The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1877-05-31
Fey. q. A. CQnisnn.

spectful style, in order to avoid giving Of
fence TO him or to those who entertained
the same views that he did. There wa,
nothing in our article to justify the char.
acter Of his response, and while it was re.
garded by nearly all persons whom We
have heard mention it, AS uncalled for, and
wholly unworthy Of the sanction of any
one protesting to be a Christian, and moi
at all expected to come from a person
claiming to be a minister of the gospel, we
do not propose to forget that we claim &c
be a gentleman, and will therefore confne
ourselves 10 the rules of decent decorum
And by way of parenthesis, we will add
that ii is high time that all Christians and
clergymen had learned that men whom
they regard as hereticso or opposers of then
views, have not forfeited their claims to
the respects and courtesies of life by their
seeming errors of opinion, and we wish to
remind those Christian gentlemen that in
science, arrogance, contemptuous sneers
and impeachment of motives and charac-
ter are not effective means Of grace; and il
would be well for those persons who re-
gard such inconsistencies as means Of grace
10 seek the regenerating influence OF that
God who they profess to worship, and EN-
deavor to exhibit a commendable DISPOSE
ton commensurate with the high and ex-
allied position TO which they aspire.
Mr.. Coulson, in response TO our article,
alleges that he said THE Bible contains
no errors, and that it will never need re-
vising.' In the course Of his lee
tire he called attention to sew
eral errors in what the Christian
world calls the Bible and wanted
those errors revised. Now the difference
between Mr.. Coulson and THE LEDGER il
this: What we call the Bible, he calls the
Translation OF King Jamea, and what he
is pleased to denominate the translation Of
King James is what til: Christian world
recognizes as the Bible-the Word Of God.
We contend that it is the Bible. 1t can be
found upon every sacred desk. II is taught
az the Bible in Sabbath Schools-in the
Sabbath Schools Of the church Mr.. Coul-
son represents, and no man can consistently
affirm that it is not the Bible. If that Book
which we call the Bible was handed to any
person with the interrogatory "What book
is this?" the natural and urequivocal an
swer would be, "The Biblel' Itwould FOL
be called d translatiou at all. And thi4
difference elected from Mr.. Coulson a re-
spouse that Wac undignifi d and bereft OF
everything like a Christian tone.
Now SO far as the Bible is concerned
~(meaning his conception Of the term), the
diversity Of authors renders it to some ex
tent very complicated. The principal
writer's are about thirty pe--o2s, coming
:ro@ a.! classes, o. I'll .~mper2men.s, Of
every age, mode OF education and condi-
ton. Among them were kings, priests,
scholars, artists, generals, fishermen and
tax-gathcrcrs. These authors we're men
as liable to err as ourselves, and the men
Of the present day viii continue 10 commit
errors aud b!unders.
The Greek and Hebrew Scriptures, OF
which tie tranalator= profess the orrmou
English Bible 10 be Il translation, wcr,
,,,,,;l,J f,,p, ,r,-.vi,.iny u.,ru.nrip tu
Those manuscripts are human Transcript,
Of still earlier mannicItpt+, which we're al
% human transcripts and are SD 10 bt
imperfect. They differ from each other,
The manuscripts OF the New Testamen,
alone differ in more ,han one hundred and
tiSty thousand places. The originals are
lost-the manuscripts, therefore, cannot be
compared with them. No means remain
of usccrtaining which is least corrupted,
In view OF these facts, we claim the right,
which we exercised in a previous article in
reference 10 Mr.. CoulsJI's lecture, TO eX-
press the opinion as opposed to a r~c7ioion
Of the Bible now in common use. For il
the originals were accessible there is no
reason to believe that we should find them
less imperfect and less erroneous than our
common translation which is to-day called
the Bible, and recognized as such through
out Christendom, aud no man can success
fully contradict it. Hence we accept it as
the Bible. The grammar, the logic, the
rhetoric, the poetry may bear evidences OF
human weakness, but it contains all the es-
s~entials necessary to salvation, and those
essentials arc plain and well understood to-
day by all persons who feel it a duty to
serve their Great Creator.
And while we oppose this revision that
Mr.. Coulson advocates, we want it distinct
ly understood that we are not actuated by
any sectional feelings whatever, for there
arc many persons in the church he repre-
sents for whom We entertain the highest re-
gard, and esteem them as true Christians,
and would not for any consideration i'm
pugn their sincere motives or mortify
their feelings. We oppose it upon general
principles, with malice toward none, with
charity for all" We oppose it because We
believe it would be a drawback to the
Christian religion.
La defining the. difference between Mr..
Coul,on and The Ledger, we will state
that what he denominates the translation
Of King James is what we call the Bible.
We will leave the public to draw The ON
parison. And feeling that it would be I'M
gentlemanly to take advantage OF Mr.
Coulson's absence, we are now willing 10
draw the mantle Of charity over the OBJ
~noxious features of his response, and hope
hereafter he will keep himself within
due bounds and govern himself according
II.
Forty Years Ago.