Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/667

Rh  BIBLE SOCIETIES, associations for extending the circulation of the Holy Scriptures. For a long period this object has been pursued to a considerable extent by several religious institutions, such as the Society for the Propaga tion of the Gospel in Wales, formed by the Rev. Thomas Gouge, one of the two thousand ministers ejected by the Act of Uniformity in 1GG2 ; the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, founded in 1698; the Society for sending Missionaries to India, established in the year 1705 by Frederick IV., King of Denmark, and which numbered among its agents the celebrated missionary, Christian Frederick Schwartz ; the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, formed in Edinburgh in 1709 ; the Moravian Missionary Society, founded in 1732, the Book Society for Promoting Religious Knowledge among the Poor, which was formed in London in 1750, and numbered among its earliest friends Dr Doddridge and the Rev. James Hervey ; and the Religious Tract Society, founded in 1779. But the first British association which had in view the single purpose of disseminating the Scriptures was the, established in the year 1780, which has done immense service to the army and navy of Great Britain. The sphere of its opera tions, however, was comparatively limited, and in 1804 the , the greatest agency ever devised for the diffusion of the Word of God, was founded. The proposal to institute this association origi nated with the Rev. Mr Charles of Bala, whose philan thropic labours in Wales were greatly impeded by the scarcity of the Scriptures in the principality, and it was largely fostered at the outset by members of the com mittee of the Religious Tract Society. The exclusive object of the British and Foreign Bible Society is to pro mote tho circulation of the Scriptures, both at home and abroad, and its constitution admits the co-operation of all persons disposed to concur in its support. The committee of management consists of 3G laymen, 6 of them being foreigners resident in or near the metropolis, and of the remaining 30, one-half are members of the Church of England, and the other half members of other Christian denominations. The proceedings of this society gave rise to several controversies, one of which related to the fundamental law of the society to circulate the Bible alone without notes or comments. On this ground it was vehemently attacked by Bishop Marsh and other divines of the Church of Eng land, who insisted that the Prayer-Book ought to be given along with the Bible. Another controversy, in which the late Dr Andrew Thomson of Edinburgh took a prominent part, related to the circulation on the Continent, chiefly by affiliated societies, of the Apocrypha along with the canonical books of Scripture In 182G it was resolved by the committee that the fundamental law of the society be fully and distinctly recognized as excluding the circulation of the Apocrypha. This step, however, failed to satisfy all the supporters of the society in Scotland, who pro ceeded to form themselves into independent associations. A third serious controversy by which the society has been agitated, was occasioned by the alleged inaccuracy of some of the translations issued under its authority; and a fourth referred to the adinissibility of non-Trinitarians to the privilege, of co-operation.. The refusal of the society in 1831 to alter its constitution so as formally to exclude Buch persons, led to the formation of the Trinitarian Bible Society. This has, however, been exceedingly limited in its operations, and the original society stands unrivalled.

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