OF THE BIBLE INFERRED FROM ITS VERSIONS. 



93 



and 16SG. In this last, e.g., we read in Acts xiii, 2 : " Or 

 comme Us offroient ait Seigneur Ic Sacrifiec de let Mcsse.''* 



Moreover, from the nature of the case, the first attempt to 

 render the Scriptures into a fresh language must always be 

 tentative and imperfect. No Bible translation emerges from 

 the translator's brain, as Athene was fabled to have sprung, 

 full-panoi)lied, from the head of Zeus. The Bible learns to 

 utter God's thoughts in a new tongue as a child learns to talk. 

 First in broken words, wdiich gradually gain shape and distinct- 

 ness ; then in sentences, which, though disjointed at lirst, grow 

 more and more closely coiniected, till ultimately tlie child's 

 words become a more or less complete vehicle of his ideas. 

 Behind the finished Book lie its earlier sections, the New 

 Testament or the Psalter or one or two Gospels ; behind these, 

 again, lie the first attempts at the Lord's Prayer and a few 

 scattered texts. Arduous preliminary labour is often necessary. 

 About 200 lano;uaoes have been reduced to written form and 

 provided for the first time with an alphabet and a grammar, 

 simply that they might become channels for the Gospel. 



Such was the life- history of the Bible prepared in New 

 England by the earliest Protestant missionary, John Eliot, one 

 of tlie Pilgrim Fathers. He began to study the language of the 

 Massachusetts Indians, about the year 1643, with the help of an 

 Indian who had been captured in war. Soon the infant 

 Massachusetts Bible began to learn its new lesson, and growing 

 day by day, it stood forth twenty years later in com.plete man- 

 hood. At the end of his Indian Grammar, Eliot lifts the veil 

 from its history and tells us a little of what it cost. He writes : 

 " I have now finished what I shall do at present : And in a word 

 or two to satisfie the prudent Enquirer how I found out these 

 new wayes of Grammar, wliich no other Learned Language (so 

 far as I kno\y) useth ; I thus inform him : God first put into my 

 heart a compassion over their poor Souls, and a desire to teach 

 them to know Christ, and to bring them into his Kingdome. 

 Then presently I found out (by Gods wise providence) a preg- 

 nant witted young man, who had been a Servant in an English 

 house, who pretty well understood our Language, better than he 

 could speak it, and well understood Ids own Language, and hath 

 a clear pronunciation : Him I made my interpreter. By his 

 help 1 translated the Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and 



* It must in justice be added that thesa Testaments were afterwards 

 repudiated by the ecclesiastical authorities. 



