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TRANSLATION OF THE WORD

"BAPTIZO."

To the Editor of the BAPTIST MAGA

ZINE.

SIR,-Referring to the recent annual meeting of the Bible Translation Society, it has struck me, that some of your readers might not be uninterested in perusing the following extract from a letter of Mr. Fuller, to his friends at Serampore, on the subject. It refers to the first occasion on which the question of leaving the word "baptizo" untranslated was mooted in England, and furnishes us with his very decided opinion regarding it. After the rebuff which Mr. Hughes received from Mr. Fuller, he appears to have allowed the matter to remain in abeyance for fifteen years, during which period, the British and Foreign Bible Society sent a sum exceeding £20,000 for the encouragement of versions in which the word was translated. Then came an acrimonious controversy of five years, which resulted in the Society's being compelled, by the predominance of a powerful influence, to come to the determination of reversing its old practice, and determining to withhold support from any version in India, in which the word was not left untranslated. To conceal the anomaly of thus establishing one rule for Europe, and another for Asia, it was resolved into a question of chronology. In all translations made before the year of grace 1800, the word, as translated, was

to be allowed to stand; in all subsequent versions, the original Greek word was to be retained. This resolution placed the Bible Society, which down to that time had been represented by its admirers as the noblest type of the liberality of the nineteenth century, in the singular position of treating the translation of a single disputed word as a question of greater importance than the dissemination of Christian truth. For, whenever a version could not be attained in the language of any heathen tribe in which the word was left untranslated, that tribe, as far as the agency of the Bible Society was concerned, was to go without the Bible.

The Serampore missionaries considered that there was no ground for abandoning a practice which had prevailed in India for thirty years, and was still to be held sacred in Europe, and that every faithful version should have been encouraged without reference to the shibboleth of" baptizo." This course was the most obviously consistent and equitable, and the arguments against it were of so feeble a complexion, that it was impossible to avoid the conviction that the question was decided more by the importunity of denominational feeling than by the voice of reason. Christian truth could no more suffer in heathen lands than it has done in Christendom, by a diversified translation of a single word. The natives, of India, moreover, are accustomed to different schools of

interpretation of the books on which their faith is founded. No Hindoo considers the authenticity of the Vedas impugned, and no Mahomedan has his confidence in the Koran shaken by a different exposition of particular passages or phrases. A pado-Baptist, with a version in which the word was translated immerse, might as consistently adopt the practice of sprinkling in India as in Europe, when the rendering of this word does not regulate the local practice. One of the great leaders of the movement in India had himself for several years been in the habit of using and distributing copies of the New Testament, in which the word was rendered by a term akin to dipping. If, however, our pædoBaptist friends, and missionary colleagues in India, scrupled to circulate a version among their converts in which the translation of the word did not correspond with their own practice, the remedy was easy. Print an edition, print a dozen editions for them, with the original word untouched: but was this any reason for depriving the agents of the Baptist Missionary Society of all aid from the Bible Society? It was quite possible to be liberal to the one without being illiberal to the other. If the object was to prevent the circulation of any copy of the New Testament which could raise any doubts in the mind of the convert as to the mode of the ordinance, it has been singularly defeated, for the most acceptable versions, in the language of fifty millions of people in Bengal and the northwest provinces, have been executed by the Baptists, and the word is, in them, translated. On either side of the bay, in Orissa and Burmah, there is not a copy of the New Testament in circulation, in which the word is not rendered as in the Dutch and the German, though the Bible Society

ignores its existence. And the fact of this difference of opinion as to the mode of baptism has been still more clearly demonstrated by the introduction of appliances for baptism by immersion, which the Bishop of Calcutta is said to have sanctioned in the edifices of the Church of England. The convert is thus at liberty to make his election between the font and the baptistry, and as the rite is oriental, he will, in all probability, choose the latter. J. C. M.

London, May 18, 1864.

February 4th, 1812.

and at the dinner of the Baptist monthly About a fortnight ago I was in London, meeting. Hughes and another member of the Bible Society were present. Sitting next to Hughes, he asked me a few ques

tions in a low voice about our translations. I took down the substance of the conversation after I got away, and will give it to you. H. "Do the translators introduce either note or comment?" F. "I believe not." H. "I did not know but there

might be now and then a line as a glossary." F. "I never heard of any." H. "Do they make the English translation any rule of their rendering, or do they translate merely from the originals?" F. "I think only from the originals, whatever use they make of the English, or any other translation: I do not suppose they attach any authority to it." H. How have they rendered the word baptize?" F. "In the Bengalee by a word that signifies to immerse; and I suppose in all the other translations also." H. "6 Would it not have been better to have done as our translators have done,-left the word untranslated, only giving it a Bengalee termination?"

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F. "Why should they do so?" II. "It might then have been circulated by pædo-Baptists." F. "When they rendered the word into Bengalee, there was no Society which wished to do so; they did it in simplicity as honest men. But if it had been otherwise, I do not see how they could have left the word untranslated without tacitly acknowledging that they did not understand its meaning, which was not true." H. "I think they might have done so consistent with integrity. F. "And would you have them alter it?" H. "I think they might in a future edition; at least, I wish it had been

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done so at first." F. "I would not have had them done so for £20,000." This being spoken in rather an elevated tone, the company cried, "What is that Mr. Fuller would not have had done for £20,000?" Now we were quite public, and obliged to explain. Mr. Hughes made a speech in his own defence, in which he spoke against translations being the work of a party, smelling of a party mint, &c., and wished for mere literary men as translators. I answered, mere literary men cannot understand the Bible, and therefore are not qualified to translate it-that I wished for no union that required the sacrifice of principle, and that a man could not be an honest translator who did not give the meaning of every word according to the best of his judgment." I added, "If a pædo-Baptist were to translate, and were to render baptize by a word that means to sprinkle, I would help to circulate it in a heathen country, not on that account, but notwithstanding it." The other members of the Bible Society spoke of the importance of that Society, and of what great things it had done. I readily admitted this, and said I would willingly promote it to the utmost of my power; but they should not arrogate to themselves what did not belong to them. I had seen and heard speeches by some of their members which implied that all which had been done in India was of their doing, whereas the translations then carrying on were begun before that society was thought of, and, much as we felt obliged by their generous assistance, the work did not depend on them, nor would it stop if they were to withhold their hand. He said the Society made no such pretences as I referred to. This I admitted, and was happy to acquit them of it, but individuals had done so, which I hoped they would not repeat. There was no ill-blood, but the company was much interested, and generally took part against Mr. Hughes.

To the Editor of the BAPTIST MAGA

ZINE.

DEAR SIR,-I have read with deep interest the memoir of J. H. Allen in the Magazine for this month. If I had known Mr. Mursell's purpose to write it, I would have given him some striking facts in our friend's early history, as he was the first fruit of my ministry.

While a student at Bristol, in 1819, the late Dr. Ryland sent me to Norwich for six weeks to supply the pulpit at St. Clement's, previously to the settlement of the late Mr. Gibbs. I was kindly received at Sproston Lodge, the residence of the late Mr. Cozens. At that time young Allen was an apprentice in the establishment of Messrs. Cozens and Coleman. He was often sent out with me to show me the lions of the city and neighbourhood. Our society and conversations were mutually agreeable. I found that he went to church with his family, and that he had never been in a chapel. But, as I afterwards learnt, he purposed in his mind that he would hear me preach before I left. He deferred it till the evening of the last Sabbath. The text was, "We must all appear before the judgment seat," &c., &c.

The next morning I left for London. But when I arrived at the coach office, to my surprise I found my young friend waiting for me. He grasped me warmly by the hand, and anxiously enquired where a letter would find me in a day or two. I told him, and on the following Wednesday I received a long letter stating, that he was present in the chapel on the previous Sabbath evening, that his mind was deeply impressed with what he heard, that he was very unhappy about his state before God, and that he hoped I would write to him on the subject. A correspondence commenced, which continued for several

years.

My young friend in a comparatively short time found peace in believing. He attended the ministry of Mr. Gibbs, and joined the church under his pastoral care at St. Clement's; but after some time, removed to St. Mary's.

He became a Sunday-school teacher, a village preacher, and a zealous friend to our missionary societies soon after his entrance to the visible church of Christ.

For about twenty-five years we did not see each other, but when we met the interview may be imagined. After this we saw each other occasionally, and corresponded to a very recent date.

SAML. BLACKMORE.

Sermons preached in Lincoln's Inn Chapel, and on Special Occasions. By F. C. COOK, M.A., Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen, one of H.M.'s Inspectors of Schools, Preacher to the Hon. Society of Lincoln's Inn, &c. London: Murray. 1863.

These are the best sermons which have reached us from any one of the Royal Chaplains of late. There is a hearty recognition of the truths which all Evangelical Christians hold, and a manly assertion of their practical adaptation to the wants of men who have to work in the world; so that with such passports to our esteem, we can welcome them as likely to be of use in quarters which other preachers cannot so readily reach. We should have been glad if there had been more compression of thought, because the style would have been more energetic and impassioned; but it may be that the preacher felt himself under the painful necessity of beating out his materials to gain the attention of his hearers, and to convey the truth to their consciences in the sight of God.

merits in that way; and we are not less confident that they would command access to many circles which the volume before us will not reach. They are well suited to the wants of our times, and would guard those who studied them against the insidious advances of that distrust of the authority of Holy Scripture which is, we fear, on the increase amongst our countrymen. We shall be very glad if Mr. Cook adopts this suggestion, and if Mr. Murray, with his wellknown energy and tact, gives these sermons the widest possible scope; for many would read a succinct statement of the doctrine of Inspiration who would not care to examine the subject with minute and exhaustive research.

As a fair specimen of the theology and of the style of the volume, we quote one passage from a sermon on "St. Paul's doctrine":

"What the elder apostles contemplated and taught for the most part as an external revelation, St. Paul habitually realized to himself and to his hearers as an inward manifestation. Of all aspects of the truth, that which he inculcated most earnestly, was the living union between Christ and His people-the indwelling of Christ in their hearts-the interpretation of the human and the divine; his great work as a teacher was to apply this principle, and the truth which it involves, to the solution of the manifold and perplexing questions which then agitated the Church, which will never cease to agi. tate it until the second coming of the Son of God.

"Thus, in the controversy with his Judaizing opponents, he went at once to the root of their errors. If they once knew that they would be accepted only when they

were brought into living union with Christ, then all hope of justification by such fulfilment of the law, as they in their self-righteousness deemed possible, fell to the ground. The righteousness of Christ, communicated to the believer in virtue of that union, was incompatible with the assertion of claims resting upon the individuals own righteousness. Once convinced of that, the Jew became really a Christian. Until convinced of that, no adhesion of the understanding brought him out of Judaism into the sphere of reconciliation with God. And since faith is the only conceivable medium of an union essentially spiritual with an invisible Saviour, that great Christian principle came out in a new light, and assumed its true aspect and right place in the doctrinal system of Paula system in which all true-hearted Christians recognize the complete explanation of their inner life. Faith was thus shown to have a justifying efficacy quite independent of any inherent meritoriousness, acceptable as it must be to God, being, in fact, a recognition of the adaptation of His best gifts to the deepest groanings of man's heart it justifies because it brings the soul to Christ, opens the inner chamber of the heart to Christ, and expels from it all thoughts and feelings which are incompatible with His indwelling. Justification by faith is but the aspect-the first and most affecting aspectin which the results of the union between Christ and the believer are represented to the conscience-stricken sinner, seeking to know the terms on which reconciliation is possible with a Holy God. Hence the effects of that doctrine when faithfully proclaimed. It cuts like a two-edged sword-it makes the decisive separation between the hearers of the Gospel."

We hope that Mr. Cook will be eminently successful in winning his learned hearers to the obedience of faith.

The Collected Writings of Edward Irving. In Five Volumes. Edited by his Nephew, the Rev. G. CARLYLE, M.A. Vol. I. London: Strahan & Co., 1864, pp. 645.

For some years the writings of Edward Irving have been very difficult to obtain. Whatever opinion may be formed of his career, there can be no question as to the power, depth and grandeur of his literary productions. We seem to hear in them again those grand old tones which come to us over the ages from

the masters of theology; which breathe upon us from the tomes of the Fathers of the Church and the best of the writers of the Elizabethan and Caroline eras. The lofty language, fit vehicle for the lofty thought, which almost every page of Irving's writings presents, can only be compared with the still living speech of Hooker, Jeremy Taylor, Milton and Howe. And we can conceive of no finer exercise for our modern students of divine knowledge, than the perusal and mastery of the works of this great man-great, notwithstanding his grievous heresies and faults.

The present volume is the first of a series of five volumes, to contain both the published and unpublished writings of Irving, such as will "fairly exhibit his great powers of oratory and thought." In the present volume we have, the Oration on the Word of God, the Discourse on the Parable of the Sower, the grand Introduction to the Book of Psalms, the celebrated Discourse on Missionaries after the Apostolical School, and three smaller pieces. We cannot, however, understand on what principle the editor has arranged these selections; why, for instance, has he separated the four Orations on the Oracles of God, published in 1823, from the second part of the same volume, and changed the title to "Th Word of God," omitting also the preface, and the dedication to Dr. Chalmers? The discourses on the Parable of the Sower were first published in 1828, and formed the second volume of a series of

Sermons, Lectures and Discourses" in three volumes. Why does not the Editor give some explanation of this piecemeal separation of discourses, which Irving himself had united in one perfect whole? Some explanations also are required as to the circumstances under which these pieces were published. No reader, for example, would know that the Historical view of the Church of Scotland before the Reformation, in this volume, was originally prefixed to an edition of the "Confession of Faith" that Irving published to justify his views in 1831. We hope that in the succeeding