The Rev A Brandram No.21
Orizaba 14th May 1828
My Dear Sir,
I have again the pleasure of writing you and of reporting what progress your work is making in this quarter. My last letter was dated the 23rd of April from Jalapa. I then informed you that my object on the present journey is somewhat different from the plan I pursued on the last. I then held a sale for a few days in the different places I stopped in, but on this journey my object is to find out suitable persons to whom I might entrust the sale of the Scriptures. I intimated to you at the close of the last journey that this was the plan I wish to adopt, but instead of there being held in the large towns here and there throughout this country, a sale for a few days only and once in a year, there might be a continued sale of the Scriptures in all these places all the year round. I made arrangements in Jalapa according to this plan. From the scarcity of mules, there was a considerable delay in forwarding the books from Veracruz to Jalapa, so that though I expected them there before I reached the place, they did not even arrive during the twelve days I remained there. As the season was so far advanced, and the period of the heavy rains so near, I was anxious to move onwards, fearing I might be prevented from reaching Oajaca, a place I very much wish to visit on this tour. I thought it best therefore to leave Jalapa and to proceed on my journey although the Bibles had not arrived, having previously entrusted to a confidential person, the receiving of them at the Custom House, the delivering of the cases for sale to the person engaged with for that purpose, and the forwarding of the rest to Orizaba. The gentleman who was so kind as undertake this concern, and to otherwise was very serviceable to me in Jalapa, is a member of the Congress of the State of Veracruz.
I left Jalapa on 30 April, and arrived in this place on Saturday the 3rd current. On Monday I delivered my letters of introduction, and was gratified to find the favourable reception I met with as the agent of your Society. I had a good deal of conversation with some persons of note here regarding the circulation of the Scriptures in this country at the present critical period, and I was pleased to find them of the same mind with me upon the subject. In one of our interviews, one of the gentlemen stated how desirable it would be to have a little Bible Society in Orizaba, which might lend its aid to promote the circulation and study of the Scriptures in this place, and throughout the department of which this is the capital. This you may be sure was to me a gratifying proposal. To have had the prospect of seeing the Society formed at my suggestion would have been very agreeable, but the gratification was much more in seeing the matter originate with an individual a native of the place, and a person of influence in it. This gentleman mentioned at the time that the Vicar of Orizaba was a liberal man and that he had no doubt but he would enter readily into the object and would forwarded all he could. He offered to introduce me to the Vicar that we might together mention to him the object in view. I went with him, and was much pleased to hear the Vicar declare his readiness to accede to any plan of this kind which might tend to promote the genuine study of the Scriptures. After several conversations upon the subject, arrangements were made for holding a small meeting of the friends of the object in order to consult what was best to be done for verifying the plan in view. A meeting was accordingly held this morning in the house of the Prefect of the Department, at which the Prefect himself attended and entered into the plan promising all his aid. The Vicar was there, the gentleman before mentioned, and a few others who had been invited. All passed on agreeably at the meeting. The object was stated, and discussed. I presented a few rules pointing out, the object, the plan, and the regulations of the intended society.
The Apocrypha difficulties I got rid of by stating at the outset that the Bible Society to be formed in Orizaba is to be an auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society. At the close of our meeting, I mentioned to the Vicar how desirable it would be and how useful for the object in question, if he should use his sacerdotal influence in recommending and enforcing the study of the Scriptures by preaching from the pulpit upon the subject. His reply was, that all I have just said to him to induce him to do this were words used to no purpose, because he was already and previously fully determined to do everything I had stated, and to lose no opportunity in promoting this sacred object. Thus his answer proved, though in the first clause of it discouraging, yet in the second doubly gratifying. There is great importance to be attached to the having the Vicar or Rector of any place fully on your side. His influence is great over the people as to what he recommends or forbids. If he is for you, the circulation of the Scriptures will be greatly promoted, and if he is against you your success will be greatly retarded.
I do not forget in this, that if God be for us, no one can be against us. This is a consoling truth in prosperous and in adverse times. If the cause of God is our pursuit we shall most undoubtedly prevail sooner or later. At the same time the Scriptures point out to us the secondary influence of men and of circumstances as to success in particular times and places. We know, moreover, for our comfort, that the hearts of all men are in the hands of the Lord, and that he can turn them to what purpose he will. With this overruling influence over men and circumstances in view, let us ever give thanks unto the Lord when men and things are on our side, assured that the Lord hath rendered them so. And on the other hand when men and circumstances oppose us, let us lift up our hearts and our voices unto heaven that a heavenly influence turn these in our favour. Thus in times of success and in times of discouragement our eyes and our hearts shall be on the Lord. This surely is the will of God concerning us, and our work. Let us therefore ever keep it in view, and in doing so, whilst we are watering the world with word of God, we ourselves shall be abundantly watered by the Holy Spirit, we shall live in peace and joy here below wherever we may reside or wander, and we shall rejoice in the prospect of closing our journey of life by entering into the joy of our Lord.
The person's name to whom I have referred as proposing the formation of the Society is Don Joaquin Pesado, and I have pleasure in recording it. Another gentleman whose name is Don Manuel Arguelles, deserves to be associated with the person above named, as being present when the proposal was made for the Society, and is taking an equal interest in its establishment. These two individuals enter I think con amore into this matter, and they assured me that I might be fully satisfied that they would use every means in my absence for carrying forward what was thus begun. You have heard me speak at different times of the danger and the frequency of passing in this country from superstition to Deism. These two individuals have passed from superstition, and through the grace of God, have been detained at the proper place – in search of the truth, and of true religion in the Holy Scriptures. The Lord grant that they may indeed find the pearl of great price which this book contains, and that they may be made truly wise unto salvation. I have had real gratification in conversing with the two persons mentioned on the above and on general topics relating to the propagation of knowledge in this country, and I do not think I have met with any other two in Mexico who have gratified me so much upon the subject in question. We are, as you may suppose, to correspond upon these matters.
On the 10th current, the Bibles arrived here, having been attentively forwarded by the gentleman in Jalapa whom I mentioned to you. They were immediately carried from the Custom House to the shop of a person who had been strongly recommended to me as ready to render his services in promoting their circulation, and the sale was forthwith begun, the advertisements being posted up as usual. During the days of the sale now elapsed the purchasers have been numerous as might have been expected, and all, thus far, promises well. Four cases containing about equal proportions of Bibles and Testaments are what I have allotted for this place, and for the neighbouring towns. The principal of these towns Chalchicomula and Córdova. The latter of these I visited, the distance from this being only five leagues. I had a letter from Mexico to the person who is at present sub-prefect of the Canton of which Córdova is the capital. I mentioned to him that I intended to remit some Bibles and Testaments to the place, he said he would take charge of them, and would place them for sale in a public place, and with a person of all confidence. I have two other letters for that place, and found individuals to whom I was thus introduced kind and obliging. The charge of forwarding copies of the Scriptures to these two towns and to the others around of less note I leave in the hands of Mr. Pesado and Mr. Arguelles. They have already written to the priests in some of these places, and intend to seize the first conveyance for remitting to them a few copies of the Scriptures to make commencement with.
To get the New Testament introduced into the schools of this country, you are aware, is an object of great importance. I am happy to inform you that this is desirable object has been accomplished in this place. Mr. Pesado spoke to the magistrates upon the subject, and received an order from them to purchase fifty New Testaments for the public schools of Orizaba. To encourage this introduction of the Scriptures into the schools, I reduced on this occasion the price of each copy from six to four rials, thus using the discretionary power you have placed in my hands. This reduction may lead the directors of schools in the places around to seize the opportunity of supplying the children school with so cheap and so useful a book, and should application being made for reducing the price as above, I shall consider myself as following your instructions in acceding to them.
I mentioned in my last the withdrawing of my former application respecting an edition of a Spanish Bible with marginal references. I was led to do so from the difficulties you would encounter in regard to the individual references you should place on the margin. In the Vulgate and in the Bibles printed in Spain with references, there are no doubt passages referred to which you would consider catholic references. These you would not like to give, and to give on the other hand protestant references would be to interfere in the matter of doctrine in which as a Society you professed not to intermeddle, and in giving such references you would also unhinge and perhaps destroy all confidence in your Society in this country. By the bye, I cannot help thinking that your wish signified in one of your late letters regarding the conforming of new translations to be made in this country to the English our protestant editions, is the signification of a wish to break through this rule you have laid down to yourselves in regard to not interfering with the faith or doctrine of any church. I add this in addition to the other arguments used in my last letter from Mexico for your not interfering in this matter regarding the translations referred to.
I repeat what I noticed in my last, that I feel truly grateful to you for your readily exceeding to my request for the edition of the New Testament in pica type. Please let me know as early as you can when you may have this edition ready for remittance to this country. I feel a strong desire to press you anew for the addition of the two epistles of Peter to the volume containing Luke and Acts. There is surely nothing Catholic or Apocryphal in these two epistles, and why then should you refuse them, when the expense would be almost nothing additional, and when the advantages would be greatly additional. I thus conclude this letter urging again my request, and I may perhaps, like a certain person upon a certain subject in days of yore, conclude all my letters with this request until I be so fortunate as to gain my object.
I have only to say in closing that I am,
Most Truly Yours,
James Thomson.
P.S. In the for shipment of Bibles, etc. which came into my hands here, and also in the second, I observed that the nails holding the iron bands of the cases, pass in very many instances into the books and considerably injure them. I am sorry to observe that the same is the case in the shipment now in my hands. It needs no great judgment to see that the nails fixing on these bands should not be longer than the thickness of the boards of which the boxes made. Please attend to this.
N.B. By cutting up this shut at the top, and using the inner sheet first you will find the pages in order.