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the writer when he first saw the American translation, that it was by far the best way to say simply, Liebe Brueder, even if there should be no other reason for it except its general appropriateness, as felt by every educated German. And it must be remarked here, that there is hardly any other reason for this. To the Englishman or American, the words Beloved and Dearly Beloved are sacred, on account of their having repeatedly been used by the Apostles in addressing churches or single persons. His heart rejoices at being addressed with the very same words by men whom the Apostles ordained to be ministers in the Church of Christ; and his heart may expand at the idea of the real and close oneness of the Church of which he is a member with that founded by the Saviour Himself. No such ideas or feelings will be produced in the minds or hearts of the Germans; for, among other reasons, where you find these words in the Epistles of St. Paul or Peter, Luther does not always use the same expression; but has sometimes Liebster, sometimes only Lieber; the first of which would be deemed too familiar, the latter being the same with that suggested above.*

Without entering into any thing like a minute examination of the Exhortation, we are satisfied to remark, that the American version is in general smooth and good enough, while the London translation must be styled rugged, because clinging too much to single words, or often mis-translating them.

We proceed to the Lord's prayer. The trans-atlantic work begin with Unser Vater, as it stands in Luther's Bible; the American editors made it Vater unser, as usual among Romanists; as adopted also by Luther in his Catechism, and still retained by all who lean towards old Lutheranism. The form of the Lutheran Bible is undoubtedly, in a grammatical point of view, preferable to Vater unser, which is supported merely

*The Authorized Version has always Beloved, or Dearly beloved, for the ȧyanηrós of the New Testament, with the exception of one place, if we are not mistaken, where it stands Dear. The same Greek word Luther often translates by Liebster, especially in the first Epistles; in the latter ones, however, and more frequently, he employs the term Lieber. The term, Dearly be loved, occurs but once in the Old Testament, at least according to Cruden: "I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies." (Jer. 12: 7.) The Polyglott Bible makes 1 signify love; for which there is no need. Luther's Bible mis-translates this place: Ic habe meine liebe Seele in der Feinde Hand gegeben.

But as the decision of the

by its antiquity and local use. question whether this or that form should be received involves considerations of a different kind, we dismiss it at present to resume it shortly afterwards. For the same reason we decline now to say a word about the Creeds, and hasten to conclude our observations on matters of minor importance.

The Daily Morning and Evening Prayer, the Litany, and Communion Service are decidedly more acceptable in the American translation than in the London publication. In other respects the two translations are in many places congruent, how rugged soever may be the trans-atlantic Version. Without entering into more details, we beg leave to call attention to the following.

The American Book of Common Prayer has this rubric before the Litany: to be used on such and such occasions; not expressly stating, as the English Liturgy does, that it may be sung or said, but manifestly not excluding either mode. How comes it that the American translators say that the Litany, a prayer unpopular among Germans on account of its name and responses, shall be read or said only?

The second observation relates to the Collect on Christmasday. The parts of this Collect are so improperly placed, that it can not fail to produce a very painful sensation.

The third observation will show the ignorance of the London translator, and the utter carelessness of the American Committees. In the Office of Confirmation, the terms "Godfathers" and "Godmothers" occur in the Preface, and the word "Sponsors" immediately after in the address of the Bishop. In the Preface, the persons to be confirmed are required to ratify and confirm what their Godfathers and Godmothers had promised for them in Baptism; and the Bishop asks them to renew the solemn promise and vow of their "sponsors." Now let us see what the German translators say; how they translate the words "Godfather, Godmother, or sponsor." There is an old word in Germany for sponsor, Pathe, probably derived from pater. And as the sponsor was regarded as the medium. of a new, spiritual birth, he was called, but only in relation to the natural father, HIS (the father's, and not the child's) fellow

father, Gevatter; in French, compère. How comes it that the translators know nothing of the word Pathe, and of the justmentioned exclusive meaning of the word Gevatter? How comes it, that in German the child is exhorted to ratify what its compère (the spiritual father of its offspring) had promised? Is this not calculated to excite the laughter of a whole congregation? We may remark in passing, that in the Catechism of the American translation the word sponsor is rendered by Taufzeuge, (witness,) a very improper word, although at present extensively used in Germany.

But all these are matters of minor importance in comparison with what we are now about to say. In all our dealings, particularly with foreigners, it is not only fair, but a matter of great prudence to show our stand-point as clearly as we can, and to show it at the very first moment we come into contact with them. Among the uneducated it is commonly the first impression which decides. The second thoughts of the few are of little avail. To fail at the outset is nearly equivalent to failing entirely. Recovery will be difficult, and it will proceed only by imperceptible degrees.

Suppose you are to start a Mission among the Germans. Suppose you have overcome those numberless difficulties which beset your path, and the enumeration of which would almost fill a volume. You appear before a moderate congregation of ignorant, mostly indifferent persons, attracted by curiosity, or drawn together by the invitation of your friends or assistants. What have you to lay before them? Of course nothing except a translation of the Book of Common Prayer, and perhaps a Hymn Book. What will their first thought be? Nothing else but to find out who you are, and what your Church is. And for this reason they will turn over diligently the leaves of your Prayer-Book, and listen to what you are reading out of it. You proceed and say you believe in the Holy Christian or Catholic Church, according to the first or second edition of the American translation, and from that moment your fate may be sealed. Idlers will go round and confirm what your neighbor, the German pastor, once a tailor or shoemaker, had already said, that you are nothing but a Ro

manist in disguise; that you and your brother clergymen have been allowed to marry; at least that you are a pseudoProtestant, because there is no real Protestantism except in Germany, and so forth in inf.

Will you hope to gain the Romanists? The believing portion of them will shun you, because their Bishop knows nothing of you, and because you are condemned and anathematized by the Council of Trent. According as you have said, or your book contains the words Christian or Catholic Church, you may expect a larger or smaller audience, or even to be left by yourself at your next service, in spite of all your private or public explanations. So much depends on a single word.

But let us see what this word is, and what it imports in building up a German congregation. This word is katholisch, in the Apostles' Creed, which in Germany is never used by Protestants, and which there, with the exception of the learned theologians, always means Romish. Christians, in the view of the German people, are either katholisch, that is to say, Romanists; or they are Protestants; tertium non datur. The conception of the Church Catholic, which is so familiar to us, has been so entirely lost sight of in Germany, that it were almost a miracle if it were revived by merely adopting a word in the Creeds which had been expunged from them more than three hundred years ago. While not only the Church of England, but the Dissenters also acquiesce in the word Catholic, this word has been expelled, on the continent of Europe, from every one of the creeds, at the very outset of the Reformation. But of this more afterwards.

Suppose now a member of your congregation opens the first American edition of the Prayer-book, what will he say? He will say you lean towards Lutheranism, because you say you believe in the Holy Christian Church; and in this he will be confirmed by finding the Lord's Prayer worded Vater unser; unless his birth-place was so far from Saxony as to know of no other form among Protestants except Unser Vater. If he be a man of some education, he will find several analogies between your forms and those of old Lutheranism; but he

will hesitate to charge you with either secret or open Romanism. Quite different will be the case if you place the second American, or the London translation before him. He will at least distrust you, and be on his guard lest he be caught in the nets of Romanism.

The case stands thus: 1. In the first American edition the word Catholic of the Creeds is always rendered by christlich, except in the Office for the Visitation of the Sick, where it is translated allgemein christlich.

2. The second or revised American edition differs from the first in this, that in the Apostles' Creed in the Morning and Evening Prayer the word christlich is replaced by katholisch

-ALL OTHER PLACES BEING LEFT INTACT.

The first edition, prepared by Rev. Dr. Crusé and Professor Tellkampf, is so far consistent as it translates five times by christlich and once by allgemein christlich: the second Ameri can edition has twice katholisch, (in the Apostles' Creed at Morning and Evening Prayer,) three times christlich, (twice in the Nicene Creed immediately after the aforesaid places, and once in the Catechism;) lastly, once allgemein christlich in the Office for the Visitation of the Sick. All of which will be made clear by the following tabular view:

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The London translator always writes katholisch, which shows clearly that he knows little about the great mass of German Protestants, and that his translation could not have been carefully revised by such a man as Chevalier Bunsen; for not even Bunsen, though the inventor of a new kind of

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