The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-09-09 00:00:00

THE BIBLE versus MR. BLACKBURN.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
Stit,—lt must appear evident to every reader of the pamphlet re-
cently published by Mr. Blackburn, that the principal object of the
author was, not so much to defend the system pursued at the corpo-
ration schools, as to serve a political party. lie seems to be quite
alarmed, lest the late proceedings of the councilrespecting the schools
should in any way operate to diminish the influence of that party
with which they are identified, and of which he is the avowed cham-
pion. It is not surprising that he should feel alarmed ; for he add his
party may rest assured that there still does exist, not only among the
people of Liverpool, but throughout the British empire, so much of
truly christian feeling and knowledge, as will cause them to spurn,
and reject with indignation, every sinister attempt to seduce them
from their principles ; nor are they so ignorant as not to see the 'ulti-
mate designs IF of the pro-popish party, and to perceive that
this experiment of education is only put out as a feeler, which.
if successfully introduced, would only prepare the way for further
encroachments on protestant freedom. The despisers of the word of
God will never rest satisfied, until they can banish its sacred truths
from the world. lam very far from classing among such the respect-
' able author of the •' Defence ;" but it is a dangerous thing to be in
close union with such characters: the best of men have often, by such
means, been led into great errors. To make use of a vulgar expres-
sion, these parties, with whom Mr. Blackburn is acting in concert,
and whose dark ends he is, I trust unconsciously, aiding to accom-
plish, have "let the cat out of the bag" too soon for their purpose,
which may be hailed by the christian public as a providential circum-

stance. '• Fore-warned is fore-armed."
It may, surely, be considered a matter of some surprise that the
author did not take a little more pains to learn something further
about the " national system" prior to his engaging to write in its de-
fence. Had he done so, he might have easily ascertained the total
falsehood of that assertion of the popish priests—that the Roman Ca-
tholics of Ireland would not allow their children to be instructed in
schools where they were to read the unmutilated word of God.—
There arc abundance of authentic documents, to which he might
have had easy access, which would have proved to him that the
above declaration is contrary to fact. It should be kept in mind that
' the views and feelings of the Roman Catholic clergy and of the great
majority of the laity are completely at variance on this subject, as
shall appear by the following statements. I may here just mention
that I have, for the last thirty years, had a perfect knowledge of the
state of education in Ireland, and am, therefore, entitled to speak

with some confidence on the Subject.
About thirty years ago a few English gentlemen formed themselves
into a society, called the London Hibernian Society, for establishing
schools, and circulating the holy scriptures in Ireland. The funda-
mental rules of this society were, to give gratuitous scriptural educa-
tion to the poor of Ireland—to put into the hands of the scholars in
theirschools the authorised vernal: of the scriptures, without either
note or comment—to allow of no catechism whatever in the schools—
and to forbid the teaching of any particular doctrine. When the
schools in connexion with this society were first established, nearly
all the teachers appointed in them were Roman Catholics, while the
priests were solicited to become overseers of the schools in their re-
spective neighbourhosels, which some of them did. The schools went
on in this way for some years, when a great number of the teachers
became—by means of reading and teaching the scriptures—protest-
ants. The scholars also used to carry home the scriptures, and read
them to their parents and others; by which means the people ac-
quired a strong desire to read and possess the word of God, and many
thousands of copies of the scriptures were, in consequence, distri-
buted-among the people. By thus perusing the scriptures many of
the Uoman Catholics became arowedprotestants ; whilst many others,
although they did not separate from the Church of Rome, yet gave up
many of its absurd doctrines, and would not, as they had done for-
merlv, allow the priests to domineer over them, nor permit them to
lord it over their consciences. Then the clergy look the alarm, and most
strictly forbade the. parents— at the peril of their curses—to send their
children to these schools. A few of the children were taken away
from them ; but many thousands, disregarding the fulminations of
the priests, continued to send their children, and the schools went on
rapidly increasing; indeed, nothing but the want of funds prevented
them from spreading over the whole kingdom, and embracing the
whole population of Ireland.
During this period, the Kildare-street Society's schools were also
making rapid progress, as were also the schools of the Baptist Society.
In the year 1832 there were in the Hibernian schools alone about
36,000 Roman Catholics receiving a scriptural education. The other
schools were attended, in like manner, by many thousands, as will
appear by their reports.
While this was the state of education in Ireland, the Roman Catho-
lic clergy, assisted, I am sorry to say, by many dissenters, had influ-
ence enough to get the education bill passed.
Now if- the author had made himself acquainted with the real state
of the case. (and this he could most easily have done,) he would not
have gratuitously assumed that the Roman Catholics would rather re-
main without education, than he educated in schools where the scrip-
tures were freely read. This fallacy he has deliberately laid down as
the premises or foundation of all his reasoning. lf, therefore, his
foundation is false, the whole superstructure must necessarily fall.
That this is the cause every impartial reader must acknowledge, if he
will only take the trouble to consult the authenticated reports of the
Hibernian Society, the Kildare-street Society, and the Baptist Society.
For further confirmation on thisoint I would refer to the volumes of
the Baptist and Evangelical Masazines, previously to the year 1832.
Let us next examine what influence the " national system of edi-
tion" is likely to exert over the minds of the Roman Catholics. Here,
it is necessary to mention that the priests impress the minds of their
people that the Bible, as a whole, is calculated to lead them into error.
The " national system" confirms this impression, and this is its chief
recommendation to the priests. It now rests solely with them what
instruction they may please to give. The scriptures they never will,
if they can help it, permit the people to obtain or to read. In this
way this antischirstian system effectually precludes the mass of the
poor people of Ireland from all knowledge of the word of God, ex-
cepting what it may suit the purposes of the priests to concede to
.them. Is it not, I would ask, a great crime to cause the ignorant, de-
luded Roman Catholics to believe that a great part of the word of God
is of a dangerous character, and that they should not read it in its in-
tees-ay lest it should lead them into error / Is it not equivalent to
telling them that God did not speak the truth, when he declared that
all scripture was " profitable, and able to make wise unto salvation ?"
This is surely awful impiety ; and can it be deemed a trivial matter
for protestant: to countenance so fatal a delusion 1
Air. Blackburn commences his " Defence" by sneering at those
who have so nobly stood forwards in this town as the advocates of
scriptural education, and who have so ably vindicated the unmutilated
word of God. Ile plausibly Insinuates that they are not influenced
so much by religious motives, or by love for the . Bible, as by some
political purpose. He alleges that formerly they had not evinced any
such concern for the word of God. He might have found a reason for
their conduct without travelling so much out of his way as to impute
political Motives. The melancholy fact is, that for hundreds of years
no attempt has been made in this country, by men in power, to Inter-
fere with the free use of the whole Bible, much less to deny its pe-
rusal, under any circumstances whatever, to protestants. Reed we
wonder, then, that such a novel, hut criminal attempt should be stre-
nuously resisted by the clergy of protestant England? No language
of reprobation is too strong to designate such an attack upon liberty
of conscience ; and any nominal christians who join with the oppo-
nents of the word of God, and.sanction them in keeping it from poor,
ignorant, and perishing sinners, must be considered as co-operators
with the great enemy of souls. 'lt is under the baneful influence of
political bigotry that our author speaks of the meeting at the Amphi-
theatre, and of those who were the promoters of that meeting. Ido
not write either to abuse or eulogise any man; but I must say, as an
indifferent spectator, that no nobler motive of action could be evinced
by any man, than was manifestly displayed on this occasion. The
grand end seemed to be, to vindicate the whole Bible as the only
sound basis of education ; and they who assert this enlightened prin-
ciple are the only true friends of Roman Catholics, whilst those who
would sanction their errors, for the puryose of retaining their assist-
ance, in the prosecution of political objects, must be proclaimed as
their enemies—the enemies of their present peace and final salvation,
In showing the comparative excellency of the " national system,'
one might have reasonably expected to see Mr. Blackburn contrast it
with the scriptural system in Ireland, and not with schools set up for
children of one denomir.ation only. Such fairness and candour, how-
ever, did not suit his purpose.
His attempt to throw some kind of odium on those who are opposed
to his political party, by representing them as willing to apply a dif-
ferent rule to the rich from that which they act upon towards the poor,
is quite characteristic of his loose mode of reasoning. lie lays down
false premises, and then proceeds to reason from them as if they were
true. Let us hear what he has to say upon this point, lie says,
" suppose a gentleman was to call upon any one of these Rev. teachers,
and say, ' I wish to place my son under your tuition, but I am a
Roman Catholic, and do not approve of the reading of the authorized
version of the scriptures, and I must request that you will not in any
way interfere with his religious opinions ;' would such an application
be refused ? Common sense sass at once and without any hesitation,
it ought not to be refused." The case is here very unfairly stated,
for it implies that the religious opinions of scholars in the scriptural
schools are interfered with, which is by no means the case. Had the
author put the case fairly, it would have been thus :—" My son will
neither read, nor sit to hear read, the authorised version of the scrip-
tures :" and I am persuaded that the answer of any of the Rev. tfen-
tlemen to whom he alludes would have been to this effect—" Sir, I
read in my school, and cause my-pupils to read, the authorised ver-
sion; but Ido not interfere wi their religious opinions ; and if your
son cannot conform to this rule, I cannot take him under my care."
This, indeed, is the very 1 garage used by the conductors of the
scriptural schools in Ireland,
It is alleged by Mr. Blackburn that the " national system" is cal-
culated to create union and cordiality amongst different denomina-
tions. I would appeal to every man of common sense, whether the
system which separates the scholars, and places them under the
control of their particular clergy, or that method by which they are
instructed in one body in the scriptures only, is best adapted to pro-
duce peace and harmony. I can spealt,from my own knowledge, of the
effects resulting from the two systems ; and my experience informs
me that, where children have been educated in scriptural schools,
they have grown up in amity and cordial union together, and that
their parents have uniformly been assimilated to them in these amiable
characteristics; which has never been the case under the national
system, the fruits of which have been discord, hatred,land bigotry.
A further difference may be noticed : the inhabitants in the vicinity
of scriptural schools have been characterized by greater correctness
of moral conduct, than is exhibited in districts deprived of this bless-
ing.no
is Mr.
to
t calculatedl3lack bu rne 's
producerema r
mni4 and uncharitableness
If directly, l eaudnteotahrei
tiabnfleerneenscsei?
tlhf theattb Doesis
i Bibles
really
Why does he not originate a " Society for the Diffusion of Scriptural
his opinion, why does he support the Bible Society
Extracts 1" What a pity it is that so much ignorance has existed on
the subject among pious people 1 How much- treasure has been ex-
pended—how much labour has been undergone—to bring "peace and
good will" upon earth, by disseminating the unadulterated word of
God, when the thing couldlae so much better accomplished by banish-
ing the Bible from the world ! Shades of Owen, Henry. Baxter,
Watts, and Doddridge I look upon the degeneracy of modern Dis-
senters, and shame them out of their hollow profession of attachment
to your principles.
Mr. Blackburn's criticism on the passage in Genesis is glaringly
incorrect ; for if the promise is made to the woman, that she shall
bruise the serpents' head, (which promise implies the whole work of
redemption,) it is of little consequence what agent she may employ to
effect that work ; she must still be looked upon as the ePciesit cause.
The promise made to Abraham, which our author states to be of the
same import, is widely different. The promise made to Abraham is,
" that in him, Sty.," plainly intimating, (as the Apostle reasons in the
3d chapter of his Epistle to the Galatians,) that to his seed the promise
was made. Did this mean that the promise was made to Abraham
personally? Mr. Blackburn seems to have very little acquaintance
with the formularies of the Roman Catholics, when he says, that they
pray to the Virgin Mary only as an advocate. A great number of their
prayers are addressed to her as if she were the Deity: indeed, the
Pope, in one of his letters to his clergy in these realms, la-
menting the great inroads made on the church, by the circula-
tion (d. the Bible, and by other means, exhorts thetn to apply
for succour to the blessed Virgin Mary, for that to her they
were to look for their only hope to console and preserve them in
all their troubles and difficulties. He does not once mention
the name of our Saviour as having any thing to do with • the matter.
I know that many Roman Catholics declare that they only address the
Virgin as a mediator, but their practice in this, as in other instances,
gives the lie to this declaration.
The doctrine respecting conscience, broached in the pamphlet, is
absurdly erroneous. Mr. 8., in effect, says, that conscience is to be
igenivsi
taontieofientc,foin, redsere,rishuutrlesilatoae:gotodamotlteusglii
rdiyoltrusdedienpnls,
respected in a person who is perpetrating a wicked act ; for can any
yint,ter.hftsh.ollsaaeiriatbinv.taeoedtn
srlbhlajOie spuriouslneii rnbetg ay,toktsßi.die
asnyetlpeitbarublomvabeNteirlvoiirayhensitialia
amongst
stake? Surely these were parallel cases.
Alas ! for the cause of dissent, and, I will add, for the Redeemer's
wicked
aVelotbtinieclmtiheyh.xefi persecution
t:Wpds.ics,joor,eaale.itler,tsi
iitp.
lsigthtvTsfhayaaiLraeogh,tsall
sight
~eita,sestose:Vminceoainni
weorieifttesnsenimhrheictiesCh.
the murder
ei,botteei°..mlißntlarnntrhodrciuoiedieedienlgrtnilbgdirceytegatehee.
Christians,
riroi: respected
fets :sPrvateeonecsrsptpd,
heed.
eco,
ntftijaGi snni onk,t
id. i
,intpf‘h,grtoouhesmlree:
DisSenters will, I doubt not, soon have cause to regret this unhallowed
association with the powers of darkness. I am, Sir, &e.
*ltaco*twhi In
f. bloody:
hbhaceint
isbtecimsbrcerinedilehoe;s,onlet:ilitein:cehrnixhagloe)gahurneterl generation
A LIBERAL DISSENTER.,

The life of the late Baron Smith wa3 insured for £5,000 in
one of the offices; but the policy was effected so many years
ago as to make the profits of the company amount to more than
£3,060.

How TO ASTONISH FLIES.—On May-day a German youth in
Mazyckburg, North America, strewed some gunpowder on the
stole counter, with the view of exploding it, and killing a num-
ber of flies which annoyed him. Tho flies settled anionK the
powder, which the boy set fire to, and effectually accomplished
his object, hut he had forgotten to remove the barrel whence he
had taken the gunpowder, which also exploded, and took away
the roof of the store, lifting it bodily into the street.