St John, 12th June 1841

Rev A Brandram - No 104

St. John, New Brunswick, 12th June 1841

My Dear Friend,

By last packet your letter of the 18th came into my hands, and a few days earlier I received yours of the 19th April, returned from Montreal. The one dated the 15th of March was received in Montreal on the 24th April.

I find by your two last letters that you are waiting my answer to yours of the 15th March concerning the West Indies: whilst I on the other hand was waiting your notice of my items as contained in my letter of the 24th February.

The case stands thus. In your letter of the 20th December you inquired whether I was willing to go to Spanish America. I said, yes. Before my letter with this reached you, you mentioned propositions about the West Indies, without referring to the previous proposition you had made, the answer to which was on the way. The letter that contained my answer, contained also some hints of some wishes I had of a private nature, and I thought I would wait till I should see what you would say to the whole of my letter of the 20th February, as respected South America and my private wishes. Now however that I see we are waiting for each other, I proceed immediately to treat on all that is pending between us.

Before however I commence, I would notice that the Resolution of the Committee respecting Mr. Howe and Mr. Lessel. The letter which contained Resolution was forwarded to the Parties by last mail the other day, and there is not yet time for a reply. For myself I thank you much, and all the Committee, for the kind manner in which you have attended to my suggestion. Something was due in the case, and you have done it, and gracefully.

In your letter of the 19th April you say, in reference to mine of the 20th February, "From that letter I learn that your thoughts are turned more decidedly to the South." I do not see how you gathered anything of a decision in preference from that letter, for there was only one object before me, and the whole of what I said on it was as follows: – "As to the question, Is your agent willing to go to South America, I would answer readily in the affirmative".

Now however there are two objects before me, and I think the Committee wishes me to express a decision in favour one of them. Since I wrote what I have quoted above in reply to your letter of the 11th of December 1840, I have often turned the subject of a visit to those distant countries in my mind, considering that the finger of God was directing me again to those quarters. In these late contemplations, as well as in some former ones, I have tried to see a field of Bible labours which might perhaps prove right and extensive. The field I referred to is as regards the native tongues. In Mexico there are almost half a dozen languages which are very extensively spoken, say by Three Millions of people; besides which there are from ten to fifteen other languages and dialects spoken perhaps by other Two Millions, making in all Five Millions. This alone is no mean object of attention, and would justify considerable effort on your part, if the door open, and whether it is fairly open or not can only be ascertained on the spot. I am inclined to think something could now be done to give the Scriptures to these Five Millions in their own tongue, if things were well managed. In Guatemala also the native languages are extensively spoken. The two great languages which chiefly prevail over the Western parts of the Southern Continent are the Peruvian and Araucanian.

In directing your efforts to these countries, it appears to me, you must chiefly look to work in the native languages; for probably the circulation of the Scriptures in Spanish would not be very extensive; although as respects the New Testament perhaps a good deal might be done, say in schools. And further, the system of colportage should be fully tried, and it may do much. In my letter No.70, of  the 24th of May 1838, you will see that I have treated on the subjects particularly, and I beg you would look over what I have their said.

Very recently and unexpectedly this object of the native tongues has come before me anew, and I may say, with fresh encouragement. On my late, and I may say in truth, unwilling visit to New York, in going down to that city from Albany in the steam boat I met with a gentleman a native of Yucatán, and just come from that place. He informed me that Yucatán had broken off from Mexico, and was independent. With the political merits and demerits of this act and change I have nothing to do, but its bearing on our concerns may perhaps be very favourable. The new Constitution they have just promulgated grants religious liberty to all foreigners, which hitherto has nowhere else been done in Spanish America except in Buenos Ayres: and my informant intimated to me that this step was a forerunner to general religious liberty in the country. Now no part of the Mexican territory is more interesting than Yucatán as respects what I have here considered as the main object of your present agency in those countries, I mean in regard to the native tongues. The whole of that Peninsula speaks one, called Maya. I had always considered its population to be about half a million, but this gentleman says there are 700,000 inhabitants in it. Here then is an important field to try in the work in question, and probably under the new state of things I have mentioned there would be considerable facility for obtaining not only a translation of a portion of the Scriptures, but for getting it into use also, and perhaps under the sanction and encouragement of the new government, for they will be anxious that their people should become intelligent and great, and I will tell them should I go there, and with all my conscience that the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures will raise these people, and higher than any other means could. – I may here add also, that the other subdivisions that seemed to be going on in Mexico will most likely be in our favour in like manner, and that both as respects the languages, and the general circulation of the Scriptures, for there will be a rivalry among the several little nations in the way of liberality, etc.

As to whether I should go to Spanish America or West Indies, I am inclined to think the indications of duty are in favour of the former, under all the circumstances of the two cases at the present period. I shall therefore consider that I am to be led back again to those countries by the hand of Providence in due time. These countries are already associated in my mind with many strong impressions; and why should I hesitate to return to them after all the mercies I experienced there during ten years, and in the midst of many difficulties and dangers.

Having made this statement of my views I would beg leave to the refer you to my letter of the 20th February, and particularly to my special request for leave to spend the ensuing winter season in Montreal, in order to pursue the objects of study there mentioned. Please therefore to read those parts of that letter I here referred to when this is read.

This finishes all I have to say in regard to myself, and I shall now proceed, agreeably to your request, to say something about the West India Agency generally. You will probably recollect my having written you pretty fully upon the subject, I think towards the end of 1834, or beginning of 1835. Be so good as look up that letter, as it contains, I believe, the same views I now hold in regard to this matter. I then recommended two Agencies for the West Indies, and the reasons for this arrangement are not lessened by occurring and intervening circumstances, civil or biblical, but increased. One at all events certainly you ought to have, and the West Indies ought to be the post of a continued agency, not a casual one. Do you ask me whom, of those I know, should you send? I would reply, Is Mr. Bourne willing to go? He is a better West Indian than I.

I have thus treated on all the subjects in suspense, and I now look out with interest for your notices of the whole in reply, praying earnestly that God may guide you to what is right, and to the best in all that is before us.

You noticed in your No.10, that you might have to open a subscription for Mrs. Wheeler, but in No.11 and 12 you say nothing further of it. If you should make a subscription for her, as I suppose is most likely, put me down for Ten Pounds.

May the Lord prosper you, My Dear Friend, in all your affairs public and private: and please ever to believe me,

                        Affectionately Yours,

                                                James Thomson.

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Edinburgh, 27th May 1845 - 1

Rev A Brandram

Edin. 27th May 1845

My Dear Friend,

            Just before leaving this city I write you a few lines.

            The Resolution of the Committee of the 23rd. and your note appended to it are before me, You say that in the Com. "There was a feeling that you should visit such friends as wish to see you, and then return to us." I thank you for giving me this little notification. The idea in it coincides exactly with my own view of our present line of action after what has occurred. My nearly sole operations henceforth will therefore be, to visit those societies now connected with us, without making attempts at forming new ones. Passing visits will be made besides to persons and places with a view to future operations, say next year, and in succeeding years. We should not yet despair of Scotland, better things may yet take place, though thus far, as Job wished it, "Thistles grow instead of wheat."[1]

            We have printed off our Defence in a separate form, but have contented ourselves with 500 copies, as we do not wish to do more than meet as a shield and defence what has been done against us.

            The Warning was no doubt all written here, it was only the little tract I sent you that came from London.

            In a late meeting of the Com. of the Edin. B.S. there were those individuals who stoutly defended us, and expressed strong disapprobation of the Warning, and had their names entered in a protesting form. There are, I believe, other members of the Com. who entertain similar views, but who were not present.

            I remain, Yours Truly,

                        James Thomson.

[1] Job 31.40 (BM).

Aberdeen, 25th July 1845 - 1

Rev A Brandram

Aberdeen, 25th July 1845

My Dear Friend,

            Mr. Hitchin's note received yesterday advertised me that feelings again prevail in the Committee about my quicker return than has been contemplated during the last two months, in consequence of renewed and more bitter attacks from our opponents. I shall keep what is indicated in mind, and act upon it in the best and wisest manner I can.

            There is one thing I particularly want to recommend to you, and that is, a cancel in the heading of Luke xxii after the word "wine". I should be glad you would resolve on this at your very first meeting of Committee, that I might be able to state that it is altered, and the evil removed.

            I remain,

                        Very Truly Yours,

                                    James Thomson.

Madrid, 23th May 1848

Rev A Brandram No.18

Madrid 23rd May 1848

My Dear Friend,

I have been looking with more than common interest for a letter from you these some days past, and chiefly say to learn the mind of the Spanish Consul in our case. Yesterday or to day I made sure of a letter, but none has come. I delay therefore no longer in writing, as the time of my setting out on my journey is near, and some Books will need to be sent on to meet me.

I have now resolved to take the Eastern part of my journey first. But in going to Barcelona I shall go by way of Valencia. From Barcelona I intend making my way through Gerona and Perpignan to Toulouse, but I could wish to have a supply of Books ready on my arrival. Toulouse is the nearest town in France of a note bordering on Andorra, and for several reasons I conceive I could come with advantage on Andorra from Toulouse. From Andorra I descend into Spain, and go through the Basque Province to Yrun and Bayonne. Another, and say an equal supply of Books I could wish to meet with there. I have thought of the following kinds and quantities for each of these places. 50 Bibles in 8vo., 50 ditto in 12mo., 50 N.T. in 8vo., 100 in 12mo., 100 in 32mo., 100 of 4 Books and 100 Luke & Acts, making in each lot 450 copies, in all 900. You can diminish the quantities if you think better to do so. If you send these Books from England, Bordeaux will I suppose be the best port to ship them for. You can direct the cases for Bayonne to Mr. Pedezert the Protestant Minister there, and in Toulouse you have valuable friends to entrust them to, and for whom I should be glad of a note of introduction. It may be better perhaps to send the Books from Paris should there be all the kinds there. Of this you will judge. But as you say you have a large stock on hand at home, it may be better first to lessen that than send from Paris. Could you, without much trouble, let me have a note of all your Spanish stock?

I have got a printer here to print a new edition of the Basque St. Luke, which, as I mentioned in a former letter, had been carefully revised by the translator. The same individual has nearly finished a translation of the Acts. I hope you will not disapprove of these two little doings. I was anxious to have a supply of the Basque in going through these provinces, and glad too to obtain the services of the translator for the additional version. It will not be printed till you give your view on the subject, and what happens as to the circulation of the reprint may guide us.

I see the limitation of the Resolution in regard to printing, and it is a very proper one, but not applying to the Basque. In Andorra I may probably be strongly tempted to print, for all things manufactured there are free to enter Spain, and are even exempted from duty. Should Spain not open for our Books from England, and printing be still impracticable in it, we should probably avail ourselves of the advantage offered, which is a great one.

Mr. Bulwer you see is gone from this, and we shall have a new Envoy. I pray and beseech you to avail yourselves of his coming to get say ten cases sent by him.

I have been arranging to leave this on the first of June, or very soon after, unless our disturbances hinder, but times are delicate for Englishmen travelling here, or making any movements in our line, as trifling things may be made use of just now against the English. The Letter of Credit is not yet come. My address will remain as before, as arrangements will be made for forwarding letters. Afterwards I shall write on this subject.

Pray how were the 300 Testaments sent? And what others have these some years past made their way to this country as far as you know, for some half.

I have still my hopes of Spain, as you will see noted in Evangelical Christendom for April. Surely the present year will not go out as the last did, such at least are our hopes.[1]

I duly received the Record, and this morning the Reporter. The Atlas newspaper says your meeting "was, as regards numbers, rank and talent, the greatest religious union of the season." Is this perfectly correct as to the members? I shall be glad to learn this in the affirmative.

I now give you a quotation, and an advice, contained in a letter I had the other day from Mr. Mark our Consul in Malaga, though I fear you will not have the good sense to adopt the recommendation given. "A very useful object would be obtained by getting the Bible Society to procure a Bull from the Pope allowing the use of the Bible, or even enjoining the reading of it, as that would do away with the great barrier, and his liberal ministers might safely propose it to his Holiness."

I have meditated much, since the end of February, on the 93rd Psalm. Truly the floods have lifted up their voice, and continue, all around, to lift up their waves. All are setting to work to mend their Statutes, if not their ways. But the Code that occupies all our attention needs no alteration, and admits of no reform. "Thy testimonies are very sure." "The law of the Lord is perfect." What a consolation this is! And how ought we to be animated by it! Let us spread the perfect Code to reform the world, and nothing else will reform it. Also let us ourselves remember, that holiness becometh God's house, and work and servants forever.

            I remain, My Dear Friend,

                        Most Truly Yours,

                                    James Thomson.

[1] "Spain is my present field, a country which the sun luxuriously shines upon, and blesses with his best gifts. But thick clouds intercept the rays of the Gospel, and it is a beclouded and dark country as to evangelical and moral fruits. We must not, however, despair of Spain. I do not. The dawn and the day may be nearer at hand than we are aware of , and so I trust in truth is the case. I indulge myself in this thought and hope, and endeavour to animate myself  thereby to the pouring forth of more earnest prayers, and to the use of wiser and more effectual means for its welfare." (“Spain. Death of Mrs. Thomson: And Difficulties of Protestant Sepulture”, Evangelical Christendom,  II:119.) BM

Madrid, 27th October 1848

Rev A Brandram No.24

Madrid, 27th October 1848

My Dear Friend,

Your letter of the 9th inst. came duly to hand, as did also its precursor of the 18th of September. The former date inclined me to the understanding that I should soon leave this city and country, and the latter found me, in consequence, placing a Stone and an Inscription over Remains dear and affecting to my remembrance, and enhanced perhaps by the thought that I should soon take the last look at that sacred spot until the Lord come.

Your Resolution for my remaining is, we ought to think, of God, and the result of our prayers for his heavenly direction. We may, and I hope shall, seeing this idea justified in visible results. But yet God works often without showing us what he is doing.

I feel, I assure you, greatly thankful to God, and most kindly towards yourself and all the Committee, for the very friendly and favourable manner in which you have spoken of my poor movements and labours in this wilderness. Also, I feel in a similar way, as to your leaving me without any special directions, in the confidence, as you kindly say, that I "will do the very best that circumstances will admit of." It is my earnest prayer to God every day, and more than daily, that he would enable me so to do. I have also, I doubt not, your continued help in prayer. This is all we earthen, and earthly vessels can do. God only is the worker, and the producer of results.

I am glad, at such a time as this, to be able to give you a little encouragement. Soon after my reaching this city I learned that the subject of Religious Liberty had just been debated and advocated extensively in the two leading daily newspapers published here. One was for, and the other of course against this great act of Justice, Wisdom, and Good Policy. But the opposition was the means leading the advocate of the measure to fuller statements on the subject than otherwise he would have given. In these articles and defence of Religious Liberty there is an openness, a fullness, and the launching out into the subject, and I may add a compromise of the political party concerned, such as have never been seen or read before in this country.

I rejoice in these articles, and give thanks to God for them; and begin to think, that the night is far spent with us, and that our Spanish Bible day is near at hand. I have made it my business to see, and through suitable introductions, the writer of these articles, who is the chief Editor and Proprietor of the Journal. I have signified to him how honourable to himself these articles are, and how useful to this country, and have a gratifying they will prove to all truly enlightened people in England and other foreign countries, intimating to him at the same time, that I had taken measures for their being translated into English, and published in a London newspaper. I have grounds to believe that my visit and communications were acceptable, and may prove useful. This is one of the little ways I which perhaps I follow up my mission, and do as I can. – The newspapers containing the articles in question I have sent to England, and they will be translated by Mr. Rule, and printed in The Christian Times, a lately started Weekly Paper which you can see.

As to a plan and purposes of operations I have as yet formed none, but shall only apprise you of such when projected. In the meantime I have lost little as to travelling in the coming to this city, as our weather is singularly unfavourable. For more than a month past we have had quite winter weather, everybody fully wrapped up in their cloaks in the streets, frequent rains, a low thermometer, and even some frost and snow. This premature winter is noticed in all our journals.

I have, since my return to Madrid got acquainted with a Bible priest, rather a phenomenon in this country. But yet I believe there are many such in Spain. At present we cannot see them, but Religious Liberty will bring them out, and they will be our coadjutors. This Priest is a Bible man in two senses, for not only is he favourable to the diffusion and use of the Scriptures, but he is also a learned man in the original of the Old Testament. He is Professor of Hebrew in the University of Madrid, and has read the Hebrew Scriptures for 20 years. He some time ago finished a translation of the book of Psalms, on which he was occupied more or less for 13 years. This translation is now in my hands, and is entirely at your disposal. I have looked into this work with some attention, and with much interest. I like it much. It is close, clear, and elegant. It is accompanied by some notes by way of justifying the renderings he has given and in these the Vulgate is handled very freely, and with no deference to it.

When we have Religious Liberty in Spain, the appearance of this work in print will form quite an era in Spanish Biblical Criticism and advanced translation. It is necessary that it should first appear with the justifying notes, but afterwards you could print the text alone, and you would have the author's fullest consent for the same. – Before I leave this Bible and Biblical Spanish priest I must add of him, that he is perhaps the most advanced man in favor of Religious Liberty in Spain; and he is not a private friend to it merely, as some are, but an open bold advocate and herald of it. He was a member of Congress in 1837, and then and there boldly declared his views, and earnestly advocated the measure. He had few coadjutors, and was opposed by many, and more especially by one of great power at that time, and whose advocacy, he said, would have carried the measure. That opponent is now in banishment, and wandering in foreign lands, having by flight at Seville made his escape when on the way to the Philippine Islands, "where angry Spain sends her outcast sons."

We have another Bible and Biblical man in Spain. It is our friend Usoz. He has had the very best education Spain can afford, and three years at Bologna in Italy added to it. The Hebrew was an early object of attention to him, and he was a fellow student with the gentleman I have noticed, and both ordered that the same time a Hebrew Bible and Lexicon from Paris when neither were to be found in Spain. The Greek is as well known to our friend as the Hebrew. His daily occupation is the translation of the Holy Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testament, and to which he considers himself called in the Providence of God. I have just now under my hand for examination, the first eight chapters of St. Luke. – It is a curious circumstance that these two Bible and Biblical friends of old should have become unacquainted with each other, and that your foreign Bible messenger should be the means of renewing that acquaintanceship. Perhaps they may henceforth labour in union in the great work of giving to Spain an improved version in its noble language, of the Holy Scriptures from the original tongues.

I have had letters from Gibraltar, and am sorry to learn that my letter from Toulouse, containing directions to our Jew friend in Tangier, never arrived in Gibraltar, and still less of course in Africa. One of my letters is from a Mr. Benoliel,  a converted Jew, who is sent out by the British Missionary Society for the Jews. You will be glad to learn that it was one of your Hebrew New Testaments which he found in Gibraltar that was the means of his conversion. He is a native of Tangier, and our friend there is his cousin. His parents and family are all there, and are greatly grieved on account of his conversion, which they of course call apostasy. He is about to visit that place, and I shall be curious to know how he gets on there. I have written to him, and given him some names in Tangier and Tetuan that may be useful to him. – I have also made up the blank occasioned by the loss of the letter from Toulouse.

I am glad to learn that your purse is empty, and that you were obliged to make an Appeal to the Bible Public. It will have a happy effect, no doubt, more ways than one. What cause for thanksgivings that all old doors remain fully open, whilst two new ones, of an extensive nature, quite shut hitherto, have been burst open by the earthquake we have had, and which is still heaving the nations. O when shall we be able to add Spain and Italy and Austria? Perhaps your Appeal Money will not be all come in till you are enabled to extend and enforce your claim by telling the public that Spain is also open, and is crying aloud for the bread of life. – Please to put me down for Ten Pounds.

            I remain, My Dear Friend,

                        Affectionately Yours,

                                    James Thomson.