towers, and places himself under the Virgin, bending in the act of salutation. The Virgin Mary is made to appear disconcerted, trembles, and shows signs of deep emotion, after which the angel resumes his former position, and performs the same movement twice. All the works of this admirable machine are made of wood or brass, and remarkably well executed. The inventor designed and carried out his plan without any assistance. During the day he worked in the fields, and at nights, by the lamp-light, in a corner of his garret, he constructed this extraordinary clock.-Brussels Herald.

GOLDEN ENVELOPES.

which reveals in him very extensive knowledge in mathematics and mechanics, a wooden clock, which the inventor justly designates "The Moving Calendar." There are several dials to mark the hours, minutes, seconds, days of the week, the day of every month, the months of the year, the years and centuries, the rising and setting of the sun, the moon, &c., the whole acting with remarkable exactitude and precision. The works are encased in glass, and are so arranged that they may be inspected by the visitor, leaving no doubt on the mind as to the execution of the workmanship or regularity of the movements. About the dials and works there is a gallery about a yard in length, with cells in the centre, and a tower at each end. When the clock is about to strike, the door of one of the cells opens, and the figure of death appears, armed with a scythe, followed by a figure of our Saviour, with a whip in his hand, who drives the enemy be--much to his surprise-a note confore him, and finally thrusts him into taining a half-sovereign. Her entire another cell. At the first stroke of wages were £8 a year. She offered the clock, a little cock, perched on this as a thanksgiving tribute to God the cross of the steeple, flaps his for the blessing she had received wings, and stretches out his neck as from the schools, very modestly and if in the act of crowing. As soon as beautifully remarking that it was the clock has finished striking, the not much; "But, sir, I have wrapt different figures return to their re- it up in an earnest prayer, and with spective cells, taking care to close the many tears." Here is indeed a most door behind them. Thrice a day, at rare and beautiful envelope. Would six A.M., twelve noon, and at six P.M. that our offerings, as we lay them by means of ingenious mechanism, upon God's altar, were more generally the sound of the Angelus is heard. enclosed in such golden envelopes, The Holy Virgin leaves her cell, appears on the gallery, and withdraws to an oratory. At the same time an angel descends from one of the

We saw a touching anecdote related recently, of a poor servant girl in London, who had attended the ragged schools, and received spiritual as well as mental benefit from them; and who one evening, at the close of the school, put into the rector's hand

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an earnest prayer and many tears!" Sweet child, thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just!

Miscellaneous Papers.

MY OWN BIBLE.

THE GREAT BIBLE.

"GOD moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform,

He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

"Deep in unfathomable mines

Of never-failing skill,

He treasures up his vast designs,

And works his sovereign will."

OUR brief history of the Bible for this month will be found to constitute an illustration of, and commentary on, these fine and truthful lines. In no field we could have chosen for remark does the ever wonder-working hand of God display its power more in evolving light from darkness and good from evil than in the history of our English Bible. There we see the blackest schemes devised to mar and crush God's church, but ending in its greater glory, and the worst of men made unwitting but active instruments in advancing his great designs. "He maketh the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder thereof he will restrain."

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• The

The edition of the scriptures sent forth in 1537 was soon found inadequate to the demand for the book of God. word of the Lord was precious in those days," and many thirsted for it as for the water of life. A second supply was accordingly resolved upon, and an edition of 2,500 copies proposed. The edition so resolved upon was what has been called "The Great Bible," and is entirely distinct, from that issued before as Matthews's. It is without the notes and prologues which had given so much offence in Mathews's to certain parties; but takes this Bible as its basis for the Old Testament, and Tyndale's Testament for the New. All, however, was subjected to complete revision, and several changes made in the translation. The Psalms, in particular, BIBLE CLASS MAGAZINE.] [OCTOBER, 1851.

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differ, and are a very superior version to that of Coverdale's, adopted by " Matthews" in his edition.

Who were the actual revisers is still involved in mystery. The title-page sets forth that it was "truly translated after the veryte of the Hebrue and Greke textes, by the dylygent studye of dyuerse excellent learned men, expert in the forsayde tongues." Who these learned men were we know not, but it is probable that John Rogers, the editor of Matthews's Bible (who was at the time in England) was one, and Bishop Gardner another; the whole being done under the direction of Cranmer, who had some time before obtained permission to prepare and print a new version of the scriptures.

The revision being thus prepared, the printing of it was committed by Cromwell to Grafton and Whitchurch, and the correction of the press to Miles Coverdale. Cromwell took the charges of it, and Paris was selected as the place in which to print it, apparently from the advantage of better workmanship and paper. Henry wrote to Francis to obtain permission for the work to be carried on without molestation; and Bonner, afterwards the well-known persecutor of the Protestants, then the English ambassador at the court of France, was directed to forward, as far as possible, the good design.

There is reason to believe that Coverdale and Grafton removed to Paris about Lent, 1538, and by June 23rd, a joint letter from them to Cromwell sets forth the work as then progressing, but complains of the opposition they had met with, which had been greater than they had expected, and which, apparently, led to the negotiations with Francis for his licence for the work.

And here we should just pause for one moment to mark the wondrous working of God in the production of this book. The instruments employed are worthy notice. Cromwell, a wicked man, whose whole life and character are opposed to the principles of the sacred oracles, bears the charges, and with strange inconsistency most earnestly and zealously presses on the work; Henry the Eighth, with no true love to either the Bible or the cause with which it was associated, uses his influence with Francis the First, a bigoted and persecuting Papist; and Bonner, the hypocritical and time-serving ecclesiastic, who, in a few brief years, commits the saints to

the flames, and kindles their martyr fires with the very books he is now so forward in printing, throws his protection over it.

The time is worthy of attention. A few months before no place in France could have been found to do it. Henry and Francis were at open enmity. But for political objects they were now at peace, and to serve a purpose the licence to print was given. Just then, too, the English ambassador at Paris, Gardiner, a noted opponent, was recalled; and Bonner, strange to say, a friend to the enterprise, appointed in his place. Francis at the same time left Paris, and the coast was thus clear for the prosecution of the work for a little season.

The place was also remarkable. No two cities under heaven had shown more opposition to the printing of the scriptures than London and Paris; yet in the first this book is projected and prepared, and in the last committed to the press. The house, moreover, selected for the work was the house of a Popish printer, who had long supplied missals and liturgies to the Popish societies in England.

See how, from all these unlikely sources, and by these unlikely means, God is advancing his own great ends. And

now to return.

Under these favouring circumstances the work rapidly progressed. All concerned felt how soon all that was now favourable might be reversed, and so they worked hard and well to secure their end. Certain signs, too, of approaching danger were to be seen by the keen eyes of Grafton and Coverdale, who began to feel anxious about the types they had set up, and the sheets they had already thrown off. All, however, were restrained until the Bible was very nearly, if not quite, completed; and all that remained to be added were some notes and annotations, deemed desirable by Coverdale, and which he had begged earnestly of Cromwell to be allowed to add. To Grafton and Coverdale the danger of interruption now became daily more apparent, and so waiting for no notes, and delaying for no permission, they secretly conveyed, through Bonner, so much of the book as was already finished to Cromwell, and committed it to his safe keeping. The letter conveying this precious treasure to the minister has been preserved, and an extract from it will be desirable here. It is dated December 13th, and contains this sentence:

“Whereas my said Lord of Hereford is so good unto us as to convey this much of the Bible to your good lordship, I humbly beseech the same to be the defender and keeper thereof, to the intent that if these men proceed in their cruelties against us, and confiscate the rest, yet this at the least may be safe by the means of your lordship."

It was well they thus acted. God had held back the enemy till his own word had been completed; but this done, his end was gained. So far his book had never been set forth without some notes of man. But now he meant it to stand out in its own single beauty, and having gained that he had gained his will. The notes at the end Coverdale wished were never added; yet there, throughout the book, are the marks intended to guide to them. God then cut short their work. In four days after this letter was written an order of the Inquisition suppressed the printing of the book, and required that all the types set up and sheets thrown off should be delivered up. The greater part of the Bible, however, was beyond their reach, in England. A show of obeying the mandate was made, and some of the sheets burnt; but through the cupidity of the officer of the Inquisition that effected the seizure, “four great dry-fats" of them were sold to a haberdasher" to lap his caps in." Grafton and Coverdale hastily decamped from Paris, and came to London. The work for a little seemed stayed, but the rage of the enemy was not to prevent its execution. Persons commissioned by Cromwell soon returned to Paris, and by the large funds at their disposal succeeded in buying the printing-presses, types, and paper, and securing the French workmen, the whole of which they brought over at once to London. The greater part, too, of "the four dryfats" of printed sheets were also purchased, so that it is highly probable very little of the impression was lost.

The work now advanced with speed, and in the following April (1539) the Great Bible issued from the press-the first printed copy of the book of God, without note or comment by the hand of man. With some of the old copies a preface by Cranmer is bound up, but it belongs to a later edition, and was never part of this. The Great Bible, we repeat it, stood alone.

Two copies of the work were printed on vellum, one for the king, and one for Cromwell, both of which are still in