being insufficiently acquainted, in several particulars,
with the Greek of the New Testament, and in a word, being twenty years
behind what is now known on the subject {97}. Such charges are easily
made, and may at first sight seem very plausible, as the last fifteen or
twenty years have brought with them an amount of research in the language
of the Greek Testament which might be thought to antiquate some results
of the Revision, and to affect to some extent the long labours of those
who took part in it. The whole subject then must be fairly considered,
especially in such an Address as the present, in which the object is to
set forth the desirableness and rightfulness of using the version in the
public services of the Church.

But first a few preliminary comments must be made on the manner and
principles in which the changes of rendering have been introduced into
the venerable Version which was intrusted to us to be revised.

The foremost principle to be alluded to is the one to which we adhered
steadily and persistently during the whole ten years of our labour--the
principle of faithfulness to the original language in which it pleased
Almighty God that His saving truth should be revealed to the children of
men. As the lamented Bishop of Durham says most truly and forcibly in
his instructive "Lessons on the Revised Version of the New Testament
{98a};" "Faithfulness, the most candid and the most scrupulous, was the
central aim of the Revisers {98b}." Faithfulness, but to what?
Certainly not to "the sense and spirit of the original {98b}," as our
critics contended must have been meant by the rule,--but to the original
in its plain grammatical meaning as elicited by accurate interpretation.
This I can confidently state was the intended meaning of the word when it
appeared in the draft rule that was submitted to the Committee of
Convocation. So it was understood by them; and so, I may add, it was
understood by the Company, because I can clearly remember a very full
discussion on the true meaning of the word at one of the early meetings
of the Company. Some alteration had been proposed in the rendering of
the Greek to which objection was made that it did not come under the rule
and principle of faithfulness. This led to a general, and, as it proved,
a final discussion. Bishop Lightfoot, I remember, took an earnest part
in it. He contended that our revision must be a true and thorough one;
that such a meeting as our