The Sun.
London, England, 1821-11-01 00:00:00

hoalth ; upon which 111 r. Nod rose, and alsa iitred havill;'evcr
given permission to USE his name fur that purpose Mr. Clay tt.,n
said, that it must have 'origimetcd in sonic misunderstanding,
cud immediatAy withdrew his name.] •
Lord ROCKSATAGE, in a short speech, ev2a-
tiated on the great benefits restilting -to society
in general from the labours of an institution faint&
ed for the express purpose of diffusing the word of
God. They all knew, from the best authority,
what joy the repentance of one sinner was calou-
late& to excite; but it- was impossible to con-
ceive the multitude of those who might have been
saved and converted through the instrumentality
of their exertions. - His Lordship concluded with
moving that the Report should be received and
adopted:
The Rev. JOHN ANGEL JAMES, of Birming-
ham, rose to second the motion. He began by
congratulating the meeting on the success with
which the Holy Book had been circulated, and
then complimented the City of London on the
.part which it had taken, in this, great work.—
Never, he observed, did that illustrious fetter
(alluding to the Lord Mayor's chain) appear
more illustrious than while he presided over such
meetings, and gave his sanction to such principles
as they had assembled to propagate: For his own
part he was always happy to express the attach-
ment which he felt to his native country. His
admiration of the magnanimity, and liberty, and
' power, and wealth, and zeal which characterised
her amongst the nations of the world. That
her magnanimity might be without the evils of
pride, her liberty without anarchy, her power
without oppression, her wealth without arro-
gance, and her zeal without fanaticism, were the
wishes of his heart. Thus they might see the
British name greater in its humanity than in its
power, greater in the works of grace- than when
she made her enemies tremble. If ever he was
proud of his country it was at this moment,
when she was occupied in distributing the Holy
Scriptures; 44 to be a light to lighten the Gen-
tiles, and the glory of my people Israel." If _it
were possible for him to have a choice:in such a
case he would say, let me live in Britain at the
commencement of the 19th century, and in that
wish he would not be influenced by the glory
of her arms, or the wisdom of her counsels, so
much as by that zeal and devotedness to the
cause of religion, which had made her the light
and joy of the whole earth.—(Applause.)—lt
was not necessary for him in such a place to
eulogize the Bible ; as well' might he think it
necessary to eulogize the Sun on a harvest day
while it was shining on the fertility and abund-
ante which its beams had cherished.. It had
been said, and wisely said, that the man who
made two blades of grass grow where one grew
before; was a patriot, and a friend to mankind ;
much more might it be said that the man who
deposited one Bible where there was none be-
fore, was a benefactor to the human species.--
But the success of their exertions had surpassed
their warmest expectations, and was in itself a
proof that they were under the protecting eye of
the Omnipotent. Who could have anticipated,
on the first foundation of this Institution, that in
so short a space of time upwards of a million
sterling would have been expended in the pur-
chase of Bibles, that three millions of copies
would have been circulated, and that America
would have become one Bible Society from the
falls of Niagara to the banks of the Mississippi.
Again, on looking to its effects, wherever it had
made its way they would find the widow de-
riving consolation from its blessed promises, the
orphan hope, and even the profligate improvement
and reformation ; they would find the Bible in
that hand which was accustomed to grasp the
pick-lock. What, he would ask, was the refor-
mation ? It was the act of bringing the Bible
from the, monasteries and opening it to the people.
--(Applause.)—He had heard some fears ex-
pressed with regard to Popery ; for his own
part, he had no such fears. He should as soon
be afraid of the return of witches and hobgoblins,
for Popery could only blossom in the dark. He.
would give the Catholics the revival of the Je-
suits, and even Catholic Emancipation, and still
he without any apprehension as to the success of
their doctrines. Neither was he afraid of
Atheism; as well might the bats and owls put
out the light of the sun by the flapping of their
wings, as the frothy declamation of the French
philosophers extinguish the moral luminary. To
sum up all, he would say, that the best means
of doting good was to circulate the Bible, and
the best means of circulating. the Bible was to
support such an Institution as they were that
day assembled to contemplate and encourage.—
(Applause.)
(The Resolution was then agreed to unani-
mously.)
Mr. Sheriff VENABLES next presented himself.
He observed, that the eloquence of those who
preceded him had left nothing now for him to
acid. There was, however, one point of view in
which he should allude to the Bible Society:—
They were all aware of the efforts made in the
present day to promote the education of the poor,
and he was sure they would agree with him in
thinking that it was necessary to give that edu-
cation a religious and moral tendency. It was
true that the Bible Society came in to give it that
direction. He then moved a Resolution of thanks
to the President and Vice-Presidents of the So-
, ciety.—(Applause.)
The Rev. Dr. THORPE seconded the Resolu-
tion, and claimed their patience while he sub-
. mitted a few simple observations on the nature
of the undertaking in which they were engaged.
The undertaking was most arduous; it was to
circulate thee Holy Scriptures all over the world ;
and required a sacrifice of time and money, which
suggested the propriety of inquiring whether it
' was necessary or not. The Holy Book itself,
. disclosing to us the prospect of futurity, and
' warning us of the preparation that would be re-
quired, proclaimed such an undertaking to be
grounded on the VI of God. Another argu-
ment was to be drawn from the present condition
1 of mankind, with respect to the Holy Scriptures.
• Upwards of six hundred millions of people were
' still destitute of these sacred lights ; and. the
greater part of them were ignorant of the existence
of such a book as the Bible. If that was the
case, the necessity was abundantly made out.
But'it had been said of a large portion of the