S2 THE REV. JOHN SHARP, M.A., ON THE LAST 



and expressed by him in a somewhat augmented and specialized 

 form of the Eoman alphabet. 



At a meeting in Oxford, a quarter of a century ago 

 (November 3rd, 1885), the late Sir Monier Monier- Williams, 

 the Professor of Sanskrit, mentioned the Scriptures in 160 

 languages, which he had seen displayed at an Exhibition in 

 Calcutta, and added : " What must have been the feeling of 

 the proud Hindu and Muhammadan in beholding this strange 

 sight ? How vast the difference of their own ideas in regard to 

 their own sacred books ! To translate the Veda or the Kuran 

 into other languages they consider simple desecration. It is 

 the sound and intonation of the sacred Sanskrit and of the 

 sacred Arabic which is of primary importance and primary 

 efficacy ; the sense is merely secondary. Millions and millions 

 who know nothing of Sanskrit are obliged to hear and repeat 

 the Yeda in Sanskrit, and millions who are wholly ignorant of 

 Arabic are obliged to hear and repeat the Kuran in Arabic. 

 Think of what would happen, if no Christian in any part of 

 the world were allowed to hear, read, or repeat his Bible except 

 in Hebrew or Greek ! "* 



When the nineteenth century commenced, translators in 

 successive generations had provided versions of Holy Scripture 

 in some fifty languages. But it was only a portion of these 

 that was available for practical use through the good offices of 

 certain presses or Societies. By the close of the century, 

 without counting some defunct or no longer needful translations, 

 the late Eev. J. Gordon Watt tabulated 111 languages with a 

 version of the whole canonical Bible, 91 others with a version 

 of the New Testament, and 204 more with a version of at least 

 one book of the Bible in them.f The numbers now grow year 

 by year. And as in the early centuries of the Christian 

 Church, the unique importance of the Scriptures attracted to 

 them many skilful translators, and led to the invention of 

 alphabets to enable their translations to be set down in writing, 

 so in the last century unsparing efforts and large sums of 

 money have been spent in improving earlier versions, that 

 students of the Bible might have access to the most reliable 

 text, and the most exact rendering of it. What the revisers of 

 the English Bible did in one case, many a company of scholars 

 has been doing again and again at the cost of the Bible Societies 



* The Holy Bible and the Sacred Boohs of the East, p. 33. 

 t Four Hundred To7igues, by J. Gordon Watt, M.A., p. 11. 



