The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 89

have death on your lips,” they said; “be touched by your faults, and
retract in our presence all that you have said to our injury.” The Reformer
listened in silence; then he bade his attendant raise him in his bed, and,
gazing steadily upon them as they stood waiting for his recantation,
he said, in the firm, strong voice which had so often caused them to
tremble: “I shall not die, but live; and again declare the evil deeds of the
friars.”—D’Aubigne, b. 17, ch. 7. Astonished and abashed, the monks
hurried from the room.
Wycliffe’s words were fulfilled. He lived to place in the hands of his
countrymen the most powerful of all weapons against Rome—to give
them the Bible, the Heaven-appointed agent to liberate, enlighten, and
evangelize the people. There were many and great obstacles to surmount
in the accomplishment of this work. Wycliffe was weighed down with
infirmities; he knew that only a few years for labor remained for him; he
saw the opposition which he must meet; but, encouraged by the promises
of God’s word, he went forward nothing daunted. In the full vigor
of his intellectual powers, rich in experience, he had been preserved
and prepared by God’s special providence for this, the greatest of his
labors. While all Christendom was filled with tumult, the Reformer
in his rectory at Lutterworth, unheeding the storm that raged without,
applied himself to his chosen task.
At last the work was completed—the first English translation of
the Bible ever made. The word of God was opened to England. The
Reformer feared not now the prison or the stake. He had placed in the
hands of the English people a light which should never be extinguished.
In giving the Bible to his countrymen, he had done more to break the
fetters of ignorance and vice, more to liberate and elevate his country,
than was ever achieved by the most brilliant victories on fields of battle.
The art of printing being still unknown, it was only by slow and
wearisome labor that copies of the Bible could be multiplied. So great
was the interest to obtain the book, that

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