THE POWER OF THE PEN

It was in a Gloucestershire village that William Tyndale lived when the Lord put it into his heart to give the Bible to his fellow-countrymen in English. Hounded out of England by those who were enemies of this good work, he sent back a completed New Testament from Europe, the first to be printed. The beloved treasury of scripture which had been so scarce, now became a steady stream, then a river in spate.

His intentions were similar to those of Hezekiah, king of Judah, who banded together a group of careful scribes to copy out part of the book of the Proverbs of Solomon. Evidently, the older copies were well used and needed replacing; then again, the copies of scripture were not plentiful, and the wise king knew that a nation can only truly prosper if the Word of God is known and loved. The fact that it was expensive did not daunt him, any more than it deterred Wycliffe at a later date, who found that it took about ten months' work to copy out a complete Bible by hand.

Again, Hezekiah put his pen to use when he sought to observe the feast of the passover once again (2 Chronciles 30.1), after a long lapse before he came to the throne. He thought fondly of those beyond his own frontiers, and set to work to invite the kingdom of Israel to the north to join at Jerusalem in seeking the Lord. Many of them derided the suggestion, but those few with a humble, tender fear of the Lord made the journey, and seldom had such a happy occasion been known in their lives.

But what a grief when he was so ill (Isaiah 38.9); the prophet arrives to bid him prepare to leave this life (Reader are you prepared for this? Could you die tomorrow?) His grief is great, because he cannot see how the Lord's promise to David of an unbroken succession to his throne can now be maintained; with Hezekiah there is no prince, the promise of God appears to be falling to the ground — small wonder he grieved; but grief of heart springs to prayer, and this was richly answered. Again he takes his pen to hand, and records for all like troubled souls his pathway — O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me — and He did! May each dear reader be able to say the same.

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