The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1881, Page 26

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

The English Bible.

One of our young readers requests us to ‘‘ tell
him in a few words something about King
James's Bible and the New Version.”” We
gladly comply with the request of our young
friend.

KING JAMES’S BIBLE.

Our common English Bible is called King
James's Bible, because it was issued in England
by authority of King James I., in the year
1611. In 1604, the proposal to revise the Eng-
lish translations of the Bible was made at a
conference held by James I. at Hampton Court.
No real opposition being offered to the proposal,
the king sketched out a plan to be adopted.
He ‘‘wished that some special pains should be
taken in that behalf for one uniform translation,
and this to be done by the best learned in both
universities (Oxford and Cambridge); after
them to be revised by the bishops and the chief
learned of the Church; from them to be pre-
sented to the Privy Council; and lastly, to be
ratified by his royal authority. And so this
whole Church to be bound upon it, and none
other.’” According to this plan the English
translation of the Bible was prepared by forty-
seven eminent scholars of King James's time;
and this translation has until now been recog-
nized as the ‘‘Authorized Version,’’ wherever
the English language is spoken.

THE NEW VERSION.

In 1870, a Convocation of the Church of
England thought it “desirable that a revision
of the Authorized Version of the Holy Scrip-
tures be undertaken.’’ Two committees, con-
sisting of English and American scholars, were
formed for this purpose. The ‘‘ Committee for
the Revision of the Old Testament’’ has not
yet completed its work; but the work of the
*¢New Testament Committee’? was published
in the month of May, and this is the “New
Version’’ of which our young friend has ‘‘ heard
so much during the past weeks.’’ It can be
had at a very low price at the book-stores, and
our friend can see for himself wherein it differs
from the one now in use. The changes do not
affect a single doctrine of God’s Word; still
the wisdom of many of those changes is fairly
questioned by eminent scholars, both in Eng-
Jand and America, and it is very doubtful
whether this ‘‘ New Version”’ will ever take the
place of ‘‘King James's Bible,’ which has
been in use for more than two centuries and a
half, and which has struck deep root in the
hearts and memories of the English speaking
people. The old readers of the Bible at least
will be of ‘Old Aunt Nancy’s” mind:

«¢¥or ten years past, and for five times ten
At the back of that, my dear,
I've made and mended and toiled and saved,
: With my Bible ever near, :
_ Sometimes it was only a verse at morn,
_ hat lifted me up from care, :
Like the springing wings of a swecet-voiced lark
_ Cleaving the golden air;

“‘And sometimes on Sunday afternoons
’Twas a chapter rich and long,
That came to my heart in its weary hour
With the lift of a triumph song.

I studied the precious words, my dear,
When a child at my mother’s knee,
And I tell you the Bible I’ve always had

Is a good enough book for me.

“T may be stubborn and out of date,

But my hair is white as snow,

And I love the things I learned to love
In the beautiful long ago.

I cannot be changing at my time;
’Twould be losing a part of myself.

You may lay the new New Testament

Away on the upper shelf.

“T cling to the one my good man read

In our fireside prayers at night;

To the one my little children lisped
Ere they faded out of my sight,

I shall gather my dear ones close again
Where the many mansions be,

And till then the Bible I’ve always had
Is a good enough book for me.”’

(For the ‘‘Lutheran Pioneer’’.)

Christ, the Model of a true Pastor.
By Rev. H. Hanser.

I.

HOW THE GATHERED CONGREGATION IS TO BE
GUIDED.

Let us learn from Christ, the good Shepherd,
how a gathered congregation is to be guided.
How did the good Shepherd guide His congre-
gation? We answer: With His Word. He
did not use any external means of constraint,
but only precept and instruction. He not only
taught on the Sabbath, but also during the
week; He made use of every opportunity
which presented itself. Moreover, He not only
taught, but also listened to what His disciples
had to say, and with endless patience led them
more and more, so far, that God’s Word alone
governed their lives, and became the light upon
their path which they followed.

He guided His followers with God’s Word.
He gives no rules of an order, does not insist
upon strict external observance of the Sabbath,

of such things, and become outwardly, in ap-
pearance, pious, without having in reality been
converted. In terrible blindness they may
soon say; I am rich, and increased with goods,
and have need of nothing,’’ while the Lord’s
true judgment is to this effect: ‘“Thou knowest
not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and
poor, and blind and naked; .. . anoint thine
eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see!’’

On the contrary, it is important according
to the model of Christ to relinquish such out-
ward signs, to refer the congregation to the
renewal from within, and if this be done slowly,
to restrain himself as a patient shepherd, but
not wish to ripen fruit, which before God is
worthless, by means of external regulations
and by urging with any law.

Another thing. Nowadays, the temptation
to organize associations within the congregation,
and to comprise everything in constitutions and
regulations, is not wanting. But how did the
good Shepherd act in this respect? He could
easily haye made various good regulations, and
the people, following Him as they did in
crowds, would gladly have observed them.
How ensily could He have regulated their
service; but He does not do so. It is always
His congregation, as such, from which He de-
sires acts of love;* for instance, when the
people were hungry in the desert, He says to
His poor congregation : ‘‘Give ye them to eat,’’
and when she gave her five loaves, He gave
her twelve baskets in return, that she might
not grow weary of and become discouraged in
such works. Therefore let us have no such
associations, through which the congregation’s
obligation is removed from view, through which
the lack of true brotherly love is concealed
more than exposed, and through which the
Christian’s giving out of free will is not ad-
vanced, but the longer the more, is converted
into an act of constraint. Every society,
through which the congregation is deprived of
its obligation to provide for the poor, the needy
widows and orphans, for church and school,
comes of evil.

According to the model of the good Shep-
herd, it is also necessary to the proper guidance
of the congregation, to pray diligently for the
same to Him, who guides the hearts of all.
We are frequently told of the Lord Jesus, that
He prayed for His followers, and we see how

nor upon fasting, and gives no external sign of| He bears them before His Heavenly Father

distinction; He rather cautioned them against
such outward appearances with these words:
“The kingdom of Heaven cometh not with ob-
servation.’’ He could have put Himself and
His congregation in a favorable light before the
people and the Pharisees by strictly observing
such matters; but He does not do so.

Much is to be learned from this. For a
pastor is often tempted to represent his congre-
gation as faring well, even when it is new and
not well founded. This can then be done most
quickly and easily, when certain external regu-
lations, works, ceremonies, etc., are especially
recommended. The people eagerly take hold

from His prayer, John 17., where He prays:
‘Holy Father, keep through thine own name
those whom Thou hast given me, that they
may be one, .as we are.”

It is, therefore, the duty of the true under-
shepherds of Christ, frequently to commit to
God in prayer and supplication, the souls con-
fided to their care, and in all difficult circum-
stances and occurrences to beseech God fer-
vently, that He may control and guide -the
minds of the congregation, as it pleases Him.
In that way they will accomplish more than
with faint-hearted care and fear.

——s-+e- oo