I Believe There Is Not A Single
Individual Amongst Them, Who Has Read The Whole Of The Old Testament;
Nor
Do I think that among eastern Christians in general there is one in
a thousand, of those who can read,
That has ever taken that trouble.
They content themselves, in general, with their prayer-books, liturgies,
and histories of saints; few of them read the gospels, though more do so
in Syria than in Egypt; the reading of the whole of the scripture is
discountenanced by the clergy; the wealthy seldom have the inclination
to prosecute the study of the Holy writings, and no others are able to
procure a manuscript copy of the Bible, or one printed in the two
establishments in Mount Libanus. The well meant endeavours of the Bible
Society in England to supply them with printed copies of the Scriptures
in Arabic, if not better directed than they have hitherto been, will
produce very little effect in these countries. The cost of such a copy,
trifling as it may seem in England, is a matter of importance to the
poor Christians of the east; the Society has, besides, chosen a version
which is not current in the east, where the Roman translation alone is
acknowledged by the Clergy, who easily make their flocks believe that
the Scriptures have been interpolated by the Protestants. It would,
perhaps, have been better if the Society, in the beginning at least, had
furnished the eastern Christians with cheap copies of the Gospels and
Psalms only, which being the books chiefly in use among them in
manuscript,
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