My life, my health, my friends, I owe
All to thy vast unbounded love;
Ten thousand precious gifts below,
And hope of nobler joys above.

Thus will I sing till nature cease,

Till sense and language are no more,
And after death thy boundless grace
Through everlasting years adore.

PETER WALDO, THE RICH MERCHANT OF LYONS. THIS rich merchant of Lyons in France, lived about seven hundred years ago. He had become a man of wealth by his industry, but his money and his merchandise could not satisfy his mind as to the great question, "How shall a man be just with God?" He knew he was a sinner, his conscience told him so; he knew he was not fit to die; and when he asked, "What must I do to be saved?" he was not satisfied with all the answers the Romish priests gave him. The Bible. would have told him; but Waldo had not the holy book. Rich he was, but he had not that best of all treasures; the few copies which then existed were shut up in the houses of the priests. Besides, they were all written in Latin, so that a person had to be learned in order to read a Bible, even when he could by any means get a sight of one. Some good books soon afterwards fell into the hands of Peter Waldo, written by the "early fathers," as they were called -pious men who lived just after the apostles, before the

christian religion was so corrupted as in following years. In these books he found many passages from the New Testament, and much that brought light and comfort to his soul. These parts only made him more anxious to secure the whole of the Bible. At length, Peter Waldo was so happy as to own a copy of God's word. Perhaps he gave a very large sum of money for it; yet what a treasure it proved to him! He did not grudge the money or time spent in buying it. These were nothing, in comparison with the blessed truths which it made known to him. It taught him the “new and living way" of approaching God, through Jesus Christ, the only Saviour and Mediator; it told him that a contrite and believing heart is what God requires; it was heart service that was the "reasonable service." Before, he was perplexed and troubled; now, he was peaceful and glad. Peter Waldo felt like a new man; the burden was gone from his soul; light was there and comfort, for he had found mercy through faith in Christ Jesus.

And now, because he was so happy in God, he wanted others to be so too. The Bible had told him how he might be saved, and he wanted to tell others the good news. He looked around, and beheld everybody groaning, as it were, under the heavy loads which the priests put upon them. He wept over their condition, and went out among the cottages of the poor, the sick, and the dying. He taught them about the great Saviour, Christ Jesus. He told them that God required only repentance, faith in his Son, and holy lives. He begged them to come to Jesus, and have their sins washed away in his blood. He held many meetings in the

cottages of the poor; he taught them; he prayed with them; he relieved their distresses, and fed them. Soon all the people began to love him because he was concerned to feed both their bodies and souls. There was one thing which he now desired more than anything else; that was, to get the scriptures translated into the language of the people. And what should we do without the Bible in our own language? The Bible in Latin would be a useless book to most of us; and yet it was just the plan of the priests to keep it in Latin, and of course to keep the people in ignorance of what was in it. "The people must have it in their own tongue," said Waldo; and he set about the work of translation himself, and got able men to come and help him. It was a very great labour; but having read the Bible himself, he spared neither time nor pains to put it into the hands of others. At length it was completed, and this was the first translation of the whole Bible into a modern language; it was done by, or at the expense of, a rich merchant. Did ever a rich merchant do a better work? Having been translated, it could not be printed and immediately circulated because this was before the art of printing was known. Written copies had to be made with the pen, demanding long and patient labour; and, when finished, a complete copy was worth a large sum of money. How different it is with us, who can have a beautiful Bible for a shilling! At length, however, Waldo finished his work, and many had the privilege of reading the word of God themselves in their own language.

But this great service was not enough for Peter Waldo.

He was not only the founder of a Bible Society, he began to form also a Missionary Society. Great numbers had learned to love the Saviour in his neighbourhood, and these he sent out, two by two, into all the region around; they even carried the gospel into other lands, and multitudes came to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, through the humble efforts of these "Poor men of Lyons," as they were called.

It is not to be supposed that the popish priests looked quietly on all this time. The archbishop of Lyons became very angry. "If you teach any more," he said to the merchant, "I will have you taken up for a heretic and burned." "How can I be silent in a matter which concerns the salvation of men ?" he boldly answered. The archbishop sent officers to apprehend him, but they feared the people, who loved Peter Waldo very much. At length the merchant could stay at Lyons no longer in safety. He fled from the city, going from place to place, everywhere explaining and teaching Bible truth; and God blessed his labours.

Waldo and his missionaries were treated very badly by their enemies; they were called "sorcerers," "cut purses," "< turlupins"-the last means people living with wolves. It may be they often had nowhere to lay their heads, and so were forced to find refuge among the wild beasts of the forest. "Poor men of Lyons" became a very reproachful term. It could be said of them, as of the good men in Bible times," They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth, being destitute, afflicted, tormented." Many suffered death for the truth's sake; while burning at

the stake they praised God for the privilege of suffering for Him who had suffered on the cross for them.

But even when fastened to the stake with chains, and the fire was lighted to burn them, the popish priests would try to persuade them to deny the truth of the Bible and turn papists, but they chose rather to be roasted alive than deny their Saviour. In the picture you see a popish priest holding

out a crucifix before the face of the dying martyr of Jesus. Those papists had it all their own way in those days, and thousands suffered death at their hands. They would do so now if they had the power. Remember that; for Roman Catholics hate the Bible now as much as they did then.