Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-06-10
BIBLE TRANSLATION
Stupendous Work Accomplished by
Missionary Workers.
THE GOSPEL READ IN MANY DIALECTS
Include tongues Spoken by
Three-F ourths of Human Race.
PRIN CIPAL TRANSLATORS

Rev. DR. Judson Smith. corresponding
secretary OF the American board of foreign
missions of the Congregational Church.
in a recent letter says: Few of the figures
among missionary statistics make less show
are more likely to escape attention than
those which give the facts of Bible transla-
ton. At the same time there are few that
express greater volume Of labor or have
more Intimate relation to the meaning
and success of the missionary work Of the
nineteenth century. 1t appears that there
are now 421 different languages or dialects
into which the Bible as whole or in
parts. has been translated. These include
the languages spoken by at least three
fourths of the human race.
AT the opening of the nineteenth CEN
tury the different versions of the Scriptures
numbered only about fifty. in tongues
representing less than one-eighth of the
race. The marvellous Increase is almost
wholly due to the labors of mission
aries. and Its constitutes In itself ma
jestfc achievement There Is no other
single piece of literary labor during the
century which can for moment COM
pare with II. All these languages have
been studied and mastered by foreigners,
after long. continuous and exacting toll.
Think of the time and pains that are neces-
sary to obtain such an underSt anding of
Chinese japanese. Tamil Hindustani, Per-
sian. Turkish and the hundreds of other
tongues as to be able to converse intelli-
gently with those to whom these are the
mother tongue. And the translator must
go quite beyond this. and SO familiarize
himself with vocabulary and idioms to
think in the strange tongue and to put the
very meaning of the Bible-narratiyes.
poetry. prophecy and doctrine-clearly and
Enthusiastically before the reader. This at
tatnment lies within the power of but few,
and for them it involves long. arduous, in
cessant labor. In not few instances the
missionary has first to reduce the language
to written and lexical forms, to make the
grammar and vocabulary of the language
before he can begin to use it in transa
ton Who can measure the time and ef-
fort required for such a task? In what
other field of labor has anything like this
been attempted?
Example Cited.
Hiram Gilbert goes to the Gilbert Is
lands In the mid-Pacific and finds the peo-
PIE with no literature. with no written lam
guage. with no one to teach him. Little by
little he gathers the words of common
usage from the lips of the natives and
learns how they are combined into phrases
and sentences Constantly he must COM
pare what he has written down with what
he hears. must correct mistakes, must ac-
quire new words must fix If possible the
better usage. And at last he ventures to
put the golden rule. the Lords prayer,
psalm. into the vernacular then a gospel.
epistle. until at last after many years.
land tongue and every one admireS the
great achievement. Between those first
words. taken from the lips of the unlet-
tered people. and the finished Gilbert Is
lands Bible what years of toll. what pa
thence of soul. how vast and glorious the
contrast, And this is perhaps, the sim
pIest form of the problem
What picture in early English history
is fairer or more significant than that OF
the venerable Bede, capable of leading
part In the stirring scenes of his age in
md tat 70
all and in scholars retreat. without
haste. without rest. putting into his native
tongue the inimitable story Of the gos-
peIs. aud. as years multiplied and strength
failed still plying his labor of love, till
the last verse of Johns gospel is given just
near the end This scene reveals the
deeper. purer spirit that has always ex-
listed at the heart of English history: that
redeens many a page of rudeness and
greed and war, and that has SO long placed
England in the van of human progress
.'Burnahs debt to Judson is 10 be meas
ured by all that he did for the uplifting of
her people in character and habits, IN
knowledge and aspirations. But that
which works deepest and most necessarily,
which makes him today. fifty years after
his death the greatest benefactor that ma
ton ever had. is the Bible which he gave
it in Its own tongue, the celestial guide of
childhood. the solace of age. the fortress OF
manliness and purity and truth.
Morrison broke the path TO the Chris
tian renovation of China in many ways.
but in none more signally or with more
lasting benefit than by opening to that peo-
pie the treasures of Gods word and giving
the Bible a chance TO be heard by the side
of the ConfuCian classics. Carey puts the
scholarship OF the world under a measure
less obligation by his studies in Sanscrit
and his TRANSACTIONS of the Bible. or por-
tions of il, into more than thirty of the
tongues OF India. When as yet the work of
evangelizatiOn could not be freely pursued,
this dauntless spirit seized the occasion to
make his message Ineligible to the mill
"a q
reach. No single missionary has ever
wrought wide scale for the Chris
tian enlightenment OF India; and thus he
being dead. yet speaketh.
Work of Elias Riggs.
''One Of the most remarkable mission
aries OF modern times Che would have been
a man of mark in any age has just passed
away at ConstantinOpIe Elias Riggs en-
tered on missionary labors in 1882 and had
been siXty-nine years in service at his
death. linguist OF great power. a writer
of great beauty and force, a persuasive
and welcome preacher. fitted TO grace a
chair in any school of learning In the
world his life passed in quiet far
from the noisy scenes of the world, in
making the Bible familiar to the MANY ma
tons of the Ottoman empire. Armenians
and Greeks. Turks and Bulgarians through
him and others who wrought with him
have heard In their own tongues wherein
they were born the wonderful works OF
God. Into the permanent foundations of
the church. among all these peoples this
man has wrought his own life. and In the
long centuries to come he will be felt
among them the sweet influence of
Pleiades forever abides and adorns the
starry heavens.
Think what it means for a heather peo-
pie and nation TO have the treasures of
Hebrew literature. the story of the Gospels
the oracles OF God made accessible and
familiar as their daily speech. How the
language itself is enriched and expanded
thereby, How the mind is ennobIed and
disciplined and inspired, How life of the
family and OF society is elevated and dig
nihed. How the nation Is fortressed aud
exalted and its institutions purified, We
know what the Bible has done in Eng
l9nd- No single influence probably has
wrought with such intimate plastic power
In the mind and heart and life and instftu-
tons of the English people. Literature,
government. society betray its touch at
every point. In the height of it's heroic
days during the Puritan revolution when
deeds were wrought and men were great
that the world will never forget England
was a people of one book. and that book
was the Bible. 1t was from that high foun-
tain that our best New England life flowed