Rev A Brandram. - No 52
Montego Bay, Jamaica, 10th June 1836
My Dear Friend,
In commencing this letter, I mention in the first place the receipt of your letters of the 14th and 30th of March, and of the 14th April. The middle one of these three is the one whose contents I have most dwelt on in my mind, and you will naturally suppose that I should feel and reflect much more upon what you have written. The very friendly strain of your letter, and expressions of confidence in your correspondent, and your regret at our separation, and your willingness to have met my wishes, and your concerns in the whole matter, as seen oozing through your every word and phrase, – have, I assure you, be deeply and affectionately felt by me.
But what could I say, or what could I do, other than what I did say and do, when I wrote the letter to which yours now referred to is in reply? I have stated to you at length, and with long anticipation, my views on your work and your agencies in the West Indies, and more particularly respecting this island, and a certain individual then and still there or here. I had followed up that same view by witnessing statements in the words of our well-wishers, and I had laid before you facts amply manifesting the delightful and extensive openings for the glorious Bible Society work here. You differed from me as to what ought to be done, and as to the field for your agent; and you had most assuredly a very good right to do so. And what was I that I could venture to include myself, and my wishes, and my personal duties upon you? I had not presumption for this; and so it was, that I thought it my duty to consider very especially, what where the leadings of Providence in this case, and what was the line of conduct which I ought personally and individually to attend to under all the circumstances than before me. My resolves you have seen, though you do not exactly agree with them. But, my Brother, I could not have felt comfortable to have forced myself upon you, or have forced myself into a field not in entire accordance with your views. Had I ventured in my presumption to do so, I might have expected the rebuff I deserved; and had your goodness not so treated me, I should nevertheless have felt discomfortable, and under a unpleasing degree of responsibility, because I had presumed, or say chosen, to adopt a field of operations not willingly entered into by you.
You know that I have all along wish to act in entire conformity to your views, and when I was doubtful I was wont to trace in prospect for some months what appeared to be to be best, in order that I might have your mind on the subject and plan before I ventured on it, or to any great length. To act with your reluctant consent, could not have been, as I have said, comfortable to me. Hence it was, that I felt myself forced as it were by circumstances to adopt the line of conduct I did. Had our views corresponded, I could not perhaps have felt myself at liberty before God to disengage myself from your service, however much I might have relished that which I forthwith stepped into. Further, could I have by any means known beforehand the very friendly manner in which you would have been treated me had I thrown myself upon you, under my difficulties as to duty, and that you would so cordially have met me in all my way, as you have liberally and feelingly stated in the letter I am now replying to, – could I have known this, I would not have left your work, and my personal connection with you all, which had been so very pleasing to me and gratifying for the course of years. The Scripture tells us, that man deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps: and the same Providence that appeared to me to lead away from you, may yet be seen as leading me back to you again. Should anything of this kind occur, my way will be rendered very clear, by the affecting friendliness of your letter, and by your expressions of willingness to meet me more than halfway in all my proposals, thus far at least made known to you. Well, shall I say, now at this early period of our half separation, that I never intended it should be more than a kind of half: shall I say it, that already something has appeared as a Providence to trace out a path of return to your always pleasing and accepted service? I believe there has.
I entered the employment of the Mico Charity with the intention of living and dying at my post in their work, and thought I had there found a resting place for my long wandering feet. Such was the thought of my foolish heart: but the Lord Jesus seems to say to me, Turn again to your wanderings through the wilderness, and therein abide till I come. The call I obey, and return to you again to march under your standard, for you are great Standard Bearer in the kingdom of Christ and of God. The circumstances and conditions under which I entered the Mico Charity have so changed, that I consider it my duty to retire from it. I stated to you in my letter of the 22nd February, as follows in respect to my new employment then in contemplation: – "I am to have put into my hands, a house, some land, and a number of children, with liberty to educate these children according to the best plans I can devise, and carry into effect." I am recently given to understand, that the view sketched and understood in the above statement as to my work, cannot be realised, and that too although the Public have been led to expect the plan I had in prospect by an advertisement kept standing in all the newspapers of the island for weeks in succession. This is so great a change and non-fulfillment in the eyes of the Public, as well as in the terms of my agreement, that I consider myself, not only authorised, but as somehow half bound in terms of common honour, to save my credit by withdrawing from this connexion. I did not enter further into the subject, but I am glad that these changes in the business have happened at this early stage rather than later.
And now in regard to your business and your pleasing employment, to which, if the Lord will, I shall return on 1st July next, after an absence, or as I have always thought it, a half absence, of three months. In regard to your work here I have much to say, and much more than will justify you in your liberal treatment of your old servant in granting him all his desire in respect to this island. First then I would say, that your work has appeared more and more to open upon me in its extent and importance since my sidelong turning in regard to you. I have had several calls from various places, with goodly prospects of advancing your cause, but could not attend to them from the nature of my other and main employment of late: and by not being able to attend to these, has caused things in the places from whence the calls came, to remain not to say worse, in statu quo. Secondly, the opinion of others here most friendly to your cause has been much against the dissolution, our half dissolution, that took place between us. I have been often rallied as to whether I was right in taking the step I did. I justified myself in these cases, and with all the delicacy I could towards you by saying in substance more or less what I said to you on the same point in my letter of the 22nd February. I give you one instance of this friendly rallying, and it is a written one, and from the pen of an old and long tried friend Mr. Tinson. He says in a note I received from him on the evening previous to my leaving Kingston on my way to this quarter in the new service: – he says, – "As you requested I have said nothing about what you spoke to me the other day but I have thought considerably. It does not become me perhaps to offer an opinion respecting your proceedings, and indeed I have not time to write and if I had it might not be well. You are much better capable of judging as to what is best than I am, but pardon me, it does seem to occur to me that your whole energies might well be employed in this island, solely as a Bible Agent, and never did it appear so necessary to me for such a man to be so engaged. Excuse this freedom, some day I may write you more fully."
Such are the views of the subject as taken by one most decidedly in your interest, and having local knowledge of the circumstances and work going forward in this island, and whose testimony ought to weigh greatly as I am sure it does, with the Committee in their arrangements respecting this place; and in the same too they will find a full justification of an ample and liberal line of conduct in the furtherance of Bible Society work in this peculiar land.
The views of another friend of the Bible Society on the point in question you already have in my letter of the 23rd January last. I referred to the Rev. Mr. Blyth's judgment and testimony in the same, were it not that it would savour perhaps of something I do not much like either in myself or others. Nevertheless for the purpose of seeing through this matter more fully, it would probably not be out of the way to read that extract at the time this letter is read, and its contents taken into consideration.
To these statements I would add, that in every conversation here, with everybody at all interested in your work in this island, the view I took of the subject in my letter of the 24th April last year, has been the decided view held on the subject by all the persons now referred to. You see what Mr. Tinson's view is at the present time, and I have been made to know the coinciding opinions of others as still more recently expressed on the subject in the rallyings I have had respecting this whole concern. – Shall I say then, that we are now fully agreed on the matter in question, and that I may and do proceed in the spirit of your letter I am now immediately replying to, namely, that bearing date of the 30th of March. So I shall consider the case is settled, and in this view of the matter I shall act until I hear from you. – In my letter of the 22nd February, and in what I have written above in this letter, you will see how unwilling I am to act except in most cordial conformity to your will and wishes as you may think best for the prosperity of the great cause God has entrusted to your stewardship. Please then to keep in mind that I still feel the same delicacy in this question and case, and that I by no means wish to intrude myself upon you, nor desire that you should bend your great concern to meet my convenience of my private duties as an individual before God. We may both be justified of our Lord Jesus Christ though we take opposite views of this matter, and act under the separate judgments. – I have thought it my duty under present circumstances, and from the tenor of your letter now before me, thus to retender my poor instrumentality to you in all its earthiness, in order to reengage in your work and which indeed I have never fully left. It does seem by the present leading of God's providence not to mention others, that I should take up as my main and chief employment in the kingdom of God, that same work to which by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ I have been called and in which through a long series of years, under many trials, and perils, and difficulties, I have been so very mercifully sustained and favoured. – I wait in prayer for your decision and your answer, and in the meantime pursue and prosecute your work as in former times, and in the name and strength of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forevermore, and in whom may we all evermore be blessed.
You will be pleased to learn [see at the bottom of next page.]
So much as above in the form of adjustments, and now for actual business. The first item will please you and I daresay the following items will not be otherwise felt by year. The first is a remittance of £50 from St. Elizabeth's Bible Society. This I have had in my hands for some time, but was somewhat at a loss as to the immediate application of it. It is now settled as to that, and I herewith remit the sum in the form of an order on my Private Account. Please therefore to debit me with this sum, and credit the St. Elizabeth's the Bible Society for the same. I have lately heard that the stock of small Bibles at Black River, the depot of the St. Elizabeth's Bible Society is totally ordined of small Bibles. I trust the supply requested for that place and Society on the 13th February last is now well forward on its way towards its proper destination. – I remit also the sum of £3:3:2 sterling, being a donation from the Rev. Thomas P Williams, Rector of St. Elizabeth's, "in furtherance of the object of the B.F.B.S. beyond the British dominions".
Falmouth, I have just heard, is again without small Bibles. 550 were requested in my letter of the 19th April. These are on their way I hope; but they will not last long for that place, therefore be so good as follow them as early as you can with the same number and kinds. Trelawney will take as many Bibles from you, and will distribute them usefully.
In my last letter I spoke of St. Ann's and St. Mary's as ready for the formation in them of Bible Societies. I hope I shall be able to revisit these places before the lapse of many months, and to take measures for the commencement of the parish Bible Institution in each, and also to form some Bible Associations in connexion with them in favourable localities. Allow me then in the meantime to prepare for these, by begging from you a supply for each of the two places, the one to be sent to the Rev. Mr. Williams, St. Ann's Bay, and the other to the Rev. Mr. Baylis, Port Maria. The quantities for each place should be, 200 of the 4/- nonpareil Bible, 100 of the 3/4 nonpareil, 50 of the 6/8 Brevier, 50 of the 5/3 Pearl, 50 small pica at 10/- and 50 of the 21/- Quartos. ―Of Testaments 100 Brevier sheep, 50 Pica, 25 English and 25 Pearl; the three latter in calf, or sheep as you may please.
The £30 worth of Bibles formerly noticed, as got from you by Mr. Burchell were not, as I understand direct from you, but through some member of the Society or rather Committee, and hence the non-appearance of them in your Books, and also the anomaly respecting the price.
I should feel greatly obliged by your forwarding to me a note of all the copies of the Scriptures sent to the West Indies from the beginning of January 1830, up to the date of making it out. Also I beg leave to repeat my request for a copy of all invoices of books sent to Jamaica from the date of that request, and onwards.
Believe me, My Dear Friend,
Very Truly And Affectionately Yours,
James Thomson.
You will be pleased to learn, that there is no unpleasantness of feeling between my dear Brother Trew and myself in this case. He urges me not to give up what has been put into my hands. But in view of all the circumstances of the Mico Charity as they now stand before me, and considering all the circumstances of the Bible Society concern, I decide for you. May God be glorified in us, and the more, through all these occurrences.
So much as above, etc.