herfore all with feruent desyre," as the Old English of 1549
spelled the exhortation of Erasmus, "thyrste after these spirituall
sprynges.... Let vs kisse these swete wordes of Christ with a pure
affeccion. Let vs be newe transformed into them, for soche are oure
maners as oure studies be."

The Book for All Mankind

It speaks in every tongue to the human heart. Its power to transform has
been shown through all the centuries in every clime and among every
race. One of the Gospels was put into the Chiluba tongue of Central
Africa. After a time a Garenganze chief came to Dan Crawford, the
missionary, changed from the spirit of a fierce, wicked barbarian to
that of a teachable child. Explaining his conversion, the chief said: "I
was startled to find that Christ could speak Chiluba. I heard him speak
to me out of the printed page, and what he said was, 'Follow me!'"

Of the Bible's universal speech to all mankind, Dr. Henry van Dyke has
said:

"Born in the East, and clothed in Oriental form and imagery,
the Bible walks the ways of all the world with familiar feet,
and enters land after land to find its own everywhere. It has
learned to speak in hundreds of languages to the heart of man.
It comes into the palace to tell the monarch that he is the
servant of the Most High, and into the cottage to assure the
peasant that he is the son of God. Children listen to its
stories with wonder and delight, and wise men ponder them as
parables of life. It has a word of peace for the time of
peril, a word of comfort for the day of calamity, a word of
light for the hour of darkness. Its oracles are repeated in the
assembly of the people, and its counsels whispered in the ear
of the lonely. The wise and the proud tremble at its warnings,
but to the wounded and penitent it has a mother's voice....

"Its great words grow richer, as pearls do when they are worn
near the heart. No man is poor or desolate who has this
treasure for his own. When the landscape darkens and the
trembling pilgrim comes to the valley named the Shadow, he is
not afraid to enter; he takes the rod and staff of Scripture in
his hand; he says to friend and comrade, 'Good-by, we shall
meet again,' and comforted by that support, he goes toward the
lonely pass as one who climbs through darkness into
light."--_The Century Magazine._

[Illustration: RAIS