ALL Christians and Bible students necessarily feel a deep interest in the history of the Bible, the Bible of our fathers, the Bible of today, which has been so marvelously preserved and transmitted through ages of spiritual darkness and ignorance, religious intolerance, and persecution of Truth's representatives and revelators. Rising above the mists of obscurity in which at certain periods the Scriptures seem, according to material evidence, to have been lost, shining through the abstruseness of ancient languages, imperfect translations, and inaccurate revisions, "the inspired Word of the Bible" (Science and Health, p. 497) has lived on, and today we have it in a form of wonderful strength, perspicuity, and beauty,—the magnet of the Christian world. There are many different interpretations of the Holy Scriptures. Having searched diligently and labored earnestly for the true interpretation thereof, men have reached the best possible literal and verbal expression obtainable from originals or authenticated copies, manuscripts, and versions.
During the decade from 1870 to 1880, a company of England's ripest scholars were assembled in the famous Jerusalem chamber of Westminster Abbey, for the purpose of revising, with the aid and cooperation of an American committee, the authorized version of the Bible. This great task was undertaken in the light of valuable discoveries in the far east, especially of the famous Sinaitic manuscript found by Dr. Tischendorf in 1844. Neither the Vatican nor the Alexandrine manuscripts were available to the former revisers, and these three ancient Greek manuscripts are the oldest extant; hence their value to modern revisers, to whom also a more profound and accurate knowledge of ancient languages and textual criticism was available than could be obtained in 1611, the date of the King James version, as it is commonly called, itself a product of the highest scholarship of the seventeenth century. In 1881, the Revised New Testament was given to expectant seekers for a more accurate rendering of Scripture, bringing indeed "a new light upon much that was difficult and obscure," as the eminent revisers expressed their hope. This was followed in 1885 by the Revised Old Testament, giving to English-speaking people the most accurate presentation of the literal form of the Bible obtainable from available sources.
During the first half of this remarkable period of activity in religious thought, a woman, alone and unfriended, also devoted many consecrated hours to the study of the Holy Scriptures. She had not access to the world's storehouses of ancient and modern lore, nor were her surroundings those of historic fame; instead, we have glimpses of a lonely, unfrequented attic chamber, with only the simplest accessories and a single window opening skyward.
