AGENDA.-Observations on the REPORT BOOK. which constitute the Specimen of the last No., and refers to the Minutes of the first Committee. SPECIMEN. COMMITTEE MEETING, 9th July. 1. Read and confirm Minutes of the last Meeting. 3. Business arising out of 3d Minute. 4. Ditto. ditto. ditto. 5th ditto. 5. Village of Oreston not included in the Districts. 7. Cash Secretary's Monthly Statement. 8. Bible Secretary's Report. 9. Collectors' Reports in order. 10. Cash Secretary's Report. 11. Vote Remittance to Branch Society. 12. Order Bibles and Testaments. 13. Monthly Extracts. 14. Loan Stock, and Collection of Loan Fund. 15. Vote Loans. 16. Admit Ladies, proposed by Collectors, on Committee. 17. Appoint Auditors. 18. New Business. 19. Read over Minutes, and adjourn. Officers to remain and prepare their Reports to the Ladies' Branch, or fix a time for this purpose. NO. XIII.-REPORT BOOK. 1. This Book is designed to be a Register of all the information detailed in the Collectors' Monthly Reports, under the head "FACTS and OBSERVATIONS;" in order to record them in a more permanent form, and to exhibit, in one connected series, the results of the Association. It is similar in size to No. XI.; and, like it, has a marginal line, for the purpose of specifying the number of the District, from the Report of which the extract is made. II. The advantages of this Registry, particularly in preparing the Annnal Report, are evident. In these interesting but unobtrusive records, the best evidence of the beneficial tendency of Bible Societies may be found,-here the strongest proofs of a strict adherence to the principles of the Parent Institution are discovered,— and hence the Collectors derive the greatest encouragement to perseverance. It is scarcely possible to peruse, with an unprejudiced mind, the Report Book of a well-conducted Bible Association, without arriving at a clear conviction that these Societies are a national blessing. III. The Facts and Observations in the following Specimen are selected from the Annual Reports of the Ladies' Societies of Liverpool and Manchester. While they illustrate that part of the system now under consideration, they will afford an interesting and satisfactory evidence, that, whether the seed has been scattered on the banks of the Tamar, or on those of the Mersey or the Irwell, the dews of Heaven have descended upon it, and already produced some prospect of that fruit on which " the Lord will command his blessing." In some Associations, the "Facts and Observations" of the preceding month are read a second time from the Report Book, at the following Committee-meeting, as part of the minutes to be confirmed. Where time admits, this practice may prove beneficial and encouraging, especially if there be a more numerous attendance of the members. Local convenience will, however, be the best guide, in this and some others of the minor details. 3. SPECIMEN. [Supposed to occupy three Pages of the Report Book.} Committee-Meeting, 10th September, 1819. DISTRICT Upon inquiry why one of the girls in the Caledonian School was behind her class in religious knowledge, the fact was ascertained, that she was the only girl in the School whose parents were destitute of the Bible. May we not hope that the day is not distant, when, through the medium of the Bible Society, the children in all our schools, private as well as public, shall be equally well provided? ́ DIST. 8. DIST. The poor continue to subscribe with cheerfulness, and with increased respect and gratitude to the collectors, who have received many applications from districts yet unvisited. We have some gratifying reason to hope that we have been made the means of restoring four unfortunate females to the paths of virtue. Our Bible Subscribers, as well as Free Contributors, increase 15. monthly. We have an addition of forty-four this month. We frequently find the subscribers waiting for us in the streets; and many give three times as much as when they began. DIST. The population of this district consists principally of Welsh 17. labourers, and the lower classes of Irish Catholics, of whom by far the greater proportion were found destitute of the Scriptures; yet, with few exceptions, willing to provide themselves, by means of small weekly subscriptions: these have been paid with great regularity, and in general with as much cheerfulness as the collectors received them;" their poverty abounding to the riches of their liberality." DIST. We were much affected by the remarks of a man, who has a family 22. of ten children, and who contributes a penny a-week. “I often think," said he, "how pleasant it must be in Heaven, to point out the person who was the cause of my becoming possessed of a Bible; and to say, it was that Lady who first gave me a Bible, and it was that Bible which brought me here!" DIST. Specimen of the Report Book. There is a general improvement visible in the conduct of those who 26. have been supplied with Bibles. DIST. The Bible Subscribers in our district, being informed of the deep distress of a family in the neighbourhood, voluntarily united their exertions to furnish their habitation with necessaries. They clothed the whole family, sent the children to school, and invited them to come daily to the house of one of the subscribers, to hear the Scriptures read. On our asking a poor woman who had obtained a Bible, by her 30. child's subscribing a penny weekly, how she liked it, she said, “Very much indeed! I return you many thanks for it: had I known what a blessing the Bible was, I should not have been so long without it." Her husband, who was previously a careless and abandoned character, had been carefully reading it, and had never since spent an evening from home. She then exclaimed, "What a mercy, that by a child's paying only a penny a-week, it should become such a blessing to its father!" DIST. 6. Committee-Meeting, 8th of October, 1819. About two years ago, Mary M--, an Irishwoman, fifty years of age, applied to one of your collectors to be taught to read. If ever poverty was personified, it was in Mary. Being almost blind, she thankfully received a pair of spectacles, being certain that with these helps to read she should soon become a scholar. In consequence of a fall received some months before, she was lame, and unable to earn a shilling. The idea of setting a stitch into her ragged dirty garments had never entered her head. Gratitude for instruction soon, however, induced a change. Mary's natural shrewdness and close application soon enabled her to read the Testament. One very snowy day, with an animated countenance, she entered the school-room on her crutches; and immediately, as her custom was, laid her shoes on the top of the fire to dry. When told that she had better not have come so far through the snow, while so ill, "Aye," said she, "so the neighbours said; and all along by the brick-fields they were at the cellarheads, laughing at me: but I shows 'em the nice Testament, and tells 'em they'd have more raison to laugh if they could read in it like me." Mary was afterwards absent for some weeks; and her little girl came to the school, with "Mrs. M-'s compliments to Lady, and she had been six weeks in the Infirmary; but was getting on finely with her Testament." The teacher called shortly afterwards at her house, to ask if she were better: her husband came to the door, and the little girl at the same moment returned from the Infirmary. "How is your mother?" A deal better," said the child; "she hopes to be out soon." "What does she do in the Infirmary ?" "O, nothing at all, but read in the Testament to herself and the other women she has read it all through." "That's what she did afore ever she went," said the husband. "She was fond of it then, I suppose: did it do her good, think ye?" Good!" said he, “ aye, nothing pleased her afore; she was grumbling all day but since she got to reading the Testament, she has been quite content and happy." A few weeks ago Mary returned from the Infirmary; and has since attended the school, comparatively neat and clean, and very thankful. The Testament, which had been lent for eighteen months, and which, 66 66 DIST. Specimen of Report Book.-SPECIAL COMMITTEE SUMMONS. to use her own expressions, she had "read twice through, and all up and down," had not a soiled leaf in it, when, with regret, she took out of it her marriage and other certificates, to exchange it for a large Bible given her by the Branch Committee. Committee-Meeting, 12th of November, 1819. There is a visible improvement, both in the manners of the inha5. bitants of this district, and the cleanliness of their abodes. We are always welcomed with smiles; and, in general, the money is laid ready for us, and paid with many thanks and blessings for our trouble in calling. DIST. 8. DIST. At the establishment of the Association, we called at the house of a poor woman, who began to subscribe for a Bible for her son—a depraved, wicked man. A short time ago we inquired of her, "Whether her son had benefited by reading the Bible ?" She replied, "That he was, in consequence of perusing it, become quite an altered character; that he now went regularly to church; and was become a teacher in a Sunday School." The collector, in her first weekly visits, felt much distressed, 21. owing to a number of butchers, who came to sell meat to the poor every Monday morning, completely blockading her way with their carts, and swearing, in the most shocking manner, against "this Bible work." After some time, however, when they saw her coming up the street, if they were in the way, she heard the pleasing address of— "You can pass here, Madam." In a few weeks more they began to wheel their barrows round, that she might pass; and, at length, one of them, remarkable for drunkenness and swearing, said to his companion, "Come now, she deserves encouragement, she comes so regularly; she shall have something. Here, Mistress, you shall have threepence a-week from me."-An old subscriber, hearing this, observed, "Yes, Samuel; but the lady will now talk to you, if you are drunk when she comes." On which he said, he would try to keep sober till after she had been: and the collector has great pleasure in stating, that he has kept his word ever since; nor has she heard one oath among them.—In addition to the above, the collector can bear her further testimony to the continued improvement of Samuel; as the money formerly appropriated to the indulgence of his pernicious habits is now carefully saved for the purpose of supporting an aged DIST. mother. Being earnestly solicited to call at the house of two poor widows, 24. residing in an unvisited district, we did so, and received their names as Bible Subscribers. One of them, a most interesting woman, very far advanced in years, told us, while the tears trickled down her cheeks, that she was most anxious to receive a Bible, that she might leave it as a parting gift to her grandson. She hoped a blessing would always attend the collectors in their weekly visits; "for the Ladies' Bible Association was the best thing for the poor that had ever been thought of." NO. XIV. SPECIAL COMMITTEE SUMMONS. In order to secure the punctual attendance of the members at the regular Monthly Committee-meetings, it is very desirable that no extraordinary sittings be held, except when really necessary. That Specimen of the SPECIAL COMMITTEE SUMMONS.-CASH BOOK. such meetings are occasionally requisite, the instance adduced in the Duplicate Specimen of No. XI. is a sufficient evidence; and it is obvious that other circumstances may occur to render them expedient. These Notices are issued by the Minute Secretary; and should be delivered, if possible, two or three days previous to that appointed for the meeting, the precise object of which should always be specified. MADAM, SPECIMEN. CHARLES LADIES' BIBLE ASSOCIATION. Plymouth, 13th of Dec. 1819. A SPECIAL Meeting of the COMMITTEE will be held on Friday next, the 17th of December, at Eleven o'clock precisely, for the purpose of taking into consideration a communication from the Ladies' Branch, and making the requisite arrangements for the Annual Meeting ; when the favour of your attendance is requested. The Books and Papers appertaining to the department of the CASH Secretary, are NO. XV.-THE CASH BOOK. 1. This book is designed to contain all the pecuniary transactions of the Association, and should be used exclusively for this purpose. It is ruled in different forms, in order that the several accounts may be kept in the most clear and convenient manner. In some Associations, the cash account with the Auxiliary or Branch Society is kept by the Bible Secretary, and a few pages of her book are ruled for this purpose. But such a plan is alike inconvenient and unnecessary, and has been productive of injurious effects in several instances. The duties of the Bible Secretary are distinct and specific, and have no reference to the pecuniary concerns of the Society. II. A blank page is left, at the beginning of the Cash Book, for an Index to the several accounts, of which the following is a transcript: INDEX. Monthly Receipts from the Collectors, &c. . 141 Annual Summary of Receipts and Expenditure . . . 181 III. It will be recollected, that the Association selected as an example, is supposed to have been established in June, and that its first regular Monthly Committee-meeting was held on the 9th of Or "with the Auxiliary Society," or " Branch Society." |