94 THE REV. T. H. DARLOW, M.A., ON THE CHARACTER 



many Texts of Scripture : also I compiled both Exhortations 

 and Prayers by his help. I diligently marked the difference of 

 their Grammar from ours : When I found the M ay of them, I 

 would pursue a word, a Noun, a Verb, through all variations I 

 could think of. And thus I came at it. We must not sit still, 

 and look for Mira(des : Up, and be doing, and the Lord will be 

 with thee. ■ Prayer and Pains, through Faith in Jesus Christ, 

 ivill do anif thing.'' 



John Eliot's experience has been reproduced in the lives of 

 multitudes of scholars, whose prayers and pains, joined with 

 their faith, have moved away mountains of difficulty and opened 

 out a way for the voice of God to hearts hitherto unconscious of 

 His tones. Let us pay homage to the heroic drudgery of the 

 noble army of translators who have toiled with endless patience 

 to give men God's message in their mother tongue. 



All great books must in some degree suffer when they are 

 made to speak in what is not their native language. Even the 

 best translation can be no better than the copy of a picture or 

 the cast of a statue. When we take, for example, the master- 

 pieces of human literature — the Iliad or the Divina Conimcdia, 

 OY Paradise Lost, or Faust, or Macbetli—^wdi compare them with 

 their finest versions in a foreign tongue, we begin to realize how 

 much has been lost. The translation of an original poem is like 

 the wrong side of a piece of tapestry — the sharp outlines 

 vanish, the clear, bright colours are blurred. Eor a poet's 

 thought and language must needs be so fused together that it is 

 half fatal to divorce his ideas from his diction. Indeed, the 

 most perfect pieces of literature are the least capable of adequate 

 translation. 



The Bible, however, comes to us, not as perfect literature, but 

 as essentially the medium and vehicle of God's revelation. And 

 the Bible has this unique quality that it may be translated into 

 all the languages of mankind without sensibly losing its 

 majesty and tenderness and spiritual power. The Scriptures as 

 a whole can be rendered with but little sacrifice of their energy 

 and their beauty. Into whatever barbarous tongue you trans- 

 late the New Testament, it seems to fit that tongue as though it 

 had been made for it : it was made for it ! In every version the 

 Book retains its power to pierce the thoughts of the heart ; it 

 still remains sharper than a two-edged sword ; it still divides 

 joint and marrow. It does its supreme work — compared with 

 which nothing else matters. 



In his recent volume on Tlic Bible, Pi'ofessor Peake points out 

 that " we may reverently and thankfully recognize that even the 



