The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-01-27
West Buxton.

MIR. EDIToR:-Our village has just been
favored with visit from Rev. VIM. I'll. Gill
BERT District Secretary of the American Bible
Society for New England, who lectured in the
Free Baptist church Wednesday evening
Subject; "Relation of the Bible to Modern
Civilization Mr.. G. is man of literary cul-
ture and broad experience, especially in the
work of distributing the Bible among the poor.
He spoke for more than an hour in very in
teresting and instructive manner. Many of
the facts brought cut were exceedingly signif-
cant. Allow me to mention a few of them
Among the very first books printed in 145G,
was the Bible. At that time the cost of BIZ
BILE was so great that but very few could afford
to own it, The wages of laborer for thirteen
years would be required to purchase copy
The first societies for the distribution of the
Bibls were organized in 1904 and 1916. Since
that time great advancement has been made,
so that now all may own and read for them
selves the priceless words of revelation. 1t
has been estimated that prior to the beginning
of the present century, not more than 5000 900
copies of the Bible had ever been produced in
all the worlds history. Since that time 1O7,-
uUO,UUU nave Uc6u pIOuuCoO ny bWO sOCiotlcn
alone. At the beginning of the century there
were only AZ translations. Now the Bible is
published in 252 different languages. Nine
tenths of the people of the globe have the BIZ
BILE in their own language.
Mr.. G. spoke of the Bible as promoter of
civil liberty. Wherever it goes men are arous-
ed from the sleep of centuries and begin at
once to demand the privileges of freemen. In
Italy it was used by the patriots as campaign
document. Eight hundred men at the risk of
their lives assisted in scattering it throughout
the country. Their motto was: wherever
the Bible goes into the hands of the masses,
there Liberty goes, and now here else.' Refer
ence was made to the influence of the Bible
upon popular education and upon popular
thought The Bible is book of IDEAS To its
influence are due the great Improvements of
the day. The influence of the Bible and moth
ing else made our great Centennial Exposition
possible. Even those who deIide it, are in
debted to it for all they have and are which
makes them superior to the savage races. Me
G. dwelt at some length upon the work of the
American Bible Society, especially in the New
England states. Its object is to canvass in
systematic and thorough manner each town in
the several counties. Every house is visited.
Those who have no Bible and are able, are SO.
licited to buy; and to those who are not able to
purchase, Bibles are given, unless the families
are Catholics. A very interesting feature of
this work is the influence it is having upon
the masses. of the Catholic church. Formerly
it was very seldom that Bible of any des-
cription was found in Catholic families A
careful canvass recently made of your own
city revealed the fact that more than one-half
of the families attending Catholic churches
were supplied with the Donay Bible, which is
almost infinitely better than none A desire
has been awakened among the people to study
the Bible for themselves. The agent succeed
ed in selling more than seventy of our Bibles
to your Catholic citizens. Many interesting
anecdotes were related by Mr.. G. in regard to
The work. Very frequently the canvass of
neig hborhood resulted in revival.
All our counties are being canvassed. I
think an agent is at work in the city of Bid
deford at the present time. 1 trust he will
meet with hearty support from all Christians.
The work is entirely unsectarian and is surely
one to which we can all give our prayers our
sympathy and our pecuniary assistance. G.