The Sun.
London, England, 1825-08-26 00:00:00

CIRCULATION OF THE BIBLE.

The following Speech was made by the Earl of
LivEßeool., at a recent meeting of the Kingston
Auxiliary Bible Society.. It doqs.honour to the
Noble Earl, and to this great. and Christian
country, which has done more in twenty years
for the extension of Christianity tha❑ all other
nations in ages :----

" LAThES AND GENTLEMEN—I cannot return thanks for
the honour you have just done me, without troubling you with
a few remarks. It is now ten years since I first attended a
meeting of a Bible Society in another part of the country ; and
I can truly say, that the effects of the Society ever since that
time have confirmed me in the opinion I then formed, that it
was calculated -in an eminent degree to promote the interests of
religion and virtue. The-character peculiar to it is universality.
It confines itself not to one country alone, but extends to every
country in the four quarters 'of the globe, and to every region,
however remote ; and how could we go to foreign countries,
and to people of different religious persuasions., how could we
go to the Luthern, to the-Calvinist, to the Greek, or to the Ro-
man Catholic, without first laying it down as our foundation at
home, that we admit all our fellow Christians of whatever de-
scription as members of. this Society ; and that if there are any
who refuse to accept the Scriptures from us, there are none to
whom we refuse to give them ?
" Standing upon this broad basis, we wish to look upon all
Christians as brothers; and desire to regard all the nations of
the earth as united in one common tie under the same God, and j
acting .under the direction of the same general code of laws
given by his sacred word. If I could imagine that this Insti-
tution,
universal as it is, could in some degree have affected
other benevolent institutions -antecedently formed, but having
more limited objects in Tiew, I will freely own that the great-
ness of the object would. not have suffered me to withdraw
from it; but it is a satisfaction to reflect, that the effects of it
have been, what I should have anticipated they must have
been; to increase the zeal, to augment the funds, and to im-
prove the character of all; because the same principles on
which this Society is formed may be applied in a degree to all
others, and the motives which lead to subscribe to this, would
lead to subscribe to others.

" We live in a time when great effbrts are fnaking.tawards
' the general education of all-classes and all descriptions of men ;
and God forbid that any one should suppose that there is any
branch of education whatever' from the acquisition of which any
class should be excluded, and from the knowledge of which some
benefit might not be acquired ; yet I cannot but look to religious
education as the only sure foundation .of all useful knowledge.
If the Bible is the Book of Piety, the Bible is not less the Book
of Wisdom ; and if there are any who -have the knowledge of
this Book, and scarcely any other.knowledge, or what is called
knowledge, besides, they will learn from this book to discharge
every duty of life : they will learn, principally and chiefly, their
duty towards God ; but they will also learn the duties of good
subjects, good husbands, good parents, good children, and good
neighbours ; they will learn to stifle and to smother the tumult
of passion in their breast, and to rest contented in the condition
of life in which it has pleased God-to place them. But if there
are any who possess all other knowledge, and are yet ignorant
or neglectful of the Bible, they may become the disputers of this
world; they may be knowing to some purposes, but they will
find themselves involved in all those mazes of error in which the
great men of antiquity were involved, who looked forward dis-
tantly and remotely to a revelation like that which the Christian
dispensation has given to the world.
The.object of the Bible Society is to circulate the word of
God among all nations. It has already circulated it in every
quarter of the globe. The Scriptures have been provided in
140 languages, in 50 of which they had- never existed before.—
It is our object to convey this blessing to every nation, however
remote; but it is our object, and more especially our duty, to
circulate them amongst our own fellow subjects ; to bring up
the rising generation in the knowledge of- them, and to make
them feel, without depreciating any human knowledge, that it
is from the knowledge of God, as conveyed in his word, that
their happiness in this world, and their salvation in the world to
come, must depend."