ciples, in uniting with their fellow Christians, fellow Englishmen, in endeavours to circulate the Holy Scriptures. We should be glad to believe that the distinctions of ecclesiastical caste among us, are becoming less marked and hostile, and that liberal principles are really diffusing themselves through all ranks of the community; but sometimes the very expressions of candour, and congratulation, and eulogy employed by the speakers at religious public meetings, have been calculated to awake doubts as to the very fact of which they may have been assumed to furnish the evidence.

Let us turn to foreign countries, where the operations of the British and Foreign Bible Society are taking place on a far grander scale, and where the symptoms of its tendency to promote the generous exercise of Christian charity, are not only unequivocal, but highly animating and impressive. The following extract relates to the formation of a Bible Society at St. Petersburgh.

It was (said Messrs. Paterson and Pinkerton, in their joint report of the ceremony) truly delightful to see the unanimity which actuated this assembly, composed of Christians of the Russian Greek Church, of Armenians, of Catholics, of Lutherans, and of Calvinists;-all met for the express purpose of making the Gospel of the grace of God sound out from the shores of the Baltic to the Eastern Ocean, and from the Frozen Ocean to the Black Sea, and the borders of China, by putting into the hands of Christia is and Mahomedans, of Lamites and the votaries of Shaman, with many 1 other heathen tribes, the Oracles of the living God. Here we had another proof of what the Bible can do, and of the veneration which all Christians have for this blessed Book. We see that it is still capable of uniting Christians in the bond of peace. It is the standard lifted up by the Son of Jesse, around which all his followers rally, in order to carry it in triumph over the whole globe.' p. 245.

In Switzerland and in Germany, circumstances of the most extraordinary and affecting nature have attended the distribution of the Holy Scriptures, and the formation of Bible Institutions.

I need not repeat,' writes a Catholic professor of Divinity, with what a blessing it has pleased God to accompany the reading of my (translation of the) New Testament. I will only add, that in the place of my residence (Marburg) and all the country round, a lively desire to read the word of God is increasing among the Catholic people; the blessing of which becomes daily more evident. The prejudices of our clergymen against laymen's reading the Bible, are gradually disappearing; many begin even to promote its dissemi.

nation.'

On the 3d of July, 1813, was formed the St. Gall Bible Society, for the purpose of supplying the Canton of that name,

as well the Catholic as the Protestant part of it, with the Holy Scriptures. Very liberal contributions had previously been raised, and more than 800 Bibles and 3300 Testaments obtained from Bâsle had been distributed in different parts of this canton.

"Even among our Catholic brethren, under the fatherly direction of the excellent Vicar-General, Von Wessenberg, more than 20,000 Testaments have been circulated through his diocese, since the period of his entrance upon his functions; and by the co-operation of several diligent and enlightened clergymen of that persuasion, the Catholics had begun to acknowledge the great value of the Holy Scriptures, and to peruse them with pleasure and advantage. All these circumstances excited in the breast of the highly-estimable Mr. Steinman, a desire to see a Bible Society established among us; that with united zeal we might labour in the cause of the glorious work in which he had already been so actively and unremittingly engaged. At his request, a number of pious and respectable persons assembled on the 3d of July, 1813, and the foundation of our Bible Society was laid.

The proceedings of this Society were characterized by a continuance of that zeal and liberality so conspicuous in the circumstances which led to its formation. Intent upon fulfilling the design of its establishment, its Committee entered into a friendly communication with the Society at Bâsle, and co-operated with that Institution in supplying to Protestants and Catholics, indifferently, according to the versions accredited by their respective communions, the oracles of their common salvation. By the liberal and truly Christian policy of the Vicar-General, within whose jurisdiction between eighty and ninety out of the one hundred Catholic parishes in the Canton of St. Gall are situated, the interdict prohibiting the people from reading the Scriptures was superseded; and nearly nine tenths of the Catholic population throughout the Canton, were not only permitted, but encouraged to peruse them.' p. 377.

These are but instances of the signal success which has attended the progress of the British and Foreign Bible Society in its foreign relations, of the spirit which it has kindled, and of the simultaneous impulse with which whole nations have answered the call of England, as if suddenly awaked to a perception of their moral wants. No event, since the Reformation, can be considered as of importance comparable to the formation of such an Institution, originating in a Protestant country, and imbodying, as it were, the very principle of Protestantism, extending its moral influence over society, with the silent energy, and almost the rapidity of light, every where recognised as the offspring of benevolence, and hailed as the dispenser of unalloyed good. When we contemplate the exertions of the Society in this light, and consider the immense force of counteraction which such an engine is capable of bringing constantly to bear upon the delusions of Anti-Christian superstition, and the ever work

ing mass of moral evil, and reflect on the utter hopelessness of any malignant attempts that may subsequently be made to undo the good which will inevitably have been effected by thus sowing the whole of society with the seeds of Divine truth, we feel that it would be a criminal apathy not to exult in the prospect, with the joy of faith. The union on the Continent of ecclesiastics of every communion, of princes and their people, of Protestant and Papist, Jew, and even Mahomedan, for the simple purpose of receiving or distributing the Holy Scriptures, is perfectly unparalleled in history, and is such as the most romantic expectation would not have dared anticipate.

ness of

But the effect of any object in exciting our feelings, depends upon the aspect in which it presents itself to our minds. There is another circumstance which, we apprehend, has tended unduly to lower the interest of the British and Foreign Bible Society, in the feelings of some of its friends; and that is, the worldly nature of the policy by which, in some instances, the cause has been advanced. The Institution cannot, ought not, at least, to be held responsible for the misjudging zeal, the temporizing principles, or the vain display of any of its advocates: but so it is, that individuals of sincere piety have been grieved, sometimes disgusted, at witnessing meetings for a religious object, made the occasion for flattering the bad passions or the weakany men, whatever their just claims to homage or esteem; at hearing persons complimented on their piety and zeal, and unanimously voted into the delusion that they were doing God service, by acts which good-nature or vanity had not unfrequently as much share as conscience in prompting them to perform; at having, in fact, man obtruded in all his littleness, man as the agent or the actor, and that most insignificant circumstance of man, the trappings of secular distinction, brought forward as his distinguishing attribute, at a season when his Divine Author alone, in whose sight all men are equal, and that Revelation which alike concerns us all as moral beings, should occupy the attention and fill the scene. We know of nothing which tends so much to destroy the appropriate interest of meetings of this kind, or to chill the ardour of genuine enthusiasm, as this misapplication of the language of courtesy, and the powers of eloquence.

Mr. Owen, no doubt, felt himself placed in a predicament of peculiar delicacy, as the contemporary historian of the British and Foreign Bible Society, arising from his intimate alliance with the principal promoters and patrons of the Institution. Gratitude, ardent friendship, even justice, demanded that some mention should be made, and that in warm and emphatic language, of the services rendered to the Institution by many of these individuals. We cannot say that he has been rigidly ab

stinent in his encomiums; but we believe that, as we said before, fifty years hence, the reader will, for the most part, recognise their propriety: even now he will not dispute their justness, though he would smile at any claim on the part of the worthy secretary to the praise of impartiality. Of course, Bishop Marsh, and the present British Critic, would differ from Mr. Owen in some of their critiques.

We shall advert to only one circumstance more, as being cal.culated to divert the feelings from the genuine character of the object of this admirable Institution; and on this point we are happy to find our opinion to be coincident with that of Mr. Owen. We allude to the very unnecessary proportion of time and attention, that has usually been bestowed on what is termed the "controversy: a controversy the most disgraceful to its originators that ever arose among the professed members of a Protestant church. Mr. Owen anticipates that many of his readers will be dissatisfied with the space which the series of controversial campaigns occupies in the history; but he states that he did not feel himself at liberty to follow his inclinations in this respect.

• In a case of this description, wherein he who "wrought in the work with one of his hands," has been compelled "with the other to hold a weapon," the operations of labour and of conflict, of build. ing and defending, have become so closely associated, that they cannot consistently be separated the one from the other. But while the Author contends for the propriety of noticing the controversy as matter of historical record, he deprecates most seriously (except on very rare and extraordinary occasions) the choice of it as a theme for commemorative and popular addresses. It were much to be de. sired, that in anniversary meetings, in general, controversial topics should be wholly avoided, as alien from the nature of such commemorations, and adverse to the purposes for which they are held.'

We are aware that the controversy has had no inconsiderable share in stimulating and sustaining the public interest in the Bible Society, and that one of the most fertile topics of argumentative display and amusive oratory, will be cut off by the sup.. pression of all allusion of the kind; but we know that such discussions do not harmonize with the feelings which ought to be called into exercise by the one grand and simple object of Bible Institutions, and that the contemplation of this pious and • benevolent confederacy of nations,' ought not to be broken in upon, by reference to the petty efforts of the faction which in this country opposes its progress.

There are other causes which may probably have an unfavourable operation on the public mind, with regard to the Bible Society. The attraction-the stimulus of novelty, has ceased; the fashion, for there are even rcligious fashions, which bore away

all classes on its tide, is declining; the circumstances of the times have tended to dispirit exertion, and to impede success; some are falling away, from indolence of character, others from a secret disinclination, which only yielded for the time to policy or shame, and which readily avails itself of some mean pretence for withdrawing from an uncongenial coalition. In certain quarters, a real or an affected jealousy of this Society has been, for some time, rather on the increase. In spite of all this, the Institution has sustained, during a year of unexampled pressure, scarcely any diminution in its immense resources, and its triumphs on the Continent have been unexampled. It would be ridiculous to entertain any anxiety respecting the future prosperity of the Society; but it will necessarily come at length to be supported by men whose characters are in unison with the object, and who act under the influence of motives strong enough, because deeply rooted in religious principle, to outlast all accidental excitement.

Far, however, from coinciding in the sentiment, that expectations too highly confident, or too sanguine, have been entertained with regard to the eventual results of the operations of the British and Foreign Bible Society, or that its importance has been unduly magnified, we are persuaded that persons in general are not even yet adequately sensible of the extent of its claims to the combined, unrelaxing efforts of all denominations of Christians, or sufficiently intent, in the temper of faith, upon what it is silently achieving in the world, in preparation" for the way of "the Lord." We know not what pretence can be instituted by any individual that believes the Scriptures to be the word of God, for remitting his exertions. Were the moral wants of our own country capable of being met by a permanent provision, bearing any proportion to the demands of the population, and no approximation to this can be said to be as yet accomplished, still there is a field opening before us in foreign countries, in the immense perspective of which, all that has hitherto been done by the boastful agency of man, shrinks to a unit. The period will never dawn upon us or upon our children, in which a termination shall be put to the labours and conquests of the British and Foreign Bible Society, resembling that which drew tears of vexation from the conqueror of the ancient world, when he found no more enemies to vanquish. Till then, however, Protestant England cannot obtain her discharge from this work. Providence has called her to be the evangelist of the world, and her moral greatness, her commercial resources, her religious privileges, constitute but the seal of her high commisslon. For this purpose she is invested with them; and upon the use she makes of these attributes of national power, depends, it is probable, her security in the possession of all that renders her the admiration of the