Bible Society

“ At this period the principle of the co-operation of all parties, who took the Bible as the basis of their religion, began to be understood, and the Bible Society was formed, which admitted all subscribers of whatever denomination into its ranks ”

“ Such is the will of God, as the Catholic Church has received the same, and the facts of history prove that she is right. For when Protestantism arose, its great aim was to spread the Bible. Its history has been the history of Bible-circulation, and in the Bible Society has culminated the Reformation. These societies have labored bravely,0. We read that previous to the year 1834, a single society in Germany had distributed nearly 3,000,000 copies of the entire Bible, and 2,000,000 more of the New Testament. ”

“ It seemed to two young New Englanders who traversed the vast region from the Western Reserve to New Orleans in 1813, in the interests of missionary societies, that the people were wrapped in spiritual darkness, "being ignorant, often vicious, and utterly destitute of Bibles and religious literature." The General Bible Society of the United States was founded in 1816 to dispel this irreligious gloom. Within five years this organization and its numerous auxiliaries had distributed one hundred and forty thousand Bibles and Testaments through the new States. ”

“ We may not close this review of our year's work and attendant suggestions without remembrance of our indebtedness to the American Bible Society, for its grant of Bibles; to the Congregational Sunday-school and Publishing Society for the help given to our struggling churches and Sunday-schools in its grant of books and lesson helps. We rejoice in the unity of our societies, which make all one in the blending of the parts for the great common purpose of redeeming the lost and gathering them into the family of Christ. ”

“ There is not another society or community professing to believe the Bible, embracing it in their faith, would consent, for one moment, to sell or give away all they have and travel half-way over the earth for the sake of assembling together. ”

“ With great humility, however, I feel disposed to advise that provided at any future time the Society should think itself called upon to recommence its exertions here in the cause of a crucified Saviour, it employ, as its mighty instrument the Bible, the entire blessed Bible ”

“ Difference on some subjects ought not to prevent a union on others. We differ on some religious subjects, but we all profess to love the Bible, and to revere it as the standard of truth; why, then, should we object to co-operate with each other in circulating it through the world? The Bible Society I contemplate as the temple of peace. When we enter we lay aside the weapons of hostility, and mingle together as the professed disciples of Jesus Christ ”

“ 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. ”

“ The regenerating force of Christendom has lain in the coming of these prophets, generation after generation, to the children of men, to lead them upon the mount where they should clearly see those lofty shapes, commanding instant loyalty from honest souls. The ominous travail-throes of society to-day await one stimulus to free the new order that is struggling to the birth—the passion for ethical and social ideals, which the Bible, rightly administered, would inspire. ”

“ And much of this has been performed through the instrumentality of Bible societies; and not only through the agency of the church, but political men, men of the world, the great men, merchants of the earth, and those who trade in ships, all who live under the influence of the gospel,—the ‘kingdom of Heaven,’—have engaged in the work. Will not the most skeptical acknowledge that this society has succeeded beyond the most sanguine expectation of its most ardent advocates? And is not this strong circumstantial evidence that the Bridegroom is near, even at the door? ”

“ Those who subscribe to Bible Associations have no feeling of the cruelty which they are said to endure. The best delight which can animate a human breast, is afforded to them by the means of the Bible Society, in the easiest manner, as well as in the highest degree. ”

“ And my firm conviction is, that the supposed monsters in this Society will prove to be flies in the glasses of our opponents. From no single fact, at least, in the constitution and general proceedings of the Bible Society, can these persons shew, that the slightest ground for such portentous apprehensions as are suggested, does exist, but in their own imagination. ”

“ The society has attempted to send the Bible to all the inhabitants of the earth, accessible to its agents. It has established depots in almost every place where the American churches have missions. It circulates the Scriptures in more than eighty different languages and dialects. In 1856, in compliance with a special request, and by means of a special gift, the Society's Imperial Quarto English Bible, bound with extraordinary care, enclosed in a rosewood case, and accompanied by a courteous letter, was sent to each of the reigning monarchs and other chief magistrates of the world. ”

“ Utter seclusion from the world is nowhere enjoined. The Bible addresses us as members of society, and enjoins upon each in his vocation and calling to serve the Lord faithfully—"to glorify God in body and spirit which are his." ”

“ It presupposes a completely Christian society, just as the old law presupposes a completely Yahwistic society, i.e. a society made up of men who made devotion to their God the chief motive of their lives. In such a community there would have been no difficulty in entirely realising the state of things aimed at here, just as in a community penetrated by the love of Christ the Sermon on the Mount would be not only practicable but natural. But without that supreme motive much that the enactments of both the Old Testament and the New demand must remain mere aspiration. ”

“ 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. ”

“ His colleagues in the Religious Tract Society united with other earnest evangelical leaders to establish a new society, which should have for its sole object “to encourage a wider circulation of the Holy Scriptures, without note or comment.” This simplicity of aim is combined with a catholicity of constitution which admits the co-operation of all persons interested in the society’s object. ”

“ Hence a Bible-believing community can make no progress in morals, science, or civilization, only so far as they violate their own principles by transcending its teachings. Society would remain for ever in an ignorant, uncultured state, were there not some minds in it possessing a sufficient amount of intellect to outgrow their Bibles ”

“ And parents in their old age often give their properly and the entire management of their affairs into the hands of their children, who never betray their trust." Now, it must be evident to every reader, that no such a moral picture of society can be presented of any Christian country. And yet the Christian Bible is not only scarcely known among them, but they have resisted the most determined efforts of the Christian f missionaries, for more than two hundred years, to introduce it and circulate it amongst them, and have kept it out by positive prohibition most of the time. ”

“ Alexander took the lead. He recommended that the members of the Evangelical Society form themselves into companies, and that each company hold prayer meetings as best suited them as to time and place; to gather children wherever they could be obtained, form them into classes, teach them the truths of the Bible, assist them in every possible way by storing their minds with useful Christian instruction, such as committing to memory passages of Scripture, selections of hymns, and sacred poetry. ”

“ As the Society whose cause the author exclusively advocates, is a society of churchmen, he maintains that, by its extension and prevalence, no variety of interpretation in essential points would prevail, and therefore no confusion be introduced amongst the unlearned. All churchmen would, he conceives, teach the same truths in the same manner. ”

“ And I feel sure that the time must come, and will come, when private reading of the Bible will again be a common practice among Christians.
But the Bible's task is not only to sustain individual piety; it has a second duty to perform. Christianity is not a mere aggregation of Christian individuals but a community—a church, if you will. It is necessary for any community to have a standard, for any church to have a creed. ”

“ But, you see, the new congregation offers the most money, and that cannot be disregarded.
"My friends, these are a few of the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Are we displeased with anybody? No, not at all. All are at liberty to believe what they please. But we are placed under obligations to deliver the message which God has sent. We say we are not solely dependent on the Bible, because God has sent the gospel. We do not wish you to think that we regard the Bible lightly. ”

“ The church of Christ has always [176] found in the Bible a safe guide for her polity and conduct, and civil government has prospered when the principles of Scripture were followed by the powers that ruled the State. Because the Christian believes the Bible to be the product of men inspired by Christ, he can send it out by the million copies as equal to the moral and spiritual needs of the world. ”

“ What little we do is far outdistanced by the work of societies principally supported by Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians.
We glory that we accept the whole Bible, but who studies the Bible as a whole most earnestly? ”

“ Of the hundred and more Christian sects now existing in this country, does not each take the Bible as its standard of authority, and does not each member draw from it a meaning different from that of his neighbor? ”

“ It was because the Bible was looked upon as the sole authority in religious matters, as interpreted by our individual preferences, that so many dissenting sects have come into existence. Nearly every Christian sect professes to follow the teaching of Scripture, though we know that the sects hold very different opinions.
The Church, of course, also teaches—and it taught the same at the time now under review—that the Bible is our authority for our Christian Faith, but it does not hold that we are all capable of understanding it in all its depth of meaning. There are many parts obscure to us. ”

“ But in England’s so-called Protestant Church there is no trace of the three fundamental principles enunciated by the reformers:
(1) The Bible the only rule of faith and practice. (2) The duty of every man to judge the Bible for himself. ”

“ Here the people now of the kingdom must be helpers. It is The duty, therefore, of every soul professing Christianity to lend a helping hand to send forth the Bible; and wherever the Bible is sent, to send a missionary, full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, to enforce its truths. ”

“ It would be neither possible nor right to educate the children in any denominational creed, or to instruct them in any particular doctrinal system, but would it not, to take the lowest ground, be both prudent and politic to give them a knowledge of the Bible, as the only undeviating rule and standard of truth and right? ”

“ This system, to some, carries the face of plausibility, and appears under an imposing form. It claims the Bible for its patron, and proffers the restoration of the apostolic church, with all the gifts and graces with which the primitive saints were endowed. It is called the fulness of the Gospel to both Jew and Gentile; and is the test by which every man's faith is to be tried. ”

“ The one party would preserve the faith in the hands of a select few, the other would put the Bible into every man's hands. It is an old controversy; but we suppose nearly all those for whom we write are of the second party, men who would gladly see every Christian able to read the Bible and to base his religious life upon it. ”

“ Whether we are defending our faith against misrepresentation, or desirous of convincing other sincere and open minds of the justness of the claims which the Catholic Church makes as the only true representative of Christ's divine mission to teach the nations, the Bible is a safe and commonly recognized meeting-ground for a fair discussion of the subject. ”

“ How can we know what is the will of God except by considering what makes for human welfare? Our Bible is but one of a number of holy books which are held to be a revelation of God's will. Even if we grant the superior authority of the Hebrew- Christian Bible, can we rely on its teachings implicitly? How do we know that it is a revelation of God except by our experience of the beneficence of its teachings? As a matter of fact, there is wide disagreement, among those who accept the Bible as authoritative, over its real teachings. A text is available for every variety of belief. ”