Word of Life

“I could hardly believe I was in the world, so difficult was it for me to realize that my work of so many years was completed. My heart beat like the strokes of a hammer. My emotions found vent by my falling on my knees and thanking God for His grace and goodness in giving me strength to accomplish my task.”

— Robert Moffat, translator of Bible for Tswana of South Africa, 1857 (father-in-law of David Livingstone)

“I have undertaken to translate the Bible into German. This was good for me; otherwise I might have died in the mistaken notion that I was a learned fellow.”

— Martin Luther (1483-1546)

“Wonderful is the depth of thy words, whose surface is before us, gently leading on the little ones: and yet a wonderful deepness, O my God, a wonderful deepness. It is awe to look into it; even an awfulness of honor, and a trembling of love.”

— Augustine (354-430)

All mankind is of one Author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; Some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness,

some by war, some by justice;

but God's hand is in every translation;

and His hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again,

for that library where every book shall lie open to one another.

— John Donne (1572-1631), English poet

Last night I passed beside a blacksmith's door,

And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;

Then, looking in, I saw upon the floor

Old hammers, worn with beating years of time.

...And so, thought I, the anvil of God's Word,

For ages skeptic blows have beat upon;

Yet though the noise of falling blows was heard,

The anvil is unharmed—the hammer gone.

— Author unknown