we are about to make upon it with reference to our own country, we shall thankfully avail ourselves, as the occasion occurs, of some of the sound arguments which are to be found in his pages.

Notwithstanding the acknowledged good sense of the English, in most matters of business, a Catholic must still smile at their notion that the general dissemination of the Scriptures can work any real good-smile, that is, as much as sorrow will allow him, for the matter is very serious when looked at on the serious side. And if the reason be asked, he will answer that, seeing the old and young throwing themselves headlong into the scheme of showering down Bibles over the people, under the idea of morally benefiting them, he cannot but smile at their enormous folly. It is so thoroughly a business idea, as if resting on the notion that since clergymen and ministers, who are supposed to be the greatest readers of the Bible, are made grave, staid, and solid characters by means of it, you have only to make all the little boys in the streets read their Bibles, and all the little girls come to school with it under their arms, and you will soon have them all as tame and sedate as any archdeacon. A complete business idea! as if on the principle that what succeeds in making an officer, à fortiori must be able to make a soldier; and that which forms the stately and serious rector, ought at least to be able to make a decent parishioner. Moreover, it is a quick way to religion, and the very thing to be approved of by those who are willing that there should be a religion for the people, and yet appreciate the merits of a method which promises a cheap and expeditious return. It is curious that this business like character of the English in their religion could not escape even the rabbies in Jerusalem, as would appear by the reply made by one of their number to one of the missionaries sent by the London Jews' Society. That missionary had been patiently explaining to them, that though it was perfectly true that the Roman Catholic Church had admitted many idolatries into her worship and ceremonies, as indeed they (the Hebrews) had done in former times of their history, yet that in England there had been three centuries ago a great reform, in which the idolatries of Rome had been purged away, and the pure, spiritual, and apostolical form of the christian faith and worship had been recovered. To which the Rabbi replied,

"That is exceedingly likely; for you English are such good men of business-you have the best ships, a bill upon London is more easily discounted than upon any other city, and all the good cloth comes from you. It is perfectly credible that you should have mended your christianity till it is far better than that of the Catholics or Greeks." But to return.

English people are, more even than they are themselves aware, a business people. They are a thriving, busy nation, perhaps without an equal in this respect; and now that the country is overflowing with population, and the people are found to want a religion to preserve them, at least in outward decency and subordination, and to repress thieving and crime; they find that the Established Church is visibly too cumbrous and expensive an instrument of instruction to be enlarged, and known generally as too fond of ease to be thought suited for real labour, and that no body of dissenters is in a condition to be entrusted with a commission and furnished with the means to go and teach the people a religion. And yet the pressing need is daily more and more felt, evidencing itself in the increase of crime, and in the charges of the judges of the criminal courts to gentlemen of the grand jury, which exhort them to promote religious education in their several neighbourhoods by every means in their power. It cannot then be a matter of surprise, that a cheap and expeditious method of teaching the people religion, such as the indiscriminate circulation of the Scriptures purports on the face of it to be, should meet with an universal acceptance, and that but few should be found to take the pains to examine what it really means, with sufficient discrimination to perceive its enormous folly, and with sufficient hatred of humbug and deception to dare to declare their opinion of it.

Now, to what extent soever the whole English nation may have been led to adopt the notion that the general circulation of the Scriptures, is the use for which Almighty God fitted and designed them,--a belief into which they have been far too easily persuaded, yet in which it must in all charity be supposed, that numbers are acting in good faith and from the sincerest motives,-it must be a duty on our part to believe, that there will not be wanting those who will consent to pause for a while, and reason upon the grounds on which they expect their proposed beneficial results from the distribution of the Scriptures. And to

these we may say, "Though it is a Catholic who is about to reason with you, and you have many prejudices, and probably think no good thing can come out of Nazareth, -yet, good people, it will do you no harm to hear what a Catholic has to say concerning your notable scheme, and if you are able to see folly and error stamped upon what he may say to you, at least you will be able to pursue your Bible career with the better founded satisfaction."

Our task will be with the opinion that the dissemination of the Scriptures is the required means of spreading the christian religion, the need for which is beginning to be seriously felt, at least in order to repress crime. But the awakening of faith in the unseen world, and the Judge who dwells there, is one of the first steps in teaching religion. We would ask then, has no incident of a character similar to the one about to be narrated, fallen under your observation? A diligent and zealous Methodist, in a country village in one of the midland counties, was passing one summer's evening down the main street of the village, when, to his great horror, on looking through the window of the tap-room of the chief inn, which had been thrown up on account of the heat, he saw a neighbour of whose piety he had formed a high idea at various prayer and class meetings, carousing with a boisterous company who were singing profane songs. His zeal prompted him to stop and expostulate with his friend, and finding rather a jeering reception, a sudden thought striking him he abruptly departed, and returning with a Bible, he threw it down among them saying, "there, if you will not mind me, this will tell ye;" as if mutatis mutandis, he had had the words of the parable in mind, "This is my Bible, they will reverence my Bible, the Word of God." Alas, the poor Methodist never saw his Bible again in a state fit to be read, for it was put upright on the table, and libations of beer poured over it in derision, and neither he nor his Bible succeeded in reclaiming the men of Belial, whom in his zeal he sought to amend. Well, but what of such a story as this? Simply, that if it be a fair specimen, which it is, of the unworthy treatment to which unguarded distribution exposes the Holy Bible, at

least numerous evils accompany it. It is not an unmixed good. But it will be at once promptly answered, every good thing is exposed to the danger of its abuse, and no one can maintain that its use is therefore to be foregone. Most true, if it were certain that unguarded distribution were the use for which God intended the Bible. But then this is merely an axiom of its advocates, assumed, but not proved.

But admitting the axiom for a while, it will be said that its general advantages are such as far to outweigh its attendant evils. The multitudes of pious poor who solace their declining days by the study of their Bibles, the excellent instruction it affords to the young and to adults; these and many others are solid and substantial benefits, which do far more than counterbalance its occasional profanation. That the reading of the Scriptures is not without its bright side, in many instances, those who are acquainted with its effects, are very willing to bear testimony; for where it finds a real love of God and a cheerful and humble heart, as it sometimes must, and especially where it is pursued with the fullest conviction of its legitimacy, its fruits must often be very edifying. That beautiful scene described by the poet Burns, of a Scotch family assembling in the evening for their accustomed portion of Scripture reading will be remembered.

"The cheerful supper done, wi' serious face
They round the ingle form a circle wide;
The sire turns o'er wi' patriarchal grace
The big hall Bible, ance his father's pride.

His bonnet reverently is laid aside,

His lyart haffets wearing thin an' bare,

Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide
He wales a portion with judicious care;

And let us worship God,' he cries with solemn air.”
The Cotter's Saturday Night.-Burns.

But it must be obvious, that such instances alone are no solid foundation for the principle of a general and promiscuous dissemination of the Scriptures, inasmuch as these good effects have followed from the previous existence of virtues acquired in other ways; for happily for the cause of religion, there still exist other religious exercises besides that of reading the Bible, and it will be found that where these have previously prepared the soil, there the read

ing of the Bible, which with pious and simple persons is generally a kind of quiet meditation, produces its good effects. But if the existence of some previous virtues be necessary to the beneficial efficacy of the familiar reading of the Scriptures, the principle of their general distribution cannot certainly presume upon the condition on which nevertheless its success mainly depends.

On the hypothesis of the advocates of general Bible reading, two principal results are looked for. It is expected to cure and amend the vicious, and to educate and edify the good. That is, they regard it under the notion of a medicine and a nourishment. But the act of taking either of these must always be voluntary. Now how many sick persons are not at all aware of their complaints, and what numbers in health never care to bestow a thought upon the wholesome or unwholesomeness of their nourishment? Though then the Bible should be showered down upon the people, as the quails in the wilderness, as it is said, "et pluit super eos sicut pulverem carnes, et sicut arenam maris volatilia pennata," (Ps. 77.) Yet how in this case is an appetite similar to that of the Israelites to be ensured? There is scarcely much use in putting medicine in a sick man's way, unless some one stand by to give it him in the proper quantity and at the right time for taking it; and no one surely expects the material book to assume a living voice and implore to be read. It would seem then that, supposing the distribution of the Bible effected to the heart's content of its most enthusiastic advocate, that unless the Bibles thus circulated are really read, no result follows. But how will you cause them to be read? Here the Bible distributors are at fault. This part of the matter must be left, first to the individual's capacity, and next to his humour, aided by the effect of such exhortation as he may or may not chance to meet with. To what extent the Bibles already distributed are really read, different opinions will be formed, according to varying circumstances and opportunities of observation. How far the following anecdote, which is familiar to members of the established Church, is a trust-worthy indication, we do not venture to determine. The circumstance is said to have happened during the visit of a clergyman to the cottage of an old woman, to whom in the early part of the year he had given an octavo Bible, part of a grant from the Bible society. "How do you do, Betty?" enquired the pastor on entering