to speak with him. The rich man perceiving that, catcheth him by the hand, and asked him, saying, ‘Neighbour, what is come into your heart, to take such displeasure with me? What have I done against you? Tell me, and I will be ready at all times to make you amends.’ Finally, he spake so gently, so charitably, so lovingly and friendly, that it wrought so in the poor man’s heart, that by-and-by he fell down upon his knees and asked him forgiveness. The rich man forgave him, and so took him again to his favour; and they loved as well as ever they did afore. Many one would have said, ‘Set him in the stocks; let him have bread of affliction and water of tribulation.’ But this man did not so. And here you see an ensample of the practice of God’s words in such sort, that the poor man, bearing great hatred and malice against the rich man, was brought, through the lenity and meekness of the rich man, from his error and wickedness to the knowledge of God’s Word. I would you would consider this ensample well, and follow it.” This tender-hearted man was also a great patron of men of letters, and probably it was at his table that Tyndale was advised by some unknown friend to go abroad. Upon the Continent he might reasonably hope to complete his translation, and to print it without molestation. Without knowing that he thereby doomed himself to exile which would only terminate in his martyrdom, and yet not shrinking from the ordeal, Tyndale left England in the month of May 1524, and sailed thence to Hamburg. No one observed with interest the austere, nervous man as he gazed for the last time upon his native land, but his voyage was of far more importance to England, and to the world, than any event of the period. Europe watched with mingled feelings Luther’s heroic stand, and the German Reformer was never at any time of his life without many friends who stood steadily beside him in his time of peril. With the exception of Monmouth, who only with much difficulty saved himself from death, Tyndale had no sympathy or helper at all; but, without complaining of this isolation, he went forward with true national persistence in the path of duty. He himself and his work were of such a character that they could not be adequately appreciated then, but long after Wolsey and his hat (to which the nobility bowed, and before which candles were burned) are forgotten, the work of Tyndale will be appreciated, and will exert a powerful influence in the lives of millions through the eternity that is yet to come. CHAPTER IV. _AN EXILE, YET IN HIS FATHER’S LAND._ “The Scriptures have a might and magnificence all their own; How comforting are its promises, how precious are its precepts! How wise and kind and pure and good its influence on the soul! How strong its hold upon the heart, its power within the mind!” --TUPPER.