KING PRESENTED WITH BIBLE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 103, 3 May 1911, Page 16

KING PRESENTED WITH BIBLE.

- — ■ <» The presentation of an address jand a specially-bound copy of. the Authorised Version of the Bible to the King has been a most impressive feature of the tercentenary celebrations (writes a London correspondent). Nothing could bring out the full significance oi the sceiie in the Throne-room at Buckingham Palac© better than His Majesty's own words in. reply. Having spoken of "the labours of the translators and of my ancestor, King James the First," he proceeded : — "This glorious and remarkable achievement, coming like a broad light in the. darkness, gave freely to the whole English-speaking people the right and the power to search for themselves for the truths and consolations of our faith ; and during 300 years the multiplying millions of the Englishspeaking race, spreading ever moro widely over the surface of tho globe,' have turned' in their need tojth© grand simplicity of the Authorised Version, and_ have drawn upon its inexhaustible springs of wisdom, courage, and joy. It is my confident hope, confirmed by the 1 widespread interest your movement has aroused, that my subjects may never cease to cherish their noble inheritance in the English Bible, which in a secular aspect is the first of national treasures, and is, as you truly say, in its spiritual significance the most valuable thing that this world affords." On that day, iv 1604, at Hampton Court Conference, when King James welcomed the sudden Puritan suggestion of a new translation, he certainly could not have foreseen such a 1 commemoration as this deputation embodied. The presentation Bible, a large oetayo, was covered with a binding reproducing that of James I.'s own "Meditation upon 'the Lord's Prayer" in the British Museum. It is of purple velvet, with centre-pieces, corner-pieces, and clasps of silver, engraved with ' heraldic devices aud badges. James I.'s coat-of-arms is shown on the oval centre-pieces of both 'covers of the original ; on tho front cover of the reproduction King George's coat-of anna is substituted. The corner-pieces are exact reproductions of the old pnes in larger size. Metal mounts for bindings were a very old fashion, occurring frequently on monastic bindings in leather. Henry VII. frequently used them with velvet, and Elizabeth, James 1., and Charles I. followed his example. His Majesty's reference to the supreme value of our Bible, even in it% secular aspect, suggests the question, Whom have we to thank for its wonderful rhythm and language? Largely, no doubt, the particular age in which the Authorised Version appeared, when English prose was at its most beautiful development. But, as Mr. Pollard, of the British Museum, observes in his introduction to the tercentenary fac-simile edition, the Bible's English goes directly back to Tyndale and Coverdale, of whose versions all later ones were only revisions, and perhaps we may say that the rhythm, first called into being by them, "reasserted' itself after every change, only getting strength and melody from the increasing richness of t*he language." »