Francis Cunningham

“ Almost every year produceth new schemes, and these new pursuits after the things of this world. Let a design be never so new and uncommon, it will soon be embraced, if it be but profitable, and conducive to some temporal end or other. Why should a christian, then, be shy of a work because it is new, when it may carry with it a never-fading reward? Should not he be as ready and watchful to lay up riches in heaven, as the profane worldling is to improve his income on earth?”
Such was the opposition once shown to this venerable Society, and by persons too within the pale of the church. ”

“ Amidst our many trials may we remember our many mercies. May we be enabled to thank Thee for all. What a comfort not to sorrow as those without hope: but to be assured that through the merits of Christ our dear parents are translated from a body of sin and corruption, to a glorious immortality.’
So Elizabeth wound up the history of the past eventful year. Her patience, meekness, and resignation, her thankfulness for the mercies she received, and her joyous hope are alike an instructive lesson to us all. ”

“ 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? ”

“ The doctrines of the Gospel, which seem the most hard to understand and to receive, are at once comprehended. It is like a change from darkness to light. The passages of Scripture which teach the sinfulness of our own nature, the worth of a Saviour, the nature of faith, the pleasantness of religion, the delight attendant upon dwelling with God, are at once received and adopted; and the whole system of Christianity is discovered to be one exactly suited to the sinner’s own state. ”

“ He spoke not only of the dead works of the unconverted, but also of the dead works of the Christian. How often is he found hard-hearted, and cold, and lukewarm, and too often bringing forth fruit to the dishonour of God. What then but the blood of Christ can cleanse him from his dead works. Lord, give me grace and faith to apply to that blood continually.’ So did she speak of her own deficiencies. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The prison is, perhaps, their first resting-place in a career of ignorance, and sin, and misery. The visitor may too often, in his researches, discover the man, as Mr. Pinel did Jolin, “without hope for this world or the next,” and may lead him to discoveries of what, perhaps, never entered his imagination. At all events, the circumstances of trial and affliction are those most favourable to seriousness of reflection; and this is the course by which the sinner is most often led, by the grace of God, to turn from the error of his ways, and to seek the hope offered in the Gospel. ”

“ I consider this society as privileged, in no ordinary degree, in having such an agent and friend on the continent. The assistance which he has already rendered to the Society has been very considerable. He has a great work on his hands. Communications are always to be kept open, letters to be written; and, in a country where there is a fastidiousness in receiving any religious offering from abroad, no one, who has not tried the experiment, can judge how much judgment, care, and delicacy it requires to bestow the gift without injuring the cause it is intended to promote. ”

“ If we believe that the tenets of dissenters are plainly contradicted in the Bible, should we not then as churchmen, be thankful that they are willing to circulate, throughout the world, a refutation of their own system? Can the distribution of the word of truth, under any circumstances, be injurious to a true church? To say that the circulation of the Bible can injure the Establishment, seems to me an unwarranted scandal upon it ”

“ There may be much of indulgence or of excitement in worldly gratifications, and those who seek them may reap a present pleasure from them, but substantial happiness is alone to be found in religion. For this is a happiness which does not depend on external circumstances, it is the same in all states of life, and usually it rises higher when the hour of trial and of sickness comes on, which deadens the present enjoyments of life, and overwhelms the senses. It makes the cup run over even in the deepest desolations which the Christian is called to pass through. ”

“ On this occasion he was taught in what manner sin is the defilement of the whole heart; that even the sins of his youth brought him just as much into condemnation before a holy God as his one great crime; that eternal death was the wages of every transgression of the Divine law; and that repentance unto life required not only a feeling of sorrow for one sin, but for every sin, yea, for sin itself, as an offence against the Almighty. ”

“ And may we never fail to repose an honourable confidence in the officers and friends of the Society; nor forget, in judging of others, to take into account the infirmities of our common nature. May we feel that, having embarked in the glorious enterprise of making all men acquainted with the pure and unadulterated word of God, it is not for us to be checked by slight obstacles ”

“ 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. ”

“ But to think of the never-dying soul, hitherto uncared for, unprepared with all its sins upon it, hurried in one moment into judgment, and to the wages of its transgressions, is awful indeed! What may have been the case of these men, the day of Judgment will disclose. “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.” That it was the portion of James Cullingham so to die, we can have no doubt. His faith, his converted heart, evidenced by his life, afford a warrant of good hope as to his condition. He lived to Christ, and death was doubtless gain to him. ”

“ 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. ”

“ But among the members and ministers of the Reformed church, and especially those who felt the real value of the word of God, I was rejoiced to find, how few dissented from your late resolution. And I feel assured that, when the question comes to be presented to continental churches in all its bearings, and the danger is shown of thus commingling error with truth, their grounds of opposition will be removed; and they will feel it their duty to pursue the same course as that in which your society has so wisely taken the lead. ”

“ To determine the real state of mind in a criminal manifesting, for the first time, when under sentence of death, signs of repentance, is plainly a work of much difficulty. If ever dissimulation may be expected, it must be in the case of a person probably long habituated, and, in his present circumstances, additionally excited to it by the fear of death: and the experience of every minister of religion conversant in such cases, must teach him that professions of religion, under such circumstances, are far oftener the language of alarm, than of real conversion. ”

“ Such I am persuaded is the state of many of the poor, and their language in giving to these Associations is not the pang which cruelty extorts, but of this kind—“I am not rich myself, but I will give my money, because I know that he who giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord; because the souls of multitudes are perishing for lack of that knowledge, which I am able, in a degree, to impart to them.” ”

“ He does not receive the repentant sinner as a servant, but he calls him his dear son. Oh what encouragement to the poor returning sinner, to know that God, whom he feels that he has offended, earnestly remembers him still.’
I am glad to make extracts from the sermons of many of my dear fellow helpers in the gospel, who have been working with me in this field of labour, and who have each,—one planting, and another watering, but God giving the increase;—been so honoured as to give suitable culture to a plant of the Lord, whom they will one day meet in glory, in the heavenly paradise. ”

“ He, being dead, may speak to many of his own age, who have, perhaps, had far greater advantages of education and example; or he may speak to those who have seen more years, and yet have not attained to that ripeness of faith, and that full assurance of hope, which made Jolin climb with such eagerness the gallows hill, and long for the time when he should be with Christ.
This history applies most emphatically to the case of young men; teaching them to avoid sin, even when it may have the sanction of parental example. ”

“ Let them commit every endeavour to the blessing of Him to whom the souls of the multitudes scattered over the continent are unspeakably dear; let them be confident that the word of the Lord will have free course and be glorified; and that millions will arise, at the last day, to p. 22acknowledge with gratitude and joy the labours of this Society. Let the temper of the Society remain unimpaired at home; and it need not be disquieted at objections or assaults which will not at least commend themselves to the world at large, by the general spirit in which they have been defended. ”

“ 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! ”

“ Nor have those a sufficient plea for themselves, that undervalue a design because it is new, and because it hath been little attempted by protestants. Truly, this should rather be an inducement (not to stifle the work in its infancy, but) to inflame that little of the spirit of power and love, which is left among us. Should we be also willing to die, because we see so many dead about us? I mean, so many who are supine and negligent in the greatest concerns of life and happiness. ”

“ The Bible, however, teaches, that such a state of unmixed prosperity is the most dangerous in which a man can be placed; that the sinner, when thus left alone of God, is lifted to that very slippery pinnacle from which he will fall to his eternal ruin. Ministers cannot, therefore, press upon their ungodly hearers the universal conviction of the misery attending upon sin as an evidence of their unconverted state, because sin does not in this life uniformly bring along with it any such conviction. ”

“ The characteristic graces of her state appeared to me humility and quiet contentment in her situation of life. She had no high sounding profession, but all was a meek, yet very firm, testimony to that blessed Master’s grace who had “wrought all her works in her.”
“When servants are really thus Christian, they do especially adorn the Gospel of God their Saviour. “Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrines of God our Saviour in all things.” ”

“ I could name another place, where forty ministers were lately assembled for purposes of religious and spiritual communion. I might also allege the fact, that at different universities there are professors who openly, and from the heart, confess the true faith. I may indeed affirm that, from the cottages of the poor to the palaces of kings, there are those who walk worthy their high vocation as Christians and as men. The admitted evils are every day diminishing. The number of converts is increasing. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The nature of faith is illustrated in a very interesting manner, by the case of Jolin. The sinfulness of his own state he knew, and felt deeply. He did not, however, seek to excuse himself, or to palliate his offences: he did not think that past services would be any compensation to God; that any circumstance of his life or character would skreen him from Almighty wrath; or that by repentance he might be pardoned through the mere mercy of his Heavenly Father. In himself, therefore, he had no ground of hope whatsoever: he was as a debtor who had nothing to pay ”