by Jeremiah to Baruch, and further back still 
 the words of Isaiah read by King Hezekiah in the hour of his 
 great trouble. We can only wonder when and where the 
 Scribes collected the Records of Israel and Judah, and have 
 no doubt, that the great drama of Job, and the imperishable 
 Psalms, were read, and meant to be read : all that was written, 
 even the Tables of Stone written with the finger of God, 
 were meant to be read, and were read : Narratives, musings, 
 hymns, prophecies, prayers, songs of triumph, words of self- 
 humiliation and repentance, were meant to be read, were 
 written, that they might be read : they were given for our 
 learning until the end of time. No such music has ever echoed 
 continuously, and in unbroken melody, through the corridors of 
 Time, and come down to us so fresh, so full of glowing life, 
 so true to Humanity, giving such unequalled ideas of Divinity. 
 We must not forget the Humanity of the writer, or the Divinity 
 of the subject : it is well in our minds to clothe with flesh 
 and blood the men, who are reputed to have written the 
 volumes of this Book, and making allowance, that they were 
 primarily written for very different circumstances, inquire humbly 
 
( 6i ) 
 
 how far, in what way, they are suited to our circumstances, and 
 assure ourselves, that we do well to distribute it to others, for 
 whither shall we go for a rule of life, if we abandon this ? the 
 same leaven, which the woman took and hid in three measures 
 of meal, till the whole was leavened ; the same good seed, 
 which a man sowed in his field ' 
 
 Some say, "Why distribute the Old Testament?" It is only 
 lately that an authority of the Salvation Army on being offered 
 a free supply of New Testaments replied, that the Army 
 preferred the Old : it is stated, but we trust that it is not true, 
 that the Boers of the Transvaal having to deal with the Be- 
 Chuana tribes applied for a separate edition of Joshua and 
 Judges as suitable to their requirements : a few days ago a 
 gentleman fresh from China stated, that Genesis was not deemed 
 a fit book for the Chinese, as the story of Lot distressed them : 
 when it is remembered, that the Chinese immigrant is rejected 
 by every country where he ventures to set foot, on account of 
 his low moral standard, this objection seems far fetched. There 
 can be no scruple in distributing the Old Testament, but 
 accompanied by the New, as its complement and best com- 
 mentary. It is of value as setting forth the moral duties of man 
 to man, though by allowing Polygamy, Divorce, and Concubinage, 
 it fails from a Christian point of view as regards man to 
 woman : it inculcates not only the virtues of a man, but of a 
 citizen, and sets forth the unrealized, and unrealizable, ideal of 
 human life, and human Society, love to God, and love to our 
 neighbours : the exhibition of devotion is always manly, and 
 
 *«L.3 
 
( 62 ) 
 
 there is no exaggeration of pathos : where pathos exists, it is 
 genuine. 
 
 In one particular the power of the Scriptures is unique, and 
 presents a strong reason for the distribution : a reason increasing 
 in importance in proportion to the increase of the knowledge 
 of reading during this Century : It can do its own work itself, 
 and effect conversion without the aid of man. This may be 
 doubted, so I place a certain number of cases, well authenticated, 
 on record : 
 
 A native Missionary visited a town distant from Calcutta 
 sixteen miles, and found a band of young men meeting together 
 to study the Bible, assembling every Sunday to worship God, 
 and read the Scriptures in the sight of their neighbours, which 
 indicated moral courage. Some of these young men asked the 
 Missionary to preach to them, which he did with delight : he 
 found, that the leader of the movement had been to Calcutta, 
 had heard the Gospel preached, had been induced to read the 
 Bible, and try and induce others to do the same. 
 
 An European Merchant put up at a village, and on parting 
 gave some cast-off clothes to the villagers : in one of the 
 pockets was a single Gospel, and some tracts, in the Vernacular : 
 they were read : the Spirit of the Lord worked through them 
 with such force, that they were converted. 
 
 A Missionary gives the following story : " Some time ago 
 " I was in one of the large towns in our district. In the 
 " evening, after a hard day's work, I sat down by the cart to 
 " rest, when three men came up to me, one of them falling 
 
 II mil iiiHi ii 
 
( 63 ) 
 
 " prostrate at my feet after slipping a rupee into my hand. I 
 " raised him up gently and inquired what he wanted. From 
 " his conversation I gleaned the following story. Eleven years 
 " ago a blacksmith in his village had bought a copy of the 
 " New Testament from some European, who was passing through, 
 " (I could not learn who it was) and he and this farmer and 
 " another farmer had been reading it all these years. Six years 
 " ago the Brahmans became so enraged, that he was held down 
 " forcibly, and made to drink water, in which a Brahman had 
 " dipped his toe. In all this time they had never met with a 
 " Christian. When I went through this part of the district two 
 " years ago, he saw some of the books, which I had sold to others, 
 " and this day he met someone, who had seen me and bought 
 " books, and he had dropped his work and had hurried in 
 " without delay, reaching me, as I have said, late that evening. 
 " His talk was a continual surprise to me. He seemed to 
 " know the New Testament thoroughly, compared the Pharisees 
 " to the Brahmans, and was very familiar with Paul's epistles. 
 " I went to his village the next morning, and they were very 
 " joyful and entertained us, saying our coming had given them 
 " great support. He bought a first book to learn to read. His 
 " knowledge of the Scriptures was the more remarkable, as he 
 " had only heard them read by the others. When they brought 
 " out the worn book carefully wrapped in a cloth, I touched it 
 " with a feeling of reverence." 
 
 Sir Charles Aitchison, my friend for many years, made the 
 following utterance at a Meeting : I heartily endorse his senti- 
 
 <jr..„,J[^ 
 
( 64 ) 
 
 ments : " The Bible is the best of all Missionaries. Missionaries 
 ' die, the printed Bible remains for ever. It finds access through 
 ' doors, that are closed to the human foot, and into countries, 
 * where Missionaries have not yet ventured to go ; and, above 
 ' all, it speaks to the consciences of men with a power, that no 
 ' human voice can carry. It is the living seed of God, and 
 ' soon it springs up, men know not how, and bears fruit unto 
 ' everlasting life. I can tell you, from my own personal know- 
 ' ledge, that no book is more studied in India now by the native 
 ' population of all parties than the Christian Bible. There is a 
 ' fascination about it, that, somehow or other, draws seekers after 
 ' God to read it. An old Hindu servant of my own used to sit 
 ' hour after hour absorbed in a well-thumbed volume. I had 
 ' the curiosity to take it up one day, and found it was the Hindi 
 ' New Testament. One of the ruling chiefs of India, when on 
 ' a visit to me when I w^as Lieutenant-Governor of the Panjab, 
 ' asked me for a private interview, and told me, though he 
 ' did not want his people to know it, that he read the 
 ' Christian Bible every day of his life. To thousands, who 
 ' are not Christians, but who are seeking after God, the Bible 
 ' in the Vernacular is an exceedingly precious book, and 
 ' is now much studied in India, and is growingly appre- 
 ' ciated every day." Peshab Chunder Mozamdar, the present 
 leader of the advanced Brahmos, in a recent public lecture to 
 Native students at Lahore, recommended the Bible, as the best 
 book they could read, and the diligent study of Christ's precepts 
 therein as the only way to attain purity of heart. In the 
 
 *'•*.'•»- 
 
( 65 ) 
 
 large and important town of Islamabad, in Kashmir, \vc are 
 told, that most of the wealthy Mahommcdans possess a copy of 
 the Bible ; many of them read it, and one native gentleman 
 acknowledged, that he was going through it for the eighth time, 
 and liked it more and more. In the South of India we read 
 of a Juvenile Society being formed in one of the Colleges for 
 the Study of the Christian Scriptures, all the members of which 
 are heathen high-caste lads. In Bangal we read of schoolboys 
 choosing copies of the Bible for prizes, and begging that their 
 knowledge of Scripture may be specially noted on their school 
 certificates. 
 
 I saw lately a leading Pastor of the \^audois Church, and he 
 spoke of the debt due to the Bible- Society, as shown by the 
 readiness with which people were coming forward to join Evangeli- 
 cal Assemblies. One of our Colporteurs in Italy reports, that 
 there are in his district thirty different towns or villages, in each 
 of which he finds little groups of Bible-readers, who meet to 
 study the Scriptures. Who has sown that seed ? There is no 
 trace there of Evangelist or ^Minister, but the Bible has sown it. 
 In Japan it is startling to find, that the Scripture-Union for 
 reading the Bible now numbers ten thousand members, and that 
 in more than eight hundred different places they meet regularly 
 for the study of God's Word. I see, also, that in a Greek village 
 in Bithynia there is formed a company of Bible-readers, which 
 includes most of the inhabitants. 
 
 A French Pastor on invitation went to a certain village, and 
 found a room, that would hold two hundred people, well filled 
 
 5 
 
( ^^ ) 
 
 with persons who had assembled to hear him. A regular service 
 was established, at first once a month, but afterwards every week, 
 and now the congregation has grown to five hundred, and a 
 regular church is formed. What do you think was the cause of 
 it all ? There had been no ^Minister there previously, but eleven 
 years before one Bible was bought from a Colporteur of the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society. It had fallen into the hands 
 of some man in that little town, who had taken an interest in 
 it. He had circulated it amongst his friends, and at last they 
 formed themselves into the group of two hundred, who summoned 
 the Pastor of the Reformed Church. That sort of case is not 
 likely to be solitary. 
 
 In Spain in a small country town a poor carpenter buys a 
 Bible from a Colporteur, because, he says, it seems such a large 
 book for so little money. In the winter evenings he and his 
 sister read it together. At first they don't care for it in the least, 
 but gradually they come to take the most serious view of its 
 message. They summoned their neighbours round them, and at 
 night there was a crowd about the carpenter's shop listening to 
 the reading of the Bible. What happened ? A congregation was 
 formed. They have now determined on building a house for 
 the Minister, and at last they have got an ordained Evangelical 
 Pastor. 
 
 In Bechuanaland the following circumstances transpired : 
 The Missionary IVIoffat was benighted : to his surprise a woman 
 brought him milk, and lighted a fire, and waited upon him : the 
 reason was asked, and she replied : " When you do so much for 
 
( 67 ) 
 
 " the Master, Who has done everything for me, it is a very small 
 " matter for me to do this for you." She pulled out of her dress 
 a Dutch Testament, and explained, that she had been sent as a 
 child to a Christian School at Capetown, and had received this 
 Testament as a prize, " and that is zvJiat keeps the oil burning 
 " in me" 
 
 We now understand what was only dimly visible before, why 
 such attempts were made in the persecutions of Decius and 
 Diocletian to destroy the copies of the Holy Scriptures. An 
 Apostate Christian is reported to have suggested this policy, 
 because, said he, if you burn every Christian, and leave a single 
 copy of the Scriptures, a new body of Christians will spring up 
 from the ashes of this Phoenix : it was supposed, and rightly 
 supposed, that by the destruction of the copies of the Word of 
 God the source of Christianity would be blocked, the very life 
 of the Church extinguished : This was tried not very long ago 
 in the Heathen Country of Madagascar, and it failed : and, if 
 we are true to our duty, we shall render it impossible for anything 
 short of the submersion of the round world beneath the waters 
 of a Universal Deluge to destroy it. 
 
 Thus in the first Century oral Gospels preceded the period, 
 when Evangelists placed their Gospels on paper : and on the 
 arrival of the Colporteurs, who read aloud, or of the itinerant 
 Gospeller, new possibilities of humanity come into existence : 
 the soil is ready, let but the seed be sowed : the black, the brown, 
 the red, the yellow, races differ much from the white man in 
 physical conformation, in shape of skull, in colour, in antecedents. 
 
( 68 ) 
 
 in the degree of social culture, but the fact dawns upon them, 
 and upon us all, that there is the same Holy Spirit, the same 
 Saviour, and the same Almighty Father, and nothing but the 
 existence, the continuous, uninterrupted, existence of this Book, 
 in the hands, the hearts, and on the lips, of at least a portion 
 of the human race, would create this conviction : It might have 
 been buried away, like the Book of the Dead in the Mummy 
 pits of Egypt, or like the Assyrian and Babylonian legends in 
 the burnt bricks of ruined Palaces, and have been revealed after 
 the lapse of centuries to astonished explorers : but the stream of 
 the Scriptures has never ceased flowing from the days of ]\Ioses 
 to our own time, a river of the water of life, bright as crystal, 
 proceeding from the Throne of God and the Lamb, illuminating 
 in unbroken succession the Jew, the Greek, and Latin Races, the 
 Keltic, Iranic, Teutonic and Slavonic Races, and working with 
 a miraculous power according to their opportunity, and receptive 
 capacity. Men and Women at all periods, and in all stages of 
 civilisation, not very wise, not very pure, not very holy, but still 
 docile and faithful, have gathered together to hear the story of 
 the Crucifixion, melting to tears at the sufferings of their Lord, 
 none doubting that the tale was true, for it is indeed as true as 
 the Sun, the Stars, the Seasons, and so it will flow on, flow on, 
 to the end of the world. Preachers may fail ; oral, processional, 
 and manual, ritual may usurp the place of Religion, and crush 
 out Spiritual worship, but there will ever be an abiding charm 
 in the simple words of the Gospel, ringing through the inner 
 chambers of man's intelligence, telling him, that God is a Spirit 
 
 I 
 
( 69 ) 
 
 to be worshipped in Spirit and Truth, telhng him of Righteous- 
 ness, and warning him of Judgment. 
 
 Again, I sa}-, what have the fifty years done to strengthen 
 our faith in the Bible ? There is not a place in the East, from 
 which testimony does not come : from the mounds excavated, the 
 old towns investigated, and the countries mapped out : to the truth 
 of the Bible. Topographical researches in Palestine, excavations 
 in Babylon, Nineveh, and the like, all have contributed to place 
 the historical accuracy of the Bible on a broader basis than ever. 
 
 There is also an evidential value, not always appreciated : 
 As the existence of the Jews in our midst is a standing confirma- 
 tion of the Truth of Scripture, so the survival of this antient 
 Book, and the great fact, that it is better known and more deeply 
 studied now than ever it was in elder da}-s, is a proof, that there 
 is something in it not to be found in other literature. Much 
 as we value the immortal legacy of Greek and Roman literature, 
 and thoroughly as we know them, and would not willingly forget 
 them, we feel that except in some stray passages they do not 
 supply a law of life, a lesson of repentance, a foundation for 
 hope hereafter : it is too late to tear from the nosegays of the 
 different European literature their fairest flower, which has given 
 a tone, a colour, a scent, a taste, a standard of right and wrong, 
 to all other subsequent literature. The Bible is part of the 
 Common law of the British People, and it is the very kernel 
 of European literature. 
 
 Two other considerations occur to me. What is the profit, 
 says one objector, of such vast issues, thousands of which perish 
 
( ;o ) 
 
 with no effect resulting from them? Sometimes under the ruthless 
 animosity of a misguided Priest of the Church of Rome the 
 streets of a village are white with the torn-up fragments of 
 Scriptures : it is so, and we fear that in the day of Judgment 
 he will be called upon to explain his motive, standing by the 
 side of those, who stoned Stephen : but out of the thousands of 
 the infants, which see the light, how many die within a few 
 months of their birth, having done nothing, in our eyes at least, 
 to justify their creation ? how many more perish in tender years ? 
 how few out of ^Millions do the great work of converting a Soul, 
 or establishing the Soul of a doubting brother, or holding back 
 a Soul from a great Sin, and what is the worth of a human 
 life, which has not done this ? Can the Ruler of the World do 
 wrong ? one in a thousand may fulfil God's decree : perhaps one 
 in a thousand of the copies issued may carry out God's purpose : 
 I read how of a large supply six copies only were sold, and it 
 so happened, that the history of the life of each of those six 
 copies could be traced along a blessed course of conversion, and 
 establishing of souls : One in a thousand ! if only that one, 
 that chosen one, man, woman, or book, does the work to do 
 which it was predestined, and failing to do which life will be 
 worthless, all will be well : we shall not have toiled through 
 the long night, and taken nothing : at any rate it is our duty to 
 toil : the issue is with the Lord. Did not the IMaster tell us, that 
 some seed would fall on barren ground, that is to say, the copy 
 distributed would be put away on the shelf, until a season of 
 leisure came, which never came, to study it ; and that some seeds 
 
 :J»" 
 
 
( 71 ) 
 
 would be devoured by the fowls of the air, the evil birds of prey, 
 who go about to devour houses and property, and for pretence 
 make long prayers and genuflexions, and steal away men's souls ? 
 
 It was well remarked in Exeter Hall : " It is said to us, ' A 
 " great deal of your work must be wasted. You scatter the Word 
 " of God by millions, and sometimes it is put on the shelf, and 
 " sometimes it is wrapped in a handkerchief, and sometimes its 
 " work waits for years.' I think it very probable, nay, certain, 
 " that we circulate the Scriptures in excess. It is a way that 
 " nature has. I have seen the sea so filled with fish, that the 
 " sea-birds have sat upon them while they devoured them. There 
 " must be a great deal of waste there. How many of the germs 
 " of different plants do you suppose can find room in the soil to 
 " grow and fructify ? Only a few. I know that I shall not hear 
 " the argument to-day about waste ; but I want to know, whether 
 " that argument would have any affect upon you in this Hall. 
 " It applies to the whole machinery of Religion. Why preach 
 " to a thousand, if only a hundred are going to profit by your 
 " preaching ? Why preach ^lissionary sermons, if some will turn 
 " on their heels and say they care not for it ? Why do these 
 " things? Because our Lord did them. He Himself after preaching 
 " had occasion to say to the diminished crowd around Him, ' Will 
 " ye also go away ? ' We also reply, ' Lord, to whom shall 
 " we go ? '" 
 
 IMy second point is : does not the knowledge of the Bible, not 
 of the letter, but of the Spirit, drive out the demon of Religious 
 persecution, and the intolerable notion, that one association of 
 
( 72 ) 
 
 Christian men and women is superior to, and has exclusive 
 privileges over, another ? the Bible seems to tell us, that His service 
 is a free service, and that any attempt to use coercion for the 
 purpose of influencing the faith of man is a sin. It follows, that 
 the interference of the Secular Power is to be deplored : even if 
 in the favour of Bible-Circulation, it is dearly bought : if in 
 opposition, it is rank oppression of the worst kind : we have to 
 be thankful, that in modern times we are free : but here is a 
 specimen of the mode in which matters were conducted only 
 three Centuries back, taken from Green's " English People." 
 
 " Erasmus made an appeal to the English authorities for a 
 " translation, which weavers might repeat at their shuttle, and 
 " ploughman sing at their plough. King Henry VHI. had 
 " promised it, but the work lagged in hand, and as a preliminary 
 " measure, the Creed (not part of the Bible), the Lord's Prayer, 
 " and the ten Commandments were rendered into English, and 
 " ordered to be taught by every Schoolmaster, and father of a 
 " family : at length in 1539 A.D. a friend of Cranmer was 
 " emplo}'ed to correct and revise Tyndall's translation, and it 
 " was published under patronage of the King." 
 
 1 give this Extract to mark the progress of human ideas 
 both as regards divine knowledge, and human liberty. 
 
ADDRESS No. V. 
 
 " On the Duty, the Privilege, the Joy, the Feelings 
 " OF Gratitude of a Christian Nation Permitted 
 " to take a tart in this Great Work." 
 
 "We are ambassadors for Christ." — II. Cor. v. 20. 
 
 " What shall I render unto the Lord." — Psalms cxvi. 2. 
 
 We have received a commission from our Lord to distribute 
 this Book ; we are bound to carry the good tidings without being 
 influenced by the fact, that it falls on deaf ears : that is their 
 affair : our duty is clear : we may leave the issue with One, 
 Who cannot do wrong. 
 
 Other Societies have done well, but this Society by the blessing 
 of God has done better than all. Praise the Lord for His 
 Goodness in giving such vitality, such Power, to the associations 
 formed with the sole object of diffusing His Word. Gratitude 
 to the Society is annually expressed by young and weak Churches 
 all over the World, by Churches of men and women born of non- 
 
( 74 ) 
 
 Christian Parents, whose eyes have been opened, to the strong 
 old Churches for favours conferred, but how much more grateful 
 the Churches of Great Britain and North America should be, 
 that they have out of all the myriads of men been chosen to be 
 the Ambassadors of Christ in this matter. He might have made 
 use of the ministration of Angels, but He has in His marvellous 
 goodness, and to our great joy, chosen us : centuries hence the 
 name of the Anglo-Saxon race will be remembered with gratitude 
 by generations still to be born. I wish that the subject were 
 more frequently looked at from this point of view. 
 
 There is a congenital right of all Nations to share the blessing 
 of the knowledge of the Word of God : to convey that knowledge 
 does not make us poor, but makes them rich indeed, and it is 
 our bounden duty to convey it : our very existence spiritually 
 rests upon the fulfilment of this great duty : not that we do it 
 from our own Power, but from the Spirit, that dwelleth in us. 
 We do not wish to initiate our converts into the differences of 
 European Christianity, or confuse their dawning intellects and 
 tender consciences, with Bible-difficulties : we wish to bring home 
 to their hearts and consciences the Mind of Christ, to awaken in 
 their dormant senses the great Truth of the Fatherhood of God, 
 the new conception, that Christ died for their Salvation, and 
 that the Holy Spirit is ready to dwell with all, who will receive 
 Him. We leave to the Missionary, who often is and ought 
 to be, mighty in the Scriptures, to expound the Way more fully, 
 and show by his life, and words, that the power of his Message 
 is not in the letter, but in the Spirit, and the resulting holiness. 
 
( 75 ) 
 
 The impulse of Christian love ought to teach us not to live 
 merely so as to work out our own Salvation, and promote our 
 own growth to Perfection, but to seek to promote the Salvation 
 of others, less happily situated than ourselves : this in early 
 Centuries was the motive power of Monastic Life ; later on 
 Missions to the Heathen sprung from the same impulse, and 
 the object is more certainly and more widely promoted by the 
 diffusion of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 Let us consider our opportunity : it may not, it will not, last 
 for ever : our strength may pass away like that of the Roman 
 Empire : our commerce may fade like the Venetian Palaces : our 
 candlestick may be removed by the same fatality, which happened 
 to the flourishing Churches of Cyprian and Augustine in North 
 Africa, once consisting of enthusiastic well-cultured Christians, 
 and now their country is occupied by decivilized barbarian 
 Mahometans. Now is the time : it is no light matter, that God 
 at this Epoch has made us so strong, so ubiquitous, so masterful : 
 we have the command of the Seas, and an entirely unprecedented 
 power of locomotion : we have abundance of means, and an 
 educated class with leisure : from those, to whom much is given, 
 much will be required : it is not only necessary, that in this 
 matter we do well, but it is clear that we sin, if we abstain 
 from doing our very best in the cause : consider also the re-acting 
 power on our Churches at home, and the complete knowledge 
 of the saving truths of the Bible thus obtained. 
 
 And there are heavy arrears of centuries to make up : in 
 Address No. i, I showed that the work never actually stopped, 
 
( 76 ) 
 
 but it advanced so slowly, that the spirit was dead : the reflex 
 blessing to the Nation was lost : the power, and the art, were 
 diminished. Now, if our grandfathers had wished to do much, 
 that it is easy for us to do, they could not have done it. But 
 now all material obstacles are removed, every door is opened : 
 the success of the past warrants an expectation of much larger 
 success in the future : as we say in business-matters, the concern 
 is now in full swing : the machine must be kept in working 
 order. 
 
 Let us stand aside for a moment, and think of the wickedness 
 of this generation, of the mischief done by three Protestant 
 Countries, North Germany, Great Britain, and the United States, 
 in the exportation of Liquors, Arms, and Gunpowder, to tribes, 
 who knew not before of the existence of such things, and who 
 could not suppl}' themselves but from Europe and North America : 
 this ought to be an additional inducement to those, who cannot 
 arrest the output of destructive articles of Commerce, that they 
 should at least do their best to send the great antidote. 
 
 We must reflect with gratitude on the goodness of God to 
 this generation, and to this Nation : in the hour of our greatness 
 we have had the Grace given to us to do something for the 
 Lord, to offer to Him of the tithe of our substance : other 
 smaller Nations may have had the desire to do likewise, but 
 they have not had the power, but we have had both the desire 
 and the power : consider the position of our forefathers down 
 to the time of the Reformation, absolutely, and to a certain 
 extent up to the first years of the present century : Remember 
 
( 77 ) 
 
 the words of John of Gaunt, " We Englishmen will not be the 
 " dregs of all, seeing that other Nations have the Law of God, 
 " which is the Law of our faith, written in their own language." 
 Even when the New Testament had been collected together, 
 say in the middle of the second century, the Book was by 
 no means a household-book in one sense of the word. In 
 many places there were very few copies, and in some places 
 none at all to be found except in the place of worship, and 
 not then in a language intelligible to the people : it was to the 
 lips of men, that the humbler classes looked as the only 
 possible place, where it could find instruction in the precepts of 
 Christ. Such was the position of the Welsh village and its 
 neighbourhood, when the little Welsh girl went to Mr. Charles, 
 of Bala, for a Bible, and the ball was set rolling, which 
 eventuated in the formation of this Society. I can recollect 
 how in some Churches in England there used to be a copy of 
 the English Bible on a lectern available to the public by Act 
 of Parliament, but as the Church was kept locked up except 
 during a jMorning and Afternoon Service on Sunday, and the 
 written Character of the Book was the old English t\-pe, there 
 was not much opportunity for consulting the Scriptures, and 
 such things as a Concordance, or Marginal Reference, did not 
 exist. Through the labours of the Bible-Society such a famine 
 has ceased in England : but let }-our steps be directed into 
 the vast Cathedrals of France, Italy and Spain : there are plenty 
 of pictures, statuary, dolls upon altars, and relics of bones and 
 skulls, but the Word of God in the Language of the people is 
 
( 7S ) 
 
 absent : within the locked-up choir are great mediaeval illu- 
 minated folios, interesting as works of art ; but no one can get 
 at them : if they could get at them, they could not read the 
 Characters : if they could read the Characters, they could not 
 understand the Latin translation : 
 
 And yet next in value to Prayer, which is the private 
 communion of the Soul with God, daily reading, meditating 
 upon, studying and trying to understand, some portion of Holy 
 Writ, seems to be as essential to Spiritual life and growth, as 
 ordinary food is to bodily life : not an ostentatious gathering 
 together of large households, or the droning from the lectern 
 of a half-filled chapel of the particular chapter, which happens 
 to fall to the day in an unsympathetic lectionary : I allude to 
 the private readings, the soul going to God's Word, as it 
 were, for its daily bread. How did generations of good and 
 holy men and women manage to keep alive their spiritual life 
 during the long centuries of Scriptural Famine, and actual 
 Starvation of the Bread of Life ! Let us thank God for the 
 Bible-Society : to Him be glory, for He put it into the hearts 
 of the good old men two generations ago to start this the 
 greatest of Earthly Manufactories, and most world-embracing 
 House of Business. 
 
 Enter the Bible House in Queen Victoria Street : a foreign 
 visitor to London would imagine it to be the Emporium of 
 some of the Magnates of London, the Princes of Commerce : 
 Mark the inscription facing the door : not one shilling of the 
 contributions to circulate this Bible was diverted from its special 
 
 ^^/■•.-X. 
 
( 79 ) 
 
 purpose to be spent in Bricks and Mortar : Oh ! that Missionary 
 Societies would lay this example to their hearts ! On entering 
 the depot you find large cases packed up ready for despatch 
 to the East, the West, the North, and the South, to all the 
 great Capitals of the World : our commerce knows no particular 
 outlet, no particular season for despatch, no treaty of Commerce 
 to protect : it fears no Custom-House, it asks not the rate of 
 exchange : though destined to so many places, there is but one 
 article of commerce, the pearl of great price, which a man sold 
 all that he had to purchase, and call his own, but which we 
 distribute with open hands below cost-price : the best of 
 patented medicines, the most soothing of syrups, the most 
 efficient of febrifuges, the most reliable of antidotes against 
 poison, the most efficient consolation in the hour of death. 
 One day the late Cardinal Manning, who unlike many of the 
 foreign Priests of Rome, knew his Bible thoroughly, called at 
 the Bible-House, to purchase some translation : perhaps his 
 better angel had persuaded him to revisit once more before 
 death a place not unknown to him in his happier youth : he 
 was conducted into the Library on the third floor, and, as 
 Solomon showed to the Queen of Sheba all the glory of the 
 Temple of the Lord, so the Cardinal was asked to inspect the 
 translations of the Word of God in hundreds of Languages, 
 each in their own written Character : it must have passed 
 through the mind of this good and holy man, that the Protestant 
 Churches were not entirely unblessed by God's favour, and he 
 humbly remarked to his companion : " The Holy Spirit is now 
 
( So ) 
 
 " more outpoured on mankind than it was in former days : 
 " that is the reason." 
 
 We have to consider what a wide field of interest has opened 
 out to the Bible-Student on the human side of that wonderful 
 Book : all the proper names of the Old Testament, and even of 
 the New Testament, to our forefathers were mere cyphers, the 
 shadow of Nations and Cities, long swept away, but a new 
 posthumous life has come back to Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, and 
 Media : we know what manner of man the bad Pharoah was, 
 for we can see him, see his very body and face, in the Museum 
 at Cairo : their story is revealed : we know all about the children 
 of Heth and the Hittites : they have leapt out of darkness : the 
 Bible is studied now with a reverent thoroughness, and an 
 appreciative criticism, as it never was before : though we are so 
 many centuries off, we have a power of comparison, a geo- 
 graphical knowledge, a trained intuition, a practised eye, noting 
 details which escaped a less critical age : we are far better able 
 to judge on such matters than the Fathers of the third and 
 fourth Century, who had most imperfect helps, and no experience 
 whatever. 
 
 We need not be afraid of the Book not standing any tests of 
 the Critics : we might as well be afraid of our own marvellously 
 formed bodies failing to stand the test of the Surgeon. 
 
 Hear what Mr. Spurgeon said in his last speech in Exeter 
 Hall, 1888, when he stood up weak from long illness: 
 
 " It is marvellous how wonderful the Bible is the first time 
 " you come to it. I think I almost wish I had never read it 
 
 J 
 
( 81 ) 
 
 that I might have the pleasure of reading it for the first time. 
 I frequently hear of that being the case with a convert, when 
 one calls on me. Towards the end of last year a man came 
 to join the Church. He had never attended at a place of 
 worship, but he had been induced to come on one occasion, 
 and God met with him. While I was trying to find out, 
 whether he really knew the Lord he said to me, 'What a won- 
 derful book. Sir, the Bible is ! ' * Yes,' I replied, ' it is very 
 wonderful. How have you found that out?' 'Well, Sir,' he 
 said, ' I can't read except very slowly. I have to spell all the 
 words, and one day I got to John and came to this : " Hence- 
 forth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what 
 his lord doeth ; but I have called you friends." Friends ! That 
 He should call me a friend ! Why, that knocked me all to bits, 
 Sir. So I took the Book into the Shop and said to my 
 wife, " Here, you can read. I'm afraid I've made a 
 mistake here. You read it to me." And she read out, " I 
 have called you friends." Well, for Him to call me a friend ! 
 It melts me, for I have been His enemy all my life, and I 
 never did Him a service. Even now I don't see what I can 
 do to serve Him, and yet He calls me friend. Did you 
 ever notice that. Sir?' he said to me. I said, 'Yes, I have 
 noticed it ; but in the way you have put it it comes to 
 me more fresh than ever.' ' A little further down,' said he, ' I 
 was dead beat, for I came upon this : " These things have I 
 said unto you, that ye should not be offended." Bless me,' 
 said the man, ' I am always afraid of offending Him ; but of 
 
( 82 ) 
 
 Him to be afraid of offending me ! Isn't it generous ? Isn't it 
 kind ? So condescending-like, that He should be afraid of offending 
 me ! He may do what He likes, Sir,' he said, ' now that He 
 has saved me, and I will never be offended. I cannot be 
 offended with Him ; but it is so beautiful.' And so it is, that 
 He should be afraid lest we should be offended, and guards 
 against it. That is a man who never read the Bible before, 
 and it was all wonders to him. Some of us have made proof 
 of the Word of God in our own daily life, and we would like 
 to bear our testimony to it. I have tested the Word of 
 God in great physical pain, I have had enough of it to 
 be a good and sufficient witness thereto, and there is no 
 pillow for an aching head that is like a promise from the Word 
 of God. And I have not been without struggles of another 
 kind than ph}'sical ; but there is nothing wanted to sustain a 
 man, to put soul into him, but to know that he is in accordance 
 with the mind of Christ ; and to take the Divine doctrines 
 revealed in that Book, and to feed upon them is to make him 
 a giant refreshed with new wine. Doubt its inspiration some 
 of us never can, for it has inspired us ; and when a book inspires 
 a man, that man knows that the Book is inspired itself. 
 One thing also I would add here, and that is my testimony to 
 the wonder, which the Book often excites in me. I could stop 
 when I am reading it sometimes and cry over it. It is not that 
 I understand it. Often it is because I cannot understand it, 
 that my wonder makes me admire. Two young men were 
 talking together about, if they were shut up in prison for twelve 
 
( 83 ) 
 
 " months, what book they would hke to take to prison with them. 
 " One of them said he would prefer to take the Bible with him. 
 " ' Why ? ' said the other, ' you are not a religious fellow.' ' No,' 
 " replied the other, ' but the Bible is no end of a Book. You 
 " can get to the end of other books. You have spent them 
 *' out when you have read them two or three times ; but you 
 " have only begun with the Bible when your hair turns grey.' It 
 " is perfectly wonderful as to its results when you test them. I 
 " saw an aged woman once, and when I visited her I read from 
 " her Bible. She had marked it all over here and there with ' T 
 " and P ' in the margin of the Bible. I asked her what she 
 "meant, and she replied, 'Oh! that means "tried and proved," 
 " Sir,' and she began to tell me how in time of trouble and in 
 " distress a passage had opened itself up to her so wonderfully, 
 " that she had believed it and taken it to God in prayer, and 
 " that she had proved it true. These are the kind of Bibles I 
 " love. I call that sort of a Bible not a reference-Bible, annotated 
 " as it is, but I think of an expression I once heard from a man 
 " who said, ' I want to buy a reverence-Bible.' He meant 
 " reference undoubtedly, but a Bible, that has been read 
 " and tested, and proved, has become a reverence-Bible to those, 
 " who are made to afterwards know the meaning of the markings 
 " in the margin." 
 
 " Still there was room," whispered the humble dying man, 
 thanking the reader for the comfort given to him in the hope, 
 that there might possibly be room in heaven for him. 
 
 " That blessed letter M," said the Countess of Huntingdon, 
 
 mm 
 
( 84 ) 
 
 as they read to her (a rich and noble lady). " Not Many mighty, 
 " not Many noble, are called : " without the letter M it would 
 have been, that not any mighty or noble were called at all. 
 
 In Dr. Stern's Memoirs of his captivity, and Bishop Hanning- 
 ton's wonderfully preserved Journals, we find how these holy men 
 found comfort, the one in his prison, the other in the last 
 hours of his life, in reading portions of the Bible : these are 
 not holiday-experiences, when all around is bright, and if this 
 Book can be of such comfort in life's last and extreme necessity, 
 how the duty is brought home to us to render it accessible to 
 all sorts and conditions of men. If some c}-nical critic asks, 
 "what is the good of all this?" our own hearts will find a ready 
 reply : Duty, Love, Gratitude, Sympathy : Why is England so 
 great and powerful ? Why are we surrounded with comforts 
 denied to other nations ? Because we are a people, who love 
 the Lord, and value His ^Message to Mankind. 
 
 The day is past for pourtraying human enterprise, and human 
 associations, by figures in pictures or statues : the age is too 
 material, and the comic journals are too ready with a travesty, 
 which holds us back from clothing high Ideals in visible forms. 
 But in the IMiddle Ages, when Fancy, and Art, and Religion 
 ruled the world, such an association as one formed to distribute 
 the Word of Life would have been aptly represented by that 
 mighty Angel in the Revelation, which carried the Everlasting 
 Gospel : or by a figure of the truest and most real Charity : not 
 pity for starving bodies, but for starving souls : crowned with 
 Faith, girt in the Armour of Sanctified Science, and Spiritual 
 
( 85 ) 
 
 Knowledge : in her hands would have been a Cornucopia 
 scattering blessings over all the races of Mankind. 
 
 It may occur to some, when their day's work is done, and the 
 hour of their departure is at hand, that they had done nothing 
 in the hour of their strength to aid the diffusion of the Bible 
 for the saving of souls. This thought may press heavily on 
 their conscience : the wish, alas ! would be expressed too late : 
 the duty will not be discharged by a codicil to their will, and 
 a legacy to the Societ}', for they would not be giving their own, 
 tJieir very oion, and the Lord requires each of us to give our 
 very own, and the very best of our own, Time, Talents, Influence, 
 and Resources, to His blessed Service : and Self-Sacrifice is the 
 law of His Service. What thoughts pass through the brain of 
 a Septuagenarian, as he reflects on the progress made during 
 the last half century under his very e}-e. Great Truths, which 
 Socrates, and Buddha, and Kong-Fu-Tzee would have desired 
 to know, and paid a great price to acquire, are now taught 
 without money or price by Native Catechists on the road-side, 
 in the humble hut, or in the streets of the great City. The 
 story of the Son of God, AMio took upon Himself the form of 
 Man, so as to save us from our sins, is read in many and 
 different languages : on the steps of the great Ghat at Banaras, at 
 the great twelve-)-ear Hindu Pilgrimage to the Ganges, and at the 
 annual festival of the Sikhs at Amritsar, in India, on the Hill 
 of Fuh-Chao in China : under the shadow of Mount Zion in 
 Jerusalem, and of the great Pyramid in Egypt, in front of 
 the Joss-house of the Cannibal Negro on the Niger, on the shores 
 
( 86 ) 
 
 of the great Equatorial Lake Victoria Xyanza, on the floating 
 raft of the Canadian voyageur, in the wigwam of the Red 
 Indian on the Arctic Circle, in the ice-bound habitations of the 
 Eskimo in North America, in the hovel of the Yahgan in Tierra 
 del Fuego ; in the hut of the Kanaka in the New Hebrides in 
 the extreme South and all over the sunny Islands of Oceania ; 
 wherever men can congregate, who have consciences to be moved, 
 and souls to be saved in the day of Judgment. The still small 
 voice is heard amidst the din of the market, the braying of 
 the soldier's trumpet, in the recesses of the secret harem, in 
 the public classes of the Schools, in the long galleries of the 
 Hospital, in the third class compartment of the Railway, on the 
 lone moor sides, amidst the moving and humming of the great 
 idolatrous city, in the house, where thousands kneel to false Gods, 
 and repeat the words of a false prophet : " If I take the wings of 
 " the morning, and flee unto the uttermost parts of the Sea, even 
 " there shall Thy hand lead me ; in Thy Book all my members 
 " were written : " as an instance of the ubiquity of the Scripture 
 even now, I quote an interesting anecdote, how some members 
 of a barbarous tribe were prepared to rob and murder their 
 neighbour, but, as they stealthily approached his hut, they heard 
 him reading his evening-portion, and they were awed, and slunk 
 awa}\ Another story has a romantic character : Some visitors 
 could not find the Native Catechist in his hut : they were told, 
 that he was in the forest, and there they found him stretched 
 on the ground, with all the wild denizens of the forest above 
 and around him, while he was removed as it were from all 
 
( ^7 ) 
 
 thoughts of the world, and reading intently the translation, which 
 the last ship had brought to him. Like Nathaniel, he was 
 alone under the fig tree, but the Lord had His eye upon him : 
 Apart from its solemn theological and eschatological truths, the 
 human side of the Bible has such a power to attract, and 
 influence, and charm : it is often unnoticed, how deep some 
 portions of the narrative evoke the purest and most holy 
 thoughts, touching the depths of the human heart by its simplicit}', 
 intelligible to the meanest intellect : the recognition of Joseph 
 by his brethren, the words of Ruth to her mother-in-law, of 
 Elisha to Gehazi, of Nathan to David in the matter of Uriah the 
 Hittite : the words of Job throughout the whole of his piteous 
 trials, and the gleaming words of Jehovah at the close of that 
 magnificent drama : and lastly the passages of the Proverbs 
 describing the Heavenly Wisdom, and the praises of a virtuous 
 woman. For a moment, and under a protest, for the sake of 
 our argument, let us set aside all miraculous details, and treat 
 this wonderful library of books, as we treat Homer, the Greek 
 Tragedians, Plato and Virgil : do not our hearts give a response, 
 that these last fail in that peculiar power, which is the speciality 
 of the Bible ? At any rate no one has yet cared to exhibit 
 them in the many Languages of the world, nor has the desire 
 been expressed to possess them. 
 
wm 
 
ADDRESS No. VL 
 
 On the Bible itself : On its Diffusion for the 
 Education of Mankind. 
 
 " The Word of God is living and active, and sharper than any 
 " two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of Soul and 
 " Spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the 
 *' thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews v, 12, R.V, 
 
 On this occasion I go direct to the bottom of the raison 
 d'etre of the very conception of a Bible-Society : is the diffusion 
 of the Scriptures really a necessity ? is it a promoter of 
 Christian life ? 
 
 What we call the " Bible " is really a library of more than 
 a score of volumes, written in three distinct Languages, Hebrew, 
 Aramaic, and Greek, at different dates, spread over fifteen 
 hundred years, by very different kinds of writers, in very different 
 styles of composition, a portion being plain prose, and a portion 
 the sublimest poetry ; a portion being so simple, that a child 
 can understand, and a portion containing deep, and still 
 
( 90 ) 
 
 imperfectly comprehended, mysteries. The volume of the latest 
 date was written fully seventeen hundred years ago ; the events 
 alluded to took place in a country, which has ceased to have 
 an individual existence, which enjoyed a civilisation of a low 
 type long since passed away. Of what profit can such a book at 
 first sight be to the Pagan nations of Eastern Asia, Africa, 
 Oceania, and North America, which are passing into civilisation 
 and Christianity under the impulse of the nineteenth century ? 
 Nor is this library of volumes, known as the Bible, the only 
 representative of the early religions of mankind, for there have 
 come down to us the ancient books of the Indie and Iranic 
 races, which are anterior to, or contemporary with, the Books 
 of Moses ; these books have never perished from the knowledge, 
 and the constant use, of man. We have had in late years 
 revealed to us the books of the Assyrian, Babylonian, and 
 Egyptian, which have been hidden away in the bowels of the 
 earth for two thousand years, and are now produced as archceo- 
 logical curiosities, and they were long anterior in date to the 
 books of Moses. During the interval between the time of 
 Moses and the Christian era — 600 to 400 B.C. — appeared on the 
 human stage three of the greatest men of antiquity ; each 
 propounded such religious and philosophical views, as the world 
 will never willingly let die. They lived in far distant climes : 
 Kong-Fu-Tzee (or Confucius) in China, Gautama Buddha in 
 India, and Socrates, the son of Sophroniscus, in Greece. Their 
 utterances have made a mighty and lasting impression on the 
 religious convictions of the world, and it is not easy to realise 
 
( 91 ) 
 
 what the intellectual state of many millions during the course of 
 many centuries would have been without them. All these Books 
 are now well known, translated into vernacular Languages, and 
 could be made accessible to the humbler classes of the nation 
 to which they belonged, had it been thought advisable, and if 
 they were desired. Why have they been set aside, and the 
 doctrines of Christianity been presented with the sole accompani- 
 ment of the Jewish Scriptures ? It might have been argued, and 
 it is maintained by the votaries of the ancient religions of the 
 Hindu, the Zoroastrian, the Confucianist, and the Buddhist, 
 that their books were OeoirvevaTot also, that is to say, composed 
 under greater than mere mortal influences, and ought not to be 
 superseded, and replaced by the books of another nationality, 
 which obviously were intended only to meet their particular 
 wants. 
 
 The answer to these objections, and the reasons, which have led 
 to the existence of associations for distributing the volumes of the 
 Old and New Testament, are the same. By faith we believe, 
 that the Bible was in very deed inspired, and was intended to be 
 the vehicle of instruction, warning, and consolation, to every 
 nation, kindred, tongue, and people, and that it was not only the 
 best vehicle, but the oily vehicle, not only for the past ages, but 
 for the present and the future ages, as long as this world lasts ; 
 that it is the only receptacle and storehouse of divine truth, that 
 the world ever knew, or ever will know ; that the rulings of 
 ecclesiastical councils, and churches, and synods, are as mere 
 ropes of sand, when brought into collision with, or opposition 
 
( 92 ) 
 
 to, the Everlasting Gospel, which has the monopoly of the 
 healing of the children of men. 
 
 These are bold words, and would be catalogued by the free- 
 thinker as narrow-minded and egotistic, but the earnest Christian 
 must ask himself whether it is not so ; whether, just as there is 
 none other Name under heaven given among men, whereby we 
 must be saved, even so there is none other Book written by 
 man, which contains the way of salvation, except this Book. 
 
 The Bible is the witness of the Kingdom of Heaven upon 
 earth ; it is the only Book, which tells us of the dealings of 
 the great Creator with the one nation, whom He honoured by 
 choosing them out of the millions of His creatures to be the 
 custodians of this oracle for the benefit of all mankind. In the 
 fulness of time the Word of God, the ^1670? of the Evangelist, 
 the 'A^/ia Hocpia of the Preacher, appeared in the poor environment 
 of humanity for a few short years. The same Word of God 
 appeared in the poor human device of vocables and syllogisms, 
 to last as long as the human heart beats, the eye sees, the ear 
 hears, the intellect understands, and the soul is capable of salvation. 
 The actual gracious words, which passed from His lips, except a 
 very few, have not reached us, for words are as fleeting as clouds, 
 and as changing as the leaves of a tree. Even had these words 
 lived, they would not have been naturally intelligible to any 
 living man at this epoch ; but just as the foliage of the trees 
 of the forest is annually renewed, so noble thoughts put on 
 new apparel from generation to generation, and by the skill of 
 the translator live for ever. By the slow process of decay and 
 
( 93 ) 
 
 reproduction articulate speech prolongs its existence in a new 
 form ; though the letter has died, the spirit still lives. Fold up, 
 and place away, the old s}-nagogue-rolls, the manuscripts of the 
 poor dead Ve^us Itala, the long forgotten Gothic of Ulfilas, the 
 antiquated Ethiopic of Frumentius, the unintelligible Old Slavonic 
 of Methodius, and even the Anglo-Saxon of the Venerable Bede, 
 j\Iany hearts were stirred by the noble Peshito, and the Armenian 
 brought back from the Council of Ephesus by Miesrob : they 
 had their day ; they did their good work, their best of work, the 
 saving of souls, and died, or by a fate worse than death, were 
 prolonged to our days in a state of petrifaction only to serve a 
 degraded ritual. The Algonquin of John Eliot scarcely saved 
 a soul, save his own ; but the devout scholar still pores with 
 gratitude over the Septuagint of the good Jews of Alexandria, 
 the Vulgate of the Holy Jerome, and the consecrated vessels 
 of the elder Covenant, Hebrew, Samaritan, and Aramaic. 
 
 The great Book had grown, as it were, by a silent growth ; 
 there are no traces of a ]\Iaster-Builder, no tradition of a plan 
 or a design ; no other book can in any way be placed in com- 
 parison with it. It is clear, that it has been edited and re-edited, 
 and presents scores of places of attack to the assault of lower 
 criticism on the text, and higher criticism on the context. It 
 is clear that the copyist, and the contemporary commentator, 
 have taken liberties ; still there it is, a priceless treasure in an 
 earthen vessel. We care much for the treasure and but little 
 for the vessel, but the integrity in all essentials of that vessel 
 has been cared for by the Most High, for it has been fenced 
 
 " OF TUF ^>^ 
 
 T7T t7 r 
 
( 94 ) 
 
 round from the earliest time, when there was danger of manipu- 
 lation, by a fence, the importance of which is only in these days 
 fully appreciated, the diversity of Language, in which it has come 
 down to us, and the still greater diversity, in which it will be 
 handed on to future generations still to be born. 
 
 Why do two sections of Christ's Church object to this distribution 
 of the Bible in a Language understood by the people ? Does the 
 Church of Rome fear the effect of the contrast between this great 
 fundamental document and her debased practice? Why do certain 
 members of Protestant Churches maintain a feeble and irrational 
 aversion to the hand, which offers them a treasure ? Do they 
 value their own net so highly as to refuse the fish taken by 
 others ? Will they let dying souls pass away into Eternity with 
 no one to speak to them, because no clerg}^man in Anglican orders 
 is on the spot ? Standing on the bank of the great river of the 
 human race, we see fellow-creatures borne away by the stream 
 into an unknown sea. Shall we let them die, because the so-called 
 authorised guardians of the river are absent or asleep ? Be it far 
 from us to hold back our hands from a work, which blesses, 
 and has itself been blessed ! 
 
 Let us consider the sudden effect of Bible-knowledge on a 
 single soul. The Moravian missionary had toiled in vain, and 
 made no single convert among the stupid Eskimo. One day 
 four natives drew near to watch a copy being made of a trans- 
 lation of a Gospel ; at their request the translator read a portion, 
 which chanced to be the account of the agony in the Garden. 
 The Spirit of the Lord fell on the hearers. They covered their 
 
( 95 ) 
 
 mouths with their hands to express wonder ; one man called 
 out, " Read it again, for I would also be saved." He was the first 
 of a line of converts. Every student who leaves a State-College 
 in British India receives from the Bible-Society a copy of the 
 New Testament in his own Language, and it is read. One of 
 them naively remarked, that it told him everything, that he had 
 done, that it settled the problem of life and death, which had 
 perplexed him, that it convinced him of the sinfulness of sin, 
 and at the same time showed a way of escape, whereby he could 
 attain holiness. Oh ! if only a copy of the Veins Itala Latin 
 translation, or one Gospel in the original Greek, had found its 
 way under the eyes of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, or Epictetus, 
 or Hypatia, or one of the seekers after God in the second century 
 of the Christian era ; if certain portions of the Old Testament 
 had by some lucky chance been accessible to Zoroaster, or Kong- 
 Fu-Tzee, or Buddha, or Socrates, or Plato, or Cicero, or the 
 writer of the Sanskrit Bhagavad Gita ; what a new light would 
 have been let into the souls and intellects of those wise and holy 
 men, whose wisdom only failed, because it was human, and could 
 not pierce the rind of the Eternal Truth, which the Holy Ghost 
 had spoken by the mouth of the prophets to the favoured people. 
 Where was wisdom to be found by them ? Where was the place of 
 understanding for the great and wise nations of the extreme Orient, 
 to whom during the long course of centuries neither prophet 
 nor evangelist came ? It would be possible indeed to collect 
 together the pearls of wisdom and deep truths of these non- 
 Christian writers, but there would be no life in them ; they would 
 
( 96 ) 
 
 not influence the actions, though they might stir the fancy, and 
 rouse the genius, of the future generation. They would not Hve, 
 as they had no divine depths, and source of Hfe in them, while 
 the three great parables of the Master, the Sower, the Prodigal 
 Son, and the Pharisee and Publican ; the words of Nathan to 
 David, " Thou art the man," of Elisha to Gehazi, " Went not my 
 heart with thee ? " of Peter, " God is no respector of persons," of 
 Joseph, " How can I do this great wickedness and sin against 
 God ? " of Moses to the tribes of Reuben and Gad, " Be 
 " sure your sins will find you out ! " the words of the 
 Master : " Let him that hath no sin throw the first stone," 
 " Still there was room," " Father, forgive them : they know 
 " not what they do," " This night thou shalt be with Me 
 " in Paradise," ring through the corridors of time in every 
 Language uttered by mortal lips, with as clear an intonation 
 as on the day when they first were conceived. There is also 
 another point of view. In the great drama of human life, it 
 would appear, as if the part of Hamlet were omitted, if that 
 great Central Figure, in which all wisdom was collected, were 
 withdrawn, to whose future coming so many holy men of distant 
 ages had pointed with out-stretched hand, and in the fact of 
 whose having come so many wise and holy men of subsequent 
 ages have humbly yet undoubtingly rejoiced. 
 
 Let me add another practical illustration. When the British 
 Power annexed the great kingdom of the Panjab in North India 
 in 1846, I was placed, at the age of twenty-five, in charge of a 
 great district, the inhabitants of which had never seen a white 
 
( 97 ) 
 
 face. They assembled to greet me, and to crave the maintenance 
 of their old religious beliefs and family customs, which had been 
 guaranteed to them by proclamation. Among these customs, 
 which they clung to, was the right of burning their widows, killing 
 their female infants, and burying alive their lepers. I told them, 
 that such customs were impossible, and I quoted their own 
 sacred poets to show, that life was the best of gifts, and must 
 not be taken away. I remarked to them, that as not one of 
 them would kill a cow, surely it was an equally deadly sin to 
 kill a woman : but they could not see it, so finally I quoted 
 the Sixth Commandment, as settling the matter not only for 
 myself, but for all mankind. The Bible cuts like a sharp 
 sword through all empty sophism, all time-honoured customs 
 contrary to the great Primeval Truth, and the common law of 
 human nature. The custom was stamped out. 
 
 At no period of history has the essence of Bible-Truth 
 been presented to intellects, educated after the European fashion 
 in State-Colleges, but \\ithout the leaven of a Christian home, 
 Christian environment, and Christian literature. There is a great 
 danger in leaving such }'oung and self-confident intellects exposed 
 to the insidious effects of a newly-produced literature, some of a 
 deadly character, much of a sickly stamp, or degenerating into 
 twaddle. It may be doubted, whether in the struggle, the first 
 struggle with the educated youth of India, China, and Japan, 
 the outward form of Christianity, as it has settled down in 
 Europe, will hold its own. It may be, that the precious ore 
 w^ill be reminted in an Oriental crucible. Greater dangers may 
 
 7 
 
( 98 ) 
 
 arise at home. The books of the Old and New Testament 
 may suddenly appear in new chronological order, and their 
 component parts in new editorial grouping. We are in an 
 epoch of progressive religion and comparative science. All these 
 things are possible in the opinion of those, who survey mankind 
 from China to Peru, and who, lifting up their eyes to the 
 histor}' of the past, are aware, that the petty nation of the Jews 
 was not the only race of mankind, for whom the Creator cared 
 in the pre-Christian centuries ; that the thesis, that the Jewish 
 dispensation was a dispensation to the whole of the elder world, 
 can no longer be maintained ; that the nations, the kingdoms, 
 the millions, and the isles of the sea, were not forgotten 
 by the God, \\'ho made them and governed them. Still, what- 
 ever aspect religious thought may assume in the regions never 
 blessed till now by the Gospel message, it is our plain and 
 manifest duty to place the text of the Bible in an acceptable 
 and intelligible form before the e\-es of every nation in the 
 round world, because we are convinced, that religious thought 
 must be impressed by the evidence of Christianity, and the 
 life, words, acts, and death, of Christ must stand out as a beacon. 
 His moral law must be a wall, behind which, and out of touch 
 with which, no possible theory or practice of any form of 
 religion can exist, for that, which is morally wrong, can never 
 be held in the nineteenth century theologically right. That 
 which is foul or false in fact, like the future Paradise of 
 Mahomet, or the present polygamy of the ^Mormons, can never 
 co-exist with what is true and holy in religion. We have thus 
 
( 99 ) 
 
 a sword and sliield, which, if we have but grace to use them 
 wisely and sympathetically, must conquer in the end. Missionary 
 societies will have in the twentieth century to re-cast their con- 
 stitutions, and re-model their practices, for, when native churches 
 are founded, their work is so far done ; but the distribution of 
 the Bible in its simplicity, without note or comment, will never 
 lose its value, until in some distant remote future, the sower leaves 
 off putting his seed into the earth, the builder leaves off building 
 human habitations, the ruler leaves off his duty of ruling his 
 subjects, the preacher's lips are closed, for Human Life will 
 have passed away, this great orb be rolled up like a scroll, and 
 all things fade away like a vision, except the Everlasting 
 Gospel. 
 
 A Missionary from South India remarked in Exeter Hall, 
 that " throughout India there was no engine more powerful 
 " than the press. At present there is a great unsettlement of 
 " faith there, and it was profoundly interesting to watch the 
 " issue. The result, the answer to be given, would largely 
 " depend on the Christian Church, and on this Society amongst 
 " others. The present hour was the time to propagate to the 
 " utmost of their ability every kind of Christian work, and 
 " especially educational and literary work, for at such a time 
 " as the present the press was of the greatest importance. 
 " The number of readers in India was now reckoned at twelve 
 " millions, and they were increasing at the rate of one or two 
 " millions a year. He was glad to say, that the Tract-Society, 
 " in connection with the Bible-Society, had, for some years, 
 
 IflMI 
 
( 100 ) 
 
 " been in the habit of giving books to all, who passed the 
 '' school-examinations. There was no nation in the world, 
 " amongst the people of whom such work was more needed. 
 " They were reading, and he believed, that even John Milton 
 " had more readers in India than in England. A new literature 
 " was springing up and a wonderful mental awakening taking 
 " place, which was due to the religious impulse given by 
 " Christianity. The Bible was now read, and new truths appre- 
 " hended, which were never known before. Hindu preachers were 
 " enforcing Hinduism, schools were at work, and a Hindu Tract- 
 " Society had been started in Madras. Both Hindu and 
 " Mahometan had formed their own Societies to stem the 
 " progress of Christianity. What was wanted, more than any- 
 " thing else, was a living Christian literature for non-Christians." 
 
 The Poet, whose name is mentioned above, after a life of 
 blameless morality, and studious holiness, bearing great trials with 
 meekness, and in an age, when few men died unstained, dying 
 without stain, John Milton, thus thought of the Bible : He took 
 the Scriptures from his earliest youth as his guide, seeking 
 earnestly the illumination of the Ploly Spirit in order to 
 understand them aright. He frequently laid stress on the 
 plainness and adequacy of Scripture for the guidance and test 
 of human conduct : 
 
 " We would believe the Scriptures, protesting their plainness 
 " and perspicuity ; calling to us to be instructed, not only the 
 " wise and the learned, but the simple, the poor, the babes ; 
 " foretelling an extraordinary effusion of God's Spirit upon every 
 
( loi ) 
 
 " age and sex ; attributing to all mankind^ and requiring from 
 " them, the ability of searching, trying, examining all things, 
 " and by the Spirit discerning that which is good." 
 
 Another consideration is, that the Peace enforced in subject 
 Regions, the Justice and respect for Human Life, the Laws of 
 Sanitation, and the preparation against Famine, have only 
 eventuated in the vast increase of non-Christian populations. The 
 British India of iSSi has grown from 250 to 2S0 Millions in 1891 : 
 the progress of Christianity, compared to this Grand River of 
 Human Life, is but a tiny stream, whatever friendly compilers 
 of Statistics may try to bring out to please their friends 
 at home. No more widows to be burnt : consequently twenty- 
 two Millions of Widows : no more female infants to be 
 killed : many families smarting under the disgrace of un- 
 married daughters above puberty in their homes : no more 
 lepers to be buried alive : consequently the towns and 
 villages shrinking from invading armies of lepers : rol}-gamy 
 going out of fashion adds to the difficulty : no wars exterminate 
 regions : no famine decimates populations : no sooner does an 
 epidemic appear than a sanitary cordon restricts its ex- 
 pansion. 
 
 On the other side Education, male and female, turns out 
 annually thousands able to read, and sufficiently instructed to 
 laugh at the old-world-legends, which held their old parents 
 captive and enslaved : add to this a constant wasting away of 
 the total of Christians, as enumerated in the Census, first into 
 the category of nominal Christians, and then into open rationalism. 
 
( i02 ) 
 
 Prosperity and Civilisation are most destructive anti-Christian 
 Factors. The Word of God is our only refuge : the Missionary 
 is only a man, no better and no worse, in the opinion of the 
 people, than the preacher of Brahmoism, Theosophy, Mormonism, 
 and Scepticism : but in the hand of the real Missionary is the 
 great weapon. Such thoughts must be the outcome of the 
 study of past ages of those, who think lovingly of scenes, that 
 arc past, and look forward wonderingly, yet hopefully, and 
 humbly, on what future ages will bring into light. 
 
 Let us think out the question, as to what sort of evidence 
 would those, who throw stones at the Old Testament, have 
 liked to have had : We have no evidence of the existence of 
 the Phenician Alphabet, the mother of all Alphabets, at an earlier 
 date than the time of Solomon. In Egypt we have Hieroglyphics 
 and Hieratic documents, of which the date can safely be carried 
 back to the time of Abraham and beyond : not copies of copies, 
 but the original documents : and owing to the dryness of the 
 climate the actual papyrus, or other material, has survived. It 
 was possible then, that the very Books of Moses should have 
 come down to us, the ipsissima graininata. The two tables of 
 stone were in fact imperishable, and may still some day turn up : 
 there are plenty of stone-Inscriptions dating farther back than 
 the Exodus. But all Manuscripts have perished : we have the 
 three famous codices of the New Testament dating back to the 
 third Century A.D., and the earliest Indian (Sanskrit) or Semitic 
 (Hebrew) MS. now existing, are not earlier than the time of 
 Alfred, King of England : Everything is copy of copy of copy, 
 
 B 
 
( 103 ) 
 
 full of errors of the translator and defiled by the audacity of the 
 annotator. God's Word is therefore in earthen vessels. 
 
 If we do not believe the evidence before us, it seems as if 
 all possibility of believing anything of a date anterior to the 
 invention of printing were taken away. Had the Hebrews only 
 been a Nation possessing the art of recording Monumental 
 Inscriptions, as were their contemporaries and neighbours, the 
 Assyrians, Babylonians and Egyptians, we might have now had their 
 contemporary records of the Hebrew Scriptures, but such was not 
 the Lord's will : The belief in the Scripture is, and must ever 
 remain, a matter of faith : When we look upon, as I have looked 
 upon, the Egyptian Stele, or Papyri, or the Assyrian, or Accadian 
 clay-tablets, or the Inscriptions of Asoka, the King of India, 
 303 B.C., carved on rocks and pillars, which tell their own tale, 
 and rest on human evidence, we do not pretend, that these writers 
 were inspired, but that their Inscriptions are genuine and authentic, 
 and worthy of our belief, as expressing the thoughts of men in old 
 times, and nothing more. 
 
 The Church has never defined exactly what Inspiration means, 
 and consequently many of the best Christians are not entirely of 
 one mind. My own belief is, that the writers of the Bible were 
 supernaturally and divinely enabled by God, as no other men 
 ever have been, for the work which they did, and that, consequently, 
 the Book, which they produced, is unlike any other book in existence, 
 and stands entirely alone. Inspiration, in short, is a miracle. We 
 must not confound it with intellectual power, such as great poets 
 and authors possess. To talk of Shakespeare and Milton and 
 
( I04 ) 
 
 Byron, being inspired, like Moses and St. Paul, is beside the mark. 
 Nor must we confound it with the gifts and graces bestowed on the 
 early Christians in the primitive Church. All the Apostles were 
 enabled to preach and work miracles, but not all were inspired 
 to write. We must rather regard it as a special supernatural gift, 
 bestowed on about thirty people out of mankind, in order to 
 qualify them for the special business of writing the Scriptures ; 
 and we must be content to allow that, like everything miraculous, 
 we cannot entirely explain it, though we can believe it. We 
 do not admit for a moment, that they were mere machines 
 holding pens, and, like type-setters in a printing-office, did not 
 understand what they were doing. We reject the " mechanical " 
 theory of Inspiration. We dislike the idea, that men like Tyloses 
 and St. Paul were no better than organ-pipes, emplo}-ed by the 
 Holy Ghost, or ignorant secretaries or amanuenses, who wrote 
 by dictation what they did not understand. We admit nothing 
 of the kind. But we do believe, that in some marvellous manner 
 the Holy Ghost made use of the reason, the memory, the intellect, 
 the style of thought, and the peculiar mental temperament, of 
 each writer of the Scriptures, to do the work, to which men 
 of such different antecedents, were called, as Amos, the herdsman, 
 and Jeremiah the Priest, who was ordained to be a Prophet, while 
 still in the womb. We only know, that there is both a divine 
 and a human element in the Bible, and that, while the men who 
 wrote it were really and truly men, the Book, that they wrote 
 and handed down to us, is really and truly the Word of God. 
 We know the result, but we do not understand the process. 
 
( 105 ) 
 
 Let me try and convey another consideration, why \vc should 
 press forward the work of Translation and Distribution. We are 
 dealing with great Vernaculars, not so great as our own, the 
 greatest in the world, and still growing, but the Vernacular of 
 a country is one of the instruments of mental gymnastics, of 
 national union, and moral elevation. Wherever the Hindu race 
 is found, notwithstanding the sectarian division, the story of 
 Rama the faultless is told, and with profit : It was under the 
 leading of the Holy Spirit, darkly and dimly visible to the great 
 Hindu Poet, that that wonderful character of Patience, Submission, 
 and Purit}', was thought out and chronicled : so to the Buddhists 
 the presence of Buddha, the man who conquered himself, and 
 showed the way of self-conquest to others, is ever present : the 
 wise, wholesome, and moral words of Kong-Fu-Tzee are on the 
 lips of every Chinese : it is some step in advance, some link 
 between persons not allied in blood, that they possess a knowledge 
 of the same great story : The words of Buddha and Socrates do 
 indeed rise in the memory and will live for ever, and we never 
 ought to admit for an instant, that there was no good implanted 
 by God in the human race outside the limits of the Jewish and 
 Christian dispensation : the words of a dead father, or a letter 
 written by a dead mother, come back on our hearts after a 
 lapse of time with a power for good, but in the Scriptures we 
 have a living message, the heritage of all mankind. Come : 
 if any of the new school of Theosophy, or the old ones of 
 Philosophy, has anything better, let it be produced, and put to 
 the test of the effect, which it makes on millions of readers in every 
 
 mCi -^ 
 
sees: t^: ezl :r =. rTgr. "» iW : rz ize t~)i 
 
 b: ite. oe vt^: 
 
 i^H^aw 
 
 
 ViML. 
 
 »_i ._ 
 
 -c: .__ 
 
 £ sucj of Jf«gg af !?v£zsr^ir 
 IT zrx: 'zi'Jrr Spr±: : sud 2£ 
 
 
 ISt 
 
 
C 107 ) 
 
 are a rr^lcngaricru an cminatjp of tiie wrifer'a nonin&nt seBEti- 
 menis- 
 
 It has alreadv been siated. -r~^~ a ^i-od Bibte-Tra«slgl.rjr n\es 
 
 a Vamacniar previouslj in iix : trr-'q, regards ziie sivie, snc ihe 
 words used : certain ^crds ~o longer ar-pear in coT:vt3-aBnrTr dt 
 wri ting : rvrf^-.n ioeas are locKsd sp, or iroGiien jjz^^rz. Z) era . ::? e 
 the taste ^riri good feeling C3f a Xation haxe beer, fzmed Dn a 
 high, ideal 
 
 Tertallian, in the ^cond rfrit'iirv-, 3r~ rrer: ne xmcDEsnons 
 testimony bome by m3r^'K-^^^^-^ non-Christian as well as Christian. t3 
 " the spark of Divine knowledge hiddt^r; in ihe sonls of aZ mer : " 
 He had passed half his li^ b^ore his conversion, and toi-LC 
 speak with knowledge : In the nest csriniry. Ongen. bom of 
 Christian parents, writjes : "^ the Divine Word sl:nnbers in idie 
 ** hearts of onbelieve-s, while it is awake in the Christian : 'n 
 '* siumbers, but is none the less really present as Tescs was. when 
 " He slumbered during the strrm tn the Lake of Ger~'esargdi : 
 '* it will awake as soon as the soul becomes anxious for Salvation." 
 Clement writes, diat " die undostanding of Man is indeed "gy a 
 " dower in a sunless cabin, till the Light c-f God mILs an k : " sod 
 now die experience of die last eighty years tells ns, that the newer 
 opois suid expands to i:3 fullness. This is a grsit encouragement 
 to those, whose hearts are in die <£naaon of ck ScriptEres. 
 It was Dan\-in that uTOte, that lie Go^jel "w-as hke the 
 Magician's i^-and : so indeed it has proven : it tciuches diings 
 widi an Ithuriel-spear, and brings them back tc their r^ 
 proportion and shape. It is ottsi forgx?trai. that in :^ next 
 
( 108 ) 
 
 generation there will be new elements of evil to contend with. 
 As in the Roman Empire, the new Religion fused itself with 
 the old Paganism, and developed into Gnosticism, and Manicheism, 
 so from the contact of Christian Truth with Hinduism and 
 Buddhism, new forms of belief are being developed : they represent 
 the corrupt conceptions deeply engrained in the human heart : if 
 absorbed, they will modify the great eclectic Faith : if trodden 
 down, from the expiring ashes new beliefs and new sects will 
 spring up : the age of persecution is past and gone, and they 
 cannot be extinguished by the slaughter of the heretics, and the 
 burning of their books, as in the days of the power of the 
 Church of Rome. How important then is it, that this Book should 
 take a large part in the Education of the rising generation, and 
 when this object is once attained, no power will be able to eject it : 
 if in secular literature Homer and Shakespeare could never disappear 
 from sight without leaving a void not to be filled, what a far 
 greater vacuum would be caused by the disappearance of the 
 Old and New Testament. No Book in antient and modern 
 time has occupied so large a space, moulding our National life, 
 and it is manifestly our duty to hand it on to those also, who 
 have hitherto not been blessed by its presence. 
 
 We must not fall into the opposite error of blind Bibliolatry : 
 In outward form it is a secular book, liable to the incidents of 
 human life : and worldly environment : it can be burnt, buried, 
 torn up, and has no superhuman protection, and, when we judge 
 it fairly, it lacks the freshness of the Greek and Latin Authors, 
 and the depth of Hindu Speculation, and something more : it 
 
( 109 ) 
 
 lacks the free air of toleration : the Hebrew race was narrow- 
 minded and intolerant beyond other Nations : How knightly 
 seems the form of Asoka, the Hindu king, who in the centuries 
 before Christ imprinted on Rocks all over his vast dominions 
 the Inscriptions, which have come down to our time : " The 
 " King records prayers for those, who differ from him in creed, 
 " and hopes that they following his example may obtain Salvation : 
 " He ordains tolerance, by desiring that all unbelievers ever\'- 
 " where may dwell unmolested, as they also wish for moral 
 " restraints, and purity of disposition, for men are of various 
 " passions and various desires." What a " sad " contrast this is to 
 many of the denuntiations of the Psalmist, the Prophet, and 
 the Chronicler, and to the conduct of the Jewish Priests, who 
 crucified an innocent man, and stoned Stephen, because they 
 disagreed with their religious views. 
 
 I now quote extracts from speeches made in Exeter Hall, 
 wise and thoughtful remarks. Our President, Lord Harrowb\-, 
 spoke thus : 
 
 " When I look at the immense change, that will take place in 
 "■ the relations of Christendom with the great mass of heathendom 
 " and of the Mahometan population, it is impossible not to feel, 
 " that it is a matter of the gravest and deepest anxietv. We 
 " are evidently destined within the next fifty years or so to be 
 " in communication with this mass of heathendom and Mahomc- 
 " tanism. Civilized Europe, and these hundreds of millions of 
 " unchristianized people, will be in close and daily communication. 
 " Is it possible in the nature of things, that that should not react 
 
( no ) 
 
 " on Christendom ? In one way or another it is a tremendous 
 " new factor of the future, the complete mingling together of this 
 " mass of heathendom, and the smaller number of Christians all 
 " over the world. In one way or another Christianity will be 
 " deeply affected, and I would urge, that, if these populations 
 " remain unchristianized and untouched by the religion of Christ, 
 " the position of Christianity will not be the same, that it must 
 " be deeply affected by it. It will reflect upon us, and will make 
 " our position more difficult at home. The few millions of 
 " Christians are likely to be brought into ever-increasing contact 
 " in the coming years with immense masses of heathendom. Was 
 " it likely, that this would fail to react upon them ? And, if it 
 " ended in those masses remaining unchristianized, would not 
 " the arguments against Christianity be greatly strengthened ? 
 " There were two great lines of work before the Bible-Society, 
 " in Europe, where it could probably work better than any 
 " Missionary Society, and in the heathen world." 
 
 I\Ir. ]\IacXcil, in a powerful address in Exeter Hall, uttered 
 these suggestive words : 
 
 "When we read the names of far-off countries, and of men, 
 " bound in the chains of traditions and habits, that are not ours, 
 " let us remember that j-ear by year the mighty forces of the 
 " Word of God are entering into their many-sided lives, and that 
 " we can by Divine help broaden the stream of the Divine Word 
 " amongst the numerous elements of the world's life. We have 
 " confidence in the immense and inexhaustible force of the 
 " Word of God to quicken that, on which it fastens. We 
 
 I 
 
 ^y^ 
 
( III ) 
 
 " know what it has done, we know what it is doing ; and we 
 " are certain, that we cannot bring it freely and frequently into 
 " contact with the mind of man, but vast results will ensue in 
 " every sphere in which man's affairs do lie. Remember that in 
 " thus casting the Word of God among the nations we have the 
 " right to reckon upon great allies for that Word. It finds allies 
 " in the heart of man. It find allies in the very structure of 
 " man's mind ; a structure, which all the deep alienation of man 
 " from God has not utterly shattered and broken up, but which 
 " remains ever in pathetic testimony to the true origin of our 
 " race. The Word of God finds allies in the sense of sin, to 
 " which reference has been made. It finds allies in our sorrows, 
 " in our aspirations, in the deep, tender, undecipherable, tendencies 
 " and capacities of our nature. And, above all, it has an ever- 
 " present ally, if such an humble term may be used of such an 
 " august and glorious Power, it has a great ally in the Spirit 
 " of God, Whose chief sphere of operation is in the mind of man, 
 " and Whose chief interest is the ^^'ord. I am here to testify 
 " on behalf of the Bible, and to wish God-speed to this great 
 " Societ}-. I trust that from to-day and forward the scattering 
 " of the Word of Life by means of this great agency will be 
 " widespread and more abundant than ever. We look upon this 
 " as a great agency, not from heaven, but upon the earth, for 
 " throwing the manna round about the tents of all mankind ; and 
 " I trust, that that may increasingly be done, for the Bible is 
 " just like manna. You remember when the manna was first sent 
 " down. That is very like the Bible. I do not say, that the 
 
( 112 ) 
 
 Bible comes from heaven printed and bound ; but it is more 
 wonderful than if it did. But we are here scattering the Bread 
 of Life, and, if only the people get it round about their own 
 tent door, and in their own tongue, and into their own hand, 
 and read it with their own eyes, it will become to them what 
 manna was to Israel of old. When the Israelites began to ask 
 such questions as to liow the manna came there, and what 
 for, \'ou remember that IMoses stopped all the argument by 
 saying : ' Just what it is ; take it and eat it.' " For the Bible 
 is a Book 
 
 " Which he may read that binds the sheaf, 
 Or builds the house, or digs the grave, 
 Or those wild eyes that watch the wave 
 In roarinsrs round the coral reef." 
 
 " Spread the Book. I rejoice to think, that Christ's miracle of 
 " the feeding of the five thousand is being re-enacted all over 
 " the earth. You remember how Christ told the people to sit 
 " down by companies, so as to make the thing workable and 
 " manageable. Now, I rejoice to think that, when we look at 
 " mankind, and view men of different tribes and kindreds, we 
 " see, that the world was never before in such splendid order 
 " for starting off with the bread-basket, filled with the Word of 
 " Life." 
 
 The closer and closer study of the Bible is the desideratum 
 of the age : that Book does not shrink from the dissecting knife 
 of the cynic, nor the acid-tests of the h\-pcr-critic : it does not 
 tremble under the scalpel of the vivisectioner. He is guilty of 
 
( IT3 ) 
 
 high treason against the Faith, who fears the results of any inves- 
 tigation, whether philosophical, philological, historical, or the 
 so-called higher criticism. We could not with a clear conscience 
 continue the circulation, if we had not an intelligent^ and entire, 
 conviction of its essential genuineness. The timorous imperfectly- 
 instructed devotee cries out, that it is not fair to raise questions, 
 impugning the accuracy of hitherto accepted conclusions : // is 
 fair, and Just, and our dut\-, to weigh all things, and I should be 
 glad to find in such quarters more fairness in dealing with the 
 Sacred Books of the non-Christian World 
 
 " damnant et plaudunt quod non intelligunt." 
 
 Even the mistakes and premature speculations of careful, learned, 
 and reverent (not professionally but actually) students arc infinitely 
 more to be prized than stolid, unthinking, ignorant, acquiescence : 
 We know that the Bible is pure gold, and are not afraid to test 
 it, and are not surprised to find a percentage of alloy, with which 
 fond and foolish translators, and commentators, and editors, have 
 without evil intentions, yet with uncritical rashness, presumed for 
 purposes of human convenience to temper the precious metal. 
 
 ^r/ ' • ■ - 
 
ADDRESS No. VII. 
 
 Ox THE Constitution of the Society : On its Opponents. 
 
 " In necessariis Unitas. 
 "In omnibus Caritas. " 
 
 " Concordia parvK res crescunt." 
 
 The Constitution of the Society is unique : when it came into 
 existence in 1S04, there was nothing like it, because it \\as 
 entirely undenominational, and designed for the wants of our 
 own and foreign countries, to feed our own people, and to feed 
 the stranger. 
 
 Sprung from its loins, but entirely independent of the British 
 Society, though acting on the same principles, and in entire 
 harmony with, are the only two other entirely ^Missionary Bible- 
 Societies, the National Society of Scotland, and the American 
 Bible-Society of New York. All other Societies are little 
 better than Bible-Clubs, to supply the needs of their own people : 
 The Bible-Society of Holland is to some extent a Missionary 
 Society, but is unable to provide for its own Colonies without 
 the help of the British Society. 
 
( 11^ ) 
 
 I tried some years ago by publishing an appeal ^ in the German 
 Language to rouse my Protestant friends in Germany to the 
 necessity of their founding a German Bible-Society in Luthers's 
 land, and incorporating in one association their local associations, 
 in some of which by their rules, sales to Roman Catholics were 
 forbidden, and in others the translations were restricted to the 
 German Language : my appeal was premature : Germany has 
 indeed Colonies, but has not yet risen to the level of her respon- 
 sibilities to the races, who are subject to her : her time will come. 
 There are four classes, whom we have to feed : 
 I. Those, who receive the Word of God joyfully, and those, who 
 find it suits their station and environment to appear to do so. 
 God alone is the searcher of hearts : the physician gives his 
 medicine, whether the patient takes it, or places it on the shelf: 
 our duty is that of the physician : fresh copies are required 
 from generation to generation : formerly there was a great 
 destitution : the book and the reader in due course perish : the 
 Word of God is imperishable, and appears from time to time in 
 new outward form of paper, print, and binding : I have already 
 expressed my opinion, that much of this could be left to the 
 Trade in certain localities, but in the rural districts the Bible- 
 hawker, or Bible-Club, must ever be required : there can be no 
 greater act of benevolence than to present a copy to the 
 young on confirmation, where such a Church-Rule exists, or 
 Baptism in the case of Baptist-Churches, and at a wedding, 
 and to mourners in the hour of their bereavement : our Lord 
 
 ^ See Appendix No. \'lll. 
 
( 11/ ) 
 
 Himself sat in the Temple with the elders, was present at a 
 wedding, and at the grave of Lazarus. 
 
 II. Next come the class of nominal Christians, who care not 
 for, and who try to appear to despise, the Word of God, or 
 pick holes in it. Anything is better than to keep the Bible on 
 the shelf, or under a napkin on a table, never to open it from 
 year to year : this indeed is the generation, which neither read 
 with their eyes, nor hear with their ears : if anyone despise the 
 Bible on its human side, he only convicts himself of folly : he 
 may not believe the precious promises, or miracles, but he 
 cannot deny the facts of the existence, and nature, of this 
 wonderful Book : this class must be supplied : we know not 
 where a falling spark may ignite : we do know, that the Holy 
 Spirit lurks between the leaves : just as the w^ords of the Orator, 
 the sentiments of the Poet, the thoughts of the Philosopher, 
 dead centuries ago, when we come upon them, set the heart 
 leaping, and produce a strange feeling of joy and thankfulness, 
 that God put it in the hearts of men to speak like Demosthenes, 
 write so sweetly as Virgil, and argue like Socrates, so the 
 Bible has its own power, human to all without exception, so 
 long as they are men. Divine to those, who are called to inherit 
 the promises, and by faith to hear the Divine Voice speaking 
 through the imperfect symbols of human conception, grammar, 
 and writing. We must not pass this class by : we are our 
 brother's keeper. 
 
 HI. The Members of the Greek, and Roman Catholic, and 
 fallen Churches of Asia and Africa : they call themselves 
 
( ii8 ) 
 
 Christians, but it is a form of Christianity not accompanied by a 
 Vernacular Bible, such as is understood by the people. In the 
 Middle Ages they attempted to give object-lessons of Christianity 
 by pictures and statues : their own knowledge of anything 
 beyond the historical outline of our Lord's Life, and Passion, 
 was small : that of the people was non-existent : of all the 
 realities of Religion, the soul seeking out for God, and finding 
 Him, they had no conception : Millions are starving for the 
 Bread of Life, and deserving of our utmost compassion. 
 
 IV. The fourth class, which require supplies of Bibles at our 
 hands, are the Millions of non-Christians, to which allusion has 
 already been made in Address II. 
 
 The constitution of the Committee is Catholic, and this is 
 not only a most sweet feature, but also a necessity : it is sweet 
 to meet Christians on a platform raised above the level of our 
 historical denominations : Nothing would induce me to change 
 my particular Church, or to frequent any other than my own 
 (though I should not scruple at occasional attendances in other 
 Churches), yet it is a joy to feel a union based solely on the 
 love of Christ, and love for the Bible : Jews and Unitarians 
 are not admitted to the Committee : the letter call themselves 
 Christians in the sense that a follower of Mr. Gladstone calls 
 himself a Gladstonian, but neither Jew nor Unitarian admit what 
 to us is an essential, the Divinity of Christ. 
 
 I now proceed to show the necessity : nothing but the union 
 of all the Churches, which send out Missions to different Regions 
 of the World, would enable us to discharge our duty. The 
 
 Hi 
 
( 119 ) 
 
 greatest of all the Churches in the Mission-Field, the Episcopal 
 Church of England, does indeed use more than one hundred 
 translations in its Mission-Fields, but that is only one-third of 
 the total of translations, actually effective and in circulation : 
 the rest of the great Field is occupied by Episcopal, or non- 
 Episcopal, Churches of England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, 
 Holland, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Canada, and the 
 United States. The Missionaries of those Churches have made 
 the translations, sent them home, received back supplies of copies, 
 and made use of them. In the Mission-Field, in the presence of 
 non-Christian populations, and face to face with the Priests of 
 Rome, on whose premises, with rare exceptions, such as the Arabic 
 and Tamil, no translations are found, the Protestant Missionaries 
 forget, or fold awa}-, their Shibboleths : the great central truth, 
 that Christ died and rose again, the feeling of the gigantic pro- 
 portions of the work to be done, of the harvest to be gathered in, 
 and the limited number of labourers, unite them as true brothers 
 in the Lord : they take counsel at periodical Conferences, they 
 join in revisions of a translation common to all : People talk in 
 England of a Union of the Churches : in the Mission Field there 
 is a practical Union already. 
 
 Hear Mr. Spurgeon's last words in Exeter Hall : 
 " I have a lurking hope somewhere about me, I sometimes 
 " hope, tliat it is by the way of the Bible that all believers in 
 " Christ will come together. Each one here loves the Church, to 
 " which he belongs, or else let him clear out of it. But there is 
 " nobody here, that loves the divisions of Christendom. We would 
 
 »»*? — - 
 
( 120 ) 
 
 " all end them if we could. How to do it I cannot tell. Unity 
 " I love, but attempts at unity always create fresh divisions. All 
 " the schemes I have ever seen have been but partly successful. 
 " When we shall all come to the Word of God and each man 
 " shall say, ' There, I will retract everything I have said, if it is 
 " not in accordance with that Book. I will come down to the 
 " strict Word of Christ, and walk in the spirit of it to the utmost 
 " of my ability,' then shall we all come together. You see, that 
 " things, that come near to one point, come near to one another. 
 " And oh, that it might be so ! For my own part I do not see, 
 " if there are great differences, why they should not be held, so 
 " far as they are great differences, most conscientiously held, and 
 " yet, wherever there is a point, upon which there can be common 
 " service, we might all heartily agree. I delight in the Word of 
 " God, with regard to the hope I have of the return of the Churches 
 " to the one common faith, because there are many, who have 
 " adulterated the Word of God, taken away its tone and spirit, 
 " until we are coming to a minimum of faith, when only a few 
 " things will be regarded as essential, and even those are questioned. 
 " But as we venerate the Word of God, we shall come back to 
 " the old truth again, for the Word has not changed, and the 
 " Gospel of the Grace of God has not changed. We shall, there- 
 " fore, as we come back to the immutable foundation, come back 
 " to the truth itself. God grant that that may come to pass ! " 
 It appears to me, that the Churches at home do not realize 
 the importance of the work doing, and their responsibilities before 
 God to carry it on : No Ministration of a Church can be said 
 
 *r. •■/*.- ^ . .^-w' » 
 
( 121 ) 
 
 to be complete, in which the subject is not annually brought before 
 its Members from the Pulpit, or the Platform, or both : one of 
 the object of these Addresses is, that hard-worked Ministers may 
 supply themselves from these pages with facts and new side- 
 lights for presentation to Congregations. And let me tell these 
 ^Ministers a secret, that by handling this subject, and being led to 
 look into it, they will, at least some of them, gain a clearer 
 insight into the wonderful history and contents of this Book, 
 the continuity of translation for more than 2000 years, the 
 diffusion of these translations all over the world ; they will 
 remark the Providence of God, which from most unpromising 
 material has raised up Translators, and revisors of translations : 
 if some antient translations have become fossilized, they resemble 
 the trunks, which stand amidst the forest of younger trees, to 
 remind us, that in old times as now the Bible was a great Power, 
 and to assure us that a thousand years hence, so long as the 
 hearts of men beat, so long as the throats of men emit articulate 
 sounds, so long as the intellect of men is capable of receiving 
 impressions through the eye and the ear, so long as the conscience 
 of Man is susceptible of the influences of the Holy Spirit, so 
 long it will remain a great Power, the greatest in the World. 
 In a former work I ventured to state, that the Bible would 
 outlive Kingdom and Churches, and I was reproved for writing 
 so by a Church Dignitary, who reminded me, that the Bible owes 
 its existence to the Church : I am not prepared here to argue on 
 that subject, but in my opinion every association of Christian 
 men, call them by what name you like, owes its existence to 
 
( 122 ) 
 
 the Bible, and will perish without it : for the Bible, without the 
 intermediate influence of Priest and Preacher, speaks to the Soul, 
 and it has done, and will do again, the work of Conversion of 
 Souls without the aid of man : the Preacher may err ; the Bible 
 can never err. 
 
 May we not believe, that the Word of God will be abiding, 
 when walls of Chapels and Churches, even the most spiritual, 
 crumble to the ground, when decrees of Councils, boasted Church- 
 order, mediaeval mummeries, and vain Shibboleths, the creation of 
 well-intentioned, tho' ignorant, men, are forgotten, and all stand 
 before Christ, and see Him face to face. The largeness of the 
 scope of Bible-Societies is such, that it confounds all human 
 state : it cares as much for the poor as for the rich, for the 
 stranger as warmly as for the fellow-countr}'men, for the poor 
 Heathen as well as for the Christian. Nobod}-, who enters the 
 Bible-House, and looks around, can say, that he has no interest 
 in its welfare, and can himself derive no blessing from its operation. 
 
 The supervision of the work by the different sub-Committees 
 requires no ordinary knowledge, intelligence, memor}-, and general 
 acuteness, on the part of the Secretaries, and the Superintendent 
 of the Publication-Department, under the orders of the Com- 
 mittee : it is not all plain sailing : the work is of Divine 
 character, and fortunately on the Committee are men suited for 
 the totally dissimilar branches of the business. The work of 
 the Editorial Committee is a Science of its own : Different 
 Languages, different dialects of the same Language, different forms 
 of written Character, in two or three of which sometimes the same 
 
 *.*.»-^ 
 
( ^^3 ) 
 
 Language is exhibited, present problems, which require knowledge 
 and care : the nomenclature of the Language, and the orthography, 
 and transliteration, require attention : I pass over the endless 
 details, which occupy the attention of the Printing-sub- 
 Committee : the t}-pe, the paper, the style, the binding, the 
 Maps, the marginal entries, the Chapter-headings, the references : 
 all require careful attention : the proof-reading opens a new 
 chapter of anxiety, and the alternative readings : there are 
 thirty-eight varieties of Alphabets, two of Syllabaries, and one of 
 Ideograms. The printing goes on in many parts of the world : 
 the Roman Alphabet, which is used for all Languages, unprovided 
 with their own form of written Character, and which is available 
 for alternative editions in Languages, which have their own written 
 Character, has unfortunately undergone endless varieties : words 
 have been transliterated on totally different principles : all this 
 will cause great confusion in the future : 
 
 The Blind are not forgotten : in several Languages editions 
 have been published : here also there is a diversity of systems, 
 and the problem is not a simple one. 
 
 The Committee is not tied down to any rendering of a word, 
 or sentence, on Ecclesiastical grounds : its hands are free, and it 
 accepts that rendering, which philologically seems the right one, 
 placing, if necessary, an alternative reading in the margin. It 
 strives by the use of neutral terms, such as Baptism, Priest, &c., 
 to place a true text in the hands of the reader, leaving it to 
 the Pastor, or Missionary, to expound the meanings. This is the 
 method most consistent with its Catholic constitution, and the 
 
( 124 ) 
 
 most prudent : any divergence from this practice for the purpose 
 of pleasing particular denominations, will lead to disagreeable 
 consequences. The rendering of the name of the First Person 
 of the Trinity is a difficulty in China, and of the Second Person 
 in India, while the mode of rendering the name of the Covenant- 
 Jehovah, the tetragrammata, has caused heart-burnings in Persia : 
 A desire to meet all legitimate wishes, truthfulness, and sanctified 
 common-sense, have hitherto carried the Committee through all its 
 difficulties. 
 
 Free distribution is neither practised nor desired : there are 
 auxiliary associations, or enthusiastic individuals with more 
 benevolence than sound judgment, who undertake this. All 
 copies are sold below cost price, often at many hundred miles 
 from the place of publication, and yet the proceed of sales 
 reaches one hundred thousands pounds, which gives an idea of 
 the vastness of the operations. 
 
 In passing from a Missionary Society-Committee into the 
 assembly of the Committee of a Bible-Society, it is felt at once, 
 how much freer the air is ; it is like the peak of an Alpine height, 
 above the clouds of controversy, the darkening of the councils 
 and deliberation of Churches, and the contest about externals : 
 we feel, as if we were Bible-Christians of the first Century of the 
 Christian Era : we knew nothing about Creeds, and fold up the 
 word "Church" in a sealed envelope: the "Word of God" occupied 
 its place. 
 
 There remains much work still to be done : the end of the 
 twentieth century may not see it completed. 
 
 i 
 
( 125 ) 
 
 A. A careful revision should be made of all translations, which 
 have not the confirmation of a Revision-Committee, or the general 
 acceptance of a community able to form an opinion. 
 
 B. Where only some, not all, the books of the Bible have 
 been translated, it will be a question of judgment for the Committee, 
 whether the Language is likely to live, and how far further 
 additions are required : it is not every Language, which need be 
 honoured by the whole Bible, 
 
 C. There are still Millions of Non-Christians unprovided, 
 cither from want of translation, or deficiency of Distribution-agency. 
 
 D. Christian communities are coming into existence in every 
 part of the world, some weak, poor, and low in culture : some 
 rough, forgetful of their Christian training, and lapsing into 
 infidelity : both these classes require unceasing care. 
 
 E. Where Missionaries have been expelled, or refused entry, 
 the agents of the Bible-Society should proportionally be more 
 energetic. 
 
 I now quote the words of our President, the Earl of Harrowby : 
 " But when I look at what we have done, and at the great 
 " openings we have now, and at all the experience we have 
 " gained, and at the hopes we have had, and the triumphs of the 
 " Bible in the past, I cannot but look back on those fathers of 
 " the Protestant Churches in our land, who in simple faith some 
 " ninety years ago started this great Bible-Societ}-. It had then 
 " no facts to go upon, only Faith. They did not know, whether 
 " the Bible would be accepted by the populations of the world ; 
 " they did not know, that openings would result, and that the 
 
( 126 ) 
 
 " Bible would approve itself as suited to every colour and tribe 
 " on the broad surface of the globe. They had nothing but pure 
 " P^aith in God's promise. But the}' laid the foundations of this 
 " Society simply and broadly ; one great principle being, that 
 " they and their friends would circulate the Scriptures without 
 " comment. They went on that broad principle, on which we have 
 " gone ever since, and on which we mean to go unfalteringly 
 " to the end. They adopted wise arrangements as to the rules, 
 " that should guide our Society. No Society has changed 
 " less. Fifty years have seen no change in regard to the 
 " rules for the distribution of the Sacred Book. We have 
 " rested on the wisdom of the patriarchs of the Christian Church, 
 " who founded the Society, and every year has proved to us 
 " more and more their wisdom and righteous judgment. We have 
 " followed them close!}', and decline to be led aside from their 
 " simple line of Faith ; and, follo\\-ing in their footsteps, we hope, 
 " by God's blessing, for still greater triumphs for the Sacred 
 " Book to attend our course, and to hand on this sacred work 
 " in permanence and joy to those, who shall come after us. The 
 " enormous work of the Society is conducted b}' a Committee 
 " planned with the greatest wisdom. Fifteen members representing 
 " the Church of England, fifteen members representing the other 
 '' Christian Protestant Churches, and six foreigners resident in 
 " London compose our permanent ministry. They are aided by 
 " two clerical secretaries, one representing the Nonconforming 
 " Churches, the other the Church of England ; and six members, 
 " those who have attended the least, go out in rotation every 
 
( 127 ) 
 
 " }'ear, so that fresh blood is coming in constant!}-. You have 
 " this great Society managed entirely by lay influence with the 
 " ardent support of the various Christian Churches. I attribute 
 " to the character of the organization, which is very little known 
 " in the country, a great deal of the continued blessing, which 
 " God has poured upon the Society, and I thank Him for the 
 " wisdom of our forefathers, who laid the foundations so well." 
 
 An all-round friend of ^Missions was asked, what his feelings 
 were to his ^Missionary Society, and his Bible-Society respectively : 
 His reply was, that he loved the former as his wife, and was 
 read}' to make sacrifices for it ; but he loved and revered the 
 latter as his mother, to whom he owed his ver}- existence. 
 
 The onl}- avowed antagonist of the work of Bible-distribution is 
 the Church of Rome, and the reason is obvious : During the 
 Middle Ages the Bible was not studied, and the practices of 
 that Church insensibly deviated from the principles of the Bible, 
 and when in the time of Erasmus, and subsequently, the Priests 
 became aware of it, they tried to keep the knowledge of the 
 Bible from the laity, and restrict it to the Latin Language : the 
 Jew may have had a plausible reason for keeping his Old 
 Testament in the original Hebrew : the Christians of the early 
 Greek Church ma}' have desired, though unwisely, to keep his New 
 Testament in the original Greek ; but the claim of the Church 
 of Rome to keep it in Latin was ridiculous, and obviousl}' with 
 evil intentions. We cannot follow their line of reasoning : they 
 admit, that Prayer may be offered in the Vernacular : why not 
 the Lord's Prayer ? At one time there was a tendency to restrict 
 
 W^au 
 
( 1^8 ) 
 
 Prayer to Latin also, but in the Council of Frankfurt, A.D. 792, 
 a Canon was passed, directed against the idea, that God can only 
 be addressed in Hebrew, Greek, or Latin. 
 
 Others there may be, who are not altogether friendly, who 
 find some of our methods objectionable, or the constitution of 
 the Society faulty : some again fail to see in the Bible that 
 great supreme Power, that exclusive greatness, which renders it 
 fit for world-wide distribution : to these last we can only say 
 " Look to the end." I wish to say nothing hard against either. 
 
 To illustrate what I said a little while ago of the Church 
 of Rome preventing the Bible from being read, I may tell you 
 that last year quite in the South of Italy, at Catanzaro, there 
 was an auto-da-fc' in the street, not a burning of men and 
 women : thank God, the laws of Italy do not permit that : but 
 on it there were Bibles, Xew Testaments, and Portions, which 
 you had sent there, which the colporteurs had sold, and which 
 the priest was burning to the glor}- of God, according to his 
 ignorance. The colporteur was a man of more than common 
 courage and intelligence, and he went to the priest and said, 
 " Sir, you have been committing a double sin : you have been 
 " taking these books from the poor people, who have bought 
 " them, and you have robbed them : and, secondly, you have 
 " been committing a sin by burning the Word of God." The 
 priest was not a stupid man, and he said, " You are a pretty 
 " fellow to come to teach me my duty. I am pastor of this 
 " flock. Your books are poison-books, and it is my duty, as 
 " the shepherd of my flock, to prevent them from having them." 
 
( 129 ) 
 
 Then there ensued a discussion, of course with no result. The 
 colporteur, struck with an idea, said to the priest, " Here is a 
 book. I am going to give it to you upon your promise to 
 read it before you burn it." So he promised. The book given 
 was the Compendium of Controversy. It simply passes, en revue, 
 the various doctrines of the Church of Rome, without a word 
 of comment, but with verses of the Bible underneath them. 
 The priest was struck with that, and he wrote to Florence to 
 get a Bible : the same, that he had burned, he had to pay for. 
 He was convinced ; and, the Spirit of the Lord working on 
 him, he wanted more instruction, like the eunuch of Ethiopia, and 
 he wrote to the depot-keeper at Florence, asking the name of a 
 minister. The instruction was given, and he threw off his priestly 
 garb, came to him, and said, " Here I am, sir," telling his story. 
 The minister said, to put him to the test, " I cannot maintain 
 " you ; what can you do to work ? " The poor fellow, like 
 many others, knew no work but to say his Mass. Then the 
 other said, " Here are copies of the New Testament, and 
 " portions ; go out and sell them to make your living." The 
 priest accepted this, and he is now in Naples, selling the very 
 books, which he had burned. 
 
 At a late meeting at Kensington, Dr. Maclagan, the Arch- 
 bishop of York, not entirely a friend of the Evangelical movement, 
 insisted most forcibly on the need of realizing the slow and 
 gradual steps, by which the providence of God has brought us 
 to this great result. The early Church waited, and was content 
 to wait, a century and a half for its Bible. They had the 
 
 9 
 
( 130 ) 
 
 " patience " to endure persecution with but little of " the comfort 
 " of the Scriptures," which brings " hope." Up to, and after, 
 the Reformation, the possession of a Bible was a comparatively 
 rare thing ; even the present century had known thousands 
 without the power to read the Book, when they possessed it. 
 Now most people have one on their shelves ; but it ought not 
 to stay there, it ought to be constantly at hand, it ought to 
 be constantly brought before the people ; we might even do 
 well to revive the custom of having it read, as the old chained 
 Bibles were, at all hours, in our churches. We have, indeed, a 
 double responsibility in this matter : we must make a right use 
 of our own Bibles^ not making the Word of God a kind of 
 fetish, but giving it a constant, reverent study ; and then we 
 are bound to send it far and wide, as this Society helps us to 
 do, to the tropics, to the Arctic regions ; we are bound to give 
 the missionary his weapon. "It is a blessed work," the Arch- 
 bishop concluded, " in which we can all unite ; I trust this 
 " Meeting will stir all our hearts, that we may do more for it 
 " than we ever did before." 
 
 Another interesting consideration is, that, though the Missionaries 
 of different Protestant denominations differ in many particulars of 
 practice, yet they all agree in this fact, that their only true sword 
 is the " Word of God " : they do not always put the same inter- 
 pretation on particular passages, but they agree in this, that 
 the Bible is the Message of God's love to His creatures, made 
 known to them through Christ, and that it is the only sure 
 and certain instrument of conversion of the Soul of Man. And, 
 
 "^'**^' 
 
( 131 ) 
 
 when they give to the races of mankind the precious gift, by 
 a kind of necessity they convey with it to a great majority 
 another gift, less intrinsically precious, indeed, but still, one of 
 infinite value, the power to read, and thus lay the foundation 
 of an indigenous literature. Someone has said boldh', that, if 
 anyone removed from the shelves of the British INIuscum all 
 the books, which have been written against the Bible, or in 
 defence of the Bible, or in illustration of the Bible, many words 
 of European Languages would cease to have a meaning, or to 
 be represented in printed works, or Manuscripts, for we scarcely 
 realize how closely entwined with the literature of modern Europe, 
 with the treasur}' of modern thought, and the inmost musings of 
 the consciousness of each one of us, is that wonderful Book : it 
 may be urged, that a secular book, which had attained a world- 
 wide circulation, would have done the same, but has any secular 
 book attained, and maintained, and is prepared to prolong, such 
 an influence ? Among the smaller circles of classical scholars, 
 Horace, Virgil, Homer, and Plato, may occupy an unassailable 
 position, and to a wider educated circle the same may be said 
 of the great Masters of Poetry and Prose, but the Bible knows 
 no limitation of class, or grade of civilisation, or environment 
 of ideas, or prejudices of nationality : it was meant for ]\Ian in 
 his totality ; in his wondrous power of taking Heaven, as it were, 
 by storm, through the strength of his intellect ; in the depth of 
 his degradation, when he is only removed from the brute beast 
 around him by the actual power of emitting articulate sound, and 
 the possible power of accumulating knowledge, and handing it on 
 
( 132 ) 
 
 to the next generation. I repeat again, that I reverence and 
 thank God for the books of the Hindu, and Zoroaster, Kong-Fu- 
 Tszc, Buddha, and the Great Philosophers, but I fail to see, 
 that they have left such a mark on the tv/iole world, with such 
 advantage to the ivhole world, and with such a certainty of 
 lasting by their own innate vigour to the end of Time, as the 
 one Book, the diffusion of which I am now recommending. 
 
 JS3C 
 
ADDRESS No. VIII. 
 
 " The Limitations imposed by the Rules of the Bible 
 " Society on the Circulation of the Reports and 
 " Periodicals." 
 
 " Within this nvvful vohime lies 
 The mystery of mysteries. 
 Happiest they of mortal race, 
 To whom God hath granted grace 
 To read, to fear, to hope, to pray, 
 To lift the latch and force the way. 
 But better had they ne'er been born. 
 Who read to doubt, or read to scorn." 
 
 It is obvious, that in an Association consisting of elements so 
 variant, and even discordant, organic rules had to be laid down 
 to exclude possible divergence of opinions, and the wisdom of 
 these rules is evidenced by the unbroken cordiality, and mutual 
 love, that has prevailed. The Committee wishes to be all 
 things to all men (only in the Lord), so long as the text is 
 not tampered with, and the translation is philologically accurate : 
 it circulates portions with certain reservations, and the New 
 Testament, but declines to circulate the Old Testament without 
 
( 134 ) 
 
 the New, deeming the latter the completion, and fulfilment, and 
 interpreter, of the former. 
 
 In English none but the Authorized Version is circulated : 
 Some would wish the Revised Version to be supplied : under 
 the organic Rules this cannot be, nor is it wise to attempt it. 
 Translations must be made from the originals, Hebrew or Greek, 
 and this excludes versions made from the Greek Septuagint, 
 or Latin Vulgate, except under peculiar circumstances. No 
 Note or Commentary is permitted : this might lead on to 
 theological and denominational difficulties, and in fact such have 
 arisen. Page-headings, Chapter-headings, conventional division 
 into Chapters and Verses ; marginal alternative readings, philo- 
 logical, not theological ; marginal references to the text of 
 the Inspired Scriptures, not to the Apocrypha : all these are 
 details, which can be inserted, or not, as seems suitable. The 
 Apocryphal Books are not circulated : great discussion has 
 taken place on this subject in past years, and the matter has 
 been finally settled : this rule creates a dif^culty in our relations 
 with the Continental Churches, who appear to place the 
 Apocryphal Books on a level with the Canon of the Old and 
 New Testament, but it cannot be helped : no grants of money 
 can be made to a Continental Bible Society, which circulates 
 the Apocrypha : this seems to be stretching the Rule very far. 
 On the whole, however, I think that it is right to do so, as 
 really the Canons of the Old and New Testament present a 
 bulk of material calculated to try our utmost strength to 
 provide, and sufficient for the work of Salvation to the readers. 
 
( 135 ) 
 
 The /\nnual Report is exceedingly interesting : Gcograph}', 
 Political Ilistor}-, Ethnology, Philology, four great Sciences, sub- 
 serve to the objects of the Bible-Society : The Arts of Printing, 
 Paper-Man ufactor}', the resources of Commerce, and Steam- 
 Navigation, are all called upon to contribute to the one great 
 object. ]\Iaps, and Statistical Tables, vary the monotony of 
 the written Report, and a strong human interest pervades the 
 whole : to me it has all the varied and stirring interest of a 
 three-volumed Romance, with the advantage of being true : this 
 may perhaps be partly owing to my long study of the four 
 great Sciences enumerated, but also to my sympathetic love to 
 the human race in its entirety. " The proper study of mankind 
 " is man," and where, and how, can it be better studied than 
 in marking the manner, in which each section of the human 
 race receives the proffered gift of Salvation, and how far it 
 profits by it ? The story is told of the world's history in 
 relation to the Bible in a straightforward, manly way, not in 
 the sickly, namby-pamby, sensational style of some Missionary 
 Societies, who introduce the Divine Name into every page, and 
 tell us more about the workers, and their wives, and families, and 
 their marriages, and the birth of their children, than of the 
 work itself These Reports tell us, that, just as in domestic 
 life, so in the life of the Society, there arc the instructive 
 alternations of light and shade, of success and failure, of advance 
 and retrogression : doors opening and being shut : welcomes offered 
 and outbursts of opposition : for after all we arc all brothers : 
 the same poor, weak, human creatures : the butterflies of the 
 
( 136 ) 
 
 day : not knowing what is for our welfare, or our loss. The 
 Periodicals of the Society maintain the interest from month to 
 month, and are calculated to instruct both the young, and 
 the old. 
 
 Are we satisfied, and sitting with folded hands ? Certainly 
 not : like Alexander, we are panting for new victories, and 
 spying out new regions to invade : Besides, we are for ever 
 refashioning our weapons, and devising new methods : There 
 never was an Association, which had less of the claptrap of 
 Sensationalism : our work is very patent to the eye : we do not 
 attempt to build up churches : we supply books : we are brick- 
 makers rather than masons, but a good brick is a very important 
 thing. We live in this century in a condition liable to change : 
 we have to deal with a great variety of customers, and we 
 must adajDt ourselves to our ever-changing environment : We 
 must keep close to our principles, continue to turn out the 
 very best material, but be prepared for modification of methods. 
 
 Our earnest desire is to meet the lawful requirements of all, 
 and by any means to save souls : although, therefore, we lay 
 down the rule of only circulating translations made from the 
 Hebrew and Greek, we do not hesitate under certain circum- 
 stances to circulate translations from Jerome's Latin Vulgate in 
 certain Languages, when we are satisfied, that we shall find sales, 
 in certain quarters, of those versions, to certain mistaken people, 
 who would purchase no other. It is sheer nonsense to condemn 
 the Vulgate, which converted Luther and Calvin. There is 
 nothing in these translations, which would keep a Soul from 
 
( 137 ) 
 
 God, nor is it true to sa\', that the Romish Church tampered 
 for their own views with the text of the Vulgate, or deliberately 
 made false translations into the five Vernaculars of French, 
 Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German : if anyone says so, 
 let him point them out : the error of the Romish Church is 
 the misapplication of texts, and false interpretations of texts, 
 and the withholding ot the Book from the Laity : The time will 
 come, when these versions will cease to be demanded, and drop 
 out of circulation. The English Douay Bible never was circulated, 
 as being contrary to the Rule, which restricts the Societ}' to the 
 authorized English Version. 
 
 A very suggestive illustration of the comparative circulation 
 of the Scriptures among Protestants and Roman Catholics, is 
 furnished by the literary histor}' of the Hungarian Bible. The 
 Reformed Church of Hungary received its first complete edition 
 from Karoli, the T}-ndale of his native land, in 1590. The rival 
 Jesuit version, that of Kaldi, did not appear till 1626. Since 
 then the Reformed book has, up to 1874, gone through some 
 71 editions; up to that date, of the Jesuit version only three 
 have been required. The Magj-ar-speaking Protestant population 
 of Hungary is about half that of the Catholic. If the circulation 
 of Scriptures among the latter had been but equal in proportion 
 to that among the former, the Jesuit Bible, taking as basis of 
 calculation the number of editions, would in 1874 have been, not 
 in its third or fourth, but in its 146th issue. As things stand, 
 the circulation among the Reformed seems about forty-nine times 
 greater than among the Romanists. It should be added that. 
 
( 138 ) 
 
 while the Protestant editions are mostly in handy volumes, the 
 others are all large and voluminous : certainly not intended, as 
 they would be quite unsuitable, for popular use. 
 
 If we had a tabula rasa, and no predilections and prejudices 
 to contend against, expediency would suggest, that the translations 
 should be issued free from the bondage of Chapters and Verses, 
 page-headings, chapter-headings, marginal notes or references : how 
 sweet the pages appear of Lasserre's French Gospels in modern 
 flowing French, printed like other literature ! Why should we 
 add to the prejudice against Bible-reading, by publishing the 
 Book under different conditions to other religious hterature ? I 
 feel instinctively, that we are approaching a new departure. In 
 China there is a distinct crusade against the Rule forbidding 
 Notes and Comments : In Australia a Bishop has resigned con- 
 nection with the Society, because we refuse to circulate the 
 Revised Version : if we did, probably other Bishops would 
 resign, because we did so. Another crusade is carried on by the 
 advocates of so-called pure translations, as if the Vulgate, and 
 its descendants, were impure ? I mentioned above, that Trans- 
 lations circulated by the Society, must be from the original 
 Hebrew and Greek : an attempt has lately been made to use 
 Translations made from the Septuagint : there are two aspects 
 of this subject : if the Russian speaking population will accept 
 a Pentateuch translated from the Septuagint, and will accept no 
 other, there seems nothing wrong in extending to it, under 
 protest, the same license as is allowed to the Vulgate Trans- 
 lations of the New Testament in certain European Languages, 
 
( 139 ) 
 
 But if it is asserted, that the Septuagint was translated 250 B.C., 
 from Hebrew MSS., superior to those, of which copies have come 
 down to our time, and that the uninspired Greek Translation of 
 the Old Testament is to rank with the inspired Hebrew Text 
 of the Old Testament, and the inspired Greek Text of the 
 Xew Testament, there is nothing for it but to oppose this view 
 to the uttermost, as it cuts to the bottom of all previous 
 practices of the Society, and is manifestly "per se" wrong. Another 
 crusade has commenced against such neutral terms as " Baptism," 
 and such new expressions as " John, the Dipper " may soon 
 appear in foreign versions, alienating those, who sprinkle, but do 
 not immerse. In some French versions, the neutral term " Priest " 
 is rendered " Sacrifateur " : some Christian hearts may be pained 
 by reading of Christ as the " Grand Sacrifateur " : hitherto the 
 Bible-Society has stri\-en to occupy a central position, and avoid 
 stupid conservatism, as well as dangerous liberalism, " in medio 
 " tutissima." 
 
 Then come doubts from good people at home, about the 
 necessity of Notes and Commentaries : I extract from " Church 
 Work," 1890 : " But what one cannot help seeing is, that 
 " ' the Bible without Note and Comment,' that substitute for 
 " religious instruction, which was to satisfy every scruple, holds 
 " a very perilous position. On the one hand, it is not likely 
 " in and by itself, to develop the fear and love of God in the 
 " minds of children : and that, we are bound to believe, is the 
 " object of all instruction, that is termed religious ; and, on 
 " the other hand, it cannot find favour in the eyes of those, who 
 
( HO ) 
 
 " regard the Bible as an historical record of the same character 
 " as the annals of any nation would be. The thorough Secularist 
 " may take Professor Huxley's view, and object to having his 
 " child's notions of physical science perverted by means of the 
 " Bible used as a reading book ; and the Churchman, with 
 " equal consistency, may say, that he wants his child to be 
 " taught out of Holy Scripture what Holy Scripture is designed 
 " to teach, but which the child cannot ahva}'s get out of the 
 " mere words. Perhaps the end of the controversy may be, that 
 " the New Testament alone will be used, and thus children will 
 " grow up with no knowledge of the progressive nature of the 
 " Divine Revelation." 
 
 Then we come to another objection, brought forward by 
 Professor Driver : Some of his " Sermons on Subjects connected 
 with the Old Testament," breathe an admirable spirit, and 
 manifest a deep appreciation of the moral and spiritual elements, 
 which he recognizes as pervading all the Scripture. He objects 
 to our calling the Bible absolutely " the Word of God " ; but 
 he is quite willing to call it " //-^ ITord of God mediated by JiunicDi 
 " iiistrunientality" which is probably the sense, in which most 
 persons would use the phrase in the present day. 
 
 ^232^ 
 
ADDRESS No. IX. 
 
 " On the Foreign Field, Auxiliaries, Agencies, Depots, 
 " Colporteurs, Carriages, Bible-Women." 
 
 «' Ves, verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto 
 the end of the world."— Romans x., i8. 
 
 " Are they not all ministering Spirits, sent forth to minister to them, 
 who shall he heirs of Salvation ? "—Hebrews i., 14. 
 
 " God does not need 
 Either man's work, or His own gifts : His state 
 Is kingly : thousands at His bidding speed, 
 And post o'er land and ocean without rest ; 
 They also serve, who only stand and wait." 
 
 Jili/f on. —Sonnet in his blindness. 
 
 I HAVE been for many years constantly on the move in Europe, 
 North Africa, and Western Asia, and have had special oppor- 
 tunities of visiting the different Agencies. In one year I have 
 traversed Lapland as far as the North Cape, Norway, Sweden, 
 Finland, and North Russia : in another. South Russia, Trans- 
 Caucasia as far as the Caspian Sea, Armenia, Asia Minor, Syria, 
 and Turkey : in a third or fourth, Egypt to the Cataracts, Tunis, 
 
 ■H 
 
( 142 ) 
 
 Algeria as far back as the Sahara, Morocco, the whole length of 
 the once Christian, and now decivilized. North Africa : Each 
 country in Europe, each great city, has been repeatedly visited, the 
 depots inspected, the organisation considered, and the Languages 
 classified. Now that is all over, I am glad that I was permitted to 
 do it. Reading, and brain-picking of all capable of giving informa- 
 tion, whether for Asia, Oceania, Africa, or America, has supplied 
 the rest : I feel the blessing of all that my gifts and opportuni- 
 ties permitted. I never returned home without a feeling of joy 
 and gratitude, not unmixed with wonder at the sights, which I 
 had seen. My training and experience in India has led me to 
 appreciate realities : the conquering of an antagonist, the subduing 
 of a rebel Chief, the restoration to order after a rebellion, and 
 the good order of a District, and so on : and the amiable con- 
 ventional, sensational, and highly-seasoned, expressions in some 
 Reports did not satisfy me : but there is something very real, 
 very tangible, in the work of the Bible-Society : if mistakes are 
 made (and they are made) they cannot be concealed : if there 
 is order, business, progress, and results, they are unmistakable, 
 when you are in the country, and face to face with the Agents. 
 A lady, in sending from abroad a voucher, that she will raise 
 her own subscription to the Society from £2 to £^, and that 
 her fellow-traveller will raise hers from five guineas to ten, adds : 
 " The more I travel, the more I see what a blessed work the 
 " Bible Society docs, and the more I long and pray for its 
 " extension." 
 
 Our Field is the World : I should m\'sclf like to divide it with 
 
 --.^r^jfT 
 
( 143 ) 
 
 the two Sister-Socictics, so as to prevent overlapping, and in the 
 Jubilee-year, when the Secretaries of both the National Society 
 of Scotland, and the American Bible-Society, were present at 
 the Bible-House, I proposed it, but there were difficulties, and 
 the matter stands over : it certainly will come to pass in the 
 next generation, as it is so obviously economic, that it should 
 be so. 
 
 So far as regards the Home-Field v/ithin England, my own idea 
 is, that the distribution to the General Public by way of selling, 
 might well be entrusted to the Booksellers' Trade, and indeed 
 all copies in expensive bindings, all copies of the Revised Version, 
 all copies with Notes and Commentaries, all copies of the Douay 
 Version, can only be obtained from sources other than the Depots 
 of the Bible-Societ}'. I am bound to say, that our experienced 
 District-Secretaries do not agree with me. There remains the 
 supply of copies to the numerous Institutions, public and private,- 
 at reduced rates, Schools, Hospitals, Chapels, Sailors' Homes, 
 and a long list of Associations. We have a great number of 
 auxiliary helpers. 
 
 Beyond England the most advanced Agency is that of 
 Auxiliary Committees, and this is the most desirable form, where 
 it can be managed, as in British India, Australia, Canada, South 
 Africa : the time may come, when the British Colonies will 
 assume independence in this, as in other matters, and this is as 
 it ought to be. 
 
 So also in Protestant Countries in Europe : it is not right, 
 that a British Societ)' should intrude : the way has been shewn. 
 
 — ' '^ 
 
( 144 ) 
 
 the machinery started, the desire felt, and such countries as 
 Holland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and North Germany, should 
 be left to themselves : and this policy is being gradually worked 
 out : The Foreign Societies, which exist on the Continent, cannot 
 in any sense as }'et be called Missionary Societies, as in some 
 there is a Ruling, that only German translations are to be issued, 
 and in others, that no copy be sold to a Roman Catholic : they 
 perform the laudable work of Bible-Clubs, to supply copies of 
 the Scriptures to Protestants : this is a different thing from the 
 object of the three great Missionary Bible-Societies of London, 
 Edinborough, and New York : but, as time goes on, the good 
 German nation will grasp the idea, and carry it out. 
 
 In countries, where an Auxiliary Society is not possible, there 
 are Agents paid by the British and Foreign Bible-Society : ten 
 in Europe : France, Belgium, Germany with Switzerland, Austria 
 with Roumania, Italy, Spain, Portugal, North Russia, South 
 Russia, and Turkc}' with Greece. In Africa there are three : 
 Algeria and Tunisia, Egypt and Palestine in Asia, and Morocco. 
 In Asia there are five : Persia, Burma, Singapur, China, Japan : 
 in America three : West India Islands, Brazil, and the Argentine 
 Republic. 
 
 I have the pleasure of the acquaintance of all the Agents in 
 Europe and Africa, having visited them, some repeatedly, in 
 their fields : it is one thing to see and hear them during a short 
 interview in the Committee-Room, and another to witness their 
 work, hold sweet converse with them, pump them dry with 
 questions, and mark their characters, and mode of doing business 
 
( 145 ) 
 
 in their offices, and in their Fields. The}- are a most remarkable 
 body of men, and I write this as one, who has been ruling 
 Districts, and commanding men, holding much higher office than 
 their's, for a quarter of a Century. They differ as enormously 
 from each other in character, and antecedents, as their Regions, 
 and the population occup}-ing their Regions, differ, but, though 
 I have a practised eye as an Inspector of work going on, and 
 a very fearless habit of expressing my opinion, I have always 
 felt a deep satisfaction at the reality of the work, and the ability, 
 the intelligence, and the devotion, of the Agents. I have had 
 long and intimate conversations with all, and have to be grateful 
 for much information imparted by them, which I could have 
 obtained nowhere else, and towards all I cherish feelings of 
 respect, sympathy, and to some of love. Now I could not say 
 as much for all the ^Missionaries, whose work I have during the 
 last fifty years inspected : in many cases neither the men, nor 
 the work, were satisfactory. I do not say that I always regarded 
 subjects eye to eye with the Agents of the Bible-Society : unless, 
 as in some cases, they had had charge of more than one Agency, 
 their views and possibilities were limited to their own environ- 
 ment, and this made their minds narrow, and sometimes angular : 
 as a rule a long residence in one office is not desirable, and yet 
 on the other hand the singularly accurate knowledge, possessed 
 by some of them, was the result of long and repeated tours, 
 and a familiarity with the people quite unique of its kind for 
 the purposes of the Society. I have been favoured by corres- 
 pondence with many long after we had parted, and I shall ever 
 
 10 
 
( 146 ) 
 
 treasure the memory of this admirable body of men, and the 
 Committee deserves credit for their sound judgment in the 
 selection. 
 
 Under the Agents at the chief towns are Depots, presided 
 over b}' an official : the inspection of these Depots is exceedingly 
 interesting, and so are conversations with the Depositary in 
 out-of-the-way places, like Kief, Warsaw, Breslau, Prague : they 
 are not travelled men, nor learned men, but of great simplicity 
 of character : I remember on one occasion, that the Depositary 
 on parting with me stood on tip-toe, and kissed me on the 
 cheek, which I greatly appreciated, as indicating, that I had by 
 my remarks and bearing towards him and his work, drawn to 
 myself his sympathy : it is only by inspecting Depots, and 
 extracting the explanation of the Depositary, that I was able 
 to get at facts with regard to some versions, which had been 
 incorrectly named in our catalogues, and arrive at a clear nomen- 
 clature for m}' lists of effective Bible-Translations : generalities 
 never satisfied me : I hunted evey hare down till I caught it. 
 
 I pass now to the Colporteurs : my only objection is to their 
 name : they arc in reality book-hawkers, such being the meaning 
 of the French word : thc}- are the last link in the chain, which 
 attaches the Societ}- to thc populations, whom it supplies with 
 Scriptures : we see such men going about the villages of our 
 own country selling laces, and buttons, and other female gear : 
 they are but the unsanctified t}-pc of one of the most remark- 
 able Agencies, which the requirements of the Bible-Society have 
 called into existence. I have come in contact with them, and 
 
 ^„^SA^j^x^mBSBS^^Sa^ 
 
( 147 ) 
 
 talked to them everywhere in the Regions above alluded to : 
 they are not wise, or educated, they do not labour for hope of 
 gain, they are not gifted to be preachers, nor would they be 
 allowed to use the gift, if the}' had it : they are brave men, 
 and consecrated men : in many districts the}- know, that insult 
 and abuse, and ill-usage and imprisonment, awaits them, but 
 they care for none of such things : If the Bible-Society had 
 done nothing else, it would be deserving of praise for the develop- 
 ment of so much unknown faith and heroic fortitude, such 
 singular God-given talents, such noble instances of devotion : it 
 penetrates, where no ^Missionary Society can get an entry, it is ac- 
 ceptable in places, where they are not : when I looked at them, 
 and considered the extraordinary variety of their appearance, 
 the difference of the Language, which they spoke, the difference 
 of their antecedents, my wonder was, how this small army would 
 have supported itself, if the Bible-Society had not come into 
 existence : and my conviction was, that their very existence 
 showed, that there must be a special blessing attending our 
 work for the real welfare of God's people. Their business is 
 to supply themselves from the Depot with copies of all sorts 
 suitable to the requirements of their arrondissement, to carry 
 them in a sack upon their backs, and to trudge from town to 
 town, and village to village, offering them for sale : while on the 
 one hand they are forbidden to hold religious meetings, and 
 preach, on the other hand they are not to be dumb dogs : they 
 are to exhibit their wares to those, who converse with them, and 
 to the women at the door of their homes, and in the place where 
 
( 148 ) 
 
 they lodge ; they are to explain their contents, and read portions, 
 if they can secure hearers : Sometimes they are received joyfully : 
 years ago even the Roman Catholic Priests used to welcome 
 them, and purchase : but an open antagonism to the Bible-Society 
 is now the policy of the Vatican : in countries like F'rance, 
 which arc educated and civilised, no real opposition is offered ; 
 but in Austria, where the peasantry is in deep ignorance, the 
 Priest opposes the Colporteurs in every way, following his steps, 
 so as to get hold of the copies sold, and tearing them up, calling 
 them " accursed books " : Sometimes are found even among 
 the Priests, those, whose hearts are touched by the Word of 
 God. One Colporteur reported, that going to an inn one day 
 to get some dinner, he had a New Testament before him, and 
 when the waiting-maid came he said to her, " You were going 
 " to buy a book the other day ; will }-ou do so now " ? to which 
 she replied, " I should not be a Christian, if I bought that 
 " cursed book." The proprietor then came in, and told the 
 man to be off, saying he ought to be ashamed of himself for 
 driving such a scandalous trade, upsetting the whole country. 
 In face of such opposition, all he could do was to pray, 
 " Father, forgive them, they know not what they do " : this 
 seems scarce!}- credible, but there is no doubt of the fact, and 
 we can only humbly ponder what excuse in the day of Judgment 
 the Priests, the ordained servants of Christ, will make in reply 
 to the charge : for the Language, in which the Books are written, 
 is their own, and the matter contained in the book is but a 
 translation of the contents of their own Latin breviary : it is too 
 
 K^HS^HiBBBIKaE 
 
( 149 ) 
 
 late in the day for educated men to pretend, that the translations 
 are otherwise than accurate of the Greek and Hebrew originals, 
 and in many cases they are accurate translations of the Latin 
 Vulgate : Our Lord's command was clear, that, even if they 
 were in very deed tares sown by the enemy, they should be 
 left alone till the harvest. 
 
 I have visited some of these Colporteurs in their humble 
 homes : I remember at Constantine, in Algeria, entering the 
 room, where one Colporteur, a discharged soldier, lived : the 
 furniture consisted of a bed, table, and a book-case, full of his 
 Bibles, and he remarked, that it was all that he required, as 
 he got his meals at a restaurant : in conversation with them 
 they evidenced a fire, and zeal, in their work, such as is not 
 ordinarily evinced in secular work : their salaries were not 
 large : they had to render accounts of books sold, and cases of 
 dishonesty, and gross misconduct, were rare : On one occasion 
 I had reached, in my tour, Baku, on the Caspian Sea, and I 
 went on board a ship in the harbour, and felt rather proud of 
 getting to this inland Sea : while I was there, a ship came across 
 from the opposite side, and on board was a Colporteur, who, with 
 Bibles on his back, and his life in his hands, had penetrated 
 into Transcaspia, and across the Oxiis, and had sold all his 
 stock to people, who had never seen a Bible before. I have 
 been all my life a great traveller, and feel quite at home with 
 races differing in Language, creed, and dress, but I have never 
 been able to get beyond the range of the British and Foreign 
 Bible-Society, though I have often been beyond the protection 
 
( 150 ) 
 
 of the British flag. We come to a knowledge of the extreme 
 ignorance of the people, from little anecdotes jotted down in 
 their diaries : A Colporteur, on getting out of a train, was 
 asked by the Police what were the contents of his sack : he 
 opened it, and said "Bibles": the Policeman took off his hat, 
 and saluted it, and remarked, that he had never seen one before, 
 and he purchased a cop}-. A village-woman, when shown a copy 
 of the New Testament, made a similar remark, adding that she 
 had heard of the existence of the book from her mother, who had 
 once seen one. In some parts of Austria the Colporteur can 
 only show copies, and not sell them : he can take orders, and 
 then the copy is sent by the Post : it is understood, that this 
 vexatious regulation is not to check Bible-distribution, but against 
 the sale of seditious Secular literature, of which the State is 
 more afraid than of the Bible. In Russia, the Colporteur is 
 v.-elcome, and the Commander of garrisons admits him into the 
 fortress, that he may sell to the soldiers, remarking that a good 
 Christian makes a good soldier : At Port Saiyad the Colporteur 
 visits every ship, and effects large sales in many different 
 Languages. Fifty years ago, English travellers on visiting Italy, 
 had to declare at the Custom-House, whether they had copies 
 of the Scriptures, and the agent of the Bible-Society, living at 
 Leghorn, a free port, had to smuggle copies on the person of 
 himself and his wife, so as to get them into Florence : With 
 Constitutional Freedom came liberty to circulate the Word of 
 God, and in all the large towns of Italy there are Bible-Uepots : 
 at Rome actually under the shadow of the College of the 
 
 '"^*^ J ^ 
 
( 151 ) 
 
 Propaganda : and Colporteurs have the free exercise of their 
 vocation : I remember how, in one of my frequent visits to 
 Rome, the Colporteur spied me out, and rcmarkiui;' from my 
 cast of countenance, that I loved the Bible, came across the 
 street to offer me the pick of his wares. France is mapped out 
 into Colporteur-arrondissements to an extent, which would wound 
 the susceptibility of a Frenchman, if he realized it. The Pope 
 has divided British India into Papal Dioceses : they are no 
 more visible, or appreciable, to the British Government, than are 
 the great astronomical circles of Latitude and Longitude : so 
 also, great French Provinces are grouped, so as to suit the 
 migratory powers of a Protestant Colporteur, and the President 
 of the Republic is not conscious of it. In Russia the Govern- 
 ment is friendly, and all ranks are glad to purchase, and assist 
 the sale, but there exist troubles about the particular versions to 
 be circulated. In Turkey, as a rule, there is freedom, but 
 sometimes the work suffers from the stupidity, rather than the 
 hostilit}', of the Rulers. The distribution to the Pilgrims, who 
 flock to Jerusalem at the time of Easter, is one of great interest, 
 and is practically unchecked. 
 
 But there is one other Agency of the Bible-Society, still more 
 interesting, that blessed combination of syllables and letters, the 
 Bible-Women : I look back with gratitude to the happy fact, 
 that the Holy Spirit put it into my heart to propose this 
 measure some years ago in the Committee, and that it was 
 accepted. The measure is restricted to those countries, where 
 by antient custom women are secluded from social intercourse 
 
 •^S2 
 
( 152 ) 
 
 with men, and very much kept to their homes : it follows, that 
 women present the only agency possible for communicating a 
 knowledge of the Book of Life to the wives and sisters of the 
 present, and the mothers of the coming, generation. It is part 
 of the scheme to work through IMissionary Societies of all 
 denominations, making them annual grants for the maintenance 
 of a certain number of Bible-Women. It might have been 
 anticipated, that suitable women would not have been available, 
 but the Lord provides : a great blessing has attended this 
 movement, and a large sum is spent, and well-spent, annually 
 in this branch of the Service : I myself, at Beirut, in Syria, had 
 the opportunity of meeting three Bible-Women in the house of 
 a friend, and I heard from their own lips the story of their 
 work : one worked among the Jews, the second among the 
 Mahometans, and the third among the members of the Christian 
 Asiatic Churches ; widows they were, and widows indeed, whom 
 the Lord had singled out for a Service of peculiar blessing to 
 their own Souls : Energy of character, and devotion, were 
 developed by the circumstances and opportunities of each : I 
 was in the Depot at IMoscow, when a woman came in with an 
 empty bag, and proceeded to fill it with books from the counter ; 
 I watched her with surprise, and found, that she was the childless 
 widow of a colporteur : from love to the cause, and love to his 
 memory, she continued the Service, with the details of which 
 she was familiar : I laid my hands on her shoulder, as she 
 was leaving the Depot, with the words, " The Lord will bless 
 " you. Sister " : the class of Agents, to which she belongs, is 
 
( 153 ) 
 
 called " Hawkers," for they are daily entrusted with a certain 
 amount of books, and receive a percentage on actual sales : 
 the name of this handmaiden of the Lord appears in the lists, 
 given in the Annual Report of the Society for 1892, page 384 : 
 IMaria Andreavna. May there be many like her ! " Women who 
 " laboured much in the Lord." 
 
 Sometimes a wheeled conveyance is fitted up to accompany 
 a Colporteur, who requires a larger supply than he can carry 
 on his person for a more extended trip. In some Asiatic 
 countries there are European Colporteurs. Sometimes arrange- 
 ments are made with ]\Iissionaries to conduct themselves the 
 operation : the difficulty in such cases is the rendition of 
 accounts, as is required by sound economy, and healthy order 
 of human affairs. The Missionary has very little leisure. 
 
 We have to reflect, that all the labour of translation, printing, 
 and conveying to different Sea-ports, would be thrown away, if 
 there was not an efficient machinery in each Region to conduct 
 the distribution : I remember the sentimental cry some years 
 back of a " Million of Bibles for the Chinese " : the cases were 
 sent round the Cape, and arrived at a Treaty- Port : had any care 
 been taken to select the particular version in the Language of 
 the place ? Was there any machinery for distribution ? All these 
 things are well thought out now. 
 
 There are few branches of Christian work more interesting 
 than the Scripture-distribution, which Dr. Baedeker has been 
 able to effect in the prisons of Siberia. With the ready per- 
 mission of the authorities, and the equally ready support of the 
 
( 154 ) 
 
 Biblc-Societ}-, he has distributed the Bible, whole or part, in 
 some thirty languages. " If anyone wants to know what sin is," 
 Dr. Baedeker recently said at a Bible -Society meeting, "let 
 " him go to Siberia. The sickness, degradation, and absence of 
 " all moral standard is something beyond description." But the 
 prisoners received the Word of God with great joy, and with 
 excellent policy the Government allowed Dr. Baedeker to visit 
 every prison in Siberia, and to give a copy of the New 
 Testament to every prisoner who could read. " There is no 
 " reason," Dr. Baedeker says, " why Siberia should not be as 
 " good a country as Canada ; and it is a fact full of significance 
 " that there is no people better affected to the Bible than are 
 " the Russians generally." " They hug it," Dr, Baedeker says, 
 " to their heart." 
 
 The Committee, with its Sub-Committees, manages an Empire 
 larger than that of any earthly Sovereign, on which the sun 
 never sets, and in which Prayer never ceases. Letters come in 
 from the North and the South, the East and the West : the 
 names of great cities far off are as familiar household-words : 
 Languages are spoken of with familiarity, and as the ordinary 
 work of the day, of which no one in Europe, outside the walls 
 of the Bible-Society, or some particular Missionary Society, 
 knows even the names, except a few German Scholars in their 
 quiet studies : it is an Empire, that will last for ever, that will 
 outlive Churches and Kingdoms, that does not rest on the 
 wisdom, or strength of Men, for it is from the Lord. 
 
 And with regard to the Society it may be humbly said, " By 
 
 iB 
 
( 155 ) 
 
 " its works }-c .shall know it." It is a great blessing to be 
 always giving, and asking no return : the Word of God is 
 indeed freely given, but its human surroundings, the paper, the 
 printing, the cost of translation, the cost of distribution, must 
 be partially paid for. In after ages, if the world falls into a 
 slumber again of a thousand years, and then wakes up to new 
 life, it will be a wonder to future generations, that such a 
 girdle should have been thrown round the world, such a 
 casting net thrown into the ocean, such a scattering of pearls, 
 and precious stones. The Roman Catholic Monks and Nuns 
 fondly imagine, that by creeping into Hospitals, and surrepti- 
 tiously baptizing dying children, they people heaven with Angels. 
 May we not humbly think, and humbly hope, that the Holy 
 Spirit has made use of some of the leaves cast broadcast, like 
 the leaves of a great forest in Autumn, for the saving of souls, 
 that the labour has not been all in vain for those, to whom the 
 Scriptures have been sent : of the blessing to those employed in 
 the duty no one can doubt : a duty performed, a command 
 obeyed, an act of benevolence thought out, and carried into 
 execution. 
 
 In every Conference of Missionaries, whether it be held in the 
 Metropolis of London at the Monthly Social Gatherings, or in 
 the Decennial Conferences in every part of the world, where 
 earnest men gather together to take stock of the work done, 
 and to cry out : " Watchman ! what of the night ! is the dawn 
 " yet breaking ? " one figure is always welcomed, if present, or 
 missed, and looked for, if absent : the Agent to the Bible- 
 
( 156 ) 
 
 Society, the emergency -man, the one in a thousand, the 
 universal friend, the benefactor from one point of view, and 
 the receiver of benefits from another : the man of no denomina- 
 tion, but an all-round Christian, who places his foot on the 
 stone on Mount Olivet, which marks the spot, whence the Risen 
 Saviour, after giving his great Command, having accomplished 
 the Salvation of Mankind, ascended into Heaven, and looked his 
 farewell look down over the Brook Kedron into the streets of 
 Jerusalem in captivity, and on the great round world beyond. 
 Listen to this Agent's words : " We have only one patent, only 
 " one specific, the Elixir of all the ages, the Palladium in a 
 " thousand battles, the Saver of Millions of Souls : the electric 
 " shock from our batteries vibrates through space and time : our 
 " girdle encircles the earth : we know neither Jew nor Greek, 
 " neither bond nor free, neither Lutheran nor Calvinist, neither 
 " Papist nor Protestant : our fellow-creatures to us are grouped 
 " under a larger denomination : ' Do you love Christ, the Son of 
 " God, Who died, and rose again : the ^16709 of the Evangelist, 
 "the 'A'yia ^ocpia of the Preacher?' If you can find anything 
 " better, more ready, and more sure, to save, oh ! in pity let 
 " us know, for we also have souls to be saved : we have studied 
 " the ' Book of the Dead,' of the Egyptians, the tablets of the 
 " Assyrians, the baked bricks of the Akkadian, and the Babylonian, 
 " the Veda of the Brahmin, the Tripitika of the Buddhist, the 
 " Avesta of the Zoroastrian, the King-Shu of Kong-Fu-Tshee, 
 " the immortal utterances of Socrates, the Koran of Mahomet : 
 " we have looked over the wide world, we have searched the 
 
( 157 ) 
 
 " remains of the wisdom, and greatness, and hopes, of the Elder 
 " Nations, and can find no other endurable name, by which men 
 " can be surely saved, except that of the Lord Jesus : if you 
 " cannot tell us anything new, share the old blessing with us, for 
 " Time is short, and the Lord's advent is at hand. Take the 
 " Book, which we offer, and study it for the welfare of your 
 " Soul." 
 
 " Plurima qucesivi, per singula quceque cucurri, 
 
 Nee quidquam invenio melius quam ' Credere Christc' " 
 
 Christmas Day, 1892. 
 
 -^!^ 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 " From the rising of the Sun unto the going 
 " down of the same My Name shall be great among 
 *' the Gentiles." Malachi i. Ii. 
 
 Happy are they, who 
 Just know, and know no more, their Bible true. 
 And in that Charter read with sparkling eyes 
 Their title to a Treasure in the Skies. 
 
 Let me throw together a few stray thoughts, before I la}' 
 clown my pen for ever on this my favourite subject. A French 
 author beautifully remarks : " Plus I'ame est pres de Dieu, 
 " plus la pensee est pres de I'ame, plus le style est pres de 
 " la pensee, plus tout cela est beaux." This remark applies 
 peculiarly to this subject. No painter has ever dared to place 
 a halo round a living head : no writer calls a living man a Saint : 
 but round this Book there is a halo, and we listen to the words 
 contained in it, as to the utterance of a Saint. We should have 
 a portion of it always in our thoughts, and a portion very near 
 our lips, if the opportunity for judicious utterance occurs, for a 
 
( i6o ) 
 
 chance word, like a stone, dropped into a quiet pool, creates 
 circles ever expanding : a pebble thrown at hazard by a child 
 may disturb sitting doves, and send the thoughts after them in 
 a thousand heavenly directions : sometimes, when man's soul has 
 been slumbering, a chance sentiment from this wonderful Book, 
 may, like the sudden clang of a trumpet, excite deepest emotions, 
 and rouse echoes, which have long been silent. No one can read 
 the Gospels, however respectable in his own eyes, but he gets a 
 check on his conscience, and no one, however fallen, but he finds 
 a kindly and supporting welcome. The beautiful allegory of the 
 sunken bells, the bells of the church swallowed up by the sea, 
 and supposed to be heard on a still night ringing from below, 
 was meant to illustrate the persistency of original feelings in 
 spite of subsequent difficulties and doubts. 
 
 What is the best gift, which we would give to those, whom 
 we love, whose interests lie near our heart, of whom it can be 
 said, that we arc our brother's keeper ? It is not fine gold : it 
 is not deep learning : it is not high station among men. Such 
 things some never have had a chance of attaining, and such 
 things some have not cared to attain : what is it then, that we 
 should desire to give to the red, black, yellow, and brown, races, 
 which by the Providence of God lie with hands, and intellects, 
 and souls, bound at our mercy? Not rum, and lethal weapons, 
 or even cotton-fabrics, but the Law of the Lord, the Gospel of 
 the Saviour, and the uncompromising Morality, which accompanies 
 them. If any one were to read over the last chapter of the Book 
 of Proverbs in Urdu to an Indian Raja, the words of King 
 
( i6i ) 
 
 Lemuel would sound to him, poor effeminate Princeling, as a new 
 Revelation. Let us shut our e}-es, and retrace by the help of 
 our accumulated knowledge, the history of Man backwards from 
 the great Anno Domini, as far as we can, and note what an 
 influence on personal character of men, who were great and wise, 
 powerful, and even good, as men call goodness, such a Book, 
 as we now have each on our table, or in our re\-olving book-case, 
 close to our hands, would have exerted, holding back from crime : 
 the prudent advisers of men in power, or of excited crowds, had 
 nothing in those days to appeal to to stay the bloody hand : no 
 sure and certain hope to sustain those, on whom the world was 
 closing : the last chapter of Ecclesiastes must read a lesson to 
 many a ^\orldly soul, who finds too late, that here is not 
 his rest. 
 
 Let us consider the matter from another point of view. Certain 
 beautiful Legends occupied different corners of the elder world : 
 not lying legends of monks and saints, but stories, overlaid indeed 
 by the varnish of fiction, }'et still based on a foundation of Truth 
 in an age ignorant of the principles of History. In certain 
 Regions of Asia live the legends connected with the names of 
 the faultless Rama, the blameless Gautama Buddlia, both eldest 
 sons of kings, who, out of a spirit of self-sacrifice, gave up all 
 for the benefit of their fellow-creatures. In Europe, the legends 
 of King Arthur, the brave Roland, and the Cid, live a life, that 
 can never die, for in the hearts of each generation the same 
 symphony is heard, as if by enchantment, representing the silent 
 homage of after generations to noble acts done, or noble words 
 
( i62 ) 
 
 uttered, by men of former ages : these are the Echoes of the 
 Past. When any of us sit conversing by the sea-side, the lapping 
 of the waves of the ocean, as they rise and fall, seem to fill up 
 the interval of human sounds : so is it with the stories, the Legends, 
 the words of advice, and warning, that are contained in that 
 Book, the diffusion of which we are now discussing. The Legends 
 of the Hebrew Race, from Abraham to Jesus of Nazareth, already 
 occupy a wider intellectual area, than any of the Legends above 
 alluded to : these last are National, while the Book belongs to 
 the Human race at large, and the object, which we have at heart 
 is to make it Universal, the one monotone, which underlies the 
 ]\Iusic of the world. At the end of this Century the ubiquitous 
 Chinese emigrant, the Indian cooley, the Polynesian Kanaka, will 
 come suddenly into close daily contact with men of other colour, 
 race, antecedents, and prejudices : they cannot kill each other 
 down, as was the fashion in past ages : they have to live to- 
 gether : in the Diocese of Ne\v Westminster, in North America, 
 the Chinaman comes into contact with the Red Indian, which 
 last century seemed to be an impossibilit}-, and both learn to 
 read the Bible in the English Language side by side in the same 
 ]\Iission-school. We see what a wondrous factor in the twentieth 
 Century, the Diffusion of the Bible may prove to be : if we wish 
 to bring into action a Conscience, or Heart-Voice, amidst the 
 races slowly entering on the path of civilisation, let us adopt the 
 only policy, which can realize this wish, give them a standard, 
 by which they can weigh their living acts, teach them of a hope, 
 that fadcth not away, and of a fire, which is never quenched, to 
 
( 1^3 ) 
 
 destroy the enemies of God, whose existence they cannot, and 
 dare not, den}-. 
 
 Let no one undertake to plead on the platform the cause of 
 Bible-Diffusion by Bible-Societies, who has not a downright 
 belief in the Book itself: if he has not the leisure, or the gift, 
 to work out the problem himself in the Greek and Hebrew 
 Language, let him accept the late works of Westcott and 
 Lightfoot, as his guides, for these writers belong to our own 
 epoch, are thorough-going, and not afraid of the difficulty of 
 the problem : W^e want no half-hearted friends on the Bible- 
 Society-platform : on the other hand, unless the Speaker has 
 proved his armour, he had better not step down to combat the 
 modern Goliath of Skepticism. 
 
 If an}'one is allowing himself to drift into a habit of surface- 
 doubt, let him boldly sink a shaft into the very depths of his 
 inner life, grapple with the problem as a man wrestling for his 
 life, and he will not fail to find a solution. If external evidence, 
 or mathematical proof, be wanting, he must fill up the vacuum 
 with the Light of Christ illuminating his soul. 
 
 Nothing more than a study of Bible-Diffusion, helps to 
 remove from the minds of educated men that limited conception 
 of the words " world and mankind," from which many esteemed 
 writers, li\ing and dead, and even great thinkers, whose experience 
 has been confined to European quarries of knowledge, cannot 
 free themselves : in a light and airy way Historians and 
 Theologians write of " the world," when they mean the Roman 
 Empire, because it seems to them, as if the Roman Empire 
 
 ^^BC^2^^^^^^^2 
 
( i64 ) 
 
 included the whole world : Even the writers of the Old Testament 
 were not free from the narrowness of vision : Jeremiah describes 
 Jerusalem as the "Joy of the whole Earth": the great Nations 
 of China and India in their isolated splendour and greatness, 
 might have smiled at such a term being applied to the tiny 
 town of the petty Hebrew tribes, of whose existence they had 
 never heard. We cannot exclude, now at least, from our view 
 these great Regions of Asia, Africa, America, and Oceania, 
 regions \\hich Caesar never knew, unknown to the Roman 
 Praetors, Historians, and Geographers : We cannot say, that the 
 Covenant made with the Jews was, or pretended to be, a 
 Covenant with the "whole congeries of God's children," whom 
 He had marked with different colour of skin, supplied with distinct 
 conformation of skull and skeleton, differentiated by totally 
 variant forms of speech, which can by no possibility be traced 
 back to one source, endowed with different natural gifts, con- 
 genital and acquired, and trained by the different discipline of 
 ages and environment. We gaze with wonder at the multiform 
 development of Creation-forms of Man : we recognize that His 
 Book is the one thing good and needful for all. 
 
 There was indeed the great alternative : Egyptian records 
 liave come down to us, the ipsissima graviuiata of a date anterior 
 to Moses : the Assyrian records, the very identical records, exceed 
 in age the Historical and Prophetical Books of the Hebrew 
 people. It did not please the Great Disposer of human events, 
 that His chosen people, to \\hom were entrusted His Oracles, 
 should be skilled in the art of the penman on pap)-rus, or the 
 
( i65 ) 
 
 engraver on metal, or the incisor on clay bricks, or the inscribcf 
 on stones. Neighbouring nations were so, and numerous Inscrip- 
 tions in the Greek Character of a date long anterior to Anno 
 Domini, have survived : The battle of Potidoea was fought 
 B.C. 432, and one hundred and lifty Athenians were killed. Time 
 has not been unjust to the Monumental Inscription, and has 
 spared the famous elegiac lines to rouse the emotion of future 
 ages, and confirm the narrative of Thuc}-dides, and there are 
 some still older : I have read them with m}' eyes, and touched 
 them with m}- hands, not without emotion at Athens, and in 
 far awa}- India the same feeling has overwhelmed me, when 
 reading and touching the stones of the Inscriptions of Asoka. 
 Why have not the Law of the Lord, the Psalms of David, the 
 utterances of the Prophets, come down to us in such indestructible, 
 immutable guise ? It was not the Lord's will, and copies of 
 copies of copies, the oldest of which in the Hebrew is only of 
 the ninth Century A.D., and of Greek of the third Century A.D., 
 furnish the medium, through which the waters of life are conveyed 
 to the thirsty Soul. After all, the treasures of Classical Literature, 
 Greek and Latin, rest upon no firmer basis : the Hindu, the 
 Buddhist, the Zoroastrian, the Confucianist, are in the same 
 predicament : the more acute that the literary power of after 
 generations becomes, the worse for the literary heritage of past 
 ages. There does indeed exist a third alternative, in addition 
 to the actual Inscriptions, as in Egypt and Assyria, and the copies 
 of copies of copies, as is the case with our Book : I allude to 
 the memory- of Man, No one in an age of Literature and a 
 
( i66 ) 
 
 kind of universal Knowledge, can realize what the memory of 
 man can do, when a life is led of isolation, and devotion to one 
 particular subject : to commit the whole Koran to memory, and 
 to repeat it, is a feat, of which Mahometans are proud, and which 
 is honoured by a title and a peculiar head-dress. For many 
 centuries the Greek hexameters of Homer were handed down 
 from generation to generation by a succession of Bards : so it 
 was in former days in India : some of the earlier Sanskrit Poems 
 are supposed to have been handed down by memory at an epoch 
 before the Phenician Alphabet found its way to India, and gave 
 birth to the magnificent Alphabetic systems of India. Even now, 
 when a European Scholar is doubtful of the precise accuracy of 
 a particular portion of a writen MSS., a Pandit in India is 
 asked to recite the Chapter, without being informed of the 
 particular lines, where the doubt has arisen, and the listener takes 
 a note of the rendering, which his faithful memory supplies. It 
 will be obvious that the Library of the Bible was of a bulk far 
 beyond the possibility of oral transmission, and the lapse of 
 more than thirty Centuries since the days of Moses, and the 
 dispersion of the Hebrew Nation, render that form of transmission 
 impossible. The New Testament came into existence in a literary 
 period, when the pen had superseded the memory and the art 
 of the Sculptor. 
 
 The main difference betwixt our Book, on the one side, 
 and the secular treasures of Literature, and the Religious Books of 
 non-Christian Races, on the other side, is firstly, that the powers 
 of Reason, or sanctified common-sense, are applied to our Book, 
 
( i67 ) 
 
 which is certainly not the case as regards the non-Christian 
 Books ; and secondly, while the secular Books contain much to 
 charm, to instruct, to develop the mind and intellect of the 
 reader, the "Book" deals with the interests of the soul, the life 
 that we are living now, the life that is to come, that is Eternal, 
 Professer Huxley may indulge his humour about the Gadarene 
 pigs : the incident is unquestionably a difficult one : our Lord 
 may have said, that He maketh the Sun to rise upon the Just 
 and the Unjust, while we know, that it never rises at all, and 
 that the Queen of Shcba came from the uttermost parts of the 
 Earth, while we know, that in the round globe there are no 
 uttermost parts, and that Saba, or Sheba, whence the Queen 
 came, was not so very far, according to modern notions, from 
 Jerusalem. The Psalmist tells us, xcvi. 2, that " The world 
 " shall be established so, that it cannot be moved," while we know 
 well, that it is in ceaseless rotation : Human Knowledge is finite 
 and limited to its epoch, but there are survivals even to this day 
 of erroneous conceptions : the Almanacks still tell us the hour 
 of sun-rising and sun-setting, without offence to our sense of right. 
 We must place the Book in the same crucible of sanctified 
 common- sense, and be filled with grateful wonder, that after its 
 long wanderings from country to country, from language to 
 language, from papyrus to parchment, and thence to paper : from 
 manuscript to print, it has come down so perfect, so beautiful, 
 so soul-stirring, as we find it. And after all the moral difficulties 
 are more perplexing than the material, for if Samuel was abso- 
 lutely right (I. Samuel xv. 3) in ordering Saul to slay both man 
 
( i68 ) 
 
 and woman, infant and suckling, and to spare none : if Elijah 
 was right in slaughtering the Priests of Baal on Mount Carmel : 
 if ivJiat ivas deemed by the people of Israel to be right morally is 
 akuays right, how are we justified in not doing the same to the 
 Idols and Priests of India? and we cannot justify the European 
 settlers, in exterminating and enslaving the poor Aborigines, 
 who are to them as the Canaanites were to the immigrant 
 Hebrews. 
 
 And we must recollect, that buried Scriptures, like those of 
 the Egyptians and Assyrians, though they are indeed accurate 
 expressions of the thoughts of the writer, speak to us only with a 
 phonograph-like authority : it is the voice, the very voice, indeed, 
 calling across the abyss of centuries, but it does not explain, 
 why for centuries and centuries, if necessary for our Salvation, 
 it has allowed millions and millions to be born, live, and die, 
 and still withheld itself from their hearts and consciences : thus, 
 it has lost its humanity, and its sympathy with human joys and 
 sorrows. But the Book, the diffusion of which we urge, has 
 never undergone this paralysis, this living entombment : it has 
 from the first days of its utterance lived on the lips of men, 
 and has never been a dead letter : it comes to us environed with 
 the love and honour of generations, bathed with the tears of 
 Saints, crowned with the glory of Martyrs, muttered by dying 
 lips, read aloud in the assemblies of men, exercising the intellects 
 of the most learned, meditated upon in the secret chamber by 
 the most ignorant and humble. 
 
 It is vain to shut our eyes to the expansion of ideas, and 
 
( i69 ) 
 
 the accumulation of facts, of the present Epoch, and to try and 
 pose as the old Clergyman, or Nonconformist Minister, of the last 
 century, who with few opportunities for locomotion, and a very 
 scant supply of intellectual food, passed from the day of his 
 ordination to his death, reiterating the same commonplace plati- 
 tudes, treading in the same narrow religious groove, concealing 
 his ignorance in a certain amount of conventional verbiage, not 
 hesitating to attribute the Psalm " By the Waters of Babylon " 
 to the prophetic spirit of David, and treating Hebrew as the 
 Mother-Language of the World. No one can appreciate too 
 highly the benefits of True Science. Above all human powers 
 it conduces to the adoration of the Greatness of God, the admira- 
 tion of the multiform magnificence of His Creation, and the 
 confirmation of the truth of Holy Scriptures. Let us not be 
 afraid of the physical powers, with which He has endowed our 
 Nature, or the reasoning powers, with which he has equipped 
 our Intellects. All our Knowledge, all our Powers, mental or 
 material, come from Him : in Him we live and move, and have 
 our Being : Not without His permission the great Heathen 
 Sages of the past in Europe and Asia spake to their con- 
 temporaries, and left their immortal utterances to our time for 
 our benefit : Not without his Inspiration the Prophets and 
 Evangelists have revealed to us the fullness of knowledge, secrets 
 which they from the standpoint of their limited worldly know- 
 ledge, imperfectly understood, but which it is given to us in the 
 nineteenth Century by earnestly studying the Inspired Book to 
 appreciate. It is a frightful error to have our Religious views 
 
( I70 ) 
 
 out of sympathy with human knowledge. No doubt the 
 twentieth Century will sit in judgment on us : to them will 
 be given a higher development, the result of our accumulated 
 inquiries and experiences, and some things, which we reverently 
 place aside, as beyond our finite power to comprehend, will be 
 revealed to them to understand clearly. We have done what 
 we could. 
 
APPENDIX No. I. 
 
 PULATION 
 
 OF Tiir: World 
 
 (in round numbers) 
 
 Europe 
 
 
 
 
 312I 
 
 Millions. 
 
 Asia . 
 
 
 
 
 831 
 
 Millions. 
 
 Africa 
 
 Oceania 
 
 America 
 
 
 To 
 
 tal . 
 
 205 
 
 4i 
 86 
 
 Millions. 
 Millions. 
 Millions. 
 
 
 1439 
 
 Millions. 
 
 APPENDIX No. II. 
 Religions of the World (approximate). 
 
 Pagan 
 Mahometan 
 Jews . 
 
 Christian 
 
 Total 
 
 842 Millions. 
 
 173 Millions. 
 
 9 Millions. 
 
 415 Millions. 
 
 1439 Millions. 
 
 Detail of Christian. 
 
 A. Protestants . . • I35 Millions. 
 
 B. Greeks, etc., etc. . 
 
 C. Roman Catholics 
 
 Total . . 415 Millions 
 
 85 Millions. 
 195 Millions. 
 
( 172 ) 
 
 APPENDIX No. III. 
 
 Actual and Effective Translations of the Bible 
 
 IN i8qo. 
 
 Europe 
 
 . 
 
 80 
 
 Asia . 
 
 . 
 
 113 
 
 Africa . 
 
 . 
 
 59 
 
 Oceania 
 
 . 
 
 39 
 
 America 
 
 Total . 
 
 40 
 
 
 331 
 
 N.B. 24 may be added for 1891 and 1892. 
 
 APPENDIX No. IV. 
 
 Analytical Abstract of Subjects in Addresses for 
 Convenience of Reference. 
 
 Address No. I. — 120 Languages of King Xerxes : Death 
 of the Hebrew Language : Targum : Samaritan translation : Greek 
 Septuagint translation : Syriac : Kopt : Ethiopic : Old Latin : 
 Vulgate : Ulfilas' Gothic translation : Armenian : Arabic : Slavonic : 
 Anglo-Saxon : Old Irish : translations between 800 A.D. and the 
 Reformation : translations subsequent to the Reformation up to 
 the end of the iSth Century: detail: John Eliot: Ziegenbalg : 
 Gravius : the primeval plan that the Law and Gospel should 
 
( 173 ) 
 
 be diffused : the protection afforded against falsifications by 
 multiplication of Versions : the ordinary fate of Books of non- 
 Christian Belief, and in degraded forms of Christianity : the 
 Languages had to be prepared for the task of conveying God's 
 Message : the old fashion of teaching by Interpreters, and the 
 ignorance of the Vulgate : story of Boniface : Canon Edmund's 
 remarks : summary of translations of each century preceding 
 the Reformation : the unique circumstances attending the trans- 
 mission of the Bible : the unique destiny of the Old Testament : 
 prayer of Tyndall in the hour of death : wish expressed by little 
 Welsh girl : Latin and Greek quotations. 
 
 Address No. II. — -Fulfilment of prophecy : circumstances of 
 Europe : dead Languages : remarks of Earl of Harrowby : state 
 of Asia : Regions : Religions : position already gained by the 
 Bible : state of Africa : state of America, North, Central, South : 
 Syllabaries : state of Oceania : the two obstacles of Bible-diffusion : 
 further remarks of Earl of Harrowby : number of translations. 
 
 Address No. III. — The Translators : Jerome : Erasmus : the 
 Reformation-Heroes : the group of modern Translators : quotations 
 from Pilgrim's Progress : remarks of Sir Charles Aitchison ; praise 
 of the Translator : difficulty of translation : singular adaptability 
 of Hebrew and Greek : mistaken views with regard to people of 
 China and Barbarian races : remarks on Languages : the purifying 
 influences of a Bible-Translation : different origin of Languages : 
 different life, and fate, of Languages : work for next generation : 
 tendency to great Empires and great Languages : incidental 
 
( 1/4 ) 
 
 results of Bible-translations : written Characters : Dialects : dead 
 liturgical Languages not attended to : a Divine Presence in the 
 continuity of Translation : difficulties surrounding first attempts : 
 the Eskimo "little seal": the South African rendering for "Love": 
 the New Britain's paraphrase for " Oath " : the absence in some 
 Regions of physical objects, or analogous customs mentioned in 
 the Bible : the testing of the first attempt at Translation : the 
 Mission-Press : the reprinting in London : the Revision of the 
 text : first efforts not to be despised : fond mistake of early 
 Translators : the Editorial Committee of the British and Foreign 
 Bible-Society: the "trial" number in some Languages: the diffi- 
 culties about terms for God, Jesus, Baptism, Jehovah, etc. : the 
 astonishment of Continental secular Scholars : the Labours of 
 Women : of natives of Africa, Asia, America, and Oceania : 
 necessity to form a list of honour of the great Translators : dangers 
 attending perversely private interpretations of the Hebrew and 
 Greek. 
 
 Address No. IV. — The work purely ^Missionary : the sole 
 object Conversion of Souls, or Strengthening of the Converted : 
 assistance rendered to Missionary Societies : features of the 
 Book : a scene in an Oriental country of a Bible-reading : a scene 
 in Canada : story of the little girl's Testament in Spain : story 
 of the gold-diggers' camp : the little volume : " Gospel in many 
 " tono-ues " : a retrospect of the reading of the Bible : reasons 
 for distribution of Book : anecdotes connected with the power 
 of the Bible to convert without the aid of Teachers or Preachers : 
 remarks of Sir Charles Aitchison : remarks of Pertab Chunder 
 
( 1/5 ) 
 
 Mozamdar : Bible-reading in India, in Europe, in Japan, etc. : 
 ]\Ioffat in South Africa : reasons why in early centuries attempts 
 were made to destroy the Bible : it is impossible now : the 
 stream of Bible-diffusion has never ceased flowing : modern dis- 
 coveries confirm its truth : evidential value of its existence : it 
 matters not that so many are destroyed : there is great apparent 
 waste in the gifts of Nature : the duty and grace of Tolerance 
 brought home : Erasmus and King Henry VIII. 
 
 Address Xo. V. — Gratitude compels us : our bounden duty : 
 arrears of centuries to make up : every door now open : the 
 goodness of God to this generation : Remarks of John of Gaunt : 
 Previous famine of the Book : Blessing of private Bible-reading : 
 Visit to the Bible House : Cardinal ^lanning's visit : New fields 
 of Bible-Study opening out : Mr. Spurgeon's speech in Exeter 
 Hall: "Still there is room:" "That blessed letter ]\I:" conso- 
 lation in the dying hour : Figure of the Angel of the Revelation, 
 or of true Charity : a wish to help the Society may be expressed 
 too late : a legacy is not sufficient service : Picture of the varied 
 scenes, surrounded by which the Bible is read : the native 
 Catechist reading alone in the forest : pure and holy thoughts 
 evoked by Bible-stories. 
 
 Address No. VI. — What is the Bible ? the other Sacred 
 Volumes of Non-Christian Religions : Confucius : Buddha : Socrates : 
 reasons for rejecting their books, and adopting the Bible as the 
 only vehicle of Salvation : the Word of God in the flesh, and in 
 the form of the Book : noble thoughts are handed on in new 
 
( 176 ) 
 
 Language : the old Versions' work is done : Lower and Higher 
 Criticism : Objections of certain Churches : Story of the Eskimo : 
 Students in Indian State Colleges : regret that seekers after God 
 in old times did not come into touch of the Old Testament : the 
 clear echo of the great Truths of the Bible : the great central 
 figure : the Story of the Sati, Slaughter of Female Children, 
 Burning of lepers : the danger of Secular education without the 
 Bible : what is morally wrong cannot be theologically right : 
 important crisis in Lidia : story of the Poet Milton : enormous 
 increase of non-Christian population : wasting away of the neo- 
 Christians : required evidence of the genuineness of the Old 
 Testament : Manuscripts perish : the Hebrews were not a Monu- 
 mental people : Inspiration : what is it ? Divine and human 
 element in Bible : the spreading of great Vernaculars, and with 
 them of knowledge : necessity of a High ideal : Scripture common 
 ground in all literature : Remarks of Tertullian, Origen, Clement : 
 new Religious developments are forming : important that the Bible 
 should be part of the Education of all the world : danger of 
 Bibliolatry : Inscriptions of Asoka : Remarks of Earl of Harrowby, 
 and of ]\Ir. McNeil : the Bible is not afraid of criticisms : pure 
 gold does not fear the tester. 
 
 Address No. VII. — Constitution cf British and Foreign Bible- 
 Society : the National Society of Scotland : the American Society 
 of New York : Bible-Clubs : Dutch Bible-Society : necessity for a 
 great German Society : four classes who require the Bible : good 
 Christians : nominal Christians : members of the corrupt Churches : 
 non-Christians : the necessity to send the Scriptures : union of 
 
( 1/7 ) 
 
 the Churches in this matter : Mr. Spurgeon's remarks : the 
 Christian Minister should do more than he does : the Bible will 
 outlive Preacher and Priest : the difficulties of the operations : 
 thoughts for the Blind: Committee is entirely free from Ecclesi- 
 astical bias : the translations are philologically accurate : free 
 distribution discouraged : the work that remains to be done : 
 Remarks of our President, the Earl of Harrowby : feelings felt 
 towards the Bible-Society : the antagonists of the work : anecdote 
 of events in South Italy : Remarks of Dr. Maclagan, Archbishop 
 of York : Agreement of all denominations in essentials : Peculiar 
 position of the Bible. 
 
 Address No. VIII. — Necessary limitations: English Authorized 
 Version : Hebrew and Greek originals : no note or Commentary : 
 no Apocrypha : Interest of Annual Report : Periodicals : liability 
 of the epoch to change of method : Latin Vulgate : Greek 
 Septuagint : Circulation in Hungary : Lasserre's French Gospels : 
 Word for Baptism : Consequences of absence of Notes and Com- 
 mentaries : objection to absolute term " Word of God." 
 
 Address No. IX. — Foreign Field : Home Field : Auxiliary 
 Committees : Withdrawal from Protestant Countries : Agents : 
 Description of them : Depots : Colporteurs : their usefulness and 
 devotion : Anecdotes : Bible-women : Hawkers : Carriages for 
 Bibles : necessity for local Agents : Dr. Boedeker in Siberia : 
 Vast Empire of the Bible-Society : known by its works : welcome 
 extended to Bible-Society's agent at all Conferences : His remarks. 
 
 CONXLUSION. — Final thoughts : the best of all gifts : Legends 
 
 12 
 
 taPRKP 
 
( i/S ) 
 
 in the elder world : the power which the Bible will exert in 
 the twentieth Century : necessity of a downright Belief in the 
 Bible : how doubts are to be met : a wider conception of the 
 words " World and IMankind : " the alternative of the Bible having 
 come down to us like Greek or Asiatic Inscriptions : another 
 alternative of their being handed down by human memory : 
 powers of Reason and Sanctified Common-Sense : admitted 
 difficulties to be met in that way : we ought to be grateful 
 for the state in which it has arrived to us : had it come to 
 us like the buried Egyptian records, all its humanity would 
 have been gone : it has always lived on the lips of men : our 
 religious conviction must not be out of harmony with contem- 
 porary Human Knowledge. 
 
 APPENDIX No. V. 
 
 Heads of Subjects for an Address. 
 
 1. Love for the Lord Jesus, and the Book. 
 
 2. Importance of the Subject. 
 
 3. Social State of Nations without the Book. 
 
 Anecdotes : 
 
 A. India and China. 
 
 B. Oceania. 
 
 C. Africa. 
 
 D. Mahometan Countries. 
 
 E. Countries with a corruption of Christianity 
 
( 179 ) 
 4- Motix'cs for circulating Translations. 
 
 5. Continuity of work : 
 
 A. Pre-Rcformation Period. 
 
 B. Post-Reformation Period. 
 
 C. Nineteenth Century. 
 
 6. Spread of Education, outburst of Missionary Spirit. 
 
 7. The Bible-Societies : origin and history, and peculiarities 
 
 A. British and Foreign. 
 
 B. National Society of Scotland. 
 
 C. American Society. 
 
 D. Continental Bible-Clubs. 
 
 8. Features 
 
 A. Worldwide. 
 
 B. Missionary. 
 
 C. Undenominational. 
 
 D. Friendly to all. 
 
 E. No Note, or Commentary ; No Apocrypha ; No 
 
 Septuagint, or Vulgate, when possible to 
 avoid. 
 
 F. Alternative readings of a philological nature. 
 
 9. Religious Books of other Nations 
 
 A. Hindu. 
 
 B. Zoroastrian, 
 
 C. Buddhist. 
 
 D. Confucianist. 
 
 E. Mahometan. 
 
 I* 
 
( ISO ) 
 
 10. Description of the Bible-House, Oueen-Victoria-Strcct. 
 
 11. Divisions of Subject: 
 
 A. Home-work in Great Britain and Ireland. 
 
 B. Foreign-Translation. 
 
 C. Distribution. 
 
 D. Agencies, Auxiliaries, etc, 
 
 1 2. Home-work : 
 
 A. Bible-Women. 
 
 B. Sailors' Homes. 
 
 C. Depots. 
 
 D. Grants of Bibles. 
 
 13. Translations: 
 
 A. Languages. 
 
 B. Translators. 
 
 C. Magnitude of work. 
 
 D. Term-Questions. 
 
 E. Abstract ideas. 
 
 F. Want of Words to express new objects and ideas. 
 
 14. Publications : 
 
 A. Reports. 
 
 B. Periodicals. 
 
 C. Maps. 
 
( isi ) 
 
 APPENDIX No. VI. 
 
 Specimen Address to a Theological or Missioxarv 
 College, delivered at Wvcliff College, Oxford, 
 Oct. 31, 1885, amended and brought up to date. 
 
 H aavvero^, Kcii eaKOTivfiefi], ciuvoia ijuwu 
 
 ai'ciOaWei etV to Ouv/^uia-ov Avtov 0a'S'. 
 
 — Clement. 
 
 A MOST delightful subject : if there is one thing more 
 charming than the Study of Languages, it is the Study of the 
 Bible : and here we have both combined. 
 
 When I was studying Sanskrit fifty years ago, my Professor 
 used to talk in high terms of Professor Lassen, who had done 
 so much for Sanskrit Literature, and he spoke depreciatingly 
 of Professor Bopp, who only cared for the zvords of a Language, 
 not the sense : he cared for the pebbles of a tesselated pavement, 
 not the pattern : but Bopp was right : The words of a 
 Language, the way in which they are compounded, or modified, 
 the order, in which they are grouped, the shades of variation 
 of meaning, which they assume, present wonderful phenomena ; 
 in fact many words are indestructible. Take the letters, k, t, b, 
 and b, r, k : they meant " to write and to bless," when Moses 
 tells us, that God wrote the letters of the two tables of stone : 
 they convey the meaning of writing and blessing to countless 
 millions up to the present day. 
 
( lS2 ) 
 
 Forty years ago, when scholars wrote books on the Science 
 of Languages, they set many persons thinking : we all owe 
 them a great debt : yet I always regret, that when about to 
 publish a Book on the Science of " Languages " (for that word 
 is used without reservation), they did not communicate with 
 the Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, for they 
 would have heard of scores of Languages, in Africa, Oceania, 
 and North America, the existence of which they positively 
 ignored, though portions of the Scriptures were translated into 
 them : they only knew a portion of the Linguistic world, and 
 undertook to write for the whole. 
 
 I had the good fortune of being a ^Member of the Committee 
 of the Bible-Society, the Church ^Missionary Society, and the 
 Translation-Committee of the Christian Knowledge Society, when 
 I undertook my humbler effort of collecting in one focus the 
 knowledge of others : I knew ^Missionaries of all denominations, 
 in ever}' part of the world, and thus tapped a virgin- fountain. 
 When I published my Languages of Africa, Scholars wrote to 
 me from Germany to ask, whence I got such a mass of new 
 information : I replied, that it was from Religious Societies, 
 from the ^Missionaries, whom Secular Scholars used so much to 
 despise : " Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and other 
 " things will be added unto }'0U." 
 
 It has been remarked in an Annual Report, that the Eastern 
 Church has never been jealous of translations of the Scriptures 
 into the Vernaculars : The same principle, that led Jerome to 
 Bethlehem, to translate the Bible into the great Vernacular of 
 
( i83 ) 
 
 the West, the Latin, called the Vulgate, had previously led to 
 the Syriac, Koptic, Armenian, and Ethiopic versions : Ulfilas 
 published his famous Moeso-Gothic translation, and Cyril and 
 Methodius at a later period published the Slavonic translation, 
 inventing; an Alphabet for the purpose : Rome, when she fell 
 into unscriptural errors, sealed up the Book, which would expose 
 those errors : Still, in spite of herself, she permitted the 
 existence of De Sacy's French translation, Scio's Spanish, 
 Almeida's Portuguese, Diodati's Italian, and Van Ess's German. 
 Later on she has grown wiser by necessity : In France the 
 game was up, and the Bishops persuaded the Pope to allow 
 a new French translation to go forth : In the same manner 
 a magnificent Arabic translation has been published at Beirut, 
 and a good Tamil version in South India. 
 
 There were fifty-six versions of the Scriptures, when, in 1804, 
 the Bible-Society commenced its work. It laid down certain 
 principles : no notes or commentaries, but alternative readings 
 on philological grounds were subsequently permitted : The 
 Apocr)-pha was excluded : originally the " textus receptus " of 
 the Hebrew and Greek were to be strictly followed, but since 
 the completion of the labours of the Revision-Companies, any 
 variation is permitted within the limits of the Revised transla- 
 tions. Many of the translations have been made from the 
 English : some again are translations of previous translations 
 in Oriental languages : others again are made direct from the 
 Hebrew and Greek : Critical Helps are always liberally supplied 
 by the Bible-Society. It may, and must, happen, that a com- 
 
 I* 
 
( i84 ) 
 
 petcnt Scholar in an African or Oceanic language is not a 
 Hebrew, or Greek, Scholar : A thorough knowledge of the 
 Scriptures, and a prayerful spirit, are as necessary ingredients 
 of a good Translator, as a sound knowledge of the Language, 
 which is to be honoured and blessed, and developed, by becoming 
 a vehicle to convey God's Word to Man. It is thus with the 
 greatest satisfaction, that the Bible-Society accepts the work of 
 a Missionary : this great Catholic Society knows no distinction 
 of Denominations : the question is not as to the particular 
 Church, to which the Translator belongs, but whether he loves 
 the Lord, and the Bible. Occasionally, however, by the necessity 
 of the case. Secular Scholars have been employed specially to 
 make translations. It may be broadly asserted, that the mighty 
 work of translation has been done by Missionaries in the field 
 of every Denomination of Christ's Church. 
 
 And wisely so : the Scholar does his work generally well, 
 takes his salary, and his interest in his work is gone : in some 
 cases his work remains in his Library as a " tour de force " : 
 But the translation of the Missionary, from the first moment, 
 that it leaves the IMission Press, has to undergo a running fire 
 of the criticism of the Missionaries, the Native Converts, the 
 Sunday-school teachers and pupils ; and the severest critic of all, 
 because he knows most about it, is the Translator himself, who 
 seeks God's glory, and not his own glorification. 
 
 Hence follows the immediate necessity of Revision, not by 
 one man, but by several : we do not think much of a " one- 
 man " translation : Where there arc several Denominations, 
 
( iS5 ) 
 
 occup\-ing the same field of Language, we take care, that every 
 branch of Christ's Church is represented : We have a notable 
 instance of this in Madagascar, where, in the midst of war 
 and tumult, the work of revision was completed. Large sums 
 are paid out in remunerating the Translator, the Revisor, and 
 eventually the Proof-reader, for it is no ordinary Proof-reading: 
 In the case of the Yahgan, in South America, six months were 
 occupied in getting the proof-sheets to the Translator and back 
 again. Every ingenuity of Art and Science is utilized in the 
 work conveying God's Word to the ears, and hearts, of Men. 
 
 And the wonderful vehicle, the God-made vehicle of Language, 
 though multiform and various, is always found adequate to convey 
 the Word : the Divine Word itself is so marvellously enshrined 
 in human vocables : it is so human in its outward form, that it 
 lends itself readily to new renderings : the pure gold is easily 
 cast in the new linguistic mint. Some Languages are said to be 
 devoid of words capable of expressing abstract ideas, and the 
 Translator has turned, often too readily, to the use of loan-words 
 from the Greek, the Latin, the Hebrew, the Arabic, the Sanskrit, 
 or some dominant Language, whichever happened to be the 
 ruling power in the Translator's mind. My own idea is, that 
 the abstract words were not found, because they had not been 
 previously wanted, but that there was an inherent power in the 
 Language to evolve them by its own formation-process : We know, 
 that such is the case in the great Bantu Language of South 
 Africa. PVom East, South, and West Africa, comes the same 
 tribute of admiration : Though totally unwritten, and unculti- 
 
( iS6 ) 
 
 vated, still the mental logic of the barbarian has evolved a 
 variety of sister-Languages with a structure so regular, so exact, 
 and so precise, endowed with such order, and philosophical 
 arrangement, that its Vocabularies can be expanded to an 
 unlimited extent, and in translating the Bible there was no need 
 to borrow a single foreign word. 
 
 But the Translator finds a difficulty in Jiinine. In each of 
 the great Languages there are several Dialects, and th-e battle 
 has not been fought out, as in the great Languages of Europe, 
 to establish a Standard-Dialect : which is to be selected ? It has 
 happened in the ■ Ashanti, and the Chuana, that different 
 Missionaries of different Nationalities have adopted different 
 Dialects, and persuaded the Society to publish distinct translations. 
 It is much to be regretted, as the appearance of a literature in 
 a Dialect has the tendency to stereotype it, and render a fusion 
 of different Dialects into one common Language impossible. 
 
 There is great objection to translations into Patois, or Pigeon- 
 Languages, or Jargons, which occupy a position lower than that 
 of a Dialect, being only the business form of words, used by 
 different nations, who have each their own Language. The idea 
 of a Pigeon-English translation in China is odious, but the Com- 
 mittee has given way and allowed for European Jews Patois 
 translations, also an Indo-Portuguese in India, a Mauritius-Creole, 
 and several West Indian varieties. The Word of God must be 
 understood by the humblest man, woman, and child : Sometimes 
 we are obliged to level down proud literary Languages, such as 
 the Osmanli-Turki, and Bangdli, to the comprehension of the 
 
( i87 ) 
 
 unlettered poor, so at other times we level up the poor, unsettled, 
 uncultivated form of mixed words of some petty tribe, to the 
 dignity of being the vehicle of God's Message to men. 
 
 Consider the dignity of the work of translation : it is not 
 indeed composing a new Bible, but it is making the old Bible 
 comprehensible for the first time to a new people. On the tomb 
 of more than one venerable translator, the inscription could have 
 been recorded, " He translated the whole Bible into a Language 
 previously unknown." On one venerated Scholar, Dr. Schon, some 
 years ago, at my request, Oxford conferred the Degree of D.D., 
 doing honour to itself by entering this great and truly "beautiful" 
 name on the roll of her learned sons ; and the University of 
 Cambridge created a new precedent, conferring the Honorary 
 Degree of ^Master of Arts on the Venerable Henry Johnson, a 
 Negro of pure blood, and yet a courteous gentleman, a devoted 
 Missionary, and a good linguist, who, vrith the help of his Pastors 
 in the region of the upper Niger, exhausted worlds of Science 
 already partially discovered, and discovered entirely new forms of 
 speech, and clothed the Gospel with this new material : It is a 
 great marvel : Just as a new Planet rolls itself into the orbit of 
 human sight, so new Languages of new tribes keep springing out 
 of the Great L^nknown Centre of Africa, into the arena of our 
 knowledge, exhibiting new forms of Grammatical structure, new 
 word-stores, each in fresh moulds, and calling out to the young 
 African Christian Churches to come over and make use of them, 
 and ennoble them by committing to others the Oracles of God : 
 Not without reason we may rejoice, that in the first and second 
 
 ■ ! ■■■■ .1. 
 
( 188 ) 
 
 generation of released slaves, we have discovered that the natural 
 intelligence and trained aptitude of the Negro is as good as our 
 own : Bishop Samuel Crowther was not only a Negro Bishop of 
 a Negro Diocese, but he was honoured by the Royal Geographical 
 Society as the discoverer of new Countries ; he has written Gram- 
 mars of Languages previously unknown, and translated the Holy 
 Scriptures into them. I drew the attention of my dear Negro 
 friends, some years ago, to the fact, that no Language had ever 
 perished from the Reservoir of Human Knowledge, to which a 
 portion of the Scriptures had been confided, and that of all the 
 scores of Languages, in which the great King Xerxes issued his 
 letters, as recorded in the Book of Esther, only the Hebrew, and 
 Greek, which were the vehicles of Divine Truth, had survived. 
 If then the Negro Scholars, as true Patriots, desired a prolonged 
 life to their wonderful Languages, they should lose no time in 
 committing to them some portion of God's Word, for the very 
 fact of a Language being the chosen instrument of conveying 
 Divine Truth to poor Mortal Men, confers upon it immortality : 
 And the Negro Clergy have answered to the appeal. In the 
 next Century, we shall know something about the Languages 
 of the West of Africa. 
 
 But, when the work of translation commences, new difficulties 
 arise. No class of men are so narrow in their vision as 
 Missionaries, except Scholars, and the Scholar- Missionary is a 
 most untractable individual. He raises up an isolated pinnacle 
 of his own judgment, and can see only with one, and perhaps 
 a distorted, eye. Thus, in China, the Divine Name is the cause 
 
( 1^9 ) 
 
 of a long, and hopeless, quarrel. Instead of making the words 
 obc}' him, the Translator allows himself to be bound as a slave 
 to the word. Not so were the inspired writers of the New 
 Testament : they gave the Greek words by their holy touch a 
 new significance. To meet the difficulty of two wholly irrecon- 
 cilable Schools, the Bible-Society on one occasion published an 
 Edition of the Scripture, leaving a blank wherever the word 
 " God " appeared, to be filled in by hand at the pleasure of the 
 Missionary. 
 
 In India, for many years, a difficulty has arisen as to the mode 
 of transliterating the Holy Name of Jesus. The Mahometan 
 world has handed down the tradition of " Esa," and it is well 
 known, that Esa was the Son of Mary, and venerated as the 
 Spirit of God, and in fact was Jesus : yet Missionaries will have 
 the word expressed as " Yusuh," and gradually among an ignorant 
 people they will become separate individualities. In Persia a 
 new controversy has arisen : In all Mahometan countries the 
 " new " name of Jehovah had always been rendered by the word 
 Rab, analogous to Lord, or Kyrios, or Adoni : An attempt has 
 been made to introduce some form of Yahveh, which indeed is 
 the practice of translators of non-Mahometan countries. The 
 word " Baptism " has rent from the Bible-Society one of the 
 most esteemed of the Evangelical Churches, the Baptists : all com- 
 promise is hopeless : the insertion of the word " Baptism " in 
 the text will not satisfy them : they appeal to the fact that 
 Luther used the word " taufe," and they must have "Dipper, 
 Dipping, Dip," and have founded a separate Bible-Society. Then 
 
( I90 ) 
 
 comes the difficulty of abstract words, already alluded to. The 
 word Love is an abstract word, and the idea of pure and holy 
 love is no doubt unknown to Races in lower culture : the trans- 
 lator has to feel his way to some phrase, to express the 
 idea, and in one instance a ridiculous blunder was made, and 
 the words " decayed fish," a South African delicacy, inserted : 
 But the writers of the New Testament must have been equally 
 tried in selecting words such as : 
 
 in addressing hearers, who knew no passion but lust, who had 
 no faith in anything, who were fierce to resent insults, and con- 
 sidered lowliness of heart as cowardice. Then again, it requires 
 a nice knowledge of a Language not to use vulgar, or slang, 
 phrases : it will occur to anyone, how distressing it would be, to 
 have slang-phrases interwoven into the story of our Lord, or 
 his service : this is where the Salvation Army so grievously 
 errs. I have said enough to shew the extreme difficulty : the 
 holy men, who have succeeded, have laboured in a pra}'erful 
 spirit, admitting, that the guidance of the Spirit of Jesus is as 
 much required by the translator, as it was by the Evangelist, 
 or Apostle, both being human agents placing Divine truths in 
 the earthen vessels of poor, perishable, changeable, insufficient, 
 vocables, the distorted reflections of untutored, and variable, and 
 capricious, human thought. 
 
 So much for the Language, which is the gift of God : but 
 the aberration, and proclivities, of Human Knowledge, or rather 
 
( 191 ) 
 
 un-Kno\vledge, have produced new difficulties, new stumbling- 
 blocks. The question arises : in what written Character shall 
 the translator render his translation ? The written Character is 
 a purely human machiner}% with nothing Divine in it, )-et it is 
 a real difficult}', giving scope for fresh idiosyncracies, and 
 obstinac}', and narrowness of \ision, in the Scholar- ^Missionary, 
 Asia has its own multiplicity of magnificent Alphabets, or 
 Syllabaries, in past ages, or Ideograms, accepted by the people, 
 far surpassing our own imperfect Roman Alphabet for the 
 purpose of differentiation of sounds, and it would be wrong and 
 foolish, to attempt to tread out such written Characters : no 
 sane Government, or prudent association, would attempt it : there 
 is no objection to alternative Editions in an adapted Roman 
 Character for such persons as prefer it, and such is the case 
 both in India and China : but as regards some of the non- 
 Arian Languages of India, the Languages of Africa, Oceania. 
 North and South America, they have not been ever committed 
 to writing : their words float in an immaterial form from mouth 
 to mouth, and have to be caught alive by the translator : it 
 has been generally accepted, that in such case the Roman 
 Alphabet is the best medium to have recourse to. But the 
 imperfection of the Roman Alphabet is obvious as regards the 
 English Language, but it becomes more so as regards other 
 Languages, which have peculiar sounds, breathings, gutterals, 
 nasals, and clicks. The Church [Missionary Society induced Dr. 
 Lepsius, of Berlin, to prepare a Standard-Alphabet, and his 
 work is a most remarkable one, but with rare exceptions the 
 
( 193 ) 
 
 Missionaries, other than German, would not adopt it, or adopted 
 it with modifications : On the East of Africa they would not 
 look at it : to the South they ignored it : on the West it was 
 partially adopted : in many cases every new Translator set to 
 work to make his own Alphabet with no previous experience 
 of this very difficult subject : In Ashanti-land there are two 
 versions of the Scriptures, differing but slightly, in two Dialects 
 of the same Language, but owing to the use of different 
 modifications of the Roman Alphabet, unintelligible to any but 
 those brought up in the particular IMission-Schools. This state 
 of things is deplorable : it will be worse in future years for 
 Africa than Asia. In /\sia a great variet}- of totally different 
 symbols represent the sounds of difterent Languages, but in 
 Africa the same, or similar, symbols will have a different value, 
 possibly in the same ]\Iission-Field, owing to the angularity of 
 the first ^Missionary mind. I issued a Circular to all Missionary 
 Societies, and sent them a copy of Lepsius' Standard-Alphabet, 
 but it was throwing words awa}- : In North America the 
 vagaries of Translators have been still greater. The Languages 
 are described as Polys\-nthetic, the words are of inordinate 
 length, in fact, comprising a whole sentence : it appeared to 
 the Missionaries, that such words expressed Alphabetically would 
 occupy more than a line ordinaril}' printed, and would be un- 
 pronounceable by their simple converts. So they devised a 
 simple form of Syllabar}-, consisting of circles, squares, and dots, 
 and persuaded the Bible-Society and Christian-Knowledge-Society, 
 to have types cut and the work executed : This was a sad 
 
( 193 ) 
 
 retrogressive step in the onward path of Human Progress, and 
 has the consequences of cutting off these awakening races from 
 all epistolary correspondence with their neighbours, and debars 
 them from making use of any literature but their own scanty 
 supply. This outlook never occurred to the narrow vision of the 
 Inventors. Still more strange is the policy of the Missionaries 
 in Tierra del Fuego, in South America. From mere wilfulness, 
 the Translator adopted an Alphabetical s}-stcm called Pal^otype, 
 and, as he adhered to it in spite of remonstrance, the Bible- 
 Society, under a protest, consented ; but, when I showed a copy 
 to the inventor of this unhappy Alphabet, his pleasure was 
 spoilt by finding, that the South American adaptor had materially 
 departed from the principles of his system. Strange as it may 
 seem, the Written Character has, in parts of Europe, a political and 
 religious importance. The Roman Catholicks in some Provinces 
 of Austria, insist on their converts using the Roman Character, 
 while the authorities of the Greek Church insist on the use of 
 some form of the Cyrillic Alphabet. Where Religion has become 
 a mere ritual, and outward form, such things are of importance. 
 
 The determination of individual IMissionaries to have one 
 system — and one only — tJicir ozvn pet, seems particularly ridicu- 
 lous to an Indian Civilian, who has spent years of his life 
 transacting business with a circle of Native subordinates sur- 
 rounding him, using simultaneously three Languages and three 
 forms of written Character, the Roman, the Arabic, and the 
 Nagari, without inconvenience, or without any particular prefer- 
 ence for either, and speaking a fourth to the countr}- folk. 
 
 13 
 
 - ^ 
 
 ■■jigyfP^pqgpwBP'SPiBP 
 
( 194 ) 
 
 Then difficulties arise about the pointing of vowels, and mode 
 of punctuation, the paper, the size, the binding, the price, and 
 the type, for even, when the Character is fixed, there is often 
 a plurality of types, and some like one, and some another. The 
 printing goes on in many parts of the world, in all the great 
 capitals of Europe, and in many in Asia, and some in Australia : 
 The first translation is often struck off in the Mission-Press by 
 the very people, for whose use the translation is made. Then 
 Editions are stereotyped, or the plates corrected. Add to this 
 occasional differences of opinion betwixt the Sister-Societies, or 
 the Parent Society, and its Auxiliaries. It may be truly said, 
 that no such business in vastness, variety, complication, delicacy, 
 and importance, was ever transacted under one roof 
 
 Great progress has been made in the affiliation, and classifica- 
 tion, of the Languages of the world according to their structure, 
 but we are a long way from finality yet. Few, if any, would 
 assert now, that the Hebrew was the Parent-Language, spoken 
 in Paradise, as generally received by good ignorant men in past 
 Centuries : The number of Languages has been extended beyond 
 all conception : Sixty used to be deemed the maximum number, 
 and in a general way " Indian " was spoken of as the Language 
 of India, and "Chinese" of China. It may safely be stated, that 
 at this moment there are more than two thousand forms of 
 speech mutually unintelligible, whether they are called Languages 
 or Dialects of Languages. In the Regions, which I have traversed, 
 in my published works : The East Indies, 539 : Caucasus-Group, 
 12: Africa, 590: Oceania, 196: Turki Family, 12: in all 1349, 
 
195 ) 
 
 and, as I advance onwards in other Regions, the number seems to 
 be Legion : in China there are more than two score. Up to 
 this date the action of all the Bible-Societies has accomplished 
 only 354 up to 1892, and fifty are on the anvil, but some only 
 revisions, or extensions. All the most important, the great domi- 
 nant Vernaculars in Asia, such as Arabic, Turki in two Dialects, 
 Malay, the six or seven great Vernaculars of India, those of 
 China, six or seven of Africa, have been disposed of. The 
 process of absorption, and extinction, of weaker Languages, and 
 Dialects, is always going on, and proceeds rapidly, as Culture 
 advances : a weak form of speech is scorched and killed by a 
 more powerful neighbour : The fittest survives in the struggle 
 for life. The printing of the Bible in the Xama Dialect of the 
 Hottentot Language has been arrested by the news, that the 
 tribe prefer to speak Cape-Dutch, 
 
 My task on the present occasion is limited to Oriental and 
 African Languages. This excludes Europe and America. In 
 Western Asia two great Languages are conspicuous : the work 
 is completed in the Arabic, and the Turki, in the Dialects of 
 Osmanli and Azerbijani : in three Dialects also of i'\rmenian the 
 whole Bible has been translated, and portions in a modern 
 Dialect of Syriac, In Persian the whole Bible has been printed, 
 but is under revision. In Kurd and Georgian the New Testament 
 only. In Osset and Kumik portions have been published. This 
 brings us to the gate of India, where from Pastu on the North- 
 West frontier to Burma on the South-East, over the two Peninsu- 
 lars of Nearer and Further India, such progress has been made, 
 
 '- ..:-.dfcji 
 
( 196 ) 
 
 as renders the completion of the whole work probable in a 
 reasonable time, with exception of Cambodia, under French 
 protection, and Roman Catholic Bible-exclusion, 
 
 In China the entire Bible has been translated into the Dele- 
 gate's version into that form of Character, which is intelligible 
 all over the kingdom, each section of the population interpreting 
 the Ideograms in their own Vernacular. But the tendency of 
 modern ideas is to publish separate versions for each Province 
 in their peculiar Language, and in several cases in Roman 
 Character : The New Testament is also in Manchu. 
 
 In Japan, by the combined aid of the three Societies, the 
 whole Bible has been completed. Another sealed country has been 
 thrown open to the Bible by the publication of the New Testa- 
 ment in the Language of Korea. 
 
 In Northern Asia, which is now entirely under Russia, trans- 
 lations in four Dialects of Mongol, in two additional Dialects of 
 Turki, the Jaghatai and the Kazan, The time has come for a 
 separate Agency for Russia in Asia, and a systematic dealing 
 with the Languages spoken North of the Oxus, the Sea of 
 Aral, and the Caspian, The Bible-Society has no better friends 
 than the Emperor and the people of Russia. 
 
 In the Indian Archipelago the Society has an Agent at 
 Singapur : the whole Bible is translated in the lingua-franca of 
 that Region, the Malay, but beyond that Language Dutch 
 Scholars have supplied translations in the Languages of Java, 
 Sunda, Borneo, the Celebes, Batta, from Island on to Island to 
 the confines of Oceania. Somethingr has been done for the 
 
( 197 ) 
 
 Phillipines, but a vast work still remains for the next Century 
 to accomplish. 
 
 The beautiful Islands of Oceania have been more fortunate. 
 In name unknown to the general public, and only dimly to 
 the Geographer, the Missionary, like the mole, has done his 
 work in a quiet, and unseen, manner : The whole Bible has 
 appeared in the Languages of the Maori of New Zealand, of 
 Lifu, of Aneityiim, the Hawaii of Sandwich Islands, Fiji, Samoa, 
 Rarotonga, Tonga, and Tahiti, and large portions in the 
 Languages of several other Groups or individual Islands. The 
 Motu tribe in New Guinea now read in their own form of speech 
 the four Gospels. When I allude to a portion of the whole 
 Bible, my hearers may rest assured, that other portions will 
 follow as time goes on. The time is at hand, when the 
 inhabitants of all these Islands will be Christians, and have as 
 their first and best Book, the Bible, a present to them from the 
 great British and American People. 
 
 I have reserved Africa, my dear Africa, and its adjacent 
 Islands, for the close. 
 
 The whole Bible has been translated into the Malagasi for 
 Madagascar, the Amhara for Abyssinia ; the Xosa, or Kafir, the 
 Chuana, and the Suto, in South Africa ; the Yariba, Efik, 
 Akra, and Ashanti, in West Africa ; very large portions have 
 been translated into the Tigre, the Galla, and the Swahili, in 
 East Africa ; in Zulu, Herero, and Nama-Hottentot, in South 
 Africa ; and in Pongwe, Benga, Dualla, Ewe, Hausa, Ibo, 
 Grebo, and Mende, and a good beginning made in many other 
 
 «». > •fc:^'^.-J|ifc. 
 
( 198 ) 
 
 Languages : The work goes on joyfully : We seem to have 
 the touch of every part of that great, and no longer dark, 
 Continent : it is a kind of triumph to welcome into the 
 Committee-Room of the Bible-House a new Messenger from 
 Africa, who hands in his new translations, the choicest tribute 
 which any God-fearing man can offer to the Lord. 
 
 Against our efforts the Roman Catholics fight in every part of 
 the world, imputing inaccuracy to the translations. In all French 
 Roman Catholic Reports, Evangelical IMissionary Societies are 
 called " Societes Bibliques," intended as a term of reproach, but 
 really cur greatest honour, as we will not preach less or more 
 than the Gospel as delivered to us. 
 
 This then is the work of the Bible-Society in the Translation 
 Department. It is a great honour to Great Britain, and North 
 America, the two branches of the Anglo-Saxon Race, that the 
 Lord has put it in their hearts to make His Word known to 
 the Nations. It is a realization of the vision of St. John, at 
 Patmos, Rev. xiv. 6 : 
 
 " I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the 
 " everlasting Gospel to preach unto those, that dwell on the 
 " Earth, and to every Nation and Kindred, and Tongue, and 
 " People. " How can they hear, if they are not spoken to } 
 How can they be spoken to, if their Language be not acquired ? 
 How can the Gospel be brought to the villager, the women, and 
 children, if holy men do not devote their lives to the work } I 
 wish to impress upon my hearers, that the Bible-Society is the 
 chief, and the first, and the greatest, of IMissionary-Societies : it is 
 
( 199 ) 
 
 the Queen's daughter all glorious within, and the other Societies 
 are but the Virgins, that bear her company. What would be 
 thought of those, who did not consider the Gun-Foundry of 
 Woolwich part of our Military Force? The Bible-Society sup- 
 plies the great Guns, that shake down the world ; other societies 
 are limited in their territorial expansions : our Motto is " ubique : " 
 other societies are restrained by shibboleths, and creeds, and 
 decrees of councils : we know nothing but Christ crucified, and 
 His Message to Mankind : no Missionary Society resents our 
 appearance in their field : the Bearer of Bibles is a welcome guest 
 ever)-where : in every house in Europe, in every Asiatic City, in 
 every African hut, and ever}' American wigwam, and always to 
 all, who truly love their Master. 
 
 I appeal to some of my hearers, who have a call for 
 Missionar}' work, to take Service in our Regiments of Agents, 
 Translators, and Colporteurs. At Japan, and in South China, 
 we want men with orderly minds, trained intellects, and hearts 
 consecrated, to represent us : the work of translation is done, or 
 provided for : in these countries the work of distribution is 
 commencing. In this great work Enthusiasm does not go for 
 much : the work has to be done by steady continuous, and 
 intelligent, labour from year to year. A sure way of getting at 
 non-Christian tribes is by helping the Bible-Society, who are 
 doing their work steadily and systematically, and would accomplish 
 this task earlier, if it had larger resources. I have sent a copy 
 of our Specimens of Languages and Dialects to every Library in 
 Europe, pointing out, how much Science is indebted to the Bible- 
 
( 200 ) 
 
 Society, who in the course of the carr}'ing out its proper duty- 
 has been marvellously extending the boundaries of Human Know- 
 ledge : Scholars w^ould indeed be ungrateful, if they did not 
 honour the agents of Religious Societies, who in the course of 
 the discharge of their sacred duties, had revealed new worlds of 
 interest, and illuminated the Temple of Science. 
 
 A few words in closing on the spiritual side of the question. 
 We are obeying the commands of the Lord to preach the Gospel : 
 we are but carrying out the original programme of the Jewish 
 and Christian Church since the return of the Hebrews from 
 Babylon : there was a necessity for an open Bible then, and it 
 exists still, in spite of the Jesuits in Mount Street, Grosvenor 
 Square, who write, that only the New Testament and the Psalms 
 should be permitted to laymen and women, by special permission 
 to each individual, and the copies thus lent are to have copious 
 Jesuistical notes. The European world has outlived such pu- 
 pillage : it is a dishonour to the Word of God, and the Conscience 
 of Man : Asiatic, African, and North American races shall be 
 spared the ordeal : they shall have God's Word, and God's Spirit 
 will teach them to make a g-ood use of it. 
 
 And to those in Europe who cry, " The Bible is dead," and 
 would record a verdict " Found out, dead, let it be buried," we 
 reply, " Bury it, if you can : drown it in the ocean : burn it with 
 " fire : place pyramids over it : but it is too late in the History 
 " of Mankind : the Emperors Decius and Diocletian, tried to do 
 " so, and failed. Roll the stone of Human Unwisdom, Agnos- 
 " ticism, and Knowledge falsely so called, against the Cave : 
 
( 20I ) 
 
 " seal it with the seal of men, who have not yet learned to know 
 " themselves, or to agree with each other as to a better substitute. 
 " But the Word of God is not bound : by its own vitality it will 
 " burst those seals, roll away that stone, and come forth, conquer- 
 " ing and to conquer : Let the servants of the Lord share in 
 " the triumph." 
 
 And to those, who put forward the other books of the elder 
 world, the Veda, the Tripitika, the Avesta, the Classics of 
 Confucius, the Koran, we reply that we know them, admire them, 
 and think that the Literature of antient days would be poor 
 without them : we would add to this category the words of 
 Socrates, as handed down by Plato and Xenophon : but we do 
 not find in them a sufficient Rule of Life, a consolation in the 
 hour of affliction, a sure hope in the hour of death. The same 
 rebellious, unchastened spirit, puffed up by a little knowledge, not 
 properly digested, or corrected by other knowledge, which refuses 
 to accept God's Word, will rajl against God's Work in Nature, 
 the mystery of pain and sorrow, the suffering of the good, the 
 ease of the wicked. The sages of antient days thrashed out such 
 subjects, but found no solution. Much in them is wise, but it 
 is human wisdom : Does it sustain by faith in One, that is 
 mightier ? Does it hold out hope ? Does it open out a Future 
 beyond the grave ? Does it conduce to Holiness in the path of 
 ordinary life ? 
 
 Test the Bible by its works : I repeat, by its works, for 
 like a mighty man, it has done wondrously. While occupied 
 in reviewing the Languages of the World, I have reviewed also 
 
 'A J-^^^-^ 
 
 us^ 
 
( 202 ) 
 
 the Religions of the World, and the Customs, and Habits, of 
 the Xon-Christian World, their degrees of Culture and Barbarism. 
 If they have attained Oriental Civilisation, there has never 
 been found a clear line of demarking Right from Wrong : but 
 always, everywhere, ^Murders of Wives, of Children, of Parents, of 
 Lepers : Cruelty of every kind, Profligacy, Wickedness of every 
 kind in High Places, without reproof : No human law has had 
 authority to denounce, what the Rich and Powerful chose to do. 
 If they have been left in the lower grades of Culture, as 
 Millions have been in every part of the World, other and un- 
 heard of Crimes are tolerated and practised : Cannibalism, Human 
 Sacrifice, Burying alive, Sorcery, cruel tortures, Witchcraft, 
 Magic rites, contempt of human life, contempt of all laws of 
 God and ]\Ian. But when the Bible comes in contact with 
 such Races, mark the change ! Darwin said that it was the 
 Magician's wand : the Book adapts itself to every Language, 
 every degree of Culture, and finds an entry into every heart 
 of the Human Race : It is especially human, but it touches 
 crime with an Ithuriel-spear : it cuts through with a sharp 
 sword all Sophistry : it lets light into dark places : it is the 
 same for the Great as for the Small, the Poor as for the Rich, 
 and it deals with the Individual, the Famih-, the Community : it 
 brings with it a Pon'cr : yes ! this Legend of the Man Jesus 
 has a Power : it arouses a Heart's voice. No Christian man 
 could order in a temper, or fit of rage, a favourite wife to be 
 killed, and go on the same as before. The Greek Poets con- 
 ceived the idea of a Nemesis : the Roman Poets wrote about 
 
( 203 ) 
 
 " mens conscia recti " : the Bible in the native Language of 
 every tribe and Nation shows, how the former may be avoided, 
 and the latter be attained. 
 
 December, 1802. 
 
 APPENDIX No. VII. 
 HYMN FOR BIBLE SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
 
 Maj' 4, 1892. 
 
 WORKERS WITH THEE.— 2. Cor. vi. i. 
 
 To us the message came : 
 But, Lord, to Thy great name, 
 
 All glory be ! 
 The work is Thine, not ours : 
 Thy Grace falls down in showers : 
 We only lend our powers, 
 
 Working: with Thee ! 
 
 We thanks to Thee record 
 For those, who serve the Lord 
 
 So faithfully ; 
 Ever on Angel's wing 
 The Word of God to bring 
 To sin and suffering. 
 
 Working- with Thee ! 
 
( 204 ) 
 
 Thy Holy Spirit then 
 Began to dwell with Men, 
 
 Mean though they be, 
 To touch their lips with fire 
 To sweep the sacred lyre, 
 And holy thoughts inspire. 
 
 Working with Thee ! 
 
 And those, to whom the gift 
 Of Tongues is granted, lift 
 
 Their souls to Thee, 
 Rendering God's Holy Word 
 Into a new accord 
 Of sounds before ne'er heard, 
 
 W^orking with Thee ! 
 
 Thy Grace then sanctifies 
 Art, which the printer plies 
 
 So skilfully : 
 Parts working out the whole, 
 While paper-reams unroll 
 Volumes to heal the soul. 
 
 Working with Thee ! 
 
 The stately ships unfold 
 
 Their sails : from deck to hold 
 
 One pearl we see : 
 The Word of God now shown 
 In every Language known 
 To man from Zone to Zone, 
 
 Working with Thee ! 
 
( 205 ) 
 
 Out cries the Colporteur, 
 
 The man well-known " sans peur," 
 
 " Give them to me ! " 
 With Bibles on his back, 
 He stumps his ceaseless track ; 
 No blessings can he lack. 
 
 Working with Thee ! 
 
 The Harem-door opes wide, 
 The Bible-women glide 
 
 In with step free, 
 A welcome there to find. 
 To heal the sick and blind, 
 To light the darkened mind. 
 Working with Thee ! 
 
 One ship lies in a calm 
 
 By islands fringed with palm. 
 
 Isles of the Sea : 
 The dusky natives bring 
 Their free will-offering, 
 And ask one only thing. 
 
 Working with Thee 1 
 
 To us these days fulfil 
 The Patmos-vision : still 
 
 We Angels see 
 Bearing th' Eternal Scroll, 
 A message to the soul 
 Of Man from Pole to Pole, 
 
 Working with Thee ! 
 
( 206 ) 
 
 And, when before Thy Throne, 
 Trusting in Thee alone. 
 
 We all shall be. 
 May some of us appear, 
 Lending a faithful ear 
 Thy blessed words to hear, 
 
 "You worked with Me." 
 
 B. F. B. C. 
 
 APPENDIX No. VIII. 
 
 Appeal from an English Protestant to the great, 
 GOOD, PIOUS, German Nation, to found a National 
 Missionary Bible-Society, on the models of the 
 Societies of England, Scotland, and the United 
 States of North America. 
 
 Das vereinigte Deutschland ist jetzt eines der grossten und 
 machtigsten Lander der Erde. Nicht nur griindet es Colonien 
 in Africa und Asien, sondern es nimmt auch hervorragenden 
 Anthcil an dem Werke der Bekehrung der Volker, die noch 
 auf dem Pfade der Finsterniss wandeln. Der deutsche Missionar 
 ist eben so wohl bckannt als der deutsche Gelehrte, Die 
 
( 207 ) 
 
 deutschcn Missionsgesellschaften sind hochgepriesen in alien 
 Landern, und der Name des deutschcn Gelehrten wird nur mit 
 Hochachtung genannt. 
 
 Deutschland ist es, dem wir einen Luther vardanken und 
 damit die Bibeliibersetzung ; Deutschland war es, die Wicgc des 
 Protestantismus, von dem das grosse Licht der Reformation 
 ausstrahlte, und Deutschland ist es, das grosse, freie und 
 religiose, welches Missionare zu den Heiden entsendet. 
 
 Warum nun folgt Deutschland nicht dem Beispiele des 
 Englischen Volkes, dem Schottlands und der Vereinigten Staaten 
 Nord- Americas, die Bein von seinem Bein, Fleisch von seineni 
 Fleisch sind, und grlindet eine grosse deutsche Bibelgesellschaft ? 
 
 Die grosse Liebe, die mich zum deutschcn Volke und zur 
 Heiligen Schrift hinzieht, veranlasst mich mit diesen Aufrufe 
 mich hervorzuwagen. 
 
 Eine Nation kann unmoglich vollstandig organisirt sein, wenn 
 sie nicht ihre eigenen Angehorigen mit den heiligen Biichern 
 in ihrer eigenen Sprache versehen kann, noch kann sie voll- 
 standig unabhangig genannt werden, wenn sie in Bezug auf 
 das " Brod des Lebens " abhangig ist von einer, wenn auch 
 blutsverwandten und eng befreundeten, so doch immerhin fremden, 
 Nation. 
 
 Die British and Foreign Bible Society hat lange Jahre das 
 Vorrecht genossen, ihre deutschen geliebten Brlider mit dem 
 " Brode des Lebens " zu versorgen. Aber lasst mich diese 
 aufriittcln zu einem cdlen Wettkampfe ! 
 
 Was wurden die Amerikanischcn Burger oder das Schottische 
 
 MMM 
 
( 208 ) 
 
 Volk sagen, wenn man sie auffordern wlirde, solche Almosen 
 von England anzunehmen ? 
 
 Unter derartigen Vcrpflichtungen zu stehen, das geht wohl 
 an fur kleine protestantische Staaten wie Holland, Norwegen, 
 Diinemark, die Schwciz und Finland, well sie eben nicht die 
 Mittel und Ouellen besitzen um das grosse Werk selbststandig 
 auszufiihren. Aber Schweden und Holland zum Beispiel haben 
 bereits das Joch abgevvorfen. Soil da Deutschland in Fesseln 
 bleiben ? 
 
 England scheut durchaus nicht die Kosten, und es kommt 
 ihm nicht entfernt in den Sinn, seine Beihiilfe in Zukunft zu 
 verringern oder gar einzustellen. Ich gestehe sogar gerne zu, 
 dass ein eigener Reiz in der Uberlegenheit liegt, die ein kleines 
 Inselreichs in den stand setzt, ganz unschatzbaren Segen einem 
 Lande zu Theil werden zu lassen, das viel grosser ist als 
 es selber. Ich schlage auch nicht vor, das Werk, die Romisch- 
 Katholischen Provinzen mit Bibeln zu versehen, nun sofort und 
 ganz plotzlich zu beginnen ; das mag mit der Zeit kommen. 
 Aber ich crhebe meine Stimme laut und mit Nachdruck zu 
 dem deutschen Volke und rufe : " Versorgt Eure eigenen pro- 
 testantischen Gemeinden mit der Bibel ! " 
 
 Ebensowenig zielt mcin Vorschlag darauf ab, dass die " British 
 and Foreign Bible Society " in ihren Anstrengungen nachlassen 
 solle zur Beschaffung von Bibeln in Sprachcn anderer Nationen 
 Europa's, Asien's, Amerika's, Africa's und Australasian's. Das 
 ist cinmal unser altcs und stolzcs Vorrecht, das wir mit un- 
 serm Handel, unsercn Colonicn und Eroberungen, iibcrkommen 
 
( 209 ) 
 
 haben, und wir habcn durchaus nicht den Wunsch es aufzu- 
 geben. Wann immer die deutsche Missionsgesellschaft sich an 
 uns wendet, wir werden immer bereit sein, sie mit Bibeln in den 
 Sprachen Sumatra's oder China's oder Japan's odcr Indien's oder 
 Africa's oder der Eilande Oceanien's oder Xord- oder Siid- 
 America's zu versorgen. 
 
 " So gewiss die Wahrhcit Christi in uns ist, so soil uns dieser 
 Ruhm nicht gestopfet werden!" 
 
 Ich bin mir sehr wohl bewusst, dass viele Schwierigkeiten 
 zu uberwinden sind. Aber tretet ihnen nur muthig entgegen. 
 Lasst alle provinciellen Gesellschaften sich zu einer einzigen 
 grossen deutschen Bibelgesellschaft vereinigen, under dem Protec- 
 torate Seiner ]\Iajestat des Kaisers ! 
 
 Zwei oder drei Jahre werden vergehen miissen, bevor sich 
 der Wechsel von dem alten zum neuen System vollzogen haben 
 wird, und es wird ein Abkommen mit der British and Foreign 
 Bible Society getroffen werden miissen, um mit vercinten Kraften 
 die Romisch-Katholische Bevolkerung Deutschlands mit Bibeln 
 zu versorgen, Aber soil das Land, das Hunderte von i\Iis- 
 sionaren nach alien Theilen der Erde entsendet, ohne die 
 Hiilfc von dessen Sohnen England liberhaupt die Ubersetzung 
 der Bibel in fremde Sprachen nicht ausfuhren konnte, soil dieses 
 Land, welches in Kaiserswerth die Anstalt fur Diaconissen 
 schuf, die jetzt als werkthatige Engel liber die ganze Erde 
 wandern, sich nicht der ersten und wichtigsten Pflicht entledigen, 
 die Heilige Schrift unter dem Kostenpreise in die Hande von 
 Mann und Wcib und Kind in Deutschland zu legen ? 
 
 14 
 
 ^^■JN^^'i 
 
( 210 ) 
 
 In dem Jahresbericht der British and Foreign Bible Society 
 fiir 1880 findet sich folgende Stelle : " Obgleich es klar ist, dass 
 " die Zeit noch nicht gekommen ist, kann das Commitee nur 
 " den einen Wunsch hegen und nur dieses eine Gebet auf den 
 " Lippen haben, dass Gott alle Besprechungen dieses Themas 
 " segnen und die Herzen seiner deutschen Kinder zu noch 
 " grosserem Eifer und hoherem Ehrgeiz begeistern moge. Das 
 " Commitee wiirde es als ein UngUick betrachten, wenn ihre 
 " eigenen Anstrengungen, wie erfolgreich dieselben auch immer 
 " sein mogen, so angesehen wlirden, als seien sie nur dazu 
 " da, um die deutschen Briider von einer Last zu befreien' 
 " zu der sie ihre eigene Nation fiir verpflichtet halten. Und 
 " wie grosse Freude sie auch an ihrem eigenen Werke 
 " haben, immer und immer wieder werden sie mit Begeisterung 
 " ausrufen ; 'Der Herr segne Euch ! Wir wunschen Euch GlUck 
 " ' und Erfolg zu Eurem Werke im Namen des Herrn ! " ' 
 
 Was fiir ein Vortheil kann deshalb fiir Deutschland darin liegen, 
 ausgedehnte Landermassen in Africa zu erwerben ? England hat 
 immer und immer wieder wahrend des Ictzten Jahrhunderts die 
 Erfahrung gemacht, dass politische Errungenschaften auch geistige 
 Verantwortlichkeiten mit sich bringen. Grosse Nationen werden 
 vom Herrn nur abgeordnet, iiber Heiden zu herrschen zu 
 dem einen Zweeke, sein Konigreich auszubreiten. Aber wie 
 konnte da die deutsche Nation die Bibel nach Africa tragen, 
 wenn sie selber dieselbe " forma pauperis " als ein Almosen 
 fiir ihr eigenes Volk aus der Hand einer fremden, wenn 
 auch frcundlichen Nation empfiingt, die selber das Geld zu 
 
( ^11 ) 
 
 diesem Zwccke von kleinen Kindern und dcnuithigcn Christen 
 einsammelt ? 
 
 Lasst mich cs ausrufcn mit Posaunenstimmc : " Es gicbt in 
 " Deutschland noch viel Land zu erwerben fiir den Herrn. Die 
 " deutsche geistige Armee, die grosse Landwehr von Glaubc, 
 " Liebe und Hoffnung, sie sollte nicht langer mehr auf die 
 " Htilfe cnglischer Alliirtcn angewiesen scin ! Deutschland giesst 
 " seine eigenen grosscn Kanonen, mit dcnen es diese Welt 
 " erobert. Soil es da nicht seine eigenen Bibcln drucken und 
 " vertheilen, die nicht nur diese, sondern auch jene Welt erobern ? " 
 
 Nehmt keinen Anstoss an meiner Kuhnheit ! Sowohl der 
 Missioniir als der Gelehrte, der nichts nach Mission fragt, sie 
 beide wisscn, wie hoeh ich das deutsche Volk schatze. 
 
 Bei dem internationalen Orientalischen Congress in Berlin 1884 
 gebrauchte ich folgende Worte : " Es mangelte dem England er vor 
 "der Neige des Lebens die Zeit, den Organismus sclbst derjcnigen 
 " Sprachcn zu studicren, die ihm so gelaufig sind wie seine eigene. 
 " Unter solchen Verhaltnissen schulden die Englander Deutschland 
 " um so grosseren Dank fiir das, was seine Gelehrten fiir Indien 
 " und Africa geleistet haben. Ich, der ich den ganzen Umfang 
 " dieser Arbeiten kenne, sage hier in Berlin, ohne den Vorwurf 
 " nationaler Ruhmredigkeit zu verdiencn : W^ir bediirfen nichts- 
 " destoweniger frischer Schaaren thatiger Missionare, welche hinaus- 
 " gehen, und neue Grammatiken und neue Worterbiicher vcrfasscn." 
 
 Und wieder, in einem Aufsatze iiber " Helden-Missionare in 
 Africa " schrieb ich : 
 
 " Im Glauben hat die heiliiie und demiithiee Protestantische 
 
 ■^rn 
 
 mm 
 
( 212. ) 
 
 " Kirche des Continentes, arm an materiellen ^litteln, aber reich 
 " an Intelligenz, Eifer und Selbstaufopferung, einen goldenen 
 " Strom von Missioniiren hinausgesandt von den Hauptquartieren 
 " in Base], Barmen, Bremen, Berlin, Hermannsburg, Leipzig und 
 " Herrnhut, um die Vorposten zu bilden in den gefahrlichsten 
 " Stellungen, um Tod und Gefangenschaft zu erdulden, um grosse 
 " literarische Werke zu vollfuhren, lebendige Kirchen zu griinden 
 " und sich die Zuneigung der Africaner zu erwerben. 
 
 " Die Xamen dieser pflichttreuen Manner und Frauen, die auf 
 " ihrem Posten gestorben sind, sind nicht bekannt in England, 
 " aber sie sind eingezeichnet im Buche des Lebens." 
 
 Ich will nichts mehr hinzufugen. Ich lasse die Angelegenheit 
 in den Handen des guten deutschen Volkes, 
 
 Robert Need ham Cust. 
 LoxDOx : August, 1885. 
 
 <^^ Oy THB ^^ 
 
 [trBfI7ERSIT7l 
 
 STEPHEN AUSTIN AND SONS, PRINTERS, HERTFORD. 
 
 K 
 
ijtfS 
 
=2 
 
TU luobo 
 
 3^^ 
 
 /i 
 
 6 f 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 
 ^■■:mr -^^o^m jm* 
 
 ,»• s-^ -• 
 
 '■ mCJ'--^.jmiki!i 
 

 
 #.• 
 
 *i. 
 
 •V* 
 
 s^.,4. 
 
 f^ . ..^•^^ . 
 
 
 • ■ _^ • . >