he gained the favour of the populace, who flocked about him; and by so pleasing a mode of instruction, they were brought to a sense of duty, and a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. Aldhelm died in 709.

Bede, the celebrated ecclesiastical historian, and the great ornament of his age and country, was born in the kingdom of Northumberland, in 673. It has been remarked, that "he never knew what it was to be idle." He wrote on all the branches of knowledge then cultivated in Europe. In Greek and Hebrew he had skill very uncommon in that barbarous age. One of his last acts was, translating the Gospel of St. John into Saxon.

The closing scenes of his life expressed the piety and happiness of his soul. To those who were attending on him he said, "The time of my dissolution draws near; I desire to depart, and to be with Christ; yes! my soul desires to see Christ, my King, in his beauty:" and in the evening, one of his pupils, who knew his anxiety to finish the translation he had begun, saying to him, “Dear master, one sentence is still wanting," he replied, "Write quickly;" and summoning up all his strength, he indited the words required. The young man wrote as he desired, and then said, "It is finished:" to which the expiring Christian replied, "Thou hast well said-all is now finished!" He was then placed, by his own desire, on the spot where he was accustomed to pray; and endeavouring to sing, "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,"-as he uttered the last words, he sweetly fell asleep in Jesus. He was called the Wise Saxon by his cotemporaries, and Venerable Bede by posterity; and as long as great modesty, piety, and learning, united in one character, are the objects of veneration among mankind, the memory of Bede must be revered. He died in 735.

Our great Alfred was the next who attempted a translation of the Scriptures into the language of his subjects and countrymen. He commenced with the book of Psalms, but dying before it was finished, it was completed by another hand. This extraordinary prince, justly considered one of the wisest and best that ever adorned the annals of any country, died in the vigour of his age and the strength of his faculties, October, 900, after a reign of 29 years. The design of translating the Bible for the benefit of his subjects was perfectly consistent with the uniform piety and excellence of his character. To him we are indebted for the trial by jury, and for the foundation of our common law.

John De Wickliffe completed his translation of the Bible into the then English language, in 1380. This eminent man was Professor of Divinity at Oxford, and Rector of Lutterworth. He was distinguished for piety, remarkable talents, and decided opposition to error and superstition.

The opinions of Wickliffe continued to spread in England, and soon extended to the Continent; and many, especially in Bohemia, received and advocated his doctrines. Wherever those scriptural principles were received, multitudes of all ranks immediately changed their lives, and rejoiced in that illumination which after so long a night of darkness had visited them. His writings were read with avidity by the celebrated John Huss, Rector of the University of Prague, and Jerome of the same city, a man of superior talents, and who had brought from England various writings of Wickliffe. This early English reformer has, with singular propriety, been called "The Morning Star of the Reformation."

In the year 1526, William Tyndal, a native of Wales, printed the first edition of his English New Testament at Antwerp, being assisted by John Frith and William Roye. Nearly the whole of this edition was bought up by Tonstal, Bishop of London, and Sir Thomas More, to prevent their circulation, and burnt at St. Paul's cross. By the sale of this, Tyndal was enabled to prepare another and more correct edition, which was also printed at Antwerp, in 1534. Thus, the efforts used by the enemies of the Scriptures, to hinder their diffusion, under the direction of Divine Providence tended to promote their more extensive circulation.

Myles Coverdale was born in Yorkshire in 1484, and on account of his piety, knowledge of the Scriptures, and zealous preaching, was advanced to the See of Exeter, in 1551, by King Edward VI. He translated from the Dutch and Latin, and published at Zurich, the first entire English version of the Bible ever PRINTED. On the last page are these words, "Prynted in the yeare of our Lorde, M.D.XXXV. and fynished the fourth daye of October."

Several editions of the English Bible were subsequently published; the only one we shall now notice is the present Authorised Version. It was undertaken, by the command of King James I., by fifty-four learned men: of these only forty-seven actually entered on the work; the others having died or declined the engagement. Those who have compared most of the European translations with the originals, have not scrupled to say that the English version of

the Bible, made under the direction of James I. is the most accurate and faithful of the whole. This translation was begun in 1607, and was not completed and published till 1611.

The art of printing was invented in Germany about the year 1445, by John Gutenberg, a native of Mentz. In this the Providence of God is strikingly apparent; for had not the facilities afforded by this noble and important art for circulating the Scriptures been realized at the time of the Reformation, to all human view, the glorious work would have been crushed by those who loved darkness rather than light. "Hereby," says an old writer, in reference to this incomparable invention, "tongues are known, knowledge groweth, judgment increaseth, books are dispersed, the Scripture is seen, the doctors be read, stories be opened, times compared, truth discerned, falsehood detected, and with finger pointed, and all through the benefit of printing. Wherefore, I suppose that either the Pope must abolish printing, or else, as the world standeth, printing doubtless will abolish him. God hath opened the press to preach, whose voice the Pope is never able to stop, with all the puissance of his triple crown. By this printing, as by the gift of tongues, and as by the singular organ of the Holy Ghost, the doctrine of the Gospel soundeth to all nations and countries under heaven." But we are to commemorate this event,

II. UNDER A DEEP SENSE OF OUR GREAT RESPONSIBILITY. Our responsibility is in proportion to our advantages; and by comparing former with present times, we will be able to see our obligations.

The Sacred Writings are now easy of access; formerly, every effort was used to keep them out of view; their character and tendency, through ignorance or enmity to their contents, were misrepresented, and the people led to regard them with horror. Conrad Heresbachius relates, that he heard a monk declaiming in a church, who affirmed, "A new language is discovered, called Greek, and is the parent of all heresy. A book written in that language is every where got into the hands of people, and is called the New Testament-it is a book full of daggers and poison. Another language has also sprung up, called Hebrew, and those who learn it become Jews." Degrees in divinity were conferred upon those who scarcely ever read the Bible; and numbers of divines were far advanced in life before they had even seen one. Albert, Archbishop of Mentz, having found a Bible by accident lying on a table, in 1530, opened it, and having read some pages, exclaimed,

"Indeed, I do not know what this book is; but this I see, that every thing in it is against us."

The difficulty of purchasing the Scriptures, and their consequent scarcity, rendered them inaccessible to the people generally. In 1429, the price of one of Wickliffe's New Testaments was a sum equal to forty pounds of our money at present. A load of hay was given for a few chapters of St. Paul, or St. James, in English. Before the time of Dean Colet, who was born in 1466, there was scarcely a Latin Testament, in any cathedral church in England, although Latin was the only authorised language for the Scriptures. Instead of the Gospel of Christ, the spurious Gospel of Nicodemus was affixed to a pillar in the nave of the church, which Erasmus says he saw in the metropolitan church of Canterbury.

In 1537, the royal command was given, that "a book of the whole Bible should be provided, and laid in the choir, for every man that would, to look and read therein." The proclamation to set up Bibles in the churches, created almost universal pleasure. "God's word was read," says Strype, and the people resorted to the places where the reading of it was. Every body that could, bought the book, or busily read it, or got others to read it to them, if they could not read it themselves; and divers more elderly people learned to read on purpose, and even little boys flocked among the rest, to hear portions of the Holy Scriptures read.”

On the accession of Mary to the throne of England in 1553, she discovered the most determined attachment to the Church of Rome. The Bibles that had been placed in the churches were removed; search was made through the Colleges of Oxford, and all the English Bibles, and such other books as were deemed heretical, were burnt.

When Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1558, the Bibles were again restored to the people for their perusal. Bishop Burnet relates an anecdote of the Queen, which discovers the expectations of her subjects: speaking of the release of those who had been imprisoned, for their religious principles, under the former reign, but who were now ordered by Elizabeth to be liberated, he observes; "A man that used to talk pleasantly, said to her, that 'he came to supplicate in behalf of some prisoners not yet set at liberty.' She asked who they were?" He said, they were Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, that were still shut up; for the people longed much to see them abroad.' She answered as pleasantly- She would first talk with

themselves, and see whether they desired to be set at such liberty as he required for them."" The request, thus made, was soon granted.

In 1559, Dr. Heath, Archbishop of York, sent over, at the queen's expense, to the deans and chapters of Christ Church and St. Patrick's in Dublin, two large Bibles, to be placed in the middle of the choirs for public perusal, which caused a great resort of people to those churches, for the purpose of reading therein; as small Bibles were not to be had then as now.

In former times, those who translated the Holy Scriptures, favoured in any manner their circulation, or dared to possess or read them, were exposed to pains and penalties of the most formidable nature.

In the year 1390, a bill was brought into the House of Lords, to suppress Wickliffe's translation, and to prevent the reading of the Scriptures in the English tongue. This attempt was happily defeated by the firmness of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and uncle to King Richard II., who said, on the occasion, "We will not be the dregs of all men, seeing other nations have the law of God, which is the law of our faith, written in their own language;" and boldly and solemnly declared, that he would "maintain our having the law in our own tongue, against those, whoever they should be, who first brought in the bill."

Wickliffe, who terminated his valuable life in 1384, was pursued by the insatiate malice of his enemies after death. According to a decree of the infamous Council of Constance, passed in 1415, his bones were disinterred, about 40 years after his death, and burnt, and his ashes thrown into a river. This same Council burnt at the stake, John Huss, in 1415, in perfidious violation of the safe conduct or passport, of the Emperor Sigismund. His friend and fellow-sufferer, Jerome, followed him through the flames the ensuing year. Eneas Sylvius, a contemporary cardinal, and afterwards Pope, under the name of Pius II. says, "They bore their sufferings with constancy, going to the stake as to a feast, and suffering no expression to escape, which could indicate uneasiness of mind. As the fire kindled, they began to sing hymns, which even the flames and crackling of the fire, could scarcely interrupt." By the death of these two upright and excellent men, infamy is attached to this Council. Their great crime was, zeal for the diffusion of the Scriptures, connected with non-submission to the Church of Rome. John Huss, when driven from Prague by persecution, was obliged to

B