the experiment deemed by many so desirable, must be stopped, unless speedy and liberal assistance be rendered. The necessity for such an effort has been very generally acknowledged, and the committee now confidently asks for such support as the importance of the case demands. ST. GEORGE'S, BRISTOL.-Mr. C. Smith, from Zion Chapel, Shrewton, Wilts, has removed to Newchurch, St. George's, near Bristol. Mr. Smith is succeeded by Mr. Charles Light, one of the deacons of "Bethesda," Shrewton. There is now a probability of the two churches in that village soon becoming one. Perhaps the following particulars may not be uninteresting. St. George's, at the time of taking the last census, contained 8318 persons, most of whom are employed in coal-pits, or as market-gardeners. Among this vast population, there is one place of worship connected with the Establishment, one good Wesleyan chapel, on the borders of the parish adjoining Bristol, and two smaller Wesleyan chapels in other parts of the village. Some years ago, the Bristol Baptist Itinerant Society opened a house for preaching, and afterwards built a chapel, capable of holding about 180 persons. Here a small church is formed; friends from Bristol conduct a Sunday-school of upwards of two hundred children; and this summer a British day-school has been established, which is held in the chapel. BRIXTON HILL, LONDON.-Services to recognise the pastoral settlement of the Rev. Wm. Pulsford, of Stepney College, over the church at Brixton, were held on Wednesday, November 12th, when the Rev. S. Tomkins, M.A., Tutor of Stepney College, commenced the services by reading and prayer, the Rev. T. Binney preached a most interesting discourse from the words "Pure religion," and the Rev. T. Hill, of Clapham, offered the ordination prayer; after which the Rev. J. Aldis delivered, with inimitable pathos, a charge, which will not soon be forgotten. The Rev. T. Lear concluded with prayer. The company dined together in the large school-room, Mr. Aldis occupying the chair. Speeches were delivered by the Rev. Messrs. Binney, Tomkins, Soule, J. J. Brown, Miall, Lear, &c., as well as by the eloquent Chairman. The Rev. J. H. Hinton, M.A. preached in the evening to the people a truly admirable sermon. The congregations were excellent. UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.-Examination for Honours in the "Hebrew text of the Old Testament, the Greek text of the New Testament, and Scripture History." ASIA. CALCUTTA. Our most recent intelligence from India is contained in a brief letter from Mr. Thomas, who says, "We are, on the whole, in tolerable health, but anxiously looking out for intelligence as to the results of the death of our late dear brother Yates, following so soon after the death of Mr. Mack. Surely some will hear the voice of the God of Missions in these dispensations, and be willing to offer themselves to be, as it were, baptized for the dead." The contemplated transfer of mission property to Mr. Marshman took place on the 1st of September, when the sum previously agreed upon as the price was received. It had been previously arranged that the chapel, and the ground on which it stands, should be excepted in the bill of sale, and made over to Mr. Marshman and the College Council in trust for the use of the baptist church at Serampore. Two clauses were introduced into this document, the first intended to prevent its ever becoming a unitarian place of worship, the other to the effect that should the church become extinct, the right of property shall revert to the Mission. "The amicable adjustment of this matter," says Mr. Thomas, “which has been to me au object of anxious desire for many years, has now been happily effected; and I trust it will be followed with much mutual benefit and good feeling. I will merely add, that throughout the whole Mr. Marshman has acted in the most honourable manner." THE LATE DR. YATES. Extract from the Minutes of the District Committee in connexion with the London Missionary Society, on occasion of the deaths of the Rev. Dr. Yates and the Rev. J. Mack, transmitted to the secretaries of that Society by the Rev. T. Boaz, under date Calcutta, September 5, 1845, and by them forwarded to us. The brethren of the Calcutta District Committee to the London Missionary Society would place on record their unfeigned sorrow at the removal of their late esteemed and valued fellow missionary, the Rev. Dr. Yates of the Calcutta Baptist Mission. His death they deem a loss to the general church; to him, however, it is, they are confident, great gain. The varied talents possessed by Dr. Yates, all consecrated fully and meekly to the service of Christ in this heathen land for upwards of thirty years, rendered him no ordinary man in the mission field. His firm and implicit confidence in the truth he lived to propagate renders it certain that he is now in glory with that Saviour in whose service it was the delight of his heart to live and die on earth. widow and children of their late much respected and faithful brother. May the Lord sustain, guide, and bless them, and may he in his good and wise providence raise up many as well qualified for the work as the one whose death all who feel aright must lament. In the estimation of the brethren of the Calcutta District Committee, the death of the Rev. J. Mack, of the Baptist Mission at Serampore, is also an occurrence calling for an expression of sympathy and respect. They wish to place on record the high value they entertain of the talents, acquire ments, and labours of their late esteemed friend and brother. His unwearied and efficient labours in almost every department of mission effort during a period of twenty-three years, is The brethren of the Calcutta District Com-worthy both of respectful record and universal mittee desire to express their sympathy to- imitation. wards their fellow labourers, as well as the To his immediate colleagues and his afflicted widow, they desire to tender their sincere and it is pleasant to think that the last of its sympathy in this, to them, sad trial. Seram-attached missionaries was every way so well pore and its holy band of missionaries has long qualified to sustain its reputation. been dear to the heart of the Christian church; The following note, appended to a sermon preached on occasion of Dr. Yates's death by Mr. Leslie, and published in the Calcutta Christian Observer, illustrates so well his character as a translator, that we think it right to present it to our readers. Whilst penning the few preceding remarks When a clean proof had been taken of this, on the character of Dr. Yates, I felt that it he compared it with the original, and corwas due to his memory to say something of rected accordingly, if I did not object. In him as a translator; but rather than attempt this way we went once through the whole any thing of this kind myself, I judged it best of the Old Testament, and a second time to apply to the Rev. J. Wenger, who, more through the Psalms, the Proverbs, Isaiah, and than any of us, has, for a number of years Daniel; also once through the whole New past, been particularly associated with the Testament for the edition of 1841, and a deceased in biblical labours. In kind com- second time through the Gospels, the Acts, pliance with my request the following was and the first three Epistles for the edition handed to me, a communication which, I which is now in the press. think, will be read by all with peculiar in terest: "The remarks which I have to offer on the subject of Dr. Yates s character as a translator of the scriptures refer exclusively to his Bengali version of the bible; for in his labours in Hindustani, Hindi, and Sanskrit, I took no active part, nor am I qualified to form an opinion respecting them. "I was associated with him in October, 1839, almost immediately after my arrival in this country. The first work in which I took a part was the List of Biblical Proper Names in English and Bengali, which he was anxious to see completed and printed before the Old Testament should be put to press. During the progress of that work I soon perceived that Dr. Yates was a man accustomed to labour with great expedition and imperturb. able regularity, and that I should find it no easy matter to keep pace with him. "During this process, extending over a space of more than five years, numerous subjects presented themselves, on which our opinions were at variance. Now, considering that Dr. Yates was my senior by many years, a thorough Hebrew and Greek scholar, well acquainted with the works of the ablest commentators, and infinitely my superior in point of acquaintance with the Bengali, nothing would have been more natural for him than to have, in many instances, set aside my remarks, or attributed my strictures to youth and inexperience. But never once did I in this matter (nor indeed in any other) perceive any thing which approached to a shadow of pride. And considering that he had had all the trouble of originally preparing the version, it would not have been surprising if he had occasionally felt hurt at my finding fault with his work: but never once did he show any such sensitiveness. If the version had been "About the beginning of March, 1840, the the work of a total stranger, I do not think he Old Testament was at length put to press but would or could have shown a more candid the lamented death of the late Mr. Pearce, disposition in listening to what I had to say. on whose assistance we had calculated, to- It is true that once when I had stated in the gether with the difficulty of making a fair margin of a passage in the New Testament commencement in so great a work, seriously that many people strongly objected to his renretarded our operations until the month of dering of it, he wrote underneath, 'I know May. The manuscript put into the compo- it, my son, I know it' but this was owing to sitors' hands, was the third transcript of the his firmness, not to sensitiveness. So long as version, and it must have cost Dr. Yates an he himself could not see any thing wrong in a immense amount of labour to prepare it. We passage, nothing could induce him to alter it. now, however, treated it simply as a version He showed the most majestic disregard of all submitted to us for revision, improvement, mere authority, whether of antiquity, or of and publication; and consequently we both numbers, or of a great name. He was shaken undertook, separately, to compare it with the neither by clamour, nor by friendship, nor by original. In this I had to take the first turn; importunity. But from the moment that he and whenever I thought any passage was not perceived that a passage was erroneously rencorrectly rendered, I used to write my re- dered, and discovered where the error lay, he marks, and to put down, in Roman charac- was quite ready to make the requisite imters, what I had to propose as an improved provement. And in this matter he was most rendering, in the margin of the proof. These open to conviction: he would listen to and remarks were then forwarded to Dr. Yates, consider with the greatest candour any reasons who weighed them, and either rejected or that were offered, and when they failed to adopted, or modified my proposed renderings. convince him the first time, he would allow 3T2 me to repeat them again and again, before coming to a final decision. In fact his humility was quite as admirable as his firmness. He appeared to be sitting, like a child, at the feet of Truth, anxious to treasure up her every word, and to yield implicit obedience to her commands. of abridging them, they became obscure. I am satisfied that those of his renderings which might, by some, be objected to, are, in many instances, the least objectionable of any of which the Bengali language will admit. "He also aimed at a style uniformly pure and dignified. He allowed of no vulgar ex"As a translator, his first and foremost pressions, and excluded with equal firmness characteristic was a sincere and conscientious of determination all high-flown Sanskit terms. desire to ascertain and express the true and Will not be understood' was the remark, by full meaning of the original. He was most appending which he almost invariably concareful, I may say most scrupulous, in cross-demned the use of such words, when suggested questioning his native assistants, in order to or defended by myself. find out whether the Bengali words and phrases he used, did or did not convey to the native mind exactly what he intended to say; and he gave himself no rest until they did. "A second object in his translations was to avoid all that was unmeaning, perplexing, or superfluous. He tried to make the word of God plain, short, and sweet. And for this he had a peculiar talent. Often have I admired the beautiful simplicity, the transparent clearness, or the rich brevity of his renderings. And I have spent hundreds of hours in vain attempts to improve upon certain passages which I thought were not satisfactorily rendered. When I flattered myself with having succeeded in making them more exact, I found they had become unidiomatic, awkward, and unintelligible; and when I thought "That he was a perfect translator, I am far from affirming. I differ from the view he took of many passages. And sometimes he acted the part of an interpreter rather than that of a translator; but I am quite certain that he did so unconsciously, excepting those few places where a mere translator would talk mere nonsense. If, however, a finely balanced mind, endowed with splendid talents and enriched by solid and extensive erudition; if an immoveable firmness of conscientious conviction, rooted in an ardent love of truth, and chastened by humility unfeigned; if these qualities, accompanied by untiring industry, a tender conscience, and fervent prayer, constitute a biblical translator, then such a translator was William Yates." We subjoin the following quotation from the Bengal Hurkaru, as a pleasing testimony to Dr. Yates's scholarship, usefulness, and singleness of purpose, from an independent quarter, though we do not desire to be understood as offering any opinion in reference to the wish it expresses. We alluded, a few days back, to the death of Dr. Yates, on board the Bentinck, and then stated that we hoped to be able to present a detailed account of his valuable labours in this country. We give some particulars from the Christian Observer and the Christian Advocate. We must offer a word or two ourselves, by way of calling the attention of government to the claims of Dr. Yates's family. We allude not to the excellence of his character: many excellent men, we are glad to say, have laboured usefully in this country: nor do we allude to his length of service as a missionary in India-though few have worked as Dr. Yates worked in that capacity for twenty-eight years. We allude not to these things, but to Dr. Yates's great and important services to government and the people, and the cause of education, in his translations, in his grammars and dictionaries, and in his school books. Dr. Yates facilitated the progress of many in the vernacular languages; he laid open the character of the Sanskrit language, and he worked for the School Book Society, which provides government with school books for their colleges. All this he did year after year with a patient industry which was peculiarly his own. He worked for others and not for himself, in a land whither nearly all men come to provide for themselves and their families, or to raise themselves in society. We have heard many speak of this good man with respect and honour; we never heard any one utter a word to his disparagement. He was a learned, humble, pious man, and was eminently a public benefactor. On this ground, therefore, we think that government should not allow his family to be dependent merely on the small annuity of a missionary society. It would be an act highly honourable to the government of India spontaneously to mark its sense of Dr. Yates's useful career. Such men ought not to be under the ban of public authority, or neglected by the country to whose welfare they devote themselves. Their families are placed in straitened circumstances, not through follies and extravagance, but simply through self-denial and devotion; they die poor, not because they have no ability or industry to exert in public professions, but because they consecrate all their ability and all their energies to the great end of promoting true religion. It is an honourable thing to the British nation that it recognized the claims on its respect of Howard the philanthropist, and, in later times, of Dr. Morrison, in China. |