British and Foreign Bible Society

“ 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 is obvious, that the attendance at church in these times is considerably increased, and certainly not the least increased where a Bible Society spirit most abounds. In many places, also, great efforts have been made to build new churches, to accommodate an overgrown population; and, moreover, a most extraordinary increase in the circulation of the Liturgy has taken place. A new Society also has arisen, whose only object is to distribute the Formularies of the Established Church. ”

“ The poor (as is evident from their free purchase of them) can afford to pay what they now pay for Bibles, and which is about one half of what they would pay in the shops; whilst the Society is by this return enabled to supply Bibles gratuitously to the destitute, and continue its operations through the world. ”

“ That of churchmen, it can only be said as of churchmen and dissenters, they agree in the authority of the Bible; but there is no complete agreement as to the interpretations of the Bible. If churchmen, who are members of the Old Society, widely disagree upon essential points in the interpretation of the Bible, even the Old Society is no guarantee for unity. A person, to be quite right, on the principle of the author, should subscribe exclusively to a Society, where each person would agree to promulgate only the same interpretation of scripture ”

“ The Bibles cannot be at once cheaper, and cost a price which excludes them from general circulation. But, further, it may be said, that every argument which assumes the importance of the commentary to the Society, assumes the accuracy and value of the commentary itself.—Are all commentaries then valuable?—Are there none which might be very dear at fifty shillings?
But a fourth reason, it is said, for the superiority of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, is, that it provides p. 8Prayer Books and Religious Tracts. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And this inquiry, all that love truth, must most earnestly desire. The friends of the Bible Society wish to lay open every fact, to offer every plan for investigation, conscious of the simplicity and purity of their object and conduct. ”

“ Its object is threefold: To distribute Bibles; also, Prayer Books and Tracts; and to send p. 5Missionaries. Every member of this Society is obliged to give good security that he is a churchman, and there is no way in which, by its means, any other denomination of christians can be benefited, but by the hands of churchmen.
The advantages of this institution over the Bible Society which the author endeavours to establish are four. First, It is a Society which consists entirely of churchmen ”

“ 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. ”

“ The propaganda of the Bible Society have fulfilled a providential mission, which will bring forth quite different results from those anticipated by the pious gentlemen of the British Christian Missionary Society. They expect to elevate a petty, narrow dogma to supremacy, and to monopolise heaven as they do the sea, making it a British Church domain—and see, without knowing it, they are demanding the overthrow of all Protestant sects; for, as they all draw their life from the Bible, when the knowledge of the Bible becomes universal, all sectarian distinctions will be obliterated. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The growth of the new criticism and of knowledge of it has produced the result that now only a small minority of reflecting people in England accept the Bible in the old simple way; the majority thinks that it requires interpretation and explanation by the authority of the Church. ”

“ There is not much trouble in identifying Britain in prophecy, a fact which might naturally be expected, for a nation of such power and fame in all the world, and one whose subjects and rulers have a higher regard for the Bible than any others upon the face of the earth, and have done more to give the world an open Bible, free to poor and rich alike, than all others combined--such a nation surely should be found distinctly marked out in prophecy. ”

“ Another exposition of Anglican doctrine was made in the Institution of a Christian Man or “Bishops’ book,” in some respects more likely to satisfy those attached to the tenets of Rome, in others, as in the distinct repudiation of purgatory and the declaration that salvation depended solely on the merits of Christ, showing an advance. It was published in 1537 with Henry’s sanction but not by authority. In that year licence was granted for the sale of a translation of the Bible, and in 1538 another version called Matthew’s Bible, was ordered to be kept in all churches (see 448 Bible) . ”

“ The London publishers annually issue statistics of the works that have appeared in England during the year. Sometimes sermons and books on theology reach the highest figures; England is still the England of the Bible, the country that at the time of the Reformation produced three hundred and twenty-six editions of the Scriptures in less than a century, and whose religious literature is so abundant that to-day twenty-eight volumes of the British Museum catalogue treat of the single word Bible. [24] When theology does not obtain the first rank, it holds the second. ”

“ On the first of May, 1607, forty-seven of the most learned men of the British realm assembled in three parties at Oxford, Cambridge and Westminster to make a new Bible for the guidance of mankind. Hebrew, Greek and Latin scholars made up the great conclave; and after four years of detailed labor the King James edition of the Bible was published to the world, cutting loose forever from the power of Rome. ”

“ When we come to summarize, we are led to declare that if the Gospel historians be not worthy of belief we are without foundation for rational faith in the secular annals of the human race. No other literature bears historic scrutiny so well as the New Testament biographies. Not by a single chain, but by three great chains can we link our Bible of to-day with the Apostolic Bible. ”

“ That short period has not only been interesting almost to the point of excitement in English life, but it covers virtually all American life. Take, therefore, the broader view of the influence of the English Bible on history, apart from these striking events.
It is to be assumed at once that much of its influence is indirect. Indeed, its chief influence must be through men who prove to be leaders and through that public sentiment without which leaders are powerless. If leaders live by it and stand or fall by its teaching, then their work is its work. ”

“ After adverting to the satisfactory progress of Bible distribution in other parts of Germany, in Sweden, and Russia, the principal Bible Society of which latter place had already distributed 717,977 copies of the Sacred Scriptures, the Report adverted to the state of Portugal and Spain. In the former country there was now no persecution for religious opinion, but every man was allowed to choose which religion he pleased, and to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. ”

“ Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law."—David.
An American citizen does not need to go to far-off India or Africa to learn how people live without the Bible. Every heathen nation, living in ignorance and degradation furnishes a practical illustration. This illustration may be found by visiting the countries on the other side of the southern boundary line of the United States, where for several centuries under dominant catholic influence the Bible has been a forbidden book in the few public educational institutions of the country. ”

“ The British and the American Bible Societies greatly aided the publication and circulation of the Scriptures through their agents in co-operation with the missionaries among the people and in many a family, town, and city the Bible itself has proved to be the mightiest means of the conversion of many. ”

“ Printed at the University Press, Oxford, for the National Bible Society of Scotland.” So does religious beneficence percolate the most distant regions. Our colored fellow-citizens have been made the recipients of an immense amount of material and spiritual sympathy on the part of British Christians. These Divinity Students will be glad to know that this Bible, sent by their Society some ten years ago, is used for morning and evening family worship in an interesting household, which possesses its own farm, and which furnished hospitality to our representative. ”

“ Here are the characteristics of Presbyterian preaching as described by a Church of England critic:
"'Their ministry lays itself out for the cultivation of prophetical power, and not without success. In general, they are students of Hebrew, which the English clergy are not. The consequence is that for a good Old Testament sermon you must go north of the Tweed. In England we confine ourselves almost exclusively to the New Testament, not merely because of its transcendent importance, but because it is ground with which we are more familiar. But the loss to our people is great. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If the Catholic Church possesses the most perfect of all copies of the Bible, and really desires it to be read among her people, why does she not coëperate with the existing Bible societies in its diffusion, or, at least, form such societies of her own? ”

“ It bases its demand for the reverence and allegiance of mankind upon the direct authority of God Himself. The various Protestant sects of Christians use the King James version, published in London in 1611, while Catholics use the Douay version, of which the Old Testament was published by the English college at Douay, in France, in 1609, and the New Testament by the English college at Rheims in 1582, and these two versions are often called, respectively, the Protestant Bible and the Catholic Bible. ”

“ Both laymen and ministers were loud in declaring that such a church, without a "creed," (though the Bible is a very library of creeds) , could not thrive or live. The idea of success in rearing a church, with the Holy Scriptures only as a rule of faith and practice, was scoffed at. In our day, it does indeed seem strange that Protestant ministers should so talk, but experience, the great teacher, showed "the divine sufficiency of the Bible as a rule of faith and practice, and ... also a bond of union holding together a large and flourishing congregation in Christian love and harmony". ”

“ No book has ever been so many times well translated as the Bible. Let a version be warranted by a competent authority, and one may expatiate in it with as much freedom and confidence that his mind is really borne up on the ocean of divine truth, as if he could read the Hebrew and Greek with the readiness of a Mai or a Hengstenberg. It is, therefore, without doubt, a most excellent and profitable exercise for good, plain people, able to read and understand the English Bible, to read it continually and attentively. ”

“ In the first centuries the church itself had insisted upon this publicity, as we have seen in the first chapter. Then came a time when almost no one could read and the clergy had the Bible practically to themselves. They did not take away the Bible from the hands of the laymen; the laymen themselves did not care for it because they could not read it; they were totally dependent on the clergy. But now civilisation had made a new start; the art of reading became again popular. And suddenly a desire for reading the Bible spread among the people. ”