We Shall Meet Again When We Shall Be Merry

We Shall Meet Again When We Shall Be Merry

He was burned at the stake for reading the Bible.

WILLIAM HUNTER, a young follower of the Reformation, went to London in 1553 to apprentice as a silk weaver. That year the young Protestant king Edward VI died, and his sister Mary ascended to the throne. Mary was a staunch Catholic who was determined to purge England of evangelical heresy and to reestablish the Roman Catholic Church as the state religion. After losing his job for refusing to receive Communion in the Catholic Church, William returned to his home village, Burntwood. His brother later wrote about what happened after the local priest found William reading the Bible:

“What meddlest thou with the Bible?” he asked William. “Canst thou expound the Scriptures?”

“Father, I take not upon me to expound the Scriptures,” William replied. “But I, finding the Bible here when I came, read in it to my comfort.”

“It was never merry world [sic] since the Bible came abroad in English,” the priest said. “I perceive your mind well enough: you are one of them that misliketh the queen’s laws. You must turn another leaf, or else you and a great sort more heretics will broil for this gear, I warrant you.”

“God give me grace that I may believe his word, and confess his name, whatsoever may come thereof.”

The priest walked out of the chapel in a fury and had nineteen-year-old William arrested and sent to a London prison. The bishop told William that he had been arrested in order to restore him to the Catholic faith. William answered, “I am not fallen from the Catholic Faith of Christ, but confess it with all my heart.” Over the next nine months he refused to recant on twelve occasions. Finally the bishop sentenced him to death by burning, and the queen, Bloody Mary, signed his death warrant.

The morning of March 26, 1555, was dark as William was led to the stake erected in the center of Burntwood. His brother recounted his last moments:

His father . . . spake to his son, weeping and saying, “God be with thee, son William.” And William said, “God be with you, good father, and be of good comfort; for we shall meet again when we shall be merry.” Then William knelt and said the 51st Psalm.

Then said the Sheriff, “Here is a letter from the Queen. If thou wilt recant, thou shalt live.” “No,” quoth William, “I will not recant.” Then William rose and went to the stake and stood upright to it. Then came a bailiff and made fast the chain about William. . . . Then said William, “Pray for me while you see me alive, good people, and I will pray for you. . . . Son of God, shine on me”; and immediately the sun in the element shone out of a dark cloud so full in his face that he was constrained to look another way; whereat the people mused, because it had been so dark a little time before. . . .

Immediately fire was made. Then William cast his psalter into his brother’s hand, who said, “William, think on the passion of Christ and be not afraid.” William answered, “I am not afraid.” Then he lift [sic] up his hands and said, “Lord, Lord, Lord, receive my spirit”; and casting down his head again into the smothering smoke, he yielded up his life for the truth.

Reflection

Although we may take for granted the freedom to read the Bible, it has not always been so. Even today in many Muslim nations Bibles are outlawed as Christian propaganda. Would you die for the privilege of reading your Bible? Do you value Bible reading enough to do it daily?

For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are.

Hebrews 4:12