A exemplified in England. The only method sociation. Or, you add to the stock of inof doing away the mischief is to confide dividual benevolence in a country, by addthe relief of the poor to individual benevo- ing to the intensity of the benevolent prinlence. This draws no dependence along ciple, and this is the undoubted tendency with it. It is not counted upon like a pub- of a Bible Association.* And what is of lic and proclaimed charity. It brings the mighty importance in this argument, a Biclaims of the poor under the discriminating ble Association not only awakens the beeye of a neighbour, who will make a differ- nevolent principle, but it enlightens it. It ence between a case of genuine helplessness, establishes an intercourse between the vaand a case of idleness or misconduct. It rious orders of society, and on no former turns the tide of benevolence into its true occasion in the history of this country, have channel, and it will ever be found, that un- the rich and the poor come so often toder its operation, the poverty of misfortune gether upon a footing of good will. The is better seen to, and the poverty of im- kindly influence of this is incalculable. It providence and guilt is more effectually brings the poor under the eye of their richer prevented. neighbours. The visits and inquiries connected with the objects of the Bible Society, bring them into contact with one another. The rich come to be more skilled in the wants and difficulties of the poor, and by entering their houses, and joining with them in conversation, they not only acquire a benevolence towards them, but they gather that knowledge which is so essential to guide and enlighten their benevolence. 33. My concluding observation then is, that the extension of Bible Societies, while it counteracts, in various directions, the mischief of poor-rates, augments that principle of individual benevolence which is the best substitute for poor-rates. You add to the stock of individual benevolence, by adding to the number of benevolent individuals, and this is the genuine effect of a Bible As APPENDIX. portion his benevolence accordingly. It is evident, that the above reasoning applies, | own estimate of their respective claims, will apin its chief parts, to benevolent Associations, instituted for any other religious purpose. It is not necessary to restrict the argument to the case of Bible Associations. I should be sorry if the Bible Society were to engross the religious benevolence of the public, and if, in the multiplication of its auxiliaries over the face of the country, it were to occupy the whole ground, and leave no room for the great and important claims of other institutions. Now what is done by an individual, may be done by every such Association as I am now pleading for. Its members may sit in judgment on the various schemes of utility which are now in operation, and though originally formed as an auxiliary to the Bible Society, it may keep itself open to other calls, and occasionally give of its funds to Missionaries, or Moravians, or the Society for Gaelic Schools, or the African Institution, or to the Jewish, and Baptist, and Hibernian, and Lancasterian Societies. Of this I conceive that there is little danger. The revenue of each of these Societies is founded upon voluntary contributions, and what is volunIn point of fact, the subordinate Associations tary may be withdrawn or transferred to other ob- of the country are tending towards this arrangejects. I may give both to a Bible and a Mission-ment, and it is a highly beneficial arrangement. It ary Society, or if I can only afford to give to one, carries in it a most salutary control over all these I may select either, according to my impression of various institutions, each labouring to maintain their respective claims. In this way a vigilant and itself in reputation with the public, and to secure discerning public will suit its benevolence to the the countenance of this great Patron. Indolence urgency of the case, and it is evident, that each and corruption may lay hold of an endowed chainstitution can employ the same methods for ob-rity, but when the charity depends upon public taining patronage and support. Each can, and favour, a few glaring examples of mismanagement does bring forward a yearly statement of its claims would annihilate it. and necessities. Each has the same access to the public through the medium of the pulpit or the press. Each can send its advocates over the face of the country, and every individual, forming his During a few of the first years of the Bible Society, the members of other Societies were alarmed at the rapid extension of its popularity, and expressed their fears lest it should engross all the attention and benevolence of the religious public. But the reverse has happened, and a principle made use of in the body of this pamphlet may be well illustrated by the history of this matter. [Sec. 9.] The Bible Society has drawn a great yearly sum of money from the public, and the first impression was, that it would exhaust the fund for religious charities. But while it drew money from ever. the hand, it sent a fresh and powerful excitement | ject which patriot or politician needs to care for. of Christian benevolence into the heart, and under In the mean time it may suffice to state, that the the influence of this creative principle, the fund income of all the Bible and Missionary Societies in has extended to such a degree, as not only to meet the island, would not do more than defray the anthe demands of the new Society, but to yield anual maintenance of one ship of the line. When more abundant revenue to the older Societies than put by the side of the millions which are lavished We believe that the excitement goes much without a sigh on the enterprises of war, it is farther than this, and that many a deed of ordinary nothing; and shall this veriest trifle be grudged charity could be traced to the impulse of the cause to the advancement of a cause, which, when carwe are pleading for. We hazard the assertion, ried to its accomplishment, will put an end to war, that many thousands of those who contribute to and banish all its passions and atrocities from the the Bible Society, find in themselves a greater world? readiness to every good work, since the period of their connexion with it, and that in the wholesome channel of individual benevolence, more hunger is fed, and more nakedness clothed throughout the land, than at any period anterior to the formation of our Religious Societies. I should be sorry if Penny Associations were te bind themselves down to the support of the Bible Society. I should like to see them exercising a judgment over the numerous claims which are now before the public, and giving occasionally of their funds to other religious institutions. The The alarm grounded upon the tendency of effect of this very exercise would be to create a these Societies with their vast revenues, to im-liberal and well-informed peasantry, to open a wider poverish the country, is ridiculous. If ever their total revenue shall amount to a sum which can make it worthy of consideration to an enlightened economist at all, it may be proved that it trenches upon no national interest whatever, that it leaves population and public revenue on precisely the same footing of extent and prosperity in which it found them, and that it interferes with no one ob sphere to their contemplations, and to raise the standard not merely of piety but of general intelligence among them. The diminution of pauperism is only part of the general effect which the inultiplication of these Societies will bring about in the country; and if my limits allowed me, might expatiate on their certain influence in raising the tone and character of the British population. I A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE SOCIETY IN SCOTLAND, FOR PROPAGATING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. (INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER,) AT THEIR ANNIVERSARY MEETING, IN THE HIGH CHURCH OF EDINBURGH, ON THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 1814. And Nathaniel said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see."-John i. 46. THE principle of association, however useful in the main, has a blinding and misleading effect in many instances. Give it a wide enough field of induction to work upon, and it will carry you to a right conclusion upon any one case or question that comes before you. But the evil is, that it often carries you forward with as much confidence upon a limited, as upon an enlarged field of experience, and the man of narrow views will, upon a few paltry individual recollections, be as obstinate in the assertion of his own maxim, and as boldly come forward with his own sweeping generality, as if the whole range of nature and observation had been submitted to him. To aggravate the mischief, the opinion thus formed upon the specialities of his own limited experience, obtains a holding and a tenacity in his mind, which dispose him to resist all the future facts and instances that come before him. Thus it is that the opinion becomes a prejudice; and that no statement, however true, or how ever impressive, will be able to dislodge it. You may accumulate facts upon facts, but the opinion he has already formed, has acquired a certain right of pre-occupancy over him. It is the law of the mind which, like the similar law of society, often carries it over the original principles of justice, and it is this which gives so strong a positive influence to error, and makes its overflow so very slow and laborious an operation. I know not the origin of the prejudice respecting the town of Nazareth; or what it was that gave rise to an aphorism of such sweeping universality, as that no good thing could come out of it. Perhaps in two, three, or more instances, individuals may have come out of it who threw a discredit over the place of their nativity by the profligacy of their actions. Hence an association between the very name of the town, and the villainy of its inhabitants. The association forms into an opinion. The opinion is embodied into a proverb, and is transmitted in the shape of a hereditary prejudice to future generations. It is likely enough, that many instances could have been appealed to, of people from the town of Nazareth, who gave evidence in their characters and lives against the prejudice in question. But it is not enough that evidence be offered by the one party. It must be attended to by the other. The disposition to resist it must be got over. The love of truth and justice must prevail over that indolence which likes to repose, without disturbance, in its present convictions; and over that malignity which, I fear, makes a dark and hostile impression of others, too congenial to many hearts. Certain it is, that when the strongest possible demonstration was offered in the person of him who was the finest example of the good and fair, it was found that the inveteracy of the prejudice could withstand it; and it is to be feared that with the question, "Can any good come out of Nazareth?" there were many in that day who shut their eyes and their affections against him. Thus it was that the very name of a town fastened an association of prejudice upon all its inhabitants. But this is only one example out of the many. A sect may be thrown into discredit by a very few of its individual specimens, and the same association be fastened upon all its members. A society may be thrown into discredit by the failure of one or two of its undertakings, and this will be enough to entail suspicion and ridicule upon all its future operations. tion, that many of our present philosophers have for the equally occult principle which they conceive to lie in the all-subduing efficacy of the christian faith over every mind which embraces it. Each of these two doctrines is mighty in its pretensions. The one, asserts a principle to be now in operation, and which, reigning over the material world, gives harmony to all A system may be thrown into discredit by the fanaticism and folly of some of its advocates, and it may be long before it emerges from the contempt of a precipitate and unthinking public, ever ready to follow the impulse of her former recollections; it may be long before it is reclaimed from obscurity by the eloquence of future defenders; and there may be the struggle and the perseverance of many years before the ex-its movements. The other, asserts a prinisting association, with all its train of obloquies, and disgusts, and prejudices, shall be overthrown. ciple which it wants to put into operation, to apply to all minds, to carry round the globe, and to visit with its influence all the accessible dominions of the moral world. Mighty anticipation! It promises to rectify all disorder, to extirpate all vice, to dry up the source of all those sins, and suffer dismal and unseemly ravages over the face of society, to turn every soul from Satan unto God; or, in other words, to annihilate that disturbing force which has jarred the harmony of the moral world, and make all its parts tend obediently to the Deity as its centre and its origin. A lover of truth is thus placed on the right field for the exercise of his principles. It is the field of his faith and of his patienee, and in which he is called to a manly encounter with the enemies of his cause.ings, and sorrows, which have spread such He may have much to bear, and little but the mere force of principle to uphold him. But what a noble exhibition of mind, when this force is enough for it; when, though unsupported by the sympathy of other minds, it can rest on the truth and righteousness of its own principle; when it can select its object from among the thousand entanglements of error, and keep by it amidst all the clamours of hostility and contempt; when all the terrors of disgrace cannot alarm it; when all the levities of ridicule cannot shame it; when all the scowl of opposition cannot overwhelm it. The But how can this principle be put into operation? How shall it be brought into contact with a soul at the distance of a thousand miles from the place in which we are now standing? I know no other conceivable way than sending a messenger in possession of the principle himself, and There are some very fine examples of able to convey it into the mind of another such a contest, and of such a triumph, in by his powers of communication. the history of philosophy. In the progress precept of "Go and preach the Gospel of speculation, the doctrine of the occult unto every creature," would obtain a very qualities fell into disrepute, and every partial obedience indeed, if there was no thing that could be associated with such a actual moving of the preacher from one doctrine was disgraced and borne down by place or neighbourhood to another. Were the authority of the reigning school. When he to stand still he might preach to some Sir Isaac Newton's Theory of Gravitation creatures; he might get a smaller or a was announced to the world, if it had not larger number to assemble around him, and the persecution of violence, it had at least it is to be hoped from the stationary pulthe persecution of contempt to struggle pits of a christian country the preaching with. It had the sound of an occult prin- of the word has been made to bear with ciple, and it was charged with all the bi-efficacy on the souls of multitudes. But in gotry and mysticism of the schoolmen. This kept it for a time from the chairs and universities of Europe, and for years a kind of obscure and ignoble sectarianism was annexed to that name, which has been carried down on such a tide of glory to distant ages. Let us think of this, when philosophers bring their names and their authority to bear upon us, when they pour contempt on the truth which we love, and on the system which we defend; and as they fasten their epithets upon us, let us take comfort in thinking that we are under the very ordeal through which philosophy herself had to pass, before she achieved the most splendid of her victories. reference to the vast majority of the world. that may still be said which was said by an apostle in the infant state of our religion, how shall they hear without a preacher, and how shall they preach except they be sent? It is the single circumstance of being sent, which forms the peculiarity so much contended for by one part of the British public, and so much resisted by the other. The preacher who is so sent is, in good Latin, termed a Missionary; and such is the magical power which lies in the very sound of this hateful and obnoxious term, that it is no sooner uttered than a thousand associations of dislike and prejudice start into existence. And yet you would think Sure I am, that the philosophers of that it very strange the term itself is perfectly age could not have a more impetuous con- correet in point cf etymology. Many of tempt for the occult principle, which they those who are so clamorous in their hos conceived to lie in the doctrine of gravita-tility against it, feel no contempt for the mere act of preaching, sit with all decency | tance. What the precise distance is I do and apparent seriousness under it, and have not understand to be of any signification to a becoming respect for the character of a the argument; but even though it should, preacher. Convert the preacher into a Mis-I fear that in the article of distance, our sionary, and all you have done is merely to Society has at times been as extravagant graft upon the man's preaching the circum- as many of her neighbours. Her labours stance of locomotion. How comes it that have been met with in other quarters of the talent, and the eloquence, and the prin- the world. They have been found among ciple, which appeared so respectable in the haunts of savages. They have dealt your eyes, so long as they stood still, lose with men in the very infancy of social imall their respectablility so soon as they be-provement, and their zeal for proselytism gin to move? It is certainly conceivable, has far outstript that sober preparatory that the personal qualities which bear with management, which is so much contended salutary influence upon the human beings for. Why, they have carried the Gospel of one place, may pass unimpaired and message into climes on which Europe had have the same salutary influence upon the never impressed a single trace of her boasthuman beings of another. But this is a ed civilization. They have tried the spemissionary process, and though unable to cies in the first stages of its rudeness and bring forward any substantial exception ferocity, nor did they keep back the offer against the thing, they cannot get the bet-of the Saviour from their souls, till art and ter of the disgust excited by the term. industry had performed a sufficient part, They cannot release their understanding and were made to administer in fuller from the influence of its old associations, and these philosophers are repelled from truth, and frightened out of the way which leads to it, by the bugbear of a name. The precept is, "Go and preach the gos-set, and they put into exercise all the weapel to every creature under heaven." The people I allude to have no particular quarrel with the preach; but they have a mortal antipathy to the go-and should even their own admired preacher offer to go himself, or help to send others, he becomes a missionary, or the advocate of a mission; and the question of my text is set up in resistance to the whole scheme, "Can any good thing come out of it ?" abundance to the wants of their bodies. This process, which has been so much insisted upon, they did not wait for. They preached and they prayed at the very out pons of their spiritual ministry. In a word, they have done all the fanatical and offensive things which have been charged upon other missionaries. If there be folly in such enterprises as these, our Society has the accumulated follies of a whole century upon her forehead. She is among the vilest of the vile, and the same overwhelming ridicule which has thrown the mantle of ignominy over other Societies, will lay all her honours and pretensions in the dust. sionary enterprise is afloat in the country, she will not be neglected among the multiplicity of other objects. She will not suffer from the number or the activity of kindred Societies. They who conceive alarm upon this ground, have not calculated upon the productive powers of benevolence. They have not meditated deeply upon the operation of this principle, nor do they conceive how a general impulse given to the Missionary spirit, may work the two fold effect of multiplying the number of Societies, and of providing for each of them more abundantly than ever. I never felt myself in more favourable circumstances for giving an answer to the We are not afraid of linking the claims question, than I do at this moment, sur- of our Society with the general merits of rounded as I am by the members of a So- the Missionary cause. With this cause she ciety, which has been labouring for up-stands or falls. When the spirit of Miswards of a century in the field of missionary exertion. It need no longer be taken up or treated as a speculative question. The question of the text may, in reference to the subject now before us, be met immediately by the answer of the text, "Come and see." We call upon you to look to a set of actual performances, to examine the record of past doings, and like good philosophers as you are, to make the sober depositions of history carry it over the reveries of imagination and prejudice. We deal in proofs, not in promises; in practice, not in profession; in experience, and not in experiment. The Society whose cause I The fact is undeniable. In this corner of am now appointed to plead in your hear- the empire there is an impetuous and overing, is to all intents and purposes a Mis-bearing contempt for every thing connected sionary Society. It has a claim to all the honour, and must just submit to all the disgrace which such a title carries along with it. It has been in the habit for many years of hiring preachers and teachers, and may be convicted times without number, of the act of sending them to a dis with the name of Missionary. The cause has been outraged by a thousand indecencies. Every thing like the coolness of the philosophical spirit has been banished from one side of the controversy, and all the epithets of disgrace, which a perverted ingenuity could devise, have been unspa |