Sunday.....Christianity....."Five English Reformers"

John Hooper was a bishop in the Anglican church during the reign of Henry VIII and the glorious reign of Edward VI. He lived through the beginnings of the English Reformation and struggled, preaching often three and four times a day, against the forces that worked against the Gospel. He was burned at the state for his faithfulness in 1555 during the reign of Queen Mary. He is attributed with writing this poetry with a piece of coal on the wall of his jail cell:
Content thyself with patience
With Christ to bear the cross of pain;
Who can or will recompense
a thousand-fold, with joys again.
Let nothing cause thy heart to fail:
Launch out thy boat, hoist up thy sail,
Put from the shore;
And be thou sure thou shall remain
For evermore.

Fear not death, pass not for bonds,
Only in God put thy whole trust;
For He will require thy blood at their hands,
And thou dost know that once die thou must,
Only for that thy life if thou give,
Death is no death, but amens for to live.
Do not despair;
Of no worldly tyrant be thou dread;
Thy compass, which is God's Word, shall thee lead,
And the wind is fair.

Rowland Taylor was a pastor during the same period and was called to account as a villian for preaching the Gospel. When friends advised him not to report his response was: What will ye have me do? I am now old, and have already lived too long, to see these terrible and most wicked days. Fly you, and do as your conscience leadeth you. I am fully determined, with God's grace, to go to the Bishop, and to  tell him, to his beard, that he doth naught. God shall hereafter raise up teachers of His people, which shall, with much more diligence and fruit, teach them than I have done. For God will not forsake, His church, though now for a time He trieth and correcteth us, and not without just cause.  Rowland Taylor was also burned at the stake.
Bishop Hugh Latimer wrote: My wish is, that men may write on their hearts that the well-being of England depends not on commerce, or clever politicans, or steam, or armies, or navies, or gold, or iron, or coal, or corn, but on the maintenance of the principles of the English Reformation. Before being burned at the stake he turned to another martyr and famously said: Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.
In 1552 John Bradford wrote of those days as those is the days of Noah, often forwarning the people of the plagues which would be brought to pass. He also was martyred and wrote: When I consider the cause of my condemnation, I cannot but lament that I do no more rejoice than I do, for it is God's verity and truth.
Nickolas Ridley was a chaplain to Henry VIII and later the Bishop of London and also ran afoul of Queen Mary for preaching the Gospel. In a farewell letter to prisoners he wrote: Farewell, dear brethren, farewell! And let us comfort our hearts in all troubles, and in death, with the Word of God: for heaven and earth shall perish, but the Word of the Lord endureth forever.
I write these things as encouragement to myself as well as anyone else.  These stories come from a small paperback book titled Five English Reformers written by the great 19th century English Anglican preacher J. C. Ryle.  The book can be purchased at http://www.cvbbs.com/. We have to know what transpired in the past that secured our blessings today. We ignore the sacrifices of others to our own peril. How trivial are the entertainments of today when compared to the blood, sweat and tears and most of all the faithfulness of those who came before us.