A Sermon DELIVERED MAY 8 th , 1870, IN KENSINGTON CHAPEL, AT THE SEVENTY-FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY. BY THE REV. J. STOUGHTON, D.D. PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. LONDON: 56, PATERNOSTER ROW; 65, ST. PAUL’S CHURCHYARD; AND 164, PICCADILLY. LONDON: PARDON AND SON, PRINTERS, PATERNOSTER ROW. “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.”— Jo

The Evangelist here speaks of books—of the possibility of writing an immense number of them on one subject; and thus he calls to our mind the saying of the wise man, that “of making many books there is no end.”  They were very numerous in the ancient world.  The library of the Ptolemies at Alexandria was of such prodigious magnitude that it numbered half a million volumes.  Large public and private collections were not uncommon in St. John’s time; and in Rome, at that period, the bookseller’s tr

The books to which St. John particularly refers are books about Christ. He is thinking chiefly of his own Gospel, and of the other three Gospels to which he intended this to be a supplement; these four evangelical records being, in modern phrase, four historical tracts—tracts such as had never been written before, such as have never been written since.  It is an inexpressible blessing to have the four together, to have them bound within the same covers.  They constitute a perfect unity, a harmon

And now, looking at the multitude of books existing or coming into existence—such an immense, such an ever-increasing multitude, that we may adopt the hyperbole of the text, and say it seems as if the world could not contain them—what is the use which we ought to make of them? A taste for literature is a natural instinct in some, and an accomplishment acquired by others; and the duty of creating it if we have it not, and of nurturing it if we have, is plainly recognised in the New Testament.  “G

If one use of the many books in the world be our own edification, another use to be made of them is the spiritual welfare of others. Although it follows as a necessary consequence that if Christian literature be available for the first of these purposes it is available also for the second, we find it very difficult to impress some minds with a due conviction of the value and importance of such instrumentality in promoting the highest interests of our fellow-men.  There are many whom it is hard e

To the Paris Tract Society , the Committee have voted £100 to reduce the price of the Almanach des Bons Conseils , £120 towards the free circulation of 100,000 tracts, including a monthly grant to the agents of the Home Missionary Society, and £300 for the publication of various tracts monthly in editions of 10,000 each. To Toulouse, £300 has been given; and to M. Puaux, £100. Grants have also been made to the Strasbourg Society of £10; to M. Jenkins, of Morlaix, for Breton publications, £19 10s

The benevolent receipts, including legacies, amount to £15,479; but as £500 of this sum is by the will of the testator, Mr. William Hollins, directed to be kept distinct, the dividends upon it have alone been available, thus reducing the amount to £14,979. The grants for the year, including money, paper, and publications, have amounted to £17,223, making the excess of grants over the receipts £2,244....

The total circulation for the year is about forty-one millions of publications from the Home Depository; and about eight millions more from Foreign Depôts....

All Subscribers to the Parent Society are allowed a discount of 25 per cent. on all their purchases; while the Subscription itself is appropriated to the Society’s Grants at Home and Abroad. DEPOSITORIES: 56, PATERNOSTER ROW; 65, ST. PAUL’S CHURCHYARD; 164, PICCADILLY; AND 31 WESTERN ROAD, BRIGHTON....

THE TRUE CATHOLIC. Published in the Interests of Scriptural Truth .  One Penny, Monthly. THE COTTAGER AND ARTIZAN. A Monthly Periodical for the Labouring Classes .  In large type, with fine Illustrations.  Price One Penny. The Volume for 1869, with cover printed in oil colours, 1s. 6d. NEW SERIES OF THE TRACT MAGAZINE. Monthly, price One Penny.  For Loan Circulation and Family Reading .  Volume for 1869, 1s. 6d., with coloured Frontispiece and Engravings. THE CHILD’S COMPANION AND JUVENILE INSTR

1.  General Catalogue of Books — Containing numerous valuable Works— Biblical , Doctrinal , and Practical Theology — Devotional and Experimental — Anti-Romanist — Anti-Infidel — Biographical — Domestic Life — For Soldiers and Sailors — For the Afflicted and Bereaved — For the Aged — Sermons , etc .  Also a large variety of Books for the Young , suited to all ranks of society, bound in various styles, and at prices ranging from One Farthing to Ten Shillings; Picture Cards , etc. 2.  A Classified