“God suffers in the multitude of souls whom His word can not reach. Religious truth is imprisoned in a small number of manuscript books, which confine instead of spread the public treasure. Let us break the seal which seals up holy things and give wings to Truth in order that she may win every soul that comes into the world by her word no longer written at great expense by hands easily palsied, but multiplied like the wind by an untiring machine.”
—Johannes Gutenberg, in a preface to the Gutenberg Bible (1454)
Of course, up until that time no book, including the Bible, had been copied and mass produced on a printing press. Everything had to be written in pen, by hand. (There actually is a blessing in that activity, as words are less likely to be taken for granted.)
Whether you grab a paper copy or a digital version, take up and read the Great Words! Let’s not squander the Truth by keeping it to ourselves. Embody it; proclaim it; be changed by it.
Grateful Johannes Gutenberg employed creativity and innovation for the common good.
