Whatever conciliation it may have effected amongst dissenters, it assuredly has had a contrary effect amongst churchmen. For there has not been, for a considerable time, a measure brought forward which has created such a division amongst them. A division, which, if continued, may, and most likely will, be productive of the most fatal consequences to the Established Church. A Society, which will instigate and cause such violent and unbecoming animadversions, as are made not only from churchmen to churchmen, but from the clergy of a certain diocese to their diocesan, [12] must hold forth and threaten the most alarming and dangerous consequences. It has already had the effect of creating a division amongst the members of the Established Church, but has not diminished the number of the dissenters. It therefore may with truth be said, that the British and Foreign Bible Society cannot with justice appropriate to itself the merit of either exclusively distributing the Bible, or of inspiring universal love and harmony. A churchman may, therefore, fairly refuse to subscribe to it, without deserving to be reproached as an enemy to the distribution of the Bible, as being a bigot, or being regardless of the spiritual welfare of the poor. He may say, “I love and revere the Bible as much as any person can do, and am as ready to associate for its distribution; but I wish, whilst I am promoting this laudable work, to perform at the same time my duties as a churchman. And, therefore, as the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge consists entirely of churchmen; will provide me with Bibles at a cheaper rate: such as are more useful, from their notes and comments; and will also provide me with Prayer Books and Religious Tracts, I shall prefer that; because no harm can thereby happen to the Established Church; and because I shall thus be enabled to do my duty as a Christian, and at the same time my duty as a churchman. Whilst, by uniting in the distribution of the Bible, through the hands of sectaries of every description, I should consider myself, by promoting their means of conversion, in every convert who was made, or in every intention formed by them for drawing persons from the Established Church, not only an assistant, but an accessary.”
These are certainly very fair and reasonable objections to a churchman’s subscribing to the British and Foreign Bible Society. If there were no other Society formed for the distribution of the Bible, the case would be different. But since there is one, which offers superior advantages, and which affords him an opportunity of performing the duties of a churchman, at the same time that he is performing the duties of a Christian, there is abundant reason for his rejection of the one Society, and his adoption of the other.
There is one other plan proposed by the British and Foreign Bible Society, which requires to be shortly noticed; viz. The pennies collected from the poor. If the representations of Mr. Gisborne are correct, as to the flourishing state of the Auxiliary Bible Society, that their revenue amounted in 1815 to £124,019. 7s. 7d.; that £26,687. 16s. 5d. was expended for the foreign department; that there was left for home consumption annually the sum of £97,331. 11s; 2d.; that, in addition to this income, there are exchequer bills to the amount of £33,822. 3s. 8d., besides funded property to the amount of £10,000 more: with such an immense sum, an unappropriated surplus of £43,000 and upwards, and an income for home consumption of £90,000 and upwards, it may be fairly asked, for what Christian purpose are the poor to be taxed a penny a week, in support of a Society whose income exceeds it expenditure? What reason can there be to tax the paupers of this kingdom to supply foreign nations with Bibles? There is no poor family in the kingdom, to whom 4s. 6d. is not, at the end of the year, a real object, in the purchase of clothing for children, payment of rent, or procuring food and fuel. To deduct such a sum, therefore, from a poor family, is a cruel, a wicked, and an unchristian act. If the poor cannot claim a Bible gratuitously, for what reason is £90,000 taken every year from the pockets of the rich? It is greatly to be feared, that the real purport of this vexatious impost has a more mischievous tendency; and though there are some who have united in this scheme, more from error in judgment, than from badness of intention, yet there are others, whose aim and ambition it is to puritanize the whole community, and to raise the fabric of enthusiasm upon the ruins of Church and State. [15]
FINIS.
Printed by J. Keymer, King-Street, Yarmouth.
FOOTNOTES.
[5a] That edition of the Bible is now sold by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge for 3s.; and therefore, the advantage is still greater than here represented.
[5b] It has been asserted, that the Bible Society affords to its subscribers these Bibles at 3s. 9d.; but as the poor do not receive them till they have paid one penny weekly for a whole year, to them it is not allowed at less than 4s. 4d.; and there are instances, where they have not received them even for that. Whatever indulgence, therefore, the rich subscribers may receive, the poor are not in the least benefited. And the price is far above that allowed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, as may be seen by the note above.
[12] The Bishop of Lincoln.
[15] See British Critic, November, 1815.