“December 13th, 1833. We called on a poor woman to-day, who wished to subscribe for a bible for her son. After she had told us the size, she said, ‘I am afraid of being troublesome, but might I give a trifle to the Bible Society?’ God, she said, had done so much for her, and she felt such a great desire to do something for his glory; then she thought what a poor, miserable, sinful creature she was, could she be permitted to do anything in his service? What to do she could not guess! Then she thought she would set to work, and what she could spare of her earnings, she would give with all her heart to the Bible Society, if I would be so kind as to receive it. She made many more acknowledgments of God’s mercy, particularly that of opening her mind, to understand the word of God, which though she had read, it was without profit to herself, till lately, and when people used to speak to her of the benefit of reading it, she hardly believed them, but now she found it was her greatest comfort; when she opened her bible, she seemed directed to the particular passage that suited her case; and when she went to a place of worship, whatever the minister said, seemed meant for her. She could not express all she felt for these mercies, but still to be silent, she knew would be wrong. It was settled that she should pay one penny a week, and when she gave me her first penny, she said, ‘May God’s blessing go with my mite, that it may be useful.’”—A. U.
One of our committee gives the following account of a poor old deaf widow, well known for twenty years past, as a consistent earnest christian:—
“She is thankful to have been enabled to read and understand her bible.—It was for some time a sealed book to her; she read it as a duty, but did not feel its power; she was convinced something was wrong in herself, and one evening, after having suffered much unhappiness at not being able to enjoy her bible as some did, she locked her cottage door, closed her shutter, spread her bible on her little table, and with tears, in earnest prayer, begged that God would show her her error, and the way of true happiness. She chanced to have opened her bible at the 16th of St. John, and her eye caught the verse, ‘Hitherto hast thou asked nothing in my name, ask and thou shalt receive, that thy joy may be full.’ This verse powerfully impressed her mind with the mistake she had been guilty of. She pleaded ever after the intercession of her Mediator, and has constantly enjoyed that peace and comfort his blessed word so fully promises.”
The same lady writes:—
“The simplicity of a little child may not be uninteresting to those who wish to trace the use of the bible, in its effects upon the poor.—A boy of eight years old, seeing his old grand-mother overwhelmed with grief at a severe loss of property, which she was quite unequal to retrieve, went up and kissing her, said, ‘Pray don’t grieve, God will be sure to take care of you.—The bible tells us, he is a friend to the widow, and that must be true.’ The poor woman was so struck by the earnestness of the child, that she made up her mind not to grieve, but to trust in God, and she is now happy and cheerful again.”
She adds of another person who had lingered many years in acute suffering, and whose departure was at length drawing near:—
“Poor Mrs. W. continues to evince most strikingly the power of the bible to give comfort and support in the greatest need. She said to me,—‘What would have become of me, had I been born in a heathen land, without a bible to rest upon?’”
A gentleman, who was looking after some crews that had been wrecked in the storm of Sept. 1st, 1833, went into a room at the public house where they were staying, and found one young man alone, with a book before him. He observed it was a bible, issued by our British and Foreign Society, and asked him if he was reading it. The young man said, “Yes, he did not know that he could read a better book, for it was worth the saving.” He then said, he had bought it “because it was so cheap, only three shillings, and a very fine book!” Our friend remarked to him, that he “must know such bibles could not be built for that price, but that it was afforded by means of a subscription.” This he said he knew, and then observed, that sailors were now reading their bibles at his port, Shields, more than they used to do. The gentleman said, he hoped that they were not hypocrites. “No,” the sailor said, “he thought not; he believed the prayer meetings and bible readings at the time of the cholera, had had a real effect upon numbers of them.”
We would earnestly recommend our associates not to lose the opportunities, which their proximity to a dangerous coast too frequently affords, of applying the word of God to the comfort of the ship-wrecked mariner, and of fixing religious impressions which may have arisen in hours of peril. We possess a small depôt of Dutch and French testaments, for the use of foreigners under such circumstances, and have occasionally found them acceptable. Our local position also calls for our unremitting efforts to enlighten our fishermen, whose lives are so often in jeopardy. The precariousness of their situation is an argument to which persons of this class will be found peculiarly accessible, when pressed to acquaint themselves betimes with the way of salvation. Fishermen, too, have many spare hours, while waiting for the tide, or detained by bad weather, on shore or in harbour: we remember the pleasure with which a fisherman, who had lately learnt to read, spoke to us of the delight he enjoyed in spelling out a chapter of the testament, in the cuddy of his herring boat, during many dreary winter evenings that he was moored in Boston Bay.
For the sake of suggesting profitable topics of discourse, and of obtaining from time to time correct information respecting the progress of our work, and the moral condition of our districts, a set of queries for our collectors was drawn up soon after the beginning of our association, and it is from the answers to these, that most of our facts are gathered. Some advantage is gained by keeping notes of our visits, the state of a family is the better remembered, and appropriate remarks may be made. Thus in one house, which was without a bible, the woman on being asked if she would subscribe, answered, she would consider about it. The visitor turned to her book and said, “Mrs. L. you gave me that very answer when I called before, and that is four years ago to-morrow; time flies.” She was so struck that she immediately paid a penny towards a half-crown testament, evidently frightened at her own procrastination.