Rev George Browne
16 Harpur Street
12th April 1851
My Dear Friend,
You have by this time nearly concluded, I should think, the writing of your Report for the Bible Society year closing at the end of March. I fear poor Spain figures poorly in it. Spain however has not been standing still all the year in the great Bible cause. There has been during the year a singular combination of circumstances in the shape of preparing the Bible for Spain. I will not further notice these at present, but intend to bring them all before you soon after the Annual Meeting, when I shall take the liberty of stating what appears to me to be the duty of the Bible Society under all these occurring circumstances.
My object at present is to bring before you what is at this moment being done in Spain towards extending the knowledge of the word of God in Spain. I have just received from Madrid an advertisement or prospectus of a new edition of the entire Bible about to be issued, dedicated to and under the patronage of the Archbishop of Toledo, the Primate of Spain.
You may perhaps recall that in one of my letters from Barcelona in the year 1848 I mentioned that an enterprising Publisher there was then issuing a new edition of Scio's Bible in stereotype, and at a price much under that of former editions, calculating upon an extensive sale. I trust that sale has been as extensive as he calculated on, and that he has been duly rewarded for his enterprise and his risk, and his desire to benefit the country.
That edition was in ten duodecimo volumes, and the price was 25/- which was a great reduction compared with the cost of previous editions.
The present edition is to be cheaper still. It will cost about 18/- and being thus patronized by the Archbishop of Toledo it is likely to have a very extensive circulation.
This edition, as well as the Barcelona one above mentioned, contains the Latin Vulgate text along with the Spanish version of Scio, and has also an ample supply of notes. Of these notes it may be said that nine tenths of them are good and useful. The other tenth is not without errors, and such as we might expect. But the text of God's own word is all there, and distinct and legible in good sized type, whilst the notes stand below and in a smaller letter. Probably most who read the Scriptures in this form will give their chief attention to the text itself as containing God's own communication and as being easier to read. I might say also perhaps, easier to understand, for I suppose it may happen in this case as it did when Thomas Scott asked the good woman of whom he inquired how she liked his edition of Pilgrim's Progress to which he had appended notes. She replied that she thought she now tolerably understood Bunyan, and that she hoped by and bye to understand the notes also.
In making this remark I am not writing from supposition only, for I have observed among Spaniards in reference to this very matter a decided preference given to the text, and with confidence in it as being from God; whilst I have also noticed an indifference to the notes, both from their being man's work and also from a sort of feeling that the notes might not always be in accordance with the text.
Both these cheaper and stereotype editions are the result of our Bible Society influence in Spain. But as often happens we get no thanks for the good we have thus done. On the contrary, this as well as the former edition is brought out, and avowedly, to counteract on the one hand, the circulation of our mutilated and corrupted Bibles, as they are pleased to characterize our unapocrypha and noteless Bibles.
All this however shows the extent and the use of our Bible operations in Spain, and it is a clear indication contained in the opposition of the fact that the Bible is wanted and wished for in Spain, and that the people will have it in one form or another.
Further the extensive sale of these two stereotype editions will not allay but increase the desire for the Scriptures in Spain, and this desire cannot be met in any other way than by our very cheap and noteless Bibles, for which without doubt, and before long, God himself will make due openings in that dark and (to me at least) interesting country.
In my notices to be brought under your consideration after the anniversary meeting, to which I alluded, I purpose to show how we may meet the present state of Spain in regard to the Bible, and how we may at the same time prepare the way for the unfettered circulation and use of the Scriptures there.
I have now concluded my present communication, and I am glad that I have this little something to send you before our last year is not yet quite past & out of sight. Please to try to get some notice of this new and cheap edition of the Scriptures in Spain, and of these prospective operations into your Report in some shape or other, so that the dark spot of Spain in it may be somewhat lessened in its size or in the intensity of its darkness. Better and brighter things I shall hope to communicate to you at the close of another year, should God spare me to see it closed, in respect to that country which if not my cure is my care and the object of my daily prayers.
I remain, My Dear Friend,
Yours Very Truly,
James Thomson.