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Otago Daily Times, Issue 23529, 18 June 1938, Page 9

THE FOURTH CENTENARY OF AN OPEN BOOK 1538 1938 Described by King George V . as ‘THE FIRST OF NATIONAL TREASURES’ HISTORY OF THE OPEN BIBLE M In 1537, Miles Coverdale issued a revision of the first English printed Bible and it received the King's licence. Archbishop Cranmer was anxious that the Bible should be circulated and read. By his influence and that of Thomas Cromwell, the Minister of Henry VIII., a Royal Injunction was issued in 1538 that the Bible should be set up in the Parish Churches.” —Viscount Sankey. ** The effect of the continual domestic study of the Book upon the national character, imagination and intelligence for nearly three centuries to come was greater than that of any literary movement in our annals or any religious movement since the coming of Saint Augustine. — Professor Trevelyan, “History of England.” THE PRESENT POSITION Over 1,500,000,000 Bibles have been put into circulation. The Bible is published in over 1000 different languages and is to-day the world's best seller—-do you read it? The British and Foreign Bible Society, since its formation in 1804, has issued nearly 500,000,000 Bibles and Portions, while last year 11,686,000 copies were issued in 704 languages. This represents on the average ! copy for every 3 seconds, day and night. 989 Colporteurs distributed these Scriptures to the remotest corners of the earth and last year the Society spent £372,418 on this great work. Working hand in hand with all Societies which print and distribute the Bible is the Scripture Union, which offers a guide to intelligent daily Bible reading and has attained a world-wide membership of 800,000. 1. That God Is holy. “ 1 the Lord your God am holy. M ——Ley. 19 ;2. “Be ye holy, for 1 am holy."—l Pet. 1:16. 2. ITiat God created man tor the purpose of communion with Himself. “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him.”-—Gen. 1:27. "There I will meet with thee, and i will commune with thee." Ex. 25:22. 3. That man by sin broke that communion. ("Sin ia rebellion against the holy will of God."—-Ist John 3:4.) "So He drove out the man."—Gen. 3:24. “ But your iniquities have separated between you and your God. , -—lsaiah 59:2. 4. That God being holy cannot condone and must condemn sin. "The wages of sin is death."—Rom. 6:23. “ It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." —Heb. 9:27. THE CHALLENGE OF THE FOURTH CENTENARY “ Our celebrations this year are not only of the Bible, but much more of the open Bible. Once the Bible was closed to us. It was closed mainly by the seal of a foreign language. The lesson of Pentecost was that God speaks to His children in their own language. And so the translators gave us the Bible in our mother tongue; they opened it, and opened it at great cost. All those associated with the opening of the Bible suffered. Tyndale, Cranmer, Frith, Rogers—those whose names are most intimately associated with our English Bible—• all died at the stake. Let the common people Hold fast our common possession. Therefore let us read the Book. Let us read it for ourselves. Better still, let us read it in fellowship. The most hopeful movement to-day is the growth of the Associations which enable hundreds of thousands of our people day by day to read together the same passage and to study together the same theme. Our fathers laid it open in 1538. If we have not helped to spread it, let us do so from now on.” — Rt. Hon. Isaac Foot, PC. “ Nearly all the renewals and moral reforms within Christianity have sprung from a rediscovery of Scripture.” — Canon Berry. " Praise of the Bible and a life divorced from it, are typical of the man, of whom George Herbert tells us, whose house is dirty though adore his broom. —The Bishop of Manchester. "When thou hast read what Heaven bath writ, Let thy best practice second it. Then twice the precept read shall be, First in the Book, and then, in thee /V VITAL TO YOU ! 5. That in the death of His Son, God has provided a sinless substitute, to bear the penalty of man’s sin. “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. For Ho hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. —2 Cor. 5:19 and 2 L “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree." 6. That pardon on a righteous basis is now offered to everyone. “ To declare I say at this time His righteousness that He might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. Rom. 3:26. ** Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by Him all that believe are justified from all things. —Acts. 13:38, 39. l m That those who accept Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord are brought back into communion with God that is experienced now and will be enjoyed throughout eternity. , , . , ... " That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. —Rom. 10:9. " For God so* loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have ever- , lasting life.”—John 3:16. , " Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His son, Jesus Christ."—l John 1:3. THE BIBLE’S MESSAGE

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