THE Board of Managers of the American and Foreign Bible Society, would express their gratitude to God, for the success which has already attended their labours. Originating in the providence of God, the Institution has thus far been favoured with the approbation of his people; and the Reports and Minutes from almost every State Convention and Association throughout the Union, continue to furnish the most satisfactory assurances, that the principles of its organization and prominent objects, only require to be well understood, to secure for it the undivided and zealous co-operation of the whole denomination. In accordance with these views, the Board has determined to issue Quarterly Papers, commencing Jan. 1837; in which will be given extracts from the Correspondence of the Society, an account of all moneys received, and such other matters as may be deemed of importance to the Bible cause.

At the meeting of the Board in July last, TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS were appropriated to aid the Baptist Missionaries in India, in giving the Bengalee New Testament to the benighted millions of that dark region. This, it will be recollected, is the version which the Calcutta, the British and Foreign, and the American Bible Societies, refused to patronize, and which led to the formation of the AMERICAN AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.

At a subsequent meeting, FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS were appropriated to the Baptist General Convention of the U. S. to assist in printing and circulating the translations made by our own beloved Missionaries in Asia.

But, although it will gratify every friend of the cause, to learn that our infant society has thus been enabled by the liberality of the churches, to do something for the diffusion of sacred truth; and that many of our Associations have formed Auxiliary Societies within their bounds, and in some instances, collections, liberal almost beyond example, have been taken, or subscrip

tions and pledges made; yet the Board realize that other and still more enlarged efforts are demanded by the actual Bible destitution of the accessible portions. of the world. We do therefore fervently entreat, that the State Conventions, Associations, and Churches, desirous of giving to the nations the most faithful versions of the Sacred Scriptures that can be procured, will lose no time in forming Auxiliary Societies, so that they may, if possible, be announced in the first Annual Report of the Parent Institution. To secure this desirable object it is necessary that the Auxiliary Societies already formed, but who have not yet reported themselves, as well as those which may hereafter be organized, should as soon as practicable, forward an account of their formation to the Corresponding Secretary of the American and Foreign Bible Society, No. 82, Madison-street, N. Y. The following are some of the principal questions, which we desire you to answer.

1. When was your Society formed, and what is its name?

2. Have you adopted the Constitution recommended by the Parent Society? 3. Who are the officers of your Society?

4. What is the number of its members?

5. What is the name and address of the Corresponding Secretary of your Society?

6. What is the amount already subscribed, and the probable extent to which you can obtain funds during the current year, for the circulation of the Sacred Volume, throughout the world?

Besides the above, it will afford great pleasure to the Board, to learn any interesting facts which may stand connected with the origin of your Society, and to receive a brief statement of the opinions and feelings of its members in reference to the Bible cause.

C. G. SOMMERS,

Cor. Sec. Am. and For. Bible Soc.

Extract of a Letler from the Secretary of the London Baptist Missionary Society, to the President.

LONDON, AUG. 12, 1836.

VERY DEAR BROTHER-I hope that before you receive this, our good friend Mr. Colgate, will have received my acknowledgment of his remittance; but having since held a Committee meeting, at which your liberal donation was reported, I have now the pleasure to hand you the following Resolutions, unanimously passed on the occasion:

"Resolved, That the most cordial thanks of this Committee be presented to our Brethren constituting the American and Foreign Bible Society, for their liberal donation, and for the kindness which led them to appropriate in aid of our Bengalee version of the New Testament, the first fruits of their receipts as a distinct society.

"Resolved, further, That a copy of each of those Oriental versions, executed under the auspices of this Society, of which duplicates are in our possession, be forwarded to the American and Foreign Bible Society, as a small token of our brotherly regard."

Of course, your principal field of distribution will be the sphere occupied by your own devoted missionarics. That sphere, I rejoice to perceive, is widening more and more, and I trust you will be favoured with a succession of men, like Judson and Yates, erdued with the requisite talents for transfusing the oracles of God into the languages of the heathen. I cannot but hope also that all your men of judgment and learning will unite, heart and hand, in the arduous and necessary labours you have undertaken.

Believe me, My Dear Brother, Yours in Christian affection,

JNO. DYER.

BAPTIST MISSION ROOMS,
BOSTON, Nov. 19, 1836.

REV. CHARLES G. SOMMERS, Cor. Sec. Am. and For. Bible Society, N. Y.

MY DEAR BROTHER-At a late meeting of the Board of Foreign Missions, I was instructed to return their thanks for the very liberal donation of $5000 made by your Board, for the printing and circulating of versions of the Sacred Scriptures prepared by their missionaries.

In discharging this welcome duty, I am happy to congratulate you on the early and great success of your operations, and convey my best desires for their advancement, till every nation shall be adequately supplied in their own language with the whole word of God.

United with you in principle, aim, and effort, we regard your prosperity as essentially one with our own. We specially note with the liveliest satisfaction, the coincidence of your views with ours, relative to the entire and faithful translation of the Scriptures, as made by our missionaries; and rejoice in the assurance we are authorized to cherish therefrom, that your co-operation with us, so promptly and efficiently commenced, will be perpetual, and adequate to all our need.

Very affectionately, Yours,

L. BOLLES, Cor. Secretary.

BIBLE TRANSLATIONS.

Among modern translators of the Scriptures, the Baptist Missionaries in Asia have Occupied a very conspicuous and important station. Having learned that "the Kingdom of Christ is not of this world," they entered upon their work with a determination to please God rather than man, and have uniformly acted upon the principle, that "no prospects of usefulness, and no stretch of charity, can justify a dereliction of the truth." No conscientious Christian, therefore, will be surprised to learn, that when, by fervent prayer and diligent study, "they had ascertained the true meaning of a word," they felt, "that to conceal it by non-translation, would be to come under the curse of those who take away from the words of the Prophecy of the Book."

Wm. Carey, whose praise is in all the Churches of the East, after seven years diligent study, printed the first edition of his Bengalee New Testament at Serampore in 1800. Soon after, he was appointed Professor of Sungskrit, Bengalee, and Mahratta, in the College of Fort William, and for many years enjoyed peculiar advantages in the work of translation. So early as December 10, 1813, he writes, "the increasing and pressing demand for the Holy Scriptures is so great, that though we have ten presses constantly at work, the demands cannot be supplied. Besides the translations going on under our own superintendence, which are now twenty-one in number, and of which sixteen are in the press, we are printing a large edition of the New Testament in Chi

nese."

In 1815, Dr. Carey and his associates were employed in translating and printing the Scriptures into twenty-seven languages of Asia, spoken by more than half the inhabitants of the globe. When we contemplate, say the missionaries, the prospect presented by the completion of the versions of the Scriptures now in a course of translation, what a cheering thought, that in a few years the greater part of the heathen world, will have the word of God in their own tongue, wherein they were born. For although there will then be many languages still left without it, the population through which they extend is so small, that they scarcely amount to a tenth of the supposed population of the earth.

In addition to the labours and successes of these noble pioneers in the work of Bible translation in the East, it is now our privilege to rejoice in efforts of a kindred character, made by Baptist Missionaries from the United States. Judson, Wade, Mason, Jones, Dean, Brown, and others, either have prepared, or are now revising and perfecting, faithful versions of the Word of Life, in the languages of the Burmese, Karens, Siamese, Talings, Chinese, Shyans, &c. To print and circulate these

versions, adequate funds have not hitherto been provided, and "since the die is cast," and the Bible Societies of Asia, Europe, and America, have united in the determination neither to sanction nor patronize any version in which ẞarri(w is made to signify "immerse," what have Baptists to do but to come up to the help of the Lord, even to the help of the Lord against the Mighty! The work is great, but if God be for us, our ultimate success is secure.

SENTIMENTS OF TRANSLATORS.

WM. TYNDALL, 1523.

A thousand books had the Papists rather to be put forth against their abominable doings and doctrine, than that the Scripture should come to light. For as long as they may keep that down, they will so darken the right way with the mist of their sophistry, and so wrest the Scripture unto their own purpose, expounding it in many senses before the unlearned lay people; when it hath but one simple, literal sense, whose light the owls cannot abide, that though thou feelest in thine heart, and art sure, that all is false which they say, yet thou couldest not solve their subtile riddles. Which thing only moved me to translate the New Testament. Because I had perceived, by experience, that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth, except the Scriptures were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue, that they might see the process, order, and meaning of the text.

In disputing with one who was accounted a learned man, being hard pressed by the arguments of truth, he broke out into this blasphemous expression; "We had better be without God's laws than the Pope's ;"-Tyndall, filled with godly indignation, replied; "I defy the Pope and all his laws!" Adding, "should God spare my life a few years, I will cause the boy who drives the plough to know more of the Scripture than you do." A memorable declaration, and which, blessed be God!-was accomplished.

MYLES COVERDALE, 1535.

Considering how excellent knowledge and learning an interpreter of Scripture ought to have in the tongues, and pondering also mine own insufficiency therein, and how weak I am to perform the office of a translator, I was the more loath to meddle with this work. Notwithstanding, when I considered how great pity it was that we should want it so long; and being grieved that other nations should be more plenteously provided for in their mother tongues than we; therefore, when I was instantly required, though I could not do it so well as I would, I thought it yet my duty to do my best, and that with a good will.

Seeing that this diligent exercise of translating, doth so much good, and edifieth in other languages, why should it do evil in ours? Methinks we have great occasion to give thanks unto God, that he hath opened unto his Church the gift of interpretation and of printing-and that there are now at this time so many, who with such diligence and faithfulness interpret the Scripture, to the honour of God, and edifying of his people. Wherein, like as when many are shooting together, every one doth his best to be highest the mark; and though they cannot all attain thereto, yet one shooteth nigher than another, and hitteth it better than another; yea, one can do it better than another. And though I have failed any where, and there is no man but he misseth in some thing, Christian love shall construe all to the best, without any perverse judgment.

Howbeit, whereinsoever I can perceive by myself, or by the information of others, that I have failed, as it is no wonder, I shall now, by the help of God, overlook it better and amend it.

WILLIAM CAREY, OF SERAMPORE.

In reading the Scriptures in the original languages, and consulting them habitually, in availing themselves of the assistance of versions and not resting in them, but comparing them with one another and with the original, the sole aim of the Serampore translators has been to discover the real sense of every passage, and to express it with clearness and precision. "We never print any translation, says Dr. Carey in 1805,

until every word has been revised and re-revised. Whatever helps we employ, I have never yet suffered a single word, or a single mode of construction, to pass without examining it and seeing through it. I read every proof sheet twice or thrice myself, and correct every letter with my own hand. Some mistakes may have escaped observation. Indeed, I never yet thought any thing perfect that I have done. I have no scruple, however, in saying, that I believe every translation we have printed, to be a good one.' And in a brief memoir of the Serampore Missionaries, printed in 1827, we find this remark ;-" In one word, our sole aim has ever been, and will continue to be, that of presenting to the natives of India, THE WORD OF LIFE, in its nearest approach to the mind of God contained in the original record."

ADONIRAM JUDSON, BURMAH.

Brother Judson, in the commencement of his missionary career, expressed his conviction of the impropriety of transferring any portion of the Bible capable of being literally translated. In the sermon on Baptism preached at Calcutta, Sept. 27, 1812, he says "Had the Greek word ẞanríw which denotes the principal action in this ordinance, been translated, in the English version of the New Testament, there would probably have been, among English readers, no dispute concerning its import. Had either of the English words, wash, or sprinkle, or immerse, been substituted for the Greek word, an English reader would instantly conceive an appropriate meaning. But, UNHAPPILY, our translators have retained the original word, and contented themselves with merely changing its termination."

When the refusal of the Calcutta Bible Society, to aid in printing Yates' version of the Bengalee New Testament, was communicated to our missionaries in Burmah in 1832, Brother Judson wrote as follows:

"We are sorry that the Society is lending itself to aid a party, and taking ground which the increasing light of a few years will show to be untenable. The only fair and honourable course for them to pursue, is to afford impartial aid to all denominations of evangelical Christians, leaving the various translators to their own judgment and conscience."

ENGLISH BIBLE.

The reformation from Popery in England is attributable, mainly, to the translating and printing the English Bible; and the names of those excellent men, who were the instruments of accomplishing this great work, should be had in everlasting remembrance. Versions of different portions of the sacred volume, were made in the Saxon tongue, at earlier periods, but the first complete translation of the whole Bible into English was accomplished by John De Wycliffe, between the years 1360 and 1380. Many copies of this volume were made when it was completed, which was about a century before the introduction of printing into England, several of which copies, notwithstanding the orders to burn them, are still extant. His New Testament was first printed in 1731, and again in 1810. The following extract from the Canon of Leicester, will show how bitterly the Clergy of the 14th century were opposed to the translation of the Bible.

"Christ delivered his Gospel to the Clergy and Doctors of the Church, that they might administer to the laity and weaker persons, according to the state of the times and the wants of men. But this master John Wycliffe translated it out of Latin into English, and thus laid it more open to the laity, and to women who could read, than it had formerly been to the most learned of the Clergy, even to those of them who had the best understanding. And in this way the Gospel pearl is cast abroad, and trodden under foot of swine; and that which was before precious to both Clergy and laity, is rendered as it were, the common jest of both. The Jewel of the Church, is turned into the sport of the people, and what was hitherto the principal gift of the Clergy and divines, is made for ever common to the laity."

Wycliffe died in 1384; but by the decree of the Council of Constance 14141418, his memory was pronounced infamous; his manuscripts were condemned; his remains were taken from "the consecrated ground," and cast upon a dunghill, then burned, and his heretical ashes thrown into the river. The dignitaries of the Church, used every effort to prevent the circulation of the Scriptures in the ordinary language of the people; and though the art of printing was introduced into England about 1474, yet no English Testament was printed till 1526, and then at a Foreign press.