ELOQUENT APPEAL OF A CLERGYMAN IN FAVOR OF THE BIBLE.
AMONG a number of speakers present at the semicentennial anniversary of the Pennsylvania Bible society, celebrated at Philadelphia, on Wednesday was the Rev. Dr. Fuller of Baltimore. He commenced his address with a feeling allusion to the absence of one who had been wont to preside on occasions like this—Rev. Philip F. Mayer, D. D., lately deceased. He then spoke of their duty to the Bible, and said that here in Philadelphia, where the first Sunday-school was formed, and the first Union Bible society established, they should all be found ready to build an altar on which the different sects could bury their enmity and bitterness, an altar over which their children could find an everlasting opposition alike to infidelity and Jesuitism which would prevent the dissemination of the word of God; an altar around which they could all pledge “their lives, their sacred honor, and their fortunes” to sustain the Bible cause. He esteemed it a peculiar honor to be allowed to speak in behalf of the Pennsylvania Bible society on this occasion. He had heard it said that the world was growing worse; yet he had lived in it and saw it growing better. The world was, he thought, a great deal better than it was a hundred years ago, and though he held his opinion of by-gone time he respected this society, notwithstanding it had numbered its fifty years. It was the wish of his heart, he said, that the patriots and statesmen of this country could be brought to regard the Bible in its true relation to man; in the social and physical liberty it furnishes to him. One of the articles of impeachment brought by infidels against the Bible was, that it no where inculcates true patriotism. Why, what is patriotism? Had Greece and Rome a true idea of patriotism when they built up a nation on the ruins of another? Certainly not. When man is a true patriot he seeks to elevate the standard of public morals; and who performs this work more effectually than the one who distributes the Holy Bible? Infidels may be found teaching their children from this book, and if asked them their reason for so doing, they will answer that they must give them lessons in virtue and morals, and nowhere else can they be found than here! The speaker then referred to the sublime discoveries made by science, and said, though it had performed many wonders, it had done nothing to reach the disease of the soul and cure it. Philosophy, what can it do? In Greece, where philosophy was most understood, it produced a refinement of manners with a dissolution of morals; it only shows that the Bible alone can elevate the morals of mankind. It had this power once, and it possesses it now. Again, the Bible will do a great deal to strengthen and enlarge the intellect. What book can the human mind be brought into contact with, from which it could obtain such inestimable blessings as this one? If a man would be a historian, let him study the Bible. If it strengthens the intellectual and physical being of man, it follows that it must ever remain the bulwark of our liberty. He then made a passing allusion to the attempt147to exclude the Bible from the public schools of Baltimore, and referred to the part he took in preventing the design from being carried into execution, and said that just in proportion as the word of God was circulated and preached among the people of any city, that city would flourish. He then spoke of the inspiration of the Bible, and referred to the influence of familiarity in blunting our sensibilities. Such was its effect, said he, that the fireworks of the school-boy attract more attention than the noon day sun. He applied this to the Bible, which, though a direct communication from God, was seldom thought of in this connection. Some persons found it difficult to look at it in this light, but, for himself it had often been a matter of surprise that he had not sent more communications. We sometimes hear it said that the Bible is the poor man's book, and what joy and consolation does it not bring to his heart? He had often found a poor man living in an humble abode with more spiritual knowledge than he himself possessed. He thought the rich were too busy with their business letters to think of reading the letters of St. Paul, and they were too much engrossed in considering their bad debts to think of their bad deeds. The speaker closed with an earnest appeal in behalf of the society.