SUPPLEMENT. CHINESE. REPRINTS to the amount of 3000 copies have been lately made, by the missionaries, of detached books of the New Testament; and several sums have been granted by the British and Foreign Bible Society towards the purchase and distribution of the Chinese New Testament, as revised by Dr. Gutzlaff. But the most important work yet remaining to be noticed, in connection with China, is the completion of the revision of the New Testament, which had for some years been in process of preparation by the joint efforts of European and American missionaries. There is some reason, however, to fear that the printing of this work will be delayed, in consequence of the lengthened and still unsettled controversy respecting the proper Chinese term for the name of Deity. Possibly this circumstance may give rise to the publication of different editions, with a change of terms to meet the conscientious convictions of the respective parties. It is at any rate satisfactory to find that such are now the facilities for producing books in China, that both the missionaries of the London Missionary Society and Dr. Gutzlaff propose publishing the whole of the New Testament at the price of about threepence or threepence halfpenny per copy.1 INDIA. GREAT efforts are now being made for a wider distribution of the Scriptures in India than has yet been accomplished. It has even been contemplated to supply every family in India, having a member who can read, with a portion of the Word of God. With the view of carrying out this important project as far as practicable, numerous editions of detached books of the Scriptures in the various languages of India have lately been issued from the press. In aid of these reprints and their 1 Forty-sixth Report of British and Foreign Bible Society, p. cix. circulation, the British and Foreign Bible Society has lately voted the sum of £1500 to the Madras Committee, and another sum of nearly double that amount to the Calcutta Committee. Several important revisions of accredited versions, as the Malayalim, Telinga, Hindustani, Gujerattee, and Mahratta, are at the present moment in process of preparation. In Canarese, a thoroughlyrevised translation of the New Testament (mentioned p. 122) has been completed, under the patronage of the British and Foreign Bible Society; and the Canarese Old Testament is now passing through the same process of revision, under the care of the Rev. G. H. Weigle. A revision of the Old Testament in Hindi and Nagri characters has likewise been completed, and an edition of 3000 copies has been printed at Allahabad. The revision of the Tamul Old Testament (p. 117) is now being printed under the title of the "Union Version of the Old Testament;" the edition is to be printed at Madras, and is to consist of 3500 copies. The revision of the entire version of the Tamul New Testament has not yet been accomplished; but detached books have been printed immediately on completion, to meet the urgent demands for copies. In Sindhee, Captain G. Stack has furnished a new translation of the Gospel of St. Matthew, 500 copies of which are ordered to be printed. The following editions have been recently issued by the Baptists in India : : 4500 copies of the Gospels and Acts, in Hindi. 62,500 copies of the New Testament, in Hindustani. 7500 copies of portions of the New Testament, in Sanscrit. Other large editions are still in progress, especially of the Old Testament, in Bengali and in Sanscrit, by the Rev. Mr. Wenger, a Baptist missionary. ARMENIAN. A REFERENCE edition of the Armenian New Testament has been lately published, at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible Society; and means to print a pocket edition of the Testament have, at the earnest request of the missionaries, been granted by the same Society. The sum of £3000 has been voted by the American Bible Society for an edition of the whole Bible in Modern Armenian, an edition of 500 copies of the Old Testament having been printed previously as an experiment. An edition of the Ararat Armenian New Testament is also now printing, under the care of the Rev. Messrs. Holmes and Wood, the American missionaries, at Constantinople. The following gratifying statements have been received in the last reports:- "The American missionaries continue to receive most encouraging and cheering accounts of those Armenians who have embraced Protestantism. Their numbers augment daily, and in the far distant town of Aïntab, which lies about four caravan days' journey to the north of Aleppo, the Armenian Protestant Church had, by the last accounts, a congregation of upwards of 200 adults. This good work has sprung up mainly by the simple reading of the Scriptures; and similar delightful results have taken place in several other places in Turkey."1 1 Forty-sixth Report of British and Foreign Bible Society, p. lxxxi. BRETON. A NEW edition of the Breton New Testament is now passing through the press, more than half of the former edition having been disposed of in the short space of twenty months. ENGLISH. A REVISED edition of the authorised English version has lately been published at New York, under the sanction of the "American Bible Union" institution of that city. In this edition the phraseology of the authorised version is to a great extent retained, but some corrections and emendations, proposed by eminent biblical scholars, have been introduced; and the ecclesiastical and Latinised terms, employed in certain passages by King James's translators, are rendered into plain English words, adapted to the comprehension of unlearned readers. GERMAN. SINCE the last revolutionary eruption in Germany, legal permission has been granted to colporteurs to distribute the Scriptures; and the very governments who were previously most opposed to this efficient mode of introducing the Scriptures into the families of the poor, now sanction with their authority the operations of the missionaries. In consequence of the very increased circulation of the Scriptures which has resulted from colportage in Germany, several large editions of the Lutheran version have lately passed through the press, at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible Society; and likewise an edition, in 32mo., of Kistemaker's New Testament, for the benefit of Roman Catholics. A translation of the Psalms into German, by the late Dr. Van Ess, for the Roman Catholics, has also been adopted by the Society. NEW ZEALAND OR MAORI. As the blessed effects of the diffusion of the Scriptures in this island have scarcely been mentioned sufficiently in detail in our memoir on the Maori version, it may be well here to adduce a few recent testimonies on this truly interesting subject. Europeans say that they think the New Zealanders a very tame and inoffensive people. So they are; but they should have come to live among them thirty years ago, before the influence of the Gospel manifested itself. I remember to have been in bodily fear for a month at a time, and was not sure of my life for half an hour; but the case is vastly different now. The Saviour is loved by many hundreds; and God, I hope, who is a Spirit, is worshipped in spirit and in truth." The spiritual history of Christianity in New Zealand is briefly related by the Rev. R. 1 Rev. Mr. Puckey, of Kaitaia, in Church Missionary Record for 1849, p. 212. Davis, of the Church Missionary Society, in the following words. After alluding to the supposed state of unusual prosperity which attended the earlier years of the Mission, he says: "Many, when they received baptism, appeared to congratulate themselves on having thus attained the summit of their wishes: they were now believers, exalted above their former standing, and seemed to expect that by the mere rite, as by a charm, they would be delivered from the power and dominion of sin, and that God in all things would be propitious to them. Some of them became great disciplinarians, and many acquired much knowledge of Scripture. But where this knowledge did not unveil the corruption and depravity of the human heart, it was ineffectual in the time of temptation, and numbers fell away. What once appeared to shine brightly became dim, and then vanished into deadly superstitious darkness. More recent experience has shown that those who were preserved from falling, and have been blessed up to this time with persevering grace, are even now but very babes in Christ. At that period there was much religious profession, mixed up with a degree of self-complacency, which rendered their profession doubtful: now they complain of their ignorance of Scripture, and of the depravity of their nature, and sincerely lament the hardness of their hearts; while here and there one may be found rejoicing in the love of God." After adverting to several cases of conversion and recovery from the bondage of native superstitions, the same writer then continues: "Upon the whole, there can be no doubt that the great work is advancing, although slowly; but we have learned to think and speak with caution, and to rejoice with trembling." 1 Rev. R. Davis, in Church Missionary Record for 1850, p. 155. |