By The Editor
MY days of mourning for my dear friend Pasteur Lecoat are not ended, but I do not sorrow without hope, for we shall meet again.
When the Bible, which he had translated into the Breton language, was published in 1889, the people were waiting for it everywhere and eager for the first consignment to arrive from London.
On the morning the Bibles came, an old man was at Pasteur Lecoat’s door at 5 o’clock, with the money that he had saved to buy the Bible, a sou at a time. He said, “Why are we the last of the nations to have the Bible put into our hands?”
And wonderful has been the work that God has done.in Brittany through the reading of the Bible. The Bishop of Quimper said he would not have the accursed book in his diocese, and would try by every means in his power to keep it from the people. But he could not do so, although a society was founded called the Société Anti-Biblique.
The one duty of the members of this society was to find out who had a copy of the Bible, and to use every means in their power to get it away and destroy it.
But Pasteur Lecoat’s colporteurs carried the Bible all over the country. Many cases of conversion have taken place through the reading of the Word of God.
An aged man, who had been a sailor, read the “Big Book” as he called the Bible, and put a written notice in the window of his house with these words “Ar Bibl santel a vez lennet ama bep zul” (the Holy Bible is read here every Sunday).
Another old man who had received a copy from some friends wrote over the window of his cottage: “An aviel a vez prezeget ama bep zul” (the Gospel is preached here every Sunday).
And so the light spread over dark Brittany, in spite of priests, and Bishops, and Cardinals.
One day a priest said to a man who could not read:
“Give me this Bible to be burned.”
“Oh,” said the old man, “I have a little grandson, sir, who reads this Book to me; and I have already learned that this Book is the Word of God, and you can’t, sir, burn the Word of God, can you?”