BRITISH AND FOREIGH BIBLE SOCIETY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 21, 21 October 1872, Page 2

BRITISH AND FOREIGH BIBLE SOCIETY.

An exceedingly well-attended rneetiog of those -interested-; m the above iSeoiety was held on Friday-evening atthe-Pro-vincial. .Hall. Tbe proceedings were opened with prayers and reading' of the' 19lh Psalm. •"••-•■:. : - - • I::-. 1, -tv:!:,; ; : ja ■ The Rij?ht -Rev. the Bishop of:.. Nelson, who vva3 in the chair, said that the best way in : which Ghristialti should WoVjheir confidence in the word of God was by aiding in its extension. He thought Bible meetings ought :to be; very happy ones considering theblessed records to which they had- reterence^arid he\ tiiusted .that jt< wcjuld be so with the meeting which the Nelson Auxiliary Had convened that niglitV He would not allude- td: the' -past of that Auxiliary, but prefered thinking of its present action. The visit of the Rev Mr ■Back'hodse 1 had' kindled 1 a'n'ew-friterea't^ in the work of the ; Patent BiVle Society, and the meeting he was then addressing was 1 sufficient) to^eh'tfarJUiatltfatat 4^tll^i had not. abated. Speaking of the incorrect noifbW'wliichWirie-peoilile'entliriain c of the Bible, he said.,they .arose from w.apjt. of calm and patient i£ 'coir&d^rafiotf,^ "fio^ urged upon J .h,isJhear,erß,the T importance of studying 'the^ekfeTnal^evicfe^ces of the Bjbje.jj, Tj Tbpse > who had the internal evidence* shdai^ not neglect this study. It was a common s v,because we accepted the Bible on the evidence of an internal v^p n*v rc^Up n/^ qf i^j ts " tr i l^yf o De satisfied, and' to leave tne other evidence pninyeßtjg*ted..;Y^yjp^, i jpp\Dtodv x ouj,.aDd replied to some of the arguments that were alleged against ~ibe Bible, he called apon -fp^iir.T^^JiKA:)'? i The Rev. Patrick Calder, who said that there f d r^cbtiteiyaed'f %hat every man was a revelation to himself, they were indebted for whatever was true in the aspiration which they claimed, to the ,very,Bcrijjt«reßVof^lMoh|iheyfdfeclkr^ '|t£eir.;indep i 6!3^ep&e;;;>^^d^:npt i ß|eak of Ithej^ible as, Gdd^a^njy^ire^elation, for an ■mspired Apostlb* referred ;td ■;. God's works ;

tions urged againßt the Book, and that the f statement that, civilisation had but-grown Christianity was as old as the Greeks -in the time- of St. Paul, to ■whom the cross was foolishness. He quoted from a recent work on Rationalism,, that ** the only religion not weakened by , civilisation was Christianity." Where, he asked, had men learned. to make weakness an argument, not for oppression, but protection; to pick up the wounded and the fallen in the battle of life; to build infirtnaries; to endow Hospitals; and to establish homes for the friendless and destitute, but by following in the path which He had trod before, who "went about continually doing good." Who were the real workers in the large centres of population in Great Britain in bridging the gulph that separated the St. Giles and the St. James of modern society; in visiting the abodes of poverty and disease, filth and rags; in searching out the Arabs of the streets, and penetrating the lanes and wards and other dens of iniquity ? Who but those who bore with them the message of salvation ? Speaking of Communism, he said that the only influence potent enough to adjust the relations of capital and labor, to bind men together in the bonds of equity and good will, was that gospel which led us to "do unto others as we would that they should do unto us," and which put the mosteffectual restraint on the abuse of the rights of property by the principle of stewardship, as well as by that law of self sacrifice, which it opposed to human selfishness. The medicinal virtue for every sore of the body politic was to be found in that tree, the leaves of which were for the healing of the nations. He believed that the real power and liberty of England lay, not in her Magna Charts, but iv her Bible. And here he would touch on the subject of education. Some objected to the Bible being taught in schoolsj but he for one could not entertain that objection. He did not think an education north much that was not intimately associated with Bible reading, and Bible teaching. He did not allude to the literary value or beauty of the Bible, but he wished to urge that in those countries where the Bible was most taught and most honored; the educational interests of their people were best attended to. He believed that the Anglo-Saxon race throughout the world had no better mission than that of spreading abroad in God's world, God's Book to. man. The present age, he thought, was essentially an age of Bible circulation. Within the present century more had been accomplished in that way, not only than in any other similar period, but more than was represented by the aggregate of all past efforts. As an illustration, he would mention that a little after the work of the British and Foreign Bible Society had commenced, the probable number of Bibles throughout the world was computed at four or five million copies; but during the present century the enormous nuiuher of 111,000,000 copies, in whole and part, had been put into circulation. Since the Eight Rev. President last occupied the chair upon an occasion similar to the present one, we had been constrained to ask, What has God been working for ? Since then great events had arrested the attention of the civilised world, and agitated men's minds with regard to the troubled aspect of the political future, but there was one event far more important to the cauae of humanity than any other of the political changes that had taken place in Europe, one that had awakened the hopes and excited the sympathies of all the friends of the Bible. He referred to the incorporation of the Roman States with the Kingdom of Italy, and the impetus it had given to religious liberty, and to Bible circulation in tbe metropolis of the Czesars and the Popes. We had not yet seen the full result of that event, but already the voices of the Christian Minister and of the colporteur were no w as free in Borne aa perhaps in London or Edinburgh. The British and Foreign Bible Society had located itself in a city .which he trusted, with more than even her ancient glory, would 1 yet flourish by the circulation and power of the Divine Word. The Bible* gave to the nations that which was the foundation of all sound legislative , science, and at . the same time it -invited them to contemplate and seek a nobler' destiny .than .creation could gratify. . .' After all, 'di4'«^e^P^'*9?^'' o^'-8 ofl0 fl^ a ß''» did the predictions of science ; did any theory of human progression, elsewhere found, Bver;rise to so' grand a conception as was reached by that purity of heart and of life to y inch -a v, oice in ; Galilee^orice i>ro-mi^d;'the.!si|ht-6f/ !^Grbd;' : ; ;; ' rf'- ':•' t '; .'^ The rev. gentleman having resumed his -:Beat:ami^BJtVlpud;;applaußei'*-,the Beve, -;W.. ■V -.^.^WaiKiaSJ and :: - ;T. OFlayell, andgotlieV '•':•• gentlemen '.add^ • Yclosiß#f^TC ■" in|aid :^f ■ J fjpie|' :.' ' vSocietyJ wasi made; ;;^hich ,i amounted