derous republication of defeated sophisms, to decide their opinions, if hitherto they can have fluctuated, concerning the British and Foreign Bible Society. "When I consider," says Mr. Gisborne, "not only the Society itself, and its object, but the season also of its origin, and the rapidity and the extent of its progress; that it arose when every country in Europe felt itself fighting for life; when there was a time of' general trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time;' when, in many regions, the grasp of war had snatched away the very means of existence, and in others seemed to demand the last penny that could be spared from daily food and raiment; when licentiousness and impiety stalked triumphant on the Continent over the principles of civil order, and the belief of a life to come; when, except in this providentially favoured island, every thing social, political, moral, religious, was assaulted, undermined, convulsed, dislocated, overthrown :-while I consider that the Society has now attained an annual revenue of nearly one hundred thousand pounds; that hosts of Auxiliary Societies have sprung up around it, throughout the British islands, and throughout every part of our empire from Quebec to Calcutta; that Europe, in all her divisions, and with her princes, and her kings, and her emperors, at the head of the hallowed undertaking, is establishing similar societies, and avowedly through the example and the active and bountiful encouragement of our Parent Institution; that, through the same example and encouragement, seventy Bible Societies are numbered in the United States of North America; that versions of the Scriptures into numerous languages of our own quarter, and of each of the other quarters, of the globe, even into many languages in which the sound of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ had never yet been heard, have been aided or produced by the exertions of this Society; that through its medium, a very large portion of the civilized earth has linked itself to Great Britain by new and holy ties of affection and gratitude; that under the impulse of affection and gratitude, millions from among all the nations, and tongues, and people, and languages,' supplicate the throne of grace for blessings on this Society, and on Great Britain for its sake-while I consider these wonders, all feelings are summed up and absorbed in one irresistible impression, This is the finger of God." (P. 34, 35.) We have before observed, that this general dispersion of the Word of God imposes the necessity for additional exertion on the ministers of our Church; and our sense of this matter can scarcely be expressed in language too strong for our feelings. But this is surely a subject of rejoicing rather than of complaint. Nor would it be consistent in Mr. Norris, or those who think with him, to complain of this great movement in the religious character of the country, since it is partly deducible from the measures of those Societies which the Church itself has adopted, and that broad and splendid system of national education which it has taken under its patronage. A new era in Christ's Church has begun. The Word of God has received within these few years a circulation hitherto unknown and unimagined. Topics of reflection, of interest, and of discussion, commensurate with immortality, touching the extremes of human happiness and misery, involving the loss and repurchase of the soul, comprizing the sentence of wrath, the covenant of mercy, the means of grace, and the hope of glory, have found their way into channels hitherto impervious to all saving knowledge, or even the dawnings of religious curiosity. Does this interfere with or interrupt the ministry? Does it not rather lift towards the Church the cry of spiritual want, that now calls for the milk of her pure doctrine with a voice of filial distress? As the text is every where, so must the teacher be every where. It is for the Church a busy, importunate moment. To use a homely allusion, there is a run upon its bank. It must call forth all its resources to answer the pressure. It is the period for extraordinary exertion, and for those who are rich in spiritual treasure to assist the common stock out of their private funds. Let who will supply the text, it is for the Church of England to follow with the comment. Where the Lord gives the word, great ought to be the company of her preachers. We had once a Bishop of London who, at an age when infirmity usually asks for repose, drew an audience from among the gay and careless within his diocese to his weekly comments on a part of the holy text. He was not afraid of the dispersion of the Scriptures. He was a promoter and a member of the Bible Society. Thus then let our bishops act; thus let them stimulate their clergy to act; and, in the operations of the Bible Society, they will see no cause of jealousy or dismay. It is perfectly clear, that let Mr. Norris and those who participate in his alarms, stir up what opposition they please, the Bible Society will persevere in its active course. Mr. Norris cannot, he would not, recall the copies which have been distributed. It is too late for suppression. The interdicted volume has taken fast hold of the intelligent world; it has been naturalized and domiciled in the most distant regions, and become blended with the thoughts, sentiments, and wishes of so large a part of mankind, that the mischief expected to result from this lavish circulation is already in process; nor is it in the power of man to undo what has been done. All, therefore, that The following sketch of the progress and general result of the operations of the British and Foreigu Bible Society, has been drawn up and laid before their remains to be done by the zealous parochial minister, who dreads the consequences of distributing the Bible in this defence Subscribers, by the Committee of the Northern or New Town Bible Society of Edinburgh; and may help our readers to feel the propriety of the remark in the Total number of Bibles and Testaments issued by the Society 1,234,727 throughout the British Dominions .... Bibles and Testaments issued by the Society on the Continent 64,025 198,600 1,497,362 9 yrs The greater part of this sum consisted of Donations from Birmingham at the commencement of the Auxiliary Society there, which is the cause of its exceeding the amount for the two following years. less state, is to leave off railing, to do his duty, and to commit the rest to God. But to do his duty, the minister of the Established Church must understand and feel, before it is too late, what that duty really is. That it is not to perform with official exactness a stated service, to deliver discourses of a cold, preceptive divinity, to maintain the rights, the dues, and the immunities of the clergy, to descant upon the danger of intrusive zeal, and to denounce that activity which it may be troublesome to imitate; but to do the work of God, whose steward he presumes to call himself, faithfully, always regretting the little he can do, and decming it impossible to do too much; to remember how much has been done for him and for mankind, and in the awful immensity of that obligation, not in the appointed offices or the mere letter of the rubric, to view the extent of his high and holy vocation; in a word, to consider himself as a trustee of human souls with an everlasting responsibility upon his shoulders. In this deeply accountable and critical situation stand the Clergy and the Church of England, and to the urgency of these duties the Bible Society has greatly added. Thus and only thus it has "interfered with the ministry." It is no wonder that our ecclesiastical frame should require excitement; but it would be painful indeed to suppose that it is incapable of answering to the The British and Foreign Bible Society having thus been instrumental to the distribution of one million, four hundred and ninety-seven thousand, three hundred and sixty-two Bibles and Testaments, within the space of nine years and a half, viz. from 17th Sept. 1805, to 31st March, 1815. In addition to the above sum of £207,896, 1s. 7d, contributed by the Auxiliary Societies in money, they have likewise remitted large Sums for the purchase of Bibles, to be distributed in their respective Districts, which are included in the total number specified in the preceding Table. The Receipts of the British and Foreign Bible Society, for the Year ending 31st March, 1815, exceeded the expenditure by £18,000; but the Society's orders for Bibles and Testaments, at the latter of these dates, exceeded this balance by £22,000. The British and Foreign Bible Society appear, by the preceding statement, to have been instrumental to the distribution of nearly a million and a half of Bibles and Testaments in Europe, and by this, and th ir remittances in money to foreign places, have contributed to the circulation of the Scriptures in FIFTY-FIVA languages. loudest call that can be made on its activity. For though its ma terials are human, and infirmity adheres to our holiest things, its founders have given it an original temperament so strong and healthy, that could its energies be sufficiently roused, we should not doubt of the triumphant issue of its perils and its trials. Its principal danger arises from the confidence inspired by the memory of its pure and august beginning. Those claims to veneration which it owes to the wisdom of its founders and to the blood of its martyrs, great as they are, are not inexhaustible. It is a capital so frequently drawn upon as at present to be unequal to the exigence of the existing demand. The Church of England must practically approve itself to the nation, as its best guide to heaven, its most authentic pattern of holiness, and the truest depository of "the faith which was once delivered to the saints." It must be "clear in its great office." These are the claims on which it must now depend, and in its contest with sectarian opposition, these are the weapons of its legitimate warfare. The Bible is every where, and is every where operating. The choice among religions, and religious communities, can no longer be indifferent with this holy standard to guide the judgment. Whether right or wrong it is too late to question. It is the state of things, and the Church must lend itself to the impulse. If it is in doctrine and speculation true to the Bible, it must be so in practice too. It must be true to itself—it must listen to what is true of itselfit must bear to be told that, raised above an immediate dependence upon character, its ministry (and it is in function and administration that it embodies itself to the view of the vulgar) displays too many examples of that infirmity of our nature which converts security, by abusing it, into danger. If we shall be thought by these strictures to be wanting in reverence towards the ministry of the Establishment, we can only say, that, to probe its wounds, argues no want of respect or affection. Such is our respect and affection for it, that we will hazard the worst construction of our motives rather than not expose the danger, while it seems to us to be capable of being averted. To expect from the Clergy of the Church of England, in any of its departments, high or low, faultless conduct, is to forget that they are human. Unjust and illiberal in the extreme would be the censure which, founding itself on a few rare instances of gross misbehaviour, should endeavour to cast a shade of obloquy over the clerical character. Though it may be easily imagined that these instances might be so numerous as to sink the character of the clergy as a body, we will not involve so dignified a class of our fellow subjects in the censure which attaches to a few bad men, whose disorders are by none so much deplored as by the |