98 BIBLE, REVISION OF THE. 



made in one stage of the language, of a version 

 belonging to a stage widely different ; as it is a 

 revision of a work whose sacred character de- 

 mands peculiar delicacy of handling, and which 

 in its progress through the ages has at once 

 greatly modified the popular speech, and im- 

 bedded, and, as it were, colonized in its bosom 

 a large body of specialized and consecrated 

 terms. What shall be done with multitudes of 

 these terms, lying on the border-land between 

 the archaic and the modern, fluctuating in 

 meaning between the sacred and the secular, 

 can best be determined by those who have had 

 to wrestle with the problems presented by the 

 unique Biblical diction, and to reconcile the 

 claims of fidelity to the original with the 

 numberless hallowed associations that cluster 

 around the version, and utter their proculpro- 

 ani to any rude hands that may be laid upon 

 them. The Old-Testament revisers have, per- 

 haps, avoided some of the rocks on which their 

 predecessors may have stumbled, and possibly 

 have erred on the side of over-conservatism. To 

 sum up in brief the purposes and work of the re- 

 vision : It has sought, especially in the New Tes- 

 tament, to settle the original text which lies at 

 the basis of all translation. It has corrected 

 innumerable acknowledged errors, which more 

 or less disfigure the authorized version, and 

 darken its meaning. It has removed words 

 either obsolete in meaning or used in obsolete 

 senses. It has arranged the text into para- 

 graphs demanded by the sense, abolishing that 

 chopping up into verses which so impedes the 

 continuous flow of thought, and gives to the 

 narrative, argument, rhetoric, and poetry of the 

 Bible the appearance of a series of apothegms. 

 It has given to the Hebrew verse its poetical 

 structure, alike in the Old-Testament and in 

 the New-Testament citations. It has removed 

 from the chapters their unauthorized and often 

 misleading headings. It has given to the Script- 

 ure proper names uniformity of spelling. It has 

 placed on the margin not only alternative read- 

 ings in text and translation, but a large body of 

 newly-selected references to parallel and illus- 

 trative passages. And, what perhaps is not 

 the least of its services, it has set its seal on 

 the substantial fidelity and reliableness of the 

 old English Bible, and dissipated alike the 

 fears of friends and the hopes of enemies of 

 the Bible, that criticism and scholarship would 

 prove fatal to its authority, and undermine the 

 foundations of our evangelical theology. The 

 system of evangelical truth emerges with'fresh 

 luster from the trial. " Merses pro/undo, pul- 

 chrior evenit." 



What, finally, shall be the precise outcome 

 of this grand international recasting of our 

 English Scriptures, it is, perhaps, too early to 

 predict. ^ It has its defects ; but defects cleave 

 to all things human; and we feel assured that 

 time and use will make increasingly apparent 

 its great and transcendent excellences. At all 

 events, a work that for more than ten years 

 has tasked the conscientious labors of some of 



BOKHARA. 



the best scholarship of the age in connection 

 with the Book of God, can not prove in vain. 

 Its beneficent iconoclasm has forever broken 

 the spell of unreasoning idolatry that rested 

 on a single version of the Bible, without abat- 

 ing in one jot or tittle the reverence for the 

 Sacred Book itself ; and if it fail to prove 

 the ultimately accepted form of Scripture for 

 English - speaking Christendom, it will, at 

 least, have made a contribution of inestima- 

 ble importance toward that future version 

 which shall be so. 



BOKHARA, a khanate of Central Asia, nomi- 

 nally independent, but virtually controlled in 

 its foreign relations by Russia. The popula- 

 tion, including nomads, is about 2,000,000. The 

 area is something over 100,000 square miles. 

 The inhabitants are mostly Tadjiks and Uz- 

 becks, mixed with Turkomans, Arabs, and Jews. 

 The population of Bokhara, the capital city, is 

 about 30,000. A large trade is carried on with 

 Russia by means of caravans. The exports are 

 cotton, which is the leading article, dried fruit, 

 raw and dyed silk, indigo, silk sashes, tur- 

 quoises, shawls, and furs. Trade is also con- 

 ducted in English manufactures with Afghan- 

 istan, and in Persian produce with Meshed. 

 The manufactures are cotton fabrics, silks, car- 

 pets, leather, swords and knives, and jewelry. 

 In the matter of education and learning, Bo- 

 khara ranks first among the Mohammedan 

 states of Central Asia. 



The Afghan imbroglio and Russian war prep- 

 arations led to fresh political and military ac- 

 tivity in the three khanates, as well as in the 

 Turkoman country, on the part of Russia. 

 Mozaffer-ed-Din, the old and sickly Ameer of 

 Bokhara, avoided giving any occasion for Mus- 

 covite interference. Presents of arms from St. 

 Petersburg were not used, and the service of 

 military instructors sent from Tashkend was 

 politely declined. When the Afghan dispute 

 reached the stage of belligerent preparations, 

 he was warned to abstain from all intercourse 

 with his son-in-law, the Ameer of Cabul, on 

 pain of losing his throne. The decision of the 

 Russian Government to carry a branch of the 

 Transcaspian Railroad from Sarakhs to Merv, 

 and thence into Bokhara, elicited protests from 

 the aged fatalist, who desired simply to retain 

 the shadow of independence he still enjoyed. 

 The Russian Government demanded further- 

 more the cession of one of his provinces. Fi- 

 nally, about the 1st of September, the Ameer 

 resigned the throne in favor of his second son, 

 the heir-apparent and Governor of Chardjui. 

 The eldest son of Mozaffer-ed-Din, the Kette 

 Tore, was a fugitive in India. A third son 

 was brought up in the corps of pages at St. 

 Petersburg. The new Ameer, Turani Khan, 

 is described as a voluptuary, prematurely aged 

 by indulgences. The Governor - General of 

 Turkistan gave the Ameer to understand, in 

 his negotiations on the railway question, that 

 any hostile act on the part of the new Ameer 

 would have fatal results. 



