The story is told of Mr Joseph Robinson, an employee of the Limerick and Waterford Railway Company and his meeting with Mr Gladstone who was Chancellor of the Exchequer of Great Britain and Ireland (1852-1855). The meeting was to secure a loan for the completion of the railway. After the business was concluded, Mr Robinson stepped forward and asked Mr Gladstone if he would accept a tract, offering him one entitled:

The Books of the Bible

With characteristic promptness Mr Gladstone took the tract and hurriedly read it through. Taking Mr Robinson by the hand, he said: “Mr Robinson, this is remarkable. When you were at the door, Mrs Gladstone and I were reading the Bible and she said to me:
‘Is it not strange that with all the tracts that are written, there is not one to tell me in short compass what the Bible is about.’ And here you come and put a tract on this very subject into my hands. It is most remarkable. I thank you most gratefully for this tract.”