OF all the favors we enjoy in our land, liberty is the noblest; and the crown of our liberty is our freedom to read the Scriptures in our mother tongue —nor to read them only, but to obey them to the best of our ability. While we enjoy our liberty, and thank God for it, never let us forget that our forefathers won it for us, and that they won it by slow degrees, and by the protracted struggles of many generations. In the great conflict of some three hundred and fifty years ago, which ended in the ascendancy of the Reformation, a very strong political element was mixed up with questions of religion, and to this may be largely attributed the cruelty of the sword, to which first one party and then another resorted. Underlying the political movements two forces were at work: the spirit which determined that England should have the Word of God, and the spirit, equally determined, which sought to keep the light out of the land. Between these conflicting spirits there never was, and never will be, unity. They will war for the mastery so long as this world continues in its present state—that is, until Christ the King shall rule in righteousness.
In the very heat of the struggle, when only nine years of age, Edward the Sixth came to the throne. His father, Henry the Eighth, had favored sometimes the religion of the Bible, and sometimes the Papal religion, excepting the power of the Pope, which clashed with his own. The monks and priests were no friends to Henry, and in order to influence the people, he commanded that they should have in the churches copies of the Holy Scriptures chained to the pillars, and he made this law even while he condemned to the fire some who sincerely believed the teaching of the Bible. Unlike his father, the young king respected the Book with constant fidelity, and thus he was on the side of the reformation of the religion of the land.
When he was still very young, while playing with some other children, the ball lodged upon a shelf out of reach. One of the boys quickly laid hold of a large Bible to make it a footstool in order to reach the ball, but Edward promptly forbade him so to use it, saying, "Stay. Do not, I beseech you... It is the Bible, and God's Word must not be treated with such indignity." This little story shows that about the young king were instructors who had trained him in reverence of the Word of God, and to those good men and women, who planted such feelings in his mind, we this day are deeply indebted, for a king, even if he be a boy king, leaves his stamp upon the nation he rules.
We have no right to expect great wisdom from a king who began his reign at nine years of age, and who lived but six years and five months after; nor should we be too exacting on his memory when we recall some of the treacheries which arose in his reign, and the sorrowful part his hand played in consenting to that treachery which brought his uncle to the scaffold—that protector of the king to whom England owed so much.
There are shameful blood-stains upon the pages of England's history in this Edward's time, though they be not so deep as those of his predecessors. It was during his brief reign that the persecutions ceased, and efforts were made by proclamation and otherwise, for the instruction of the people in godliness and Christian faith. From the "injunction" published in the first year of this reign the following instructions referring to the reading of the Bible are taken:— "Parsons, vicars, and other curates" are commanded to provide " one book of the whole Bible of the largest volume in English..."and to have" the same set up in some convenient place within the said church they have care of, where their parishioners may most commodiously resort unto, and read the same. And they shall discourage no man authorized and licensed thereunto, from the reading of any part of the Bible, either in Latin or English, but shall rather conform and exhort every person to read the same as the very lively (living) Word of God, and the special food of man's soul...”
The parsons were also ordered to " learn, and have always in a readiness, such comfortable places and sentences of Scripture as do set forth the mercy, benefits, and goodness of Almighty God towards all penitent and believing persons, that they may at all times, when necessity shall require, comfort promptly their flock with the lively (living) Word of God, which is the only stay of man's conscience.”
We give the honor for these injunctions to the young king's protector and advisers; and we can only wish that some of the "parsons, vicars, and other curates" of our own day might follow the injunction last quoted. It was circulated particularly on account of "those persons which be sick and in peril of death," and who were oftentimes in the extremity of weakness "put in despair by the craft and subtlety of the devil." Alas! instead of the "comfort" of "the living Word of God, which is the only stay of man's conscience," not infrequently a few words of prayer are now read, and poor dying persons are left without being taught to "put their full trust and confidence in" God.
During his last illness Bishop Ridley on one occasion preached before the young king, and said much on works of charity and the Obligation that lay on men of high condition to be eminent in good works. This smote Edward to the quick, and he sent for the bishop, and told him that he looked upon himself as chiefly touched by it, and desired him to instruct him as to his duty in the matter. And, as a result, in order to aid the destitute and the suffering, he founded a home for orphans, and made St. Bartholomew's, Smithfield, a hospital, thanking God for prolonging his life to effect these desirable ends. Thus from the practical hand and heart of the youthful king arose those institutions which are today England's glory, and which every Christian rejoices to see flourish so nobly in our land. Those lands in which the Bible is most freely circulated, and which are, therefore, mostly influenced by its teachings, are the lands where the orphan, the widow, and the aged, the suffering and the destitute, are most considered.
The closing moments of the young king's life were spent in short prayers and ejaculations. Amongst the last words he was heard to say are these: "Lord God, deliver me out of this miserable and wretched life, and take me among Thy chosen.... Lord, I commit my spirit to Thee... O my Lord God, bless my people, and save Thine inheritance. O Lord God, save Thy chosen people of England. O Lord God, defend this realm from Papistry and maintain Thy true religion, that I and my people may praise Thy holy Name, for Jesus Christ His sake.”
As the pangs of death came on him, he cried, "I am faint. Lord have mercy on me, and receive my spirit.”
Edward the Sixth died July the 6th, 1553, and for nearly three hundred and fifty years God has delivered our beloved England, for which he prayed, "from Papistry," and has "maintained His true religion." Let us join our prayers with that of this youthful king.