The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-11-10
Nolzble Gathering at N.
 Johns.
 - FOURTH COUNCIL OF
 DEPARTMENT OF SEWANEE Bishops Cergnea and Laymen of Seuih Assemble Here. nsstsr,y Asaress lat openins sss'ion psnv.rsS sy R,sht Reverend TAenas r. Caller, Bishep of Ten.esses-Dr. Correil
 raIks on Work ia orient.

The first work of the Council or the. Fourth Missionary Department or the Episcopai Church. attended by many Bishops and clergy of the church as we'll as promient laymen from the dioceses of Alabama, Atlanta sEast Carolina. Florida, Georgia Kentucky, Lexington. Mississippi North Carolina. South Carolina and Tennessee and the Missionary jurisdic- tions of Asheville and Southern Florida was greeted by an audience that pack ed St. John Church to the limit Of its capacity Tuesday evening The processional hymn ushered in the at tending Bishops and large number of the clergy who took their places on the rostrum and immediately in front making an imposing array of vestured churchnien most impress siye to those present
 The Right Reverend Thomas F. Gaiior. Bishop of Tennessee. presided over the meeting and in . brief talk introduced Bishop Beckwith of the Diocese of Alabama. who welcomed the visitors to Montgomery and Ala bana in behalf of the Alabama church. The Right Reverend W. A. Guerry, Bishop of South Carolina. was then introduced to address the audience on hts subject: What this Church has done and is doing for the Nation. His handling of the subject was masterful and comprehensive and his style. al- though simple was most effective.
 Tn speaking" said he. "of what the church has done for the Nation. | understand by the church. not only the church that have the honor to re- present on this occasion, but the Mother Church of England. from which we sprang.
 It clearly is impossible to distin- Guish between what Is native and of the soil and what Is derived from our Mother Church across the seq. The two have a common origin. They share common life and have fallen heir to common inheritance.
 II would place as our first and most distinctive coRtribution to the life of the Nation. The Open Bible. the corner stone of our cfvil and religious liber- tles and the part which the English church has played in the study and translation Of the Holy Scriptures in togthe language understanded of the people. sas1
 No one waoa 4s fatniiiar with the hietory of chrtstendom in Great Brit ian can help being impressed by this very fact. that the English Church, from the beginning. took the lead among all the churches of Western
 
 Scriptures to the people.
 As far back as the venerable Bede in Ts5 A D.. the great scholars and saints of the early British Church were unceasing in their iabors to translate the Bible into iagnage un- derstanded of the people
 Greatest Contribusion.
 Therefore. I uihesitatingly say that the greatest contribution of the church ; to the nation Is the knowledge of the Scriptures and the open Bible.
 Time would fall me to trace in de- tail the history of the English Bible. but the glory of the story may be had in part to repeat here the story of the inspired cowherd Cadmon. who sang to the ignorant common people in homely paraphrase the substance of of the noble and saintly Bede. who, with his dying breath in the cell at Yarrow, dictated to his young scribe the concluding words of his transla- ton of St Johns Gospel on tho eyen- ing of Ascension day 753 and of the great and scholarly King Alfred. who, at the time of his death. was engaged in a translation of the Psalter. and whose famous saying about the study of Holy Scripture anticipates the whole subsequent development of education in England for a thousand years. Tt Is my wish said he, that all the free- born youth of my Kingdom should em- ploy themselves on nothing else till they can read well the English Scrip fure. 2 ase'-
 "Quite naturally we come to other contributions of the Church to the national life and notable among these is the attitude of the Episcopal Church towards that great question of church unon.
 "The first definite and clearly out lined basis for church unity was put forward by the Bishops of our church in Chicago in 1888. This platform for the reunion of Christendom Is known as the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral Subsequently 1t was endorsed and made