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NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
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„
THE BOOKSELLER’S BARGAIN.
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BY MARY E. SHEPHERD.
“
OOD morning !
Have you Paine’s ‘ Age of
Reason ’ for sale ? ”
“ No,” said the bookseller, “ I have not.
Sorry I cannot oblige you, sir, but we don’t keep the
book.”
“ H’m ! I am surprised ! I should have thought you
yrould. Well, let me see; have you any others of the
same class ?” And John Huntley ran over a few names.
Mr. Aitkin shook his head.
“ No, I have nothing of the kind in stock.”
. “ A nuisance I I want something fresh to read, and I
thought I would go in for a little of Paine. I didn’t
want to go up to town, either; but I suppose I must if
you haven’t got what I want.”
No, 131, City Road Series.
A
�The Bookseller's Bargain,
2
He was turning away when Mr. Aitkin stopped him.
“ I have a book here which I expect you have not
read,” he said. “ I sold the fellow to it yesterday for
three shillings, but you shall have the loan of it for a
week for nothing, Mr. Huntley, if you will promise to
read it.”
“ Very well, I’ll promise. Anything fresh’ll go down
at present, I can assure you. Many thanks ! ” And
Huntley turned back to the counter.
Reaching down a Bible from the shelf behind him, the
bookseller placed it in his hands. “ This will be a fresh
book to you, I know,” he said.
“ The Bible! ” exclaimed Huntley, half inclined tc
throw it down. “ Look here, Aitkin, you’ve made a fool
of me ! I didn’t look to be taken in like this.”
“ Nay, I haven’t taken you in, lad,” said the old man.
“ You have never read the book through, not even a
quarter of it. Come, now ! ”
“ Well, I haven’t, I must confess.” And John Huntley
looked down at the book in his hand. “ I don’t think
I’ve read more than a bit here and a bit there.”
“ Well, read it for yourself. Eh, lad, it’s a grand
book ! better than all your infidel books. Just see what
it has done for the world ; look for yourself and see, and
judge it by that, ‘By their fruits ye shall know them.’ ”
“ What has it done ? ” asked Huntley impatiently.
“ Made men and women miserable by tormenting them
with fears of a hell' That’s about all it has done,” he
said sneeringly.
“ Nay ! nay ! Would you blame the lighthouse for
revealing the rocks on which it stands to the sailor?
Would you condemn the physician for warning you of a
disease which threatens you if you do not take measures
to avert it? Would you not rather bless him for his
warning ?
“ But the Bible does not only warn : it gives strength
and help,” said Mr. Aitkin. “ Look here, I want to tell
you of something a gentleman told me many years ago.
It was told him by a gentleman who personally knew
Tom Paine, and was repeatedly in his company during
the last years of his life.
I3I>
�The Bookseller's Bargain.
3
“ ‘ One evening,’ he said, ‘ I found Paine haranguing a,
company of his disciples on the great mischief done to
society by the introduction of the Bible and Christianity.
According to him, it was responsible for fully one half
of the evils of mankind. When he paused for a moment
I rose up, and said :
“ ‘ “ Mr. Paine, you have been in Scotland ; you know
there are no people in the world more rigidly attached
to the Bible than the Scotch, no land where it is so
carefully read and studied as it is there. I am correct,
I believe ? ”
“ ‘ He said it was so.
‘“I continued: “You have been in Spain and Portugal,
where they have no Bible; and there you can hire a
man for a dollar to murder his neighbour, who never
gave him any offence. Is not that so ? ”
“ ‘ “ Yes,” he said ; “ you are right.”
“ ‘ “ You have seen the manufacturing districts of
England, where not one man in fifty can read ” ’ (fifty
years before this conversation there were no Sunday
schools), ‘ “ and you have been in Ireland, where the
majority never saw a Bible ? ”
“ ‘Paine said nothing, only nodded his head.
“‘“Now you know it is a fact that in one county in
England or Ireland there are many more capital con
victions in six months than there are in the whole
population of Scotland in twelve ! Now, if the Bible
were such a bad book as you represent it to be, those
who use it would be the worst members of soc ety. But
the contrary is the fact, as my figures show.
“ Well,” said Mr. Aitkin, “Paine didn’t answer a single
word. The gentleman says : ‘ It was then about ten
o’clock at night. Paine answered not a word, but, taking
a candle from the table, he walked out of the room,
leaving his friends and myself staring at one another.’ ”
John Huntley smiled. “ There’s something in the
argument, I admit,” he said.
“ A great deal, I should say,” replied the bookseller.
“ But look here, lad. Read this book for yourself; don’t
try and square it to fit your notions, either. Just you
listen to what it has to say for itself.”
�The Bookseller's bargain.
4
“ Well, I promised you I would read it, and I will.”
And with a “Good morning, and many thanks,” Huntley
left the shop.
The old bookseller stood looking after him as he
passed up the street, and many times during that day he
did not forget to pray that God would open the eyes of
this ignorant and unbelieving man, and reveal to him
the “wondrous things out of” His own word.
#
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s «
John Huntley had no opportunity for beginning his
study of the Bible that evening. When he arrived home,
he found two or three of his companions there, and
the rest of the evening passed in songs and careless
merriment. Once or twice he was on the point of telling
his comrades of the bargain the bookseller had made
with him, but something sealed his lips. They would
only laugh at him, he reflected, would say he was a fool
to have been caught so. No, he would keep the matter
a secret from every one—for the present, at any rate.
So the Bible remained in the drawer in his room until
the next evening. Then, as soon as closing-time came,
Huntley shut his shop and started for his lodgings in the
next street of the village. He was the village tailor, and
though a young man—not yet twenty-eight—was doing
well.
Trade had been pretty brisk that day; and as John
fastened the door of the shop and turned off with the key
in his hand, he felt unusually elated and self-sufficient.
It was a fine evening—the sun had not yet set—and
so he decided on taking a little stroll along some of the
village lanes. He would start with Aitkin’s book before
going to bed, he said to himself, his thoughts going back
once more to the conversation he had had with the
bookseller.
“ The Bible, indeed ! ” he reflected somewhat con
temptuously. “After all Aitkin’s arguments—his friend’s,
rather—what has the Bible to do with the prosperity of
our country ? People are educated now to see the folly
of sin, and Christianity has nothing to do with it. Now
here am I! If every Bible in the land were burnt
131.
�The Bookseller's Bargain.
5
To-morrow, and Christianity and its professors were, to
; vanish from the face of the earth; how much worse
should I be ? And millions more, too ? Trade and
commerce—ay, and morals, too—would be in as good
a state as they are now.”
He stopped, and leaning his arms on the top of a gate,
looked away across the fields to where the sun was slowly
sinking below the horizon. He watched it for a few
minutes until it entirely disappeared.
“ It is gone ! ” involuntarily escaped his lips.
He looked round him. The light seemed as bright as
; ever; the little birds were still singing, and the sky was
. full of a dazzling radiance. Indeed it seemed for a while
to grow brighter and brighter in the west. He could not
have believed that the great orb of day had really gone
(down behind those far distant hills if he had not seen it
for himself. But as he stood looking he saw the twilight
gradually steal over the landscape. And as the crimson
and purple glories slowly began to fade from the sky,
they spoke powerfully to' John Huntley as he stood
. there watching the gathering shadows.
“ So would it be for a time if all the Bibles were burnt
-and Christianity torn out, root and branch, from the
thearts of men,” they seemed to say to him. “Its in
fluence would still linger for a while; men would love
. righteousness and would strive to be good. But when
all fear of God was destroyed, and men began to lose
belief in a future state, then the darkness of moral night
. yrould cover the whole world. It would be delayed for a
while, as the darkness to-night was delayed by the glory
of the sunset, but it would be quite as sure.”
Huntley started, and shook himself, as if he had been
suddenly awakened out of sleep.
“Old Aitkin’s talk yesterday has unsettled me,” he
said with a half laugh. “ Pshaw ! I am a fool to have
listened to his yarns. I’ve a good mind not to touch
that old Bible after all. I’ll go for a good sharp walk;
that’ll knock all this nonsense out of my head.”
It was nearly ten o’clock when he arrived at his
lodgings. Supper was ready, and in a short timd he
went upstairs to his room.
’■
131.
�6
The Bookseller's Bargain.
“After all, I may as well start to-night,” he said to
himself. “ I’ve only got a week to do it in, and I
promised him I would read it. Besides, I feel better
than I did. The book can do me no harm.”
So taking the Bible from the drawer, he opened it
and sat down to read. It opened at the third chapter
of Malachi, and as he glanced at it his eye fell on the
fifth verse :
“ And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will
be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the
adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those
that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and
the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his
right, and fear not Me, saith the Lord of hosts.”
“ Against false swearers, and against them that oppress
-he hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless,
and that turn aside the stranger from his right,” repeated
John to himself. Was this the God whom he had
always pictured as being on the side of tyranny and
oppression, the God whose delight it was to make His
creatures miserable by holding out before them the
picture of eternal torment ? Was this the God of
Christianity—the God he hated and would not believe in ?
He turned back a few pages. There, at Zechariah
vii. 9, io, he read these words :
“Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute
true judgment, and show mercy and compassions every
man to his brother: And oppress not the widow, nor
the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none
of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.”
“None of you imagine evil,” he repeated. “This is
a wonderful law.” His thoughts flew to the infidel code
of rules he had been admiring. What was there in
them to compare with this, which demanded such purity
of thought?
He turned over the pages once more, and these words
in Isaiah met his eye :
“ Is not this the fast that I have chosen ? to loose
the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens,
and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every
yoke ? ”
•13’
�The Bookseller's bargain.
7
Like a lightning flash it came to him, the truth that it
was to Christians the slaves owed their freedom—to such
men as Wilberforce and Clarkson, and a host of others.
“Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that
thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house?
when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and
that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh ? ” the
next verse went on.
*****
Far on into the night John Huntley sat. His candle
had long ago burnt itself out, and had been replaced
by another. Eagerly he pored over the book. He had
turned to the four gospels, and now sat gazing with
wonder at the beauty of the divine Life which shone on
him from their pages. Was there ever such a Teacher ?
“ Wonderful! wonderful! ” he exclaimed as he came
to the end of the Sermon on the Mount. “I never
heard anything like this in my life before.”
And, as he read and read, slowly but surely the con
viction grew and fastened on his mind that this Jesus
Christ—the Carpenter of Galilee—was divine !
“ If there is a God at all—and I believe there is!—Jesus Christ is that God,” he said to himself, as he tossed
from side to side on his bed that early morning before
sleep would come.
The next day was Sunday. He usually spent most of
that day in bed, smoking and reading the newspapers
and infidel literature. But to-day the Bible claimed his
attention. And, as he read, little by little the sense of
his own sinfulness dawned upon him. He saw himself
no longer as the respectable, clever tradesman, whose
business was increasing, and whose name stood high in
the village opinion. No ; he was a guilty sinner ! He
saw the law of God required “ truth in the inward parts.”
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”
He read that “ without holiness no man shall see the
Lord,” and his conscience, awakened, cried out: “ O
wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from
the body of this death ? ”
*
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*
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*
#
�8
The Bookseller's Bargain.
“Are you busy, Mr. Aitkin? Can I have a word
with you ? ”
“ Not at all. Certainly, certainly, my lad ! Come
inside !
And the old bookseller led the way into the
sitting-room behind the shop.
“ I feel I am bound to thank you very heartily for the
promise you extracted from me,” John Huntley said,
laying the Bible on the table, and placing its price beside ‘
it. “It has been worth its weight in gold, ten times
over, to me. Mr. Aitkin, I am a changed man !
Through reading that book I have discovered that my
so called reasonings are false ; and I have also found:
that I am a sinner, and Jesus Christ is my Saviour.”
“ Thank God ! ” said Mr. Aitkin fervently. “ Thank
God!”
“Yes; thank God!” said John. “I struggled, hard
to resist the truth, but it conquered. O Mr. Aitkin, I
little thought that I should ever stoop—as I should have
called it—to be saved, should lay aside all my pride
and come to Jesus Christ as a little child.’ How littlq ,
/ever thought to become a Christian ! ”
“ His ways are not! as our ways, nor His thoughts as
our thoughts,” said Mr. Aitkin reverently.
. ■»
;:r vfmy
aid no . < oi <uia moii
L . - T
‘WESLEYAN METHODIST BOOK ROOM,
2, CASTLE ST., CITY ROAD, E.C. ; AND 66, PATERNOSTER.' ROW, E.C.
[C/'y Road-Series, No. 131. Price 2s. per ioo.l
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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The bookseller's bargain
Creator
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Shepherd, Mary E.
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 8 p. : ill. ; 18 cm.
Series title: City Road series
Series number: No. 131
Notes: Engraving on front page. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Publisher
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Wesleyan Methodist Book Room
Date
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[n.d.]
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N614
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Thomas Paine
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The bookseller's bargain), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Text
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English
NSS
Thomas Paine