Observations on an Anonymous Pamphlet, Which Has Been Distributed in Lowestoft, and Its Neighbourhood, Entitled Reasons Why a Churchman May with Great Justice Refuse to Subscribe to the British and Foreign Bible Society

by Francis Cunningham

I am sorry that I should have felt any obligation to draw up what may bear even the semblance of a charge against the Society, at Bartlett’s Buildings, of which I am a member. That Society has many merits, and in its own sphere is capable of doing much good. But, when an attempt is made to canonize this Society; to apply it to objects which it can never reach; and to erect it on the ruins of a Society of wider basis and far more extensive capabilities, it is difficult to be entirely silent. It was heartily to be wished, that these two Societies should never have been brought into invidious comparison, for, in a comparison, one of them must fail; and, which ever suffers, Christianity suffers with it, because the promotion of Christianity is the object of both. As, however, these two Societies have been brought into comparison, by the author of these “Reasons,” it seems requisite now to show, that the New Society has certain peculiar and exclusive advantages, which justify churchmen in supporting it.

In the first place, then, the constitution of the Old Society disqualified it from the universal supply of the Word of God. It had existed for near a century, and during that time, I venture confidently to say, it had, even at home, done little of what was necessary for the distribution of the Scriptures; and, abroad, scarcely any thing at all.

At home, when examinations were made as to the circulation of the Scriptures in many parts of England, especially in Lincolnshire, there were villages where the Bible was alone to be found in the church; within about a mile of the depository of the Old Society, full one half of the families were without a copy of the Scriptures; in this diocese alone, it was calculated that ten thousand families were destitute of the Word of God; in that of Durham, seven thousand five hundred; and, which is a certain proof of this assertion, since that time, nearly one million five hundred thousand copies have been distributed, principally in our own country, without, at the same time, the demand for the Scriptures being by any means supplied.

Abroad, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge has been able to effect still less. It had, indeed, only in one instance, attempted the distribution of the Scriptures. This was in the year 1720, when it printed, but not altogether at its own charge, an edition of the Psalms and the New Testament in the Arabic language. And such was the want of facilities for foreign operations, that, till lately, a part of that edition was mouldering in the cellars of the institution. Except this, and the assistance it has given to the Danish mission in the East Indies, it may be said to have done little or nothing for foreign countries. Nor let me be conceived to impute it as blame to this Society that it has done no more in a sphere, from which, from its constitution, it was excluded.

But what is the inference from this? That when, from the introduction of schools at home, an additional demand was created for the Scriptures, and when abroad the multiplication of missionaries created a new demand for the Bible, in all the languages of the earth, it was not sufficient that a Society existed which had proved itself insufficient for the supply of the Scriptures, even under less trying circumstances. It was necessary that something more should be attempted, and, accordingly, the New Society was constructed—a Society, erected on the widest possible basis, and comprehending all the means and energies of all the worshippers of Christ. The Old Society was left to pursue its domestic career; and the New Society, beginning at home, extended itself over the whole world. The one, as it has been said, is like the lamp at a particular sanctuary; the other, “the pillar which preceded the march of the whole people of God.”

Nor is this wider operation and extension of the New Society the fruit of accident—it is the result of its constitution. This constitution acknowledges no sect or party amongst christians; it partakes of no religious system; and therefore is equally applicable to all climates and all governments. Accordingly, in Russia, in England, and in America, in countries divided by the widest intervals in their religious and political administration, it is equally innoxious to the established order of things; it arrests every man who bears the title of a christian; seizes, as by a sort of natural affinity, upon that part of his creed which he holds in common with the whole christian world, and throws it down to form as it were a basis for this institution: he may have much religion, or little; what he has is converted by this Society to the glory of God, and the salvation of man.

Nor is the universality of that Society its only peculiar property—it is peculiar to that institution to be incorruptible. Its object is so simple, that it needs no other safeguards than its own principles. With the Old Society that is not the case. It is entrusted to human agents; and how can a person who lives at too great distance to attend the Committees of this Society, know what Tracts may be admitted, or what may be suppressed; what security has he for the consistency of the proceedings? But the object and proceedings of the Bible Society are always the same. It is to distribute the authorised version of the Bible, without note or comment; and whilst it adheres to this, whether the members of a committee of this Society are well or ill affected to church or state, nothing more than the distribution of the authorised version of the Scriptures can be effected. Their deadliest plot can issue only in the circulation of that book, which is the best antidote to their own wickedness. In the universality of its application, therefore, and the incorruptibility of its plan, the New differs from the Old Society.

But let us now turn to the second objection of the author of this pamphlet, viz., That the Bible Society has been unduly commended by its advocates, page 4, “Neither,” says our author, “is the general circulation of the Scriptures enacted by them, nor do their meetings produce love and harmony amongst Christians of various denominations.” The first of those propositions, that the Scriptures are not distributed “universally” by the Bible Society is attempted to be proved by this circumstance that they are not circulated “exclusively” by it. In what manner one of three facts establishes the other, I am at a loss so discover. I heartily wish that, in the like way of reasoning it could be proved, that because the author is not the only person who has written against the Bible Society, therefore he had not written against it at all. But now look at the fact, as to the distribution of the Scriptures. They are distributed to all classes, to heathens even, if they wish to possess them; and they are distributed not merely in the languages of this country, but in fifty-three languages or dialects, of almost every kindred and people over the world. Whatever comes short of a completely general distribution of the Scriptures by the Bible Society, is occasioned by the want of funds.

But the author is not satisfied with this gratuitous assertion. He goes on, in the same strain of independent and courageous affirmation, to maintain, that a feeling of love and harmony is not produced by the meeting of various denominations of christians in this Society; and, in proof of this, he appeals to certain recent occurrences. But what are these recent occurrences he leaves us to divine. If, indeed, he were to refer to certain recent occurrences in another quarter, as evidences of “bitter and unseemly contention,” [12a] and of the “degradation” of a meeting assembled for grave deliberation into “a British Forum, or a Bear Garden,” [12b] probably every churchman would understand the hint, however obliquely conveyed. But, as to the meeting of the Bible Society, I have attended both those of the Parent Institution, and in various parts of this and the neighbouring county, and I can truly say, that I have never seen any feeling predominate, but that of christian love. I have never known any offensive peculiarity obtruded upon the assembly; and although it might have been sometimes wished, that, in points of taste and expression, some of the speeches had been amended, yet, in point of temper and spirit, and sober adherence to the main objects of the meeting, they have admitted of no improvement.

The author of these observations has, I should suspect, never attended at a meeting of this Society, or he would not have hazarded so extraordinary a charge. Let him and his friends be persuaded to judge in future, rather from their own experience, than from the representation of others. Let them come to these meetings, and, as men of feeling and principle, they would, I am persuaded, be amongst the first to build up an institution, which they are now in such haste to destroy. They would find the principle of attraction in the Society to be as strong as its advocates pretend; would find even themselves surprised into the vortex, and constrained, by a holy violence, to love the very men whom now they appear to distrust.