The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1881-11-03

He introduced the subject by reading 2
Tim othy III, 16 and II; 2 Peter, !, 20 and 81,
and III, Is to 1Sv., and 1 John " to V,
In which passages are contained the funda-
mental principles concerning the origin and
nature. of the Holy Scriptures, their use, their
abuse, and their safe Interpretation
Heahen sketched the history of the Old
Testament, dwelling on tie 5000 years during
which mankind had no Scriptures. Then the
writing Of the Pentateuch by Moses, and of
the % other. sacred books by various au-
thors during a period of 1000 years, which
were compiled by Esdras 500 years. before
Christ. These constitute the protocanonical
books of the Old Testament, that is to say, of
the first canon. The sacred books, written
after the time of Esdras, constitute the books
of the second canon, the deuterocanonical
books of the Old Testament He then de-
scribed the translation of the sacred books of
the Hebrews at the request of Ptolemy Phla-y
delphus $50 years before Christ-ever since
the sacred writers of the New Testament have
uniformly quoted. Finally he dwelt on the
given to the Old Testament by
the providence of God in the preservation OF
Jewish people as perpetual testimony to it.
He next gave the history of the New Tesla
ment, its first word having been written by
St. Matthew, ten years after our Lord S ascen-
sion into Heaven, its last word by st. John
60 years after the same event, and the other
sacred books during the intermediate fifty
years. During the three centuries of the
Ohurch's persecution by pagan Rome, these
sacred writings were scattered in the various
parts of the christian world, where they were
written or TO which they were addressed ; and
there also came into existence numerous 9th,
er writings which claimed to be, or were sup
posed to be inspired Only at the end
of three centuries, during which the church
sent millions of her martyrs and holy children
to Heaven, was she enabled by the restora-
ton OF peace TO accomplish the great work of
spurious ones, and giving to the world the
canon of the New Testament. Here the
speaker dweit at length on the important con-
sequences following from this fact, viz: that
any blow at the teaching authority ofthe Ro-
man Catholic Church is equ ally blow at the
canon of the New Testament, which was de-
cided for all generations by the authority ofthat
Church alone He next described the author
itative translation of the entire Bible from the
original Hebrew and Greek into the Latin
1ar Ivt ba tro, g
lation, made by the greatest biblical scholar
that ever lived,a a time when Greek and Lat
in were living languages and when the He
brew language was not at the mercy of the
masoretic points or Yowels, subsequently invent
ed by the Jewish Rabbis, has ever since been
known as the Latin Vulgate and is acknowl
edged by all eminent critics to be the most
reliable translation of the Holy Scriptures that
has ever been made. ...i....-a,.s,. -t =. ,,...
The speaker then sketched in detail, the
barbarian invaslons which swept over Europe
at the close of the 9TH century, during which
the only refuge of religion and learning were
the monasteries where the Monks preserved
the Holy Scriptures and the learning of an
tiquity, multiplying the copies with their own
hands before printing was invented, and car
rying the sacred treasures to the barbarian
hordes, whom they converted both to christi
anity and civilization. .......... ...,.,e,
Before the invention of printing, as we are
informed by Hallam and others. the Holy
Scriptures had been translated into nearly all
modern languages. The first book that print
ing gave to the world was the Bible, and in
the few years that elapsed between the inYen-
ton ofprintng and the Reformation, seventeen
editions were printed in German and a much
larger number in the other tongues of Europe.
The three principal Protestant versions
were next described. Luthers translation
was the first. 1t was shortly followed by the
Geneyan Bible OF the Swiss Calvinists. The
authors and partlsans of each, by their mutual
accusations, made known to the world the
fact that each of these TRANSACTIONS had ex-
pressly. aimed at giving an unfair coloring to
the word of God, which would substantiate
the peculiar views of the one sect or the other.
The early translations into English were mod
eled on the Genevan Bible because the tenden-
cyto Puritanism was then prevalent. Subse-
quently, the High Church Anglican party
gained the ascendancy, and translation
was demanded which would do justice to the
fundamental tenets of Anglicanism. Thence
resulted the King James version, which wasa
compromise between the two parties then
struggling in England, and which has been5for
+ Iroa bI,r hu !,
ing Protestants of all denominations. The
Catholic translation into English was made,
shortly before the King James version, in the
English Colleges at Rheims and Douay, Ca
tholic education having been banished from
England and forced to take refuge in France
and Belgium. 4Iaa1a a<ot1e i-i s'"4''!'a''
For nearly three hundred years this version
has been in the hands of nearly all English
speaking Catholics. 1t furnishes to all who
are willing to know the truth, a convincing
refutation of the charge that the Catholic
church does not allow her people to read the
Bible. In support of this the speaker dwelt
at length on the immense number of editions
of it that are everywhere printed, the appro-
baton and encouragement to its use given
by all Catholic Prelates, its universal dissent
nation in the hands of the people, and its uni
versal use without the need of any special
permission whatever. 7''''' ''''
In concluding, the speaker dwelt lengthily
on the New Revision. He spoke of the
startling announcement made by Rev Mr.,
Beecher, and spread throughout the country,
that the Bible Society was circulating YER
sion of the Scriptures which they knew to be
incorrect. Then the acknowledgement of
this astounding fact by the counter-statement
that a new revision was in course of prepara-
ton; and then at last the appearance OF the
New Testament of this revision. Those ac-
to the old version are astonished to
find that 10000 changes have been made in
the new version of the New Testament alone
and that about forty entire verses have been
either cut out or marked for future reiectment.
What Is to be thought Of these changes !? He
went on to show that the most important
changes which concern doctrine are return