Intelligence.

AND

THE JUBILEE OF THE BRITISH FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY has been celebrated by several services during the month. Fifty years ago, on the 7th of March, 1804, this Society was formally instituted at a public meeting, and has since then pursued a career altogether unparalleled for usefulness and success. On Monday, the 7th of March, 1853, the first mecting in connection with the Jubilee was held in the same room, in the London Tavern, in which the Society was first formed. Lord Shaftesbury, and afterwards the Right Rev. Dr. Carr, ex-bishop of Bombay, presided. Many of the earliest sur viving friends of the Society were present; and among them, the venerable Dr. Steinkopff, for so many years the colleague, as Foreign Secretary, of the Rev. John Owen and the Rev. Joseph Hughes. Of the original committee, the only surviving member is Mr. William Alers Hankey, whose infirm state of health alone prevented his attendance, and who testified, by special donation, his unabated attachment to the Institution. One of the most interesting features of the meeting was the assembling of the foreign agents of the Society, who have come to England, on the special invitation of the Committee, to attend this festival. Among them, the venerable Dr. Pinkerton, after forty years' active labour in the service of the Society, re-appeared at their head, and took a very interesting retrospect of the progress of its foreign operations. Mr. Benjamin Barker was also present, after an absence from this country of thirty-eight years. Of this band of fellow-labourers in foreign lands few had previously met.

On Monday evening a meeting, chiefly for devotional purposes, was held, over which Thomas Farmer, Esq., presided.

On Tuesday morning, a densely thronged meeting was held in Exeter-hall, nearly five thousand persons being present. The Earl of Shaftesbury, as President of the Society, occupied the chair. From the

Report read, it appeared that at the time when the Society was established, the total number of Bibles in circulation did not exceed four millions.

But,

Since the Society has been in active operation, it has been permitted directly to issue twenty-five millions four hundred and two thousand three hundred and nine copies; while, through kindred institutions which have sprung up in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, that number has been increased to upwards of forty-three millions of copies of the sacred Scriptures in whole or in part-a number, we may safely believe, greater than the whole aggregate issues of all times previous.

Again if we look at the lists of languages and dialects, we shall find that your Society now tells forth the wonderful works of God in no less than 148, whilst the versions hitherto completed are 175, of which 121 are translations never before

printed. In connection with this amazing fact, it should be fully borne in mind, that it thus gives access to nearly six-sevenths of the human family to the truth of God.

In regard to the former circulation of the Bible, it is stated:

For many years the Scriptures had become more and more scarce; and the inquiries which were set on foot in the different countries of Europe, served to bring that fact into greater prominence. In England, the Bible was comparatively known; but in the Highlands of Scotland, and the wilder districts of Ireland, it was scarcely to be found. In France, with the exception of a few family Bibles in the hands of the descendants of the Huguenots in the south, it was rarely to be met with. Spain, Portugal, and Italy ignored its existence. several States of Germany, the noble version of In the Luther was confihed exclusively to the Pro estant population. The Laponese, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Lellish, and Danish, were restricted to those of higher rank and of more wealthy circumstances. Towards the south of Europe, Greece had the ancient version, which was unintelligible but to the priesthood and the educated. To Turkey, Moldavia, Albania, Wallachia, Bosnia, Suabia, it was a fountain sealed. As we pass over the Straits, and enter upon the land of Asia Minor, so often trodden by the feet of the Apostles, and renowned in its memorials, both sacred and profane, there we meet the ancient Armenian used as an ornament in its churches, but its contents were not brought beneath the eye of the sense, nor addressed to the ear of thought. The whole continent of Asia was almost barred against the truth, for even the portion which had been translated into Chinese lay immured in manuscript in the national museum in England; of the fifteen polished languages of India, the Tamil of Zingenbulg was the only medium of access to the revealed mind of God; over the islands of the Pacific and the Indian Archipelago was a veil of deep darkness thrown. Of Africa, the state was almost similar; the margin of the south was here and there illuminated by the pages from Holland: but to the tribes of the interior was no voice sent. The Western coast had not yet become an object of interest to the missionary; the only region upon which could be said the light of revelation in any way to shine, was the Northern line, where Arabic is spoken; for although, in the earliest days, the version in the Coptic and Ethiopic had been made, yet, by the mass, they were unsearched, and not understood. The meeting was addressed successively by the Chairman, the Bishop of Winchester, the Rev. J. A. James, the Duke of Argyll, the Rev. Dr. Duff, the Earl of Carlisle, Mr. Josiah Forster, the Rev. Hugh Stowell, the Rev. William Arthur, the Rev. W. Charles, the Rev. Dr. Cum. ming, Lord Charles Russell, the Rev. W. Brown, and others. It was announced that the contributions to the Jubilee Fund had already exceeded 7,000l.

The MADIAI are at liberty: the pressure from without has at length acted on the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and compelled him to release the captives. It is probable that the letter of Lord John Russell, noticed in our last, has materially contributed to this result. They are, we understand, at the time we write, on their way to England.

Poetry.

The Wesley Banner,

AND

CHRISTIAN FAMILY VISITOR.

MAY, 1853.

Essays, Articles, and Sketches.

THE PULPIT AND THE PEOPLE.

THERE are some things which we are hardly allowed to judge of according to their merits, and there are some things which are supported by very much beside their merits. The pulpit, perhaps, is thus guarded and upheld. Then, before we venture to inquire into the influence it has, or ought to have, upon the people, we should know whether there is attaching to it any peculiar sacredness. Early in life we may have caught the idea that it is a part of our religious duty to listen reverently to sermons, whether they be good or bad. We hear of men who have received "power and authority to preach God's holy word and administer his holy sacraments," as though they were beings of quite a distinct order in creation. By common consent, the man has "performed Divine service" who has preached a sermon. There is still something remaining of the feeling, which used to be carried to the extreme, of thinking one's self righteous over much if church or chapel had been attended twice on a Sunday. Often have pious people been heard saying, with deep humility, that "it was their own fault, they had no doubt," when they had gained nothing from a sermon which had nothing in it. If a man does not attend any place to hear pulpit ministrations, he is set down, of course, as an infidel, or something worse than that. Far be it from us to promote an indifference to the duty of communicating, or of attending to the communication of Divine truth. All truth, we believe, is divine, and we believe the sacred duty is devolved on all to give heed unto and promote that truth. But we demur altogether to that estimate of the "sacred desk" to which we have just adverted, We could conceive of the total suspension of pulpit duties for a month throughout the entire country, without being horror-stricken as by the thought of some dire calamity. But the thought, however, is serious, that many persons would by that time have lost all their religion. Would that by some less expensive mode they could be taught what their religion is!

VOL. V.

From whence does the pulpit derive its sacredness? We find in the Bible but one mention of the pulpit, and then we are informed that it had fourteen occupants; and further it is shown, that if there had been a Bible Society then, there had been no occasion for that pulpit. This, then, cannot be the pattern or support of the "sacred desk" of modern days. "We must not suppose," says Dr. A. Clarke, of that pulpit of Ezra's day, "that it was anything similar to those tubs or barrels ridiculously set up in churches and chapels, in which a preacher is nearly as much confined during the time of his preaching as if he was in the stocks." But this is not the train of thought which the reader is invited a few moments to pursue.

The pulpit has long been classed with the platform and the press, as an agent in the mental and moral culture of the people. But the influence of the pulpit appears waning, while that of the platform and the press has been waxing more and more. Efforts to prevent this declension have not been lacking. Sundayschools have been established as nurseries for the churches; and thus literally sacrificed upon the altar of sectarian ambition. City and town-missionaries have been employed to persuade the careless to attend some place of worship. Organs have been erected to draw the people. Popular preachers have been proclaimed and puffed. The public have been respectfully informed of special attractions, and have been duly thanked for patronising them. Yet all has been unavailing. The permanent adhesion of "the masses" has not been secured. The poor man has looked on, and felt as though at the church or the chapel they wanted the people to do them a favour, rather than that they wanted to do the people good. Continually one is hearing complaints of the large numbers who go to no place of worship, and many of the best of those who do attend, go only "for example-sake." The indignant retort of the working men upon those who propose to restrict their liberty in the matter of the Crystal Palace, has been a loud expression of their sense of the worthlessness of religious institutions. If the only result of the agitation on the question of opening the Crystal Palace on a Sunday be to fix attention upon the estrangement of the working classes from religious institutions, we shall rejoice. In discussing the question, the Times newspaper pursues the following strain :

"Do the masses, the people, the working classes of London, crowd to our churches, morning, afternoon, evening, whenever the bells invite them? Do we see our aisles, our free seats, our galleries, crowded with the pale faces, the horny hands, the fustian jackets, the coarse linen, of those who do the rough work of this vast metropolis? Where are the artisans, the labourers, the porters, the coalwhippers, the lightermen, the sailors, and the myriads of toiling and suffering humanity? Here and there, one of them-a marvel of his class, a man to write a book about, the hero, perhaps, already of half-a-dozen religious tracts-does go to church, or to meeting, on the Sunday morning, and, perhaps, the evening also. Will the statists and the prophets of Sion College tell us where the others are -the 999 out of the 1,000? We presume they will not say, with the Pharisees of old, "this people is accursed;" nor can they imagine that these 999 are engaged in private prayer, or otherwise observing the Sabbath? No; without specifying the various attractions which the existing laws permit on the Sunday afternoon, we may at once reply that the said 999 are sotting, or sleeping, or talking politics, or reading the Sunday papers, or fighting, or seeing their dogs fight, or rat-catching, or walking in the fields-if there chance to be any within walking distance-or quarrelling with their wives, or simply doing nothing at all, being jaded, wearied, prostrated in a sort of hebdomadal trance, or coma.'

Respecting Norwich, the Nonconformist, in recording a noble example of non-professional religious effort there, says, "it had been ascertained, from the best authority, that the number of persons in that one city who habitually

absented themselves from churches and chapels (including children capable of attending), was from 37,000 to 40,000, in a population not exceeding 70,000." Of the 27,000 inhabitants of Gloucester, not 5,000 are found in the churches and chapels on a Sunday, is the testimony of one familiar with the state of things existing there. In the last year's Report (the Fifteenth Annual Report) of the Leeds Town Mission, it is said, "Churches and chapels may be built in every district, but thousands, alas, will not enter them without repeated entreaty and remonstrance by the living voice. From an inquiry recently made as to the attendance of the adult male population at places of worship, the following returns were obtained:

"In one street twenty-six males were found, of whom six attended public worship.

"In another, out of twenty-one adult males, only six attended regularly, and five occasionally.

"In a part of Hunslet, out of sixty-four men, only three attend.

"In a part of Camp Field, out of eighty-two men, only eight attend regularly; and

"In another yard, containing sixty-four adults, only two families resort to public worship.

"One missionary calculates that about one-ninth of the male population in his district are regular attenders; and another gives the particulars of thirty-nine families in the Bank district, of whom only one man and his wife are regular attenders."

Similar facts might be adduced relative to most of our cities and towns, and the agricultural villages also in various parts of the country. There are exceptions; and in some of the secular buildings which have lately been occupied on a Sunday for religious services, the industrial classes have contributed to the crowd. But as a whole the case remains.

Now, how shall this state of things be dealt with? Let the myriads thought of be no longer thought of as "the masses," but be made to pass before the eye as individual brothers-every one a man. Ask how many have considered Christianity and Christian institutions identical, and have rejected both together. It would, however, be unwise to form an unduly aggravated estimate of the spiritual condition of those who go not to church or chapel. Many have been called antiChristian until they have believed what has been said of them, and have become such :

"Men might be better if we better deem'd
Of them. The worst way to improve the world
Is to condemn it. Men may overget
Delusion-not despair."

All have not sunk in sullen indifference to everything that is good. No, perhaps not one has gone so far. And may there not be many a truly Christian man who has no sympathy with religious institutions? Who could say there are not more out of the modern churches than in them? Men of sterling uprightness— men who love God and goodness, and good men ? "What authority have I to inquire about the orthodoxy or the place of worship of such an one, when I believe the words of the Apostle, 'He that loveth is born of God?'”—one might well ask himself. But blindness only can fail to see the utter isolation and selfishness which is being branded everywhere on what should be human. "Every man for himself" is the maxim continually meeting one in all the walks