THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGES
The last warning applies here with particular force. A good grasp of Hebrew and Greek, matched with a proper humility and the real learning which seeks to explain and not to impress, is certainly a valuable tool for searching the Scriptures in the tongues they were given in or read. A smattering of either or both can materially ease our burden in taking advantage of the knowledge of others (the ability to transliterate words in Hebrew and Greek script lays open to us the invaluable correlations of Scripture in such works as Hatch and Redpath's Concordance to the Greek O.T., and Bruder's to the New) though they are not indispensable; but a smattering misapplied is a perilous attainment. A knowledge of the Greek alphabet is not a sufficient qualification for looking any given word up in a Lexicon, choosing at random (or from interested motives) one of the least likely meanings, and imposing that upon our audiences or ourselves as the true sense of " the original." In such matters we do far better to hide our little learning, and if we have reason to be dissatisfied with the rendering before us, go humbly before those who are qualified to judge, and ask them to pronounce.

Of course, it is a legitimate object of our study to acquire an efficient knowledge of these languages, and for some few it is desirable. But for most of us it is not. Infinite labour would be required before our personal readings of the Greek or Hebrew text were worth anything at all, and our time is so precious that it might be much better spent.