When Sir Walter Scott lay dying he asked his son-in-law
Lockhart to read to him. "Out of what book ? " Lockhart enquired. "Need you ask ? "was the reply; "there is but one." Lockhart read the fourteenth of St. John. In a new translation of the New Testament published this week (S. P. C. K. & Longmans Green, 8s. 6d.) the Rev. C. Kingsley Williams ren- ders the opening verses of that very familiar chapter thus: Do not let your hearts be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many rooms; or else I should have told you; for I am going to make ready a place for you. This is not very different from the Authorised Version; whether it is an improvement is a matter of opinion. Mr. Williams has produced a sound and dignified version—more dignified than Moffatt's—which will have to compete with quite a number of translations into modern English from Weymouth onward, and including notably the good American Revised Standard Version and the Bishop of London's New Testament Letters (the Epistles only). Mr. Kingsley Williams has aimed parti- cularly at simplicity in the choice of words and the construction of sentences, his first purpose being to provide a book suitable especially for use in the mission-field. It will no doubt have a wider utility than that. * - • * *
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