The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-06-16


anti.revisionists. But, supported by high
authority or no authority, l here and
now take my stand.
These fifty men, for ten years busy in
tinkering the New Testament, agree in
the stat ement that they find no new doc
trine. Differing on many other things,
they all agree here. If it had been found
that the old translation was teaching any
false ideas of God or the soul or the fu'
ture, would say by all means give us a
new revision, and put forth immediate
and mightiest efforts for the organized
obliteration OF the old translation. The
world can not afford to have wrong no
tions of God and the soul and eternity.
But the new version keeps all the old
doctrines. Then what good reason could
there be for this disturbance OF sacred
association, his loosening of the faith of
Chlistendom. It ia too late to recon
struct the Bible. When King James's
translation was made, the Bible was a
sparsely circulated book, and the changes
made caused no wide perturbation. Bur
this revision OF 1881 is depreciation of
three hundred million copies of the BIZ
BILE out in the world, and doing their
work. 1t assails the magnificent liturgy
of the Episcopal church, and makes all
her prayer-b books vast Inaccuracies. 1t
makes the inscr, ptions on the graves of
your dead untrue. 1t reflects upon the
old family Bible, and to the uninitiated
leaves nothing about it certain save The
record of marriages, births and deaths,
If tais new revision succeed, for the next
few years you will have to watch your
children's evening offerings of the Lords
prayer, and jerk them up before they
run over the "evil one" into an uninspir.
ed doxology. 1t is an out and out war
against all the religious literature of the
ages. Away with your Cruden's and
Browns Concordance; your Bible Die
tionaries wrong; Matthew Henry's Com
mentary wrong; Kitto'e Readings wrong;
Yahn's Arch geology wrong. All your re-
liPious books wrong. In matters OF re-
ligious accuracy 1t means chaos and old
night. Who undertook this impertin.
enCe on the other side of the sea2 |
know not the qualifications of the Arch
bishops and ArChdeaCons and Professors
who have done the work on the other
side of the Atlantic. | understand that
many of them are far from being he
best scholars of Great Britain. l know
that men with great titles are often the
merest accidents, and their high Office
no sign of scholarship. L. L. D., D, D.,
and F. R. S.. are often the heavy baggage
of very slow train. | only Judge them
by the revision. 1t is pedantic and ca
PRECIOUS and false to the principles which
they declared at the outse; would guide
them-namely that they would make
no unnecessary change. As to the work
done by the American revisionists, l
have this to say: One gentleman here
takes the responsibility of choosing a
group of American scholars to revise
the new Testament. The gentleman
taking this responsibility having been
born and educated in foreign land, was
not especially adapted to make wise se'
leCtions among American scholars. This
gentleman, in making the selection, de.
rided the living and dead generations of
Bible readers by saying and reiterating:
"The Christian people for years have
been drinking the water of life from the
Jaw bone of an ass" This gentleman Sc
leCts group OF scholars to revise the
New Testament, and excepting four of
them, they are unknown outside of their |
little circle. l could call the roll of a
hundred scholars, superior to all those
in this work, except the illus
trious DIR. Woolsey, If such a work
needs to be done, why not call in con.
vention all the great and good scholars
of America and have them make seleC
tions of frevisionistsP Where in this New
Testament company is the scholarship of
Princeton and Columbia and MiddletoWn |
ana New Brunswick
The work is a literary botCh, which |
will never be adopted if all the people |
fearless of criticism and rebuff speak out
heir real sentiments. To come down to
The mechanical arrangement of this new
version, vehemently reject the mode of
cutting the Scripture in columns like a
jolid newspaper column, instead of the
division Of verses, as in our present
translation. 1t is The charm of our old
book that business man, or wife over.
lorne with household cares, or an inva.
i'd with no power of consecutive thought
an take up verse and carry it all day
open a age of this new version, and |
ind one para graph column and q, a,hali
ong. By this now translation one will
,e tempted to think, II can't take the
Who page, 20 l will take nothing"
hat one verse of the BIble-an ocean
# sympathy compressed in two words,
Jesus wept"-is set in a solid paragraph
f one column and half. You can find
if you look long enough for it; but it
leeds to stand out isolated and alone ir
ts grandeur, and tenderness, and pathos,
mnipotenCe Of meaning. Another me.
haniCsl misfortune is the dropping of
be headings of the chapters. 1t ia an
important part OF the oil ira station.
We all want to know what the chapter
J about before we begin to read il.
l reject the new version for its amaz
lg triViality. You have more control
yer your sense of the ridiculous than |
ave, il you can read without a smile ,
me of the changes made or proposed
'ou remember Chritt's sermon, where
Q speaks OF the inaptitude of putting
ew wine into old bottles. In our Wis.
IN of 1881 it is rendered; No men put. :
eth new wiue into old wine-skins, else !
le wine will burst the skins,
nd the wine perisheth and the :
sins. But they put new wine into fresh
ine.skins, The change is evidently
lade to show that the bottles of olden
me we're made out of the skins of ami.
Ials, but is it not just as easy to explain
le bottles to the people as to explsin
le wine-skins2 "Show me a penny"
nd Christ, wishing from the kingiy
amp on it to illustrate it's earthly cur
'nCy. That will not do, say the revis.
nists. Instead Of Show me penny
how me a denarius.' The revision
langea the beasts of the Revelation
ITO living cIeatures' But will Won not