The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-11-05 00:00:00

THE BIBLE SOCIETY.

At the annual meeting of the Staffordshire auxiliary of
this society, on Thursday last, the Earl of Harrowby
took the chair and opened the business of the day in the
following clear and suecinctaddress, which was listened to
with the deepest attention :—Ladies and gentlemen, it is
a great gratification to me, I-may say contrary to all my
expectations, to meet you again in this place. Although
I am sensible that those faculties are gone which might
have enabled me to make any statement that could afford
you information or satisfaction as to the progress of this
society, yet I hold it to be my duty, from the office which
I sustain, once more to testify in public my unabated at-
tachment to that society to which we belong. (Applause.)
have been a member of that society during a consider-
able part of a very tong life—l believe for about one-half
of its duration, and during that time we have seen it ad-
vance from very small and very unpromising beginnings
to that magnitude and importance which it now possesses.
We have seen it pass through difficulties, overcome many
external obstacles, and triumphant over some and not few
internal dissensions, and I think that under the blessing
of Almighty God we may hope to see it if not enlarging its
sphere,,at least continuing:to fill it with his approbation, and
to the bensfitof mankind. (Cheers.) I ray " to the benefit of
mankind," because I know of no society which is presented
to us by history, or of which we have any pessonal ob-
servation, to which the term " for the benefit of man-
kind," can so appropriately be applied. (Hear, hear.)
All other societies look to individual cases—at least to
classes of distress; but this society applies itself equally
to the young and the old, to the rich and the poor, to
Christians of different denominations, and to cur fellow-
men of every clime. (Hear, hear.) It spreads itself over
the whole world. It looks on man as a being to whom it
is bound to afford assistance; and while other societies
provide only temporal assistance in cases of temporal dis-
tress, this society applies its energies to the removal of that
worst of all distress—the want of religion or the possession
of a false one. (Hear, hear.) Let us, therefore, go on,
and we certainly shall have encouragement to go on if we
listen to that report which will be read to you, and which
I call on my reverend neighbour to read, with respect to
the past operations of the society. Ladies and gentle-
men, I can only express once more my ardent wish for
the success of this society ; and I hope that, if contrary
to expectation, I should again appear before you in my
I resent position, I may you meet in a state of increased
prosperity. (Applause.)
Viscount SANDON, M.P., on rising to move the adop-
tion of the report, observed that the report must, he was
sure, have given satisfaction to all who were then assem-
bled, showing, as it did, that this county maintained its
position among the contributors to the means of the
Bible society ; and that whatever changes might have
taken place elsewhere, at any rate the pecuniary resources
which its supporters in this part of the country were able
to afford, were not inferior to those which bad been pro-
vided in former'years. (Hear, hear.) Nor indeed could it
be very well conceived that their contributions could fall
off. It was, perhaps, rather late in the day to look out
for reasons for supporting the Bible Society. (Hear,
hear.) Those reasons had been so fully, so frequently,
and so ably stated, in every part of the empire, and the
questions which had arisen concerning it had been so fully
discussed that it appeared to many persons who were called
on to take part in their proceedings, an almost needless task
to go over the same ground again ;but at the same time, in
these days of controversy, every man was called upon to
revi:w his former opinions, to examine the ground upon
which they rested ; and to see whether they were still
sound and solid ; and in consequence of that general ne-
cessity he had felt himself, among others, compelled to
pass his own opinions in review ; and he confessed that he
found himself brought to no other conclusion than that
at which he had hitherto arrived. (Applause.) He could
not conceive why they should be called on almost to give
reasons for supporting the Bible Society ; for it seemed
to him that if they were Christians, and if they took the
basis of the Church of England as their guide, he could
hardly conceive why they should have any doubt as to
their duty of supporting this society. If they were
Christians, they were surely desirous to circulate the
preaching of our Lord and his Apostles—if they were Chris-
tians, they surely felt called on to make known the words
addressed by word of mouth to the first disciples of our
Lord, and by his Apostles, and which they had left behind
them as the inspired oracles of truth. It surely became
the duty of all Christians to circulate those oracles as
widely as possible ; and if they as Churchmen merely
looked to themselves as members of one particular church
of Christ, they must equally feel that duty to be incumbent
upon them. Why, on what basis did the Church of
England profess to be founded ? She professed to teach
them nothing but what could be found in the Bible as
the authorised will of God. (Applause.) Surely, then,
ii she wished to do her duty to her own peculiar opinions,
it must be her duty to circulate those oracles on which
she rested, and to which she appealed for the justification
of her opinions. (Hear, hear.) But was the objection
this—that it was wrong to associate with those who
differed with them as Churchmen on some points but who
concurred in supporting the Bible Society ? I confess
(said his Lordship) that my view is this—that it is our
duty as Christians to concur with our fellow Christians
wherever we can concur. (Loud applause.) There are
occasions enough on which we must differ, and on which
our duty calls upon us to separate—to separate however,
I hopeas friends and brothers—(Hear, hear, and cheers,)—
who differ upon some points, but who are agreed on this;
and, therefore, when we can find a common ground for
co-operation, surely as denizens of the same country;
Professing the same faith and entertaining the same hope,
it is our duty to co-operate if we find a common ground
of union. (Hear, hear.) These are the views and opinions
which, looked at again and again, have led me to the same
conclusion, that it is my duty to continue whatever sup-
port I con render to the great object of the Bible Society.
(Applause.) I do not wish to trespass further on the
time of the meeting, as there are other gentlemen present
who will give you details of the highest interest. I have
merely felt it my duty to state, in as few words as possi-
ble, the simple and general grounds on which I feel my-
self called en, as a Christian and an attached member of
the Church of England, to continue my support to the
great objects of this society. (Loud applause.)