The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-10-06
THE HOLY BOOK.
The Bible In One Hundred Languages.
m tFrom the Philadelphia Bulletin.l i

The Bible In One Hundred Languages.
81 [From the Philadeiphia Bulletin.l "a 4,
A little TO the southwark of Horticul.
tural Hall, upon shady walk leading
from thence to the Dairy, is pretty pa
viion, to which attention is attrncted by
large sign upon its front, reading,
Bibles In 100 languages" 1t is the
pavilion OF the American Bible Society,
and we are told it has been erected "by
special contributions by few friends Of
the Bible" who have desired that O
place should be set apart in the Exhibi-
ton celebrating the Centennial anniyer-
sary of the nations birth for the espe-
cial display of the Book, the pure teach
lngs Of which arc the foundations of all
free and enlightened government.
The oddity of the sign attracts to the
pavilion good many people who are by
no means In the habit of reading the
Bible In any language at all. and by
whom its reproduction in 100 languages
is regarded only as an interesting liter
airy curiosity as curiosity, too, which
needs to be examined before it is accept
ed as an absolute fact. The number
seems excessive and to require the sub
sanitation of ocular proof. BIT, as
with the Bible itself, the ful6llment is
greater than the promise, for the 100
languages include many dialects, and
the actual number of different versions
OF the holy work is no less than 164.
The amount of labor expended upon
these translations can scarcely be real
lied even by those who have been en-
gagged in similar work, especially as
such work has been of religious or
technical character, requiring the ut
most care to preserve sense ane fact in
tact in the transposition from one set OF
words into another of different powers
and different construction. 1t the ma
jority of these TRANSACTIONS in has been
primarily necessary to reduce the for
eign language to written signs, an IN
dertaking requiring years OF patient,
labOrious research which must be counted
In as part of the work as whole. But
an even greater difficulty has been
found in making the language of heath
en- nations and tribes express Christian
IDEAS. The theory of the Christian
religion is 30 pure, ITS commandments
while 30 simplc-are SO exalted that the
vocabularies, ample for the promotion
of pagan creeds, have proved inadequate
to express the purely perfect doctrine OF
Christ. The tongues, framed only to
describe the gross, material wants OF
the body, have required infinite man
ipulation-sometimes entire remodeling
to adapt them to the language OF the
soul, and it has been upon this division
OF their noble task that the greater por-
ton of the labor of translation has been
expended. Me danger of mistakes in
meaning-mistakes which have proved
stumbling blocks in the way OF those
who might otherwise beleve-renders
caution of no ordinary kind necessary
in the work, and every translation that
mas been put forth has been the result
not of weeks nor OF months, but of long
years of labor. The translation into
Arabic by DIR. Eli Smith and DIR. Van
Dyck occupied sixteen years DIR.
Schaufiler, of Constantin ople, flushed
in 1874 his translation into Osmanlee,
begun in 1860; DIR. Schereschewsky
was for more than fifteen years en-
gagged in the translation alone of the
Old Testament into the Mandarin col
loquial of China, and Drs. Williamson
and Riggs are but now putting the
finishing touches to their translation
into Dakota, begun full forty years ago,
and, as with these versions, SO has it
been with all.