law of God; or in the imperative way, by bidding him cease from the doing of it,—a way no less effective and scriptural than the former, and brought to bear in the New Testament upon men at the earliest conceivable stage of their progress from sin unto righteousness.

I share most cordially in opinion with the reviewer, that he might extend his observations greatly beyond the length of the original pamphlet, were he to say all that might be said on the topics brought forward in it. I believe that it would require the compass of an extended volume to meet every objection, and to turn the argument in every possible way. I did not anticipate all the notice that has been taken of this performance, and am fearful lest it should defeat the intended effect on the hearts of a plain people. With this feeling I close the discussion for the present; and my desire is, that in all I may afterwards say upon this subject, I may be preserved from that tone of controversy, which I feel to be hurtful to the practical influence of every truth it accompanies; and which, I fear, may have in so far infected my former communications, as to make it more fitted to arouse the speculative tendencies of the mind, and provoke to an intellectual warfare, than to tell on the conscience and on the doings of an earnest inquirer. T. C.

Glasgow, December, 1815.

THE

INFLUENCE

OF

BIBLE SOCIETIES,

ON

THE TEMPORAL NECESSITIES OF THE POOR.

BY THE

REV. THOMAS CHALMERS,

KILMANY,

BIBLE SOCIETIES.

:

ARGUMENT.

1. The Objection stated.-2. The Radical Answer to it.-3 But the Objection is not true in point of fact.--4. A former act of charity does not exempt from the obligation of a new act, if it can be afforded.-5. Estimate of the encroachment made by the Bible Society upon the funds of the country. 6. A Subscriber to the Bible Society does not give less to the Poor on that account.— 7. Evidence for the truth of this assertion.-8. And explanation of its principle. (1.) The ability for other acts of charity nearly as entire as before.-9. (2.) And the disposition greater.-10. Poverty is better kept under by a preventive, than by a positive treatment.-11. Exemplified in Scotland.-12. The Bible Society has a strong preventive operation.-13. And therefore promotes the secular interests of the Poor.-14. The argument carried down to the case of Penny Societies.-15. Difficulty in the exposition of the argument.-16. The effects of a charitable endowment in a parish pernicious to the Poor.--17. By inducing a dependance upon it.-18. And stripping them of their industrious habits.-19. The effects of a Bible Association are in an opposite direction, to those of a charitable endowment.-20. And it stands completely free of all the objections to which a tax is liable.-21. A Bible Association gives dignity to the Poor.-22. And a delicate reluctance to pauperism.-23. The shame of pauperism is the best defence against it.-24. How a Bible Association augments this feeling.-25. By dignifying the Poor.-26. And adding to the influence of Bible Principles.--27. Exemplified in the humblest situa tion.-28. The progress of these Associations in the country.29. Compared with other Associations for the relief of temporal

necessities.-30. The more salutary influence of Bible Associa tions.-31. And how they counteract the pernicious influence of other charities.-32. It is best to confide the secular relief of the Poor to individual benevolence.-33. And a Bible Association both augments and enlightens this principle.

1. WITHOUT entering into the positive claims of the Bible Society upon the generosity of the public, I shall endeavour to do away an objection which meets us at the very outset of every attempt to raise a subscription, or to found an institution in its favour. The secular necessi ties of the poor are brought into competition with it, and every shilling given to the Bible Society is represented as an encroachment upon that fund which was before allocated to the relief of poverty.

2. Admitting the fact stated in the objection to be true, we have an answer in readiness for it. If the Bible Society accomplish its professed object, which is, to make those who were before ignorant of the Bible better ac quainted with it, then the advantage given more than atones for the loss sustained. We stand upon the high ground, that eternity is longer than time, and the unfading enjoyments of the one a boon more valuable than the perishable enjoyments of the other. Money is sometimes expended for the idle purpose of amusing the poor by the gratuitous exhibition of a spectacle or show. It is a far wiser distribution of the money when it is transferred from this object to the higher and more useful objects of feeding those among them who are hungry, clothing those among them who are naked, and paying for medicine or attendance to those among them who are sick. We make bold to say, that if money for the purpose could be got from no other quarter, it would be a wiser distribution still to withdraw it from the objects last mentioned to the supreme object of paying for the knowledge of religion to