Omaha daily bee., 1883-11-21
COUNCIL BLUFFS.
ADDITIONAL LOCAL NEWS.
THE BOOK OF BOOKS.
Tho Annual Meeting of the Potta.
wattamio County Bible Society.

The above society held its annual
meeting in the Presbyterian churchMon
day evening. 1t was not very largely
attended, the gathering being somewhat
unusual in its time of meeting. Here
tofore the annual meetings have been
held Sunday night, and a union service
held, the churches giving up their regular
services for this occasion. But as the
city has grown this seemed to be less
practical and the change was made as an
experiment, and the meeting held on a
week day evening
ID. @. Bloomer presided and the re-
ports of the officers were received and
approved. They showed that the Society
was the oldest organization in this city,
it being older than any of the churches
were. MI, Bloomer in speaking upon
this point, paid a merited tribute to Mr..
Thomas Officer who had been its trea-
sures for over 26 years, and to whom
much of the success of the work was due.
Mr.. Bloomer modestly forebore making
any a%llusion to his own services, which
has been hardly less valuable. The
financial report showed a healthy condi.
ton of the society. Over 500 worth
of new books had been paid for
lately, and they were on tho
way here from New York. A new
book case had been ordered ut q cost of
SAG, and this had already been placed i'll
ii. L. Seamun's book store, where their
supply of Bibles is 10Y kept. There was
enough money on hand to pay for all
these bills and leave q little balance.
The election of officers resulted in the
following choice: President, Hon. d.
9. Bloomer; vice presidents, N p. Dodge
and IL. w. Hart; treasurer, Thomas
officer; Secretary, w. b. Mayes; direc-
tors, l.. w. Tulleys, B.. +. Lankton and
w. c. Garman.
Several interesting addresses were
given. Mr.. Bloomer suggested that
there was not such q scarcity of Bibles as
a scarcity of readers. The work of the
society had been largely in getting the
Bibles into the homes of the land. 1t
seemed as if more thought should now be
given as to how to get people to read the
book and study it.
Rev. Mr.. Hamlin, of the Congrega
tional church, spoke of the power of the
all sorts, and that if truth was given even
an equal chance with error, it would
triumph.
Rev. Mr.. Maokey, of the Episcopal
church, spoke of the freedom of the Ri.
ole, and comparing the time when the
book could be read only by the few, the
time when it was chained in the monas
%teries, to the present time, when it was
found everywhere, he deemed there was
much cause for thankfulness. He some.
times thought it was too free, and doubt
I'd whether it was best to have Bibles on
railway trains and in other public
places to be scribbled over with ribald
Jokes and obscenity, and he felt often
like removing the sacred book to a more
sacred place. Familiarity seemed to
breed contempt, and Rev. MI. Bates, of
the Presbyterian church, gave an inter
esting account of how the work was pro-
crossing in the larger cities. There were
regular schools for instruction in
Bible reading, and those who attended
learned how to go from n home to M
other and read the Bible to the people,
so hat its truths would be made fOrcible.
He also dwelt upon the power of sin in
the world, and hat the knowledge of the
law of God, as found in the Bible, was
the great remedy.
Rev. Mr.. Lemon of the Baptist church
said that there were still many
homes in this city where there
was no Bible. A short time
ago, he had occasion to realize this. He
vas called suddenly to attend o funeral,
and it being inconvenient to go to his
study first, he went directly to the house
without any Bible, supposlng he would
of course find one there. To his surprise
there was none in the house, and to his
greater surprise the messenger who was
sent to the neighbors to get one had to
visit the third house before he could
find one.
This statement led to the question as
to whether a canvass of the city ought
not to be made, but this was left for the
executive board to decide upon.