Summaries, Page Headings, Dates, and Chapter Headings . 38

6

SUGGESTIONS FOR TRANSLATORS,

understanding of Holy Writ, seem it never so hard at the beginning. God grant to us all grace to ken well and keep well Holy Writ, and suffer joyfully some pain for it at last.'

Let a man then examine himself as to his motives and wash his hands in innocency before approaching this sacred and stirring task. Let all the work be begun, continued, and ended in God.

Once a month, at least, all translators, revisers, and editors of the Scripture are remembered before God in prayer by those rr1embers of the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society whose special department it is to watch over this branch of the work. Each individual translator ought to be supported by the prayers and sympathy of his Christian friends -and fellow workmen and by the intercessions of the churches. If this were done more persistently, surely there would be greater success and more happiness in the work.

A translator has need of patience. He longs to get at least one Gospel complete. His brethren press him on, and perhaps officials at home do the same ; and he is tempted to hurry to a conclusion and to get his work quickly into print. But in such a work as this the old adage is true, 'most haste is worse speed.' It is far better to keep the MS. back for a time, to go over it again and again with missionaries and with natives, and if possible to translate two or three books in the rough before printing any portion, because each new part will reflect linguistic light on that already accomplished. The translators of the English Bible write thus concerning their wor1< : ' We did not disdain to revise that which we had done, and to brmg back to the anvil that which we had hammered ; but having and using as great helps as were needful, and fearing no reproach for slowness, nor coveting praise for expedition, we have at the length, through the good hand of the Lord upon us, brought the work to that pass that you see.'

Again, a translator has need of an unbiased mind. But where is such a mind to be found? and whence can even any tendency towards it be obtained? Who can strip himself of all his predilections? Did Beza ? did Luther? did our English translators? We have noble instances of honesty and fidelity, indeed, in the history of Bible translation from the days of Jerome downwards. The grand words of Tyndale are never to be forgotten. He writes thus to his friend John Fryth : ' I call God to recorde as against the day we shall appear before our Lorde Jesus Ch~ist, to give reckoning of our doings, that I never altered one syllable of God's Word against my conscience, nor wolde do thys day, yf all that is in earth, whether it be honour, pleasure, or ryches, myght be geven me.' Miles Coverdale also says in his Preface to the First English Bible, ' I have neither wrested nor altered so much as one word for the maintenance of any manner of sect, but have with a clear