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688 Review ~—Bible Society * s Turkish Testament .
Untitled Article
" telling" what we deliberately consider as " the truth . " * We shall always endeavour , as we have , thus far , endeavoured , to aid the circulation of the Sacred Volume . But we distinguish between the end and the means . The British and Foreign Bible Society , while yet in its infancy , was more attentive to the letter and the spirit of its declared principle than it has been during- its more advanced
stages , buccess can render bodies , of men , as well , as individuals , less vigilant and careful . These observations are far from being irrevelant to a review of the controversy between Dr . Henderson and Professor Lee . The pamphlets before us have arisen , in effect , from
the extent of the agency procured by the Society , and from some want of judgment in the selection of the agents . Dr . Henderson , we doubt not , is a man of solid worth and merit : yet we must be permitted to question his
qualifications as an oriental scholar and a scriptural critic , * His complaint is , in substance , the following , that in Ali Bey ' s Turk ? sh Version of the New TestaiBejit £ printed in Paris , 1819 , and circtai ^ ed ifirtder the sanction of the Committee of the
British and Foreign Bible Society , are numerous and gross and hurtful errors ; prejudicial to purity of faith , revolting to accurate taste , and bearing throughout marks of a most censurable accommodation to
Mohammedan practices and ideas . Concerning these things Dr . Henderson remonstrated with the Committee : his remonstrance , however , being ultimately ineffectual , and Ali Bey ' s Version being corftinued in circulation by them , though with some few modifications , he has retired from the service of the Society , and now makes his appeal to its members and to the public . It certahily appears from the minutes of the General Committee , and from those of the Sub-Committee , " in which the subject of the Turkish Testament was brought under consideration /* that great pains were employed to procure the opinions oi competent judges of the Version . Among * the names of some distin-* Gal . iv . 1 G .
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test against so large an appropriation of the funds of the Society . Many of those agents , are , in effect , missionaries ; so that there is at least danger of oral notes and comments accompanying the distribution of not a few even of those copies _ of the Bible ,
which , ostensibly , are distributed without any note or comment whatsoever . If it be alleged , that , as the consequence of the agents being more numerous , more Bibles are really put into circulation , an < J more money obtained for tlie institution , we may demur to the principle of the allegation , even should we allow the fact . We
cannot grant that for a highly excellent purpose—no , not far the best of all —money is to be sought and procured without reasonable discrimination : we must observe , that , every measure pursued should accord with the dignity and sacredness of the design . Our view of the real interests of the
Society , is the same with Dr . flenderson ' s . ( Pref . p . v . ) We deprecate any thing like a selfisli , gainful and mendicant spirit—any thing like a departure from first and noble principles : on which account , we must , in particular , express our regret that so very considerable a sum is expended
on printing Monthly Eos tracts . This measure is virtually , if not literally , a deviation from the original and repeatedly professed object of the institution . What , in truth , are these monthly extracts , for the most part , but notes and comments ; religious tracts 9 often containing sentiments and
phraseology , which , as we believe , will scarcely bear the test of the volume that they aim to recommend ? This consideration , together with the circumstances on which we have already insisted , has , we acknowledge , shaken
our confidence in the judgment and good faith of the Directors of the Bible Society ; while the strains of fulsome and reciprocal panegyric , and the ostentatious homilies , which are so frequently heard at its meetings ,
both in town and country , the unmeasured praise bestowed upon its friends , the censures pointed against its real or supposed adversaries , are greatly offensive to men of correct taste and
sober piety . Let us not be reckoned among the enemies of the institution , for thus
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1824, page 688, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2530/page/48/
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