translation. As each new portion was prepared it was tested by
being read to hundreds of natives. The difficulty was that he had at
once to give a literary form to the rich materials of the language, and
to find in these or adapt from them terms sufficiently pure and
accurate to express the divine ideas and facts revealed through the
Hebrew and the Greek of the original. He gives us this unconscious
glimpse of himself at work on this loftiest and most fruitful of tasks,
which Jerome had first accomplished for Latin Christendom, Ulfila for
our Scandinavian forefathers, Wiclif for the English, and Luther for
the Germans of the time.
"Now I must mention some of the difficulties under which we labour,
particularly myself. The language spoken by the natives of this part,
though Bengali, is yet so different from the language itself, that,
though I can preach an hour with tolerable freedom so as that all who
speak the language well, or can write or read, perfectly understand me,
yet the poor labouring people can understand but little; and though the
language is rich, beautiful, and expressive, yet the poor people, whose
whole concern has been to get a little rice to satisfy their wants, or
to cheat their oppressive merchants and zameendars, have scarcely a
word in use about religion. They have no word for love, for repent,
and a thousand other things; and every idea is expressed either by
quaint phrases or tedious circumlocutions. A native who speaks the
language well finds it a year's work to obtain their idiom. This
sometimes discourages me much; but blessed be God I feel a growing
desire to be always abounding in the work of the Lord, and I know that
my labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. I am much encouraged by our
Lord's expression, 'He who reapeth' (in the harvest) 'receiveth wages,
and gathereth fruit unto eternal life.' If I, like David, only am an
instrument of gathering materials, and another build the house, I trust
my joy will not be the less." This was written to the well-beloved
Pearce, whom he would fain have had beside him at Mudnabati. To guide
the two missionaries whom the Society were about to send to Africa on
the salaries which he and Thomas had set free for this extension, Carey
adds:--"They will do well to associate as much as possible with the
natives, and to write down every word they can catch, with its meaning.
But if they have children with them, it is by far the readiest way of
lear
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