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Bible-Burning: the substance of a sermon preached in St. Martin's Church, Birmingham, on Sunday evening, Dec. 10, 1848 — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi

Bible-Burning: the substance of a sermon preached in St. Martin's Church, Birmingham, on Sunday evening, Dec. 10, 1848

John Stuart Mill · en

This congregation is now about to separate.  The Roman Catholic who is
here, will perhaps never more set foot within these walls.  But remember
we shall meet again at the last great day.  On that solemn day no priest
can stand in your stead; no Church doctrines or dogmas can be put in as
your plea or excuse before your Judge.  You will stand in the presence of
Him who made you and hath redeemed you.  And if I have seemed to speak
bitterly, believe me, in these last words, it is my soul’s inmost prayer
for every Romanist here present to-night, that, if he be not brought out
of that Church before that solemn hour when the wood and hay and stubble
shall be burnt up by the judgment-fires, he may yet, spite of his
Romanism, be so found on the ONE FOUNDATION—even Jesus—as that we may
meet in the Church in glory!

                                * * * * *

                                * * * * *

                B. HALL, PRINTER, HIGH-STREET, BIRMINGHAM




FOOTNOTES.


{5}  I subjoin the following documents, issued since the preaching of
this Sermon:—

At a Meeting of the Committee of the Birmingham Auxiliary to the British
and Foreign Bible Society, held December 11th, 1848.

    _It was unanimously resolved_:

    That the object of the British and Foreign Bible Society being the
    circulation of the Word of God without note or comment, this
    Committee cannot pass unnoticed the dishonour done to the Word of God
    by the act of a Roman Catholic Priest in this town, who, during the
    last month, burned a copy of the New Testament; nor the attempt made
    by his coadjutors and himself in repudiating that act, to excuse it
    in some respect, inasmuch as that excuse rests upon principles which,
    carried out to their legitimate conclusion, would infringe upon our
    undoubted right to circulate the Word of God, wherever parties of any
    and of every creed are willing to receive it.

                                * * * * *

                       TO THE EDITOR OF ARIS’S GAZETTE.

    Sir—It is with much regret that I am obliged again to come before the
    public on the subject of the Testament which was burnt in London
    ’Prentice-street, in this town, by the Rev. W. Molloy, a Priest of
    the Church of Rome, but the cause of truth demands it of me. It is
    stated in the apology put forth by that Rev. Gentleman and his
    coadjutors, “that the act was regretted afterwards by the Clergyman
    by whom it was done, and strongly disapproved of by his brother
    Clergy as soon as known,” and that it was “under the excitement of
    the moment that the act, which it is not attempted to justify, was
    done.”

    Now Sir, I ask you, as I ask the public, are these statements
    consistent with the following facts:—The Testament was burnt on
    Thursday, Nov. 16, about two o’clock p.m., and it was not till the
    following Saturday, about midday, that I had any conversation with
    the Priest upon the subject.