s. He
did not like _gather together_ and substituted the more rotund
_assemble_, _collect_, or _convene_; _three score_ he wrote _sixty_; he
hustled out the strong phrase _gave up the ghost_, and put in its place
the "elegant" _expire_; _peradventure_ yielded to _perhaps_ or _it may
be; laugh to scorn_ he wrote _deride_. A good example of his
indifference to racy English is in his substituting _in health_ for
_safe and sound_ in the clause, _because he hath received him safe and
sound_. "This is another instance," he writes in his Introduction, "in
which the translators have followed popular use instead of the original
Greek, which signifies simply _well_ or _in health_."

Some of his alterations were in the direction of greater
intelligibility. He used _button_ instead of _tache_, _capital_ for
_chapiter_, and made Hebrew proper names in the New Testament conform to
the usage of the Old. "This will prevent illiterate persons, who
compose a large part of the readers of the Scriptures, from mistaking
the characters. Every obstacle to a right understanding of the
Scriptures, however small, should be removed, when it can be done in
consistency with truth." Like the American Committee he preferred _Holy
Spirit to Holy Ghost_, and was willing to drop the title _Saint_ from
the names of the evangelists, and having all the authority necessary he
made these changes. In other instances there appears an interesting
agreement between this independent American reviser of 1833 and the
American Committee of the present year; number VII. of the classes of
passages recorded at the close of the Revised version, as preferred by
the American Committee, reads: "Substitute modern forms of speech for
the following archaisms, namely, _who_ or _that_ for _which_ when used
of persons; _are_ for _be_ in the present indicative; _know_, _knew_,
for _wot_, _wist_; _drag_ or _drag away_ for _hale_," and Webster's
corrections upon the same plan are uniform. It is unquestionably due to
Webster that the American Committee had this preference, not to the
Webster who revised the Bible, for it is scarcely likely that his
revision was used for reference, but to the Webster who early proposed
such changes in the use of language and never ceased to urge them upon
every occasion. So, too, both agree in dropping _thy way_ from the
phrase _go thy way_; in saying _urgent_ for _instant_. The variations,
however, of the American Committee from the English have ref