This was nearly the last command of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, addressed to his disciples: and to it was annexed in another gospel, a promise, which shows that this was not only intended as a commandment for that period, but for the present day. “Lo I am with you alway” (he said at the same time) “even unto the end of the world.” The command then extends to as long a period as the support is promised to be continued, i.e. to the end of the world. In placing myself therefore as an advocate for a society, the purpose of which is, the distribution of the word of God, I have not thought that I could choose a text which more strongly and persuasively urges upon you a zealous promotion of this great work, than a command so directly laid down upon this subject, and to the fulfilment of which such large assistance is promised. For what is the gospel which the disciples of our Lord are commanded to preach? The Gospel in its strictest sense is good news; it is all that good news of happiness now, which is promised in the ways of I cannot in a Christian congregation for a moment suppose that any command of our Lord can be disputed; I need, therefore, scarcely feel that it is necessary to do much more than to take for granted that it is one of the great leading duties of every Christian, to spread abroad this gospel, or in other words, to promote the circulation of the Scriptures. What can be the objection to circulating the simple word of God? Is it that some work ought to accompany it, in order to protect, or give it a right application? The command of our Lord has no limitation of this kind. “Go” says my text “and preach the gospel;” (this gospel which the apostles have delivered down to us in the Scriptures,) “go and preach it to every creature.” Is an objection started that all the word of God ought not to be circulated, that some part of it is needless, some unintelligible? We have in answer to this, the words of an apostle, who declares to us that “all Scripture is given by inspiration from God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” Thank God that very few have started the notion, that the I shall endeavour to establish in the first place as a principle, that it is only by a system of co-operation of all parties that the work of universally distributing the Scriptures can be effected. Let us look to a fact upon this point. In our own country, a society was instituted, about a century since, which is now called the Bartlett’s Buildings’ Society, or It is just in this way I would reason about the Bible Society. We have a great work to perform, a work which, as I have shewn, can alone be effected by the co-operation of all parties. We are bound to this work by the most solemn and unequivocal command of our Saviour. But now the question arises, whether to effect this great point, we may admit of an union of all parties to accomplish it? An unprejudiced person would say, this union is an additional motive for my exertion. But opposers have said, that by all parties being brought together, Christians have been led to feel less distinctly the points upon which they disagreed, and that thus great evils have arisen amongst Christians in general, and to the Establishment in particular. I will now then endeavour shortly to examine the effect of the union of all parties, which is produced by this institution, upon Christians in general and upon the Church. What, in the first place, has been the effect upon the general body of dissenters? But a few years since, within the recollection of many of us, the consequences of a thoroughly dissenting spirit, in politics and religion, were to be seen. No temper was then preserved, either on the side of the church, or the dissenters. Each party was employed in discovering all that was objectionable in the other: little evils were magnified—particular faults generalized: a spirit of envy and hatred reigned in the meetings of men, who, as Christians, might have taken “sweet counsel together.” Now, this is certainly not the case. Both amongst churchmen and dissenters, a considerable abatement of hostility has taken place. Whilst, on the one hand, churchmen have, in general, fulfilled more carefully the duties of their profession; I may say, that on the other, the spirit of dissenters has exceedingly changed. Dissenters may have had some well-grounded blame to attach, in many cases, to the members of our church; yet, it is likely that they by no means gave the church itself credit for the good which now they find to be in it. They thought that the lamp of our temple But now, in the second place, what has been the effect of this union upon the members of the Established Church? It may be said, that such meetings will tend to unfix our decided approbation of the doctrines and discipline of the Established Church. But they can know nothing of the nature of these meetings who urge this objection. There is nothing in them either to convert a churchman or a dissenter. The churchman will come away still a churchman; and the dissenter still a dissenter. No one church-principle, or church-feeling; no one point of doctrine, of discipline, or of practice, will be the least affected, or called in question, by attending a meeting of the Bible Society. The sole object for which churchmen and dissenters are united, is to distribute the word of God; but can the distribution of the word of God be injurious to the establishment? If we believe that the tenets of dissenters are plainly contradicted in the Bible, should we not then as churchmen, be thankful that they are willing to circulate, throughout the world, a refutation of their own system? Can the distribution of the word of truth, under any circumstances, be injurious to a true church? To say that the circulation of the Bible can injure the Establishment, seems to me an unwarranted scandal upon it; and perhaps no notion would be more injurious to the interests It has been said, that the Bible Society is an instrument of dissenters to overturn the church. But if so, it is a work in which the greatest, the most wise and attached friends of the Establishment have joined; it has been supported by bishops, and ministers, and princes: men of all parties, and of no precisely similar views, or interests, or feelings. It is urged, that remote evils may arise, that the present principle of the Bible Society may be departed from; that dissenters may in time preponderate, and direct this instrument against ourselves. Of all these objections, it must be said, that they are entirely without proof, or the probability of proof: besides that we are hardly, as Christians, allowed to calculate so nicely on one side, upon evils certainly remote, and merely conjectural; whilst, on the other, we have this ascertained fact, that fourteen hundred thousand Bibles have been circulated, in fifty-five different languages. It may still be said, all churchmen should join in the society which is attached to the Establishment. I would urge all churchmen to do so. But I would, at the same time, persuade them to join in this society;—for the two societies stand upon different grounds. The powers of the two societies are different, their objects are different; the one is a national society, and its operations are almost necessarily confined to home; the other takes the whole world for its sphere: the one is doing good in the boundary of a little family; the other comprehends all the circumference of the globe! The question of the Bible Society however, is one, which in my mind takes much higher ground than that of the advantage or disadvantage of a particular church. It takes its stand upon the authoritative dictate of One who has commanded us to preach the gospel to every creature; and to whose command, if we will not submit, the Son may be angry, and so we shall perish from the right way: it takes its stand upon our own feeling of the value of this book: which feeling calls upon us to act vigorously in the dispersion of the blessed truths which it promulgates; that as we have received mercy, so we should shew mercy; that as Christ has loved us, so should we love one another. I will now, however, yet consider more particularly some of the results which have attended the establishment of this society; and the want of the Scriptures which now exists in the world. The Bible Society, which was instituted without any hope of very great extension, has, in the course of eleven years, spread itself not only over this country, but over the greater part of the world. In this country it has now four hundred and eighty-eight branches attached to it; and in the four quarters of the world, institutions similar to itself have been formed. In Europe forty different societies have been established: in Asia four: in Africa two: and in America upwards of eighty. Most of the capitals of Europe have a society formed in them; and these are again, as in England, subdivided. In the Netherlands, for example, there are thirty-two subordinate societies; and the city of Amsterdam has besides, thirty-two associations. Societies have been formed throughout Russia, under the munificent patronage of the Emperor; and, in a part of Russia, they are established The income of this society has of course been very large, to meet the expenditure which has been necessary to these vast operations. This income has every year been increasing, but as the supplies are made, the wants of the world are more known; and the demand at this time, seems almost to be infinite. I will now lay before you, some of the cases in which the wants of the world have been remarkably shewn. In the province of Georgia, where a Christian church has existed about one thousand four hundred years, and where there are about half a million of inhabitants, there have not been found, in two thousand churches, two hundred copies of the Scriptures; i.e. not one Bible for ten churches. In Iceland, five silver dollars have been offered in vain for a copy of the word of God; and the case of a clergyman is presented, who had sought in vain to obtain a copy of the Scriptures, for the long period of seventeen years. In many parishes were found two Bibles, in others none at all. Whatever country has been searched into, whether catholic countries, where the Bible has never been fully circulated; or protestant countries, where once the fire of religion blazed with a pure flame, and spread a warmth around, which even reached, and animated our own shores, the Bible is now scarcely known, I will now say no more upon the particular circumstances of this society. All its statements, and the account of its proceedings from the beginning, are in the hands of many, and every one is requested and invited to examine its structure and operations. It requires no other argument for its support, to a Christian mind, than the simple recital which its own reports unfold. In those reports are the facts specified which I have been able so shortly to allude to; and there are the testimonials which have been given to the blessed effects of this society, from almost every nation, and language and tongue, and people! There, is to be seen, pouring through this sacred channel, the homage of an admiring and grateful world, to the zeal, the piety, and the liberality of Britain! and there, may be seen, how many prayers are continually rising up in her behalf,—those prayers, which have success in heaven,—those prayers, which will I trust, bring upon our country the choicest blessings, and upon this society, which has caused these petitions, a growth which shall continually extend till all the kingdoms of the earth shall see the salvation of God. Such is the society for which I beg to claim your support. I would use every argument by which you might be most liberally affected towards it, for I know not of any public Is there any one here, I may ask, who would willingly give up the effects of Christian principles upon his own happiness, or the value of Christian comfort to his own heart? Is there any one here, who would consent to have no knowledge of the true God; no hope in Jesus Christ; never to witness again the peaceful joy of the sabbath; never to feel the consolation which the gospel affords; when it may teach us that afflictions are but the chastisements of a tender father; when it points out a hope concerning our departed friends, that our brother Lazarus, that our child, our parent, is not dead, but sleepeth? If then we value these things so much ourselves, let us not seek to shut them out from others; but let us on the other hand, endeavour to disseminate them through the whole world. Let us seek that every nation may experience, as we do, the blessings of religion, of peace, of a humble submission to a good government. Let us give them the Bible, which is, I may say, the corner-stone of all that we can boast as a nation; and then they may be as wise, as happy, as pious, as useful, as we are. O let the cries and tears of the heathen, let their wants and misery, let their ignorance and sin, come up before you! and let these prevail upon you, to open your hearts, and to supply them out of your abundance. As you value your own souls, look upon those who, not having the Bible, are living without comfort, and dying without the consolations of the gospel. Look upon them for they call upon you for help; neglect them not, for to have refused a cup of cold water, will not at the day of judgment be unaccounted for: grant them your support and your blessings, so shall you meet them with joy, when you with them, are called to receive your last eternal sentence. FINIS. Brightly and Childs, Printers, Bungay. |