The Iron Pen #76

God & Country

"America began in prayer on bended knee, before an open Bible. America will never return to the peace, and prosperity of sobriety, sanity, safety, security, until she comes to the altar of God in holy repentance, seeking the robes of God’s righteousness. America was not built on its natural resources, on its vast land areas, on its great manpower. No! It was founded, favored and fed by God. The thirteen colonies were all established for a wholly or semi-religious reason. Jehovah showered our land with all the bounties of Heaven. But, we have forgotten God. We have taken the bounties He has bestowed upon us and wasted them in riotous living. God has closed his hand. Nothing but a return to the Savior, the Bible, the family altar, the church, will solve our multitudinous problems, the heart-breaking difficulties that face us. Only a God-sent, heaven-directed, Holy Spirit empowered, Christ-uplifting revival will bring us out of the pit, from the miry clay." Hyman Appleman

The Coverdale Bible: The First Complete Printed Bible In English
David L. Brown

Psalm 23 in the 1535 Coverdale Bible --

"The Lord is my shepherd, I can want nothing. He feeds me in a green pasture, and leadeth me to a fresh water. He quickeneth my soul and bringeth me forth in the way of righteousness for his names sake. Though I should walk now in the valley of the shadow of death, yet I fear no evil, for thou art with me: thy staff and thy sheep hook comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me against my enemies: thou anointest my head with oil, and fillest my cup full. Oh let thy loving kindness and mercy follow me all the days of my life, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord for ever."

Myles (Miles) Coverdale was born in Yorkshire, England in 1487. He was educated at Cambridge. Coverdale was ordained (1514) and entered the house of Augustinian friars at Cambridge. In 1527 he writes a letter to a friend telling how the love of Bible study has possessed his soul. He writes -- "Now I begin to taste of the Holy Scripture; now, honour be to God! I am set to the sweet smell of holy letters, with the godly savor of holy and ancient doctors…" The study of the Bible brought him to a saving knowledge of Christ. From this point on we see a major shift in his beliefs. Coverdale became an advocate of church reform. He was forced to reside abroad in 1528 for his preaching against confession to the priest and images. There he met William Tyndale and worked with him on his translation efforts, primarily as a proofreader. At almost the same time that the flames were consuming William Tyndale for the "heresy" of translating the New Testament into English, Myles Coverdale was publishing the first complete English Bible (1535). He was neither a Hebrew nor Greek scholar like Tyndale and he knew his limitations, and admitted them! Yet the demand and need for an English Bible was so great that he was willing to assume both the task and the risk. In his 1535 Bible, in the dedication to Henry VIII he wrote -- "I have with a clear conscience purely and faithfully translated this out of five sundry interpreters, having only the manifest truth of the Scriptures before mine eyes."

Coverdale's translation efforts were not finished. Henry VIII’s Secretary of State, Thomas Cromwell, asked him to prepare a new translation since Henry would never sanction Tyndale’s New Testament. He had proven that he was a careful editor and compiler and had a natural ability to select and use whatever materials he had available to him in his own Bible and yet he knew that improvements were needed, so he accepted the task. The result was the Great Bible or Chained Bible (1539). He also edited the revision called Cranmer's Bible (1540). By decree, this Bible was put in all the English Churches so it could be available to the people. I should also note that Coverdale also contributed to the Geneva Bible (1560).

During the reign of Elizabeth I he became widely known for his eloquent sermons and addresses. He was Pastor of St. Magnus, London Bridge, from 1563 to 1566, but resigned when Archbishop Parker sought to enforce the Act of Uniformity, to which Coverdale objected. He went home to be with the Lord in February of 1568.

"Nothing shall be lost that is done for God or in obedience to Him." Dr. John Owen (1616-1683)

Basic
Instructions
Before
Leaving
Earth

"You will never find Jesus so precious as when the world is one vast howling wilderness. Then He is like a rose blooming in the midst of the desolation, a rock rising above the storm." Robert Murray McCheyne (1831-1843)

Forget Not – Psalm 103:2-5

Fret Not – Psalm 37:1-7

Fear Not – Isaiah 41:10-13

Fail Not – Luke 22:32

Faint Not – 2 Corinthians 4:1, 16-18

"The sovereign God wants to be loved for Himself and honored for Himself, but that is only part of what He wants. The other part is that He wants us to know that when we have Him we have everything -- we have all the rest." A. W. Tozer (1897-1963)

"One can give without loving, but one cannot love without giving." Amy Carmichael (1867-1951)