y of this book,' wrote St. John in the latter
days. All men know that the Word of God is a lamp to the feet and a
light to the path. How shall we walk without that light to guide
us?"

"The church gives us the light," spoke Hugh Fitzjames softly.

Clarke turned upon him with a brilliant smile.

"She does, she does. She provides in her services that we shall be
enlightened by that light, that we shall be instructed and fed. We
have little or nothing to complain of in that respect. But there
are others--hundreds and thousands--who cannot share our
privileges, who do not understand the words they hear when they are
able to come to public worship. What is to be done for such? Are
their needs sufficiently considered? Who feeds those sheep and
lambs who have gone astray, or who are not able to approach to the
shepherd daily to be fed?"

"Many of such could not read the Scriptures, even were they placed
in their hands," remarked Fitzjames.

"True; and many might read them with blinded eyes, and interpret
them in ignorant fashion, and so the truth might become perverted.
Those are dangers which the church has seen, and has striven
against. I will not say that the danger may not be great. Holy
things are sometimes defiled by becoming too common. But has the
peril become so great that men are forced to use such methods as
those which London is shortly to witness?"

There was a glow in Clarke's eyes which the gathering gloom could
not hide. Magdalen seemed about to speak, but Dalaber was before
her.

"They say that the Tyndale translations are full of glaring errors,
and errors which feed the heresies of the Lollards, and are
directed against the Holy Church."

"That charge is not wholly without foundation," answered Clarke at
once, who as a scholar of the Greek language was well qualified to
give an opinion on that point. "And deeply do I grieve that such
things should be, for the errors cannot all have been through
accident or ignorance, but must have been inserted with a purpose;
and I hold that no man is guiltless who dares to tamper with the
Word of God, even though he think he may be doing God service
thereby. The Holy Spirit who inspired the sacred writers may be
trusted so to direct men's hearts and spirits that they may read
aright what He has written; and it is folly and presumption to
think that man may improve upon the Word of God."

"But there are errors in all versions of the Scriptures, are there
not--