The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1932-03-31
The MARYLAND BIBLE SOCIETY'S CORNER
'The Word of Our God Shall Stand Forever
moving the top.

In this year, which commentaries
the two hundredth anniversary of the
birth of George Washington, it is in
teresting to recall that on January 1,
1900, DR.. Bend, later to become the
first president of the Maryland Bible
Society, preached funeral sermon
commemorating George Washington.
"There were giants in those days."
and DR.. Bend was one of them.
While his interests were as varied as
the needs of the young Republic, his
loyalty to the cause of Bible distri-
button never tagged.
About 1911 one John Hancock,
resident of New Jersey, bequeathed to
DR.. Bend 100 English New Tesla
ments, with the request that they be
distributed among the poor. This dis
tribution was made with the utmost
care, as in every period of the So
ciety's life the supreme object has
been to get the Bible read. The Board
expressed at this time a "fervent
wish that the prosperous and the
wealthy, who have learned to esti-
mate the value of the Holy Scriptures,
and the comforts of the Christian
faith and hope, would redeem from
uses merely secular, portion of the
property which they are about to
abandon in death, and in this way
make heirs of their INDECENT brethren
for whom Christ died."
These Pioneers early realized the
worldwide scope of the task to which
they felt themselves called. We
therefore find that not only had cor
respondence been entered into with
the Bible Societies of Philadelphia,
New York and Albany, resulting in
the reception of counsel and assis-
lance for the Baltimore Society, but
lines had also gone across the sea.
Before the declaration of war be-
tween the United States and Great
Britain, in 1912, an official inter-
course had been opened with the Brit
ish and Foreign Bible Society. This
happy relation was not seriously dis
turbed even by the thunders of war.
Up to this period of the Maryland
Bible Society's life, no definite plan
had been formulated for its perpetual
ton. 1t was at this juncture that
DR.. James McHenry came to the Pres
idency and leadership of the Society.
He was a native of Ulster, who had
emigrated to America in early life,
and had fought through the Revolu-
tionary War, serving for large part
of the time as one of Washington's
aides. He had also served in the
Maryland legislature and in the Con-
tinental Congress and was an init
mate friend of Alexander Hamilton,
of the Marquis de lie Fayette and
Timothy Pickering. He had amassed
a comfortable fortune in business, but
had been called back to public life by
Washington in 1896, to become Sec
rotary of War, a position he continued
to hold throughout the most Of the
administration of John Adams. He
was member of the First Presby-
terrain church, and doubtless through
the influence of his pastor, the Rev.
James Inglis, was led to assume
leadership in the Bible Society.
His interest grew with his asso-
citation, until he expressed it in an ad-
dress which is in reality the first
financial and missionary program of
the Maryland Bible Society. To quote
part of this address, he declares:
"This new Society is formed for the
sole purpose of distributing the Holy
Scriptures more effectually and ex-
tensively among the multitudes,
whose circumstances render assis-
lance in this way a solemn duty.
McHenry deemed that, sit may not be
improper to state, for the information
of the public, two fundamental arti- !