faith which they have left, they will not; and in wandering from it; they seek rest and find none. One system is changed for another, one faith for another, and yet the understanding finds no basis, and the heart no comfort. "Wicked men and seducers wax worse and worse."

We have seen that those who are neutral in religion, who are not actively the friends of Christ, are also among those who fall upon this stone. Experience teaches that such gradually withdraw more and more towards the world; and it is not long till they do positively oppose Christ. It is true, they do it not so apparently as the open enemies of Christ; but just as truly. They do it by example. Their indifference is a plain disrespect to Christ and His claims. We cannot possibly treat another with more contempt than act towards him as not worthy of any attention. The Saviour has claims; clear, authenticated, undeniable claims; and those who treat Him as entitled to no attention, will find that He is jealous of His honor. Their opposition, being less external, is more internal; being less in action, it is more in the heart's position. There lies the deep enmity, in the way of secret hatred, ill-will and disobedience.

Nor do these propensities lie undeveloped from time to time. They work in the heart progressively, and lay the foundation for a final and complete reign of opposition to Christ. They gain more and more power over the affections of the heart, render it secure in its chains, and thus they treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath. Thus while the victim of this strange delusion is flattering himself in his own eyes, his iniquity is becoming hateful in the sight of God.

What says the word of God in regard to such negative spirits? A woe is pronounced on those who are at ease in Zion. The unprofitable servant is cast into outer darkness. If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathama maranatha! God would have us cold or hot.

Thus we see how all opposition to Christ, whether positive or negative, must end in final overthow and ruin. Judgment may delay; and because it is not speedily executed, the hearts of men may be fully set in them to do evil. They may mockingly say: Where is the promise of His coming! Yet "the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour when he is not aware!" Though they slumber, "their judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." Their feet shall slide in due time, and the false light by which they walk go out in darkness for ever.

EARLY RELIGION.-"Early religion," observed the pious Dr. Doddridge, "lays the foundation of happiness both in time and in eternity."

LIFE-PICTURES FROM CHURCH HISTORY. No. 8.

GERHARD ZERBOLT.

FROM THE GERMAN OF ULLMANN.

BY L. H. S.

Many of our readers have never heard of the man, whose picture we propose to present here. He lived a very brief and unusually retired life, and, moreover, did nothing that could be considered extraordinary. Still his important services, in the development of a subject of decided value to the national interests of Christianity, makes him an eminent member of the kingdom of God, in whose peculiar constitution even the most quict activity may become mighty like the mustard seed. This subject was the diffusion and use of the Holy Scriptures in the vernacular, and the use of the vernacular in the reglious life, in which connection we may be allowed to present some more general views.

Christianity stands in a very peculiar relation towards nationality. Unlike those religions, preceding it or standing outside of its pale, it is in no manner fastened to or merged in the peculiarities of any special people, but rather boldly overleaps all barriers of this kind, being in fact the only religion which carries in its inmost nature the germs of its destiny as the creed of the entire human race. This destiny is not fulfilled by rending nationality from without, but by infusing itself into the same, purifying it and then raising it out of itself to something higher. Thus a continuous living reciprocal relation, a process of assimilation exists between Nationality and Christianity. Language is the first, immediate link connecting. both; it is the essential expression of nationality, which furnishes to the religious life the vernacular as the element in which it may move with health and vigor. For this reason every people should have the Christian doctrines, with the records which attest the the same from the remotest ages, in its own language; the whit suntide wonder of tongues should be normally continued throughout all mankind; and only by its conditional and partial realization will it be given to the people to participate in living Christianity without suffering a loss in their nationality, but rather acquire benefit therefor, since-apart from other considerations-by assimilation with Christianity the language of every people is made essentially more profound and enriched with new ingredients of the noblest kind. Add to this the fact, that the Holy Scriptures, as well as the salvation of which they give evidence, do not exist alone for scholars and theologians, but for every one, and that for that very reason the lowliest should be enabled to derive from them the

knowledge of salvation, which even at its first appearance was not so much intended for the scribes and people of high degree, but much more for those thirsting after salvation throughout the mass, even down to the poorest. As from the first point of view the necessity for the translation of the Holy Scriptures in every language is shown, so from the latter point of view the question of its being made accessible to every one is also affirmed.

And it has so happened that, from the remotest times, the whole Bible, especially the New Testament or single books of the same, from the Hebrew and Greek have been translated into the widely diffused Latin language or into distinct languages, such as Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopian, Arabic &c., and among the Germanic tribes the Gothic possessed also at a very early period (4th century) its own translation of the Bible. At a later period, similar attempts were made in both Upper and Lower Germany, and although the whole affair is somewhat clothed in mystery, so much appears to be certain, that at the period (about the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th century) when Gerhard Zerbolt lived, the whole Bible had been translated into German. But the popular use of the same was not without great and often insurmountable difficulties. The most prominent difficulty arose from the fact, that the existing translations, existing alone in written copies, could only be disseminated in small numbers, coming within the reach of but few and those the richer portion of a community. Still more formidable obstacles were those arising from the hierarchy, which looked upon the use of translations of the Bible by the laity as the most fertile source of heresy, and-although it did not go as far as to secure a general prohibition of the reading of the Bible by the people-it felt itself emboldened in the 13th century, to impose the heaviest punishments on such of the laity as were in possession of the Bible, in the vernacular, and would not give it up to the ecclesiastical authority (council of Toulouse 1229, Tarracona 1234). This was manifested even in one of the most enlightened teachers of the 15th century, Chancellor John Gerson, who belonged to the antipapal synodal opposition, but who opposed the dissemination of translations of the Bible among the people.

The most powerful destroyer of these barriers was indeed Luther, with his translation of the Bible and all that pertained to it, and after him the other Reformers did their part in making the Scriptures more accessible. The newly discovered art of printing, which even at its commencement (after the sixtieth year of the 15th century) had been employed in the multiplication of German Bibles, contributed a means, matchless in value, of aiding the work. And when at length the Bible Society, since the commencement of our century (1804), began to expand and by degrees distributed the Holy Scriptures in nearly two hundred different translations, and many millions of copies over the whole globe, even to the poorest hovels, then the cause of the dissemination of the Bible in the vernacular and throughout all classes received an impulse, which could not even indeed have been imagined before. And now find

ing ourselves, through the favor of God, on such an elevation, we should not undervalue the first weak beginnings, but so much the more respect those men, who, at the time of the first glimmer of light and amid the most difficult circumstances, labored at this subject now enlarged to a world embracing magnitude. To these men belonged in a peculiar way Gerhard Zerbolt, who labored modestly in the cause of the popular dissemination of the Bible and yet so actively as to wear himself out in the work, and of him we now desire to give a short account, basing this upon the brief biography which his friend, Thomas von Kempen, has left behind.

Gerhard Zerbolt was born in 1367, in the city of Zütphen (Holland); after first having visited other schools, he principally obtained his education at the flourishing Institution of the Brothers of the Common Lot at Deventer, where he attached himself most intimately to the venerable Superior of the House-Florentius. Here he was awakened and converted, when, as Thomas says, he exchanged the transient things of this world for the love of Christ and care for his own salvation. He attached himself to the society, and, under its influence, the inner springs of his existence acquired a more fixed direction. From early youth he was full of an ardent love of study which could never be satisfied. Now he occupied himself with other studies, after the custom of the Brothers, especially with transcribing the Bible and other Christian writings, as well as with collecting good and edifying books, and was so much appreciated in these labors, that he was soon made Librarian of the Fraternity. Gerhard Groot, the celebrated founder of the Common Lot, had been himself a great lover and collector of good books and had bequeathed his collection to the Fraternity at Deventer. After him, Florentius and Johann de Gronde had its supervision, but no one showed himself more zealous and, at the same time, more clever than Gerhard Zerbolt from the time the business was entrusted to him. A beautiful Codex pleased him especially; but he still more prized the internal value of the books. "Such books," he was in the babit of saying, "preach and teach more than we can express." He constantly employed himself in transcribing, collected manuscripts from all quarters, and guarded them in the most careful manner, whilst, at the same time, he allowed their use to every one. The more narrow minded of the Fraternity thought he devoted himself too much to this, and one of them advised Florentius only to retain the most necessary books, but to sell the rest and give the money to the poor. The clear-sighted Florentius. recognized the good intention of his advisor, but did not follow the counsel, and Gerhard Zerbolt was able to continue in his praiseworthy activity.

This activity, however, did not last long. He was so given to his work, that he only allowed brief interruptions for his devotions and his meals, and scarcely ever went to the window to enjoy the fresh air on the brightest days. "His highest delight," says Thomas, "was the Sacred Books, and, instead of a walk in the fields, he transported himself to the consecrated plains of Heaven." Hence, even

when sick, he neglected paying attention to himself, rarely noticed what he ate, and was particularly careless as to his external appearance. A fistula, from which he suffered, he bore for a long time in secret; because he did not wish that any one should trouble himself specially about him, or because he looked upon bodily pain as beneficial to the inner man. Thus his bodily strength was destroyed at an early age. As he was not inexperienced in matters of law, and in addition to a good judgment, possessed a special talent for business negotiations, missions of this kind were frequently entrusted to him by the Fraternity. A fatal disease seized him by the wayside, on one of these missions, at Windesem. His companion said to him, after the true-hearted manner of the Brothers: "It seems to me that thou art nearing death;" he answered "It seems so to me also." Soon after this, he departed this life on the eve of St. Barbara (1398), in the thirty-first year of his age, two years before his reverend master, Florentius, who bewailed his loss, with the Brothers, "as that of a pillar of the House and their right hand in matters of business." But Thomas von Kempen, who we must consider as possessed of no small powers of trying spirits, calls Gerhard Zerbolt, "a learned and pious man," who well deserved "to be named as the most distinguished among the early Brothers and men, zealous for the divine law, and closes the sketch of his life with these words: "Praised be God, who has allowed us to possess such a man!"

Even on account of his restless activity in the transcription and collection of good books, especially the Book of books, Gerhard Zerbolt was of no little significance. A great service was rendered in this way, to the cause of the Gospel and the higher cultivation, before the discovery of printing. The libraries of the Brothers, which have been lately in part shown as very remarkable, were excellent places of conference and disputation for youths striving after learned accomplishment; and at the same time a host of instructive and edifying practical treatises were issued from the writing rooms of the Brothers. But if Zerbolt in this respect did more than any before him, he was of still greater importance in another respect, which was especially peculiar to him, in that he literally entered the arena as an advocate for the use of the Bible by the laity, which was then a subject so severely contested on all sides, and for the use of the vernacular in the religious life.

He did this in a treatise, written in Latin, on "The advantage of reading the Bible in the vernacular." Therein he unfolded to his Society in a practical, moderate way, essentially the following thoughts. The Holy Scriptures contain, on the one hand a plain doctrine, accessible to every one, which in itself is intelligible to all without much disputation or deep investigation; on the other hand they contain deeper and more mysterious thoughts which require for their understanding thorough investigation;-thus they contain milk as well as solid food. That simple unlearned men or the laity, should read or have read to them those books of the Scriptures, which impart the easily comprehended and general doctrines,