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SOUTH WALES TIDE TABLE.

TUESDh

THE CLERGY AND THE'BIBLE SOCIETY.

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THE CLERGY AND THE'BIBLE SOCIETY. The Dissenters of Wales have always manifested much liber^'ty towards the Bible Society, but its agents r i1 -w of the Estab- lished Chore!) v i a*ity t ^served on th ? & £ c 41y been ea on the plnfo^ '*><> ,is rnb hZ i !S eccIesias^albreth ^ch exhibit this seCt31-ianai -aul. to>v>i m G-lamorcrt CS? °? °Wi«us who read every day and they represented them as enemies cf the Bible, because they object to denominational teach- ing in state-aided schools. The party whom tlu-y falsely accusod, and whose views they grossly misrepre- sented, have dene more during the last hundred year's .Y to maka the Bide the supreme book in the religious education of Wales, and to carry out the voluntary principle, than the whole body or. tlle clergy for the past three hundred years, though the latter have had all the possible aid of tithes, taxes, and endowments, as well as the-sanctions of law to back them in their exertions. Nowjhible Society is a purely voluntary organisa- tion. It never received a farthing of its revenues out of the public taxes. It was therefore a great sin against its very genius for three clergymen to argue in favour of associating the religion of the Bible with a legally coercive tax. If they conscientiously believed that the religion of tithes and state control, is the proper religion, they had no right to impose their notions upon Dissenters at a meeting in aid of a voluntary society, of which Nonconformists as well as Churchmen are recognised supporters. The gentlemen who allowed their political zeal to drive them on to forbidden ground, ought to have recollected that it is a fundamental law of the society to limit its operations to the circulation of the Holy Scriptures without note or comment." Who- ever might take trouble to search would find ample evidence in the reports of the Bible Society of the strange fact, that the greatest sums collected iu aid of the Society flow from the free contributions of tn most intensely Dissenting districts of the country. The clerical town in xvhieh the meeting to which we allude was held, sent not a farthing of free contributions to the society during the year 1870, according to th- report published last year. Wales is known to be fir more favourable to Dissent than any other part of the United Kingdom; and if free contri- butions" in aid of circulating the Bible may be ti-.ken as indicating an attachment to the Bible, then the Nonconformists of Wales practically honour the Bible far more than the clergy and laity of the Church of England. Tbe figures in the last report of the Society prove this. Twelve counties of Wales seat under the lippie of "free contributions," the sum of £ 6,458 16s. lOd. anl for, the purchase cf Bibles and Testaments £ 2,598 9s. 5d. Tlit amount received by C:"3 Society during the same year from all England, Ül- ding the Channel Islands, was £ 41,944 19s. as free i tributions," and £ 29,135 7s. 5d. for the purchase cl :bles and Testameuts. The popalation of England 78p88;of Wales 1,216,420. Thus the pop-cla- of R In gland is about eighteen times greater than is 21,4 lales. The contributions of England, there,cr, A t:on of the Bible Society-to make them equal to that of A Vales in proportion to the population—oivjhi in aid oi en 9116,8S9 3s., instead of £ 41,944 19s. The those of of money spent io the purchase of Bibles is to have be )ur i Wales. In England it is about proportion the amount of "free contributions" also in fav< Tales it is only abaut one-third the three-fourth? ree contributions gnSen to the pare: sent. In bus seen that England has availed amount of f s conferred by free contributions," sooiety. It is t ig of Bibles aiid Testaments, in a of the advantage greater than Wales, while it is three in the cheapenj \In \be Principality in frfe eon: degree three times impare single towns and cities, cr times less liberal the j disproportion much greater. butions." If we cc ealthiest cities in the world; counties, we find til, 1. The population of London London is one of the w 000,000. Its free contri- perhaps, the richest of al Society were £ 1.973 Os. 3d is certainly net less than J, 14s. 9d. in the purchase butions" in aid of the Bible the sum given, chitfh' for one year. It spent £ 2,716 1)113 Society during "the of Bibles and Testaments. Bu. 's the amount ccn- by Welsh dissent,, iii aid of the Bit ilation is nearly same year was more than three tiui, of the Prinai- tributed by London, though its pop; efficient in three times greater than the population -1 Wales, pality, and the Church is incomparably mor, 'h as London than in Wales. In fact, one county 11 the county of Carnarvon, gave within Y,700 as mui. the whole of the metropolis. London gave 9 1,973 Os. 3a. Carnarvonshire gave 11,271 3s. 4d. The population oi London is twenty-eight times greater than the popula- tion of Carnarvonshire, the former being 3,000,000, the latter only 106,122. And the Church in London much more than twenty-eight times wealthier than the Dissenters of Carnarvonshire, yet in order to be equal to that county in its attachment to the Bible and the Bible Society, London, in proportion to its population, ought to have contributed £ 35,592 13s. 4d. It will be in vain for rich Churchmen to plead that other societies draw upon them, for the Dissenters of Wales art drained more than they are in support of their G :c: various religious organisations. And in London Churchmen are supported by enormous tithes, wrile not a farthing from such a source is received by the Dissenters of Wales. The Principality having. thus shown so much liberality towards the Bible Society, it was most unreasonable and unjust on the part of clergymen to introduce their coercive theories in con- nection with religion on the platform of a Bible Society meeting. Let such speeches be delivered frequently in Wales and the Bible Society will ere long have to look to its clerical friends only for support.

A YOUNG LADY'S ECCENTRICITIES.

-----DINAS.

DOWLAIS.

NEATH.

blunders which h- ELLIGENCE.

INDIAN INT

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