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necessary to prevent the people from killing each other
in their mad eagerness to read the Gospel of Peace.
Twenty Bishops of the Church met the Puritans Rey-
nolds, Sparks, Chatterton, and others, and out of their
otherwise unhappy conference there arose the detemi-
nation which led to the translation of the Bible as we
now have it. While the fires of Smithfield were reeking
with the holiest blood of England--while Cranmer the
aged, thrust first into the flame his recanting right hand
--while Latimer stooped to gather the flame in his hand,
that he might bathe his head, as if baptizing himself with
it, and Ridley was roasting in front of Oxford--within
its walls their spirits and their learning were still living
and carrying on the work for which they died. Indeed,
it was during this terrible century that Oxford received
the foundations of eight schools, and Cambridge six,
and that the Universities of Aberdeen and Dublin were
established.

It was, too, at this period that the English language
attained its utmost power of expression--indeed, I dare
think, its acme of perfection--beyond which it has not
passed, and may not. Take Ascham and More, Sidney,
Surrey, Ridley, Sackville, and a host of others, and never
since, not even in the direct continuity of the next cen-
tury, has the true metal of the English language been
made to ring with clearer tones. The grand simplicity
of Ascham and Hooker, which has not been excelled,
and the sweet rhythm of Surrey and Wyatt, breathing
Italian airs, and the glorious incarnation of allegory
woven by Spenser, were heard in those tumultuous
days. And then, too, were heard the first low, sweet
warblings--the nest-notes--of that voice whose majestic
harmony in the next century swept over all the wide
regions of the human soul, and still holds them in en-
tranced subjection. These were some of the grand ac-
companiments with which our liberties were marshaled
onward--these were the royal heralds to that imperial
century which succeeded. (Applause.)

The revival of learning, the invention of printing, the
invention of the mariner's compass, the discovery of
America, the Reformation, and other causes, like con-
current winds, had lashed the torpid sea of life into a

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wild, tumultuous rage, which lasted near a centruy. In
this storm men lost all reckonings; Religions, philoso-
phies and governments were all in wild confusion; un-
til near the beginning of the 17th century the storm be-
gan to abate and the waves to subside, and the various
sects of religions, philosophies and governments each
began to calculate their proper bearings, and each in its
channel to work for access to some haven.

It was then that man's intellect and moral sense be-
gan to be substituted for the rule of his passions and
his muscle. In England, the years from 1590 to 1690
gave birth to more developments of all which sends
men forward in the career of true progress, than all the
centuries, save one, since he has been the subject of
history. Turn a leaf and take one minute's glance at
the grand record:

1. Protestanism, by the adoption and accession of
James 1st, was secured as a contsitutional necessity,
Romanism becoming a political impossibility.

2. The Commons, the people of England, became the
first estate of the Realm by this sublime decree, "The
Commons of England, in Parliament assembled, being
chosen by and representing the people, have the su-
preme power in this nation."

3. Ministerial Governments became as settled a prin-
ciple as the provisons of "Magna Charta," and was
sealed by the blood of a King.

4. The establishment of appeals, the abolition of
feudal tenures, the habeas corpus act, and the final
triumph of the highest forms of Religious and Civil Lib-
erty which have ever existed in Europe, by the Revolu-
tion of 1688; and lastly, science and literature blazed
forth with a brilliancy which pales the ages of Pericles
and Augustus. Oh, how I could revel with you in re-
calling with you the mighty things that were done and
written in that age. What enlightened, what educated
man, what patriot, what Christian, who is here to prove
his claims by aiding this day's work, who will not admit
that he owes the far greater portion of all these at-
tributes to the development of the 17th century.

The old Egyptians planted at intervals along the
course of the Nile lofty marble pillars, which rose above

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