The Bible in Reformation Times by A. J. S. B.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 28, 1909

The Bible in Reformation Times

By A. J. S. B.

WONDERFUL, indeed, was the transformation that came over the working people of France during the Reformation as a result of the distribution of “copies of the Gospels” and of the entire Bible among them. In his well-authenticated “Historical Studies” (Harper & Brothers, N. Y.), Eugene Lawrence says: “Swiftly there spread over the manufacturing towns of France a reign of saintly purity. Men once more shrank from vice and clung to virtue. The gross habits of the Middle Ages were thrown aside; the taverns and theaters were deserted, the morris-dancers and jongleurs no longer amused; the rude dissipation of the peasantry . . . awakened only disgust; but in every village, prayer-meetings were held, and the Bible was studied by throngs of eager students, who, for the first time, were now enabled to listen to the voice of inspiration. . . .

“No profane word was any longer uttered, no ribaldry nor coarse jests were heard. Drunkenness and disorder disappeared; vice hid in the monastery or the cloister. In every factory the Gospels were read as a message from above, and the voice of prayer and thanksgiving mingled with the clamor of the shuttle and the clash of the anvil. The rude and boisterous artisans were converted into refined and gentle believers, ever seeking for the pure and the true; and the sudden impulse toward a higher life, . . . awakened by the teachings of Farel and Lefevre, stirred, like an electric shock, every portion of diseased and decaying France. . . . Men trusted the word of a Huguenot when the oath of the Catholic noble awakened only distrust. They brought honesty into commerce, and the domestic virtues into every home. They softened their enemies by a tolerant patience; they strove to convert rather than to destroy; their brilliant leaders, adorned by rare talents and eminent virtues, attracted the admiration of the age.”—Pages 250, 252.

Such have been the beneficial effects of the circulation of God’s Word in all ages among all peoples. Its uplifting teachings have developed “the salt of the earth” in every land.

A. J. S. B.