Reared as I was from infancy under religious privileges, I had no idea that any part of our land was in the sad moral condition which I found actually to exist; or that the distribution of printed truth and personal labors “publicly and from house to house,” were ever so richly blessed. And such erroneous and defective impressions as to the wants of our fellow-men, and the encouragements to labor for their good, I believe are very prevalent. I remember the day when I was confident that all around me were well supplied with the Bible, but on examination I found eight families, and among them my next door neighbor, who had no Bible; and a pastor who regarded Bible efforts in his congregation as quite unnecessary, on investigation received from family after family the report, “No Bible,” the family of his own sexton being among the number. An excellent young man, now a missionary in a distant land, on faithfully exploring a wealthy county, stated what he had seen to Mr. W----, a distinguished Christian citizen. “I have heard of you,” said the gentleman. “I don’t believe the statements you are making about the moral destitutions of this county. I have made up my mind to go with you and see for myself.” The young man welcomed his company. In the first dwelling they entered the family had no books, not even a Bible. Said Mr. W----, “Give them $2 50 worth, and I will pay for them.” In the next they entered, and in the third, they found equal destitution; and in each case Mr. W---- said, “Give them $2 50 worth, and I will foot the bill.” They went further, but soon Mr. W---- said, “My young friend, the half is not told; take this $20 and go on with this heaven-directed work.” As to the rich blessing that has attended the reading of books and tracts, it is well for those reared in the midst of church privileges and good libraries to consider how different the influence of a good book may be on such as have few books, or none at all. Take, if you please, a prosperous family in the interior of the country, far from any book-store, who may have an old family Bible, a few school-books, or perhaps some other old books moral and religious. A colporteur enters with his saddle-bags of beautiful books. The children are almost frantic with joy. Each member of the family gets a book. It is devoured with greediness--not by a gospel-hardened sinner, but by one who has few or no gospel privileges. Is it strange that such a one, on reading the Pilgrim’s Progress, the Anxious Inquirer, or Come to Jesus, is immediately awakened to seek for pardon and salvation? Is it not rather _more strange_, that every one who attentively and solemnly reads such a book is not led to Christ? And when we come down to those who are wholly destitute of books, who rarely hear a sermon, and yet are able to read, the effect is often still more powerful for good.