April 7.
The decision of the American Bible Society and the British Foreign Bible Society to direct their Work in°China through a. single! executive Committee is welcome. It should give.the two organizations the advantages of an improved economy. More important still it will add to the effectiveness of their work by' practically illustrating the unity of thelr*efforts in dissemini ing the Scriptures, The report of the British Society's activities, during 1936 shows how valuable is the Bible to the development of the cultural spirit among a. people to! whom ancient. traditions in. the study of literature have a special appeal, The Bible is more than great literature, It brings to its readers a message of universal solace fand guidance. In these days, when the perplexities of modern convulsions with their attendant woes: sorely trouble the hearts of men, it 4s not surprising that distributors of the Bible should find cager claim mants to their services, The jargon of the day would insist that ideolo~ gical nostrums have some undefined benefit to bestow on seekers afte perfection, It seldom ventures to! suggest that the search can bring' true satisfaction, It rather takes the destructive mood which imfagines contentment to rest in the tearing down of ancient signposts or the uprooting of cherished faiths. Last year the 400th anniversary of the martyrdom of William Tindale was celebrated in recognition of the; debt which the Authorized Version of the Bible owed to that pioneer translator of the Scriptures, As! Froude has declared, "the mingled tenderness and majesty, the Saxon) simplicity, the preternatural gran-dour" of the Bible are derived from the mind of Tiridale who contributed half the Old Testament! and the whole of the New and established a standard of transla ion which his successors gladly tried to follow.
It Is well to remember this noble genius In any assessment of the! Bible's virility as, in countless tongues, it finds its way into the far quarters of the globe. Transla~ tion depends greatly on the skill of the translator and his gift for! conveying the essential thought to} the medium of the language on which he operates. "Yet even more must it, in the last resort, acquire} its virtue from the qualities of that original. The purity of language. the lucidity of style and the] measured nicely of the selection of words must govern the performance of the translator. On that account the Bible's supremacy has been maintained throughout the centuries and to William Tindale homage is surely due, He gave the key to the work so that, in the words of} Benjamin' Jowett? 7
Amid changing interpretations our alin Is not to add another, but to renew the original one, the meaning, that is, of the words as they frst struck on- the ear or flashed before the eves of those who heard and read them, In no tess" than 705 different} Janguages does the Bible stand today, thanks to the efforts of the Bible Societies and their devoted staffs, There. are nearly Atty' versions required for circulation in China, apart from those in Euronean Tanguages. The Rev. G. W. Sheppard's retirement from the General Secretaryship at the headquarters in Shanghai has brought here from Yunnan the Rey. W. H. Hudspeth who has achieved the distinction of completing the translation of the Scriptures into the Black Miao tongue—a work begun by the late Samuel Pollard. In 1928 the Gospels and Acts were: translated into that dialect and later the whole New Testament was completed. The reception of the new books by the Black Miao people was enthusiastic and inspiring. Once more unquestionable tribute was paid the compelling influence of the Great Book.
Too often is met the facile as; sumption that the self-disciplined industry of the old-time leaders of religious thought has disappeared from a too restless age. If regard. be had to the enormous labour involved in learning these obscure Janguages and dialects and then in applying that acquisition to the translation of the Scriptures, it will bbe appreciated that the servants of the Bible Societies, unknown and unrecognized by the world at large, are showing to the canons of service fidelity no whit less honourable and arduous than that of Christendom's most glorious. days. This loyalty to tradition again appears the magnificent tale of the Bible's present-day distribution, The colporters in China, as In other coun-ries, brave all imaginable dangers and discouragements to get. their sacred message to a mankind which Still has dire need of ft, and still shows a superb confidence In its import.' A hundred years ago the most famous of English colporteurs, George Borrow, was engaged in that adventure which is told in his picturesquely' vivacious "The Bible in Spain." At that time Spain was} torn by internal dissension and was undergoing all the horrors of civil war. To-day a George Borrow motor-van, built to commemorate the centenary of the militant East Anglian evangelist, is quietly and Intrepidly circulating the Scriptures in circumstances even more pol nant than were encountered by! Borrow as he wandered through the country on the same mission. Modern iconoclasts have affected to condemn the opiate of religion. Their condemnation would fain embrace the Bible. Therein they. blindly stumble against a truth, albeit veiled from their vision, The mass-appeal which Ideological fanatics seek to create may produce a sort! of hysterical exultation. It lamentably fails to induce that peace of mind which.Js-the common aim of tired, distraught humanity to-dai to-morrow and yesterday, Study of the plain unvarnished reports of the colporteurs, whether in China or elsewhere, leads irresistibly to) the conclusion that the solace of the Scriptures is the basis of their authority, In their own tongue men and Women are eager to learn and take to their own comfort the words which, as no others can, majestical-yet simply tell of the "peace which passeth all understanding." Under the stormy surface of the threatening seas whereon _the nations {oss in uncomprehending anguish there is a current. which steadily keeps: direction to the haven. of security. Its inspiration may be dimly discerned, but in the event may be found to derive from the trust invited by the Bible as it reduces everyday complexities to the simple equation of an undeviating faith, The latent powers of endurance possessed by mankind as it faces apparently catastrophic _disaster spring solely from the spirit to which the Bible bears, for all time, an unconquerable testimony.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.