The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1852-10-10


Infallible artillery
We have always liked the trial by batft. and back
the Observer two to one.
The American Bible Union, and /" The Au-
thOrized VersiOn.''
During the last few days We have been pub
fishing reports OF the proceedings Of the Amsri
can Bible Union and to day we publish the
remainder Of their sayings and doings at this
anniversary together with the proceedings of the Re-
Cancellation Meeting Of the American and Foreign
Bible Society The members of this Union originally
belonged to the Bible Society, but seeded from it
on the ground that they were dissatisfied with the
present translation Of the Scriptures and that they
wanted purer and better for distribution. and
for the use Of Christian churches; and they now
preparing to bring out Bible Of their own They
are for the part Baptsts, who are also Congre
gstionslists and their principal objection il to the
rendering Of two words baptiso, "baptise," and
ekklcsia /" church'-whch they insist ought to be
translated g immerse' and Congregation" They
say that King James directed the translators that
''lhe old ecclesiastical words be kept, as the word
church not to be translated congregation !" and
his majesty generally comes in for large share Of
abuse for this direction. Now, we think tina.
the King showed great wisdom and impartiality;
for if the translators had translated bapiiso
Sprinkle which the Pedo- Baptists commended it
meant, "dip," the Ana Baptists held, offence
would have been given to side other, and the
utility Of the work would have been destroyed !;
whereas, parties can now adopt the same words
while each give it their own Interpretation, ana
Joy their own opinion, without any triumph over
their adversaries The Baptists maintain that
"baptize'' is to immerse, and their opponents con-
tend that sprinkling is quite suffcient-and one
party holds that ''church'' means Congregation,
while another holds that it means a collection or
large number of churches. Let them, therefore,
"agree to differ" The difference, practically, does
not amount to more than the difference between
tweedjedum and tweedledee. The practice Of
Christianity is the main thing and that is too often
lost sight Of.
For modes Of faith Lat senseless bgots fight
He can't be wrong whose life is in the right.
We perceive that we have been taken to task for
some observations we published in reference to
those improbable dispu.ings about words and forms
while the spirit Of Christianity was crushed in tn /,
struggle Sensible men, however, will agree with
These contentious have been carried bitterly by
the two opposing societies. the last two or three
years, and every thing but the mild precspts and
practice Of the Gospel has been exempfed in the
controversy Better to be content with any kind Of
q translation, than for Christians and brothers to
wage such relentless war; and to call each other such
hard names. We hope that the reconciliation meet
ing held will have the good effect Of causing both laity
and clergy to act more in harmony with the spirit
Of the Good Book which they all profess to
1t was said of old, "See these Christians how they
love another p 1t might be said with equal
truth, /" See those Christians, how they hate ons
another.'
In reference to the merits of the question: We hope
we may be permitted, in this free country, to offer
few observations though we have not taken
out degree of Doctor of Divinity. The trans
lation of the Bible known as the authorized
version, or King James's Bible, is that which
has been used by all denominations Of Protes.
tauts in the old country who speak the English
language. for 242 years. aud by every Christian sect
in this country, with the exception of the Roman
Catholics and those men who assail it 80 unspar
inglJ ,ncur avery serious responsibility. Their at
tacks tend to unsettle mems minds about the rel
gion Of their fathers, and the religion they have
themselves learned from the old family Bible; AMI
the unfortunate result may be that instead of doing
any good, q vast amount of evil may be effectei
The faith of men being shaken in the soundness Of
the translation now in use, they will dou5t
the possibility of ever finding sound transit
ton at ell, and, in the end, doubt the trah
of the original itself. Christians have M
naged to get on very well, hitherto, with
the version used by their ancestors, aud the
only difficulty has been, not in the imporfections o.
the translation, in the passages hard to be under
stood, but in the professors OF Christianity not pra,
tically following what they know, and what is 50
plain that he who runs may read.''
What hope-what possibility-is there, to got 40
a new TRANSLATION equal to the old Suppose tie
word bopi,ao would have been better translated
/" immerse;' ekkesia rendered congregation
and eptskopos bishop - and other improve
ments mi ht be madc-how would the whole body
Of Christians be induced to agree to these ch ange
And if they did agree what guarantee have the com.
munity that in the version there will not be ole
hundred new errors for every error corrected
in the old Who are these men who talk 50
Hippanty Of the errors in the present translation
axe they the only learned men! and will wisdom
and learning die with them Do they pretend 20 be-
as learned and able men as the iorty-seysn VIM
translated the Bible in the reign of King James tb3
First Of England Never we're such pains taken
with eny version Of any book translated from one
language into another.
Objections having been made to the Bishop
Bible at the conference held at Hlmpton Court a