The true Democrat., 1856-10-14
From the London Time New Version of the Bible.

Str: Both here and in America there has sprung up among some divines and jealous Christians desire to have a new translation of the Holy Scriptures. In America new revi- sion Is being published, and must say, judg- ing from the only specimen l have seen, Chat of the Book of Job my desire to see new translation in this country is by no means in- creased. The subject, at all events, is very much discussed. Some parties, holding pecu- liar doctrinal views, are very anxious to see the project carried out. Much very plausible evidence of the necessity of it is adduced. It may not be useless or unreasonable, in such circumstances to adduce few facts not un- likely to make refecting minds more satis- fled with what we have, and less likely to urge acquesce in the necessity of what I venture to call very radical and questionable change.
 It appears to me very improbable that so learned, impartial and judicious a body of transators as the authors of the version of 1911 can be brought together in the nine- teenth century. Their names are dear to every scholar.
 Launcelot Andrews, Bishop of Winchester, intimately acquainted with 15 languages; Overal, Dean of St. Paul's, whose scholarship q hrst rate linguist; Richard Clark, celebrated Tor hls profound acquaintance with Hebrew, Greek and Latin; Bedwel, the very first Arabic and Oriental scholar of his day, to whom Light foot acknowledges the deepest obligation; Live ly, Regious Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, pronounced by d competent judge to be the livery chefest of those who were the flower of the University for knowledge of tongues;" h. pni, oll ,b1l A4l. A. on, as prodigiously read in all kinds of learn ing, and most excellent in tongues;" Kilby, re. nowned from his Hebrew and Rabinnical learn. ing; Miles Smith, "who," says Wood, twas so conversant and expert in Chaldaic, Syriac and Arabic, that he made them almost as fa- miiar as his native tongue" Brett Rector of Quainton, was, according to the same competent judge, famous for learning as we'll as piety, and versed in the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, Arabic and Ethiopian tongues. Ward, the learned friend of Usher and Bos, rsputed to be the first Greek scholar in Europe.
 These are few specimens of the profound ly learned judicous and pous men who exe- cuted the translation of 1911.
 Let me now adduce several impartial testi- monies to its excellence, its accuracy and faith fulness.
 Seldom says: "The English translation of the Bible is the best translation in the world"
 Pocook, the highest authority ia Oriental li- terature and languages, describes our version as "being so agreeable to the original that we might well choose, among others, to follow 1t were 1t not our Own."
 Dean Swift says "I am persuaded that the translators of the Bible were masters of an En- glish style much filter for that work than any we see in our present writings, which 1 take to be owing to the simplicity that runs through the whole"
 Bishop Lowth says: "The vulgar translation of the Bible is the best standard of our lan- guage."
 Bishop Horsely observes: "Their adherence to the Hebrew icliom is supposed at once to have enriched and adorned our language"
 Lord Monboddo: "I hold the English Bible to be the best standard of the English language we have at this day"
 Bishop Middle eton: "The style of our pre- sent version is incomparably superior to any thing which might be expected from the finical and perverted taste of our own age. It is sim pie, 1t Is harmonious, it is energetic, and which IS no small importance-use has made 1t familiar, and time has rendered it sacred"
 Dr. Whitaker: " It may be compared with any translation in the world, without fear of intcriority. It has not shrunk from the most rigorous investigation, and in spite of nume- rous attempts to supersede it, it has hitherto remained unrivaled in the affections of the country"
 Dr. Adam Clark: For accuracy and gene- ral fidelity competent judges allow that this translation greatly exceeds all modern versions, either English or foreign"
 Geddes, a learned and laborious Roman Ca- tholic, caDdidly admits: eff the accuracy, and the strictest attention to the letter of the text be supposed to constitute the qualities of an excellent version, this, of all versions, must in general be accounted the most excellent Every sentence, every word, every syllable letter. and point, seem to have been weighed with the incest exacttude, and expressed, either in the text or margin, with the greatest prec!- son"
 Dr. Newman, whose earliest and purest creed Was drawn from it, thus writes of it, as if the miserable contrast to it presented in the Douai and Rheims had awakened all his better feel. ings, sympathies and recolectons: "Who will not say that the uncommon beauty and marve- lous English of the Protestant Bible is not one of the great strongholds of heresy Protestant ism) in this country. It lives in the ear like music that can never be forgotten, like the sound of church bells which the convert hard ly knows how he can forego. Its feicities seem to be almost things rather than mere words It is part of the national mind, and the anchor of national seriousness. The me- mory of the dead passes into it. The potent traditions of childhood are sterotyped in it's verses.
 "The power of all the griefs and trials of man Is hidden beneath its words It is the representative of his best moments, and all that there has been about him of soft, and gentle, and pure, and penitent, and good, speaks to him forever out of his English Bible. It is hls sacred thing, which doubt has never dim med and controversy never soiled In the length and breadth of the land there is not Protestant with one spark of righteousness about him whose spiritual biography is not in his Sax on Blble." Trench, who quotes and admires these words of Newman, himself master of the English tongue, speaks of our version as having the happy wisdom, the instinctive tact with which its authors have steered between any futile mschievous attempt to ignore the full rights of the Latin part of the language on the one side and on the other any burden ing of their version with such a multitude of learned Latin terms as should cause it to forfeit its homey character, and shutup great portions of it from the understanding of plain and un- learned men.''
 It is also worthy of remark that almost every change in the Douai and Rheims version made during the last twenty years has been an ap- proxlmation to, or an adoption of, the Protes- tant version.
 It is worthy of remark that if all the defects Tn our version were remeded the great truths embodied in the articles, creeds and confessions of the reformed church would stand out in brighter and more prominent relief; but the danger of beginning ts alter in the present state and temper of parties does seem so real, that, as long as can be secured learned and honest ministry, it is better to leave slight mistransla-