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Abstract of the Results of the Liverpool and other Branch Societies.

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It will be observed, that the proportion which the total number of Contributors and Subscribers bears to the Popu

lation is,

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And that the ratio of Collectors, when compared with the population, is precisely similar. This furnishes a conclusive evidence, that it is only necessary to increase the number of those valuable Agents, in order to extend an interest in the cause, and diffuse more widely the advantages and blessings of the system.

SECTION III.

ON LADIES' BIBLE ASSOCIATIONS.

It has been observed, that the Parent Institution assumes no control over the internal arrangements of Local Societies; and that the recognition and strict observance of its fundamental principle, alone, constitutes the bond of union. But the advantages of one uniform mode of proceeding in all societies of the same designation, are evident: and among them, no one is more important than the security which is thus afforded, that the integrity of this principle will be maintained throughout every part of the system.

1. The following are the RULES recommended by the Committee of the Parent Society for adoption by Ladies' Bible Associations:

I. That we form ourselves into an Association, in connexion with the British and Foreign Bible Society, through the medium of the Auxiliary

Rules recommended to Ladies' Bible Associations.-Observations.

[or Branch] Bible Society, for the purpose of contributing towards the circulation of the holy scriptures" without note or comment," particularly in and its vicinity; and that this Association be denominated Ladies' Bible Association."

"The

II. That all persons, subscribing the sum of one penny, or upwards, per week, or making a donation of one guinea or upwards, at one time, shall be members of this Association.

III. That the business of this Association shall be conducted by a Committee, to be chosen annually, consisting of a Treasurer, -- Secretaries, and not less than — other members, eligible for re-election, and under the patronage of such other honorary members as the Society or Committee shall select and obtain.

IV. That the Committee meet once a month, or oftener, if necessary, on a day to be fixed by themselves; and that members be empowered

to act.

V. That, for the purpose of soliciting and collecting donations and subscriptions, the Committee divide this neighbourhood into districts, and appoint one or more collectors from among themselves to each district; and that these contributions be paid to the Treasurer at the Monthly Committee Meetings.

VI. That the Committee make it their business to inquire, Whether any families or individuals, residing within the limits of this Association, are in want of Bibles or Testaments, and unable to procure them: in which case it shall be the duty of the Committee to supply them therewith, at prime 'cost, or reduced prices, according to their circumstances.

VII. That the funds of this Association, or so much thereof as the Committee shall direct, whether arising from subscriptions, donations, or the sale of Bibles and Testaments, shall, from time to time, be expended in the purchase of Bibles and Testaments at prime cost, to be sold to the poor in the neighbourhood, as before directed; and that any surplus which may arise, be remitted, at the discretion of the Committee, to the Auxiliary [or Branch] Bible Society, in aid of the general purposes of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

VIII. That a General Meeting of the subscribers and friends of the Association be held on such day as shall be fixed on by the Committee in each year, at o'clock; when the accounts (as audited by the Committee) shall be presented, the proceedings of the past year reported, and a Treasurer, Secretaries, and Committee, chosen for the ensuing year. IX. That a copy of these Rules, signed by the Secretaries, be transmitted to the Committee of the Auxiliary [or Branch] Bible Society; with a request, that they will grant permission to lay out the funds of this Association in purchasing, at the depository of the said society, Bibles and Testaments at the cost prices.

2. OBSERVATIONS.

The following remarks, in addition to those submitted in Chapter III. Section II. may tend to elucidate the practical operation of these Rules:

I. When the Association is formed in connexion with a Ladies' Branch Society, the introduction to the first Rule should be thus expressed :-"That we form ourselves into an Association in con

Simplicity of the object.-Inexpediency of large Districts.

nexion with the British and Foreign Bible Society, through the medium of the Ladies' Branch of the --Auxiliary Society."

In this, as in the primary regulation of every Bible Society, the single object of the institution is distinctly recognised. On this subject it has been justly observed," Its grand design is, to circulate the volume of divine inspiration among all the nations of mankind, in all their several languages. This is its sole business: it intermeddles with nothing else. It distributes the Scriptures the whole of the Scriptures-and nothing but the Scriptures. It gives them, as God has given them, without note or comment; pleading the example of GOD as its precedent; and relying on the blessing of GOD for success."....." Blend this object with others, and you dissolve the charm that binds the whole together;-you narrow again the sphere of co-operation, by unavoidably touching, in some degree or other, on party peculiarities;-you introduce variations of sentiment, and scruples of conscience;-and by bringing Christian association back to its former circumscribed state, you destroy one of the chief glories of the singular period in which we have the happiness to live."

II. It is a mistaken idea to suppose that the funds of Bible Associations are derived, exclusively, from the contributions of the labouring classes. They have, in numerous instances, been augmented by the liberality of individuals in the middle and upper ranks of society; and nothing tends more to encourage the former, than this co-operation on the part of their superiors. At the Annual Meeting of the Liverpool Auxiliary Society, in the year 1813, when a resolution had been adopted for forming Bible Associations, the Chief Magistrate, who presided, after declaring "that he accounted it the greatest honour that could be conferred upon him to have an opportunity of standing up as the warm friend of the Bible;" and avowing his peculiar admiration of the plan of penny-a-week societies; in order to sanction the measure, immediately added, "Put my name at the head of that list, and all my domestics shall become subscribers too."

According to the census of 1811, there are more than 2,100,000 inhabited houses in Great Britain. If each of these furnished only a single subscriber of a penny a week, the annual aggregate amount would exceed four hundred and fifty thousand pounds; being considerably more than double the income of all our Bible and Missionary institutions.

III. In addition to the remarks already offered (Chap. II. Sect. II.) relative to the provisions of the third and fourth Rules, it is only necessary to observe, that, in order to conduct the business with system and efficiency, three Secretaries should be appointed. The number of the Committee will always depend on the extent of the Association.

IV. Allusion has already been made to the inxepediency of large districts; and, in Associations conducted by Ladies, it will be found,

Necessity of Associations.

or sixty houses are amply sufficient for each. The injunsequences of suffering any individual to collect, who is not ber of the Committee, have likewise been pointed out; but this must be accepted as a general remark, since it is evident that places will always be found, especially in large towns, which it would be inconsistent with the delicacy of the female character to visit regularly.—The following extract from the Second Annual Report of the Bristol Association will illustrate the author's meaning, and suggest a mode by which this difficulty may be obviated.

"A young man employed in the coach-office at the Bush Tavern, at an interval of leisure, was talking with three or four of the servants and porters about different religious societies, and, among the rest, about the Bible Society; when, on his observing that hundreds subscribed to it only one penny per week, all said, one after another, "I should not mind that." Immediately he inquired into particulars respecting the Bible Association, and began to solicit subscriptions; and he has obtained, by his own unassisted exertions, forty-eight subscribers for the benefit of the Association, and thirty-one subscribers for Bibles and Testaments, at the Society's prices. It deserves to be particularly noticed, that all these seventy-nine subscribers are composed of book-keepers, coachmen, guards, horse-keepers, porters, and other servants connected with the inns, who probably would never have been prevailed on to subscribe by any other person."

This fact clearly proves the beneficial effects of circulating printed Papers explanatory of the nature, tendency, and effects of Bible Societies. It is scarcely necessary to observe, that the respective individuals who collect in such places should pay over the amount, monthly, to the collectors of the districts in which they are situated.

v. It has been well observed, that "it is no difficult task to imagine that the inhabitants of a town or village are adequately supplied with the holy scriptures; but it is difficult and laborious to investigate whether they are or are not." The following Extracts from the Annual Reports of Local Societies are selected from an immense number of similar testimonies, which afford decisive evidence, that it is only by the practical operation of the sixth Rule that this investigation can be prosecuted. In every case, an Auxiliary or Branch Society had been previously established, and had succeeded in attaining its immediate and important object; but was found incompetent to conduct those regular and systematic inquiries, which constitute the peculiar province of Associations, and by which alone an accurate knowledge of the state of the poor can be acquired.

Colchester, 1813.-In one parish connected with the Hinckford Hundred Society, 144 families were visited, consisting of 689 persons: of these there were, 34 families, in which no person could read;

80 families having no copy of either Old or New Testament:

30 families having a defective or torn copy of a Bible or Testament. Ditto, 1818.-Of 69 families inhabiting one street, in each of which was some person who could read, were found 52 families, embracing about 200

Wants of the Scriptures ascertained-requisite supply furnished.

persons, without either Bible or Testament: of these, 56 individuals expressed their willingness to contribute a penny a-week to obtain a Bible.

North-West London, 1818.-In one division of the Oxford-Market Association, out of 150 subscribers which were obtained, upwards of 90 were in want of Bibles. And in a single court within the limits of the same Association, consisting of ten houses, and containing about sixty families, only five copies of the Scriptures were found.

Daventry, 1819.-The necessity for a Ladies' Association at Byfield is established by the report of the collectors of one district, who state, “Out of the first twenty-three houses which we visited, there were nineteen families wanting Bibles, being either without them, or those they possessed being torn and useless."

Staffordshire, 1819.-" It was discovered, by actual investigation, that in one village, twenty-nine families, containing 153 individuals, and amounting to about half its population, had amongst them, only three Bibles, and not one Testament. And there was every reasonable ground for believing that the remaining half of this village, and also three other villages in the near neighbourhood of it, were in a condition equally destitute and deplorable."

Southampton, 1817.-The formation of this society, in 1814, was preceded by an inquiry, the result of which was, that, among 4165 individuals, there were found to be no more than 439 Bibles and 128 Testaments. In September 1816, a Ladies' Association was formed and in reference to one of the country districts, which the Committee of the Branch Society believed to have been adequately supplied, they observe,-" Your Committee had considered that there was no necessity for their exertions in that quarter; and had accordingly abandoned any intention to do any thing further, than to supply two Bibles to that number of cases recommended to them by a resident. On actual investigation, however, to their great surprise, it appeared that forty-four families (out of sixty visited by the Ladies) were destitute of the holy scriptures; while many others possessed such books alone as were mutilated, and in great part useless."

Doncaster, 1820.—“It is a great argument in favour of Bible Associations, that it is only through their operation that any thing like a true estimate of the want of the Scriptures existing in a district can be obtained. The re turns made by Auxiliary Committees have usually fallen far short of the truth; and the actual wants can only be brought to light by the minute investigation of Association collectors. Hence it has not unfrequently happened, where a hundred copies of the Scriptures have been reported as wanted, ten times that number have been found insufficient. The truth of these remarks has been proved in our own society. Seven years have elapsed since this Auxiliary was established:-at that time, two hundred and eighty poor families, amounting to near one-fifth of the population of Doncaster, were reported as destitute; and during the four years ending 1817, three hundred copies were circulated, which it might have been plausibly contended would be a sufficient supply. But what is the fact?-A Bible Association was established in 1817; and within three years, no fewer than nine hundred and fourteen Bibles and Testaments have been distributed to persons who voluntarily and cheerfully enrolled their names as subscribers. . As a further

proof of the great efficiency of Bible Associations, above every other means of distribution, it may here be mentioned, that through the channel of subscribers to your Auxiliary, resident in Bawtry, only sixty-six copies of the Scriptures found their way into that town up to 1818; while during the two years the Association has been in operation, nine hundred and eighty-six Bibles and Testaments have been issued from the Doncaster depository to answer the demands of Bawtry and the adjacent villages.". The

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