are excluded, without the sanction of the civil and ecclesiastical au. thorities, and without the friendly consent and active co-operation of the Continental Bible Societies, which enjoy the patronage of Government, such a measure might, I apprehend, eventually lead to the prohibition and confiscation of such unguthorised editions, and the very persons who print, import, and circulate them would be liable to prosecutions at law. But, admitting even that individuals were at fiberty to circulate Bibles without the Apocrypha, and there were found persons also willing to receive them, such circulation would still be very limited without the co-operation of national, provincial, and district Societies.* Those who are correctly acquainted with the state of the Continent must be aware, that all institutions, including those of a moral and religious nature, are, generally speaking, placed under the inspection of some department of the state. What, then, let me ask, is the duty of the Christian philanthropist? Surely not to oppose himself to the established regulations of those states whose subjects he proposes to benefit; not to maintain, with unyielding pertinacity, his own peculiar views, and refuse to do good in any way but that which he deems to be the best ; not to adopt measures which would, in many cases, inevitably close the door against him, and preclude the admittance of the benefits he proposes to confer. Surely if there be any line of conduct pointed out more distinctly than another to our institution, it is this : to follow the leadings and the openings of Divine Providence :-o avoid all needless occasion of offence ;-to preserve that encouragement and protection which is now extended by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of Protestant States ;-and carefully to avoid provoking, without necessity, the opposition of those countries wherein the Society has not yet been re. cognised and approved. And you must allow me to add, that as it is by following this line the British and Foreign Bible Society has, under the divine blessing, conferred incalculable benefits on mankind, so it is by pursuing the same path we may expect continued and increasing facilities. It is not by indiscriminate obloquy and reproach that ei. ther individuals or nations can be benefited; nor is it by arrogating to ourselves, exclusively, the character of the people of God, that we are most likely to convince others of our claim to the title, or to lead them into the path of peace and safety. Not only does it appear to me perfectly consistent with Christian principles to adopt all prudeat and honest means of conciliation, but such conduct seems to be dis

• The great importance of national and provincial Bible Societies appears from this circumstance, that in the kingdoms of Sweden, Saxony, and Hanover, a general collection in aid of the funds of their respective Bible Societies, has been made in every Protestant con. gregation. A similar collection is annually to take place in all the

. Protestant churches in the Prussian dominions, for the benefit of 1 the Prussian Bible Society. Could all this bave been accomplished without the sanction of the highest civil and ecclesiastical authorities? Assuredly not!

tinctly enjoined by that heavenly charity which "suffereth long and is kind."

The Statements of the Dissentient Members of the Edinburgh Committee, we have read with the highest satisfaction. The presumed unanimity of that Committee under all the circumstances of the case, appeared to us one of the most extraordinary things that we had ever met with. Delightful as is the view of brethren dwelling together in unity, we could not help secretly adverting to the remark of the inspired apostle on one occasion" even Barnabas also was carried away." The Dissentient Members whose statements are here put forth are, the Rev. H. Grey, A M.; John Campbell, Esq. of Carbrook; the Rev. Edward Craig; the Rev. John Brown; and the Rev. Gilbert Wardlaw;- Daniels in judgement,' Dr. Andrew Thomsom sneeringly calls them, and he terms their united statement a flagrant and affecting felo de se.' Mr. Grey, in particular, appears to be the object of his jealousy or spleen: he is not, it seems, so chaste a writer as the Editor of the Edinburgh Christian Instructor, and is, therefore, insulted over by this ecclesiastical Ishmaelite; but he may be, nevertheless, the better Christian. We, too, recommend our readers to procure and read this document, without pledging ourselves to concur in all its statements. Let them weigh well the following remarks.

"It appears to me,' says Mr. Grey, that the London Committee have gone to the full extent of what just Protestant principles require, in fixing the bounds of our connection with foreign societies, and in securing our funds from all Apocryphal misapplication whatever, in time to come; and that when it is determined that the Bibles we issue from our depositories at home or abroad shall uniformly be issued bound, comprising the genuine Canonical Books only, and that no money grants shall be given in aid of any editions that are to contain the Apocrypha, we do all that, as a Society, we are authorised to do. To determine for foreign churches or individuals, what they shall be permitted to do with their own money, and to require them to be decided by our authority as to which books they shall retain and which they shall reject, wears to me, I confess, the character of an intolerant usurpation over the consciences, and over the personal liberties of men-an error of which the Reformed Churches and citizens of Great Britain, who possess all their advantages on the principle of letting truth fight her own battles, ought to be the last to set an example. For though we readily acknowledge and claim the right, as men and as members of society, of forming our associations with whom, and on what terms, we please; yet, as Christians and members of a Christian Society, it appears to us, that charity and equity do not permit us to withdraw from men, and to refuse them our co-operation in a good work, namely, in disseminating VOL. XXVI. N.S. I

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the genuine Scriptures, simply because they are mistaken, and act conscientiously on their mistake, in another and totally distinct part of their proceeding, namely, the dissemination of the Scriptures combined with the Apocrypha. Our having the command of more money than our neighbours,-for this, I apprehend, lies at the root of our assumption,-does not entitle us to ride over the heads of men, to require them to be of our opinion before they have heard our arguments ; to be Protestants, in fact, before they have read the Scriptures.-What answer should we make to a foreign Society which, happening to hold the opinion, that the Minor Prophets were a spurious appendage to the Scriptures, should require us, on pain of their disowning and withdrawing from us, to issue no copies in which these books were contained ? Should we not indignantly reply, • Pray have the goodness to confine yourselves to your own affairs; whatever may be your opinion, you shall neither invade our consciences as Christians, nor our liberties as Britons and members of society, by imposing your views upon us.' The fact of our opinion respecting the Apocrypha being well founded, and theirs respecting the minor prophets erroneous, does not alter the merits of the case. Catholics and Lutherans are as conscientious in many cases, though not so well informed in their opinions, as we, and the right of interference and dictation must be admitted to be on both sides equal.

• While our Committee disclaims the assumption of legislative power by the parent Committee, it appears to me to be itself chargeable with affixing, on its own authority, to the fundamental law of the Bible Society, two new regulations never before heard of or submitted to discussion here, or in the meetings of the parent Society; first, that, as a Bible Society, we can have no transactions with other Societies but upon the terms of their holding the same canon of scripture with ourselves : secondly, that, while limited by our primary law to the circulation of the Canonical Books without note or comment, we are also limited to the employment exclusively of agents bound by the same regulation,—so that any agent of a foreign Society employed in the circulation of that Society's books containing the Apocrypha, say among Catholics, is thereby disqualified for disposing of any of our books without the Apocrypha among any class of

ristians whatever. The world, it appears to us, must be wonderfully altered before we can expect to be so accommodated in our peculiar sentiments as to find the means of doing good extensively on terms like these.

• The jealousy our Committee feels at the possibility of contact with the Apocrypha, seems to amount almost to superstition--as if the Bible might be in some degree defeated or paralysed in its effects by standing on the same shelves, or issuing from the same depository with books of an inferior character. The extension of this principle might lead to the requirement that all men and implements, printers, printing-presses, booksellers, porters and carriers, employed in Bible Society agency, should have renounced all purposes, and be disqualified from all application not strictly conformable to the objects of the Society. Our embracing the opportunity of presenting a pureBible by the hand of an agent, who, in his other hand, carries a Bible mixed with Apocrypha, does not, in our apprehension, either lessen the tendency of the pure Bible to do good, or render that Society answerable for the bad effects accruing from the Apocrypha, which, in giving the one, professedly renounces and disowns the other.

• The question of the Apocrypha is an old question. The venerable Reformers of our national churches had it among the rocks and breakers through which it was their task to pilot their bark. It was settled, not to ihe satisfaction of the purer, then called the puritanical part of the Church; for the Apocryphal books, under the desigpation Apocrypha, had a public and legal sanction given to them, being placed in the authorized version under the inspection of the community at large. All the faithful compilers and translators of the Scriptures, from Jerome downwards, seem to have made it an object rather to fix the character of the Apocrypha as of human origin and fallacious authority, than entirely to cancel and suppress it. And although the Council of Trent, by including it in the CaDon, bas bestowed upon it a more formidably pernicious character, yet, supposing the total suppression of it could be at once abruptly obtained in Catholic countries, we may question—as it will still con. tinue to be appealed to by Catholic priests and religious writers whether such suppression would not awaken suspicions of defect and mutilation in the Scriptures, that might be removed by an inspection of its contents, and at the same time confer upon it the mysterious importance that is apt to attach to a thing unknown. While the British and Foreign Bible Society keep their hands entirely clear of it, one of the happiest modes in which they could exert their influence on Foreign Societies would certainly be, to induce them to give the Apocrypha a separate place in their Bibles, as has been done with such good effect in our own. Our Reformers displayed to the Catholic, and to the Semi-catholic part of the community, that they were not jealous of the influence of these books while they came accompanied by the pure word of God. And did they not soon drop out of all ordinary editions as an unnecessary.and cumbersome appendage ? Did not all serious students of the Scriplures learn to distinguish the genuine from the spurious ? - They contain some valuable sacred history that must have remained unknown to us, but for the narration of the achievements of the Maccabees, without which, we humbly conceive, we should have been at a loss to make out St. Paul's reference in his rapid enumeration of classes of nameless worthies who underwent fierce and mortal persecution, from the 35th to the 38th verse of the with chapter of the Hebrews. We sliould hold it matter of regret if this history were suffered to fall into entire oblivion and neglect, except among antiquarians in sacred literature. And even the absurd legendary stories, which are only fitted to dishonour the word of God if mistaken for the work of Inspiration, have an interest attached to them, and a use, provided they come to us merely as literary curiosities of a very ancient date, illustrative of the influence which the sacred writings, popularly known

and universally acknowledged, had on the meanest national literature of the Jewish people.

• Though I would be very far from presuming to question the mo. tives of men manifesting so much zeal for the cause of truth as our brethren of the Edinburgh Committee, yet it appears to me, that an equal zeal, tempered with a more patient and tender consideration of the circumstances of the inhabitants of the Continent, would have led them to hesitate, and ponder, and review their deliberations, before coming to the remorseless resolution, that it is better to abandon the work altogether, than to do it with any mixture of imperfection better to leave extended provinces and populous cities destitute of the word of God and of the means of obtaining it, than admit to foreigners, of whatever character, the right of judging for themselves, of the eligibility of means to be used for enlightening and evangelizing their native lands That cause had need be im. pregnable in the strength of its merits, that admits of such modes of defending it.' pp. 13-16.

The Third Edinburgh Statement we shall have occasion to notice hereafter. In the mean time, we beg particularly to call the attention of our readers to the “ Letters in Defence of the “ Bible Society," signed Amicus, which contain some highly curious and important information respecting the Edinburgh proceedings. How far the statements are correct, we have no means of ascertaining. Dr. Thomson styles the Writer'a * sixpenny slanderer,' and accuses him ofutter and shameless calumny,' and 'sheer malignity'--and this, merely, because he has given, as it should seem, an incorrect ‘form' to a real occurrence. If we are rightly informed, however, Amicus is not a man to be put down

manner. As far as regards Mr. Haldane, that he should not have been a subscriber to either the British and Foreign Bible Society, or to even the Edinburgh Bible Society, up to the year 1821, is, we confess, so incredible that we are fain to think Amicus must be mistaken. The paramount ascendancy, too, which he ascribes to that gentleman in the Edinburgh Committee, involves such a libel on that illustrious body, that we cannot help being a little incredulous. But time will shew. The five gentlemen who have done themselves honour by their firm but temperate protest, are not, we have reason to believe, the only dissentient members. There is sedition in the camp.

Nothing is more extraordinary in the whole history of this extraordinary controversy, than the sudden illumination which has flashed like lightning from North to South, respecting the unlawfulness of binding up the Apocrypha betwixt the twa boards of the Bible; when, in fact, * from the Reformation in Britain to this very day, the Bible along

in this