Yale-Edinburgh Group on the History of Missions and World Christianity
College, University of Edinburgh
28-30 June 2018
Scripture, Prayer and Worship in the History of Missions and World Christianity
“From Leith Walk Tabernacle to the Wider World: Scripture, Prayer and Worship in the Life and Mission of James (Diego) Thomson (1788-1854)”
Bill Mitchell
United Bible Societies
Two hundred years ago on April 24, 1818, the congregation Leith Walk Tabernacle in Edinburgh said goodbye to one of their associate pastors, the 29 year-old James Thomson, as he headed to Argentina. In London he spent a few weeks in the British and Foreign Schools Society Normal School, and also discussed his hopes and plans with staff of the British and Foreign Bible Society. He would arrive in Buenos Aires wearing those two hats--BFSS and BFBS—though the funding for his first 12 months came from the Edinburgh congregation. His twelve week long sea journey from Liverpool to B.A. was the beginning of a 30 year period spent not only in South America, but also in Mexico, the West Indies, British North America, and once more in Mexico, then Yucatan[1], followed by time in the UK, then two years in the Iberian Peninsula.
What we know about Thomson before he left Edinburgh, is something of his Presbyterian upbringing in the southwest of the country, two years of medical studies in Edinburgh[2], followed by theological studies in Glasgow. How extensive these were is not known, but his later writings and interests suggest that they were significant.[3] In 1815 we find him with the Haldanes in Edinburgh, giving pastoral care to French prisoners of war in Edinburgh Castle. In 1817 he is doing his daily devotions in French, in preparation for planned work with Robert Haldane in France – which, in fact, did not work out. A year later he is in Buenos Aires studying Spanish and in discussions with top government leaders planning Lancasterian schools.[4] The relative ease with which he did this, and moved in such circles, showed abilities that later enabled him to work with those who would be the ‘movers and shakers’ in the continent, at a time when Latin American countries were gaining independence from Spain.
1. Thomson’s threefold strategy – the tripod
With regard to his own strategy, Thomson summed it up at an early point in his South American ministry:
The lamp which illuminates the world with the light of life seems placed upon a tripod: the School Society, the Bible Society, and the Missionary Society. A threefold cord, says Solomon, is not quickly broken, and what has threefold support cannot be easily overturned. How gratifying is it to all those who love Sion to see such numbers of the Great and the Good in our native Isles inlist themselves under one or other or all of these banners. Blessings be on all them who love and seek the prosperity of Sion.[5]
School Society
While it is at times difficult to decide whether Bible distribution or public education had priority in the early stages of his time in South America, he sets this out in a letter to BFBS, at a time when he was not officially a BFBS agent:
You know, of course, that my most prominent object in South America is the promoting of education on the Lancasterian plan. On this footing it was that I experienced so hearty a reception in this place. Great and respected as your Society is, and ought to be, in the eyes of England and of Europe, it would yet be an imprudence to proclaim one's self your agent here, with the sole or chief object of circulating the Bible… I have said my prominent object here is the establishment of schools. I freely and openly profess this, and in consequence am everywhere hailed as a friend. The little influence I have thus acquired, and the confidence reposed in me, enable me more effectually to promote the circulation of the Scriptures, than if I acted ostensibly and exclusively as your agent.[6]
The development of schools in and of itself was an important part of his agenda—“independently of my other objects here in the kingdom of Christ, I should not have hesitated to come for this object alone” [7]. However, the two seemed to exist in a kind of symbiotic relationship, the schools providing the door for the Scriptures.
Thomson was allowed to adapt educational materials already in use in Buenos Aires, and, as in the Lancasterian model in Britain, ensured the key role there for the Bible.
“The introduction of the Scriptures into these Schools, instead of the Ave Maria, &c. will directly tend to the promoting the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He hoped “to see many thousands reaping the benefits of education, and imbibing the soundest principles of religion and morality from lessons selected from the Holy Scriptures.”[8] The Scripture materials he developed there were also used in Chile and Peru: “In both these [Lima] schools printed sheets of extracts from the Scriptures were used for lessons, the same as in Buenos Aires and Chile.“ Thomson adds “in Lima the New Testament entire, printed by the British and Foreign Bible Society in London, was used as our principal school-book.”[9]
Thomson became an agent of BFBS towards the end of 1824, and while he remained a strong advocate of Lancasterian schools, he was no longer in a position to introduce the Scriptures to the curriculum—even when he was a member of the government Board of Education in Mexico (1827-30), where he championed the development of schools in the country’s ethnic groups and argued for the translation of the New Testament into their languages as a major educational and moral resource.[10] There were, however, other associates who did take up the importance of the Scriptures in schools, notably Vicente Rocafuerte[11], who although from Ecuador, was at that time the Mexican chargé d’affaires in London.
Bible Society: South America
While Thomson did not initially go to South America as an ‘official’ Bible Society agent, he saw himself involved in their mission from the beginning—as he wrote to John Owen in 1821:
Whilst, however, I hold myself forward in the eyes of South America, as a promoter of education and an instructor of youth, I consider myself in all respects as the servant of the British and Foreign Bible Society. I beg you to consider me in this light, and to call upon me with the utmost freedom in whatever way I can,
directly or indirectly, promote your blessed work, in making the inhabitants of this vast continent acquainted with the words of eternal life.[12]
It was Thomson who advised BFBS on the version of the Spanish Bible they should distribute—that of the Spanish priest Felipe Scío de San Miguel, published in 1790.[13] At the time BFBS printed only the New Testament and Thomson pressed on them the need to have the complete Bible:
If the number of those who speak the Spanish language in Europe and America be considered, it will be found that few languages have a stronger claim to your attention. I purposely hope your Committee will give this subject that serious and early attention which, if I mistake not, its importance demands.[14]
Thomson saw the encouragements in his early years in South America as part of a global movement, as he wrote to the American Bible Society from Lima in 1823:
“What a cheering thought it is, to contemplate the glorious exertions of the present day, to put the Sacred Scriptures into the hands of all. The names of barbarian, Scythian, bond and free, have disappeared in the distribution of this noble charity; and the only distinction known is, those who have this volume, and those who have it not. The present mighty efforts bid fair to make this only distinction among mankind disappear also; and may it be soon fulfilled; thus leaving every soul in possession of that treasure which can alone make his soul valuable”.[15]
Yet already in a country which was a war zone, with the church and ecclesiastical authorities in disarray, challenges were emerging which would seriously affect Scripture distribution—BFBS published the Bible without notes, and without the Apocrypha. Bible Society practice had always been a text ‘without note or comment’, and, ironically, thanks to Thomson’s Leith Walk Tabernacle colleagues, without the Apocrypha. Thomson’s support for a Spanish Bible with the Apocrypha led inevitably to a rupture with the Haldanes, one that would last many years.[16]
Along with the independence movement, there were other social forces at work which created an opening for Scripture distribution in South America.[17] Thomson’s openness to dialogue with priests and bishops and his links with leaders and diplomats led to the creation in 1825 of the Bible Society of Colombia in Bogota, virtually at the end of his seven years in South America.[18]
Bible Society: Mexico
The high note on which Thomson left South America was quite different from that struck as he ended four years in Mexico (1827-1830). Legal measures taken by the church limited significant distribution and made it impossible for him to create a network of distribution points throughout the country. Despite the help of a number of liberal leaders and politicians he was unable to reverse these measures.[19] As he left Mexico he wrote: “Many hindrances have been met with in circulating the Scriptures in this country. We should not, however, regret the efforts that have been made in this matter;… but let us rejoice that we have been permitted to sow in this land some grains of the incorruptible seed which liveth and abideth for ever.”[20]
On his second visit to Mexico (1842-1844) Thomson was delighted to find that all had not been in vain: “those who were friendly to our books, and those who were not. Those against the circulation of the Scriptures without notes, were anxious to bring in a Bible containing the notes; and those friendly to us cheerfully joined them”. The result was a fresh edition of the Torres Amat Spanish Bible, but, more importantly for Thomson, a Spanish edition, prepared by a team of eight priests in Mexico, of the French study Bible—Bible de Vence—“It is the first Bible printed here, or in any part of Spanish America, and therefore truly forms an era of a most important kind in regard to these countries.”[21]
Bible Society: Caribbean
In his extensive travels in the Caribbean (1832-1838)[22], culminating in almost four years in Jamaica, he focused not only on the distribution and use of the Scriptures, but gave particular attention to developing Bible Society branches:
My object here as you know, is twofold. First to ascertain what wants there are for Holy Scriptures, and to supply these wants from the stores you have furnished me with. The second part of my object, is to form Bible Societies and Associations as far as practicable. To both of these I am now attending, and my prospects of doing something are fair.[23]
There were two issues that immediately arose, one was the opposition of many planters to providing the Scriptures (and literacy initiatives linked with this) to the slaves, and the other was the actual composition of branches:
In the formation of our Committee we have endeavoured to effect, what the Bible always does, a union of castes, remembering that ‘God has made of one blood all that dwell on the face of the earth.’ The main subject of agitation in these islands, little as we know of it in England, is the separation hitherto kept up between the white and coloured population. The former wish still to keep up this separation, whilst the latter as might be expected wish to break it down. Our Committee is composed of both classes.[24]
In reality, following the prompting of some estate owners, Thomson devoted significant time to setting up ‘Bible Associations’ among the ‘free and bond’ population on different estates, beginning in Antigua where over 20 associations were formed—in these Scripture use, literacy, and fundraising came together.[25] This pattern was followed elsewhere, especially in Jamaica. Thomson saw it as "Ethiopia stretching out her hands to God".[26] The fundraising aspect drew some criticism from Kingston newspapers:
“One editor is pleased to inform his readers that ‘there is an individual here of the name of Thomson seeking whose money he may pocket on behalf of the Bible Society.’ And ‘it is a good joke,’ he says, ‘to persuade our Negroes to part with their money to translate the Scriptures for the Chinese.’" [27]
According to one writer, in Jamaica Thomson was “known everywhere as Bible Thomson, loved and respected where ever known, he went around making friends and conferring blessings.”[28] One of his initiatives that was especially remembered was the presentation of a ‘Gift Book’ from the British public to mark Emancipation Day on August 1, 1834. Everyone who could read received a special edition of the New Testament and Psalms, with an initial distribution of 50,000 copies in Jamaica alone. He saw this as “giving people the Book of God to be the foundation of all their principles and practices; whilst at the same time it will serve both now, and for ages to come.”[29]
Bible Society: British North America
Thomson’s people skills, networking and organizational abilities seen in the development of BFBS branches and associations in the Caribbean were seen to full effect in Upper and Lower Canada (1838-1842). Stuart Barnard sums this up as follows:
“Strengthening the BFBS's Canadian influence was its agent James Thomson, whose work in British North America between 1838 and 1842 expanded the organization’s reach and ensured an ample supply of bibles in the colonies. Through the expansion of local Bible Society auxiliaries and the establishment of distribution networks, Thomson laid the foundations for the BFBS’s success in
establishing a successful bible enterprise that would dominate the trade in British North America for the rest of the century.”[30]
He concludes: “The foundations of the British and Foreign Bible Society that were strengthened by Thomson between 1838 and 1842 not only had a significant role in the development of that institution in British North America, but also left an indelible imprint on Canada’s religious and print culture into the twentieth century.”[31]
Bible Translation
For Thomson the relationship between education, Bible, language and native cultures became clear in Peru with the realization that over 50% of the population did not speak Spanish. This led to translation initiatives in the Quechua, Aymara, and Mochica languages. It became a feature of Thomson’s work—as he went to Mexico in 1827 he noted “I am commissioned to procure translations of the Scriptures into the native languages of that country, and which are still spoken there by some millions of the inhabitants.”[32] He made a point of studying certain languages (e.g. Natuatl, Otomí and Maya in Mexico) to get a sense of what Scripture translation into those languages would involve.[33] For a variety of reasons, few of Thomson’s recommendations were taken up by BFBS, but he continued pressing for this, even regarding new translations into Spanish, after he had left BFBS.[34]
In Mexico he struggled with the requirements set out by the London Committee:
1. Translations should be done from the original Greek.
2. Translations should conform to Protestant versions.
3. The intended public should be literate.
4. The translation should be made into written languages, preferably with materials already in print.
5. The languages should be viable, not likely to become extinct.
6. The translators should be ‘persons of literature’ as far as possible, and pious, exemplary men.[35]
While normally a diplomatic correspondent, here he showed his frustration: “you put a thousand questions to us about our languages here before you give us ungrudgingly even one of the Gospels”. Nevertheless, he continued undeterred, exploring possibilities in Mexico and Yucatan, encouraging translations in Canada, and later involving himself in translations in Spain.[36]
Missionary Society - British Christian Colonies
From his early youth Thomson was familiar with migration, with emigrants heading for America from the ports of Kirkcudbright and Dumfries in south-west Scotland, near his home in Creetown. During his time in Edinburgh and Glasgow commercial initiatives were taken by Scottish entrepreneurs to take advantage of opportunities in countries such as Argentina, through Scottish ‘colonies’ of farmers, tradesmen and miners. Thomson saw this through a prism of mission, and framed his "Missionary Society" in terms of "British Christian Colonies".
Following his time in Chile he wrote to James Haldane:
“What an immeasurable field is South America; and how white it is to the harvest! I have told you this repeatedly, but I have a pleasure in telling it to you again. I do think that, since the world began, there never was so fine a field for the exercise of benevolence in all its parts. The man of science, the moralist, the Christian, have all fine scope here for their talents. God, who has opened such a door, will surely provide labourers.”[37]
In Chile he proposed to President O'Higgins that he bring out tradesmen, artisans and farmers, stating that "the men who will be most useful in South America, are men truly religious and of sound morality". He later presented a similar plan to General San Martin in Peru: “He read it very carefully over, and concluded by saying, ‘Excellent!’".[38] In Chile the “proposition was referred to the ecclesiastical commission, in conformity
with the law of that time”[39], which wrestled with the “the great difficulties which are concealed or involved in the proposition”, namely those related to religious liberty. The proposal was roundly rejected. Three weeks after Thomson met San Martin in Lima, the General travelled north to meet Simon Bolivar, and then left Peru in Bolivar’s hands.
Towards the end of his time in Mexico he wrote of the ‘Missionary Colony’ as
a plan which I have for years indulged, and through which I conceive more extensive benefit could be done to these new countries than by any other that has yet occurred to me… the single object of which is the enlightenment and salvation of these new countries together with the well-being of those who so benefit it.[40]
He prepared a leaflet on the subject which he took with him on his visit to President Andrew Jackson in Washington.[41] It is a subject to which he returned in his recommendations for mission published in Evangelical Christendom in 1847.[42]
2. Prayer and Worship
Christian Unity and the Union Liturgy
In 1837 Thomson’s Union Liturgy was published in London.[43] It is a surprising publication to come from a Scot, reared in Presbyterianism, who then ministered in Haldane churches, and who in the previous twenty years had spent a little over two years in England. Yet immersed as he was in whatever local situation he found himself, he maintained a lively interest in developments in Britain, and in mission developments elsewhere. The books that Thomson ordered from England for his personal study and the journals to which he subscribed, show someone who kept abreast of biblical, theological, ecclesiastical and missional developments.[44]
In the introduction he states that his Liturgy had no connection with reform of the “National Liturgy” being discussed in England at the time of the book’s publication, but
that he had begun the work in 1826-7[45] and developed it at intervals thereafter.[46] Were the debates and strife which he had seen in Scotland, and in which the Haldanes were often protagonists, an early factor in his thinking? Whatever those roots and subsequent influences may have been, Union Liturgy reflects a keen, theological mind, concerned for Christian unity.
He wrote of his visit to St. Kitts in 1832: "I saw here some symptoms of sectarianism which I had rather not seen, for its sight is disagreeable to me at all times and in all places".[47] In Jamaica in 1835 “he proposed a scheme of Christian union and ministerial cooperation, among the missionaries of our island, good in itself, and becoming in him, as a representative of the most catholic society in the world”.[48] It came into being six months later, “it was an evangelical alliance, 10 years before the great alliance was formed in Liverpool and London”.[49]
On his appointment as the BFBS agent for British North America he wrote To the Bible Societies in British North America:
The Bible is indeed a unity book, and all who join in circulating it ought to endeavour as much as possible to be of one heart and soul. Unfortunately the Christian world is at the present time separated into various flocks; but as we all anticipate a unity in the future and glorious days of the Church on earth, we ought to tend towards unity now, as much as in us lies.[50]
He saw the Bible Society as an umbrella under which all could gather and together express their unity in Christ. He commented on a well-attended meeting in Miramichi, New Brunswick: “All rejoiced at the opportunity thus afforded of a general Christian union for the purpose of making Christianity general through the diffusion of the word of God over the world”.[51]
Regarding the Scriptures he makes his own position clear in the introduction to the Union Liturgy:
The Scriptures are our grand and only guide in all matters pertaining to the Kingdom of God, and when they speak out in clear directions, we have nothing to think of but an entire and cheerful submission to the instructions they give. But in
those cases where they do not speak out and mark our path definitively, we are left at liberty to regulate our practice by the General Rules contained in the same Volume.[52]
In drawing up forms for public, social and private worship he believed he had “brought into full view the grand doctrines and maxims of salvation and endeavoured to embody all those things which as Christians we ought in general to express in our united approaches to God.”[53] He recognized that there were other liturgies, but suggested that “variety here may be the means of promoting Unity, and may this be the tendency of the present work as its title bespeaks”.[54]
A London review of Union Liturgy some ten years after its publication states:
This work is not, as might be supposed, one of the fruits, but one of the forerunners, of the Evangelical Alliance…. The work before us is not, however, a mere scheme for the improvement, or conciliatory modification of the Anglican Liturgy; it proposes to cast the offices of public worship in an entirely new mould. Preserving the responsive form of prayer, in favour of which so much has been admitted by eminent Non-conformists, it embodies the Catholic petitions of Christian assemblies in phraseology less concise and general than that of the Book of Common Prayer, and more akin in its character to that employed in free or extemporary supplication. … But by far the greatest merit of the work is its leading—-not merely pointing—but leading the way to a practical abatement of the evils of religious dissension, by calling Christians to united participation in religious ordinances.[55]
Family and Individual Prayers
In all his travels the one request above all else that Thomson makes of his friends, his Bible Society colleagues and churches, is that they pray for him. He remembered with gratitude that “the church in Leith Walk which enabled him at first to go out and aided him for his first year, and used ever to pray that he might find favour among the people; a prayer that was remarkably answered.”[56] For Thomson prayer was fundamental to
Christian life, worship and service as is seen in his Family and Individual Prayers, for Every Day of the Week published in1839 some months after his arrival in Montreal.[57]
Although first published and circulated in Canada,[58] these prayers later saw publication in 1850 in London as Incense for the Christian Altar and Incense for the Private Altar.
It comes as a surprise to learn that “with few exceptions” the prayers were prepared during his three months in Cuba in 1837. Although he does not tell us here, his Cuban “tour” ended rather dramatically with him escaping from the island a few hours before a warrant for his arrest and imprisonment was signed.[59] In the London edition of the individual prayers he says that some of these “were written in my solitudes in Mexico and Yucatán, during my second visit to those quarters”. In his preface to the prayers, Thomson explains that
in his intercourse with persons in various countries through which he had passed, he has endeavoured to lead them to God through Jesus Christ; and in connection with this, he has pointed out the value of prayer, and urged the use of it by Families and by Individuals. On these occasions he has often wished for a little book of prayers, of whose Gospel accuracy he was fully aware, in order that he might put it forthwith into the hands of those to whom he spoke.
In the more specific context of mission, he cites a preface he had prepared for the ‘Missionary Prayer’.[60] His view of the overall setting is clear: “Glorious things are spoken in the Holy Scriptures respecting the kingdom of God in the latter days, and these days seemed evidently advancing upon us at the present time.” In bringing this about the Almighty acts by the “instrumentality of means”. These are
“the going forth of the word of God to the nations, and
the going forth of the Christian missionary to teach and preach the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ”.
These work together with “another instrument, not less effectual”-- the prayers of the people of God.
For Thomson
“the Bible and the missionary are successful in enlightening men, and in bringing them to salvation, in proportion to the number of disciples of Christ who pray for such success, combined with the frequency and the fervency of the prayers they offer”.
By encouraging people to pray, and helping to focus their prayers,[61] he understood himself to be contributing in some measure to helping forward the kingdom of God—“the spread of the gospel and the glory of Zion”.[62]
The reviews of Incense for the Christian Altar and Incense for the Private Altar in Britain were glowing:
They breathe the true spirit of devotion – a spirit lowly, and grateful, and confiding; a spirit which abases the sinner, and exalts Christ; a spirit which brings the believer into sympathy with the glorious purposes and designs of the blessed God; which takes fast hold of the promises, and pleads them with unwavering faith; which expatiates with holy joy amidst things spiritual and eternal; and which, with the genuine expansiveness of true Christian love, identifies itself with the whole church of the redeemed, and pours itself out in “supplication for all saints.[63]
The Scottish Congregationalist leader Dr Ralph Wardlaw also welcomed the books:
These prayers are characterised by simplicity; by the unction of devout feeling; by the self-renouncing lowliness of the sinner; and the simple-hearted confidence of the believer; -- by the comprehensiveness of petition, and variety of expression; -- by the largeness of heart which becomes a member of ‘the whole family in heaven and earth’; and by thoroughly evangelical sentiment.”
In addition to Thomson’s prayers and the role he envisaged for them in the Christian community, we have in these reviews a remarkable summary of the understanding of prayer in the British evangelical world of the mid-19th century.
Religious Liberty
From his early days in South America the cause of religious liberty was an important part of his agenda, however with the death of his wife Mary in Madrid in the flu epidemic in January1848, it became a consuming passion.[64] The declarations he had heard years before in Argentina and Chile in favour of religious liberty proved to be a false dawn. In Peru he discovered that General San Martin’s pronouncement of religious liberty had no legal validity. Thomson was present in Peru’s first Congress when the matter was debated, and the following motion approved: "The Roman Catholic Apostolic Religion is the religion of the state, and the exercise of every other is excluded."[65] Thomson later wrote that during the discussion
a member got up, and said, ‘Why all this fuss about toleration? Who is wanting it? We ourselves do not need it, as we are all of one faith. And as to foreigners, it was not religion that brought them here. They came for money. Give them money and they are contented.’ This was cutting and true.[66]
In Mexico Thomson’s hopes that liberal influences and Vicente Rocafuerte’s 1831 Ensayo sobre Tolerancia Religiosa would bring change were disappointed. The matter resurfaced years later in Thomson’s years in Spain,[67] and in the injustices he suffered as he searched for somewhere to bury his wife (there was no British cemetery in Madrid), which had profound personal repercussions. In what were to prove to be the last five years of his life, it became almost a one-man crusade, with articles in evangelical publications, involvement in the Protestant Alliance on the issue, and determined lobbying of parliamentarians and those he referred to as the ‘Great and the Good’ in positions of power.[68]
In arguing his case from the Scriptures he states:
“Some may think me fanatical in these views and statements, but I have lately read, and with renewed attention and instruction, the historical parts of the Bible, and have seen the vast importance of a nation enlightened walking in that light, and shedding it upon other nations. The greatness of this our nation rests on the Bible and the gospel among us, and we should know this, and that God has called us to enlighten the world by the means through which we ourselves are enlightened.[69]
Spain and Portugal
In 1847 Thomson has gone to Spain at the request of BFBS to survey the situation, following the problems that had arisen with the previous agent. He travelled widely—Andalucia, Castile, Catalonia, Valencia, southern France and North Africa—but despite developing contacts with politicians and leading figures in academia, was unable to circumvent legal obstacles regarding importation of books.
On his return to Britain in 1849 Thomson redoubled his efforts on behalf of the small congregation in which he had been involved in Madrid, and others like it in Spain and Portugal. On his journey home from Spain in 1849 he had spent time in Lisbon, meeting with a Protestant congregation there and with a group of priests sympathetic to the Protestant cause, yet still at that point continuing in the Roman Catholic Church. He wrote of an “awakening religious Inquiry among the people” and through his writings and public meetings[70] raised awareness of these developments. He promoted a Spanish publications programme and raised funds to help pastors in the Iberian peninsula. His executor would later find that he had inverted much of his personal resources in those causes, including the beginning of an evangelical school in Lisbon.
While in Edinburgh in February 1854 he wrote a note to friends: “I am becoming increasingly weak and ill; I am returning to London to take farther medical advice. All my work stands.” He passed away a few days later in London.[71] However the work continued with the founding of the Spanish Evangelization Society in Edinburgh in 1855 by a number of those who had helped fund the work in Spain and Portugal:
“The late venerable Dr James Thomson of London has been the unconscious founder of the “Spanish Evangelization Society”. He is dead, but he yet speaketh, and his works do follow him… In silence, in solitude, in weakness, and often in sorrow, but with faith unfaltering,—Jacob-like, he wrestled with God for the
bestowal of spiritual blessings upon that unhappy land, whose interests we now attempt to plead. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and this faithful servant of God seemed to have arrived at the conclusion, even at a most unpromising period of Spain's history, that God was about to have mercy on that long-benighted land.”[72]
Dr Juan Vilar of the University of Murcia summed Thomson up as follows: “He was a person of immense learning, with an attractive personality, socially well-connected… With his passing the cause of the Reforma in the Iberian Peninsula lost its greatest champion.”[73] In his own unique way Thomson brought together Scripture, Prayer and Worship in his life and work, and now provides insights into those areas of British evangelicalism in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Select bibliography
Balfour, Ian L. S. 2007. Revival in Rose Street: Charlotte Chapel, Edinburgh 1808-2008. Rutherford House, Edinburgh.
Barnard, Stuart. 2015. “Making a Bible Enterprise: James Thomson and the British and Foreign Bible Society in British North America, 1838–1842”. Mémoires du Livre 6.2: 1-35.
----------. 2016. “Religious Print Culture and the British and Foreign Bible Society in Canada, 1820-1904”. PhD thesis. University of Calgary.
Browning, Webster E. 1921. “Joseph Lancaster, James Thomson, and the Lancasterian System of Mutual Instruction, with Special Reference to Hispanic America”. Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Feb.), pp. 49-98.
Mitchell, Bill. 1990. “James Thomson and Bible Translation in Andean Languages”, Bible Translator, 41.3: 341-5.
----------. 1991. “Diego Thomson: A study in Scotland and South America (1818-1825)”, Bulletin of the Scottish Institute of Missionary Studies, 6-7: 66-75.
----------. 1993. “Diego Thomson: Precursor de la traducción bíblica en la época moderna”, La Biblia en las Américas, 48.3: 21-23.
----------. 2008. La Biblia en la Historia del Perú. Lima: Sociedad Bíblica Peruana.
----------. 2014. “James Thomson: Forerunner of present-day Bible Translation”. http://www.jamesdiegothomson.com/
----------. 2016. “Diego Thomson in the Americas (1818-1844): Monitorial schools, nation-building and the Kingdom of God”, Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology, 34.1: 35- 52.
Peddie, Maria Denoon. 1871. The Dawn of the Second Reformation in Spain: Being the Story of its Rise and Progress from the Year 1852. London: S.W. Partridge.
Rocafuerte, Vicente. 1822. Lecciones para las Escuelas de Primeras Letras sacadas de las Sagradas Escrituras siguiendo el texto literal de la Traducción del Padre Scío, New York: A.Paul.
----------. 1831. Ensayo sobre Tolerancia Religiosa. Mexico City: Martín Rivera.
Serrano Vélez, Manuel. 2016. Luis de Usoz. El discreto heterodoxo. Editorial Almuzara: Córdoba.
Spanish Translation Society. 1825. “Design and Plan of the Society”, Missionary Register Vol 13, July: 307-9.
Thomson, James. 1827. Letters on the Moral and Religious State of South America. London: James Nisbet.
----------. 1837. Union Liturgy. London: James Nisbet.
----------. 1840. Family and Individual Prayers. 2nd edition. Montreal: Campbell and Becket.
----------. 1845. Tour in Yucatan: Together with brief notices of travels in Buenos Ayres, Chile, Ecuador, N. Granada, Venezuela, Mexico, all the West Indian Islands, the United States, Canada, N. Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Unpublished ms. Bible Society Collection, Cambridge University Library.
----------. 1847. “South America - 2”, Evangelical Christendom, vol.I (June): 187-190.
----------. 1847. “South America - 7”, Evangelical Christendom, vol.I (December): 387- 389.
----------. 1848. “Spain. Death of Mrs Thomson: and Difficulties of Protestant Sepulture”. Evangelical Christendom, vol. II (March): 117-119.
----------. 1849. “Spain”. Evangelical Christendom, vol. III (April): 141-143.
----------. 1849. “Spain: On British Protestant Cemeteries in Madrid and Barcelona”, Evangelical Christendom, vol. III (September): 276-279.
----------. 1849. “Spain: On British Protestant Burial Grounds and Religious Toleration”, Evangelical Christendom, vol. III (October): 299-301.
----------. 1849. “Portugal: Burial Ground at Lisbon”, Evangelical Christendom, vol. III (October): 301-302.
----------. 1850. Incense for the Christian Altar. London: Partridge and Oakey.
----------. 1850. Incense for the Private Altar. London: Partridge and Oakey.
----------. 1850. “Spain: Awakening Religious Inquiry among the People”, Evangelical Christendom, vol. IV (May): 153-157.
----------. 1851. British Religious Liberty Abroad and General Religious Liberty in all Nations. London: Partridge and Oakey.
----------. 1853. Spain, Its Position and Evangelization, also Protestant Religious Liberty Abroad, the Conduct of British Envoys, Interesting Mission in Portugal and its Dangers, with Notices of the Empire of Morocco. London: Partridge and Oakey.
Vilar, Juan B. 1994. Intolerancia y Libertad en la España Contemporánea. Madrid: Ediciones Istmo.
Waddell, Hope Masterton. 1863. Twenty-nine Years in the West Indies and Central Africa: A Review of Missionary Work and Adventure 1829-1858. London: T. Nelson and Sons
[1] In 1843 Yucatan was an independent state.
[2] He again took up medical studies and graduated M.D. from McGill University in Montreal in 1842 at the age of 53. The McGill programme was based on the Edinburgh model.
[3] See below on Union Liturgy and Thomson’s books of prayers.
[4] The Buenos Aires Cabildo formally invited him to set up schools in August 1819.
[5] Letter to BFBS from Buenos Aires, 18 August 1820. For Thomson’s letters see www.jamesdiegothomson.squarespace.com.
[6] Letter to Mr Owen, BFBS. Santiago de Chile, 8 October, 1821.
[7] Circulation of the Scriptures at Buenos Ayres”, New Evangelical Magazine, Vol. VII (1820): 122.
[9] Report to BFSS, London, 25 May 1826. The Bible was the Scío San Miguel edition.
[10] Thomson often cited the Scottish experience in support of his proposal, e.g. “In regard to schools for this class of the population, I referred as an encouragement to the successful operations of the Gaelic School Society of Edinburgh, and in regard to the translation of the Scriptures, into the native tongues, I mentioned the benevolent intentions of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and that I was authorized to carry these into effect as circumstances might direct.” (Querétero, 8 November 1827).
[11] Lecciones para las Escuelas de Primeras Letras sacadas de las Sagradas Escrituras siguiendo el texto literal de la Traducción del Padre Scío, New York: A.Paul, 1822. For Thomson´s work with Rocafuerte in promoting schools see Bill Mitchell. “Diego Thomson in the Americas (1818-1844): Monitorial schools, nation-building and the Kingdom of God”, Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology, 34.1 (2016): 35-52. Rocafuerte later returned to Ecuador and was President from late 1834 to 1839.
[12] Letter to John Owen. Santiago de Chile, 8th October, 1821.
[13] Letter to John Owen, Buenos Aires, 11 May 1819.
[14] Buenos Aires. 16 August 1820.
[15] Letter to the American Bible Society. Lima, 25th November, 1823.
[16] As Thomson was beginning a tour of Scotland on behalf of BFBS in 1845, the Edinburgh Bible Society published a “Warning to the Public” in The Scotsman newspaper against this BFBS ‘incursion’. James and Robert Haldane were among the signatories.
[17] See Bill Mitchell, 1991. “Diego Thomson: A study in Scotland and South America (1818-1825)”, Bulletin of the Scottish Institute of Missionary Studies, 6-7: 66-75, and www.jamesdiegothomson.com.
[18] “I need not tell you how much pleasure I enjoyed in witnessing this triumph, nor how many anxieties previously entertained respecting the result of these meetings, were at once laid asleep, or were changed into that tranquility, that peace and joy, which arise from seeing the name of the Lord glorified among men. I know you will participate in the same feelings, and will hail the establishment of this Society as a new era in South America. See here one of the happy effects of the political revolution! And it is but one of many, some of which are already visible, and the rest come on in their natural order and beauty.” Letter to Rev A Brandram. BFBS. Bogota, 5 April 1825.
[19] Thomson would meet similar problems in Spain in 1847-1849.
[20] Letter to Rev A Brandram. Jalapa, June 11th 1830.
[21] Letter to Rev A Brandram. Mexico City, 7 September 1842.
[22] “This is the 20th Island in the West Indies visited by your Agent during his tour through this Archipelago, exclusive of Demerara, which is not an island, and exclusive of Venezuela, both of which parts are on the main and great continent of South America. The places therefore, if not the islands, are in number 22, and belonging to different nations.” Letter to Rev A Brandram, Havana 8th June 1837.
[23] Letter to Rev A Brandram. St. John's, Antigua, 7 January 1832.
[24] Letter to Rev A Brandram. St. John's, Antigua, 7 January 1832. The reference to ‘agitation’ here may reflect the repercussions of the 1831 ‘Baptist Revolt’ in Jamaica.
[25] Letter to Rev A Brandram. Antigua,13 April 1832.
[26] Thomson explained his approach: “I set before them the objects of the Bible Society as respected themselves, namely, that all of them should get and have the Scriptures in their own possession, and should diligently read the sacred book for their present and eternal good. I set also before them the case of the world's millions who are destitute of the book of God, and hence, know not the Creator or Redeemer, amongst which destitute multitudes, I told them were their own countrymen of Africa. I therefore stirred them up to get the Scriptures for themselves without any delay, and to pity and help the poor destitute world, and send to you something to enable you more extensively to preach the everlasting gospel unto every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” Letter to Rev A Brandram. Savanna La Mar, 6 July 1835.
[27] Letter to Rev A Brandram. Kingston, Jamaica, 18 August 1834.
[28] Hope Masterton Waddell.1863. Twenty-nine Years in the West Indies and Central Africa: A Review of Missionary Work and Adventure 1829-1858. London: T. Nelson and Sons:103. It should be added that Thomson’s wife Mary accompanied him on these travels, Thomson himself on more than one occasion reminded BFBS that they had not just one, but two agents working for them.
[29] Letter to Rev A Brandram. Kingston, Jamaica, 26 July 1834. On reading the report of the BFBS 1835 Annual Meeting in London, Thomson found it a bit self-congratulatory and wrote to Brandram “But, O My Dear Friend, and Britons all! you have not yet discharged your debt …in the way of Education and Religious Instruction. Much I have read in the Report of your speeches at your Meeting of the Nobleness of England, and with all of which I agree: be noble then.. in these two items mentioned ― Education and Spiritual Instruction; and in doing so you will call forth their nobleness in return, and that God may be glorified in all.” Montego Bay, 20 July 1835.
[30] Stuart Barnard. 2015. “Making a Bible Enterprise: James Thomson and the British and Foreign Bible Society in British North America, 1838–1842”. Mémoires du Livre 6.2:1 . http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1032708ar
[31] Ibid., p.35.
[32] Letters on the Moral and Religious State of South America. London: James Nisbet, 1827: vi.
[33] A short, four-page manuscript of Maya expressions for Biblical terms, held in the Bible Society Collection in Cambridge University, is testimony to Thomson's desire to see the Word of God in this ancient language of Mesoamerica. BFBS Mss 353.
[34] For Thomson and translation see ”James Thomson and Bible Translation in Andean Languages”, Bible Translator, (1990) 41.3: 341-5; “Diego Thomson: Precursor de la traducción bíblica en la época moderna”, La Biblia en las Américas, (1993) 48.3: 21-23. Also available as “James Thomson: Forerunner of present-day Bible Translation”. http://www.jamesdiegothomson.com/. From its beginnings in 1825 Thomson was also involved in the Spanish Translation Society, which translated and published “works which shall exhibit genuine Christianity to the opening minds of the Spanish Americans” “Design and Plan of the Society”, Missionary Register (1825) Vol 13, July: 307.
[35] Letter to Rev A Brandram. Mexico City, 24 March 1828.
[36] Basque, Caló, Catalán, and Spanish (revisión of the Reina-Valera Bible and the preparation of new Spanish translations).
[37] Letter to James A Haldane. Lima, 11 July 1822.
[38] Ibid.
[39] Webster E. Browning, “Joseph Lancaster, James Thomson, and the Lancasterian System of Mutual Instruction, with Special Reference to Hispanic America”. Hispanic American Historical Review, (1921) 4.1: 77.
[40] Letter to Rev A Brandram. Mexico City, 8 January1830.
[41] “On returning from his first visit to Mexico, through the United States, the writer printed an address to the citizens of America upon the subject of Christian colonies to those quarters.” Evangelical Christendom, Vol.1, December 1847: 388.
[42] Ibid.: 387-389.
[43] Union Liturgy: Containing Forms of Prayer for the Public Services of Religion; and also, For Family Worship and Private Devotion. See Appendix 1 for book’s contents.
[44] “P.S. I have ordered from Mr. Philp bookseller Falmouth, the Evangelical Magazine, the Missionary Register, the Congregational Magazine, the Baptist Magazine, the Christian Guardian, and the Methodist Magazine.” Footnote to a Letter to Rev A Brandram. Jalapa, 9 May 1827.
[45] Thomson and his wife Mary left for Mexico in February 1827.
[46] That is, in Mexico and the Caribbean islands.
[47] "Tour in Yucatan”, op.cit.,p.73.
[48] Waddell, op.cit., p. 104.
[49] Ibid.
[50] Jamaica, 12th September 1838.
[51] Letter to Rev A Brandram. Halifax, Nova Scotia, 3 November 1840.
[52] Union Liturgy, p.5.
[53] Ibid., p.6.
[54] Ibid., p.9.
[55] Evangelical Christendom, 1847, I: 191.
[56] Evangelical Christendom, 1847, I: 389.
[57] Family and Individual Prayers, for Every Day of the Week. 2nd edn. Revised and enlarged. Montreal: Campbell and Becket, 1840. See Appendix 2 for the book’s contents.
[58] First edition - 2500 copies, second edition - 3000 copies. Among other things, these sales are an indication of the importance of ‘family worship’ in Upper and Lower Canada at that time.
[59] Letter to Rev A Brandram. Kingston, Jamaica. 9 September 1837. He writes that the Cuban authorities thought that “your society was, in truth a part and portion of the Antislavery Society; and further, that your main objects in circulating the Bible, was to lead the people to rebel and destroy the whites, and thus to accomplish the object, which they imagine the British government has, of making an end of Cuba as a Spanish Colony.”
[60] Which is actually found in the Union Liturgy, pp.223-4.
[61] In the “Missionary Prayer” in particular the main topics are: the heathen bowing down to stocks and stones; God’s ancient people; the worshippers of the False Prophet; the Oppressed in all the world sighing for salvation; Deniers of God’s power and Godhead; “desolate Christendom”; Bible distribution in all tongues; and Missionaries. Speaking of BFBS during his 1845 ‘Scottish tour’ Thomson said “we are the only Bible Society that is in any measure providing the Scriptures for the heathen and Mohammedan world, in all their millions, besides destitute Christendom also.” Letter to Rev A Brandram, Glasgow 11 October 1845.
[62] In advocating support for small Protestant groups in Spain, Thomson shares with a British public examples of the prayers they use, which he had translated from the Spanish. From the content of the prayers, it seems clear that he himself was one of the original authors. Evangelical Christendom, (1849) vol. III (April): 141-143.
[63] Evangelical Christendom,1847, I: 389.
[64] See “Spain. Death of Mrs. Thomson: And Difficulties of Protestant Sepulture”, Evangelical Christendom, vol. II (March 1848): 117-119.
[65] Lima, 2 December 1822 in Letters on the Moral and Religious State of South America. London: James Nisbet, 1827: 59-69. In a personal conversation, the Peruvian historian, Dr Tomás Gutiérrez, informed me that during the debate Thomson himself passed notes on points being debated to members of Congress who argued in favour of religious liberty.
[66] Evangelical Christendom Vol 1, December 1847: 387.
[67] 1847-1849.
[68] Spain, Its Position and Evangelization, also Protestant Religious Liberty Abroad, the Conduct of British Envoys, Interesting Mission in Portugal and its Dangers, with Notices of the Empire of Morocco. London: Partridge and Oakey,1853: 41-76. Also British Religious Liberty Abroad and General Religious Liberty in all Nations. London: Partridge and Oakey, 1851.
[69] Ibid., p.74.
[70] Particularly in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
[71] While the cause of death is not known, Thomson had survived dengue fever and various bouts of malaria in Mexico and the Caribbean which left him with recurring health problems.
[72] Maria Denoon Peddie. The Dawn of the Second Reformation in Spain: Being the Story of its Rise and Progress from the Year 1852. London: S.W. Partridge, 1871: 10,11.
[73] Juan B. Vilar. Intolerancia y Libertad en la España Contemporánea. Madrid: Ediciones Istmo, 1994: 294.
