Norwich bulletin., 1917-02-26
CENTRAL sApTisT rAsToR ANSWERS ImPoRTANT ouEsTIoN
First of New Sermon Series Begun at
 Sunday Evenina Service.

mon delivered by Rev. Joel D. glDcunn. ID. D., at the Sunday evening service at the Central Baptist church. This was the first of new series of suh- day evening sermons on the general topic, important Questions For Thoughtful People.
 Rev. Dr. Slocum's text was Matt. 7:20. Answering the question, how do we know the Bible is the word of 0odt Rev. Dr. Slocum said:
 My answer is: By itself and by it's fruits. This is really a double answer and each part requires attention. l First, then, we know that the Bible is the word of God because of what it is in itself; and that certainly includes the process by which it came to be what it is.
 That is a long and fascinating story: as someone has called 1t the romance of our English Bible" One is tempted to go into it on such an of how we got our Bible--the remark. able history of it's mal1ng--is too complicated to be gone into ektenBiyo- iy in the time at my disposal toniNnt. Permit me, however. to touch upon some hilltops in the series of circum- stances that cu1fninated fin our pnesent Bible. There are valleys betWeen the hills and it will be your privilege to lecting a few salient facts out of the ancestry of our Bible am keeping in mind the thesis that it is by these facts that we shall come to the ire the word of God: for no other book ever had such Q history.
 When we have followed through the elaborate and marvellous wlhdingb of Gods purposes fin preserving the rec ord of his revelation to men, it is lSn- possible to escape the conviction that this is indeed the word of God in A unique and special sense: Many things have been plotted out of the record of mans achievement, but the word of our God stands and will stand forever. But in the early centuries of our Christian era the power Of Rome was on the increase and the Latin lam guage became strong rival of the Greek. The Christian church, which had been using the Greek, now adopt ed the Latin.
 The present day Latin Bible is the Vulgate. translated by Jerome at the close of the 4th century. Probably there were old Latin versions before Jerome's day. It is now believed that at the latest a Latin translation of the entire Bible was in circulation at tions were extant in Latin as carly as 200 A. D.
 Jerome, the great scholar, undertook revision of the old Latin version on tie basis of the Greek text. He began by revising the Gospels which appear
 
 Acts and the rest of the New Testa- ment His first work on the Old Tes- lament was revision of the Old Latin Psalter. He did his work work on the basis A. D. He revised it in 3s7 A. D. It remains today the official version of the Psaiter in the Latin church. Later (2s0 A. D.) he made new trans1ation brew. He continued his work for sew eral years. storm of criticism broke over him and continued more or less violent until his death in 42o A. D. in Bethlehem. The conservatives thought his transIations trihed with the sanctities of their cherished ser sions. But the wisest of the church. men began to see that Jerome had ac- had come to the Kingdom for such a time as this.
 Taking a long leap over much that Is important in the great labors that produced the most wonderful of books. century and find the imperishable name of John Wyclif. who had been head of Balliol college. Oxford. Wy eff determined to translate the Bible so that it miei1t be read by the com mon people. The translation was made from the Vulgate; half of the Old Tes- lament and all of the New Testament being the work of Wyclif himself, while the remainder was done by Nicholas of Hereford. On the completion of the manuscript of his first vereion in 1878 he was brought to trial on the ground that lie had made the Bible more common and more open to lay men and to women than it was wont to be to clerks well learned and of good understanding, so that the pearl of the gospel is trodden under foot of swine.' q have quoted literally from the indictment The law against Wy cliffs version and the high cost of a Bible in those days did not prevent people from reading 1t. ERorts wsre made to completely externfnate all the books bearing Wyciffs name, and yet ITO copies have been preserved to this day. Less than 70 years after the death of Wyclif the art of printing was invented and cheap Bibles became pcS- sible.
 A young Enkiishmari in the early days of the 18th century by the name of William TyndaIe was moved to pity the millions who had not even his op. portunity to read the word of God. The first prepared i1imseif for the great task of making translation not from the vuigate but from the original man. uscripts of Greek ard Hebrew, and because @ of of danger in Ehsianda ana there completing in a few months the New Testament and smuggling the copies to Engaand: the Seizing of his books by the authorities. that they
 
 attempts to hinder his work by de- stroying the books in reality helped him to make another and better edi- tion which was printed in 1884. In the same year appeared q revision of the New Testament which showed the ac- curacy of his scholarship. So carefully was tie work done that the authorized version Of 1911 and the revised servion of 1881 retained many of his words and sentences.
 Tine vear 1911 was obsarvSa hv tha Bible societies of the English speak ing world as the 30eth anniversary of the appearances of the epoch making Book.
 The King James version (1e14) was a triumph for William Ty1fdale, the martyr translator of the early 18th century. His prescribed version was the basis on which the reyisers of King James did their work. The revised version made in the latter part of the 18th century carried Tyndale's work to a further triumph in the fact that eight -r1futfas of the words used in the