The other subject respects the decision of the British and Foreign Bible Society, as to the distribution of the Apocryphal books. It would be unjust to deny that, when the question concerning the rejection of these books was first proposed to the Bible Societies in France, they almost unanimously declared their strong preference for Bibles with the Apocrypha. In the _Lutheran_, which is the smaller part of the Protestant church of France, this preference still, to a considerable degree, prevails. But among the members and ministers of the _Reformed_ church, and especially those who felt the real value of the word of God, I was rejoiced to find, how few dissented from your late resolution. And I feel assured that, when the question comes to be presented to continental churches in all its bearings, and the danger is shown of thus commingling error with truth, their grounds of opposition will be removed; and they will feel it their duty to pursue the same course as that in which your society has so wisely taken the lead. It remains only with regard to France, that I should take the liberty of urging upon the Committee the duties of the most strenuous and affectionate co-operation. It is impossible not to consider the general state of the Protestant churches as much advanced during the interval of five years when I before visited them. The political feeling of the Protestants appeared to me a good deal improved; and the government in general of France has done much to deserve their confidence and gratitude. The Protestants themselves seem to me much more sensible of the state of decay in their church; and are in proportion desirous of its restoration to life. It is true that heterodoxy of a very deplorable kind has, to a considerable degree, crept into the universities of that country. But I was often struck by observing, that when some of the clergy taught in those universities, entered upon the discharge of their pastoral office; and it became their direct object to withdraw the profligate from sin, and lead the miserable to comfort—to confirm the wavering, to meet the wants and wishes of our fallen nature, to assuage the sufferings of an awakened conscience, and supply a strong refuge in the hour of death, they have been compelled to desert their own ground, and seek, within the enclosure of orthodox and evangelical religion, the weapons of their warfare, and the means of consolation and of joy. I was delighted indeed to find some of those who had been instructed in the Neological school, among the most zealous promoters of the truth as it is in Christ.