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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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^ yvc imagine that he -would frown on the British and Foreign Bible Sodety ? Doubtless , he would lament that it has some injudicious friends : and what society is without such ? His correctness and severity of taste , moreover , would be not a little offended at the style of certain speeches
delivered , by one class of persons , at its Anniversary Meetings . Yet no considerations of this kind would repel him , if his recorded sentiments may guide our judgment , from joining the ranks of those who associate solely for the purpose of diffusing the holy si riptures .
Titus far , the objections against the Bible Society do not indicate any particular ^ eal , on the side of those who mke them , for the supremacy and honour of the sacred volume . There is a class of persons , however , exceedingly respectable for their talents , virtues and public spirit , whose
attachment to this volume prevents them from becoming members of a Society , which , as they allege , really circulates the scriptures with notes and comments , a corrupted text and an erroneous translation . As the allegations proceed from some of our muchfsteemed correspondents , we shall give them an attentive hearing .
" We have frequently observed , " ays our Christian Surveyor of the Po-Mcdworld , * "thatthe Bible Society does not follow its oivn rule , inasmuch as it circulates King James ' s , or the vulgar English Bible , in which w many annotations ., " By annotabms we understand him to mean
those tables of contents which ate placed at the head of every chapter , kc in the larger copies of the public ^ rsion , and which another valuable contributor t to our pages holds in foe same light . We assuredly wish tort ; all such tables were removed :
J « r shall we shrink from admitting th the fact of their existence defc / ves the serious notice and itnmej ^ te interference of the a cting mem-!*¦* of the Society . In an undertak-H of such magnitude and usefulness , bI
** p cause of offence should , ifpos-^ e , be done away . Judging , how-J *> from our own experience , we **? opinion that the notes and cora-Sri - whicn our friends ' refer , have * k influence on the readers of the * V « L viii . 451 . t Vo > . "M 89 .
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Bible . We doubt whether , in the course of our lives , we have deliberately perused even six of them : and we can sincerely add , that we had almost forgotten that there are any such notes % &c . when this objection was presented to our e } 'es The
practical effect of these appendages we believe to be very iii considerable . They who are most anxious to gain an acquaintance with the scriptures , look , in the first instance , at the text ; and hence , although we are earnestly desirous that the sacred volume be
disseminated by the Bible Society , and by some other religious bodies , without even the semblance of notes and comments , we must own that we cannot regard the plea before us as a solid argument for withdrawing our support from the institution . ~
But " the text of the public version is occasionally spurious , often incorrect ; and the translation itself contains numerous errors ' . " We admit , substantially , the truth of this statement .
At the same time , we appeal to the discrimination , the justice , the candour of the objectors , whether the public version , with all its faults , be not sufficient to instruct men in the
pure faith and morals of the gospel ? When we cannot do good to the utmost extent of our wishes , let us do as much as is within our power ; provided we do not violate our integrity . Of what text or what version of the
Bible can we pronounce that it is free from blemishes ? The difficulty of editing and of making such an one , far exceeds what persons unacquainted with these studies can imagine . And , in the mean time , shall we put forth no efforts for supplying men with
copies of the records of Revelation ? Is it of no importance that we publicly express our attachment to scripture as the rule of our faith and practice , and co-operate with all the professors of Christianity in perhaps the
only religious design where an almost universal co-operation is admissible ? Brotherly love will be a gainer by the union : nor will the progress of biblical and scriptural criticism be retarded . We must circulate the sacred
volume , in order that men may have a desire of being better acquainted with its contents . Never was it so widely disseminated among us as during the present reign : and it is a memorable fact that , within the same
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R eview . — Bible Society . 571
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1815, page 371, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1761/page/43/
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