III. CHAP. II. 1813-14. PART Esq., and it was chiefly undertaken with a view to supply the want so affectingly described by the late Rev. Dr. Buchanan, as existing in the Syrian churches of Travancore. The Syriac is the learned language, and the language of the church; and the Malayalim (or Malabar) the vernacular language of the country. The Scriptures are read by the Priests from manuscript copies in the former,* and expounded in the latter to the people. With the steps which were taking, through the Calcutta Auxiliary Bible Society, to furnish an accurate and complete version of the New Testament in the Malayalim, or dialect of the country, the reader is acquainted: how desirable it was, that to this should be added a similar edition in the Syriac, he may form some opinion from the following statement: "I produced" (said Dr. Buchanan) " a printed peuple Abyssinien. Car sa première etude est celle de la Bible, son premier besoin spirituel est l'Evangile, qu'il lit et relit constamment tous les jours." "If there exist a people on the face of the earth to whom the object of the Bible Society may be eminently useful, it is without doubt the Abyssinians. For their first study is the Bible, their first spiritual want is that of the Gospel, which they constantly read over and over every day." * The Syriac Scriptures were first brought into India in the year 325. copy of the Syriac New Testament. There was not one of them who had ever seen a printed copy before; they admired it much; and every Priest, as it came into his hands, began to read a portion, which he did fluently, while the women came round to hear. I asked the old Priest whether I should send them some copies from Europe. They would be worth their weight in silver,' said he. The same Priest afterwards added the significant words- Our church languishes for want of the Scriptures.' Influenced by this consideration, and others of a kindred nature, the Committee determined to print a handsome edition of the Syriac Testament and Dr. Buchanan, with his usual zeal and munificence, engaged to prepare the text, and superintend the execution of the work, at his own expense. For this purpose he took up his residence at Broxbourne, in Hertfordshire, in order to be near the press but he had not proceeded beyond the 26th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, when a period was put to those labors which, for more than eighteen years, had been unintermittedly directed to the spiritual improvement of British India, and to the general advancement of Christianity in every part of the world. On the decease of Dr. Buchanan, the work did not languish. Another instrument was providentially raised up in the person of the self-taught and PART III. CHAP. II. 1813-14. PART CHAP. II. very able orientalist, Mr. Lee:* and, with the learned advice and assistance of the Rev. Mr. Usko and Dr. Adam Clarke, this gentleman is 1813-14. performing his task in such a manner as to justify a hope of its being very accurately and satisfactorily completed. From this sketch of the printing department alone, some idea may be formed of the business which had arisen, and continued to arise, out of the measures necessary to provide a competent stock of Bibles and Testaments for the central Depository in London. Next to the labor of preparing, in this way, original editions, and of renovating those which had become exhausted, was that of distributing them, according to the proportion in which they were respectively wanted, both at home and abroad. The performance of this service, involving many details both of inquiry and of calculation, which discreet and conscientious dispensers of the public liberality could not allow themselves to overlook, gave occasion to much and very anxious employment. If to these offices of provision, and of distribution, be added that of general superintendance; * Mr. Lee is engaged in the employment of the Church Missionary Society: and it ought to be mentioned, to the honor of that body, that they very liberally tendered the use of his services, in the embarrassment occasioned by the painful event recorded in the text. III. CHAP. II. including, under that term, the correspondence PART with Societies and individuals, dispersed over so wide a field, and requiring to be addressed in so many different languages, it will appear, 1813-14. that the duties attached to the management of the Institution, were become in a high degree onerous and important. Having put the reader in possession of this information, concerning the internal direction of the Society's affairs, the author will proceed to describe the transactions which constitute its proper history; observing, in the course of his narration, as nearly as circumstances will permit, the track prescribed by the geographical relations of the several countries, and the chronological order of the Societies established within them. Of the Bible Societies at Berlin, Bâsle, Stockholm, Abo, and St. Petersburg, it may be stated, in general, that they continued to prosecute their several undertakings with great zeal, and with effects proportioned to the extent of the sphere which they respectively occupied, and the resources of which they were possessed. The completion of the second edition of the Bohemian Bible, which left the press in November, 1813, was a proof of the persevering exertions of the Berlin Society; and the grant of a loan to enable it to make good its pecuniary PART CHAP. II. 1813-14. dence and solicitude with which its exertions continued to be regarded by the Parent Society in London. The Evangelical Society at Stockholm persevered in its labors with unceasing activity and success; having printed 2000 Bibles, and 5000 Testaments, in the preceding year, and distributed gratuitously a large proportion of them among a numerous body of necessitous and grateful receivers. To this Institution, always characterized by an energy beyond its means, a fresh donation of 2007. was transmitted; which, arriving in a moment of need, was peculiarly seasonable; drew forth the warmest acknowledgments; and enabled the Society to purchase materials for printing an additional number of Bibles and Testaments. An important change took place in this Society, in the month of September of this year, when the Hon. G. Leyonmark, constrained, through infirmity, to retire from the office of President, was succeeded by His Excellency, Baron Rosenblad, Minister for the Home Department, a Nobleman of the highest rank in Sweden, and to whose good offices with the Government, the Stockholm Society had been essentially indebted, from its first establishment. The an swer of Baron Rosenblad to the deputation which announced to him the wishes of the Society that he should become their Presi |