This simple rule has enabled him to adopt nine tenths of the criticisms offered him, without argument. His brethren, on the other hand, have gone beyond him, and the only fault he has ever felt disposed to charge them with, has been the adopting of his suggestions, as he feared, without sufficient examination. The preceding remarks have been written to draw more attention to the science of translating than has been hitherto given, or the subject demands. It is passed over, in the usual course of study, with so meagre a notice, that when the missionary finds himself providentially thrown into the work, he has to form his own rules, as best he may, or go on without rules. And, for some reason or other, of the century of versions that have been made in the East, it is not known whether any two are formed on the same principles. If the principles adopted by the writer are incorrect, he wishes to be shown his errors that he may correct them; and in the event of another edition, should the course he has taken, as explained in the preceding remarks, be approved, he proposes going more fully into the subject, for the sake of eliciting more light. None can be more desirous of giving "the mind of the Spirit," in the translations he makes, than he is; and few who have undertaken the work can have less confidence in their qualifications for it. A translator is compelled, at every step of his work, to interpret his author, before he can attempt to translate him correctly; so that how startling soever the fact, it is none the less true, every version of the Scriptures is defiled and obscured with a portion of the prejudices and darkness of the instrument that makes it. Yet the importance of a correct translation can hardly be overrated. A single error may be fraught with incalculable evil. The writer was much struck with this thought, on noticing the triumphant tone with which one of Jerome's bad renderings was quoted, in the " Annales de la Propagation de la Foi." "At the moment of the approach of Lent," says a notice, "when Christians are called to grave thoughts, the Archbishop of Sens reëchoes from his high evangelical seat, this proclamation of Daniel, 'Peccata tua eleemosynis redime'." Dan. 4: 27. To giving such passages in the language of the people, there appears to be no objection; for it is immediately added, "Rachetez vos peches par vos aumônes." Redeem your sins with your alms. Some find, to their astonishment, in reading the Scriptures in the languages of India, that the words of inspiration are robbed of half their glory; and they feel disposed to charge the unfortunate translators with something like sacrilege. If such could transport themselves to Corinth or Ephesus in the days of Paul, they would perhaps be still more astonished, to find that the words of some of the originals had no more hallowed associations to the Greeks, to whom they were addressed, than the words of the Indian versions have to Indian readers. The word for 'God' was hung around with as many polluting associations, to the mind of a Corinthian, or an Ephesian, as it now is to a Hindoo. The church was any kind of an assembly, from a conference of the gods down to a mob in the streets of Ephesus; and glory had no more of a halo around it, than our English word reputation. The theological uses of flesh and spirit, light and darkness, grace and truth, and fifty other words, the Greek had to learn after he had obtained the ideas they represent, just as a Burman or a Karen has now. The translation of this precious volume has cost the writer the labors of a large portion of the best ten years of his life. Those who have not the language to grope out word by word, as he has had to do, will doubtless be surprised that he has done no better in so long a time. Many words and constructions, for which his successors will have to turn only to the pages of a dictionary or a grammar, have literally cost him weeks of labor. Few are the words in his version, be they right or wrong, on which he could not inscribe with truth the motto that one of the first voyagers to Greenland carved on his oar "Oft was I weary when I toil'd at thee." ARTICLE III. ON REBAPTISM. Boston. Hinton's History of Baptism. Philadelphia. 1840. Ir is singular that after all the works that have been published on baptism, no chapter has been devoted in any one of them, to our knowledge, laying down, beyond the mode and the subject, fixed principles to determine when a baptism is valid or when to be repeated. Yet nice questions are practically occurring every day, touching the administrator, for instance, or baptism administered in the proper form among denominations of a different faith. The histories of our denomination have occasionally glanced at these questions as they have presented themselves, but our set treatises remain silent. We have turned to Hinton's "History of Baptism," where, from the title, something might have been expected on these points; but nothing is to be found. In a Defence of Infant Baptism by Dr. Pond, we remember to have seen that the Orthodox Congregationalists of New England had admitted the validity of baptisms performed by Unitarians. What they would do with those of Roman Catholics, we do not know. The Presbyterians would for the most part, probably, repeat lay-baptism; but how far that of other denominations, is not settled. The Methodists are flexible on all these points. The Church of England, it has recently been decided, considers "the minister not an essential part of the sacrament of baptism." But the Episcopalians in this country are silently assuming different ground, since the appearance of Dr. Ogilby's work. It is proposed in the present article to consider in what cases baptism ought to be esteemed valid, and when to be repeated. To save time and avoid ambiguity, we remark that we shall use the word "baptism," in the following pages, for the immersion of the body in water in the name of the Trinity, as a profession of Christianity. We commence by laying down a few simple scriptural principles, to guide our subsequent discussions. It is plainly taught in the New Testament that valid baptism is to be submitted to once, and but once; that as we have one Lord and one faith, so we should have but one baptism. To rebaptize is to assert not only the irregularity, but the invalidity of the former rite. It may be regarded as equally certain, and by all admitted, that nothing ex post facto can invalidate this ordinance, so as to render it proper that it should be repeated; for although cases of the grossest crimes committed after baptism are recorded in the New Testament,-cases in which the guilty persons are exhorted to "repent and to pray," they are not exhorted to be rebaptized, nor does the propriety of such a course seem even to have been contemplated. (Acts 8: 19, 20.) And when such are about to be restored to the church, though they are to be "received" and "comforted," the repetition of their baptism is not hinted at. (2 Cor. 2: 7.)* There certainly is not more than one instance of rebaptism distinctly recorded in the whole of Scripture. Even that has been questioned. The silence of Scripture teaches as well as what it asserts; and we thus learn that baptism should not be repeated in a light or unnecessary man ner. It will now be proper to consider, perhaps at some length, this unique case, on account of its direct bearing upon the subject in hand, and the difficulties which the criticisms of the last three hundred years have thrown around it. It is recorded Acts 19: 1-5. We will inquire, What was the nature of the baptism?-if it was repeated-and if it was, upon what ground? As to the nature of the baptism; it certainly was so nearly like Christian baptism as this, that it gave those who had received it a prima facie title to the character of disciples" (ver. 1) and of "believers" (ver. 2.) That This rule was strictly adhered to by the Fathers even among the Cyprianists. Euseb. Ecc. Hist. Lib. 7, cap. 7. St. Paul had before conversed with these twelve, and that they had professed themselves properly baptized is clearly to be inferred, as Bloomfield remarks, from the question "unto what then were ye baptized?" (Recensio Synoptica, Acts 19: 2.) It seems equally evident that they were a distinct society from the Jews, and received by St. Paul at first as validly baptized. If they were rebaptized, it was not until he discovered a deficiency, from their own remarks;-it was not from the beginning determined on, but an after-thought. It is evident that these persons were grossly ignorant of fundamental articles of faith. They appear in that ordinance to have professed faith only in John the Baptist, without any reference to him that should come after him," of whom they needed to be informed; and had "not so much as heard whether there were any Holy Ghost;"-to have heard these truths with surprise (ver. 5.) It is probable that they had conceived John to be the Messiah and looked no further, or perhaps thought him superior to Jesus. Many of the disciples of John, we know, had shown a tendency to these ideas during the lifetime of their master, (John 3: 26,) as a little after did some of the heretical sects-for instance, the Cerinthians. We must therefore regard this baptism as essentially defective in its nature. But was it repeated? This depends upon how we re gard the fifth verse; whether as Luke's narrative of what occurred to these twelve disciples, or as a part of St. Paul's account of the doctrine and practice of John. If the former, they were rebaptized; if the latter, they were not. It is a good rule in interpreting Scripture that the sense that would most obviously strike a plain, intelligent reader of the Bible, is generally the true sense. And it will hardly be questioned that the most obvious meaning of this passage to an English reader without any theological bias would here be, that the baptism was repeated. It requires some effort of mind to discover any other sense. "And it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper coasts, came to Ephesus; and finding certain disciples, he said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, |