s we must deal with the language of the Greek
Testament as we would deal with the language of any other Greek book, and
make the book, as far as we have the means of doing so, its own
interpreter.

Having thus shown in broad and general terms, as far as I have been able
to do so, that we may still, notwithstanding the twenty years that have
passed away, regard the Revised Version of the Greek Testament as a
faithfully executed revision, and its renderings such as may be accepted
with full Christian confidence, I now turn to the easier, but not less
necessary, duty of bringing before you some considerations why this
Version and, with it, the Revised Version of the Old Testament, should be
regularly used in the public services of our Mother Church.

ADDRESS V.
PUBLIC USE OF THE VERSION.

We have now traced the external, and to some extent the internal history
of Revision from the time, some fifty years ago, when it began to occupy
the thoughts of scholars and divines, down to the present day.

We have seen the steady advance in Church opinion as to its necessity;
its earliest manifestations, and the silent progress from what was
tentative and provisional to authoritative recognition, and to carefully
formulated procedures under the high and venerable sanction of the two
Houses of the Convocation of Canterbury. We have further seen how the
movement extended to America, and how some of the best scholars and
divines of that Christian country co-operated with those of our own
country in the arduous and responsible work of revising their common
heritage, the Version of God's most Holy Word, as set forth by authority
290 years ago. We have noted too, that in this work not less than one
hundred scholars and divines were engaged--for fourteen years in the case
of the Old Testament, and for ten years in the case of the New
Testament--and that this long period of labour and study was marked by
regularly appointed and faithfully kept times of meeting, and by the
interchange with the Revisers on the other side of the Atlantic of
successive portions of the work, until the whole was completed.

And this Revision, as we have seen, has included a full consideration of
the text of the original languages as well as of the renderings. In the
Old Testament, adherence to the Massorite Text has left only a very
limited number of passages in which consideration of the ancient Version
was deemed to be necessary; but, in the New T