which the translation was substantially
accurate.

These principles, which I have been careful to specify in the exact words
of the Revisers, will appear to every impartial reader to be fully in
harmony with the principle of faithfulness; and will be found--if an
outsider may presume to make a passing comment--to have been carried out
with pervasive consistency and uniformity.

The Revisers further notice certain particulars of which the general
reader should take full note, so much of the random criticisms of the
revised text (especially in the New Testament) having been due to a
complete disregard in each case of the Preface, and of the reasons given
for changes which long experience had shown to be both reasonable and
necessary.

The first particular is the important question of the rendering of the
word "JEHOVAH." Here the Revisers have thought it advisable to follow
the usage of the Authorised Version, and not to insert the word uniformly
in place of "LORD" or "GOD," which words when printed in small capitals
represent the words substituted by Jewish custom for the ineffable Name
according to the vowel points by which it is distinguished. To this
usage the Revisers have steadily adhered with the exception of a very few
passages in which the introduction of a proper name seemed to be
required. In this grave matter, as we all probably know, the American
Company has expressed its dissent from the decision of the English
Company, and has adopted the proper name wherever it occurs in the Hebrew
text for "the LORD" and "GOD." Most English readers will agree with our
Revisers. It may indeed be said, now that we can read the American text
continuously, that there certainly are many passages in which the proper
name seems to come upon eye or ear with a serious and appropriate force;
still the reverence with which we are accustomed to treat what the
Revisers speak of as "the ineffable Name" will lead most of us to
sacrifice the passages, where the blessed name may have an impressive
force, to the reverential uniformity of our Authorised Version, and to
the latent fear that frequent iteration might derogate from the solemnity
with which we instinctively clothe the ever-blessed name of Almighty God.

The next particular relates to terms of natural history. Here changes
have only been made where it was certain that the Authorised Version was
incorrect, and highly probable that the word substituted was right.
Where dou