RESURRECTION. Ps. cxlv. 10. "All Thy works shall praise Thee, oh Lord, and Thy saints shall bless Thee." Linnæus-from the frozen North And out to the wide commons shed And sure the spring-tide must have seen When all the trees in tender green All blossoms and all daisy stars Pealed forth the gladsome song "If God so clothe the earth "-what waits For E'en here He gives to those who pray Their food and raiment due, But oh the joy when on that Day He shall "make all things new." The sweetest spring-time Voice that floats THE MEETING OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY FOR 1875. THE Bible Society of our favoured country announced in its Report for the year 1874-5 a larger sum received, and also expended, than in any previous year of the Society's history; to speak in round numbers, 119,0007. in subscriptions and donations, and nearly 103,000l. for purchase of Bibles and Testaments; almost a million-and-a-half of copies having been issued from the Depôt at home, and somewhat over a million from the Depôts abroad, during the past year. In the seventy-first year of its existence it can tell of nearly seventy-four millions of copies of God's Holy Word circulated from its Depôts, and fifty-three millions more from those of kindred Societies, a total of about one hundred and twentyseven millions spread abroad during this century; but over the space of two generations of men, supposed each to number twelve hundred millions! and this in upwards of two hundred languages the supply during all previous centuries having been provided in not more than fifty languages, and the existent number of copies in the world being, in 1803, supposed only between four and five millions. Out of the Society's circulation of seventy-four millions of copies during the century, thirty-eight millions have been distributed in England, Scotland, Ireland, and our Anglo-Saxon colonies, the remaining thirty-four millions in the other quarters of the globe. The items of comparative circulation given in the abstract of the Report of the different countries of Europe this year, were very interesting and significant. In In France 87,404 copies had been sold, in Germany 298,542,, in Spain 50,704, in Turkey 34,154, and in Holland 26,701. all these countries there has been, however, some diminution of sales, but elsewhere there has been a compensating increase. Thus in Northern Russia the circulation has risen from 127,000 to over 180,000, in Sweden from 87,000 to 100,000, in Portugal from 5,000 to 8,000. In India as many as 216,340 copies have been circulated, in China about 74,000; while new openings have presented themselves in Japan and other lands. N A select few of our readers will turn with patient delight to the full account of the meeting appended in the Society's Monthly Reporter, but this may not always be appended, and is not to the copies that go abroad, therefore for those who prefer selections, we have thought we could do nothing better this month than enrich our own pages with large extracts from the various telling and interesting speeches, very diverse in their character, but all well representing the thought-currents of the times. The meeting of 1875 will be remembered as one in which the Archbishop of CANTERBURY for a short time took the chair, previously to the arrival of Lord Shaftesbury, and, in his after speech, remarked that there were special reasons why he had on this occasion accepted the invitation to be present. Some think, said the Primate, that the Christian Church throughout the world is at this time approaching a great crisis. There are revolutions and changes in the social condition of mankind and in the civilizations of the world which often come very silently, and which are, when they are accomplished, more complete than even the changes which arise from great political revolutions. And, comparing the state of things now with that which I remember to have existed a few years ago, I cannot help thinking that the great cause which this Society has in hand has difficulties to contend with now which were not known then. The symptoms of great changes among foreign nations are to be heard and seen; new modes of thought are making themselves felt among intelligent men, and no one who looks carefully at the present state of public opinion can doubt that a more determined set is now made against a simple belief in the power of the Word of God than any of us can remember to have been made forty or fifty years ago. Therefore this is a time for all men who love the Word of God to cast aside the differences that keep them asunder, and rally together in union for the defence of that Word of God on which the doctrines of the Christian faith are built. Therefore, I think it wise that we should, in these anxious days, as much as possible join together hand in hand in a cause which so completely and so naturally unites us in feeling as that in which the Bible Society has been engaged for so many years. There are now many difficulties concerning the reverence which we all desire to see paid to the Word of God. Great efforts are made to persuade the rising generation that Christians have all during many centuries been mistaken in supposing the Bible to be the pure Word of God. If we are wise, we shall not by any unnecessary divisions amongst ourselves play the game of our common adversaries, and expose that Holy Word and that Christian religion with which we are put in trust to the assaults of the enemy, whilst we are differing amongst ourselves. All Christians, nominally at least, allow that the canon of the Old and New Testament contains the Word of God; all Christians, however they may practically neglect it, theoretically bow to this Word of God; and therefore we can overlook certain personal differences and find that we can act together to distribute it. This is a work which commends itself to all common-sense and practical Englishmen. Our endeavour is to multiply copies of the Holy Scriptures, and to spread them throughout the world. When infidels try to shake our belief in the Holy Scriptures, the proper answer is simply to place the sacred volume in the hands of all who can read it. The Holy Scriptures, amongst us, exist in their integrity. That is a great fact. Therefore, if we desire to meet those who by subtle arguments are endeavouring to unsettle the belief of mankind in the divinity of the Word of God, we take the wisest course by simply placing the volume in the hands of all men, and calling upon them to judge for themselves whether its morality and teachings are of human origin-whether the truths to which it points are such as could have come into the heart of man had he not been instructed by the Spirit of God. For my part I believe that the civilization of Europe rests on the Holy Scriptures. I believe that during these past centuries it has been a perpetual appeal to the truths circulated by the Scriptures that has made the nations of Europe different from the degraded races of more savage countries, or of those old worn-out barbarian nations, who, never having been blessed with the Holy Scriptures as their charter, have been obliged to turn to mere human books as their authority, and that authority has failed them. Whether, therefore, we desire that civilization should make progress in Europe, or whether we desire, as Christians ought, to spread that civilization which we possess among other nations at a distance, we are right, I am sure, in spreading the Holy Scriptures as the foundation of all that is most noble in our European civilization, and by which we trust it will go on and prosper. I think it a very glorious thing for this nation of ours to extend the knowledge of the Scriptures to those who have not that familiar acquaintance with them which, thank God, our children have so long had in our schools. I am not going to enter on controversial points in this place. I quite allow that all our friends have their own opinions as to the best mode of conducting education in this land, but still, perhaps, I may be excused for feeling a certain thankfulness that I am a minister of a Church which causes the Holy Scriptures to be read from beginning to end in its services every year, and which has a Prayer-book which is taken almost word for word from the Holy Scriptures. I feel a satisfaction, therefore, in knowing that our children can scarcely grow up without acquaintance with the Sacred Volume, which, I trust, will keep them right in the dreadful days that are likely to come. As to any system of education which should banish the Word of God from our schools, I cannot for my life 'believe that any minister of the Gospel will ever give his sanction to such a scheme. I cannot believe that any of our Nonconformist brethren, whose glory it has ever been to maintain the Scriptures of truth, would ally themselves with a system which would banish from our schools that instruction in the simple and blessed teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles, in which our children have been fostered in past times and in which I pray God they may be fostered as long as the world lasts. The next speaker was Earl FORTESCUE, who fervently expressed a desire that reigned in the hearts of many of his hearers. He rejoiced greatly at the presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury with a goodly body of pastors and laymen of almost every |