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by all who knew him, especially the Committee of the Bible Society.

RESOLUTIONS OF THE COMMITTEE occasioned by the death of the late Mr. GREENFIELD: November 21, 1831:

That feeling very deeply the greatness of the loss sustained by the Society, in the death of its late Superintendent of the Editorial department, this Committee yet desire to meet that loss in a becoming spirit of submission to the will of Him who ordereth all things in perfect, though inscrutable, wisdom.

That this Committee remember, with gratitude and astonishment, that in the nineteen months during which Mr. GREENFIELD had been engaged in the service of the Society, his varied talents had been brought into exercise in no fewer than twelve European, five Asiatic, one African, and three American languages; and that, since the commencement of his engagement, he had acquired a considerable degree of skill in the following languages, with which he had previously been wholly unacquainted-the Peruvian, Negro-English, Chippeway, and Berber.

That this Committee believe that they are fully justified in extending to all other works in which he had been engaged as Editor, the following honourable testimonial, borne by their librarian, T. P. Platt, Esq., on the completion of the printing of the Modern Greek Psalter:

"Mr. Greenfield, in carrying this work through the press, has uniformly exhibited

"I. Sound learning, and critical judgment.

"II. A constant perception of the duty of faithful adherence to the very letter of the Sacred Original.

"III. Minute and unwearied diligence, extending itself to the accurate marking of every supplemental word introduced in the translation, and to the careful arrangement of stops and accents."

That this Committee cannot suffer to pass wholly unnoticed some of the extra-official labours of Mr. Greenfield. They remember, with delight, that it was his valuable defence of the Mahratta version of the New Testament, against the criticisms advanced in the Asiatic Journal, for September, 1829, that brought him under the notice of the Committee. Of the Mahratta language he had had no previous knowledge, nor yet of some of the other languages referred to in the work: and when it is stated, that the pamphlet appeared within five weeks of his directing his attention to the subject, no stronger proof could be afforded of the remarkable talent with which he was endowed for acquiring languages. His reply to various strictures on the Surinam, or Negro-English version, was another memorial of his diligence, as well as of his good-will to the Society: while, more recently, his observations which have appeared in the Asiatic Journal, in reply to the criticisms of Colonel Vans Kennedy on his defence of the Mahratta version, may be appealed to, as confirming the opinion entertained of his high talents and sound learning; while a posthumous memorial has yet to appear in the same journal, through the kindness of the Editor, in which a defence of the Arabic version will be found.

CHAPTER V.

AGENTS OF THE BIBLE SOCIETY.

OPERATIONS so extensive and various as those of the British and Foreign Bible Society, not only in the United Kingdom, but in distant countries, must have required a suitable agency. This has been furnished by a gracious Providence. For the important work a succession of men has been found, possessing the most admirable endowments, evidently the gifts of the Spirit of God.

But

As Agents of the Bible Society in foreign countries, besides the Translators and other Missionaries, our attention has, many times, been called to the services of Dr. Van Ess, Professor Kieffer, the Rev. H. D. Leeves, Rev. T. Lowndes, Mr. Barker, Dr. Thomson, M. De Pressensé, and Mr. Tiddy. there are four of those valuable servants of God, whose names seem to require especial record in this place; and they are still living, to witness the fruit of their labour in the blessed cause of their Lord and Saviour: Dr. Paterson, Dr. Henderson, Dr. Pinkerton, and C. S. Dudley, Esq.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE REV. DR. PATERSON AND THE REV. DR. HENDERSON.

DR. PATERSON and Dr. HENDERSON must be mentioned together; as they are thus introduced to our notice by the Rev. Mr. Owen in his history of the Bible Society:-"In the year 1805, the Rev. John Paterson, and the Rev. Ebenezer Henderson, both natives of Scotland, and animated with a zeal for the propagation of the Gospel, resigned their country, connection, and worldly prospects, in order to serve as Christian Missionaries in India. Precluded by the regulations of the British East India Company from occupying stations within their territorial dominions, they repaired to Copenhagen, in the hope of obtaining a passage to Tranquebar, and exercising their ministry within the settlement attached to the Danish Crown, on the coast of Coromandel. Having been disappointed in their expectations, they felt themselves compelled to abandon this design; a design nearest their hearts, of proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation to the heathen, and began to consider, in what manner they might turn their missionary zeal to profitable account in that part of Christendom, upon which the Providence of God appeared to have cast them.

"Under this impression, they commenced a very diligent inquiry into the state of religion in the countries by which they were more immediately surrounded. Among the individuals of consideration

with whom they had formed a connection during their residence at Copenhagen, was, Justiciary Thorkelin, Privy Keeper of the Royal Archives, a person very generally respected, and distinguished for his zealous attachment to the cause of Christianity. This gentleman being a native of Iceland, and feeling, as a Christian patriot, for the spiritual welfare of his country, laid open to these disappointed missionaries a field of immediate usefulness, by directing their attention to the religious state of the inhabitants of that island, and to the dearth of the Holy Scriptures, at that time prevailing among them. Mr. Thorkelin stated, that the population, amounting to nearly 50,000, scarcely contained one person in a hundred above the age of twelve or fourteen, who could not read; that no people in the world were fonder of reading; and that as the only press of which they were possessed had not been used for many years, the inhabitants supplied the want of printed books by the laborious and tardy expedient of transcribing them; that the Scriptures were no longer to be obtained for money; and that not above forty or fifty copies of the Bible were to be found throughout the island. These affecting particulars excited in the breasts of these excellent young men, the kindest emotions. Touched with compassion for nearly 50,000 of their fellowChristians, inhabiting a remote island, and destitute of those sacred oracles which they so dearly prized and revered, Messrs. Paterson and Henderson despatched the information with which themselves had been so deeply impressed, to their friends in

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