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4 HENRY H. TUCKER, Editor GOD FORBID. This expression occurs fifteen times in the common version of the New Testament, to-wit: Luke xx: 16, Ro mans iii :4, 5, 31, vi :2,15, vii:7,l3, ix :14, xi :1,11,1 Cor. vi :15, Gal. ii :17, iii :21, vi :14. In the original Greek the expression does not occur at all! Tn every case the words used by the sacred writers are me genoito; and these words mean simply, Let it not be; no more and no less. The name of God is not there, nor is it alluded to or implied in any way whatever. How King James’ translators ever came to translate the words me genoito into God forbid, is a mystery. It may be said, indeed, that God only has absolute power to forbid, and that the earnest desire that a thing shall never be, res,lves itself into a prayer embodied in the words, God forbid. But while this may be very good doctrine, tbe so-called translation is not a translation, either good, bad or indifferent. It may be said, too, that the words me genoito are more emphatic in Greek than the words, Let it not be in English, and that King James’ servants in their anxiety to re produce the emphasis, neglected to translate the words, and substituted an English expression which, while it fairly represents the vehemence, utterly misrepresents the language. So let it be; but if this article should ever re appear in some other tongue, we hope eur expression »o let it be will not be translated God grant it. Yet, were this done, the case would be exactly parallel to the work of King James’ men, ex cept as to the emphasis. The Revisers in their marginal note use the words Be it not so, which.it will be seen, cor respond exactly in sense to the words used by us, Let it not be. Some of the commentators, in order to preserve the emphasis, use the words, By no means; and Dr. Conant, with the same object, says, Far be it; and this, to some ex tent, avoids tameness and comes nearer the spirit of the original; though, in fact, it is impossible to express with exactness in English both the meaning Irvor of the Greek. But le difficulties may be, it is admitted that God forbid is ation of me genoito; and it y objectionable on the ■ it makes an unauthorized name of God, and hence ofanity. If me genoito had red, Never while the world translation, ridiculous as it would have (been quite as le the spirit would have 1 preserved, and the pro fanity avoided. Let us not be under stood, however, as approving a render ing so absurd. Yet, strange to say, the revisers have reproduced the expression God forbid tn fourteen out of the fifteen cases where it is used. In their marginal note on Romans iii :4, they say, “Or, i>e it not so, and so elsewhere,” mean ing thereby, that wherever the words me genoito occur, they may be rendered, Be it not so. But why did they not put the words Be it not so in the text? They knew that this was the proper translation ; why did they not adopt it? We can see but one reason for it; the Canterbury rules put them in leading strings, and did not allow them to do what they knew to be right. But whatever the reason may have been, the fact is, that the reproduction of an error so glaring, and which nobody has ever attempted to defend, greatly di minishes the authority of the New Ver sion, and convinces us that it ought not to be and cannot be a finality; and we must fall back for comfort on the hope that there is a good time coming, when people will be willing to have the Bible translated into English, un der no restrictions of any kind, or from king, or convocation, or anybody else. It is noticeable that in one place out of fifteen where the expression me gen oito is used, the Revisers have rendered it just as they ought to have done. In the common version Gal. vi :14 reads thus: “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross.” The same passage in the New Version reads thus: “Far be it from me to glory save in the cross.” Why the Revisers should have rendered me genoito properly “Far be it” in one place and “God forbid” im properly in fourteen places is a won der and nothing less. If they dared to face the Canterbury dictators in one instance why not in all? We do not know. But the facta in the case go to show that they knew what was right and failed to do it. What is most remarkable of all is, that the American revisers allowed the phrase God forbid to pass without pro test when not one of them will say that those words are a translation of me genoito. How could this ever have happened? We do not know. Not a Baptist sermon has ever been /reached in a portion of Texas, two hundred miles square, between the Brazos on the South and the Kansas on the North, and Wichita county on the East and New Mexico on the West. This section is fast filling up with good citizens, and the General Association of Texas will occupy it. THE CHRISTIAN INDEX AND SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST: THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 1881. BELIEVE AND SHUDDER. In the common version of the New Testament James ii :19 reads as fol lows: “The devils also believe and tremble.” In the revised version it reads thus: “The devils also believe and shudder.” The New York Observer objects to the change on the ground that there is not enough difference in the meaning of the two words to justify it. We approve of the change, and for the following reasons: 1. There are two worsts in Greek which may be trans lated tremble. One is tremo, the other is phrisso; both have substantially the same meaning, differing chiefly in this, that the latter is the stronger expres sion ; if it means the same as the former word, it means it more intensely. Now, supposing that the words tremble and shudder mean exactly the same thing in English, shudder is the stronger word of the two; and strong Greek ought, if possible, to be translated into strong English; the Greek in James ii :19 is phrisso, the strong word, and not tremo, the weak one. As tremo is to phrisso in Greek so is tremble to shudder in English ; and this fact ought not to be ignored in exact translation. 2. The word tremble is of Greek origin, while the word shudder is of Teutonic origin ; and whenever the choice is be tween a native word and a foreign one, preference, in the absence of special reason to the contrary, should always be given to the former. Unlearned persons, who know nothing of the origin of words, are, nevertheless, al ways more impressed with those which are of blood kin to them; and the learned are still more deeply impressed, for they see not only the difference, but the reason of it. 3. The word tremble is applied to inanimate objects as well as to sentient beings, while the word shudder is never used (unless by a strong figure) except in reference to creatures. Thus, a leaf may trem ble; no one would say that a leaf shudders; the most illiterate person would not make this mistake. As the Apostle James is speaking of persons and not of things, the word ought to be used which applies to persons and not to things; hence shudder is the proper translation. 4. One may trem ble from physical causes only, as from cold, ague, or nervousness ; one shud ders only from moral causes, such as fright, dread, or horror. The word tremble gives the idea of shaking or quivering without reference to the cause of the shaking; the word shud der conveys the same idea of shaking, and at the same time points back to the cause of it, that is, to some emotion or moral feeling. Now, as the devils stand quaking in the presence of God, not from mechanical causes or physi cal infirmity, but from mingled emo tions of hatred and dread, it is proper that a word shodld be used which Ex actly and fully describes their condition. The word shudder does this; the word tremble does not. Hence, the revisers were right in making the change; which the Greek justifies, if indeed it does not make necessary. In speaking of devils, we used the word quaking in preference to the word shaking. ■ There is the same difference between these words, as between the words tremble and shudder. Quake is the stronger word; “the hand may shake, or the head may shake, but it takes the whole body to quake.” And again, things shake but never quake; persons do both; when they quake it is always from moral causes, never from physical. This has not always been the usage, it is true; but it is the shape into which our language is now crys talizing. The compound word earth quake is almost the only modern repre sentative of the loose usage of former days. The drift of the usus loquendi is towards exactness, and towards the ob serving of nice distinctions; and this is one reason among others, why a new version of the Scriptures is needed. The Baptist papers are exercised about a Dr. Kendrick, one of the American revisers of the New Testament, who gave co-oper ation, endorsement and moral support to the new translation of Rev. xix. 13, where it says of Christ that He is arrayed in a gar ment sprinkled with blood They would have it read “dipped," as in the Authorized Version.—Southern Churchman. We were not aware until we saw the statement in the above named Epis copal paper that the Baptist papers were exercised on this subject; but then, one always has to go away from home to get the news. A solitary writer in the Baptist Weekly complained of the New Version on this account, but this was because he did not know that the Greek word accepted by the revis ers as the true text, was properly trans lated sprinkled. If the word were bebame non it would certainly have been trans lated dipped in; but the word is eran tismenon, and this is translated sprink led, just as it ought to be. We are reluc tant to think that our esteemed contem porary would make an unfair statement and must therefore suppose that he was not aware of the fact that the Greek word is erantismenon, (sprinkled,) and not bebamenon, (dipped in). We are obliged to think, too, that he has not read the passage in the New Version; for if he had, he would have seen the marginal note which says, “Some ancient authorities read dipped in." This indicates two things: 1. That the word accepted as the text is not bebamenon. 2. That if it had been bebamenon, it would have been transla ted dipped in. Os course if our brjther of the Churchman had seen this, he would not have said what he did. It is well not to meddle with the New Version without reading it We beg, too, in the most deferential manner, to suggest to our polite friend of .the Churchman, that the article prefixed to Dr. Kendrick’s name is significant of disrespect. We must think that it slipped in by accident, and is not in dicative of intentional discourtesy. Probably it was a typographical error. Dr. J. R. Graves and Close Com munion.—Has Dr. Graves abandoned the doctrine of close communion ? This question is asked us with a good deal of earnestness. It is not easy, we may say it is not possible, to answer it with a plain yes, or no. His position is this : that Baptists must either abandon the practice of communion with “members of sister churches of the same faith and order,” or they must open their doors to Pedobaptists and the rest of the world. He selects the former of these alternatives, and consequently is close, very close, in his terms of com munion. On the other hand,he declares that the position heretofore held by himself, and now held by us, on the subject of communion,is “inconsistent, unscriptural, and evil only;” we quote his own words; and judging by these words only, Dr. Graves might be re garded as an open communionist. What is remarkable is, that he regards us as such, but we are happy to know that our views are in accord with those of the Baptist denomination for cen turies back, and with those now held by all our brethren with the exception of those who have joined with Dr. Graves in his new departure; and de parture it appears to us, is the proper name for it. We have not departed, we stand just where we always stood, and there we expect to remain. Don Quixote had his Sancho Panza; and, as was meet, Talmage has his Miller! In an attack on the Revised New Testament, Dr. A. W. of Charlotte, N. C., tells us that “what is good in it is not new, and what is nei\ is not good that “the old English of our version has been wantonly sacri ficed ;” that “texts, treasured up in the popular heart, and enriched beyond description by the tender, touching, sacred associations of hundreds of years, have been rudely seized, tortured and crucified into accord with the friv olous conceits of a pedantic and bom bastic criticism and that “the Grand Old Tree, which sheltered generation after generation, who have fed and feasted upon its fruits and been healed by its leaves, is recklessly clipped, and maimed, and stripped of its luxuriant foliage,” etc. He even goes so far as virtually to exclude the Revisers from salvation; for he says that in omitting I. John 5 : 7 from the text of Scripture, they have “taken away from the wSMds of thJ book of this prophecy;” quoting Rev. 22 :19, to describe their offence —which passage announces as the penalty to be visited dn the offender, that “God shall take away his part out of the book of life.” Now, to all this the sufficient answer, for every one who knows the reverend gentle man, is—that A. W. Miller said it. God Save the King.—This expres sion occurs four times in the common version of the Old Testament, to-wit: 1 Sam. x :24, 2 Sam. xvi:l6, 2 Kings xi :12, 2 Chro. xxiii .11. In the original Hebrew it does not occur at all! The words there used are yechi ham-melech, which mean sim ply May the king live, and the same words are used in all the versions. What we have said in another article on the words God forbid, is equally ap plicable in the present case, except that the error here is less excusable than that in the New Testament, because ‘there is not here so great a call for em phasis, and the needless use of the name of God is more wanton. The French expression Vive le roi is an ex act translation of the Hebrew, and what is unusual, the phrase is more energetic in French than in English. We hope that those who are now engaged in the revision of the Old Testament will give us the text just as it was written, and without the unwarranted variations in troduced or sanctioned by the servants of King James. The Right Hon. Earl Nelson con tributes an article to the Nineteenth Century, on the unity of the church, in which he says, “Baptists are avow edly beceming more negligent in en forcing the baptism of their adults.” What he means must be this: that the tendency of open-communion among the English Baptists (whichhe thinks is growing) is to displace the baptism of adults altogether, and as it is certain that we do not baptize our infants, the result will be that the de nomination will entirely disappear. We agree with the Earl as to this ten dency of open commnnion. About half the Baptists of Texas are within the bounds of the “General Association,” and nearly all the rest are included in the “State Convention.” But there are three other “State” Con ventions—the East Texas, the Central, and the North Texas. We hope that no personal rivalries or sectional jeal ousies have had a hand in this multi plying of organizations. Rev. Daniel Gould, who died at Dunstable, Eng., recently, in his 81st year, had been pastor of a Baptist church in that city more than 55 years. GLIMPSES AND HINTS. "For no word from God shall be void of power.” This sentence is itself a word from God, found in the Revised New Testament, Luke 1:87. The Baptist General Association of Texas, which was the first to send a missionary to the Wild Indians in the western part of the Indian Territory, was also the first to recommend, ap point and agree to support a mission ary to Brazil. It now proposes to re inforce Rev. W. B. Bagby in the latter field, by the appointment of Rev. Z. C. Taylor, a student in the Southern Bap tist Theological Seminary. Half of the outward voyage of a re cent tourist to Europe was through a dense fog. But the ship made its way toward the “desired haven” ;as truly during days of gloom as when the air was filled with sunshine. And so, the cares and sorrows of this life may darken the course of the Christian, but cannot obstruct his on-going to “the Shining Shore.”, A midnight procession of priests at Rome, two or three weeks ago, bearing the body of Pope Pius IX from the niche in St. Peter’s church where it had rested to the tomb prepared for it in the church of San Lorenzo, was in terrupted by the populace, who sought to extinguish tbe lights and to over turn the bier, and for whose suppres sion it was necessary to call out the military. The Papacy appears to be in evil odor even in its own “holy city.” Rev. M. B. Wharton, D.D., writes to Dr. Lawton that he reached London safely, Tuesday, July 26th. He heard Spurgeon preach to “a Thursday night congregation of three thousand per sons,” and was confirmed in his esti mate of Spurgeon as “the greatest of living gospel preachers.” The Cincinnati Gazette says that three-fourths, if not a larger proportion, of the 500 deaths which occurred in that city recently from the effects of excessive heat, are traceable to the in temperate use of intoxicating liquors. Read the appeal, on our second page, in behalf of the First Baptist church, New Orleans, and render help accord ing to the ability which the Lord hath given you. The field is of the highest importance, and the church is em inently worthy of succor. Memorial Baptist church, Philadel phia, of which Dr. P. 8. Henson is pas tor, is sometimes called by the profane “the church of the Holy Hippodrome.” In what sense is it a horse-course, that it should receive this queer name? To the names of Dr. W. A. Mont gomery and Dr. M. Hillsman, Asso ciate Editors, the Baptist Reflector Nashville, adds the name of Rev. E. T. Winkler, D.D., as “edi.torial contribu. tor.” “N6ne m&y this t Hpleknot undo.’’ The Texas Baptist General Associa tion will support Rev. W. M. Flournoy, appointed by our Richmond Board as missionary to Mexico. Whatever has been done in this world, minorities have done it. Even when a majority has engaged in great movements, there has been within it a band of thinkers and workers, serving as the excitative and executive force; and this band has been so small as to be a minority, not merely as regards the whole community,country, or gen eration, but as regards the very ma jority set in motion by it. The native Christians, living in the hamlets in the vicinity of Ongole, (as Dr. S. F. Smith writes to the Boston Watchman,) are accustomed to meet every morning, often to the number of 250, to spend an hour in religious wor ship before engaging in labor. Our Foreign Board, Richmond, has appointed as missionaries, (probably to labor at Tung Chow, China,) Rev. J. P. McCullough and his wife, nee Flora 0. McAdoo, both native Ten nesseans. The husband, a graduate of Rochester University and Crozer Theological Seminary, is a Baptist pas tor at Parma, N. Y. The Deseret News is responsible for the incredible statement, that the “PrayingCircle”of the Mormon church, ( according to the principal organ of that sect at Salt Lake City,) has been unceasingly praying for the death of President Garfield, as an enemy to Polygamy. Do we owe it to the Exodus that there are in Kansas, among the colored population, one association, eight or dained ministers, and twenty-five churches, with 2,200 members? Candidates for baptism among the Baptists of Berlin, Prussia, are cloth ed in robes of white. Some of the older members follow the injunction : “Greet one another with a holy kiss.” Rev. J. W. D. Creath died at Cam eron, Texas, July 28 th. A native of Virginia and entering the ministry in that State, he has been since 1846 identified with our cause in the State where his ashes await the resurrection of the just. Without the brilliancy of genius or the polish of thorough cul ture, and with no special force of in tellect, his eye has been so single, his .zeal so uniform and glowing, his pur poses so steadfast and his labors so un tiring, that we can well credit the words of the Texas Baptist Herald : “The noblest man in all our ranks has fallen.” There were some marriages in Bom bay recently, in which the youngest bridegroom was fifteen months old and the youngest bride nine months. Thou- sands will see the incongruity and ab surdity of linking that unripe age with matrimonial rites, who nevertheless link it with the ordinance of Christian profession, and see no absurdity or in congruity in the act! Rev. T. Harley, in the London Bap tist, “as an eye-witness for seven years in the Southern States,” says: "I un hesitatingly affirm that the white peo ple of the South are the truest and best friends of the colored people who live among them, and that the colored people themselves know and acknowl edge the fact.” He states that the white Baptists of Baltimore have spent from $35,000 to $40,000, in building houses of worship for colored Baptists since the close of the war. The Old-order Brethren among the Dunkards claim that baptism must be administered “in a stream, there being no Gospel for baptizing either sick or well persons in a mechanical vessel, in a house or outside.” “One of our mest learned ministers” said, the other day, to the editor of the Baptist Weekly, in relation to certain views held by some of our brethren but regarded by him as extreme: “The river Jordan, followed too far, leads to the Dead Sea.” . The funds provided by the Southern States annually for the education of the colored people, are now estimated at $1,000,000. We notice the name of Dagg’s Man ual of Theology among the text books in the Presbyterian Institute for train ing colored ministers, Tuscaloosa, Ala. The American Baptist Home Mission Society has appointed Rev. S. W. Mars ton, D.D., Secretary for the Southwest district. Dr. M. deserves “honor, love and help for his work’s sake,” and for his own. According to the Cherokee Advocate, there are in a population of about 60,- 000, in the Indian Nation, 154 Baptist churches. The Eleventh Baptist church, Phila delphia, has, in connection with its Bible-school, a class of Chinese; and Spruce street church will probably have one. John T. Wilds, in the Christian at Work, mentions an aged colored min ister at the South, who does not know the alphabet, yet can repeat more of the Scriptures than any educated man of Mr. W’s acquaintance. His mistress, in times of slavery, taught him every day a Bible verse, and he has remarka bly retained all. That mistress was, not in name only, a Christian at work ; end there were many more like her before the war than our Northern brethren think. —Hawkinsville Dispatch: We learn from Messrs. J. J. Jelks and J. 8. Wil lis, who, as the correspondent and representative of the Hawkinsville Bap tist church, attended a meeting at Sa lem church, in Wilcox county, on Sat urday and Sunday last, that action was taken preparatory to the founda tion of a new Association to be com posed of churches now represented in the Houston Association. This action was taken in accordance with the wishes of the churches in the lower counties of the Houston Association. The membership of the Houston Asso ciation had become so large, and the territory being so extensive, the meet ing believed it advisable to form a new Association. The following churches withdrew from the Houston Associa tion and will meet on Saturday before the fourth Sunday in Septem ber next with Zion Hope church, in Irwin county, for the purpose of or ganizing a new Association : Big Creek church, Wilcox county, Friendship’ Pulaski county, Pleasant Hill, Wilcox county, Salem, Wilcox county, Union, Wilcox county, Zion Hope, Irwin coun ty, Harmony, Wilcox county. The Houston Association is compos ed of forty or more churches, situated in Pulaski, Dooly, Wilcox, Irwin, Worth, Lee, and Macon counties. The annual meeting of the Association will be held with the church at Dray ton in October. It is probable that other churches will withdraw and enter the new Association. —Meriwether Vindicator: At a gen eral meeting held at the Baptist church at Hebron in the 7th district, begin ning the 23d of July the following resolutions were unanimously adopted : Whereas, the hand of an assassin has stricken down the Chief Magistrate of the United States and thereby arous ed the indignation of our entire peo ple ; Be it therefore resolved, —That it is the sense of this Christian body that our stricken Chief Magistrate be made the object of special prayer for the res toration to health and resumption of the duties of the chair of State, and that this body extent to him their con dolence and to his household their heartfelt sympathies. —Rev. Chas. A. Stakely, of Elberton, the "poet-preacher,” occupied the pul pit of the Second Baptist church of this city, last Sunday, morning and night. His sermons were very fine, and greatly enjoyed by the large con gregations present. —Rev. J. W. Fackler has tendered his final resignation as pastor of the Lumpkin Baptist church. This still leaves him in charge of the following churches: Union, Shady Grove, Elim and Shiloh. GEORGIA BAPTIST NEWS. Shady Grove church, Laurens coun ty, has been blessed with a gracious revival. The meeting lasted five days and resulted in ten accessions to the church. Pleasant Plains phurch, Washington county, held a series of interesting meetings recently, resulting in the membership being greatly revived, and fifteen accessions to the church. An interesting meeting is being conducted in the Sixth Baptist church in Atlanta. The Sunday School Convention,- of the Mount Vernon Baptist Association was held at Shady Grove church, Laurens county, commencing Friday before and including the fifth Sabbath in July. The Introductory sermon was preached by Rev. Isaac J. Peeler. Rev. J. J. Hyman was elected Presi dent and William A. Sinquefield, Sec ritary and Treasurer. Our traveling correspondent writes us that the session was one of the most pleasant he ever attended. Perfect harmony prevailed throughout, and it is hoped great good was accomplished. The Association has twenty-eight churches and twenty Sunday schools. The Cuthbert Enterprise of the fourth inst., publishes the following: “A man by the name of Jennings, and claiming to be a Baptist minister, is going through this section, taming horses, professing to cure cancers, and preaching where the churches will al low him. We warn the churches against him. A horse-tamer is a good thing, and we have seen the time when we would have been glad to have one on hand. A man who can cure cancers is certainly a great blessing. It is not because he follows either of these professions that we bring him to notice, but because he is a disorgani er, and brings trouble wherever he goes. He is recommended by nobody. On the contrary, well known ministers who know him intimately, caution the churches against him. Let him tame your horses, and cure your cancers if you will, but don’t let him preach.” —Talbotton Register: The opening sermon of Dr. Searcy at the Baptist church last Friday morning, on the occasion of the General Meeting, was a masterful production, and excited a profound impression. Dr. B. L. Ross, of Fort Valley, was in attendance on the General Meeting. He is a most genial gentle man and an eloquent preacher. The next General Meeting for the sec ond district will be held with the church in Geneva, 1882. The General Meet ing which closed on Sunday evening has been productive of much good; in structive and able discourses were preached, a feeling of renewed earnest ness in the Master’s cause seemed to have been awakened. The hospitality of the citizens and church members was open-hearted and more than suf ficient for the occasion. —Sandersville Herald : The meet ing that closed at Smyrna the past week resulted in an accession of five to the membership, three by restoration and two by baptism. The members speak of building a new church at this place at an early day. The Ministers’ and Deacons’ Meet ing at Sparta closed on Sunday last. It was, we learn from Rev. T. J. Adams, largely attended, and an occasion of very general interest. The hospitality of the good people of Sparta to the visiting members was generous and unstinted. Dr. J. J. Brantly, of Macon, in con sequence of feeble health, much to the regret of the membership, has resigned the pastoral charge of Bethlehem Bap tist church. Rev. T. J. Veazey has been called to the pastorate and will probably accept the call. —Swainsboro Herald : A protracted meeting is to commence at Swainsboro Baptist church on Saturday before the third Sabbath in this month. Ministeri al aid is solicited. —The church-building which the colored Baptists of Griffin are erecting, fell into ruins a few days ago, owing to some fault in the construction. The News says: A reporter visited the spot and found the building a complete wreck, with many huge timbers bro ken into splinters by the heavy weight. All efforts to find out any direct cause for the calamity, proved of no avail.— The generally accepted theory, how ever, is that the contractors miscalcu lated on the building material in some way, and a weak spot formed which drew the entire structure down in an instant. The timbers were not pinned together, it is presumed, and the . roof being weighty, it became top-heavy. The loss to the church will be quite severe, and is probably about five hun dred dollars. The community sym pathizes with the members, especially as this is the second time their edifice has fallen. —The following brethren were elec ted officers for the ensuing year at the recent session of the Western Sabbath School Convention held at LaGrange: Sect’y and Treas., A. H. Kirby, Owens byville; Vice-Presidents, J. T. Cline, W. H. Partridge, Ist district. J. A. Wynne, R. G. Hood, 2nd district. J. C. Smith, P. 0. Collinsworth, 3rd dis trict. A. D. Freeman, E. B. Barrett, 4th district. Executive Committee: A. R. Callaway, chairman, M. B. Har din, W. 0. Tuggle, 8. P. Callaway, W. A. Callaway.