The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-11-12 00:00:00

OUR PUBLIC MEN.

LORD 811ArIR8DURY OX "EMATS AND Reviews."
—The jubilee of the West Bromwich Auxiliary of the
British and Foreign Bible Society was celebrated on
Tuesday by • public meeting, in the Wesley Chapel,
the Right Hon. the Earl of Shaftesbury in the chair.
The noble Chairman, in addressing the meeting, thus
alluded to " Essays and Reviews :" Since he stood on
that p:atform, four years ago, there had been an erro-
neous, singular, and chimerical production, in the form
of • volume called " Essays and Reviews." nos
"Essays and Reviews" had been drawn up and published
by learned professors—by men holding high stations in
the universities—men who received, he did not hesitate
to say, the bread of the Church for the purpose of
preaching very different doctrines, and laying down very
different principles, from those to be found in that bad
book. (Applause.) lhe "Essays and Reviews" were
directed point blank against the book that they loved,
which they had determined to spree' throughout the
whole world, and which, by God's blessing, they would
so spread, despite all opposition. The book was so
formed as to attract attention, and thee to go up like •
fire balloon, and, thank God, to explode into utter
nothing. (Applause.) They might ask him why, at
such a meeting as that, he touched upon this subject.
To this he would answer that it was the main matter,
the thing itself, the main subject they had before them ;
for it there was a particle of truth in the "Essays and
Reviews," then the Bible Society was the greatest im-
posture and piece of cl.arlatsnisni that had ever existed
in this world. The Bible Society said that this was the
pure, simple, and unadulterated Word of God—that it
was the language of inspiration, and that it had
been dictated by God himself. These were their prin-
ciples, and if they were tree, then Chyle put forward by
the Essayists and Reviewers were false, irretrievably
false, in anything they had said or done, or could do
until the end of time. (Applause.) He loved to touch
upon these things when he came amongst thole friends
whom be loved from the bottom of his heart—the
working men of England. He had loved and respect.
them long, and lie hoped they loved and respected him.
lie liked to talk on those subjects, as lie wished to
drive the truth home to the senses of the people, to set
them against the doctrines taught in the "Essays and
Reviews ;" to show them that the heart was far better
than the head in all those spiritual matters that related
to eternal love; and to prove to them that in the
simplicity of love they would attain a far deeper and
truer insight into the things of the Most High than by
the most elaborate study of geology and metaphysics.
It might be asked, "What can they know of these
things, whose talk is of bollocks?' and he would say
that they would know ainch inure by experience than
those could possibly know who only knew from study
and burning the midnight letup. Many of the working
men of England in the agricultural and mechanical
districts had very little time to devote to the study of
history and science, but they might have—end many of
them had—heard of the triumphs that had been achieved
by the Bible at all times; how it had changed barbarism
into civilisation, made the savage become mild and
gentle, and raised women from the condition of
servitude to that of equality with man; bow it had
raised Ul from the appalling subjection in which we were
bound heart and mind to the Papacy; how it had intro-
duced the great Reformation and given us freedom of
body, of thought, and expression; and how it had given
us power to walk as Christians and free men. When
the working men had seen, by the simple operation of
God's truth upon the heart, • bad and drunken husband
become a model of conjugal fidelity and kindsess ; when
he had seen a reprobate son and daughter brought up
to support and love their father and mother; and when
lie had seen a bad father and mother caused by its work-
ing to become kind and good parents—when he had
seen these great changes wrought by its effects, would
be hesitate to receive it as being sent down from
h and inspired by God, because some learned pro-
fessor, sitting in his chair, said he had souse doubt as to
whether the world was created in six days or in six
gen, rations, or that because ichthyosauri had been found
in chalk the fishes could sot have been created on the
sixth day. Thine great practical experiences, those
great triumphs, the Scriptures had effected; and when
science would have produced upon the minds of •
millionth part of the human roes a millionth part of that
good that was done by the Bible every hour in England
alone, then, and then only, could science come into
competition even with the very fringes of the revealed
word of God. There could be no doubt but that a great
spirit of infidelity had been of late years developed in
this and other countries, but it was • careful and an
astute infidelity. No doubt the rage of the unbelivers was
excited by the rapid spread of the Scriptures over all
the world, by its translation into so many languages
and dialects, and by is diffusion over the length and
breadth et civilised communities. The question, then,
in their minds was how this spread of the Scriptures
was to be checked, and they felt that they could not in
the old fashion prevent it. To deny altogether the
authenticity of the Scriptures was not suited to the
present generation, and they entered therefore into •
grand conspiracy, that had no little resemblance to that
of Guy Fawkes, and resolved to explode the whole system
of Christian religion, and bury it is one great con-
flagration. In order the better to accomplish this they
had enlisted science in their cause, and thus caused the
unnatural civil war between science and revelation.
They said that revelation could not be brought into
harmony with the modern results of scienos—a reve-
lation that had existed now for 3,000 years, bad resisted
every attack made upon it, bad asserted from the first
to the present moment the same thing, to be questioned
by science, that WAS a thing of a day, altering day by
day as new discoveries might arise, and that could not
be said to have an windows longer than She fact that
had just been announced. In circulating the Scriptures
the great principle of the Bible Society was that they
were the inspired Word of God, that they were written
under full, unqualified, plenary inspiration. They
maintained the right of private judgment, and, more-
over, the competence of men to exercise that private
j idgment upon the Scriptures that were before him.
This was directly antagonistic to the Essayists, who, if
they did not in Be full sense deny inspiration, so
qualified It as to reduce It to nothing at all, and left
the Bible without any substantial authenticity as from
the hands of the Most High. And then Caine the
question of private judgment. How were the tens and
hundreds of thousands of working men in this country
to get time to learn Greek and Hebrew and nstural
science, without which they were given to understand
by the Essayists that they were not qualified to give an
opinion as to the meaning of the Bible? Why it would
be a greater sacerdotal tyranny than had ever been
exercised, even by the Church of Rome, to say that
none but those living in learned leisure could be able to
comprehend in what degree the book should be received,
and, when received, in what degree is tenets were to
be believed.