Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-10-21
FACTS ABOUT THE BIBLE
Millions of Copies of the Scriptures
Printed Every Year
What Becomes of All the Old
and Worn Volumes II
COnundrum.
from the st Louis Republic

from the st Louis Republic
The success of a widely read novel invari-
ably sets people talking about enormous
sales, and paragraphs find their way into
print recording the fact that many
thousands of copies have been sold. And
We talk about it II it were nine days
wonder, totally unmindful of book which
has run through countless editions, and Of
which nearly 100000 copies were printed
! in New York last year. That book is the
Bible.
OF course. everybody knows that more
| copies of the Bible have been printed and
sold than of any other book. but few per-
sons realize, or stop to think about it If
they do. just to what extent the Bible is
circulated. What becomes of all the pns?''
is a question that has never been satisfac
torily solved. What becomes of all the
Bibles is problem more difficult of solu-
ton. A pin assumes infnitesimal proper
tons compared with a bound book, and
when one considers that the increased pub
LEGATION of Bibles is out of all proportion
to the natural increase in population one
cannot help wondering what becomes of all
of them.
1t stands to reason that a great many
copies find their way into the hands of for
eign missionary societies and are sent to
the heather of other lands Possibly the
proportion is one-half But even then the
Ddidnce LOT NOME CO1lSu1DpllOll- IL 50
mercantile phrase may be permissible, is
very considerable One New York publish
ing house alone, the American Bible So
ciety. issued during the last year 1,'so,s92
copies, of which a trifle more than ue-half
were sent baroad And year ls very
much like another in this respect. Times
may be good times may be bad, but the
printing of the Scriptures goes
Now, what becomes of them all? One
seldom discards Bible, matter how old
or worn. The ordinary book, except to the
bibiophile, is regarded as an article cf
commerce-something to buy and sell,
something to read and enjoy, and then, if
| necessity demands. pass along that some
one else may enjoy its benefits. If this
We're not there would be no Second-ha
bOokdealerS
Not so with the Bible You may hunt
the town over, you may delve among dust
covered tones in out-of-the-way book stores
until your head grows dizzy. and | doubt
If you will find a dozen secondhand Bibles
in all New York l asked the proprietor of
one of these old book shops If he could eX-
plain why it was. He shrugged his Shout
ders and frankly admitted that 1t had been
| a puzzle to him for years. And he was a
man of ripe experience too.
At the offices of the American Bible So
ciety was only bewildered by figures with
out having any light thrown upon the real
question of what becomes of all the Bibles
the Bibles that not sent to the heath
en-. The figures as to production were stu
pendous in themselves. l was told that the
various Bible societies alone had distrib-
uteu more imam ZSU,Wb,pDO f3lDleS since the
year 1904. and this number did not include
the output Of individual publishing houses,
of which there about a dozen in New
York alone. which issue Bibles.
The British and Foreign Bible Society of
! London operates even a larger scale
than our own American Bible Society. Last
year 4,4t9, 439 copies We're printed and dis
tributed, and since 1904, when the society
was organized. it has issued no less than
100. O09 :S93 Bibles.
When one comes to consider the achieve
ments of the American Bible Society
abroad the result is astounding. The So
ciety publishes. and now has for sale, copies
of the Bible printed in German, French,
Welsh Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Nor
wegian, Swedish, italian, Dutch, Hebrew,
Greek Lettish, Arabic, 1ceandic, Syriac,
Russian. Hungarian. Bohemian, Polish,
Gaelic. Finnish, Armenian, Malay, Arabo-
Turkish, Slavonian, Slavic, Bulgarian, Chi
nese and japanese. For Africa the Scrip
| lures are printed in eight different lam
guages, while for the Sandwich Islands
there seven different editions in as
many different languages. The North
American Indians have Bibles printed in
Cherokee. Choctaw, Mohawk, Dakota, Ar
raWack, Ojibwa, Muskokee and Seneca.
The distribution of Bibles in foreign lands
is not accomplished without severe hard
ships and often danger to life. The COL
porteurs as the travelling agents are call
ed. are quite heroic in their devotion to the
work, especially in lands where fanaticism
holds sway. China is just at present the
| theater of the most interesting activity.
&
public at large to learn that the Emperor
of China is, far his personal convic-
tons are concerned, a convert to Chris
tianity. The statement Is made on the
| authority of the Bible Socety's agent in
China, the Rev. John R. Hykes. DID.
DIR. Hykes, in a recent communication
bearing upon the tragic check placed upon
the reform party by the empress dOwager,
says that in addition to other imperial
edicts of a reactionary nature the emperor
went 50 far as to discuss with his advisers
tha JNt1 t3v,r NHr-t
the national religion.
He spent much time in the daily study
of the Bible" says DR.. Hykes. land it was
no secret IN the palace that he frequently
retired to quiet place to pray to the true
God. When thus engaged the eunuchs had
orders that he must not be disturbed or in
terrupted The emperor and some of the
chief reformerS were convinced of the truth
of Christianity. and they were almost, if
not altogether, persuaded to accept it.
The bright hopes were crushed by the
empress dowager, who, acting upon the
Misrepresentation of the conservative party,
beheaded six of the reformers without
trial, imprisoned some for life, cashiered
others from the public service, suppressed
all newspapers, and, by her manifestly
anti-progressive policy, created bitter
anti-foreign feeling all over the country
which has eliminated in massacre and re-
bellion."
The world has been told Of the empress
ment, of how the emperor has been de-
throned. and even his assassination limited
at; but 1T has remained for DR.. Hykes to
bring to light the part which the Bible has
played in that oriental tragedy.