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! [10]

I have now then endeavoured to point out to you the benefit of the principle of co-operation, as proved in this society; its benefit in the astonishing circulation which it has given to the word of God, and in the spirit of union which it has produced. I have also endeavoured to shew that this union has been beneficial to Christians in general, and that it has not been injurious, nor can be injurious, to the established church.

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 in every parish, under the direction of the pastor. The establishment of this society seems to have formed a new æra in the religious history of Russia; for we read, that at the great meeting of the Russian Bible Society, the first dignitaries of the Greek, Armenian, Catholic, and Georgian churches, all most heartily co-operated in this work; none seemed to fear the subversion of their own religion, by the dissemination of the Bible; all, although they retained the opinions of their respective churches, yet felt, that in this one point, they might fully and heartily join. In Asia, and especially amongst our own fellow-subjects in India, the work of translating the Bible has been carried on with very great success. The Bible has there been translated, or is in the course of translation, into twenty-five different languages. The New Testament has also been translated, and is distributing in the language of China, which is said to be spoken by three hundred millions of people.

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, or known only as a monument of departed piety, as a relic treasured up, of other, and of better times. Europe has not suffered more political, than it has religious convulsions. Whatever may have been the effect of the one, all the changes of religion seem to have been for the worse. The Bible, which had been the support of the only pure religions, has been taken away, and now these fabrics have fallen, or decayed. I will only mention one more fact concerning the wants of the world, which is that of our fellow subjects in India, and which may serve to give us an idea of heathen nations in general. Although, says the correspondent of this society, “we have ten presses at constant work, we have not had a copy of the Bengalee and Hindoostanee New Testaments the last six months; and we are obliged to give away a single copy as soon as it leaves the press; yet we have demands from every quarter for copies.” In this state of want and anxiety, are fifty millions of our fellow-subjects.

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 institution which has so purely and directly for its object the temporal and spiritual interests of mankind; I know of no institution where so large a sum can be so well used, and which no money can be well misused, whilst the simple object of the society is acted upon, viz. to circulate the word of God without note or comment. I would then call upon you by every plea, according to your utmost ability, to give liberally towards the great purposes of this institution. Only let us place ourselves in the situation of those millions who have not had the word of God given to them. Let us suppose, that another nation were now deliberating whether the Bible should be sent to our shores; let us conceive that nation, now arguing whether some local attachment, some municipal regulation, some system of church-government, should not restrain its hands, when it had the power and disposition to give the Bible to Britain. How should we, who value the word of God, who feel that we owe to it our pure religion, and all that is excellent in our manners, and all that is pre-eminent in our character; how should we bear from others those arguments about giving the Scriptures to ourselves, which we are compelled every day to hear, now that the case is reversed? Would an argument of a Russian, for instance, satisfy us, that the Bible should not be given to England, because the Greek, and the Georgian, the Armenian, and Roman catholic churches, could not, without danger, unite in a public meeting? Should we be satisfied, that England ought not to have the word of God, because a Roman catholic establishment might fear the prevalence of what it might call heresy? As then we should say, what can be the evils arising from a meeting of Christians of all the Russian churches, in comparison of the sin of refusing the Bible to England? what would be the relative importance even of taking away an established church in another country, when the alternative is, that Britain should not have the word of God? So let us now reason when we have the Bible, and a disposition has sprung up in this country to give it to all the world; so let us reason about our own hindrances in co-operating in this work, and the urgent calls of the world upon us, for the dissemination of the Scriptures. We do not however give up our establishment, by distributing the word of God, we hope to strengthen and support it; we hold out the best test by which any church can be tried, and we shew our confidence that it is built upon a right foundation, and that therefore no enemy shall prevail against it.

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.