TO THE PEOPLE

OF

THE UNITED STATES.

Every person of observation has remarked that the times are pregnant with great events. The political world has undergone changes stupendous, unexpected, and calculated to inspire thoughtful men with the most boding anticipations.

That there are in reserve, occurrences of deep, of lasting, and of general interest, appears to be the common sentiment. Such a sentiment has not been excited without a cause, and does not exist without an object. The cause is to be sought in that Providence which adapts, with wonderful exactitude, means to ends; and the object is too plain to be mistaken by those who carry a sense of religion into their speculations upon the present and the future condition of our afflicted race.

An excitement, as extraordinary as it is powerful, has roused the nations to the importance of spreading the knowledge of the one living and true God, as revealed in his Son, the Mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus. This excitement is the more worthy of notice, as it has followed a period of philosophy, falsely so called, and has gone in the track of those very schemes which, under the imposing names of reason and liberality, were attempting to seduce mankind from all which can bless the life that is, or shed a cheering radiance on the life that is to come.

We hail the re-action, as auspicious to whatever is exquisite in human enjoyment, or precious to human hope. We would fly to the aid of all that is holy, against all that is profane; of the purest interest of the community, the family, and the individual, against the conspiracy of darkness, disaster, and death-to help on the mighty work of christian charity-to claim our place in the age of Bibles.

We have, indeed, the secondary praise, but still the praise of treading in the footsteps of those who have set an example without a parallel-an example of the most unbounded benevolence and beneficence: and it cannot be to us a source of any pain, that it has been set by those who are of one blood with the most of ourselves; and has been embodied in a form so noble and so catholic as "The British and Foreign Bible Society."

The impulse which that institution, ten thousand times more glorious than all the exploits of the sword, has given to the conscience of Europe, and to the slumbering hope of millions in the region and shadow of death, demonstrates to christians of every country what they cannot do by insulated zeal; and what they can do by co-operation.

In the United States we want nothing but concert to perform achievements astonishing to ourselves, dismaying to the adversaries of truth and piety, and most encouraging to every evangelical effort on the surface of the globe.

No spectacle can be so illustrious in itself, so touching to man, or so grateful to God, as a nation pouring forth its devotion, its talent, and its treasures, for that kingdom of the Savior which is righteousness and peace.

If there be a single measure which can overrule objection, subdue opposition, and command exertion, this is the measure:-that all our voices, all our affections, all our hands, should be joined in the grand design of promoting "peace on earth and good will to man "--that they should resist the advance of misery-should carry the light of instruction into the dominions of ignorance, and the balm of joy to the soul of anguish; and all this by diffusing the oracles of God-addresses to the understanding an argument which cannot be encountered, and to the heart an appeal which its holiest emotions rise up to second.

Under such impressions, and with such views, fathers, brethren fellow-citizens, the American Bible Society has been formed Local feelings, party prejudices, sectarian jealousies are excluded. by its very nature. Its members are leagued in that, and in that alone, which calls up every hallowed, and puts down every unhallowed principle-the dissemination of the Scriptures in the received versions where they exist, and in the most faithful where they

may be required. In such a work, whatever is dignified, kind, venerable, true, has ample scope: while sectarian littleness and rivalries can find no avenue of admission.

The only question is, whether an object of such undisputed magnitude can be best attained by a national Society, or by independent associations in friendly understanding and correspondence. Without entering into the details of this inquiry, we may be permitted to state, in a few words, our reasons of preference to a national Society supported by local Societies and by individuals throughout our country.

Concentrated action is powerful action. The same powers when applied by a common direction, will produce results impossible to their divided and partial exercise. A national object unites national feeling and concurrence. Unity of a great system combines energy of effect with economy of means. Accumulated intelligence interests and animates the public mind. And the catholic efforts of a country, thus harmonized, give her a place in the moral' convention of the world; and enable her to act directly upon the universal plans of happiness which are now pervading the nations.

It is true, that the prodigious territory of the United States-the increase of their population, which is gaining every day upon their moral cultivation-and the dreadful consequences which will ensue from a people's outgrowing the knowledge of eternal life; and reverting to a species of heathenism, which shall have all the address and profligacy of civilized society, without any religious control, present a sphere of action, which may for a long time employ and engross the cares of this Society, and all the local Societies of the land.

In the distinct anticipation of such an urgency, one of the main objects of the American Bible Society, is not merely to provide a sufficiency of well printed and accurate editions of the Scriptures; but also to furnish great districts of the American continent with well executed Stereotype plates, for their cheap and extensive diffusion throughout regions which are now scantily supplied at a discouraging expense; and which, nevertheless, open a wide and prepared field for the reception of revealed truth.

Yet let it not be supposed that geographical or political limits are to be the limits of the American Bible Society. That designa-'

tion is meant to indicate, not the restriction of their labor, but the source of its emanation. They will embrace, with thankfulness and pleasure, every opportunity of raying out, by means of the Bible, according to their ability, the light of life and immortality, to such parts of the world as are destitute of the blessing, and are within their reach. In this high vocation, their ambition is to be fellow-workers with them who are fellow-workers with God.

PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES:

Have you ever been invited to an enterprize of such grandeur and glory? Do you not value the Holy Scriptures? value them as containing your sweetest hope-your most thrilling joy? Can you submit to the thought that you should be torpid in your endeavors to disperse them, while the rest of christendom is awake and alert? Shall you hang back, in heartless indifference, when princes come down from their thrones, to bless the cottage of the poor with the Gospel of peace; and imperial sovereigns are gathering their fairest honors from spreading abroad, the oracles of the Lord your God? Is it possible that you should not see, in this state of human things, a mighty motion of Divine Providence? The most heavenly charity treads close upon the march of conflict and blood! The world is at peace! Scarce has the soldier time to unbind his helmet, and to wipe away the sweat from his brow, ere the voice of mercy succeeds to the clarion of battle, and calls the nations from enmity to love! Crowned heads bow to the head which is to wear many crowns;" and, for the first time since the promulgation of christianity, appear to act in unison for the recognition of its gracious principles, as being fraught alike with happiness to man and honor to God.

What has created so strange, so beneficent an alteration? This is no doubt the doing of the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes. But what instrument has he thought fit chiefly to use? That which contributes, in all latitudes and climes, to make christians feel their unity, to rebuke the spirit of strife, and to open upon them the day of brotherly concord-the Bible! the Bible !-through Bible Societies!

Come then, fellow-citizens, fellow-christians, let us join in the sacred covenant. Let no heart be cold; no hand be idle; no purse

reluctant! Come, while room is left for us in the ranks whose toil is goodness, and whose recompense is victory. Come cheerfully eagerly, generally. Be it impressed on your souls, that a contribu tion, saved from even a cheap indulgence, may send a Bible to a desolate family; may become a radiating point of "grace and truth" to a neighborhood of error and vice; and that a number of such contributions made at really no expense, may illumine a large tract of country, and successive generations of immortals, in that celestial knowledge which shall secure their present and their future felicity.

But whatever be the proportion between expectation and experience, thus much is certain: We shall satisfy our conviction of duty-we shall have the praise of high endeavors for the highest ends-we shall minister to the blessedness of thousands and tens of thousands, of whom we may never see the faces nor hear the names. We shall set forward a system of happiness which will go on with accelerated motion and augmented vigor after we shall have finished our career; and confer upon our children, and our chil. dren's children, the delight of seeing the wilderness turned into a fruitful field, by the blessing of God upon that seed which their fathers sowed and themselves watered. In fine, we shall do our part toward that expansion and intensity of light divine, which shall visit, in its progress, the palaces of the great and the hamlets of the small, until the whole "earth be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea!"