The hidden treasure

by Lucy Ellen Guernsey

So saying, the merchant undid one of his mails, and from under the rich silks and stuffs with which it was apparently filled, he drew forth a large copy of the New Testament and put it into his host's hands.

"To this book, as I said, you are freely welcome," said he. "It is the New Testament newly done into English by that learned clerk and godly man, Sir William Tyndale. I need not tell you that it is a treasure to be kept and used with caution, since many of the bishops and priests, not less than the King himself, are bitterly opposed to the reading of this translation."

"It is then a service of some danger you undertake in carrying these books about with you, Master—"

"My name is Richard Fleming, at your service, a merchant of London," said the stranger, as Thomas Sprat paused. "It is indeed a service of danger as you say. Yet it is not my own danger which at times appalls me and makes me almost ready to give up that which I have undertaken. It is the thought that these books, precious as they are, bring danger of persecution and even death to those who receive and read them. Even now, for aught I know, I may have thrust a firebrand into the thatch of your peaceful dwelling, or have, as it were, lighted a death-pile for this fair boy. When I think of these things I am ready to say: 'It is enough, Lord! Take away my life!' And yet the burden is laid upon me, yea, woe is me if I help not to spread the Gospel."

"I understand your feeling," said Thomas Sprat, as the stranger paused. "I have myself felt the same toward my young kinsman here, whom yet I have instructed so far as I was able in the words and meaning of Holy Scripture. Our blessed Lord knew it also doubtless when He said to His followers: 'they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prison, and bring you before kings and rulers, for my name's sake.' Yet I cannot but think that the boon is worth all it costs twice told. Shall we refuse to suffer for Him who died for us? Methinks you are a man to be envied, since you are permitted to spend your time and substance in thus spreading abroad the Word of God. I had thought the merchants of London too busy with their goods and merchandise, with the care of their gold, and the enjoyment of luxury in their fine houses, to care for aught else."

"It is alas! the case with too many of them," replied the stranger. "Yet are there many among them who are of my mind, and esteem the riches of God more than all the treasures of Egypt, who spend their time and their substance freely for the spread of His Word. An association has been formed among them called the Christian Brothers, of which I am a member; and we are pledged to devote ourselves and our goods to spreading a knowledge of pure Gospel truth in this land. I trust we have already sowed seed which shall spring up and bear fruit unto everlasting life, though we may not be spared to see its full fruition."

"It was a blessed hap which brought you here this day," said the old shepherd fervently. "Oh, how earnestly I have longed and prayed to see and read once more the Word of God which I knew and read in my youth. Son Jack, our prayers have been answered sooner than we hoped, though in a different way."

The Association of Christian Brothers, formed about the time of our story among the merchants of London, makes of itself a sufficient answer, if indeed an answer were needed, to those who sneer at trade and the pursuits of commerce as ignoble and unfitting the mind for great deeds. The object of these men was to disperse abroad among the people copies of the New Testament, and portions of the writings of the Reformers, as fast as they could be received from the printing-presses Antwerp and other Flemish and German cities.

For this end, the Christian Brothers and the agents travelled through the length and breadth the land, bearing their perilous yet precious commodities concealed among their goods, and disposing of them as they had opportunity. Of course the service was one of great danger. If any man were found circulating the Lutheran books, as they were called, public penance and disgrace and ruinous fines were the least he had to expect; and the flames and smoke of the stake were always in the background of the picture.

Nevertheless, those devoted men, the Christian Brothers, abated not a whit of their diligence; but availing themselves of their opportunities as merchants trading to Germany and the Low Countries, they brought over not only the New Testament in English, but other books and tracts in great numbers, which were carried throughout the whole of England, and eagerly caught up and read both by gentle and simple. Tyndale's prophecy, made years before in a dispute with a Romish priest, seemed in a fair way of being fulfilled: "Ere many years are past, the very plough-boys of this land shall know more of Holy Scripture than thou dost."