I need not tell you how much pleasure I enjoyed in witnessing this triumph, nor how many anxieties previously entertained respecting the result of these meetings, were at once laid asleep, or were changed into that tranquillity, that peace and joy, which arise from seeing the name of the Lord glorified among men. I know you will participate in the same feelings, and will hail the establishment of this Society as a new era in South America. See here one of the happy effects of the political revolution! and it is but one of many, some of which are already visible, and the rest come on in their natural order and beauty. Blessed be God, who doeth all things according to the counsel of his own will, who maketh the wrath of man to praise him, and who in due time saith to the wars, as to the winds and the waves, peace, be still! and thus leaving us in the midst of the calm, to exclaim, Who is a God like unto our God, who bringeth order out of confusion, and who maketh waters to spring up in the wilderness, and streams to flow in the desert.
Our last meeting to establish the Society was held yesterday afternoon, and consisted of those who had subscribed as members of this Institution. The President, Vice Presidents, the Treasurer, and Secretaries, were chosen at this meeting, and you will find their names in the paper, No. 32, I now send you. These gentlemen, you will see, are of the most respectable inhabitants of this place, and this gives at once a tone and a stability to our Society. Besides the preceding office-bearers, there was chosen a Committee, consisting of twenty, one half clergymen and the other half laymen. The gentlemen elected into the Committee, are also of the same highly respectable class as those whose names you have mentioned in the paper. It is intended to publish, as soon as possible, an account of the origin and actual state of the Society. Along with this will be published the Rules and Regulations adopted, the names of the office-bearers and committee, and a list of subscribers. To all of which will be added a short address to the people of South America, upon the object and the advantages of the Society. I have much pleasure in saying that the subscriptions already amount to 1380 dollars. I should not omit to mention to you, that all the meetings upon this matter have been held in the chapel of the University, which is in the principal Dominican Convent of this city. The Rector of the University and the Prior of the Convent have been and are our very warm friends and supporters. With the former the subscription paper lies, and is daily obtaining additional subscribers. One of our secretaries is also a Dominican Friar, is secretary to the University, and formerly filled the office of secretary in the district tribunal of the Inquisition of this quarter. It is this gentleman who has written all the articles in the Newspaper about the Society, and what you read in the English part is merely a translation from the same article in Spanish, as written by him.[6]
I have now to say a few words respecting the conduct on this occasion of Mr. Gual, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and now President of the Bible Society of Colombia. I wish to speak of the conduct of this gentleman in the highest terms, and in doing so, feel that I am not using the voice of flattery and adulation, but complying with the precept of rendering to every one his due. It is an act of injustice to withhold the praise that is due to any one, when a proper occasion offers of mentioning it. I had occasion to call upon him at different times, in regard to the preliminary steps for setting the Society on foot, and notwithstanding the hurry of business in his public situation, I always found him ready to spend a few minutes in listening to the propositions made to him as to our mode of acting in this matter. He also cheerfully attended and presided at all our meetings, and constantly defended, with much judgment and eloquence, the glorious work of circulating the Holy Scriptures in their natural beauty, in every corner of his native land, over all this continent, and finally throughout the world.
Mr. Castillo, the Minister of Finance, also warmly advocated our cause, and these two gentlemen, as well as the Minister of the Interior, have given 50 dollars each by way of donation, and are, besides, annual subscribers of 20 dollars each. The Vice-President has also given us a donation and his subscription of 24 dollars.
I have much pleasure in noticing to you that Colonel Hamilton, H. B. M. Commissioner to this Government, and Mr. Henderson, the British Consul-General, have lent the influence of their names and of their purses to the forwarding of our Society. Colonel Campbell also, the British Chargé d’Affaires, just arrived in time to be present at our last meeting, and both he and Mr. Henderson were chosen members of the committee.
I have requested Mr. Gual to write a few lines to Lord Teignmouth, by way of introducing our new Society to a friendly correspondence with that great and venerable Society over which he has so long presided, with so much honour to himself, and with much advantage to mankind. I expect Mr. Gual’s letter to-morrow, and shall forward it with this. He is going also to write a few lines in order to begin a correspondence with the American Bible Society.
I have now been detained in this city considerably longer than I expected upon my arrival here, but I have the satisfaction of thinking, that my stay has been prolonged in the forwarding of a good work. I now set off immediately, and expect soon to have the pleasure of seeing the friends of the Redeemer’s cause in the United States; and not very long after, if the Lord will, I hope once more to behold my native land, and to salute there my friends and brethren in Christ Jesus.
[6] These articles from the newspaper are added at the end of this letter, as descriptive of the state of the country in regard to these matters.
Articles regarding the Formation of a Bible Society in Bogotá, extracted from “The Constitutional,” a weekly Newspaper published in that City, in Spanish and English.