peasant's keeping that no lordly castle could resist. The art of printing had made possible the diffusion of knowledge, outdoing in a single generation more than the world had ever done in all its thousands of years. It was the time when Columbus gave to his sovereigns a new hemisphere. Without the printing-press, the Bible must have remained a sealed book; and without the New World there would have been no refuge for the Pilgrims of conscience.

It has been estimated that three hundred and sixty million copies of the Bible have been issued in Luther's version alone. Great Frederick tested what that Book had done for Germany, when the peasant of Potsdam, whose windmill made the emperor nervous, replied to the threat of his sovereign to remove the mill by force, "There is a Supreme Court in Berlin"; and the mill has since been sacredly kept, proof of the sovereignty of the peasant and of the king.

Turn to the land of Wallace and of Bruce, and in the picture of "The Cotter's Saturday Night" we perceive the inspiration that has made Scotland what it is; the Book that has elevated the poor, and laid the foundation of that national character of dominant intellectual power. We risk the

assertion time gives now no opportunity to prove, that in Scotland's critical hour its future rested upon the one man whose eagle eye took into its range the hosts in the conflict, and who wheeled his nation into line. He has proven his right to the title, "The light of Scotland, the comfort of the Church, the mirror of godliness"; but his light was borrowed from the Book in his hands; its strength gave the comfort he could impart, while the godliness he mirrored was like that of the old Hebrew prophet. An army of ten thousand tramping Highlanders or Lowlanders gave no such fear to his queen as the thought of his prayers. Queen Mary held the sceptre, and he held the Book; the sceptre has been broken. Neither stone nor shaft marks John Knox's unknown grave. Some say a highway runs over it; but Scotland is his grave, its freedom is his monument; his lasting legacy is the Deathless Book.

Back of nations and other leaders, the history of liberty finds its home in the city whose shadows were reflected in the Genevan lake. One man made Geneva what it became, and the source of his unsurpassed power was the Book of the centuries. His legislation was based upon that of Moses. Every ruler and dignitary was interested to know

what were the opinions of John Calvin. His correspondents were spreading the principles he taught in England, France, Scotland, Poland, Italy and Germany. No trace of the natural beauty of scenery found a place in his works; he was intent upon majestic moral themes. He was "the Aristotle of the Reformation," contending in long years against suffering and weakness, always working, lest the Lord at his coming should find him idle. While the works of thirty printing-presses were scattered as seed over Europe, this man was directing the agencies of the French Reformation from his sick bed.

Mr. Buckle asserts that Calvinism is always democratic; that it is the doctrine for the poor, and creates independence of thinking. The influence of Calvanism so-called, is briefly traceable to that fearless resistance of all civil rulers over the Church, resulting, as another step, in resistance to all tyranny of whatever name. Add to this the democratic character of its ecclesiastical organizations in which special power was conferred upon the laity; a power soon to be exercised in civil relations. But more distinctive than all these, and of greater binding force, was that great doctrine held in common with those master minds in the centuries, Augustine, Pascal and Jonathan

Edwards -the sovereignty of God. Before such a theme earthly thrones have sunk into obscurity, and despots have lost their crowns.

Victims escaping from their persecutions, emerging from the passes of the Jura in view of the city, were said to kneel and offer their thanksgivings for such a refuge as Geneva afforded. The character of him who gave it a name has been thus epitomized by the historian Bancroft. "Calvin was not only the founder of a sect, but foremost among the most efficient of modern republican legislators. More truly benevolent to the human race than Solon, more self-denying than Lycurgus, the genius of Calvin infused enduring elements into the institutions of Geneva, and made it for the modern world, the impregnable fortress of popular liberty, the fertile seed plot of democracy. We boast of our common schools. Calvin was the founder of popular education, the inventor of the system of free schools. He that

will not honor the memory and respect the influence of Calvin knows but little of the origin of American liberty."

In times remote from the great period of conflict, we are apt to underestimate the agents and agencies that have won for us a freedom so pro

found. Sir Robert Cotton rescued the original manuscript of Magna Charta from the hands of a tailor who was about to cut it up for patterns. So greatly do the present moment's necessities often over-balance loyalty to the past.

We can no more deny the functions of the Book in the history of liberty than we can put out the sun's rays. The history of true patriotism ought to emulate its source; like our own Samuel Adams penning his last production in favor of Christian truth. In proportion as any people have given up their adherence to the Book, so have they retrograded. It was no less a statesman than Daniel Webster who said: "If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instruction and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us, and bury all our glory in profound obscurity."

We are citing no prejudiced partisan in the authority of Professor Bowen: "The time seems to have arrived for a more practical and immediate verification than the world has ever witnessed of the great truth, that the civilization which is not based upon Christianity is big with the elements of its own destruction."