o52nd OEDINAEY GENEliAL MEETING, 



HELD IN THE ROOMS OF THE INSTITUTE, ON MONDAY, 

 MARCH 2nd, 1914, AT 4.30 p.m. 



The Eev. Canon E. B. Girdlestoxe, M.A., Vice-Pkksident, 

 TOOK THE Chair. 



The Minutes of the preceding Meeting were read and confirmed, and 

 the Secretary announced the election of Mr. George Avenell as an 

 Associate of the Institute. 



TRU CHARACTER OF THE BIBLE INFERRED FROM 

 ITS VERSIONS. By the Eev. T. H. Daklow, M.A., 

 Literary Superintendent of the Bible Society. 



MGEE than forty years ago Henry Eogers, the author of The 

 Eclipse of Faith, published a volume of lectures which he 

 entitled The Superhuman Origin of the Bible inferred from itself . 

 The lecturer set out to show that Holy Scripture cannot be 

 accounted for as the mere product of human faculties and forces. 

 He argued with singular power " that the Bible is not such a 

 book as man would have made, if he could ; or could have made, 

 if he would." 



The present paper only attempts to illustrate and develop 

 one minor aspect of a corresponding argument. For several 

 years it has fallen to my lot to study the history of Bible 

 translation. And I venture to believe that certain conclusions 

 in regard to the character of the Bible may be inferred from its 

 versions in so many varieties of human speech. 



To begin with, let us recall one fact which is so obvious that 

 it escapes attention. To nine hundred and ninety-nine persons 

 out of every thousand the Bible can only come in the shape of 

 a translation. Even among the members of the Victoria 

 Institute many would confess that they do not habitually 

 read their daily portion of Scripture in Hebrew or Greek. 

 And for the mass of mankind such reading of the original 

 text is plainly impossible* — and always will be. God's Book 



