h\ the 17th century several traces are found of asso- ciations for promoting the printing and sale of religious works, while much good resulted from the efforts of in- dividuals, both in England and on the Continent. At lengtli, movements on a larger scale began to be made in the line of associated efforts for the diffusion of truth in printed form. The earlier organizations of this kind, though not strictly tract societies, were preliminary, and in some sense introductory, to the great institu- tions subsequently formed for the exclusive object of printing and circulating religions tracts. In 1701 the Society for I'romoting Cliristian Knowledge was established in England. In 1742 tlie Rev. .lohn Wes- ley, in the prosecution of his evangelical work in (Ireat X.— K K
Britain, commenoed printing and circulating religious tracts by personal effort and the co-operation of the preachers associated with him. In 1750 the Society for Promoting Religious Knowledge among the Poor was organized. In 1756 societies for a similar object were commenced both in Edinburgh and (Jlasgow. Al- though the three societies named accomplished good, they did not remain permanently established. In 178'2 iMr. Wesley instituted a Society for the Distribution of Religious Tracts among the Foor. In his published proposals in behalf of the society, he said, " I cannot but earnestlv recommend this to all those who desire to see true scriptural Christianity s|)read throughout these nations. INIen wholly unawakened will not take the pains to read the Bible. They have no relish for it. But a small tract may engage their attention for half an hour, and may, by the blessing of God, prepare them for going forward." Membership in the society required the subscription of iialf a guinea or more, for which a quota of tracts would be delivered yearly. The publi- cations of the society at that date were thirty in num- ber, embracing Alleine's Alarm, Baxter's Call, Ten Short Sermons, Tokens for Children, A Word to a Soldier, A Word to a Sailor, A Word to a Sivearer, A Word to a Sahhnth-hreaker, A Word to a Drunkard, etc. It is not difficidt to see in the above scheme the germ of the larg- est tract societies now in existence. Its tenor, more es- pecially when taken in connection with Mr. Wesley's methods of supplying religious books wherever his soci- eties existed or his preachers went, fully authorized the following assertion of his biographer, Richard AVatson: " He was probably the first to use, on any extensive scale, this means of popiilar reformation." About 1790 Hannah ISIore appeareil as a writer of popular tracts. Her first tract, entitled William Chip, was published anonyinonsly. Having iM^en encouraged by its recep- tion, she prepared, with the aid of her sisters, a series of small publications, entitled The Cheap Reposifoiy Tracts. In a private memorandum, published after her decease, she said, "I have devoted three years to this work. Two millions of these tracts were disposed of during the first year. God works by weak instruments to show that the glory is all his own." From that time forward the number of persons who made themselves useful by publishing and circulating tracts in various ways be- came considerably increased. Among them honorable inention may be made of IMrs. Rebecca Wilkinson, of Clapham; Rev. Charles Simeon, of Cambridge; and Rev. John Campbell, of Edinburgh.
III. Tract Societies distinctively so-called. — The time had now arrived for broader and more thoroughly or- ganized movements in behalf of the tract enterprise. The Religions Tract Society of London was initiated in May, 1799. fie v. George Burder, Rowland Hill, Matthew Wiiks, Joseph Hughes, and others were among its or- ganizers. A rule of the society, like that of Jlr. Wes- ley before noted, (irovided that its membership "consist of persons subscribing half a guinea or upwards annu- allv." The society was placed upon a basis of broad catholicity. Its object was defined to be the publica- tion of " those grand doctrinal and practical truths which have in every age been mighty through God in converting, sanctifying, and comforting souls, and by the influence of which men may have been enabled, while they lived, to live to the Lord, and when they died to die unto the Lord." It is impossible to give in this article a detailed history of any of the societies enumerated ; brief and general notices must suffice. But in the brief- est notice of the Religious Tract Society of London, it is not too much to say that in the eighty years of its ex- istence ^t has well and faithfully illustrated the catholic and evangelical principles announced by its founders in the beginning. In so doing it has accomplished its ob- jects on a grand scale and to an unforeseen extent. An incidental event of the most interesting character grew out of the operations of the Religious Tract Society in the third vcar of its existence. It was no less than the
TRACTS AND TRACT SOCIETIES 514 TRACTS AND TRACT SOCIETIES
preliminary step towards the organization of the British and Foreign Bible Society — the parent Bible Society of the world. See Bibi.k Socikties.
For a score of years the business of the Religious Tract Society was of such a moderate extent that a small liirod depository sulKccd for its transaction. From 1820 the business so expaniled as to reipiire the occupation of enlarged premises in Paternoster Row, where, in 1843-44, its present commodious build- ings were erected. The design of the society contem- plated the double purpose of sales at or near cost, and gratuitous distribution. Both phases of its work were therefore limited to its supply of funds. Its only in- come, at lirst, was from the annual subscriptions of its members. But by degrees, and as necessity required, additions were made from other sources, such as congre- gational collections, auxiliary societies, life-member- shijis. legacies, and special donations. As the operations of the society increased, new and varied, forms of action were develojied, including not only sales tlirougli depos- itories, but by hawkers or peddlers throughout the prov- inces. Donations were made not only of tracts, but of as- sorted libraries to soUlicrs' barracks, to sea-going vessels, to en)igrant and convict-ships, to workhouses, to coast- guard stations, to missionaries' families, to clergymen, to schoolmasters, and city missionaries, to be used for loaning to persons in destitute circumstances. During the first five years of the society's existence, it publish- ed only sixty-six different tracts in the ordinary form. Subsequently it began to enlarge the variety as well as the number of its publications. Broadsheets, handbills, chiWrens' books, jieriodicals adapted to difl'erent ages and classes, monthly volumes, standard works, and even commentaries on the Scriptures came in turn to be reg- ularly and constantly issued under the imprint of the society. From active work in different parts of (ireat Britain, the society was led to extend its work into for- eign fields. Such an extension had not been originally contemplated, but nevertheless took place in the order of Providence, and became a striking illustration of the expansive nature of true Christian benevolence. The circumstance which first led to the preparation of tracts in foreign languages was the obvions duty of giving re- ligious instruction to a number of prisoners-of-war con- tined in Kngland; and the lirst foreign languages in which the society's tracts were published were the French and the Dutch. As was to have been expected, the foreign prisoners, when released, carried more or less of the tracts they had received to their own countries, and thus, to some extent, created a demand for more and similar publications in those countries. About the same time, a correspondence sprang up between the so- ciety and representative evangelical Christians in most of the nations of Europe. Soon afterwards the enter- prise of foreign missions began to be extended to va- rious pagan nations. By similar processes, the work of the Religious Tract Society has been expanding and en- larging (^ver since, with a jirospect of continuous expan- sion and usefulness in time to come.