Gift of the family of
PROFESSOR WILLIAM D. WHITNEY

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A NAEEATTVE FOB THE TOUWG.

BY
L. N. R„
AUTHOR OF "TnE MISSING LINK.**

lit * *

NEW YORK:
ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS,
No. 580 BROADWAY.
1864.

ADVERTISE ME NT.

This volume needs no explanatory introduction. The
"Story" of the Book, in all ages, countries, and lan
guages, is told with simplicity and truthfulness. The
work contains the "Story" of the Bible from the first
dawn of revelation to the completion of the sacred canon,
with the interesting details of its translation and circula
tion, from the earliest efforts until the present time. To
tell the Story of the Book in former days, a multitude of
curious facts haye been culled from works of difficult
access ; and its later progress is illustrated by an abun
dant variety of statements drawn from numerous authentic
sources. It professes to be a narrative for the young ; but we are
greatly mistaken if it be not regarded as a book suited to
all ages, and perused with interest by all who love the
Book whose Story it gives. We are, indeed, anxious that
the younger members of our families should look upon it
(3)

i ADVERTISEMENT.
as a volume intended for them, and peculiarly their own.
It is our earnest desire that parents and instructors of
youth should be so fully convinced of the value of the
Bible Society, as to lead them to embrace every opportu
nity to make its claims known ; and the recommendation
of this volome may be regarded, we think, as a likely
means, under the Divine blessing, to interest the young in
the great and glorious work of Bible-circulation. In this
simple way they may be the means of raising up a multi
tude of " fellow-helpers" to the truth. If it is a satisfac
tion to be instrumental in causing the grass to grow,
flowers to bloom, and trees to yield fruit, where all was
barrenness and sterility before, how much greater the
privilege to be the means of leading others, not only to
possess the Bible themselves, but to labour and contribute
toward its universal dissemination.
T. P.

CONTENTS.

PART I.
THE BIBLE IN PAST AGES.

CHAPTER I. PASB
The Book and its circulation by means of the Bible Society — The ages
without tho Bible — Voices from Heaven — Patriarchal tradition — The
flood — Renewed corruptions — Early idolatries — Ancient Egypt — The
pyramids — The oldest coffin — Thebes, Karnak, hieroglyphics, Rosetta
stone— Inscriptions on tombs— The bondage — Moses — Arabia — The
Arabs — The book of Job — The Pentateuch, how written — The Exode —
Number of the people — How supported — Commencement of the age of
miracle — Amalek — Wady Mokatteb  lt
CHAPTER II.
Mount Sinai — The Covenant, the giving of the Law — The Jebel Mousa —
Jehovah — Seven sins and their punishments — Eleven months at Sinai —
The unknown thirty-eight years — The last year of the wandering — Mount
Hor — The death of Aaron — The law as made known to the people —
Fiery serpents — The death of Moses  35
CHAPTER III.
Entrance to the land — Joshua — The Canaanites — Joshua's victories —
Ebal and Gerizim — The Judges — The six servitudes — The times of tho
Kings — David — Solomon — Division of the kingdom — Shishak — -The
prophets, their rolls — Table of prophets — The lost ten tribes — The lost
roll, the burnt roll — Captivity and return — Ezra's ministry — Review of
the history and prophecies concerning the fall of Israel, Nineveh, Juda,
Tyre, Petra, Thebes, and Babylon  45

10 CONTENTS. PACM
CHAPTER TV.
The Jewish Bible complete— The Apocrypha— The Septuagint — Daniel's
two pictures — Antiochus Epiphanes — The Maccabees — Judas Maccabeus
— The Roman power— Pompey — Csesar— The Druids— Their Hebrew
origin — Serpent-worship — Druidical remains — Greek philosophers — He
rod — The temple — The synagogues — Traditions of the Pharisees — Tar-
gums — Phariseos and Sadducees — The faithful few— The rabbins — John
the Baptist — His ministry — Our Lord's advent — His mission — Books of
of the New Testament — The first century — Its apostles and elders — The
Last Supper — Violent death of all who partook of it, except John — First
and second pagan persecutions — Destruction of Jerusalem . . .72
CHAPTER V.
Gradual circulation of the New Testament — Earliest heresies — Uninspired
teachers — Progress of the gospel — The Book becomes the guide — Eight
more pagan persecutions — Particulars of these — Dioclesian's medals —
Reign of Constantine, his mistaken zeal — The rise of monasteries — Pro
gress of the papacy — Alaric — Versions of Scripture — The Alexandrine
version — First protests — Vigilantius — Nestorius — The Nestorian Chris
tians — The Armenian church — The Paulicians — The Abyssinian church
— The British church in Wales, in Scotland, in Ireland — Succat— Co
lumba — Iona  95
CHAPTER VI.
The Fall of England's Protestantism — Augustine's mission — Bede — King
Alfred — General ignorance — The Vaudois church — Early protests —
Claude of Turin — Vaudois colporteurs — Waldo — His translation of the
Bible — Sketch of the Vaudois people — Their knowledge of Scripture —
Innocent III. — The inquisition — Torments — Steadfastness — The vows of
Luzerna — The Bohemian Christians  119
CHAPTER VII.
The earthquake council — John Wiclif— The law made at Toulouse — Romish
revenge on Wiclif— His translation of the Scriptures — Lollard martyrs 
Sawtre — Lady Jane Boughton — Lord Cohham— Black-friars' monastery
—Site of Bible-house— Printing— Anger of monks— Use of monasteries
—Reading and writing of the Scriptures at Clugni— Translations pre
paring — Gift of the Vaudois church to France — Olivetan's version  De
Sacy's version— Colporteurs— Translations of the Bible extant up to the
sixteeth century — Particulars concerning each . . , iqfi
CHAPTER VIII.
Tyndal — Erasmus — Tonstall — More — Wolsey — Search for Testaments in
London, Oxford, and Cambridge — Scenes in St. Paul's cathedral, and at

CONTENTS. 11
PABH
Paul's cross — Deaths of Tyndal and of Wolsey — Description of frontis
piece, with martyrdom of Ann Askew — Luther — List of languages before
1804 — Summing up of the narrative  152

PART LI.
THE BIBLE SOCIETY'S HOUSE.
THE PRINTING AND BINDING OP THE BIBLE.

CHAPTER I.
The Bible-house — Its library — Wiclif s Testament — Tyndal's Bible — Cover-
dale's Bible — The Geneva Bible — The Bishops' Bible — Authorized version
— Welsh Bible — European languages — Swedish Bible — Polyglots — Dutch
Bible — Luther's Bible — Bohemia Bible — Eastern languages — Persian
Testament — Pali, Hinduwee, Bengalee, &c. — Separate translations of the
Bible into Chinese — The Lord's Prayer in all languages — The Douay
version — The Society's departed friends — The manuscript library — The
Breton Bible — Wales and Britanny — Syrian, Persian, Chinese, Ethiopio,
and Amharie manuscripts — The Amharic Bible — Mr. Jowett's account
of it — How the Society obtains its translation — Their revision — The
general committee-room — The case of Bibles — -The Bible for the blind —
The sub-committee-room — Portraits — The Bible-warehouse . . . 179
CHAPTER II.
Bible-printing at Shaeklewell — Ancient printing office — The compositor —
The reader — Stereotyping — Binding — Number employed . . . 199

PART HI.
THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY'S RISE, PROGRESS,
AND PRESENT OPERATIONS.

CHAPTER I,
Rev. T. Charles — Particulars of his youth — His missionary spirit — His
usefulness to th« young— -Scarcity of the Scriptures in Wales—Circulating

12 CONTENTS. PAQH
schools — Committing the Bible to memory — Grown-up scholars — Meet
ing of twenty schools — The little girl who bad no Bible — The twelve
peasants — Mr. Charles's visit to London — Tract committee — Wants of
Wales, and of ihe world — Formation of the British and Foreign Bible
Society — Collection in Wales — Influential friends and supporters — Ob
jects and constitution of the Society, formed alike for home and the
world — Its principle — Union and co-operation of all parties — Rev. J.
Owen— Rev. J. Hughes  217
CHAPTER II.
Arrival of Bibles in Wales — Answer to prayer for Mr. Charles — His visit
to Ireland — His funeral — Want of the Scriptures in Scotland and in
Franco — Revocation of tho edict of Nantes, and its results — Sufferings
of the Huguenots and Vaudois — Reaction of infidelity — Desire of Eng
land to circulate the Bible in France — Oberlin and the Ban de la Roche
— Scripture-readers — Bible Societies at Waldbaeh and Nuremberg —
Scarcity of the Scriptures even in Europe — Their circulation among
French and Spanish prisoners of war — Bible Society at Berlin — Willing
ness of a priest to distribute the New Testament — The field of labour in
Asia — Chinese gospels in the British Museum — India and the Tamil
language — Africa — America  230
CHAPTER III.
The Bible Society's " Reports" not dull books : what it is that they contain
— The sway of Great Britain and its purpose — The world's inhabitants,
in five classes — The work of the Bible Society among each — The way it
is accomplished, by division of labour, and by various agents — The Bible -
Society like the banian tree, its fibres taking root in the Protestant coun
tries, first in England, by tho auxiliaries and Bible Associations — The
system gradually matured — Arrangementof districts — Ladies' committees
— The results of co-operation — Objections to the Society — Lord Teign-
mouth's answer— Mr. Dealtry's— Mr. Ward's— Operations at home— Ex
tracts from reports of collectors — The dying child — The old woman and
the wool — The Bible-bees — The gun and the Bible — Mr. Dudley's review
— Death of Mr. Owen — Distribution of the Scriptures in Ireland 
Anecdotes  040
v . CHAPTER IV.
The Bible Society in Holland— Ali Bey's Turkish Bible— Prayer for Bible
Societies— Germany— Its religious state previous to the existence of the
Bible Society— Dr. Schwabe's tour— Mr. Owen's letters— Prussia— Royal
patronage— Switzerland— Antistes Hess— Dr. Steinkopff's report— Lau-
sanno Bible Society— Sweden— Norway— Iceland— Mr. Henderson's let
ters — Denmark — The United States of America . OCo

CONTENTS. 13
PAGE
CHAPTER V.
The Jews, after their dispersion, in Rome, Spain, Portugal, France, Ger
many, Turkey, and England — 'Their sufferings, aud the remission of
these — Their numbers all over the world — What the Society did for them
in its first twenty-five years — Letters of Dr. Pinkerton from Russia —
Jews of Thessalonica and Constantinople — Jewish converts — The So
ciety's work among the Syrian Christians in the Armenian church, in
the Nestorian, and in the Abyssinian — Letters from Mi-. Pearce— Grants
to the Vaudois church — Its gratitude  279
CHAPTER VI.
The work of the Bible Society among Roman Catholics — The Greek church
— Distribution of the Bible by Roman Catholic priests — General willing
ness of the Roman Catholic laity to receive it — Anecdotes — Leander Van
Ess — France — Professor Kieffer — The prayer of the dying sister, and its
answer — Austria and Belgium — The Roman Catholic portions of Ger
many, Prussia, Poland, and Switzerland — Italy, Spain, and Portugal —
Russia : the Bible Society there j its extinction — The tribe of Buriats —
Turkey, European and Asiatic ; its mixed population — The Turks — Fo
reign agency — Mr. Barker — Greece — South America — Dr. Thomson — A
few words on the Apocrypha — The Mohammedan countries — The Heathen
countries  300
CHAPTER VII.
Death of Lord Teignmouth, and of Mr. Hughes — Bible colportage upon
the continent — Osee Derbecq — Characteristics of colporteurs — The young
Bible collector in Jersey — Juvenilo Bible Associations — Individual efforts
to distribute the Scriptures — The Testament among the fishing-people
of Boulogne — -A tract the pioneer of the Bible — Statistics of infidel
publications  332
CHAPTER VIII.
Jubilee review of the heathen countries of the world — The Bible in India
— In China : extraordinary religious movement there : Sew-tseuen, the
leader of the insurgents — Japan, in all probability without a, Bible —
Loochoo islands  . 352
CHAPTER IX.
Jubilee review continued — Circulation of the Bible in Australia, Borneo,
Tahiti, Rarotonga, Mangaia, New Zealand, and South Africa — The Bible
among Mohammedans, in Roman Catholic countries, in Austria, in Spain
and Portugal, in Switzerland and Italy, and in France .... 383
2

14 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER X.
The old fountain restored in Assyria — The Nestorian church — American
missions — Dr. Layard's testimony — The Armenian, the Coptic, the
Abyssinian, and the Waldensian churches — The Jews — Jerusalem —
Nazareth  405
CHAPTER XI.
The Protestant countries : Holland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and
Sweden — State of the Continent — Lord Bexley — Mr. Branch-am — Walss
— Scotland — England — Ireland — Home colporteurs and collectors — Fi
nal appeal — Motives for renewed exertion  428

t ffooft atft ik gteg.

PAET I.
THE BIBLE LY PAST AGES.

00k ani its Utajn

CHAPTER I.
The Book and its Circulation by means of the Bible Society — The Ages without
the Bible — Voices from Heaven — Patriarchal Tradition — Tho Flood — Re
newed Corruptions — Early Idolatries — Ancient Egypt — The Pyramids—
The oldest Coffin — Thebes, Karnak, Hieroglyphics, Rosetta Stone — In
scription on Tombs — The Bondage — Moses — Arabia — The Arabs — The
Book of Job — The Pentateuch, how written — The Exode — Number of the
people — How supported — Commencement of the Age of Miracle — Amalek —
Wady Mokatteb. THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.
In almost all the houses in England may now he found One
Book — the oldest and the most wonderful hook in the world.
This Book, the Bible, is a Revelation from God. The word
revelation means the rolling back of a veil ; so the Bible unveils
to man what otherwise he could not know of the G-reat God, of
man, and of Jesus Christ, who is God and man " in one person
for ever."
God caused holy men to write on these subjects that which
he taught them ; and, being written, he meant it to be known
throughout all the world, by every human creature
But this Book did not always lie upon almost every table in
England. It is only within the last fifty years that it entered
into the minds of gome good men to help each other to print and
send this*Holy Bible forth to every land, and into every family;
and when they had united themselves for this great work, they
were called The British and Foreign Bible Society.
This Bible Society has a history, aaid they wish their history
2* 17

18 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

written for those who were not horn when their Society arose
They are in this year, 1853, celebrating their Jubilee— a year of
public gladness and rejoicing over the work already done, and a
year in which they wish to ask their young friends to help them
to do very much more.
Before, however, we begin to tell you the story of the Bible
Society, which is a true and glorious tale, that will certainly stir
all the young hearts that listen to it, to desire to work in its
service, it will be necessary for you that we go back for a while
to the story of the Book itself, and that we inquire what that
Book is, and whence it came.
And now, while we attempt to lead you to retrace the times of
its beginning, we have one request to make, that you will read,
with your Bible by your side, and turn to the references made
to Scripture as they occur. You have not to search through
" houses of rolls," and long files of ancient manuscripts, to see if
the story be true ; for all the wonders that will he told you concern
a small volume that can be held in the hand of the youngest
child capable of understanding it.
May the Holy Spirit of God lead us reverently to seek, through
out our lives, for "all truth" contained in his high and holy
word, which is able to make us "wise," and "wise unto salva
tion !" THE AGES WITHOUT THE BIBLE.
You know, perhaps, that this world existed for 2500 years or
more after the creation of mankind, without a written revelation ;
and Moses tells us, that, during that period, the wickedness of
man was " great upon the earth" — so that a just and holy God
swept the whole human race away, and washed out their remem
brance, with the exception of one family, saved in the ark, to be
the founders of new nations.
Did you ever think of the way in which the Almighty, in the
midst of this abounding wickedness, preserved among the few
the knowledge of his Name? He held immediate intercoursa

THE AGES WITHOUT THE BIBLE. 19

with one patriarch after another, by voices from heaven, and he
had spoken much with Adam. Adam lived nearly 700 years
after the birth of his grandson Enos, when it is said men " began
to call themselves by the name of the Lord." With Adam,
during the days of his long life, all who desired it might con
verse. Enos lived far into the days of the holy Enoch, of whom
it is said that he " walked with God, and was not, for God took
him." Enoch would certainly teach the truth to his own son
Methuselah, with whom he lived 300 years': in giving him his
name, he uttered a prophecy, for the word means, " He dies, and
it is sent ;" and Methuselah died in the year of the flood. Noah,
born 400 years after Methuselah, might have talked with him
for 600 years before the flood, so that in a line of only five per
sons, all that Adam, who was made in God's own image, "knew
of his Creator" Would be handed down from tongue to tongue ;
and doubtless Adam, Enoch, and Noah, at least, were actual
" preachers of righteousness" to all who would hear them.
Shem, then, the son of Noah, who lived 500 years after he
came out of the ark, and of whom it is said, " Blessed be the
Lord God of Shem," would, with the other patriarchs, convey
all that was known of God to the people fast growing up around
them ; and this knowledge would at 'first, in all probability, be
carried, at the dispersion of mankind, into the different districts
in which they settled. It is thought by some, that Noah himself
went forth into China,. Ham into Africa, Japheth into Europe,
while Shem, who was the favoured son, remained in Asia — some
of his descendants peopling Arabia.
But with this possible knowledge of the true God, we know
that very soon there was mingled the " corruption" of a former
world : men began to adore, in God's stead, the sun and moon,
which they did, because they observed them to be moving bodies,
and thought them living ones, in the heavens.
The Egyptians named their kings Pharaoh, from Phra, the
the sun, and worshipped them, when dead; and very early, as
we learn from the picture-writing, or hieroglyphics, on the walls
of their ancient temples, mixed up their true and noble notions*

20 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

of God, and of the past, and of the future, with base idolatries,
not only of sun, moon, stars, and men, but of brutes, reptiles,
plants, and even insects. They bowed down to bulls, crocodiles,
lily-flowers, onions, and beetles ; yet they were men of mighty
thoughts, and their ideas of building were so vast, that at this
day we should say the records of their structures were fables, did
not the immense remains exist, to witness to the truth of history.
What child has not heard of the pyramids, now believed to be
older than Abraham ? Many think that Job spoke of them when
he referred to " the men who build desolate places for them
selves." Three of these astonishing buildings stand eleven miles west
of the Nile. The largest is built of hewn-stones, some of them
thirty feet long. A French engineer has calculated that the
stones of that huge pile, called the " Great Pyramid," would
suffice to build a wall all round France, measuring 1800 miles — ¦
a wall one foot thick, and ten feet high. These vast mountains
of stone appear to have been intended as tombs for the kings of
Egypt. Since the year 1834, we have been sure of this, for in
the third pyramid of Ghizeh has been found the coffin of the
king for whom it was built — the coffin of King Mycerinus. For
this discovery, Europe is indebted to Colonel Howard Vyse.
In its sepulchral chamber, he discovered a sarcophagus, or stone
coffin, and on the floor a mummy-case, or rather its broken lid,
(for the pyramid had been rifled hundreds of years before by the
Saracens,) which proved to be, from the picture-writing upon it,
the sarcophagus and coffin of the builder.
That ancient lid, perhaps 4000 years old, is now in the British
Museum ; you can go and see it there; and the far-off time to
which it belongs, and the certainty of the occupant, throw an
awful interest round this relic of the first Pharaohs.
These ancient and extraordinary "Egyptians, whose thoughts
seem always to have been occupied with their temples and their
tombs, believed that the spirit, when it left the body, wandered
on, never resting, giving life to some beast of the field, some
fowl of the air, some fish of the sea, — waiting for the redemption

THE AGES WITHOUT THE BIBLE. 21

of the original body ; therefore they took great pains to preserve
their bodies after death, in time-proof mansions. They had no
written revelation to which to refer, to set them right when they
were wrong ; and after the death of the patriarchs, they derived
their knowledge from tradition, or that which one told another ;
for God never spoke to them by a voice from heaven.
Before we leave them, and with Israel " go up out of Egypt,"
under the care of Moses, " learned in all the wisdom of the Egyp
tians," you would like to follow with us for a little while the
steps of recent travellers into this region. You must take nine
teen days' journey up the Nile, to the ancient Thebes, which
was Egypt's old metropolis, long before Israel was settled in the
land of Goshen.
Thebes or Theba means the ark ; and the chief temple there
seems to have been built in commemoration of the deluge ; — a
boat-like shrine was the most sacred object in the ancient Egyp
tian temples.
Thebes is a city that was thought worthy of mention in Scrip
ture : it is there called, " No-Ammon," " populous No," per
haps from No-ah. Its acres of ruins remain to this day. Belzoni
says, that among them he felt as in a city that had been built by
giants. Its situation is grander than even that of the seven-
hilled city of Rome. " The whole valley of the Nile was not
large enough to contain it, and its extremities rested on the bases
of the mountains of Arabia and Africa."
It stood upon a vast plain describing a circuit of thirty miles,
and was called " the City of the Hundrod Gates," and the whole
extent is still strewed with broken columns, avenues of sphinxes,
colossal figures, obelisks, porticoes, blocks of polished granite;
and above these, in all the nakedness of desolation, tower
the amazing pillars of the ancient temples. The largest and
the oldest among these ruins is called " the Temple of
Karnak ;" and 134. of its pillars are still standing in rows,
nine deep. There is no other such assembly of pillars in
the world : they are covered with paintings of gods, kings,

22 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

A Sphinx.
priests, and warriors : the walls and roof are still glowing with
the richest colours. Some parts of this temple, at least, are
older than the days of Moses — 1600 years before the birth of
Christ. The interest of these ruins is unspeakable, because those who
are acquainted with the subject know that the ancient history of
Egypt is to be read in these vast old books of stone. Men have
only lately acquired the power to read them. The picture-writ
ing (or hieroglyphics) on their pillars and tablets is thought to
have been known only to the priests, and has for more than 2000
years been a mystery to the world. Moses probably understood
it, for " he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,"
(Acts vii. 22.)
Mr. Gliddon, formerly the American consul in Egypt, and who
devoted his attention for many years to the study of hieroglyphics,
has, we think, made clear even to a child how this kind of writing
arose. He says, " Suppose we wished to write the word ' America' in
our language, in hieroglyphics, as the Egyptians did, we should
draw a figure beginning with —

HIEROGLYPHICS. 23

A, for instance, an asp, the emblem of sovereignty; gk
M, of military dominion, a mace; )K
K, the national arms, an eagle; Wt_*
R, sign of intellectual power, horns of a ram; JEs*
I, the juvenile age of the country, an infant; *_J3h
0, civilized religion, sacred cake; vky

A, Tau, or Egyptian emblem of eternal life;

"To show that by this we mean a country, I add the sign
, in Coptic ' Kah,' meaning a country.
" We thus obtain — ¦
A M E R I C A;

COUNTRY.

These are called pure hieroglyphics, and are found on the oldest
monuments and papyri.
The pure hieroglyphics afterward became linear, or line-like,
as reduced from the rude pictures —

24

THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Pure. Linear.

A reed, used for letter A.

jackal, symbol of a priest.

A goose used for letter S, figuratively the bird
goose — symbol of offspring.

The pure class was always sculptured or painted, and, in gene
ral, both sculptured and painted were employed on public edifices.
The linear was preferred in ordinary life and writing.
This writing became known to the moderns through a slab of
black marble, with inscriptions upon it, in three different charac
ters, but all meaning the same thing, dug up by a French officer
of engineers, on the western bank of the Nile, in August, 1799,

|

pi
sSSm\ vsffbft III

Rosetta Stone.

ROSETTA STONE. 25

at Rosetta, not fer from the mouth of the Nile. It is called the
" Rosetta Stone," and is now in the British Museum.
We have given you a drawing of it for those who cannot go and
see it, and a specimen of the characters in which the three lan
guages are written. Learned men found they could read the last
inscription in Greek; and then, letter by letter, and with much
pains-taking, they found the alphabet of the two others; and so
this stone, more valuable to them than the wonderful Koh-i-noor,
has enabled them to read the histories of those grand, old, dead
kings, on their tombs.
The event recorded on the stone is not so wonderful in itself:
it concerns the coronation of King Epiphanes, which took place
at Memphis, 196 years before Christ; but whatever be the in
scription, it has proved the key to many more.
One of the most remarkable inscriptions on the tombs at Thebes
is the balance scene, which is laid in the world of spirits. Osiris,
the chief god of the Egyptians, is seated on a throne of judgment,
with Isis his consort by his side ; a soul is conducted into his pre
sence. Anubis, painted with the head of a jackal, superintends
the balance, in which the good and bad actions of the soul are
laid ; and Thoth, a kind of recording angel, having the head of a
hawk, stands by, with a tablet and pen in his hand, to record the
judgment given.
There are also upon the walls of Thebes inscriptions a thousand
times more interesting than this to the readers of the Bible, be
cause they serve as proofs of the events which it records. The
bondage of the children of Israel, in Egypt, is thus confirmed by
a tablet representing them on the tomb of Rekshare\ Rekshare'
is known to have been the chief architect of the temples and palaces
at Thebes, under Pharaoh Moeris. The physiognomy ofthe Jews
it is impossible to mistake : and the splashes of clay with which
their bodies are covered, — the idea of labour that is conveyed, —
the Egyptian taskmaster seated with his heavy baton, whose blows
would certainly visit some weary slave, resting a moment from his
toilsome task of making bricks, and spreading them to dry in the
burning sun of Egypt, — all give proof of the exactness of the
3

26 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Scripture phrase, " all their service that they made them serve
was with rigour."
The inscription at the top of the picture to the right reads,
"Captives brought by his majesty, to build the temples of the
Great God." This probably means, that the family or gang of
Israelites, here represented, had been marched up from Goshen,
and attached to the building of the temple; at Thebes. We know,
from Exod. i. 11, 12, that they were compelled to build "for
« Pharaoh treasure-cities, Pithom and Raamses."
But the time of that bondage had an end, and the "sigh" and
" cry" of the oppressed people came up unto God. They had not
forgotten that they were the children of a Mighty Promise ; and
God, too, looked down upon them, and heard their groaning,
and remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and
with Jacob.
He had so ordered it, that eighty years before, one of the He-
Drew babes doomed to destruction had, by its exceeding beauty,
won the favour of Pharaoh's daughter; and the child, separated
from its people, had grown up beneath the shadow of the Egyp
tian throne ; yet, nursed by its mother in its early days, and taught,
while she nursed him, all she knew of the dealings of God with
his people in the ages before the flood and after it, Moses had
treasured her sayings in his heart. He could not be ignorant of
the future prospects of his race ; and it seems that he considered
he was raised up to deliver them at once, in the hour when he
smote the Egyptian for their sake; hut they rejected his help,
learned though he was, and " mighty in words and in deeds."
He was then only forty years of age; and God had lessons for
him to learn for forty years more, in the solitudes of Midian, of a
very different kind from those which he had learned in Egypt, but
eqtially necessary to fit him to be the leader of this chosen people.
^ Here, by a long process of quiet teaching, the ardent zeal of
his youth was mellowed by that spirit of humility and patience
which the Divine Being poured out upon him. This fresh " wis
dom" was given to him in Arabia; and with Arabia we must
begin a new section.

ARABIA 27

ARABIA.

The three great nations of remote antiquity are the Egyptians,
the Arabians, and the Jews.
The Arabs are a people who can bring monuments of their his
tory almost from the very deluge. For the nature of their coun
try, its three divisions, its three evils, its three animals, and its
three productions, we advise you to search in that beautiful book,
called " Far Off,"* which is, or ought to be, in all our school
rooms ; and to the information you will there find, we will add a
few more particulars, as we wish you to realize Arabia, especially
the north-western part of it, as it was in the days of Moses.
Arabia has been called " Africa in little." It was, as it is now,
a country without a navigable river— the camel its ship of com
merce, and its horses the finest in the world. " An Arab, on a
mare unrivalled for speed and endurance, is his own master," says
Mr. Layard, " and can defy the world. Without his mare, money
would be of no value to him ; he could only keep the gold by
burying it in some secret place ; and he is himself never two days
in the same spot, but wanders over three or four hundred miles in
the space of a few months. Give him the desert, his mare, and
his spear, with power to plunder and rob for the mere pleasure
and excitement it affords, and he will not envy the wealth or
power of the greatest of the earth."
(Such was and such is the Bedouin of the deserts — the Saracen
of the middle ages — who has never by any conquest been driven
out of his country — a vast space of winding sands, where those
who travel now declare that not even a wolf can live three days
unless he feeds on stone and granite. Perhaps, because it is such
a country, the Arab has of necessity reaped the harvests of sur
rounding lands, — "his hand against every man, and every man's
hand against him." His fathers have been the conquerors of all
modern eastern nations, and his language is spoken more or less
from India to the Atlantic. The Arabs say that they are sprung
* By the author of " Line upon Line," and " Near Horn'/."

28 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

from two sources, that a part of them are the sons of Ishmael,
and are the naturalized Arabs, but that the pure Arabs, " Arab-
el-Arab," are the sons of Joktan, the great-great-grandson of
Shem. We shall only notice, among their tribes, the Jobaritae,
who are said to claim descent from Job of the Bible.*
Now, it is by almost all learned men admitted that the book
of Job is of extreme antiquity. The Syrian Cliristians place it
as the first book in their Bibles. It may give you a new and
very interesting view of this book if, after reading the first ten
chapters of Genesis, the account of the creation and the flood,
you read the history of this patriarch before commencing the life
of Abraham. Job is believed, by some of the most eminent eastern
scholars, to have been an Arabian emir, or chief; and his story
casts, we think, " a flood of light on an otherwise dark part of
the world's history."f
We can imagine Moses, in Midian, which was a neighbouring
district to that in which Job had lived, centuries before, as find
ing in some written character, which he from his Egyptian wis
dom understood, the records left of this great man, before whom
" princes and nobles had been silent," and, under the immediate
inspiration of God, casting these records into the form of a He
brew poem, as a picture of patience and impatience, for the
benefit of his suffering brethren. The book of Job is generally
considered to have been written or translated by Moses. Pos
sibly he also wrote in Midian, in the long days of his secluded
shepherd life, and also by God's teaching, the book of Genesis.
We must give you a few reasons why it has been supposed that
the book of Job is so old.
His long life of certainly two, and perhaps three or four, hun
dred years.
The absence of any reference in the book to God's dealings
with Abraham or his children ; and of any notice of the destruc
tion of Sodom and Gomorrah.

* Forster's " Geography of Arabia."
f Smith's " Patriarchal Age," p. 416.

THE PENTATEUCH. 29

The worship of the sun and moon being the only species of
idolatry mentioned in the book, (Job xxxi. 26.)
The manners and customs described, which are those of the
earliest patriarchs.
And Job's religion, which is exactly and purely patriarchal.
The learned men above referred to are of opinion that there is
sufficient proof that Job lived between the deluge and the call of
Abraham,* so that God never left the world at any period with
out a witness to his truth. The magnificence of the thoughts
uttered both by Job and his friends, and, above all, by God,
when he answered Job out of the whirlwind, you will perceive
more and more as you grow older ; and, as you are reading, you
will indeed be ready to say, " How much these ancient Arabians
knew of God !" The patriarch Job and his friends, notwith
standing the mistake's they made, are men who seem to have con
versed with the Invisible, to have read him reverently in the
vast volume of his works, and also to have received, from of old,
the prophecies of the latter-day glory, (Job xix. 25 ;) while, as
concerning worldly knowledge — the art of mining, (xxviii. ;) the
art of weaving, (vii. 6 ;) the conveyance of merchandise by cara
vans, (vi. 19;) the refining of metals, (xxviii. 1;) the coinage
of money, (xiii. 11 ;) the use of musical instruments, (xxi. 12) —
all were understood and practised.
It may be, you never thought of this state of things as existing
before the giving of the Law on Sinai. We are now passing into
the age when the Pentateuch began to be written. Perhaps you
will like to think of the material it was written upon, and the
character in which Moses wrote it. This is a piece of ancient
Hebrew — the language in which the law was written —
The Bible was written by degrees, and* by different persons ¦

* Job allui'.es to the deluge, ix. 5, 6 ; also xii. 15.

30 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

it took 1600 years to write. The first five books were written by
Moses in the wilderness, as well as the book of Job ; viz :
Genesis, Numbers,
Exodus, Deuteronomy,
Leviticus,
called, by the Grecian Jews, " The Pentateuch." The rest of
the Old Testament books, thirty-three in number, were written
by different inspired leaders, prophets, priests, and kings of
Israel, but all by Israelites — the people whom God had chosen,
and was now about to separate from the heathen nations, to be
the keepers of his holy oracles : and as they were written, God
himself made laws that they should be read, by the Levites, to
the people continually.
But at that time there were no books like our books. The
time of Moses was 1550 years before Christ our Saviour came
into the world. Our mode of printing or of making paper had
not then been discovered. The old Egyptians made linen, in
which they wrapped their mummies, and so prepared it, that
they could trace hieroglyphics upon it. They also wrote upon
rolls made of their rush-papyrus, that is, of the coats which sur
round its stalk. The largest papyrus roll now known, is ten
yards Jtng : many of these are found in the tombs of Egypt,
though not often of so great a length. A very valuable one has
been taken from these tombs to the museum at Turin, contain
ing the names of King Mycerinus, the builder of the third pyra
mid, and Rekshare*', the architect of Thebes; but the Pentateuch
of Moses is not supposed to have been written on this rush
paper. It is thought that he must have used goat-skins, prepared and
fastened together : the very oldest manuscripts of his five books
known are written on leather. There is one in the publio
library at Cambridge, which was discovered by Dr. Buchanan,
in the record-chest of a synagogue of the Black Jews in Malabar,
in 1806: it measures sixteen yards in length; and, though not
perfect, consists of thirty-seven skins dyed red. There is another

THE EXODE.

31

in the library of the British Mu
seum, which we have seen. That
is a large double roll of this descrip
tion. It is written with great care,
on forty thick brown skins, in 153
narrow columns : the writing is, of
course, in Hebrew. We looked
upon it with great reverence, for it
was, most probably, in this form
that the world received the first
part of the word of God — his writ
ten voice from heaven.
It was while feeding his flock among the mountains of the
desert, that Moses was first made sensible of the visible and
miraculous presence of God, by the voice out of the burning
bush, and entered upon that wonderful life of actual converse
with the Divine Being, which was like the life of no other mortal
man, before or since his time.
The opening of this intercourse took place at Horeb — a name
now applied to the mountain at whose base stands the convent of
St. Catherine. The token of his mission given to Moses was,
that " when he had brought the people out of Egypt, they should
serve God upon that mountain." Here, therefore, they actually
encamped; and the same place, with all its mighty memories,
was the retreat of Elijah, 600 years afterward, from the threats
of Jezebel.
We need not detail to you the rapid succession of plagues
showered upon the oppressors of the Israelites, or speak at any
length upon what happened between the going up out of Egypt
and the giving of the Law upon Mount Sinai. There were great
miracles comprised in this six weeks' history, and you will find
them recorded from the 14th to the 17th chapters of Exodus.
From this time the history of this wonderful people was marked
by miracle : and, going forth int ) the desert through those won
drous walls of water, formed by the Red Sea, they had no sooner
experienced hunger, than bread was rained from heaven for them,

32 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

and the bitter spring of the wilderness was sweetened for their
sake. This spring is yet existing, and is called Ain Howara,
the bitter well.
Have you ever thought of the numbers of the children of Israel
who thus went up out of Egypt ? It was such an emigration as
the world never saw, save on this occasion. There were between
two and three millions of people, twice as many as inhabit the
Principality of Wales, or more than all the people contained in
London and its neighbourhood, with all their property, goods,
utensils, and cattle. No man, with merely human resources at
his command, could ever have arranged the order of their march;
but " the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to
lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them
light ; to go by day and by night," (Exod. xiii. 21 ;) a pillar
ever before their eyes, high over the camp, where no mortal art
could have placed it.
At Rephidim, they were again distressed for want of water,
and again it was provided for them by miracle. The thirst of
which they complained, and which they said would " kill them,"
is best understood by persons who have travelled on foot over a
sandy desert under a burning sun. The pillar of cloud led the
way for Moses and the elders, while the former went to smite the
rock in Horeb, which is found to be a day's journey from Re
phidim, and so situated at the head of a valley, that a stream of
water from it would come flowing and rushing down to the faint
and weary host at Rephidim : but, meanwhile, the hindmost of
them, " the feeble among them," had been attacked by Amalek,
" who feared not God."
Up to this period, we had not heard any thing of the ancient
Arabians, nor of what they felt toward the vast host of Israelites
making a sudden incursion into their country.
The tribe of Amalek is mentioned in history as inhabiting the
deserts to the south of Palestine, and being one of the most
famous Arab tribes. They had probably heard of the wealth of
the Israelites — the spoils they had brought out of Egypt ; and
as Bedouins (who in all ages have been famous for committing

WADY MOKATTEB. 83

robberies on merchants and travellers) would do now, so these
Amalekites then resolved to attack Israel.
There were two descriptions of Arabs — those who dwelt in
cities and towns, and those who dwelt in tents. Job belonged
to the former race, and these Amalekites to the latter. He
describes his wild brethren in the 24th chapter of his book as
" wild asses of the desert, rising betimes for a prey," etc. Their
desert is still their kingdom : no travellers may pass through it
without their leave, and without purchasing their guidance and
protection. Arabs lead you up to the Pyramids, and convey you
to Sinai and Petra. You must rest when they suffer you to do
so, and pass on when they please ; and many of them are terrible-
looking fellows, with swarthy complexions, piercing coal-black
eyes, half-naked figures, enormous swords slung at their backs,
and rusty matchlocks in their hands. You might travel with
them for weeks, and never see one of them wash his face, or
know that he washed or changed his clothes. What they live
on, it would be difficult to say, for they are seldom seen to eat ;
but they are active and vigorous, and can walk thirty miles a
day for week after week in succession.
Against these wild people, the Israelites were directed by
Moses to go out and fight, while he held up his hands at the top
of the hill, and prayed.
Laborde, a well-known traveller in Arabia Petrea, the desert
district where all these events occurred, says, " We passed
through the Wady Mokatteb, which means written valley, and
beheld the rocks covered with inscriptions for the length of an
entire league. We afterward passed mountains, called Jebel-el
Mokatteb, which means written mountains; and, as we rode
along, perceived, during a whole hour, hosts of inscriptions in an
unknown character, carved in these hard rocks, to a height which
was ten or twelve feet from the ground : and although we had
men among us who understood the Arabic, Hebrew, Greek,
Syriac, Coptic, Latin, Armenian, Turkish, English, Ulyrian,
German, French, and Bohemian languages, there was not one of
us who had the slightest knowledge of the characters engraved

34

THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

on these rocks, with great labour, in a counW where there is
notHig to be had either to eat or drink."

The meaning of these inscriptions was thus, like their author
ship, unknown. In a book lately published, however, called
"The Voice of Israel, from the Rocks of Sinai," the Rev. Charles
Forster, an English clergyman, and a man of much learning and
patient research, has suggested that these are the "rock-tablet
records" of the miracles wrought in the wilderness.
We have now concluded our brief review of the ages that
elapsed before the giving of the Law; and with something of the
reverence felt by the chosen people, let us realize the scenery of
Mount Sinai.

CHAPTER H.
Mount Sinai — The Covenant, the Giving of the Law — The Jebel Mousa — Je
hovah — Seven Sins and their Punishments — Eleven months at Sinai — The
unknown Thirty-eight Years — The last Year ofthe Wandering — Mount Hor —
The Death of Aaron — The Law as made known to the People — Fiery Ser
pents — The Death of Moses. SINAI.
It seems to be the testimony of all modern travellers, that the
scenery of the mountain range of Sinai is of great extent, and of
wild and awful grandeur.
"I stand," says Mr. Stephens, "upon the very peak of Sinai,
where Moses stood when he talked with the Almighty. Can it
be, cr i« it a mere dream ? Can this naked rock have been the
witness of that great interview between man and his Creator, on
Lte morning that was ushered in with terrible thunders and
IS^ntnings, with the thick clouds resting on the mountain's brow?
S7 ?il ! this is the holy mountain ; and not a place on all the earth
tou!d have been chosen, so fitted for the manifestation of Divine
power. I have stood on the summit of the giant Etna, and
looked over the clouds floating beneath it, — upon the bold scenery
of Sicily, and the distant mountains of Calabria. I have climbed
Vesuvius, and looked down upon the waves of lava, and the ruined
and half-recovered cities at its foot : but these are nothing com
pared to the terrific solitude and bleak majesty of Sinai." An
other traveller has called it "a perfect sea of desolation. Not a
tree, or shrub, or blade of grass is to be seen upon the bare and
rugged sides of innumerable mountains, heaving their naked
summits to the skies; while the crumbling masses of granite
around, and the distant view of the Syrian desert, with its bound
less waste of sands, form the wildest and most dreary, the most
terrific and desolate picture the imagination can conceive." 35

36 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

It was in this solemn region that God claimed Israel for his
own, and began to place the nation under a course of instruction
and discipline, to prepare it for its high destiny. Here he
called his chosen people into covenant relation with himself. He
told them, through Moses, that He had borne them on eagles'
wings out of Egypt; and that if they would obey and keep his
covenant, then they should be a peculiar treasure to Him above
all people — a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And all the
people answered together, and said, " All that the Lord hath
spoken we will do." No other such mighty shout of promise
ever arose from earth to heaven ; " and Moses told the words of
the people unto the Lord." Exod. xix. 8.
When God descended to give the Law to his people, the Di
vine glory was revealed from Teman in the east of Edom, to
Paran or Serbal in the west. It literally covered the heavens to
this extent. Serbal has five principal peaks, which, like the
lofty pinnacles of some stupendous temple, rise up into the calm,
deep blue of heaven, lone, silent, and sublime.
Let us read the description of Moses, — for who could describe
like Moses the scenery of Sinai ? " The Lord came from Sinai,
and rose up from Seir unto them ; He shined forth from mount
Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints : from his
right hand went a fiery law for them. Yea, he loved the peo
ple ; all his saints are in thy hand : and they sat down at thy
feet; every one shall receive of thy words." Deut. xxxiii. 2, 3.
King David refers to this hour, when, 500 years afterward, he
says, in his 68th Psalm, verse 17, " The chariots of God are
twenty thousand, even thousands of angels : the Lord is among
them as in Sinai, on the holy mount."
We will try and imagine this scene,— one of the most awfully
sublime in the annals of the world.
Moses "had brought the people forth out ofthe camp to meet
with God :" their tents were spread on the skirts of Horeb, where
its narrow valleys widen gradually into high, dreary, undulating
plains, hemmed in by low ridges of hills. Possibly these camp
ing-grounds may have included all the vast plains round about

MOUNT SINAI.

the mountains El Rahah, Seba-iyeh, and EI Leja — for two or
three millions of persons required a great extent of space. Be
fore them all rose to the height of 2000 feet (being 7000 above
the Red Sea) the Jebel Mousa, with its shattered pyramidal
peak, like a mighty pulpit, fenced off by a range of sharp, up
heaving crags, 200 feet in height, and forming an alrcost im
passable barrier to the Mount of God itself, though Moses had
likewise " set bounds about it, to sanctify it."
While the people stood thus " at the nether part of the mount,"
let lis imagine the effulgence reflected from the whole of the
Arabian desert, and listen to the sounds of the trumpet, " ex
ceeding loud," echoing round all the mountains, preparing the
way for the mighty angel-voices of the holy myriads uttering the
Law; and then let us remember who was this Jehovah upon
Sinai, — the Jehovah of the Jewish Church in the wilderness.
The martyr Stephen tells us, just before his death, that the angel
which spake to Moses in Mount Sinai was none other than the
angel of the burning bush — the angel of the Lord, who had said
of himself, "I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," before whom Moses
"trembled and durst not behold," (Acts vii. 32;) and also none
other than the Saviour, the afterward crucified Redeemer of the
world, whose voice (says Paul, Heb. xii. 26) "then shook the
earth : but now he hath promised, Yet once more I shake not
the earth only, but also heaven."
Dear young friends, when you have thought of Jesus taking
upon him the form of a servant, have you also thought of that
Jesus as one and the same with the awful Jehovah of Sinai ? At
both times it is said of him, " yet he loved the people," (Deut.
xxxiii. 3,) and "for his great love wherewith he loved us. "Eph.ii. 4.
It is good to go back in thought to Sinai, and to realize that
the great God has actually spoken with men upon the earth.
Many of the travellers who have visited these regions have en
joyed the privilege of opening their Bibles and reading, on the
summits of Sinai and Horeb, the accounts which Moses gives, in
the very scenes which they concern. 4

£8 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

SEVEN SINS AND THEIR PUNISHMENTS; OR,
THE WILDERNESS LIFE.
When God had thus spoken, in majesty and fire, to the eaT
and eye of the favoured people, he did not intend the impression
of that day to pass away : he had given them a Revelation,— a
Law that was to separate them from all other people; and his
words to them were to endure for ever.
We have not undertaken the task of reviewing the whole his
tory of Israel, except as concerns one particular, which we wish
you especially to observe.
From the time that they became, through Moses, the keepers
of the oracles of God, they were judged ly them, and they were
expected to live by them ; they became The Church op the
Book. They had subscribed to the covenant; they had said, "All
that the Lord hath spoken we will do." They were " under the
Law"; and whenever they broke their promise, they incurred
punishment and suffering, and this they continually did.
They remained at their station in Horeb a few days longer than
eleven months. During this time, Jehovah made them fully un
derstand that he was their King, and he established the regular
service of his royal court by the priests and Levites. He set
apart more than a fiftieth portion of the whole nation to this office.
They were to receive his Law from Moses, to copy it, and to read
it to the people, — not only the Ten Commandments, as written
by the finger of God upon the two tables of stone, but the Book
of the Covenant also, which Moses had written, (Exod. xxiv. 4,)
and read in the audience of the people for the first time, " by the
altar under the hill."
During these eleven months, their form of government in all
things was appointed, their institutions established, and the Ta
bernacle fashioned and set up "according to the pattern shown to
Moses in the mount," for the house or palace of their Divine King
who always visibly dwelt among them in the glory that was be
tween the cherubim.

SEVEN SINS AND THEIR PUNISHMENTS. 39

The same period witnessed their breach of the first command
ment, " Thou shalt have none other gods but me," in the worship
of the golden calf, and its punishment in the death of 3000 among
the people.
The second sin was committed by the two disobedient priests
who offered the strange fire, and they also were consumed.
The third transgression was against the third commandment :
the son of an Egyptian father "blasphemed the Name, and
cursed." He was brought without the camp, and stoned to death
The fourth concerned murmuring about the manna, of which
they began to get tired. In this case, the punishment was given
by granting their desire : they were to have flesh for a whole
month, which, beginning to eat greedily and ravenously, a great
number of them died, and were buried on the spot.
The fifth was upon Miriam, who was smitten with leprosy, for
bearing false witness against her brother Moses. It is said, con
cerning this, that "the Lord heard."
The sixth sin was that of the unfaithful spies : they went up
in the second year of the wandering to see the land of Palestine,
and, in consequence of their search, discouraged the people. They
brought back glorious grapes from it, but they said the men of
the land were giants, and that they should not be able to go up
against them.
The Syrian vine is still famous for the size of its clusters.
There is one of these vines in the grounds of the Duke of Port
land, at Welbeck, near Worksop, from which a cluster of grapes
was gathered, in 1819, weighing nineteen pounds ; and intelligent
travellers aver, that those who have only seen the vines in France
and Italy can have no just idea of the size to which the clusters
attain in Syria:
The evil part of their report was not probably in itself incorrect,
that they had seen pe uple of great stature ; for Moses verifies theii
statement in speaking of the " Anakim, great and tall," and of
other old gigantic tribes, with a reference to the sons of Anak ;
and in the prophecy of Amos it is said, (Amos ii. 9,) "yet de
stroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like tho

40 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

height of the cedars, and who was strong as the oaks." Goliath,
whom David slew, was a son of Anak; his stature may be taken
at about nine feet; but they forgot that He who had dried up the
Rod Sea before them, and had overcome the Egyptians with his
mighty plagues,— if his pillar of cloud and fire had pointed them
toward the high-walled cities of the tall Anakim,— would have
given them victory in Palestine also; but, as Moses afterward
says to them, (Deut. i. 32,) "In this thing ye did not believe the
Lord your God."
The most formidable conspiracy against the authority of Moses
and Aaron took place at Kadesh, soon after the doom of forty
years' wandering had been pronounced. They, or rather their
sons, returned to this Kadesh only after a period of thirty-eight
years, during which we know nothing minutely of their proceed
ings. All that has been related, the present conspiracy included,
which makes the seventh occasion of their punishment, occurred
during the first two years after their leaving Egypt. Moses says,
(Deut. ii. 14,) " And the space in which we came from Kadesh-
Barnea, until we were come over the brook of Zered, was thirty
and eight years ; until all the generation of the men of war were
wasted out from among the host, as the Lord sware unto them."
The brook Zered enters the Dead Sea near the southern end ; and
when that was crossed, they had ended their long pilgrimage,
and entered into a cultivated and settled country. The conspi
racy at Kadesh (Num. xvi.) was very bold. It arose among the
children of Reuben, the elder tribe, and the children of Levi,
the priestly tribe. Their encampments were side by side, at the
south of the Tabernacle, and they seem to have indulged an en
vious spirit against Moses and Aaron, until at length their chiefs
gathered themselves together, and said to these two men ordained
of God, " Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congrega
tion are holy, and the Lord is among them."
Tho Lord was among them, however, to punish this desire of
powei which did not belong to them, and the earth opened upon
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram ; and as they and all they had went
tlown into the pit, all Israel fled at the cry of them, while at the

DEATH OF AARON. 41

same time 250 persons more were consumed by fire : and because
at this the people murmured, a plague raged on the morrow among
them, by which 14,700 died, besides those that died the day be
fore with Korah.
Thus you see many lives were lost in the. repeated rebellions
Of the people. They had multiplied rapidly in Egypt, but they
were about 2000 less in number when about to enter the Promised
Land. The new generation, though for so many yeara trainer1
and tried, murmured like their fathers for the want of water, on
their return to Kadesh, where Miriam died and was buried; and
Moses does not seem to have been prepared to expect such con
duct from them, but was more irritated than on any former occa
sion. Even he, as David tells us, spake unadvisedly with his
lips, — and, striking the rock instead of speaking to it, (must it
not have been struck with the rod which blossomed, taken from
before the Lord ?) said angrily, " Hear now, ye rebels ! Must we
fetch you water out of this rock?" For this impatience, he and
Aaron, who appears to have shared in his sin, which God him
self says was unbelief, — "because ye believed me not, to sanctify
me before the people," — even these two great leaders were not
permitted to guide Israel into the Promised Land.
Aaron went up first into Mount Hor to die, from whose craggy
summits may be seen on one side the wilderness in which the
people had wandered, and from the other the mountains of Pales
tine, on which, doubtless, Aaron cast his last look.
The American traveller, Mr. Stephens, visited Mount Hor,
and thus describes it : " The mountain is bare and rugged to its
very summit, without even a tree or a bush growing on its sterile
sides." He says,. " If I had never stood on the summit of Sinai,
I should say, that nothing could exceed the desolation of the view
from Mount Hor, — the mighty natural pyramid, on the top of
which the high-priest of Israel was buried."
Amid his other duties ordained by God, Aaron had, doubtless,
not neglected that of copying the Law, and reading it to the peo
ple. This was especially ordered* to be done for eight days toge
ther, once in every seven years ; but we know that during tha
4»

12 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

training of Israel in the wilderness, this was not all they heard
or knew of the Law; for Moses says to them, (Deut. xxx. 11-14,)
" The commandment which is written in this book of the Law is
not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven,
that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and
hri-ig it unto us, that we may hear it and do it ? Neither is it
beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the
sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it?
But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy
heart, that thou mayest do it."
" In thy mouth" seems to signify, that they learned portions
of it. Moses ordered the Levites to write his last noble song,
and to teach it to the children of Israel, — " Put it in their mouths,
that this song may be a witness for me against the children of
Israel, that when many evils and troubles are befallen them, this
song shall testify against them as a witness ; for it shall not be
forgotten out of the mouths of their seed." Deut. xxxi. 19, 21.
If an Israelite was in doubt as to any ordinance or duty, he was
to inquire of the priest, the Levite, who was also the judge, and
would show him the sentence of judgment, (Deut. xvii. 9,) as
written by Moses. Any one of the people who was able might
write a copy of the Law for himself; but the Levites were in
general the learned class among this pastoral people, and were
not only to make, but to give away, correct copies of it ; and
probably they went about from tent to tent, (as the Scripture-
reader does now from house to house,) to read the Law to each
family. It is always assumed that the people " knew it ;" and in
the book of Deuteronomy, Moses threw its precepts into a new
form, for the generation which had been born since the entrance
to the wilderness.
This book of Deuteronomy appears to have been written by
Moses, in the plains of Moab, a short time* before his death,
1451 B. c : his death itself, as recorded in the 34th chapter, was
probably added by his successor, Joshua; and the last four verses
of that chapter, which concern Joshua, were, it is mo?t likelv

FIERY SERPENTS. 43

written by Ezra, when he collected the books of the Old Testa
ment together.
A little before the repeating of the Law, Moses had held up to
the suffering people the serpent of brass upon a pole, that every
one who was bitten, when he looked upon it, might live (Num.
xxi. 9,) — the type, as John tells us, (John iii. 14, 15,) of tho
lifting up of the Son of man, " that whosoever believeth in hin.
should not perish, but have eternal life." That shore of the Red
Sea, where the Israelites were bitten, is still remarkable for
abounding in serpents, as, indeed, the wilderness does generally.
In Deut. viii. 15, Moses calls it " a great and terrible wilderness,
wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought ;" yet we
never hear of the people being bitten and killed by them till now.
They had been marvellously protected from this, as from other
dangers of the way; and the protection was only now withdrawn,
on account of their oft-repeated sin of murmuring.
They had, however, nearly finished their course in the wilder
ness, and would not much longer murmur against their great
leader, for he was about to ascend Mount Nebo, and to die ! He
who had so long brought the word of the Lord to Israel, was tc
be seen by them no more ; and he left them, saying, " Secret
things belong to God ; but those things which are revealed be
long unto us, and to our children for ever, that we may do all the
words ofthe Law.", Deut. xxix. 29.
Yes ! he left behind him the revealed and written will of God
for that people, besides the wonderful book of Job.
Do you think that the very roll that Moses left is come down
to us ? — that would be impossible. That very roll is supposed to
have perished at the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar,
B. C. 586; if so, it was treasured and in existence for eight cen
turies and a half. Moses commanded the Levites to put it in
the side of the ark of the covenant, "for a witness against the
people." The final covenant made with the people in the plains
of Moab, with the last lofty song and eloquent prophecy, seems
to have been written on a separate skin; and Dr. Adam Clarke
thinks there is every reason to believe that this was the portion

44 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

lost and found in the reign of Josiah, 800 years after it was
written. This was called an autograph copy, which means ihe
very one that Moses wrote. It had been lost in the reign of the
wicked kings that went before Josiah, who was a reforming king;
and when he set himself to repair the house of the Lord his
God, and brought hewn-stone and timber to repair the floors
which the kings of Judah had destroyed, Hilkiah the priest
found a book of the Law of the Lord by the hand of Moses, and
gave it to the king. 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14. What he did with it, we
must leave till a further period of the history, for we must go up
with Moses into Mount Nebo, where he died.
Having ordered the elders of Israel, on the day that they
should pass over Jordan, to set up great stones, and plaster them
with plaster, and themselves to write upon them all the words
of the law, very plainly, (Deut. xxvii. 2,) he ascended the mount,
the highest peak in the Abarim range, which joins the Dead Sea
to Mount Seir. No traveller seems to have ascended or given
any description of it, except that it is a barren mountain, on
whose summit may be perceived a heap of stones overshadowed
by a tall pistachio tree.
He went up, as he had often done before, to be alone with
God, but to return to men no more. If our Saviour himself had
not told us, that the greatest man born of woman was his own
forerunner, John the Baptist, we should have given this meed to
Moses, who, denying his personal desire, died without any regret
of his own — all his thoughts fixed, as they had ever been, on the
welfare of his people. There was no thought of self — " only let
Jehovah, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over tha
congregation, that they be not as sheep which have no shepherd"
— and then he was ready. Farewell, then, to Moses ascending
Mount Nebo — his eye not dim, nor his natural force abated,
though he had borne the burden of 120 years.
He had looked upon all Egypt's glory. He had seen a nation
fall before him in the wilderness ; he had been made the means
of giving God's revelation to earth; and now he himself was
nbout to pass into the fuller revelations of heaven.

DEATH OF MOSES. 45

He was not sinless ; he was not to be worshipped ; and lest he
should have been, (for never was human being so visibly endued
with Divine power,) God marked his only recorded sin with
punishment, — the great punishment of not entering the Promised
Land ; but that circumstance was employed as a type, that the
Law, which he personified, cannot conduct us into the heavenly
Canaan. Joshua, who took possession, is, as his name signifies,
the type of Jesus, through whom only is obtained the " abundant
entrance," "by grace, and not by works."

CHAPTER III.
Entrance to the Land — Joshua — The Canaanites — Joshua's Victories — Ebal
and Gerizim — The Judges — The Six Servitudes — The Times of the Kings —
David — Solomon — Division of the Kingdom — Shishak— The Prophets, their
Rolls— Table of Prophets— The lost Ten Tribes— The lost Roll, the burnt
Roll — Captivity and Return— Ezra's Ministry — Review of the History and
Prophecies concerning the Fall of Israel, Nineveh, Judah, Tyre, Petra,
Thebes, and Babylon.
The historical books of Scripture, from Joshua to Esther, con
tain the history of the Jewish nation from their first settlement
in the Promised Land to their return thither, after seventy years'
captivity in Babylon, comprising a period of about a thousand
years. Why is it that this chapter in tho " Jubilee Book" must bo
mainly taken up with the history of this nation alone, while
other great nations existed at that time in the world ? Will not
Sinai and the wilderness have taught you to answer, " Because
through this nation, and none other, came down to us during
this thousand years the written revelation from God ?"
We shall divide this thousand years into three periods. I. The
period of Joshua and the Judges, of 355 years. II. The period
of the Kings, comprising 507 years. III. The Babylonian cap
tivity and return, till Ezra republishes the Law and the Prophets,
comprising 150 years.

46

THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

THE ENTRANCE TO THE LAND.

You know that this was marked by the same miracle as thei?
coming up out of Egypt. They might have proceeded toward
the Promised Land without crossing the Red Sea at all; and
they might have crossed the Jordan where it was a brook, near
its source; but they were ordered to cross its full stream, and
then its waters were heaped up, like those of the Red Sea, in
order that the nations they were going to conquer might perceive
their mission from God; and it is said, "neither was there spirit
in them any more, because of the children of Israel."
The next event was the celebration of the passover — a new
observance to most of the people, the generation who had been
educated in the free, pure air of the wilderness, while then-
fathers were dying out for their unbelief.
The passover had been observed only once in Egypt, and once
again at Sinai, and this was its third celebration.
On the next morning, the manna ceased to fall : the " old
corn" of the Promised Land supplied its place.
To Joshua, the new leader of Israel and successor to Moses,
God promised help, on these conditions : " As I was with Moses,
so I will be with thee; only observe to do according to aU the
Law which Moses my servant commanded thee. This book of
the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth : thou shalt meditate
therein day and night; then shalt thou make thy way pros
perous." Each of these two great leaders of Israel was the guardian and
student of the written revelation. Each read it to the people,
and caused them to act upon it. Joshua lived thirty-two years
after taking them into the land; and as he died at 110, he must
have known for thirty-eight years what was the bondage of
Egypt, and must have seen all, except Caleb, die around him
in the wilderness : and he was now appointed as the conquering
general of the people with whom God had made a covenant to
destroy every other league and covenant existing among tha

THE ENTRANCE TO THE LAND. 47

Canaanitish nations. Let us further examine who the Canaanites
were. There was a race among these heathen people called the
Anakim, or the Rephaim. The spies of Israel said they were a
great and haughty people, with cities fenced up to the skies,
(Deut. ix. 1, 2 ;) and that they made them feel " as grasshop
pers." The Anakim settlements lay along the mountain range which
extends through the land of Palestine ; and it seems that, from
superior size and wisdom too, they were the masters of another
race of people, called the Amorites — a degraded nation, and very
wicked, and whose " iniquity was full" at the time that Israel
entered the land.
The Rephaim had military outposts and fortresses in strong
positions among the mountains. They had even a city, Kirjath-
sepher, or the book-city, the city of letters, or of archives.
Joshua conquered it, and probably did not think its records worth
keeping, so they are alj lost — not come down to us. We know
nothing of these " tall" and " haughty" rulers of old time, but
what is said of them in the Bible, and, strange to say, what is
carved and written about them on the old Egyptian temple of
Karnak. Yes ! they are there — these men of " Onk" or Anak. They
are supposed to have been the shepherd-kings who once conquered
Egypt ; and in the reign of Rameses III., Egypt conquered them
in their own land. She never records her own defeats, but she
has described her conquests over the Rephaim as ranging through
three centuries.
Even in the early days of these Rephaim, Shalem (the same
as Jerusalem) was the metropolis of Palestine; whence came
Melchizedek to meet Abraham after his defence of Lot, (see
Gen. xiv.) As, therefore, Melchizedek is said to be the priest of
the Most High God, it might be concluded that these sons of
Anak once held the true religion, like the ancient Arabians.
In the time of Joshua, they still maintained their supremacy :
but it was then the supremacy of force. The Philistines were

48 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

one of their branches, occupying the southern sea-side of the
land. Another of their ancient cities, named on Karnak, was Hebron,
or Arba, where Abraham lived, died, and was buried. This city
" was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt." Num. xiii. 22.*
The victories of Joshua comprise three distinct series of events.
First, his campaign against the Amorite league, in which he
swept round the mountain of Judah, returning by Hebron to
Gilgal. Secondly, the campaign against the northern Canaanites
— " Joshua made war a long time with all those kings." Josh.
xi. 18. Finally, the general statements of particular expeditions
against those tall Anakim, till destroyed in their cities and their
forts — " there were none of the Anakim left in all the land of
the children of Israel," only the Philistines in Gaza, Gath, and
Ashdod ; and then Joshua took the whole land and gave it for
an inheritance unto Israel by their tribes. Josh. xi. 22.
Balaam the sen of Beor had been slain in this war, (Josh. xiii.
22 :) you can read the history of Balaam looking down upon
Israel from the mountains of Moab, and blessing them in spite
of himself. Num. xxii. xxiii. xxi v.
Although Moses had never seen the Promised Land, he had
chosen by inspiration the most fitting site for the fresh promulga
tion of the Law to the people, seven years after they passed the
Jordan, on the blasted Ebal, and the fair and fertile Gerizim.
The ark, attended by the priests, remained in the valley by which
the twin mountains are separated. Up each side of either moun
tain stood the thousands of Israel, the chiefs, the judges, the
Levites, the women, the children, and the stranger— six tribes
pronouncing the curses from the barren Ebal— six uttering the
blessings from the pleasant Gerizim; and as each clause of curse
and blessing was pronounced, there rose, with one vast voice
rushing from the living hills, the "Amen" of the consenting
multitude. Josh. viii. 33.

* This is one of the many notices of facts, in the history of the old world,
which are to be met with incidentally in the books of Moses.

THE JUDGES. 49

When Joshua " went the way of all the earth" — as he himself
says — Israel was no more governed by one leader. He left the
state on its proper and fixed foundations, with the Lord at its
head as its Divine King abiding among them in his tabernacle,
which had now been set up at Shiloh, twenty-five miles north of
Jerusalem, and it continued in this city for 450 years.
THE JUDGES.
From the time of Joshua to that of Eli and Samuel comprises
a period of 355 years, and this was called the times of the
judges, or elders, of Israel. This body had been in existence
from the time the people were in bondage in Egypt, (see Exod.
iii. 16.) Six were chosen from each tribe, making seventy-two
senators ; and on these fell the government of the chief cities and
towns. In the wilderness, these elders had sometimes prophesied,
(Num. xi. 25,) and they were the expounders of the Law of
Moses. The book of Judges forms the eighth book of Holy Scripture,
reckoning Job as so early written. Its chapters chiefly record
the" instances in which Israel forsook the Divine Law, and were
in consequence punished.
When, by marrying heathen wives, they were led into idolatry,
the Lord withdrew his protection from them, and they were op
pressed by some neighbouring state, more or less severely, until
they were humbled, and implored the mercy of their own offended
King; and then he heard them, raising them up time after
time deliverers, such as Ehud, Barak, Gideon, Jephthah, and
Samson, when the foreign yoke was broken from their necks for
a while, until, sinning again, they were again and again punished;
but it was always for the forsaking of the Law of the Lord.
The book of Judges, however, gives no minute records of the
periods when they did not break the Law, and when the land
enjoyed peace and safety : these periods are often passed over in
a single verse.
Dr. Graves, who has examined this subject, observes, that out
5

50 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.
of the 450 years under the judges, there were not less than 377
years during which the authority of the Law of Moses was ac
knowledged in Israel; — a beautiful picture of which times of
peace is to be found in the book of Ruth. ,
The Jewish writers tell us, that in these good times the Levites
went much about the country as teachers of the Law. Education
among the Hebrews chiefly consisted in being taught to read tho
Law, and listening to those who could expound it.
The priests were to offer sacrifices for sin, and not to teach \
the Levites were to assist the priests in some portions of their
duty, but were to teach, and not to sacrifice.
It appears that the Israelites endured six successive periods of
servitude during the times of the judges :
1st, under the King of Mesopotamia  8 years.
2d, under the Moabites  18 years.
3d, under the Canaanites  20 years.
4th, under the Midianites  7 years.
5th, under the Ammonites  18 years.
6th, under the Philistines  40 years..
During the twenty succeeding years, the people, though not under
a foreign yoke, were, perhaps, under a worse bondage than any
before — " every man doing that which was right in his -own
eyes." THE TIMES OF THE KINGS.
After their last deliverance by the prophet Samuel, who ruled
over the nation for twenty peaceful years, and "caused them
once more to serve the Lord only," the chief men of the nation,
not wishing Samuel's sons to succeed him, " who walked not in
his ways," demanded a king.
Three kings in succession were given to them, who each
reigned 40 years —
Saul. David. Solomon.
We have not space to enter into the details of their several
reigns, but must remark, in passing, the portions which the two

TIMES OF THE KINGS. 51 '

latter added to the books of Scripture. It is believed that the
Prophet Samuel compiled the books of Judges and of Ruth, and
commenced the first book of Samuel, the latter part of which and
the second book were written by succeeding prophets, probably
Nathan and Gad.
The books of Kings and Chronicles were compiled from the
national records by various prophets and scribes, and were, it is
most likely, completed by Ezra, when he collected them together
500 years afterward.
King David wrote most of the Psalms, and King Solomon
most of the Proverbs, with the books of the Song of Solomon and
Ecclesiastes. Before Moses bade farewell to the people in the wilderness,
he had foreseen that they would desire a king at some future
day, and had thus provided that he should be an enlightened
king. When he sat upon his throne, he was to write him a copy
of the Law in a book, out of that which is before the priests,
the Levites. He was to do this for himself, and he was to
read in it all the days of his life. It would scarcely seem
that Saul kept this law, but King David did ; and, oh ! how he
loved it.
Who does not cherish the memory of David the poet-king —
" the man after God's own heart" ? Inspired alike as prophet
and historian, he summed up the history of his wonderful people
in many a noble psalm that has commanded the world's sympa
thies for 3000 years. Some of his songs were composed for the
Jewish festivals, the passover, the feast of tabernacles, etc. Some
are war-songs, some songs of thanksgiving. We can find an
appropriate psalm for almost every possible state of mind and
feeling ; but, after all, what is there so beautiful as the longest
psalm, the 119th — ihe Bible Psalm — in which every one of the
176 verses speaks with love and joy of the word of God ! That
is David's contribution to this jubilee year; and, if he were living
on the earth now, would he not chant it to his own harp most
gloriously ?

52 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Have you noticed that every verse, under the different names
of testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, ordinances,
judgments, law, refers to the Bible ?— and David's Bible com
prised only the five books of Moses, Job, Joshua, Judges, and
Ruth, and the history of Israel by Samuel, to which, it may be,
the king added some of his own psalms.
There is no time to dwell on the reigns of David and Solomon,
or to picture to ourselves the high and palmy state of Judea for
those eighty years. The kings of Israel possessed great stores of
the precious metals. When Solomon built the Temple, which was
to stand in the stead of the Tabernacle, the gold consumed in over
laying its inside would have made three millions pounds sterling.
This temple is supposed to have been built upon the very spot
where Abraham had offered Isaac ; and when Solomon and all his
people were assembled for the first time to dedicate it to Jehovah,
while the Levites in pure white robes lifted up their voices with
the trumpets and the cymbals, then the house was filled with a
cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of
the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the House of the
Lord. Thus was God visibly present among this favoured
people. THE DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM.
This took place under Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, who at
first reigned righteously, but afterward fell into idolatry, and Je
rusalem with him. Jerusalem was taken and spoiled by Shishak
king of Egypt; and here again we must turn to the great old
books of stone in the temple of Karnak, first reading 2 Chron. xii.
and 1 Kings xiv. 25, — narratives which, though they would need
no testimony from the heathen to their truth, are yet surprisingly
confirmed by the following sculptures.
You have the privilege to live in an age, when, if you heaf
persons expressing doubts as to the truth of the Bible, you may
ask them if they have read or heard of God's great stone boofrs,
which are unanswerable, and which he has laid up in their dead

THE DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM.

63

languages for so many centuries, and is
now permitting to be understood even by
children. In the year 1828, the French student,
Champollion, on his passage down the
Nile, landed at Karnak, and pointed out
the accompanying figure, one of sixty-
three prisoners presented to Sheshonk by
his god Amunra.
The turreted oval enclosing the name
means that it is a walled city. Shishak is
depicted as a gigantic figure holding a
captive by the hair of the head with one
hand, which he is going to strike off with
the other : there are five rows of such
captives as these, with features evidently
Jewish.

UDaHM E Le
King or the Country of Judah.

K Kah.

Our space forbids our even giving you a list of the names of
the kings of the two kingdoms, which, from Rehoboam's time
were set up among the Israelites, during the next hundred years
after the conquest by Shishak. We must merely observe, that
this national division proved a most disastrous event for them, and
pass on to what chiefly concerns us, — to the class of persons who
further added to the inspired books, for we must examine theh
character, and the nature of their teaching.

THE PROPHETS.

The prophets were messengers sent of God, and inspired to de
clare his will to this nation, who foretold events long before they
came to pass. Enoch, Noah, Jacob, and Moses, had delivered

5*

54 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

many prophecies. After the times of the judges, young men
were especially trained as prophets, in schools ; and from this class
generally, but not always, did the Holy Spirit select those few
who were to be miraculously inspired. These were also called
seers, or men of God.
This inspiration was a wonderful thing. The men to whom it
was vouchsafed felt it come upon them as a power which they
could not withstand. It took possession of them, filled them, ex
cited them, bore them along, taught them, enabled them to speak
words which they could not have uttered at any other time. " The
Spirit of God," it is said, "was upon them," and their spirits felt
like a vessel impelled before the wind. This was the inspiration
vouchsafed to the higher class of prophets, as Isaiah, Jeremiah,
and Ezekiel, and also to those who were called the minor prophets,
because they uttered short though great prophecies. The scribes
wrote all these latter together on one roll, lest any of them should
be lost.
But prophets, in general, during the times of the kings, were
the philosophers, divines, and guides of the nation. They stood
as the bulwarks of religion against the impiety of princes ; and
although highly esteemed by the pious kings, they were very poor
men, and greatly exposed to persecution.
They generally lived in some retired country place, and spent
their time in prayer, study, and manual labour. Elisha quitted
his plough when Elijah called him to be a prophet. Amos was
a herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. Amos vii. 14.
The sons of the prophets built their own dwellings, for which they
cut down the timber. 2 Kings vi. 1.
They were dressed very singularly : Elijah was clothed with
skins, and wore a leather girdle ; Isaiah wore sackcloth. Their
habits were simple and their food plain.
The predictions of the earliest prophets are inserted in the his
torical books, together with their fulfilment, — such as those of
Elijah, Elisha, Jehu, and Micaiah.
But Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel were directed to write their
prophecies in a roll, as well as to utter them in some public place

THE prophets.

55

where all might hear. The roll was in many cases affixed to tho
gate of the temple, where all might read it ; and they often ac
companied their message by some significant action on their own
part. Jeremiah made a yoke and put it on his neck, to foretell
the captivity of Babylon. Isaiah walked barefoot, and stripped
off his rough prophet's garment, to show what was coming on
Egypt. When the prophecy was not to be
fulfilled for ages, they were com
manded to seal it up, "it being re
quisite that the originals," says Mr.
. Home, "should be compared withihe
| event when it occurred." It seems
ito have been a custom for the pro-
W phets to deposit their writings in the
= temple, and lay them up before the
: Lord. There is a belief among the
Jews that all the sacred books were
placed in the side of the ark. We here give you a picture of
the cases in which written rolls were generally kept in this age,
and long after it.
The Paragraph Bible published by the Tract Society will now
supply us with a table (see page 56) of the reigns of the kings,
in which the sixteen prophets who wrote the separate books of
Holy Scripture lived and wrote. The thick black lines present
at once to the eye the length of the prophet's life.
Before reading each prophecy, you should read the reign of
the king in which it was delivered, given in the references at the
bottom of the page.
The idolatrous kings were always punished for the forsaking of
the Law, while those who observed the Law prospered. The
kingdom rose or fell according to that rule ; and this renders the
history of the Jewish people especially interesting and instructive
The following table shows you at a glance that the kingdom
of Israel, comprising ten of the tribes, came to an end 194 years
before the kingdom of Judah. The exceeding wickedness of

56

THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

TABULAR VIEW OF THE PROPHETS,
SHOWING THE PEBIODS DUBING WHICH IT IS SUPPOSED THEIK PROPHECIES
WEBB DELIVEBED.

1 KINGS OP
JUDAH.
B. C

1

51

is"*

P

S

<

O

->

1

aa
s

ia 9
a

(a 5_

i5s
IS

i

KINGS OF
ISRAEL

a Atom Lin, S39

o J c- roh o am II .826
6 U Iliah, 810
1
1
1
1
Interregnum, 781
p Men a hem, 172
q Pckabiab, »G1
c Jot ham. 7.">8
r Pekah, 759
.1 Abu, 742
Anarchy, 739
e Hezekiah, 727
s H osh ea, 730
--
f
—
—
—
—
—
1 ii t
l
| §
Pi
Q If
! !
1 if
!
"Malachi, bettretn
436 and 430.
/ Manaaseb,698
l
1
g Ann .ii, G43
h Josiah, 641
1
T
i Jehoahai, CIO
-
t
k Jthoiakim, CIO
I Jeconiah, 509
-
--
--
1
1
hi Destruction of
Jerusalem, 588
__
-
—

r
—
n. Zcrubbabcl, 536
—
—
T
1
1
The date after each king's name indicates the commencement of hia reign-^Toel is placed twice, as iti.
doubtful at which period he lived.
a2Ki.l4; 2Ch.25.
b 2KL14. 21; 2Ch.26.1.
c 2 Ki. 15. 32 ; 2 Ch. 27.
tf 2KL16.1; 2 Ch. 23.
c 2 Ki. 18.19; 2Ch.29; Is. 36,87,!
/ 2 Ei. :0. 1 ; 2 Ch. S3.
g 2 Ki. 21. 19; 2 Ch.33. 21.
A2KL 22. 1; 2 Ch. 84. 1.
i 2 Ki. 23. 31.
A2Ki.23.36; 9Ch.36.5.*t
!2Ki. 24. 8; 2Ch.S6. 9.
m 2 Ki. 26 ; 2 Ch. 36. 17.
n Ezra 3, 1, 5.
o2Ki.H. 28; 2Ch.l8.6.
J) 2 Ki. 15. 14.
q 2 Ki. 15. 22.
r 2 Ki. 15. 25.
«2Ki.lT. 1.
THE LOST TEN TRIBES. 57

Israel caused God to send them into captivity among the Assy
rians, b. c. 730.
They are spoken of as the lost ten tribes ; and thus was Ho-
sea's prophecy fulfilled — " they shall be called Lo-ammi, that is,
not my people." But it is certain that God knows where their
descendants are, and in his own time will recover the lost, and
reunite them with Judah, under one Head, even Christ, (see
Ezek. xxxvii. 21-28.)
The portion of Palestine inhabited by the ten tribes was called
Samaria; the King of Assyria repeopled this district from
Babylon, Cuth, Ava, etc., and these people, joined with the
remnant of the Israelites, were called Samaritans. We hear of
them in the time of our Lord, and that " the Jews had no deal
ings with them." They had asked to be allowed to assist in the
rebuilding of the temple after the captivity, and, on being
refused, became inveterate enemies to the work, and built a
temple of their own upon Mount Gerizim. Jesus himself " abode
among this people for two days," after conversing with the woman
of' Samaria; "and many believed, because of his own word."
John iv. 40, 41. The persecution by thj3 Emperor Justinian
almost extinguished the community of Samaritan Jews ; but yet,
in the sixteenth century, a remnant of them was discovered in
the neighbourhood of their holy mount, Gerizim, who still pos
sessed the Law in the Old Hebrew character, (for they never
adopted the Chaldee,) and this manuscript is called the Samaritan
Pentateuch. Learned men consider it a most valuable relic of
antiquity. It had been lost sight of for 1000 years. It is now
printed in the " London Polyglot," by Bishop Walton.
These Samaritans exist to this day; they are very few in
number ; they assert their descent from the tribes of Ephraim
and Manasseh, and fay that their dialect is the true and original
Hebrew in which th) Law was given.
The Jews do not acknowledge them, and contemptuously call
them "alien colonists"; but, if so, it is very extraordinary that
they possess this manuscript, which corresponds almost word for
word with the Hebrew text. One of the copies may be seen in

58 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

the British Museum. The missionary Fisk says, "the Samari
tans have also copies of the books of Joshua and Judges, in separate
volumes." Before we pass on to the time of Ezra, it is essential to the
Story of the Book that we refer to two or more of the kings of
Judah, one of whom, Josiah, found a part of the word of God
when it was lost, and another, Jehoiakim, dared to burn a part
of it, in defiance of God and his prophet Jeremiah.
The history of the lost roll may be found in 2 Kings xxii. and
xxiii. Josiah and Cyrus are the only two persons in Scripture
prophesied of by name, long before their birth. You will find
the prophecy concerning Josiah in 1 Kings xiii. 2, and its literal
fulfilment in 2 Chron. xxxiv. 5.
When he found the roll, he honoured it, and caused the people
to " stand to it," as for thirteen years afterward they did. With
Josiah ended the peace, the prosperity, and the piety of Judah ;
and the history of that kingdom closes with —

burnt in the reign of* Jehoiakim, which lasted eleven evil years.
He was the first person who dared to destroy any part of the
written word of God, and he might therefore well be Judah's
last king. The reverence of the Jews in general for their Di-
rine writings was so great, that if, in copying the manuscripts,
they made a single error, they would reject the material thus
bpoiled, and have begun all again. They never permitted them
selves to retouch or erase ; and in coming to the name Jehovah,
thej always wiped their pens and refilled them. When the
manuscripts became at all old or injured, they reverently buried
them in graves ; and this is the reason why there are not in exist
ence any very old Hebrew manuscripts of the Scriptures — none
earlier than A. D. 1200.
Jehoiakim felt none of this reverence. He daringly sent his
page, Jehudi, to fetch the roll of the prophecy which he heard Jere
miah had written against him, from the scribe's chamber in the
temple, and then he also told Jehudi to read it to him.

THE CAPTIVITY AND RETURN. 59

Jehudi, however' had read but three or four columns, when
the king, who sat in his winter-house, with a fire burning before
him, snatching it from the reader, cut it with a penknife, and
cast it into the fire.* Two or three of the princes around begged
him not to burn it, but he would not hear them. He was then
about to seize the writers, Jeremiah and Baruch, but, it is said.
" the Lord hid them."
For this crime it was decreed by God that Jehoiakim should
have none to sit upon the throne of Judah, and that his dead
body should be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night
to the frost, which was literally fulfilled, as recorded by Josephus
in the eighth chapter of his tenth . book — " the body of the king
was thrown into the fields without the walls of the city;" " his
burial was as the burial of an ass, beyond the gates of Jerusa
lem ;" and then all the wealth of the city, its princes, its mighty
men, and many thousands of captives, were carried away into
captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, for seventy years, to Babylon.

THE CAPTIVITY AND RETURN.
We know, from what is said of Daniel and Ezekiel, that, in
the days of their exile, the people were not without their Scrip
tures. By the rivers of Babylon they sat down and wept; they
wept when they remembered Zion.
It has been the constant tradition of the Jewish Church, that
Ezra, the great reformer, with the assistance of the members of
the great synagogue, among whom were the prophets Haggai,
Zechariah, and Malachi, collected as many copies as possible of
the sacred writings, and from them set forth the canon of the
Old Testament. Ezra's own book, with those of Nehemiah and
Malachi, was added 128 years afterward, by Simon the Just, who
was the last of that synagogue. He died b. c. 292.
On the return of the people from captivity, and after they had

i Jer. xsxvi, 23.

60 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

rebuilt their temple, they having forgotten the Law, it was re
delivered to them by Ezra, of whom the Jews always speak as of
a second Moses; and they say that he lived, like Moses, for 120
years. This forgetting of the Law on the part of the people argues
that the copies of it had been very scarce, and that it had not
been publicly read to them all the while they were in Babylon;
and yet, even there, Daniel, who wrote in kings' courts, and
Ezekiel, on the river Chebar, in solitude, at thirty miles' distance
from the city, had been inspired to add to the sacred writings two
of the most wonderful of the prophetical books — bearing their
own names.
At the appointed time, King Cyrus, having conquered Babylon,
and being made to see, by Daniel, the prophecies that God had
uttered concerning him, in tbe days of Hezekiah, as the deliverer
of tbe Jews, (Isa. xliv. 8,) issued an edict, permitting them to
return to Jerusalem.
You will find the history of their return in the books of Ezra
and Nehemiah.
Only the " remnant" of the nation returned ; many, it seems,
preferred staying in Babylon ; vast numbers went to Egypt. A
hundred thousand earnest men (perhaps scarcely so many, for
Ezra speaks of the return only as " giving us a nail in the holy
place") sought once more the land of their fatt Irs. The journey
occupied four months, and was accomplished in two bodies, or
caravans. They still suffered great distress on their arrival, and
did not for twenty years begin to rebuild their temple ; and when
it was completed, the elder Jews, who had seen the holy and
beautiful house of Solomon, wept over this second temple in com
parison with it, for, alas ! in this temple four things were wanting.
There was no ark, no sacred fire on the altar, no answer by Urim
and Thummim, no Shekinah or cloud of glory between the
cherubim. Still they rejoiced in the re-establishment of the
passover and the temple service ; and under Nehemiah the city
walls were rebuilt on the old foundations.
The republishing of the Law by Ezra did not take place till

Ezra's ministry. 61

eighty years after the return of the first caravan of pilgrims from.
Babylon. We must try and realize the marked features of —
EZRA'S MINISTRY.
Upward of 50,000 of the people were assembled in Jerusalem,
in the square of the water-gate, as many as were assembled in
Trafalgar-square, in London, at the funeral of the late Duke of
Wellington. A surging sea of human faces is always a grand sight. On
the day that Ezra preached, and it was early in the morning of
the Jewish Sabbath, 50,000 faces were upturned toward the pulpit
of wood on which he stood, surrounded by thirteen more preachers
on a platform or gallery, six on one side of him, and seven on the
other. Thirteen other teachers seem to have been present on
another platform, to read by turns, so that all the people might
be addressed.
When Ezra ascended the pulpit and opened the roll of the Law,
the whole congregation stood up: then he offered prayer and
praise to God, the people bowing their heads and worshipping,
with their faces to the ground; and, at the close of the prayer,
with uplifted hands they said, "Amen."
Then, all still standing, Ezra, assisted sometimes by the Le
vites, read the Law distinctly, gave the sense, and caused them
to understand the reading, — a model of what preaching still
should be.
The Law, as delivered by Ezra, so affected the hearers, that
they wept exceedingly, and about noon Ezra and Nehemiah
thought fit to restrain it. From the great excitement they
evinced, it would seem that the reading of their Scriptures, in
the language they understood, (Chaldee,) was a new thing to
them. In the temple service it had no doubt been read in the
sacred language, (Hebrew.)
On the second day the reading was resumed, they were again
instructed in the Law, and they then appear to have arrived at-
the 31st chapter of Deuteronomy, when Moses commanded the

.62 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

keeping of the feast of Tabernacles, which they immediately pre
pared to obey. They gathered, as cf old, branches of palm-trees
and willows of the brook, the pine, the myrtle, and the foliage
of the mount of Olives to make booths, and there was very great
gladness. Under the shadow of these booths, for the space of seven days,
they remembered all the toils of the wilderness; and day by day
Ezra read to them in the books of the Law of God: probably in
all the books, — for the Old Testament was now complete, with
the exception of the history of the current times. Doubtless the
history of the nation was read; and they were made to review
God's dealings with them: very likely the Psalms were sung
relating to the events which David and others had celebrated;
and we cannot but believe that Ezra also pointed to the Prophets,
and showed the people how minutely many of the words spoken
by them had been fulfilled.
They knew that the revelation was supported by the great
pillars of miracle and prophecy; and at this era, the common
people under Ezra's teaching must have been taught to feel the
Strength of both. They stood in ihe midst of a circle of doomed
countries, on all of which the threats of their sacred writings had
been fulfilled, as well as most bitterly upon themselves.
Nineveh, Tyre, Petra, Thebes, and Babylon,* as well as Jeru
salem, had all been desolated within a space of forty years, chiefly
by Nebuchadnezzar, the Chaldean king, called by Jeremiah "the
hammer of the whole earth." Jer. 1. 23. Judgment had begun
at the house of God, as it always does; and the divided kingdom
of Israel had, as we have seen, fallen by the hand of the kings
of Nineveh, 730 b. c.
Hosea was the prophet who had especially foretold their
troubles. If you look back to the table,f you will see that he
lived during the reigns of several of the last wicked kings of
Israel. The ten tribes were in his time frightfully corrupt: the
kings were murderers; the very priests were idolaters. When

* You should look for these on a map. -j- See page 56.

NINEVEH. 63

you have read Hosea's prophecy, you can refer to its fulfilment,
in the 17th chapter of 2 Kings. Before the carrying away of
the nation into Assyria, they had endured the deep miseries of a
seven years' famine, when a woman slew and boiled her own son
for food, as Moses had foretold. Deut. xxviii. 53.
The kingdom of Israel existed 254 years distinct from Judah,
under nineteen kings, all of whom were wicked men, — the in
struments of its punishment. Assyria, whose capital was Nine
veh, was called by Isaiah "the rod of God's anger." Isa. x. 5.
Nineveh had long been an enemy to the Jewish nation. The
kingdom of Assyria was as old as that of Egypt. Noah himself >
may have seen its rise. His grandson Asshur went out of the
land of Shinar, and builded Nineveh, (Gen. x. 11;) and for 1300
years it had endured in power and glory, during all the periods
of the Jewish history through which we have just passed.
Ten or eleven years ago, we knew a little about Nineveh, the
gods she worshipped, the kings who ruled over her, her wealth
and her wickedness, and more especially that she once repented
for a while at the preaching of a Jewish prophet, very rarely sent
to a heathen city. We knew that the river Tigris flowed slug
gishly along through the waste plains where the city once stood
with all its palaces, that nothing was to be seen but desolate
mounds, where great feasts had been held by conquering kings
for 120 days together, that the mighty walls with their 1500
towers, and the vast multitude with their 120,000 little children,
were all gone down into the grave of 3000 years.
We had found much about Nineveh in the Jewish prophecies.
Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Nahum had foretold her ruin; and Diodorus,
a Greek historian, had told us of the funeral pile of its King
Sardanapalus in his own palace, when, heaping his gold and
silver, garments and jeweb, himself and his wives, on a great pile
of wood, (that he might not fall into the hands of his enemies,)
he consumed himself, his treasures, and his palace.
We, who believed the Bible, had no doubt of all this in our
childhood; but we had no idea that in this part of the earth, also,
God had laid up a great stone library for you of this generation

64 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

to read, and to be convinced that the Book and its volumes agreet
for Nineveh has been disentombed since you were born.
Over its ruins, the sands of the desert had heaped themselves
for ages, in which the Arabs had built villages, and made graves
for generation after generation; for had not God said to it, by
Nahum, "Thou shalt be hid," (Nah. iii. 11;) "I will cast
abominable filth upon thee, and will make thee vile, and will set
thee as a gazing-stock ?" Nah. iii. 6.
In the year 1842, a learned Frenchman and a wandering
English scholar, Mons. Botta and Mr. Layard, sought the seat of
this once powerful empire, and searched till they found the dead
city. They threw off its shroud of sand and ruin, and revealed
to an astonished and curious world the temples, the palaces, and
the idols of that Nineveh of Scripture, in which the captive
tribes of Israel had laboured and wept, — the twin-sister of Baby
lon, who was like a "cedar in Lebanon," and who made all the
nations to shake at the sound of its fall. We are now able to
realize this fall, with something of the same minuteness with
which Ezra could have depicted it to the Jews who had returned
from the captivity; and we dwell longer on the ruin of this
heathen power than any other, because, through its means, we
can show you what were the idolatries after which the nation of
Israel went, and which were the cause of their rejection and
their ruin.
K you visit London or Paris, you may look with your own eyes
on the vast stony forms which have come up from their long and
solemn sleep in the depths of the earth, such as those in the
national museums.
The eyes of the prophet Ezekiel may have looked upon those
very sculptures. They were a kind of heathen cherubim. The
Eastern nations had derived their idea of them from the traditions
.loncerning the cherubim at the gate of Eden, uniting in one the
noblest forms of their kind— the lion among wild beasts, the bull
among tame ones, the eagle among the birds, and man as the
mrd of all.
Every day, as Mr. Layard broke further into .the earth, he

NINEVEH.

65

Winged Bull.
found fresh wonders, which he has forwarded to the Museum;
and he has written two very interesting books to explain them.
He found that these colossal forms were placed at the entrance of
the palace-temple, whose steps came down to the river's brink;
that every room in the palaces had been coated with slabs, on
which were carved histories, not in words, but in figures standing
out from the stone, called bas-reliefs ; and though some of these
crumbled to powder as they were being dug out, because they
had been calcined with fire, according to the prophecy of Nahum,
— "then shall the fire devour thee," — still a great many slabs
have been sent home to the Museum, where a beautiful hall has
been prepared to receive them; and now we can walk among its
long, light galleries, and read the story of Nineveh all in stone,
dug up by the Arabs of the desert.
There is some curious writing upon those vast bulls, all in
arrow-headed character, and you cannot read it. Several learned
men, however, have begun to do so; and Mr. Layard tells us,
that they have deciphered a complete history of the reign and
character of Sennacherib, allusion to whom is made in the Bible,
at 2 Kings xviii. 13. There is an awful strangeness in being
thus, as it were, brought face to face with the solemn antiquities
of the Bible, and with our own earliest sacred recollections.
6«

66

THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Arrow-headed Character.

[Translation.]
" Sennacherib, the mighty king, king of the country of Assyria, sitting on
the throne of judgment, before (or at the entrance of) the city of Lachish,
(Lachisha,) I giro permission for its slaughter."

•OH jgH«S-g

The Obelisk.

A certain old obelisk, found also at Nineveh, is now in tho
British Museum: upon it are recorded, according to Major Raw-

JERUSALEM.

67

linson, the names of Jehu and Hazael,.both known to you in
Scripture. Many other names of kings, idols,
countries, and cities, mentioned in
the Old Testament, occur in the
Assyrian tablets, on which also are
depicted continually images of the
god Nisroch, the god of Sardanapa-
lus, the hawk-headed deity. And
when the Jews had had read to
them the Prophet Nahum, when it
was read in Hebrew and translated
into Chaldee, they well knew how
the prophet's words had been ful
filled. The cormorant and the bit
tern lodged in the upper lintels of
the palaces of that rejoicing city,
that had said in her heart, " I am,
Nisroch. and there is none beside me;" God
had uncovered the cedar-work. Zeph. ii. 14, 15. As we hope
you will take time to refer to the chief prophecies which concern
Assyria and Nineveh, we have given you a list of them :
Isa. *. 15-19; xxxi. 8. The Book of Nahum.
Ezek. xxxi. 3-17. Zeph. ii. 13-15.
The city of Nineveh had fallen 611 B. c, nearly 200 years before
Ezra's republication of the Scriptures. It was 600 miles from
Jerusalem.

JERUSALEM.
Having looked on the destruction of Nineveh, the sorrowful
gaze of Judah must again have been turned upon herself, — for
she was the next who fell under the power of Nebuchadnezzar.
Her idolatry had provoked the God of her fathers to jealousy,
till he would bear with her no more.
She had worshipped, after the manner of Egypt, creeping

68 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

things and abominable beasts (Ezek. viii.) even close to the
sanctuary of God, therefore he at last had dealt with her in fury;
and Ezekiel (x. 8), had seen him depart from off the threshold
of the house on the cherubim's wings, "scattering coals of fire"
over the devoted city, as he went to return no more in glory in
that dispensation.
It was for her IDOLATRY that Judah lost her land. She
rejected God and his word; and since the days of Jehoiakim, has
never possessed her kingdom, but as the servant of some foreign
power. She held it under the Babylonians, the Persians, the
Grecians, and the Romans, — Daniel's "four beasts;" and now
under the Roman power in its papal form, (the so-called " holy
shrines" being scattered over all her mountains,) Jerusalem still
abides till the times be fulfilled, when, returning first to that
Moses and the prophets (Mai. iv. 4) whom Jehoiakim cast aside,
she shall forswear the vain traditions with which she has overlaid
the Law, and go up once more to build the old wastes, and repair
the desolations of many generations ; and there, " at Jerusalem,
the spirit of grace and supplication being poured upon her," as
Zechariah tells us, at chapter xii. 10, " she shall look upon him
whom she hath pierced, and mourn ;" and " all nations shall call
her blessed in her delightsome land." Mai. iii. 12. The pro
phecies foretelling the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar
will be found in —
Isa. iii. Jer. xxv. 9-12 ; xxvii. Ezek. xii.
TYRE.
We must now pass for a moment to Tyre, the city on the roek,
overlooking the sea, — the noble colony of the sons of Anak, re
posing beneath the shadow of Mount Lebanon. Four years after
Nebuchadnezzar had been used to chastise the Jews, he was em
ployed in punishing the sins of Tyre.
Tyre, the merchant-city, was to the old world what London now
is to the new.- Her glory is described in the 27th chapter of
Ezekiel : her fall is prophesied in the 28th. Of Nebuchadnezzar's

TYRE — PETRA. 69

ny, during the siege, it is said, that by the toils of thirteen
ars before its walls, every head was made bald, and every
oulder was peeled, — a result arising from wearing their armour
long, and carrying burdens to build the high terraces from
lich they made their attack. Seldom has the deep gathered
ch a harvest to its treasures as when Tyre fell in the midst of
i waters. Its ruined pillars of red and white marble lie scattered
jng the shore. Perhaps some day, another Mr. Layard may
ing to light the ancient Tyre. For the prophecies of the destruo-
m of Tyre see —
Isa. xxiii. Ezek. xxvi. ; xxvii. ; xxviii.
Tyre yielded to Nebuchadnezzar B. C. 571, nineteen years after
e prophecies against it. Like all the heathen cities, Tyre was
icked and proud. She had said, " I am perfect in beauty," and
;r heart was lifted up because of her beauty. There is a small
iok published by " The London Tract Society," entitled, " Tyre ;
3 Rise, Glory, and Desolation," which contains a rich store of
formation, especially designed for young persons, and to which
e must refer them. PETRA.
This city is the Bozrah of the Bible, and was the southern
ipital of Edom.
When Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, the Edomites were
[most as numerous as the Jews. Moses tells us (Gen. xxxvi. 1)
bat Esau is Edom. Esau had hated Jacob, and their children
rere always at enmity. The Edomites had united with Nebu-
hadnezzar to besiege Jerusalem, and urged him to raze it even
dth. the ground. Psalm cxxxvii. 7. The prophecies against
Idom are very many, and are a continuation of God's wrath upon
unalek, which became the ascendant race and general name for
11 the children of Esau.* These prophecies are distinct from
hose against Ishmael, whose children are spoken of as the tribes
f Kedar and Nebaioth. On Esau, or Edom, the judgments pro-
* Forster's " Geography of Arabia."

VU THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

nounced are by far the most severe, and on his city, Petra, they
were chiefly poured. Spoiler after spoiler ruined it. The people
worshipped the sun and moon, and made their houses, palaces,
and temples in the rocks and sides of the mountains which sur
round the valley in which Petra is situated. This wondrous city,
with its rock-hewn pillars and statues of exquisite beauty, once the
halting-place and mart of all the caravans of the wilderness, fell
under the dominion of Jews, Greeks, Romans, and Arabs, till it
became what it now is, — " an utter desolation," " none passing
through it for ever." For 1200 years its very existence was un
known : it is approached only through a narrow defile of rocks,
two miles in length, through which but two horsemen can ride
abreast, under festoons of climbing plants and trees. At the end
of the defile, Petra, the dead city, bursts upon you, silent and
beautiful in its desert tomb. For the prophecies against Edom
see — • Jer. xxvii. 3-11 ; xlix. 7-22. Joel iii. 19.
Ezek. xxv. 12-14; xxxii. 29. Obad. ver. 1, 8, 9.
And that all these things were fulfilled before the time of Malachi,
we know from Mai. i. 2, 3. EGYPT.
In reflecting on the words of their prophets, the Israelites would
also turn to Egypt. This ancient kingdom, also, was intensely
proud. Her king, Pharaoh Hophra, says Herodotus, " had boasted
that it was not even in the power of God to dethrone him"; and
Ezekiel compared him to a great dragon lying in the midst of his
streams, and saying, " My river is mine own, and I have made it
for myself." Ezek. xxix. 3. Nebuchadnezzar caused him to be
strangled in his own place. He made dreadful havoc in the do
minions of the Pharaohs. God had put the sword into his hand,
and he was to break the images, and burn with fire the houses of
the gods, while the Jews, who had gone down to Egypt, and
wickedly determined to burn incense to the queen of heaven,
were to be consumed in these judgments, till there was an end of

EGYPT — BABYLON. 71
an. Jer. xliv. 12. From that hour Egypt has been the basest
the kingdoms, and Israel has leaned upon it as a staff no more.
e prophecies against it are found in—
Isa. xix ; xxx. 1-7. Ezek. xxix. and xxx.
Jer. xlvi. Ezek. xxxi. 1-18 ; xxxii.
Joel iii. 19.
id for their fulfilment, besides the destruction caused by Nebu-
idnezzar, you must likewise refer to the times when the Persian
r-cry rang through the crowded streets of Thebes, when Cam-
3es laid his destroying hand on Karnak and its sculptures, and
Len Alexander the Great completed the ruin his predecessors
d begun. BABYLON.
Once more the eye of the chosen people would turn to the fall
the all-conquering Babylon itself. You have heard of its brazen
tes and its 676 squares, its walls and its hanging gardens, where
ibuchadnezzar said, " Is not this great Babylon which I have
ilt ?" You remember the hand that wrote in fire on the walls
Belshazzar's palace ; and having referred to the prophecies of
e fall of this mighty empire in —
Isa. xiii. ; xxi. 9 ; xlviii. 14-20 ; Jer. 1. and li.;
-you will be prepared to read the sublime narration of Daniel,
e eye-witness of all its horrors, in the fifth chapter of his own
iok. How deeply the lesson of all these vast fulfilments of the word
' God was impressed upon the minds of the returned remnant
' Judah, we may judge from the fact, which all history confirms,
at they ever afterward felt a profound dread and aversion for
I the pagan idolatries.
Ezra did much to cut off this evil at its root,, by causing them
put away at once their heathen wives. This was a severe and
rrible measure, and it grieved him deeply to enforce it, (see
sra ix. 10 ;) but he felt it was essential to their future existence
a nation.

72 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

While Nehemiah was governor of Judea, the Jewess Esther
was raised to the Persian throne ; and with her beautiful history,
the records of the ancient world, as given to us in the Bible,
are ended.

CHAPTER IV.
The Jewish Bible complete — The Apocrypha. — The Septuagint — Daniel's two
Pictures — Antiochus Epiphanes — The Maccabees — Judas Maccabeus — The
Roman Power — Pompey — Caesar — The Druids — Their Hebrew Origin —
Serpent-worship — Druidical Remains — Greek Philosophers — Herod — The
Temple — The Synagogues — Traditions of the Pharisees — Targums — Phari
sees and Sadducees — The faithful Few — The Rabbins — John the Baptist—
His Ministry — Our Lord's Advent — His Mission — Books of the New Tes
tament — -The First Century — Its Apostles and Elders — The Last Supper-
Violent Death of all who partook of it, except John — First and second Pagan
Persecutions — Destruction of Jerusalem.
We wish to take you in this chapter through the Story of the
Book for a period of 500 years, comprising the last four centuries
of the Old Testament dispensation, and the first century of the
New. The Hebrew people must still be regarded in one light, for the
four centuries before the coming of the Lord, as the keepers of
the word of God. They alone had received it, and they pre
served it through this middle space of time between Malachi, the
last of their- prophets, and the cry of John the Baptist in the
wilderness of Judea, whose coming, as the forerunner of the Lord,
Malachi's last words had foretold. See Mai. iv. 5, and Matt. iii. 1, 2
The Bible of the Jews was complete. It is called the "Canon
of the Old Testament." The word canon means a rule, a settled
law ; and, as you may have heard of some books not in this canon,
which are generally called the Apocrypha, and which may be
found in a few old Bibles bound up between the Old and New
Testaments, we must give you a short history of them.
They were not inspired books : some were written by learned
Jews at Alexandria, after the prophetic spirit had ceased with

daniel's two pictures. 73

Malachi. Not even their writers say they are inspired : they
were written in Greek, and not in Hebrew, the ancient sacred
language. They were never received as sacred by the ancient
Jewish Church, and not a single passage in them is ever quoted
by Jesus Christ, or by his apostles.
A few of these books are considered valuable as a connecting
link in history, but a child may perceive the difference between
them and the Holy Scriptures.
These apocryphal or doubtful books were not added to *the
Hebrew copies of the Scriptures, but only to the " Septuagint,"
or Greek version, made at Alexandria, b. C. 277, by a council of
seventy learned men, for the use of the Jews in Egypt, who were
accustomed to speak Greek.
Alexandria was then a chief colony of the Jews ; it is said that
a hundred thousand of them resided there. It was at that time
one of the greatest cities in the world.
Learned men consider this translation, called the Septuagint,
very valuable. The evangelists and the apostles quoted from
it as much as from the Hebrew.
During the Babylonian captivity, the Prophet Daniel was in
spired to give to the world two pictures of the further events that
would occur in the 400 years which were to introduce the king
dom of the Messiah.
The figures which compose his first picture had previously been
presented in a dream to the mind of Nebuchadnezzar himself;
and Daniel was called upon to. declare what the king had seen,
and to explain its meaning.
Nebuchadnezzar had seen in his dream an image with a head
of gold, its breast of silver, its middle of brass, and its legs of
iron, the feet partly iron and partly clay, and he had seen a stone
cut out without hands smiting this image on its feet, aud break
ing the whole fabric to pieces.
This dream Daniel thus explained. He told Nebuchadnezzar
that he, the King of Babylon, was himself the head of gola ;
that after his kingdom should come three other kingdoms, each
less glorious than his ; and that all four should be destroyed by

74 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

a greater kingdom than any of them — the kingdom of the God
of heaven, which should last for ever. You must read the dream
and its interpretation in the second and third chapters of the book
of Daniel.
The prophet's second picture is contained in his seventh chap
ter ; and it is a picture of the same four great empires, but now
represented under the form of four great beasts, who were also to
succeed one another in dominion.
Further visions in the eighth chapter informed Daniel, that the
second kingdom was that of the Medes and Persians, the third
that of the Grecians ; the fourth empire is not named, but it is
fully described, and events proved it to be the mighty power of
Rome. All ancient history confirms the truth of this magnificent pro
phecy. The Babylonian empire passed away, as we have seen, at
the taking of Babylon by Cyrus : the Persian empire fell when
Darius was conquered, B. c. 330, by Alexander, who is the
leopard of the picture, with four heads ; while the Grecian ceded
to the Roman power about 150 years before Christ, which then
began to eclipse all others ; and having conquered Carthage, soon
became the sovereign of the world.
It principally concerns us to know what become of the Jews
during this period. Among themselves, the high-priests had the
chief power. The sixth in succession from the time of their
governor Nehemiah, was Simon the Just; his most important
work (according to tradition) was the final arrangement of the
books of the Old Testament. He added to Ezra's collection the
books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and Malachi; and thus, as we
have said, completed the canon.
About this time, from the intercourse of the Jews with the
Greeks, and in imitation of their schools of wisdom, sprung up
two sets of learned doctors in Jerusalem, called the Pharisees and
the Sadducees.
At this period also arose their very great enemy, Antiochus
Epiphanes- The Jews to this day have never forgotten his cruel
ties. He was truly " a vile person ;" and the accounts of hcatheu

JUDAS MACCABEUS. 75

historians seem to prove that he answers to Daniel's description
of the King of the North, (Dan. xi. 21 :) by the North, is in
tended Syria, which was north of Palestine.
Antiochus caused a general massacre in Jerusalem, which
lasted three days : 40,000 Jews were killed, and as many made
slaves. He then entered the temple to carry off its gold and
silver, and caused swine to be sacrificed upon its altar.
Shortly afterward, he attacked the city on the Sabbath, when
the Jews were forbidden to fight ; slew many, and sold more ;
shed blood within and without the temple; and, building a
strong fortress on Mount Zion, caused such multitudes to flee,
that the city was like a desert ; the daily sacrifices were discon
tinued, b. c. 168 ; the temple dedicated to Jupiter, an idol placed
therein, and only those Jews favoured who worshipped it through
fear of death.
Yet even at this time many were found faithful. They would
not forget their Law, and change its ordinances.
" Then the wicked king rent in pieces the books of the Law
which he found, and burnt them with fire; and whoever pos
sessed copies of these books, or consented to the Law, it was
ordained that they should die; wherefore they chose rather to
die, that they might not profane the holy covenant."
" So, then, they died." They led the way in the long roll of
names of the martyrs for the Book. Among these, the most
distinguished were seven brethren, and their mother, under the
Maccabees, who, refusing to disobey the Law of Moses, underwent
every possible torment, and were at last fried alive, in a brazen
pan made red-hot, one after the other — being supported of God,
and each singing the words of Moses's Song, (Deut. xxxii. 36-43,)
exhorting one another to die for the truth's sake. The mother
entreated each son to be faithful unto death, and last of all she,
like them, was tortured, and died also.
In the midst of these troubles, God raised up for his people a
deliverer as in old time, Judas Maccabeus, who trusted in the
Lord, and in his name defeated the Syrian armies: then he
cleansed the temple, and built a new altar in the place of that

/6 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

which was defiled : all the services and sacrifices were renewed
three years and a half after they had been discontinued.
Antiochus soon after this died in dreadful bodily torments,
with all the terrors of a guilty conscience; but the Syrians still
continued to make war on Judea, and Judas continued to over
come them through prayer, God being with him as in the dajs
of Israel of old.
It was not in times of trouble that his faith failed. He be
came very rich, and a prince among the people. After many
fresh victories, he grew weary of the further incursions of his
enemies; and this chief of the Maccabees sent to Rome, and
sought for help from those who were ignorant of the living God.
Ere the messenger of Judas returned to bring a promise of
help from the Roman Senate, he who had sought for other help
than God's was slain, b. C. 161. The failure in faith of this
man of God was like that of Jehoshaphat of old; and by the step
he took he hastened the ruin of his people. His death was
bitterly lamented throughout Judea, as that of the greatest de
liverer who had appeared since the days of David.
We must pass over the successors of Judas Maccabeus: his
nephews were wild and wicked men, — murderous high-priests,
who assumed also the royal diadem : one of them, named Jan-
nseus, was a monster of cruelty, having the word of God for a
light, and despising its guidance. The sin of rejecting even the
Mosaic Law was far greater than any that the heathen nations
could commit; and while such was the character of the high-
priests, God might well desert the Jewish nation as a nation, aa
he did from this time forward.
The Jewish history henceforth is closely connected with that
of the Roman empire.
Pompey, the general of the Roman armies, took advantage of
the constant quarrels the Jews had among themselves, to add
Judea to his conquests; and thus the fourth of the Gentile beasts
of Daniel began to tread down the holy city.
He took the temple by storm; and the Pharisees, who were
always fighting against the Sadducees, earnestly helped him. The

POMPEY — OaSSAR. 77

priest3 engaged in the daily services were slain where they stood.
Pompey entered the holiest place : he saw no visible glory, for it
had long departed, (Ezek. x ;) but he was astonished at finding
no image or statue of the Deity. However, he showed his re
spect for the place by touching none of its treasures; and he
ordered it to be 'cleansed, and its services renewed.
He then returned to Rome, entering it in his triumphal, glit
tering chariot, to which were yoked all the kings he had con
quered; among them, Aristobulus of Judea, and his sons. He
Viad overcome in that campaign fifteen kingdoms, taken 800 cities,
ind caused 1000 castles to acknowledge his empire; and he
»rought back treasure to the amount of five millions of our money.
f et he was only a single general of Rome's armies.
Was not that fourth beast "exceeding dreadful," (Dan. vii. 19,)
frith his "teeth of iron and his hails of brass, devouring, break
ing in pieces, and stamping the residue with his feet" ?
It is as trampled beneath these feet, Britain is first brought into
conjunction with Judea.
While Pompey triumphed in the East, Caesar went forth and
conquered the West. The people of the Swiss valleys were first
subdued, then 80,000 Germans fell before him : the Belgse were
defeated with such slaughter, that marshes and deep rivers were
rendered impassable by heaps of dead bodies : then he subdued
the Gauls, and only looked with the unsatisfied eye of a ravenous
eagle (the standard of the Roman empire was an eagle) to the
white cliffs of Albion, as he stood upon the shore of France.
He sailed from Calais, B. C. 55, and landed where the town of
Deal now stands.
The Britons were even then fierce enough to frighten the
Romans; but they could not withstand men clad in armour.
We need not give you the early history of Britain, for all school
children are supposed to know it; but we must touch upon the
ancient religion, such as it was, which prevailed among the
Britons before the coming of the Lord.
It was very ancient: its priests were called Druids, as were
the priests of the Celtic nations in general.
7*

THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

The Celtic nations descended from Japheth, who peopled Eu
rope, and on whom that blessing was pronounced by his father
Noah, "God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the
tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant." This promise
had not been fulfilled in the times we have hitherto considered.
We have led you to the ancient East, but now we shall return to
look upon ourselves — the children of the West.
The religion of the Druids was as old as that of the Magi of
Persia, the Brahmins of India, and the Chaldees of Babylon and
Nineveh. The corruptions of each, like those of Egypt, arose at first out
of the pure religion of Noah; and you will find that the simple
primitive customs of the patriarchs of the Bible suffered the least
change among the Druids of Britain.
When Csesar landed on the* British shores, he did not plant
his silver Roman eagles in the highlands and islands of Scot
land. Far out of the every-day world, in the Western Hebrides,
side by side with Staffa, the cathedral of the sea, in the great
bay of Loch-na-keal, there lay then, as there lies now, the island
of Iona, whose oldest name was the "Isle of the Druids."
Here, in times of which we have no written record, were car
ried on many of the simple religious customs of the old Hebrews :
and when Nineveh had carved her vast stone cherubim, and
bowed down before her eagle-headed Nisroch, and while Egypt
worshipped her Isis and her Apis, in Iona was reared no temple
and no image; but the altar of turf or stone, and the offering
from the increase of the fold or field, testified to the one God,
whom Noah served in the same manner wheo he came out of the
ark. Afterward Satan, the god of this world, corrupted this
simple faith into the earliest of idolatries, and the worship of the
sun became the religion of the Druids. There soon followed, as
among all other heathen nations, the worship of the serpent.
The serpent's egg was the Druid's crest, and the actual serpent
lay entwined at the foot of their altars. One of their most re
markable remains is at Avebury, in Wiltshire, where 461 stones
once composed the figure of a serpent extending for two and a

THE DRUIDS. 79

half miles over the green hills, and serving as approaches to
circles within a circle. The head and tail of the snake are still
obvious.* It is one of the most remarkable triumphs of that "old ser
pent the devil," that he has succeeded in persuading fallen man,
in every country, and in every age, without exception, to adore
that reptile form in which he destroyed the happiness of our first
parents. In the temple of Belus at Babylon, were worshipped large
serpents of silver. In Persia, serpents were considered the
governors of the universe. The serpent Calya was worshipped
in Hindostan, as was the serpent Python at Delphos. Under the
form of the dragon, the serpent has to this day governed China
and Japan; while the serpent-worship of Syria and Egypt is
shown by all the ancient history of those countries. It entered
largely into the mythology of Greece and Rome ; and in order to
separate God's people from this universal serpent-worship, Heze
kiah, when he broke the images, and cut down the groves, also
broke in pieces even that precious relic, the brazen serpent that
Moses had lifted up in the wilderness, calling it Nehushtan, or
only a piece of brass, for the children of Israel had burnt incense
to it. 2 Kings xviii. 4.
But to return to the Druids. The proof that their religion
in its origin was patriarchal, we shall show you among trees and
stones. The oak tree has at one time or other been held in especial
reverence by all nations. The same word in Hebrew denotes an
oak and an oath; and a stone placed under an oak was among
the Hebrews a monument of a Divine covenant.
When Joshua had written the words of the covenant in the
Book of the Law of God, he took a great stone and set it up
under an oak at Shechem, and said to the people, " This stone
shall be a witness, for it hath heard all the words of the Lord."
Josh. xxiv. 25-27. On this very stone, Abimelech was after-

* See Stukeley*s "Abury."

80 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

ward made king. Judg. ix. 6. In earlier days, after Jacob's
beautiful ladder-dream, he took the stone which had been his
pillow, and set it up at Bethel, in memorial of the place which
had been to him the gate of heaven. Gen. xxviii. 18.
Sometimes stones were raised to mark the spot of a victory,
as at Mizpeh, (1 Sam. vii. 12;) sometimes over the grave of a
dead friend, as upon Rachel's grave. Gen. iii. 20. The erect
gravestones in our burial-grounds are memorials of this custom;
and in 1 Sam. vi. 15-18, we read of a stone rendered memora
ble by the ark of God being placed upon it, when returned from
the Philistines, and taken out of the cart by the Levites, which
stone had before been well known as " the great stone of Abel."
The most striking example of a circle of memorial-stones being
set up, in Scripture, is by Joshua at Gilgal, which word means
circle. These stones were taken up out of the bed of the river,
and pitched in Gilgal. At this place Samuel the prophet after
ward held his courts of judgments from year to year; and an
altar must have been erected here, for at Gilgal was consecrated
Saul, the first of Israel's kings; and here also Agag was "hewed
in pieces before the Lord." Gilgal appears to have been the
customary residence of the Prophet Elisha.
Those stones told wondrous histories throughout the old He
brew times ; and by no people were these customs so distinctly
preserved as by the Druids. They, like Israel, worshipped in
groves, at first very naturally seeking intercourse with God under
the shadow of ancient woods, and set up memorial-stones gene
rally under oaks, which to them were especially sacred; then,
like Israel, and without their written revelation, polluting them
by idol-worship, some have said by human sacrifices. There is,
however, considerable historical evidence, that the men killed on
these stone altars, with one stroke of the sword, were those who,
in later ages, would have forfeited their lives, as criminals, on
the scaffold. From the posture in which the victim fell, the
Druids decided their auguries or divinations.
The circles of stone, called Druidical, are still numerous in
Britain, on lofty hills and elevated plains ; the most magnificent

THE DRUIDS. 8j

is that of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain. These circles are also
found in Normandy. They were the temples for worship of our
forefathers, open to the sky: the priests stood within the circle,
the people without, — a dim shadow of Moses and tho elders od
Mount Sinai and the people fenced off around ita ba6e, — also of
the Tabernacle and its inner and outer courts.
The Druids resorted, like Israel, to their place of stones, at ali
times of important consultation, and sat in their consecrated
circles to judge and give laws. In Iceland, these were called
doom-rings. Sometimes the old stones witnessed the choice of
kings amid the songs of the bards. In the very dress of ths
arch-Druid, there is something that reminds us of that of the
high-priest — his rod, in imitation of that of Moses, his robes of
pure white fastened by a girdle on which appeared the crystal of
augury, encased in gold : as this jewel sparkled or grew dim,
the person appealing to him rejoiced or trembled. Round hit
neck, also, was the breastplate of judgment, said to possess the
property of squeezing the neck on the utterance of a false
decision.* There were schools of the Druids like the schools of the pro
phets of old. Iona was their inner sanctuary ; and here a train
ing-college for their order existed for centuries. Here also they
buried their kings. They seem to have loved island refuges.
Mona, or Anglesey, was also their favourite island, and Guernsey
and Jersey are full of their altars.
Some of their triads or wise sayings are very instructive, such
as, "There are three unseemly thoughts,. — 'thinking ourselves
wise; thinking every person else unwise; thinking all we like
becoming in us.' There are three sorts of men, — <a man to God,
who does good for evil ; a man to man, who does good for good
and evil for evil; and a man to the devil, who does evil for
good.'" And while the bardie motto was, actually, "Truth
against the world,"— still, of revealed truth they knew nothing ;
superstition and cruelty mingled even with their simple forms ot

* Meyrick's " Costumes,"

82 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

worship, and priest and people were alike perishing for lack
of knowledge.
The Romans called the Druids "barbarians;" they called all
barbarians whom they considered as less enlightened than them
selves and the Greeks : they called the Jews barbarians, even in
the times of the apostles. Romans, Greeks, and barbarians were,
in their view, the chief divisions among mankind.
Rome, like an immense beehive, did as England now does, —
sent forth its swarms from time to time into the countries which
its legions had subdued. The Romans believed in many gods,
but had no objection to add to their own gods those of the people
they conquered, so as to reconcile them to their yoke. Such was
the idea of the common people; but the learned men, though
they seemed to agree with the vulgar, professed among themselves
to worship only one god in a great variety of forms.
They constructed systems which they thought very wise, and
divided themselves into a great many sects named after their
founders, Epicurus, Aristotle, Plato, etc. These sects were
always multiplying errors; and whenever any truth is found
among them, they had gathered it from the Jews, who were scat
tered everywhere, and whom they held in the greatest contempt,
as well as the idea of their possessing a Divine revelation.
We left the Jewish king, Aristobulus, in chains at Rome.
The history of the Jewish nation was at this time so full of
shocking crimes, that their own historian, Josephus, knows not
how to recite it. The Romans divided Judea into five provinces,
and appointed governors to each.
One of these governors, Herod, afterward persuaded the Ro
mans to make him king. He was the son of Antipater, an Idu-
mean, and he was the Herod who was king at the birth of Christ,
— the Herod who killed his own wife, the beautiful Mariamne,
without cause, and the Herod who rebuilt the temple — the old
building being taken down in parts as the new one was raised.
This temple was destined to be more honoured than ever temple
had been before. It was very beautiful : it stood on Mount Zion,

THE TEMPLE. 83

the open courts around it paved with inlaid marbles, the roof of
carved cedar covered with gold, supported by 162 columns of
white marble. One of its ten gates was called "the beautiful
gate," which was about thirty yards high, made of pure brass :
over this gate hung a golden vine, to which the worshippers were
continually adding a golden leaf or a golden grape. The roof was
studded with golden spikes, to prevent birds from settling upon
it. When the sun shone upon this pile of snowy marble, it
must indeed have been gorgeous.
The ceremonial service of this temple was, just previous to the
coming of Christ, carried out with regularity and splendour. The
synagogues, also, or houses appointed for prayer and the reading
of the Law, by Ezra, were scattered thickly all over the land.
The whole of the sacred writings were divided with reference
to the synagogue service, so that there might be a portion for
every Sabbath. At first, it is said, the Law only was read; but
that being forbidden by the tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes, por
tions of the Prophets were read instead, until the people, being
released from his tyranny, restored the reading of the Law, and
continued that of the Prophets.*
At the time of Christ, there were more than 400 synagogues
in Jerusalem alone. There were in every synagogue some paid
ministers, called, in the New Testament, " rulers of the syna
gogue," who seem to have dealt out judgment for offences against
religion and morals. Hence we hear that the apostles were to
be " beaten in the synagogue," and " scourged in the synagogue."
Matt. x. 17; Mark xiii. 9.
Now let us look at these rulers of the synagogue. They were
Pharisees — men who pretended to revere Moses, and to live by
his rules, who delighted to dwell on the pomp and splendour of
their ancient ordinances, and the glory of their Law, but who tooJe
the liberty of adding to it very much.
Josephus says, " The Pharisees have delivered to the people
many observances by succession from their fathers, (i. e. handed

* Smith's " Hebrew People.'

84 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

down from father to son) which are not written in the Law of
Moses." The Pharisees set up a claim to be more wise and holy than
the Sadducees, who said, " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow
we die." The Sadducees did not add to the Bible, but they took
from it all but the five books of Moses ; and even these they
would not believe, if they could not understand them. The Sad
ducees were like our modern infidels, while the papists resemble
the Pharisees. There was another sect, called the Essenes, who
were so disgusted with both parties, that they forsook the syna
gogues and the cities, and looking upon the body as the prison of
the soul, retired to solitude and hardship, as the monks did in
after-time. They refused to marry, lived on vegetables, wore a
peculiar dress, and observed almost perpetual silence.
We must describe to you a few of the additions made by the
Pharisees to the Law of God. •
Certain learned persons in the days of the Maccabees had
written books, called " Targums," signifying interpretation.
Onkelos, the ancestor of Gamaliel, Paul's instructor, had written
one targum ; and a rabbi, named Jonathan, had written another.
We will show you how Rabbi Jonathan had altered the sense in
expounding the 53d chapter of Isaiah — »
Isaiah liii. Jonathan's Targum.
7 He was oppressed and he was af- 7 He has prayed, he has been heard;
flirted ; yet he opened not his mouth : and before he opened his mouth he
he is brought as a lamb to the slaugh- was accepted. The strong of the peo-
ter, and as a sheep before her shearers pie he shall deliver as a lamb for a
is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. sacrifice, and as a sheep that is silent
before the shearer; and there shall
be none who shall open his mouth in
his presence, and speak a word.
8 He was taken from prison and 8 From chastisements and reveng-
from judgment : and who shall declare ings he shall gather our captivity : and
his generation ? for he was cut off out the wonderful things that shall be done
cf the land of the living ; for the trans- for us in his days, who shall be able to
gression of my people was he stricken, recite ? For he shall take away the
dominion of the nations from the land
of Israel; the sins which my people
have committed, even upon them shaU
they come.

THE TARGUMS. 85

• The 53d chapter of Isaiah contains a minute and perfect pro
phecy of the coming of our Lord in his humility. This kind of
coming, the eyes of the Jewish teachers were not in the least
degree open to perceive. They expected a mighty deliverer and
conqueror, and were totally unprepared to acknowledge their
Messiah in the helpless babe of Bethlehem.
As they themselves believed, so they taught the people. Jesus
called them, when he came, " blind leaders of the blind."
Among these, however, there seem to have been a few who, as
Malachi says, " spake often one to another," and who were, like
Zacharias and Elisabeth, " righteous before God, and walking in
all the ordinances of the Lord blameless." These few must have
rejected the traditions of the Pharisees, and must secretly and
devoutly have studied the sacred writings themselves. They
were "waiting for the consolation," and "looking for the re
demption of Israel."
The Pharisees were making " the word of God of none effect
by their tradition." This, again, is' our Saviour's own testimony
concerning them. They were no longer the Church of the Book.
The Book itself remained pure and perfect as it always had been ;
but these men declared that the word of God was divided into two
parts — the written and the unwritten. Both parts, they said,
were given to Moses on Mount Sinai; but he committed the
unwritten by word of mouth to Joshua and the seventy elders,
who again committed it to the rabbins, who were to deliver it to the
people. These were some of their sayings : " The Scriptures are
water, but the traditions are wine." " The words of the scribes
are lovely above the words of the Law." " Some of the words
of the Law are weighty, but the traditions are all weighty."
This was the way in which they expounded the fourth com-
mandment ; viz. To do no work on the Sabbath-day. If a loaf
were to be carried on that day by a single person, he would be
guilty ; but if two persons carried it together, both were innocent.
God had said, that he who made a vow should keep it. Num .
xxx. 2. Tradition said, if he were weary of the vow, he might
go to a wise man, and be absolved from it.
8

86 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

And the people soon learned to set the authority of their rab
bins above the authority of Scripture. It was said that all
instructions from the Law were to be finished when a boy was ten
years old, and the remainder of his education must be from the
traditions. The Jews of the present day, it is said, withdraw
their children from the Bible at the age of seven or eight; i. e.
as soon as the boy's mind is capable of understanding the Talmud.
" Prevent your children," said Rabbi Eliezer, " from reading
the word of God too much, lest they should be carried away with
it." Alas ! alas ! that such should be the sayings of Israel, the
chosen people ! Thus they became almost as ignorant of God
and of his truth as were the pagans around them — all, excepting
the small remnant kept faithful by the grace of God, who neither
added to the word nor took away from it, and who were, doubts
less, saying in their hearts, " It is time for thee, Lord, to work,
for they have made void thy Law," when Simeon and Anna
welcomed the Holy One once more to his temple, and by the
revelation of the Holy Ghost proclaimed Him as a "light
to lighten the Gentiles," as well as " the glory of his people
Israel."

At the time of the birth of our Lord, the whole Roman woild
was at peace, and the temple of Janus shut. No remarkable
event attracts our attention to any other part of the earth at the
time when John the Baptist came crying in the wilderness of
Judea, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths
straight." John was a noble young Jew, of about thirty years of age,
who appeared in the deserts. We may imagine him in his rough
raiment of camel's hair, as of striking and powerful presence,
with unshorn black locks and beard, and the flashing dark eye
of his nation, crying, " Repent ye ; for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand." He wrought no miracles, displayed no supernatural
power, yet seemed a most unearthly being, raised up by God for
the time, and in harmony with the place.

JOHN THE BAPTIST. 87

Genuine and deep piety always impressed the common people,
and the words of John set thousands of consciences to work that
before were slumbering. Slothful, luxurious Jerusalem, sleeping
in its sins, arose in one day, and went out to be baptized of John
in the Jordan.
God might have sent his prophet into the city, but he was the
nun for the desert. His ministry had all its influence there.
" Prepare ye the way of the Lord," said he ; " make his
paths straight.'' The Jehovah of Sinai, the God who made the
worlds, was coming to make a royal progress ; to walk through
the cities and villages of Judea; not as one ofthe silken rabbins
of Jerusalem, with flowing robes and haughty air, but choosing
rather the common seamless robe of a carpenter, woven from the
top throughout, in which to teach the people the Truth of which
he was himself the author.
On the slopes of that long line of mountains which run down
the land of Palestine, once the strongholds of the mighty Re
phaim, were now gathered crowds thinking of their sins. They
broke away from their customary occupations in Jerusalem, to
throng around this strange preacher of the desert, where, with
eager expectation and awakened minds, thousands of them listened
to the voice of him who cried in the wilderness, " Repent ye ;
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." It seems that even the
hardened conscience of King Herod himself was awakened by
the preaching of John : " Herod feared John, knowing that he
was a just man and a holy, and observed him ; and when he
heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly." Mark
vi. 20.
Now let us mark the great Pharisees and Sadducees approach
ing the Jordan, and see what a fierce reception they met with :
" Oh, generation of vipers ! who hath warned you to flee from
the wrath to come?" They talked about Abraham being tfieir
father, but were as unlike Abraham as possible.
The great cedars of Judaism ! — they were cut down, being lull
of all manner of unclean birds ; and great was the fall of them
Their boughs were all scattered about the world, as they are to

88 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

this day : the axe of the Lord was laid to their root, for they had
not given glory to the King of kings, but had perverted his most
Holy Word.
Then, behold the humility of John the Baptist ! " There
cometh one mightier than I, whose shoe's latchet I am not wor
thy to unloose." The ministry of the forerunner John was
rejected by the proud Pharisees, and they afterward denied the
Son of God himself, and put him to an open shame.
So the Lord came to his own, and his own received him not;
but he was a light to lighten the Gentiles, and truly their dark
ness needed it : they worked the works of darkness, and were in
the power of the devil, who led them captive at his will, and who
dared to say to the Saviour himself, that his were " all the king
doms of the world and the glory of them."
Jesus related a parable, (Matt. xii. 29,) showing in what sense
it was so. He declared himself as come to take possession of a
house, and of the things in it : this house was the world, and the
things in it were the souls of. men.
Jesus came to rescue these precious souls from Satan's power.
He compares Satan to the strong man who was in tbe house, and
who tried to prevent the Saviour from entering in. He said, he
must first bind the strong man, and then he would spoil his goods.
This he came down to earth to do, by suffering death in his
mortal body ; and he is still engaged in releasing captives day by
day from the power of Satan ; and the day shall come when he
shall lay hold on that " old serpent the devil," and bind him a
thsusand years, (see Rev. xx. 2,) and then indeed "he shall spoil
his goods."*

But we have still the tale of 1800 years to tell, and must hasten
onward, especially with the Story of the Book.
The life and actions of our Lord and of his apostles are, perhaps,
hotter known by the young than any other parts of the Bible.

' Light in the Dwelling.'

THE NEW TESTAMENT. 89

After the crucifixion and ascension of the Redeemer into
heaven, the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
inspired men, as were the prophets of old, committed to writing
those particulars which the Holy Ghost saw fit should be preserved,
concerning the ministry of their Master, for our benefit. Luke
then recorded their own acts and missionary travels. Paul, the
converted persecutor, and attendant at the first martyrdom of a
Christian, (that of Stephen,) wrote fourteen letters to the churches
which he had founded, while James, Peter, Jude, and John com
pleted the New Testament canon.
Some of these books are called by Paul the New Testament,
(see 2 Cor. iii. 6,) while he refers to the Mosaic dispensation as
the Old Testament.
The different churches formed by the apostles in the first cen
tury received these books by degrees, and each church gradually
obtained them all. Among the various opinions entertained con
cerning the person who finally collected them together, the most
natural seems to be, that this was done by the Apostle John,
whose life was long preserved by God for the comfort of the
church. He was nearly one hundred years old when he died, and
was himself inspired to utter the magnificent prophecies of the
last portion of the Sacred Scriptures.
When he was very old, and unable to say much in the Christian
assemblies, " Children, love one another," was his constantly-re
peated exhortation. Being asked why he only told them one
thing, he answered that nothing else was needed.
Oh that the Christian Church had always remembered this ! —
the last word of the last apostle repeating the words of his Master
" As I have loved you, that ye also love one another," (John xiii.
34;) and the words of his brother Paul, "Love is the fulfilling
of the law." Rom. xiii. 10.
On the acts and revelations of this first century, as it is called,
(for at the coming of Christ the age of the world began again,)
it has pleased God to fix the eye of all true believers ever since.
The deeds and sayings of all after-centuries derive their importance
only from their connection with the first, because that alone was

90 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

the century in which more mighty pillars of miracle and prophecy
were reared to support the Church of Christ, than even those
which lent their Divine strength to the Church of the wilderness,
and of the promised land.
" The Son of God was manifested ; that he might destroy the
works of the devil." 1 John iii. 8. The commission he gave to
his apostles was to follow in his steps. They were to preach the
gospel ; and he also gave them power to heal the sick, to raise
the dead, and to cast out devils, in his name, as a witness to the
truth they preached.
These men, gifted with more than human power, were to be the
fathers of the Church of the New Testament. Afterward he
appointed other seventy also, (Luke x. 1,) and to them gave the
same miraculous gifts. Their number was the same as that of
the elders among the Jews, who went up with Moses to the mount.
It is fairly to be concluded, that many who had been converted
by the preaching of John in the wilderness, became afterward the
disciples of his Divine Master. The first church in Jerusalem is
mentioned as composed of 120 members, (Acts i. 15 ;) and we
afterward hear that our Lord was seen after his resurrection by
above five hundred brethren at once, (1 Cor. xv. 6 ;) but as the
greater number of these were Jewish converts, they probably
shared in the expectations of their nation, and had received the
Messiah, expecting him as a glorious king and temporal deliverer.
Acts i. 6.
His revelation of himself and his designs, even to those chosen
few, was very gradual, — " as they could receive it." By very
few, at first, was he really believed to be the Son of God. John
the Baptist was one of the few who witnessed to this, and
Nathanael, and afterward Peter, to whom his Master answered,
" Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father
which is in heaven." Matt. xvi. 17.
The Lord was about to commit the treasure of Divine revelation
(no more to one earthly nation, who had proved unfaithful to its
precepts, even while they guarded it sacredly down fifteen centu
ries to bear witness against themselves, but) into the care of "a

FULFILMENT OP PREDICTIONS. 91

Dody," composed of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and
tongues, — by them to be published throughout all the world.
In the hour when he partook of his last supper with his disci
ples, and dispensed to them the bread, which was the image of his
body to be broken for them (1 Cor. xi. 24,) and the wine, which
was the image of his blood shed for the remission of their sins,
(Matt. xxvi. 28,) he drew the infant church into the nearest and
tenderest communion with himself; he told them, that as the
world had hated him, so it would hate them; that the servant
was not greater than his lord ; therefore, that the time would come,
when whosoever killed them would think that they did God ser
vice ; and that if any man would come after him, he must deny
himself, and take up his cross and follow him, (see John,
xiii. and xvi.) This oneness in suffering with him was to
prepare them for being one with him in his glory.
These predictions of the Saviour were, according to church his
tory, literally fulfilled to all who listened to them. In the first
onset of danger, " they all forsook him and fled," — they could
not (as he said to Peter) follow him then, " but they did follow
him afterward."
Peter himself was crucified by Nero, at Rome ;
Andrew, in Achaia;
James was beheaded by Herod Agrippa ;
Philip suffered martyrdom in Phrygia ;
Bartholomew, in Armenia;
Thomas, called Didymus, was put to death, by stoning, in India;
Matthew suffered death in Ethiopia ;
James the Just was murdered at Jerusalem ;
Jude, by the Magi, in Persia ;
Simon Zelotes, at Jerusalem ; and
John, after being preserved unhurt, by miracle, in a caldron of
boiling oil, appears to have been the only one who died a natural
death, at an advanced age, (see John xxi. 22.)
The other inspired writers of the New Testament —
Mark, dying of his wounds at Alexandria,
Luke, hanged on a tree in Greece, and

92 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Paul, beheaded by Nero, in his anger at the conversion of his
favourite cupbearer, — without exception, sealed their testimony
with their blood; and, ere they did so, "were," as St. Paul tells
us, "counted the offscouring of all things;" "troubled on every
side;" "persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not de
stroyed;" "always bearing about in the body the dying of the
Lord Jesus;" "always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake; beaten,
stoned, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, in stripes
above measure, in prisons frequent, in deaths oft." See 1 Cor.
iv. and 2 Cor. iv. and xi. — Nothing could have supported them
steadfast under these trials, but that rich effusion of the Spirit,
on the day of Pentecost, which had caused them to perceive
fully, that the same Jesus which was crucified was both Lord
and Christ. Paul received this knowledge afterward, by a special
revelation to himself, "and straightway preached Jesus in the
synagogues that he is the Son of God."
Such was the history of the apostles. In the next chapter we
shall look for some of their successors.
The New Testament comes down to us through a line of
crowned heads, — but their crown was the crown of martyrdom.
The first pagan persecution against the Christians was raised
by the Emperor Nero, about thirty years after the crucifixion.
This is mentioned by the great Roman historian, Tacitus. He
says, that "Rome being set on fire, Nero declared it was the work
of the Christians, and put great numbers of them to death, after
frightful tortures." Other heathen writers mention the Chris
tians as being "punished with the troublesome coat," which was
made like a sack, of coarse cloth, besmeared with pitch, wax, and
sulphur; and, being dressed in this coat, they were hung by their
chins on sharp stakes fixed in the ground, and then burnt —
" In that pitch'd shirt, in which such crowds expire,
Chain'd to the bloody stake, and wrapp'd in fire."
Nero had them burnt at midnight, "for torches," as he said, "to
the city." This persecution lasted for three or four years, and
spread through the Roman empire. An inscription dug up in

PAGAN PERSECUTIONS. 93

Spain shows that the gospel had already penetrated that country,
and that the church there had her martyrs.
In the reign of Nero, Suetonius was ser t into Britain, and at
tacked the Druids in their strongholds in Mona. He caused
many of them to be burnt in the fires they had prepared for their
expected captives, and destroyed their groves and altars. St.
Paul was sent to Rome, according to Eusebius, in the second
year of Nero, that is A. d. 56, and he stayed there, according to
Luke, two years. The British prince Caractacus, and his father
Bran, were sent to Rome in the year 51, and stayed there, as
hostages, for seven years. It is said, in the Welsh "triads,"
that Br*tn was the first who brought the Christian faith to tha
Cymry, or Welsh. He had, therefore, in all probability, received
it from Paul at Rome : thus early came the pure gospel to Wales.
It is said that Bran brought back with him three Christian
teachers, — Illtid, an Israelite; Cyndaf; and Arwystli, which ia
Welsh for Aristobulus, to whom Paul sends salutation, Rom.
xvi. 10.
Tacitus likewise informs us that London at this time contained
many merchants and much merchandise.
How unlike was the London of which he speaks to our modern
London ! Its very pathways were different; for traces of Roman
floors and highways are found twenty feet below our present
streets. There is little doubt that the Romans brought in their
train, from the large family of Christian brethren in Rome, some
manuscripts of the Gospels, some teachers of the Story of Peace
among those men of war; and that there would be hymns sung
to Jesus Christ in some corner of the old Roman town. Christi
anity, through the labours of the apostles, had taken deep hold
of the people in the south of Europe; and many flourishing
churches were, as we know, established in Greece.
A person asked Apollo how he should cause his wife to re
linquish Christianity. "It is easier, perhaps," replied the oracle,
"to write on water, or to fly into the air, than to reclaim her.
Leave her alone in her folly, to hymn in a faint, mournful voice,

94 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

the praises of the dead God, who publicly suffered death from
judges of singular wisdom."
We must conclude with a brief notice of the dreadful destruc
tion of Jerusalem by Titus, A. d. 70. The Jews having refused
the usual tribute to the Romans, he came to enforce it. #The
city and temple were burnt, and the ground ploughed up, for the
purpose of obtaining the precious things buried in the rubbish.
The wicked Jews had said, "His blood be on us and on our chil
dren," and it was so. Never was destruction of any city or people
so terrible. A hundred thousand were sold as slaves to the
neighbouring nations; multitudes were transported to the mines
in Egypt; and more than a million perished by famine and sword,
by pestilence and crucifixion. Only those among the Jews who
were believers in Christ were prepared for this final breaking up
of their national glory and the visible splendours of their temple
— having learned that the priesthood of Christ took the place of
all other priesthoods, and rendered utterly useless any further
ceremonies or sacrifices at Jerusalem.
They had no "continuing city," but they sought one to come.
The epistle of Paul to these Hebrews is full of consolation, espe
cially suited to their sorrowful hearts.
In the year 81, occurred the Domitian persecution, during
which Christianity appears to have been carried to Scotland, by
some of the disciples of the Apostle John. These persecutions,
of which there are said to have been ten, were always the means
of scattering still more widely the seed of the word. Wherever
Christians were driven, they were sure to take some portions of
their Scriptures with them. No historian, like Tacitus, cele
brated their heroic sacrifices and secret escapes. Heroes and
statesmen have their records here ; the saints, on high.

CHAPTER V.
Gradual Circulation of the New Testament — Earliest Heresies — Uninspired
Teachers — Progress of the Gospel — The Book becomes the Guide — Eight
more Pagan Persecutions — Particulars of these — Dioclesian's Medals — Reign
of Constantine, his mistaken Zeal — The Rise of Monasteries — Progress of the
Papacy — Alaric — Versions of Scripture — The Alexandrine Version — First
Protests — Vigilantius — Nestorius — The Nestorian Christians — The Armenian
Church — The Paulicians — The Abyssinian Church— The British Church in
Wales, in Scotland, in Ireland — Succat — Columba — Iona.
The first century, as we know, stands alone in its enjoyment,
for three years and a half, of the public ministry of him "who
spake as never man spake," and was himself the Living Word.
The first century was also that in which the persons lived who
were inspired to record his sayings; and the living teaching of
inspired persons must have been very precious; but it could not
have been continual. The apostles were all missionaries. They
went forth into all the world to plant churches, and seldom stayed
long in one place. The Gospels and Epistles were only in course
of writing, — not written, and gathered together, — therefore very
few churches and still fewer individuals were in possession of
more than separate manuscripts, and not even of these till the
latter half of the century.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, were not written,
as Mr. Home thinks, till about the time of Nero's persecution,
A. D. 62, and these, with the inspired Epistles or letters to the
already founded churches, became eminently necessary to check '
the errors and heresies which, even then, as the apostles them
selves state, had arisen in them.
Take, for instance, the church at Corinth, consisting of many
Jews, but more Gentiles : their danger, therefore, sometimes arose
from Jewish prejudice, sometimes from heathen wickedness ; for
95

96 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

it was out of these two classes that the Christian converts were
purified and separated. This church had eminent preachers after
Paul left, for here " Paul planted and Apollos watered ;" but,
nevertheless, false teachers soon afterward crept in, some desiring
to continue the Jewish ceremonies, others not leading a pure and
holy life.
In his Epistle to the church of Ephesus, he also speaks of
" grievous wolves entering in among them, not sparing the flock;"
in the Epistle to Timothy— of " seducing spirits, forbidding to
marry, and commanding to abstain from meats ;" while, in the
second Epistle to the Thessalonians, chap, ii., he draws a-iull-
length portrait of that "mystery of iniquity," as he calls it,
which he declares was beginning to work then, and would work
on, even till the second coming of the Lord.
As the inspired letters of Paul and Peter were received, and
gradually circulated among the churches, the faithful obtained a
standing rule whereby they might be warned from these false
teachers and growing evils. Paul desires that his Epistles to
the Thessalonians may be " read to all the holy brethren ;" and
when he wrote to the Colossians, he begged they would send the'
letter to the Laodiceans : but as, in those ages, books were all
written at the expense of great time and labour, it is probable
that copies of the whole Scriptures were still a rare treasure, and
that the greatest dependence was placed on the opinion of bishops
and rulers in the several congregations, in all matters of diffi
culty. When the apostles were all dead, we have no ground for sup
posing that even those who had conversed the most intimately
with them, had received of their inspiration or miraculous gifts.
Ignatius, bishop of, Antioch, Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna,
Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, were holy men living in the second
century. The two former had conversed freely with the apostles,
and they both were martyrs for the Christian faith. Some of
their writings have been preserved, but they are easily distin
guished from the inspired writings.
One of the sayings of Ignatius, however, (who was thrown to

EARLIEST HERESIES. 97

wild beasts, at Rome, A. D. 107,) is especially worthy to be re
membered — " that in order to understand the will of God, he
fled to the Gospels, which he believed not less than if Christ in
the flesh had been speaking to him ; and to the writings of the
apostles, whom he esteemed as the presbytery of the whole
- church." The Greek translation of the Old Testament seems to have
been possessed by every church which the apostles founded in
the first century ; and it is well known, that before the middle
of the second century, the New Testament, also, was not only
collected into a volume, but was read in every Christian society
as a rule of faith and manners. Hence, before its close, Tertul
lian, the presbyter of Carthage, could say of himself and his fel
low-Christians " We are but of yesterday, and yet we fill all that
is called yours — your cities, islands, forts, towns, assemblies,
camps, palaces, senate, court," and this, in spite of two more
barbarous pagan persecutions, under Trajan and under Marcus
Antoninus. Lyons, in France, which is said to have received
the gospel through the merchants of Smyrna, especially shared
in the fourth persecution ; and the sustaining power of God to
her martyrs in their sufferings seems to have been little less than
in the times of the apostles themselves.
Indeed, these persecutions from the pagans were blessings to
the Christians : their Master had said to them, " Blessed are ye
when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all
manner of evil against you falsely for my sake." Matt. v. 11.
Like Israel in Egypt, of old time, " the more they were afflicted,
the more they multiplied and grew," (Exod. i. 12 ;) the more
they suffered, the more they were driven to " holdfast ihe faith-
fid word," and also to " love one another." It was only in de
parting from these two grand simple principles of union, in per
mitting the opinions of their teachers to be set above the " faith
ful Word," and in that striving " who should be greatest," which
was not " in honour preferring one another," that " the mystery
of iniquity," of which St. Paul had prophesied, arose and pros
pered.

98 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

In all this they were "without excuse :" for when the Chris
tian church had received the written Gospel, she was to be judged
by it, as the Jewish church of old, after she had received the
Law. She was to be the Church of the Book — the pure and
perfect Book of Inspired Truth.
The earliest heresies arose before the books of the New Testa
ment were gathered together ; and these chiefly concerned the
person of the Saviour. Some enemies denied that he was God,
and others denied that he was man — both rejecting his sacrifics
for sin.
" Heresies" at first meant errors contrary to the teaching of
the inspired apostles ; but when the teachers of the church were
no longer inspired, the Book became the unfailing guide; and
the real meaning of "heresy" was, from that time, "error con
trary to the faithful word."
For 300 years after the ascension of their Lord to heaven, the
sufferings of the people of God arose from the world, which
" hated them" for their witness against its sins and its false
gods ; and this period of 300 years comprises the ten pagan per
secutions. Since that time, their sufferings have arisen from that party
among themselves who, assuming temporal power over the rest,
made " heresy" to consist in " error contrary to the voice of the
church ;" and who, alas ! in all ages and in all countries, have
often perscuted those who only desired to " hold fast the faithful
word." We must tell you two or three facts concerning the pagan
persecutions, and show you, meanwhile, how the "mystery of
iniquity" took its rise.
The fifth persecution was in 203, under Severus.
The sixth in 235, under Maximin.
The seventh, a most destructive one, in 250, under Decius.
The eighth in 257, under Valerian.
The ninth in 274, under Aurelian.
The tenth in 303, under Dioclesian.

THE CHILD-MARTYR — THE SOLDIER'S CHOICE. 99

The vast number of those who suffered for Christ under these
persecutions has never been reckoned by man ; but they will all
take rank in the " noble army of martyrs" who will attend the
King in his glory. We can speak in detail of but one or two.
In the ninth persecution, at Cesarea, in Cappadocia, a child,
named Cyril, showed uncommon fortitude : neither threats nor
blows could prevent his praying to Jesus Christ continually. His
father turned him out of doors, and brought him before the
judge, who said, " My child, I will pardon your faults, and your
father shall receive you again, if you will worship Jupiter."
"No," said the child; "God will receive me : I am not sorry I
have been turned out of our house; I shall have 'a, better man
sion/ (the dear child must have found this in the Book :) I fear
not death ; it will introduce me to a better life." He was bound
and led to execution, with orders to bring him back, if the sight
of the fire conquered him. " Your fire and your sword," said
the young martyr, " are naught to me. I go to a better house
and to more excellent riches. Despatch me presently, that I may
enjoy them."
Thus he went to his death. So you see there have been chil
dren in the noble army of martyrs, — children who loved the
Book, and realized its true riches.
At Cesarea, in Palestine, a brave and noble soldier, named
Murinus, was a Christian. The governor of the city called upon
him to own if his faith prevented his being raised to the office of
centurion, on which he confessed his principles, and three hours
were given him to recant them. His bishop, Theoctenes, took
him by the hand, and led him to' their church, showed him the
sword that hung by his side, and a New Testament which he
took from his vest. Marinus stretched out his hand, and clasped
the Holy Scriptures. "Hold fast," then said Theoctenes;
"cleave close to him whom you have chosen. You shall be
strengthened by him, and depart in peace." After three hours
he was beheaded, manfully confessing the faith ot Christ.*

* See Milner's " Church History.'

TOO THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Those who worshipped idols used to put cords round the necks
of the Christians, and drag them to the temples to sacrifice to
their gods ; and when they would not do this, persecution raged
against them with ceaseless fury. The last persecution, under
Dioclesian, was the worst of all. It raged especially in Africa;
and from the history of those final tortures which the Christians
endured from the pagans, we may learn how great was his power
who kept his people steadfast through the age when demons
seemed set upon them utterly to destroy them. The emperor
gave orders to burn their books, to throw down their churches,
to fall upon all those who kept the Lord's-day, and who would
not burn incense to Jupiter.
At the dawn of morning, on the day of the feast of Terminalia,
a prefect of the Praetorian band entered the church of Nicomedia.
He first burned the sacred Scriptures, then destroyed the build
ing, and a bloody massacre commenced. All that fire, boiling
water, wild beasts, starvation, crucifixion, and pain of every sort
could bring, to compel the Christians to sacrifice to idols, was in
vain. In the Thebais, in Egypt, axes were so blunted with mangled
limbs, and the executioners so tired of slaughter, that it was
necessary to send for fresh men and new axes to complete the
work. There was not a province, city or town in the Roman empire
— not a hamlet, garden, or cottage in Rome — in which pursuit
for the Christians was not made : the few that escaped fled to
the most solitary deserts. " I have visited," says Dr. Walsh,
" in remote places in the east, caverns in the sides of nearly inac-
cessable mountains, where they endeavoured to find refuge during
this dismal period." In one province alone, 150,000 Christians
perished cruelly; sometimes 100 in a day — 17,000 in a month.
It was intended entirely to blot out Christianity from the earth,
and medals were struck by Diocletian, with this motto — " Hav
ing everywhere subdued the Christian superstition, and restored
the worship of the gods." Pillars with the above inscription
were erected in Spain.

THE KORAN. 101

The British Christians came in for their share of this persecu
te n from the Roman empire ; and Diocletian, by striking the
disciples of Jesus in Britain, only increased their number.
Many took refuge in Scotland, where, under the name of Cul-
dees, they prayed for those who sheltered them. When the sur
rounding pagans saw the holiness of these men of God, they left
their sacred oaks, and abandoned the worship of the sun and the
serpent, to obey the gentle voice of the gospel.
The Diocletian persecution continued ten years. Houses were
filled with Christians, and the whole number burned to ashes.
Companies of fifty were tied together with ropes, and in droves
were hurried into the sea. Three hundred at once were suffo
cated in a lime-kiln. Swords, red-hot chairs, wheels for stretch
ing human bodies, and talons of iron to tear them — all were the
instruments of pagan Rome against the Christians. Yet still
they would not sacrifice to idols, and they would not give up the
Book. "Why," it was said to Euplius, a Sicilian martyr, "why
do you not give up the Scriptures, as the emperor has forbidden
them 1" " Because," said he, "lama Christian. Life eternal
is in them. He who gives them up loses life eternal I"

So, then, these martyrs died, like the Maccabees of old ; and
Satan, weary of thus in vain assaulting the Church of the Book,
resolved on two vast schemes against the Book itself. He changed
Rome Pagan into Rome Papal. Having laid deep and broad the
foundations for that " mystery of iniquity," he taught her to hide
the Book which should witness against her ; and this snare being
ready for the western world, he turned towards the east, and
caused Mohammed to bring forth a false revelation, — a mock
Bible, — called " the Koran," or, " that which ought to be read."
Though this Koran was a tissue of profane and old wives' fables,
mixed up with some strange repetitions of the Scripture narratives,
yet it bound together, in one mighty Saracen empire, all the wild
sous of Joktan, of Ishmael, and of Esau. These combining to
believe this Koran, and to force others to believe it with the sword,

102 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

caused it, within the period of eighty years, to be acknowledged
over the greater part of Asia and of Africa, and they threatened
to seat it even in the heart of Europe.
The following may serve as a specimen of comparison between
the Bible and the Koran for those who might never see the latter:
Bible. Koran.
I was envious at the foolish, when I Cast not thine eyes on the good
saw the prosperity of the wicked. . . things which we have bestowed on
. . . Thus my heart was grieved, several of the unbelievers, so as to
Psalm lxxiii. 3. 21. covet the same ; neither be thou
grieved on their account.
But when thou doest alms, let not thy If ye make your alms to appear, it
left hand know what thy right hand is well ; but if ye conceal them, and
doeth: that thine alms maybe in secret: give them unto the poor, this will be
and thy Father, which seeth in secret, better for you, and will atone for your
himself shall reward thee openly. Matt, sins ; and God is well informed of that
vi. 3, 4. which ye do. Ch. ii. p. 30.
These both were cast alive into a lake Verily, those who disbelieve our
of fire burning with brimstone. Rev. signs, we will surely cast to be broiled
xix. 20. in hell fire : so often as their skins
shall be well burned, we will give
them other skins in exchange, that
they may taste the sharper torment:
for God is mighty and wise.
The rise of Mohammedanism, however, did not take place until
the seventh century after Christ, and it then arose and conquered,
" because of the heresies that divided, and the corruptions which
disgraced Christianity."*
We must see how these heresies and corruptions progressed by
degrees. After the Dioclesian persecution, came the reign of Constantine,
who favoured instead of persecuting the Christians. When the
bishops met in council, the question as to who should be greatest,
was a constant source of discord among them. The Bishops of
Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria had already claimed to be re
garded as superior to the rest ; and the Bishop of Rome declared
* Forster's Mohammedanism Unveiled."

EMPEROR CONSTANTINE. 103

it his right to be the first of all, as being the bishop of the first
city in the empire.
Constantine endeavoured to settle their differences, but only
caused further discontent to one party, the Donatists, whom he
banished ; and you will grieve to hear that the pagans watched
the contending Christians with triumphant delight, and even held
them up to ridicule in their theatres : the voice of the conflicting
church made itself heard above the voice of the " faithful word,"
for that had said, " Let brotherly love continue."
Constantine called a great council at Nice, in Bithynia, com
posed of 300 bishops, where a " confession of faith" was drawn
up, which is still the foundation of that called, in the Church of
England, " the Nicene Creed." At this council it appears to have
been proposed, that the clergy should be forbidden to marry ; but
it was not agreed upon, as Paphnutius, an African bishop, declared
it was unscriptural.
The famous controversy respecting the observance of Easter was
settled at the Council of Nice, — Constantine declaring, that " it
was not for the dignity of the church to follow that most hateful
of all people the Jews, in their time of celebrating the passover."
The Emperor Constantine was a native of Britain, and his
mother, Helena, is said to have been a British princess. They
set themselves, with ignorant, but probably good intent, to increase
the worldly greatness of the Christians, to whom Christ, their
Master, had said, " My kingdom is not of this world," (John xviii.
36,) and whom he had described, as the men " which thou gavest
me out of the world." John xvii. 6.
The Empress Helena visited Jerusalem, and erected a church
over the supposed sepulchre of Christ, and caused a number of
other magnificent churches to be built. As a reward for her
labours, she was said to have discovered the wood of the " true
cross" ; and with this and the " holy earth" from Jerusalem, (to
which all access was forbidden to the Jews,) began the long list
of relics which have been worshipped ever since, down to the
" holy coat of Treves."
The bones of the martyrs suddenly 6ecame of immense value;

104 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

and out of the very ruins of his former cruelties did the " prince
of this world" cause to be built up his new and enduring palace
of papal superstition.
Constantine next wished the different ranks of bishops in the
church to be distinguished by particular dresses, and presented
the Bishop of Rome with the pall, — a splendid robe, originally a
part of the dress of the emperors ; and the crosier and mitre were
adopted at the same time.
Every thing was done to reconcile the pagans to Christianity.
Martyrs and saints were honoured in place of Jupiter and Venus,
and feasts and dances were held on the graves of the martyrs.
Monasteries also were greatly encouraged : these were the places
of residence for monks and nuns. Constantine showed the greatest
respect for those who willingly retreated from the world, and de
voted themselves to a life of solitude and hardship. Anthony
the Egyptian had formed the first household of monks ; and Paul,
a young Christian of the same country, had taken refuge from
persecution in the deserts, and was probably the first hermit,
A. d. 253. At the close of the fourth century, 27,000 monks and
nuns were to be found in Egypt alone.
It must be admitted, that Constantine did some good service to
the great cause of Christianity; but, judging of his actions by the
light of an open Bible, there are reasons to fear that in many in
stances his zeal was "without knowledge." He did not act, in
all things, according to the " mind of Christ" ; and the result of
his efforts to extend the Christian faith was to increase the pride
of the spiritual rulers, and to load the church with worldly pomp
and grandeur.
Among the monks, no doubt, were many godly persons who
took refuge in monasteries, from the evils abounding around them;
but they forgot that their Master had said, " I pray not that thou
shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep
rhem from the evil "; and so, by degrees, they built up a vast
system which rests on no scriptural foundation. Anthony, the
first monk, died, aged 105, leaving little behind him but two
sheepskins, which were sent to two bishops as legacies.

PROGRESS OF THE PAPACY. 105

At first thirty or forty monks lived together in a range of low,
narrow huts; then a wall was built around these; then each
community by degrees erected a church for itself, a hospital, and
a library, and secured a reservoir of water. They slept in a
rough blanket, on the bare ground; their dress was a coarse
linen shirt and a sheepskin, besides a cowl or hood to protect
them from beholding vanity ; they lived chiefly on vegetables,
walked out two and two, and when they returned home, were for
bidden to speak of what they had heard.
When their minds, in spite of all this fencing off from the
world, wandered back to it, they tried to curb them by discipline.
Some began to wear crosses, chains, and collars of heavy iron ;
but these could not chain the mind. Some passed years without
speaking, days without food, and nights without sleep; others
spent their energies better, and employed themselves day after
day in copying manuscripts ; and the best fruit of their labours
was the multiplication of copies of the Scriptures. It is certain
that many received them into their hearts as they copied them,
and were thus kept " pure," in spite of the folly and corruption
of the system under which they lived.
It was the rule of the monks to pay blind submission to the
abbot of their monastery. If he told them to water a barren
staff for years, they obeyed as if they expected it to grow into
a living tree !
At first, these monasteries were places which the monks might
enter or quit as they pleased; but this soon ceased, and they be
came prisons which never yielded up their prey. The abbot,
who heard their daily confession of sin, controlled them in mind
and body, punished them, and directed them as he pleased; and
these bands of men, thus disciplined, became very powerful, and
established an influence, by no means wholesome, over the Church
of God.
You have heard, perhaps, of Alaric the king of the Goths,
who in the fifth century came down with his mighty arm upon
Rome, and extorted from it a ransom worthy of its enormous
wealth. Did you ever hear of his grave? His army caused

106 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

their captives to turn aside the course of the river Busentinus,
to make it, and then, when they had buried him, slew upon the
spot all who had been engaged in the work, that none might tell
the secret, — the waters being restored to their usual channel.
But that grave shall not be hidden, when earth, and sea, and
river shall give up their dead. These Goths caused the downfaL
of the imperial Roman power; yet, while this decayed, the priestly
power in the same old city went on increasing and increasing, till
Rome in a new form reigned over all the kings of the earth. Leo,
surnamed the Great, bishop of Rome, laid the foundations of the
papal dominion, at the time the imperial power received its
deadly wound. He received, from the Emperor Valentinian,
authority over all the bishops of the western empire of Rome,
and sent his legate, or messenger, to inquire into all " heresies"
at the court of the eastern empire also. He endeavoured to pre
vent the marriage of the clergy, and to enforce the practice of
confession to the priests. He greatly increased the pomp of reli
gious services; incense was burned, holy water sprinkled, and
tapers lighted at midday to frighten away the evil spirits. Leo
died, a. d. 461.
To trace, however, the growing development of the apostasy in
the sixth and seventh centuries, only concerns us as far as protest
was made against increasing evils, by the Church of the Book, —
by those who still were determined "to holdfast the faithful
word," and to listen to the Written Voice of God, rather than to
the voice of this great hierarchy, which claimed for itself such
wide supremacy.
It is a delightful task to follow the pilgrimage of Divine Truth
from land to land, even through what were called the Dark Ages,
The fire, kindled from heaven, like that on the Tabernacle altar.
was never to go out ; and it never did. Amid all the destruc
tions, persecutions, and corruptions, the sacred books were con
tinually copied and re-copied ;¦ and we must now particularly ex
amine into what languages.
From the beginning of the first century, the Latin language
was gradually becoming more general than the Greek, and it

VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURE. 107

might soon have been called the language of the Western Church.
In the early ages, as soon as any one found a Greek copy of a
Gospel or an Epistle, and thought himself able, he began to
translate it. Many of these translations were imperfect, but one
called the Old Italic was the best : this was made in the second
century, and comprised both the Old and New Testaments.
The word of God was now existing in five languages, viz. ihe
Old Hebrew; the Chaldee, made for the Babylonian Jews ; the
Greek, or Septuagint ; a Syriac version, which had been made,
at the beginning of the second century, for the Syrian Christians;
and the Latin, as above mentioned.
Two of these translations from the Hebrew were made before
the Christian era, and two after it. In the fourth century, a
learned monk, named Jerome, translated afresh the Old Testa
ment from the Hebrew into Latin : his version is called the
" Latin Vulgate," and was pronounced by the Council of Trent to
be the only one " esteemed authentic" by the Roman Catholic
Church. Numerous manuscript copies of these versions have
been preserved to our times ; and now they are printed, and have
been diligently compared with one another by learned men ; and,
with the exception of a few trifling differences, they present to
us, in five different languages, the same text and the same num
ber of books.
These three sister versions, the Chaldee, the Greek,, and the
Syriac, after they were made, were separated for many hundred
years. The Chaldee version, carefully preserved by the Jews,
was unknown to Christians during the early ages of the Church;
and the Christians of Syria knew as little of the Greek Bible as
the Greeks did of the Syriac. The Syriac and Chaldee were for
the East ; the Greek spread over the West, and was again trans
lated into Latin. The Latin Bible was not borrowed from the
Syriac or Chaldee, yet, when brought together, they all closely
agree, though the work of enemies to one another, of Christians
and Jews, Eastern and Western Christians, Palestinian Jews and
Alexandrian Jews. These are the great roots of all other transla
tions.

108 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

The copies from these were innumerable : they were copied by
thousands who regarded them with heartfelt reverence and affec
tion ; and there were besides multitudes in the religious houses,
who, influenced only by superstition, still thought it a work of
superlative merit to execute a fair copy of the Scriptures, or any
part of them.
There is, in the library of the British Museum, one of the
most valuable manuscripts of the Bible, in Greek, called the
"Alexandrine." It was sent in the year 1628 as a present to
King Charles I. by Cyril, the patriarch of Constantinople. It
was probably written at Alexandria by Thecla, a noble Egyptian
lady, in the fourth century, a little after the Council of Nice.
Thecla was afterward martyred. This precious manuscript is
written in uncial or capital characters Hke these : —
John i. 1.
M^pXHHMQXOrOCKXlOXOroClf
XTpoCTON©h4'KXIQCHNOKOrOO
(Literally Translated.)
INTHEBEGINNINGWASTHEWORDANDTHEWORDWAS
WITHGD.ANDGDWASTHEWOED.
It is so much prized, that the trustees of the British Museum
have had it stereotyped at the expense of thirty thousand pounds,
and have presented a copy to all the principal libraries in the
kingdom, so that it can never be lost.
Throughout the period of which we have been speaking, persons
were raised up from time to time to contend for different portions
of Divine Truth ; and one of the most remarkable of these, in
the East, was Vigilantius, a presbyter, who went from Gaul into
Palestine, and preached boldly against the common errors. This
occurred in the fifth century. Let us see what he then had occa
sion to condemn. He preached —
... Against the worship of relics;
Against pilgrimages to holy places;

FIRST PROTESTS. 109

Against prayers to saints ;
Against severe fasting and mortification ;
Against " forbidding to marry."
He was, in fact, one of the early Protestants,* as was Nestorins,
a Syrian, and bishop of Constantinople, who strongly objected to
the title of " Mother of God," as applied to the Virgin Mary.
It does not appear that he wished in any measure to take from
the divine dignity of Christ, by rebuking this expression ; but
he was accused of doing so. The Bishop of Rome combined
with others against him; and, by a council held at Ephesus,
A. D. 431, he was pronounced accursed, and banished. " Con
demned," it is said, " without a hearing, he died in one of the
oases of the Egyptian desert ; and all who held his views were
expelled from the church." But the Nestorian Christians in
creased in spite of the imperial laws ; and among them may be
traced some of the brightest servants of God ; for their separa
tion from Rome preserved them from many errors. From the
time of Nestorius, images and pictures of the "Virgin and
Child" became common.
In the sixth and seventh centuries, these Nestorians were
remarkable as missionaries of the Truth : they continued entirely
independent of the systems of Rome or of Constantinople, and
had a patriarch of their own at Seleucia. They abounded in
Chaldea, Persia, and Assyria, and carried the gospel into the
remotest and most barbarous parts of Asia, and even into China.
Their manners were pure ; they never interfered in political revo
lutions, and remained as witnesses for God, even when Mohamme
danism overcame Romanism. In the eight century they sent
missionaries through the immense and savage tracts of ancient
Scythia, or modern Russia, and even to Siberia and Nova
Zembla. You must take particular notice of the Nestorians, because
* His Life has been written by a clergyman, to whom we also owe a very
interesting account of the protesting church in the Fie dmontese valleys, — the
Rer. W. Gilly. 10

110 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

they yet exist : they have never ceased to exist : they tried to
spread the knowledge of Christ through all the dark regions of
the East in every successive century; and there must always
have been not a little genuine godliness among them. In the
thirteenth century, they had many churches in Tartary, India,
Persia, and China ; and the pure light of their " witness" only
appeared to be dying out in the fifteenth century, when the bright
day of the Reformation was about to dawn upon the world.
When we come to the modern triumphs of the Bible — to the last
fifty years of our story — we shall have delightful news to tell you
of these old Nestorians. In the mean time, we must leave them
where Mr. Layard, the discoverer of Nineveh, found them a year
or two since — within sight of the spotless, snowy peak of Ararat,
in the valleys of Armenia, once inhabited by the only independ
ent Christian tribes of Asia, and still the dwelling-places of this
remnant of a primitive church.

We must now lead you to the neighbouring district of Armenia.
In the fifth century, also, Mesrob, the inventor of the Armenian
alphabet, presented his countrymen with a translation of the
Bible, made from the Septuagint. A church arose here which
has likewise existed through the dark ages, though it was by no
means so pure as the Nestorian Church. Its teachers hved un
married, and adopted the seven sacraments of Rome, but did not
admit the supremacy of the pope. Lite the Nestorians, also,-
they obstinately rejected images and pictures ; and this separates
them from the Greek Church to this day.
The Greek Church, so called, is in most respects like the Ro
man Church, though it does not acknowledge the pope as its
head, but owns in his stead the Patriarch of Constantinople. Its
doctrines differ widely from those of the Protestant, and it
acknowledges the decrees of the councils for its rule of faith.
Few even of its clergy possessed any part of the sacred books;
»od its people were not allowed to read them.
In Armenia arose the sect of the Paulicians, the ori<rin of

THE PAULICIANS. Ill

which is very interesting. In a. d. 660, a deacon of a Christian
church, who had been in captivity among the Saracens in Syria,
was returning home through- the little town of Mananalis in
Armenia, where he was kindly received by a respectable inha
bitant, named Constantine, and entertained some days at his
house. In return for his kindness, he presented his host with two
manuscripts which he had brought out of Syria — the four Gos
pels, and the Epistles of St. Paul. From the presentation of
this (at that time) rare and costly gift, we may infer what had
been their conversation together. For the first time Constantine
had an opportunity of studying the precious truth for himself,
and it soon cast out of his mind some errors, called Manichean,
which he had adopted. He burnt his bad books, and declared
he would thenceforth study nothing but~ the Gospels and Epis
tles. He began to teach, as well as to read for himself; and his
disciples instructed others around them. He lived for twenty-
seven years, spreading his new opinions all around Cibossa, to
which place he had removed.
His followers increased so rapidly, that a Greek emperor sent
to have him stoned, and Simeon, the messenger, caused his own
disciples to perform the deed ; but afterward Simeon himself,
like Saul of Tarsus, repented, being converted by beholding the
grace of God in the noble martyr and his disciples, who suffered
after him. Simeon, having united himself with the Paulicians,
preached among them for some time at Cibossa, and also died a
martyr. It is recorded that he was seized, with his followers,
and all were burned in one vast pile, with the exception of one
Paulus and his two sons, who were sent to Constantinople to be
questioned. These three afterward escaped, and fleeing again to Mananalis,
lived and flourished under the protection of the Saracens for
thirty years ; their disciples increased greatly, and were called
Paulicians. They were said, in the language of their enemies —
to deny "the orthodox faith" — not to adore the mother of God
— not to partake of the bread as made Christ — and to have aban-

112 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

doned the Eastern Church, which they certainly had, for they
belonged to the Church of the Book; therefore the imperial
government persecuted them. The Empress Theodora, who is
called a saint in the Greek Church, declared she would cut off
the Paulicians, root and branch, unless she could bring them to
the true faith. A hundred thousand persons are said to have
perished by her orders : they were hanged, crucified, burned, or
drowned, and all their property went into the imperial treasury.
Notwithstanding these persecutions, the Paulicians continued
to increase through the knowledge of the Gospels. An aged
woman of this sect was instrumental in the conversion of Sergius,
afterward a great propagator of their opinions, only by putting
the Gospels into his hands. For thirty-four years he was occu
pied in spreading the truths they contained, through every city
and province he could reach : his own words are, " From the east
to the west, and from the north to the south, have I been pro
claiming the gospel, and labouring on my knees."
His efforts were so successful, that he was said by the Roman
Church to be Antichrist, and to be producing the great apostasy
foretold by St. Paul. It is agreed by the best historians that
the Paulicians were transplanted into Thrace, penetrated Bul
garia, were introduced into Italy and France, and, under various
names, especially that of Albiyenses, spread through Europe.*

The gospel in Abyssinia or Ethiopia has a very ancient history
— even from the apostolic age, when it must have been carried
there by the minister of its Queen Candace. You remember ho
had been worshipping at Jerusalem, and was, as he returned
home in his chariot, reading the roll of the Prophet Isaiah, when
he was met by the Apostle Philip, who asked him " if he under
stood what he was reading ;" and he, confessing his ignorance,
desired Philip to come up and teach him. During their journey
Philip preached unto him Jesus, having been sent to meet him for
* Sharon Turner's "History of England," vol. v., p. 119.

ABYSSINIA. 113
this purpose, as we learn, by the Spirit of God, (see Acts viii.)
This teaching issued in his " believing with all his heart," and
his immediate baptism ; and, it is said, " he went on his way
rejoicing." " It is impossible that this Ethiopian, thus enlightened, could
be silent," says Milner, " when he returned home ;" but this is
the end of our Scripture light upon the subject.
We next hear concerning .Abyssinia, that Frumentius, after
residing some years in Egypt, was ordained as Bishop of Meroe,
the chief city in Abyssinia, by Athanasius, the patriarch of
Alexandria, about A. d. 330.
When a Greek merchant, named Cosmas, who wrote a book
called " Christian Topography," in which he mentions the in
scriptions on the rocks of Sinai,* visited Abyssinia, in A. d. 525,
he says it was completely a Christian country, and well provided
both with ministers and churches. Mr. Salt, a modern traveller
in Abyssinia, describes the remains of ancient churches hewn out
of the solid rock, the date of which he assigns to the sixth
century. After this time, very little was known of the . country till the
Portuguese entered it in 1490, and found there a body of Chris
tians, who had received the Holy Scriptures in the ancient
Ethiopic version, or Gheez language, made from the Greek Sep
tuagint. Mr. Bruce, a traveller in these remote regions, brought
with him a complete copy to Europe : the apocryphal books, were,
however, intermixed in this version with the canonical.
You must bear these facts in mind respecting Abyssinia, be
cause in a future page we shall have very interesting particulars
to relate of the translation of the Scriptures into Amharic, which
is the modern language spoken in this country. This ancient
Christian Church had mixed many errors with its faith ; and no
wonder; for it had fallen under the influence of the Jesuit mis
sionaries from the Portuguese ; and a law had been made that
whoever dared to translate the Holy Scriptures from Gheez into
Amharic should die. * See page 34.
10*

114 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

But, as we said we would follow the pilgrimage of Divine
Truth from land to land, we must now leave the churches of the
East, who maintained their long and arduous struggle against
the corruptions of the West, and recur to the early progress of
the gospel in Great Britain and Ireland.
As Irena-us, bishop of Lyons, early in the second century,
mentions the existence of churches among the Celtic nations, and
Tertullian, about A. d. 200, says, that " those parts of the British
isles which were unapproached by the Romans were yet subject
to Christ," these parts, which were most probably the mountain
ous seclusians of Wales, and perhaps of Scotland, must have re
ceived the faith, and doubtless the Old Testament, from Bran,
the father of Caractacus, and probable disciple of the Apostle
Paul,* and the Old Testament would cause them to inquire for
the New, as, by degrees, it was written. At any rate, Christian
churches were formed, and these shared in the Diocletian perse
cution, A. D. 303. Two martys of this age, Julius and Aaron,
were honoured in the British Church, which is recorded to have
converted many of the ancient bards, or Druids, from their old
patriarchal but corrupted religion, to the gospel of Jesus Christ;
and Divine worship continued for a while to be performed in the
ancient Druidical circles. One of these is at Carn-y-groes, in
Glamorganshire, where also stands an ancient cross.
Pelagius, who was a British teacher from the monastery at
Bangor-Iscoed, in A. D. 400, went to the continent and began to
preach strange doctrine. Dr. D' Aubigne says, " It does not ap
pear that he had a bad intention, but he had many of the old
Druidical notions ; and, finding fault with the moral indifference
of the Eastern Christians, he denied the doctrine of original sin,
and said that if man made use of all his natural powers, he could
become perfect." This was not preaching Christ Jesus : and the
venerable historian, Bede, tells us, " the British churches refused
to receive this doctrine : they sent for two bishops from Armorica,
(now called Britanny,) Germanus and Lupus, who came to their
* See page 93.

SUCCAT, OR ST. PATRICK. 115

aid, and those who had wandered returned into the "way of
truth." The Diocletian persecution, in A. d. 303, as we have seen,
drove many of the Christians to Scotland, and to the island of
Iona, where they built a church, called the Church of our
Saviour, whose walls, it is said, still exist among the stately ruins
of a later age. One particular portion appears to be of primitive
architecture. But we must now turn to Ireland; — for that country also
afforded the terrified British clergy an asylum from the Diocletian
persecution. In the year 388, a captive youth, named Succat, sixteen years
of age, the child of Scotch parents, was sent into the green pas
tures of Ireland to keep swine. Hence, as he led his herds over
the mountains and through the forests, by night and by day, he
called to mind the instructions of a pious mother, which, up to
this time of his distress, he had forgotten ; and when afterward
rescued from his captivity, he considered it his duty to carry the
gospel to the people of that country, where he had himself found
Christ Jesus. This boy, Succat, was afterward known as St.
Patrick, and sainted by the Romish Church.
He collected the pagan tribes in the fields, by beat of drum,
and there narrated to them in their own tongue the history of the
Son of God. Ere long many souls were converted, and the Dru
idical hymns changed into canticles to Christ. This St. Patrick
is said to have evangelized Ireland, and after that period it was
known by the name of " The Isle of Saints."
Meantime the state of the British Church was most afflicting.
The warlike Anglo-Saxons, who were pagan idolaters, slew im.
mense numbers of the Christians, though many hid themselves
in Wales, and in the wild moors of Northumberland and Cornwall,
and many fled into Britanny, in France, whose inhabitants still
speak a language resembling the ancient British or Welsh.
In one of the churches formed in Ireland by Succat's preaching,
there arose, two centuries after him, a pious man, named Co-
umba, in whose veins flowed royal blood. He resolved to repay

116 THE BOOK AND ITS STORT*

to the country of Succat what Succat had imparted to his — to go
and preach the word of God in Scotland. With some of his
companions, he constructed a frail coracle of osiers and skins.
" In this rude boat," says D'Aubigne, " they embarked in the
year 565, and the little missionary band reached in safety the
waters of the Hebrides."
They landed in Iona, and found the Christian Culdees, and
also some Druids. The poor Druids were now to cede the ancient
college of their order and the burial-place of their kings to another
race, for whose sake, also, this wondrous little spot of earth is
very famous.
Conal, the Scottish king, granted Iona to Columba, and it
became "the missionary isle," "the light of the western
world." Columba was really a holy man : he lived as in the sight of
God ; he mortified the flesh, perhaps, unnecessarily, — sleeping on
the ground, with a stone for his pillow ; but he prayed and read,
he wrote and taught, he preached, and he redeemed the time.
He went from hut to hut, and also from kingdom to kingdom.
Precious manuscripts were conveyed to Iona ; the holy word of
God was studied there, and many received through faith the sal
vation which is in Christ Jesus. Columba maintained that it
was the Holy Ghost which made a servant of God.
When the youth of Scotland assembled round their elders on
these wild shores, they were taught that the Holy Scriptures are
the only rule of faith. " Throw aside all merit of works, and
look for salvation to the grace of God alone." "It is better to
keep your heart pure before God, than to abstain from meats."
" One alone is your head, — Jesus Christ." " Bishops and pres
byters are equal : they should be the husbands of one wife, and
have their children in subjection."
These were Protestant doctrines. The sages of Iona knew
nothing of the bread in the Lord's Supper being changed into
the actual body of Christ ; they did not withdraw the cup from
the laity; knew nothing of confession to priests, or prayers to
the dead, or tapers, or incense. They celebrated Easter on a

THE ISLE OF IONA. 117

different day from Rome, and the supremacy of the pope waa
unknown. When the college in this islet sent out its missionaries, they
knelt in the chapel of Icolmkill, and were set apart by the hands
of the elders : they were called bishops, but remained obedient
to the elder of Iona.
"Iona and Bangor," continues the modern historian of the
Reformation, " possessed a more lively faith than the city of the
Caesars ; and Britain in the sixth century was faithful in planting
the standard of Christ in the heart of Europe."
Columba is said to have possessed a most engaging address, a
cheerful countenance, and a most powerful and commanding
voice, so that he could be distinctly heard at a mile's distance
when he chanted psalms. He appears to have been a man of
much prayer, and to have earnestly believed that God answers
prayer; and in the strength of this belief he did many mighty
works. The historian Bede tells us, that he and his disciples
brought religion at that time into such repute, that a monk was
everywhere received as God's servant. Columba was remarkable
• for his humility; he said that "no man ought to be praised till
he had reached the goal, and finished his course." He greatly
loved the study of the Scriptures, and was sometimes engaged
for whole days and nights in exploring their dark and difficult
passages, with fasting and prayer. It is said of him, that "when
any offended himself, he forgave him, — when any offended God,
he prayed for him."
The isle of Iona continued to be, under Columba, as it always
had been, the burial-place of kings. Its "fair kirkyard" con
tains the tombs of forty-eight crowned Scottish kings, four Irish
kings, the tombs of the kings of Norway, and the most part of
the lords of the isles.
These tombs are flat stones, with many an ancient carving
sunk in the green sward. Dr. Johnson called this "awful
ground." In the corner of the ruined cathedral are the "black
stones," held so sacred by the Highlanders, that an oath sworn
on them was always kept. Many beautiful crosses were broken

118

THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

or carried off at the Reformation. Spottiswoode says, that in
Columba's own lifetime, he founded 100 monasteries and 365
churches, and ordained 3000 monks. He died in Iona, after
presiding there for thirty-four years; and his followers, until the
year 716, protested against the Church of Rome, and influenced
the whole of Europe. Columba wrote to Pope Boniface, with
great freedom : " It is your fault if you have deviated from the
true faith." Clement of Iona wrote a book against images in tho
end of the eighth century.

Iona.

" Lone Isle ! though storms have round thy turrets rodei,
And their red shafts have sear'd thy marble brow.
Thou wert the temple of the Living God, —
Teaching earth's millions at thy shrine to bow.
Though desolation wraps thy glories now,
Still thou wilt be a marvel through all time
i"or what thou hast been : for the dead who rot
Around the fragments of thy towers sublime,
Once taught the world, and sway 'd the realm of tbomjht
And ruled the warriors of- each northern clime.

FALL OF ENGLAND'S PROTESTANTISM. 119

Dear art thou for thy glories long gone by :
Virtue and truth, religion's self must die,
Ere thou canst perish from the chart of fame,
Or darkness shroud the halo of thy name."

D.M.

CHAPTER VI.
The Fall of England's Protestantism — Augustine's Mission — Bede — King Alfred
— General Ignorance — The Vaudois Church — Early Protests — Claude of
Turin — Vaudois Colporteurs — Waldo — His Translation of the Bible — Sketch
of the Vaudois People — Their Knowledge of Scripture — Innocent III. — The
Inquisition — Torments — Steadfastness — Torments — The Vows of Luzerna —
The Bohemian Christians.
In the last chapter we gave you an outline of the early history
of the Church of the Book, both in the East and the West, after
the Christian era. We can now only sadly tell you, that in Eng
land, in the seventh century, she fell under the power of the
church of the popes, who would have all the world to receive
their laws. She received presents from Rome of the relics of
the Apostles Peter and John, — "pretended fragments of their
chains," and emblems of her own. Pope Gregory desired her
conversion from simple faith in Christ and his word, to faith in
the Romish Church and its ceremonies, and he sent the Arch
bishop Augustine to Canterbury, to convert her. This Augus
tine, who came to England in 597, must by no means be con
founded with Augustine, bishop of Hippo, born 354, the son
whoa: soul was given to his mother's prayers, after perseverance
on her part, and apparently in vain, for thirty years, and who
was^ in most respects, "the highest ornament of the African
Church." At that time there existed at Bangor-lscoed, in Wales, a mo
nastery of 3000 members, governed by faithful teachers. Augus-

120 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

tine first met its bishop, Dionoth, under an oak at Wigornia,*
and endeavoured by persuasion to cause him and his flock to
acknowledge the pope ; but this meeting and a second one were
in vain. Even to a third appeal, the Britons said, " they knew
no other Master but Christ."
" Then," said Augustine, " if you will not unite with us to
show the Saxons the way of life, you shall receive from them the
stroke of death." "Argument had failed," says D'Aubign<$;
" now for the sword."
Shortly after the death of Augustine, Edelfrid, an Anglo-
Saxon king, and a heathen, destroyed 1200 of these Christians,
iu the act of praying to God against his violence, and razed
Bangor, the chief seat of Christian learning, to the ground.
Iona, too, the last citadel of liberty, gave up her freedom ere
long, through Romish persuasion ; and then came a dark night
of superstition which lasted many hundred years.
In English history, while this night endured, we must now
only look for the few earnest souls that here and there awoke,
and searched the Scriptures even under popish bondage, and then
turn for a while to the most interesting history of the Vaudois
Church in the valleys of Piedmont.
The earliest translation of the New Testament into the tongue
of the common people of England was made by " the Venerable
Bede," whose " Church History" we have often quoted. He
lived in the monastery of Jarrow in Durham, and was a very
learned monk, having uncommon skill in Greek and Hebrew.
He studied the Scriptures diligently and prayerfully. He re
ferred the Archbishop of York to Titus and Timothy, for rules
of conduct to be required from Christian ministers, and he evi
dently knew himself what it was to "fight the good fight of
faith," by strength supplied from God.
In his last hour he was engaged in dictating to one of his dis
ciples the last verse of the 20th chapter of John. " It is finished,
master," said the scribe. "It is finished," replied the dying
* Worcester.

ALFRED THE GREAT. 121

Baint'; "lift np my head, let me sit in my ceil, in the place
where I have so often prayed ; and now, glory be to the Father,
to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;" and with these words his
spirit fled.
Could it have taken flight more happily than in the act of
translating the word of God ?
Would you like to read a piece of Anglo-Saxofi, as it was
spoken and written in the seventh century? "Fader uren thu
arth in heofhum, sic gehalgud noma thin ; to cymeth ric thin."
"Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy
kingdom come."
We should scarcely know this old Anglo-Saxon now for Eng
lish ; but this was English in the days of King Alfred.
Alfred the Great, who left behind him an undying name,
whether as a Christian or a king, was also a translator of the
Scriptures. His early education was scanty : no master could be
found in all Wessex to teach him Latin, when twelve years old ;
but when he grew up and reigned, he was called "the wisest
man in all England." Being aware of his own ignorance, and
seeing that ignorance still deeper prevailed among his people, he
drew around him capable teachers.
Asser, the first scholar in Wales, and a man of piety, after
much persuasion, agreed to live at his court for six months in the
year, and became his warmest friend. Alfred learned Latin of
Asser, by carrying in his bosom a little manuscript book, in
which every quotation of Scripture that pleased him was put
down by his friend, and translated. These the king constantly
studied, writing them also himself. He turned Bede's valuable
History into English, and attempted to translate the whole Bible,
though he only accomplished a portion of it.
He was engaged upon a version of the Psalms, at the time of
his death. He has left behind him some manuscripts, preserved
as treasures in museums, and a most fragrant memory.

11

122 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

We shall now pass to the Swiss valleys and the Waldenses.
So early as A. d. 290, the Vaudois valleys were honoured with
a martyr: this was in the times of pagan persecution, in the
village of St. Legond, between Luzerna and San Martino.
In a. d. 314, the arrogance of Sylvester, bishop of Rome, is
said to have occasioned the first protest of the churches in these
valleys. In A. D. 374, Ambrose, bishop of Milan and the north of Italy,
protests against the introduction of images into churches, and
shows that certain superstitions prevailing elsewhere had not been
adopted in the mountainous regions of his diocese.
At the close of the seventh century are found the traces of a
small but pure church in these districts, which some suppose a
branch of Paulicians. Retiring from the insolence and oppression
of the Romish clergy, they sought a hiding-place in the Pays de
Vaud, embosomed in the Alps, where they might follow their
consciences, and enjoy communion with God.
In the ninth century, thirty years before the birth of our noble
Alfred, Claude, a native of Spain, became Bishop of Turin. He
was a reformer, and studied and preached the Scriptures. He
found the churches full of images, and he fearlessly cast them
out, and the crosses also, ordering them to be burned. He told
the people, that if they painted or sculptured Peter or Paul upon
their walls, and worshipped them, they might as well have con
tinued to worship Jupiter and Saturn. "The bones of saints are
no more to be reverenced," said he, "than the bones of cattle:
and a piece of wood, even if it were of the true cross, is entitled
to no veneration."
This bishop was greatly opposed, but the doctrines he taught
sank deep into the minds of many, who cherished them in secret,
and handed them down to their children's children. He took
great pains to explain Scripture, maintained that faith alone
saves ns, and that all the other apostles were equal with Peter.
He also denied that prayer after death could be of any use to
anybody. This man laid, thus early, the solid foundation of the Reforma-

ETC. 123
tion, which took place 700 years afterward. He was called "the
BishoD 'of the Valleys." "The papists own," says Dr. Allix,
"that the valleys of Piedmont, which belonged to the bishopric
of Turin, held the opinion of Claude through the ninth and tenth
centuries." Through these, as well as the eleventh and twelfth centuries,
we must traverse what are called the dark ages, each one darker
than the other, and watch the light, which had been shed abroad
by such kings as Alfred and Charlemagne, dying out amid the
personal ignorance of kings, priests, and people. Modern re
search, however, developes from time to time some bright par
ticular exceptions, in different countries, most often of such persons
as possessed and studied the Scriptures, such as Anselm, and
Queen Margaret of Scotland, whose husband Malcolm used to
handle with great respect, and even kiss, the books that he saw
his wife peruse, though himself so illiterate as not to be able to
understand them.
Comparatively few priests, in those days, understood the Latin
service of their own church, and many were made bishops (it is
said) who could neither read nor write.
It was about the year 1151, that in several parts of the con
tinent were noticed little communities, chiefly of poor and labour
ing men, distinguished from the established Roman Church, and
who possessed, in the manuscript Romaunt version, both the Old
and New Testaments, which they were fond of committing to
memory. Their version resembled Latin: it was this: "In
principio erat verbum, et verbum erat apud Deum, e Deus era la
paraula. Aiso era el comanzament amb Deu." "In the begin
ning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. The same was in the beginning with God." John i.
1, 2. These persons were scattered all over Europe: in France
they were called " Tisserands," or weavers, " Poor Men of Lyons,"
" Waldenses," and " Albigenses ;" in Germany, " Cathari." They
existed in Spain, and even in Naples, and abounded near the
Alps. It was in the following way that they spread abroad their
opinions. "They show some merchandise, as rings or robes, to

124 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

lords and ladies to buy. If they sell these, and are asked, Have
you any more to sell?' the answer is, 'I have far more precious
jewels than these, which I will give you, if you will not betray
me.' Safety being promised, 'I have a gem shining from God,
so radiant that it kindles the love of God in the hearts of those
who possess it/ The travelling merchant then reads some chap
ter out of his manuscript of the Gospels;" and most often he left
it with the listener.
It is a mistake to suppose that Peter Waldo was the first foun
der of the little churches whose messengers thus went forth.
He was called "the good merchant of Lyons," and was himself
an earnest inquirer after Divine Truth, who abandoned his mer
chandise, distributed his wealth to the poor, and desired further
instruction. He could not find it from the Papal Church, but
he did find it in the Scriptures themselves.
He was a man of learning : he could read the Latin Bible,
which was the only entire version at that time in Europe; and he
began to read and explain it to the poor people who crowded to
hear him; and it is certain that the Christian world is indebted
to him for the first translation of parts of the Scriptures into a
modern tongue, after the Latin ceased to be a living language.
Waldo's translation,, or that which is supposed to have been his,
is called "the Provencal or Romaunt version," which was con
demned and forbidden by the Council of Toulouse in 1229, be
cause it was written in the tongue of the people. Would you
like to .see a specimen of this version, so precious to the Wal-
denses? We shall take it for you from "The Bible of Every
Land," which is a "History of the Sacred Scriptures," as col
lected from all sources, with specimens of the versions* DTyou
can read French and Latin, yon will be able to make out this
Provengal version, for it is nearly allied to both of those languages.
"Lo filh era al comenczament, e lo filh era enapres Dio, e Dio era
lo filh. Aiczo era al comenczament enapres Dio." "In the be
ginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the

* Samuel Bagster and Sons, Paternoster Row.

THE WALDENSES. 125

Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God."
John i. 1, 2.
The Archbishop of Lyons endeavoured to silence and appre
hend Peter Waldo; but he escaped, and his disciples followed
him. The doctrines of Waldo, after this, spread widely through
Europe. He himself retired to Dauphiny. Some of his people
joined themselves to the Vaudois of Piedmont, and communicated
to them their new translation of parts of the Bible, — a rich ad
dition to the spiritual treasures of that people.
From a persecution raised by Pope Alexander IH. and Philip
Augustus of France, Waldo fled to Bohemia, where'he died, A. d.
1179. He was a very extraordinary person. He has never yet
found a biographer; but he "turned many to righteousness, and
shall shine as the stars for ever and ever."
The Waldenses were a most simple and inoffensive people, yet
their history has been little else than a series of persecutions, —
so long and so bitter, that the records of even pagan cruelty are
less horrible than those of papal vengeance. One of their ene
mies thus describes them in the twelfth century: "They are
clothed," says he, "in the skins of sheep; they have no linen;
they inhabit flint-stone huts with mud roofs, in common with
their cattle; they have besides two large caves set apart, in
which they conceal themselves when hunted down for their
heresies. Poor as they are, they are content, and live separate
from the rest of mankind. Though outwardly so savage and
rude, they can all read and write : you can scarcely find a boy
among them who cannot give you an intelligent account of the
faith they profess."
They never mixed in marriage with the Romanists ; but so well
was their fidelity known, that many Roman Catholic lords prefer
red them as nurses for their children, and came far to seek them
for that purpose.
They were more remarkable than any other people on the face
of the earth for the large portions of Scripture which they com.
mitted to memory. Scripture was their all: and as the Jews
treasured the manuscripts of the Old Testament, and carried them
ll®

126 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

everywhere in their wanderings, musing in sullen grief, as they
read them, on the ancient glories of their race, often, as in the
persecutions in Spain, winding them round their bodies, to part
with them only with their lives, — and as the early Christians
prized the Gospels and Epistles, gazing with intense affection upon
their title therein contained to " a kingdom yet to come," — so
these Waldenses laid up rich portions alike from the Old and
New Testaments in their hearts, so that they could not be taken
from them.
The preparation of their pastors for the ministry (whom they
called " barbes," the Vaudois term for " uncle," perhaps the more
to distinguish them from the " fathers," to whom the Romish
Church can trace so many of her corruptions) consisted in learn
ing by heart the Gospels of Matthew and John, all the Epistles,
and most of the writings of David, Solomon, and the prophets.
It was reckoned, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, that a
fair copy of the Bible, from a convent, would have cost more than
sixty pounds of our money, for the writing only ; and that a skil^
ful scribe could not complete one in less than ten months : very
precious, therefore, was every single portion ; and as their enemies
seized upon and burnt every copy of which they could' hear, socie
ties of young persons were formed in the Vaudois valleys, every
member of which was trusted to preserve in his memory a certain
number of chapters ; and when they assembled for worship, which
they did with all possible precaution, from great distances, in some
hidden mountain gorge, these new Levites, standing before the
face of the minister, would recite, one after another, the chapters
of the priceless Book, for which they often paid the price of blood.
Reiner says, that he knew among them a rustic who could repeat
the whole of the book of Job by heart, and many who repeated
nearly the whole of the New Testament. They frequently put
their enemies to shame. A monk who was sent to preach among
them to try and convince them of their errors, returned in confu
sion, saying, that he had never in all his life known so much of
the Scriptures as in those few days that he had been holding
meetings with the heretics.

PERSECUTION. 127

And the children were worthy of their elders. When a num
ber of doctors were sent among them from the Sorbonne at Paris,
one of these owned that he had understood more of the doctrines
of salvation from the answers of the little children, in their cate
chisms, than by all the disputations he had ever heard.
Bernard says of them, that they " actually defended their here
sies by the Words of Christ and his apostles." Reneirius, the in
quisitor, their bitter enemy, had, alas ! been one of their commu
nity for seventeen years, and, afterward turning against them,
well knew how and where to direct his malice ; yet even he can
witness nothing worse against them than that " they instruct those
among them who are teachable and eloquent, to get by heart the
words of the Gospels, adorning their sect with the goodly words
of the apostles also, that the doctrines they teach may be accounted
sound." Upon this Church of the Book came down, for century after
century, the heaviest vengeance of the Church of Rome, for they
rejected all her ordinances, disbelieved all her miracles, and said
she was the Babylon described in the Revelation, maintaining
also, that we ought to believe that the Holy Scriptures alone cow-
tain all things necessary to our salvation. •
On them, therefore, fell the full storm of the anger of Innocent
III., who was pope at that time. For the sake of crushing this
little church in the mountains, he established the Inquisition, and
proclaimed a crusade against all who held their doctrines, which,
indeed, were rapidly extending. The pure faith, cradled in the
Alps, was carried down into the surrounding plains ; multitudes
in northern Italy, along the Rhine, through the south of France,
and within the borders of Spain, walked by the blessed light of
Scripture, working with their hands at the loom also. This was
the church that did its duty to the world; and it was going on
peacefully, conquering and to conquer, when Rome perceived her
own danger, and summoned all the kings, who laid their swords
and treasures at her feet, to engage with her to cut off these people
from the earth, and put out their light for ever.
This, however, was no easy task : above 800,000 of them were

128 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

scattered over Europe. It took 300 years to burn, to slay, and to
destroy them ; and, great as was the slaughter, frightful the tor
tures inflicted, they lived on ; they are living to this day. The
doctrines of the Waldenses were conveyed from France into
England, at the time when the English were masters of Guienne,
and were uttered in the thunders of their own Wiclif against the
game papal domination.
The snowy peaks of the Alps have been witnesses to thousands
of murders. The people very often suffered for their faith with
out resistance ; but sometimes, armed with wooden crossbows, the
men defended the narrow passes of their valleys, and repulsed
their enemies, while the poor women and children on their knees
entreated the Lord to protect his people and preserve their liberty :
and even then their language was, " I will not trust in my bow."
Occasionally they defended themselves with such courage and
success, that for a little while their persecutors left the country.
The people had hitherto only the New Testament, and some books
of the Old, translated into the Waldensian tongue, of which we
gave you a specimen ; but, in 1535, they also participated in the
benefits of the Reformation, and possessed themselves of the whole
Bibre in a printed form. Their universal spirit spoke in the words
of their heroic pastor, Geoffry Varaille : " You will sooner want
wood wherewith to burn us, than men ready to burn in witness of
their faith : from day to day we multiply, and the word of God
endureth for ever."
" Flayed alive, and then crushed with heavy stones, cast down
from towers, their flesh shredded with iron whips, and then beaten
to death with lighted brands, starved in the prisons, suffocated in
vast numbers even in their caves of refuge, mothers and children
driven up by hundreds to perish in the upper snows, their flesh
cut alive from their bones, their bones broken between iron bars,
their infants hurled from the heights, or dashed against the rocks,
and their brains eaten by their murderers !" " The tyrants of all
past times and ages contrived nothing, in comparison with these
persecutions of the Vaudois, that might be called barbarous and
"nhuman." This was the language of the remonstrance made,

THE BOHEMIAN CHRISTIANS. 129

we rejoice to say, by the Commonwealth of England to the Duke
of Savoy.
We must close our sketch of their bitter history with one scene,
which took place on the 21st of January, 1561, in the valley of
Luzerna. The evening before, a proclamation had been published,
that within twenty- four hours the inhabitants must decide on going
to mass, or be subjected to fire, to sword, to cord, — the pope's
three arguments, — and the inhabitants of two valleys met to con
sider what should be done. In the midst of the kneeling people,
their ministers pronounced these words : " We here promise, our
hands on the Bible, and in the solemn presence of God, to main
tain the Bible whole and alone, though it be at the peril of our
lives, in order that we may transmit it to our children, pure as
we received it from our fathers. And we also promise help to
our persecuted brothers, not relying upon man, but upon God."
The next morning they rushed to the Protestant church, which
the papists had filled with images, crosses, and beads, and, like
Claude of Turin, threw them into the street, and trampled them
under foot. We must not stay to tell of their further baptism
of blood, but merely mention, that 130 years afterward, when
they returned to the valleys from which they had been exiled,
they met again on this very spot, the hill of Sibaond, and renewed
the same oath to God, and to each other.*

We do not forget the Bohemian Christians, or the United
Brethren ; they too were miserably persecuted. They said truly,
that the rack was their breakfast, and the flames their dinner.
They were driven out of their villages, and their sick were thrown
into the open fields. They hid themselves in thickets and clefts
of the rocks, making no fires, except by night, lest the smoke
should lead the way to their abodes ; and around those night-
fires they read the Scriptures for whole nights together — -'men
of whom the world was not worthy."
* See "The Israel of the Alps," by Dr. Mustin,

130 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

And we do not forget the Huguenots in France, springing
from the same parent stem as the Waldenses, nor the massacre
of St. Bartholomew, nor the revocation of the edict of Nantes ;
but it is enough : you have seen enough of the martyrs of the
valleys, dressed in robes of fire and blood, and we must pass
onward and show you their descendants in Britain — the men
who gave us the Bible — the men of the Reformation.
"Avenge, 0 Lord! thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones
Lie scatter'd on the Alpine mountains cold;
E'en them, who kept thy truth so pure of old,
When all our fathers worshipp'd stocks and stones,
Forget not; in thy book record their groans,
Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold
Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that roll'd
Mother with infant down the rocks ; their moans
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they
To heaven ; their martyr*d blood and ashes sow
O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway
The triple tyrant ; that from these may grow
A hundred-fold, who, having learnt thy way,
Early may fly the Babylonian wo !" — Miltoh.

CHAPTER VII.
The Earthquake Council — John Wiclif — The Law made at Toulouse — Ro
mish Revenge on Wiclif — His Translation of the Scriptures — Lollard Mar
tyrs — Sawtre — Lady Jane Boughton — Lord Cobham — Black-friars' Monas
tery^ — Site of Bible-House — Printing — Anger of Monks — Use of Monasteries
— Reading and Writing of the Scriptures at Clugni — Translations prepar
ing — Gift of the Vaudois Church to France — Olivetan's Version — De Sacy's
Version — Colporteurs — Translations of the Bible extant np to the Sixteenth
Century — Particulars concerning Each.
On the 17th of May, in the year 1378, when King Richard
II. was but seventeen years of age, being the year after the in
surrection of Wat Tyler, a meeting took place at the monastery
of the Black-friars in London, composed of eight bishops, fourteen

MONASTERY OF BLACK-FRIARS. 131

doctors of law and six of divinity, with fifteen friars and four
monks, forming in all a council of forty-seven great men, to con
sider how they should put down certain opinions which were
hateful to them, and prosecute the people suspected of holding
them ; one of whom, and, indeed, their leader, was John Wiclif, a
priest, who had been educated at Oxford. He had not only de
livered many lectures on the corruptions of the Romish Church,
to which he belonged, but he had also spent a great part of his
life in translating, first the New Testament, and then the Old,
out of Latin into English, for the use of the people. He was at
this time about fifty-four years of age, and was called " the
Gospel Doctor," famous for his disputes with the mendicant
friars. These friars affected to be poor, and, with a wallet on
their back, begged with a piteous air both from high and low;
but, at the same time, they had great houses of their own, in
which there was much waste, wore at home costly clothes, gave
great feasts, and had many jewels and treasures. They would
kidnap children from their parents, and shut them up in monas
teries. It happened, however, just as this great synod at Black-friars
began to discuss the four-and-twenty heresies and errors which
they had met to consider, the city of London was shaken by an
earthquake, when some of the assembled doctors doubted whether
the object of their meeting might not be displeasing to Heaven ;
but their president, Archbishop Courtenay, declared that it needed
an earthquake of opinion, and a violent struggle to be made by
the Roman Church, to remove such teachers as John Wiclif;
" whereat the meeting proceeded, and condemned all his opinions,
declaring that he should certainly not to be permitted to preach
them any more."
He was soon afterward silenced from preaching in Oxford,
which gave him the more leisure for his Bible-work. In a large
circle of bishops, doctors, priests, and students, Wiclif raised his
noble head, and, turning a look on Archbishop Courtenay, which
made him shrink away, uttered these simple, earnest words :
" The truth shall prevail." Having thus spoken, he prepared t<j

132

THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

leave the court; and, like his Divine Master, he passed through
the midst of them, and none ventured to stop him. He then
withdrew to his cure at Lutterworth. He finished his translation
in 1380, four years before he died, and gave one manuscript of
the Old Testament, written on vellum with his own hand, to St.
John's College in Oxford. At this time being ill, four friars
and four aldermen, supposing him near death, came to his sick
chamber, to inquire if he would recant his opinions. Wiclif
beckoned his servants to raise him in his bed, and fixing his eyes
on his visitors, exclaimed, " I shall not die, but live ; and shall
again declare the evil deeds of the friars !"

Lutterworth Church.

England, Scotland, and Ireland were at this time covered with
monasteries, and filled with friars, who wore robes of black,
white, and gray. The mendicant or begging friars, especially,
were always gathering up wealth for their church, and binding
the people with fresh chains of superstition. Wiclif saw that
they trampled the Bible under foot, by their overbearing authority,

WICLIF. 133

and he resolved that the people of England should have the
Bible, and compare it with the voice of the friars.
Being a very learned and thoughtful man, he may probably
have known for himself, from the page of history gathered from
all ages, the fact, that the great instrument of human improve
ment was to be found in the circulation of tho Scriptures in the
vulgar tongue.
He recovered from his sickness, and completed his work :
there is reason to believe that the whole was finished, and many
copies transcribed and spread abroad, some time before the re
former's death, which happened in 1384 : and after his death,
his doctrines spread so fast, that a writer of that day has angrily
recorded, that a man could not meet two people on the road, but
one of them was a disciple of John Wiclif; yet these poor fol
lowers, in that age of manuscript, could, perhaps, only copy parts
of the precious Book which had been translated for them, which
they often did into small volumes, that they might the easier
hide them, for the having and reading of which, as in the times
of old, people who were detected were burnt to death, with the
little books hanging round their necks.
The Council of Toulouse, held in 1229, was the first that for
bade, in definite form, the reading of the Bible. " We also for
bid the common people to possess any of the books of the Old or
New Testaments, except perhaps the Psalter, or the Breviary, or
ihe Hours of ihe Blessed Virgin, which some out of devotion wish
to have ; but having any even of these books translated into the
vulgar tongue, we strictly forbid."
Now, you know the "Breviary" and the "Hours of the Blessed
Virgin" are not parts of the Bible at all ; but this distinction
the friars did not wish the illiterate and blinded people to per
ceive. They said, that " alas ! the gospel pearl was cast abroad
and trodden under foot of swine, and that the gospel which
Christ had given to be kept by the clergy was now made for evei
common to the laity."
Until Wiclif undertook this task, no one appears to have exe
cuted a complete version of the Bible for England. In spite of
12

134

THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

all the efforts made to deprive him of this honour, it remains hia
own. All the search made by antiquaries establishes the fact.
He gave the whole Bible to the people, he gave it without note
or comment, and he was the first man that did so.
Ten years after Wiclif's death, a bill was brought into the
House of Lords to forbid the reading of the English Bible.
Twenty-four years after his death, (1408,) a convocation was
held in St. Paul's to ordain that no book of his should be read,
either in public or private, under pain of excommunication ; but
it was all in vain. His writings, and especially his translation

Wiclif's Monument.

of the Bible, found their way to all classes, and the latter became
from that hour "the Book of the people." Forty-four years
after his death according to a decree of the Council of Constance,
his grave was ransacked for his " body and bones," which were
burnt, and the ashes cast into the brook Swift, which runs near
his church at Lutterworth. This brook conveyed them to the.
A.von, the Avon into the Severn, the Severn into the narrow
seas, they into the main ocean, and thus the ashes of Wiclif were
the emblem of his doctrines, gathered from the Bible, and now
dispersed all the world over.
We have given you a sketch of the monument now erected in his,

WICLIF.

135

(Willi

Wiclif's pulpit, the first from which the English Reformation was preached.

ehurch, the noble old church of St. Mary, still standing at Lutter
worth, and often visited for the reformer's sake; and also, through
the kindness of its present incumbent, you have the picture of his
pulpit, the first pulpit from which resounded the truths of the
Reformation : it is finished within in the rough style of the time,
the wood having been merely cut smooth with the axe. The
table at which he wrote, the chair in which he died, and th
velvet robe (now in shreds and tatters) which he used to wear,
still remain. Nearly 300 of his sermons are preserved : they
consist chiefly of simple expositions of Scripture, and treat' much
of the atonement of Christ and the work of the Spirit.
In Wiclif's days, the great doctrine proclaimed by the priests
of Rome was, that to obtain pardon for sin, penance must be
borne : the people were to fast, to go bareheaded, to wear no

136 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

linen, and to whip themselves. Sometimes twenty persons might
be seen in procession, wearing hats with red crosses, and stripped
to the waist, the first four lashing themselves as they went along
with whips of knotted cord, which drew from them streams of
blood. Twice a day, in St. Paul's church, did these men fulfil
tlicir self-imposed torture ; tens of thousands went on pilgrimage
to Rome, in pairs, visiting all the churches by the way, and
giving money to the priests; then the priests told them, that
if they would give still more money, they might find indulgence
from all this hardship : they might have indulgences even for
murder, lying, and stealing, if they could pay for them. These
indulgences were sold openly in the market-places of the chief
cities of Europe. Wiclif preached the doctrine of reformation
from all this, in his pulpit, as well as by his works. He was an
earnest teacher of the Lutterworth poor. He visited them in
their cottages. He was familiar with the home of poverty and
the house of mourning. While administering the Lord's Supper,
he was seized with insensibility, fell on the pavement, and died
two days afterward, — 29th December, 1384.
You perceive he did not die a martyr, although he fully ex
pected and was ready to do so. His followers did, in great
numbers. William Sawtre was the first man burnt in England for the
Reformation's sake. He was a clergyman in London, who openly
taught the doctrines of Wiclif, and declared, that "a priest was
more bound to preach the word of God, than to patter his prayers
at certain hours;" for which, and other, statements, glorying in
the cross of Christ, and supported by Divine grace, he was cast
into the flames of martyrdom, A. d. 1400.
There is an account of a martyrdom, in 1410, of John Bradby,
one of Wiclif's followers, who was carried to Smithfield, and
there, in a cask, burnt to ashes. At his execution was present
Henry V., then Prince of W*Jes, — the "Prince Henry" of
Shakspeare, — who, pitying his sufferings, offered him pardon, if
he would recant, and had him taken out of the fire, promising,
as he was already lamed, to allow him threepence a day during

_J\J_J±J£XM,±J !UAIli.li\l3.

life; but the martyr, rejecting the proffer, and refusing to deny
his faith, was again thrown into the flames, and his soul ascended
thence to heaven.
The first female martyr in England was Lady Jane Boughton.
She was burned at eighty years of age, " being known to read the
Scriptures." "Her daughter," says Southey, "the Lady Young,
suffered afterward the same cruel death with equal constancy."
These sufferers were called " Lollards," and the most famous
among them was Lord Cobham, in his younger days the gay
and giddy favourite of Henry V., but who, becoming acquainted
with the Bible, through Wiclif s translation, " learned to abstain
from sin." This noble soldier made no secret of his opinions.
At a great expense, he collected, copied, and dispersed the
Scriptures among the common people, and even maintained
preachers to travel about and declare Wiclif's doctrines. His life
and trials are extremely interesting. He escaped from the Tower
of London, by advantage of a dark night, and hid himself among
the Black Mountains in South Wales for four years. He was at
last taken and roasted to death over a slow fire, in St. Giles's-
fields, in London, now covered with the abodes of poor Irish peo
ple, but which was then a thicket where the persecuted Lollards
met for worship at the dead of night.
We7 must only mention (to induce you to seek out their his
tories) the names of John Huss and Jerome of Prague, who suf
fered on the continent for the same principles, and add a word or
two more about the monastery of the Black-friars, where the
" earthquake council" was held. This was built in the time of
Edward I. and his queen, and comprised a very large territory,
near the Old Castle Baynard. They had houses and shops within
their bounds. It was surrendered to Henry VIII. in the thir
tieth year of his reign, at the time of the suppression of monaste
ries, and he granted it to private persons for houses and gardens.
The Black-friars' church was large, and richly furnished with
ornaments. "Herein," says Stow, the old chronicler, "divers
parliaments and other great meetings have been holden. Par
liaments begun at Westminster were adjourned to the Black-
12*

138 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

friars'." In 1522, the Emperor Charles V. was lodged there : in
1529, Cardinal Campeggio, with Cardinal Wolsey, sate at Black-
friars' to question the king's marriage with Queen Catherine, be
fore whom the king and queen were also cited to appear.
The same year also sat there that parliament by which Cardi
nal Wolsey himself was condemned. Here, too, was buried the
heart of Queen Eleanor, the foundress. One of the priors was
constrained to pave the High street round about the Channel
walls, from the Fleur-de-lis toward the hill at Creed-lane end, as
belonging to his demesne; which particular, and others that
might be found in the story of the persecution of these Black-
friars by the White-friars, prove the large extent of ground within
their liberty. It is very satisfactory to consider, that, 475 years
after those friars and doctors held their council ,to cut off the
doctrines of Wiclif from the earth, and to declare that he should
not circulate the Bible, — those men being all dead, and their
monastery and its cloisters entirely swept away, — there is stand
ing in its stead, within their precincts and boundaries, in Ear]
street, Blackfriars, the house of the British and Foreign
Bible Society, which now holds its Jubilee, and renders
joyful praise to God, who has caused it to spread, directly and
indirectly, in the last fifty years, forty-six millions of copies of
that precious word of God, and to give rise and assistance to some
thousands of similar societies, both at home and abroad !
Wiclif "rests from his labours, and his works do follow him."
His old version is very curious : " Therefore whanne Jhesus was
borun in Bethleem - of Juda, in the days of king Eroude : lo
astronomyens camen fro the eest to Jerusalem and seiden, where
is he that is borun king of Jewis ? for we han seen his sterre in
the eest; and we comen for to worschipe hym." Matt. ii. 1, 2.
When Wiclif made his translation, he could not foresee the
wonderful invention which, occurring seventy years after his
death, would in the present times, enable the Bible Society to
print the whole Bible, and sell it for less than one shilling !
In his time, the price of a Bible, fairly written in manuscript,
with a commentary, was not less than thirty pounds, — a most

invention of printing. 139

enormous sum, for it would have more than built two arches of
London bridge, and no workingman could ever have attained it,
with his pay of three halfpence a day, unless, indeed, he had
been fifteen years in working for it.
Yet still Wiclif's version spread widely, even in manuscript,
in distinct portions, throughout England. The art of printing
was invented by John Gutenburg, at Mayence on the Rhine, in
whose mind the idea had been secretly working for twenty years;
but, being very poor, he was obliged to confide his secret to
Faust, a goldsmith of that place, who agreed to find the money
necessary to make types and presses.
In 1450, the first book in the world was printed, and it is be
lieved that that book was a Bible.
But it was a Bible in Latin : it was called " the Mazarin
Bible." It was beautifully printed ; and when offered for sale,
not a human being except the artists themselves could tell how
the work had been done. It was in two volumes, and only eigh
teen copies of it are known to exist, — four on vellum, and four
teen on paper. In 1827, one of the vellum copies sold for five
hundred pounds.
These were the Bibles which were said to have caused Faust
to have been suspected, in Paris, where he sold several of them,
as a practiser of magic, which obliged him to reveal his secret.
When the Bible had been thus first printed in Latin, it was
soon followed by other translations. In 1488, the Old Testa
ment was printed in Hebrew, the original language in which God
had caused it to be written ; and thirty years after that time, the
New Testament also was printed in its original language, Greek,
by the learned Erasmus, of Rotterdam, who, while he was raised
up of God, as the most accomplished scholar of his time, to per
form this particular work, would not (as he says) have ventured
upon it, had he foreseen the "horrible tempest" of conflicting
opinions that its publication would raise.
It was thus treated by the papal party : some of the monks
were so ignorant as to preach from their pulpits, "that there was
now a new language discovered, called Greek, and another new

140 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

language, called Hebrew, and that people must beware of them,
since these languages produced all the heresies." A vicar of
Croydon in Surrey, in a sermon which he preached at Paul's-
cross about this time, declared, "We must certainly root out
printing, or printing will root out us;'' in which conclusion the
friar was tolerably right, in more ways than one.
Printing did at once interfere with the most innocent and
praiseworthy occupation of those who spent their lives in con
vents, — transcription of the Bible and other works, which was
also a great source of gain to the writers. As much reference
has been made to the corruptions of the system of which monk
ery formed a part, it is but just to point out to you what had
been, through all the dark ages, the real use of convents, with
regard to the preservation of the Scriptures.
There had lived, in the year 927, a noble Frank, named Odo,
who became abbot of Clugni in Burgundy, and who was a re
former in his way; that is, he introduced among monks in general
more rigid discipline. His convent and its rules became so famous,
that many other convents followed the same. Hugh, another abbot
of Clugni, had 10,000 monks under his superintendence. They
set out well, by saying, that the most perfect rule of life is con
tained in the Old and New Testaments ; and though they invented
a great variety of forms, and placed heavy burdens on men's
shoulders, which the word of God had not ordered them to bear,
still their rule enjoined the assiduous study of the Bible. The
monks who could read well were appointed in their turns as the
readers at meals. They read the writings of the fathers alternately
with the Bible. The winter evenings at Clugni were really spent
in listening to large portions of the word of God. The book of
Genesis, in the long winter nights, was read through in a week ;
Isaiah, in six evenings ; and the Epistle to the Romans, at two
sittings. The monks laboured with their hands, as by the rule of
Iona ; and great care was taken that, during the reading, no one
should be overcome of sleep. The reader sat in an elevated place,
and the hearers on benches ranged along the wall ; and as there
was no light exceDt where the reader sat, one of the monks was

THE MONKS OF CLUGNI. 141

appointed to walk round with n wooden lantern, open only at one
side, to perceive if any brother had fallen asleep. If any one was
asleep, nothing was said, but the lantern was set down with the
light toward his face to awaken him, and directly he awoke, he
knew he was to take the place of the lantern-bearer, and make the
round till he found another monk asleep.
" Every monk was expected to know the book of Psalms bj
heart, and some rules required the learning of the New Testament.
The number of psalms required to be repeated daily was 138 ;
but at Clugni, fourteen were taken away, on account of weak
brethren."* These proceedings are really so like those that were customary
at Iona, that they cause us to look back once more to the records
of the ancient British Church, among which we find the following :
" Before Columba died, his chief seminary, Iona, was in such a
state, that he was able to speak with confidence of its future fame.
His disciples supported its credit for many ages, and supplied not
only their own but other nations with learned and pious teachers."
"From this nest of Columba," says Odo-nellus, "these sacred
doves took their flight to all quarters. Wherever they went, they
carried learning and true religion, and seem to have done much
toward the revival of both when at the lowest ebb."
Next to the reading, we would thankfully notice the writing,
of the Scriptures, which was carried on in the convents, through
the dark ages. In most of them, a room, called " the Scripto
rium," was set apart for the purpose. A manuscript of the eighth
century contains a prayer used at the consecration of such an
apartment, that what was written there might take good effect.
Sometimes the monks wrote in separate cells, made round the
calefactory, which was a contrivance for distributing heat to all.
In the monastery of Tournay in France, a dozen young men mighr
be seen in such cells writing in perfect silence ; for silence was
enjoined in the Scriptorium, in order to secure accuracy as well as
despatch. Many nuns were remarkable for the legible and beau-
* " Essays on the Dark Ages," by Maitland.

142 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY

tiful character in which they wrote. One Diemudis wrote and
ornamented ten missals, besides copying two Bibles and many
writings of the fathers. Often this labour cost them the early
loss of eyesight. Perhaps, during a lifetime, the result of this
industry might be forty or fifty folio books.
It is deeply interesting to look upon these quiet sources of the
world's literature, whereby the darkness of its night was inter
spersed with many stars, till the dawning of the day in which
arose THE PRINTING PRESS,— the tongue of nations, the
terror of tyrants, — and then the full day in which THE BIBLE
SOCIETY employs this mighty instrumentality to utter to all
lands the written voice of God.

If we look at the first five-and-twenty years of the sixteenth
century, Lefevre in France, Zuinglius in Switzerland, Luther in
Germany, and Tyndal in England, appear before the world. They
were all Jiving at this time in their respective countries, Lefevre
being by far the oldest of the four. They were all engaged in the
same work, independently of each other, — the translation of the
Scriptures into different languages, each being evidently prepared
of God as the instrument for the purpose ; for God's hour was
come, and his holy word, which had been 1600 years in writing,
(from the time of Moses till the close of the life of John,) and
then for 1300 years made known only sparingly, as copied by
hand-labour, manuscript from manuscript, was now to be made
accessible to all, and was to have free course, and prevail.
We must return for a moment to the Vaudois Church, which
had hitherto possessed parts of the sacred volume, translated by
Peter Waldo, and from time immemorial the manuscript Romaunt
version. In 1523, Lefevre completed his first translation of the
four Gospels ; and some of the Vaudois Christians, in the midst
of their own deep troubles and persecutions, having some years
previously visited the Christian Churches of France, and having
seen that the copies of the Old and New Testaments in the tongue
of the people, written by hand, were extremely scarce, and that

EMPEROR CONSTANTINE. 143

moreover the translation hitherto made needed much revision and
improvement, they invited Robert Olivetan to translate the Bible
according to the Hebrew and Greek languages, revised by the
Romaunt version, into the French tongue. This being accom
plished, the Vaudois Churches collected among themselves tho
enormous sum of 1500 golden crowns ; and forming themselves
into a kind of Vaudois and Foreign Bible Society, they had the
new translation printed in Gothic characters, at the press of Peter
de Wingle, at Neufchatel in Switzerland, and caused numbers of
copies to be circulated in France, at a greatly reduced price, among
those poor French Christians whom persecution had then previous
ly despoiled and ruined.
It is this very version of the Bible, translated by Robert Olive
tan, and afterward revised by Calvin, his relative, by the pastors
of Geneva, by Martin, and by Ostervald, which the British and
Foreign Bible Society is still unceasingly endeavouring to render
more and more popular in France.
But there is another French translation of the Bible, which
appeared 130 years later, and which was an event as memorable
as the one to which we have just referred.
It was made in the year 1666, by Le Maistre de Sacy, the
director of the monastery of Port Royal des Champs. The ver
sion of Robert Olivetan, even though perfected by successive re
visions made up to the time of Ostervald, as coming from a Pro
testant, was never widely circulated among Roman Catholics.
But in the providence of God, it was ordered, that from the
bosom of the Roman Church itself, from a section of her members
who had made the nearest approaches to the truth, and who were
called " Jansenists," certain men were raised up in an especial
manner qualified for the translation of his word.
At the head of these was he who gave his name to the transla
tion, Le Maistre de Sacy, who first put his hand to this noble
work, during his three years' imprisonment, on a charge of heresy,
in the prieon of the Bastile. It is very remarkable that Luther,
the reformer of Germany, (of whom more must be said presently,)
commenced his translation of the Scriptures in the prison of the

144 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Wartburg. This employment made De Sacy happy in a cell of
the Bastile. " How happy," said he, " I am in being here ! God
shows me that he wishes me to be here."
When De Sacy came out of prison, he finished the entire
translation of the Bible into French, with his pious fellow-la
bourers; and while they were carrying forward this great work,
it is very interesting to know what was also passing in the con
vent of Port Royal.
The nuns, animated by a spirit not hitherto very usual among
nuns, had divided themselves into groups, and in the same man
ner that sentinels relieve each other at night, in order to maintain
a strict watch over a town, they had established a course of un
ceasing prayer. When one group had finished, another imme
diately came to occupy its place. Kneeling down, they offered
fervent prayers to the Lord, beseeching him to pour down on the
translators of his word the spirit of wisdom, light, and under
standing, that none other than a holy and pure translation of the
inspired volume — in fact, one like the original text itself — might
issue from their pens.
As soon as the version was ready, the good men who had been
engaged in it took care to have it published, with the Greek and
Latin text by its side, that all who were able might judge at once
of the scrupulous fidelity of their translation. »
They despatched from Paris a large number of colporteurs, who
spread themselves over every province of the kingdom, being
commissioned to sell the copies at cost price, and even, according
to circumstances, at reduced prices. This act of the friends of
the word of God was supported by voluntary donations and sub
scriptions. The version of Robert Olivetan, also, which, you will take
notice, was printed 130 years earlier than that of De Sacy, was
spread abroad in the same manner: indeed, it is to the appear
ance of that Bible that the origin of Bible colportage must be
attributed, — a work which you will understand, we hope, when
you have read the third portion of our Story. These colporteurs
were then called "portes paniers," or "porteurs de livres," and

VARIOUS TRANSLATIONS. 145

followed in the train of those poor merchants, whom we described
to you as travelling among the Vaudois, distributing secretly
"the gem shining from God," in manuscript

Before we approach that, to us, most interesting subject — the
full translation and printing of our own English version, which
was to have so vast an influence on the whole world — we must
inquire what languages had sprung from the five great roots of
translation during the period between the first and sixteenth cen
turies after Christ. By the end of the first century, the Scrip
tures were written in —
Hebrew, Syriac,
Chaldee, Latin.
Greek,
By the end of the sixteenth, translations of large portions, if not
of the whole, of the Old and New Testaments had been made in —
Coptic, for Egypt, in the third century.
* Gothic, for the Goths, in the fourth century.
Persic, for the Persians, in the fourth century.
Ethiopic, for Abyssinia, in the fourth century.
Ancient Armenian, for the Armenians, in the fifth century.
Syro-Chaldaic, for the Nestorians, in the sixth century.
Arabic, for Arabia, in the seventh century.
Georgian, for Iberia, in the eighth century.
* Sclavonic, for Sclavonia, in the ninth century.
* Vaudois, for the Waldenses, in the twelfth century.
* Erse, for the Irish, in the thirteenth century.
* Polish, for Poland, in the fourteenth century.
* English, by Wiclif, in the fourteenth century.
Six of these versions (marked *) you perceive were for Europe,
five for Asia, and two for Africa: and some interesting circum
stance, that you would like to remember, attaches to all of them.
Wherever ihe Bible was thus translated into the language of
the people, reformation ensued, and churches were founded, the
greater number of which remain to this day, and are now expe
ls

l46 THE BOOK AND ITS STOR1

riencing revival from the free circulation of ihe Divine word which
at first gave them birth.
We have not much space for detail, but we must give you
some information concerning each version.
THE COPTIC.
&.*. Bb f> A _\ Eg Z~Z Km -9- 9 It
a b, v g d e z i,o th i
Rk A A Mm N*m 55 Oo Hn Pp
k 1 m n -a. o p,b r
G c Tt T y $ <!> *X>x ty ty CDo) Qq
s t, d i.y ph ch,sc ps o f
j*s tftf Qo* 2S bi> Tf
g sk,sc sch h hh ti
The Coptic Alphabet
This was once the spoken language of Egypt, but is now
changed for the Arabic. The Copts are descended from the
ancient Egyptians, mixed with other races. In this language
one of the earliest and most faithful versions existed, translated
from the Septuagint, and it has been the means of keeping alive
the form, if not the spirit, of Christianity, during 1500 years,
among a persecuted people, surrounded by Mohammedan op
pressors. Mr. Krus6, the present missionary at Cairo, relates the
remark of a native Copt : " We want a man to rise up from among
our own people, like your Luther, bold enough to stand fast in
the faith, and to reform our church." We shall say more about
the Copts in connection with the Bible Society.
THE GOTHIC.
^. B r &. e u £ h (J> 11 ra
abgd e q z h th i ki
maj up rs t v,y f w o
The Gothic Alphabet

PARTICULARS 01 VARIOUS TRANSLATIONS. 147

This version was made for the people who came from Scandi
navia down to Prussia and East Germany, and the coast of the
Black Sea, and who, in 409, took and pillaged Rome, under
Alaric. It was completed by Ulphilas, one of their bishops, a
man of good conduct and of great mind, whose own holy life
recommended his doctrines. It was a proverb among the Goths,
"Whatever Ulphilas does, is well done." The most important
manuscript of the Gothic version was discovered in Westphalia,
where it had lain several centuries. It has been taken and re
taken in war many times since, and is now to be seen in the
library at Upsal, preserved in a glass box, which not even an
emperor might open, for it is a treasure so much coveted, that it
has lost all its leaves except 160. It is called "the Codex Ar-
genteus," the silver book, and its silver letters, with occasionally
a verse of gold, are inscribed on violet vellum, while its binding
is of embossed silver in this kind of character —
AtMldM (LO^A °fc^QS-
It has been thought that the characters are not written, but
stamped or impressed as by the old process of lettering the back
of a book, i, e. laying gold-leaf over some mixture, like white of
egg, on the vellum, and then impressing the letters with a heated
stamp, and afterward wiping off the surplus gold.
THE PERSIC.
' " y v : ^ & s u ' ' ^
a,e,i,o,u b p t s,th dsch tsch h* ch d ds r z
r* ir* W if *¦ y c I ^ 0 J
8 scb. ss ts t 8 a,i,o,u gh f k,q kj,k
j r & } *'* u
1 m n w,u h, t j,i
The Persian, Alphabet.
The primitive alphabet of the Persians seems to have been

148 THE BOOK AND li-fl STORY.

arrow-headed, like the Nineveh characters, but the alphabet now
used is the Arabic. Chrysostom speaks of the Persian version
as having originated with the Christian Elamites, who returned
to Persia after the day of Pentecost.

THE ANCIENT ARMENIAN.
|> IX Vf" 1** I/* -0-*- "U* ?£
apk t je soe
&p <m m I.*. i»* y>** ti* -^
th sh i 1 ch ds g h
s* ijl t<* w* qj v cz. n-
_ gh dsch m h,j n sch uo
Ql <H-i S^t l>- V' ll jt. S- IV
tsh b dsh rh s w d r
2«6 °0 *\J» £* -*l *8
tz u, v p k o f
The Armenian Alphabet.
This is a very old and faithful translation, and is called the
"queen of versions," on account of its exactness and eloquent
simplicity. THE ETHIOPIC, OR GHEEZ.
ha la ha ma sa ra sa ka ba tha cha na a ka
*va a za ja da ga ta pa tza za fa pa
The Ethiopic, or Gheez, Alphabet
The Ethiopic was once the common dialect of Abyssinia, but
is now supplanted by the Amharic. We have mentioned thia
translation in the account of the early Abyssinian Church.

PARTICULARS OF VARIOUS TRANSLATIONS. 149

SYRO-CHALDAIC.
«lA\.v> loaf vj.©7@A*f Aa«S"j
John i. 1.
This is the version which existed in the interesting Nestorian
Church, among the dwellers in the mountains of Assyria.
Several ancient manuscripts of the Gospels have been brought to
Europe in this character, which the Bible Society have printed.
Up to the year 1826, these people had no printed Scriptures :
they said, " We have heard that the English are able to write a
thousand copies in one day ; would they not write for us several
thousand copies and send them to us ? We become wild, like
Kurds, for we have so few copies of the Bible." The desire of
this simple people has already been fulfilled.
ARABIC.
IV u/ Ct Cj £• ^ -ji- J JJ j O"3
a,e,i,o,u b t s,th dsch h' ch d ds r z a
y j* ij> \» & ^ ^ -J j J i) J
sch ss z,dh t z 'a,'o,'u gh f k kj,k ng 1
m n w,u h,t j, i
The Arabic Alphabet
The Arabic is the tongue not only of Arabia, but Syria, Persia,
Tartary, part of India and China, half of Africa, and all the sea-
coast of the Mediterranean and Turkey. This version is said to
have been made during the lifetime of Mohammed, which may
account for the knowledge of the Scripture he displays in his
Koran, mixed with such fables as " Adam being several miles
13*

150 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

long when he laid himself down." Long indeed has been the
reign of the false prophet. His fables have hidden the true
revelation for many ages from his benighted followers ; but the
Arabic version is now going forth, no more in the rare form of
manuscript, but easy to be carried and read wherever Arabic is
spoken ; and it is said the sons of Kedar willingly buy and read
the word of God.

abgdewshthik lmu
i o p sh r s t u wi ph k gh
q sch tsch ts ds z dsch kh kkh dsh h
The Georgian, or Iberian, Alphabet
The version in this language would have been very precious
to the learned had it not become corrupted. The women of
Georgia are noted for the zeal with which they devote them
selves to the acquisition of religious knowledge.
THE SCLAVONIAN.
Ha Ek nu rrlii AA ¦§« -St* Sjs 3a
a b w, v h d « sh (z) s
Wh En If Kk K\ Mm Hn 0© Un £p
i j i k 1 muopr
Gt Tt O^oy^a ®% X^ G)w I^u Im
s t u f ch ot z (c) tsch
inuj in 141 ha Hu hh S'*ke& E)k
sch schtsch (mute) y (soft) je ju
Mia Aa OwOo gji f^Jr 9& Yv
*a 0 (soft) psi th' v
The Sclavonic Alphabet.

ERSE TRANSLATION. 151

This tongue was in use among the Servians and Moravians.
The Bible was translated by two Greek monks, Cyrilles and
Methodius, in the ninth century, and these were the founders
of the Moravian Church, afterward sheltered by Count Zin
zendorf. Of the Vaudois you have heard already. Of the Polish
there is little to say at present, except that it was made for
Queen Sophia, who is said to have possessed the whole Bible in
that language. THE ERSE, OR IRISH.
aa 5b Cc *Ob e© pp **¦**£ nh Ii tl XI) m
abo d ef g hilm
Nn Oopp R(* Sr Cc *U u A n oj
n o pr s t uarnnrr
The Erse, or Irish, Alphabet
The Erse was once the tongue of literature and science. It is
believed that the Scriptures were translated into Irish very soon
after the introduction of Christianity ; and the Venerable Bede
informs us, that in his time, " the Scriptures were read in five
dialects of Great Britain, by the Angles, Britons, Scots, Picts,
and Latins ;" and though the Erse version may possibly have died
out during the interval, it appeared again in the age immediately
before that of Wiclif, when a new Testament in Irish is stated to
have been in the possession of a bishop of Armagh, who is sup
posed to have himself translated it. He left a memoir of himself,
in which he declares " how the Lord taught him, and brought
him out of the net of heathen philosophy, to the study of the
Scriptures of God."
Although he was remarkable for the boldness with which he
opposed the corruptions of the Church of Rome, yet he was com
pelled by the troubles of the times to conceal his New Testament.
He deposited the precious volume inside one of the walls of his
church, and wrote the following note on the last leaf : " When
this book is found, truth will be revealed to the world, or Christ

152

THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

will shortly appear." One hundred and seventy years after his
death, that is to say, about the year 1530, the church of Armagh
was repaired, and the manuscript discovered, at the very time in
which Tyndal's New Testament began to spread through Britain,
in the tongue of the people ; and so truth was revealed, as indeed
it had never been before.

CHAPTER VLU.
Tyndal — Erasmus — Tonstall — More — Wolsey — Search for Testaments in Lon
don, Oxford, and Cambridge — Scenes in St. Paul's Cathedral, and at Paul's
Cross — Deaths of Tyndal and of Wolsey — Description of Frontispiece, with
Martyrdom of Ann Askew— Luther — List of Languages before 1S04 — Sum
ming up of the Narrative.

THE PRINTED ENGLISH BIBLE.
And who was William Tyndal, — the man who gave to England
its greatest treasure — the
printed English Bible ?
There is a book called
" Anderson's Annals ofthe
English Bible," which con
tains the life of Tyndal. It
was a life devoted entirely to
this great object. From his
youth, he felt he had this
one thing to do, — to trans
late the word of God into
his native tongue, and print
it. He did so, and was
martyred for its sake.
He was born in 1484,
100 years after Wiclif died,
and about a year after the

Tyndal.

birth of Luther, and also rf Zuingle. He passed his youth in the

TYNDAL — ERASMUS. 153

midst of monks and friars, and was sent early to Oxford, where he
made great progress, especially in languages.
Now, Oxford was the city in which the New Testament, just
published in Greek by Erasmus, met with its warmest welcome,
and William Tyndal read it, — first only as a work of learning,
but soon he found it to be something more. That Book spoke to
him of God, of Christ, and of being born again, till it completely
subdued him. He felt that he had in his hand the Divine Reve
lation, and that he could not keep the treasure to himself. He
therefore read these Greek and Latin Gospels with many of his
fellow-students at Oxford. He then went to Cambridge, and,
forming new friendships, became, it is said, "well ripened in
God's word."
There were two young men at Cambridge, who had also been
reading this Greek New Testament, — Thomas Bilney and John
Frith, — both afterward martyrs. When Tyndal joined them,
they gained fresh courage, and began to address to all around them
that saying of Christ's, " Repent, and be converted :" " Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners."
Bilney and Tyndal left Cambridge in 1519. The friars had
not then finished their persecution of the Lollards ; and that same
year, Thomas Man, one of their number, who had preached to the
conversion of many persons, under the great oaks of Windsor
Forest, was burnt alive for his doctrine, as well as Dame Hawkins,
the mother of several little children, for having in her possession
a parchment, on which were written the Lord's Prayer, the
Apostles' Creed, and the Ten Commandments, in English.
But of what avail was it to silence those obseure lips, while the
New Testament of Erasmus could speak ? And God so ordered
it, that Erasmus was a favourite with Henry VIII., King of Eng
land, who whispered in the ear of a bishop very wroth with the
Greek Testament, and at the same time ignorant enough to declare
that Paul's Epistles had been written in Hebrew, " The beetle
must not attack the eagle ;" so that even preaching in St. Paul's
cathedral against the book was, as is said, " of no avail."
Erasmus was so highly esteemed, that he was called " the king

154 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

of the schools." What he had given to the learned, Tyndal was
about to bestow upon the people. When he was between thirty
and forty years of age, he was engaged as tutor and chaplain in
the house of Sir John Walsh, a knight of Gloucestershire, and at
his table he met with many of the neighbouring priests, at whose
ignorance he was deeply grieved. He exhorted them also to read
the Scriptures, keeping, it is said, Erasmus's New Testament
always within reach, to prove what he advanced. The priests
disliked to see that book appear, and said it only served to make
heretics, adding, " Why even we don't understand God's word, as
you call it ; and how should the vulgar understand it ? It is a
conjuring book, wherein everybody finds what he wants." " Ah !"
said Tyndal, " you read it without Jesus Christ ; that is why it is
obscure to you." " Nothing is obscure to us," said another priest;
" we only can explain the Scriptures." " No," said Tyndal ; "you
hide them, you burn those who teach them, and, if you could,
you would burn the Scriptures themselves."
This kind of talk is said to have induced the priests rather
to give up Squire Walsh's good cheer at Sodbury Hall, than
encounter " the sour sauce" of Master Tyndal's company.
They soon declared themselves his open enemies ; and if he*
preached, they threatened to expel from the church those who
listened to him. " Oh !" said Tyndal ; " while I am sowing in
one place, they ravage the field I have just left. I cannot be
everywhere. If Christians had the Scriptures in their own tongue,
they could themselves withstand these sophists ; without the Bible
it is impossible to establish the laity in the truth."
He went on arguing with all whom he met, in favour of trans
lating the Scriptures, till one day a popish doctor, angry with the
strength of his arguments, said : " Well ; we had better be with
out God's laws than the pope's." This fired the spirit of Tyndal,
and he answered, with righteous indignation, " I defy the pope
and all his laws ; and if God give me life, ere many years the
ploughboys shall know more of the Scriptures than you do."
He henceforth passed the greater part of his time in the library,
and avoided these conversations. He prayed, he read, and carried

WILLIAM TYNDAL. 155

on his trai slation, and seems to have read it, as he proceeded, to
Sir John and Lady Walsh, who were determined to protect him.
He soon, however, left them for the sake of their safety, and pro
ceeded to London, to seek another retreat, where he might follow
out his work.
He found a quiet room in the house of Humphrey Monmouth,
a pious and benevolent alderman, near Temple Bar, and dwelt
with him six months, "studying most part of the day and night
at his book." Humphrey Monmouth was afterward sent to the
Tower, on a charge of having aided Tyndal; but he thus justified
himself: "When I heard my Lord of London preach at Paul's-
cross, that Sir William Tyndal had translated the New Testament
into English, and that it was naughtily translated, that was the
first time that ever I suspected or knew any evil of him." The
worthy citizen was soon set free. It seems he afterward con
tributed largely to the printing of the New Testament.
Tyndal began to fear lest the stake should interrupt his labour.
"Alas!" he exclaimed; "is there then no place where I can
translate the Bible? It is not the bishop's house alone that is
closed upon me, but all England !" There lay at that moment,
in the river Thames, a vessel loading for Hamburg: Humphrey
Monmouth gave him ten pounds for his voyage; and, carrying
with him only his New Testament, he went on board. "Our
priests have buried the Testament of God," said he; "and all
their study is to keep it down, that it rise not again; but the
hour of the Lord is come, and nothing can hinder the word of
God, as nothing could hinder Jesus Christ of old from issuing
from the tomb."
"That poor man, then sailing toward Germany, was to send
back, even from the banks of the Elbe, the eternal gospel to his
countrymen." He left England in 1523, and never returned to it. Hum
phrey Monmouth and other kind friends supplied his simple
wants while sitting down to his work in a foreign land.
He had now entered with great vigour on the two most im
portant years of his lif*" ¦ He seems to have printed first, the

156 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and in 1524 he sent them to his
friend Monmouth, and then removed to Cologne. Being again
disturbed, in. the midst of printing the whole New Testament,
he gathered up the ten already printed sheets, and fled to
Worms, where he finished it. It crossed the sea to England
in 1526.
Cochloeus, that enemy who had desired to strangle it in its
birth at Cologne, wrote home to King Henry and the bishops, to
watch closely all the ports against the entrance of "the pernicious
book;" while the Bishop of London, having gained possession
of one of the copies, took care to tell the people, in case they met
with such a book, that he had found in it upward of 2000 errors
and heresies. Moreover, he at once entered into a secret specu
lation to buy it up through a merchant named Packington, say
ing, " Gentle Master Packington, do your diligence and get them,
and I will pay for them whatsoever they cost you; for the books
are naughty, and I intend surely to destroy them all, and to burn
them at Paul's-cross."
So you see the Roman Church burnt men, and bones, and books,
but all to no purpose. William Tyndal, understanding this pur
pose of Bishop Tonstall, sold him the books, saying, "I shall
gette moneye of him for these bokes to bryng myself out of debt,
and the whole world shall cry out at the burnninge of God's
worde, and the overplus of the moneye that shall remain to me
shall make me more studious, to correct againe, and newly to im
print the same." And so forward went the bargain : the bishop
had the books; Packington had the thanks; and Tyndal had the
money; and afterward more New Testaments came thick and
threefold into England.
The more these New Testaments were suppressed, the greater
was the desire of men to possess them, and to examine their con
tents, and this in spite of punishment. The sentence on John
Tyndal, a merchant of London, and brother to William, by Sir
Thomas More, was, "that he should be set upon a horse with his
face to the tail, and have a paper pinned upon his head, and
many sheets of New Testaments sewn to his cloak, to be after-

SIR THOMAS MORE. 157

ward thrown into a great fire kindled in Cheapside, and then pay
to the king a fine which should ruin him."
What would the citizens of London think now, if they saw one
of its wealthy and honourable merchants thus treated for having
a New Testament in his possession ?
Tyndal's own words about the persecution raised were, — "In
burnninge the New Testament, they did none other thing than I
looked for : no more shall they do, if they burnne me also, if it
be God's will that it shall be so. I purpose, with God's help, to
maintain unto the death, if need be; and therefore, all Christian
men and women, praye that the worde of God may be unbounde
and runne to and fro among his people: Amen."
The great Lord Chancellor More published seven large volumes
against Tyndal. He held the error of the ancient Pharisees, that
the Bible did not contain the whole revealed will of God, but that
the traditions of the church are of as great authority; and he
said that Satan had marked both Luther and Tyndal with an "H"
in the forehead, for denying it, "with a faire hotte irone, fetched
out of the flames of hell." These are the very words of the
friend of Erasmus, — the learned, witty, and eloquent Sir Thomas
More. Tyndal only answered him, that the written word of God
contains all his revealed will, perfect as its Divine Author; and
that "if any man add to it, or take away from it, God shall take
away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city, and
from the things that are written in the book."
The clergy, delighted with More, their champion, pressed upon
him the acceptance of five thousand pounds. He was a noble-
minded man, and refused to accept a penny of it; and he seems
to have foreseen that the "New Learning," as he called it, would
3ventually prevail. He himself chose a violent death rather than
deny his conscience concerning King Henry's second marriage;
and, in reviewing his life in comparison with Tyndal's, one can
not but discern so much that is similarly great in their characters.
that, had their souls been truly and intimately known to each
other, wc are ready to believe they would have been united in
the bonds of the highest friendship, and that when More gave up
H

158 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

to his "dear daughter Margaret," on her visiting him in prison,
the knotted whip with which he had chastised himself from his
youth, and the hair shirt he had worn constantly to aggravate the
stripes, he had (enlightened by the reading of the forbidden New
Testament) seen the way to heaven clear, through Christ alone,
and renounced his faith in penance and self-torture. If so, he
must have had much to forgive himself with regard to Tyndal
and many others.*
In the year 1527, great rains having fallen at the seed-time,
bread became extremely dear, and it was necessary to import
corn. The "merchants who did this, brought with them also 500
copies of Tyndal's New Testament, secretly, which was the fourth
edition that reached England. Wolsey, the prime minister, be
came aware that many were earnestly reading them, and resolved
to mate search suddenly, and at one time, in London, Oxford,
and Cambridge.
In London he found that a certain Thomas Garrett, curate of
All-Hallows, in Honey-lane, Cheapside, was a receiver and distri
buter of these New Testaments, and that he had even then gone
down to Oxford to make sale of them there. He was soon seized,
and in the safe keeping of his enemies. Let us, meanwhile, look
into the chamber from which he had gone forth in Oxford, and
see there Anthony Dalaber, one of the student's devotedly attached
to him.
" When he was gone forth down the stairs from my chamber,"
says Dalaber, " I shut the door, and went into my study, and took
the New Testament in my hands, kneeled down upon my knees,
and with many a bitter sigh and salt tear, I read over the 10th
chapter of Matthew's Gospel, (in which Christ tells his early disci
ples of all they would have to suffer for his sake.) And when I
liad so done, with fervent prayer I did commit to God that dearly-
beloved brother Garrett, and prayed also that he would endue that
tender and lately-born little flock in Oxford, with all godly patience,
to bear Christ's heavy cross, which I now saw was presently to be
* Sir Thomas More was beheaded on the 6th of July, 1535, the year before
'Jib martyrdom of Tyndal.

GARRETT  DALABER. 159

laid upon their young and weak backs, — unable to bear so huge a
burden, without the great help of his Holy Spirit. This done, I
laid aside my book safe."
This Garrett and this Dabaler were made to carry a fagot, in
open procession, from St. Mary's to Cardinal College, and com
pelled to cast their books into the large fire which had been kin
dled at the meeting of four ways to consume them. They were
then imprisoned in Osney Isle. The crown of martyrdom awaited
Garrett, but not for sixteen years afterward. He and Dr. Barnes
were consumed in the same flames, in 1540.
Eighteen young men besides these were captured in the secret
search for New Testaments at Oxford : among them was Fryth,
the especial friend of Tyndal. He appears, like his friend, to
have availed himself of the advantages of both universities. The
prohibited books had been found under the flooring of their rooms;
and, as a punishment, they were all immured in a deep cell under
Cardinal College, the common keeping-place for their salt fish, —
a noisome dungeon, where the air and the food together proved
fatal to four of them. The rest were kept in this miserable abode
from the beginning of March till the middle of August, eating
nothing but salt fish : the names of those who died were Clarke,
Sumner, Bailey, and Goodman : their record is in heaven ! And
we may believe that it was given them, according to Anthony
Dalaber's prayer, " quietly with all godly patience to bear Christ's
heavy cross, by the great help of his Holy Spirit, and to receive
from him their crown."
Now, let us see what were the fruits of the search at Cambridge.
You remember Thomas Bilney, who, ten years before, had been
reading, with Tyndal, Erasmus's Greek Testament. He had been
the means of the conversion of Hugh, afterward Bishop Latimer,
and Dr. Barnes ; for it is a very remarkable feature belonging to
the love of the word of God, that neither a man nor a child can
love it alone. He who has tasted a pure fountain, — he who has
looked upon a land of promise, must say to others, " Come and
see it."
No one ever loved the Bible, and suffered from reading it, but

160 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

he caused some one or more besides himself to love it and suffer
for it too. It was long before the persecutors perceived, that the
more men they persecuted, and the more books they burned, the
greater torch they kindled in England. In these modern times,
even papists, if enlightened, see with their champion, Dr. Geddes,
that " burning suspicious books is the readiest way to make more
of them, as persecuting for any kind of religion is the surest
means of spreading it."
The sergeant-at-arms arrived at Cambridge to make search for
English New Testaments. " God be praised," says Foxe, " the
books were conveyed away from the thirty suspected rooms." He
found therefore no books, but carried off to London Dr. Barnes,
who had greatly offended the Cardinal Wolsey by speaking against
his golden shoes and scarlet gloves.
He was made to bear a fagot at St. Paul's-cross, and, for the
time, was so far compelled, by fear and bad advisers, as to abjure
what he had said, rather than burn, though he was burned, as you
have been told, sixteen years afterward.
Shall we try and fancy St. Paul's and its neighbournood at the
era of the Reformation ? We must shut our eyes, and bid the
present mighty dome vanish away. There is a Gothic cathedral in
its place, whose bold and elegant spire seems to pierce the sky.
It is worthily called " a famous building," and arose in the middle
of the twelfth century, over the ruins of a still older church,
which had been burned in the first year of King Stephen, at a time
when boys stole apples out of the orchards in Paternoster row and
Ivy-lane. This original church had been built, by Ethelbert, in 610, again
on the ruins of a temple raised to Diana in the time of the
Romans, whose funeral urns have been found in the churchyard;
so that we seem scarcely able to go back to the time when there
was not a temple raised for worship, pagan or Christian, on
this spot.
The St. Paul's of the Reformation looked down, as now, from
the top of Ludgate-hill, upon the smaller churches, and on the
rich convents within the city's bounds,— on St. Bartholomew's,

OLD ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. 161

~^:m^S^9^_m_w^0i

¦¦cgdP-**-*-1-*"

m

Old St. Paul's Cathedral.
in Smithfield; on the Gray-friars, in Newgate-street; on the Black-
friars, the White-friars, the Austin-friars, and the Crutched-friars,
from whose monasteries issued the men in sad-coloured robes, who
might be seen in every street mingling with the gayer multitude.
People were accustomed in those days to meet in St. Paul's
cathedral to transact their business. The sergeant-at-law, in his
scarlet robe, white furred hood and coif on his head, gave his
advices to his clients there. Each sergeant had his pillar in St.
Paul's, and made his notes upon his knee ; and the old church
was often the scene of most riotous conflict.
This it also was when Bishop Courtenay had cited Wiclif to
defend himself in this cathedral, which was densely crowded by
the people. Lord Percy and John of Gaunt could scarcely secure
an avenue of entrance for the reformer : these were his avowed
friends, and Courtenay began to quarrel with them. Wiclif was
a silent spectator, John of Gaunt claiming for him a seat, Courte
nay saying he should not sit there,—" each party so excelling,"
says the quaint old John Foxe, " in bawling and railing, threaten
14*

162 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

ing and menacing, that, without doing any thing, the council was
broken up before nine of the clock."
We must show yon another scene in St. Paul's. On Sunday,
the 11th of February, 1526, there was to be seen, Fisher, bishop
of Rochester, in the pulpit, set to preach against Luther and Dr.
Barnes; and there sat Wolsey, in all his glory, on a scaffold at
the top of the stairs, among abbots and priors and mitred bishops
in gowns of satin and damask, and Wolsey in his robes of purple,
with his golden shoes and scarlet gloves — all beneath a canopy
of cloth of gold.
Before the pulpit, within the rails, stood great baskets full of
books — the books gathered up from the search in London, Ox
ford, and Cambridge — ready to be burnt in the great fire before
the crucifix, at the north gate of St. Paul's.
After the sermon, the heretics were to go three times round
the blazing fire, with a fagot on their backs, and were to cast in
the books. Thus Testament after Testament was consumed,
angels and men looking on at the deed. Burnet, the historian,
says: " This burning had a hateful appearance in it; and the
people thence concluded that their church and those books taught
different things, whereby their desire of reading the New Testa
ment was increased."
This was a day to which Wolsey had looked forward for three
years. The preacher, Fisher, announced to the people how many
days of pardon and indulgence were accorded to all those who
were present at that sermon, and afterward the cardinal and all
the bishops went home to dinner.
Yet, on that very spot where stood the celebrated Paul's-cross,
on the north side of the cathedral, is situated at this moment the
Depository of the Religious Tract Society, whence, after an in
terval of somewhat more than 300 years, the writings of Wiclif,
Tyndal, and Luther, with many others to which they have given
birth, go forth throughout all the world.
Half a century since, that society could only afford to rent
one side of a shop, and on the other side were sold china and
earthenware; but, by degrees, the "little one has become a

old st. paul's cross. 163

thousand," under the Divine blessing; and you who have seen,
or may see, its fine premises, at 65 St. Paul's-churchyard, in
clusive of eight houses once occupied by the monks of St. Paul's,
may call up in your minds this picture of Wolsey in ermine and
purple, once dooming the Scriptures and Tracts to the flames,
where, in this Jubilee Year of the Bible Society, the Primate of
all England has considered it his privilege to advocate the
" sowing beside all waters" of the seed of Divine truth.
From the cathedral pulpit of England's capital city, he has borne
his testimony that " God's word is truth," and fitted to the dis
persion of all " vain traditions," and has not hesitated to say of
those who devised a scheme for its general circulation, that " it
was well that it was in their heart," and that their exertions
have his heartiest sympathy. May the word from his lips have
free course and prevail !*
On the 4th of May, 1530, another scene of burning Bibles
also took place under Wolsey's eye. He had begun to burn
Luther's books, at Paul's-cross, in 1521. Three burnings, there
fore, were witnessed on this spot, which has been well called
"the Thermopylae ofthe Reformation."
But the people still went on reading the words of life. Here
the reformers preached Christ and his gospel. Multitudes ga
thered round the rude old rostrum, in seats or standing, while
even the king and his court, the lord mayor and dignified citi
zens, had their covered galleries, in which to listen. When it
was stormy, the crowd sheltered under what were called the
shrouds of the cathedral.
The churchyard was then much larger than at present. It
was bounded by a wall which ran along Ave-Maria-lane, Carter-
lane, and Creed-lane. Within was a spacious grass-plot, and on
the north side of the church stood the famous cross, " built to
put passengers in mind to pray for the souls of the people inter-

* See the Archbishop of Canterbury's sermon at St. Paul's on the occasion
jf the Jubilee ofthe British and Foreign Bible Society.

164 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

red in that church-yard."* This cross was destroyed, in 1643,
in consequence of a vote of Parliament.
To return to the last days of Tyndal. He was made aware, in
some way, of the storm that was raging in England, and went on
the more earnestly with his translation of the Old Testament
from the Hebrew. He was now favoured with the company and
assistance of his dear Christian friend, John Fryth, who was to
him what Timothy was to Paul of old. They were settled at
Antwerp, and Tyndal was chaplain to the English merchants
there ; yet his abode was a hidden, and probably a changing one,
on account of his enemies. One to whom we are all so deeply
indebted was living in painful and perilous hiding-places, afflicted
with cold, hunger, and every privation, in addition to the hinder-
ances continually thrown in his way, to the prosecution of his work.
Yet a heavenly atmosphere so appeared to surround him, that
the messengers sent by King Henry VIH. to entrap and bring
him to England, could not talk with him, without being ready
to be converted to his sentiments. When the last successful plot
against his life was laid, the persons who executed it were obliged
to bring with them officers from Brussels, for they could not
trust those at Antwerp, where Tyndal was so much beloved.
He was not aware of his betrayers, and was thrown into prison
at Vilvoord, a village near Brussels, where he remained two
years, and whence he wrote his beautiful letters to his friend Fryth,
who was martyred in Smithfield. Part of his work also in the
prison was that edition of the New Testament which he had
promised to give to the ploughboys of Gloucestershire.
It was on Friday, the 6th day of October, in the year 1536,
that Tyndal was led forth to be put to death. He was fastened
to the stake, crying out with a loud voice, " Lord, open the King
of England's eyes !" and was then immediately strangled, and
his body consumed to ashes. Mr. Offor says, that he appears to
have bee a sacrificed in spite of the most earnest efforts of all the
friends of truth and liberty. *Penant's "London."

WOLSEY'S GREATNESS AND DEGRADATION. 165

Let us contrast for a moment the death of Wolsey, six years
before that of Tyndal, on the 29th of November, 1530 : he ex
pired with the language of a persecutor on his lips. After the
well-known words, "Had I but served God as diligently as I
have served my king, He would not have given me over in my
gray hairs," he said, " Commend me to his royal majesty, and
request him, in God's name, that he be on the watch to depress this
new sect of Lutherans, from whose mischief God in his mercy
defend us !" And with these words, his eyes being set in his
head, his sight failed him, and his spirit passed into another
world, to give account of the things he had done in this.
He had indeed been clothed in purple and scarlet, he had had
the highest nobles for his household servants, his steward and
treasurer had waited on him in white robes, and his master-cook
in damask satin, as they did in kings' palaces. He had been
for twenty years the favourite of all the princes in Europe ; but
he died in disgrace, in Leicester Abbey, and his very tomb there
is unknown. In 1787, as a labourer was digging potatoes upon
the spot where the high altar of this abbey is supposed to have
stood, he found a human skull, with the bones all perfect : it was
conjectured at the time that this might be the skull of Wolsey ;
— of Wolsey ! — who burned the Bible ! It is a fact to be noticed,
that he thus died in disgrace, in the year 1530, the year of its
third and great burning at Paul's Cross.*
The dying voice of the martyr Tyndal had scarcely been ut
tered, before his prayer was answered, and the eyes of the King
of England were opened so far, that he ordered that the Bible
should be placed in every church, for the free use of the people :
but his caprice did not allow this permission to last long.
* See " London in the Olden Times."

166 THE BOOK AND ITS. STORY.

The scene depicted in the Frontispiece* of this Jubilee Book
took place in the crypt of St. Paul's church, four years after
Tyndal's death.
The Bible chained to a pillar is very large. It was called the
" Great Bible," and was a revisal of Tyndal's translation, made
by Coverdale, and printed at Paris.
The reader's name is Porter : he was chosen- as reader, because
he could read well and had an audible voice. So many listened
to him. that he was brought before Bonner, and accused of making
tumults. Bonner sent him to Newgate, where, for teaching his
fellow-prisoners what he had learned in the Scripture, he was
laid in the lower dungeon of all, fastened by his neck to the wall,
and was so oppressed with bolts and irons, that in eight days,
this tall, strong, young man was found dead.
The most conspicuous among the listeners in the picture is
Humphrey Monmouth, Tyndal's friend, of whom we have pre
viously spoken. Behind him is seated Ann Askew, her head
leaning on her hand ; her child in her servant's arms is by her
side. She had been turned out of doors by her husband, a furious
zealot of tbe " Old Learning," for studying the Scriptures. She
was a beautiful and an educated woman, and her history is most
touching. You see she is here listening earnestly to the reading
of the Book for which she suffered martyrdom.
Six years afterward, she was called before Bonner, who exa
mined her for five hours, and then, without judge or jury, told her
she should be burnt. " I have searched all the Scriptures," said
she, " yet could I never find that either Christ or his apostles put
any creature to death."
Before this hasty condemnation, she had been nearly starved
in the prison, where she was kept for eleven days, what suste
nance she got, being, as she says, " through means of her maid,

* This beautiful picture was painted by George Harvey, R. S. A., and has
been exquisitely engraved by Robert -Graves, A. R. A. It has been reduced
by that pnnce of engravers, the Sun, through the wonderful art of Photography.

MARTYRDOM OF ANN ASKEW. 167

who, as she went along the streets with the child, made moan to
the prentices, and they by her did send money; but who they
were I never knew."
Then, strange to say, after the passing of this sentence, with
unheard-of cruelty she was racked, to make her discover other
persons of her sect. You shall have the history of her sufferings
from her own lips.
" Then they did put me on the rack, because I confessed no
ladies or gentlemen to be of my opinion, and thereon they kept
me for a long time ; and because I lay still and did not cry, my
Lord Chancellor Wriothesley and Mr. Rich took pains to rack
me with their own hands till I was wellnigh dead; then the
lieutenant, Sir Anthony Knevett, caused me to be loosed, and I
swooned, and then they recovered me again. After that, I sat
two long hours, reasoning with my lord chancellor, on the bare
floor, where he with many flattering words persuaded me to alter
my opinion ; then was I brought to a house and laid Tin a bed,
with as weary and painful bones as ever had patient Job."
Three days afterward this tragedy came to an end. The
burning, like those of Nero, was deferred till nightfall. Then
was Smithfield bright with torchlight. On a bench elevated
above the crowd sat that man Wriothesley and his grace of Nor
folk (who, in the picture, is standing resting on his sword, be
hind Ann Askew's chair,) and beside them sat Bowes, the lord
mayor. To the spot, Ann (her bones being all dislocated) required to
be carried in a chair, and there she was joined on the gloomy
pile by three fellow-sufferers, — the last group of martyrs in the
reign of Henry VIII., the miscalled father of our Reformation.
Wriothesley then presented to Ann the king's pardon, if she
would recant. " I came not hither," said she, " to deny my Lord
and Master." Then were the flames kindled, and the spirits of
the martyrs ascended to heaven !

168

THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

[The other three martyrs are, in the picture, standing near
the Duke of Norfolk. John Adams, the first, is leaning with
his back to the pillar; John Lascelles, the second, and one of
the king's household, is earnestly listening to the reading of Por
ter ; and Belenians, the third, is a little behind Adams.
Behind Ann Askew's chair stands the wife of a London citizen,
apparently listening with deep attention. An aged man is led in,
leaning on the arm of his daughter, whose little boy bears a
chair for his grandfather. A blind beggar, in the foreground,
has also crept in to hear the reading.
On the right, in the shadowy part of the picture, Bonner is
the most conspicuous, accompanied by his archdeacon, and Drs.
Hugh Weston and Storey. The bishop looks vexed at this pub
lic reading, and a monk near him aids him in the resolve to put
it down. On the left, wearing a long beard, is Gardiner, bishop of Win
chester, and Lord Cromwell, who had promoted this reading:
beside them stand Miles Coverdale and Richard Grafton.]

Luther.

While this was passing
in England, there had
been born in an obscure
village in Saxony, a re
markable man, named
Martin Luther. He was
born November 10th,
1483, about 100 years
after the death of Wiclif.
It is not necessary for tis
to enter into the detail of
his history, for the simple
reason that it is already
so well known. Who has
not heard of Martin Lu
ther? the child brought

MARTIN LUTHER. 169

up in poverty and hardship, singing Christmas carols for a morsel
sf bread, afterward the studious young monk in the library of
Erfurth monastery, poring over the Latin Bible, then newly
printed, and " finding there much more than he had ever seen in
his missal," and still, years after, resorting to the chained Bible
tn the church of his convent, and, while he learned portions of it
by heart, resolving that he would unchain it for the world.
If you do not know the history of this great German reformer,
you must seek to know it. The whole reading-time of your
future lives might be well occupied in filling up this mere outline
of the Story of the Book, which cannot even name the names,
much less give definite sketches of the lives, of all the men of
the Book.
It is enough to tell you now, that Luther was raised up by
God, on the continent of Europe, in the sixteenth century, to.
struggle manfully with that great Roman system, of which you
have so long been reading. He was a man of mighty mind, and
of much prayer, who cast off gradually the worst superstitions
of his order, and at last, as has been beautifully said, by the
author of " Universal History on Scriptural Principles," rushed
like a torrent from the mountains, through the channels of the
water-courses of the Divine word, (stopped -up for ages by Satan
and foolish men,) and carried away with his force those blocks
and barriers, so that, ever since, that word has had free course,
and prevailed."
This was a mighty deed for mortal man ! It was not accom
plished in his own strength. We again advise you to see how he
performed it, during his life of sixty-three years.
Notwithstanding all his aggressions on the papacy, (for he even
burned its bulls, or decrees,) he died in peace in his native town,
in 1546, the year of the martyrdom of Ann Askew.

With regard to the 300 years which have elapsed since this
memorable era, they will come into review, more or less, in the
history of the Bible and the Bible Society for the last fifty years.
15

170 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

The newly Reformed Church in all lands, with its printed
Bible in its hand, had its many martyrs. It also needed to be
purified by suffering; but "the king who cast into prison, or
gave to the flames, men like Hitton, Bennet, Patmore, Bayfield,
Bilney, and Fryth, should never have been called ' the father of
the Reformation in England.' He was its executioner." And
he was worthy to be the father of a queen like Mary, who thought
to quench in blood, once more, the dawning light of Divine truth.
But it was unquenchable.
Between the years 1380 and 1804, that is, between Wiclif s
first English version of the Scriptures, in manuscript, and the
establishment of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the
Scriptures were not only translated but printed in the ancient
languages which were the roots of all the others :
1. In Latin, printed at Mayence, in 1462.
2. In Hebrew, printed at Brescia, in 14&8.
3. In Greek, the New Testament of Erasmus, in 1516.
4. In Syriac, the Peshito version, in 1552.
These were chiefly combined in Polyglot Bibles for the learned.
The whole Bible was also printed, in the following European
versions :
1. Bohemian, by the United Brethren, in 1488.
2. Belgic, or Flemish, in 1518.
3. French, by Le Fevre, in 1530.
4. German, by Luther, in 1530.
5. English, by Tyndal and Coverdale, in 1535.
6. Swedish, by Laurentius, in 1541.
7. Danish, ordered, by King Christian III., in 1550.
8. Polish, or Old Cracow Bible, in 1561.
9. Spanish, by De Reyna, in 1569.
10. Sclavonic, ordered by the Duke of Ostrog, in 1581.
11. Carniolan, by Dalmatin, in 1584.
12. Icelandic, or Norse, in 1584.
13. Welsh, by Dr. Morgan, in 1588.
14. Hungarian, by Pastor Caroli, in 1589.
15. Dutch, in the year of the plague at Leyden, in 1637.

VERSIONS PREVIOUS 10 1804. 171

16. Italian, by Diodati, in 1641.
17. Wallachian, or Moldavian, in 1668.
18. Romanese, in 1679.
19. Irish, by Bishop Bedell, in 1686.
20. Livonian, or Lettish, by Ernest Gluck, in 1689.
21. Esthonian, by Fisher, in 1689.
22. Gaelic, in Roman characters, in 1690.
23. Wendish, or Lusatian, by four Lutheran pastors, in 1728.
24. Leval-Esthonian, at the expense of Count Zinzendorf, in
1739.
25. Portuguese, in 1571.
26. Manks, for the Isle of Man, by the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge, in 1767.
The New Testament or parts of the Scriptures had also been
translated or printed in —
27. Servian, in 1493 ;
28. Russian, by Skorina, in 1525 ;
29. Finnish, by the Bishop of Abo, in 1548;
30. Judeo-Spanish, in 1553 ;
31. French Basque, at the expense of the Queen of Navarre,
in 1571 ;
32. Lapponese, in 1755.
Comprising thirty-two versions for Europe, in the common
tongue, and four for the learned world.
The New Testament had been printed —
FOR AFRICA.
1. In Coptic, in 1716.
2. In Sahidic, (one-third of the New Testament,) in 1799.
FOR AMERICA.
1. In New England Indian, (the whole Bible,) by Eliot, in 1663 ,
2. For the Mohawks, (a small portion,) in 1769.
3. For Greenland, (the New Testament,) by Hans Egede and
Fabricius, in 1799.

172 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY

FOR ASIA.
1 In Turkish-Tartar, by an Englishman, in 1666
2. Karaite-Tartar, date unknown.
3. In Arabic, (whole Bible,) in 1700.
4. In Tamil, by Schultze, in 1724.
5. In Malayan, (whole Bible,) by Leidekker, in 1733.
6. In Cingalese, (the four Gospels,) in 1739.
7. In Calmuc, (various portions,) in 1750.
8. In Hindustani, by Schultze, in 1758.
9. In Bengalee, in 1801.
In ancient languages ... 4
For Europe  32
For Africa .... 2
For America . . . . .3
For Asia  9
Total . . 50
— completing the number of fifty different languages, in which
the Archbishop of Canterbury said, in his sermon at St. Paul,
" the society at its establishment found existing versions." We
thought you would like to know what these versions were, and
have abstracted the list of them for you, from that most valuable
work of Messrs. Bagster and Sons, " The Bible of Every Land,"
in which may be found a mass of that kind of information, con
cerning the spread of God's word, which even " the angels might
desire to look into," and which has never, in one view, been pre
sented to the world before.
This list may possibly seem to you to contain mere names of
books and men, but to those who could cast the eye of their
minds over the most interesting histories which hang upon each
line of it, it would appear, as it is, a record which will assuredly
be thought worthy of remembrance even in the world to come.
Some of the versions have been already noticed. The Dutch,
at Leyden, was the work of twenty-eight translators, who always
met anu entered upon their task with prayer. Six hours were

VERSIONS PREVIOUS TO 1804. 173

daily devoted to it, while the plague was raging round them.
Not one was attacked by the disease, yet not one long survived
the completion of the sacred volume. They were all men of
great learning, and many declared that they had never before
laboured as they did at the translation of the Bible.
In Turkish-Tartary, the missionaries while at work had to con
tend with all the inclemency of the weather; and often, from the
incursions of the robbers, were obliged to bury their types.
The meetings for the translation of the Malayan version were
always begun with prayer and concluded with thanksgiving, and
every difference of opinion reconsidered in solitude, with the
greatest care.
The history of the Tamil version is extremely interesting.
This language is spoken in Southern India, by more than six
millions of people. It was begun by the Danish missionary,
Ziegenbalg, who died at thirty-six, in the midst of his earnest
labours ; also by the indefatigable Schultze, a missionary from the
Society in England for Promoting Christian Knowledge. He
devoted to this translation six hours a day, amid the heats of
India ; and the result of the first distribution of that Bible was
such, that when the Bible Society arose, the ten or twelve thou
sand Protestant Christians were clamorous for more, saying to Dr.
Buchanan, " We do not want bread or money from you, but we
want the word of God."
Then the New England Indian, translated by the English mis
sionary, John Eliot, who had first, with the assistance of the
native Mohicans, to create the language, without any aid from
books, and executed a translation of "the entire Scriptures !
" The secret of his success is made known in a few lines which
are inscribed at the close of his ' Grammar of the New England
Language,' published in 1666 — 'Prayers and pains, through
faith in Christ Jesus, will accomplish any thing.' "
But although, when the Society was first established, the trans
lations of the Bible, in whole or in part, may have been about
fifty, and it was considered that about four millions of Bibles had
been circulated in the world since the inve.ntion of printing, you
15«

174 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

must consider what is meant by the words "four millions."
Think first of a hundred Bibles ; then of ten hundred, or a thou
sand; then of a thousand thousand; then of four times that. It
seems a great many. It takes a very long while to count a mil
lion, straight forward. But then you have also to think of the
number of people in the world, — not four thousand thousand,
but ten hundred thousand thousand ! And what are 4 to 1000 ?
These four millions of Bibles were in circulation from various
sources. Many persons had bought them of booksellers. There
were some societies, both in England and in foreign countries,
which arose in the eighteenth century, among the separate sec
tions of the Christian Church, having in view missions to the
heathen and the local diffusion of the word of God, and their
efforts, made separately from each other, had done much. It
now remained for their united efforts to do more ; and the only
object in which they could all unite was, the circulation through
out the world of the sacred Book, without note or comment.
How this idea of union for that word's sake arose, and how it
prospered and has received the blessing of God, is the Story that
remains to be told, and we hope you wish to hear it.

We shall sum up what we have already set before you nearly
in the words of Dr. Gaussen, of Geneva ; for they contain a re
view of our whole narrative.
When one thinks that the Bible has been copied during thirty
centuries, as no book of man ever was, or ever will be, that it
was subjected to all the wandering experience of Israel, that it
was transported seventy years to Babylon, that it had seen itself
so often persecuted, or forgotten, or forbidden, or burned, — when
one thinks that it has had to traverse the first three centuries of
pagan persecutions, when persons found in possession of the holy
books were thrown to the wild beasts, — next the seventh, eighth,
and ninth centuries, when false books and false legends were
everywhere multiplied, — the tenth and eleventh centuries, when
so few could read even among princes, — the twelfth, thirteenth,

PRESERVATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 175

and fourteenth centuries, when the use of the Scriptures in the
vulgar tongue was punished with death, and when the books of
the ancient fathers were mutilated, — then we can perceive how
certain it is that, on the one hand, the providence of God has
put forth its mighty power, causing the Church of the Jews to
give us, in its integrity, the very book which records its revolts,
which predicts its ruin, which describes Jesus Christ ; — and, on
the other hand, that that same providence has caused the Roman
Church (which in particular forbade its people to read the sacred
books, and gave them in the stead of the word of God the tra
ditions of the middle ages) to transmit to us, in all their purity,
those very Scriptures, which say that Rome would be the seat of
a terrible apostasy, which say of images, " Thou shalt not make or
bow jlown to them ;" of unknown tongues, " Thou shalt not use
them;" of the cup, "Drink ye all' of it;" of marriage, "It is
honourable in all ;" and of the Virgin Mary, " Woman, what
have I to do with thee ?"
" Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not
pass away." Matt. xxiv. 35. " The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand for ever." Isa. xl. 8.

&|$ f ml aito ik itog+

PART II.
THE BIBLE SOCIETY'S HOUSE.
THE PRLT-TTLTO AOT> BINDING OF THE ,
BIBLE.

CHAPTER I.
The Bible House — Its Library — Wiclif's Testament — Tyndal's Bible — Cover-
dale's Bible — The Geneva Bible — The Bishop's Bible — Authorized Version —
Welsh Bible — European Languages — Swedish Bible — Polyglots — Dutch Bi
ble — Luther's Bible — Bohemian Bible — Eastern Languages — Persian Testa
ment — Pali, Hinduwee, Bengalee, etc. — Separate Translations of the Bible
into Chinese — The Lord's Prayer in all Languages — The Douay Version —
The Society's departed Friends — The Manuscript Library — The Breton Bi
ble — Wales and Britanny — Syrian, Persian, Chinese, Ethiopic, and Amharic
Manuscripts — The Amharic Bible — Mr. Jowett's Account of it — How the So
ciety obtains its Translations — Their Revision — The General Committee
Room — The Case of Bibles — The Bible for the Blind — The Sub-committee
Room — Portraits — The Bible Warehouse.
We have now given you the history of what are called "the
manuscript ages of the Bible," when it could only be written out
with great labour, and much cost; and we have alluded to the
years in which it was first multiplied by printing, but not in any
measure adequately to the wants of the world.
You have, therefore, it is probable, some desire to hear all yon
can about the House of the British and Foreign Bible Society, in
Earl-street, London, built within the precincts of the old monas
tery of the Black-friars, — the spot from which the word of God
now goes out to all the earth.
Do you think, as we did, that there are warehouses and work
shops, somewhere in the back premises of this Bible House,
where they print all their own books, and bind them before they
send them away, at the rate of many thousands a week, all over
the world, and all the year round ? Well, then, this was a mis
take; for the Bible House itself consists only of warehouses for
its Bibles, offices for its depositary and accountant, rooms for its
committees and secretaries, and a library of the various editions
of the Holy Scriptures, and works relating to the numerous trans
lations. 119

180 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

THE LIBRARY
Contains some curious literary treasures. You would find there
at least ohe copy of the Scriptures in every language in which
they have been printed, and in many cases several editions of
each. Here is Wiclif's New Testament, printed in 1810, — 426
years after his death. The spelling is very different from that
which we now use. The following is a specimen ; John i. 1-5: —
1 IN the bigynnynge was the word and the word was at god, and god was
the word, 2 this was in the bigynnynge at god, 3 alle thingis weren made bi
hym : and withouten hym was made no thing, that thing that was made 4 in
him was liif, and the liif was the lijt of men, *> and the lijt schyneth in derk-
nessis ; and derknessis comprehendiden not it
You may also see Tyndal's Bible in black letter, of which the
following is a specimen; John i. 1-5: —
1 lift the fcegmn't)nge bias tf)e tooroe, ano the toorte bias
totth <®oo : ani the tootfte bias @otr. 2 ftfje same bias in
tfie fceginngnge bnth ffiofo. 3 &U twinges mete mate in it,
ano britf) out it, bias matie nothtnge, that bias maoe. 4 In
it bias Igfe, antr the I»fe bias the l*oght of men, 5 aria the
l»gi)t shgneti) in the outlines, 6ut the fcatcfcnes compres
hentoeto it not.
This is the version which our forefathers welcomed so warmly,
and for which they suffered so much, — the New Testament which
Anthony Dalaber "read on his knees, with many a deep sigh and
salt tear." The date of this is 1524.
Then there is Coverdale's Bible, printed in 1535, dedicated to
Henry VIII. This is the version of which it was said, by that
capricious king, "Let it go abroad among my people," — "the
Boke of the whole Bible in English," which was laid in the choir
of every church "for every man that willed to look and read
thereon," — not that Henry continued his permission to the end
of his ,own reign, for the clergy persuaded him that the people
made a bad use of it. By another act which he passed, he for-

GENEVA AND BISHOP'S VERSIONS. 181

bade the lower classes to read it, but allowed it as an indulgence
to "noblemen, gentlemen, and ladies of quality, in their houses,
orchards, and gardens, quietly; and to read it to themselves
alone, not to others." Still, from 1526 to 1546, when Henry
VIII. died, a period of twenty years, thirty-one impressions of
the Bible or New Testament issued from the press, besides several
editions of separate books of Scripture.
In his son Edward VI.'s short reign of seven years, the word
of God was read with greediness, and every one that could read
bought the Book, and busily read it, or heard it read, — many
elderly persons learning to read on purpose. Eleven editions of
the Bible and seven of the New Testament were published in
Edward's reign.
Then, as we know, in the reign of Mary, the Bible was once
more banished from the churches, and its friends exiled or brought
to the stake.
Many of these exiles, however, took refuge in Geneva, and
thence, after Mary's death, came the English Geneva Bible,
which was but a revision of Tyndal's version, executed after his
immortal work had been diligently compared with the Hebrew
and Greek texts. This whole Bible was published at Geneva, in
156, the second year of Elizabeth's reign. This was the Bible
most generally used in private houses, and was the first English
Bible divided into verses.
In this library may be seen the "Bishops' Bible," a folio book,
one of the two new translations published in the reign of Eliza
beth, under the superintendence of Archbishop Parker, who em
ployed in the work eight bishops, and six other persons, himself
revising the whole,— a work that occupied three years. It was
published in 1568, and when finished, the archbishop said, with
good old Simeon, "Now, Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart
in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy sal
vation." The copy of this Bible, belonging to the Bible Society,
is much worm-eaten, but has been preserved by a new binding,
in the style of the olden time.
Then, of course, there is the Authorized English version, made
16

182 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

in the reign of King James, — the only one i?hich the British and.
Foreign Bible Society has ever circulated : all others it keeps as
curiosities in its library, as well as for the purpose of comparison
and reference. This version was compiled from all previous
translations collated with the original versions, by forty-seven of
the most eminent scholars of that time, and the basis of the ver
sion was still Tyndal's. It was pubhshed in 1611, and continues
to be our Bible to the present day.
Here also you will find the first Welsh Bible ever printed —
the version of Dr. Morgan, afterward bishop of St. Asaph. It
was printed in 1588, and is in black letter. Here is a specimen;
John i. 1-5 : —
3?3£ a tachrwaa ar ortft a fl»ft\ *'* flfffr *&& fl2*»
a JSuto, a Bttto attm a flafr.
a ?£toi*ortn» m a awhre-uato sa& a 39uto.
3 Krinatito tt a fltonautlipiDBi poii pctft, ac tieWtso
et nf tomtit irfm a'r a tamaeth-ntoaB.
4 3?trtfto tt ar ortto iatogfc, a'r fcatoa*0 •°*:w> oltnvd
Kanfott. 5 &'r floleunf a IciuarciiolK att a tatoalltortt, a'r
tatoaHtorti nffl *Jrtft m ti antsaffrefc.
But now, you must look round on the cases of Bibles in all
the various European languages. Among them you will see an
old Swedish Bible, which is a remarkable curiosity in binding.
A picture has been painted on the edges of the leaves, which
you cannot see when the book is closed, but one cover being
thrown back, and the leaves slightly separated, you perceive an
antique picture of " Christian" on his journey up the strait
and narrow way to the heavenly city.
Not far off, is a case of " Polyglots," a -word which signifies
the Bible printed in many languages at once, in separate columns ;
for instance, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, very necessary
for learned persons to compare. H you were making a fresh
translation of the Bible, you would find it convenient to consult
a Polyglot. These books, as you may imagine, are large. Here

GERMAN VERSION. 183
is a Bible in Dutch, weighing forty pounds, with its brazen
clasps, and cover of solid wood, "bound in boards," which did
not mean pasteboards in the days when that was printed — a great
contrast to the pocket Bibles of the present times, weighing only
eight or nine ounces, and to the tiny edition of the book of
Psalms in shorthand, found in this library.
Would you like to see Luther's German Bible ? The follow
ing is a specimen ; John i. 1-5 : —
3m Slnfang war bag 2Bort, unb bag SGort war Set? ©ott, unb ©ott
war bag 3Cort.
2 "DaffelMge war tm 2lnfang oe» ©ott.
3 Mt Dinge jtnb burd) baffelMge gemad)t; unb oljne bafielotge
ffl nid)tg gemad*t, was gemad*t tjt.
4 3tt i§nt roar bag Men, unb baa Secen war bag Sid)t ber
9J{enfd)cn. 5 Unb bag Sidjt fdjeinet in ber ginjlernif, unb bfe ginfterni|fe
|aBen eg ntdjt oegrtffen.
Here is his Testament of 1524, and the whole Bible of 1567.
He was the man " ordained to present his nation with the written
word." He was shut up on purpose to do it, in the solitary old
castle of the Wartburg, where the narrow windows of his turret
looked out on " dark, untrodden, boundless forests," and here
he sat down to his Hebrew and Greek Bibles, as he would never
have been able to do in the city of Wittenberg, to fashion that
weapon of heavenly temper — the Scripture — in the tongue of the
common people, without which all his battles against the corrup
tions of the Church of Rome would have been in vain.
He brought forth from his seclusion a deeper faith in God's
word than ever, and with it, as the " sword of the Spirit," he
cut asunder the bonds of Christendom. This version was, how
ever, before it went forth among the families of Germany, revised
most diligently by Luther and his learned friends. They were
known sometimes to return for fourteen days to the reconsidera
tion of a single line, and even a word. Melancthon assisted in
this revision. Luther's own copy of the edition of 1541 is now
deposited in the British Museum.

184

THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Here is the version of the Bible for Bohemia — that important
section of Austria, which will make you think of the poor, perse
cuted Bohemian Christians. They were the very first people
who turned to account the art of printing for the more general
distribution of the Scriptures, A. D. 1488. This fact is stated in
a letter recently addressed by the Rev. P. La Trobe to the com
mittee of the Bible Society, enclosing one hundred pounds as a
Jubilee offering from the Brethren's Society for the Furtherance
of the Gospel. The Bohemian version in this library is dated
1596. The following is a specimen; John i. 1-5 : —
9k pocatfu 691*0 ©Powo, a to ©Powo oipfo » SSo'fja, a to ©i'owo
09!' 33*4. ** So fci-ro «<* pocatfu » 33o|a. 3 3Bffecf9 wec9 ffrae
ne i-cinett9 fau, a 6ej nefco nk nenj scineno, coj ijcineno gejt * 2B
nem jiwot 09I', a 0iwot 69I' fwerPo libj. s U to froetl'o w temno»
ftedj fwjti, ate tm9 ge neoofatol'9.
On another side of the room are versions of Scripture in the
Asiatic languages, the tongues of the sons of Shem.
This is the Persian Testament translated by that beloved mis
sionary, the Rev. Henry Martyn, published by the Bible Society
in 1827, also in 1837, and in 1847 ; John i. 1-5 :—
j*j * *£ U--S-- £3 IoJjI ja wlufc j • dj, ]_>__&.
j\ j* * tS-JUj _iy>y L^^l -fOi, *y>-y <£ [J\^X^
u*_j *^. \_j^ *<&*>_y cyU=- $ j _ijt-t£^o.
*iJX[i >J»J> jJiJSj W&Ay^- J^b jO Jlxfcy
A recent traveller, Mr. Southgate, declares that he found
copies of this version in every city in Persia through which he
passed. Ah ! how this result would have cheered the heart of
that "•* man of God," as, feeble and lonely, in the garden beneath.
the walls of Shiraz, he sacrificed his life to his determination to
accomplish the translation of this Testament ! How interesting

THE PALI VERSION. 185

h the history of the conversion of the Persian Mollah Mahomet
Ramah, from the gift of this New Testament ! We will give it
you, in his own words : " There came to Persia, an Englishman,
who taught the religion of Christ, with a boldness we had never
seen, in the midst of much scorn and ill-treatment from the rab
ble. He was young, and feeble with disease. I was then a
decided enemy to infidels, and I, too, visited this teacher to treat
him with scorn and contempt. These evil feelings left me be
neath the influence of his gentleness ; and before I quitted Shiraz,
I paid him a parting visit. The memory of our conversation will
never fade from my mind : it sealed my conversion. He gave
me a book ; it has ever been my constant companion — the study
of it my most delightful occupation. On one of the blank leaves
was written, ' There is joy in heaven over one sinner that re-
penteth, (signed) Henry Martyn.' "
This is the Pali version, the language of the Buddhists of India ;
John i. 1, 2 :—
O&GO©D3^OOOOG06!o8
One of the Buddhist priests became a sincere convert while
translating it, and finished and revised the work after the sudden
death of his teacher, Mr. Tolfrey. The great translators for the
continent of India have been Dr. Carey, Dr. Marshman, and the
Rev. W. Ward, Baptist missionaries at Serampore. They reached
India in 1793 ; and in 1806 they were engaged in printing or
translating the Scriptures in six languages. In 1819, they were
printing the word of God in twenty-seven languages. This great
and glorious work was carried on chiefly at the expense of tne
Bible Society. The result of these vast labours in India, as of
the Chinese Scriptures in China, is yet to be seen in full ; but it
is beginning to appear. The whole arose from the quiet propo
sition of one man, who was then obtaining a livelihood by the
labour of his hands, to an aasociation of ministers, " whether it
16*

186 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

was not a practicable duty to attempt the conversion of the
heathen." This man, Mr., afterward Dr. Carey, had been teach
ing himself a language as he sat at his work. God was prepar
ing him to become the first of oriental scholars, for the sake of
his word. The first collection, in 1793, for this magnificent
object, among the Baptists, amounted to 131. 2s. 6d., but since
then the British and Foreign Bible Society have afforded assist-
tance to Dr. Carey and his associates, and to the various Bible
Societies of India, to the amount of more than two hundred
thousand pounds !
Two or three days before the death of Dr. Carey, in 1834, he
was carried down stairs in a state of extreme exhaustion ; and
the Rev. G. Gogerley, then a missionary in Bengal, and his inti
mate friend, tells us, that the last revised sheets, of the last lan
guage into which he had translated the Scriptures, lay upon the
table. His work was done, and he was ready to depart. He had
laboured in India for forty years, and had given to her the word
of God, in whole or'in part, in about thirty different languages.
His simple faith in the Lord Jesus, and his deep humility in that
last hour, were very beautiful.
Here is the Chinese Bible, — the book that may soon, we hope,
be read by 360 millions of people, who are almost all still igno
rant of its message. Two different translations were made about
thirty years ago. Dr. Marshman, with the help of other mis
sionaries, and of Johannes Lassar, a native of China, made a
translation, and printed it, for the Bible Society, at Serampore,
in 1822 : Dr. Morrison and Dr. Milne, who had laboured in
China from the year 1807, completed their version about the
same time, and the former presented a printed copy at the anni
versary of the Bible Society in London, in the year 1824.
Each translation was good in its way, and they were made in
dependently of one another. Dr. Medhurst and other Protestant
missionaries at present in China, have recently completed a re
vised edition, comprising both the Old and New Testaments.
It is said that the Chinese Testament can now be printed in
China for the small sum of fourpence !

THE DOTJAY VERSION. 187

The library of the Bible House also contains a present from
Councillor Auer, the Director of the Imperial printing office at
Vienna, — a specimen of the Lord's Prayer written in every
known language of the world, and in every dialect of the language,
and in every age of the dialect. These large sheets give you a
very comprehensive impression of earth's many tongues. You
can read the Lord's Prayer in English, as it was written in the
year 1160, in 1370, in 1430, in 1526, and so on, with slight
variations, up to the year 1800, which is the last given. This
collection is called the " Sprachenhalle," and was printed at the
expense of the Emperor of Austria, under the superintendence
of Councillor Auer.
We will now look at the Douay Bible, which is also contained
in this collection, for you may often hear it mentioned, and it is
right that you should have a little history of this translation.
The Douay version was made by the Romanists themselves ;
for, as they found, " by the Bible being printed so often in Eng
lish, that it was impossible to keep it out of the hands of the
common people," they resolved to have an English translation
of their own.
The New Testament they first printed at Rheims, in 1582,
" translated out of Latin, with notes and necessary helps (as they
say) for the better understanding of the text, and the discovery
of the corruption of other translations." It is not, you perceive,
the Bible without note or comment.
The Old Testament was printed at Douay, in 1609. Fuller
says of it, " It is a translation that had need to be translated ;"
a great number of Greek words, such as azymes, pasche, etc., are
left untranslated, which perplexes common readers; and the
learned Fulke observes, " that it is not truly translated ; that the
translators have always laboured to suppress the light of truth,
under one pretence or another." The notes connected with this
Douay version are considered by Protestants as even more inju
rious than the text itself, which has been frequently revised and
reprinted to this day for circulation among Roman Catholics, and
is somewhat more conformed than it was to our own Authorized

188 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

version, but it always, contains the apocryphal books. We need
hardly add, that the Douay Bible is never circulated by the Bible
Society. If any persons possessing rare editions of the Scriptures wish
to present them to this library, they may confer a benefit on the
Society, and are sure to have their gifts carefully preserved.
To those who have long known this Bible House, the library is
hallowed ground, as having witnessed, from time to time, the
presence of so many of its beloved friends and founders, now
gathered to their rest. Of the latter, two only, and those near
the end of their pilgrimage, have survived to witness its Jubilee,
— Dr. Steinkopff, and the venerable Wm. Alers Hankey, Esq.
The devotedness of those who first laboured in this noble cause
was illustrated in the sentiment expressed by its first president,
Lord Teignmouth, who, in his dying hours, said, "I would rather
have been president of the Bible Society, than governor-general
of India." This devotedness, it is evident, still animates those
who are honourably employed in conducting the proceedings of
the Society, — and never may it be wanting !
THE MANUSCRIPT AND DUPLICATE LIBRARY.
Adjoining this interesting apartment (the library) is a lesser
one, called the Manuscript Library, and here, in several locked
and numbered cases, are contained the written versions in the
possession of the Society, — some of them yet unprinted, and
some the treasured originals from which the Bibles circulated by
the Society have been printed.
The Old Testament in the language of Lower Britanny is here.
It is called the " Breton Bible." Britanny is a large country in
the north-west of France, 800,000 of whose people speak or un
derstand a language very like Welsh. Those who live in the
large towns can understand French, but nearly half a million of
persons in the country villages can only speak the Breton lan
guage, in which, as yet, the Old Testament has never been printed.
The manuscript version in this library was made more than twenty

VARIOUS MANUSCRIPT VERSIONS. 189

years ago, by Legonidec, a learned Breton, who also made one of
the New Testament, which was printed in 1827.
Though in many respects an excellent version, it is not an in
telligible one to the common people in general, and the Bible
Society in 1847 printed, and has since circulated, another version
of the New Testament made by the Rev. J. Jenkins, missionary
ofthe Baptist Missionary Society, labouring in that country; and
this version is found to be better understood.
Let us hope that very soon this locked-up jewel, the Old Tes
tament, of Legonidec's translation, may be called for by the peo
ple of Britanny, revised, simplified, if need be, and distributed
throughout the country.
A Welshman requires but little study to enable him to con
verse, read, and write in the Breton language. It might please
you to see the 1st verse of the 1st chapter of John in the Welsh
and in the Breton tongues : —
Welsh. — " Yn y dechreuad yr oedd y Gair, a'r Gair oedd gyd a
Duw, a Duw oedd y Gair."
Breton. — " Er gommansamant e oa ar Ger, hag ar Ger a gand
Doue, hag ar Ger a oa Doue."
It is said by those who have visited that country, that Britanny
is the darkest part of France, and the most under the dominion
of the priests of Rome. The priests read the liturgy in Latin ;
but in the country districts they preach in Breton. They do not
favour the growth of the French language ; and Breton will yet
probably long be spoken by the common people.
Here is another treasure — a Bible in manuscript, once belong
ing to the Nestorian Christians, bearing the marks of water, fire,
smoke, and hard usage.
We cannot but look with great interest on the precious book
in its old, manuscript form, — in the form which it took long
years so carefully to transcribe, and which was then preserved
in its pocket of thick leather, and slung to the shoulder of the
pilgrim-missionary, and carried by him, perhaps, many hundred
miles. Look at this ancient Syrian Pentateuch, written on vellum, it

190 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

has been badly used before.it came here; its edges are stained
with damp and mould.
These beautiful characters, delicately emblazoned in red, and
black, and gold, are Persian.
And here is a copy of the Ethiopic Scriptures, in manuscript;
the penmanship of which is most beautifully executed. Every
page is guiltless of blot or erasure. Another Ethiopic manuscript,
emblazoned with grim figures, has been presented to the Bible
Society by that kindred institution, the Church Missionary
Society. The Rev. William Jowett, in an admirable paper he has written
for the Bible Society, concerning its Jubilee Year, tells some
interesting particulars concerning the Amharic version to be seen
in this library.
More than forty years ago, the French consul at Cairo, M. Asselin,
met with a learned old Abyssinian, who had been the instructor
of Bruce the traveller, and of Sir William Jones. M. Asselin,
having saved this man's life, employed him afterward in trans
lating the Scriptures, book after book, from the ancient into the
modern tongue of Abyssinia. You will remember that, into the
ancient language, Gheez, they had been translated by Frumentius,
A. D. 330.
When finished, the work long remained on M. Asselin's hands.
He offered it to the French King, to the Emperor of Russia, and
to the Vatican library, in Rome ; but they all looked coolly upon
it. At last, in the year 1820, the Bible Society, having heard of
this version from Mr. Jowett, who had resided in the East, asked
him to return to Egypt' and purchase it for them. He ascertained
' its accuracy by comparing the first, middle, and final verse of
every chapter, — a process which occupied him eleven days : the
purchase-money was 1250?. It was then revised by T. P. Piatt,
Esq., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and printed, and is
now distributed in Abyssinia.
There are many instances recorded of the readiness with which
•he people there are now receiving the word of God. Mr. Gobat,
the missionary, persuaded some of their own priests to distribute

HOW TRANSLATIONS ARE OBTAINED. 191

it. He says1, " If I had had some thousands of New Testaments,
I could have given them all away to eager readers. I know some
instances where persons have given all their property to purchase
a New Testament. One man gave two oxen for a copy of the four
Gospels, and another gave four oxen for the same."
Mr. Jowett also, tells us, with regard to the Turkish-Greek and
Arabic versions, that remarkable and providential circumstances
have prepared and placed these also in the hands of the Bible
Society, — circumstances which the society could not have ordered
for itself, — showing that the finger of God had prepared, in differ
ent parts of the world, the persons competent to translate the
Scripture, (which is indeed no easy task,) and all in readiness for
these times of its universal circulation.
Do you wish to know the way in which the Bible Society has
generally obtained its later translations ? It is in this manner :
the missionaries who are sent to preach the gospel in heathen
countries, make it their first care to learn the language of those
countries, and to translate the Scriptures into it, if they do not
already exist, — for the missionary is nothing without the Bible.
The missionaries translate, and through the societies with which
they are connected, they present the manuscript translation to the
Bible Society, with a request that the same may be printed. If
the translation be approved of, this is readily done, or else a grant
of money is made to get the translation printed, at the missionary
station, under the eye of the translator himself. The Bible Society
not only bears the expense of printing, but in many cases the ex
pense of making the translations by different missionaries.
It does not trust the excellence of the version, however, to the
judgment of the missionaries only, but has its own editorial com
mittee and translating superintendent, who minutely inquire into,
and report upon, every version.
When a second edition of any Bible is called for, the first edition
is thoroughly revised, and re-revised, and so each version improves
by degrees.
Such men as the late T. P. Piatt, Esq., Mr. W. Greenfield, and
the Rev. Joseph . Jowett, who were very learned in languages.

192 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

assisted the Bible Society in this particular portion of its work.
Many other gentlemen not officially connected with it have alsa
rendered essential service in this department.
The greatest literary talent will find its highest occupation in
the service of the Bible Society. Buchanan says, " He who pro
duces a new version of the Scriptures is a greater man than he
who founds a kingdom." A missionary tutor at Basle used to
give this excellent advice to his pupils : " Whatever you are study
ing, even if it be the driest grammar, think that you are doing it
for Christ, and you will find it easy and pleasant."
Professor Gaussen has given us a thought concerning these
translations, which we will give yon as briefly as possible, ere we
bid farewell to the library : —
" If some friend, returning from the East Indies, bring yon a
letter from your father, written in Bengalee, and you do not under
stand it, you will get it translated; you will not be indifferent to
it, because it is in Bengalee. You might have translations of it
made into several other languages that jou do understand, — into
English, French, Latin, German, Spanish, Dutch, till you had no
more doubt of the original meaning of the letter, than if you had
been a Hindoo, and could have read it in the original. Every
separate translation casts light on what the original must have
been." In this place you have stood in the midst of all these lights
upon the letter, — the letter from " our Father who is in heaven."
It is now written in 150 languages, and in 177 versions, — the
lights of the dark world. The letter can never now be hid, lost»
or destroyed !

We may now pass on to —
THE COMMITTEE ROOMS ;
and, first, let us begin with that of the General committee.
There is a long table in the middle of this room, covered with
purple cloth, — the president's chair being somewhat raised at one

BIBLES AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 193

end of it; and down the sides are fixed benches, retiring row
behind row, on a raised stage, till the room is filled up.
In this room, a committee of thirty-six gentlemen meet together,
on every alternate Monday, in every month, and oftener, if neces
sary, to transact the general business of the society. Six of them
must be foreigners, living in or near London, for it is a British
and Foreign Bible Society. Fifteen must be members of the
Church of England, and fifteen belong to other denominations of
Christians. Such is the constitution of the society — a noble illus
tration of the maxim, "Union is strength." These gentlemen
are all laymen ; but every minister who becomes a member of the
society, by subscription, may attend and vote at all meetings of
the committee.
At the upper end of this room is the case of Bibles which was
exhibited in the Crystal Palace, in Hyde Park, in 1851. All
these Bibles of the society, in the different versions, are open,
with a small ticket appended to each, defining its language to
unlearned eyes, and stating the number of Bibles which the so
ciety has printed in that particular language.
The attendant at the stall in the " Palace" says, that he found
the existence of the Bible Society was comparatively little known
by those world-wide visitors. Many, when it was explained to
them, said, " This is a noble work, indeed !" and some among
the poorest, possessing little of this world's goods, exulted as
they passed it, saying, " This is the glory of the whole exhibi
tion ! and how it is hidden in a corner, when it ought to have
had a place like the Koh-i-noor !"
We can quite understand how the friends of deceased transla
tors were anxious to see the work of those they loved, and who had
rendered such great service to society. One said, " My hus
band, now in glory, translated this." Russian, Dutch, German,
Norwegian, Italian, Welsh, and even Chinese visitors, looked on
the Bibles with gladness, while two French ladies asked for papers
to take home with them, saying, " We are looking to England :
France, Switzerland, all the nations are looking to England •
17

194 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

the pope has put his foot into England, but we look to yon and
your Bible."
We may be allowed to suppose that this committee-room in
the Bible House is a glorious room in the eyes of angels. If
they could envy any among mankind, it would be those who sit
at this table, and dispense the bread of life, sent down from
heaven !
Memory can people this room with the forms of the good men
who have sat here in days gone by, but whose tongues are now
silent in the grave — who always thought of the days when they
met here as their best days, as the happiest days of the week.
There are a few things in this committee-room to which we
must call attention. Over the fireplace, and beneath the clock,
you may observe Mr. Wyld's Bible Society map, showing the
moral state of the world by the aid of colours, and pointing out
where Bibles have been circulated, how many copies, in what lan
guage, and other valuable statistics. There is the portrait of
William Tyndal, whose grave, mild countenance seems to look
down with complacency on those who are carrying out the work
which he began : there also are the portraits of the former presi
dents, Lord Teignmouth and Lord Bexley, the old and tried
friends of the society, both gone also to their reward. A portrait
of Wiclif ought certainly to be found there also.
We noticed on the table a large book, loosely bound, like a
series of papers slightly tacked together, and, on opening it,
found that the characters, instead of being as usual printed in
black on a white ground, were uncoloured, but large, and raised
in relief upon the paper, like the impression of a seal. On the
under side of the paper, the letters seemed pressed in, as on a
seal. Those who have ever seen these raised characters, will
know at once that this was a book printed for the blind. It was
the Gospel of John, in English, and in a new and very simple
character; This new and simple character is the invention of Mr. Moon,
the master of the blind-school at Brighton, himself a blind man;

BIBLE FOR THE BLIND. 195

and his system is said to be so great an impiovement upon those
previously invented, that blind persons, who have been for years
endeavouring in vain to learn to read on other systems, have in
ten days accomplished their desire by the help of this.
A blind girl in France, who gained her livelihood by manual
labour, had obtained a copy of Mark's Gospel, and also an alpha
bet for the blind. Being quick and intelligent, she was able in
the course of a few days -to decipher a whole page ; but being
herself desirous of making even faster progress, she took a pen
knife, and pared the skin from the tips of her fingers, thinking
to render their touch more sensitive. Alas ! this only rendered
them in a few days more callous, and she found she could no
longer read at all. In a moment of despair, she took up her
treasured volume, and pressed it to her. lips, to bid it a last fare
well ; when, lo ! to her great joy, she discovered that she could
thereby discern the letters, and from that time forth she has been
reading with her lips. She has not only read the whole of Mark's
Gospel, but has actually committed it to memory
Let us now pass on to —
THE SMALLER COMMITTEE ROOM.
The General committee of the Bible Society divides itself into
several sections, which are called by different names.
The Editorial committee is composed of those who are able to
judge of the translations. The Depository committee is that
which superintends the printing and binding of the Bibles. The
Agency committee is that which directs the operations of the
agents of the Society. There are also Finance and other sub
committees, conducted by men of business.
Each member of the General committee is placed on that sub
committee for which his talents best fit him. It is Bible-work
in which they all find themselves engaged, and it is conducted in
a Bible-spirit. Around this sub-committee room are hung more portraits of
the society's faithful servants and friends, to some of whom it

196 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

has been said, "Enter ye into the joy of your Lord." Here are
those of the first three secretaries, the Rev. John Owen, the
Rev. Joseph Hughes, and the Rev. Dr. Steinkopff. Here are
also those of its warm friends, — of Wilberforce, Granville Sharp,
Admiral Gambier, the Bishop of Winchester, Charles of Bala,
Broadley Wilson, Dr. Adam Clarke with his Buddhist priests,
and of Oberlin, the pastor of the Ban de la Roche, of Mr. W.
Greenfield, of Alexander the late Emperor of Russia, and one of
a Belgian colporteur, — a portrait esteemed worthy of a place,
even here.
But we must now leave what is called the "Bible Society's
House," and enter — THE BIBLE WAREHOUSE.
Here the ever-varying stock of Bibles, in various languages, is
kept, and from hence they are sent, east and west, north and
south, by land and by water, as they may be ordered by Auxilia
ries, or as the benevolence of the committee may direct their
distribution in this and other countries. One compartment con
sists of English Family Bibles : they are most beautiful volumes,
and their price is one sovereign English money, each.
From the largest, let us turn to the smallest. This Diamond
Bible, with marginal references, bound in roan, and with gilt
edges, is sold at the low price of Is. 3d. : the same book, hand
somely bound in morocco, sells for Is. lid. These are the Bibles
that weigh eight and nine ounces, and this is their cost price;
for it is not the object of the society to make any profit by tlie
sale, but to extendthe circulation as widely as possible.
Ascending the stairs, we shall find ourselves still in a true
place of business. As from the lower floor, so also from this,
Bibles go out to all the world. See the wagon standing below to
receive its precious load, to be taken to the docks, or perhaps to
the railway stations, thence to give joy and spread light in Eng
land, or in some far-distant land. One feels something akin to
reverence for that great iron crane. No other "crane" in all
London lifts such true riches !

THE BIBLE WAREHOUSE. 197

Close to the trap-door in this floor lies a pile of Italian Bibles.
One of the warehousemen said to us, "Those don't move now.
Since the pope has come back to Rome, he will not let Bibles
.nto Italy. That lot, too, are Spanish, and this, Malagassy: they
are both very dead. English Bibles are lively, and move away
as fast as they are ready." "We sent out 9000 of these Dia
monds last month," added our guide.
Precious "Pearls," "Rubies," and "Diamonds," ( for these
are really the names of the different types in which the Bibles
are printed,) may the demand for them continually increase !
Blessed be God ! Malagassy Bibles are dead no longer ! After
seventeen years of bitter persecution, on the part of the queen
of that country, instigated by her prime minister, the God who
rules over all has removed the blind and wicked man; and now
we may hope that her son, her own son, whose heart the Lord
has turned to himself, will, with his prime minister, — the son of
the very minister who persecuted and sent the missionaries oui
of the island, — recall them, and all the Christians, and open the
ports to commerce.
And so the blood of the martyrs has been the seed of the
church, as it always was. The suffering Christians have wan
dered about in forests, and dwelt in caves, have been obliged to
bury their Bibles, have been poisoned, beaten, and slain, but, in
spite of all, have multiplied; and it is said, there are 5000 now,
in Madagascar, who love the Lord Jesus, out of a population of
4,000,000, and 500 native teachers ready to go back to them
from the Mauritius.
Speed, then, over the deep, Malagassy Bibles, in the hands of
devoted missionaries ! May one of your number win its way to
the eye and the heart of the queen herself, leading her to weep
like Saul of Tarsus over her work of persecution, and to apply
for pardon to Him who alone has power to forgive sin :

These are the Chinese Testaments. The words are not arranged
across the page, but in columns from top to bottom. The paper
17*

198 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

is very thin, and printed only on one side, and the plain sides of
two pages are folded together, like one of our uncut books. The
paper for these is made, and the books are printed, in China.
The cover also is Chinese, made of yellow paper, like silk, shot
with gold dust. They are printed from wooden blocks, on which
the characters are cut, after the manner of our woodcuts. Here,
again, is a Chinese book, printed in England, on English
paper, on both sides of the sheet, and bound after the English
fashion. From this circumstance it may become, perhaps, an
attractive book to the Chinese themselves.
More piles of books of all sizes, and another floor of them !.
Swedish Bibles, Portuguese, French, Russian, Amharic, Tahitian,
Malay, etc. "This stack of English," said our companion,
" came from Oxford this morning. The boxes which strew the
warehouse contain 20,000 Bibles and Testaments for Toronto.
Yesterday we could scarcely get ready as many more for Ireland,
chiefly for the use of the schools of the Hibernian Society."
There is a little room on the second floor, which belonged to
Mr. Cockle, known for thirty years at this Bible House, as its
faithful and unwearied depositary : when, during his latter years,
he was most busily engaged, he sought refuge from intrusion in
this place. We have often found him here, in past time, but
now we find him not. He, too, is "gone up on high," having
devoted the greater part of his life to the service of the Bible
Society. His little, empty, desolate room was the only sad cor
ner of this rich storehouse.
When the attendants were all gone, we stood alone for a while
among the great piles of Bibles, — alone with all those written
voices of God, — the voice that answered Job out of the whirlwind,
that thundered in the deserts of Sinai, that spoke by the prophets,
and in the sweet harp of David; — the voice that clothed its
majesty in tenderness from the lips of the Redeemer of the world,
and through evangelists and apostles is come down even to us — to
our homes, to our hearts, and daily lives !
Without ascending another floor, still more heavily laden with
unbound Bibles, in various languages, you have noticed enough

BIBLE PRINTING. 199

for the present at the Bible Society's House and warehouse, and
you are invited to accompany us to those interesting places where
the Holy Scriptures are "printed," and "bound."

CHAPTER H.

Bible-Printing at Shacklewell — Ancient Printing-Office — The Compositor—
The Reader.
THE PRINTING AND BINDING OF THE BIBLE.
Those who live near Oxford and Cambridge, where a great
part of the Bibles circulated by the British and Foreign Bible
Society are printed, may visit the Bible presses in those cele
brated universities : there are others who may find it more con
venient to visit a third great Bible-printing establishment, that
of the Queen's Printers' at Shacklewell, in the suburbs of Lon
don. At this place a very large proportion of the Society's
Bibles, both in English and Welsh, are printed.
Most young persons in the present day have seen a printing-
office : but we will suppose that we are describing one to children
in the age of Wiclif, when there was not one to be seen.
In the early ages of Printing, in the latter end of the sixteenth
century, it was reckoned so far one of the liberal arts, that it was
practised only by men of birth and education. The compositors,
or persons who set up the types,, had an ancient privilege, which
proves this, — they were allowed to wear swords. In old pictures
of a printing-office, you may see the master-printer, a grave and
bearded personage, dressed in a fur-trimmed robe, apparently
giving directions to the workmen. These consist of several com
positors, comfortably seated on cushioned stools, their dirks and
swords resting against a column by their side. Near them is an
old man in spectacles, probably the reader; others are working a(
rude presses.

200 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

We have been astonished in remarking the beauty and perfec
tion of the type of some of those early Bibles, printed with so
few aids from that principle of division of labour which is now
so thoroughly understood; but then the impressions were not
required in the numbers they are at present. It would be
possible to print 4500 Bibles a day at this one establishment of
Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode. Let us see what the' compositors
do toward it.
They each work at a desk, or frame, and they work silently, in
a room by themselves. It is not now thought necessary that they
should be gentlemen by condition, or even ambitious men ; — they
must be those who are content to begin the work at its beginning,
and to do it steadily and patiently.
Their desk or frame contains two pairs of cases, one furnished
with Roman letters, and the other with Italic. These cases are
divided into 154 partitions, some larger than the rest, for the
letters that are sure to be most wanted. The letters 1, m, n, a, e,
i, o, u, are far more frequently needed than j, k, q, x, z.
These partitions are not labelled. A stranger to the art is
surprised at the accuracy with which a compositor dips his fingers
into the division containing the letter he requires ; but it is a
fact, that the youngest boy in a printing-office very soon learns
the places of the letters, without any difficulty. Those letters
which he will want most are placed in the divisions nearest to
his hand ; and, standing before the pair of cases which contain
the Roman letters, he holds in his left hand what is called a com
posing stick.
This is a little iron or brass frame, one side of which is mova
ble, so that it may be adjusted to the required width of the page
or column which the workman has to set up. It is made per
fectly true and square, and will hold about twelve lines of such
type as the present. The copy of the Scriptures, which the com
positor we saw at work was imitating, lay on the least used part
of the upper case.
He seemed to take into his mind a line at a time, which it is
easier to do from a printed book than if he had been reading

THE COMPOSITOR. 201

very carelessly- written manuscript, though evsn this can be done
by a practised eye. One by one, he places the letters for each
word into his stick, his right hand going to the box, and his left
securing each letter. He showed us that in every letter there
was a nick, which he always placed downward the moment he
touched it, without looking at it. This nick is one of those pretty
contrivances for saving labour, which experience has introduced
into every art.
His mind was now fully engaged with his work : he had to
attend to the right spelling of the words, the right placing of the
capital letters, the right positions for the stops, the placing of the
words at right distances in his stick, without Crowding, or giving
them too much space ; for, as the letters are not all of the same
thickness, the spaces necessarily vary, though, on the whole, they
are regular, and regularity in spacing distinguishes a good com
positor. When he had filled his stick, he cleverly grasped all the type,
and took it out, as if it had been one solid piece of metal. A
practised compositor can do this, but a young apprentice has his
patience tasked to the utmost, if, after toiling for an hour or two
in picking up several hundred letters, he drops the whole while
moving them, as he has then to mourn over the broken heap,
which printers call pie, in the same way as children sometimes
mourn over their fallen towers of bricks.
The words are now lifted out into what is called a galley, and
the galley is filled by the contents of successive sticks. When
as many lines are set up as will fill a page, they are bound tightly
round with cord, and placed under the frame, and when as many
pages are set up as will fill a sheet, they are arranged in proper
order upon the imposing-stone. Each page is surrounded with a
piece of wood, called furniture, which provides an equal margin
for every page, and the whole is wedged tightly together in a
stout iron frame. It is new termed a form, and being perfectly
tight and compact, it can be carried about with as much ease as
if it were composed of solid plates of metal, instead of being
made up of forty or fifty thousand movable pieces. From this

202 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

form a proof is taken for the reader: the first sheet printed is
called a proof.
The first portion of the compositor's work is now completed ;
and if it has been well and carefully done, the reader will have
very little trouble with it. It may present, and often does, a
specimen of what industry and care can effect at once : there will
not be a wrong letter in twenty lines, — a gross mistake, seldom.
The printer's reader looks over the proof while another person
reads the copy aloud : he marks in the margin all the errors, and
then returns the proof to the compositor, when he commences a
second portion of labour and difficulty. If he has omitted a
whole sentence, it will perhaps compel him to alter many pages,
in order to insert it.
In this new process, new blunders are often committed, and,
when again revised by the reader, it is once more given back to
the compositor, who has need of much patience and perseverance;
indeed, he is a very principal person in the production of a Bible
or any other book ; it will require a little patience, on your part,
even to read the account of his labours.
The proof being now tolerably perfect, the labour of a second
reader is called in. It is his business to read " for press," that is,
to search for the minutest errors, with the most industrious criticism.
The form of type being at last corrected for press, the work of
the compositor is at an end ; and when the desired number of copies
have been printed off, it is a part of his business to return the
type to the cases, in order to furnish material for another sheet,
and this operation is called distributing the type.
This is a beautiful process in the hands of an expert compositor,
who shows the dexterity acquired by long practice. He will dis
tribute four times as fast as he composes, and, if necessary, return
to their places 50,000 letters a day. To " know his p's from his
q's" is considered a great difficulty for a beginner.
We expected to find, that, as the Bible is a book in very large
and constant demand, we should hear that it was generally printed
from what are called stereotype-plates. These are made by taking
a mould in plaster from each page of movable type, and then

STEREOTYPING. 203

easting metal into the mould. This is altogether rather a delicate
and difficult operation : the types must first be thoroughly cleaned,
and then rubbed over with an oily composition, to prevent the
adhesion of the plaster. If the least morsel does adhere, and it
often does, the mould is spoiled. If, when removed, it is found
perfect, the mould is baked, and this also is critical, for, if the
oven be too hot, the moulds warp : then there is the casting, and
the very best casting of metal into the mould cannot prevent
occasional defects on the surface of the plate, which requires after
ward minute examination by a workman called a picker. He
removes the small globules of metal which occasionally fill up such
letters as the a and the e, inserts here and there a new letter, by
soldering, and removes with his graver any impurities which fill up
the lines : this workman must possess a keen eye and steady hand.
You may judge, from this description, that stereotyping, or
making a sheet of metal types all in one piece, is a process which
requires much skill and experience. Still, as the Bible is con
stantly in request, we thought we should find it was mostly printed
from stereotype-plates : but it is not. It is considered that stereo
typing is the more expensive mode of printing of the two ; because,
with all the improvements that have now taken place, in harden
ing the metal of which the plate is composed, a set of stereotype-
plates will only print 150,000 copies of the Bible before they re
quire to be renewed. On the other hand, from movable type, or
type set up letter by letter in its form, it is possible, without re
newal, to print a million copies. Here, however, there is revision
made of the types, after every edition of about 5000 copies.
Perhaps you would not imagine the value of the type required
for a Bible : it astonished us. The value of the type for a Diamond
Bible, of which this is a speci
men^ several thousand pounds;
therefore type, of course, is care
fully preserved.
We inquired whether Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode now printed
any Bibles with the Apocrypha ; because these gentlemen print
for other parties besides the Bible Soa;ety. The reply was, that

24 Verily, verily, Iasy unto tyou, »He that
hcoreth my word, and bolicvoth on him that
Bent me, hath everlasting lift, and shall not
come into condemnation ; gbttt is passed
from death unto life.

204 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

the copies printed with the Apocrypha decreased in number from
year to year, and that not a thousand copies were printed in the
space of two years.
You would now wish to pass into the printing-room. Here we
did not find a cylinder-press, as for the printing of The Times
newspaper, but twelve steam-presses, of considerable cost, and each
one attended by a man and four boys.
These presses are set in motion separately, but all by one steam-
engine in an adjoining room : the ages of tbe boys employed to
attend them are from fourteen to sixteen, and they are said to be
come, from habit, almost a part of the machinery. This is an
interesting fact to the young, is it not ? — that the actual printing
of ihe word of God (after the careful labours of the compositors
and correctors of the press) is accomplished by young persons!
This used not to be the case, when hand-presses only were used,
which, in this establishment, are still worked in another depart
ment. About 150 persons are now employed upon the printing of the
Bible, at Shacklewell, instead of fifty, which used to be the number
formerly, — showing the increased demand for the Holy Scriptures.
But now let us begin to print.
On the solid iron table at each end of the machine, lie the forms
of type from which both sides of the sheet are printed. At each
end of the machine is a pile of wet paper : this paper is wetted,
quire by quire, before it comes to the machine-room. It is dipped
two or three times, according to its thickness, in a trough of water,
and then opened, and powerfully pressed, to diffuse the moisture;
for, if not thus moistened, the printers' ink would lie upon the
surface of the paper, and smear.
By this pile of paper, at each side of the press, stand two boys;
they are called laying-on boys ; they feed the press with the paper,
sheet by sheet, and two other boys, standing below them, take
away each sheet as it is printed : some ten or twenty spoiled sheets
are first passed over the types to remove any dirt or moisture.
At the first movement of the great wheel, the inking-apparatus
at each end has been set in motion, and the steel cylinder attached

MACHINE-PRINTING. 205

to the reservoir of ink has begun to move. Printeis' ink is net
fluid like writing ink, but is a stiff, soft paste. The ink-receivers
are long, soft, elastic rollers, and are composed of a mixture of glue
and treacle ; they are renewed every week : we noticed a number
of fresh rollers hanging up against the wall. Two engineers are
in constant attendance to keep the engine, the machines, and all
other parts in daily repair.
The first roller is called ihe doctor : it turns over on the surface
of the* ink-reservoir, and takes up a small quantity, which it com
municates to an inking-table, over the surface of which three or
four distributing rollers spread it equally.
• This even surface then communicates to two inking-rollers that
which they shall impart to the forms which are to be printed :
the ink is thus conveyed from roller to roller, that it may be all
of an equal fineness or consistency, and to prevent blots and faint
places, technically called monks and friars.
All these beautiful operations are accomplished in the sixteenth
part of a minute, by the travelling backward or forward of the
table upon which the forms rest, while each roller revolves on a
fixed axis.
The moment the form or mass of type has passed under the
inking-rollers, one of the boys places the damp sheet upon a
frame, when it and the form are conveyed together under a
smooth iron flat-surface, which powerfully presses the damp sheet
upon the face of the types. ' After being thus printed, it is con
veyed back to its former place, and the sheet is then removed by
another boy to a heap at the side. When the ink becomes firm
or set, the other side of the sheet is printed by the same process.
It is so contrived that each page shall be printed exactly at the
hack of another page.
If there be no extraordinary hinderance or obstruction, one man
and four boys can print 500 sheets in an hour; indeed, there is
not much for them to do, except to attend upon and watch this
wonderful, unconscious giant, the steam-press, in his operations.
They feed him with paper, which he takes, adjusts, prints, and
renders back, always supplying himself with fresh ink for the
18

206 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

printing of every sheet; and all so quickly, that the boys can
scarcely move fast enough to give and receive the work from his
hand; and when we think what is the work he is doing at Shackle
well, how glorious is the outlay of his strength !
If these twelve presses were all at full work, (thirteen sheets
being necessary to the completion of a Bible,) 450 of these
written voices of God might go forth from this room in one hour,
— 4500 might be issued in a day. Oh! that the British and
Foreign Bible Society might ever have occasion to order so
many! Twenty-seven thousand might be issued in a week, nearly one
million and a half in a year, from this one source of supply alone !
and it must be remembered, that this is but one of the establish
ments at work for the British and Foreign Bible Society. It can
employ the giant, when needful, in all quarters of the world at
once; for, by the wonderful inventions and improvements ofthis
nineteenth century, the books can be produced at the cheapest
possible rate, and circulated with the greatest possible speed.
In the process of placing the pages of type for the formation
of the sheet, a small mark is inserted at graduated intervals on
each sheet, so that when the book is folded and gathered together,
a diagonal line is formed by these little printed marks across the
back, thus enabling the binder's collator to detect at a glance a
missing or a misplaced sheet.
After the sheets are printed, they must be dried, which is done
by hanging them in rooms and passages fitted with hot-air pipes;
and they are lifted with an instrument called a, printer's peel.
They are then pressed in a hydraulic press, and afterward laid
down in piles of about 1000 of each signature, on boards forming
a square, in alphabetical order, and then gathered, as it is called,
by a boy, who stands in the middle of a square space, and collects
the sheets in succession, according to the letter which is printed
at the bottom of the page, called a signature, for the guidance of
the binder.
Every sheet is then collated, to see that the whole are in propeic
alphabetical order, that no sheet is wanting, or one too many:

BINDING OP THE BIBLE. 207

when collated, the sheets are folded, separated into books, again
pressed, and then tied up to go to the Bible Society's warehouse.
The number of hands the Bible passes through in the course
of printing is as follows : —
Compositor, Cold-presser
Four readers, Gatherer,
Reviser for press, Collator
Corrector, Folder,
One pressman and four boys, Booker,
Looker-over, Presser,
Hanger-up, Tier-up,
— twenty-one persons in all ; not to speak of —
Type-founders, Printers'-joiners,
Iron-founders, Printing-ink-makers,
Wholesale-stationers, Paper-makers, and '
Composition-roller-makers, Engineers,
who must each, with the whole series of workmen in their several
factories, have combined to the production of the Book. There
are about fourteen processes, in the making of the printing-paper
alone; — and yet we have to bind it.
THE BINDING OP THE BIBLE.
It is a sort of principle among bookbinders, that the subject of
a book shall be known by its cover. This, however, refers to
ornament, and the Bible Society do not provide ornamented
Bibles; their great aim is extreme cheapness combined with
good and strong work; and they take every means to secure this.
They have all their books bound by contract. We paid an inte
resting visit to the premises of the present contractor, (Mi. Wat
kins,) and found ourselves in a large, airy, and well-warmed
room, furnished with long tables, at which sat numbers of neat,
healthy, and happy-looking girls, their ages from, twelve to eigh
teen, not sitting crowded together, but each having room for her
work — her pleasant work.

208 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

As we looked at them and inspected their proceedings in de
tail, that we might describe them to you, we thought how much
rather we would choose to work for our living as Bible-binders
than as milliners — Fashion's poor, pale slaves,
Working to their graves.
¦ — with so few hours' rest allowed in the twenty-four.
At Mr. Watkins's establishment, the girls work ten hours a
day, and they are paid according to the quantity of the work they
get through, and this tends to make them industrious. They
have many checks over their performance, and the contractor is
under an engagement to replace, at his own cost, any books found
to be badly bound; therefore, for bad folding and stitching they
are fined : that they are, however, generally careful, is proved by
the fact, that the fines do not amount to five pounds a year among
200 workpeople.
When you think that the Bible is printed in large sheets,
sometimes sixty-four pages in a sheet, you will, of course, per
ceive that these large sheets will need folding, even if the printer
fold them once, for the convenience of tying up.
They are received at the binder's by a warehouseman, who
gives them out to each folder, in as many successive sheets as
will form the whole Bible.
Each folder sits by a table on which she spreads out the sheets.
In her right hand she holds a small ivory or bone folding-knife,
with which she flattens the foldings of the sheet : this folding
seems to us very quickly done, but it is so only from practice,
for it requires accuracy, as the first and last lines of the print must
range evenly with the opposite page. In taking up the sheet
she looks merely at what is called the signature, — a letter stand
ing by itself at the bottom of the page, which you perhaps have
never noticed. It is placed there chiefly as a direction to the
binder. She takes up first letter A, folds the sheet down the middle,
and then across, and also once more down the middle; she then

FOLDING AND SEWING. 209

takes up the next sheet, letter B, folds it in the same manner,
and lays it upon letter A; and proceeds in the same way with all
the letters of the alphabet, till she begins it again; only to the
second A is attached a small a, to the second B, a small b, and
so on : you can find these printer's marks, if you look through
the Bible.
After these folded sheets have been taken from the rolling-
press for binding, the collator takes tbe whole in his hand to see
that they are laid in proper order, that no sheet is wanting, and
that the folding is correct, and this is very expertly done ; the
sheets are held at one corner, and allowed to spring back, one
after another, leaving, to the experienced eye, just time enough
to catch the signature letters : this collation takes place in a
separate room, and any error is at once adjusted.
And now the book is to be sewn. A girl, sitting sideways
against the table on which the sheets are laid, first takes up that
marked A, and places the back of it against three strings or
tapes, (or if it be a large book, against four tapes,) fastened in a
sewing-press, then passing a needle, filled with strong thread,
through the sheet, from the inside, she brings it out at the back,
and carries it over one of the tapes, pushing the needle through
the paper again from the outside, — thus causing the thread to
embrace the tape.
Her left arm, passes round the press, and returns the needle
from one side to the other; thus sheet by sheet is fastened to the
tapes. This process is conducted with wonderful quickness : the
polished needle flies in and out and over the tapes, in far less
time than it takes to tell about it, for practice makes perfect, and
this is the sewer's whole employ from day to day, and from week
to week ; and her wages depend not on the number of hours she
sits at her press, but on the number of books she sews.
One little girl we accidentally selected, who was a learner, and
only thirteen years of age, told us she had been in the establish
ment nearly three months : she said she had earned Is. 3d. the
day before ; but we found she was considered by the forewoman
18*

21Q THE BOOK AND ITS STORY

a naturally quick as well as a steady child. The young people
get accustomed by degrees to the close attention that the work
requires, and that is necessary to insure good wages.
After the Bibles are sewn, they are again taken to the re-col
lating-room to be examined. Every sheet is looked at, to see if it
may have been torn by accident, carelessly, or improperly stitched :
this examination requires, also, that the mind be entirely fixed on
its occupation, for the least distraction may cause an error to be
overlooked. Presuming that no such faults have been discovered, the books
are carried into another building, occupied solely by men. Here
they are first placed in piles, a sheet of iron or zinc between each
book, in a hydraulic-press, and pressed with immense force. In
this press they are left some time ; and, when taken from it, are
passed into the cutting-room. There a cutting-press, with a large,
sharp knife, is employed. The books are very carefully placed
under the knife, the size to which they are to be cut being regu
lated by a scale at the side of the machine, and then, by means
of a lever, the whole quantity is cut at one stroke of the knife.
The gilder next receives the books, and screws them up in a
powerful horizontal press; the edges are then scraped, washed
with a composition of red chalk and water; and while this is
drying, the leaf-gold is blown out from the book in which it is
sold by the goldbeater, on a cushion covered with leather, where
it is placed smoothly, by the aid of a knife. On the work-bench
is a cup containing white of egg, beaten up with water, a little
of which is laid by a camels' -hair pencil on the still damp surface
of chalk and water. The gold is then taken up, piece after piece,
and laid on the book's edge : this is done to all the three edges
in succession, and to many books together, all squeezed tightly
in the press, to produce a solid and even surface.
After a few minutes, the gold has become sufficiently dry and
set for polishing, by a process which would seem adapted to rub
off every atom of gold, but it does not do so.
The workman holds in his hand a long-handled burnisher, at
the lower end of which is fixed a very smooth, straight-edged

GILDING AND MARBLING. 211

piece of agate ; this he places on the gilt surface, and, with his
left elbow resting on the workbench, and the handle of the
burnisher resting on his right shoulder, he rubs the gold with
great force, not along the edge, but across it : no gold is rubbed
off, but the whole is highly polished by this treatment; and when
the gilding is complete, paper is wrapped round the edges to pre
vent their being soiled while the book is finishing.
When the Bibles are required with sprinkled edges, the books
are tied up in quantities between two boards : they are then
placed edges upward, and a man holding a brush dipped in ochre
and water, or umber and water, and sometimes in Venetian red,
high in the air over the books, with one hand strikes the brush
with a stick held in the other, and thus sprinkles a fine shower
of the colouring matter over the edges; this is often repeated
with another colour; and the cheap, buff-coloured sheep covers
of Testaments for schools, are sprinkled in the same way.
The marbled edges of books are produced by sprinkling pig
ments of several colours upon a fluid preparation, contained in a
large trough, where they float, the colours being mixed with oil ;
and the edges of the books, being alternately placed for a moment
upon this surface, imbibe the colours.
After the edges have been thus prepared, the books are then
each singly hammered, to give a rounded form to the back, and a
concave surface to the front : the back, being previously covered
with glue, retains the shape thus given to it.
It is then placed between two boards, and again in a press,
with the back uppermost, and the back once more hammered, so
that it shall flatly incline over the boards; and after various
minor processes, the book which seemed to lie passive in the
hands of the workmen, to be moulded round or square by turns,
as they pleased, emerges from all its battering, into the care of
its "case-maker" who will dress it in sheep, calf, or morocco,
according to the price at which it must be sold. The leather, of
whatever kind, being cut half an inch larger than the book, all
round, is pared at the edges with a keen knife : this leather ia
partly stamped before it is attached to the book, which attach-

212 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

ment is an affair of very great nicety, as overlapping the edges
and turning in the corners require the greatest exactness, other
wise the book would be spoiled.
The little head-band of bright silk or calico, crimson or purple,
is now applied.
The granulated appearance of the morocco bindings is produced
by a curious mode of rubbing the leather against itself. If the
book is to be stamped or embossed, the process is aided by heat,
and performed by a machine.
We cannot enter into any further detail of the " decoration,"
as it is called, of the cover of the Bible. From time to time,
new patterns and devices are presented for this purpose ; and,
after all this inspection, it is a greater wonder to us than ever,
that a book, which requires the aid of —
14 persons to make its paper
21 persons to print it correctly,
19 persons to bind it neatly,
54 persons in all,
(not to speak of those of other trades, who must have combined
to its production,) can be sold by the Bible Society for one shil
ling sterling!
The number of hands which a Bible with gilt edges, bound in
roan, passes through, in process of binding, is as follows:---
Binder's warehouseman, First collator,
Folder, Sewer,
Roller, Second collator,
Paperer, Forwarder,
Presser, Letterer,
Cutter, Varnisher,
Examiner of cutting, General examiner of binding,
Gilder, Wrapper in paper covers, and
Cutter out of cover, Packer.
Embosser,
When the books are sent home to the Bible House, which they
are to the number (on an average) of nearly three tliousand daily,

BIBLE NOT ISSUED IN SHEETS. 213

another examination takes place, and frequently defective copies
are returned to the binder to be made good.
Any person discovering an error in a Bible printed for the
British and Foreign Bible Society, confers a benefit on them by
returning it to the Bible House, as it makes all the parties em
ployed more careful.
No Bibles are voted by the British and Foreign Bible Society
to other societies, or for any purpose whatever, in sheets. Every
Bible it sends forth is bound-: this is to" prevent the possibility
of the Book afterward being bound up with any of the apocry
phal hooks, or with any note or preface whatsoever. The Society
circulates the word of God alone, " without note or comment."
And, now, farewell to the externals of the sacred Book. We
hope it has pleased you to examine even these, in contrast to the
age of ancient manuscript. Wc pass on to the history of the
Bible in the nineteenth century.

CHAPTER I.
Rev. T. Charles — Particulars of his Youth — His Missionary Spirit — His Useful
ness to the Young — Scarcity of the Scriptures in Wales — Circulating Schools
—Committing the Bible to memory — Grown-up Scholars — Meeting of twenty
Schools — The little Girl who had no Bible — The twelve Peasants — Mr. Charles's
Visit to London — Tract Committee — Want of Wales, and of the World — For
mation of the British and Foreign Bible Society — Collections in Wales — In
fluential Friends and Supporters — Objects and Constitution of the Society,
formed alike for Home and the World — Its Principle — Union and Co-operation
of all Parties — Rev. J. Owen — Rev. J. Hughes.
We are coming at last to the sunshiny portion of the Story of
the Book, — having now nothing but bright and happy work be
fore us. We have been obliged to go and weep over the graves
of the ancient martyrs and translators, that we might know the
price which had been paid for our precious Bible. We hope that
many young persons will henceforth take the treasure into their
hands, with loving, reverent, and grateful hearts; and perhaps
with more gladness than they ever felt before, and pass on to the
true and wonderful tale of ihe last fifty years.
If we were to tell you one-tenth of what there is to be told, of
the times in which this Book has been allowed and enabled to
travel freely round the world, our book would be too large for you
to buy, or read.
You will wish to know, first, how the British and Foreign Bible
Society arose. It has been said, very truly, that it ¦' grew out of
a want," — the want of the Bible in Wales.
You will best understand this want, if we recount to you some
incidents in the life of the Rev. Thomas Charles. He has been
called the " Apostolic Charles of Bala," (a town in Merioneth
shire,) and was a man of a truly missionary spirit. At the bfgin-
ning of this century, he was about fifty years of age, and had been
13 217

218

THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

twenty years labouring in
Wales, " wandering up
and down," as he says,
"that cold and barren
country, to preach the
everlasting gospel."
At the age of eighteen,
being deeply impressed
with the value of his own
soul, and of the glorious
plan of salvation set forth
in the gospel, he became
anxious also for the salva
tion of others. His first
efforts to this end began
at home, in his father's
family, and being natu
rally of a mild temper and disposition, he was beloved by all his
relations : notwithstanding his youth, and, as he says, his little
knowledge, he was enabled to maintain much influence for good,
and by his means family-worship was soon established in his
father's house.
His education commenced at Caermarthen, and was continued
at Oxford, where he was supported by remarkable supplies of God's
providence, afforded as he needed them; speaking of which, he
remarks, " There are no difficulties with God : difficulties exist
wholly in our unbelieving hearts."
In the year 1777, he spent his vacation with the Rev. John
Newton, of Olney, the friend of the poet Cowper, and he seems
greatly to have valued the visit, during which he also heard Mr.
Romaine preach. Intercourse with men such as these, in early
life, is a great privilege, and often fixes the cnaracter and pursuits
of young persons.
If these two good men could have foreseen in Mr. Charles one
of the fathers and founders of the noblest society in the world,
they would still more have rejoiced to take him by the hand, and

REV. THOMAS CHARLES. 219

speed him on his way. His character was evidently remarkable
for ingenuousness and humility, — the sweet fruits of true piety.
He was ordained deacon at the age of twenty-three, at Oxford ;
and he says, " I felt, on that day, an earnest desire that God would
enable me to devote myself wholly to his service, for the rest of
my days on earth."
We cannot go into all the details of Mr. Charles's history. He
had an excellent wife, for whom he waited several years. His
income from his curacy, at one time, was not more than forty
pounds a year, but this did not prevent his doing much good
among his parishioners ; for although he had not silver and gold
to give, he could offer medicine for the healing of the soul, and
hold forth the promise of eternal life in Christ Jesus.
His labours were especially useful to children and young people.
Finding many of them at Bala and the neighbourhood very igno
rant, he invited them to his house, where he gave them religious
' instruction, and catechised them, on the Sabbath evenings. His
preaching, being of a deeply-impressive and faithful character,
gave offence to many who were not willing to live according to its
standard. His services were rejected, to his great grief, by three
churches in the establishment — a circumstance which will show
the state of religion at that time in North Wales. He was there
fore, though a churchman, as he says, from education and princi
ple, compelled to remain unemployed, and feel himself an " un
profitable servant," or else to itinerate, which means, to preach
from place to place ; and, in choosing the latter course, he especially
devoted himself to the spiritual good of children and young people.
The fruits of his labours, and the results of his long and toil
some journeys, are still visible in Wales, in the superior knowledge
of the Scriptures possessed by many whom he caused to be taught
as children. Many thousands at the great day of account will
probably acknowledge him as the instrument of their salvation,
during the thirty years of his earnest ministry.
In many parts of the country the sound of the gospel had
scarcely been heard for centuries, and the people were as ignorant
as those in a heathen land. The Welsh Bible, though printed

220 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

long previously by private effort, and repeatedly afterward by the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, instituted in 1698,
was scarcely to be found in any poor cottage in Wales, in the year
1783. In many parishes, not ten persons could read.
Where such darkness existed, of course the works of darkness
would be carried on, and the people were to a great extent immoral
and ungodly. Mr. Charles soon perceived, that, in order to do
any permanent good, the children must be regularly instructed :
this, therefore, he undertook as his spepial work.
There had been established a few years before, by the liberality
of a lady named Mrs. Bevan, (who left ten thousand pounds in
her will for the purpose,) what were called "circulating schools,"
movable from one place to another, at the end of nine or twelve
months. These schools are still to be found in different parts of
Wales ; but at the period we refer to, they had - ceased, owing to
some legal dispute about the property which supported them.
Mr. Charles wished to re-establish such schools, to procure
teachers, and to raise money to support them. Some of the first
teachers he taught himself. It was said by the Duke of Welling
ton, " If you want any thing done thoroughly, you must do it
yourself." Mr. Charles raised the money by the help of benevolent
English friends ; and he began with one teacher, — a small begin
ning for the great and glorious results which followed ; for there
is now no district of Wales without the means of learning to read
the word of God, either in week-day or Sunday schools.
Mr. Charles wished chiefly to teach those children to read the
Bible in their own language; and as the work advanced, the
principles and morals of the people, where the schools had been
instituted, visibly improved: soon the whole country was filled
with schools of one kind or another, and then a general concern
for eternal things began to appear in many large districts.
He paid every teacher 12Z. a year. Three quarters of a year
were found sufficient to teach the children to read the Bible well,
in Welsh; and then Mr. Charles visited the schools by turns,
and catechised publicly, — a plan suited to a wild and mountainous
district.

ORIGIN OP THE BIBLE SOCIETY. 221

After a while, the parents also began to attend the schools, and
the teachers did not refuse to accept grown-up scholars. Many
an old person was obliged to buy spectacles for the sake of learn
ing to read the word of God, for neither age nor dimness of sight
deterred them. The young often spent part of the night in
learning chapters, or- searching the Scriptures on points given
them to seek out and prove. Boys and girls from eight to six
teen learned whole books of the Bible; parents and children re
cited together; and one little girl is mentioned, who, at five years
old, could repeat a hundred chapters, and went on learning an
other every week.
This will remind you of the children of the Vaudois, before
mentioned, whose parents taught them so to lay up the word of
God in their hearts, that it could not be taken away from them.
They, too, lived among mountains and rocks, as these Welsh chil
dren did; but the poor, persecuted Vaudois could never enjoy
meetings such as were sometimes held in North Wales, where
several schools met, that they might be publicly catechised to
gether. They were frequently held when the Sabbath was fine,
on which occasions the children, accompanied by their teachers,
walked perhaps ten miles, in the quiet, early morning, to the
appointed place, from many a cottage hidden among the hills.
Twenty schools would thus be assembled —
"In the still valley, with the mountains round;"
and to this vast concourse of persons Mr. Charles preached, after
the examination had been concluded.
We are told, that, in the year 1802, as he was walking in tho
streets of Bala, he met with a child who attended his ministry.
He inquired if she could repeat the text from which he had
preached on the previous Sunday: she was silent, and the in
quiry was repeated. At length she answered, "The weather has
been so bad that I could not get to read the Bible." The reason
of this was soon ascertained: there was no copy to which she
could gain access, either at her own home, or among her friends;
and she was accustomed to walk seven miles over the hills, every
week, to a place where she could obtain a Welsh Bible, for the
19*

222 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

purpose of reading the chapter from which the minister took his
text. During that week, the cold and stormy weather, it seems,
had hindered her journey. Are we, who have Bibles of our own,
always so anxious to consult them after we have listened to a
sermon ?
Anoth 3r incident, proving the want of the Scriptures in Wales,
may be mentioned.
Twelve Welsh peasants subscribed together to purchase a copy
of the Bible, which, like the schools, was to circulate among the
hills. Each family was to keep it a month, and then pass it for
ward. On its arrival among them, an old man, who had been
the last subscriber, finding his name at the end of the list, wept
bitterly, saying, "Alas! it will be twelve months before it comes
to me, and I dare say I shall be gone before that time into an
other world !"
Mr. Charles was deeply grieved that there were so few Bibles
in Wales, — so few in comparison with the wants of the people.
The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge had, in addition
to former supplies, printed 10,000 Bibles, and in the year 1799
this edition was distributed. They were no sooner published
than sold. Not a single copy was left, and still not a fourth part
of the country was supplied. The society above named hesitated
about printing another edition; and, notwithstanding the earnest
entreaties of the Rev. T. Jones, of Creaton, (who, like Mr. Charles,
felt for his countrymen,) seconded by the Bishop of Peterborough
and others, all hopes of receiving further supplies from that
quarter were abandoned. Hence it became necessary to devise
some other means to provide Bibles for Wales. "The joy of
those who received the Bibles amounted to exultation, while the
grief of such as could not obtain a copy fell little short of an
guish."* In December, 1802, Mr. Charles visited London, intending to
interest his friends in certain plans for securing his object. The
subject of the Bibles was much on his mind; and, one morning,
* Owen's "History ofthe Bible Society," p. II.

ORIGIN OP THE BIBLE SOCIETY.

223

lying awake and thinking, the idea of having a society for dis
tributing the Bible alone, on a plan similar to that of the Reli
gious Tract Society, established in London, occurred to him. He
was so pleased with it, that he instantly arose, and went out to
consult with friends, with a view to carry out this idea.
The first friend he met with was Mr. Tarn, who was one of the
committee of the Tract Society; and at the next meeting, Mr.
Charles was introduced, and represented, with all the ardour of
his character, the dearth of Bibles in his native principality, and
the longing desire of the Welsh to have them. At the moment
when this appeal was made for Bibles for the principality, the
Rev. Joseph Hughes, who was at that time one of the secretaries
of the Tract Society, gave expression to these memorable words :
" Surely a society might be formed for the purpose; and if for
Wales, why not also for ihe empire and ihe world?" In this
thought, all present shared and rejoiced. The meeting instructed
its secretary to follow up the suggestion, and prepared a letter,
inviting Christians of every name to unite to form a society to
send the word of God, without note or comment, all over the world.
On the 7th of March, 1804, the British and Foreign Bible
Society was actually esta
blished, at a meeting held
in a room at the London
Tavern, in Bishopsgate-
street, about 300 persons
being present. On that
very spot, at the commence
ment of its Jubilee Year,
its friends met once more,
but there was only one out
of this number (the vene
rable Dr. Steinkopff ) spared
to join hands with the pre
sent supporters of the old
and tried society, — a so
ciety which has furnished

Steinkopff.

224 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY

a platform on which all Christians could so harmoniously unite in
one labour of love, and which has gone on, notwithstanding
difficulties and objections, doing its own work, conquering and to
conquer, in* every region to which its operations have been ex
tended. In his "History of the Bible Society," the Rev. John Owen,
a clergyman of the Church of England, who early became one of
its secretaries, has given a touching account of the effect of this
first meeting on his own mind. He had received during the
previous summer, from Mr. Hughes, two copies of his essay,
entitled, "The Excellence of the Holy Scriptures: an Argument
for their more General Dispersion," with a request that he would
accept one for his own use, and present the other to the Bishop
of London. He did present the one copy as requested, but
"took little pains either to understand or recommend the other;"
in fact, he scarcely thought of it again, until he received a cir
cular letter inviting him to attend the meeting for the formation
of the society; and then, perceiving the name of his intimate
and valued friend, Granville Sharp, Esq., at the head of the sig
natures, he was induced to attend, though almost against his
will. On entering the room, he had scarcely taken the station
assigned to him by the committee, before he perceived, as he
says, to his great astonishment, that three of this committee, from
their dress, and from their wearing their hats, were Quakers.
Now, Mr. Owen at that time shared deeply in the popular
prejudice and belief, that the Quakers, or, more properly, mem
bers of " The Society of Friends," did not read or love the
Bible; and noble is his confession, that his after-experience of
their conduct in the British and Foreign Bible Society repeatedly
made him ashamed of this prejudice.
The business of the day was opened by Robert Cowie, Esq. ;
William Alers Hankey, Esq., followed, and was succeeded by
Samuel Mills, Esq., and the Rev. J. Hughes. Each spoke of
the want of the Holy Scriptures throughout the world, and urged
the necessity of fresh means of supply, in a strain of good sens*
and temperate zeal.

FORMATION OF THE BIBLE SOCIETY. 225

Mr. Owen sat and listened, and felt that he must give assent,
though with half reluctance ; for the thought of uniting with
all denominations of dissenters, for any purpose on, earth, was
exceedingly distasteful to him ; but when good Dr. Steinkopff,
a German Lutheran clergyman, arose, the representation he gave
of the scarcity of the Scriptures, which he had himself observed
in foreign parts, the unaffected simplicity and tender pathos of
his appeal for his own countrymen, subdued at once both the mind
and heart of Mr. Owen ; and, " by an impulse which he had
neither the inclination nor the power to disobey," he rose and
expressed his conviction that such a society was needed; and
that its establishment should not be delayed.
There had been hitherto no point where Christians, for ages
kept asunder through different systems of discipline in their
communities, and regarding each other too often with a sort of
pious horror, could meet, to make one united and loving effort
against the evil which is in the world ; but Mr. Owen now felt,
that the British and Foreign Bible Society would afford this
meeting-point; for that, whatever might be the differences of
opinion and discipline, all who became its members would de
clare that they belonged to the most ancient and venerable Church
of the Book ; and, in the desire to give it to all nations, " the
multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one
soul." In a letter from Mr. Tarn to Mr. Charles, describing this first
meeting, and telling him that 700?. had been subscribed upon
the spot, he says, "The Rev. John Owen did the cause gj-eat
service. He spoke, of his own accord, after the other friends,
and, in a most powerful, argumentative, and scriptural manner,
showed that the society was founded on the sure word and
promises of God."
Mr. Charles was not present at the formation of the society.
He was at home among his schools and his people ; but he re
joiced to hear of it, and took no honour to himself. He exerted
all his influence to obtain subscriptions for the support of the
new society, and he and his Welsh friends prayed much for it ;

226 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

so that the contributions of the principality, in the first year,
amounted to nearly 19001., "contributed chiefly," says Mr.
Owen, " by the plain and lower orders of people." Dr. Warner,
the bishop of Bangor, and Dr. Burgess, the bishop of St. David's,
were, however, among the earliest supporters of the society
in Wales.
Around this point of union soon rallied many of the noble and
the good, who were desirous to come back to the two grand,
simple principles of union which prevailed in the early church,
to " holdfast the faithful word," and to " love one another."
Mr. Owen took great care to make Bishop Porteus, the bishop
of London, with whom he was on intimate terms, regularly ac
quainted with the proceedings ofthe committee; and the bishop,
who felt a lively interest in their affairs, recommended Lord
Teignmouth to become their president. Wilberforce, too, the
never-to-be-forgotten friend of the slave, at their second general
meeting, encouraged the society to " proceed in its work with
an ardour and a discretion becoming its object and its end."
We can never sufficiently admire the overruling power and
grace of God, who had provided instruments so well fitted to the
great work of conducting the arrangements of this society, as
Mr. Owen and Mr. Hughes, its first secretaries. These good
men are now beyond the award of human praise; therefore we
may look back upon the points of character which constituted
their fitness. For six weeks after their memorable meeting of
the 7th of March, 1804, the Rev. Josiah Pratt (who likewise
filled the office of secretary to the Church Missionary Society for
twenty-one years) had kindly consented to fill the office of clerical
secretary, till a suitable person could be found to undertake it.
During the short period, he effected the reorganization of the
committee, which was to consist of thirty-six members of all de
nominations of Christiana, and concerted a plan which should
define their respective proportions.
Having established this point, Mr. Pratt begged to present to
the committee the Rev. John Owen, in his own stead — the duties
pf his other secretaryship being found, by himself, more than

JOHN OWEN— JOSEPH HUGHES. 227

sufficient ; and though he thus voluntarily ceased to be connected
officially with the concerns of the Bible Society, he continued its
firm friend and advocate to the close of his life.
There is, we are sorry to say, no biography" of Mr. Owen,
which we can condense for your benefit ; but his name will live
for ever on the records of the Bible Society. For the last
eighteen years of his life, he devoted himself almost entirely to
its interests, " with talents that enlivened every topic, and a
temper that conciliated every heart." From the time that, under
the influence of the Spirit of God, at its first meeting, he felt the
necessity for such a union of Christians, and such a forgetting
of personal prejudices, for the sake of the wide circulation of the
Divine word, he never wavered. He had " enthroned the Bible
Society in his heart; and he thought, and spoke, and wrote,
from day to day, as if all his interests were staked on its support
and advancement."
God had endowed him eminently with the tongue of an elo
quent speaker, and the " pen of a ready writer." He had the
higher praise of a disciplined judgment, and a piercing intelli
gence, combined with frankness, candour, urbanity, and diligence,
which hardly allowed itself a pause. "Whether he ascended
the pulpit, or entered the crowded hall, or prosecuted the details
of business, or carried on a vast correspondence, or undertook the
task of the historian, or became a fellow-traveller, or spared a
few hours to the social circle, or joined his family, he was still
the gifted,the judicious, the admirable Owen."
These particulars are chiefly derived from the affectionate yet
considerate statements of the man who knew him best, in con
nection with the society which they both served and loved — the
Rev. Joseph Hughes, minister of a Baptist church at Battersea,
who for almost thirty years was also the faithful and invaluable
secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society.
It was he whose warm heart and enlarged views first dictated
the words, "If for Wales, why not for the world?" He also
wrote the essay which first announced the plan of '¦ the pro
posed soci 3ty," deeply interesting to read, now that his voice

228

THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

is silent in the grave, while
the society keeps its Jubi
lee, and is fulfilling its pro
mise to the whole earth.
In this essay, the socie
ties which had already be
gun to distribute the Scrip
tures are enumerated. They
are as follows : —
The Society for Promo
ting Christian Knowledge,
founded in 1698 ;
The Society for the Pro
pagation of the Gospel in
Foreign Parts, in 1701 ;
The Society, in Scotland,
for Propagating Christian Knowledge, in 1709 ;
The Society for Promoting Religious Knowledge among the
Poor, in 1750;
The Bible Society for the Use of the Army and Navy, in
1780; The Society for Support and Encouragement of Sunday Schools
1785 ;
After describing their arrangements, which, though excellent
were insufficient to meet the wants even of Christendom alone,
Mr. Hughes sketohed the idea of the society which " should be
supported by Christians in general, should smile alike on Britons
and on foreigners, should conquer the wide empire of darkness,
and, by the light of truth, should scatter the watchful spirits
that guard its frontier."
The " universal effort," which Mr. Hughes suggested, has been
made, and the light of truth has gone forth, and is welcomed by
" the nations ;" but it is for you of this generation to take up
the work which your fathers have begun. We hope to show you
what fifty years have seen accomplished ; but it is as nothing, to
the magnitude of that which remains to be done.

THE SOCIETY THE RESULT OF EDUCATION. 229

We need more men like Hughes, and Owen, and Steinkopff,
with their self-denying energy, and their sanctified temper, for
the service of the British and Foreign Bible Society. We require
also that the gold of this world should flow into this noble chan
nel, with something like the tide which attends a single scene of
festive pleasure — such as the race-course at Epsom : and we
believe that, when God sees fit, we shall have it ; for, at the
close of this fifty years, are not China and India, with their 500
millions of souls, yet unevangelized, though the Scriptures are
translated into their languages, and many of the barriers to their
circulation have been removed ?
With this fact before our eyes, is one hundred thousand pounds
too much to look for from this age of gold, as its Jubilee-offering
to the Book of God, from all the world ?
Is there any one who can consider the Book itself, and mark
its history, although struck only in broad outline to arouse young
minds to seek it further, and yet refuse to aid in this noble
service ?
We know that the class to whom this volume is more particu
larly addressed, prefer facts to inferences, example to precept,
anecdotes to statistics, and principles sink deepest into their
minds by the power of biography and narrative. They must,
however, follow us for a little while into the statements of the
first proceedings of the society, before we claim their further
attention to the lives and histories of its secretaries.
In concluding this chapter, we may observe, that the Bible
Society would not have been, at the commencement of the nine
teenth century, the want of the age, but for the advance of popu
lar education, which had then begun to prepare the world to
receive the seed of God's holy word. The Sunday-schcol Socie
ties, the Missionary Institutions, the National, and British and
Foreign School Societies, the design of which is to educate the
labouring and manufacturing classes, all arose' about this time,
and in one luminous host led the way into the kingdom of
darkness ; each and all called upon the Bible Society to supply
them with the Scriptures, that they might dispense them abroad.
20

23C THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

The schools could not do without cheap Bibles. The mission
aries required the Bible in ancient and modern versions. The
united action of all those societies has distinguished the nine
teenth centuiy above every other. It is the age in which people
are educated, and the age in which provision is made to supply
hem freely with the Holy Scriptures.

CHAPTER II.
Arrival of Bibles in Wales — Answer to Prayer for Mr. Charles — His visit to
Ireland — His Funeral — Want of the Scriptures in Scotland and in France — •
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and its Results — Sufferings of the Hu
guenots and Vaudois — Reaction of Infidelity — Desire of England to circulate
the Bible in France — Oberlin and the Ban de la Roche — Scripture Readers —
Bible Societies at Walbach and Nuremberg — Scarcity of the Scriptures even
in Europe — Their Circulation among French and Spanish Prisoners of War —
Bible Society at Berlin — Willingness of a Priest to distribute the New Tes
tament — Tho Field of Labour in Asia — Chinese Gospels in the British Mu
seum — India and the Tamil Language — Africa — America.
One of the earliest efforts of the committee of the Bible So
ciety was, naturally, to provide an edition of Welsh Bibles and
Testaments : they first inquired, as has ever been their practice
in like circumstances, whether a previous revision might not be
necessary; and since this was the case, some delay necessarily
took place, so that the supply of 20,000 Bibles, and 5000 large
Testaments, printed for the first time by stereotype plates, was
not ready for distribution until July, 1806. An eyewitness
thus describes its reception : " When the arrival of the cart was
announced, which carried the first sacred load, the Welsh pea
sants went out in crowds to meet it, welcomed it as the Israelites
did the ark of old, drew it into the town, and eagerly bore off
every copy as rapidly as they could be dispersed. The young
neople consumed the whole night in reading it, and labourers

REMARKABLE INCIDENTS. 231

carried it with them to the fields, that they might enjoy it during
the intervals of their labour."
Mr. Charles, with whose memory we cannot but connect these
Welsh Bibles, was travelling, in the autumn of 1799, over a
mountain in Merionethshire, one frosty night, and had his hand
frost-bitten: an illness followed, and his life was in danger.
Under these circumstances, his friends met to pray for his resto
ration, and one person, alluding to the fifteen years added to
Hezekiah' s life, of old, entreated God to spare Mr. Charles's life
also fifteen years : " Fifteen years, O Lord ! add but fifteen years
to the life of thy servant ! Spare him for fifteen years more to
thy church and thy people!" Mr. Charles heard of this prayer,
and it made a deep impression on his mind. He mentioned it
to several friends during the last years of his life, for his death
did occur just at the close of the fifteen years.
It was during this period of fifteen years that the most im
portant acts of his life took place — the most valuable of his works
were written — the complete establishment of the Sunday-schools
was effected; and it was during this period he was made one of
the honourable instruments employed by Providence to originate
the Bible Society. What great and glorious answers were these
to the fervent prayer of the poor, simple, old Christian pilgrim
at Bala !
Mr. Charles was a most industrious man, usually rising between
four and five in the morning. He lived ten years after the com
mencement of the Bible Society. His visit to Ireland was paid,
in company with Mr. Hughes, Dr. Bogue, and S. Mills, Esq., for
the Hibernian Society, taking with them one thousand Testa
ments to distribute on their way. He noticed that the poor in
their cabins were very civil and communicative, but entirely
ignorant of the Bible. In Ireland, at tnis time, not above a third
even of Protestant families possessed a Bible, while, among Ro
man Catholics, far more numerous, a Bible was probably not to
be found in more than one out of 500 families. He was of
opinion that religion could not be diffused among them without
Bibles, and preaching in their own language, and schools to teach

232 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

them to read Irish. "We have not met," says he, "with one
person who could read Irish, and there are no elementary books
in the language. Circulating schools might do wonders here."
All these four measures of improvement have been adopted.
Bibles have been printed in Irish, schools have been opened to
teach it, Scripture-readers are appointed, and the gospel is
preached to the people in their own tongue. Much of this good
has issued from the visit of Mr. Charles, Mr. Hughes, and their
companions. The former was called not long after this visit to receive his
reward. He died in the fifty-ninth year of his age, and his good
wife followed him three weeks afterward.
All who had ever known him spoke of him as " ihe good Mr.
Charles." Vast multitudes attended his funeral, and in pro
cession sang hymns from Bala to Llanycil, the parish church,
about a mile distant. He had been an "epistle of Christ, known
and read of all men." His very countenance was heavenly in its
expression, and showed the serene mind within. By his works,
"he, being dead, yet speaketh."

Having thus ascertained the state of Wales, and of Ireland, at
ihe commencement of its operations, the attention of the Bible
Society was about this time called also to the Gaelic Scriptures ;
and it was ascertained that in the Highlands of Scotland very
few persons were in possession of a complete Bible. The Gaelic
Bible had been published in four volumes, and about one in forty
jersons might possess one of these. A complete copy was, from
its cost, quite beyond the ability of any poor person to purchase,
and, in fact, was not easily to be procured at all. In the Isle of
Skye, then containing about 15,000 persons, and since so memo
rable for misery and famine, scarcely one Gaelic Bible was to be
found. A circular was in the summer of 1807 despatched to the minis
ters of the Church of Scotland throughout the Highlands, saying,
that the whole Gaelic Bible would be sold to subscribers, in Octo-

THE GAELIC BIBLE — FRANCE. 233

ber following, at 3s. 3d., and the Testament at 10d.; — information
which excited the liveliest joy and gratitude in every manse and
cottage. "I do not suppose," says one minister, "that, among
4000 souls under my pastoral care, there are a dozen Gaelic
Bibles." Another says, " We are very grateful for this prospect
of providing ourselves with the Holy Scriptures in our native
mother-tongue, — a thing long wished for over all the Highlands
of Scotland. Many of the poor of Glasgow, on hearing of these
cheap Scriptures in their native tongue, expressed their gratitude
with tears of joy. Each copy has hitherto cost 25s. at least."

There was, therefore, proof enough that the society was wanted
at home. But while it began to fulfil its mission throughout the
isles of Britain, it had also to look abroad, and in Roman Catholic,
Mohammedan, and Heathen countries, to find the word of God
comparatively and almost utterly unknown.
We purpose to give, in the first place, a picture of the want of
it in France.
You have heard of the two translations of the Bible which had
been made in the sixteenth century, by Olivetan and De Sacy, and
carried forth to a wide extent by colporteurs. There were various
horrible decrees issued by the parliament at Paris against the book-
carriers, who had travelled all over the country, and excited there
by, to the fullest extent, the wrath of all those who wished to hide
the Book. Beza, in his " Ecclesiastical History of the Reformed
Churches," quotes the names of several Bible-colporteurs, who
expiated in the flames, and by the most dreadful tortures, the
crime of having distributed the word of God.
After this, the very existence of colporteurs in France ceased;
and then, toward the close of the seventeenth century, on the
2d of October, 1685, came the fatal revocation of the edict of
Nantes. Nantes is a town in Britanny, where Henry IV. had
signed an edict in their favour, proclaiming liberty of conscience,
and appointing places of safety for the Huguenots : this edict had
passed in 1598. 20*

234 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

The old chancellor of Louis XIV., Le Tellier, at the age of
eighty-three, being a violent Romanist, and thinking he did God
service, requested the king to afford him the consolation, before
he died, of signing the revocation of this edict. His desire was
accomplished, and all the Huguenots in the kingdom were aban
doned to military execution. The dying chancellor, on signing
the edict, actually quoted the beautiful words of Simeon.
Then began the destruction of the Protestant churches, the shut
ting up of the schools, and the banishment of all ministers of the
reformed faith, within fifteen days. Compliance was to be en
forced with the sword ; troops were spread over Normandy, Bri
tanny, Languedoc, and Provence ; and, by their bitter cruelties, a
fourth of the kingdom was depopulated, its trade ruined, the whole
country being abandoned to the pillage of dragoons.
" By this edict," says St. Simon, " punishment and torture
awaited thousands, families were stripped of their possessions, re
lations armed against each other, and our manufactures transferred
to the stranger. The world saw crowds of their fellow-creatures
proscribed, naked, fugitive, guilty of no crime, and yet driven to
seek an asylum in foreign lands. Their own country was, in the
mean time, subjected to the lash and the galleys, the noble, the
affluent, the aged, the weak, often distinguished by their rank no
less than by their piety and virtue ; — and all this on no other ac
count than that of their religion. Meanwhile, vast numbers were
either forced to conform, or feigned to do so, and sacrificed their
conscience to their worldly interests. Within twenty-four hours,
the same persons were frequently conducted from tortures to abju
ration, from abjuration to the communion-table, attended to each
alike by the common executioner."*
"On the most moderate computation, the numbers who left the
kingdom were 400,000, while an equal number perished, on going
into exile, of famine or fatigue, in prison, in the galleys, and on
the scaffold; and a million besides, seemingly converted, maintained
in secret, amid tears and desolation, the faith of their forefathers.
* St. Simon's "Memoirs^'

REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES. 235

"Bossuet, Flechier, and the Roman hierarchy, were in rap
tures at the daily accounts of conversion : 6000 abjuring in one
place, 10,000 in another, the churches could not hold the con
verts; but it is not thus that the real conversion of mankind is
effected; dragoons and stripes will never permanently enchain
the human mind; and this single act of Louis XIV. did more to
enfeeble France, than all his victories had done to strengthen
her."* Of course this persecution extended to the Vaudois valleys.
There, their inhabitants were henceforth and for ever to cease
and discontinue all the exercises of their religion : all the churches
and schools were to be razed to the ground; and whosoever on
their sick-beds refused the sacraments of the Popish Church,
were to be drawn out on a hurdle, and thrown upon the way-side
to die. Every new-born child was, at a week old, to be taken to
the cur6, and admitted into the Roman Catholic Church, or the
mother was to be publicly whipped with rods, and the father
sentenced for five years to the galleys. These and other mon
strous threats, the Vaudois, acting as one man, resolved to resist
to the last gasp, and they did so; but, oh! at what a price! — be
trayed and massacred with cruelties of which we will tell you no
more. Out of the 15,000 Vaudois, who constituted the popula
tion of the valleys a few months before, only 2656 reached a
refuge in Geneva. One half of the generous population came out
to meet them at the Arve, the river which bounds their sublime
territory, and there competed, as for an honour, who should re
ceive into his hospitable dwelling these poor sufferers. From
Geneva they were afterward scattered to Brandenburg, to Wur-
temburg, to Holland, to America; and so, through the Vaudois
valleys, reigned once more the silence of death and desolation.
"But it was by enduring, not inflicting tortures, that the
apostles established Christianity on an imperishable foundation.
The tears of the innocent Huguenots were registered in heaven.
They brought down an awful visitation on the third and fourth
* Alison's " History of Europe."

236 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

generations; and from the revocation of the edict of Nantes is to
be dated the commencement of a series of causes and effects which
closed the reign of Louis XIV. in mourning, and brought on the
reaction of infidelity and atheism, which issued in the Revolution
that overthrew the throne and the church, and covered France
with indelible stains of bloodshed and disgrace."

In November, 1804, a letter was received from M. Oberlin,
the pastor of the Ban de la Roche, a dreary and secluded terri
tory in Alsace, at twelve leagues' distance from Strasbourg, of a
very interesting character. The Ban de la Roche was favoured
in a peculiar degree with the benefits of education amid sur
rounding ignorance, through the labours ofthis excellent Lutheran
clergyman. Like Mr. Charles of Bala, he prepared his people to
receive the Scriptures, and excited the desire for them, and at
the same time he sought in every way to improve their temporal
condition, teaching them to make roads, build cottages, raise
crops, etc. : still they were extremely poor, and destitute of the
word of God. He therefore, at Basle, at great expense, procured
three copies of the French Bible, from which purchase ensued
most gratifying results. Three poor villagers, to whom they
were given, being devoted Bible-missionaries, went from cottage
to cottage to read to the inmates the sacred volume, lending it to
one for a day, to another for a shorter period, every time that a
desire for such loan was manifested. These were indeed colpor
teurs, whose labours were only stopped by the wearing out of the
three copies, passing, as they did, through so many hands little
used to take care of books.
Then Pastor Oberlin heard of the British and Foreign Bible
Society, and begged its help in his work : to him the committee
made their first grant in favour of France, of 201. His letter,
describing the three devoted women to whom he meant to give
the first new Bibles, is preserved among its records. Sophia
Bernard, — who had undertaken the support and education of
three helpless boys, whom their wicked father often trampled

THE PASTOR OBERLIN. 237

under his feet, when, starving with hunger, they dared to cry for
food, and who had likewise saved the lives of four Roman Catholic
children, a prey to want and famine, supporting all seven by the
labour of her own hands, and bringing up these poor children in
the most careful and excellent manner, — was to have a new Bible,
considering that her own was so often lent out in different Roman
Catholic villages.
A second was to be given to Maria Schepler, who lived in a
part of the parish where all the people were so poor that they
were obliged to lend their clothes to each other, when they at
tended the communion. Maria was mother, benefactress, and
teacher, to the whole village where she lived, and also to neigh
bouring districts; she, too, brought up orphans, kept a school for
them, and was always lending her Bible to those who were desti
tute of it.
The third Bible was to be given to Catherine Scheiddegger,
another mother to orphans, and teacher of the poor: "and the
eyes of all of them," said Oberlin, "will overflow with grateful
tears, if they are favoured with the present of a Bible."
It is worthy of notice that the active benevolence of thousands
of the ladies of England, as well as in France and other coun
tries, in promoting the interests of the society during the last
half century, may be said to have derived its origin from the
humble efforts of these poor women in the Ban de la Roche.
This was the small rivulet among the mountains that has given
rise to the majestic river.
Mr. Owen visited M. Oberlin's parish in 1818, and saw "two.
of these interesting peasants, — the other had been removed te
her rest. He told them that he felt as if he had known them
for nearly fourteen years, and that they had stirred up the zeal
of many to labour after their example. ' Oh, sir !' said Sophia
Bernard, 'this does indeed humble us;' adding many remarks in
relation to their obscurity, the imperfection of their works, and
the honour they considered it to libour for Him who had done
every thing for them."
From the first year of the establishment of the British and

238

THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Foreign Bible Society, Pastor Oberlin, his son Henry, and M.
Legrand, formed a small committee in the parish of Waldbach,
which became a central point for scattering the Scriptures
throughout France; and more than 10,000 Bibles and Testa
ments were circulated throughout that country before the Paris
Bible Society was formed. During a journey in the south of
France, in 1815, for that Society, the excellent Henry Oberlin
caught a severe cold, in assisting to extinguish a fire in some
town; and, returning to the Ban de la Roche, died of consump
tion, amid the regrets of his friends and neighbours.

At Nuremberg, also, an imperial city of Germany, a Bible
Society was formed, in 1814, to co-operate with that in London,
to which the British and Foreign Bible Society presented 100?.,
to enable it immediately to print 5000 German Testaments, selling
them at fivepence each. This auxiliary proved "the cradle of
our continental greatness."
It is very interesting to refer back to these small beginnings of
the British and Foreign Bible Society itself, and to the rise of its
first tributary streams. The number of these steadily and rapidly
increased ; for the secretaries made it their chief business, in its
early days, to obtain all the information they could, respecting the
want of the Scriptures in every part of the world.
But it was now a time of war all over Europe — a time which
may be distinctly remembered by some of the parents of our young
friends, but which they, the children of an almost forty years'
peace, have little power to realize.
Great Britain, from her immense resources, was universally
allowed to be the arbiter of nations, and the most powerful of
kingdoms ; and after the peace of Amiens in 1802, was engaged
in hostilities against the power of Napoleon.
Among the French and Spanish prisoners of war, the Bible
Society occupied itself in distributing the Scriptures in their native
languages. They directed 2000 Spanish Testaments to be printed,
and expended 1001. upon the purchase of Testaments in French,

PRISONERS OF WAR. 239

preparing, meanwhile, a stereotype edition of the latter. It ap
peared, that out of a number of 5000 French prisoners at Ply
mouth, nearly half were able to read, and out of 1700 Spanish,
800. A correspondent says, " Many sought the books with tears
and entreaties, and received the words of eternal life ; since which,
I have witnessed the most pleasing sight that my eyes ever beheld
— nearly one thousand poor prisoners sitting round the prison-walls,
reading the word of God, with an apparent .eagerness that would
have put many professing Christians to the blush."
From time to time, exchange of prisoners was made, and thus
the word of God crossed the water, with the returning soldiers.
Several of these stray Bibles were known to have led to the
foundation of Protestant churches; and some of the present col
porteurs have been powerfully aided in their mission by men who
were formerly prisoners of war in England.
Besides making this happy use of the quarrels of nations, the
society continued to avail itself of every possible point of access
to the continent, and to aid every association established abroad,
to sell the Scriptures in their own lands, at reduced prices.

The foundation of a Bible Society was laid at Berlin, in 1806,
and received the sanction of his majesty the King of Prussia. To
this institution, as to that of Nuremberg, 1001. was voted by the
British and Foreign Bible Society.

If this was the field of labour that lay before the society in
Europe, when it passed over to Asia it beheld almost the whole
of that wide continent yet to be possessed. Its first attention was
drawn toward China, by the notice of a manuscript, in Chinese,
existing in the British Museum, of the chief part of the New
Testament, which it was at first proposed that the society should
print, with the view of circulating it among 360 millions of people.
It was found, however, that owing to the intricacy of the Chinese
characters, this could only be done at the expense of two guineas

240 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

each volume, and the intention was relinquished until a future
day. In the mean time, the indefatigable Dr. Morrison went to
work in his cellar, at Canton, on a fresh translation, to which,
however, the former was of some service.
As we have before observed, God provided men for the secreta
ries, just such he needed ; and now he provided suitable men for
translators, or rather for the foundation of the work of translation;
for that, during the last half century, has in every version made
progress by degrees toward perfection.
When Carey, Marshman, and Ward sat down to render the
word of God into the fifteen polished languages of India, with its
millions of souls, that word existed only in the Tamil, the transla
tion of Schultze, the missionary of the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge. The important territory in which the
Tamil is spoken includes Madras, Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madura,
Tinnevelly, and Coimbatoor. It came under British government
in the year 1801, and the inhabitants have been estimated at more
than six millions. They are chiefly Hindus of the Brahminical
sect. The scarcity of the Scriptures in the Tamil country was first
pressed upon the notice of the British and Foreign Bible Society,
by Dr. Buchanan, in 1806. He speaks of ten or twelve thousand
Protestant Christians, of whom not one in a hundred had a New
Testament. In consequence, the committee bought up all the
copies of the Tamil Scriptures that could be obtained, and sent
them to Tanjore in 1810, where they were received with the
most lively gratitude.
The spirit in which the society's liberal grants of help to the
missionaries and translators in India were made, is shown by the
letter they wrote to accompany the gift : " The committee would
by no means have you understand, that their design of aiding you
in your glorious work is ended with these donations : on the con
trary, they consider your undertaking as vast and progressive, and
are determined to sustain you in it, to the utmost of their ability,
by liberal and successive supplies." This was a letter written in
1810.

THE SCRIPTURES IN AMERICA. 241

Meanwhile, over the islands of the Pacific and the -Indian
Archipelago lay the vail of deep darkness. The state of Africa
was that of unexplored ignorance, except that here and there the
margin of the south was illumined by Bibles from Holland ; but
for the interior there was no Bible.
The only region upon which the light of revelation could be
said in any degree to shine was the northern line, where Arabic
is spoken ; for, although versions of the Coptic and Ethiopic had,
as we have seen, in early times been made, yet by the mass of the
people they were neither read nor understood.

America, in her northern regions, fared more generously : the
solonies of England were partially supplied. The Bible consti
tuted the inheritance of the magnificent Union of the States : the
pilgrim fathers had conveyed it in the " Mayflower," in the year
1620 ; Oglethorpe bore it to Georgia, and thus it was embalmed
in the memory of his people. Captain Norton, a chief of six na
tions of Indians in Upper Canada, translated the Gospel of John
into the Mohawk dialect — the current language of those six nations
— and, in the first year of its existence, the Bible Society printed
2000 copies of this Gospel, for circulation in Canada. John
Eliot's version of the New Testament, in the Virginian language,
had been circulated in Massachusetts, in 1661, also to the number
of 2000 copies ; but in Mexico, the western isles, and the king
doms of the southern hemisphere, although the people were called
Christians, and acknowledged a belief in revelation, few had ever
seen a Bible.

Such was the "immense range" on which the British and
Foreign Bible Society looked forth in the year 1807; and,
measuring, as they say, from north to south from Iceland to the
Cape of Good Hope, or from east to west from Hindustan to
Buenos Ayres, (China was not then open to the Bible,) " they
saw no other limits to the beneficial operation of this institution,
21

242 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

than that which their funds might prescribe ; but they indulged
the animating h )pe, that, by the progressive efforts of the society,
in circulating the Holy Scriptures, 'the earth shall be filled with
the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the
sea ' " (Hab. ii. 14.)

CHAPTER III.
The Bible Society's " Reports" not dull Books : What it is that they contain —
The Sway of Great Britain and its Purpose — The World's Inhabitants, in
Five Divisions — The Work of the Bible Society among each — The Way it is
accomplished, by division of Labour, and by various Agents — The Bible So
ciety like the Banian Tree — Its Fibres taking root in the Protestant Countries,
first in England, by the Bible Associations and Auxiliaries — The System
gradually matured — Division of Districts — Ladies' Committee — The System
of Co-operation — Objections to the Society — Lord Teignmouth's Answer —
Mr. Dealtry's — Mr. Ward's — Operations at Home — Extracts from Reports of
Collectors— The Dying Child— The Old Woman and the Wool—The Bible
Bees — The Gun and the Bible — Mr. Dudley's Review — The Death of Mr.
Owen — Distribution of the Scriptures in Ireland — Anecdotes.
It is by no means easy to arrange and condense the mass of
information which we wish to convey to your minds, concerning
the rise and progress of this most magnificent of societies.
You are not likely to read through sixteen volumes of "Re
ports," five of " Monthly Extracts" from the correspondence of
the society, Mr. Owen's three volumes of its History, and Mr.
Dudley's admirable Analysis of its system. It is possible, that,
in glancing at them in your fathers' libraries, you may have even
thought them " dull books," or at least books which it did not
concern you to examine; nevertheless, we shall try and make
you wish to read them.
These books contain in truthful detail the history of the pro
gress of God's word through the world — of the uttering of his
voice to all the earth. It is uttered in more majestic (because
ia more perfected) form than it was to Israel at Sinai. The

GREAT BRITAIN'S SWAY, AND ITS PURPOSE. 243

whole Bible is ours, "upon whom the ends of the world are
come." We have not only a Pentateuch, but a New Testament ;
and " freely as we have received, freely we should give."
We are not as the Jews were — simply the early guardians of
the oracles of God, but we are their dispensers to all the earth.
For this God has raised Great Britain to her pre-eminence
among the nations; for this has he placed under her island
sway vast continents and distant climes, and has given her a
dominion so extraordinary, that, as we trace its boundaries, its
extent seems scarcely to be credible.
The population- of the British Isles alone is greater than that
of Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and Norway, added together ; and
besides her home empire, England holds, in Europe, the Chan
nel Isles, Gibraltar, Malta, and the Ionian Isles.
In America, her possessions are Upper and Lower Canada, a
territory larger than France and Spain ; New Brunswick, larger
than Scotland ; Nova Scotia, Prince Edward's Island, and New
foundland, comprehending together as great a space as England
and Wales; with the Hudson's Bay territory, extending to the
pole ; thirteen islands in the West Indies, with tho Bermudas,
the Bahamas, and the Virgin Isles ; Honduras, larger than Hol
land ; and British Guiana, the size of Wales.
In Africa, Sierra Leone, in whose capital, Free-town, she
has a community of 50,000 freed slaves. Cape Coast Castle,
and the adjacent settlements ; the islands of Ascension and of
St. Helena ; Port Natal, and the Cape Colony, (equal in extent
to France, and with a climate similar to that of Spain,) to which
she has lately given a free constitution.
In Asia, the Mauritius ; with other isles in the Indian Ocean ;
Ceylon, the isle of palms, of spices, and of pearls, nearly equal
in size to Scotland ; and India — a kingdom including 448,000
square miles, yielding a revenue exceeding the revenue of all the
Russias, and whose governor-general has at his command an
army of 300,000 men.
Farther India, likewise, with its divisions of Malacca and Sin
gapore; Penang; and Hong Kong, in China; with Australia.

244 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

the island continent, only to be compared in space with three-
fifths of Europe ; Van Diemen's Land, as large as Ireland ; and
New Zealand, nearly the size of Great Britain itself.
The Rev. Wm. Arthur, formerly a missionary in India, who
has given a picture of this vast extent of power, in a lecture de
livered to the young men of London, observes, that " our Queen
reigns over more Roman Catholics than the Pope, over more
Mohammedans, than the Sublime Porte, and over more Pagans
than there are in the whole continent of Africa !"
Now, it is for God's word's sake that Great Britain has been
thus made the mistress of the world. Her people read with glowing
hearts of her possessions and her conquests, often gained with
comparatively little bloodshed, and as it were ceded to her ac
knowledged right, and feel the pride of Britons that they were
born under her temperate and changeful skies. And can we
possibly think the history of her noblest deeds, which these
Bible Reports record, dull and unworthy to be read ? Surely
those who read and love the Bible — those to whose hearts it has
effectually revealed its tidings of great joy, and its solace in the
hour of sorrow — those in whose homes it is the law of love, and
the rule of faith and practice — must care to know the history of
that noble society whose object it is not only to distribute this
Bible in every country of the world, but to put it into the hands
of every human being.
You will look with reverence on a " Bible Report," as it is
called, if you are prepared to understand it — if you have in your
mind's eye that portion of the earth, the wide continent, or the
smiling island, to which the word of God has been carried in its
own language, whether for the first time, or in repeated abun
dance, and if you know what has been the need of the word
there, which called for that supply — if you could see, also, the
change which the reception of that word has produced, and, if it
were a heathen country, the moral conduct, the upright dealing,
the purer manners, and the decorous dress, which, as experience
testifies, are " sure to follow, wherever the reading of the Bible
becomes general."

THE AVORK OP THE BIBLE SOCIETY. 245

In order, therefore, to assist your memories, we shall divide
the world into separate regions, not according to their geographi
cal order, but according to the general religious belief of their
several inhabitants, and survey the proceedings of the Bible So
ciety within each range.
We must have five divisions —
1. The Protestant countries.
2. The Jews, and remnants of ancient Christian
Churches. 3. Those where the Roman Catholic religion and the
Greek Church prevail.
4. The Mohammedan countries.
5. The Heathen or Pagan countries.
What has been the work of the British and Foreign Bible So
ciety in each of these ? And in what way, and by whom, was
it accomplished ? We must answer the latter question first.
It has been accomplished upon the principle of division of
labour. Fifty persons, as you have seen, are employed upon the
mere paper and printing, and binding of a Bible. When the
Book is in existence, as a book, it is scattered over the world by
various agents.
Many laborious servants of the society join to spread it abroad:
 the missionary, in his exile from his friends and country, his
own heart cheered by the Book, and his hand distributing it
wherever he goes ; the travelling agent, " plying his unwearied
round of visits," often amid those who care but little to receive
them, but often also where he is warmly welcomed and encou
raged • — the depositary and accountant, with their assistants,
working at their desks with tireless zeal and fidelity for a long
term of years ; the invaluable secretaries, carrying on the corre
spondence with all nations; the translators, who, in the land
where the language is spoken, sit down to create first, perhaps,
its grammar and its dictionary, nay, its very letters, before they can
approach their noble task itself; then the colporteur, in various
countries and in all weathers, exposed to numerous difficulties
and hardships, sometimes received with welcome, it is true, but
21*

246

THE BOOK AND ITS STORY

at otlers with unkindness, and even menace, and sometimes
subject to slanderous accusations and unjust imprisonment; then
there are the unpaid collectors, the life-blood of the society, who
also, for the true love of the work, engage in their weekly
rounds, unnoticed save by Him for whose sake they labour. It
is by all these that the seed is scattered; "the seed is the
word," and " the field is the world."
It is to the persevering labours of all these, as the Earl of
Carlisle told us at the late memorable Jubilee meeting, that the
nations owe their 8000 Bible Societies, their Bibles in 148 lan
guages, and their forty-six millions of copies — the fruit of the
first half century of the existence of the Bible Society. Well
might Mr. Dudley once compare it to " the sacred tree of India,*
bending its branches to the earth, whence they again sprang
forth, and extended their refreshing shade throughout the land."
He meant the banian tree, the ficus Indica, whose nature it
is to cover with its branches a space sufficient to shelter a regi-

-^ ^•s**"*-***
The Banian Tree.

*See Dudley's "Analysis," p. 135.

ENGLAND. 247

ment of cavalry, and which is often used as a natural canopy for
great assemblies. It was at an encampment under one of these
trees, on the river Sutlej, that Runjeet Singh, the robber chief,
compelled Shah Sujah, the representative of a race of kings, to
yield up to him the Koh-i-noor, that jewel which was the object
of his insatiate ambition. It is said, that, for a whole hour, the
exiled monarch gazed on Runjeet Singh, without speaking, who„
still unmoved by this mute eloquence, insisted on his demand.
The branches spread to a great extent, dropping their fibres
here and there, which take root as soon as they reach the ground,
and rapidly increase in size, till they rival the parent trunk, and
cover a quantity of ground almost incredible. Reinwardt says,
that he observed, on the island of Semao, in the Indian Archi
pelago, a large wood, whose trunks all proceeded from the stem
of a single ficus, united with each other by their branches.
The Bible Society may well be likened to this tree ! Let us
see how its fibres took root in the Protestant countries of the
world, during the first twenty-five years of its existence — in
England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, half of Germany, three-
fifths of Prussia, three-fifths of Switzerland, Swe<^en, Norway,
Denmark, and Iceland, in ihe United States of America, in
Canada, and also in the West Indian Islands, subject to Dutch
and Danish, Swedish and British sway.
ENGLAND.
During the first year of the Society , there were no Bibles
issued — the printers being unable to complete their work. They
did not then print by steam-presses. Stereotype plates were, at
this time, made for the English Testament ; and its circulation
was effected, at first, very much by the agency of individuals,
and by Sunday-schools, as also by grants to the Naval and Mili
tary Bible Society, for the benefit of soldiers and sailors.
As its Reports became public, its sphere of usefulness in
creased. The production of the first supply of Welsh and Gaelic
Scriptures, aal their reception, have already been noticed. Some

248 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Bibles and Testaments were also provided at low price3 for the
inhabitants of the Isle of Man ; and two years after its forma
tion, i. e. in 1806, its first fibre took root, and the committee
acknowledged a donation from an association of young men in
London, formed for the purpose of contributing to its funds. In
the same year a similar contribution was received from the town
,of Birmingham, where a Bible Association had been formed;
and these voluntary associations, Mr. Owen says, " contained the
rudiments of Auxiliary Bible Societies."
In the same year, and in 1807, further associations were
established at Bath, Glasgow, and Greenock, which proposed to
receive small monthly subscriptions; and thus, by collective
additions, the Parent Society, in its third year, told of an in
crease of 300?. in its annual subscriptions, while more than 1000?.
came in from Wales, and 4000?. from Scotland. During the
same year, also, a lady added a bequest of 1000 guineas, side by
side with which appears the contribution of 18?. from the children
and teachers of the Holborn Sunday-school. It is a memorable
fact, that Juvenile Bible Associations constituted the earliest
auxiliaries or helps to the Parent Institution, and have continued
to the present day to pour their small but unfailing rills into that
mighty river by which all the nations are refreshed.
But it was reserved for the town of Reading, in Berkshire, to
give to Great Britain and the world the first example of a regular
Auxiliary Bible Society. Dr. Valpy, well known to many
by his " Latin Grammar," was also an earnest and early friend
of the Bible Society. He first preached in . its behalf, and de
clared its object; and then, with other gentlemen, convened a
meeting in the town-hall, under the sanction of the mayor, on
the 28th of March, 1809, at which meeting it was determined to
adopt, as far as possible, the rules and regulations of the Parent
Society. Now this auxiliary had in view two principal objects — one to
collect subscriptions (as the former associations had done) in aid
of the general funds ; and the other, with half the money it
should collect, to purchase Bibles and Testaments from the

THE AUXILIARY SYSTEM. 249

Parent Society, to be distributed in its own town and neigh
bourhood. After the example of the Parent Society, it appointed
a clergyman, a dissenting minister, and a layman, for its secre
taries. The year ending in May, 1810, saw the establishment of ten
societies like this in England, and three in Scotland. But the
system was not yet perfect; they had not determined on the way
to find out the want of the Bible among the poor of their own
neighbourhoods ; and Mr. Richard Phillips, who, in 1810, was
elected a member of the Parent committee, was the first to point
out the extent of usefulness to which this auxiliary system was
capable of being applied.
According to the plans which he proposed and published, and
which were adopted by the society as their own, the respective
auxiliary committees were recommended (for the Parent Institu
tion assumes no control over its dependent societies) to pursue the
orderly and effective way of raising subscriptions, by dividing
their town or neighbourhood into districts, and appointing two or
more of their members as visitors in each, to make minute and
personal inquiries among the habitations of the poor, and en
courage the sale of Bibles among them, at cost or reduced prices,
in preference to absolute gift.
The calls upon the richer part of the population were to be
made in the same way, with a request for their support and appro
bation. A meeting of the committee was to be held every month,
and a general and public meeting every year.
To every auxiliary of this kind might be attached, if it em
braced a wide sphere of labour, twelve or more Bible Associations,
to be carried on by the same rules and regulations.
The Southwark Auxiliary Bible Society, established in 1812,
afforded a fair example of the working of the system, which
speedily extended itself over the kingdom of Great Britain. The
members of the twelve associations connected with tl is auxiliary
met monthly, each in their own committee, transacted their busi
ness, and passed over their collections to the auxiliary society,
which again passed them to the Parent committee

250 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

For two years and a half these twelve committees, all composed
of gentlemen, were in full operation, and the results were very
cheering. Many thousand Bibles and Testaments were distri
buted, and 4600?. was remitted to the auxiliary society. Still,
various cases occurred in which subscriptions could only be suita
bly solicited from females, by members of their own sex, and the
consequent formation of ladies' associations, in Southwark, com
pleted the efficiency of that valuable auxiliary.
Twelve committees of ladies then met, and conducted their own
business, passing over the proceeds of their collections to the trea
surer of the gentlemen's committee, and these again to the auxi
liary, which, thus receiving twenty-four constant tributary streams,
not only distributed large numbers of Bibles and Testaments in
its own neighbourhood, but added greatly to the funds of the
Parent Society.
In Great Britain there are now 445 of these auxiliaries, with
2825 branches and associations ; therefore if you have had patience
to follow the business-detail of the last two or three pages, and if
you have gained an idea of the system of the British and Foreign
Bible Society, as carried out in one place, you have only to multi
ply this idea in your mind, and conceive of thousands of such as
sociations at work, every week and every month, in many parts
of the world.

The establishment of the ladies' associations in Southwark, in
1814, brings us to the beginning of those times of peace which
have happily endured ever since in England.
The machinery of the society was now perfect, and it has con
tinued to act on the same principle and system ever since.
Amid the calamities of an expensive war, its constitution had
been thus far matured, and its treasury supplied. Among con
victs at Portsmouth, felons in Newgate, and to all jails, hospitals,
workhouses, and hulks, its gifts had been abundant.
Meanwhile, you would scarcely believe it, but this society had
enemies, — men who, haidly knowing what they did, misunder-

AN AMUSING FABLE. 251

stood and maligned it. Some earnest friends of the venerable
and excellent Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which,
as we have seen, had circulated and translated Bibles as far as its
funds would allow, conceived that the Bible Society interfered
with its province, and diminished its income. This society was
supported, and still is, entirely by members of the Church of
England. To this, Lord Teignmouth, an attached member of that church,
and also the president of the committee in Earl-street, replied,
that " he was informed, and he believed most correctly, that the
annual amount of subscriptions to the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge had considerably increased since the esta
blishment of the Bible Society;" and the Rev. W. Dealtry, M.A.,
Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, in the form of an amusing
fable on the subject, strongly recommended a good understanding
between the two societies.
" Once upon a time," said he, " in the midst of a parched and
dreary land, there gushed from the top of a mountain a fine spring
of water : the wilderness was converted into a garden, where it
flowed, and verdure was the sure companion of its progress.
" After some time, a similar stream began to flow from the
summit of a neighbouring hill. It became the parent of many
branching rivulets, which cheered the face of nature on every
side, and carried happiness and abundance into the remotest
lands. " The good old stream was a little touched with jealousy, and
addressed its neighbour in the following terms: 'Do you not
know that you are intruding into a country which I have pre
occupied, and that you and your rivulets interfere with, impede,
and curtail the inestimable benefits of grass and green fields which
I have so happily promoted ?'
"'Why,' said the other, 'how can that be? Are not my
streams as pure as your own, and does not the desert smile like
wise wherever I go ?'
" 'Your streams do indeed profess to be pure, though I have
something, if I i>>oose, to say ou that point; but I insist upon it,

252 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

that I am the good old stream, and that you are an interloper : I
should not err much if I called you a thief.'
" 'A thief! Have I ever stolen any thing from you V
" ' Yes, you have : it can need no proof, that, if your mouth
were closed, some of the water which now courses along your
channels would, by filtration through the mountain, fall into
mine.' " 'It is certainly very possible that some fifteen or twenty drops
might have reached you by this underground filtration ; but see
what a noble body of water I possess, and I employ the whole for
the benefit of these parched and thirsty lands !'
" ' What business, I ask you, have you to flow at all ? I existed
for ages before any one thought of you ; and I am by no means
convinced, notwithstanding your imposing and devouring claims,
that you confer any benefit whatever. Your very complexion is
offensive ; and, on the whole, you offer great possibilities of evil,
and are a very shabby current; yet, little as I admire you, I
would rather that you would become a feeder to me, than move
in this unauthorized manner through the world alone.'
" ' My good friend, it is quite impossible : some of my rivulets
might possibly be turned so as to fall into your channel, but there
are copious branches, which, from the nature of the country, roll
on in other directions, and cannot by any process be made to com
bine with yours ; neither, as I believe, would you be willing to
receive them ; while, therefore, we carry cheerfulness and delight
on every side, let us be content to pursue our own channels in
quietness and peace.' "
Lord Teignmouth's assertion, that the first society was bene
fited by the second, was shown to be true, by another clergyman,
the Rev. W. Ward, rector of Mayland, near Colchester. "I
consider them," said he, "not. as rivals, but the reverse. I con
sider the new as helpful to the old, and that both will promote a
more general diffiusipn of Christian knowledge. The harvest is
great, and the Lord of the harvest seems now to be raising up a
great host of labourers to reap it. The light of the gospel, which
at present shines but on a speck, as it were,, of the globe, is to be

COMPARATIVE ISSUES OF THE SCRIPTURES. 253

diffused over the face of the whole earth. Now, the funds drawn
exclusively from the members of any one church, even from the
Church of England itself, are not sufficient to this general diffu
sion of the gospel; but the unlimited resources of the Bible
Society, the united contributions, legacies, and donations of all
descriptions of Christians, can do wonders — can absolutely supply
the place of miracles and the gift of tongues."
"The object," continues this good man, "is so glorious, so
grand, so sublime ! — the scheme is so full of the love of God, the
love of our country, and the love of our fellow-creatures, — that it
should have our last prayers when we lie down at night, and our
first when we awake in the morning."
Mr. Ward also showed, that, in 1803, the year before the Bible
Society commenced, the subscriptions to the Christian Knowledge
Society were 2119?., but that in 1809 they were 3413?. — an in
crease of above one-third; while, as to the issues of Bibles and
Testaments, the issues from the old society alone were, in 1803,
17,779, but in 1809 they were 22,611; while the sum-total of
the Bibles, Testaments, and Psalters, circulated by both societies
in 1809 was 99,883; — more Bibles, Testaments, and Psalters,
issued in 1809 than in 1800, eighty-six thousand! This proof
was unanswerable.
The triumphant defence which the Bible Society had obtained,
from the exertion of these distinguished advocates, contributed
not a little to elevate the spirits of those on whom the toil and
responsibility of conducting its affairs devolved; and they turned
with renewed zeal to the field of exertion which lay before them
in their own country, and in the wide, wide world.
There was still great need of exertion at home. In the county
of Flint, in a circle of ten parishes, 1300 families were found
without a Bible, and similar investigations all over the country
showed similar, results; nevertheless, in 1817, the committee
stated, that, as the infancy of their society had given promise of
a vigorous youth, so the growth of thirteen years had amply con
firmed it. They looked round on the pleasing fruits of Christian
union; and attributed to Divine favour alone, successes astonish-
22

254 THE BCOK AND ITS STORY.

ing in their magnitude; for they found they had labourers for
every soil, — coadjutors in every quarter of the globe.
Such, indeed, was the interest which the British and Foreign
Bible Society had excited, that the prayers of thousands attended
its progress, and its extinction would have been felt as a calamity
oil over the world. The minute-books of the ladies' committees,
whose members find easy access to the cottages of the poor, and
an earnest welcome from their inmates, tell many a touching tale.
They prove that collectors of Bible Associations are almost in
variably greeted with joy, and that, punctual in their weekly
visits, they are sure to find their humble subscribers ready with
their money, and grateful for the trouble they take to call for
subscriptions, and bring the Bible to their doors.
Some say, "The Bibles delivered this month were thought
most beautiful." One woman exclaimed, "I am sure I should
never have had my Bible in any other way; and if I had to come
to you, instead of your coming to me, I much fear I should not
have begun yet."
In another district, a poor woman, showing signs of indifference
whether she possessed the Scriptures or not, was accosted by her
son, a little boy, who said, " Mother, if you do not subscribe for
a Bible, I must." He thus persuaded his mother to pay her first
penny. A subscriber to the Reading Ladies' Bible Association related
the following incident to one of the collectors : —
" A few weeks ago, a young man came to my shop, when the
subject of the Bible Society was mentioned. On this his indigna
tion was immediately kindled, and he expressed the bitterest feel
ing against it. Remonstrance with his passion would then have
been useless : we were silent, and he left us. My little girl was
then lying on her death-bed, and though young in years, was old
in Christian experience. I mentioned the circumstance to her,
and asked her what should be done. ' Oh, father!' she replied,
'subscribe for a Bible for him.' This we did; and when I pre
sented it to the young man, I told him of the desire of the dying
child. He received it with gratitude, took it home, read it, and

THE WIDOW AND THE WOOL. 255

read it to his fellow-servants, who soon wished to possess it for
themselves. He brought me six shillings for this purpose, and
we received it with gladness, believing that it is the work of God,
and that nothing shall impede its triumphant progress."
The mother of a large and helpless family regularly subscribed
for a Bible, during four months. She was frequently asked
whether, indeed, she could spare the weekly penny, and her
reply was, "I never miss it; we were very poor indeed wnen I
began to subscribe, but this book seems to have brought a bless
ing into the house; we were very lonely without it."
You may also like to hear the history of the old woman and
the wool. A poor widow living on the side of the Black Moun
tains, in Caermarthenshire, attended a public meeting. She had
only one shilling in her possession, part of which she intended to
lay out to buy wool for making an apron, and the other part in
candles, that she might see to spin it in the evenings, after finish
ing her day's work with the farmers. Having heard the speakers
describe the sad condition of the poor heathen without Bibles, she
felt for them so much, that she determined to give sixpence out
of her shilling to the collection, thinking that she would do with
out the apron for some time longer, and spin her wool by day
light, when the summer evenings came. As the speaker pro
ceeded, the old woman felt more and more, till at last she de
termined to give the shilling altogether; "because," she said,
"I can do better without an apron, than the heathen can without
the word of God." She cheerfully gave her shilling, went home,
and slept comfortably that night. At daybreak the following
morning, a neighbouring farmer called at her door, and said,
"Peggy, we have had a dreadful night; several of my sheep have
"been carried away by the flood. There are two lying quite dead
in the hedge of your garden. You may take them if you like,
and you will get some wool from them." She thankfully ac
cepted the gift; and thus she had wool enough to make three or
four aprons, and tallow to make candles to spin it. As no one knew
what she had done the day before but herself and her God, she
looked upon that occurrence as a very kind providence toward her

256 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

And now, here is another history, just as good, about the Bible-
bees. In the year 1809, at the formation of a Bible Association at
Barton in Lincolnslire, before Mr. and Mrs. W. went to the
meeting, Mrs. W. said to Mr. W., "We must give a guinea to
the Bible Society." "Nay," said her husband, "that is too
much ; the rich do not give more than a guinea, and we are not
rich; it will even look like ostentation in us to give so much."
"Still," said Mrs. W., "if you will not give it, I will." "And
where are you to get it?" said he. "I have it by me," said she;
"do you not remember that you gave me a guinea, with which to
buy a hive of bees; now, I will give that guinea to the Bible
Society." "Then," said Mr. W., "you will go without your
bees." "It is well," said Mrs.W.; "for I love the Bible So
ciety better than I should love the bees." So they went to the
Bible-meeting, and the guinea was given.
They had no sooner reached home, than the wife said to her
husband, " Oh ! see ! A swarm of bees has settled on our beech-
tree : if no one claims them in four-and-twenty hours, the swarm
will be mine." No .one did claim them, and they were hived.
A day or two afterward, Mr. W. said to his wife, "It appears to
me very remarkable that Providence should send to us, just now,
that swarm of bees. Suppose we dedicate these bees to the Bible
Society ?" To this Mrs. W. gladly gave her consent. The first
year, the hive produced two swarms, and they gave two guineas
to the Bible Society ; the second year, the three hives produced
ten swarms, and they gave ten guineas to the Bible Society. It
was then proposed to them, that instead of giving a guinea for
each swarm, they should keep a regular account of debtor and
creditor, placing the expenses of hives, &c, on one side, and the
produce of wax and honey on the other. In the third year, hav
ing had some loss from two or three of the swarms dying in the
winter, the honey and wax sold only for 7?., which was given to
the society. In the fourth year, the produce was 11?., which was
also given to the society.
•In 1835, Mr. and Mrs.W. removed into Wiltshire, and the

THE GUN AND THE BIBLE. 257

bees were then left under the care of other persons. The Rev.
Mr. Methuen of Devizes mentioned that the society had received
ten guineas from the Bible-bees, both in 1836 and 1837.
In the Monthly Extracts is recorded a mournful incident oc
curring in a district in Cornwall, where there was not a Bible
Association. A young man, engaged in the mines, had become
the subject of serious impressions, and wished to possess a Bible
of his own. He had fixed his choice on the quarto edition, at
22s., which he found he could have from Truro, and had laid by
16s., when, in an evil hour, he fell into bad company, and was
tempted to buy a gun with his savings for the Bible. His parents
remonstrated, but in vain. The first day he went out with it, his
worthless gun exploded, the stock was shivered, and a part of it
penetrated the forehead of the unhappy lad, who in an instant fell
a lifeless corpse. Ah ! had there been a faithful collector calling
at his door, she would have received his 6c?. or Is. as he put it by
from his earnings, and the Bible — the blessed Bible — might have
•been furnished instead of the awful instrument of death !
It would be easy to multiply incidents : the difficulty lies only
in selecting them. Every one, who has ever been a steady and
patient collector of weekly pence from the poorer classes, whether
to supply them with Bibles for themselves, or to afford them an
opportunity of casting their mite, precious as the poor widow's,
into the treasury of God, will be able to add to such records from
his own practical knowledge.
Whatever be the cause to which we contribute labour, and for
whose sake we exercise self-denial, we acquire a deep interest in
it : but this is especially true of the Bible Society, from the vast
importance and singleness of its object, and its ever-extending
influence.

When Mr. Dudley, who had been one of the most indefatigable
agents in planting and regulating these tributary committees,
looked round him in the year 1821, he spoke of 1000 Bible As
sociations organized in the United Kingdom, of 600 similar insti-

22*

258 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

tutions in other quarters of the globe, of 900,000?. expended in
this noble effort to circulate the word of God, and of the transla
tion, printing, and distribution of the whole, or portions of that
word, into eighty languages and dialects, in which it had never
before been printed; and he also announced the fact, that, in
the seventeen years since its formation, it had just doubled the
supply of the Scriptures which it found in existence at the period
of its birth.
In the year 1824, the committee thus addressed their sub
scribers :
" The true state of the world has been brought more fully to
light than before. A view has been obtained, that, however great
and however commendable your past labours may have been, re
duces them to a cipher, and makes them still appear but as the
sowing of the grain of mustard-seed, — a view that might appal
the stoutest heart, were it not written, 'I am with you ; fear not,'
and, ' Is any thing too hard for the Lord ?' He who has shown
you such great things will show you yet greater : your success
must only incite you to more earnest, more zealous, more cheerful
exertion than ever."
On the 3d of August, 1827, a branch association was established
at Jarrow colliery. Sixty families were found destitute of the
Scriptures. This place is rendered sacred as having been the
residence of the Venerable Bede, the first translator even of parts
of the Bible for the Anglo-Saxons, and the mind is led with de
vout gratitude to contrast the facilities now enjoyed for multiply
ing and distributing the sacred volume in that locality, with the
barbarism and ignorance which at a former period impeded the
progress of Divine truth.
In the twenty-fourth Report, fifty new societies were said to
have been added to those already existing ; yet, notwithstanding
the vast number of copies diffused through the nation, the demand
was not nearly satisfied, — a fact which proved that there had been
a great destitution of the Scriptures in the community, and that
a desire to possess the Holy Book had been created and extended
to a wonderful degree

DEATH OF REV. JOHN OWEN.

259

" There is something at once grand and inspiring in the thought,
that the written voice of God, the best book in the world, has
acquired, in mere number of copies, an immense superiority over
every other book in the world, placing itself by all the good books
to improve their usefulness, and by all the bad ones to baffle their
malignity ; and this in contrast to the times when millions of each
successive generation passed through life, and out of it, without
any dissatisfaction that they had never read, or that they had
never been able to read, one chapter or verse of tho Bible."
At the close of the year 1822, the society had to mourn the
loss of its clerical secretary, the Rev. John Owen, by the un
sparing hand of death. He had for some time been declining in
strength, — the combined
result of excitement, fa
tigue, and anxiety. No
frame could have with
stood the exhausting and
destructive efforts of la
bours so varied, so ex
tensive, and so incessant,
as those in which he had
been eighteen years en
gaged.. A brief amend
ment gave hope to his
friends and admirers of a
perfect recovery ; but the
vital energy seemed spent
Owen. in the meridian of his
course, and the lamp of life only flickered for a while to dwindle
and disappear. " Those are the things," said he to his attached
co-secretary, Mr. Hughes, who was then laying hold of his dry,
cold hand, and comforting him with the passage, "Thou shalt
guide ine with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory,"
" Those are the things  ," said he, when Jeath prevented
him from finishing the sentence.
He had done the work of a long life in those few yeaia. It is

260 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

strange that no biographer has yet been found to tell its tale; for
he seems to have been universally beloved and deeply regretted
by all who knew him. He had been given of God to the society
on the very day of its formation, and had guided it with wisdom
and unwearied energy during its early and critical years, and he
left it towering in its strength, — the noblest moral pyramid that
the nations of earth ever combined to build.
If, when there was no written word of God to be circulated on
the earth, on the tower of Babel was inscribed Confusion, there
is now graven Union on the vast pile of the British and Foreign
Bible Society; and the noblest names of earth would be ho
noured, could they claim to be written on the stones that compose
it. Those of Owen, Hughes, and Steinkopff are deeply traced
upon its base ; and our young friends may remember, that there
is room yet for many a name more, of those who shall become its
devoted and faithful servants, seeking not honour from men, but
only the praise of Him who seeth in secret. This pyramid is still
building. It shall never be finished till the day when "the
knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters cover
the sea." IRELAND.
The committee early turned their thoughts to the Roman
Catholics of Ireland, among whom there was said to be a Bible
to about every 500 families. Their informant then stated, that
to print an Irish Bible, at that time, would be of but little use,
for the people, if they read at all, read English. The society
transmitted to a clergyman in Ireland 1000 copies of the Pro
testant New Testament, and found that they might be circulated
among the Roman Catholics of Ireland with little difficulty.
One thousand copies of a smaller Testament were also granted to
schools in Ireland, which were numerously attended by Roman
Catholic children.
In 1813, most zealous and successful exertions seem to have
been made in Ireland, for the circulation of the Scriptures. The
number of Bible Societies, in connection with the Hibernian So-

SIX MONTHS' SERVICE FOR A TESTAMENT. 261

piety, rose from eight to thirty-five, and the number of Bibles
and Testaments issued was 40,000. What had been the previous
need of the Scriptures, may be gathered from the following
anecdote : —
" A young man, bred a Catholic, having learned to read, and
a New Testament happening to lie neglected in his master's
house, it became the constant companion of his leisure hours.
His apprenticeship to his master, a linen-weaver, being finished,
he begged the New Testament as a reward for his faithful ser
vices. The master refused to give it to him, unless he served
six months longer. The young man, thinking that a New Tes
tament might be obtained on easier terms at Castlebar, declined
this, and made diligent inquiry at all the shops to find one.
Alas ! not a Testament was for sale at that time in the principal
town of a populous county in Ireland ! He could not live without
it; it was never absent from his thoughts; he dreamed of no
thing else; and, finding no rest, he returned to his master, and
agreed to serve him for the Testament six months more." A
gentleman of respectability in Ireland vouched for this as a fact,
in a letter dated 24th December, 1811. He adds that "the
young man became, and continues, a steadfast and exemplary
Protestant." In 1812, the Bible Society sent 1525 Bibles and Testaments
to Londonderry, to be sold at half their cost. A correspondent
says : " The times are trying to the poor ; yet many who come
to Derry market, to buy food for their children, came to my
house, and said in my hearing, ' We will buy a little less meal,
and take home the word of God with us, as we may never get
Testaments for Id. each again.' Several of the common beggars
bought Testaments with the halfpence they begged in the streets
About 200 of these books have been sold to Roman Catholics.
Do not leave me to the chiding of the people, without a fresh
supply : 1525 more will not last me a month. Oh ! may God
bless his word everywhere, and abundantly reward the work of
faith and labour of love of the British and Foreign Bible
Society I"

2654 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

In 1815, it was stated that the Irish had manifested an in
creased anxiety to read the Scriptures in their native tongue;
and the committee determined to print an edition of the whole
Bible in the Irish language.
In 1821, it was said, "Seven counties in Ireland yet remain
strangers to the beneficent labours of the Bible Society, and eight
more are but partially supplied ; so that in the greater proportion
of fifteen counties, the influence of the society is not yet expe
rienced. Still much was doing in Ireland." " The ladies of
Dublin," say the Parent committee; " were the first agents in
this kingdom, who, nobly casting away all apprehension, and
committing themselves to the protection of Almighty God, made
the experiment of female influence in disseminating the word of
God among the poor ; and," it is added, " in their very great
success they have already enjoyed more than a compensation for
all their sacrifices, and their example has not been lost to the
country." In the Reports of the Hibernian Bible Society for 1827, it was
said, "We are now given to see, as it were, the fruits of the
labour bestowed for many years past upon this country. May
God grant that it may prove to be the first-fruits of an abundant
harvest ! The circulation of Bibles here, this year, is 40,000
copies." This Report also mentions, that, on occasion of some
recent discussions on religious subjects, which took place in Ire
land, scholars were in the habit of borrowing, night after night,
every Bible in their schools, in order that their parents and
friends might compare one passage of Scripture with another ; — ¦
such Bibles being invariably returned on the following morning.

CHAPTER IV.
The Bible Society in Holland— Prayer for Bible Societies — Germany— Its Re-
ligious State previous to the Existence of the Bible Society — Dr. Schwabe'i
Tour — Mr. Owen's Lotters — Prussia — Royal Patronage — Switzerland — An-
tistes Hess — Dr. Steinkopff's Report — Lausanne Bible Society — Sweden —
Norway — Iceland — Mr. Henderson's Letters — Denmark — The United States
of America. HOLLAND.
We have now to pass on to the continent, and there observe
what had been the labours of Mr. Owen and those of his coadju
tors among the nations of Europe, and their correspondence with
the world in general, during the first five-and-twenty years of the
existence of the Bible Society, taking first, as we have proposed,
the Protestant countries.
The Parent committee in their tenth Report announced that
a Bible Society had been formed at Amsterdam, for the purpose
of supplying the Holy Scriptures, in English, to the British
churches in Holland, and of promoting the establishment of a
Dutch Bible Society, which might furnish the Scriptures to the
poor of the Netherlands in their own language, and circulate the
same to all nations. The Prince of Orange became the patron
of the English Bible Society in Holland, and its directors con
sisted of Englishmen and Dutchmen of the first respectability.
The British and Foreign Bible Society offered to this newly-
formed society a grant of 500 Bibles and 1000 Testaments, and
promised the sum of 500?., as a donation, on the establishment
of a National Bible Society. When the committee's correspond
ent mentioned this liberal offer, in the presence of three of the
wealthiest citizens of Amsterdam, one of them shed tears, another
seemed overcome with astonishment, and the third exclaimed,
" The English are a pattern to all nations !"

264 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Rotterdam, the Hague, and other cities of the United Nether.
lands, soon afterward became the seats of zealous auxiliaries.
Thirty-two Bible Associations were formed in the city of Amster
dam and its suburbs.
The Bible Society had issued an edition of 5000 copies of the
Dutch New Testament in 1809, chiefly for the use of prisoners
of war in England. Considerable numbers of the copies were
afterward forwarded to the Cape of Good Hope, and were most
thankfully received; for it was ascertained that not a single
Dutch Bible could be obtained for money throughout that ex
tensive colony. On receipt of this intelligence, the society
immediately commenced a large edition of the entire Dutch
Bible. In 1819, in' the town of Hoorn, in Holland, scarcely a single
servant could be found without the Scriptures : 350 Bibles had
been placed inxthe workhouse; and the large halls of that insti
tution, formerly filled with disgraceful mobs, now resounded with
hymns of praise.
The society at Rotterdam had upward of 1000 members.
Sunday-schools promoted Scripture-reading, and a Bible was
reckoned the highest reward for diligent scholars. Schoolmasters
in Zigp were ordered not to let a day pass without reading a
chapter to the children, "for the Bible places every one in ihe
sphere where he ought to be : it is in itself the best rule, the most
faithful counsellor, and the safest refuge."
In the Netherlands, in 1820, a certain day in October waa
appointed, throughout the whole kingdom, to offer up, at six
o'clock in the evening, prayers and supplications to God for the
success of the circulation of the Bible.
In 1821, the Dutch Society furnished with the Scriptures all
the sufferers by a dreadful inundation that occurred in the coun
try; and a very active Marine Bible Society was formed for the
benefit of persons engaged in the shipping. They also undertook
version of the New Testament for Java, and a Malay version
for Amboyna, in both of which the society afforded them aid.
"Let us therefore," say they, "continue to communicate the

RELIGIOUS STATE OF GERMANY. 265

Bible to all classes of people, without exception. The heavenly
comfort it contains will not be felt and valued more in palaces
than under the thatched roofs- of cottages. The Bible is indeed
a Divine legacy to the whole human race." (May, 1822.)
GERMANY.
During the war, correspondence was opened in different parts
of Germany, to ascertain the want of the Holy Scriptures, particu
larly among Protestants; and through the untiring labours of the
Foreign secretary, Dr. Steinkopff, the society commenced its
operations in various quarters. The numerous calls from the
poor for the Scriptures were met by grants of money and Bibles
from England, to the amount of 2712?. New editions of the
German Bible were likewise undertaken at Basle and Berlin.
The religious state of Germany, when the society's agent first
entered it, was that of almost universal apostasy from the saving
doctrines of the gospel of Christ, even in the Protestant German
churches. Rationalism had taken the place of Divine revela
tion. Her professors of theology and her doctors of divinity
were, alas! the propagators of that infidelity which, for three
generations, had filled her pulpits and her schools with error:
they had poisoned the literature of the nation at its source, and
altered the very hymns and catechisms of the reformers.
Then it was that the agents of the Bible Society began to
spread the word of God, without note or comment, as the most
powerful of all means for stemming this tide of neology. The
remnant of pious Christians, who had not bowed the knee before
the Baal of the times, gladly welcomed them, and willingly joined
in the work; but the indifference prevailing among all classes on
the subject of religion was a great obstacle to the spread of the
Scriptures; the churches were nearly empty in all parts of the
country; and it was no easy matter to persuade the people to
purchase and read even the Bible !
Bible Societies in Germany being established from this time,
we hear of more frequent inquiry among the poor, for the Ger-
23

266 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

man Scriptures, than had hitherto been known to exist. Mean
while, the various German committees were assisted with fre
quent grants of money, and the poor exiles from Hamburg, and
the sufferers by war, in different parts of the country, were sup
plied with copies of the Scriptures, which were most thankful:/
received. The Rev. Dr. Schwabe, who made a tour of inquiry for the
society, on the continent, often along the track of country through
which the retreating and pursuing armies had passed, describes
the ruined villages, the lost Bibles, the scattered schools, the
churches even left without the Scriptures necessary to the per
formance of Divine worship. He established a Bible Society at
Erfurt, his native town, and the locality of Luther's monastery,
once well supplied with Bibles, but where the destitution was
then great. Among the mines of Salfeld, children came to bring
him, with tears of joy, the whole little treasure they had gained
by picking ore, in exchange for a Bible.
Among the silver-mines at ¦ Freyberg, among the orphan chil
dren at Dresden, and in many other towns and villages, this
agent dispensed the bounty of the society. A great part of the
ground over which he passed had not before been visited by any
Bible agent; and through evidences like these of the sympathy
of Great Britain with this suffering country, Germany learned to
view her with no less admiration when holding out the palm and
the olive-branch, than when girt with the sword of war, and
striking terror into the hearts of her enemies.
Attached to the fifteenth Report of the Bible Society, are a
series of letters received from the Rev. John Owen, while on a
tour on the continent, which was undertaken partly with a view
of restoring his failing health. During his journey, he greatly
aided the interests of the society, to which, " living and dyinc,
he was unalterably devoted." He travelled in the times when it
took two days and a half to get from Calais to Paris, where he
visited Professor Kieffer, in his study, — finding him engaged in
the revision of the Turkish New Testament, collating it with
Greek, English, German, French, Tartar, Arabic, and Persian

THE PRUSSIAN BIBLE SOCIETY 267

Mr. Owen also paid s visit to one "who laid hold," as he says,
"on his warmest affections," — to Pastor Oberlin, and his Ban de
la Roche. Two of his letters are dated from Basle in Switzer
land, which he calls "the favoured asylum of sound learning,
eyangelical piety, and Christian friendship." He offered to their
Bible Society a contribution from London of 500?., to assist them
in printing the quarto German Bible, and presided at a meeting,
at which were present the great and good men of the city, with
Dr. Pinkerton and the Rev. Mr. Blumhardt, who gave an account
of their tours in Germany and Holland.
The German Bible Societies continually increased in number,
and were favoured with much royal patronage; yet still the
supply of the Scriptures was not equal to the demand, in many
parts of impoverished Germany. The president of the Giessen
Society laments that, in ten villages, an entire copy of the Bible
is rarely to be seen. The gratitude evinced for the gift of the
Scriptures is seldom shown more earnestly than it was by a poor
German workman, who had been presented at the anniversary of
the Neuweid ' Society with a Bible, and brought fifteen silver
groschen to the clergyman whose ministry he attended, saying it
was his "little all," but that he felt bound to offer it to the Bible
Society, in gratitude for that excellent Book which he had re
ceived from it the year before. PRUSSIA.
The Prussian Bible Society was established in August, 1814.
"The first clergyman in the city, Probst Hanstein, rose with a
Bible in his right hand, and represented with striking eloquence
the floods of infidelity and wickedness, the ravages of war, and
the general misery under which the Prussians had suffered for so
many years, and pointed out, as the source of all those sins and
sorrows, the disrespect and contempt which had been poured upon
that best of all books — the Bible."
This account is contained in a letter from the Rev. Dr. Pinker
ton, who, with Messrs. Paterson and Henderson, had been intro-

268 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

duced to the Bible Society, in the year 1812, and had proved its
invaluable foreign agents. All three were natives of Scotland.
The introduction of the Scriptures into the schools of Prussia
was effected by a decree promulgated by Frederick William III.,
the first German sovereign who became the patron of Bible So
cieties. In 1817, the Prussian Bible Society continued diligently and
successfully to pursue its course. Twenty auxiliaries were added
to it before the expiration of its second year, and one of these had
seven branches !
The British and Foreign Bible Society offered to its members
a grant of 500?. They were engaged in printing the German
Bible, Luther's version, and also an edition of the Scriptures in
the dialect of the Wends in Lusatia, which the Prussian secre
tary said was "one of the most useful works ever undertaken."
Though the higher classes in the country speak German, the
lower speak Wendish. They are a people who have a particular
objection to the Bible without the Apocrypha, and are remarkable
for their indifference to the New Testament, when printed alone
The London committee observed, with admiration and gratitude,
the steady march by which the Prussian Society advanced toward
the attainment of its object. For much of its success it was in
debted, under the blessing of God, to the warm and decided en
couragement which it received from his Prussian majesty and
several branches of the royal family, besides the personal co-opera
tion of ministers of state, dignified clergy, and numerous persons
of property and influence.
The Bible Society has never especially courted royal patronage;
it can do without it : but when we consider its objeet — the circu
lation of the word of Him "by whom kings reign, and princes
decree justice," — it is meet that crowned heads should cast into
its treasury, and that it should comprise, within its vast con
stituency, alike the hearts of kings and of peasants.
In 1821, Dr. Steinkopff, in a tour, attended the anniversary of
the Prussian Bible Society, which had then translated the Bible
into five languages. The number of auxiliaries was thirty-eight,

SWISS SOCIETIES. , 269

and it had distributed 50,000 Bibles and 33,000 Testaments.
His majesty the King of Prussia had declared to the Bishop of
Potsdam, that he rejoiced to support Bible Societies in his do
minions, because he considered them one of the most peaceful and
efficacious means of cherishing a spirit of order and piety among
his people. SWITZERLAND.
From a very early period, the objects of the Bible Society had
met with a warm sympathy in Switzerland : kindred institutions
rapidly sprang up in all its principal cantons and cities, and the
Scriptures were making silent but effectual progress, even amid
the confusion and disasters occasioned by a desolating war. The
Zurich and the St. Gall Bible Societies were diligent and liberal
in their distributions.
The Rev. Antistes Hess, senior of the Zurich clergy, wrote, in
1815, a letter to Lord Teignmouth, in which, after alluding to
the work ofthe Bible Society, "as promoting the increase ofthe
invisible Church of Christ, which is limited by no boundaries of
countries, or national dissimilitudes, or peculiarity of form and
ritual," he says, "Permit an old man to speak also a little of
himself. I have, from my very youth up, had a great desire to
visit two countries, in preference to all others, viz., Palestine and
Britain ; — Palestine, on account of its having been the scene of
the miracles of our Lord ; and Britain, on account of its inhabit
ants, who have rendered themselves so illustrious in the cause of
the Bible : yet I have not been permitted to see either. In some
measure, however, I have obtained my desire, partly by corre
spondence, but particularly, as regards England, by reading the
most interesting works written by your countrymen, and of which
I have a select library." ,
A correspondent ofthe Bible Society, at Lausanne, says : " The
plan of the British and Foreign Bible Society was first imperfectly
developed to me, at an annual meeting of the clergy of Geneva ;
and being struck with its high importanee and nobie aims, I was
23*

270 , THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

anxious that my country also should participate in its benefits.
An English lady, who was well acquainted with its plan, pro
gress, and principles, soon afterward presented me with ten of its.
Annual Reports, and, with an English guinea, laid the founda
tion-stone of our society. We have now distributed 227 Bibles
and 271 Testaments. A minister of one of our villages thus
writes : ' We do indeed require a Bible Society in the canton de
Vaud. Since that excellent law has fallen into disuse, which
compelled every couple to produce their Bible at the altar, many
families are without it in the villages of the Jura, where they no
longer read the Scriptures even on the Lord's-day, or during the
violent storms, as was once the custom. In many ancient families
they used to sanctify the hour of dinner, on the Sabbath, by read
ing the word of God : this was done by the youngest member of
the family, who always dined first. This habit has been neglected
really for want of books.' "
Another correspondent thus writes: "I was singularly struck
with your idea of introducing young children to assist in founding
the Bible Society. It is for two young orphans that I desire this
favour, — Jeanne Isaline Zink, and Jean Louis Zink. On offering
each the moderate sum of 2s. Gd., may they be admitted into
your honourable society ? — and I will take care to instil into their
minds, that, having been received in the years of weakness and
infancy, they are bound to devote to its service those of maturity
and strength."
The Report of the Lausanne Bible Society, in 1824, states,
that it was one of the chief designs of the original founder, that,
in a canton containing a population of 160,000 inhabitants, not a
single family should be unprovided with the Sacred Scriptures;
but though, since 1815, upward of 6000 Bibles and far more New
Testaments have been circulated, the design is still far from being
accomplished. SWEDEN.
Mr. Paterson found in Sweden, a destitution of the Scriptures
truly mournful. In 1812, it was calculated there might possibly

THE SWEDISH BIBLE SOCIETY. 271

be a copy of the Scriptures among every eighty-one persons. The
Swedish Bible Society was then formed, and was assisted, like the
others, by the British and Foreign Bible Society. This produced
such gratitude in the breasts of the people, that when, in the
above year, Sweden had been forced to make peace with France,
,and to declare war against England, and the usual war-prayer was
read in all their churches, the people inquired who were their
enemies; and being informed that the English were intended,
"No ! no !" exclaimed they; "the English are not our enemies !
They are our best friends; they sent us corn to sow our land
when we had consumed all our reserve ; they sent us medicine
and blankets for our sick and wounded; and, now, more than all,
they have sent us the Bible !" They said they could not use
that war-prayer, and it was discontinued accordingly.
At the commencement of the present century, the religious con
dition of Sweden, as well as of other countries, had been at a low
ebb, owing to the system of philosophy prevalent at the time. The
reading of the Sacred Scriptures was generally neglected, for the
few who possessed the treasure held it in contempt, and it was
comparatively scarce among the mass of the people. It was an
expensive book, and few could afford to buy it ; added to which,
the teachers of religion declared that the common people had nc
need of it, and that it would do them more harm than good.
Mr. Paterson met with many difficulties, but he succeeded so far
as to form an Evangelical Society, whose immediate object it was
to publish religious tracts. The Swedish Bible Society was esta
blished in the year 1814, and the number of Bibles it issued soon
proved that the gloomy forebodings expressed with regard to the
circulation of the Bible, unaccompanied with apocryphal books,
wore without foundation.
In 1818, the committee ofthe Swedish Bible Society say: '.'A
name which we have all learned to reverence, is that of the Bri
tish and Foreign Bible Society, — the Parent Society of every Bible
Institution throughout the world. We have this year received
from them 300?. and powerful aid in support of our auxiliary so
cieties. We have, therefore, been enabled this year to publish

272 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

13,000 Bibles and 5000 Testaments, making 160,000 Bibles and
Testaments, since the commencement of the society.
In 1824, there is an account of Bibles distributed greater
than in any preceding year. The Hernosand Ladies' Bible So
ciety, the first of the kind instituted in Sweden, continued its
progress with uninterrupted success. m
The president of the Stockholm Society, Count Rosenblad,
spoke much to Dr. Pinkerton of the " pleasing effect that had
already resulted from the labours of the Swedish Bible Society,
and the great change that had taken place in many minds in
favour of the sacred writings and of Christianity, — the voice of
infidelity being less frequently heard both in public and in private
circles." He adds : " I conceive the present to be a serious
crisis, which will perhaps determine, for centuries, the moral
state of mankind. God is abundantly sowing the good seed,
but the enemy is no less active in sowing tares. Had not Bible
Societies been established, through the merciful providence of
God, to counteract the evils of ignorance and infidelity, to
what a state of degradation must the world have sunk at this
moment !" NORWAY.
A grant of the Holy Scriptures was made to the poor of Nor
way, by the British and Foreign Bible Society, in 1812; but
the example set in Sweden soon extended itself to the sister
kingdom of Norway, under the liberal patronage of the crown-
prince, from whom it received a munificent donation. The
foundation of the Norwegian Bible Society was laid in 1816.
Support was speedily and regularly furnished by the committee
in London, up to the year 1828, when, in consequence of the
decision of the British and Foreign Bible Society not to assist
in- the circulation of the Apocrypha, the Norwegian Society com
menced an independent agency of its own. Previously to this,
however, large numbers of copies of the Scriptures had been
circulated, and measures adopted for the translation of the New
Testament into the Norwegian-Lapponese dialect.

EDUCATION IN ICELAND. 273

ICELAND.
But we must now turn to this large and interesting island
of the North Atlantic Ocean, crossed by its ridges of rugged
mountains, with its population scattered on the banks of the
fiords or inlets of the sea, which run up toward the glaciers
of the interior. Iceland contains an area of 30,000 square
miles. It is divided into 305 parishes, and its centre is a
dreary desert, through which one may travel far, without meet
ing any trace of human existence. You have heard, perhaps,
of its magnificent glaciers, its boiling springs, its burning moun
tain, and its forests of a former age. The Icelanders are the
genuine descendants of the old Norsemen, and their language
is still pure as they imported it from Norway, in the ninth
century. About the year 1057, Isleif, the bishop of Skalholt, intro
duced among them the art of writing, at the same time with
the Latin language. The feats of their ancestors were recorded
in songs, like those of the Druids ; their historical compositions
were called "sagas," and literature was cultivated as soon as
they acquired the art of writing. The corrupted Christianity
of the times was established in Iceland, in A. D. 1000. In
1529, the art of printing was introduced, and, in 1550, the
Lutheran Reformation reached these frozen shores, which led to
the overthrow of the convents,- and the loss of many valuable
national manuscripts.
Elementary education, with a certain degree of superior in
formation, is very generally spread among the Icelanders. Chil
dren are educated by their parents, with the assistance of the
parish clergyman; and, owing to their unchanged language, the
humblest peasant can read and understand the most ancient
written documents on the island. In the "Young Edda," a
composition of the eleventh century, it is said of the Anglo-
Saxons and the Icelanders, " Wer erum einnar, tungu," '' We
are of one tongue."
Oddur, the son of a bishop of Holum, in Iceland, was edu-

274 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

/sated in Norway, and shared in the sensation which the doc
trines of the Reformation produced through the north of Europe.
We are told that for three nights, on his knees, he besought
the " Father of lights" to open the eyes of his understanding,
and show him whether the principles; of Rome, or of Luther
were from heaven; and afterward repairing to Germany, In
attended the lectures of Luther and Melancthon. On his return
to Iceland, he entered upon a translation of the Scriptures ;
and, to avoid persecution, he commenced his important labours
in a small cell in a cow-house. He completed a version of
the New Testament, in 1539 ; but finding it impossible, from
the force of public opinion, to print it in Iceland, he sailed
for Denmark, and published it under the patronage of King
Christian III. He also translated and printed the 53d chapter
of Isaiah. The entire Bible was not printed in Iceland till
1584, and Oddur's translation of the New Testament was adopt
ed in this version.
This edition consisted of 1000 copies, and has been called "a
faithful mirror of Luther's German version." Five editions of
the Icelandic Bible were published after this, some of them of 2000
copies each, and the latest in the year 1750. Still, in the year
1806, the following is the report ofthe scarcity ofthe Scriptures : —
At this period, the Rev. E. Henderson and the Rev. J. Pater-
son, who had devoted themselves to the mission-field of India,
visited Copenhagen, with a view to obtain a passage to Tranque-
bar. Disappointed in doing this, their attention, during their
stay in Denmark, was directed to Iceland, whose population, con
sisting of 46,000 persons able to read, almost without exception,
had, however, among them but forty or fifty Bibles, — for the only
printing-press in the island was out of repair ; and yet no people
in the world were more fond of reading. As they could not,
however, print books, they recurred to the older fashion of tran
scribing them, and the Scriptures were no longer to be obtained
for money. These affecting particulars touched the hearts of those
excellent men with compassion for the people of this island, and
they made an earnest appeal on their behalf to their friends in

WANT OF THE BIBLE IN ICELAND. 275'

Scotland, who conveyed the intelligence to the committee of the
Bible Society, in London. Lord Teignmouth, the president, then
wrote a letter to the Bishop of Iceland, to the following effect.
After informing him that the society had then been estab
lished only two years, but that it had been the means already of
circulating the Holy Scriptures to a great extent upon the conti
nent, he says that " it would have felt much gratification imme
diately to be able to supply the wants of Iceland ; but Icelandic
Bibles can neither be printed nor procured in England. We there
fore adopt the only means in our power, and offer to contribute one-
half of the expense of printing an edition of 5000 copies of
the New Testament, and we shall have great pleasure in learning
that the offer is accepted by the bishop and clergy of Iceland."
To this letter came an earnest and thankful response, stating,
that the grant was truly welcome, that the best farmers in the
parish had warmly contended which of tbem should have the
loan of the one Bible, which was sent to their parish, for them
selves and their children.
These Testaments were then printed at Fuhnen, in Denmark,
and 1500 despatched to different parts of Iceland, in the spring
of 1807. The war between England and Denmark prevented
the transmission of the remaining copies, and it was thought
that they would have been destroyed in the bombardment of
Copenhagen, yet they were preserved when almost, everything
around them was laid in ashes. Two bombs entered the ware
house where they were lying, and it was nearly burnt to the
ground, — " that part only having escaped the flames in which
these Scriptures were deposited !"
In the year 1815, another edition of 5000 entire Bibles and
5000 extra Testaments left the press, for Iceland, under the Rev.
E. Henderson's superintendence, who then followed to witness
their distribution. He writes, on his voyage thither, with a heart
filled with joy, " Our vessel is freighted with corn for the needy
inhabitants of Iceland, and also with the bread of life, — the
glorious gospel of the blessed God." His reception was most
gratifying to himself, and to the society which he represented.

276 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Mr. Henderson spent nearly two months in perilous journeys
into the interior. Wherever he went, he was welcomed with
enthusiasm, and scarcely left a place without being followed by
the benedictions of the inhabitants. The ardour of the people
to obtain a copy of the Holy Scriptures was excessive; — they
really "hungered and thirsted" after the word of God. Mr. H.
says : " From all that I have been able to learn, there are more
marks of religious disposition directed toward the proper Object
of worship among the Icelanders, taking them as a body, than
among any other people in Europe." In the appendix to the
eleventh Report are contained Mr. Henderson's most interesting
letters, while on this journey. He left a copy of the Bible here
and there, as he went along, and announced the coming large
supply. The Bibles were to be sold at the reduced price, viz.
4sv and the Testaments at Is. 3d. At this time there was only
a post to Iceland twice a year, but for the Bibles there was to be
a post on purpose. At the house of the Dean of Iceland, he saw
a Bible of the former days : it was a folio edition, nearly devoured
by the tooth of time, but the defective pages had been all neatly
pasted in, and the text supplied in the most accurate manner in
a handwriting which would have done honour to any schoolmas
ter in Europe. It was the work of a common peasant.
Mr. Henderson underwent many perils on this journey. He
-forded on horseback upward of sixty rivers, flowing cold from
the snow and ice mountains, which are reckoned very dangerous.
He travelled for five successive days without seeing any of the
habitations of men. The road was cheerless and gloomy, with
scarcely a tuft of grass to relieve the eye, or the note of a bird
to charm the ear; but he had a delightful companion in a Danish
officer, and he was carrying the lamp of life to those who longed
for its light. He descended from the mountains into the beauti
ful valley of Eyafiord, and in that neighbourhood he fell in with
a clergyman who had been seeking in vain to obtain a Bible for
the long period of seventeen years ! He passed through a parish
in which there were only two Bibles, and another in which there
were none at all ! It was then fifty years since the last supply

DANISH BIBLE SOCIETY. 277

of Bibles had arrived in Iceland ! " Wherever I hafe come,"
says he, " I have been welcomed as an angel from heaven. The
people often asked me whether old King George had sent them
the Bibles ; and when I told them of the Bible Society, and the
spirit it was diffusing in every quarter of the world, ' It is the
word of God,' was the reply they frequently gave; and they
often quoted some passage relative to the diffusion of knowledge
of the Lord in the latter day."
An Icelandic Bible Society was instituted in 1815; and in
1823, the dean reported, "It is a well-founded opinion, that every
family throughout this island is now in possession of a Bible or
Testament, and many have more than one copy. The sacred
volume is read with diligence during the long winter evenings."
It is with difficulty that we cease to quote from the religious
annals of this interesting people, but we must pass on to —
DENMARK.
In August, 1812, the King of Denmark granted permission to
the Rev. E. Henderson to reside at Copenhagen, for the purpose
of completing the Icelandic Bible; and not the least valuable
privilege allowed him was that of an unrestricted correspondence,
— an extraordinary concession to the subject of a nation with
whom his Danish majesty was at that time at war ! The result
of this permitted residence was the foundation of a Bible So
ciety in Copenhagen, under the royal sanction, on the 22d of
May, 1814.
The wide-spread principles of infidelity presented, at the out
set, the most formidable discouragements : but success came by
perseverance. Prince Christian of Denmark paid a visit, in
1823, to the committee ofthe British and Foreign Bible Society,
in Earl-street, and attended with marked interest to their pro
ceedings. We shall have more to say of Denmark, when re
viewing the proceedings of its Bible Society from the Jubilee-
field, in 1853 ; but we must now leave the Protestant countries
of Europe, which are said to comprise altogether a population of
fifty-five millions, and pass over the ocean to —
24

278 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
The first society established in the States of this great republic
was that of Philadelphia, which dates from the year 1809. This
society ascribed its formation to the example and influence of
the British and Foreign Bible Society, which institution imme
diately voted the sum of 200?. to this transatlantic auxiliary,
whose fibres quickly took root, like those of the original tree, in
several other principal States of the Union, to each of which was
transmitted the usual token of friendly interest, in a donation
of 100?.
The case of the colonists, also, in the North American posses
sions of Great Britain, soon attracted the attention of the com
mittee, and grants were freely sent out to meet their wants, in the
French, Gaelic, and English languages.
It was for some of the aboriginal tribes of this district that the
society's funds were first applied toward printing the Scriptures
in a foreign tongue, viz. Captain Norton's translation of the
Gospel of John into the Mohawk language. But as America is
not a country or a province, — as she is, in fact, half the world, —
she has records of her own, too many to be even noticed here
In 1817, America had 149 Bible Societies scattered over her
continent, 130 of which were in the United States alone; and
the American Bible Society has ever since continued to extend
the scale of its operations by the enlargement of its funds, the
increase of its issues of Bibles, and the multiplication of its
auxiliaries. Many delightful reports of her proceedings does
this noble daughter transmit to her mother across the waves of
the Atlantic; and ere long you shall listen to what she said at
our Jubilee. She bids fair to evangelize her own vast continents,
and also to be our most glorious ally in spreading the light of
God's word over the Old World.

We have little space to notice, in detail, the West Indian colo.
nies of the Protestant nations : they have always had the warn*

WEST INDIAN COLONIES. 279

sympathy of the society, and grants were made in very early
years to many of them. The Barbadoes Auxiliary was instituted
in 1817, under the auspices of Lord Combermere, for the benefit
of the negroes, who received the Scriptures with much gratitude.
Six years after the foundation of this auxiliary, there were 1000
children in Bridge-town under religious instruction.
It would be in vain to attempt to enter fully into the state of
each separate island at this period. Associations were instituted
in almost every one of any magnitude; and those belonging to
the Danish crown received large and continuous grants, which
were conveyed through the devoted Moravian missionaries. No
ease of attested want of the Scriptures was addressed to the com
mittee, without finding a ready ear.
We shall here close our review of the preliminary work of the
Bible Society in the Protestant kingdoms of the world, and must
reserve, for another chapter, its proceedings during the same
twenty-five years, in still darker regions, and in the remaining
four divisions of the earth's population.

CHAPTER V.
The Jews, after their Dispersion, in Rome, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany,
Turkey, and England — Their Sufferings, and the Remission of these — Their
Numbers all over the World — What the Society did for them in its first
Twenty-five Years — Letters of Dr. Pinkerton from Russia — Jews at Thessa-
lonica and Constantinople — Jewish Converts — The Society's Work among the
Syrian Christians in tbe Armenian Church, in the Nestorian, and in the
Abyssinian — Letters from Mr. Pearce — Grants to the Vaudois Church — Its
Gratitude. We have now to examine what was the work of the British
and Foreign Bible Society among the Jews, and the remnants of
the ancient Christian Churches, during the first twenty-five years
of its existence.
We shall take a distinct but rapid glance at the Jewish nation

280 TnE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

in its long term of exile, to whom we have not referred since the
period of the destruction of Jerusalem.
The dispersion of the Jews over the world, which is commonly
dated from the destruction of Jerusalem, had in reality begun
long before. The Ptolemies had formed large colonies of them
in Egypt: and in the time of Cicero, B. c. 63, there was a wealthy
Jewish community in Italy. Philo enumerates the countries in
which they were settled in the time of Caligula, A. D. 37, viz. in
Syria, and in all parts of Asia Minor and Greece; and after the
captivity of Babylon many Jews remained in Mesopotamia.
In A. D. 131, the Emperor Adrian slew 580,000 of them in
battle, and issued a harsh edict against the rest; but this being
allowed to lie dormant under succeeding emperors, they erected
new synagogues, opened schools, and acquired considerable wealth.
During this period the "Mishna" and "Gemara" — their books
of tradition — were composed".
Constantine called them "the most hateful of all nations," and
made several prohibitory laws concerning them. Adrian had
forbidden them to approach the walls of Jerusalem; and these
harsh laws caused insurrection in Judea, and tumult in Alexan
dria. Julian the Apostate favoured them, and attempted to disprove
the Christian prophecy, that their temple should not be rebuilt;
but his work was miraculously destroyed as fast as it was com
pleted. The Gothic kings of Italy protected the Jews, who had at that
time the slave-trade of Europe chiefly in their hands.
The Emperor Justinian was one of those who enacted very
cruel and oppressive laws against them. He rejected their testi
mony in courts of law, cut them off from all offices of dignity in
the state, debarred them from authority even over their own chil
dren, and prevented them from bequeathing their property unless
to Christians. This persecution, which was chiefly directed
against the Samaritan Jews, almost extinguished that once
flourishing community; and in subsequent history they no longer
appear as a separate people.

THE JEWS — THEIR SUFFERINGS. 281

The rise of Mohammedanism brought an unfavourable change
to the Eastern Jews. Mohammed endeavoured at first to win
them over; but as they would not acknowledge a descendant of
Hagar, the bond-woman, as the greatest of prophets, Mohammed
revenged himself upon them without mercy in Arabia, where
they were very numerous. The caliphs were afterward more
favourable to them; and the Jews, following them in their tide
of conquest along the coast of Northern Africa, contributed also
materially to the triumphs of the crescent in Spain.
In Spain, under the Gothic kings, this people experienced the
first of those sweeping proscriptions which they were doomed to
suffer in every country of Christian Europe. They were com
manded even to forsake their religion, or leave the country.
Lashes, chains, and mutilation, with the surrender of all their
property, were the punishment of all who would observe Jewish
rites, on the old principle of compelling men to believe by force :
this was in A. D. 653. In Moorish Spain, the Jews had after
ward a golden age, which lasted for centuries. There they culti
vated science and learning; and the names of Benjamin of
Tudela, and Isaac of Cordova, attest their proficiency. It was in
Spain and Portugal, after the expulsion of the Moors, that the
Jews suffered most. The Inquisition undertook the task of
punishing relapsed converts among them, and finally expelled
them from Spain, to the number of half a million. Soon
afterward, they were driven away from Portugal, under circum
stances of still greater barbarity. The expulsion of the Jews and
the Moors drained Spain of its most useful subjects: this took
place, A.D. 1492.
Charlemagne protected the Jews like his other subjects. They
were, in his reign, physicians and bankers, and even ambassadors
of state ; but under the third or Capet dynasty, they suffered
bitter persecution throughout France. Philippe Auguste ba
nished all the Jews from his dominions, and declared all debts
due to them null and void : again they re-entered France, and
were ->nce more expelled, under Philip the Fair, on the 22d of
24*

282 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

July, 1300 : their synagogues were converted into churches, and
even their grave-stones torn up to be used in building.
In Germany, about the same period, viz. in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries, the Jews were massacred repeatedly, at the
cry of " Hep ! Hep ! Hep !" the initials of the words " Hieroso-
lyma est perdita," i. e. "Jerusalem is destroyed." In K36,
they were accused of killing Christian boys for the sake of their
blood for the passover, and were again hunted down. They suf
fered from fire and sword, in 1298, at Nuremberg; and in the
thirteenth century, at Vienna, they were forbidden the use of
the same baths and rivers with the Christians.
In Turkey and Barbary they have since settled in great num
bers. In the eighteenth century, a milder spirit of toleration
manifested itself toward the Jews in most of the countries of
Europe. In Holland they have long formed a flourishing, nu
merous, honourable, and intelligent community.
It appears that the Jews were settled in England as early as
the Saxon period, A. D. 750. From the time of the Conquest,
they increased in number, suffered grievously under Stephen and
his successors, who were rapacious of their gold, and were cruelly
persecuted by rich and poor, priest and people.
In 1290, under Edward I., all Jews were banished from the
kingdom. After the Restoration, in 1660, they returned, and
again settled in England ; and since that time they have lived in
the United Kingdom unmolested.
Through the times of their worst oppression, in spite of ban
ishment, robbery, and slaughter, the Jews have survived, as a
standing miracle, in the midst of Christendom — preserved of
God for the fulfilment of his own purposes, and in large num
bers. The following is a description of the present state of the Jews,
by Professor Gaussen : —
" The restless feet of God's ancient people are pressing, at this
very hour, the snows of Siberia, and the burning sands of tho
desert. The missionary Gobat found numbers of them in the
elevated plains of Abyssinia ; and when Denham and Clapperton

NUMBER OF THE JEWS. 283

•(the first travellers who ventured across the Great Sahara) arrived
on the banks of Lake Tchad, they also found that the wandering
Jew had preceded them there, by many a long year. When the
Portuguese settled in the Indian peninsula, they found three
distinct classes of Jews ; and when the English lately took pos
session of Aden, in the south of Arabia, the Jews were more in
number there than the Gentiles.
" By a census taken within the last few months, in Russia,
they amount to 2,200,000; Morocco contains 300,000, and
Tunis 160,000. In the one small town of Sana, the capital of
Arabia-Felix, they assemble together in eighteen synagogues.
Yemen counts 200,000 ; the Turkish empire 200,000, of which
Constantinople alone contains 80,000. At Brody, where the
Christians, who are 10,000 in number, have only three churches,
the Jews, 20,000 in number, have 150 synagogues. Hungary
has 300,000; Cracovic 22,000. In a word, it is imagined, that,
were all the Jews assembled together, they would form a popu
lation of 7,000,000 ; so that, could you transport them into the
land of their fathers this very year, they would form a nation
more powerful and more numerous than the inhabitants of Hol
land and Belgium."
Mr. Dudley, in 1821, mentioned numerous testimonies from
various quarters, which evidently indicated a desire on the part
of many Jews to receive and Study the Holy Scriptures.
In the thirteenth Report of the Bible Society, it is stated,
that " the late wars and commotions on the earth, with the pre
sent wonderful exertions to spread the Holy Scriptures among all
nations, seem to have made a deep impression on the minds of
many of that ancient people. Dr. Pinkerton, in the course of
his journeys on the continent, collected some very interesting in
formation to this effect. The committee, therefore, have pro
cured, from the Society for Promoting Christianity among the
Jews, copies of the Gospels and Acts in Hebrew, and despatched
supplies to the Russian, Polish, and Frankfort Bible Societies."
A clergyman, travelling in Syria, says : " I informed you ot
the rapidity with which I sold a considerable number of Hebrew

284 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Testaments to the Jews at Aleppo. The day before my de".
parture, the chief rabbi issued a prohibition against the purchase
of the book. A cheap edition of the Hebrew Old Testament
would have an easy sale in Aleppo."
Aleppo brings to mind the name of the lamented Burckhardt —
a young man of superior talents, and the most enterprising zeal,
who, after succeeding in opening many acceptable channels for
the distribution of the Scriptures, and making various important
discoveries in connection with this object, in Egypt and Syria,
was suddenly carried off by a fever, at Aleppo, from his work to
his reward.
Of Mr. Burckhardt, Dr. Naudi, secretary to the Malta Bible
Society, thus writes :
" We have seen many here who appeared to be well adapted
to take Bibles and Testaments into Egypt, but most showed some
fear, either of the bashaw, or of the Mussulmans, or of the differ
ent denominations of Christians, or of the Jews. But our
esteemed Burckhardt left Malta, on board a Greek vessel, with
six large cases full of Bible's and Testaments, in various languages
without any fear. He read, conversed, and distributed, in the
most open manner; and Divine Providence, which, without doubt,
conducts these great and important objects, assisted him in every
step, — as well in giving him a right discernment in his enter
prises, as in preparing the people for the reception of the word
of truth.
"On his arrival at Alexandria, Mr. Burckhardt landed cou
rageously with all his cases, which he took to an inn, where he
with difficulty obtained a little garret, which hardly held him and
his possessions. After two or three days, some masons came to
make some alteration in the inn, and began to pull down his
room ; but he, thinking the situation favourable for the sale and
propagation of the Scriptures, would not quit the house, but re
moved with his health-giving merchandise into a shed belonging
to it. Here he conversed with every one that passed by, — pea
sants, strangers, and merchants, both foreign and from the inte
rior of the country. The seamen, who are very numerous at

BURCKHARDT — HIS ZEAL — HIS DEATH. 285

/

Alexandria, came so often to him, that he wrote to us, saying,
that the Greek Testaments which he had dispersed would only be
like so many drops thrown into the sea, so great was the demand
for the word of God.
" He departed for Grand Cairo on board a country-boat, sur
rounded by a great number of Bibles. After experiencing some
dangers, he arrived, took a little lodging, and, as before, exposed
his wares to pubhc sale. Here he found that his mission was
not only known to all, but that he was actually waited for. Jews,
Turks, Syrians, Copts, Christians, and Pagans, went to visit
him, and, what is of more importance, to profit by the books he
sold. "A few days after his arrival, he wrote to me thus: — 'My
dear friend, I have nothing more now to give these people. All
my stock is expended. If I had had with me twice or thrice as
many copies of the Scriptures, I could have disposed of them
without difficulty.'
"In this central situation, he had the pleasure to arrange
various things for the future success of our Malta Bible Society,
in those extensive countries, with the bishops, patriarchs, and
other persons of rank. The Coptic patriarch has requested an
edition in Coptic-Arabic, for the use of his flock, which most
useful measure will be, I hope, attended to.
" From Cairo Mr. Burckhardt went to Jerusalem, where he
visited all the convents and public places, and furnished them
everywhere with the word of God. At length, leaving Jerusa
lem, going by Syria, and visiting many places on his road, he
came to the great and commercial city of Aleppo, in the neigh
bourhood of which, a fatal fever put an end to his valuable life ;
and thus, alas ! we have been deprived of his earnest services.
" His memory will ever remain dear to us. All the friends
of the Bible, who hayj any knowledge of what he has done in the
Levant, have shed tears for him. By means of a friend who left
this place yesterday, we have written to announce the sad event
to his father in Switzerland, and have enclosed the last latter his
son wrote to us, dated from Antioch."

286 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

In the year 1822, Messrs. Henderson and Paterson sent some
very interesting reports to the society, from Russia, concerning
the Jews. A Bible Association was formed in the town of Ber-
ditchev, which is inhabited by 16,000 Jews, several of whom
aided it by their subscriptions, and not only purchased copies of
the Old, but seemed also anxious to obtain the New Testament.
On this journey they received the most convincing proofs of the
eagerness of Jews to receive and read the testimony ofthe Messiah.
The travellers had previously ordered supplies of Hebrew New
Testaments to be sent from St. Petersburg, to meet them at the
more important stations. In the town of Jitomir, in particular,
their lodgings were almost besieged by Jews, who form by far
the most numerous part of the population, to whom they gave
copies, after ascertaining their ability to read and understand the
Hebrew. Having learned that there was a settlement of Karaite or Re
formed Jews in the town of Lutzk, Mr. Henderson visited that
place from Ostrog, to ascertain how the Scriptures might be dis
tributed among them. In their appearance, their manners, and
mode of worship, these people form a striking contrast to the other
Jews. Unshackled by the trammels of the Talmud, they are more
open to conviction, and better able to judge of the truth of what
is proposed for their belief. The travellers wrote thus : "We had
entertained the hope, that some of the Hebrew New Testaments
might be advantageously disposed of among them, but, to our no
small joy and surprise, found they were already in possession of
the Book, and seemed to be perusing it without prejudice. The
rabbi himself produced a copy from his library, in the course of
our conversation relative to the fulfilment of ancient prophecy, and
he spoke of its contents with high respect, before a large company,
who had collected at his house, in order to listen to our commu
nications. " They are not convinced that the Messiah is already come, but
their minds seem to be interested in no ordinary degree by the
subject; and, were proper measures adopted for directing their'
attention to the true meaning of their own Scriptures, the para-

THE KARAITE JEWS. 287

mount authority of which forms one of the most distinguishing
parts of their creed, there is every probability that many of them
would be brought to the acknowledgment of Jesus Christ and
him crucified, as their Messiah. It deserves to be recorded, to
the honour of the Karaites of Lutzk, that, for the space of 200
years, no instance of law-suit or prosecution against ihem is to be
found in the public documents of the place. They still retain the
use of the Tartar language in their daily intercourse, and also in
the synagogue for the purpose of explaining the Hebrew text of
the Law."
In the old Turkish town of Khotim, the master of the inn at
which they slept was a Jew. He told them, that, on the next day,
the whole Jewish population, men, women, and children, were
to repair to the banks of the Dniester, in order to welcome a
new rabbi from Poland, who is reputed to be as holy, and to
possess the power of performing wonders as great as any of the
ancient prophets in the land of promise. Before leaving Kho
tim, the agents presented their landlord with a copy of the Hebrew
New Testament, which he accepted with every mark of gratitude,
and they left him and another intelligent Jew busily engaged in
reading the history of Christ, to whom all the prophets gave
witness. In a letter from Dr. Pinkerton, (1825,) which describes a severe
illness that had compelled him to return home, and relinquish, for
a time, his tour in Greece and Turkey, he mentions two interesting
facts; viz. that an African Jew had lately purchased thirty-three
Hebrew Bibles at Malta, and carried them with him to Tunis,
for the use of his brethren there ; and that at Gibralter another
Jew had purchased 132 Hebrew Bibles, to carry with him to Leg
horn, for the schools of his brethren in that place.
At Thessalonica, or Saloniki, where Paul himself first preached
the gospel after his release from imprisonment at Philippi, (Acts
xvii. 1-10,) there are still from 25,000 to 30,000 Jews who speak
the Jewish-Spanish language, and for whom the New Testament,
in that version, will be particularly serviceable, if a way should,
in the providence of God, be opened for introducing it among.

288 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

them* At first these Jews declined to purchase the Hebrew
Scriptures offered them by Mr. Barker; but eventually they took
his whole stock, and requested that more might be sent. How
interesting for them to find, in the 17th chapter of the Acts, the
subject of the apostle's own mission to their ancestors, nearly
1800 years ago ! How delightful to be a successor of the apostles,
in the character of a Bible Society agent, and return to the chil
dren that which we have received from their fathers !
The Hebrew New Testament appeared to obtain access imme
diately to the minds of many Jews who had never before seen it.
Dr. Pinkerton gave away five New Testaments in Poland, to those
who had never read the doctrines of Christ and his apostles in
Hebrew. They all , commenced reading with great avidity, and
before he left them, gave proofs of their understanding well what
they read. In other places, he says, he could have distributed
hundreds of copies, had he possessed them.
In 1827, a very pleasant account is given by the late Rev. H. D.
Leeves, the society's agent at Constantinople, of some Jewish
converts, who suffered much for their belief in Jesus. They had
read the New Testament secretly for three years, and were ready to
confess Christ before men, which they were shortly called to do.
The Jewish rabbins denounced those Jews who had visited the
Bible agents. Three of them were seized, one bastinadoed, and
all thrown into prison, where they were put in irons. When
brought before the grand vizier, they boldly declared themselves
to be Christians, and said the only reason why they were perse
cuted by their fellow-countrymen was, that they believed that the
Messiah was come. These Jewish enemies used all their efforts
to obtain the execution of one of their number, saying, like the
Jews, of old, " We demand the death of this accursed man, whose
blood be upon us !" This is the more remarkable, as the Jews
never allow (if it be possible to prevent it, by the forfeit of even
thousands of piastres) any one of their nation to be put to death

* See forty -first Report The printing of this version was completed at
Athens in 1845.

CONVERTED JEWS. 289

by the Turks : but the dragoman of the Porte, to his honour, re
fused to dip his hands in innocent blood ; and, in a conversation
with Mr. Hartley, actually compared their conduct to that of their
forefathers before Pilate. The accused were, however, thrown
into prison for a term of six months.
When cruel accusation had failed, the Jews assailed them with
all the temptations of persuasion : a full pardon with immediate
deliverance was promised to them if they returned to their old re
ligion; and, when they still stood firm, it was falsely announced to
them, that next morning they would be led to execution. Thus,
for a whole night they had the view of death before their eyes, and
they spent that night in reading the New Testament with weeping
and prayer. Through the agency of these cruel Jews, their labour
and sufferings in the prison to which they were condemned were
multiplied tenfold, but their faith and love to Christ put to shame
those who had long borne the Christian name.
Mr. Leeves says of them : " Their Christianity is indeed the
work of the New Testament, and the members of the Bible So
ciety may rejoice over their conversion, as the fruit, under God,
of their exertions in the circulation of the Scriptures. One of
these good men, when baptized, chose the name of John Baptist,
from his wish to imitate his example, and, like him, to prepare
the way of the Saviour by preaching to his brethren the Jews."
In the letters of Mr. Leeves, appended to the twenty-fourth
Report of the Society, the following particulars concerning these
converted Jews are given. They were subjected to long-con
tinued trial of their faith and patience in the prison. Two of
them remained steadfast, one of whom was John Baptist. The
third, whose name was David, relapsed to Judaism. He still,
however, remained in prison with the rest; and it was generally
believed that the Jews would not pardon him though he returned
to them, as, having been baptized, he would always be esteemed
by them as a polluted person.
The imprisonment was lengthened out to three years, and any
one during that period daring to demand their deliverance was
to be thrown into the same prison with them. The unfortunate
25

290 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

backslider shared in their continued punishment, and the Jews
willingly gave him up as a sacrifice. He therefore gained nothing
by his denial of his Master.
In the year 1829, it was announced that these Jews had been
released from their imprisonment, and that the two remained
steadfast. The reports of them continued satisfactory, and they
were successful in bringing over several others to the knowledge
of the truth. Thirteen converts were, through their means,
baptized, and made ready to suffer persecution. They were ban
ished to Cesarea ; and it was among the most pleasing of Mr.
Barker's duties to forward copies of the Scriptures for their com
fort during their banishment. John Baptist afterward visited
Mr. Barker, at Smyrna; and it was considered that the way was
preparing for the further triumph of the gospel among the
Jews of the Levant. Thus much for the mission of the British
and Foreign Bible Society, for five-and-twenty years among the
Jews. And now we take in order the remnants of- the Ancient
Christian Churches.
THE BRITISH, THE SYRIAN, THE ARMENIAN, THE NESTORIAN,
THE ABYSSINIAN, AND THE VAUDOIS CHURCHES.
The ancient British Church was cared for by the Bible So
ciety in their early gift of the Scriptures to Wales and to Scot
land; and for the blessing on the descendants of the ancient
primitive Church in Ireland, we must look from the Jubilee-field,
and also under the head of Protestant Countries.

THE SYRIA17 CHURCH.
We did not say much, in the former part of this Book, about
the ancient Syrian churches, as existing in India. " Their rem
nants are now to be found," says the Bombay Report for 1818,
" in Cochin, which, of all the places within the reach of this so
ciety in India, is the most interesting."
The Christians of St. Thomas had been long seated on the

THE SYRIAN CHURCH. 291

coast of Malabar, when the Portuguese first opened the naviga
tion of India. They were probably converted to Christianity by
the Syrian, Mar Thomas, a Nestorian, who has been confounded
with the Apostle St. Thomas. During the seventh century, their
church was considerably increased by the labours of two Syrians,
Mar Sopor, and Mar Pedosis.
" On the arrival of the Portuguese, these Christians," says Mr.
Gibbon, "excelled the natives of Hindustan in arts, in arms, and
probably in virtue. The husbandmen cultivated the palm-trade,
the merchants were enriched by the pepper-trade, the soldiers
preceded the nobles of Malabar, and their hereditary privileges
were respected by the King of Cochin himself. They were go
verned by the Bishop of Cranganore, who asserted his ancient
title of 'Metropolitan of India;' he executed his jurisdiction
in 1400 churches, and was intrusted with the care of 200,000
souls." It was the first desire of the ministers of Rome, now arrived
from Portugal, to intercept all correspondence with the Nestorian
patriarch, and many of his bishops expired in the prisons of the
holy office. The power of the Portuguese, the arts of the Jesuits,
and the zeal of the Archbishop of Goa, who personally visited
the coast of Malabar, greatly troubled, if it did not destroy, this
Protestant Church in India, while they had also to complain of
the cold and silent indifference of their brethren of Europe.
Many of these Syrian churches are found to be still in exist
ence ; and the Bombay committee of the Bible Society took care
to present them with the few copies of the Syriac Gospels which
they had received from England. It was proved that they would
very thankfully receive larger supplies.
The eighth Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society
contains a reference to the Christians dispersed over Hindustan,
including Ceylon, and in number said to be nearly 1,000,000,—
few of them having the happiness to possess the Sacred Scriptures.
Many of the descendants of these ancient Christians have,
from the want of these precious records, relapsed into idolatry,
and are Christians only in n ime. It was determined to aid them,

292 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

by a grant to the Society at Calcutta, of Bibles, Testaments, and
printing-paper, to the value of 1000?.*
When Dr. Buchanan, in 1806, visited the Syrian Christiana
in India, he found several important manuscripts of great anti
quity, which he brought with him to England. The last years
of his useful and laborious life were devoted to the preparation
of a printed edition from these manuscripts ; and he died, so to
speak, with the sheets of the Syriac Testament in his hands. A
short time prior to his decease, he was walking with a friend in
the churchyard at Clapham, when he suddenly stopped and burst
into tears. As soon as he had recovered his self-possession, he
said to his friend, "Do not be alarmed; I am not ill; but I was
completely overcome with the recollection of the delight with
which I had engaged in the exercise of preparing the Syriac
Scriptures. At first I was disposed to shrink from the task as
irksome, and feared I should find even the Scriptures pall by the
frequency of this critical examination. But, so far from it,
every fresh reading only seemed to throw fresh light upon the
word of God, and to convey additional joy and consolation to my
mind." In 1811, also, Dr. Buchanan forwarded some intelligence re
specting these Indian Christians. He spoke of fifty-five churches
in Malayala (comprehending the region between Cape Comorin
and Cape Illi) acknowledging the Patriarch of Antioch. '•' These,"
said he, " are Syrian Christians : they derive their liturgy from
the early church at Antioch. What copies they have of the
Scriptures are in Syriac, and they need them translated into the
Malayalim. They have attempted to do this themselves, but in
vain. When a proposal was made, that a Malayalim translation
should be sent to each of their fifty-five churches, as a standard
book, on condition that they would transcribe and circulate the
copies among the people, the elders replied, that, so great was
* Paper was sent out as a grant from the Parent Society, owing to the enor
mous price of that article in India, at this time. A small edition of tho Nefl
Testament, in 1811, of 1000 copies only, if printed in India, would cost lOOOi,
on account of the high price of paper.

NATIVE BOOKS — DR. BUCHANAN.

293

their desire to have the Bible in the vulgar tongue, that it might
be expected that every man who could write would make a copy
on ollas (palm leaves) for his own family."
Perhaps you have never seen these ollas on which the natives
of India used to write; they now chiefly use paper. They are
long, narrowish leaves, very much like our stiff, flat Iris leaves,
with the top and bottom cut off, only of a stouter texture. They
are dried in the sun, and written upon with an iron style or pen.
Over the characters thus made, lamp-black is rubbed, and the
traced letters receive a black impression : the leaves are strung
together by a riband, two round holes being stamped in each leaf.
This kind of book is not now so common as it was, but is rather
a literary curiosity.
In the Report for 1819, the committee notice an edition of
4000 copies of the Syrian Old Testament, as being ready to ac
company the New Testament before printed : they also sorrow
fully allude to the death of the Rev. Dr. Buchanan, who had in
terested himself so zealously for these Syrian Christians, and the
last act of whose life was preparing for them that Holy Book
which they now possess and peruse with great satisfaction and
thankfulness. Dr. Buchanan only lived to superintend the issue
of this impression, up to the close of the Acts of the Apostles;
and the revision of the rest was completed by Professor Lee.
In 1821, the Syrian Christians in Travaneore had been supplied
with these New Testaments, and some Nestorians residing in
Jerusalem were much pleased with them, and said they would sell
rapidly in Diarbekir.
Besides these Syrian churches, there is in Cochin a large popu
lation of Protestants, the remains of the Dutch colonists; and
among the Christians who have settled in India, the Dutch have
very justly the merit of having done much toward the promotion
of Christianity. They established schools, and caused the New
Testament and a great part of the Old to be translated into the
Malabar language. To these the committee sent a grant of the
Dutch Scriptures, as their establishments are now much neglected
and fallen into decay, having lost their pittance of salary.
25*

294 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

There is still also another race of people in Cochin, particularly
interesting, — the White and Black Jews of Malabar, in whose
record-chest, you will remember, Dr. Buchanan, in 1806, found
the old Hebrew roll, which is now deposited at Cambridge.
Some of these Syrian Christians are found at Aleppo. Mr.
Barker, in 1825, mentions a visit from a Syrian bishop, who came
to Aleppo on his way to Jerusalem. This prelate assured him,
that, throughout all Mesopotamia, the Holy Scriptures in the
Carshun language (Arabic, with Syriac characters) would prove
a most acceptable gift to the Christians. The Syrian bishop was
accompanied by a member of his church, who observed, that the
Arabic New Testament had proved a real consolation to his
brother, long deprived of the use of his limbs; and that he had
read it again and again, and had found in it things of which
before he was wholly ignorant.
THE ARMENIAN CHURCH.
In the year 1815, the Armenian Bible, in quarto, was being
printed for the use of the Armenian inhabitants of Russia, who
had subscribed liberally to the institution. They took a great
interest in the publication of the Scriptures, also subscribing for
half the edition of the New Testament of 5000 copies; and the
Bible Society agreed to assist this desirable undertaking by a
donation of 500?. From Russia, in the same year, Dr. Pinker
ton writes : " Thus is the blc-ssing of the Lord upon our labours,
and astonishing is the manner in which Divine Providence breaks
up the way before us, and gives us hopes of soon seeing the word
of God spread among all the nations between us and India. Our
Calmuc-Tartar, Armenian, and Georgian editions of the Scrip
tures, are the glorious links of a chain of life, which will soon
unite us with our Indian co-labourers."
In 1814, the Calcutta Auxiliary Bible Society undertook a
large edition of the Armenian Scriptures, at the earnest request
of Johannes Sarkies, a principal Armenian, at Calcutta, who him
self came forward with 5000 rupees, as the united subscription
of his countrymen to that work.

THE ARMENIAN CHURCH. 295

These Armenians are scattered all over Asia. They have
churches in various parts of the Ganges' side of India, at Madras,
Bombay, Surat, Bagdad, Busheer, Muscat, and other places. Je
rusalem, Diarbekir, and Constantinople are patriarchal seats.
These people have formed settlements wherever they have found
an opening for trade. They are found in many places in Hin
dustan; and a very considerable number of them are settled, as
has been said, in Russia, and also at Venice.
At Venice, the most correct copies of their Bible had been
printed; but they were very dear and scarce. In Calcutta, an
Armenian Bible could not be purchased, in 1815, under sixty or
seventy rupees; indeed, it was only procurable at that price, on
the death of any gentleman, at the sale of his books. In Calcutta,
the Armenians are rich; "and if," says the Calcutta committee,
" the want of a Bible is so great here, what must it be in other
places !"
Two thousand copies of this old version, made in A. D. 460, and
long existent in manuscript, were reprinted at the Serampore
press, in 1817; and in the same year the St. Petersburg Bible
Society printed 5000 copies for the use of the Armenians in
Russia. In the successive years of 1818, 1819, and 1823, the society
purchased at Venice, and also printed at Constantinople, various
editions for the use of the Christians in Armenia. The gradual
influence of the dispersion of this ancient or ecclesiastical version,
on the educated part of the people, will be made evident in further
records. Missionaries from America have laboured very much among
this people, who now speak a dialect called the Modern Armenian,
into which it has likewise been found necessary to translate the
Scriptures. The British and Foreign Bible Society made the first attempt
on record, to produce a version in this dialect. A modern version
of the New Testament was completed, in 1824, by Dr. Zohrab,
under their auspices; and it was printed at Paris, in parallel
columns, with the ancient Armenian: the results of the distribu-

296 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

tion of this version also, which are' really unprecedented, will be
stated on a future page. We have said thus much about the
Armenians, because they are a people of much importance from
their numbers. Their merchants conduct all the traffic and
manufactures of Turkey and Persia, and their hierarchy, in India
alone, equals in numbers that of Great Britain; added to which,
the Paulicians, a sect which arose in Armenia, are, in some sense,
through the Waldenses and Wiclif, enrolled among the spiritual
ancestry of our reformers. THE NESTORIAN CHURCH.
Concerning the Nestorian Christians there is not much at this
era to say. The language they speak is nearly identical with the
Syriac. The edition for which they petitioned left the press in
1819. " So great is the antipathy of this people to popery, that
they have a singular and most anti-Christian custom of cursing
the pope regularly every day, his grandfather, grandmother, and
grandchildren !"

THE ABYSSINIAN CHURCH.
In 1811, the committee, owing to intelligence brought home
by the traveller, Mr. Salt, concluded to print an Ethiopic version
of the book of Psalms, for the use of the nations of Abyssinia,
and they endeavoured to procure a version of one of the Gospels
in that language, with a view to the same ohject.
There is a remarkable account of the reception of these Psal
ters in Abyssinia, communicated in a letter from Mr. Nathaniel
Pearce, an agent employed by Mr. Scott, who was then consul-
general for Egypt. This agent was seen by Mr. Jowett in 1819,
and is described as a "wild, tall man, dressed in a sheepskin,
waiting with his camels at the gate of the consulate, just come
from Abyssinia, a journey of eighty-nine days, troubles having
compelled him to quit the country."
The following is an extract from the letter: — "The books of

THE ABYSSINIAN CHURCH. 297

the Psalters," says Mr. Pearce, "in Ethiopic, which you sent
into this country, I have carefully and diligently distributed to
the different churches and holy places, in the name of the Bible
Society. I must tell you that the people find some faults in
them. The ink, they say, is not black enough, the strokes too
thin, the letters too much crowded together, no red ink at the
name of God, etc., no books of the blessed Virgin, Solomon, and
the Prophets, written as they are in this country ; so they cannot
accept them as church books; but in exactness they allow them
to excel their own writing, and they are very partial to those in
red morocco bindings ! I presented two to the king, Itsa Takley
Gorges." Mr. Pearce says again : " I have the pleasure to inform
you, that I have had the honour of being called before an assembly
of not less than eighty of the most learned priests in Abyssinia.
This meeting was held in the presence of the king, on the top of
the flat-roofed church, at Axum, on the 6th of December, 1817.
The first question I was asked, was, 'Who wrote those books;
and by whose orders were they written ?' They next asked me
if one man wrote all (those books, they being all exactly alike,
observing that these books could not be written in ten years by
ten men in this country. I did all in my power to make them
understand how they were printed, but they would not believe
that one man could engrave the print in less than twenty years.
The king said, 'If I were to try to cut the letters in wood, much
more in brass or any other metal, it would take me a whole day
to complete fifteen or sixteen; and after they were finished, how
many years it would take me to put them together!"
So you see the Abyssinians, in 1817, had not partaken of the
light from the printing-press, which had then pervaded the con
tinent of Europe for nearly 300 years.
The four Gospels were completed in Ethiopic, for their use, iu
1826, and the entire New Testament was published in 1830.
Ethiopic, however, is only the language for the learned men
of Abyssinia; Amharic is its vulgar tongue: and, concerning
the Amharic translation, many interesting particulars have al
ready been given, in our account of the library at the Bible

298 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Society House. The translation, purchased by Mr. Jowett,
occupied M. Asselin and his aged companion ten years. Tues
days and Saturdays they shut their door against everybody, and
translated from the Arabic, the Hebrew, and the Syriac, into the
Amharic. The New Testament was published in 1829, and this work
was seen to be of immense importance, as the translation made
for a people who were already students of Scripture, as far as
they possessed it, whose first study was the Bible, whose first
spiritual want the gospel, which they read over and over again
constantly every day. Mr. Jowett says, " How deeply Christian
ity must once have been seated in the hearts of the Abyssinians,
appears from a great variety of proofs. How delightful once
more to restore to them a general knowledge of the Scriptures ! — -
to a country in the heart of Africa, — a continent which seems
left to these latter ages of the world to remind the benevolent of
something they have not done, — the learned of something they
have not discovered."
"One day," said the devoted missionary, Mr. Gobat, (now
Bishop of Jerusalem,) "I am all joy with the hope that, in a
short time, the Abyssinian mission will be crowned with success :
the following day I am cast down to the very dust, by the idea.
that all attempts will be useless : for the Abyssinians very gene
rally yield to the truth, but it is only for a while. They cannot
make up their minds to quit so much as one of their customs.
Thus, faith is tried for a time, yet the promise is sure, that God's
'word shall not return unto him void;'»and the day, perhaps, is
near, when Ethiopia will stretch out her hands unto God."
THE VAUDOIS CHURCH.
In the Report for 1816, it is stated that a Bible Society has
been organized among the Waldenses inhabiting the valleys of
Piedmont, which comprise thirteen parishes, and a population of
17,000 souls; but such is the poverty of the people, that they
were not able to collect more than 50?. for the purpose of purchas-

THE VAUDOIS CHURCH. 299.

ing the Scriptures. The committee, in consideration of their
peculiar circumstances, and doubtless in recollection of their past
history, presented them with a donation of 200?.
A letter from the secretary of this small society says, " The
misery is extreme in our valleys, which are inundated with a
legion of Piedmontese beggars, who, though Catholics, come to
implore the charity of the Protestants. The continual wants of
the body occasion almost an entire forgetfulness of those of the
soul; and we cannot flatter ourselves that we shall receive more
than 1000 francs in our thirteen churches. Our brethren at
Turin have, however, promised to double our funds; yet, even
with this addition, it will be impossible for us to furnish the
fiftieth part of the Bibles we want : few families here possess the
means of procuring them from foreign parts, at heavy expense.
The Basle Bible Society has twice gratified us with a gift of 86
New Testaments, and 100 additional copies are speedily expected
to arrive. We hope that God, who has favoured us with this
supply, will increase it. Next to Him, we look to the British
nation and to your noble society for support. Without England,
the Vaudois would long since have ceased to exist. Its govern
ment has paid a kind attention to their temporal wants. Its
Bible Society will also deign, they hope, to consider its spiritual
wants." In answer to this request, the grant before mentioned was made,
and warm were the thanks which it brought from the heart of the
mountains. "Your generosity actually electrifies us; but to God
we give thanks for what we receive, praising and magnifying his
Holy Name, at the same time supplicating him to bless your per
sons and your labours. We laid the foundations and established
the first rules of the Vaudois Bible Society, on the very day on
which you were so kindly occupying yourselves about us. How do
we rejoice over the advantage of being in connection, and as it
were in contact of heart and mind, with you, dear and honoured
brethren !"
In 1818, the Bible Society established at La Tour, for the
7alleys of Piedmont, had distributed 150 Bibles and 1865 New

300 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Testaments. "The poor inhabitants of those valleys, stirred up
again by the spirit which so eminently distinguished their pious
ancestors, come and earnestly entreat to be received as members
of the Waldenses' Bible Society, and urge the acceptance of such
mites as they are able to present."

CHAPTER VI.
The Work of the Bible Society among Roman Catholics — The Greek Church—
Distribution of the Bible by Roman Catholic Priests — General willingness
of the Roman Catholic Laity to receive it — Anecdotes— Leander Van Eas
— France — Professor Kieffer — The Prayer of the Dying Sister, and its An
swer — Austria and Belgium — The Roman Catholic Portion of Germany, Prus
sia, Poland, and Switzerland — Italy, Spain, and Portugal— Russia : the Bible
Society there ; its Extinction — The Tribe of Buriats — Turkey, European
and Asiatic; its mixed Population — The Turks — Foreign Agency— Mr
Barker — Greece — South America — Dr. Thomson — A few Words on the Apo
cryphal—The Mohammedan Countries — The Heathen Countries.
We must now pass on to inquire what had been the distribution
of the Bible among the members of Roman Cathohc and Greek
churches, all over the world, during the first twenty-five years of
the existence of the Bible Society.
In the very first Report of the Society, a singular feature of its
history was presented in the letter of a Roman Cathohc priest, in
Swabia, to Dr. Steinkopff. "He had heard," he said, "of the
example of the Bible Society, who were filled with a noble desire
to send out the pure word of God, as the best preacher, into the
world, and he wished it a thousand blessings. He allowed that
all blind bigots of his church had always spread the opinion that
it was entirely forbidden for all laymen to read the Bible; but he
declared there were many clergymen in Swabia who did every
thing in their power to promote the reading of the Bible, espe-
aially of the New Testament ; that their number was daily in-

THE BIBLE AMONG ROMAN CATHOLICS. 301

creasing ; and that they even felt a desire to form a Bible So
ciety among themselves, but that, in the mean time, he would be
glad of Scriptures to circulate." The Bible Society thought this
opening worthy of their particular attention, and they authorized
the society at Nuremberg to furnish 1000 copies of the Protestant
edition of the New Testament, for sale or gift among the Roman
Catholics of Swabia.
In 1810, from several parts in the southeastern provinces of
France, authentic accounts had been received, that many Roman
Catholics requested copies of the New Testament, and had perused
them with great eagerness and gratitude.
In a yet earlier year of the society, Pastor Oberlin had given,
in a letter to the committee, a vivid sketch of the desire after
Bibles in the interior of France. He told of the villages of the
Steinthal, in which he himself laboured, and which had been
evangelized fifty years previously by the good Pastor Huber, who
sent for fifty French Protestant Bibles from Basle, had them di
vided into three parts, and bound in strong parchment, which
made 150 books. These he lent in the schools, even permitting
the scholars to take them home.
A Roman' Catholic entered a house in one of these villages,
and spied in the window a thick book with a lock. Having heard
that Bibles had this appearance, he took it down, looked at the
title, and asked if one could have such a Bible for a crown. The
owner answered, "Yes." The Catholic threw down the crown,
and ran away with the Bible to his own village. From that time
the demand increased continually, and several hundred Bibles
were sold, given, or lent ; many copies, however, were taken by
the priests from the people, as of old time, and burnt, and some
times violent contention took place about them.
" Once a priest surprised one of his people over the Bible,
snatched it from him with bitter reproaches, and was going off
with it, when the man, who had seen the world, and often heard
from his neighbours of the priests taking away their Bibles, jumped
up, seized his hanger, placed himself before the door, and cried
out, ' Mons. le Cure ! replace that Bible on the table ! I respect
26

S02 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY

your character ; but a thief is no pastor. I will rather cut you
in pieces than suffer you to steal a Bible which has been kindly
lent to me.' The priest restored the Bible, but ordered the man
to return it to the owner ; and thus many were returned to us."
About the same period, in Germany, a Roman Catholic cler
gyman writes, " Blessed be God, we have at last a cheap Bible
for the people of our own persuasion ! The printing is happily
completed at Ratisbon, and several thousand copies are now
circulating in various Roman Cathohc provinces of Germany.
I myself distributed 650 copies. Eight of our clergymen have
publicly announced the excellent Ratisbon Institution, and most
earnestly recommend the reading of the Holy Scriptures. Im
mediately after their sermons, numbers applied, and 2000 copies
were not sufficient to satisfy them all. The Bible is now read
by students, by the people, and even by children. My friend,
Professor Sailer, sent 600 copies to his friends in the Roman
Catholic cantons of Switzerland, and I did the same to mine in
Austria." Several Protestant divines, having seen this edition of the
New Testament translated by the Roman Catholics at Ratis
bon, pronounce it to be faithfully translated from the original
Greek. Some of the letters from Roman Catholic clergymen, at
tached to the first Reports, excite a mixture of pleasure and
surprise. Whatever these good men may have called them
selves, they seem to have belonged in spirit to the Universal
Church of the Book, and in their own countries they aided
not a little in its dispersion in the early years of the Bible
Society. The higher powers of the Roman Catholic Church did not at
first seem awakened to perceive what would be the results of
this spread of the Bible. The country clergy might then act
as they pleased ; and if they were now free from the iron hand
of spiritual despotism, under which they groan, numbers of them
would still probably take their stand upon the word of God.
At the late Jubilee-meeting, in Exeter-hall, the Duke of

LEANDER VAN ESS. 303

Argyll, who is president of the Scottish Bible Society, express
ed his "firm conviction on this point, that the great mass of
the people in Roman Catholic countries would be ready and willing
to read and acknowledge the authority of the Bible, if allowed
to act freely for themselves."
By the year 1814, the Bible Society began to prove that
the Bible is not a book exclusively for the clergy and the
learned, but the Book for the human race. In the Report
for that year, is first mentioned the honoured name of Leander
Van Ess, Catholic professor of divinity at Marbourg. He was
a clergyman, who, with his brother, had produced an excellent
translation of the New Testament, from the Greek into Ger
man, and desired help from the Bible Society to circulate it.
They voted him 200?., on condition that the few notes accom
panying his own impression should be struck out. Generously
sustained in succeeding years by grant after grant from the
committee, and in defiance of mandates which began to issue
from Rome, of the old kind, in favour of tradition, and in
check of Bible distribution, this diligent professor saw the dis
persion of many editions of his New Testament, and had the
joy of gratifying " the great and irresistible desire of the people
to have the Bible." Mr. Owen saw him, at Basle, in 1818,
and describes him as "a most interesting man, in the prime
of life, apparently about forty years of age : his countenance
is intelligent and manly, his conversation fluent and animated,
and his whole manner partaking of that ardour and vivacious
energy which so remarkably characterize all his writings and
operations. The dissemination of the Holy Scriptures, and the
blessed effects with which it is attended, are the theme on
which he delights to discourse : they seem to occupy his whole
soul, and to constitute, in a manner, the element in which he
exists. The letters of Leander Van Ess to the committee are, in
themselves, treasures of Christian love and energy. We cannot
quote them, but they are all in these Bible Reports, which now,
as in a long-clcsed mine, contain ungathered gems of history,--

804 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

a history which would be thought worth tracing even by the
angels of God.
. A child once said to us, " Why do they not make history
lessons from the lives of God's men, who have done good in the
world, and give them to children, instead of the histories of
kings, and the men who have made war in the world ?" Such
histories are laid np here in great abundance. Here are the
sacred relics of hearts which burned, with the pure flame of devo
tion and zeal, in the noblest work in which man can engage on
earth, and whese "work of faith and labour of love" the All-
seeing One has remembered, while, perhaps, man has forgotten ;
for the circulation of his word is his own design, and he has ever
watched over it, and brought it to pass. " It shall prosper in
that whereto he hath sent it."

In the wide glance we have wished to take over the Roman
Catholic kingdoms, — over France, Austria, Belgium, half of
Germany, two-fifths of Prussia, Poland, two-fifths of Switzer
land, over Italy, Spain, and Portugal, and also over Mexico, and
the whole continent of South America, together with the work
of the Society among the members of the Greek Church in
Greece, in European and Asiatic Turkey, and in European and
Asiatic Russia, — our heart almost fails us in entering into de
tail ; — there is so much to tell, and so little space in which to tell
it. It were easy to write a book on the dispersion of the Bible
in any one of these kingdoms ; but to give you a definite idea of
its work in all, — that is the difficulty. The Roman Cathohc
religion in Europe is professed by 120 millions of people, which
is half the European population. The Greek church numbers
more than 55 millions; and, added together, they are 175 millions,
as nearly as calculation can be made. Let us just see what, in
1829, had been the result of the spread of the Bible in —

BIBLE DISTRIBUTION IN FRANCE. 305

FRANCE.
It is known to be a fact, that, even in 1814, some pious Eng
lishmen, who came to Paris, made an attempt to meet with a
French Bible of any version, and that they were unsuccessful in
their search.
In 1813, the Bible Society subscribed 250?. to a stereotype
edition of Le Maistre de Sacy's Version of the New Testament
for the use of the Catholics in France. In 1818, when Mr. Owen
paid a visit in Paris to Professor Kieffer, and found him revising
the Turkish Bible, his thoughts were also busy on what might be
done among the Roman Catholic portion of the population. His
distributions among them in 1819 and 1820 cost the committee
upward of 2000?. Professor Kieffer was appointed as regular
agent in 1820, and continued so to act until 1833. His issues,
during this period, amounted to more than 730,000 copies, chiefly
among Roman Catholics.
In 1830, when religious liberty was at its height in France, a
strenuous effort was made to aid the religious movement which it
had commenced in Paris, with a view to evangelize the Roman
Catholics. Several places of worship were opened in the capital,
which were filled to overflowing.
In the mean time, God was preparing for his own work one,
who, for twenty years, has since directed the agency of the Bible
Society in France, with consummate zeal and prudence. Mon
sieur de P. was not appointed as agent till 1833, and the account
of. his labours belongs to the second era of the society's history.
But you will like to know one or two instances of his early life.
He was the son of a Catholic father and a Protestant mother,
(the latter being descended from the persecuted Huguenots,) and
was brought up a Catholic, as it had been arranged the sons should
be. The whole family emigrated to Holland at the Revolution,
and the son thus became a pupil of the Jesuits, and was a second
time baptized by the reverend fathers, with great pomp. They
sought further refuge at Lausanne, and here the youth came
tinder Protestant influence and more especially under that of his
26*

306 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

elder sister, who was a confirmed invalid, and passed her days
extended on an arm-chair,— finding her whole consolation in the
family Bible, which was from morning till night before her.
Every day she called her brother to her side, for the purpose
of speaking to him of her hopes and spiritual joys, with an unc
tion and a rapture which would have moved any heart. Several
days before her death, feeling her end approaching, she spoke to
her brother with more energy than ever. She read to him a
number of the most forcible passages of Scripture, and besought
him to give his heart to the Lord, while frequently she was heard,
by persons passing her room, imploring the Lord, when alone,
that her brother might become a servant of his word.
And, oh ! how this prayer of the dying was answered, let the
whole history of colportage upon the continent of Europe bear
witness ! God has often answered such prayers, and he never
withdraws from his work on earth the strength of an earnest soul,
but he suffers that soul, in departing, to cast some seed into the
mind of another, which shall " spring up and bring forth fruit
abundantly," and thus his work goes on ; and though " all flesh
is grass, and the grass withereth, and the flower fadeth," still
" the word of the Lord endureth for ever."

AUSTRIA.
During the lengthened period that Prince Metternich was
prime minister, the Bible Society was not permitted to take any
open and active measures, in furtherance of its object in this
country, up to the year 1847. BELGIUM.
In Belgium, a small dep6t of Bibles, only 1000 copies, were,
id 1846, confided to the care of a few Christian friends in Brus
sels ; but even after twenty years there were some remaining,
which, at that period, were freely given away. They might have
deserved the name of " dusty Bibles" : not one copy was to be

BELGIUM — RUSSIA. 307

found in any of the shops of Antwerp and Bruges. The friends
of Bible circulation must here look to the second era of the so
ciety, for cheering and abundant success.
As the work of the Bible Society in parts of Germany, Prussia,
Poland, and Switzerland, has already been noticed, it is not
necessary to say more than that, although (in the words of Dr.
Steinkopff) " there was only one Leander Van Ess," still many
faithful men were, during all this period, labouring among the
Roman Catholic as well as the Protestant population of these
countries, and that vast numbers of copies of the Scripture were
granted to the strong, personal desire of the people. Dr. Pinker
ton, however, in his correspondence attached to the twenty-sixth
Report, speaks of comparatively little being effected, because of
the powerful opposition made by the priests. " They take up the
books, examine them, and exclaim, ' These are Protestant books,
good for nothing but for the fire !' while, from the blind submis
sion of the people, they seldom fail to make it known at confession
when a Testament has been given to them, and this generally
leads to their being deprived of it."
In Italy, Spain, and Portugal, " doubly barred countries against
the entrance of Divine truth," little also was accomplished, or,
indeed, directly attempted before the year 1835, except grants to
prisoners of war from those regions, and some small circulation of
Testaments in their colonial possessions. But we have not yet
approached the vast empire of —
RUSSIA,
With its surface of more than half that of Europe, embracing
about one-seventh of the whole land of the earth, and about one-
thirteenth of its entire inhabitants; — Russia, with its spreading
corn fields, its absolute monarchy, its mixed population, its state
of serfdom, and its slowly but certainly extending power.
You will ask, Was there a Bible Society in Russia ? Yes. It
began in the province of Finland, in 1812 ; and the British and
Foreign Bible Society made it a donation of 550?., to which th«

308 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Emperor of Russia added 5000 roubles from his private purse.
This, in the following year, gave rise to its noble sister Society of
St. Petersburg, which, for fourteen years, exercised so powerful an
influence for good over the extensive empire of the czar. During
these fourteen years, it translated the Scriptures or parts of them
into seventeen languages, in which they had not been previously
known. It printed them in thirty languages, and circulated them
in forty-five.
In 1806, not one in a thousand of the people of Russia could
read, and it was generally known a hundred versts off, where the
treasure of a Bible was to be found. In ten years the Russian
Bible Society issued more than 800,000 copies ! •
We will give you an interesting extract from the speech of
Prince Galitzin, at the seventh anniversary of the Russian Bible
Society :
" A most striking feature in the accounts of that vast field, in
which the word of life is now sowing, is the indefatigable zeal
exhibited in preparing versions of the Holy Scriptures : this is
manifest in Russia. In the different governments, both near and
remote, — in the desert, and in the village, — in snow-clad Siberia,
and upon the mountains of Caucasus and Uralia, — are to be found
lovers of the word>of God, who, of their own accord, and without
selfish views of gain, are engaged in the work of translating the
Gospels and other parts of the Bible into the various languages
and dialects spoken by the tribes who inhabit Russia,! — people
who never before even heard of this Divine word."
An imperial ukase, in 1813, decreed and authorized the estab
lishment of the Bible Society ; but, alas ! in 1826, another ukase
of another emperor appeared to suppress it. In the mean time it
had circulated at the rate of one copy at least to every twentieth
family in the wide empire.
The most important benefit conferred on its own country by this
institution, while it existed, was the bestowment of the New
Testament, and the book of Psalms, and the first eight books of
the Old Testament, in the modern Russ, on the poor serfs, who
thereby obtained the knowledge of the wonderful works of God

BIBLE IN RUSSIA. 309

in their own tongue. The numbers printed were 324,000. This
seed of the kingdom seems buried ; but the Lord can yet quicken
it again, and cause it to spring up and bring forth fruit to the
praise of the glory of his grace. A measure of patronage, we
are thankful to say, is still extended by the czar to the different
Bible Institutions established in the provinces of the Baltic, and
security is insured to the agents labouring on the banks of the
Black Sea and the Sea of Azoph.
The letters of Dr. Pinkerton, and also of Mr. Paterson, during
this period, witness to their labours in the northern kingdoms of
Europe. Could all that they have detailed concerning the Book
and its Story, in Russia, in the times when sixteen wagon-loads
of Bibles and Testaments were despatched in a month from the
capital to different parts of the empire, it might move the heart
of the present emperor to pass a third ukase, decreeing that those
times should return.
The following incident may serve as a specimen, though it ought
possibly to find a place among the records of the desire of the
heathen to become possessed of the word of God : it took place
in 1818.
A member of the St. Petersburg committee sent a copy of a
single Calmuc Gospel to a Buriat prince in Siberia, a vast district
of Asiatic Russia, to see if his people could understand it. The
prince replied, that they could not. It was the first specimen
they had seen of Calmuc typography. A long while afterward,
a letter brought the pleasing intelligence to St. Petersburg, that
the Buriats had found the key, and could make out the sense of
the Calmuc Gospel. His excellency Prince Galitzin then wrote
to the Governor of Irkutsh, begging he would appoint two learned
Buriats to come to St. Petersburg, and accommodate the version
of the Calmuc Gospel to their native dialect.
Two of their chiefs, persons of high family, and very intelli
gent and inquisitive, accordingly came, and occupied themselves
with the translation of what they impressively called " the beau
tiful sayings of Jesus ;" and such was the immediate effect of theii
occupation on their minds, that when they turned to pray to theii

310 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

idols, as usual, they felt an internal disquietude, of which they
had never before been conscious, and requested to be more per
fectly informed of the nature of the gospel.
Their letter to their prince, in Siberia, is very affecting : they
say— " By your kind endeavours, we have reached the city of St.
Petersburg, where shines the brightness of the holy doctrine, and
here we have seen and heard the sacred words of the most high
and saving God. That we should ever see and hear such things,
we never before had an idea.
" The word of God being so very clear, we cannot sufficiently
admire it ; and we feel that it is truth which may be relied upon.
This vehicle of a reasonable faith, this pearl of a devout heart, al
though existing 1800 years upon earth, has not hitherto come to
our Mongols and Buriats.
" When, by the grace of God, our people shall forsake their
own faith, and receive the doctrine of Christ, they will, under ' the
light and easy yoke,' adopt a good conversation and good manners.
We are fully and firmly resolved to receive the doctrine of the
saving God, Jesus Christ, although we are not yet acquainted with
the manners and usages of his religion ; and when we return home
we shall find no teacher upon whose breast we could lean our
head, neither any house of God ; yet after the conviction we have
obtained of the truth of the word of God, we can no longer endure
the want of it : we must abide by this doctrine.
" We hope that our gracious sovereign, when he shall hear that
his subjects on the outermost borders of his kingdom have adopted
Christianity, will favour us with wise and worthy teachers."
It must be mentioned, that what is called a Protestant Bible
Society is still existing in Russia, and confirmed by the emperor.
This was formed, in 1828, to supply the Protestants in Russia
with the Holy Scriptures.

The first circumstance that attracted attention to this country
was an application from Edinburgh, in 1807, to assist in procuring

TURKEY, EUROPEAN AND ASIATIC. 311

Arabic types and paper, for printing the New Testament in Turk
ish. The importance of this undertaking was felt from tha
knowledge of the fact, that Turkish was spoken throughout the
whole of that empire, and in the greater part of Persia, besides
being the written language understood by all the numerous Tartar
tribes. The request was readily complied with, and the work
completed in 1813.
Two years afterward, the committee became aware of the
existence of the very valuable manuscript of the Turkish Bible
written by Aii Bey, and lying in the museum at Leyden. The
history of this manuscript and of its revision is as follows :
Ali Bey was born in Poland, stolen while a youth by the
Tartars, and sold as a slave in Constantinople. He spent twenty
years in the seraglio, became first dragoman or translator to Mo
hammed IV., and was said to understand seventeen languages.
At the suggestion of the Dutch ambassador, Ali Bey translated
the entire Scriptures into Turkish. The study of the sacred
volume was not without effect on the translator. It is recorded,
that he entertained thoughts of turning to the profession of Chris
tianity, and that death only prevented the accomplishment of his
design. When this version was ready for the press, the Dutch
ambassador sent it to Leyden to be printed; but it was deposited
in the archives of the university, among other oriental manuscripts,
and there it lay for a century and a half, apparently unnoticed.
When its existence became known to. the British and Foreigp
Bible Society, they recommended it to the attention of Dr. Pinker
ton ; and he, having satisfied himself that it was a worthy trans
lation, placed it in the hands of the Baron Von Diez, a Turkish
scholar of great eminence, who with pious delight undertook to
revise it. The baron says, "I wish with all my heart that the
work may be accomplished for the glory of God, and the good of
my fellow-men. Only one anxious thought sometimes enters my
mind: I am sixty-three years of age; I shall pray God to pro
long my life till this work be completed; for, should it please
him to call me away in the midst of the undertaking, I certainly
know not who would carry it on after my death."

312 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

The venerable senator, however, died when he had completed
but four books of the Pentateuch, and not a little anxiety was
felt about providing a suitable successor; but, as it was truly
observed by Lord Teignmouth, " The Bible Society has never
wanted means or instruments for the furtherance of its object,
whenever they were required." The necessary editor was unex
pectedly found in Professor Kieffer, the professor of oriental lan
guages at Paris. The Testament was presented in a printed form
at the Bible meeting at Paris, in 1819; but it was not until
1828, that the entire Turkish Bible, with all its corrections, was
completed at press, of which edition 5000 copies of the Bible,
and 7000 of the New Testament alone, have been issued by the
British and Foreign Bible Society.
Dr. Pinkerton visited Constantinople in 1819. He gives an
account, in his letter attached to the sixteenth Report, of a con
versation he had with the Yenerable Paul, the Armenian patriarch
of Constantinople. A vast Armenian population lies in and
around the city, estimated. at upward of 100,000 souls; and the
patriarch undertook the dissemination of the Scriptures among
them, and also in Asia Minor. The conversation was in Turkish,
which is the common language of the Armenian population, and
the only one properly understood by all ranks.
Dr. Pinkerton also conversed with the Patriarch of Jerusalem,
and secured his promise to circulate the Scriptures among the
pilgrims who annually visit the holy sepulchre, said to be upward
of 2000 of the Greek communion alone; and as these resort thither
from every quarter of the East, an excellent opportunity occurs
to sow the word through their means. The patriarch promised
to give in charge, to one of the monks who attended at the holy
sepulchre, a number of New Testaments, in different languages,
for distribution.
There were allotted for this purpose 1000 Modern Greek, 500
Ancient Greek, and 500 Arabic Testaments, without money and
without price, for the poor pilgrims assembling round "the place
where the Lord lay."
Tn 1820, Mr. Benjamin Barker, the brother of the consul at

TURKISH INDOLENCE. 313

Aleppo, a gentleman whose knowledge of the country and the
languages of Syria made the acquisition of his services very
desirable, became the agent of the society, and still continues to
be so.
Mr. Barker at once commenced his work. Some Armenian,
Turkish, and Greek Scriptures were readily bought up, and many
of the Armenian copies found their way to Diarbekir. The result
of this distribution lay a long time concealed ; but the success
which has since attended the labours of the American missionaries
in the East, especially among the Armenians, is greatly accounted
for by the circulation of the Scriptures which took place at this
period. In forming an idea of Turkey in Europe, a country which com
prehends a space of 200,000 square miles, and a population of
15,000,000, we have to think of the Turks as its despotic masters,
who, while they treat the Armenians, Jews, and Greeks within
their territories very scornfully, yet form themselves but a minority
in their own country. There is said to be so little strength in
the Turkish empire itself, that it would probably have been de
stroyed long ere this, but for the interference and support of
other powers.
Its great rival is Russia, from whose encroachments it has,
however, a sort of natural shelter in the Balkan range of moun
tains, which the Turks call "Emineh Dagh," meaning "the
mountains that serve as a defence."
The indolent repose of the Turkish character is so capitally
given by Mr. Layard, the discoverer of Nineveh, at the close of
his last book, that we must transcribe a portion of a letter, he
says he has in his possession, from a Turkish cadi, in reply to
some inquiries concerning the commerce, population, and remains'
of antiquity, of an ancient city in which he dwelt : —
"The thing you ask of me is both difficult and useless.
Although I have passed all my days in this place, I have neither
counted the houses nor have I inquired into the number of the
inhabitants ; and as to what one person loads on his mules, or
another stows away in the bottom of his ship, that is no business
27

314 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

of mine. But, above all, as to the previous history of this city !
Allah only knows the amount of dirt and confusion that the infi
dels may have eaten before the coming of the sword of Islam !—
it were unprofitable for us to inquire into it.
"Oh, my soul ! oh, my lamb ! seek not after the things which
concern thee not : go in peace ! After the fashion of thy people,,
thou hast wandered from one place to another, until thou art happy
and content in none. We (praise be to Allah !) were born here,
and never desire to quit. Is it possible, then, that the idea of a
general intercourse between mankind should make any impression
on our understandings ? Allah forbid !
"Listen, oh, my son ! There is no wisdom equal to the belief
in God. Thou art learned in the things that I care not for. I
praise God, that I seek not that which I require not. Thine, the
meek in spirit, — Imaum Ali Zade."
Besides these lazy lords of the soil, there are in Turkey more
gipsies than in any other country of Europe, vast numbers, as we
have seen, of Armenian merchants, and great numbers of Jews.
In 1828, Professor Kieffer finished his most careful revision.
of the Turkish Bible for all these mixed races. He corrected
the sheets six times, as they passed through the press.
In 1826, Mr. Barker speaks of most of the Armenians at
Aleppo, and nearly all the servants, knowing how to read, though
in general very poor; and in 1827, he says, that, "at Smyrna,
French officers and other Roman Catholics daily call for Bibles
and Testaments, contrary to the express command of Rome not
to do so; yet," he adds, "the difficulty of supplying such vast
tracts of country with the word of God can scarcely be conceived
by an Englishman not acquainted with these barbarous regions.
It appears an easy task, perhaps, to those who are only familiar
with their own favoured country, where thousands are ready to
exert their faculties in aiding the circulation of the Sacred Scrip
tures; but an agent of the Bible Society, here, must do almost
all his work himself, unless he can engage a few friends, as a
favour, to render him a little help."
In all his transactions, also, the Bible agent must keep a vigi-

TOILSOME LABOURS. 315

lant eye over his own conduct, so that he does not, by some im
prudent step, excite the feelings of the authorities against him.
"I could, likewise," says Mr. Barker, "give a long account of
the miseries experienced in travelling here. Under the scorching
rays of an eastern sun, the traveller is deprived oftentimes of
common food and water. He arrives late at night at a dirty
coffee-house, occupied already by a number of savage and fanatical
Turks ; he carries with him the piece of carpet which forms his
only bed, and all night is attacked by hosts of vermin. To this
may be added the perils of the journey. You may often meet
with disbanded soldiers, who scruple not to rob you and take
away your life, — the fording of rivers and torrents, — the plague, —
unhealthy climes, — and the sad prospect, should you fall ill, of
being without medical advice or attendance, as was the case with
poor Henry Martyn at Tocat." All these are incidents in the
hfe of a foreign Bible agent in such places as the chain of Taurus,
or on the skirts of the desert of Arabia, — incidents which make
the patient toil of an English Bible collector seem light and easy.
To these may be added, such separations from home and its feli
cities as are recorded in Dr. Pinkerton's letters from St. Peters
burg, in 1820: "After travelling four days and nights from
Moscow, I reached my home yesterday, and to my great joy
found my beloved wife and three children in good health. I
leave the fathers in your committee to judge, for they are best
capable of doing so, of our gratitude to our heavenly Father for
this safe meeting, after a separation of twenty long months. What
changes had taken place even in my own family during that
period! — changes so numerous and great, and many of them so
distressing, that I was alternately roused to every feeling of re
gret, of sympathy, of thankfulness, and of praise, of which my
heart was capable ! How often had I looked death in the face
during this long interval! [He had once slept on a mattress
infected with the plague.] How many hundred horses have
borne me along my course ! Not fewer than eleven different
vessels have carried me from continent to continent, and from
isle to isle, during the last twelve months, frequently in distress

316 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

and sickness, but still preserved to praise the Redeemer of men,
who suffered not a hair of my head to be touched by the hand of
violence, nor a bone of my body to be broken by any unfortunate
accident." A foreign Bible agent needs a heart warmly devoted to his
work, but it is work that recompenses him for every privation.
"New opportunities are constantly occurring here," says Mr.
Barker in 1827, "for a wider circulation of the word of God;
and should we be blessed with tranquillity, we shall hail the op
portunity of beginning to diffuse Christian knowledge even among
the Turks."
Turkey in Asia comprises 450,000 square miles, but only a
population of 10,000,000, including Kurds and Bedouin Arabs, —
the old, unchanged, wild men of the desert, with whom we began
the Story of the Book, and including alike Mesopotamia and
Palestine, the cradle lands of Judaism and Christianity; there
fore, Turkey in Asia is the most interesting country in the
world, — "Over whose acres walk'd those blessed feet,
Which eighteen hundred years ago were nail'd
For our advantage on the bitter cross."
It is also the seat of the old Assyrian and Babylonian empires.
Could England ever do too much to repay to this land the
seeds of blessing which she has received from it ?
GREECE.
The work of the Bible Society in Greece was principally
carried on from Malta, by its devoted friends and agents, the
Rev. W. Jowett, Dr. Naudi, Rev. H. D. Leeves, and Mr,
Lowndes. Mr. Jowett wrote thus, while Burckhardt was yet
alive, in 1819 : " We reap now, in the successes of our noble
coadjutor, in the formation of the Smyrna Bible Society, and in
the pledges of co-operation given us in various parts of Asia
Minor and Greece, an ample reward of our first year's pleasing
toil. Ought we not to be stimulated and encouraged to redouble
our labours in this holy work ? Surrounded by three continents,

SOUTH AMERICA. 317

in each of which there exist such multitudes of souls wholly desti
tute of the word of life, let us forget even our past successes, and
press forward in the work of faith, hope, and charity I"
SOUTH AMERICA.
We shall now turn to this vast region, and its Catholic coun
tries. We can only name them : Brazil, colonized by Portugal ;
Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chili, and La Plata, colonies of Spain.
Mexico, in North America, and Cuba, an island of the West
Indies, were also colonized by Spain. It is too wide a field to
enter upon, more than to notice it as an example of a country,
where religion, once known, has become extinct, because the Bible
was withheld from it by those who nominally converted it to the
faith. The people of South America and Japan have, since their
so-called conversion, been sunk in the darkest superstition.
" The hght was put under a bushel by the men who introduced
it into the house, and then the light itself, such as it was,
perished."* In the eighteenth Report ofthe society is the following notice : —
" The Bible has found a new and unexpected inlet into an unfre
quented region of South America. A chieftain of Patagonia has
been discovered in possession of a New Testament, printed by the
British and Foreign Bible Society. He procured it at Buenos
Ayres, whither he went to trade, and thence conveyed it to his
home, that he might explain its contents to his fellow countrymen.
"A native of Rio Negro was also so pleased by a copy of the
New Testament, that he requested more from Buenos Ayres. In
the region of Rio de la Plata and Chili, at Rio de Janeiro and
Pernambuco, the Spanish and Portuguese Scriptures are sought
with eagerness, and received with gratitude."
A small auxiliary had been formed at Buenos Ayres, and sup
plies of the Scriptures transmitted to the Brazils, Chili, and
Peru, for the labourers in the salt mines at Bona Vista, who,
seating themselves in the shade, while resting from their work at
* "Bible of Many Tongues," published by the Tract Society.
27*

318 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

noon, might often be seen reading the New Testament most de
voutly to one another; but, as this is also America's own Bible
and mission field, we must leave its detail, with the exception of
a quotation from the letter of an agent of the American Society,
and one of Dr. Thomson's letters, the agent for some years of
our own society.
The American agent says : " What are these people ? — beings
professedly Christian, baptized in the name of the Trinity, and
yet almost entirely without the Bible! By the efforts of this
society and that of England, they have, it is true, within a few
years received seven or eight thousand copies of this holy Book,
but, ' what are these among so many ?' — scarcely a single copy to
2000 souls ! Throughout the long road from Buenos Ayres to
Chili, except a very few in Mendoza, not a solitary copy of the
Book of God was found ; and I more than once presented copies
to aged priests, tottering over the grave, who told me they had
never before seen it in their native tongue. In the interior of the
country, some told me that they never before were aware that
the Scriptures existed in their own language. Yet the Bible is
here no longer excluded by royal mandates and by papal bulls.
The new governments are not only willing, but anxious, that the
Scriptures should have a general circulation. The work here is
more than sufficient for the united energies of both the American
and British and Foreign Bible Societies."
In anticipating the arrival of some supplies from Vera Cruz,
Dr. Thomson writes : " Surely it is a new thing in this land, to
see twenty-four mules, loaded with Bibles and Testaments, mak
ing their way up the mountains and through the woods into the
interior !" This active agent gives a most interesting account
of his favourable reception in a convent at Queretaro, where even
some friars had no objection to receive the lamp for their feet in
this dark world. They, however, greatly objected, as the people
do in most Roman Catholic countries, to the omission of the
Apocrypha. Dr. Thomson distributed, during his journey of
two years, 4235 copies. He had to contend with great difficul
ties The authorities of the church first countenanced his ob-

SOUTH AMERICA. 319

jects; but when they found the Bible Society's Bibles without
note, comment, or apocryphal books, their benevolent feelings
were thoroughly changed, and an edict was issued prohibiting the
Scriptures, and ordering those received to be given up.
In Roman Catholic countries, this constitutes a great hinderance
to the society's operations up to the present day. They could
distribute many more copies if the different books which com
pose the Scriptures were intermixed and bound up with the apo
cryphal books, as in the Roman Catholic Bibles ; but the society
cannot do this. It is their fundamental principle to circulate
the pure word of God, whole and alone. In 1826, they made
fresh and distinct resolutions to abide by this fundamental prin
ciple ; and, further, not to make any more grants to any Bible
Society circulating the Apocrypha, which necessarily closed the
connection between the British and Foreign Bible Society and
many of the Bible Societies on the continent.
To those who read the Bible, the evidence is obvious, that the
apocryphal books are of mere human composition ; but the pre
judice in their favour abroad, and among those who have been
educated as Roman Catholics, would seem to be irresistible ; and
a suspicion arises in their minds, which the priests foster, that
our Bibles are not perfect, and that, if we have kept back some
books, we have perhaps also altered those we have printed.
England can only say, " May God defend the right !" and in the
mean time we must adhere to the principle of the old Vaudois
Church — The Bible — whole and alone.
THE MOHAMMEDAN COUNTRIES.
And now we approach the fourth division of the world's inha
bitants, — the Mohammedan countries. It is supposed that there
are eight millions of Mohammedans in Europe. The Arabs, the
Turks, and the Tartars have all been, for more than a thousand
years, the followers of a " false prophet," who wrote a parody
upon the Bible, called " The Koran." There is no society for
circulating the Koran : the believers in it hide it from the pollu
ting touch of the Christian ; but we have given them our Bible,

320 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

in their own tongue ; and, as Wiclif said to Courtenay, — some
day " truth shall prevail."
It is almost impossible to calculate with any degree of accuracy
the number of people by whom Arabic is spoken. Arabia itself
may have twelve millions of inhabitants; but Arabic is also
spoken in Syria, Mesopotamia, in part of Persia, on the Malabar
and Coromandel coasts, in Egypt, in Nubia, and in Barbary.
Arabic is also extensively used, as the language of religion and
commerce, in Western, Eastern, and Central Africa; and before
the missionaries had reduced some of the African dialects to
writing, Arabic was the only written language known to the na
tives of that vast continent.
Arabic, as the language of the Koran, is venerated and studied,
from the western confines of Spain and Africa to the Philippine
Islands, over 130 degrees of latitude, and from the tropic of
Capricorn to Tartary, over seventy degrees of longitude.*
Henry Martyn felt all this when he undertook his new version
of the Arabic Testament. " We will begin to preach," said that
devoted missionary, "to Arabia, Syria, Persia, Tartary, part of
India and China, half of Africa, all the seacoast of the Mediter
ranean and Turkey, and one tongue shall suffice for them all.
It was in Arabia that the great apostle of the Gentiles com
menced his ministry : " When it pleased God, who called me by
his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him
among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and
blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem, but I went into Arabia."
Gal. i. 15-17.
Whatever seed the apostle sowed there, the tares have since
sprung up and choked it.
From the year 1811, the Bible Society attempted to present
versions of the Scriptures in Arabic, reprinted from various pre
vious editions; but much prejudice existing against them among
the Mohammedans, the need of an improved translation, so long
und deeply felt by the Eastern churches, has at length been met

* Butler's "Hora Biblicas."

THE MOHAMMEDAN COUNTRIES. 321

by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. This was
begun in 1839, and has been executed at. Malta by Mr. Fares,
one of the most learned Arabic scholars of the East.
A version of the New Testament, in Arabic, consisting of
10,000 copies, was published by the above-mentioned society, in
1727. The copies of this edition are now extremely rare, for
none of them were sold in Europe. Two, however, are preserved
in Cambridge : the greater part were sent to Russia, for distribu
tion in Mohammedan countries. It must have been some of
those Testaments which received from an Arab the following
welcome : — " He received them almost in a transport of joy,
kissed them, and then kissed me for their sake. He said that
the persons who would read them should always wash their hands
three times before they opened those books."
A version of the New Testament, in modern Arabic, was
printed at Calcutta, in 1816, designed principally for the learned
and fastidious Mohammedans in all parts of the world, who, it
was thought, might have been repelled from the study of Scrip
ture by the antiquated style of former versions. This translation
was made by a learned Arabian scholar, the unhappy Sabat.
Henry Martyn was deeply interested in Sabat, and the produc
tion of his version; but he did not live to see its completion. A
second edition was printed in London, by the Bible Society, in
1825, and a third in Calcutta, in the following year.
This version, though not considered perfect where the lan
guage is spoken, is, by various testimonies, silently accomplishing
the purposes of God. In Western Africa, the natives, on first
receiving the copies sent them by the Bible Society, " were
astonished that a white man should have written this book in
their favourite language." In the eleventh Report it is stated,
that the ready reception of some Arabic Bibles at Yongroo, in
Western Africa, by the Mohammedans, encourages a hope that
they may be more extensively circulated, and has produced an
application for a further supply. The Rev. G. Nylander says :
"I presented an Arabic Bible to the King of Bullom, sajing,
' This is the Book which makes roan wise and good : it is God'a

322 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

word. He speaks to us in this Book by Moses, the prophets and
apostles, and by his Son Jesus Christ.' The king recommended
to strangers this 'white man's book.' Some time afterward, I
went to see him, and found about twenty Mohammedans sitting
together in deep conversation, and an aged Mohammedan teacher
in the midst of them reading the Bible. This teacher visited ms
himself, and likewise begged for a Bible, saying, 'When I go
home, I shall read this book to all my people.' "
The Rev. William Jowett wrote an interesting letter to tho
committee of the Malta Bible Society, in June, 1819, on his
voyage up the Nile. He says : —
" On my arrival at Esne, the last bishopric southward in Egypt,
I first opened my small but invaluable treasure of Bibles. I
waited on the bishop, gave him a copy of the Arabic Bible, and
begged him to recommend it among his people. The price I
fixed was twenty piastres, or 10s. English, which was quite a re
duced price, for the people are so poor, and money is so scarce in
this country. There was scarcely any need of soliciting the
bishop's recommendation, for the people, having seen the book
and witnessed the pleasure with which he received the present,
came immediately to buy, and I could have disposed of my whole
stock, had I not had to think of other towns besides theirs. I
could only spare them three, and it was really painful to see the
eagerness with which one after another came to the boat to ask
if I could not let them have one copy more : yet I was obliged to
think of the other churches.
" Stopping at Edfu, I learned that this was the last town where
Christians (of the Coptic Church) were to be found. They were
very miserable and poor, and, alas ! none of them could read. It
is wonderful how, under such circumstances, even the profession
of Christianity is kept up. Yet some of these poor people show
their attachment to their religion, by setting off on the Thursday
night, to be present at vespers on Saturday evening, and return
on the Monday every week — a reproach to many in Christian
countries, who live within half an hour's walk of a place of wor
ship, and yet seldom attend.

THE MOHAMMEDAN COUNTRIES. 323

" At Essonan, though I found persons able to road, yet I found
no Christians. Here, and far higher up in Nubia, are numerous
relics of churches and convents, and other marks which prove
how far Christianity once extended in these countries, lt will be
the blessed work of Bible Societies to renew them."
Afterward, Mr. Jowett passed a week at Thebes, commencing
the study of the Ethiopic, in reference to the Amharic version,
under the shade of trees, and amid those majestic ruins. He
left one Arabic Bible at Luxor, not with the priest, to be shut up
in the church, but with a clerk, called Mallem Jacob, whose
nephew of twelve years of age could read it, — a boy who loved
to sit and read by himself; and he trusts that the Bible was fitly
bestowed. At Kemner, a town on the eastern bank, a Copt, on seeing the
Arabic Bible, recognised it as the same that he had bought of a
Jew in Cairo. He offered Mr. Jowett fifty instead of twenty
piastres for it ; but this the missionary refused. Two more copies
were sent him to sell, and he said the people "snatched them up
so quickly," that he had not one left for himself. He was next
morning favoured with two more copies, as the town was a grand
thoroughfare for Mohammedan pilgrims.
The Bishop of Minie purchased the five remaining Arabic
Bibles ; and thus closes the account of the careful dispersion of
this precious seed, being twenty-five sold in Upper Egypt, and
fifty-five in Cairo. On his return to Cairo, Mr. Jowett was imme
diately asked if had any more to dispose of.* Further details
are equally inviting.
The number of Arabs in Egypt alone is estimated at from
two-and-a-half to four millions. Moorish Arabic, into which
dialect a very recent translation of the Scriptures had been made,
is spoken by ten millions of people in Morocco, and by thirty
millions in that and the adjacent regions, all Mohammedans, and
" inaccessible to the distribution of the Scriptures."
Abdallah, an Arabian of noble birth, was converted from ls-
*See Report, 1820,

324 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

lamism by the simple perusal of the Bible. When his conversion
became known, Abdallah, to escape the vengeance of his country
men, fled from Cabul in disguise, but was met and recognised at
Bokhara by Sabat, the translator before mentioned. Abdallah,
perceiving his danger, threw himself at the feet of his friend,
and besought him, by all the ties of their former intimacy, to save
his life. "But," said Sabat, "I had no pity. I delivered him
up to Morad Shah, king of Bokhara."
Abdallah was offered his life if he would abjure Christ; but he
refused. Then one of his hands was cut off; and a physician,
by command of the king, offered to heal the wound if he would
recant. " He made no answer," said Sabat, " but looked up
steadfastly toward heaven, like Stephen the first martyr, his eyes
streaming with tears. He did not look with anger toward me ; he
looked at me, but it was with a countenance of forgiveness. His
other hand was then cut off; but," continued Sabat, " he never
changed, he never changed ! And when he bowed his head to
receive the blow of death, all Bokhara seemed to say, What new
thing is this ?" Sabat had indulged the hope that Abdallah would
recant when offered his life ; but when he saw that his friend was
dead, he gave himself up to grief and remorse. He himself
twice professed, and twice abjured Christianity.
HEATHEN COUNTRIES.
And now we must turn, at last, to the heathen or pagan coun
tries, — the fifth division of the world's population, and by far its
largest portion, — to China, with its 350,000,000 ! Japan, with its
25,000,000 ! India, with its 130,000,000 ! the greater part of
Africa, Australia, and Polynesia ; — and what has the Bible Society
begun to do for these ?
You must perceive, that the first thing it had to do for them
n?? was, to procure such a Bible as they could read, or to assist
and encourage those who were translating it. We will tell you
what various missionaries said about their own work of translation.
Those who have never attempted to translate from one language

HEATHEN COUNTRIES. 325

into another, or whose efforts have been limited to rendering a
Latin or French fable into English, can form but an imperfect idea
of the difficulties to be surmounted in making a version of the
Holy Scriptures in the language of an idolatrous people. Of a
fable, or a story, it would be sufficient to give the general sense.
The narrative might be presented in an entirely new dress, and
yet be equally acceptable ; but no such license may be allowed in
the translation of the word of God ! In this ease, the minutest
shades of thought must be transferred, if possible, from the
original. But how is this to be accomplished in the language of a people
who have had, up to that time, no ideas conformable to the sub
jects of which the Bible speaks, and who have not, therefore, of
course, any words to express such ideas ?
How would you speak of holiness, for instance, to a man who
has no conception of holiness, or whose only notion respecting it
is that of having recently bathed in ? «acred stream ? How would
you express the Christian doctrine of regeneration to a man who
expects to be born again, either in the form of an insect or of a
loathsome reptile, as a punishment for his sins ; or in the form of
a prince or noble, in reward for his good actions ? It is only as
the ideas and experience of any two nations coincide, that the
words of their languages will correspond.
The Rev. J. Campbell, missionary to South Africa, wished to
tell a party of chiefs that he had made a three months' voyage
from England, and had since travelled six weeks in his wagon,
from Cape Town, to visit them. He had no difficulty in relating
to them the latter fact, for they saw his wagon, and the oxen that
had drawn it; but how was he to speak of the sea and ships to
men to whom ships ?nd the sea were unknown ? He was obliged
to impress into his service what ideas they had. He said that
before he travelled six weeks in the wagon, he had to cross a large
pond, — so large, that it took him three moons to come over, whicli
he did in a house built in a large bowl, which had wings ; that
there were many men with him in the house, who spread out the
wings to catch the wind, all day and all night, while others guided
28

326 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

the great bowl. You will not be surprised, when we add, that ha
saw one of the chiefs whispering to another, and overheard the
words, " he thinks we are such fools as to believe him." ' Yet
this singular account of a voyage across the Atlantic came as near
to the truth as the language of that people admitted.
No such free translation as this could be allowed in a version
of the Bible. In the sacred writings, " holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." A translator of the
Scriptures is therefore bound to present their thoughts in their
own phraseology, as far as the idiom of two different languages
will allow.
The spirit ot these remarks is contained in letters from two
missionaries, Mr. Swan and Mr. Stallybrass,' who went to Siberia,1
and translated the Old Testament into the language of those
Buriat Mongolians, of whose desire for the Scriptures, in 1818,
you recently read. These letters are dated 1833. They say
something about the style or dialect of their version, — that there
might be three styles or dialects, among which the translation of
the Buriat Bible takes the middle place. One would be a vulgar
colloquial style for the people ; another, the style for the court, or
for learned men ; the third, a letter-writing and business style, or,
perhaps, something rather above that, so as to place the subject
within the reach of any competently-instructed person. The latter
style they adopted for the Bible.
Other difficulties arose in translating into the language of idola
ters : a word must be found for God ; to them, " the unknown-
God." In the Buriat translation, the missionaries used the word'
" Burchan," as the least exceptionable term they could employ.
It is the word used by the Buriats for the true God of Christians,
when they speak of him, and it conveyed an idea to their minds
of a Being above their idols.
Then, what rule should they lay down for themselves as to the
rendering of words expressive of weights, measures, and coins ?
Should these be translated by the nearest weight, measure, or
coin used in the country, or should the name of the Roman weight
or coin be retained untranslated ?

MODE OI TRANSLATING. 327

Points like these being agreed upon, the translators, together
or separately, took their Hebrew and Greek Bibles, and read over
the passage to be translated, very carefully, in the originals. In
this case they also consulted Chaldee. Then, with the help of the
English Bible, and such other modern versions as they were able
to read, comparing them carefully with such aid from the learned
as they may have had at hand, they possessed themselves of the
exact sense of the sacred writers, and proceeded to express the
meaning, as nearly as possible, in the new language.
Translators sometimes make a list containing every word they
have translated, the rendering given to it, and the passage where
it is found ; so that a concordance of the Scriptures is formed as
they proceed. This renders their work uniform. It insures that
forms of expression, frequently occurring in the original, shall be
repeated precisely in the same terms in the new version.
Afterward, all is revised again and again, in this case with the
assistance of one of the most learned and competent of the Buriats,
(generally a lama or priest;) "and with him," says Mr. Swan,
" we went over the whole, verse by verse, and sentence by sentence,
attending particularly to the idiom, and to the use of appropriate
terms for things not familiarly known.
" A fair copy of the manuscript, thus revised and corrected,
was then made, and sent to our fellow-labourers, who had copies
taken for themselves, that they might examine and make remarks
at their leisure, and have them at hand for reference. Some parts
of our manuscripts have thus undergone repeated inspection and
alteration, and we consider the final corrections not yet made. I
shall again revise my portion immediately on my return to Siberia."
This letter is dated 1834.
The same protracted process has been going on all over" the
world. Morrison, in China ; Carey and his learned colleagues, in
India ; Williams, in the South Sea Islands ; and Moffat, iu South
Africa, have all, by the labour of many years, been creating the
material for the spiritual treasury of the Bible Society, which it
now scatters forth with a munificent and liberal hand. The men
ore almost all dead, but their work shall never die

328 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Incidental notice has already been taken of the difficulty attend
ing Dr. Morrison's work in China; and of the Indian translations
we must further speak, in describing the country itself. The
following is the testimony, on the same subject, ofthe missionary
Williams on the occasion of presenting a copy of the Gospel of
Matthew, in the language of Rarotonga, to Lord Bexley, at the
thirty-first anniversary of the Bible Society. He said, —
" I feel great pleasure in presenting to your lordship the first
sheets of the Scriptures ever printed in England, in a language
of the South Sea Islands.
" The work of translation has been attended with very many
hinderances. When the missionaries first went there, the people
had no written language, no letters, no medium of intercourse, no
hieroglyphic signs among them, and the art of communicating
with persons at a distance, by means of writing, was a great
mystery to them. King Pomare was the first person who learned
to write ; and when it was spread abroad that he could talk with
the missionaries at a distance, by means of a few marks upon a
piece of paper, the people came "from all parts to be eye-witnesses
of the wonderful deed.
" Our own translation has been effected with all the precaution
that could be exercised, in order to have a version as correct as
possible. The work was divided among the different missionaries,
according to their knowledge of the language. Each took his
portion to translate, which, when accomplished, was sent round
to all the others, with a request that they would criticise and re
mark freely upon it. It was then returned to the translator, who
corrected his work, carefully considering all the remarks that had
been made. The translation was then further circulated among
the people, and the chiefs and more intelligent natives were en
couraged to make their strictures also. Some of their remarks
were of very great value to us."
The following is a specimen of the Rarotonga version alluded
to ; John i. 1-5 : —
I vai ana te Logo i muatangana, i te Atua ra oki te Logo, e ko te Atua oki
te Logo. 2 I te Atua ra oki aia i muatangana. 3 Nana i anga tolui mea katoa

RAROTONGA AND SECnUANA VERSIONS. 329

toa, kare ua aia i ngere i tetai mea i angaia ra. 4 Tei roto iaia te ora, e taua
ora ra, to te tangata ia marama. 5 I kaka mai ana te marama ki te poiri, kare
ra to te poiri i ariki adu.
The same martyr-missionary adds : " It will be understood, that
a people of such barbarous character as those among whom we
have been labouring, had no names for many of the animals men
tioned in Scripture. They never saw a horse till we introduced
that animal to the islands ; they had no sheep or cattle of any
kind ; and in many islands they had never seen any animals but
rats, which were very numerous. In other islands they haipigs
xa great abundance, and they called the horse ' the pig that carries
the man.' In translating the Scripture, we had to supply names
for these unknown animals; and for many other things, which
they had not, we borrowed a word from the English language. In
the Polynesian dialects, a vowel intervenes between every two
consonants. This rule made it impossible to transfer the word
horse, and, besides, the letter s is unknown in their language. In
this case we went to the Greek, and found the word hippos, — we
rejected the p and the s, and constructed the word hipo, a word
which any native can speak, and any learned man might under
stand. Such a word as baptism we left untranslated."
Mr. Moffat's description of the difficulty of acquiring the
Bechuana tongue, and the circumstances in which it was ac
quired, will cause you to look with reverence on the sheets of a
Sechuana Bible. The following is a specimen of that version;
John i. 1-5 : —
Lehuku le le le mo tsimologon, mi Lehuku le le na le Morimo, mi Luhuku
e le le Morimo. 2 Ye, le le na le Morimo mo tsimologon. 3 Lilo cotle li tsa
rihoa ka yeona, mi ga goa rihoa sepe sa tse li rfhiloen, ha e si ka yeona.
4 Botselo ho le bo le mo go yeona j mi botselo e le le leseri ya bathu. 5 Mi
leseri ya phatsima mo hihin ; mi lehihi le si ka ya le cula.
"Often," says Mr. Moffat, "have we all met together to read
the word of God, — that never-failing source of comfort; and,
contented with b/jing only the pioneers, have poured out oui
souls in prayer for the perishing heathen around. The acquisi
tion of the language was an object of the first importance, and
this had to be accomplished under the most unfavourable circum-
28«

330 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

stances, as there was neither time nor place of retirement for
study, and no interpreter worthy the name.
"A few, and but few, words were collected, and these very in
correctly. It was something like groping in the dark, and many
were the blunders that I made. After being compelled to attend
to every species of manual, and frequently menial, labour for the
whole day, working under a burning sun, standing in the. saw-pit,
labouring at the anvil, treading clay, or cleaning out a water-
ditch, it may be imagined that I was in no very fit condition for
study, even when a quiet hour could be obtained in the evening
for that purpose; and when /was ready for inquiry, the mind of
the native interpreter could never be commanded at pleasure.
"Those whose faculties have been expanded by a European
education, cannot conceive the stupidity, as they would call it,
of savages, in every thing beyond the most simple ideas. I have
sometimes been obliged to allow my interpreter to leave off the
task when he had scarcely given me a dozen words, it was so evi
dent that the exercise of tlie faculty of thinking so soon wore out
his powers of mental exertion. He would then betray by his
listlessness and vacancy of countenance, that all thought was gone,
and complain that his head ached, when he always received his
dismissal for that day."
Nevertheless, after ten years of difficulties, surmounted by per
severance, there was in existence, by the year 1830, a Sechuana
Gospel of Luke, and then came the earnest of the first-fruits. A
Matabele captive sat weeping, with this portion of the word of
God in her hand. " My child, what is the cause of your sorrow?"
said the missionary. "Is the baby still unwell?" "No; my
baby is well." "Your mother-in-law?" "No! no!" said she;
"it is my own dear mother who bore me !" and, holding out the
Gospel of Luke, all wet with her tears, she added, "My mother
will never see this good word ! She will never hear this good
news. Oh ! my mother, my mother, and all my friends ! They
will die without the light that has shone on me !"
Mr. Moffat saw his reward when he beheld this love to souls
kindled in the heart of Afric's sable daughter; and in 1842,

SOLITARY CHRISTIAN. 33]

there was a whole New Testament, in Sechuana, printed by the
British and Foreign Bible Society, and some thousands of copies
were sent out to the interior of South Africa, to supply the wants
of a people rapidly acquiring the art of reading, and multitudes
of them already able to read in their own language what the
Buriats called the " sacred words of the most high and saving
God." We must give one anecdote with which Mr. Moffat closes his
delightful book of missionary labours : " In one of my early
journeys, I came with my companions to a heathen village, on
the banks of the Orange River. We had travelled far, and were
hungry, thirsty, and fatigued; but the people of the village rather
roughly directed us to halt at a distance. We asked for water,
but they would not supply it. I offered the three or four buttons
left on my jacket for a little milk, and was refused. We had
the prospect of another hungry night at a distance from water,
though within sight of the river.
"When twilight drew on, a woman approached from the height
beyond which the village lay. She bore on her head a bundle of
wood, and had a vessel of milk in her hand. The latter, without
opening her lips, she handed to us, laid down the wood, and
returned to the village. A second time she approached,, with a
cooking vessel on her head, and a leg of mutton in one hand, and
water in the other. She sat down without Saying a word, pre
pared the fire, and put on the meat. We asked her again and
again who she was. She remained silent, till affectionately en
treated to give us a reason for such unlooked-for kindness to
strangers. Then the tear stole down her sable cheek, and she
replied, 'I love Him whose servants you are; and surely it is my
duty to give you a cup of cold water in his name. My heart is
full; therefore I cannot speak the joy I feel to see you in this
outof-the-world place.'
" On learning a little of her history, and that she was a solitary
light burning in a dark place, I asked her how she kept up the
light of God in her soul, in the entire absence of the communion
of saints. She drew from her bosom a copy of the Dutch Now

332 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Testament, which she had received from Mr. Helm, when in hia
school, some years before. 'This,' said she, 'is the fountain
whence I drink; this is the oil which makes my lamp to burn!'
I looked on the precious relic, printed by the British and Foreign
Bible Society; and the reader may conceive my joy, while we
mingled our prayers and sympathies together, at the throne of
our heavenly Father."
As we must look upon the heathen world in the light of the
future, and under the head of much land "yet to be possessed,"
we will not at this point enter into more detail, especially as India
must be studied alone, and with no wearied attention. For the
heathen, the translations were going on — are going on still —
being revised and re-revised; and, as this takes place, they go forth
and do their work. The "seed is the word," and the "field is
the world."

CHAPTER Vn.
Death of Lord Teignmouth, and of Mr. Hughes— Bible Colportage upon the
Continent — Osee Derbecq — Characteristics of Colporteurs — The young Bible-
collector in Jersey — Juvenile Bible Associations — Individual Efforts to dis
tribute the Scriptures — The Testament among the Fishing People of Bou
logne — A Tract the Pioneer of the Bible — Statistics of Infidel Publications
In the year 1834, several of the attached friends of the Bible
Society — its president, Lord Teignmouth — one of its secretaries,
Joseph Hughes — its eloquent advocates and supporters, William
Wilberforce and Hannah More — were removed from their earthly
labours. In the oriental affairs of the society, Lord Teignmouth's ex
tensive knowledge of the languages, and his intimate acquaintance
with the manners and sentiments of eastern nations, (acquired
while he was Governor-General of India,) were of the highest
importance. His introduction and recommendation to the agents,
in their travels, never failed to insure a ready attention; and re-

LORD TEIGNMOUTH — JOSEPH HUGHES. 333

moved many a difficulty ir. the way of their foreign operations ;
but the advantage attaching to the rank and station of their
president was of small account to the Bible Society, when com
pared with the qualities of his mind and heart. Many of tha
earlier Reports were written by him ; and to the wide correspond
ence, carried on for several years under his immediate direction,
he rendered the greatest assistance by the purity of his taste and
the elegance of his style.
Mr. Hughes had spent his strength and devoted much of his
time to the interests of the society for nearly thirty years, as had
Mr. Owen to the time of his death, in 1822, without fee or re
ward. When Mr. Owen died, the committee felt how impossible
it was to expect from any besides these two men, the fathers and
founders of the society, a similar sacrifice of time and talent,
without adequate remuneration, now that the business of the
society had increased and was extending itself to all parts of the
world. Mr. Hughes was therefore obliged to consent to receive
the salary which would be allotted to his future successor ; but
his acceptance of it was accompanied by a noble deed of conse
cration, on his own part, found among his private papers after his
decease. He says, " I have deliberately resolved to appropriate
ihe whole of what I may receive from this source, to the relief to
such private cases, and the support of such public institutions, as
shall appear most deserving of my attention and encouragement."
But he had little credit given him for such secret resolve.
On one of his journeys for the society, he found by his side,
on the coach, a grave and respectable-looking person. In conver
sation on topics of general interest, the Bible Society soon became
the subject of conversation. His companion enlarged on its
Utopian character, and especially on its lavish expenditure, no
ticing in a marked way the needless and extravagant expenses of
its secretaries, as well as their enormous salaries. No one, from
Mr. Hughes's countenance and manner, would have conjectured
that he was a party concerned. " But what," he mildly expostu
lated, " would be your conclusion, were you informed that their
services were gratuitous; and that, with a view of curtailing as

334 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

much as possible the expenses of travelling, they usually, even
in very inclement seasons, fix on the outside, — as one of them is
now doing before your eyes ?" It need scarcely be stated, that
both the fact and the tone in which it was announced, with the
friendly conversation that ensued, converted an enemy into a friend.
The memorial of the committee to this good man declares, that
all the friends of the society were agreed to reverence and love
him ; that he had eminently contributed to mature the plans
which he had been instrumental in originating ; and that, by his
intelligence ana piety, as well as by his remarkable freedom from
asperity, he succeeded, by maintaining a friendly, feeling through
out its discussions, in preserving the harmony of its councils.
The memorial concluded with the transcript of a passage from his
own beautiful letter of resignation, addressed to them when he
found himself no longer able to fulfil the duties of his office :
"The office has, I believe, greatly helped me in the way to
heaven ; but now my Lord seems to say, ' I have dissolved the
commission ; thy work is done ; yield cheerfully to my purpose,
and prepare to enter those blessed abodes where the labourers of
the Bible Society shall have brought forth more glorious fruits
than the fondest hope had foreseen.' "
Mr. Foster, the celebrated essayist, and the old and valued
friend of Mr. Hughes, on hearing " that his life was quivering in
tbe socket," wrote to him a most sympathizing letter, from which,
when his son read to him the following words, — " But oh ! my
dear friend, whither is it that you are going ? — where is it that
you will be a few short weeks or days hence ?" — Mr. Hughes
lifted up his hands, as if to give effect to the reply, — " To heaven^
I am going ; there to dwell with God and Christ, and the spirits
of just men made perfect I"
But these devoted friends of ! the society would not wish us to
linger even by the side of their dying beds ; for when they died,
the work went on, and they bore their testimony that the Divine
word, which it had been their joy to circulate during life, was
their own strong consolation in the hour of death — the light of
the border land. Mr. Hughes was succeeded in the secretaryship

COLPORTAGE ON THE CONTINENT. 335

by his much-loved friend, the Rev. George Browne, minister of
the Congregational Church, Clapham ; and the result has proved
that the unanimous choice of the committee was made under the
direction of Providence. For twenty years the society has been
faithfully served, and its interests efficiently promoted by his judi
cious counsels, able advocacy, and extensive correspondence. May
these valuable services be long continued !
We must now enter without delay on the subject of —
BIBLE COLPORTAGE UPON THE CONTINENT.
From the earliest days of the society, the committee sought to
extend the circulation of the Bible upon the continent, wherever
it was possible to find entrance for it There, popery and infi
delity reigned : the former, as we have seen, hides the Bible ;
the latter rejects it : for, from all the five classes of the human
family which we have been considering, there might be gathered
a larger class than any one, spread among them all — the class of
infidels, or unbelievers of the written word altogether. These
abound also, we grieve to know, in our own Protestant England ;
and their infidelity often arises from their want of knowledge.
They do not know the history of the volume they reject. Few
of them have ever read the Book itself, except with intent to ridi
cule it ; and many have it not in their possession.
A new agency, at this period, seemed requisite in the Roman
Catholic countries, where the common people more willingly listen
to persons of their own class than to a minister of the gospel';
and as God " has chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the mighty," abundant blessing has been poured out on the la
bours of those who literally "go out into the highways and
hedges," with the holy word of God in their hands, to distribute
it day by day, and who are called Colporteurs.
The British and Foreign Bible Society began to send forth
these colporteurs in the year 1837. For seven years before that
time, 150 of them had been employed by the Geneva and Paris
Bible Societies, and their sales of the Scriptures, at reduced prices,

336 THE BOOK and its story.

gradually increased, and, in the year 1835, amounted to nearly
45,000 copies. But these colporteurs had circulated religious
tracts as well as the Bible, and the committee in Earl-street con
sidered this not to be desirable. Out of 100 persons who applied
to Monsieur de P., the agent in Paris, to become colporteurs, he
carefully selected fourty-four, and in four months they sold 45,000
copies. In the next year, there were sold more than 100,000
copies ; and the number circulated during fifteen years by colpor
teurs, in France alone, amounts in all to almost seventeen hundred
thousand copies !
These colporteurs now traverse the continent of Europe, — a
band of humble but zealous and valiant soldiers of the Cross.
They carry with them the "Sword of the Spirit," and their
weapon is "not carnal, but mighty, through God, to the pulling
down of the strongholds of Satan."
From the shores of the Mediterranean to the Baltic, in Belgium,
in Holland, in France, and in Germany, they unfurl the gospel
banner, and wondrous are the tales they tell of its willing recep
tion among those who would never have heard of it but through
their means.
Some persons were apprehensive that it would shock the feel
ings even of Protestants, to see the Scriptures hawked for sale,
from door to door; others feared it would so irritate the Roman
Catholics, as to provoke collision; but all these fears have "come
to nought." The circulation of the Holy Word, in these countries,
was a thing to be accomplished ; and God has watched over his
own work from the beginning. His blessing has never for a mo
ment forsaken the faithful labourers, and they have truly to re
joice over what they have been enabled to do in his strength
and name.
A colporteur carries his books in a leathern bag slung over his
shoulder. He makes the sale of the Bible his only employment.
It is not by once offering it that he sells it, and he is often obliged
to wait patiently the result of repeated visits and conversations.
It is calculated that one of these excellent men offered the
Scriptures and spoke of their contents, to more than 200,000

DEATH OF DERBECQ. 337

parsons. He had been colporting eleven years before he died,
and sold at least 18,000 copies of the Scriptures. His name was
Osee Derbecq, and he laboured in Belgium. The Bible Society
never had a more faithful servant. His whole soul was absorbed
in his work; his deep piety and profound humility made him a
welcome visitor wherever he went; and many persons who had
persecuted him, afterward became his warmest friends. His dis
cussions with the Roman Catholic priests and their adherents,
were full of holy boldness and faithful testimony to the grace of
God. A colporteur, who visited one of his old fields of labour, wrote
"thus: "Derbecq had been here, and had penetrated, as every
where else, into the most humble cabin. Every moment my
heart is pained at the thought of his death, when I see the esteem
in which he is held by the inhabitants of this province, who have
been a long while waiting his return."
In more than one locality, where there is now a flourishing
congregation, he was the sower of the seed. In June, 1847, he
fell into consumption, but he continued his work till September,
1848, though in much bodily suffering. At last he procured an
ass to carry his books, himself walking by its side as long as he
could. He died at the age of forty-two, and his death made a
strong impression on those around him, for it was full of bliss.
Many attended his funeral. He was called the "king of col
porteurs," and it may be truly said, he died a martyr to the Bible
Society's work.
It has been thought by the committee, that this year of Jubilee,
a season of which Isaiah speaks as the acceptable year of the Lord
among the Jews, and which was to be a season of "comforting
all that mourn," is a very suitable occasion for commencing a
fund which shall meet the necessities of some humble and retired,
but laborious and devoted servants of Christ, like Osee Derbecq.
The colporteurs being always chosen from their earnest and
undoubted piety, it is almost certain that each of the seventeen
hundred thousand Bibles we have spoken of has been accompanied
by a prayer. They have all likewise been sold, not given, an<s
29

338 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

will therefore, probably, be more carefully preserved. Seven-
eighths of them have been of the version of De Sacy, sold in
France, proving that the work has been carried on especially
among Roman Catholics. Alas ! many of these Bibles have possi
bly been burnt, but perhaps the greater part have been preserved.
Our colporteurs frequently report that they have been in districts
in France where the New Testament is to be met with in almost
every house; and not a month passes in which one or the other
does not discover, in various parts of the country, some few in
dividuals or whole families who unite for the purpose of reading
the Bible or Testament, to their great comfort.
One very remarkable fact concerning the colporteurs is this,
that, with but few exceptions, they have formerly been Roman
Catholics, and have become zealous friends of the Bible through
reading copies of the Scripture purchased by themselves of some
colporteurs. There are continual changes upon the staff, as it is
called, — from 280 to 300 individuals having been employed since
the British and Foreign Bible Society took up the work, and
among these there have been scarcely a dozen who have not proved
equal to the requirements of their calling. All the rest have, in
zeal, devotion, and fidelity, been ornaments to the gospel; and in
the esteem of the public generally, the name of colporteur signi
fies a man of order and of peace, as well as a good and upright
man. Sometimes the French colporteurs are addressed in this way:
"As for you, you are men of the Bible; you never speak of any
thing else : you certainly are not men of this world. Whether
Louis Napoleon or Louis Philippe sits upon the throne, it matters
very little to you; you are comical fellows; you seem as if you
belong neither to the republic, the empire, nor to any thing else;
and, to look at you, and to listen to you, one might almost say
that God is always before you, and that it is he who governs.
How is this? Explain yourselves."
And then they do explain themselves : they stand by many a
dying bed, and are brought into sympathy with many a strange
and solemn scene; they sow the good seed through the field of

SUCCESS OF COLPORTAGE. 339

the world, and they often reap, years afterward, the seed they
have sown.
The work of the colporteur was never intended to interfere with
the work of the collectors for Bible Associations, whether at home
or abroad. It consists in selling Bibles at once, as many as he
can in a day. The work of the Bible collector is, as we have seen,
to receive the weekly penny from those who at one time can spare
no more. It is carried on, of late years, very chiefly by associa
tions of ladies, who find many an opportunity of doing good both
to the souls and the bodies of those whom they thus repeatedly
visit. Both orders of agency are excellent; and both are found
necessary, even in England.
In 1845, it was thus reported : " The county of Radnor, con
taining a population of 25,000, has only five Bible Societies within
its limit; and of these five, two have little more than an existence
in name. A well-chosen colporteur commenced his operations at
the close of harvest, in one of five districts into which the county
was divided, and within forty-six days he sold, at cost prices, in
the eight parishes comprised in the district, one thousand and
eighty-five Bibles and Testaments, among a population of- 5804,
being in the proportion of a copy to every family. He was a man
of good muscular strength, as well as piety; he walked about
fourteen miles a day: the farmers and labourers purchased with
avidity, sometimes to the extent of a copy for every individual
capable of reading; all were astonished at the cheapness of the
books, and many were the blessings implored on those by whom
he was employed."
Notwithstanding all the Bibles that have been supplied in
England, experience proves, that this history of the county of
Radnor, in 1845, would be repeated, by the use of the same
agency, in many an extensive tract of country and in many a
lonely hamlet, even in this year 1853.
LADIES' ASSOCIATIONS.
But that you may not think that the whole work of the society
is or can be done by colporteurs, and that those who are ignorant

340 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

of it may have an idea of it as at this time carried on with zeai
and perseverance by upward of 20,000 ladies in the British em
pire, we will give you a few particulars concerning a Bible col
lector, in one of the Channel islands, which may induce some of
you to follow her example.
Attached to the second Report of the Bible Society, in 1806,
is the following letter from the Rev. F. P., of Jersey: — "A mem
ber of your society has encouraged me to lay before you the state
of the island of Jersey, as it respects the want of Bibles. I need
not tell you that by far the greater part of the inhabitants speak
French, and nothing but French, so that if they wish to read
their Bible, it must be in that language; but war has interrupted
all communications with Holland and other parts, from which we
had our Bibles, so that they are exceedingly scarce. I believe
there is not one to be bought in the whole island. I know many
religious families who are without it. They have not even the
New Testament; and though they would give any money for it,
it is all in vain. I have known old second-hand family Bibles to
sell at from two to four pounds sterling, so that none but the rich
can afford to buy them, while the poor people are greatly in want
of them."
In answer to this letter, the committee directed 300 copies of
the French Testament to be forwarded to their correspondent, to
be disposed of on terms suited to the circumstances of the people.
He preached in French to 2000 hearers, who had not among them
200 Bibles, and from the pulpit told them, that it was to the
British and Foreign Bible Society that the churches must now
look for a supply of the word of God.
Other grants of New Testaments followed this, and still, in a
letter dated 1809, he says, "I wish you could have seen the
silent tears of joy fall from many an eye, at the thought that one
day they would be possessors of the" invaluable treasure. Many
are anxiously waiting for the completion of the Old Testament in
French. When it is finished, oh ! pray forget not Jersey !"
It is a very interesting fact, that most of the families in Jersey
are descended from refugees who escaped from the religious per-

THE MINISTER'S DAUGHTER. 341

secution in France. It is related of them, that when they had
to pass the gens-d' armes on the coast, they always tried to hide
their children, and one of the means employed was placing them
in baskets well covered with fruit. They are therefore a part of
the Protestant Church of the Book, and it was delightful to the
society to multiply to them their ancient treasure. The minister,
whose letters we have quoted, married an English lady, a true
Christian, who established a Ladies' Bible Association in Jersey,
in 1807 or 1808, — one, therefore, of the very earliest of these
institutions which worked silently and without official notice,
probably paying its proceeds into the hands of the gentlemen's
committee. A ladies' auxiliary, under high patronage, was established in
1818, and its president describes Jersey, shortly afterward, as
"our little country still thirsting for the word of life."
But it was in the spring of 1837 that some friends of the
Bible Society, who visited Jersey, found the amiable and inte
resting daughter of the good minister above mentioned following
in the steps of her father, who was yet living, and of her mother,
who had been removed by death, and very earnestly devoted to
the work of spreading the Scriptures in the romantic little isle,
where she had been born. These friends say :
"We once or twice accompanied Marie in her visits to her
Bible-district, in the streets and lanes of the crowded town of St.
Helier's, where the scenes are more foreign than English, and
where she had to cope with the effects of that Catholic super
stition, which must be seen in detail, in order to appreciate the
difficulty of pouring light upon its darkness.
"From many and many a door we turned away, where the
offer of the word of life was rejected with anger and scorn. The
laugh of derision followed us up stair and alley, or the look of
surprise varied the vacant face of ignorance, knowing nothing,
and willing to know nothing, but what the priest ordained.
Marie spoke fluently in French, pr in patois, when the latter only
was understood, and her English was equally ready. Three most
delightful visits were paid, in one morning, to persons who had
29*

342 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

been led by this young messenger of mercy to seek pardon for
their sins, and lay hold on the hope of heaven.
"One very aged Frenchwoman welcomed her footstep with all
the ardour of her nation. We shall not forget that large old-
fashioned apartment, with its deep recesses and its earthen floor,
— the fine figure of its inmate, upright as a dart, though incapable
of moving from her chair, — the delicately plaited and snowy cap
and 'kerchief, — her knitting cast aside, on which, although blind,
she was constantly employed, — and both hands at once held out
to her 'chere, chere, petite Ma'amselle Marie,' so often the
cheerer of her lonely home. Marie came frequently to read to
her of Jesus, and the old woman said she had taken him into her
heart, and that he was always with her. She looked very happy,
and perfectly contented, and seemed to live, from visit to visit, oh
the words she remembered from the book.
"In another part of her district, at Le Dicq, Marie had esta
blished Sunday-schools, where she and her sister had gathered
together some children in a room on the wild and rugged sea
shore — a ragged school — before ragged schools were thought of
in London; and after their early labours, on the Sabbath, in the
large schools attached to her father's church, and • attending
morning service, they were accustomed to snatch a slight meal,
and walk off in all weathers to their new and untamed pupils
here, who must be taught to read before they could receive the
Bible, and with whom it was evident that persevering love and
energy would soon be successful.
"We paid a visit with her to the Bible committee. She had
many home responsibilities, which were very sweetly fulfilled, —
and she was the light of the household to her widowed father;
but these private duties did not prevent her from acting as secre
tary to more than one Denevolent institution; and of the Ladies'
Bible Society, she was, steadily and quietly, the moving spring.
While others might take the honour and the appearance of pre
cedence, she was content to work untired, and to bring all she
could persuade by influence and example to work too, yet herself
claiming no praise and no observance. Her heart and soul were

JUVENILE ASSOCIATIONS. 343

m the service, and her zeal appeared only equalled by her self-
knowledge and her humility.
" We told her one day that she was born to be a missionary,
when she replied, 'It must be a missionary to France; but I
have work enough in Jersey for many years to come. God has
placed us, you perceive, between two great nations, — England
and France. He has given us the government of the one, the
language of the other, and the privilege of unrestrained inter
course with both; and I often think why this is. England has
the gospel, and now gives it to us; France has it not; but Eng
land has not the language of France, and so cannot speak to her
in her own tongue. Jersey ought to preach the gospel to France,
The light which is in her was brought from France. I wish I
ever might spread Bibles there.' "
God did not suffer this desire to be realized. Ere she reached
her twenty-second year, he took her to himself, to the great sor
row of all who knew her. She died of consumption on the 21st
of August, 1839, the day twenty years after her mother, who
had been carried off by the same insidious disease; and now,
father, mother, and daughter, are, we doubt not, together in
heaven !
But although these first sowers of the good seed in Jersey are
no more, the Bible Society continues its work, and the seed has
sprung up, and brings forth fruit abundantly. Instead of the one
association in which Marie laboured, there are now fourteen asso
ciations, a ladies' branch, and an auxiliary, — each association
having eight or twelve collectors, besides its officers : upward of
3000 Bibles have been distributed by them.
JUVENILE ASSOCIATIONS.
There is one more department of the agency now at work for
the Bible Society, which it is particularly pleasant to contemplate.
Children were among its earliest friends; and in associations
organized for them by their teachers, in schools and in families,
they have always contributed to its funds with delight. They
are beings who are apt to interest themselves in all that is going

344 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

on around them, and in their little hearts they always keep their
fathers' jubilees : " Seest thou not what they do in the cities of
Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem ? The children gather
wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their
dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven." Jer. vii. 17, 18.
If, therefore, the children of idolatrous parents help them, what
is to prevent that the children of those who love God's word, and
seek to circulate it, should help them also ? Jesus said, " Whoso
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall in no
wise enter therein." The Story of the Book of God is a story for
all ages. It embraces details almost too many and too mighty to
be rendered down to the ear of restless childhood; yet it has
been our highest ambition so to write it that a child might
understand it; and if we have succeeded, it will work its own
results. More children will come forward, with the ardour and
simplicity of their age, to help forward this great work of God.
Every child and young person can help. There are fifty-four
Juvenile Bible Associations entered as tributaries on the books of
the British and Foreign Bible Society. Some of thom have very
pretty names, such as "Twig," "Blossom," "Rivulet," "Drop,"
and " Crumb ;" and they are spread over fourteen or fifteen of the
counties of England. There is also one in Jersey, and several in
Wales. In Manchester there are four " Blossoms," one of which
has in the last year contributed the handsome sum of 32?. 9s. 9d.
to the funds of the society. The different Juvenile Bible Societies of
Manchester, altogether, have raised this year the sum of 63?. 2s.;
and the money they collect now is not their chief benefit, for it is
hoped that many faithful and persevering little labourers will thus
lie trained and raised up to support the Bible society in days to
come. From among those who are now children, must arise the
future secretaries, and translators, and home and foreign agents ;
and the present small donations which they bring will be promises
and pledges of larger donations in riper years. It may be that
some few will inherit fortune and»estate; and if they have belong
ed to an early "Blossom Bible Society," it may influence their
hearts to be the liberal donors of the thousand guineas at a time,

TWIG AND BLOSSOM SOCIETIES. 345

which can nowhere be better cast than into the treasury for the
distribution of God's word. Others will give time and talent, as
they may be needed.
They will be led to think of the wide, wide world, and its want
ot the Bible, and perhaps themselves make some sacrifices to aid
its distribution. In the Moravian schools at Fulneck, numbers
of the young people abstained altogether from sugar, to give the
amount allowed them in lieu of it to the Bible Society fund.
Every child who can save, or give, or lead others to give, but
fourpence a week to a Bible box or association, may every week
consider that this will be the means of giving the four Gospels,
if not a whole New Testament, to a poor Chinese. These little
"Twig" and "Blossom" Societies have their regular meetings for
business, their account-books, and their accounts duly rendered
in ; and as children at school are. sometimes lavishly supplied
with money by indulgent parents, this opens a source for legiti
mate investment of much that might be thoughtlessly and selfishly
spent. One of the domestic agents of the Bible Society says that he
had the pleasure of exhibiting what is commonly called "The Bible
Society Map"* to the pupils, under the care of Mrs. E., of Devizes,
and that he shall not soon forget the eager attention and deep feel
ing with which the young ladies surveyed the whole. The mora]
state of the population of the globe was explained by the aid of
the colours selected for the purpose. All were struck with the
very small space coloured pink, to represent Christianity, and the
very large proportion of blue and yellow, showing what countries
are still Mohammedan and Pagan. It was observed, that the great
work in which the Bible Society is engaged is to change the moral
state of the word, to obliterate the blue and the yellow, and to
pink, that is, to Christianize the whole population of the earth.
Soon after the little lecture was finished, and while sitting at the
breakfast-table, a knock at the door was heard, and a little girl
came in and placed a paper containing something heavy in
* See page 194.

346 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Mr.  's hand, without saying a word. It contained a note, of
which the following is a copy : " The young ladies of Mrs. E.'n
establishment beg Mr.  's acceptance of the enclosed trifle
towards pinking the world — August, 1840."
The " trifle" amounted to the sum of twenty-three shillings,
contributed of their own accord toward an object well worthy of
it. May many schools do likewise in this Jubilee Year ! They
had afterward the gratification to learn that this money would
provide at that time twenty-three Testaments and more than nine
Bibles. It would now provide many more.

As this chapter has been devoted to a consideration of the agen
cies at work for the Bible Society, we must not close it without a
notice of those efforts which are put forth from time to time, by
individual friends, not officially connected with the society, who
have scattered the seed of the word where they have resided or
travelled. The following is but a specimen of one among thou
sands of opportunities occurring, those who have the object always
in view, of circulating the Scriptures; and as we have given many
instances of the way in which missionaries and the friends of edu
cation co-operate with the Bible Society, this incident will likewise
show how a tract will often act as a pioneer to the Bible.
You have heard of Boulogne-sur-Mer ; and any of our readers
who may have passed through that town on their way to Paris,
or may have resided there for awhile, will, perhaps, know that a
separate portion of it consists of the dwellings of the fishing-people,
who devote themselves especially, during the season, to the catch
ing, curing, and sale of herrings. Les Matelots, as they are
called, are a very interesting race. They have a peculiar costume,
—the women wearing short, thick, scarlet or striped skirts, and
dark-blue jackets, with a beautifully-plaited cap. Their best suit
is considered their fortune ; and the chief piece of furniture in
their cottages is a large wardrobe to contain the riches of their
dress, which the girls buy as they earn money by selling fish, or
carrying boxes and parcels on shore from the steam-boats. They

"LES MATELOTS" OF BOULOGNE. 347

are a very hardy and industrious race, and are continually making
or mending nets for their husbands and brothers, while they are
following their occupation at sea.
In their way, and according to their own estimation, they are
very pious. They pray perpetually to the holy Virgin for safety
in their perilous vocation ; and, on returning from a voyage, they
go and kneel at the crucifix on the top of the cliffs, and offer
thanks for their preservation. They are very ignorant, because
no one teaches them ; but many are ready to receive, if it were
offered, the true light of the gospel.
One of these fisher-girls, of a very interesting appearance and
kind disposition, was in the daily habit of bringing water from
the fountain, for the use of an English family, who had taken up
their residence for three months in a house by the sea-side, not
far from the fishing-town : her name was Genevieve. One even
ing she saw the lady at the window, and, somewhat to her sur
prise, asked her if she would be so kind as to read a little to her,
as some English lady had done before. She said that she liked
histories, but had never been taught to read, otherwise she would
not ask the favour.
The lady was glad to comply with her request. She read to
her some chapters in the New Testament, a book that Genevieve
had never seen, and offered to read a portion of it every day, if
she would come to hear it.
After some days, the fisher-girl said that she had been telling
her father about this reading, that he could read, and that he
wished to have the book. The lady lent her a French New Tes
tament to take home with her, and the fisherman read thirty
pages, on first sitting down to it, aloud to his family, and then he
took it to sea with him.
It is usual for several fishermen to own a boat among them,
and this man read the New Testament to his partners when they
were out at sea, being particularly pleased with those histories
which are given in the Gospels, of the Apostle Peter and his
companions fishing.
After the glad reception of this one Testament, Genevieve was

348 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

asked if she knew of any one else among her people who wished
for a Testament in their own language. She said she thought
she did ; and half-a-dozen Testaments being procured from the
depository of the British and Foreign Bible Society, in the Rue
de L'Ecu, the fisher-girl accompained the lady up and down the
alley in which she lived. That was a very different alley from
an alley in London. It stretches from the top to the bottom of
the steep cliff; and the houses on either side, being built one
above another, are reached by flights of broad stone stairs, each
landing-place having its own sea-view. Here Genevieve's mother
was found spinning the string which they afterwards make into nets.
At every door was offered a New Testament. Two were
bought, and four were thankfully received; twenty-eight were
afterwards disposed of, and in three or four houses the lady was
eventually asked to come and read to them. The best time for
this was found to be on the Sabbath afternoon, when the women
came to listen in groups of eight and ten. This is their only
leisure afternoon of the week, when they generally put on their
gayest dress and go up the cliffs to the crucifix, "pour prierDieu,
et adorer la Vierge." The visitor met with no single instance
of incivility in all her intercourse with this "Billingsgate" of
France ; and it appeared to her that if God intends mercy to
this large town, it is among these despised "esclaves" of the
population that it will be first received.
Another incident occurred in the same year, 1847, which made
a good Frenchwoman say, " The Lord's time is come, and He is
going to work among those Matelots."
A poor woman, who lived in the fishing-town, had a tract lent
to her called " Le Bon Berger." She lent it to a cousin, an old
fisherman past work, and he, reading it with great interest, gave
it a new name. He called it " La Brebis Egarfe." He read it
to his wife and daughter, and lent it to his friends, saying, "if
this was the new religion, they would find it better than the old
one." This was because the tract led the people directly to Jesus
as the Good Shepherd for lost sheep, and not round about, to ask
for the prayers of the Virgin Mary

THE PRECIOUS TRACT. 349

It was wonderful, therefore, to see how it appealed to the com
mon-sense of the people ! It was read to twenty of them at
once, by a little boy, who was a good, clear, loud reader ; and
then it came back to the old woman who had been its original
lender; but it never stayed at home. First one borrowed it,
then another : it was read by the crews of five of the boats, and
at last the lady who was distributing the Testaments heard of it,
and she borrowed the dirty treasure, and read it with deep in
terest. It was a simple allegory, and a fresh proof of the power of
allegory over the common mind. It depicted the tender love of
Christ to a lost sheep, — his living to seek it, and dying to save
it, — in a style particularly calculated to please the French.
This tract continued to go, dirtier and dirtier, from house to
house, even more welcomed, and always making way for the Tes
tament, which it seemed the instrument designed to do. When
it was reclaimed one day from a fine old Pharisee, who had said,
" she had done so many good works all her days, that God had
never given her an hour's illness," she was heard to say with
tears in her eyes, " Mais je suis cette brebis egaree." A neigh
bour of hers had earnestly desired to have it, saying she would
then take it and read it from house to house, all through the fish
ing-town. A hundred copies of this tract were afterwards put into circu
lation among the fishing people. In the early spring of 1848, the
fishing-boat in which Genevieve's father and brother were part
ners, went down one stormy night, with all the crew, — so that
the Testament and the tract were sent to them in the last year
of their lives ; they read both diligently; and let us hope that
they read to the salvation of their souls.
Now this fact may present a picture of the state of thousands
of other districts and towns in Roman Catholic countries. The
poor people would hear the gospel if they might. How vast an
account of souls those have to render at God's awful bar, whe
leave them alone in their ignorance, or only fill their ears with
thp rubbish of popish miracles and saints' lives, instead of the

350 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

pure word which God has given to guide all to Himself, as " the
Good Shepherd," we scarcely dare to think.

And the friends of the Bible had heed awake to their respon
sibilities ! They have on their side God and his word, and the
promise that " truth shall prevail ;" but the prince of the power
of the air has also his active agents, and in numbers they far
surpass the soldiers of the Cross. He has, it is true, no mighty
organization like the British and Foreign Bible Society, for circu
lating any one book of fasehood that should deny our Book of
truth ; but he has earnest missionaries and zealous educators, and
he causes to be issued an astounding total of tracts and newspa
pers that serve his purpose. He has until now maintained in
China and India his giant fabrics of idolatry. He is strengthen
ing at every point the once crumbling shrines of popery, and he
has begun to give to infidelity that spirit of co-operation and
union which was declared to be " the only thing wanting to make
it the most terrible enemy of the Church of God."*
The writer of a book called " The Power of the Press," in
forms us, that eleven millions seven hundred and two thousand
copies of absolutely vicious and Sabbath-breaking newspapers are
circulated every year in Great Britain, while the sum total of the
issue of Bibles and religious tracts does not amount, in a year, to
one-third of this number.
There are about sixty cheap periodicals issued every week of a
positively pernicious tendency. Some of them issue 100,000 a
week, some 80,000, some 20,000, having among the whole a
yearly sale of six millions two hundred and forty thousand.
There are, besides these, infidel and polluting publications
which make lovers of the Bible wonder where their readers can
be found, but which nevertheless have a yearly circulation of ten
million four hundred thousand !
And there are yet others so intensely wicked, that the rest de-
* "Essay on Popery and Infidelity," by Mr. Douglas, of Cavers.

PERNICIOUS PUBLICATIONS. 351'

nounce them as wicked, and which can only be sold by stealth,
whose issues this writer specifies as five hundred and twenty
thousand annually!
He sums up his total thus :
Ten stamped papers . . . 11,702,000
Six unstamped papers . . 6,240,000
Sixty pernicious periodicals . 10,400,000
Worst class .... 520,000

Total . . . 28,862,000.
And this is only in our own Christian country. Week after
week, year after year, does this tide of evil roll on : and what
does the Church of God do to meet it ? Adding together the
annual issues of Bibles, Testaments, religious tracts, newspapers,
and periodicals of every kind, we find a total of 24,418,620,
leaving a balance on the side of evil of, alas ! four millions four
hundred and forty-three thousand three hundred and eighty !*
It may still be less generally known, that free-thinkers, as they
call themselves, have now instituted a conference-meeting for ex
amining the progress of their various societies, in different parts
of the kingdom. They, too, have perceived that "union is
strength," and from Bolton, Blackburn, Glasgow, Bradford, Man
chester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Paisley, Preston,
Stafford, and Sheffield, they, too, have their reports of each
other's proceedings. This is a new feature of the times, and,
sad to say, the paper which makes known their results, and gives
union and emphasis to their efforts against the Bible, is con
ducted with a calm determination, not with low abuse, by a man
who was once a scholar in a Sunday-school.
There are annually issued-^
Of infidel publications 12,200,200
Of atheistic ditto . . 624,000
Of popish ditto . . . 520,000

Making a total of 13,344,200.

* See "Church ir Earnest," pp. 94, 97.

352 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

All these have their active distributors : they are met with in the
railway-carriage and on the steamboat, scattering industriously
and gratuitously those seeds of evil with confident expectation,
that, when those are well sown, England will be revolutionized.
Let us arise, then, against this host, to the help of all that is
holy, and especially to the diligent dissemination of the word of
God, which shall overcome them all — " to the help of the Lord,
against the mighty !"

CHAPTER VUI.

Jubilee Review of the Heathen Countries of the World — The Bible in India—
In China : Extraordinary Religious Movement there : Sew-Tseuen, the Leader
ofthe Insurgents — Japan in all probability without a Bible — Loochoo Islands
Let us now take up the forty-ninth Report of the British and
Foreign Bible Society, issued in the year 1853, and see if we
think it any longer a " dull book," being better prepared to under
stand it.
Our five threads must also be resumed once more, on which to
string the facts of chief importance that may be collected from
our " Jubilee Review ;" but we may be permitted to reverse their
order, and take, first, the heathen and pagan countries of the
world, and we shall therefore open this Bible Report at page 79
upon — INDIA.
" The Indian empire of Great Britain — that vast appendage to
an island throne — is not merely a country but a continent. In
ancient days it contained numerous independent kingdoms,
stretching 1800 miles in length, and 1300 in breadth. It includes
all varieties of climate, scenery, and soil. The giant range of the
Himalayas, capped with eternal snow, the fertile plains of the

THE BIBLE IN INDIA. 353

river Ganges, and the high table-land of the Mysore, alike rank
among its territories. Its 130,000,000 of people speak thirteen
different languages. Its lowland plains produce the cheapest food
of various kinds, and the warmth of its climate requires but
scanty clothing. Its mineral treasures are abundant, and it has
giant forests of the most useful trees. Its noble rivers furnish a
ready highway for trade, and the cheapness of labour brings its
vast produce into the market at a low rate. The taper fingers of
its natives can carve exquisitely in ebony and ivory, and their
shawls, their muslins, and their jewelry, are yet unrivalled in all
the world. Its population includes the clever and insinuating
Brahmin, the submissive and patient Sudra, the poor outcast
Paria, and the indolent Mussulman. It includes the coward and
cunning Bengali, the spirited Hindustani, the martial Sikh and
Mahratta, the mercantile Armenian, the active and honest Parsee,
the busy Telugu, and the uncivilized tribes who now inhabit the
hill forests, but who once roamed as lords over the outspread
plains." These millions of people are chiefly idolaters, and caste divides
them into sections, each set against the other; but they yield
implicit obedience to the dictation of their priests, and the asser
tions of their shastras or holy books ; — for the greater part of
this land is yet unprovided with teachers of the gospel.
To obtain an idea of the extent of India, we must remember,
that, if Russia be kept out of mind, it is as large and populous
as all Europe ; and to realize the state of its missions, we must,
at present, think of one missionary to every 350,000 people ! — no
more ! Let France be thought of as Bengal, and suppose that
France were utterly heathen, and that Christian benevolence sent
thirty missionaries for Paris and the suburbs, two for Guienne, a
few for Dauphiny, but none for Britanny, Normandy, Burgundy.
Lorraine, Gascony, Champagne, or Languedoc ; then let Bavaria
be thought of as Bundelkund, Sweden and Norway as Oude
Great Britain and Ireland as the various hill tribes, Italy as the
Nizam's country, and Turkey and Greece as the Punjaub and
Scinde, almost together unsupplied with Christian teachers ; — you
30*

354 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

need not< wonder that scoffers return home from their Indian
travels, and say, " they never met with a single missionary or a
single convert." There has been a strange neglect of India
hitherto as a mission-field. In the West Indies there are not less
than 350 missionaries to instruct a population of 2,500,000, but
in India there * are but 403 missionaries to 130,000,000 of
people !
But now, what has the Bible, " the missionary of missionaries,"
done in India ?
We have seen the great translators, Carey, Marshman, and
Ward, commencing their work on this wide continent, in 1793.
In 1806, they began to print the Scriptures in six languages; but
in 1809, no English Bibles had ever been sent to Madras for sale,
and it was almost impossible to procure one. In those times,
when a considerable army was in the field, and it became necessary
to obtain a Bible, it was with difficulty that a copy could be found
with any of the European officers or men. Bishop Corrie, in
1811, makes the following interesting record : " In 1807, when I
was stationed at Chunar, a native Roman Catholic used to visit me
for religious instruction. There was not at this time any transla
tion of the Scriptures to put into his hand. [The Hindui Bible
had not then been published.] I therefore selected some of the
most important passages in the Bible, and dictated a translation
of them, very imperfectly, it is true, but to the best of my ability,
to the poor man, who wrote them on a number of pieces of loose
paper. I heard nothing more of him for many years, but have
been lately informed by the Rev. Mr. Wilkinson of Gooruckpofe,
who visited him on his death-bed, that, on entering into conversation
with him, he was surprised at his acquaintance with scriptural
religion. He asked an explanation, and the poor man produced
the loose slips of paper on which he had written my translations.
On these it appears his soul had fed through life, and through
them he died such a death, that Mr. W. entertained no doubt of
his having nassed into glory."
In 1831, the same excellent bishop avows his belief, "that
future labourers will reap the fruit of the precious seed which the

BIBLE DISSEMINATION IN INDIA. .355

Bible Society has been sowing in India with so much diligence for
many years past."
And the reaping of the harvest has begun ; a gradual change is
taking place in India; she has been given into the hand of Eng
land for a great purpose; and that purpose is beginning to be ac
complished. The Report of 1853 refers us to the Bibles that have been at
work since Dr. Carey's time, who found in India only the Tamil
and Telugu Bibles. He published his Bengali, Marathi, and
Uriya Bibles; then came Henry Martyn's Hindustani and Persian
New Testaments, and the Sanscrit Bible from the press at Seram
pore. Dr. Buchanan provided the Syriac Scriptures ; more per
fected editions in successive years appeared of the Hindui, the
Persian, the Telugu, and the Tamil ; then came the Malayalim,
the Canarese, the Punjabee Bibles, and the Burmese Bible, pre
pared by the devoted American missionaries. We will not give
you the whole list of dialects, but they have each done their work,
silently and surely, or rather have begun to do it ; and from this
" word of God, quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-
edged sword," the monstrous dragon of idolatry, bred of old in
the slime of the river of Egypt, awaits his death-blow in the mud
of the Ganges.*
When the Calcutta Bible Association was first established,
which was the happy result of a memorable sermon preached by
Henry Martyn, just before he departed on his memorable journey
to Persia, its principal object was to give the word of God to the
destitute Protestant churches in India. In 1840, it declared that
this object was now effectually accomplished, "as, in recent visita
tions made by the members of the committee, scarcely a family
of Protestant Christians has been found without the Holy Scrip
tures. The Armenian churches have also been diligently sup
plied." The association then intended to direct its attention
more particularly to the supply of native Christian churches, and
Christian schools for the education of the young; and, as educa-
* See Katterns' Sermor. on "India, the Stronghold of Idolatry."

356 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

tion in the English language was continually on the increase
among the natives, new openings for usefulness were constantly
presenting themselves.
To the prosecution of this design we may, in 1853, trace the
issue of far larger numbers of copies of the Holy Scriptures, and
happy results therefrom. In three successive years, 1849, 1850,
and 1851, the circulation was 43,969 ; and we have abundant
proofs on every side that there is now in this country a wide
spread general knowledge of Christianity;* that the Christian
Scriptures are regarded with reverence, and are partially under
stood by the people ; that the blessings which have made England
great will shortly elevate also degraded India; that the mental
vigour of the conqueror will be imparted to the conquered; and
that the justice, the moral tone, and truth of England are capable
of being infused into a people who have not known them for ages.
The Rev. G. Gogerly, for twenty-five years a missionary in
Bengal, gives us the following incidents in proof of the present
willingness of the natives of India to receive the Scriptures, in
contrast to their former reluctance : —
In the early part of his ministry, in India, Mr. G. was one day
preaching, when a Brahmin came up to listen. "After the ser
vice was concluded, a tract was offered to him with a respectful
salutation, 'Will you receive this, my lord? It concerns Jesus
Christ the Redeemer of the world. If yon receive it, the Sudras
will also receive it.' He took it scornfully in his hand, turned
over two or three pages, tore it across, tore it again, spat upon it,
and cast it in my face." This was in 1818.
In 1843, the missionaries being on a journey, pitched their
tent near the encampment of a rajah, who sent to inquire of them,
"Who are you?" The answer was returned, "White people —
those who possess the Book of God, and beg to offer you a copy
thereof in Hindustani." The rajah received it graciously, took
off his turban, and cast it on the floor, putting in its stead the
book upon his head : then he removed it, and pressed it to his
» See "Bible in India."

HINDU! SCRIPTURES. 357

heart, saying, "As I have placed it on my head, I will receive it
into my mind. As I have clasped it to my breast, I will welcome
it to my heart." We know the native character well enough to
remember, that this might be all mere politeness, and possibly
meant nothing more; but still it shows a different state of feeling
from former contumely, and may be taken as a specimen of the
present general reception of the Bible in India.
He adds, " We had the opportunity of conveying also a copy
of the Scriptures to Dost Mohammed, the potentate of Affgha-
nistan, (that land of Mohammedans, so inveterate in its opposi
tion, and which will not admit colporteurs,) through the means
of an English child with whom he was fond of playing."
The Bible, which has made England and America the mis
sionaries of the world, will destroy India's idolatry and caste, will
purify her people from their immoralities, and will raise her
female population. But how is it now being distributed in India ?
"In 1848, the committee of the Calcutta Auxiliary perceived
with deep regret that only 35,429 Bengali Bibles had been issued
in the space of nine years, for the many millions of Bengal.
While contemplating this inadequate supply, they felt that it
would be good to institute an extensive succession of missionary
journeys, to inquire into the wants of the people."
In 1852, they again resolved to make grants for these missionary
tours, and in the cold season planned nine more journeys, three
of which they proposed to the missionaries of the Church Mis
sionary Society, and three to the London Missionary Society, and
others to the Free Church and Baptist missionaries, &c. The
demand for Bengali Scriptures was thus again augmented, and in
one year amounted to 23,288, besides the copies issued from Cal
cutta to the various stations and agents.
Owing to the same order of means, the Hindui Scriptures have
likewise been largely circulated. The Rev. G. Schatz, of the
German mission, writes : " The cold season having set in early
and favourably, our brethren were encouraged to march out sooner
than we are generally able to do at Nagpore ; and they have met
with such a desire after the word of God, in the Chattra district,

358 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

that we have been obliged to send them one load of books aftel
another, and our stock of the Scriptures is so thinned, that we
shall in a short time have scarcely any book left but Genesis,
AVe hope you will make us some grants of Gospels."
In reply to this welcome request, the Calcutta Society ordered
to press, in 1850, 125,000 copies of the Hindui Scriptures.
The Rev. J. R. Campbell, of the American mission at Sa-
harunpore, one of the most experienced missionaries in the north
west of India, writes : " Our principal distribution of the Scrip
tures, during the past year, was made at the Hardwar fair, where
thousands of portions in Hindui, Urdu, Persian, and Punjaubi,
were given away to pilgrims who could read them, and who ex
pressed a desire to carry them to their homes in different and dis
tant parts of India. The Bible is a book well known to the
heathen in this land, and every year's experience convinces us
more thoroughly, that the word of God is not fettered, but spread
ing rapidly through the masses of the community. We find now
but few men of common intelligence who do not know something
of the leading facts contained in the Christian Scriptures; and as
but few have had an opportunity of hearing the living preachers
of the gospel, whence could this information arise, but from the
general and extensive circulation ofthe word of God? We must
go on distributing the precious seed."
The Rev. Mr. Hill, of the London Missionary Society, said, in
a letter written in 1835 : " One evening, while preaching at Jag-
hdoly, to about 150 persons at my tent door, I observed a tall
old man approaching, leaning on a silver-headed cane. He sat
down with the rest, and listened with marked attention, and after
ward addressing me, said, ' Sahib, I have been to every holy place
in India ; I have consulted all the sages and pundits I have met
with; I am two years short of eighty, and have not found a
religion in which I can hope for eternity. My remaining days
are few ; the evening of my life has set in ; and oh !' he exclaimed
with emotion, ' may it please God to bring me at the close of my
long life to know and find a way by which I can die in peace !
Do give me a book which will tell me this way, and I will read

EAST INDIAN CHARACTERISTICS. 359

it earnestly.' I gave him a Gospel, and a letter to the Rev. Mr.
Murray of Chinsurah, for a New Testament. I also led him by
the hand into the tent, and had an hour's conversation with him,
in which I told him that he must expect persecution if he em
braced the gospel of Christ. I had another interview with him,
and he heard another sermon before I left the place. His name
was Prankissen Singh, and I have since learned that he obtained
his New Testament. Ah ! who can tell how many such persons
may in the jungles be like him, thirsting for the waters of life,
and endeavouring to feel after God, ' if haply they may find him ?' "
Dr. Buchanan, in 1807, said of the population of India : " The
best effects may be expected from the simple means of putting the
Bible into their hands. All who are acquainted with the natives
know, that instruction by books is best suited to them. They
are, in general, a contemplative race, patient in their inquiries,
anxious also to know what it can be that is of importance enough
to be written. They regard written precepts with respect; and
if they possess a book in a language they understand, it will not
be left long unread."
How delightful, then, to know, from the Report of the Madras
committee, in 1853, that in Southern India, — comprising 195,000
square miles, and a population of 21,000,000, — Christians are
endeavouring to leaven this great mass with the word of God, in
the Tamil, Telugu, Canarese, Malayalim, and Hindustani lan
guages! Since this committee entered on their work, in the
year 1820, almost 800,000 copies of the Scriptures (though chiefly
in portions) have been put into circulation. During the past
year, the number distributed was 67,418; yet this scarcely
amounts to one copy for every ten of the estimated population of
the mere town and suburbs of Madras. You see, then, the field
to be sown ! In some of the vast districts, there is lamentable
need of more missionaries ; and wherever a portion is reclaimed
from the desert, and pains bestowed upon it, a good measure of
success is sure to be realized.
For the districts of Tinnevelly and Travancore there is a large
Btaff of missionaries and catechists, chiefly those . of the Church

S60 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

of England. The same are needed in the native states of Cochin
and the Mysore. The Tamil translation is still receiving further
and further revision, though that issued at Bellary was published
after sixteen years of indefatigable labour. The Scriptures have
become the text-book in all the native schools, which are very
numerous ; and thus the native mind is opened from infancy to
perceive the hollowness of idolatry. Large portions are also com
mitted to memory. Much attention has been paid by the Madras
committee to the system of colportage. It is now busily employ
ing fifteen or sixteen colporteurs, under the superintendence of
the Rev. T. Brotherton, who says : " One of these, Mr. L., speaks
and reads Tamil, Telugu, and English. He has visited every
street and every house in a certain suburb of Madras, and made
an offer of a copy of the Gospel of Luke and of the Acts to at
least one member of every family. Two others have visited, in
one year, 365 towns and villages, offering a copy bf the gospel at
every house in every street. It is of no use to wait," continues
Mr. Brotherton. "till we meet with missionaries learned in all the
wisdom of the Hindus, Romanists, and Mohammedans, who will
be able to meet on their own ground the Brahmin, the Jesuit,
and the Mollah. We must send out the native colporteurs to
distribute the word of God. If we cannot yet send the living
preacher to these millions, we can send the living word, and per
haps we may find the Lord honouring his simple word, making it
as plain to the comprehension of the Hindu peasant, as he often
does to that of the European cottager. Mr. Hill, of the London
Mission, when at one time proclaiming the love of Christ and the
blessings of salvation, could frequently hear the expressions of,
'What mercy!' 'What words of mercy!' 'We never heard
such mercy !' ' Tarry with us, sahib, and teach us more of these
things. Build a school, and we will undertake to send, as a
beginning, eighty boys of respectable families.' 'I told them,'
added Mr. Hill, ' that I lived at Berhampore, eighty or ninety
miles off, that I was fixed, preached, and had schools there; but
I would give them books by which they might learn more of God;
and that, if they would read them with prayer, God would teach

EAGERNESS FOR THE SCRIPTURES. 361

them to serve and love him. I gave them ten or twelve Gospels.
The fields here seem white — white unto the harvest.' "
In the months of November and December, 1852, and in
January of this year, the Rev. F. Morgan, a Baptist missionary,
visited numerous places where neither missionary nor Christian
book had ever been seen before. He says, "The desire of the
people to obtain the Scriptures is most intense. Imagine a large
market with from one to two thousand people, myself on an ele
vated spot, hundreds of hands stretched out, and hundreds of
tongues shouting, ' 0 sahib, a great thing ! oh give me a book !'
Brahmins and Sudras rolling in the dust together, snatching the
books from one another ; respectable people with children in their
hands and in their arms, imploring me to put the books in the
hands of the little ones ; books all gone, missionary reeling from
the effect of dust, noise, and speaking; people imploring for
more books, and in some places I have been obliged to go to
police-offices to rest for half an hour. I have seen Brahmin lads
in tears, because they could not get books, saying, ' 0 sahib ! I
ran when I heard you were here, and now what shall I do ?' In
many places, I have been permitted to preach on the platforms
of temples, Brahmins often assisting in the distribution of the
Scriptures." To meet this readiness to receive the word, the Parent Society
have made a grant of 500?. to the Madras Society, for colportage;
and they have already intimated to the secretaries of Missionary
Societies, labouring in Southern India, that they will meet the
expense incurred by any missionary on a tour, one main object
of which is the circulation of the word of God, they being fur
nished with an estimate of the expense, and the plan of the
journey. " What a blank," say the missionaries, " would be created in
all our missions, if we had no Gospels or Bibles to distribute
among our new converts ! How soon would they be led astray
into all kinds of error, if they had not the lamp of God's truth
to guide them into the paths of righteousness and peace !"
Wherever a rehgious movement has taken place, it has been
31

362 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

characterized, in the first instance, by a desire for the Scriptures,
Some persons attempt to excuse their disbelief of Christianity
from witnessing its effects as imperfectly exhibited in the lives
of some of the native converts; and the heathens are glad to
adduce their inconsistencies as evidence that there is no differ
ence of practice between themselves and Christians. But in the
pure Book there is no failure ! The Vedas, Puranas, and Shas-
tras shrink before its light. In the Bible itself we see what its
followers should be; and this is always found the best argument
with the natives.
A most interesting instance of the power of the Scriptures
over the mind of a learned native is found in the history of the
Rev. Hormusjee Pestonjee, in whose hands, eighteen years ago,
a copy of the Gospel of Matthew was placed by a travelling mis
sionary. The next year the father of this native took up the
book, and read and re-read it, and recommended his mischievous
sons to read it, especially the 5th, 6th, and 7th chapters. The
next year, the family and its friends all feared that this book
might destroy the son Hormusjee's faith in Parsiism. The next
year, he bought himself an English Bible and the four Gospels,
in Guzerathi, and read both together for the sake of comparing
the two languages. The next year, which was 1839, the fears
of the family and its friends were realized. A power from on
high convinced the hitherto blind reader of the Bible, that it was
not the language of literature, but the Divine instruction — not
the letter, but the spirit that was to be pursued. Since that time,
he says himself: "Being first blessed, I have more or less en
deavoured, in my humble way, to become a blessing to others,
and to make the Bible itself an ever-increasing blessing to both.
Once a deluded wretch, I have been recently set apart by the .
Great Author of the Bible to undeceive and enlighten my fellow-
countrymen by means of this same sacred Book." In the years
1852 and 1853, this learned native is mentioned as aiding in the
revision of the Guzerathi Scriptures.
But we must leave India, difficult as it is to turn away from it,
now that its idolatry U on the wane, and its desire for truth on

INDIA A FIELD OF VAST IMPORTANCE. 363

the increase. Mr. Bion of Dacca says : " We have been sur
prised to see how things are changed. Formerly, we were
scarcely able to speak without dispute and disturbance : now, we
have always quiet and attentive hearers ; and when we asked a
few days ago, after preaching, whether any one had questions, a
Brahmin said, before 200 people, ' Who can say any thing against
your religion ? It is all true that you say.' Another, a Mussul
man, said, ' The words of the gospel are all very good and true,
and not, as we formerly thought, mixed with Satan's words.' "
Near the above-mentioned place, Dacca, in 1,818^ a number of
converts were found inhabiting certain adjacent villages, who
had forsaken idolatry, and who constantly refused to pay to the
Brahmins the customary honours. They were also remarkable
for their correctness of conduct and adherence to truth. They
were occasionally visited by several of our Christian brethren,
both European and native, and were scattered through ten or
twelve villages. They were, however, the followers of no par
ticular leader; they called themselves ". learners," and professed
to be in search of a true lawgiver and teacher. Some of our
native friends, being very desirous of knowing whence they had
derived all their ideas, were at length told that they had imbibed
them from a book which was carefully preserved in one of their
villages. They were shown this book, which was much worn,
and kept in a case of brass for the purpose of preserving it, and
which they were told had been possessed for many years, although
none of these persons could say whence it came. On examina-
'tion, this book was found to be a copy of ihe Bengali New Testa
ment, printed at Serampore in 1800.
" Gain India for Christ," says an eloquent preacher, " and the
world will follow. Destroy idolatry ihere, and the rest of your
work will be but clearing the earth from its wrecks. The old
serpent has yet his throne there ; and as you pass along you be
hold, in token of it, the nest of the living reptile garlanded with
flowers ; but give India the Bible ! she is stretching out her hand
to receive it, and it shall carry into the innermost recesses of her
hoary temples the light of the glorious gospel of God.

364 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

" It is impossible to read of the devil-worship . of Southern
India, without astonishment and horror. Devotees drinking
blood, working themselves up into a state of frenzy, and then
with frantic violence whirling themselves about, in wild tumul
tuous dances, till they sink down almost dead in a state of ex
haustion, ' led captive by the devil at his will.' In sight of this
fearful picture, the hideous amusement of the ignorant multi
tudes, let the solemn fact be weighed and remembered, that there
have not been published three millions of Scriptures altogether,
for all the millions of India, who, since this century began, have
been passing away to death and judgment, and for its living
millions who are now hastening on to their eternal doom, — a vast
multitude of souls, reaching nearly to 500,000,000 — a number
equal to half the population of the globe I"
CHINA.
There is no part of the world that at this time can present so
vast an extent of interest to the eye of the Christian, as China, —
earth's most ancient kingdom, as old if not older than Egypt or
Nineveh, and which has endured while they have decayed ! It
must rival in his thoughts even India.
A famous marble tablet was dug up at Se-gnan-foo, in the pro
vince of Shens£, in China, in the year 1625 : upon it was a cross
resembling that used by the Syrians in Malabar, accompanied. by
an inscription in the Chinese and Syriac languages, describing the
principal doctrines of the gospel, and recording the translation of
the sacred Scriptures into Chinese. It would appear that, in the
year 637, Olopen, a Christian missionary, arrived in' China, and
obtained an interview with the emperor, who ordered his minister,
then the most learned of Chinese scholars, to translate the sacred
books brought by Olopen.
The tablet which gives this record was erected, according to its
own authority, in the year 782. The Chinese discovered it in
1625; and neither they nor the Jesuits (then their teachers)
understood the Syrian part of the inscription, till it was trans-

CHINESE LANGUAGE. '365

lated in Malabar, which is not a small evidence in favour of its
authenticity. It may, therefore, hence be concluded, that the old Nestorian
Church — that purest primitive church of the East — sent one of
its missionaries into China in the seventh century ; which accords
with the assertion of Mosheim's "Church History," that "in the
seventh century, the Nestorians penetrated into China, where they
established several churches." Mosheim likewise says, that the
Nestorian Christians were found in China till the beginning of
the fifteenth century.
The above translation, made by the Chinese minister, may or
may not be in existence. In 1805, the committee of the Bible
Society, having heard of a Chinese manuscript version in the
British Museum, instituted particular inquiries concerning it.
They found that it contained a harmony of the four Evangelists,
the Acts ofthe Apostles, and all the Epistles of St. Paul, except
ing that to the Hebrews; but it appeared from the style and
wording to have been made from the Vulgate, under the direction
of the Jesuits ; and for this and other reasons it was considered
better to obtain an entirely new translation.
This version was, however, very useful in assisting Dr. Morri
son in acquiring the language; and in 1807, he#was sent by the
London Missionary Society to Canton.
The Chinese have no alphabet : every written character is a
word. In different parts of China they speak the language very
differently, but it is everywhere written in the same way.
Three thousand different characters are in very general use.
Some of them are simple, as M a field, JE a horse, _*3& a sheep;
and some are complex, as Jp|I le, which means gain or profit. So
it must be a difficult task to learn Chinese. Dr. Morrison's dic-
tbnary contains 40,000 characters. This is found in the library
of the Bible Society, in six volumes ; it was printed in Malacca,
and cost him ten years' labour. He was unable to print it ic
Canton, from the jealousy of the Chinese.
The following curious characters are Chinese. This specimen
31*

366

THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

is a portion of the beginning of the first chapter of St. John's
Gospel : —

IB A # I ft S
z m
^. z

4 m
z m
A T m
01

75 ffif

IK Ac

m S3

Z a

Dr. Morrison taught himself this difficult language, that he
might translate the Bible. He- accomplished the translation of
the New Testament, in the year 1814, after seven years' incessant
study, at first undertaken in a cellar, by the light of an earthen
ware lamp, to avoid observation ! The first Chinese convert found
a blessing to his own soul, while assisting Dr. Morrison to print
his New Testament. While thus engaged in preparing the Bible
for his countrymen, " he began to see that the merits of Jesus
were sufficient for the salvation of all mankind, and hence believed
on Him — the Holy Spirit printing the word upon his heart."
In May, 1814, by the sea-side, at a spring of water issuing
from the foot of a lofty hill, far away from all human notice, was
baptized by his rejoicing teacher, in the name of the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost, Tsae-ako — the first-fruits of a great harvest

DR. MORRISON — LEANG-A-FAH. 367

of souls yet to be gathered in, after the sowing of the seed of
the word.
Tsae-ako adhered to the profession of the gospel until his death,
which took place, from consumption, in 1818.
The London Missionary Society afterward sent out Dr- Milne
to the aid of Dr. Morrison. Dr. Milne was instrumental in the
conversion of a Chinese named Leang-a-f ah, whom Dr. Morrison
ordained to the work of an evangelist among his countrymen.
Leang-a-f ah is still living, a valued member of the Canton mission,
and has laboured for upward of thirty-six years with unwavering
fidelity among those who, he says, " are glued fast to ten thousand
forms of idols, but striving to set an example that will move men's
hearts — praying that the most high Lord will convert them."
The above is an extract from one of his letters in 1828 ; but
it is not till the Jubilee Year of the Bible Society that God seems
to have poured out a special blessing on the efforts and prayers of
this first Chinese evangelist.
Leang-a-f ah laboured with Dr. Morrison continually, to scatter
the word of hfe in separate portions among his countrymen. He
resolved to write short tracts to explain the Scriptures, which
he has called " Scripture Lessons, or Good Words to admonish
the Age," for distribution among the students at the literary
examinations. On the 1st of August, 1834, the beloved Morrison was called
away by death. He died at Canton, amid the few prayerful
and sorrowing converts who were given him for his reward during
his twenty-seven years of patient toil ; and it is said he died
" panting after the salvation of China."
On the 20th of the same month, Leang-a-fah, with two other
Christian friends, went out to distribute his " Scripture Lessons,"
at the examination of literary candidates. He distributed 5000
one day, and 5000 the next. On the third day came persecution ;
one of his friends received forty blows on the mouth, which rcn
dered him unable to speak ; the second was put to death ; and
LeUng-a-f ah fled to Singapore, and found refuge on board on e of
the English ships at Lintin, and from thence he thus writes : " 1

368 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

call to mind that all who preach the gospel of our Lord Jesuit
must suffer persecution ; and, though I cannot equal the patience
of Paul or Job, I desire to imitate these ancient saints, and keep
my heart in peace."
Leang-a-fah little thought that one of the tracts, distributed at
such a risk, was to prove the .-first seed of revolution in China,
and to turn her from her idolatry, 4000 years old, to the worship
of the living God : but as the oak is in the acorn, so it was ; and
he who sowed the acorn lives to see the springing up of the tree
that he planted.
We must now recount to you the last information received
from China concerning the wonderful " rebellion," as it is called,
which threatens to overthrow the Mantchoo or Tartar dynasty.
It appears that the insurgents have a leader called Tae-ping-
wang, or Sew-tseuen, whom they design to elevate to the throne.
They everywhere announce their resolution to deliver the Chinese
nation from the Tartar yoke. They are well received by the
population, and obtain without difficulty large contributions in
support of their cause. But the most remarkable circumstance
attending their progress is, that neither they nor their chiefs are
idolaters. Wherever they appear, they destroy the bonzes, the
joss-houses, and the idols, and the latter are seen floating in
broken fragments down the rivers, — Buddhas of twenty feet and
more, floundering about in the water, — idols esteemed only as
blocks of wood, to be hacked, and hewed, and broken in pieces.
Sew-tseuen has hitherto been victorious. He has taken Nankin
and many other cities, and is master of the great canal by which
grain is conveyed to Pekin. He has summoned the mandarins
to receive him as their legitimate sovereign, descending in the
ninth generation from the last prince of the Ming or native
Chinese dynasty. His policy seems to be to make war upon the
Tartar authorities, but to protect the people; and among so
methodical and ingenious a nation as the Chinese, it is evident
that the state of disorder described will be but of short duration.
" Be the government of China what it may, it cannot be worse
than that which seems likely to be now overthrown. The Mant-

ACCOUNT OP SEW-TSEUEN. 369

choo dynasty has shown itself ready, whenever it dared, to perse
cute the Christian religion, to restrict the trade of the empire,
and to evade its engagements with foreign nations. But the dis
position which has of late years been manifested by the Chinese
themselves to adopt a purer faith, to extend their commerce, and
even to emigrate to Australia,- California, and the Mauritius,
shows that the oppressive policy of the government' is by no
means the same with the views and interests of the people."
It seems that the chief, Sew-tseuen, has been the enlightenei
of his followers in religious matters, even more than their leader
in war, and he has given a history of his own acquaintance with
the scriptural truths which he now publishes under an imperial
seal, in some Chinese tracts which have been carefully read by
Dr. Legge, at Hong-kong, who has communicated the information
to the Bible and Missionary Societies in London.
Sew-tseuen was one of the literary candidates who received
from Leang-a-fah and his companions, in 1834, "Scripture
Lessons, or Good Words to admonish the Age." This was the
first thing that aroused his mind. In 1837, after receiving the
truths taught in the tract, he suffered from some disease, during
which he thought he was taken up to heaven, and records that
" his soul saw" many things which confirmed the new doctrines
with which his mind had been occupied. Probably, in the
delirium of fever, he confounded the ideal with the real, and
hence may have arisen the visions with which he is supposed to
have been favoured. It is a fact that a kind of divine origin or
mission is ascribed to him, whether actually, or merely in the
language of " the flowery land," is not ascertained. His other
name, " Tae-ping-wang," signifies " the prince of peace." He
forbids, by an edict, any application to himself of the words
supreme or holy, hitherto assumed by the emperors of China,
which he declines on the ground that they are due to God alone.
In 1844, he composed various works; and in 1846, resided in
Canton, with Mr. Roberts, an American missionary, seeking for
further instruction. Some obscurity rests over his subsequent
course; but there soon followed the organization of the rebellion,

870 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

some few years of fighting in the west, and then a triumphant
progress from strength to strength, till Nankin fell before him on
the 19th of March.
Such is the history of the rebel chief. Now, what are the
truths his followers have been taught to believe ?
They announce a belief in one only, the living and true God;
this they hold firmly, and with the earnestness of a nation newly
awakened from idolatry. They base their belief of it on the
teaching of the Old Testament, and on the most ancient books
and practice of China; — for their own books testify that the
most ancient Chinese must have known the true God; while
thiy also admit, that, so early as the twenty-sixth century before
Cjil?t, the "impish devil drew men into his toils, and taught
them lo worship other and evil spirits."
In a letter from Shanghai, it is said that the rebels will not
tolerate idolatry, either Catholic or Pagan. Shortly after they
obtained Nankin, the Roman Catholics were, on Good Friday,
performing their usual services in one of their chapels. The in
surgents inquired, "What is all this about?" They replied,
"We are worshipping the Lord of heaven." "Whose images,
then, are these upon the wall?" It was answered, "The images
of Christ and the Virgin Mary." They were then instantly de
stroyed. These deeds of summary determination seem necessary,
in order to strike at the root of that vast system of idolatry
which has hitherto ruled in China. We are told of an immense
temple, in which 500 heathen priests were officiating at once.
They were all in a standing posture, making their vain repetitions,
" Ometo feh ! ometo feh !" This is customary three times a day.
In the centre of this temple stood three enormous idols, and all
around were multitudes of other idols of various sizes, enshrined
in great magnificence and costly splendour.
With the idols, much other heathenish nonsense has been
swept away, — all the distinction of days into lucky and unlucky
with which the Chinese almanacs have hitherto been filled.
"These," say the rebels, "were artful devices ofthe devil. We
have now expunged them all. Years, months, and days succeed

THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT IN CHINA. 371

one another according to the appointment of our heavenly Father.
They are all lucky — all good. Let a man reverence, with a true
heart, the great God, and he may hope for success in his under
takings,, whensoever commenced."
The sincerity of their belief in one God has led those rebels
to understand that all men, as the children of God, are brethren.
They speak of the world as a whole, and say, " It is one family."
" There are many men under heaven, but all are brothers : there
are many women under heaven, but all are sisters. Why should
we indulge the wish to devour and consume one another ?"
This is the noble idea that will break down the great wall of
China, — 1500 miles long, and 2000 years old,* — which is said
to contain material sufficient to rear all the dwelling-houses in
England, Wales, and Scotland, and whose very towers would
erect a city as large as London.
"One family," — "all brethren," — these are new words for
the Chinese to use, who have hitherto called all nations, " the
outside barbarians !" All hail to our new brothers ! who, in
themselves, form one-third of the great family. And what gift
shall we send them as a token of our acknowledgment of the
relationship? — a million copies of the New Testament of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ !
They are deeply in want of this precious gift. They do not
seem at present to possess it. They have made three rules for
their army, when encamped : 1st, " You must reverently honour
the orders of heaven ; 2d, You must thoroughly learn the Ten
Commandments, the Doxology, the forms for morning and evening
worship, and for saying grace ; 3d, You must not smoke opium
or drink wine." They appear to possess, for they have them
selves reprinted, the first twenty-seven chapters of Genesis, ac
cording to the version of the late* Dr. Gutzlaff. Perhaps, also,
they have the whole of the Pentateuch ; but " there is nothing in
their books about the cross." They have not yet studied the life
ef Jesus, or the Acts and Epistles of the apostles. They must
» See "The Chinese ; a Book of the Day," by the Rev. T. Phillips.

372 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

be enlightened by the whole word of God; and let the British
and Foreign Bible Society, in this its Jubilee Year, hasten to
present them with the New Testament, to disperse the errors
which at present mingle with truth in their belief and practice,
and to show unto them " the more excellent way." They have
not renounced polygamy; they still make offerings of animals,
tea, rice, etc., to God ; and they have faith in present visions and
revelations. " Means must be taken," say the missionaries, " at
whatever personal risk, to put them in possession of the entire
Scriptures." Let us do this by families : let every family, rich and poor,
throughout Great Britain, resolve to give to China the sum of so
many Testaments, at 4c?. each. Some young collector would be
found in every household. Were this plan adopted, as it already
has been in many districts, the million required would soon pour
in : and " what is that among so many ?" — one million of Testa
ments to 360 millions of people ! They will, however, soon re
print them for themselves, as, by their simple method of printing,
they are enabled, without screw, lever, wheel, or wedge, to throw
off 3000 impressions of any page in a day.
The whole apparatus of a printer in China consists of his gra
vers, blocks, and brushes. These he may shoulder and travel
with, from place to place, purchasing paper and lamp-black as he
needs them ; and, borrowing a table any where, print editions by
the hundred or the score, as he may be able to dispose of them.
There are generals in the rebel army -=— men of Kwantung and
Kwang-se — who, it would seem, are deeply influenced by the
belief that God is always with them.
" The hardships they have suffered, and the dangers they have
incurred, are, as they assert, punishments and trials of their hea
venly Father, and the successes they have achieved are instances
of his grace. With the glistening eyes of gratitude they point
back to the fact, that, at the beginning of their enterprise , some
four years ago, they numbered only 100 or 200, and that, except
for the direct help of their heavenly Father, they never could
have done what they have done. 'It is said,' they continue, 'that

THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 373

we use n.igical arts ; but the only magic we have used is prayer
to God. When our numbers reached from 2000 to 3000, and we
were yet beset on all hands by greater numbers — when we had
no powder left, and our provisions were all gone — our heavenly
Father showed us the way to escape. So we put our wives and
children in the midst, and not only forced a passage, but com
pletely beat our enemies. If it be the will of God that our prince
of peace shall be the sovereign of China, he will be the sovereign
of China ; if not, then we will die here/
" The man who used this language of courageous fidelity to the
cause in every extreme, and of confidence in God, was a shrivel-
led-up, elderly, httle person, who made an odd figure in his yellow-
and-red hood ; but he could think the thoughts and speak the
speech of a hero."
Dr. Legge thinks that the rebels cannot have had much, if
they have had any, teaching from Protestant missionaries. These,
however, have been at work in China, though few in number, at
the free ports.
The Chinese Repository recently stated, that only 150 mission
aries have laboured in China since the arrival of Dr. Morrison in
1807, of whom seventy-three are now in the field, twenty-nine
have died, and forty-eight have returned in ill-health or discouraged
at the difficulties of her peculiar language. Of those who remain,
twenty-three are Englishmen, forty-four Americans, and six Ger
mans — only seventy-three Protestant missionaries for 360,000,000
of people ! — eleven at Hong-kong ; ten at Amoy ; twelve at Fun-
chau; seventeen at Ningpo, including Miss Aldersey, a Christian
English lady, who has devoted herself to the education of native
females; and twenty-three at Shanghai; — no more. Yet this
handful of men may have done much to send up the country " ihe
Missionary they found in China," conversant with its language,
and diligently engaged in instructing the heathen. Let us hear
what Mr. Abeel, an American missionary, one of those who had
been in China, said of this Missionary at the thirtieth anniversary
of the British and Foreign Bible Society :
"This Missionary," said Mr. Abeel, "had made repeated
32

374 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

voyages along the coast of China, from island to island, and from pro.
vince to province, and the ships which bore him thither had often
left him alone; and what did he do? Alone and unaided, he
entered town, hamlet, and village, and found that almost every
one among these civilized heathens understood him. He pene
trated up to the capital, and it is said that he even entered the
palace. This Missionary afterward did me the honour to accom
pany me, and such another companion I never expect to find.
Where I could not go, he went; and what I could not do he did.
-He laboured successfully among the millions who had no teacher,
and he instructed for weeks together even one of the principal
priests of the empire, chaplain of the emperor. This Missionary,
with all his powers, became my servant, I sent him on board some
junks that were returning to China, and there he sat, day by day,
teaching the mariners, and reading with them ; and at the end
of their voyage he again went forth, as he had done before.
" Are you desirous to know who this Missionary is? ¦ I will
first tell you who he is not. He is not a Churchman ; he is not
a Dissenter ; he is not a Calvinist, nor an Arminian ; he is neither
an Englishman nor an American ; he appears to hate all sects^
many of the most prominent of which I never heard him deign to
mention. This Missionary is The Bible, the only Missionary
upon whom myself and my fellow-labourers depend for the con
version of the world. He is gone forth into China, and into all
the vast kingdoms and islands of the East. I had the honour at
some of the outposts to visit the junks carrying on the China trade,
and to supply fifty of these junks with that Missionary ; and so
by one means or another he will traverse the length and breadth
of the empire."
He has done so for twenty years since then ! China has
eighteen provinces, and embraces a space of five millions and a
half of square miles, with a population so dense, that they are
obliged to cultivate all but their most sterile lands for food, to
live in junks upon their rivers, and even to terrace their moun
tains for agriculture, and grow water-lilies upon all their lakes,
of which they eat the seeds and roots. Its population are edu-

DESTITUTION OP INDIA AND CHINA. 375

cated; and they can furnish books to each other for a mere
trifle. The works of Confucius, written on 400 leaves, can be
purchased for ninepence. Every peasant and pedlar has the
common depositories of knowledge within his reach. Throughout
the empire they can read the same character, even although
they speak different dialects ; therefore, when the pure morality
of the gospel, with all the stupendous facts of Scripture history
shall be once fully brought before the minds of this intelligent
race, "a nation may be born at once" into an inheritance of
all the privileges ofthe gospel. Isa. lxvi. 8.
Those who are familiar with the most interesting journals of
the Bishop of Victoria, of Dr. Medhurst, and of Dr. Gutzlaff, will
readily call to mind the times in which the good seed was sown, in
many an hour of depression — by Dr. Morrison, the first translator
ofthe Chinese Scriptures in this century, as he made use of grant
after grant from the British and Foreign Bible Society, and felt
and said it was "but a drop in the ocean," — by his indefatigable
son and successors, often amid privation and persecution, still re
vising and re-revising the first translation of the Book of God, and
dispensing it to many a glad and grateful heart. The Bible So
ciety has always afforded every facility to the labours of these ex-'
cellent missionaries, and China was one of the especial fields in
which, at the commencement of this year, it intended to sow more
diligently the seed of the word, and the fruits of the Jubilee; but
if this field is about to be thus extended, it will make an irresisti
ble appeal to England and America, for efforts on a nobler scale1
than any of which they have hitherto even dreamed.
India and China, alone, present to the eye of the Christian the
destitute population of half a world. We have been honoured to
create the hunger for the bread and the thirst for the water of
life, and now we must supply it, and teach them how to supply
themselves. Their present destitution, and their willingness to receive the
Scriptures, are great facts, and the English mind always bends to
the power of facts, and acts upon them, preferring to draw its own
inferences. Thf Bible Society has never wanted funds, since the

376 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

first hour of its existence, to carry out its necessary designs, and
we believe it never will. It cannot accomplish the work that
now opens before it on its present free income of about fifty
thousand pounds. And what ought to be its Jubilee offering ?
At the moment when this is written, it has only reached thirty-
four thousand pounds. It has not yet received the willing offer
ings of all Britain's merchant princes, — "casting in of their
abundance," — knowing, as they do, that it is their Bible that makes
them what they are among the nations of the earth, — sitting in
peaceful sovereignty, while others are convulsed with revolutions !,
A quarter of a million of money is said to have been expended
Upon the dress of one image of the Virgin Mary in the city of'
Rome ! Roman Catholicism has sent forth her earnest teachers
of tradition, who are afraid to print the Bible, and she has " con
verts by millions, in China.". In 1830, their mission cost the
sum of 40,000?. Mohammedanism (not by fire and sword, but by
the milder arts of proselytism) has, in China, shamed the puny
efforts of those who send forth the more holy book. We may,
indeed, almost wonder at our Protestant successes.
In 1835, Mr. George Borrow, superintended the printing of a
version of the New Testament in Mantchoo, a dialect much used
in the north of China. Dr. Morrison, when he heard of this
translation, remarked, "how wonderfully unconnected labours
were now brought to bear upon each other, and blend in their
effects ; and he trusted that the Mantchoo Bible would be of great
use in the northern dominions of the Chinese empire."
The missionaries among the Buriat Mongols, also, after ten
years of labour, completed a translation of the Scriptures into
Mongolian; and Mr. Stallybrass says : "When we regard China
as about to be opened for the reception of the glorious gospel,
this version rises much in importance. It is intelligible to all
those who inhabit the vast tract of country between Siberia and
the Chinese wall, as well as to many of the Chinese themselves."
Mr. Knill adds, concerning this version, " Our Siberian mission
is as near to China as Wales is to England, the same idolatry
being practised on both sides of the frontier. Some of the young

THE BIBLE AMONG THE MONGOLS. 377

natives engaged in this translation used to come to Mr. Stally-
brass, almost every evening, with their New Testaments in their
hands, asking him to explain certain passages, and they had (like
our .'own good King Alfred) lit tie text-books, which they carried in
their" bosoms, in which they have written passages which have
particularly struck them* It is delightful to mark how a beam
of sacred pleasure lights up their features, when some new view
of Divine truth breaks upon them, — some fresh point from which
they can contemplate the love of the Saviour. Last Sabbath, at
our usual Mongolian service, I requested one of them to read the
third chapter of John's Gospel. When he came to the words,
' God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life,' his voice faltered, and with difficulty he read a little farther;
but when he came to the words, ' Thi is the condemnation, that
light is come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than
light, because their deeds were evil,' his feelings completely over
came him, and his voice was drowned with sobs and tears. I
finished the chapter," adds Mr. Knill, "and preached to the
people." This translation was completed in 1841. "We wait," say the
Parent committee, " only for the opened door ; for we grieve to
say that the mission has, by authority, been broken up. The Old
Testament has been printed, the New revised, the sanction of the
committee is given for printing 3000 copies; but when the work
will be undertaken still remains to be seen. The faithful convert
Shagdur . continues active in the distribution of portions of the
Mongolian Scriptures. In 1840, Shagdur went out to distribute
copies of the Scriptures in the districts immediately bordering on
the Chinese frontier. In a few days, the whole of his stock was
disposed of. He says he felt like a man who had gone out with
a bushel of seed-corn to sow a field of ten acres. The Mongolian
Scriptures find their way to many who understand the language
in the Chinese empire, and we have been repeatedly told that the

* See page 121.
32*

878 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

books are well understood, are much sought after, and we hope not
read in vain."*
In 1848, the committee, at the earnest recommendation of Dr.
Barth of Germany, granted the sum of 100?. to Dr. Gutzlaff, for
the Chinese Union, composed of converted natives, a considerable
number of whom traverse the interior parts of China, introducing
the word of God into those portions of the country to which no
missionary had access.
"Wong-shao-yet, the colporteur, lately went to Hangchau.
The people are very willing there, as at other places, to hear and
receive the word of God. He has the utmost facility in circu
lating single portions of the Holy Scriptures. It is evident that
there is a wide and inviting field for Christian labour in China ;
and, though restrictions exist as to the admission of foreigners,
native assistants can freely distribute to the countless multitude
the words of life. There is positively nothing in the way of the
unlimited employment of such agency ; and we are fully per
suaded that by this means, in a great measure, China is to be
evangelized and converted to God. The gratifying reports of this
colporteur are confirmed by the personal observation of the
missionaries." The Report for 1849, page 132, also contains the names of the
places where these portions of Scripture have been circulated;
and among them are found the very districts or provinces of
Kwang-tung, and Keang-se, named as the native places of the
leaders in the present movement.
The Report for 1850 says, "Dr. Gutzlaff received from the
British and Foreign Bible Society two additional grants of 100?.
each, for the distribution of Chinese Testaments, and also 200
copies of the Buriat, Mongol, and Mantchoo Scriptures."
In 1852, the committee at Shanghai were encouraged by the
Parent committee to print a small edition of portions of the New
Testament in Mantchoo and Chinese, in parallel columns; and
for this purpose the British and Foreign Bible Society's fount of

* Thirty-sixth Report, page 11.

ISLANDS OP JAPAN. 379

Mantchoo type has been forwarded to China, Dr. Medhurst having
written, "We think that Scriptures printed in this form would
be useful, as there are many Chinese and Tartars partially ac
quainted with both languages, who would be very glad to obtain
books printed in this manner, when otherwise they might not give
attention to them."
With these types were also forwarded 200 more copies of the
Mantchoo New Testament, with 100 Bibles and 200 Testaments
in Mongolian.
These, then, are some of the avenues by which the word of
God has entered China. Perhaps some day the treasure may be
returned with interest to the Buriat Mongols when there shall be
a Chinese and Foreign Bible Society, and when China has learned
to evangelize, not to exterminate, the Tartars.
JAPAN.
It does not appear that there is yet any Bible for the islands
of Japan, which contain a population, it is said, of nearly fifty
millions of inhabitants. Japan is a dark and unknown worfd.
Jesuit missionaries from Portugal settled there in the sixteenth
century, and induced great numbers of Japanese to embrace their
form of Christianity; but these having offended the government,
a persecution was commenced against them to the death. This
happened in the seventeenth century; and ever since then, the
penalty of death has been denounced against all who refused to
prove that they were not Christians, by trampling on a picture of
the "Virgin and Child;" and all foreigners were banished from
the empire, except a few Dutch merchants, who are still confined
to an island in the harbour of Nagasaki.
As they will, therefore, hold no intercourse with other nations^
it is impossible to translate the Bible for them. The Bible So
ciety has desired to do so, from the year 1816. In the Report
for 1817, will be found a very interesting letter from the Rev. J.
Supper of Batavia, on this subject. This gentleman had made
inquiries of persons who had formerly resided in Japan, and who
declara "that the people have no books; that the officerf of

380 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

government pay frequent visits to every house, and if they dis
cover even a small piece of paper which relates to the Christian
worship, but particularly to the cross of Christ, the dwelhng in
which such a paper is found is immediately razed and destroyed,
and the inhabitants condemned to death."
In November, 1831, a coasting-junk of about 200 tons burden,
bound to Yedo, the capital of Japan, with a cargo consisting partly
of rice and partly of tribute to the emperor, was driven by a
storm into the Pacific Ocean. The crew, entirely ignorant of
their course, let the vessel drift wherever the winds and waves
would carry her, and, after being tossed about for fourteen months,
were cast on shore near the Columbia River. During this long
period they had subsisted chiefly on rice and fish. Eleven had
died of scurvy, and the remaining three were nearly helpless
when they landed. The Indians of that region plundered them
of every thing, and kept them captive for several months.
At last their history became known to a benevolent factor of
the Hudson's Bay Company, who sent them to England. In
London, many persons took an interest in their welfare, and they
were thence sent to China, and committed to the care of the
superintendent of the British trade, with the hope that they
might at last reach home. They arrived at Macao in 1835, and
resided with Dr. Gutzlaff, who regarded it as a good opportunity
to acquire some knowledge of their language. That admirable
missionary made use of the power thus attained to prepare a
translation of the Gospel of John, in Japanese, in which he
availed himself of the aid of the natives. These three wanderers,
named Twakitchi or Lucky Rock, Kinkitchi or Lasting Happi
ness, and Otokitchi or Happy Sound, with four other shipwrecked
Japanese, were taken back to Japan, accompanied by Dr. Gutzlaff,
in the ship " Morrison," but the vessel was fired upon, and they
were not allowed any communication with the shore.
In 1849, Dr. Gutzlaff being in this country, the Bible Society
presented him with 40?. toward the printing of portions of the
New Testament in Japanese, being, as he termed it, a pioneer
translation,— a version that must still be tested. It does not ap-

LOOCHOO ISLANDS. 381
pear that any opportunity has yet offered for its circulation ; but
should China be evangeUzed, we may hope, that, from its shores,
the gospel would spread to Japan. The Chinese characters were
formerly used in writing Japanese, and the written language now
consists of modified and contracted Chinese characters.* The
two languages are, however, different in their structure and their
idiom. THE LOOCHOO ISLANDS.
These islands are thirty-six in number, lying 300 miles south
of Japan, and 500 miles east of China. The largest of them has
been for seven years the seat of a mission of the Church Mission
ary Society, the origin and history of which are extremely inte
resting. Lieutenant Clifford, a naval officer, visited this island in
1816, on the occasion of Lord Amherst's embassy to China. Being
himself, then, as he states, in " unbelief, he lost the opportunity
of making known the truth as it is in Jesus," but when he after
ward felt the power of Divine truth, he remembered earnestly the
condition of those poor islanders, and for fifteen years sought the
means of sending to them the good tidings of the gospel.
At last, in 1845, there was established the Loochoo Naval Mis
sion. The missionary appointed was Dr. Bettelheim, a learned
Jew, but also a devoted Christian ; he was master, already, of ten
languages, and in nine months acquired the Loochooan. He has
since endured every variety of difficulty and privation imposed
upon him by the government, (which is all but Japanese in its re
strictions,) during the work of compiling a grammar and diction
ary of the language, and the translation of the two Gospels of
Luke and John, the book of the Acts, and the Epistle to the
Romans. The philanthropic support of the English Government, and the
sympathizing visit of the Bishop of Victoria, have helped to sus
tain him, in his most difficult position, of which he, with his
heroic wife, feels all the importance, and of which he thus writes :
* Pilchard's "Researches."

382 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

" We stand here on the threshold of Japan, cheered by the one
hope of diffusing the gospel in Loochoo ; and through Loochoo to
Japan, — the last kingdom that stands out in proud enmity to the
Saviour, teeming with millions of .human beings, who are liars,
gamblers, lazy-bodies, full of deceit and ignorance beyond belief.
Brethren, I entreat you, in the name of an all-merciful Saviour,
to pity Japan ! Nothing has as yet been done for it, and it re
quires speedy aid."
We have little room for further details of the sufferings of this
missionary, or the martyrdom of One of his converts, by confine
ment in constrained postures, by slow starvation, by beating on
the head, by squeezing of the feet, performed, too, by his own
father and mother ! " The dark places of the earth are full of
cruelty," but the name of Jesus supports the true believer under
every trial, as it has done poor Satchi-hama, even unto death ; and
his history, with that of his teacher, may be one of those which
shall arouse Christendom to perform its duty toward Japan and
toward Loochoo.
The importance of the Loochooan translation of the Scriptures
will be seen from the declaration of the Bishop of Victoria, that
the Loochooan is a mere dialect of the Japanese language, with
many Chinese terms engrafted upon it. Dr. Bettelheim states,
that the labours of the brethren who have translated the word of
God into Chinese, are often of very great assistance to him. He .
has preached to, and made himself understood by, Japanese
sailors visiting the island; while, in his own words, "the gold, of
California, and the Atlantic pouring through the Darien canal
into the Pacific, will cause an immense European and American
trade, vid Loochoo and Japan, with China, which makes these
islands of great importance.*
The journal of Dr. B. must stir every Christian heart to sympa
thy. He is lodged by the Loochooan government in an idol
temple ; they insist on finding his food, which is often unwhole-

• Eor further information concerning the Loochoo Mission, see its 7th Re
port.

AUSTRALIA. 383

some and insufficient ; and they surround his house with guards,
which they continually change, lest he should convert them. He
has, however, many secret converts, of whom Satchi-hama was
one. When the people are permitted to listen to his teaching,
and to read the word of God, which he is preparing for them,
" the truth shall prevail" — even in Loochoo.

CHAPTER IX.
Jubilee Review continued — Circulation of the Bible in Australia, Borneo, Tahiti,
Rarotonga, Mangaia, New Zealand, and South Africa — The Bible among
Mohammedans, in Roman Catholic Countries, in Austria, in Spain and Portu
gal, in Switzerland and Italy, and in France.
AUSTRALIA.
. Australia is one of the fields of labour especially contemplated
by the society in this its Jubilee Year. The Auxiliary Society
at Sydney was first established in the year 1817, and is stated
never to have been in more flourishing circumstances than at the
present time. The sales of Bibles and Testaments during the
past year had increased threefold. The following account of its
anniversary meeting has just been received : " The interest
throughout was well sustained ; and tbe brilliant address of the
Eev. John Beorly told upon the audience with electric power.
The instant effect was a check for 110?., handed to him on the
platform, to aid the funds "of the auxiliary ; and during the even
ing the intense interest which had been excited was so well sus
tained by the Rev. W. Gill, and the other speakers, as to induce
the grand result of 400?. toward the maintenance of colporteurs,
etc. We have never had such a meeting ! Dr. Ross's large church
was crowded, and every one seemed greatly pleased and interested."
The society at Adelaide reports that the immigrants to this land
of gold are in general well supplied with the Bible, principally

384 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

owing to the efforts of the Bible Society at home, and the parting
gifts of friends. There are auxiliary societies, also, in compara
tively active operation at Melbourne, Geelong, Hobart Town,
Launceston, and other places. By the instrumentality of these
auxiliaries, upward of 20,000 copies of the Scriptures were put
in circulation last year, while considerable amounts have been sent
by them for the general objects of the society.
MALAYSIA — BORNEO.
Borneo and its Dajack population are receiving from the British
and Foreign Bible Society the Dajack New Testament. The Rev.
A. Hardeland says : " The first edition is almost exhausted, and
so would some few thousand copies more be, if we had them.
When, some thirteen years back, we, in the name of the Lord
God, first planted the banner of the cross in this place, not one
single Dajack was able to read, and' for several years ho one
evinced the least desire to learn : their food was the most disgust
ing reptiles; and their only relief from abject idleness was the
excitement of hideous devil-festivals, and a greedy desire to pos
sess human skulls. Oh, how swift were the feet of the idle Da-
jacks to shed blood ! But now many hundreds have learned to
read fluently, and are provided with New Testaments. There are
three mission-stations, besides Pulopetak, and at least 1000
scholars; and the desire after books is very great. We are
obliged to refuse many applications ; the books are well taken care
of and diligently perused : usually the receiver makes a wooden
box to contain his treasure, and in this box it accompanies him
wherever he goes. Whenever they paddle abroad in their drut
(a trunk of a tree hollowed out) on the broad rivers, the little
box is seldom absent, and has besides a covering of leaves ; and
if the arut is overturned amid the waves, by a gust of wind, the
occupant seizes upon his little box, swims with it to the shore,
and jumps, for joy when he finds the book is uninjured."
Whoever has read of the Dajacks of Borneo, and has imagined
the large houses in which they reside, by hundreds together,
whose ornaments are human heads dangling from the ceiling, will

POLYNESIA — TAHITI. 385'

rejoice to hear that in such buildings multitudes now sometimes
Ustcn to the Scripture-reader, or some native Dajack, who reads
aloud and in a recitative tone of voice, which is their habit. By
this means the women hear the word of God : they have not yet
come either to school or to church, but they are now accessible to
instruction in their own houses. When passing, in the evening,
the banks of the rivers where the villages are built, one hears in
all directions the voice of the reader resounding to the opposite
bank. The Bible will soon conquer the mania for human skulls,
which these savages have been accustomed to string round their
waists when dancing, putting food in their mouths, and the betel-
nut between their ghastly lips,
Polynesia — Tahiti.
The volcanic and coral islands of Polynesia have a history of
their own, so interesting, that we dare not enter upon it in detail,
though it richly deserves to be explored.
Missionary enterprise began in Tahiti, in 1796. For a period
of sixteen years there was no apparent fruit of devoted labour,
, and the island remained sunk in cruel idolatry. Then came the
change. Two servants had united for prayer, and these in the
absence of the missionaries multiplied into a body of praying
people. From that time success has followed, so that populous
islands to the distance of 2000 miles in circuit from Tahiti, in
the bosom of the Pacific, have been brought under the influence
of Divine truth. In 1820, openings of the most promising kind
presented themselves for the distribution of the word of God.
We have already contemplated Mr. Williams at work on his
translation of the Scriptures. In 1820, an edition of 3000 copies
of Luke's Gospel was printed in Tahitian ; 10,000 copies of the
book of the Acts and the other Gospels followed : those who were
taught in the schools instructed, in the cool evenings, the more
ignorant. In 1824, a further edition circulated in various islands ;
and all this while, and up to 1830, the New Testament constituted
their entire library. 33

886 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

In 1838, the Old Testame it was completed and printed under
the superintendence of the Rev. H. Nott, who had landed on the
island forty years before, as a missionary, from the " Duff." These
books were eagerly purchased, at two dollars each ; and those who
had no money, hurried away to sea with their nets, hoping that the
proceeds of their fishing would enable them to buy a copy.
In 1839, the martyr-blood of the missionary Williams stained
the soil of Erromanga, where he had intended to plant the stand
ard of the cross. Then came the French protectorate and its
Roman Catholic power to disturb the religious peace of the islands,
and to test the influence of the large circulation of the word of
God, which had taken place among them. Still, in 1841, the
London missionaries write : "It is most delightful to see the in
superable thirst of this people for the Bible. They refuse to take
their necessary food, if denied the Book, while those who obtain
it will leap, kiss it for joy, press it to their hearts, and say, ' Now,
my eyes will close at night : now, I will try to get one for my
son/" When the war broke out in 1844, owing to the French aggres
sion, and the people were obliged to take to the mountains, many
of them at first carried their Bibles to the missionaries and said,
" Keep these in safety, until we have beaten our foes, and then
we will ask for them again." But some time afterward they
returned, saying, " We are likely to be long absent from our
dwellings; give us our Bibles again, for we want them in the
mountains;" and though every effort has been used to seduce
them from the simplicity of their faith, their Bibles have caused
them to stand firm, and we hear of no perverts.
At the present time, the Parent Society is importuned to print
10,000 copies of the New Testament for the youth in the schools.
It appears to be the design of the French local government to
force the missionaries from the island, that popery may renew its
efforts with redoubled energy. Mr. Howe writes in the Report
of 1853, " They have managed at last to close our mouths in
public in the native tongue. The first link of the popish chain
has been ri"eted on the Tahitian nation, and ere long it will ba

TAHITI AND THE PAPISTS. 387

made to feel the whole weight of that chain." The entire facts
of the case are, however, a powerful argument in favour of the
free circulation of the word of God. The Romish priests have
now been in Tahiti between thirteen and fourteen years, and not
one convert has been fairly made to their system.
Some time since, several Christian natives of Tahiti called on
one of the missionaries, and related to him a conversation they
had just had with the Roman Catholic priest. They said he had
shown them a large tree, with root, trunk, branches, and twigs,
and explained to them the meaning of it. At the root was a
lamb, and that, said the priest, meant the Saviour, the Lamb of
God; and the tree, he said, represented the Roman Catholic
Church ; at the bottom of the trunk, next above the root, was
Peter, the first Bishop of Rome, next to Jesus Christ.
"Yes!" said the Tahitians; "we have read about Peter, we
have got two letters of his, which we read in our Testament : that
was the man who denied his Master ; but the Saviour looked on
him, and that look melted his heart, and the Saviour forgave him.
But who are all these," said they, " rising upon the trunk of the
tree, above Peter 1"
"Ah !" said the priest, "they are the popes, the successors of
Peter." " Ah ! we don't know about them," said the natives ; " but,
never mind, we've got the root ! Now what are the straight branches
that go off from the trunk ?"
" They are the different orders of men in the church," said the
priest; "monks and friars, and so forth."
" We don't know them either," said the people ; " but go on ;
we've got the root, so we can do without them. But, pray what
are these twigs dropping off at the end of the branches ?"
" Ah ! they are the heretics, falling quick into the flames below."
"Indeed!" said the Tahitians; " then whereabouts are we ?"
" Ah !" said the priest, " you are there," pointing up to one
corner ; " there's Luther, a decayed twig ; he is dropping off, you
see, into the flames ; and that's where he is, and where you and
your missionaries will all go, for you are heretics."

388 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

" Ah, well !" said the astonished Tahitians, " such is the pic
ture, and such is the meaning you give us ; but, however, we've
got the root, and so we think we cannot be very far wrong, and
we mean to keep to that."
"I am the vine," said the Saviour, "ye are the branches:
abide in me. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same
bringeth forth much fruit. If a man abide not in me, he is cast
forth as a branch and is withered." John xv.
RAROTONGA.
In 1852, it was mentioned that 5000 copies ofthe whole Bible,
in the Rarotongan language, had been sent off by the missionary
ship, the "John Williams." The missionary who had superin
tended its passage through the press, in England, the Rev. A.
Buzacott, returned with it. The account of his voyage and of
his reception has lately been made pubhc. He says, —
" I cannot well describe the reception we met with, when we
arrived at our beloved island home. As soon as we approached
the shore, a simnltaneous rush was made for the boat. The crew
jumped out, and we soon found ourselves, boat and all, upon the
shoulders of the people. Eight of us were thus borne away
toward our honse, where they put us down. They crowded
round us, — the men shouting for joy, and the women weeping
for the same cause. They were very anxious to get possession
of the Bibles. On the appointed day, the case being opened
which contained them, we offered prayer and thanksgiving, and
gave them a short account of the British and Foreign Bible So
ciety. The chiefs were each of them presented with a copy in
superior binding, then those who had deposited purchase-money
received theirs. All were soon gone. To the students in the
college, the arrival is invaluable, as they never had the complete
Scriptures in their hands before." MANGAIA.
The Rev. G. Gill says : " We have received here 1340 copies,
which had been long expected. Those who had paid for them

MANGAIA. 389

beforehand said, ' Perhaps Barakoti* is dead ; the society cannot
finish it, and our hopes will be disappointed. But when the
vessel hove in sight, their joy was unbounded. They dragged
with delight the heavy packages over the reef of coral,")- for they
knew that the Bibles had come. It is their custom, when en
gaged in drawing or carrying heavy burdens, to encourage one
another by the voice of song. As they brought the case into
the mission-house, they sang in their own language —
" 'The word has oome ! One volume complete 1
Let us learn the good word ! Our joy is great!
The whole word has come ; the whole word has come !'
"The day the Bibles were distributed, we received 10?. for
them, and before the week's end, 40?.
"At our usual missionary prayer-meeting, an old man, whose
remarks ofter cheer my own spirit, arose and addressed us from
Job v. 16-19. He said, ' I have often spoken to you from a text
out of other parts of the Bible which we had, but this is the first
time we have seen the book of Job. It is a new book to us.
When I received my Bible/ continued he, ' I never slept until I
had finished this new book of Job. I read it all. Oh ! what joy
I felt in reading his wonderful life ! Let us all read the whole
book. Let us go to the missionary by day and by night, and in
quire into the meaning of the new parts which we have not read.
Let us be at his door when he rises. Let us stop him when we
meet him, that he may tell us of these new books.' And lifting
up his new Bible before the congregation, with the excited energy
of a feeble old man, he said, ' My brethren and sisters, this is
my resolve : the dust shall never cover my new Bible ; the moths
shall never eat it ; the mildew shall not rot it ; my light ! my
joy!'" * Mr. Buzacott.
f Mr. Williams beautifully describes this reef in his " Missionary Enter
prises," p. 24. It is a barrier which belts the island against tbe long, rolling
waves of the Pacific, within which the waters flow, clear and transparent, over
corals of every form and hue. 33*

390 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

One more extract, and we must leave these lovely coral isles.
The Rev. A. W. Murray, from Samoa, one of the Navigator's
Isles, writes: "The diffusion of Scripture light, always im
portant, is especially so at the present time, when the powers of
darkness are pursuing with such restless and wide-spread activity
their efforts to perpetuate their dreary reign. The Romish bishop
of Oceanica, as he is styled, has lately taken up his abode in
Samoa, and intends, it is reported, fixing his head-quarters here
for the future. The papists have not as yet made much progress
in Samoa, nor throughout Polynesia, and it is probable they will
not make very much. We have got the start of them : the
ground is pre-occupied by an element more than all others de
structive to popery — light, light from heaven !"
From the Fee-jee islands, which are wholly occupied by the
Wesleyan missionaries, the reports are similar. A grant of 5000
New Testaments in the Fee-jee language has been made to them;
and the sacred Scriptures are declared to be highly prized, while
popery is there likewise seeking to pervert the poor heathen to
its own superstitions. It tries to persuade them that-they cannot
understand the word of God when they read it. But they do
understand it, and prize it " above rubies."
NEW ZEALAND.
The missionaries of the Church Missionary Society are pursu
ing the same work of evangelization among the leafy glens and
mountains, the lovely lakes and rocky islets of New Zealand,
where for thirty-four years they have perseveringly laboured and
translated the Scriptures : they have there 315 native catechists
and teachers. The Wesleyan missionaries have also laboured
with great diligence and considerable success in this distant field.
The New Zealander, even in his ignorance and dirt, used to be
called " the prince of savages ;" but now that he has been civi
lized by Christianity, his race will probably become the most
powerful, as it is the most enterprising, of all of the aboriginal
tribes of the South Seas. In 1852, 15,000 copies of the New
Testament in the Maori language were prepared by the British

SOUTH AFRICA. 391

tnd Foreign Bible Society for these natives, who call the book of
Psalms, "the David." Even the yet wild tribes among them
had respect to the Scriptures as the "word of God," while they
tore up the "Encyclopedia Britannica" for cartridge-paper during
the last war. In 'New Zealand, also, the Roman Cathohc priests
are equal in number to the Protestant missionaries; but the
Bible among the people proves to be their constant hinderance.
When they urge upon the New Zealander the elevation of the
host, tbe belief in purgatory, the adoration of the Virgin, or the
duty of confession to the priest, his simple answer is, " I do not
find it in my Book." Altogether 96,220 portions of the word
of God have been diffused among a population of 150,000 na
tives, among whom cannibalism has now ceased.
To complete our survey of the heathen, we must turn again to —
SOUTH AFRICA.
In 1821, the South African Auxiliary Bible Society was
formed; and, through Dr. Philip, supplies of the Scriptures
were continually made to the different missionary stations. In
1801, not a Hottentot throughout the Cape Colony would have
been found able to read ; but now readers are found and Bibles
are desired in every village. In 1846, Mr. Bourne, one of the
valuable agents of the society, visited the colony, with a supply
of 20,000 copies of Dutch and EngUsh Scriptures. His travels
in Africa extended to more than 3000 miles, and to many who
were destitute of the Scriptures, grants were liberally made.
The Bible is especially needed among colonists, who, from their
scattered position, have no means of attending the public worship
of God, for months together. Since the return of Mr. Bourne,
20,000 more copies have been forwarded, though the long and
disastrous Caffre war has thrown great impediments in the way
of their distribution.
The Bechuanas, whose number is calculated at something like
30,000 people, are spread over a large portion of Southern and
Central Africa. In this region the Rev. Robert Moffat has la
boured since 1817 : his version of the New Testament was pub

392 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

lished by the society in 1841. It was received by the natives
with eager gratitude : the Old Testament is gradually completing.
Mr. Moffat, in the midst of his work, writes to congratulate the
Bible Society on its perseverance in " its noble enterprise of giv
ing the Book of books — God's Book of life — to a sick and dying
world;" and he says, after" thirty-six years of missionary expe
rience, "How Utile, how insignificant, are all other enterprises com
pared with this !" He speaks of the Bible as " garnishing dens
and caves of the earth with heavenly delights, even unto this
day" ; and he adds that " the Bechuana translation of the Old
Testament would progress at less tortoise speed, but for the claims
of other kinds of missionary labour, besides translation."
And now, let us see what allusions are made in the Report of
1853, as to the progress of the Bible among the Mohammedans.
MOHAMMEDANS.
In 1853, from Karass, in Tartary, Mr. Galloway, a Scottish mis
sionary, writes : " The Mohammedans are peculiarly prejudiced
against the gospel of the grace of God ; yet it is encouraging to
see, that the more they come in contact with the word of truth,
the more their prejudices are weakened. We cannot speak of
many conversions among them, but they can now hear the Bible
read or quoted with some degree of patience. They do not throw
the Book out of their hands as they once did, or cut out passages
obnoxious to them, or burn it, as they used to do."
In the year 1844, from Penang, the Rev. T. Beighton writes:
" I never saw such a spirit of inquiry excited among the Moham
medans as at present. When the truth of our Lord's Divinity is
established among them, their delusion will receive a heavy blow.
Now that the word of God has been extensively made known in
countries where Mohammedans are mixed with the population, and
its sound is still going forth, they are often led calmly to compare
the lies of their prophet with the truth of the gospel, and to strike
the balance in favour of the Divine Scriptures.
" The population of Constantinople and its environs is estimated
at a million at least; the proportions are. considered to be correctly

MOHAMMEDANS — AUSTRIA. 893

given as follows : Turks, 520,000; Greeks, 200,000; Armenians,
180,000; Jews, 70,000; Europeans, 30,000. Among them a
goodly number Df missionaries are labouring diligently and faith
fully, — eight from the American board, and six from England and
Scotland. These servants of our common Lord are working toge
ther for the glory of God and the advancement of the kingdom
of Christ in the world, 'esteeming each other in love.' They all
distribute the Scriptures by the aid of the British and Foreign
Bible Society, and have all adopted more or less the system of
colportage. They speak of an increased and increasing call for
the word of God."
It would be easy to multiply individual instances of renuncia
tion of the Blohammedan faith : but we have no space for them.
The friends of the Bible may rejoice in its silent and gradual in
fluence over followers of the false prophet, and pass on with us to
the reconsideration of our third division, — the work which our
Scriptures are performing among the Roman and Greek Churches
of the world. AUSTRIA.
There is no doubt that, in this country, the wide distribution
of the word of God has excited a great reaction, — a reaction of
hostility, especially in the countries ruled by despotic power.
Despotism and popery clasp hands and work together, and one is
able to stir up the other to shut out the Bible from its territories,
even in the midst of this nineteenth century. " Light is come
into the world ; but men love darkness rather than light, because
their deeds are evil;" and hence such scenes as are alluded to in
the Report for 1853, in the countries of Austria and Hungary,
when the government, demanding to have all the Scriptures in
the depots at Guns, Pesth, and Vienna, sent out of the country,
the decree was rigorously enforced. Two hundred and four bales*
and 125 cases, containing 58,087 copies of Bibles and Testaments
either bound or in sheets, were "conveyed beyond the frontiers of
the Austrian territory, under the charge of a detachment of gens
d'armes. This took place amid the unavailing tears and sighs

394 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

of tens of thousands of the people, waiting for and anxious to
possess the precious volumes of which they were so mercilessly
bereft. In 1852, it was thus recorded of these countries: "Multitudes
are now in possession of the Scriptures, who, only a short time
since, scarcely knew that God had spoken in times past unto the
fathers by the prophets, and in these last days unto us by his
Son." In some parts the desire for the word is described as a
"rage," and a "famishing;" and the priests of Rome, becoming
aware of this, denounced the Books from the pulpit. The govern
ment then insisted that they should be withdrawn from the country.
Mr. Millard, the agent of the society, now writes: "We have
at last left that fruitful and promising field of labour, glad
enough, as far as our persons are concerned, to get out of the
clutches of our foes ; but it is distressing to think of the state
of the people we have left behind. What has been done is but
a sprinkling, which has but served to inform or remind the
people that there is such a thing as 'living' water;' and had
not the arm of force interfered, and been tolerated by a Pro
vidence whose ways are past finding out, the circulation of the
Scriptures would have increased far beyond our provision for
it. Whenever my thoughts return to that wretched country, I can
oot help again and again thanking God for what has been effected
before the interdict, and looking back with gratitude on the number
of 41,659 volumes distributed since the 1st of October, 1850 ''
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.
Spain and Portugal, we regret to state, are completely barred
against the Bible. A concordat has been concluded betwen the
courts of Spain and Rome ; the power of the priesthood is para
mount; every book introduced into the schools must receive their
approval, and they do not approve of the free use of the Bible.
In 1828, 1829, and 1830, there was some circulation of the Scrip
tures. Messrs. Courtois, bankers of Toulouse,* introduced them
* Wher9, in 1229, the Bible was prohibited. See page 133.

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 395

into those countries by means of soldiers and pedlars passing
through Toulouse. In 1835, when the cholera drove many of the
higher classes of Spaniards to Toulouse and the towns of the south
of France, these same Christian friends introduced the Bible,
wherever possible, to their notice : and in 1836, by colporteurs
in the Pyrenees, and by visits to Spanish prisoners, they persevered
in their efforts. Two other friends who visited Madrid were fa
voured with some measure of influence and success ; so that, in
1837, at Barcelona, 1600 Spanish Testaments were sold ; and in
one instance the simple perusal of the Scriptures was the means
of imparting the knowledge of salvation. In 1838, notwithstand
ing all the confusion and misery that reigned in the country, the
Holy Scriptures gained a silent entrance, and were openly bought
and sold in several of the principal towns. Between 5000 and
6000 copies were disposed of. From B-  , the gentleman to
whom the society intrusted the work thus wrote : " The expres
sions of gratitude for the Books are innumerable. It is said,
'The words and the history of the crucified Saviour and of his
followers are most interesting to us. We were altogether ignorant-
of such a Book, and it delights us/ The higher orders kept aloof,
and but few came for a copy; but workmen, — masons, shoemakers,
carpenters, tailors, — streamed almost in a continued file to pur
chase the good Book."
From V  , he writes: "In six days I sold here 400 copies.
How often do I wish I had wings, that I might be able to avail
myself of the extraordinary disposition of the people to purchase
the blessed Book!''
In an ancient Moorish city, the same gentleman disposed of
369 copies : many were sold to the priests. As he walked along
the streets of the towns where the Bible had been thus distributed,
he could perceive shopkeepers and others reading their copies.
Sometimes he entered into conversation with them, which ended
in tears rolling down their cheeks.
Another ardent and enterprising friend of the society, having
carried through the press at Madrid an edition of 5000 copies of
the New Testament, spent five months of the year 1838 in

396 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

travelling through the provinces, to bring the Books into circula
tion. He then returned to Madrid, and opened a room for the
sale of the Scriptures, which, after a short time, was closed by
the authorities. While it remained open, many were sold. He
also printed at Madrid a translation of the Gospel of Luke, in the
Gitano or Gipsy language, for the benefit of this interesting,
singular, but degraded race of people, who are very numerous in
some parts of Spain.
In 1839, the door seems to have closed, and this unhappy
country has added to its other calamities, and its responsibility,
the almost total suppression of the efforts to circulate within its
borders the precious word of God; not, however, before 16,000
copies of the Scriptures had been scattered through its plains and
valleys, during a space of five years.
SWITZERLAND AND NORTH ITALY.
In 1845, Lieutenant Graydon, who had rendered such essential
service in Spain, continued his labours in Switzerland. His
baggage-van was fitted up after his own mode!, and so conveniently
arranged that he could with ease turn it into a regular book-stall.
He presented himself at large fairs and markets, and extraordi
nary success attended his operations. At Berne, in four days,
he sold 1200 copies; at Lausanne, 1667 copies: 25,694 copies
were purchased in the course of three years, and very many of
them by Roman Catholics. They were dispersed in five lan
guages, and 4000 of them were sold in the Hotel Gibbon,
which is built on the very ground so often paced by the cele
brated author of the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Em
pire," — one who used his great talents to undermine the faith
of thousands in the truth of revelation, and sought to trace to
Christianity, as a source, every evil that has disfigured the world
since its introduction,
In 1849, after visiting his depdts in Switzerland, Lieutenant
Graydqn passed to Milan and Turin at the time of the revolution
there. It was with difficulty he could secure a corner in the
newspaper for the announcement of his peaceful mission, The

NORTH ITALY — PRANCE. 397

authorities, however, did not interfere, and the people received
him with courtesy. The result of the two visits he paid to the
north of Italy was the sale of 12,000 copies.
In Tuscany, when the archduke was restored, in 1849, and
the Church of Rome resumed its former ascendency, one of the
earliest acts of the government was to seize and lock up the edition
of Martini's Testament, just issued at Florence, stop the presses,
carry off the type and paper, subject the printers to a civil process,
and banish Captain Pakenham, who had superintended the work,
at a few days' notice. From the time that the pope returned from
his exile, every impediment has been thrown in the way of the
Bible Society in Lombardy, Tuscany, and the Papal States. The
imprisonment of the Madiai and many others, the search for the
Scriptures in private houses, the forcible attempt to check the
expression of opinion, and the mandates of excommunication
against those who shall enter a Protestant place of worship, or
abet a society in circulating the Scriptures, all indicate that Rome
is her old self. The Book condemns her, and she tries to hide it.
We cannot but rejoice in the fact that more than 87,000 copies
have been distributed in various ways, even in Italy, and that the
desire for the sacred volume is increasing continually.
FRANCE.
Of France, so much has been said in former chapters, that but
little remains to be added. The British and Foreign Bible
Society looks upon her with the deepest interest, places her
always first in its Reports, and watches with increasing anxiety
over her zealous band of colporteurs.
On the table of the committee-room in Earl-street, now stands
a vase of artificial flowers, composed of small coloured beads.
You would be surprised to hear of such an ornament in such a
place; but that vase has a history. It is a Jubilee token from
France, and has very recently arrived. The donors, who wish
to remain unknown, are French soldiers, belonging to various
regiments which successively have formed the garrison of a certain
town. This "bouquet of gratitude," as it is called, has been
34

398 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

prepared, during many evenings of several winters, by skilful
hands, in successive regiments, while listening to the read
ing of the Scriptures and religious books; and when finished,
the makers were very desirous of presenting it as an offering
to the British and Foreign Bible Society, in token of their
lively gratitude for its having placed within their reach the word
of God, to which they have had grace given them to surrender
their hearts.
The society's agent, Monsieur de P., has issued from the
dep6t in Paris, from April, 1833, to January, 1853, no fewer than
2,271,709 copies of the Scriptures ! This is the work of twenty
years. The whole issues since the dep6t was established are 3,002,359
copies, more than three-fourths of which have been placed in the
hands of Roman Catholics; and a million and a half of these have
been circulated by colporteurs. The prayers of the Huguenots
are in a great measure answered. There is not a single depart
ment in France, (and, indeed, very few of the parishes in those
departments,) which has not been visited by these humble and
devoted agents. The remotest corners of her country districts
have now heard of the Bible, and know that the Book contains
the words of God. Extensive religious movements have taken
place in some provinces. "A Protestant church has just been
formed at Alengon, the rise of which is owing to the distri
bution of the Sacred Scriptures, effected by a colporteur. On
Sunday, the 24th of September, 1853, the first service was held,
in presence of 400 persons. The prayers, the solemn reading
of the Bible, the sermon, and the well-executed singing of several
hymns, produced a deep and powerful impression on the whole
of the audience.
" Among these new disciples of the gospel, about twenty were
pointed out, who, in the most boisterous weather, had come a
distance of nearly seven leagues, in order to be present at a cere
mony which, for them, was no mere outward form. Seventeen
of these worthy peasants had come in carts, having for several
days previously saved, sous by sous from their, necessary expendi-

PROTESTANT CHURCH AT ALENCON. 399
ture, the trifling sum which they required for the journey. The
three others — two men and one woman (persons earning abso
lutely no more than their daily bread^an expression to be
understood literally,) and one of the men carrying a Bible, in
8vo, well wrapped up, under his arm — had started on their jour
ney at four o'clock in the morning, amid torrents of rain, in
order to accomplish the journey of seven leagues in proper time ; —
a journey which they retraced in the evening, setting out at half-
past nine, and in weather, if any thing, worse than that of the
morning. We were truly and deeply humbled at witnessing this
proof of zeal and love for the things of God. As for these good
people themselves, they thought nothing of the matter : ' We so
greatly love the Bible,' said they, ' that, to hear it spoken about,
we would willingly go much farther still.'
" At three o'clock in the afternoon there was another service.
which attracted a much greater audience than was even the case
in the morning. This service was held for the purpose of baptiz
ing two infants, brought by two families belonging to the new
members of the Alencon flock; after that, the Lord's Supper was
partaken of by the Christian friends who had come from a dis
tance, by Mr. Audebez and his large family, as well as, to our
great joy, by ten converts — by ten new Christians, and who had
become such since they had received the Bible from the hands of
your colporteur.
" These two celebrations produced the greatest impression on
the numerous persons who witnessed them, and who, during the
whole time, were standing in a dense throng, and throughout the
whole preserved the greatest silence. On going away, several
among the crowd were heard to remark : ' They communicate, as
we are taught in the gospel that Jesus Christ communicated with
his disciples.' ' Theirs is a true religion.' ' One can understand
all they preach about/ ' They seem to be happy, and to love each
other as brethren.' ' This is the worship which we shall in future
attend/ And, as if to show that these expressions were sincere,
sixty persons purchased copies of the Scriptures between the
Saturday and Monday evening.

400 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

" Who will venture, after such a fact, to utter a doubt as to the
positive and blessed results of the work of Bible colportage ?
" This, then, is the moment, the fitting moment, to spread over
the country, in increased numbers, the distributors of the sacred
Scriptures ; this is the moment to pray, with renewed fervour,
that God may graciously accompany their efforts with his abundant
blessing." BELGIUM.
It is in the Report for 1837 that special notice is first taken of
the successful labours and unwearied zeal of Mr. W. P. Tiddy,
the society's agent in Belgium, who, with the colporteurs under
his control, sold, in little more than the space of one year, 8420
volumes of Scripture, the greater part being Testaments, which,
however, he says, induce afterward the desire for Bibles. These
were sold in the French, English, Flemish, German, Dutch, Por
tuguese, Polish, Italian, Greek, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, and
Hebrew languages, and showed an amazing increase of demand
for the Scriptures through the steady employment of the system
of colportage. The agents went through all the towns, left them
for a few months, and then commenced again. We know not
where to select from Mr. Tiddy's Reports for Belgium, any more
than from Monsieur de P.'s for France; for they would form
altogether volumes of unspeakable interest, and would now com
prise a series of facts extending over many years. We must give
two or three.
From Dour, Mr. Tiddy writes : " I know not how to describe
to you the delightful prospect before us in this neighbourhood, or
the wonderful effects of the distribution of the Sacred Scriptures
here. Walking one day with M. de Visme, he exclaimed, ' It is
the Bible that fills my church ; it is the Bible that brings the
people to hear the preached gospel ; it is the Bible that brings
the people to me to ask about their souls. I never hear any thing
of them, till they have somxwhere read the Bible.' This depart
ment has been well visited for years past, and still the Books find
a ready sale."

BELGIUM. 401

We ought to have noticed in the account of the society's library,
a Bible presented by Mr. Tiddy — a Bible which ten or twelve
persons in Dour had subscribed for together, and which had been
purchased in Holland, where it cost thirty-two francs. It is an
edition of Ostervald, and the contrast in the present price of a
Bible is a strong proof of the advantages of Bible Societies.
Some one Bible in a village, thus procured at great cost, once
excited the rage of some priests ; for it was known to them that
such existed ; but they could never finU it, though many a search
was made for it. The persons to whom it belonged used to hide
it away by day, and by night go into the woods with it, and there
hang a lantern up to a tree, and read it.
At other times they would agree to meet in some old burrow,
or other sacred place, for the same purpose. They sang also the
Psalms of David to song-tunes, to deceive those who might over
hear them. One day when the men were absent at their work,
and the women gone to the next market-town, a general search
was made — for the priests were always on the watch to see when
the house which contained it was left without any one but the
child or some young person. They made a regular search, but,
like all others up to that moment, in vain, and the priests and
police turned to go their houses ; but on their way back, one of
the policemen said, " I am sure, if we go back to such a house
(naming it,) we shall find the Bible. I observed that in that
house the child was in the cradle ; and, whether it was asleep or
awake, the girl sitting by it continually rocked it."
Arrived at the house, they went direct to the cradle, took up the
child, turned out the bed, and found the Bible. The little girl
who watched it was only ten years old, and she burst into tears ;
but they rejoiced over their success, and walked away in triumph.
The poor villagers wept when they came home in the evening,
and said they would rather have heard that their houses had been
burned to the ground than that their Bible should have been taken
from them. They tried to get it again, but that was impossible
Alas ! for the poor solitary Bible, and blessings on the era of Bible
Societies ! 34*

402 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

In the year 1838, the work of circulating the Scriptures in
Belgium still further assumed an unlooked-for extent and import
ance. The committee could only exclaim : " This is the Lord's
doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes !" The issue of 8420
volumes in a year had now increased to 20,548 volumes, 17,000
of which had been circulated by the brave colporteurs, persevering
in their peaceful, self-denying labours, though in the midst of
reproaches, insults, and threatenings. Their books have often
been stolen, forced away, torn, and burned before their eyes ; but
" through evil report and through good report," they have held on
their way, sometimes owing their personal safety to the interfe
rence of the civil powers, and at other times to military authority,
They have had to contend with the potent opposition of all the
patriarchs, primates, archbishops, and bishops of the Roman
Catholic Church, who were thus addressed by Pope Leo XII.,
true to the principles of his ancient system, in his encyclical letter
of 1824, given at Rome in the first year of his pontificate :
"You are aware, venerable brethren, that a certain society
called the Bible Society, strolls with effrontery through the world;
which society, contemning the traditions of the holy fathersy and
contrary to the well-known decree of the council of Trent, labours
with all its might, and by every means, to translate, or rather to
pervert the Holy Scriptures into the vulgar language of every
nation ; from which proceeding it is greatly to be feared that, by
a perverse interpretation, the gospel of Christ may be turned into
a human gospel; or, what is worse, the gospel of the devil. To
avert this plague, our predecessors published many ordinances,
and proofs collected from the Holy Scriptures and tradition, to
show how noxious this most wicked novelty is to faith and morals.
"We exhort you, therefore, by all means to turn away your
flocks from these poisonous pastures, being persuaded that if the
Scriptures be everywhere indiscriminately published, more evil
than advantage will arise on account of the rashness of men," &c.
On such documents, the Bible Society " refrain from making
any comment. They will rather indulge in silent grief, that the
simple object of the society should be so misunderstood and mis-

COLPORTAGE IN BELGIUM. 403

represented, and that there should be found men who, from what
ever motives, think it right to interpose between God's own word
and ihe creatures to whom it is given."
During 1839, Mr. Tiddy employed seven colporteurs, who fre
quently visited with good effect the same places two or three
times; and it is inspiring to read his communications given in
the Monthly Extracts. We have certainly much to rejoice over,
when we think that there are upward of 50,000 copies of the
sacred Scriptures abroad in this land. They must bear fruit ;
"and the time will come, when these 50,000 talents will bring in
other 50,000 talents, and for Bibles we shall have souls."
Mr. Tiddy mentions, that a celebrated Jesuit preacher insisted
very much on " our having stolen the Bible from the Roman
Catholic Church; that we have no claim to it, that we have lost
all right to it; and that Luther stole it out of the convent." "I
was sorry I could not tell him that we wished to follow or even
outdo Zaccheus, the chief among the publicans, who offered to
restore fourfold what he had taken, and that we wished to restore
the Bible to ihem a hundred-thousandfold."
In the year 1844, Mr. Joseph John Gurney, a devoted mem
ber of the Bible Society, and one of the Society of Friends, who
is now no more, had been travelling in France, Germany, Prussia,
and Belgium ; and, observing the state of men's minds with regard
to the Bible, he thought they might be divided into three great
classes : first, a powerful, insidious, and learned class, endeavour
ing with all their might to destroy the foundations of Christianity,
many of them professors of universities, turning all the miracles
of the New Testament into mere natural circumstances, speaking
even of the Divinity of a Christ as a sort of ornament, and poison
ing the minds of tens of thousands of ingenuous youth by their
dangerous suggestions, "taking away from the things that are
written in the Book ;" a second class he beheld, yet larger and
more powerful, but distinguished by ignorance rather than learning,
adding gross and childish superstitions, such ceremonies as crown
ing the statues of the Virgin Mary, and other gilded rubbish,
" to the things that were written in the Book," and desirous to

404 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

abridge the rehgious liberty of a third class, whom he found a
little party, a small but increasing proportion, including all classes',
from some of the royal families down to the peasantry, showing
themselves on the side of simple Christian truth, adopting the
Book of revelation as their guide, and using all their influence
widely to distribute it. Mr. Gurney avowed his conviction that
this third party is growing stronger and stronger on the continent,
and that the circulation of De Sacy's version is daily increasing
it. He bears testimony to Monsieur de P.'s unwearied zeal, in
having distributed 140,000 copies during the previous year. He
says, "There is a spiritual life arising in France at this time,
which all the efforts of all the popes and cardinals in Christen
dom will not be able to put down. In Belgium, the agent of the
Bible Society is quietly distributing a thousand copies of the
Scriptures every month. It is all in preparation for the vast
struggle coming on between the powers of light and darkness;
and the Scriptures," continues Mr. Gurney, "are being read, as
well as distributed, and many are determined to abide by them,
come what may !"
Ten years have passed since then, and the same process has
been going on between the same parties. Mr. Tiddy has been at
work for eighteen years in Belgium; and he still says of the
Bibles and Testaments circulated by his colporteurs there, (now
nearly 200,000 volumes,) " What are these among so many ?"
In Cologne also, and the Rhenish provinces, he has, since the
year 1847, circulated 273,503 copies, and he still believes that
"for these Bibles we shall have souls."

CHAPTER X.
The Old Fountain restored in Assyria — The Nestorian Church — American Mis
sions — Dr. Layard's Testimony — The Armenians, the Coptic, the Abyssinian,
and the Waldensian Churches — The Jews — Jerusalem — Nazareth.
Our fourth division is again the work of the Bible Society, as
reviewed (very briefly) from this Jubilee Year among the Jews
and ancient Christian churches. There is certainly no depart
ment of its labours so worthy of being singled out and noticed.
Mr. (now Dr.) Layard, in his recent researches among the rock-
sculptures at Bavian,* discovered remains and foundations in well-
hewn stone buried under the mud of the river Gomel. He also
on removing the earth found a series of basins cut in the rock,
and descending in steps to the stream. The water had been
originally led from one to the other through conduits, which of
course were choked up; but he and his Arabs cleared them, and
by pouring water into the upper basin restored the fountain as it
had been in the time of the Assyrians. This is just what the
Bible Society is doing with the "water of life." It has cleared
the old conduits, and the refreshing stream through its means is
once more fertilizing the ancient churches.
We have noticed the return of the light of truth to long un
happy Ireland, and by the very means that Mr. Charles of Bala
recommended, — the Scriptures in her native tongue, — " once the
tongue of literature and science."
The revisitation of the ancient missions of the Nestorians in
China, has also been treated of under the head of "Heathen
Countries." We must now look upon —
THE NESTORIAN CHURCH.
In its native seats, by the help of some interesting details from
American missionaries, who have laboured among them since the
* See "Discoveries at Nii;jveh and Babylon," p. 215.
405

406 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

year 1834, and also through the means of some information from
Dr. Layard. The Rev. D. Stoddard says :
"In the north of Persia, at the base of lofty mountains, whose
snows glitter in the sun, is a plain of great extent and uncommon
beauty. This is the province of Oroomiah, the home of the
Nestorian Christians. Let the reader stand with me on the flat-
terraced roof of our mission-house on Mount Seir. We are 1000
feet above the plain, which hes stretched before us in all its
beauty, forty miles in length, girt about with rugged mountains,
dotted with hundreds of villages, verdant with foliage, and re
joicing in its thousand fields of golden grain. Beyond the plain
is the lake of Oroomiah, studded with islands. Mounds of ashes,
with a scanty soil on them, conspicuous in different parts of the
plain, have been supposed to be the places where the sacred fire
was ever kept burning, and where the Parsed priests bowed in
adoration to the rising sun.
" The Nestorians are a people interesting from their language, —
the Syriac, — closely akin to the Hebrew, and spoken many cen
turies before the birth of Christ, — a language nearly identical
with what was commonly used in Palestine in the days of our
Saviour, and the medium through which he conversed with his
disciples, and instructed the people; and it was in this same lan
guage, that, in his dying agony, he cried with a loud voice, say
ing, 'Eloi! Eloi! lama sabachthani ?' 'My God! my God! why
hast thou forsaken me ?'
" The power of Mohammed hunted down the Nestorians like
defenceless sheep, in the midst of their missionary enterprises.
Presented with the dreadful alternative of 'the Koran or the
sword,' they melted away at last like the snows of spring; and
for centuries they have been sunk in ignorance and superstition.
The modern remnant of this ancient and venerable church con
sists of about 100,000 souls, nearly half of them residing in the
plains of Oroomiah, and the rest scattered over the wild and rug
ged ranges of the Kurdish Mountains, — the districts of Tekhoma
and Tiyari.
"They are a good-looking people, not having the peculiar

THE NESTORIAN CHURCH. 407

physiognomy of the Jews, from whom, however, some consider
them descended, — inquisitive, and unwearied in acquiring know
ledge. 'We thank you,' 'We thank you,' is uttered by many
voices, after any religious teaching. In the midst of the deep
corruption of their church, they have been kept far nearer the
Bible standard than the Roman Catholic, Greek, or Armenian
Churches. I never met with a Nestorian who denied the supreme
authority of God's word. Image and picture worship they hold
in abhorrence, also auricular confession and priestly absolution.
They have no mass or worship of the host. They do not refuse
the cup to any communicant. They reject the doctrines of bap
tismal regeneration, of penance, and of purgatory, as unscriptural
and wrong; and they are extremely liberal in their feelings toward
all those with whom they are 'one in Christ Jesus/ They have
always welcomed the American brethren, and granted their
churches to us for the preaching of the gospel. Mr. S., one of ""
our number, was ordained by us, in an pld Nestorian church.
Their own organization is episcopal; yet bishops, priests, and
deacons, all stood by, and witnessed this ceremony with evident
gratification. It must be added, that, during our long residence
here, we have laboured with the sole object of spreading Bible-
truth, and bringing the people back to an humble, holy life, and
have studiously avoided any mere sectarian efforts.
"Dr. Perkins, the pioneer of our mission, found this ancient
church prostrate in the dust. The people were grossly ignorant.
They had no schools, and not half-a-dozen readers in a whole
village. All their books were in manuscript, and of course
scarce, and sold at a high price. Stealing was prevalent, — lying
inwrought into all their habits. They used to say, 'We all lie,
here. Do you think our business would prosper and we not lie V
Wine circulated like water; and, with many features of ortho
doxy, religion was a thing of form and outside show. Now there
are seventy village-schools, and two seminaries for training up
young men and women to go forth and repair the wastes of many
generations. The sacred fire is kindled once more upon their
venerable altars. The Holy Scriptures are now happily com-

408 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

pleted in both the ancient and modern language of the Nesto
rians. The contents of their own rare, ancient, Syriac manu
scripts have been returned to them in a printed form. Then-
own clergy have aided us in the translation of separate portions;
and I shall never forget their emotion when we had first trans
lated the Lord's Prayer. The Nestorian ecclesiastics who were
with me were interested and delighted above measure at the first
sight of their language in a written form. They would read a
line, and then laugh audibly with satisfaction. We copied many
portions, on cards, of the British and Foreign Bible Society's
editions of the Scriptures in the ancient language, till the arrival
of our press in 1840.
"This was an event of great interest and joy. As I carried
the proof-sheet of our first small book, composed of portions of
the Scriptures, into my study for correction, and laid it upon the
table before my translators, they were struck with mute astonish
ment and rapture to see their language in print; and as soon as
their recovery from surprise allowed them utterance, 'It is time
to give glory to God!' was their mutual exclamation, 'now
that we behold the commencement of printing books for our
people/ "
The entire Old Testament was pubhshed in 1842, in ancient
and modern Syriac, in parallel columns, by the American Bible
Society. It forms a large quarto volume of more than 1000
pages. Dr. Perkins continues: "The influence of the Holy Scriptures
on the pupils in our schools and training colleges, and on the
scores and hundreds of adult Nestorians who are learning to read
in our Sabbath-schools, and at their humble homes, and through
all these readers on the mass of the people, is incalculable.
"Here, also, efforts have been made, by papal emissaries, to
pervert the people ; and they offer the most serious obstacles we
have to encounter in our missionary labours. They denounce the
Holy Scriptures as 'corrupt English books,' and forbid their con
verts to read them."
French papists at Mosul, and at Elkoosh, (the venerable home

THE NESTORIAN CHURCH. 409

of the prophet Nahum,) have made many converts among the
simple people, who but too readily yield to their influence.
In Dr. Layard's account of his recent tour, we have a vivid
sketch of the Nestorian tribes, who are intrenched among the
mountains of Assyria.
Soon after they had been put in possession of 2000 copies of
the four Gospels, by the British and Foreign Bible Society, in
1830, the Divine seed sprang up, and bore fruit to the glory of
God. The American missionaries say of these tribes: "Many
of the people appear like persons awakened from a deep sleep,
and are inquiring, 'How is it that we have been kept so long in
ignorance and self-delusion ?' To which inquiry their priests
reply, ' We ourselves have till now been dead in trespasses and
sins, and our sin is greater than yours for having hidden the
light from you so long/ "

We owe to Dr. Layard many details of this early church, inte
resting as connected with what is said of them in the Reports of
the Bible Society. He has made two visits to their villages in
the Tiyari mountains, while taking refuge from the heats of the
summer during his labours at Nimroud. He often found the
people gone up to their zomas or summer pastures. These are
httle rocky nooks, high on the mountains, where they build tem
porary huts of loose stones, with black goat-hair canvas stretched
over them, pitched at the foot of snowy precipices, — yet, strange
to say, on a carpet of Alpine flowers. He followed them to their
zomas. Though poor and needy, they are hospitable, and brought
their best to the traveller. He says there is an earnest religious
feeling peculiar to them as a people.
There are now very few learned priests left among them; yet
at the time of the Arab invasion they were the chief depositaries
of the learning of the East. They translated the works of Greek
philosophers into their own language, and retranslated them into
Arabic. There exist among them the i-emains of very old
churches, which have all small entrances, in ordei that their
35

410 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

tyrants, the Turks, may not lodge horses and beasts of burden
within their doors. Dr. Layard sometimes found a book of prayer,
or the Scriptures in . manuscript, lying on the rude altar ; but
frequently the greatest part of the leaves would be wanting, and
those which remained were torn into shreds, or disfigured by
damp and mould; for they were compelled to hide in the moun
tains the manuscripts of the churches, or to bury them in some
obscure place, at the time of the massacre — the dreadful massacre
of these poor people — which took place in 1843, when Bader
Kan Bey, with his cruel Kurds, invaded the Tiyari districts, and
murdered in cold blood nearly 10,000 of their inhabitants, carry,
ing away their women and children as slaves. These captives
were afterward released through the influence of the-British em
bassy, in Turkey. Dr. Layard. actually came in contact, near
Lizan, with ocular evidences of this terrible slaughter. Skulls,
heaps of blanched bones, and even skeletons of all ages, still hung
to the dwarf shrubs growing on the precipitous steeps down
which they had been hurled. Some of these Nestorians were
employed as diggers in the mounds at Nineveh; and Dr. L. re
lates that several of the priests or deacons were among the work
men, who, on the Sabbath, repeated prayers, or led a hymn or
chant. He adds : "I often watched these poor creatures, as they reve
rently knelt, their heads uncovered, under the great bulls, cele
brating the praises of Him whose temples the worshippers of
those frowning idols had destroyed, and whose power they had
mocked. It was the triumph of truth over paganism. Never
had that triumph been more forcibly illustrated than by those
who now bowed down in the crumbling halls of the Assyrian
kings." Dr. Layard visited, in the district of Jelu, the church which is
said to be the oldest in the Nestorian mountains, " the only one
that had escaped the ravages of the Kurds, and still contains the
ancient furniture and ornaments. The church was so thickly
hung with relics of the most singular and motley description,
that tho ceihng was completely concealed by them. Among

THE ARMENIAN CHURCH. 411

the objects which first attracted my attention ware numerous
China bowls, and jars of elegant form and richly coloured, but
black with the dust of ages. They were suspended, like the
other relics, from the roof. I was assured that they had been
there from time out of mind, and had been brought from the disr
tant empire of Cathay, by those early missionaries of the Chal
dean Church who bore the tidings of the gospel to the shores of
the Yellow Sea. If such were really the case, some of them
might date so far back as the sixth or seventh centuries, when
the Nestorian Church flourished in China, and its missions were
spread over the whole of Central Asia."
How exceedingly interesting is this independent testimony of
Dr. Layard, as viewed in connection with the news recently re
ceived from China ! He appears to have given excellent counsel
to Mar Shamoun, the unfortunate and troubled patriarch of the
church: "I could not disguise from him, that, in education and
the free circulation of the Scriptures, there could alone be found
any hope for his people." And thus among the Tiyari moun
tains exists the remnant of the Syro-Chaldaic or Nestorian
Church, which once had the " living water," in its ancient trans
lation of the Scriptures, and dispensed it widely to the heathen.
But in course of time these copies became exceedingly rare. Mr.
Wolff, the missionary, in his travels in Persia, purchased some
of them, which safely reached England, though they were twice
in peril by shipwreck. They came into the possession of the
Bible Society, who discovered this translation to be the same as
the Syriac, (but written in Chaldee character,) and, by means of
its learned editor, T. P. Piatt, Esq,,- supplied from the Syriac its
missing portions. The sacred Books were sent back in a printed
form, and the society might have said with Dr. Layard, "The
conduits were choked up, but we cleared them, and restored the
fountain pure as it had flowed in the times of the early Nes
torians." THE ARMENIAN CHURCH.
The Armenians, as we have seen, are a far-scattered people —
the travelling merchants of the world. Their number has been

412 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

estimated at from two to three millions : and the first attempt to
give them the Scriptures in their vulgar tongue was made by the
British and Foreign Bible Society. In 1837, a fount of Arme
nian type was forwarded to the American missionaries at Smyrna,
and a revised edition of the New Testament was carried carefully
and slowly through the press. Li 1842, 5000 copies were issued,
and they came immediately into great demand ; indeed, the ver
sion of Scripture in this language has received the manifest bless
ing of God in a degree almost unprecedented. The following i3
the account given by missionaries on the spot : " There are great
encouragements to aid the Bible circulation in Turkey. There is
probably not a city in that country to which the Scriptures in
modern languages have not been carried ; and we might mention
twenty towns where Armenians are found who daily search them,
for the purpose of guiding their lives according to their supreme
teachings. In some of these places, this holy volume, owing to
the fact of its being in the modern language, is looked upon as
afresh message from heaven; and in such towns especial assem
blies are held on the Sabbath for studying the Scriptures, and
this occurs also in towns where no foreign missionary has ever
been. It is the work of the Bible alone. Among the Arme
nians, the Bible in the ancient language has always been a promi
nent and central object on the altar in the church, and is daily
offered to the people, after prayers, to be kissed. This may have
tended, perhaps, to their reverence for its teachings in the tongue
which they understand.
" The reading of the Scriptures among the Armenians has
cured many of their scepticism. They have become convinced,
that, whatever failures they might see in professors of Christian
ity around them, here, in the Book, is pure, living truth ! One
individual, a banker among the Armenians, said, 'Our nation
owes to those who have been the means of acquainting us with
the word of God in an intelligible language, a vast debt of grati
tude : they have saved not only me but many others from infidel
ity; for we have found that Christianity has deeper foundationj

ARMENIAN CHRISTIANS IN TURKEY. 413

than we had supposed, and that there is in the word of God some
thing upon which to anchor our faith.'
"A young man came to purchase some copies of the Scriptures
in Armenian, and said, 'I have received a letter from my native
city, requesting me to send them some money for building a
church ; but as I am more desirous to build up a church of living
stones than any other, I shall send home my contribution in the
form of the printed word of God.' "
With the revival of truth, came also suffering to this church.
In the former part of the year 1846, persecution of the " gospel-
readers," as they were called, was very common in Turkey. Three
men in a village near Nicomedia were scourged, one of them
almost to death, in the presence of the whole village. Nine men
of Ada Bazar were imprisoned for the same crime. At Trebi-
zond, the gospel-readers were hunted like wild beasts in the city
and on the mountains. One went into exile, by order of the
pasha; one was brought to Constantinople, and chained in a dun
geon by his neck and feet, for a fortnight, till he was released
through the interposition of the British ambassador, who is always
ready for every office of humanity.
In 1847, Mr. Baker writes : " Those Armenians who read the
Bible are now called Protestants, and have been sadly persecuted,
at Erzeroom, by the Armenian bishop. He applied to the sultan,
and the unexpected result has happily been a special order to see
that none were molested on account of religious opinions. This
has so encouraged the Protestant Armenians in Turkey, who have
now become numerous, that, in a village near the town of Nico
media, a congregation of Protestant Armenians has sprung up,
adopting the Scriptures alone as their rule of faith. No missionary
has ever been among them but the Missionary of missionaries —
the Bible. Sometimes they have been been attacked with stones,
which they calmly took up, and went and deposited at the gover
nor's feet, demanding protection and redress."
Similar accounts are given from Aleppo, of a church of 200
evangelical Christians, formerly Armenians, and solemnly excom
municated by the Armenian patriarch, but to no purpose, for more
35*

414 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

are daily added to their numbers. No missionary has ever been
among these. It is a reformation arising from the reading of
the Scriptures alone. "Many years ago," says Mr. Baker, "I
forwarded a good many Armenian Testaments in this direction,
and as far as Arab-keer. They were read with avidity in these
wild districts, where the people are now earnestly requesting a
missionary." In 1848, the Reports are equally interesting,, and a reprint of
the Armenian Testament with marginal references was requested :
thirty, forty, and fifty people were assembling together every
evening for religious instruction — a most extraordinary change
in the strongholds of Mohammedanism. In 1850, there was an
earnest request for a pocket-edition of the same precious Book,
from those who wished to have the word of God constantly about
them, that they might be able in conversation with others to
appeal at once " to the law and to the testimony."
In 1851, the promotion of many fresh Protestant churches was
announced at Aintab, Diarbekir, Mosul, Cesarea, &c. In all
these places, colporteurs employed by the missionaries circulated
the word of God. One of the colporteurs says that he stopped
one Saturday night, a mile distant from the village of Hesemek,
in a meadow on a river's bank. Before noon, on Sunday, it was
noised that he was there ; and forty men came out to see him,
and a large party of them kept him till midnight reading and
explaining to them the word of God in their modern language.
They seemed, to receive the word gladly ; and, like hungry souls,
they made him give up all the Books he had, and promise to bring
them a further supply.
The introduction of the Scriptures in all directions in Turkey
— in Constantinople, Smyrna, Rodosto, Nicpmedia, Adrianople,
Trebizond, Erzeroom, &c. — has been greatly assisted by the firman
of his imperial majesty the sultan, confirming and enlarging the
protection given to all his Protestant subjects, and securing to
them the full and free exercise of their religion.
The fact is, that every year's Report of the increasing influence
of the word of God, again restored to this ancient church, is mor«

NICOMEDIA AND ADA BAZAR. 41E

gratifying than the preceding. In 1852, the Rev. Isaac Lowndes,
the society's agent for Malta and Greece, writes : " I accompanied
Dr. Dwight, one of the American missionaries, to Nicomedia,
where we spent the Sabbath, and also to Ada Bazar.
" Nicomedia is situated on the coast of the Sea of Marmora,
fifty miles east of Constantinople. It was formerly the capital
of Bithynia, and the residence of the Emperor Constantine and
some of his successors, during a part of the year. Here Pliny
resided, and from henrje wrote to Trajan for advice as to the best
measures for preventing the further spread of Christianity. Here
began the last and worst of the pagan persecutions by the cruel
edict of Dioclesian. The number of the inhabitants in the town
is now declared to be about 35,000.
" I visited some remains of antiquity, supposed to be the ruins
of an ancient Christian church, and some excavations recently
made, prove it at least to have been the site of a large edifice,
perhaps that into which first entered the prefect of the praetorian
band — to burn, to overthrow, and to destroy.* In this very place,
where the persecution commenced by which Dioclesian said he
had ' blotted out Christianity from the earth,' is now a church
of 'living stones' (150 persons making a creditable profession of
religion,) and but one of many similar churches to be continually
multiplied, till the ' knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth
as the waters cover the sea/
'' Ada Bazar is still fifty miles further east. The two small
Christian communities here and at Nicomedia, manifest much of
a missionary spirit, and already have sent out colporteurs partly
at their own expense, besides contributing to the support of their
own pastors. They are a poor people, but their deep poverty
thus abounds in liberality.
"There are twenty-one Armenian Protestant churches in Asia.
The one at Aintib has a congregation of 800 persons, and they
worship in an enormous tent. There are more than 100 villages and
cities, where it is evident that the gospel has begun to take effect."

* See page 101.

416 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

The Rev. Mr. Benjamin, American missionary at Constanti
nople, writes, on the 22d of February, 1853, to' the committee of
the British and Foreign Bible Society, " as a member of a mission
which is indebted to that society and for valuable editions of the
Divine word, which without it would never have seen the light :"
" We may truly say, it has been a right arm to our mission.
May it go forward till its Jubilee shall enlist the sympathy and
praise of every living soul upon the earth !
" Sometimes the wonder-working providence of God conveys
the copies furnished by the society to places hitherto unapproached
by the missionary and even by the colporteur. Certain wandering
Kurds,* who roam over the north of Syria, had possessed them
selves of a quantity of Armenian Scriptures, and finding them of
no use to themselves, distributed them among the Armenian
population in the neighbourhood of their own encampment, by
whom they were joyfully received.
" We think you may safely assure the friends of the Bible in
Great Britain, that, since the period when the reign of apostasy
first extended over this fair land, no year has witnessed so much
actual Christian progress effected as in the last year. One fact
of general notoriety and of great importance is, that the circula
tion of the word of God among the Armenians has already put an
effectual stop to the influence of the Romanists among the
people. " For a great number of years, the papists have been labouring
with ceaseless activity, and by deep-laid plans, to gain over to
their church the Armenian nation ; and they had every prospect
of entire success in their schemes. The Armenians in general
observe, that, if the Protestant Reformation among them had not
commenced when it did, half of the Armenian nation, or, as some
say, the whole, would long ere this have become Roman Catholic.

» The Kurds are the descendants of the ancient Parfhians. The Yezidis,
who fear to utter the name of Satan, are a tribe of Kurds. The Kurds in
general profess Mohammedanism, but a great number of them have joined the
Nestorian Christians.

JUBILEE MEETING AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 417

Now, persons who once combined with papists to keep out the
Bible and Protestantism, are ready to co-operate with Protestants
in the conflict with popery."
Dr. Layard again bears independent testimony to this Protestant
movement going on in Turkey, and he attributes it to the very
judicious and earnest exertions of the American missionaries
during the last fifteen years. They have educated intelligent
youths from different parts of the empire, who have sowed the
seeds of truth and knowledge far abroad. He notices the perse
cution, the intervention of our ambassadors, and their great in
strumentality in securing religious toleration. He speaks of the
printing-press as publishing the Scriptures in the dialects of the
mountain-tribes, and rejoices that the English language is now
planted in the heart of Asia, and extending its benefits to un
known races.*

We have delightful tidings from Turkey, dated 13th of June,
1853. The Rev. H. Dwight tells us that that was a day long to
be remembered in Constantinople, for it was a day on which the
first public meeting was ever held there to commemorate the
labours of evangelical Christendom for the conversion of the
earth. It was held at a time when the foundations of society
were threatened, and when the most sagacious politicians could
not tell whether in a few weeks anarchy and bloodshed might not
desolate the land. At such a time, how blessed the privilege to
rally round the eternal word of God, — the sure foundation, and
the only light and hope of the world !
"This meeting," says Mr. Dwight, "was a Jubilee meeting
of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the honoured parent
of all other Bible Societies. It was held in the large saloon of
the Hotel d' Angleterre, and there must have been present at least
200 persons. The present British ambassador, Lord Stratford do
Redcliffe, took the chair, and addressed the residents of the place
* " Nineveh and Babylon," p. 405,

418 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

and also a few Christian travellers from England and America
who happened to be present. He alluded to the time of the in
stitution of the Parent Society; that it was when Napoleon was
near the zenith of his day, and England was at war with almost
every nation of Europe, that the friends of the Bible fiTst con
ceived the thought of sending that one Book throughout all the
world. He said he was reminded of the ancient heathen fable of
a golden chain suspending the earth from the throne of Jupiter.
This fable had become realized under the Christian system, for
the Bible was the golden chain that bound us to the throne of
God. His lordship warmly commended the zeal and discretion
which had characterized the efforts of the American, German,
and English missionaries, who had all acted in beautiful harmony
in carrying forward this work."
An association was then formed in connection with the British
and Foreign Bible Society, to assist in the work of distributing
the word of God in Turkey.
Who shall tell the effect of this new movement on the Arme
nians, in all the countries in which they are scattered, and on the
Turks out of Europe, as well as on Mohammedans who are not
Turks ? The Asiatic peninsula is the chief stronghold of Islam,
and from this centre may yet radiate, toward Turkey in Asia, tbe
light of a purer faith.
Perhaps you may not have thought of the fact, that it is only
a manuscript Koran which contests with a printed Bible. So-
"• cieties have never been formed for printing and distributing the
Koran of Mohammed, or the Vedas and Shastras of the Hindus.
The Mohammedan copies the Koran for himself, and frequently
commits it to memory, as the Brahmins of India do their sacred
books. The false lights shall die out; they are not fitted for the
human race ; but the light of eternal truth must penetrate all the
dark places of the earth, and be rekindled in language after lan
guage, till He com?, whose right it is to reign, and till all " the
kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord
and ot his Christ."

THE COPTIC CHURCH. 419

THE COPTIC CHURCH.
The only language known to have derived its origin from the
Ancient Egyptian is the Coptic, the second language in which the
inscription on the Rosetta stone is written.
This origin has invested the Coptic with peculiar interest in the
eyes ofthe learned. It is called "a venerable language," and in
it the liturgy of the Coptic church is still publicly read ; but it
is not understood by the majority of the Copts, who mostly speak
Arabic. The Copts themselves scarcely form a fourteenth part of the
motley population dwelling on the soil of their ancestors. Some
times thoy are persecuted, sometimes they turn Mohammedans,
and they are not now supposed to be in number more than
150,000. They have a patriarch or supreme head, who is also
the head of the Abyssinian church. In 1829, an edition of 2000
of the Coptic Gospels, printed in parallel columns with the Arabic
version, was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society
The text had been prepared by the Coptic patriarch, at the in
stance of Mr. Jowett. "No complete edition of the Coptic Old
Testament has yet been published, for several of the books are
missing. It is however probable, that they are not actually lost,
and that they may yet be found in some of the cloisters of Egypt."
In 1832, the Rev. Mr. Leider, a missionary connected with the
Church Missionary Society, furnished the following details re
specting Egypt : —
" During our six years' stay in Egypt, all parts of it have
several times been visited by us, and we have circulated the Holy
Scriptures in Arabic, Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Italian, French,
German, Spanish, Hebrew, and Coptic. We have endeavoured
also to introduce the word of God, or part of it, into the schools
of this nation, where hundreds of children now begin to read the
word of life.
"Though we have not yet met with real conversions among the
natives, we know that the Holy Scriptures are read in many
houses, and that some think more seriously about the saltation

420 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

of their souls, and are anxious to lay aside those sinful customs
which are very general in Egypt, as for instance, swearing, lying,
and hypocrisy, so strongly condemned by holy writ.
" There are still great numbers in Egypt who are not provided
with the Divine word. Some of them cannot read it on account
of the smallness of the type, others are ignorant of the value of
this great treasure, and many cannot obtain it for want of money.
In regard to the small type in which the Arabic Scriptures have
hitherto been printed, I remark, that many of the people are
unable to read them, partly from an incapacity to distinguish the
letters from each other, and partly from a fear of losing their
present impaired sight. Europeans cannot imagine how much
the Egyptians suffer from weak eyes, or how many have lost their
sight entirely from ophthalmia. It would therefore be a most
necessary and noble work, were the British and Foreign Bible
Society to furnish the Egyptians, and the Arabs in general, with
the Holy Scriptures printed in large type."
The committee complied with this suggestion, and ordered 5000
Arabic Testaments and Psalms in larger type, forthwith. An
edition of 2014 copies of the Coptic Psalter, printed in parallel
columns with the Arabic version, has likewise been issued by the
Bible Society.
The Rev. W. Kruse, a missionary in Egypt, writes from Cairo :
" The Coptic patriarch becomes more and more friendly toward
us, and often sends monks to us to receive the Holy Scriptures.
One of these, whose serene, sincere look, confirmed the truth of
the words he uttered when receiving the Bible, said, ' A greater
treasure than this I do not look for on earth ; for whoever lives
according to its contents, is safe and happy forever/ These monks
are always being changed in the convent of the patriarchs. They
come from all the convents in Egypt alternately, at various ap
pointed times, to Cairo, stay for some time here, and then return
to their convents, while others take their places." Thus the
Scriptures will penetrate into all parts of Egypt. The issues for
this country, since 1820, have reached 6000 copies. More, many

ABYSSINIA — THE WALDENSES. 421

more copies, and "a man lite Luther," as one among themselves
has said, are needed to reform this church.
ABYSSINIA.
The Amharic Testament having been carried through tbe press
in 1829, the entire Bible was completed from M, Asselin's trans
ition in 1842. The copies printed have been 7000, beside more
than 4000 portions of Scripture in Ethiopic. There is little
known at present of the results of distribution, either in the Abys
sinian or Coptic Churches ; but the following details are interest
ing, furnished by the missionaries before the whole Scriptures
reached them. They found it very difficult to do any thing in
Abyssinia, before they had ihe whole Bible ; for the reading-people
are a thoughtful race, " very apt to suppose that those who speak
to them about religion are deceivers ; but when they can them
selves see a passage in the Scriptures contrary to their opinions,
they will immediately give them up." The missionaries say :
" We have had one Abyssinian with us for nine months, and he
has read so much in the Amharic Gospels, that he knows all four
almost by heart. Though he is very humble in every respect, he
does not give up a single error till we have proved to him by the
Gospels that it is an error. He desires much to have the Epistles
of Paul, of which we are always speaking." The committee ex
pressed a hope that this intelligent student would prove a fair
specimen of his countrymen. THE WALDENSES.
By a census made, about 1820, of the inhabitants of the Vau
dois valleys, it, was found that the Protestants were nearly 17,000
in number, and the Catholics 4000.
Two or three individuals, during this century, have been re
markable for the interest they have taken in the members of this
ancient church, which, in its bitter sufferings, has always found so
much sympathy in the heart of England.
Felix Neff, once a young officer of artillery, afterwards a Chris-
36

422 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

tian pastor, was led by Providence to that part of the French Alps
where the Vaudois Church had been established. He triumphed
over all obstacles, and, like another Oberlin, taught the inhabitants
to irrigate their meadows, and to improve their lands ; but he more
particularly lent himself to the task of revivifying their souls.
In his visits to the Vaudois valleys and to those of Piedmont,
he was forcibly struck with their richness of vegetation as con
trasted with the barrenness of the French valleys, and he was
equally struck with their spiritual degeneracy. He began to form
prayer -meetings among them, and thus was religious zeal revived
in these interesting valleys. We have already seen their glad re
ception of help from the Bible Society.*
In 1823, the Rev. Dr. Gilly journeyed to these valleys, and,
when he returned, thousands were interested by his published ac
count of them, and among others, Major-general Beckwith, who
is still their benefactor. The general, with other friends, has
erected and endowed a hundred schools among the Vaudois ; and
in 1830, forwarded to the committee of the British and Foreign
Bible Society a specimen page of a translation of two Gospels
into the dialect which is now spoken by them. The translation
was made by the Rev. Mr. Bert, pastor of La Tour. The society
undertook to publish 1000 copies in parallel columns, with Martin's
French version. In 1832, 600 copies had been distributed, and
another edition was called for of 2000 copies. A letter from
Major-general Beckwith, in 1840, announces that the Gospels
sent into Northern Italy are freely circulating among the Protest
ants. With the progress of education, however, the use of the
modern French language is rapidly gaining ground among these
people, because French is the medium of instruction in the schools.
Yet there is among them a special school for the training of
young men for the ministry, in which, since the year 1848, all
the candidates for the pastorship are instructed in Italian, with a
view to the restoration in the valleys of their own national
tongue.

* See page 299.

THE JEWS. 423

In the Report for 1853, Major-General Beckwith is said to have
made a remittance of 95?. 13s. 4d. for Italian and Piodnionteso
Scriptures circulated by him among the Waldensian Churches -r
and, on his recommendation, an edition of 2500 copies of Genesis
and Luke, in Italian, will be printed ; and these will be placed at
his disposal for the purpose of distribution.
We have very interesting , recent intelligence concerning the
remarkable religious awakening in the north of Italy, and which
is taking place through the missionary efforts of the descendants
of the ancient Waldenses, and the circulation of the Scriptures.
"The burning lamp, surrounded with the seven stars," the old
symbol of the Waldensian Church, has begun to verify its ancient
motto, " Lux lucet in tenebris." THE JEWS.
But is there any part of the society's work, after all, so de
lightful, as restoring the pure and living waters to the nation
for whose sake they first flowed ? On the brow of the Jew is
written our past, and our future ; for, "if through their fall, sal
vation is come unto the Gentiles, — if the fall of them be the
riches of. the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of
the Gentiles, how much more their fidness! — for if the casting
away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the
receiving of them be, but life from the dead ?" Romans xi.
12, 15.
And shall not the Gentile Church hasten the time of her own
"fulness," as she earnestly prays with Judah for her captive sister
Israel of old, " Return, we beseech thee, oh God of hosts : look
down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine ; and the vine
yard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou
madest strong for thyself?" Psalm Ixxx. 14, 15.
In various ways, during the last quarter of a century, a vast
number of copies of the Scriptures, in Hebrew and other Ian
guages, have been circulated among the Jews of different countnes,
partly by means of societies interested in their welfare, and partly
by purchase, of their own accoid. The Report of the Bible

424 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Societies witness to the desire of the Jews to possess the Bible, at
Malta, at Damascus, at St. Petersburg, and other places.
. The Rev. Mr. Ewald, formerly missionary at Tunis, who appears
to be himself a Jew, gives us, in the year 1837, an interesting
account of his labours among his brethren according to the flesh.
He has shown, he says, to hundreds of thousands of them what
Moses and the prophets have foretold of the Redeemer of the
world. " In the space of four years, the time that I have spent
in the north of Africa, 5000 copies of the Scriptures have been put
into circulation at Algiers, at Tunis, at Tripoli, and in many other
towns. Sometimes there was opposition : the Mohammedana priests
burned a Bible, the Roman Catholic priests said it was not genuine,
and some ignorant Jewish Rabbins did the same ; but still the word
of life isread by Mohammedans, Jews, and Roman Catholics.
" But some will say, ' What good have you done by giving the
Bible to the Jews at a low price ? Of course they are glad to
receive their own Scriptures as cheap as possible ; but that does
not bring them nearer to Christianity/ Such questions have been
asked. Allow me to give an answer to them. The Jews in ge
neral are ignorant of the whole contents of the Bible. Hundreds
do not read more than the five books of Moses, and some portions
of the prophets. Hence it arises, that they are ignorant of the
many prophecies respecting the Messiah; and often, when I quote
passages referring to His coming, sufferings, and death, they will
tell me, ' Those passages do not occur in our Bible : you have
written them in favour of your religion/ And this is not the
case in Africa only, for I have met with the same in Germany,
and even in England, where Bibles are so easily to be had.
"Now, how can we preach the Saviour of the world to the
Tews with effect ? How can we prove the truths of Christianity
jut of their own Scriptures, if they are ignorant of them, if they
have never read the evangelical prophecy of Isaiah, the plain pre
dictions of David, and of the rest of the prophets ? By giving
them their own Scriptures, we try by the blessing of God to make
them Israelites, to draw them away from the hollow cisterns of
rabbinism, and to bring them to the fountain of living water."

JEWS IN TUNIS. 425

The same missionary says : " The Jetvs now read the word of
the living God without the comments of the rabbins, and often
wish the good society which sent them the Scriptures at so
low a price, a thousand blessings from above. At Zwaghan, about
fifty miles from Tunis, poverty and misery abound, and a shil
ling is of as much value as a pound in England. In such places
especially, the benefits conferred by the Bible Society are fully
appreciated." From Tunis, also, in 1846, the Rev. N. Davis writes as follows :
"About twenty years ago, a number of copies of the Hebrew New
Testament were sent hither, by your society, and one of them
came into the possession of Mr. Nigjar, an infidel Jew, who lent
it to Mr. Bishmoth, also a Jew, with a view to unsettle his opi
nions likewise. Mr. B. perused it, but it had a different effect
upon him. Instead of making him what is falsely called liberal-
minded, he became seriously-minded, for he saw there was no other
way left him but either to embrace the truths of the gospel, or
continue without peace in this world, and without hope beyond
the grave.
" After twenty days, Mr. Nigjar himself told me that Mr. Bish
moth returned with the Testament. He said he was surprised to
find him in tears, and in a very agitated state of mind, and more
so still when he exclaimed, 'Is this the history of Jesus who is so
misrepresented by our rabbins ? I fully believe him to have been
the Messiah, and all predictions of a Messiah to be fulfilled in
him. Our nation is in darkness, and will be so till they believe
in him.' 'He called on me often,' said Mr. N, 'and brought me
such wonderful things from Moses and the prophets, as would
greatly surprise you/ Mr. Nigjar himself has, through the in
strumentality of this mau, been brought to a more serious' state
of mind. Both visit me : one is in the eighty-third year of his
age, and the other has passed seventy."
Mr. Melville, a gentleman who is mentioned in the Report for
1846 as indefatigable in his labours among the Tartars, travelling
in an open cart from village to village in their country, with boxes
of Scriptures for distribution, speaks of the Jews in the following

36*

126 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

encouraging manner : — "The Jews in Tartary have been great
purchasers of the Scriptures this year. There is a general move
ment onwards among the Jews at present, which we ought to
follow up by as large a distribution of Testaments as possible.
They are no longer burners of those holy Books. • They are
eagerly read, and by many diligently studied. May the Spirit of
the Lord draw aside the veil, that the beams of the Sun of Right
eousness may shine into their hearts, hitherto cold and icy, towards
the Redeemer of Israel ! Much requires to be done among the
Jews in Chersosi. Many are in deep poverty, and cannot even
pay the present low prices for Bibles. The almost general opinion
at present respecting the Jews is, that the study of the prophets
will bring them to embrace Christianity.
In 1849, Mr. Barker writes : " Our work goes on steadily, and
the demand for the Hebrew Scriptures continues unabated, and,
if any thing, gains ground."
We have heard that there is, in this Jubilee Year of the Bible
Society, a remarkable movement taking place among the Jews in
every country in which they are scattered. The rabbinism which
has enslaved them for so many ages is rapidly losing its influence.
Multitudes are throwing aside the Mishna and the Talmud, and
betaking themselves again to the study of Moses and the prophets.
Among the Jews in London, it is said, there is at this present
time a great demand for copies of the Hebrew Old Testament.
How far the steady and persevering distribution of the Scriptures
among them may have quietly tended to this result, we must leave
it to a future day to reveal. The subject of their return to Pa
lestine, and the nature of the promises on which this expectation
is founded, are engaging their deepest attention. In the exami
nation of this matter they have been assisted by a rabbi from the
continent, who has exhibited a manuscript, in which he has endea
voured to prove from Scripture, that the time has come when the
Jews must make preparation for returning to their own country—
the land of their fathers. The said manuscript has been pub
lished both in Hebrew and English, in the form of a small tract,

JEWS IN PALESTINE. 427

and it is said to be very influencial in furthering the movement
proposed by the learned rabbi.

In 1851, the English bishop at Jerusalem favoured the com
mittee with some interesting communications. He says : "I feel
more and more, that, if it were not for the liberality of the Bible
Society, I could scarcely do any thing in Palestine. I trust that,
though the returns of money are scanty, on account of the ex
treme poverty of most of those who desire to receive the word of
life, yet the returns in a higher sense will reward those who have
helped in sowing the incorruptible seed.
" The work of God has considerably developed itself at Naza
reth. Very soon after the first visit of one of my Bible-readers
to Nazareth, several individuals of that place visited me, and beg
ged that I would establish a school for children, as I had done at
Nablous ; but all I could do then, was to supply, the people with
Bibles, and direct them by correspondence."
, There are at this time thirteen heads of families representing
sixty-one souls, who have signed a document by which they de
clare themselves Protestants, and fifty more are ready to do the
same. They are very anxious _ to be recognised by the govern
ment as a Protestant community. This is in consequence of the
simple reading of the Bible, — of the history of Jesus of Nazarejth,
— in the very place where the Lord abode. How delightful for
the Bible Society to be able to say of all these old and interesting
sources from whence the Scriptures have come down to us, " The
conduits were choked up, but we cleared ihem, and restored the
fountain pure as it had flowed in the times of old !"

CHAPTER XI.
The Protestant Countries : Holland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden
— State of the Continent — Lord Bexley — Mr. Brandram — Wales — Scotland — ¦
England — Ireland — Home Colporteurs, and Collectors — Einal Appeal — Mo
tives for Renewed Exertion.
But now we must approach our final review of earth's Pro
testant nations, and the effects of Bible-distribution among ihem
during the last quarter of a century.
We must close with Great Britain; therefore we will take
the rest in brief succession as before, beginning with —
HOLLAND.
The Netherlands Bible Society had, in 1832, been taking mea
sures to obtain a good translation of the Javanese New Testament.
They employed for this purpose Mr. Gericke, who went to Java
itself; and, being a good oriental scholar, and zealous for the
cause of God, entered into the spirit of the Javanese people more
than any European ever did before, acquiring a deep and thorough
knowledge of their language, character, customs, and religious
principles. While he was getting all this knowledge, not only
by familiar conversation with the people in general, but also by
the opportunities that were afforded to him of being admitted to
the courts of the Javanese princes, he did not lose sight of the
two great points of his mission, viz. the composing of a Javanese
grammar, and the translation of the Bible into that tongue. The
grammar has been well received in Java, and even the Javanese
are surprised at it. The King of the Netherlands presented, on
this account, to Mr. Gericke, a gold medal, showing that the
government also prized his exertions.
In 1844, colpprtage was adopted with great advantage in Hol
land ; and Mr. Tiddy writes, that the sales at the dep6t surpass
428

HOLLAND  GERMANY. 429

all idea : in one week they amounted to 2250 volumes. In nine
years, the sale of Scriptures in Holland has surpassed 326,000
volumes. The depositary at Amsterdam writes in 1853 : " Armed
. with this sword of the Spirit, the colporteurs continue their tra
vels ; and this year we have again experienced that our God is
faithful, and that his word retains its power. The opposition of
the papacy is increasing. Against the artifices of this party, the
strongest bulwark is the word of God. Nothing is feared by
Rome more than this."
In 1851, in forwarding his annual Report, and after lamenting
the loss of Mr. Brandram, Mr. Tiddy says : " There has been,
without doubt, a remarkable revival brought about in Holland by
the Holy Spirit's blessing on the Scriptures circulated by us.
The clear type and low prices of the books have been the means
of introducing the word of God where before it was not to be met
with. It would often cheer your heart to see the sparkling eyes
of children as they receive a beautiful Testament or Bible in ex
change for the few copper cents they have been carefully saving
up for that purpose. It has always appeared to me that our col
portage is literal obedience to the command of our Lord, in Luke
xiv. 23, ' And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the
highways and hedges/ It certainly carries the treasure to thou
sands who would never otherwise receive it."
GERMANY.
In 1843, it was said that the missionary cause called forth
more interest in the Protestant states of Germany than that of
the Bible Society, and the reason for this was thus expressed :
" The copies of the Bible which we issued send us no reports of
their labours; whereas, the missionaries we send out to the heathen
relate the dangers they pass through, the difficulties they encoun
ter, and the success which attend their labours. All this awakens
and keeps alive an interest in themselves and their work. But
with the copies of the Scriptures which we send forth, it ought
to be considered, that their operations, though silent, are not less

430 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

sure. They penetrate into the hearts of thousands of families)
whom the living preacher would never have reached, and there
they effect that for which they were sent.
" We think the cause of gospel truth is making progress among .
the Protestant nations of Germany ; still it will be long before its
literature can be purified from its anti-Christian leaven. There
has been a large distribution of Bibles in the country, both by
the Continental Societies with the Apocrypha, and by the agents
of the British and Foreign Bible Society without it ; and this has
been followed by some encouraging appearances of the dawn of a
brighter day ; though, alas ! it must still be acknowledged that
the pulpits and schools are mostly occupied by rationalists of va
rious shades ; and it would seem as if many years must pass away
before the destructive doctrines so widely spread among all classes
will be superseded by a simple faith in the truths of revelation.
They have trifled with the facts of the Bible itself, and brought
themselves to believe that its miracles are to be accounted for by
natural causes : they have ' taken away from the words of the
book,' and added unto it also by the intermixture of the Apocry
pha. A large proportion of the people are in the hands of the
Jesuits, and they need a new Luther 'to rush like a torrent
through the channels of the watercourses of the Divine word,'
still stopped up by Satan and foolish men, and to carry away with
his force the blocks and barriers of unbelief and mysticism, so
that the word may have free course and prevail."
Mr. E. Millard, the agent in Austria and Hungary, having by
the mysterious providence of God been compelled to leave that
promising sphere, was directed to settle at Breslau, and to endea
vour to extend the operations of the society in Silesia and Posem
Here his chief difficulties lie in the extreme poverty of the people,
their apathy, and their predilection for the Apocrypha. He says,
indeed, that the friends of the pure word of God are worried day
by day, and hour by hour, on the continent, on account of these
apocryphal writings. The Jesuits have educated the people to
believe that our Bibles are imperfect. Still a circulation of 10,000
copies in one year has taken place, by means of the colporteurs;

GERMANY — DENMARK. 431

In 1851, the venerable Dr. Steinkopff paid a visit to this part
of the continent, and an interesting letter from him states several
pleasing facts. He says, that pious ministers and people meet
together more frequently than they did, even from great distances,
to strengthen each other's hands ; that there are arising influential
home missions, and that spiritual religion is making some growth.
Luther's German Bible has still a large circulation, and tens of
thousands of Roman Catholics boldly venture to read it, in spite
of all tbe thunders of the Vatican ; 700,000 copies of Dr. Van
Ess's Testament have been distributed, and the energetic yet
patient labours of the Bible agents are casting seed into a barren
field, which he believes will yet bring forth fruit : his closing
paragraph, however, speaks of the present awful condition of the
continent in a political, moral, and religious point of view, which
should elicit earnest prayer on its behalf, on the part of Christians.
One of its prominent evils is the profanation of the Christian
Sabbath — a distinguishing fruit of the teaching derived from the
church which hides the Bible. DENMARK.
The Bishop of Adensee, in this country remarks, that, " with
regard to the Christian tendency of the coming time, a great deal
will depend on whether children from ten to fourteen years of age
are made acquainted with the word of God and of Christ ; for what
they learn in their youth they will not forget in old age ; and when
life brings its sorrows and troubles, they will then know where to
turn for consolation and blessing."
Mr. Henderson visited this country again in 1844, after the
lapse of nearly forty years, and speaks of a considerable number
of the inhabitants as inquiring after a better way. He says : " In
many of the churches, a portion of the Lord' s-day is appropriated
by the clergy to the public reading of the Bible, accompanied by
explanatory remarks, and the total issues of the Bible Society in
Denmark have been 193,000 copies. The general state of indiffer-
ence to religion, however, and the general breach of the Sabbath,
are very painful to the minds of Christian residents here."

432 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

NORWAY AND SWEDEN.
There have been colporteurs in Sweden and in Norway, and
the distribution of the Bibles has gone on, though not so actively
as might be desired. More than 100,000 copies have been cir
culated in Norway, and more than 500,000 in Sweden, since
1828. In these countries, Bible distribution is encouraged by the
authorities ; and the anniversary meetings of the Bible Society
are attended by the king and the royal princes ; but our limits
forbid further enlargement. For the same reason, we must not
enter upon Finland, Lapland, and Greenland, except, indeed, to
state in a few words that the circulation of the Scriptures has been
increasing from year to year, and that the evidences of a Divine
blessing on the work prove that the labours of the society in the
frozen regions of the north are " not in vain in the Lord."

Our review of the society's operations on the continent of Europe
may be concluded in the language of one who visited Belgium and
Germany, in the summer of 1852 :
" I could not help noticing two classes of facts and circum
stances, calculated on the one hand to awaken apprehension, and
on the other to inspire hope.
"The rulers of continental Europe are persuaded to believe
that the free use of the Bible and the liberty of religious worship
are dangerous to the stability of thrones and governments, and
hence the attempts made to curtail the privileges of the people,
by laws and police regulations. Jesuit missions are multiplying.
These active agents of Antichrist itinerate to preach and to lecture.
Their organs become more daring, and they insinuate themselves
and their principles into the closets and councils of princes. Our
excellent colporteurs experience increasing difficulties, and, to
some extent, personal danger, in the prosecution of their work.
This especially the case where their labours are carried on among
an ignorant and bigoted popish population, stirred up to oppo
sition by the orations of Jesuitical priests. While popery is thus
presenting its difficulties in the way of a free Bible, infidelity,

PRESENT STATE OP THE CONTINENT. 433

again, in various forms, sometimes open and vulgar, and some
times disguised and subtile, in public discourses and widely-circu
lated books, presents powerful barriers in our way.
" It must be admitted, however, that while there is much to
awaken apprehension, there is not a little to inspire hope, and to
afford encouragement. If our foes are many, our friends also are
numerous, and are increasing in number. If the opposition is
more bold and bitter on the part of the papists and infidels, the
support and advocacy of the society are becoming more decided
and general. There are reasons to believe that evangelical religion
is increasing. Professors and pastors are coming nearer to ' the
truth as it is in Jesus.' A better and purer literature is pro
gressing. The ' Inner Mission' of Germany is doing a great and
good work, while the French and Belgian Evangelical Societies
are showing signs of growing life and spiritual vigour, which,
with God's blessing on the seed sown by our own and other socie
ties, will produce a harvest of truth and holiness among the
nations of the continent.
" When at sea, between Dover and Ostend, I heard some one
who had been on deck announcing to the passengers below, who,
like myself, were longing for dry land aud daylight, ' I am happy
to say, the day is breaking.' Whether it is imagination, assisted
by an ardent desire, or the result of sober investigation and a
careful survey, I hope I may say, without presumption, in refer
ence to some parts at least of the continent of Europe, 'The day
is breaking/ " ' Yes 1 I hope the day is breaking, —
Joyful times are near at hand ;
God, the mighty God, is speaking
By his word in every land :
Mark his progress !
Darkness flies at his command.
" ' While the foe becomes more daring, —
While he enters like a flood, —
God the Saviour is preparing
Means to spread his truth abroad.
Every language
Soon shall tell the love of God.' "
37

434 THE BOOK AND ITS STORT.

ENGLAND.
But now, from our Jubilee travels round the world, we at last
return home to the happy isle which is honoured to be still the
centre and source of all the blessed changes that have been re
corded ; and we return with a most solemn view of its present re
sponsibilities. .
In glancing at the work of the Bible Society, during its second
period, at home, we must not omit to notice two of its members,
the successors of those who had departed, and now themselves,
also, "not lost, but gone before," — Lord Bexley, who became
president when Lord Teignmouth was no more, and the Rev.
Andrew Brandram, rector of Beckenham, Kent, who accepted its
clerical secretaryship on the death of the Rev. John Owen.
Lord Bexley was elected president in 1834, and remained for
seventeen years (until removed by death) "the centre of the
widest circle the world ever saw."* He was among the most un
hesitating, yet prudent, of those who defended the cause of the
society, during the first years of its existence. The cause was
not then popular, and was much exposed to controversies which
it has since outlived. Lord Bexley, then Mr. Vansittart, counted
the cost, and willingly gave it his personal support, at any sacrifice.
He was one of the earliest cabinet-ministers who enrolled their.
names in its ranks, and always declared that he considered it one
of the most ppwerful means for evangelizing the whole world. He-
knew the importance of the Bible to others, because he knew its
unutterable value to his own soul. He was also the last survivor
among the ministers of the venerable monarch whose wish it was
"that every man in his dominions might be able to read the
Bible," aud the one who practically aimed to fulfil the wish of his
royal master. When reproached by a professor of divinity for
" uniting with dissenters" in this great work, he replied, " So far
from repenting of what I have done, I feel convinced I shall less
* Earl of Harrowby's Speech, at the Anniversary of 1851.

LORD BEXLEY — MR. BRANDRAM. 4*35

arid less repent of it, as I approach that state in wlich the distinc
tion of churchman and dissenter will be no more."
Side by side with this declaration of Lord Bexle^, we should
like you to remember that of Dean Milner: "I would not, for
all this kingdom can bestow, have my conscience loaded with the
bitter reflection that I had ever, directly or indirectly, been in
strumental in obstructing the free progress of the British and
Foreign Bible Society."
The Rev. Andrew Brandram, who died at Brighton on the 26th
of December, 1850, had been for twenty-seven years the inde
fatigable clerical Secretary of the society; He is recorded to have
received his first religious impressions while at Winchester school,
and while preparing for Oriel college, Oxford, where he took a
double first-class rank. It is said, that, placing his books in a
closet which had been left vacant by the boy who preceded him,
he found an old Bible, the only thing, it seems, which it had
not been thought worth while to carry away. Curiosity impelled
him to read it, and it made him "wise unto salvation." From
that time his whole character was altered and probably his after
life influenced as one of the chief officers of that noble institution,
to<whose interests he devoted all the vigour of his manhood. Ho
kept that old Bible till his death. It may be truly said of
him, that he was "in labours most abundant." Year after year,
an increase of those labours was "rendered necessary by the con
stantly enlarging operations of the society, r He undertook a large
portion of , the extensive correspondencej domestic and foreign,
besides travelling frequently throughout England to attend anni
versary meetings; and these, in connection with his other duties,
domestic and pastoral, exacted from him an amount of effort which
few could have sustained so long; and under which his robust and
vigorous frame at last gave way. The result was, that, when it
pleased God that the hand of disease should be laid upon him, all
the springs : of life- seemed to have been broken at once. He
quickly sank into a state of entire -prostration, and from the couch
of utter feebleness, rose only "to depart and be with Christ for
ever." The memorial adopted by the committee adds, "Mr.

136 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Brandram combined qualities but rarely found in the same in
dividual, — strength of body and mind, talent and learning, solidity
of judgment, singleness of purpose, integrity of conduct, and an
independence of spirit always under the control of Christian prin
ciple. Not having respect to his own ease, nor shunning reproach
for Christ's sake, he laboured and toiled, and watched and prayed,
in all things commending himself to the approval not of men,
but of God."
Of the present secretaries and home-agents of the British and
Foreign Bible Society, nothing need be said at present : the memo
rial to their faithful devotedness, will, we hope, belong to a yet far
future day. They all rejoice with joy unspeakable over the ripen
ing harvest which is beginning to be reaped of the precious seed
of the word. The Right Hon. the Earl of Shaftesbury has suc
ceeded Lord Bexley as president. The eye, in looking down the
present list of vice-presidents, will observe a large phalanx of
bishops, earls, and lords. The Rev. Dr. Pinkerton, Mr. Benjamin
Barker, Mons. de PressensS, Mr. W. P. Tiddy, the Rev. Isaac
Lowndes, Lieut. Graydon, and Mr. E. Millard, are the foreign
agents at Frankfort, at Smyrna, in Paris, in Belgium, at Malta,
in Switzerland, in Northern Italy, and at Breslau. We hope we
may have led you to look with earnest interest on all future re
ports of their proceedings.
In the year 1836, after a survey of their field of labour, the
committee ask themselves in their Report, "Is the object of their
institution now attained? May their mutual compact now be
honourably dissolved ? and are they at liberty to draw back from
their post? They are constrained to answer, No." "Notwith
standing the efforts of all other societies directed to the same
object, the claims of the world still multiply upon us; for there
is scarcely a country, civilized or uncivilized, which does not wait
to receive from us the law of our God; and even in our own
metropolis, there is still an incredible number of families not
almost, but altogether, destitute of even a fragment of the Scrip
tures of truth."
In the mean time, most cheering evidences of sympathy and

SYMPATHY WITH THE SOCIETY. 437

interest evince the feeling of the country in general toward the
well-known and loved society. It may be mentioned among other
facts, that its legal advisers, in all cases of difficulty, tender
gratuitously their professional services; and Messrs. Brown, Mar
ten, Thomas, and Hollams, continue to this day its honorary
solicitors. The Principality has always yielded to the British and Foreign
Bible Society its full quota ot worthy successors of the late Mr.
Charles; and the agent for Wales thus writes in 1837: — "It is
a source of satisfaction to me, that I have been able to travel so
many hundred miles with so little expense to the society. I have
journeyed through a country where the Bible Society has many
good and trusty fellow-labourers : consequently, I have never paid
for a single night's accommodation at an inn, during the five
weeks- 1 was from home. It is true I have been repeatedly
accommodated at inns; but when I called for my bill, have been
told that they had never any account for an agent of the Bible
Society; and this hospitality has often included conveyance to
the meetings which I have attended."
The same agent gives interesting tidings of Anglesea, the
ancient Mona — the old home of the Druids. He calls to mind
that Anglesea took the lead among the Welsh auxiliaries, that it
had collected upward of 1000?. in one year for the Bible Society,
and that its remittances average from 500?. to 600?. per annum.
He adds, that, taking into consideration the limited extent of the
island, the small number of inhabitants, (48,000,) and the com
parative poverty of the people, this amount of contribution is
astonishing, viz. threepence annually for every man, woman,
and child in the island, and can only be accounted for on the
principle that "union is strength." If England, Wales, and
Scotland contributed in the same proportion, the society would
have a free income amounting to 175,000?. per annum. It is a
gratifying fact, that in all the English cities and towns where
there is a considerable Welsh population, Cambrian Bible So
cieties are formed, to supply themselves with the Scriptures, and
to assist the Parent Society in its general operations. It is re-
37*

438 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

ported that one of these, the Liverpool Welsh branch, remits on
an average the sum of 350?. per annum, as a free contribution to
the funds of the society.
Thus, as it was the destitution of Wales that originated the
Bible Society, .we cannot but rejoice to behold the unabated zeal
of the Ancient Britons to bestow the Divine word on others.
Would that their example were followed ! — for while the Bible
Society is praised as at the head of the benevolent institutions of
the age, not merely in importance, but in the extent and success
of its labours, its free income of 54,000?. for all home and foreign
purposes, is little more than one-half that ofthe leading mis
sionary institutions; and while they have doubled their income
in the last fifteen years, the free contributions to the British
and Foreign Bible Society have not increased in the same pro
portion.

The still destitute condition of the poor Highlanders of Scot
land engaged the attention of the committee. In the poorer dis
tricts, in years of scarcity, the people having neither bread nor
firing, and seldom if ever, any money, a vote of 300 Bibles and
700 Testaments' was made to a member of parliament; who em
ployed colporteurs in such neighbourhoods. In the Shetland
Isles, a missionary asked a young woman about nineteen years of
age, who had been his guide for several miles, whether she would
accept of a sixpence or a New Testament for her trouble. The
question evidently seemed to throw her into considerable per
plexity; but she soon replied, "I never had a sixpence of my
own since I was born, and you may be sure I should like to have
one now; but the New Testament is the Book of God, and there
fore I will choose it, if you please."
The member of parliament above referred to, Mr. Lillingston
of Lochalsh, continued for several years to receive grants of Bibles
and Testaments for his destitute neighbours. Mr. Paterson visited
him in his romantic seclusion on the borders' of a land-locked bay,
was introduced to his colporteurs, and saw the yacht which made

I-ARGE ISSUE OP THE SCRIPTURES. 439

missionary voyages with the word of life from islet to islet. The
population were gradually taught to read; and in 1839, 3000
Bibles and Testaments were supplied to them. Mr. L. sent a
donation of 100?. from himself, and the amazing contribution to
the society of 62?. from the poor Highlanders, many of whom
¦gave their little a?? for the time-being, to testify their gratitude.
In the year 1840,' the society supplied 38,500 New Testaments,
¦by way of loan, among families still found destitute of the Sacred
"ScriptUres in London, chiefly distributed through the agents of
the City Mission; and many pleasing results are recorded.
In tho year 1841, an issue of the Scriptures was reported larger
than any ever made before : this was owing to their cheapened
price, and the increasing efforts of the Auxiliary Societies. The
Liverpool Town Mission made a canvass of the neighbourhood
of that large town; and 5000 families, out of a population of
15,000, residing in 179 streets, were found destitute ofthe Scrip
tures. In about one-third of the town of Leeds, 1200 families
were found without Bibles or Testaments, nearly all of whom were
declared to be too poor to purchase them. These facts telling
upon one another, the Report of 1841 announced an issue of more
than "900,000 copies of the inspired records," from the de
positories, at home and abroad.
The Report for 1842 alludes to Luther's wish — "Would that
that book alone were in all languages, before the eyes, in the ears,
and in the hearts of all !" and to the Bible Society as advancing
toward the fulfilment of that wish. It also mentions the pro
found reverence and delight of Luther and his friend Melancthon,
while occupied in the German translation. " They often paused
in their labours to give free expression to their wonder, to listen
to the 'very voice of the Creator of heaven and earth;' " and the
writer adds, " Oh ! that we might see revived that spirit of eager
delight with which the people who had heard the reformers preach,
hailed those first attempts to put into their hands the translated
Scriptures! ' You have preached Clirist to us,' said they; 'now
let us hear himself!' and they caught at the sheets given to the
world, as a letter coming to them from heaven. A kindred spirit

440 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

to this is awakening on the plains of Africa, and in the islands
of the Southern Ocean. Bechuanas, Tahitians, New Zealanders,
and Rarotongans, are acting the part of the German peasants:
they catch at the sheets given to the world, as a letter coming
to them from heaven. This letter from heaven it is our single
object to publish and circulate; we wish it to be read by men
of all nations, and kindreds, and tongues; we wish that all the
earth should hear its words of wondrous mercy. Shall we speak
of discouragements, or fear them? Shall we dwell on the dis
tinctions that divide us, important though iu some respects they
be? No; rather let us hasten to bear each his part, in putting
into the hands of the whole human family the common record
of our Father's love. Angels might envy us our honourable
employ."" The years 1845 and 1846 were very remarkable for ths in
creasing demand and distribution at home. Some friends visiting
Blackpool, a small watering-place on the coast of Lancashire, had
their attention awakened to the spiritual wants of the neighbour
hood, commenced a sale of the Sacred Scriptures, and afterward
formed a Bible Association. In a few months, 1800 copies were
circulated in that limited district.
This movement was greatly encouraged by the zealous co-opera
tion of a gentleman from Manchester, who returned home with
his mind much set on attempting a wider distribution of the Scrip
tures among the immense population by which he saw himself
surrounded. After conference and prayer with a few pious
friends, it was resolved to make the experiment of offering the
Scriptures for sale among the work-people of the numerous mills
and factories, and wherever an open door was found. Unexampled
success attended the effort; willing purchasers presented them
selves in every direction ; while at Manchester donations and in
creased subscriptions were promptly offered, more than sufficient
to allay the apprehension of injury to the general funds of the
society. From the Manchester depository, 96,711 copies of the Scrip
tures were issued in twelve months, — a number equal to the dis-

BIBLE DISTRIBUTION IN ENGLAND 441

tribution of the preceding twelve years ! The auxiliaries at Liver
pool, Bristol, Bath, Hereford, Derby, Leicester, and other places,
greatly increased their distributions. The total issues of 1846
amounted to the unprecedented number of 1,441,651 copies, and
those of 1847 were no fewer than 1,419,283 !

From this time the Song of the Jubilee may be said to have
begun. Nearly three millions of copies issued in two years, —
forwarded by the most rapid conveyances, such as our fathers
never dreamed of, to every quarter of the globe, — a bright point
in the world's moral history, to which the Christian's eye could
turn, from all the vexatious dissensions of party, and especially
from the designs carrying on, on the part of Rome, to effect the
restoration of Britain to that see. " The pope has put his foot
into England, but all the nations look to England and her Bible."
And nowhere has there been a wider delivery of the volume of
inspiration than within our own borders. Among the poor and
the rich, in our rural districts, as well as in our towns and cities,
in the palace, the school-room, and the cottage, the Bible is a
book possessed — by many, very many a book beloved. It can
everywhere in England be the Book appealed to. Let the war
of principles rise to whatever height it may, the friends of the
Bible need not yield to fear.
In the retrospect of forty years, the Parent committee took a
wide range, and made it a season of "solemn remembrance." In
that forty years, more copies of the written voice of God had gone
forth upon the earth than in any equal period since the world
began — perhaps more than in all former periods added togethei.
It must be presumed that He who " ordereth all things after the
counsel of his own will," has had ssme special, some extra
ordinary, design in the fresh movement which he has permitted
to take place.
When the Bible Society took its rise, controversy between
Christians was very much at rest. Christianity had only to
struggle with infidelity as its common fpe ; but now questions and

442 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

claims that had slept for age3 are re-agitated, and symptoms
spreading far and wide around us mark the gathering storm.
Meantime the Book, which must be the only unfailing' standard
of appeal, is no longer hidden among the wise and the mighty. It
is now in the hands of innumerable people, — an end accomplished
by Bible Societies, possibly in preparation for this very hour.
"To the law and to the testimony," each for ourselves; and, as
Wiclif said, "The truth shall prevail."
The Song of Jubilee is almost overpowering, as ascending in
many tongues from all regions of the world. It is impossible to
convey, in the last chapter of this little work, any fair impression
of the spirit that pervades ithese "Reports" bf the -circulation of
the Book of truth for the last ten years. One of them, if read
and thought upon, would' seem enough to kindlea kindred flame
of zeal and love in the hearts of a thousand fresh labourers. Well
may the agents rejoice in •their work, think it the best work in
the world, and neyer weary of it, till they wear out in it ! Well
may the hearts ofthe colporteurs burn within them, as their poor
dwellings are crowded until midnight by persons asking for the
Scriptures, from the lively boy to ther decrepit old man* — or aa
they obtain access to " wild and savage households," and gather
out of them, by the word of God, the "brands from the burning"
— or when asked, "What sort of postmen are you, now, with
that sac on your backs?" they reply, "We are higher postmen
than any other kind of postmen on earth : we carry letters from
heaven. When we go out, we cannot go without our God going
with us. We want courage and wisdom from above, and especially
an humble meekness ; for the fiery and angry zeal of Peter cuts
off, but the Spirit of God in us builds up : then we confound the
mockers, and shut the mouths of gainsayers, and the heart of the
humble is refreshed." Let us every day pray for these col
porteurs, all over the world, for they are doing the great work
of the age, as well as those who are directing them.
There are colporteurs at home' as well as abroad. A colporteur
* Report, 1845, p. xlix.

COLPORTAGE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 443

has gone forth from Lutterworth, the scene of Wiclif's own la
bours, and 474 years after the death of him who first gave the
Bible to England, and has sold in the course of five years, within
a circuit of ten miles, 4500 Bibles and Testaments. How would
the reformer himself have rejoiced to see this day ! The man in
question was a hawker by trade ; and a lady who desired the dis
tribution of the holy word offered him ld. for every Bible, and
id. for every Testament, he might sell in his accustomed rounds.
In the first year, beginning August 5, 1847, he sold 242 Bibles,
364 Testaments; in that beginning 1848, 116 Bibles, 211 Testa
ments; in the third year, 121 Bibles, 200 Testaments. In his
fourth year he came under the inspection of the Bible Association
at Lutterworth. From that time, in addition to selling in his
regular rounds, he gave one whole day every fortnight to the
sale of the Scriptures alone, at the average pay of 2s. 6^. He
went into every house, and sold to those he met along the road.
In the year ending August 1852, he sold 384 Bibles, 626 Testa-
ments; and in 1853, 471 Bibles, 851 Testaments. He walked
on an averagej on these especial days, eighteen miles; he carried
perhaps 70 books : on one occasion he carried 104, and sold every
copy! Now, can there not be found some suitable person to colport in
this way in every town and village in Great Britain ? The com
mittee of the British and Foreign Bible Society have " resolved
to adopt, as far as possible, an extensive and efficient system of
colportage throughout Great Britain in this year of Jubilee."
They will, during this year, and from the " special fund" which
this year will be raised in addition to their ordinary income, be
able to appropriate grants of help to such committees as shall
request their aid, in order to the appointment and inspection of
such colporteurs, to carry the word of God, and that alone, not
into districts already canvassed and under the care of Bible col
lectors, but into those stray hamlets and isolated spots, as well as
into all unvisited neighbourhoods, where the treasure has not
before been offered. In this Jubilee Year, as far as the Bible

444 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

Society can accomplish it, an attempt should be made to convey
the written word of God to every cottage in England, Scotland,'
and Wales, — we trust, not excepting Ireland.
Now, who will not wish to aid in this glorious work, by con
tribution or effort ?
The Rev. P. B. Clifford, of St. Matthew's, Bristol, has lately
communicated a circumstance which has caused him peculiar
pleasure, that several boys of his congregation have voluntarily
come forward without his suggestion, and dedicated the money
which they had saved for purchasing fireworks on the Fifth of
November, to the blessed work of sending the word of God to
China. And from one school alone he has had the gratification
of receiving five guineas for this holy enterprise, which otherwise
would have been expended in fireworks. Even children, whose
parents are connected with Bible Associations, can be little col
porteurs with their bag or basket, and sell around their own
homes many a Bible or Testament. They are better sold than
given, as more likely to be valued. There are Testaments for
fourpence, and Bibles for tenpence; with every variety of supe
rior price. Their elders can seek or set to work a colporteur, — a
man of -piety, and of bodily strength to carry his load, and walk
sufficient distances, — who should render regular reports of his
sales to responsible persons connected with the society, who will
provide his stock and inspect his accounts.
Oh! that when the world-wide Jubilee-meetings shall have
been held, and when this system of colportage has been fully
established all over the country, the arrangement of which is now
in progress, those meetings and those domiciliary visits may be
the means of calling forth, from a thousand hidden sources, per
sons who do not even know at this moment how they could "work
together with God," in the distribution of his word, but in whose
hearts he has planted the wish to do so ! Oh ! that many may
come forward as contributors, each in their degree, from a penny
to a thousand pounds, offered "as unto the Lord," or as col
lectors, determined every week to devote a portion of their time
tc this noble object, and to make it henceforth the thought of

BLESSEDNESS OP BIBLE DISTRIBUTION. 445

their lives how they shall assist and induce others to assist in
spreading the word of God ! Out of this number also may come
missionaries to carry the word within the now unfolding doors of
China and of India. Many would find health and happiness even
for themselves in pursuing such an object.
There is a true tale told of a lady, who was always ill and lying
on the sofa, till a Bible Association was established in her neigh
bourhood, of which she became an active and happy member, and
had no more ill-health. And well might this effect be produced
on the physical frame, for the soul had set before it a great ob
ject. She entered upon a new world of sympathy with all who
love God's word upon earth. She was refreshed by the glad gifts
of the free penny to the cause of God. At many a cottage door
she heard it said, " Yes, I will give it, because my mother gave
it for me when I was a child." " It is but a penny : but I am
sure I am glad to give the Bible to others ; I shall not miss it."
No ! they not only do not miss it, but the blessing of Him who
seeth all things is found to rest on all they have. If the selfish
occupants of many a larger mansion, who repulse the modest
Bible collector with pleas of " previous engagement," " having
nothing for charity," and sometimes the more rational one of
" knowing nothing at all about it," could have paid with her
these visits to these cottages, they would have changed their
minds, and become helpers also in the work.
An occasional paper, issued by the Bible colportage committee
for the Manchester district, full of interesting facts, shows what
may be expected when this system is judiciously conducted. The
anecdotes cannot be quoted, but one sentence is important : " The
efforts made to distribute the Scriptures among Romanists (of
whom they seem to have found large numbers) are likely to
issue in much good." Six colporteurs have been employed : the
total number of calls they have made is 215,916 ; the total num
ber of Bibles and Testaments sold, 59,247 ; the sum realized by
the sales, 2000?. lis. 2£c?. The secretary of the Ladies' Bible
Association in one of the largest towns says : " The sales effected
by the ladies have not been at all interfered with by the labours
38

446 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

ofthe colporteur; for the 4000 Bibles and Testaments which he
has sold have been among those to whom the ladies had no means
of access, and whom they felt most anxious should be supplied:
They believe that not more than one-third of the work that might
be accomplished by a colporteur in this populous town has yet
been done." IRELAND. , ¦
We must also notice our sister isle, in which at the present
time there are about 500 auxiliaries, in direct connection with
the Hibernian Bible Society at Dublin, all of which are more or
less engaged in sending forth the precious word of life. During
the last few years, the annual distribution of "the Scriptures has
exceeded 100,000 copies, making a total of 2,138,437. This
however, is independent of the large grants made directly 'from
theJParent Society to the various societies labouring for the bene
fit of Ireland, amounting last year alone to upward of 33,000
copies, and making a total of 1,650,000 granted to that portion
of the British empire. Colportage has been carried on in Ireland
over more than thirty of its counties ; and by this instrumentality
about 150,000 copies have been distributed in seven years.
We cannot but view the remarkable movement taking place
among the Roman Catholic population in the west of Ireland as
the result of this distribution. Notice of this change has for
some time past appeared in the Reports of the Parent Society : in
that of 1850 is the following : —
" It has been very gratifying to the committee to hear of the'
religious movement that is going on in different parts of Ireland/
produced, they are assured, by the reading of the Scriptures,
especially in the Irish language. A strong desire has even been
expi-ssseri among the people for the Irish Scriptures with margi
nal references, and intelligence like the following continually
reaches us : Roman Catholic farmers and peasants petition for in
struction in the Irish Bible, and assert their ' inalienable right to
read it.' The setting sun witnesses young men and maidens, old
men and children, leaving their homes under cover of the shades

RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT IN IRELAND. 447

»f evening, to steal to the lonely cabin on the mountain side, to
'search the Scriptures' by the- light ofthe bog-wood splinter!
Daring and ferocious riband-men, bent on deeds of blood, and
mad against the Protestant faith, meet with the ' strange Book/
and read it, and become clothed and in their right mind, and are
found sitting at the feet of Jesus !"
From the Mayo district we have similar reports: "The word
of life in the vernacular language is obtaining entrance into the
most retired parts of the mountain-districts, and the desire to
learn to read the Scriptures is increasing everywhere. In 1851,
22,390 copies were sold in Ireland by colporteurs,"
Another cause of this change may be noticed. The Secretary
of the Sunday-school Society for Ireland says : " In the Report
for 1853, we calculate* that at least 1,200,000 scholars have
passed through the Sunday-schools during these thirty years. In
the course of that period there have been issued to the schools
three quarters of a million of Bibles and Testaments, and one
million and a quarter of portions of Scripture. These are car
ried home by the scholars to their families." Mere secular edu
cation would never have wrought these wonders in Ireland. This
religious movement has extended during these three years to
hundreds and thousands. The Earl of Roden has testified to it
in his interesting letters; and the very report of it is causing
Roman Catholics continually to read and search the Scriptures,
in order to find out what it is that has produced so extraordinary-
an effect on their old friends.
The beautiful Report for 1850 closes with these words : "Is it
not refreshing in an age like the present, when the Bible is as-'
saulted and maligned, when its authority is impugned and its in
spiration denied, — is it not refreshing to behold this despised
Book goiDg forth into every land ' with signs and wonders follow
ing' ?" Among the nearly 8000 verses of which the New Tes
tament is composed, perhaps every one has touched some heart
and roused some conscience, and confirmed the faith of some now
in glory. " We bow to the overwhelming conviction, that the

448 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth
from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof."

So much for the Jubilee-field in Great Britain itself. The so
ciety has reached the age of fifty years, — an age remarkable in
the existence of persons, communities, and institutions ! God
trains man for eternity, by making him notice various periods of
time. Man numbers his own months and years ; but God him
self instituted the two periods of Sabbaths and Jubilees. There
have been sixty-seven Jubilees since the word of God began to
be written. Almost 112 generations of men have passed from
earth since then ; but only the last and this present have^seen
that holy word " have free course and prevail." What may not
the generation now living, and the next generation, yet see!
Space fails us, though vast topics of interest are left untouched
concerning the colonies, and exemplifying the Bible as the friend
of the negro — happily no more the slave of Britain ! One of
this rescued race, while reading a copy of the Scriptures given
to him from the society, said, that those who gave him that
Bible gave him his life: he prays to God for them. "I read,"
said he, "a chapter, and then God talks to me: I shut my book,
and then I talk with God."
Nor are the colonies alone passed over. The Bible in Burmah,
and also in Greece, the classic and apostolic land, where many
thousands are coming within the influence of the Divine word in
being taught to read it, offer, with countless other inviting fields
of research, a rich reward to the exploring eye. A letter from
Athens, says, " Missionary efforts may fail, human instruments
may be withdrawn, but the word of God must have free course."
No seed cast upon the waters ever yielded so rich a harvest as
that which issues from the garners of the Bible Society : there
are many thousands here who are still famishing for the bread
of hfe.

REVIEW OP THE PAST. 449

The delegates from America informed us, with every expres
sion of Christian sympathy and regard, that there are 1400 auxi
liary societies in America scattered over the whole land, and
nearly 2800 branch societies. When the American Bible So
ciety was first formed, the districts now included by these were a
perfect wilderness, where the savage roamed unmolested. The
rapid increase of their population, their field of labour widening
from year to year, their new and beautiful Bible Society House
in New York, and their income increasing by 8500?. a year, with
their annual distribution of 779,000 volumes, all formed subjects
of admiration to the listening father-land which first made the
movement that America rejoiced to imitate.

But now, the Story of the Book must close. The facts of the
Narrative will, it is believed, make strong appeal to those who
already know and love the Bible Society; but it may possibly also
fall into the hands of some who have not hitherto been aware of
its claims.
There are hundreds of thousands of persons who are not aware
of the existence of the system of the Bible Society spreading
throughout England, as a great fact. They have never, therefore,
understood how much this cause has tended to make their country
what she is, and to keep her what she is — the land of the Sab
bath and of the Bible, sitting at peace amid the tumults of the
nations, abiding under the blessing of her God, because his word
is sent forth from her borders to all the earth.
The ways and means by which this work is done are now before
those who shall have read this book, — the facts and figures having
been collected from authentic records.
These pages contain no new speculations, — they are only a pre
sentation of the old and the true. It is hoped they will speak to
the young with the power of novelty : they, at least, are not sup
posed to have fully considered the details of the past, and they
are themselves the hope of the future. The Bible Society needs,
at this moment, fresh aids for fresh purposes ; it needs the full
38*

150 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

¦emphasis and support of the clergy of our National Church, and
-of the ministers of all other Christian churches ; it needs young
men and women of all classes, from the highest to the lowest, who
shall be devoted seriously and entirely to its noble service. Its
truest hope is in the better part of Young England.
The present age is one of fearful indifference to the truth, as
well as of open enmity to it ; and it requires the enthusiasm of
youth to strive against its lukewarmness, as well, as against its
error. To you, then, whose hearts are not yet petrified, the bloom of
whose early arddur is not yet faded by intercourse with a pleasure-
loving world ; to you who are eapable of being elevated in cha
racter by the pursuit of a sublime object, that object is here pre
sented; an object worth living for — and, if necessary, worth
dying for.
Resolve that you "will lay a stone in this pyramid ! that you will
be a fibre, striking root from this banian tree. If a Bible Asso
ciation is formed in your neighbourhood, or if one has been long
formed there, and it is in a state needing revival, resolve that you
will give it honest and hearty help f and do this in remembrance
of what will be required at your hand in that day when God shall
say, " Hast thou kept my word ? hast thou made it known to any
soul among thy perishing fellow-sinners, for my sake ?" Miserable
will be the answer if you must reply, " To no man, Lord."
England has done so much for the distribution of theBiblej
that in your day she must do vastly more ! She has raised herself
by what she has already done into the seat of high responsibility.
She cannot draw back : she must go forward. The time is come
when the members of God's Universal Church must rise above the
spirit of party, and, ascending into the higher atmosphere which
ts breathed in the Bible" Society, (for in Earl-street, it is said, they
never know the denomination to which each member belongs,)
learn to agree on two points, viz. to "hold fast the faithful word,"
and also " fo love one another," and in this temper to gird on their
armour, having in their hand " the sword of the Spirit, which is
the word of God."

MOTIVES POR RENEWED EXERTION. 451

The church of tradition has made ready for the battle : the hosts
of unbelievers are zealous for the dispersion of their errors. Satan
has even contrived a new book of falsehood, called "the book of
Mormon," whereby he is deluding thousands in this nineteenth
century of intelligence and inquiry. And how are these mixed
hosts of evil to be met ? There is no new weapon to seek, but
simply to perceive the full power of the old principle of union, to
lay hold of it, and to use it, in the name of the Lord.
When our own empire is more fully supplied with the word of
God, and more deeply pervaded by its spirit, such a light may go
forth from it as shall bear the witness to all the world. The Eng
lish language is spoken over three-quarters of the globe. Htence
our own opportunities and responsibilities as a nation ! " The
gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a
witness to all nations," and this is done by the multiplication and
prayerful distribution of copies of the Divine word, which it is
promised shall be accompanied by the teaching of the Holy Spirit.
Missionaries have prepared it in the tongues of many people,
and they are also its chief distributors in foreign climes. They
" go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, and shall doubtless come
again with rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them." Psalm
cxxvi. 6. But it is not promised that their v/ord shall convert the
nations : it is God's word that is " not to return unto him void."
The gospel is the instrument, and we need not wait till we have
provided man's note or comment upon it, however excellent : " the
seed is the word, and the field is the world."
Let any one now aware of the influence of which this institu
tion is the great centre, endeavour to realize the sad idea of a
closed Bible Society House — closed as by a Russian ukase, or an
Austrian edict — the shutters up, -and the doors fastened ! If this
were possible, what a source of light and life to the universe
would be extinguished — the correspondence of the British and
Foreign Bible Society concluded, its accounts wound up, and its
officers dismissed ! May that day never dawn on our free country !
Abiding under the shadow of England's throne, may the Bible
Society still go on to pour fresh oil into the seven-branched candle-

452 THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.

stick of the ancient churches — into the Nestorian, the Armenian,
the Coptic, the Abyssinian, the Vaudois, the British, and the Jew
ish — that in all parts of the world their light may again lighten
the darkness around them — and that they may unite to speed the
bright angel flying in the midst of heaven, " having the everlast
ing gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to
every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a
loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him ; for the hour of his
judgment is come ; and worship him that made heaven, and earth,
and the sea, and the fountains of waters ! And there followed
another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city,
because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her
fornication." Rev. xiv. 6-8.
" Very much land is yet to be possessed," vast is the magnitude
of the work which remains to be done. At the utmost possible
computation of Bibles already circulated, 700 millions of souls,
or 140 millions of families, are yet left totally destitute !
Even if England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, were adequately
provided, the kingdoms and countries of Europe are not half
supplied !
Supposing the United States of America to possess Bibles to
the same extent with ourselves, look at the native tribes, and the
vast continent of South America ! then at all Asia, and Africa,
and Oceanica ! and, impressed with a fresh sense of the wants of
the world — of the power of the Book, — and of the truth of its
Story, — let us arise and work while it is called to-day, for the
night cometh when no man can work — work together with God,
who has said, " My word shall not return unto me void ;
BUT IT SHALL ACCOMPLISH THAT WHICH I PLEASE, AND SHALL
PBOSPER IN THE THING WHERETO I SENT IT." Isa.lv. IL

INDEX.

A.
Aaron, death of, 41.
Abdallah, his conversion and martyr
dom, 324.
Abyssinian Church, 112, 296, 421.
Ada Bazar, 415.
Advent of our Lord, 87.
Africa, 241; South Africa, 391.
Agents, foreign, of Bible Society, 436.
Ages without the Bible, 18.
Alaric, king of the Goths, 105.
Aldersey, Miss, missionary to China,
373.
Aleppo, 284, 314, 414.
Ali Bey, 311.
Alphabets: Arabic, 149; Armenian,
148; Coptic, 146; Erse or Irish,
151; Ethiopic, 148; Georgian,
150; Gothic, 146; Persian, 147;
Sclavonian, 150.
Amalek, 32, 69.
America, 241, 278, 449. ¦
Amharic Testament, 297; Amharic
Bible, 190.
Anakim, the tall, 39, 47.
Anecdotes : African woman, 352 ; Aged
Hindoo, 358; Bible-bees, 256;

Bible seized by Romish priests,
401; blind French girl, 195;
Bishop Corrie, 354 ; Rev. Andrew
Brandram, 435 ; Brahminical con
tempt, 356; child and infidel,
254; filial affection, 334; gun
bought with Bible money, 257;
Highland girl, 438 ; Hindoo rajah,
356; Irish weaver, 261; Jewish
conversion, 425 ; Romish priest,
301 ; subscriber blessed, 255 ; Ta
hitians and Romish priest, 387;
Welsh girl who had no Bible, 221 ;
Welsh peasants, 222.
Anglesea or Mona, 81, 93 ; astonishing
contributions of, 437.
Antiochus Epiphanes, 74.
Apocryphal books, 73, 204 ; not bound
up with the Society's Bibles, 319 ;
their omission objected to by Ro
manists, 319.
Apollo, oracle of, concerning Christian
ity, 93.
Apostles, their martyrdom, 92.
Appeal, closing, 450.
Arabia, 27 ; land where St. Paul com
menced his ministry, 320.
Arabic, where spoken, 320; the Ian
453

454

INDEX.

guage of the Koran, 320; New
Testament, 321; printed at Cal
cutta, 321 ; new version prepared
320.
Arabs, 27, 319, 323.
Archbishop of Canterbury's sermon,
163.
Argyll's, Duke of, speech, 303.
Aristobulus of Judea, 77, 82.
Armenian Bible, 295.
Armenian Church, 110, 294, 411.
Armenians, American missions to, 295,
412; Bible venerated by, 412;
gospel-readers, 413.
Arrow-headed writing, 66.
Askew, Ann, 166. , *
Asselin, Mons., French consul in
Egypt, 190, 298.
Asser, tutor to King Alfred, 121.
Assyria, fountain restored in, 405.
Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, 119.
Augustine, Bishop of Rome, his mis
sion to England, 119.
Australia, 383.
Austria, 306, 393.
Authorised English version, 181.
Autograph Deuteronomy, 43.
Auxiliary at Reading, 248.

B.
Babylon, 71.
Bagster's Bible of Every land, 172.
Bangor-Iscoed, 119.
Banian tree, 246.
Barker, Mr. B., 313.
Beckwith, Major-General, 423.
Bede, the Venerable, 120, 258.
Belgium, 306, 400.
Bexley, Lord, 434.
Bible: perils of a Bible agent, 315;
Bible House, 138, 179; need of,

in Ireland, 231 ; price of, in Wic
lif's time, 139; distribution among
Roman Catholics, 300 ; in Russia,
308; Italian, 197; Breton, 188;
Malagassy, 197; Chinese, 198;
Swedish, Portuguese, French,
Russian, Amharic, Tahitian, Ma
lay, English Family Bibles, Dia
mond, Pearl, and Ruby Bibles,
199; unbound, 199; the Bishops
Bible, 181; Bible translations in
the 16th century, 145; Bible,
standard of appeal, 442; Bible
binding, 212; folding, 209; rol
ling, collating, sewing, recollating,
pressing, cutting, gilding, burn
ishing, sprinkling, marbling,
rounding, 211 ; Bibles never issued
by the Society unbound, 213.
Bible Society: authorised in Russia,
308; death of friends of, 332; its
origin, 217; its objects and consti
tution, 229; its principles of Union,
226 ; present free income of, 376 ;
its need of support, 450.
Bilney the martyr, 153.
Blackfriars', Church and Monastery
of, 137.
Black-pool, '440.
Blind, Bible for the, 194.
Book, the, and its circulation, become*
the guide, 98.
Books of New Testament, 89.
Borrow, Mr. G., 376.
Boughton, Lady Jane, 137.
Boulogne, matelots de, 346.
Bradby, John, 136.
Brandram, Rev. Andrew, 435.
Bran, the father of Caractacus, at*
Rome with St. Paul, 93, 114.
Britanny, 114, 115, 188.
British Church, 114, 117, 119.
British Museum, 20, 65.

INDEX.

455

Britons, Ancient, 77.
Browne, Rev. G., 335.
Buchanan, Dr., 30, 192, 240, 292, 293.
Buenos Ayres, 317.
Bullom, King of, 321.
Burckhardt, 284, 285.
Buriat Mongol missions, 311, 376.
Burning the Bible at Paul's-cross, 162,
163.

c.
Caesar, 77.
Calmuc gospel, 309.
Cambridge, search for Bibles at, 160.
Campbell, Rev. J., in South Africa, 325.
Canaanites, 47.
Canon, 46, 72; of Scripture, 72.
Captivity and return of Judah, 60
Cardinal Wolsey, 138, 162, 165.
Carey, Dr., his death, 186.
Celtic nations, 78.
Charles, Rev. T., of Bala, 217-224, 231,
232.
China, 364; tablet of Se-gnan-l'oo, 364;
Nestorian Missions in, 365 ; Chi
nese manuscript, 239, 365; Dr.
Morrison's mission to, 365 ; his
Chinese dictionary, 366; Tsae-ako,
his first convert, 366 ; Dr. Milne,
367; Leang-a-fah, first Chinese
Evangelist, his tract, 368 ; distri
bution of, and persecution, 367;
the rebellion, 368 ; Sew(-tseuen, its
leader, his writings and opinions,
369; his history, 370; vast idol,
temple in China, 370 ; lucky days
expunged from the almanac, 370 ;
vast population of, 374 ; Protestant
missionaries in, 374; scarcity of
food in, 374; Bible in China, 374.
Chinese Bible, 186, 366.

Chinese hatred of images, 370; ac
knowledge all men as brethren,
371 ; possess the fi-st twenty-seven
chapters of Genesis, 371 ; need the
New Testament, 371 ; the million
copies, 371; their Great Wall,
371 ; their simple mode of print
ing, 372; generals of the insur
gent army, 372; the Scriptures,
Society's grants for, 378 ; portions
of, distributed, and where, 378.
Christianity, early, in Scotland, 94.
Christians, Bohemian, 129.
Church of the Book, 38, 85, 98, 101,
106, 119, 300, 341.
Churches founded in consequence of
circulation of word of God, 145,
398.
Circle of doomed- countries : Nineveh,
63; Jerusalem, 67; Tyre, 68; Pe
tra, 69 ; Babylon, 71 ; Egypt, 70.
Claude of Turin, 122.
Clugni, 140.
Cobham, Lord, 137;
Cochloeus, 156.
Cockle, Mr., 378.
Coffin, the oldest, 20.
Collectors, Bible, 474.
Colonies, British, 478^
Committee-rooms in Bible House, 192;
case of Bibles in the, 193 ; Mr.
Wyld's map, 194 ; portrait of Tyn
dal, 194; other portraits, 195.
Colportage on the continent, 335; at
Manchester, 445.
Colporteur, his work, 339 ; at Radnor,
339; at Lutterworth, 471.
Colporteurs : Vaudois, 124, 144, 233 ;
in France, 336, 338 ; in the High
lands and islands of Scotland, 438 ;
in Sweden, 432; in Holland, 429;
in Belgium, 402 ; in India, 360.
Columba, 116, 117, 118.

456

INDEX.

Constantine, the Armenian, 111.
Constantine, the Emperor, 103.
Constantinople, missionaries at, 393;
Jubilee meeting at, 417.
Continent, state of, 432, 433.
Coptic Church,322, 419; Bible, 323,419.
Council, the earthquake, 131 ; of Nice,
103 ; of Toulouse, 133.
Courtenay, Archbishop, 131.
Coverdale's Bible, 180.
Crystal Palace, 193.
Cyril, the child-martyr, 99
Cyrus, 60.

D.
Dajacks of Borneo, 384.
Dalaber, Anthony, 158.
Daniel, 60; the "four beasts," 74; the
" two pictures," 73.
Dark ages, 123.
David, 51 ; David's Bible, 51.
Deluge, 19 ; Job's allusions to, 29.
Denmark, 277, 431.
Derbecq, the king of colporteurs, 337.
Diez, Baron von, 311.
Difficulty of translation, 326.
Dioclesian persecution, 100; medals
100.
Doom-rings, 81.
Douay Bible, 187.
Dress of Virgin Mary at Rome, 376.
Druidical remains, 80.
Druids, Hebrew origin of the, 78.
Dutch Bibles, scarcity of, 264; colo
nists in India, 293.

E

Ebal, 48.
Early bishops, 96.

Edward VI., 181.
Egypt, 70.
Egypt, ancient, rise of its idolatries
19, 20.
England, 247, 434.
English Bible, 152.
Erasmus, 153.
Essenes, 84.
Esther, 72.
Ethelbert's temple to Diana, 160.
Ethioptic New Testament, 298; manu
script Bible, 179.
Ewald, Rev. Mr., 424.
Exode of Israel from Egypt, 32.
Ezekiel, 59.
Ezra's ministry, 60; law redelivered
by, 61.

F.
Fable, by Mr. Dealtry, 251.
Fee-jee Isles, 390.
Felix Neff, 422.
Fireworks, money intended for, given
to send Testaments to China, 444.
First century, 89.
Foster's, Rev. John, letter to Mr.
Hughes, 334.
France, gift of Vaudois Church to, 143;
want of Scriptures in, 233-238;
Jews in, 281; no French Bible in
Paris, 305 ; present Bible circular
tion in, 397, 398.
Friars, black, white, and grey, 132.
Frontispiece, description of, 165.
Fryth, John, the martyr, 153, 159.

G.
Galitzin, Prince, speech of, 308.
Garrett, Thomas, 158.

INDEX.

467

Gausson's, Professor," opinions, 174,
192.
Geneva Bible, 181.
Gerizim, 48.
Germany, religions state of, 265 ; suc
cess of Bible Society in, 266;
present state of, 430.
Ghizeh, pyramid of, -20.
Gilly, Dr., 109, 422.
Gobat, Bishop, 190, 298.
Golden shoes and scarlet gloves, 162.
Gospel of Luke, in Gipsey language,
396.
Gospels in Buriat Mongol, 309.
Gospels, when written, 95.
Graydon, Lieutenant, 396.
Great Britain, her dominions, 243.
Greece, 316, 448.
Greek Church, 110 ; philosophers, 82 ;
Testament of Erasmus, 139.
Gurney, Mr., on the moral state of the
continent, 404.
OutzlafFs, Dr., colporteurs in China,
378.

H.
Heathen countries, 324, 352.
Hebrew, ancient, specimen of, 29 ;
manuscripts, 30 ; New Testament,
288.
Hebron or Arba, 48.
Henderson, Mr., 274, 276.
Henry VIII., 164, 165, 167, 170, 180.
Heresies, earliest, 95, 98.
Heresy, meaning ofthe word, 98.
Herod, 82.
Hieroglyphics, 22; balance-scene in,25.
Highlanders' subscription, 439.
Highland girl, her choice, 438.
History-lessons, a child's notion of,
304.

Holland, 264, 428.
Horeb, Mount, 31:
Hosea, the prophet, 62.
Hughes, Rev. Joseph, 227, 332.
Huguenots, 130, 398.

I.
Iceland, education in, 273 ; Mr. Hen
derson's visit to, 276 ; scarcity of
Bibles in, 277.
Ignatius, 96.
Ignorance, general, 121, 123.
Income of Bible Society, 438.
Indulgences, 136.
Infidel publications, 351.
Innocent III., 127.
Inquisition, 127.
Inscriptions: Egyptian, 21; Sinaitio,
34.
Inspired persons, 95.
Iona, 79, 115, 116, 118, 120, 141.
Ireland : destitution of Scriptures in,
and supply, 274, 446 ; schools in,
447.
Irish New Testament, 151; the pea
santry desire the Scriptures, 261.
Ishmael, 69.
Israel and Judah, 52.
Israelites, bondage of, 26 ; captivity of
Judah, 59 ; entrance into Canaan,
46 ; murmurings of, 41 ; seven sins
of, 38; six servitudes of, 50; ten
tribes of; 57; wanderings of, 32.
India, 352 ; its population, 353 ; the
Bible there, 354 ; Bishop Corie in,
354; Bibles translated for, 354;
Calcutta Bible Association, 355;
missionary tours, 357; American
mission, 358; Baptist mission,
186,361; Church of England mis
sion, 360 ; London mission, 358

?.')

458

INDEX.

German mission, 357; Dr. Bu
chanan, 359; anecdote of Pran
kissen Singh, 358 ; Madras Bible
Association, 359 ; new desire of
natives for Scriptures, 361 ; grant
for colportage, 361; learned na
tive convert, 362; "village of
learners" from Bengali New Tes
tament, 363 ; devil-worship, 364 ;
copies circulated since 1804, 364.

J.
Jannaens, 76.
Japan, no Bible for, 379 ; Jesuits in,
379 ; enmity to Christianity, 379.
Japanese vessel, wreck of, 380.
Javanese translation, 428.
Jebel Mousa, 37.
Jehoiakim, burial of, 59.
Jersey, destitution of Bibles in, 340 ;
letter from, 340 ; grants of Bibles
to, 340 ; Bible-collector in, 341 ;
duty of Jersey toward France,
343.
Jerusalem, destruction of, 94.
Jesuit, accusation by, 403.
Jewish converts persecuted by Jews,
289 ; rabbi at Aleppo, 284.
Job, the book of, 28.
Jews: tbeir persecutions, 280; their
numbers, 283; white and black,
294 ; ignorant of their own pro
phets, 425. \
Jobaritae, an Arab tribe, 28.
John the Baptist, 88.
Joshua, 46-49.
Josiah, 44.
Jubilee review, 337.
Jubilees and Sabbaths, 448.
Jubilee Year, 337.
Judah'i Idolatry, 68, 71.

Judas Maccabeus, 75.
Judea added to Roman empire, 78.
Judges, book of, 49.
Juvenile associations, 343; proceeds
of, 344 ; results hoped for, 345.

K.
Karaite Jews, 286.
Karnak, temple of, 21, 52, 71.
Kieffer, Professor, 305.
King Alfred, 121.
Kings of Israel, 51 ; all wicked, 63.
Knill, Rev. R., 377.
Koran, no society for distribution of,
319, 418 ; specimen of, 102.
Kurds, Scriptures among, 416.

L.
Ladies' associations, 339.
Last Supper, 91.
Law in the desert, 42; under the
judges, 50; to be copied by Le
vites, 42; giving of the, 36; to
be written by the Kings of Israel,
51.
Layard, Dr., his discoveries, 65, 313 ;
his opinions, 417.
Leander Von Ess, 303.
Leicester Abbey, 165.
Letter, encyclical, of Pope Leo XII.,
402.
Levite, 42.
Lights upon the letter, 192.
Lillingston's colporteurs, 439.
Liverpool town-mission, 439.
London, ancient, 93.
Loochoo Islands, 381; naval mission
at, 381 ; difficulties, 381 ; transla
tion of Scriptures, 382.

INDEX.

459

Lord's Prayer in all languages, 187.
Luther, 169; his own German Bible
in the British Museum, 183, 184 ;
his wish, 439 ; his work of trans
lation, 439.
Lutterworth Church, 132; colporteur,
443.
Luzerna, vows of, 129.
Lyons, early martyrs at, 97.

M.
Maccabees, 75.
Madagascar, 198.
Mohammedan countries, 319.
Mohammedanism, rise of, 102.
Mohammedans less prejudiced than
formerly, 392.
Mohamet Ramah, 185.
Malaysia, Borneo, 384.
Malta Bible Society, 322.
Manchester in 1846, 441.
Mangaia, South Seas, " the new book
of Job," 389; popery rejected in,
390.
Mankind, dispersion of, 19.
Mantchoo type forwarded to China,
379.
Manuscript library in Bible House,
188.
Manuscript Nestorian Bible, 189 ;
writers, 141; Breton Bible, 188;
Alexandrine, 108; of the Bible,
cost in the eleventh century, 126 ;
Chinese, in British Museum, 239 ;
Ethiopic Scriptures, 190.
Marinus the martyr, 99.
Martyn, Rev. Henry, his Arabic New
Testament, 320.
Martyrs, 198 ; Lollards, 137.
Mendicant friars, 731.
Methuselah, 19.

Millard, Mr. E., 430,
Miracles, age of, 32.
Missionary letters on translation, 326.
Moffat, Rev. R., 330 ; his New Testa
ment in Sechuana, 331 ; his feel
ings, 392.
Mohawk translation, 278.
Monasteries, rise of, 105 ; use of, 140.
Monastery of black-friars, 137.
Monmouth, Humphrey, 155.
More, Sir Thomas, 156.
Morrison, Dr., 240, 366, 367.
Moses, his training, 26 ; his death, 44.
Motives for renewed exertion, 452.
Mount Hor, 41.
Mycerinus, King, 20.

N.
Nantes, edict of, its revocation, 234.
Nazareth, reading of the Scriptures at,
427.
Nebo, 44.
Nebuchadnezzar, 62 ; his dream, 73.
Negro, remark of, 448.
Nero's troublesome coat, 92.
Nestorius, 109.
Nestorians, 291 ; papists among, 408 ;
Dr. Layard's sketch of, 409 ; Be-
der Khan Bey's massacre of, 410 ;
diggers at Nineveh, 410 ; Chinese
relics among, 411 ; Rev. D.
Stoddart's account of, 406.
Nestorian Church, 110, 296, 405 ; first
missionaries, 109 ; its tenets, its
liberality, 407; its manuscripts,
108 ; influence of holy Scripture
upon Nestorians, 408.
New Testament, gradual circulation of,
97 ; copy of, found in tbe posses
sion of a Patagonian chieftain, 317.
New Zealand, 390.

460

INDEX.

Nicomedia, 414, 415 ; church at, 100,
413.
Nisroch, 67.
Norway, 272, 432.
Number of Bibles at different periods,
174.
Nuremberg, Bible Society at, 238.

0.
Obelisk at Nineveh, 66.
Oberlin, 236 ; desire after the Bible in
France, 301.
Oberlin, Henry, 238.
Oddur, his translation ofthe Scriptures,
into Icelandic, 274; prayer of,
274.
Old books of stone, 21, 52, 64
Old St. Paul's cathedral, 160.
Old Testament, its writers, 30.
Ollas, Indian, 293.
Owen, Rev. John, 225, 227; his visit
to Oberlin's parish, 237 ; death of,
259.
Oxford, search for Bibles at, 159,

P.
Pagan persecutions, 92.
Pali version, 185.
Papacy, progress of, 104.
Papyrus rolls, 29.
Paris, an effort to spread the gospel
there, 305.
Patagonian chieftain, 317.
Paternoster-row, apple orchards in, 160.
Paterson, Rev. J., 274
Patrick, St., or Succat, 115
Paulicians, 111.
Paul's Cathedral, Old St, 160 ; cross,
162; crypiof, 166.

Pearce, Mr. Nathaniel, 297.
Pelagius, 114.
Penance, 136.
Pentateuch, 30.
Persecution, a blessing to Christians,
97, 160; Domitian, 94; of Jewish
converts, by Jews, 288.
Persian Testament, 184; Scripture".
189.
Petra, 69.
Pharaoh, meaning of the name, 20,
Pharisees, traditions of the, 85.
Pinkerton, Dr., 287, 312.
" Pinking the world," 345.
Polyglots, 182.
Pompey, 76.
Pratt, Rev. Josiah, 226.
Prayer of nuns, 144.
Printing, 139 ; anger of the monks at,
140 ; press, 142 ; early ages of,
199; division of labour in, 200;
machine, 204; presses at Oxford,
199 ; at Shacklewell, 199 ; hydrau
lic press, 206 ; paper, 30 ; process
in making, 207.
Prisoners in salt-fish cellar, 159.
Prophets, rolls of, 55 ; table of, 54, 56.
Protestant churches, 414; countries,
428; doctrine, 116.
Protestantism, fall of England's, 119.
Protestants, early, 109.
Protests, early, 122.
Psalm, the Bible, 51.
Psalms, Ethiopic versions of the book
of, 297.
Prussia, 267.
Pyramids, size of, 20.

R.

Rabbins, 86.
Rarotongan Scriptures, 388.

INDEX.

461

Redcliffe, Lord Stratford de, speech of,
417.
RekshertS, tomb of, 26.
Relics, first reckoned precious, 103.
Reneirius, the inquisitor, 127.
Rephaim, 47.
Rephidim, 32.
Reports, Society's, not dull books, 352.
Responsibilities of the friends of the
Bible, 350.
Revelation, meaning of, 17; at first
given to the Jewish nation only,
90 ; committed afresh to the apos
tles for all nations, 90.
Review of the past, 450.
Roman Catholic priest opposed, 301;
the priests and the Apocrypha, in
South America,, 319.
Roll, the lost, 57; the burnt, 58.
Roman dominion, 77.
Rome Pagan changed to Rome Papal,
106.
Romaunt translation, 123.
Rosetta Stone, 25.

s.

Sabat and Abdallah, 324.
Sadducees infidels, 84.
Saint Paul's cross, 162, 164.
Samaritan Jews, 57 ; Pentateuch, 57.
Samuel, the prophet, 50, 51.
Satan's two vast schemes against the
Book, 101.
Saviour, our, public ministry of, 95.
Sawtree, William, 136.
Scheiddegger, Catherine, 237.
Schepler, Maria, 237. .
Scotland, 115, 116, 232.
Scriptorium, 135.
Scriptures, five ancient versions of,

107; scattered by persecution,
94
Sonnachorlb, 66.
Septuagint translation, 73.
Serpents, fiery, 43.
Serpent-worship, 79.
Seven sins of Israel, 38.
Shacklewell, printing establishment at,
199.
Shagdur's bushel of seed-corn, 377.
Shishak, 53.
Simon the Just, 74.
Sinai, 35; eleven months at, 38.
Societies for the distribution of the
Scriptures existing before tho es
tablishment of the British and
Foreign Bible Society, 228.
Solomon, 52.
Song of the Jubilee begun, 441.
Souls, transmigration of, 20
South America, 317.
Spain possessed tho gospel in tho first
century, 93.
Spain and Portugal, 394 ; distribution
of the Scriptures in, 395.
Steinkopff, Dr., 223 ; his visit te Ger
many, in 1851, 431.
Stereotype plates, 203.
Stones of memorial, 80.
Subscriber to the Bible blessed, 255.
Superstition in South America, 319.
Swabia, communication from a Roman
Catholic clergyman in, 302.
Sweden, 270; religious state of, 271;
results of distribution in, 272.
Swedish Bible, 182.
Switzerland, 269; and North Italy,
396.
Sympathy with Bible Society, 437.
Synagogues, 83 ; rulers of, 83.
Syrian Christians, 291; at Aleppo, 294;
Old Testament, 293; Pentateuoh,
189 j vine, 39.
39*

462

INDEX.

T.
Tacitus, 93.
Tahiti, Rev. J. Williams in, 328, 385 ;
Bible prized in, 386.
Tahitians and Romish priest, conversa
tion between, 387.
Talmud, 86.
Tamil, first Indian translation, 240;
territory, 240 ; Scriptures, scarcity
of, 240.
Targums, 84
Tartary, Scriptures among Jews in,
• 426; movement among Jews in,
426.
Teachers, false, 96 ; uninspired, 96.
Teignmouth, Lord, 332 ; sentiment of,
188.
Temple at Jerusalem rebuilt under
Ezra, 60 ; taken by Pompey, 76 ;
cleansing of, 75 ; rebuilt by Herod,
82.
Tertullian, saying of, 97.
Thebes, or Theba, meaning of, 21 ; its
Scripture name, 21; Mr. Jowett
at, 323.
Thompson, Dr., extract from letter by,
318.
Toulouse, law made at, 133.
Tract a pioneer to the Bible, 348.
Tract Society, depository of, 162.
Tradition, patriarchal, 19.
Translations of the Bible, list of fifty,
made previous to 1804, 170, 171.
Translations, how obtained, 191 ; for
India, by Dr. Carey, 186 ; prepar
ing for Europe, 142.
Triads of the Druids, 81.
Tribes, the lost ten, 57.
Tonstall, Bishop, 156.
Turkey, European and Asiatic, 310,
316.

Turkish Bible, finished, 314; manu
script, by Ali Bey, 311.
Tuscany, 397.
Tyneal, William, 152, 154, 156, 164;
death of, and of Wolsey, compared,
165.
Tyre, 68.
Type, distribution of, 202; cost of, for
Diamond Bible, 203.

u.
Union among free-thinkers, 351; for
God's word's sake, 174 ; first two
principles of, in early church, 97 ;
coming back to these, 226, 451.
United Brethren, 129.
United States of America, 278,

V.
Vaudois Church, 124 298, 422.
Vaudois people, 125; knowledge of
Scripture, 126; persecutions of,
127, 128 ; sufferings, 235 ; recep
tion at Geneva, 235.
Versions of Scripture: ancient, 107;
Alexandrine, 108; before 1804,
.170, 171; Coverdale's, 180; De
Sacy*s, 143 ; Douay, 187 ; Dutch,
172 ; extant in first century, 145 ;
in sixteenth, 145; New England
Indian, 173; Malay, 173; Olive-
tan's, 143; Persian, 184; Tamil,
173; Tyndal's, 180; Welsh, 182;
Wiclif s, 180 ; Bohemian, 184;
Pali, 185.
Vigilantius, 108.
Voices from heaven, 19.

INDEX.

463

W.
Wady Mokatteb, 33.
Waldenses Bible Society, 298.
Waldo, Peter, 124
Wales, collections in, 226 ; scarcity of
Scriptures in, 220 ; circulating
schools in, 220 ; large portions of
Bible committed to memory by
Welsh children, 221.
Walsh, Sir John, 154.
Wandering of Israelites, 41; thirty-
eight years of unknown, 40.
Warehouse, Bible Society's, 196.
War in Europe, time of, 238 ; prison
ers of war. 239.

Welsh Bible, 182.
Welsh language compared with the
Breton, 189.
Wiclif, 131; his monument, 134; pul
pit, 135; version of Scriptures,
180; revenge on, 134; his Testa
ment, 180.
Williams, Rev. John, his letter on
translation, 328.
Winged bull, 65.
Wolsey's search for New Testaments,
158.
Wong-shao-yet colporteur in China,
378.
Written voioes of God, 198.

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