To contend with these visionary terrors is to beat the air. But, in making light of them, I have no inclination to disguise the real dangers of the Church. They unquestionably exist, both without and within. Let us be seriously vigilant against internal dangers, and we shall have no cause to fear external assaults. Let it not be dissembled that our sins, our neglect of the Scriptures and of the pastoral care have been the chief promoters of dissent. In Ireland particularly it is notorious, that a defection of the lower orders to the Church of Rome, was going on silently, but rapidly. And it would be ungrateful to forget the instrumentality of the Wesleyan Methodists in resisting that evil. If a spirit of dissent has lately manifested itself among them, it has been opposed in a manner, which, I trust, evinces in the majority of the body a decided attachment to the Established Church. What the issue may be, I am unable to predict. I am ready to grant that the very agitation of such controversies, as have lately been made public is a solemn warning against innovating practices:-But let us honestly reflect what it is that makes room for their progress. Let us hear how Bishop Burnett accounts for the growth of dissent in his day; and consider whether any thing like it may be applicable to succeeding times. "We of the Church-Communion" (says he *) have trusted too much to the supports we receive from the Law, we have done our duties too slightly, and have minded the care of souls too little; therefore God to punish and awaken us, has suffered so many of our people to be wrested out of our hands:" If the internal evils, here complained of, increased or continued-if anxiety to avoid fanaticism produced the opposite extreme of heathen ethics- if there be any truth in the charge, that a great number of the Established Clergy had abandoned the distinguishing character of a christian ministry, by ceasing "to teach and preach Jesus Christ" we can be at no loss to account for the rise and progress of Methodism, at a period long prior to the existence of the Bible Society. The same causes were auxiliary to every sect and party,-aided by the advantages of popular eloquence on the side of dissent, and an excessive magnifying of hearing preachers, to the disparagement (I apprehend)

* See the Preface to Burnet's Abridgment of the History of the Reformation, &c.

contents

of reading the Holy Scriptures with meditation upon their The dissemination of the Bible is the most powerful corrective of enthusiastic excesses. Even upon the largest calculation of errors and abuses,-the very diversity and detached condition of them, when the people of a country begin to read and think, must in a great degree produce their own remedy-by the force of counteraction. But in an opposite state of things the most formidable evils are generated in masses-the leaders of party have an opportunity of impressing their own sentiments, and infusing their own spirit into the multitude-they can assemble them around their standards and direct their movements. Let us furnish the people with the means of enjoying domestic religion, of acquiring and communicate ing knowledge in the bosom of their families; and we may reasonably hope, through the divine blessing, for an abundant harvest of the purest piety and the soundest morals.

That these effects have already followed such means we have unquestionable evidence. The case of Scotland is of such notoriety as almost to have become a trite example. But it can never be too strongly impressed on our attention. In the Address of the Bishop of Meath already quoted, we are informed, that "there is hardly a house or a cottage in Scotland +, in which the Bible is not preserved as a precious heir loom; as an hereditary family ornament; as the comforter of the aged, and the instructor of the young; as the pledge of God's blessing, both to the passing and rising generation." He then gives the sanction of his own personal observation to Burn's picture of the "Cotter's Saturday Night," without which he would not have alluded to that poet ‡! And his Lordship adds, "From the same observation I can also answer, that no person can reside for any time in that country, without feeling a conviction that the stricter morals, the more grave and sober cast of mind, the more frugal, industrious habits, for which its inhabitants are so generally distinguished, are primcipally to be ascribed to their being thus early and familiarly instructed under the paternal roof, in

I hope I shall not be misunderstood, as if I intended any thing derogatory to the divine ordinance of preaching,-in its due proportion.

I suppose his Lordship did not include the Highlands, at least previous to the supplies which have been lately furnished in the Gaelic.

The Reader will, I trust, be gratified by an Extract from another poet, to which his Lordship also alludes:

the truths and the morals of the Bible, and to the care and assiduity with which they preserve the spirit of the Christian religion, thus early imbibed, by the manner in which they pass their Sabbaths."

"O Scotland! much I love thy tranquil dales:
But most on Sabbath eve, when low the sun
<Slants through the upland copse, 'tis my delight,
Wandering, and stopping oft to hear the song
'Of kindred praise arise from humble roofs;

Or, when the simple service ends, to hear

The lifted latch, and mark the grey-hair'd man,
* The father and the priest, walk forth alone
'Into his garden-plat, or little field,

To commune with his God in secret prayer."

"Or mark that female face,

The faded picture of its former self,

The garments coarse, but clean;-frequent at church
'I've noted such a one, feeble and pale,

'Yet standing, with a look of mild content,
Till beckon'd by some kindly hand to sit.
'She has seen better days; there was a time,
'Her hands could earn her bread, and freely give
< To those who were in want; but now old age,
And lingering disease, have made her helpless.
Yet she is happy, aye, and she is wise,

Although her Bible is her only book."

"THE SABBATH," BY JAMES GRAHAM.

To this I cannot resist subjoining a parallel, which exhibits a similar character in an English scene. She is introduced with a passage which is not unappropriate to our present subject:

"The path to bliss abounds with many a snare, 'Learning is one, and wit, however rare:

The Frenchman, first in literary fame,

(Mention him if you please-Voltaire? the same)
With spirit, genius, eloquence supplied,

Lived long, wrote much, laughed heartily, and died."

"Yon cottager, who weaves at her own door, 'Pillow and bobbins all her little store;

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Oh! that we could produce similar testimonies to all the other parts of the United Kingdom! We should then have no cause to fear any of the dangers of either Church or state. There would be no striving, but for "the faith of the Gospel;" (Phil. i. 27.) No provoking but "unto love and to good works." (Heb. x. 24.) "Ephraim would no longer envy Judah," and " Judah" would cease to "vex Ephraim.' (Is. xi. 13.)

In the meantime the testimonies respecting the good effects of the Bible Societies in England are numerous and convincing. I have already given an extract from a Southwark Report, to which I shall add a few other documents. And I hope those of my readers, who are yet unacquainted with these interesting productions, will be excited to make a large collection of them and judge for themselves.

So far back as the year 1813, the Committee of the BLACKHEATH Auxiliary Bible Society remark, "that in many instances, the perusal of the word of God has produced, as was to be expected, a very manifest improvement in the moral conduct of the poor who have received it. In proof of this the Committee quote especially the language of Mr. Wilmott, of the Woolwich rope-yard; who testifies, that there appears a general reform in the moral character of the rope-makers there employed. Formerly, their habits were exceedingly censurable; intoxica

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'Content though mean, and cheerful, if not gay,
Shuffling her threads about the live-long day,

'Just earns a scanty pittance, and at night
'Lies down secure, her heart and pocket light;
'She, for her humble sphere by nature fit,
Has little understanding, and no wit,

• Receives no praise: but (though her lot be such,
• Toilsome and indigent) she renders much;
'Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,
• A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew;
And in that Charter reads with sparkling eyes,
'Her title to a treasure in the skies.

'O happy peasant! Oh unhappy bard!
'His the mere tinsel, her's the rich reward;
'He prais'd perhaps for ages yet to come,
'She never heard of half a mile from home,
'He lost in errors his vain heart prefers,
She safe in the simplicity of her's."

COWPER'S "Truth.”

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tion and profane swearing being very common amongst them. But now, he says, it is very unusual to see a single individual the least disguised in liquor, while on duty; nor does he ever now hear them make use of the profane and blasphemous expressions formerly so commonly indulged in that yard." See the Christian Observer for

June 1813.

In the first Annual Report of the TINDALE-WARD Auxiliary Bible Society, of which the Lord Bishop of Durham is President, and the district of which comprized, in the year 1813, twenty-four Bible Associations and 2076 members, a full conviction is expressed, "that the attention of the country at large, needs only to be awakened to the subject of Bible Associations, to render their establishment universal; and they indulge the hope, that the period may not be far distant, when there shall be no parish, town, or village, without its BIBLE ASSOCIATION. The perfection and completion of the objects of Bible Societies, must indeed be sought for in the prevalence of Bible Associations. These embrace advantages, infinitely superior to any that can arise from mere pecuniary accumulation;-they embrace the moral and religious welfare of the great mass of the community; they have a direct tendency to cherish a spirit of true piety;-and indeed they may justly be considered as the true basis of NATIOTIONAL RFFORM: for while they attract from sensual and degrading pleasures, they substitute superior enjoyments, and give the poor what they have long wanted, a pure incentive to action, adding a new value to existence. Indeed no one can appreciate their value but those who have been engaged in them." See App. to the 10th Rep. of the B. &. F. Bible Society p. 140.

If it be suggested, that these were early and sanguine impressions and expectations,-let the following more recent extracts be considered.

1. From the Second Annual Report of the WESTMINSTER

Auxiliary, &c.

"In examining the reports of the several Associations, your Committee have peculiar satisfaction in witnessing instances of individual benefit, which have resulted from the exertions of many of their members."-See App. to the 11th Report of the B. & F. Bible Society, p. 181.