off that natural drowsiness, which confineth the mind to narrow ends and purposes, and indisposeth it for any generous enterprize. Nothing is more common, even among those who call themselves Christians, than to frame new ways and new methods for increasing their stock, and to improve every opportunity offered for that end. 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. Why should a Christian, then, be shy of a work because it is new, when it may carry with it a never-fading reward?"

You will find this paragraph in the Preface to a Collection of Letters from the Missionaries in the East Indies, published by direction of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, in the year 1718. The author of it seems to have had your argument in view, and to have replied by anticipation. I heartily wish that the Society would publish more such letters, and more such prefaces.

66

*

If a

Yes," you say; "but it is not the simple union to which I object; it is the kind of union: you give away Bibles." Very true; and why not? union is allowable in any case, what object can be more worthy of the combined efforts of all who are willing to do good? You.are ready to join in giving away shillings, and flannel, and soup *; and

*Mr. Daubeny, and others, confound both themselves and their readers, by asserting that the members of the Bible Society com

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will you withhold that which is better than all the three? Whether I be Churchman or Dissenter, am I not rendering a greater service to a poor man, who is not absolutely starving, by giving him a Bible than by giving him a shilling?

"I am not," you will proceed, "against the most ample distribution of Bibles: but the Dissenter, by giving a Bible, will make a proselyte."-Even if this were true, the duty of giving away Bibles is positive, and paramount to all other considerations: let Churchmen give away Bibles, and increase their influence. But will not the Dissenter make a proselyte as well by giving a coat; or by any other act of charity? And unless you can, by a sweeping law, absolutely forbid Dissenters, to intermeddle in works of benevolence, will they not always carry influence in proportion to their charity? Can you, at any rate, prevent their distributing Bibles? Certainly not. For what reason, then, shall I not combine with them in this most charitable work, as well as in other works of charity? Union and co-operation you distinctly admit to a very considerable extent: the principle, therefore, you concede; and the simple question is,

:

bine for a "religious" purpose. This word is used in one of the Reports; but the assertion is not true in the sense which they choose to affix to the term. The Bible Society neither instructs nor explains it has no moral nor catechetical lectures; no schools, no sermons, no tracts: it simply gives a book, and that book, the Bible.---See this distinction clearly stated in Mr. Owen's "Address to the Chairman of the East-India Company." 3d edition, pp. 6, 7. See also Dr. Wordsworth, p. 105.

where shall the 'line be drawn? The members of the Bible Society think it reasonable, and according to the spirit of Christianity, to fix the limit where it will comprize the best and most valuable of all gifts: you admit inferior acts of benevolence, whilė you refuse that which is worth them all. You draw the line just to exclude the word of God: they just include it let reason and charity decide the question. But let us look back for a moment. You are willing to co-operate with Dissenters in subscribing to hospitals. Now is it not the custom of many hospitals and infirmaries, to give a Bible to every patient on his removal? And are not pains taken to instruct and enlighten his mind, while he is within these places? Hospitals and infirmaries frequently do much more in a religious sense, than the mere distribution of the Scriptures implies: yet you will not unite for the purpose of giving a Bible. Your reasoning and your practice appear to me, in this instance, not very consistent.

I have a remark, also, to make upon your mode' of argumentation: it takes two directions. First, you admonish us, who are members of the Church of England; "I exceedingly dislike your union with Dissenters: it has a tendency to give them influence, and to injure the Church." Secondly, you argue with the Dissenters; "I would certainly recommend it to you, to keep your Societies to yourselves, and on no account to join with these renegadoes of the establishment." Suppose the Dissenter should inquire

Compare Dr. Wordsworth, p. 53, 54, 89, 155, &c.

the reason: "Oh! because it gives you influence : you will kick down the ladder * by and by, and overthrow the Church." Is this an argument to weigh with persons of that class, if they really be such as you describe them? If I do not mistake your meaning, the reasoning is, like the union which you reprobate, somewhat novel.

Objection 2. The next Objection is, that the Subscribers to the Bible Society embrace a less good, where they might have a greater†.

As you have furnished a sort of apothegm from the Baptist's Magazine, for Lord Teignmouth's "use and benefit," if I were inclined to an act of retaliation, I should beg leave " to hand back §" an apothegm in turn, which is not less applicable to another Society. It occurs somewhere in the works of John Hunter, and is applied by him to the constitution of animal life: "Whatever is intended for two purposes, does neither of them well." The objects of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge are all of high importance: Charity Schools, Missions, Tracts, and the Scriptures; of these, the value of the last is infinitely above all the other: no kind of comparison can exist between them.

Yet I wish not to undervalue the rest. Few persons, I believe, in this kingdom, entertain a stronger opinion than I do of the vast importance of early instruction. Man is not a mere machine; he has been dignified by his Maker with a reason

* Dr. Wordsworth, p. 151. Ibid. p. 87.

+ Ibid. p. 30 to 36, 60, 66, &c.

Ibid. p. 87.

able soul, and with faculties which qualify him for his higher destiny: let his powers be exercised, let religious principle be established in his mind, and he will rise to his just rank in the scale of being. In the train of well-regulated education are to be found, marching in goodly order, industry, discretion, subordination to authority civil and ecclesiastical, loyalty to the king, and obedience to God.

I have much to say upon this subject, but I have no intention to go into the discussion at present. Neither shall I enter at large into the question of missions: least of all in disparagement of the general principle. So long as the name of Swartz shall be remembered, the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge will have a warm friend in every bosom which can feel for the glory of God, and is alive to the best interests of mankind and I doubt not, that, hereafter, when our limited views shall be enlarged; when the veil, which now hides from us the realities of the eternal world, shall be removed; in that great day, when the mysteries of Providence shall be disclosed, and the children of the kingdom shall be called from the East and from the West, and from the North and from the South, thousands will arise and pronounce that Society blessed.

It is impossible to contemplate these benefits, without a sentiment almost bordering on enthusiasm. But I beg pardon: the coldness of calculation, which runs through all the pamphlets before me, written against the Bible Society, admits not of sentiments