66. Practice of the Early Christians

Why, then, may not the people of modern Italy safely read the same writings rendered into their own tongue wherein they were born?

For many centuries, while the Greek was a living and widely diffused language, the New Testament in its original form was as freely circulated and read as it could be in manuscript. And the early Latin versions were also industriously diffused among old and young in the Roman empire. We have a letter full of godly counsels, written by a bishop Theonas to Lucian, chief chamberlain to the Emperor Dioclesian before the latter had become a bitter persecutor. Theonas says,—“Let not one day go by without reading at a set time some portion of Holy Writ, and meditating thereon. Neglect not the reading of the Bible. Nothing so nourishes the heart, and enriches the mind, as the reading of the Bible.”* In a most beautiful sketch of the religious life of any pious husband and wife, Tertullian says,—“They read the Scriptures together,

* This admirable letter is to be found in D’Achery’s Spicilegium, III. 298.

they pray together, they fast together, they mutually instruct, exhort, and sustain each other."* The sermons and other treatises of Augustine abound in exhortations to his hearers of every degree, to make themselves familiar with the contents of the Sacred Writings. In one place, he urges them to this, that they may be able to give a reason of the hope that is in them to any of the inquiring or the sceptical from among the heathen who may apply to them for instruction, rather than to the ecclesiastics.† Like Chrysostom, Augustine often closed his sermon with some important question to be discussed in his next preaching, in order to excite his hearers to reflect upon the subject, to search the Scriptures in regard to it, and talk it over among themselves. As many were unable to read, the rulers of the church took care that there should be a daily reading of the Scriptures in course for their benefit. Alluding to this, Augustine says,— "Since many of you cannot read, either because you have no time, or know not how, such must not forget to gain the doctrine of salvation at least through diligent hearing."‡ In another

* In Psal. 90, Serm. II.

† Ad Cxorem, Ep. II. 8.

‡ Serm. 105. § 2.

place he says,—“The weak and the strong both drink of the same stream, and quench their thirst. The water saith not, ‘I am proper for the weak!’—thus repulsing the strong. Neither saith it,—‘Let the strong draw near; but if the weak cometh, he shall be swept away by the force of the stream.’ It flows so sure and so gentle, as to quench the thirst of the strong, without frightening the weak away.—To whom speaks the resounding Psalm? and who exclaims,—‘It is too high for me!’ What the Psalm resounds, be it even of the deepest mysteries, it so resounds, that the very children are delighted to hear, and the unlearned draw near, and pour out the full heart in the song.” Ambrose, the famous pastor of Milan, exhorted his congregation to the daily study of the Scriptures. “In such studies,” he says, “the soul is quickened by the word of God. This is the principle of life in our souls whereby they are fed and ruled. The more the word of God abounds in our souls, and is there conceived and understood, the more their life abounds; and, on the other hand, as the word of God is wanting there, so their life decays.”† Jerome also con-

• In Psal. 103, Serm. III. § 4.

† In Psal. 118, Serm. VII. § 7.

stantly stirs up his readers to diligent study of the Scriptures. Thus he commends Læta, a Roman lady, for making her daughters early conversant with them. "Instead of jewels and silks, let them the rather delight themselves in the Holy Scriptures, never having the gospels out of their hands," and "absorbing the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles with all the eagerness of the soul."* But perhaps none of the Fathers has spoken on this point so often, so fully, so earnestly, as the eloquent Chrysostom, who preached in the very language in which the New Testament was originally written. Costly as manuscripts then were, he insists that even the poorer class should possess copies of the Scriptures, as well as of the tools used in their worldly callings. He often, both in conversation and preaching, exhorted his hearers not to be content with what they heard read from the Scriptures at church, but to read them with their families at home.†

So long ago as the fourteenth century, when the

* Epia. 107.

† For references on this point, consult Chrysostom's Homilies III. and IV. de Statuis; Hom. XI. and XXIX. in Genes.; Ser. III. and IV. de Lazaro; Hom. I. and II. in Matt.; Hom. X. XI. XXX. XXXI. XXXII. and LVIII. in Joan.; Hom. XIX. in Acta.; Hom. I. ad Rom.; and IX. ad Coloss.

popish bishops in the House of Lords brought in a motion to suppress the use of the Bible, as then translated into English by Wiclif, they were stiffly opposed by "old John of Gaunt, time-honored Lancaster." This noble duke argued earnestly for the free circulation of the Scriptures. He was seconded by others who said, that "if the gospel by its being translated into English, was the occasion of men's running into error, they might know that there were more heretics to be found among the Latins, than among the people of any other language. For that the decretals reckoned no fewer than sixty-six Latin heretics; and so the gospel must not be read in Latin, which yet the opposers of its English translation allowed." The debate was closed by throwing the bill out of the house. And well might it be discarded. How much less than blasphemy is it to hold that it is dangerous that a book should be generally circulated and read, which has God for its author, and his eternal truth as its subject-matter, and which he has commanded all men to obey as the condition of their everlasting salvation?

Robert Boyle, that devout son of science, on whom first the mantle of Lord Bacon fell, has said,—"I can scarce think any pains misspent that bring me in solid evidence of that great truth, that the Scripture is the word of God, which is indeed the GRAND FUNDAMENTAL.—And I use the Scriptures, not as an arsenal to be resorted to only for arms and weapons to defend this or that party, or to defeat its enemies; but as a matchless Temple, where I delight to be, to contemplate the beauty, the symmetry, and the magnificence of the structure, and to increase my awe, and to excite my devotion to the Deity there preached and adored."