The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-02-03 00:00:00

DEAN STANLEY ON THE ART OF
PRINTING.

At morning service in Westminster Abbey, on
Sunday, Dean Stanley preached a sermon on behalf of
the Westminster Abbey Pension Fund, l'he congrega-
tion was unusually large, every place in the choir and
transept being filled, and even the aisles were occupied
by those who could find no seats. The Westminster
Abbey Pension Fund has been established in comme-
moration of the fact that the art of printing was first
practised in this country within the precincts of
Westminster Abbey, and it is to isk devoted to the
relief, by way of annual pensions, Ft the aged and
necessitous daughters of printers, according to the
regulations of the Printers' Pension, Almshouse, and
Orphan Asylum Corporation.
The Dean took for his text a portion of the third
verse of the first chapter of Genesis, "Let there
be light," and from this text he preached a rust
Impressive and appropriate discourse. Describing the
words quoted as the best test of the right or wrong
nse of the Bible, and putting aside their reference
, to scientific facts, he preferred to regard them as the
exposition of great spiritual truths which might receive
, illustrations from science. They were, indeed, the
1 keynote of the whole Bible. False religions, took
. refuge not in light, but in darknesS; in secrecy and
: gloom but true religion said, let there be light,
brightness, warmth, cheerfulness, openness, and enlighten-
ment. Such was the general force of the passage of
Scripture cited but passing from generalities to particu-
lars, the preacher claimed a right to apply them to each
successive disclosure of light, either in nature or grace,
and reminding his hearers that in the centre of " the
great German" city of Strasburg there stood the statue
of Guttenberg, its most renowned citizen, and the founder
of the noble art which they were met to commemorate,
pointed to the fitness of the words which were
inscribed upon the pedestal, "Lot there be light." When
Guttenberg invented printing it seemed almost as if the
powers 4,1 creation were once again brooding over the
formless deep of the Middle Ages. Following the establish-
ment of his press at Strasborg, the treasures of Grecian
learning were scattered over Europe, a new world was dis-
covered by Columbus, and the Reformation was accom-
plished. For the diffusion of light through these three
vast expansions of the human reason a new end mighty
instrument was required ; and that instrument had been
found in the art of printing. It was a singular and most
appropriate coincidence that one of the first founders of
that art had become the subject of G nettle's magnificent
poem "Faust," and had been made the representative
of the struggle of the human intellect in its search after
Truth.

Even regarded In its purely intellectual aspect, the in-
vention of the art of printing was not unworthy of Cl
gratitude of religious men ; but to the worshippers in
Westminster Abbey the origin of the art was represented
under a softer and gentler atmosphere. William Caxton,
the venerable patriarch of English printers, set up his
press, as the title pages of his earliest books announced
'in Westminster Abbey." That was, as we must sup-
pose, within its preciuts, probably in the chapel of St.
Anne, beside the ancient Almonry. There lie worked
under the fostering care of the kindly Abbot, whose
tomb was to lie seen in the northern aisle, and
received the protection of the princely lady whose
venerable figure might still lie honoured in the
stately chapel of her royal son, the busy foundress of col-
leges, the noble patroness of learning at both oar universities
--the Lady Margaret. Ile was said to have often lingered in
Poet's Corner, and to have hung up a memorial plate above
the tomb of Chaucer. Ills remains were laid beneath the
shadow of the Abbey walls in the neighbouring church of St.
Margaret's, and the memory of the chapel in which he
worked, and of which every vestige had disappeared, was re-
tained in the singular name of " chapel " given by printers
to the meetings ef their body. The preacher discerned, and
lie invited his hearers to discern in this long continued as-
sociation of printing with that Church an illustration of the
sacred union of the life of the Church with the light of the
world, which was signified by the prima2val even of
creation.

There was no doubt another side to the question, and by
contrast it more clearly enforced the point on which he
wished to insist. In a famous French romance. an eccle-
siastic of Notre Daum, in the 15th century, was represented
as reading with astonishment the first volume printed at
Nuremberg, and looking at the towers of the cathedral,
saying, "This will kill that "—this book will kill that Church.
And no doubt to a certain extent this was true. Before
the invention of printing the expression of human
genius was concentrated upon marvellous masterpieces of
masonic art, which constituted the permanent glory of
ancient architecture. Afterwards it found vent in the count-
less forms of literature, and produced such works as
those of Shakespere and Newton. More than that, the
printed hook broke down the exclusive authority of the
clergy, who had hitherto been called the Church. It broke
down altogether the mystery of caste, the darkness of re-
ligion, and opened to mankind treasures which had hitherto
been confluent to stow. The single and costly MS. gave way
to a legion of volumes S the pulpit retired before the press,
and the clergy ceased to be the whole Church. This, however,
was a change that there was no reason to deplore —the light
that was spread was our light, width° more that others could
share in it the better ; the darkness which was dispelled was
our misery, and the further it can be driven away the
brighter and holier will the Church be." In this sense the
book might be said to have killed the Church, to have killed
in it what wanted to be killed, and to have taken from it
life which was to be reproduced in larger and grander forum
elsewhere. On the other hand, the story nd Caxton was an
illustration of the manner in which the Church gave life to
the book. The good Abbott and Lady Margaret were
examples of those noble and fearless friends of truth and
goodness who Whew that truth was served, not by suppressing
knowledge but by promotiug it, not by extinguishing but
by kindling and fostering new light, wherever it could
be found. And It was in the same spirit that Bean
ilman—who could never be mentioned within those
walls without affection slut respect acted when as
a canon of that church he inaugurated a memorial
to Caxton. These multiplied associations of the great
printer with those sacred precincts was evidence that
in England light aud life should never be kept asunder,
that science, literature, and education should always be
religions, because the true religion of England hail deter-
mined always to be educated, scientific, nod enlightened.
It was an indication how impossible it was to separate things
secular from things religious. inc moat geottler book might
become religious if read awl studied in a truthful, humble,
and religious spirit and the most religious book, even the
Bible itself, might become secular, if studied in a secular,
worldly, or sectarian spirit.
Recurring to the special subject of his discourse, the dean
explained that the Westrninter Abbey Fund was intended
for the daughters nf those who had died at their posts in the
noble art of printing and reminded those who had written
and those who had read any of the numerous works which
came .from the teeming press of our day that behind
the innumerable sheets, the vast mountains of type, and
the constant roll of machinery there stood an army of
living, unknown, unseen friends, through whose close and
attentive eye, and ever busy lingers, the light of God,
the light of the world, the light of knowledge, arid
the light of grace streamed out in countless rays to every
corner of our streets and homes. It Was for them to repay
that anxious labour, that straining, care, that wasting vigi-
lance, to see that when those who exercised it were dead
and gone, the'light of consolation, cheerfulness, and comfort
should flow into the dark preuincts of their sorrowing home-
steads. and that thus in no unworthy form there :hoard be
! repeated for these poor widows and orphans the command,
" Let there be light,"
After the sennon a collection was made on behalf
of the Printers' Pension, Almshouse, and Orphan
Asylum Corporation.