There is a sense in which no translation of the Scriptures is good
enough, if we can make it better; and we have no desire to prevent men
from doing their best to improve the translations in all languages as
much as possible. But do not let them make the impression that a perfect
translation is necessary or even possible; for it is not. God has caused
the Bible to be written in such a way, He has put all important matters
of truth and duty in such a variety of forms, that any translation, made
with a reasonable amount of learning and honesty, is sure to make things
intelligible enough in some of the forms in which they are presented in
the Book.
The Bible, like the Church and the Ministry, is a great mixture of the
human and the divine. There is not a single book, nor a single passage
perhaps, in the whole volume, in which the weaknesses of man and the
perfections of God are not blended. Everywhere we have revelations of
the divine glory, and everywhere we have manifestations of human
imperfection. We have human errors side by side with divine truths. We
have neither a perfect teacher nor a perfect example in the whole Book,
but one; and of that one we have not a perfect record, either of His
teachings or His life. We have nothing but brief, imperfect, fragmentary
records of either.
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