ENGLISH HISTORY

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 143, 20 June 1938, Page 11

ENGLISH HISTORY

BIBLE'S INFLUENCE

A ROYAL EDICT

EFFECT THROUGH THE YEARS

In Wellington yesterday, as in the rest of the British Empire, the four hundredth anniversary of the edict of King Henry VIII, ordering a copy of the Bible to be set up in every parish church in his Kingdom, was celebrated in all the Protestant Churches.

At St. Peter's Anglican Church the vicar-general of the Diocese of Wellington (the Ven. Archdeacon Bullock) conducted the services. In the morning he traced the history of the Bible and in the evening dealt with its value as literature. Mr. Colin Smythe read passages to illustrate the beauty of the Tudor and Jacobean English, when allied with its spiritual meaning. The anthem "Send Out Thy Light" was sung by the choir.

. It was William Tyndale who, by his translation secretly printed and distributed, whetted the appetite of the people and caused the demand for an English Bible to become irresistible, said Archdeacon Bullock. Tyndale was martyred by imperial authority in 1536, yet, only two years later, that [same authority ordered the Bible to be publicly read, and the Bible which was placed in the churches was for the most part Tyndale's own translation, revised by his disciple, Coverdalc. The world had probably never witnessed so quick and complete a reversal of human judgment.

"The Bible is the great charter of English liberty and has inspired all the great social reforms and movements for the last 400 years," said Canon D. J. Davies, speaking on "The Story of the English Bible" at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul's. EFFECTS ON BRITISH NATION. The Bible had woven itself into all that was noblest and best in English history, said the Rev. J. R. Blanchard, at St. John's Presbyterian Church. Through it had operated a power which showed itself in personal reformation and social betterment. Such effects proved it to be the Word of God. "Four hundred years ago," said Mr. Blanchard, "it saved our nation from the extravagancies of the Renaissance movement. So today, it is only the open Bible that can save us, with its overpowering awareness of the living God, whose service alone is perfect freedom." Through lack of obedience to the truth which it contained, the nations of the world threatened to be like a fleet of rudderless ships, blindly dashing one another to pieces."

Speaking at St. James's Presbyterian Church, the Rev. A. G. Gardiner said that the Bible was the book of the people. He mentioned its place in the personal lives of representative men and women, including the late King George V and the Rt. Hon W. E. Gladstone, and also its power to minister to the varied moods of people of all degrees. Its full power, however, could be known only by those who ''hid it in their hearts."

PRESERVER OF SPEECH. It would be difficult to over-estimate the influence of the Bible in preserving a common speech, said the Rev. J. H. Haslam, at the Brooklyn Methodist Church. He quoted Dean Swift's remark that "if it were not for the Bible and the Common Prayer Book in the common tongue we should not be able to understand one another." Mr. Haslam dealt with the influence of the Bible on the life, character, and literature of the people. • The story of how the Bible came to be placed in the churches was told by the Rev. Percy Paris at the Wesley Methodist Church in the morning. Ancient copies of the Scriptures were on view. Members of the Student Christian Movement assisted at the evening service, when Mr. Paris spoke on "The Written Word and the Incarnate Word." Special hymns were sung, including the anthem "The Lord is My Strength." WORLD'S GREATEST BOOK. "The Greatest Book in the World" was the subject of the Rev. Arthur Muriel's sermon at the Cambridge Terrace Congregational Church, where Scriptures in several different languafes were exhibited. The Bible, he said, was the greatest book for three reasons: its circulation and distribution (25,000,000 copies a year); its wide appeal (it had been translated into 1000 different languages); its message (it solved with greater satisfaction than any other book the problems that perplexed mankind). In the morning the Rev. John Gilkison spoke on the text 'Thy Word is a Lamp unto My Feet."

The Bible, properly speaking, was a library of books on a great variety of subjects, including history, poetry, theology, and law, said the Rev. H. W. Newell, speaking at The Terrace Congregational Church. The Church, however, had been right in speaking of it as one book, because it was bound together by one main subject—God's coming to redeem ifnankind. The Bible was the word of God to man ,but it could be heard only by those who had an expectant and waiting heart.

SPADE REVEALS ITS TRUTH. "The Bible has been described by its critics as an unreliable collection of myths and legends," said the Rev. J. A. Clifford at the Karori Baptist Church. "Today, however, the very stones cry 'out against that criticism. All over the Near East the spade of the archaeologist is revealing inscrip-

tions confirming in amazing' detail the Bible's story. The Bible is reliable; it is authoritative; it is God's message to man; we reject it at our peril." "The Bible is the great spiritual and literary heritage of our race, installing those principles of liberty, justice, and righteousness which have left their mark on national character," said the Rev. L. j. Boulton Smith at the Vivian Street Baptist Church. As early as 530 a monk, Cademon, had made poetical paraphrases of parts of the Bible in Anglo-Saxon; subsequent translations had been made from the vulgate Latin, but it was not until Tyndale that a translation had been made into English from the original! Hebrew and Greek.

Tonight a combined rally will be held in the Cambridge Terrace Congregational Church under the auspices of the Wellington Sunday School Union and the British and Foreign Bible Society.