people, the Jews, the English-speaking population has become the most widely diffused of any branch of the family of man ; and for years past this one kingdom has been in the act of colonizing America, Africa, and Asia, nay, and Australia, or New Holland, New Zealand, and the bosom of the Pacific. A vast improvement also has taken place, in the character of this emigration, rising, as it now does, to the more reputable classes, and the higher ranks in British society, including many a benevolent, humane, and Christian mind. Safely may we anticipate that, at no distant day, "the wilderness and the solitary place will be glad for them;" but so far as the Scriptures in our own English are concerned, we have not to wait for an event, which has already taken place.

Emigration from one's native land, in almost every aspect, is a subject which, it is granted, must awaken sombre feeling, whether in those who depart never to return, or in those who remain behind; yet in rising above our " Native nook of Earth," held so dear, there is one point of view, perhaps only one, which can soothe the mind into perfect acquiescence. "Not one hour of the twenty-four," it has been remarked, “not one round of the minute hand of the dial is allowed to pass, in which, on some portion of the surface of the globe, the air is not filled with accents that are ours. They are heard in the ordinary transactions of life; or in the administration of law; in the deliberations of the senate-house, or council-chamber; in the offices of private devotion, or in the public observance of the rites and duties of a common faith."* Has such a reflection cheered on, in his toilsome path, the patient lexicographer? How much more deeply ought every one, who speaks this far-spread language, to be moved, when, in our day, he casts his eye over the Sacred Volume. Adieus and farewells at last die away in the contemplation of this great movement. The Divine band becomes apparent, not merely in guiding so many thousands safely across the deep, and to the ends of the earth, but in the numbers who carry with them the Sacred Volume, in a language common to them all.

Το many, no doubt, it might seem too bold, were we at once to affirm that the English Bible is at present in the act of being perused from the rising to the setting sun. The assertion

might appear little else than a figure of speech, or an event to be anticipated; and yet this is no more than the half of the truth. The fact, the singular and unprecedented fact, demands deliberate reflection from every British Christian, whether at home or abroad. His Bible, at this moment, is the only version in existence on which the sun never sets. We know full well that it is actually in use on the banks of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence, as well as at Sidney, Port Philip, and Hobart Town; but before his evening rays have left the spires of Quebec or Montreal, his morning beams have already shone for hours upon the shores of Australia and New Zealand. And if it be reading by so many of our language in Canada, while the sun is sinking on Lake Ontario; in the eastern world, where he has risen in his glory on the banks of the Ganges, to the self-same Sacred Volume, many, who are no less our countrymen, have already turned. Yet are all these but as branches from one parent stock, under whose shade this version, corrected and recorrected, has been reading by myriads for three hundred years.

People talk of sublime spectacles, but what favour conferred upon any other nation is once to be compared to this? To an enlightened English mind, no consideration as to this earth can rise above it. Here, unquestionably, is the most elevated point of view in which Britain can be viewed-the only true summit of her greatness. How extraordinary that it has never been distinctly, and with leisure, contemplated, nor with due regard to its national importance! Have we been so engrossed by the local, or limited and inferior distinctions among ourselves, as to slight the grand one? What, in ancient times was the pre-eminence of the Jews? Did it not consist in this, that to them were entrusted the oracles of God? But were these ever committed to them as they have been to us? Jehovah had not so dealt with any nation; but had he dealt with even that nation, as he hath done with this? If Divine Revelation be regarded, in its proper light, as the voice of God, to what people in existence has he ever spoken so long, so uninterruptedly, and now, above all others, so extensively? It was said of old, that "the mighty God, even Jehovah, hath spoken, and called the earth, from the rising of the sun, to his going down ;" and is it nothing, that in our language, by way of eminence, this should have been first so singularly and lite

rally verified? Such, at all events, is the present high and momentous position of Britain and her sons.

If, from this moral elevation, we could once look down to the valley below, and, guided only by impartial history, observe the singular path by which the nation has been led up to such an eminence, we should better understand what, and how much, is involved in the history of Divine Revelation in our native tongue; to say nothing of many reflections which could never before have occurred to any mind. The following pages form an attempt to furnish the reader with such a history, from the first sheets thrown off at the press, down to the millions now dispersed and in use, whether at home or abroad.

But, even here, and before we descend-before we begin, where the Almighty, in a manner so peculiar, began with this nation-if, from this summit, we now look round, is there any parallel case to be discerned?-any nation upon ground so high? No, not one, nor by many degrees: not even Germany, with all her Bibles. Yet is there nothing on which the eye may and should rest, in the way of comparative contrast? Assuredly there is, for there is one other European language upon which the sun also necer sets. It is the Spanish, and the contrast may be soon expressed. The Bible in Spain ! The Bible in Britain! Two languages on which the sun shines with no intermission, yet, in point of supply, are they wide as the poles asunder! What a contrast is presented here, whether we look to Spain herself, or to her offspring in those colonies once all her own! In the history of Europe at this moment, no two facts of similar magnitude can be placed in opposition before the human mind. One is almost reminded of the sun, in comparison with a star of the smallest magnitude. Let the contrast, the indescribable contrast, at once humble and inspirit a people whom God has so distinguished.

To all those, therefore, who regard the Scriptures, printed in our native tongue, to be infinitely the highest boon ever bestowed on Britain; or to the English Christian, whether he be at home or abroad-in Britain, Ireland, or America-in India, China, Australia, or New Zealand—the providential origin of that Sacred Volume to which he daily turns his eye, cannot be a subject void of interest. Its progress to completion he will find to have involved a struggle, with which there is no other to be compared-its history since, one that bears directly and

with great power on the present day; and, once aware of circumstances, when he himself sits down to the perusal of the sacred page, whether in the temperate, the torrid, or the frigid zone, he will be better able to regard the favour, as one of the innumerable happy consequences of its original triumph over all the enmity and rage displayed of old, and the barriers which were raised in vain, against its reception into his native country or fatherland.

With respect to the commencement of the following history, the first half of the sixteenth century, embracing one of the most eventful periods in the annals of Europe, is familiarly known to have produced, in this country, a number of conspicuous characters, and the lives of almost every one of them, have been given to the world again and again. One, however, -and, in the proper sense of the term, as it regards his influence on posterity-by far the most eminent, has been hitherto all but overlooked. Often confounded or linked with other men of very inferior consequence, there has been no reader of English history who could possibly estimate the amount of his obligations, to the modest and immortal William Tyndale. Independently of his ability as one of the most powerful writers of the age, when his name is connected with the Sacred Volume, which he first translated from the original text into English, which he first put to press, and then sent into his native land, we have no other man to be compared with him at the time; and when to this is added, his unspotted personal christianity, his uncompromising spirit, and genuine patriotism, it is altogether unaccountable that every incident in his valuable life has not been gleaned, and arranged into a distinct memoir, long before the present day. Such a work, including his noble convert and young companion, John Fryth, ought to have been a household book for many generations back.

But in neglecting Tyndale personally, an object infinitely above him has been neglected. In the course of her varied and singular history, there is no favour, we must repeat, bestowed upon Britain, that is ever to be compared with the Bible in her vulgar or vernacular tongue; to say nothing of this being now her most distinguished and distinguishable feature. But for its free and unfettered perusal, the eminence to which she has attained among the European nations, or confessedly above them, had never been reached. Her rise and progress, in all

that is worthy of possession, can never be separated from this heavenly gift or deposit. Yet, if this be granted, and the best of her sons with one voice will do so, then, in the introduction, or first importation of the Sacred Scriptures in type, at such a period, and by such means, there must have been certain paths, certain footsteps, in divine Providence, corresponding to the greatness of the boon bestowed. In other words, though the cause itself, in the morning of its origin, might seem only like "smoking flax or a bruised reed," one might expect to witness even national affairs, or the Crown itself, and the movements of Government, treated, in many instances, as altogether subordinate. As far, then, as men in power and place were concerned, the reader must now be left to judge whether he does not observe the cause, emphatically in its commencement, and upon all necessary occasions ever after, like the star in Joseph's dream, to which" the sun and the moon, and the eleven stars, made obeisance." These, and other singular occurrences, it is true, ought to have been marked and recorded long before three centuries had passed away; but though they have required to be sought out in the pages of original manuscript, and of rare books, and to be traced with scrupulous caution, they are not the less worthy of observation now, and more especially in the existing state of our country. Perhaps some unknown benefit may be involved in so many important incidents having been left for disclosure to the present hour.

The Scriptures in English manuscript, the revival of Letters, as well as the Invention of Printing, preceded, by many years, any application of that noble art to our English version. But the entire period may be, or rather ought to be, regarded as containing a series of events, preliminary to that memorable occurrence, and, therefore, though but slightly sketched, they require to be noticed in the light of a deliberate, yet appropriate introduction. This, accordingly, has been attempted, as due to the history following.

It is, however, the English Scriptures in print, and their first introduction, especially into England and Scotland, with their subsequent introduction to North America, which are about to claim particular attention; and as the path has never been trodden before, some explanation becomes necessary, with regard to the sources whence materials have been derived. Having looked into the histories already named, as well as