The Portland daily press., 1880-12-10
THE FIRST ENGLISH BIBLE
CELEBRATION OF THE 5ooth ANNI-
Z VERSARY OF WIN. wYCLIFFE'S
TRANSLATION.
Extracts from DR.. R. 8. Storrs's Mastery
Address upon the Occasion.

1
the auspices of the American Bible society
The principal feature of the celebration was
an oration on "John wyclffe and the first
English Bible" by the Rev. DR.. Richard s
| Suorrs.
Many prominent clergymen and distinguish.
| ed laymen were present. and the audience
crowded the academy of music. We give
some of the most striking paragraphs OF Dr.
| Storrss striking address.
| On the left bank of the Rhine, on the site OF
the ancient Roman camp, afterwards,an imps-
rial colony-which is associated in history
| with Tiberius and Germanicus, with Agrppina,
mother of Nero, and with the early fame of
| Troian-has been recently completed mag
nificent work Of religion and art, of which
more than six centuries have witnessed the
progress. After delays immensely protracted-
after such changes in society and government
in letters, arts and in prevalent forms Of re-
ligious faith. that the age which saw its SOL
| emn foundation has come to seem almost myth
| ical to us-by contributions in which separate
countries and communions have gladly united
the cathedral of Cologne has been carried to
| its superb consummation, and the last final
has been sat upon the spires which at length
fulfil the architects design.
1t is work at first sight insignifcsnt in
comparison with this which we have met
to commemorate this evening, the translation
| of the Scriptures into the common English
tongue, begun by John Wycliffe five centuries
ago, and brought to a completion in these re-
cent days by the hands of English and Ameri-
can scholars. 1t may seem that the vision
Of the majestic cathedral is too stately and
splendid to be set in front Of story so simple,
and in parts so familiar, as that which we are
here to recall. But think it will appear that
the work which we celebrate is the nobler of
the two; that from all the costly and skillful
labors now completed on the banks Of the
Rhine we arise to this-even as there one ad-
vances to the altar supreme in significance,
through the decorated doorwsys, along the
vast nave and under the rhythmic and naughty
arches! To me, at least, the voice Of God be.
comes articulate through the book; while the
building only shows us the magnificent
achievement of human beings. patience and
wealth, bringing to him their unsurpassed
tribute
1t is, however, a very plain tale which I
have to tell; and the interest of it must lie in
its substance, not in any ornament of language
or of thought. In order to tell or to hear il
aright we have to recall many things which
lie back of it, which alone can put it distinctly
before us.
PREVENTING WIDE DISTRIBUTION OF THE BIBLE.
That the governing authorities in the Chris
| tian world should have ever refused to the re-
vered Scriptures, on which the common faith
| was founded, the widest distribution in the
vorio lop ban hx,S Sho L
| ing that faith, is fact SO peculiar that we
easily ascribe it to crafty ambition, or an
arrogant self-will, and leave it as thus suf.
| ficiently explained. We forget how deeply
rooted it was in an immense system of thought
| and of government, and through what silent
organic processes 1t came to evolution into Gus
tom and rule. OF course it contradicted the
earlier usage and plan of the church. The
Hebrew and Chaldaic Scriptures had been
written in the dialects familiar to the people
among whom and for whom they were pre-
| pared, before and after the eastern captivity.
When Greek became a customary speech with
those dispersed in distant cities, the Alexan-
drian version of these Scriptures was made,
| and, as we know, in the time of the Master, il
was commonly read and reverently expounded
by the teachers of religion, as it afterward long
| continued in use with Christian converts The
| evangelists and apostles. after their Lord had
left the earth, wrote accounts of His life with
arguments of doctrine. precepts, promises and
prophetic admonitions, in the language famil-
lar to themselves and their disciples-the Wig.
orous, copious Hellenistic Greek, to which the
while the Septuagint had given it conservation.
i No. x~~ -, -. l.
tered persons, but all peoples who shared in
the general culture, and all classes Of people,
with the writings upon which their souls were
engaged. and in which they felt themselves
moved and helped of the Divine Spirit The
preference of st. Paul was shared by all; it
was his preference when debating the large
and clear characters, as well as when preach
| ing; II had rather speak five words with my
understanding, that by my voice might teach
others also, than 10000 words in an unknown
tongue" And it was by these Scriptures, in
the language which then had chief currency
| in the world, and in which the Roman law
| itself was subsequently written, that the
knowledge of Him, in whom are the light and
hope of the world, was generally dispersed
Yet, again, as subsequent need arose that
the Scriptures be put into other languages, to
meet more directly remoter peoples this was
done without opposition, with encouragement,
indeed, of church authorities. So came the
early Latin versions, for use in North Africa,
| and in Italy, in the second century. So came
| the later translation of jerome, from the orig
| inals which afterward became practically the
Bible of Western Christendom. The Syriac
| version, which before the end of the second
| century carried the Scriptures to the Euphra-
| tes, followed by others in the same tongue, the
| Thebaic and Memphitic which made them
equally at home on the Mic, the Ethiopic of
Vfh ntrxrxy A. - Al
time, made by Nephilas the Armenian of the
] fifth century, the Arabic, Persian and all the
others, to the Sclavonicof the ninth century,
reveal the same impulse of wisdom and zeal,
the word of God into contact with those to
whom the Hebrew and the Greek were not IA
| miliar. Certainly for centuries after the as
| cension, it would have seemed no less absurd
to restrain the Scriptures to Ian guages not un-
derstood by the people than it would have been
| on the crest of Olivet to have thrust veils be-
meath the cloud which received the Lord, and
| to leave the disciples uncertain Of His glory.
The latest and fercest Roman persecution un-
| der Galerius and Diocletian aimed especially
| to destroy the church by destroying its sacred
| and ife-giving books.
WHAT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ACCOMPLISHED.
Perhaps nothing else more signally shows
| the novel and alien character Of the power
which, in subsequent centuries, grew up in
| Christendom than does the tact that 1t wholly
| wrought against them of settled purpose, with
restless energy, by an instinct Of its nature.
| Undoubtedly certain needs Of the time found
in it their desired supply, and important bene-
| fits to medieval society are fairly ascribed to
| it, 1t held the tumultuous populations of El-
| rope to some degree Of civilized order, amid
| stupendous changes and strifes, the fall of the
| empire, the inroad of barbarians from wood
| and waste, the utter breaking up of the ancient
| governing order of things. When the sover-
| eighty of force threatened to become the law Of
| the planet, it serted the supremacy of the
| spiritual order over the secular in the Divine
| adjustments. 1t built monasteries for those
who sought in them seclusion and society,
with industry, study and the worship of God.
1t defended these monasteries by the sanctions
| of religion which even breasts that wore mail
and hands that held Iances had to regard 1t
preserved in their libraries the scattered re-
mains of the classical literature, as well as the
Scriptures, and by the labor Of its monks it
multiplied copies of what thus was preserved,
and transmitted them to our own time. It
built cathedrals and abbey-churches, vast po
ems in stone, which still retain the admiration
of Christendom, by their melodious and conse-
Grated beauty. 1t established universities for