Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/60

BIBLE SOCIETY. seeking to take advantasie of the facilities afforded by the art of printing: but a Ion;; period elapsed after the Reformation before a Bible soci- ety was foriiiccl — durinfj whioh. liowever. an ex- tensive ditVusion of the Scriptures took pUfc, and partly by the agency of associations which in- cluded it among other means for the advancement of Christianity. Itneccssaiyly became, along with the translation of the Scriptures, one of the ob- jects to which missionary societies directed their energy. But perhaps the first association ever formed for the sole and specific purpose of pro- viding copies of the Scriptures for tho.se who were destitute of them was that founded by Baron Hildebrand von Canstein, an intimate friend of Spcner. in conjunction with Francke at Ilallc. which, down to 18.S4, when other Bible societies were beginning to make their ap- pearance iu Germany, had distributed 2,754,350 copies of the Bible and about 2,000.000 copies of the New Testament. The imjnilse, however, to the formation of the Bible societies now exist- ing in all parts of Protestant Christendom pro- ceeded from England, where in 1780 an asso- ciation was formed for the distribution of Bibles among soldiers and sailors. It was at first simply called 'The Bible Society'; it exists at the present day. and is now known as the Naval and Military Bible Society, and, confining itself to its original specific object, has accomplished much good. It is not an iminteresting circum- stance that the first ship in which Bibles were distributed by this society was the ill-fated Roi/al (leorfie. In the beginning of 1792 a similar association was formed in London, un- der the name of the French Bible Society, with a similar limited and specified object of dis- tributing Bibles in the French tongue. It was ])robal)ly the attitude assumed by infidelity in France which gave occasion to the formation of this society, but the greater part of its funds, having been remitted to Paris for the printing of the Bible there, was lost, and everything belong- ing to the Society destroved in the tumult of the llevolution. It was not" till 1802 that the first steps were taken toward the formation of the British A^•I) Foreign Bible Society, the parent of a multitude of similar institutions, and the establishment of which must be regarded as a great epoch in the historj- of this branch of Christian bpnelicencc: nor was the Society fully organized and established till March 7. 1S04. Its fornuition took (ilace in consequence of the deep impression made upon the mind of the Rev. Thomas Charles, of Bala, in Wales, by the desti- tution of the Sacred Scriptures which he found to exi.st in the sjihere of his labors, and particularly by a circumstance strikingly illustrative of that destitution. Meeting a little girl. Mary .Tones — a name had in loving remembrance by the friends of Bible Societies — he in(|uired if she could re- peat the text irom which he had preached on the preceding Sunday. Instead of giving a prompt reply, as she had been accustomed to do. she re- mained silent, and then, weeping, told liim that the weather had been so bad she could not get to read the Bible. She had been accustomed to travel everi' week seven miles over the hills to a place where she could obtain access to the Welsh Bible. Mr. Charles, on his next visit to London, brought the subject of the want of Bibles in Wales to the notice of the Committee of the Religious Tract Society (q.v.). when it was suggested Ijy Mr. Hughes, a member of the committee, that a society might be formed for the purpose of sup- ])lying Bil)les. not only in Wales, Init wherever destitution existed throughout the world. The Society was constituted on the widest possible liasis. Churchmen and Dissenters Ix-ing alike in- cluded in it; and soon attained a greatness cor- lespcmding with that of tlu' other two religious societies, the London Missionary Society (see Missions), and the Religious "Tract Society, which had been formed on similar principles a few years before. It was indeed able to ex- pend only about £G19 in the first year of its existence, but its annual income gradually in- creased to an average of £70.000, and in 1873-76 it amounted to £11(J.S02, derived from the dona- tions, legacies, collections, etc., and ajiplicable to the general purposes of the Society, besides £108 for a special object (the 'Roxburghe fund'), and £105,410 derived from sales of Bibles and Testa- ments, abstiacts. monthly rejiorts. etc., show- ing the net receipts for the year to be £222.320. Auxiliary and branch societies and dc|)endent as- sociations rapidly sprang up in all parts of Great Britain and in the Colonies, the number of which at present amounts to between 5000 and GOOO. Large sums have, of course, been sjient by the British and Foreign Bible Society for the diffu- sion of the Authorized Knglish Version of the Bible. The fundamental law of the Society has, up to the present time, restricted it to the publi- cation of this version only in English ; but a change in its constitution has now liecn made, by which the Revised Version can hereafter be pub- lished. It has also spent large sums in printing and circulating the Scriptures in the ditTcrent Celtic languages spoken in Great Britain and lie- land. It has developed an efl'ective system of agencies for thoroughly meeting the needs of Great Britain. The foreign department of this work has gradually become, with the progress of modern uiissi(nis, one of its chief functions. It stands ready to print the translations of the Bible prepared by missionaries and offered for publication, and in many cases has been forward to initiate the undertaking of such translations. The translation, printing, or distribution of the whole or part of the Bible has been pnmioted by the Society directly in 2!lti languages or dialects, and indirectly in 07; a total of 3ti.3. Its list now contains the Bible in 100 langiuiges, complete New Testaments in 100 more, and some ))ortion of the Scriptures in iiKue than 150 others. To print these, over 50 dilVercnt styles of diarac- teis are required. The payments made by the Society for the services of translators, rcvi.sers, and proof-readers amounted iu this last fiscal year to about £4,000. The extent of its opera- tions can be measured in some degree by its is- sues. Tiiese, during the last two years, were: 1900-1901 Compared with 1S99-1900.

Bibles Mo.aot Bibles S43.990 •• 1.308.176 •• 1.20.i,!lilO •• 2.760.686 •• 2.',07.S12

Total 4,914.369 Total., 5,(147.792

The total issues for the Society for the 07 years since its foundation in 1804 amount to nearly 170.000.000 copies. Its income for the same year reached an aggregate of £221,535. shillings, and pence. These stupendous tiorures become still more impressive by a closer survey of its work in various foreign mission-fields of the world, where