The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1881-06-30


to sacred associations? Why this
loosening of the fate of Christi
anity? 1t is too late to revise the
Bible or to make new translation.
When the King James version was
made the Bible was not widely cir
cuIated, and the changes therefore
produced no shock; but now the
new revision depreciates 300,0O0,00O
copies out doing good work. Ii
wars on he magnificent liturgy OF
the Episcopal Church and renders
all its prayer books of no valu e.
1t makes the Inscriptions on your
tombstones untrue. 1t reflects
upon the family Bible until no Ger
tainJy can be found in it except IN
the record of births, marriages and
deaths. If it succeeds you will be
compelled to watch your children
at evening prayer ana jerk them up
short for fear that they may rusn
over into the uninspired dcxology.
Laughter. All the coDcordances
and commentaries will be wrong.
All religious books will be wrong.
So far as religious accuracy is con
cerned this proposes chaos and old
night. Who are the men that un-
dertock this impertinence? ! un
derstand that many OF them are far
from being the best scholars
ars Of England or Ireland. We all
know that men often get into high
positions through accident both
In church and state. D. ID. and PHI.
d. and LII. ID. are often only the
heavy baggage OF very slow train.
Laughter. l judge them
from their work, and l call 1t
pedantic, empirical, and false to the
rule laid down tor their govern
ment at the beginning, that no
change should be made save where
absolutely necessary. OF the Amer
lean L Will say, gentleman takes
the responsibility of choosing a
group of scholars. Born and edu
Gated in foreign land, he does not
possess the necessary qualifications
to choose correctly. He divides the
living and dead generations of
Bible readers bv saying that they
have heretofore been drinking the
waters of life from the jaw-bone of
an ass. (Sensation.) This gentle
man chose a group, excepting four,
all unknown outside of their little
circle. could call the roll of 100
American scholars who are their
superlors-alwaJs s excepting the IL
lustrious DIR. Woolsey. Where
were the voices of Princeton, of
Middleton, of New Brunswick? l
agree with several friends of mine
in pronouncing the revision lit.
erary botch, which will never be
adopted if the people OF this coun-
try speak out their true sentiments.
1t is, moreover, a mechanical fail
ure. They have attempted to put
the word of God into solid columns,
as in a newspaper, instead OF into
verses. The charm of the old book
Is that the hurried business man
and the driven housewife can pick
out single verse and carry it Ala
day. l open the new revision at
the Acts of the Apostles and find
one paragraph a column and half
long.
l reject the plan of throwing
overheard all the headings to chap
ters. Every intelligent man wants
to know what is in a chapter before
he reads it. l reject the revision
because of its amazing triviality.
Ii you have more control over
your sense of the ridiculous than l
have, you can read without smilin g
some of the changes made and 9th
ers proposed by the American
scholars. In Cnrist's sermon on
the mount the old version says,
''No man putteth new wine into old
bottles" The new revision has it,
''No man putteth new wine into old
wine. skins laughter, for the skins
perish and the wines also." Re
newed laughter. They wanted to
let us know that In old times wine
bottles were made of skins, l sup
pose. In the old version we read,
"tShow me penny said Christ" "
This would not do according to
the American scholars, and they
say, "'Show me a denarius,' SAID
Christ" Laughter. The new
version changes the beasts of the
Revelation into living creatures, as
if it would not be just as easy to
explain the beasts as living crea-
lures. Laughter. At another
point the old version was too much
for the delicacy of the American
scholars. 1t reads, "Simon Peter
glrt his coat about him, for he was
naked" The Americans suggest
that a marginal note be added ex-
planning that he had on an, under
garment only. (Uproarious laugh
ter The old version says, "Nei-
ther do men light candle and put
it under bushel, but on candle
stick" The new version rejects
the candlestick and substitutes a
stand. 1t changes ~ mountain"
into "the mountain" F." "a ship" into
"the ship" ga teacher into "the
teacher,- "a good fight into ''the
good night" "a crown of righteous
ness" into ''the crown Of righteous
ness" II bushel" into ''the bushel," "
covered with waves" into "becom
ing covered with waves" ''break
into "were breaking" "strain at a
gnat" into "strain out q goat" !"
and other infinitesimals OF ditferen-
ces with which 1 will not weary
your patience. This is only fore
taste of what we may expect when,
three years hence, the Old festa-
ment company launch their revision
upon the world. / have sometimes
wondered how much good could
have been accomplished if the thir-
ty-eight new testament revisers and
the forty-one Old Testament revis-
ers had spent the last ten years
preaching the old version instead
of finding fault with it, and if in
hstead of spending the vast sums OF
money subscribed they had given
toward sending abroad the old
translation from whose loins sprang
civilization and christianity. What
the church wants is Eot critics. but
/