News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1900-11-28
POPULAR ~ OF IHsRlRLE.
English statistics show That 1t Has Not
D. clined,


SHtis.it ssh hos vast in.
crease ca tbeta uHtion If the Bible,
wri e. q LuuiuI arree uondentOf the
New York Sur 4 has been stated
that the oppo is the case in the
Uuittid Sta Tx publishers and
book sellers are cited rs having saiu
There e. Ba mHuay in the Scrip.
lures A talk Nth Mr.. Henry
Provide Of d Oxford University
Press correc lis statement very
materially. Il says it is true that
the business e some American pub.
fishers has b-eH largely reduced, but
this is not the MI of any falling of
in the popuiari yof the Biblei in Amer
lea. The exploration given il that
new ana NOR economical machinery
has been introduced by other pub
fishers of the Riol-. Never was b ire
he says, such demand for Bibles as
at present; three times as many Ok
ford Bibles have be en- sold as in any
previous year The British and For
eign Bible Society, which prints the
Scriptures in 400 languages, repre-
senting the speech Of seventeenth oil
the world, issued in the II months
ending with last March 5,047, 600
copies of the Blble-a bulk absolutely
without precedent, and considera bly,
more than half a million in excess OF
the corresponding period previously.
(lF thnf hnnn Q0 aant
or 1921 900 copies are in English.
La themselves those figures are suf-
ficIently significant but even more
striking is the record privately com
piled, and not yet published, of the
growth during the last decade. Ia
1889 80 the number of complete Eng
lish Bibles sent out was 534, $50.
Each year showed a consistent,
steady rise up TO last year, when it
was 61S, 215. Ten wears ago the New
Testaments were 9,613, and last
year GA, 719, the intervening figures
having somewhat fuctuated, with a
general tendency to increase. Ofpor-
tions of the Scriptures, such as the
psalms or the gospels, 5000 were
issued in 1889 90, and last year they
numbered 467, 4S2, not a little of
that great increase being due to the
fact that 1860 copies were distrib-
uted to the troops as they left these
shores to South Africa. The penney
new English Testament is sold at less
than cost price. Since it was first
brought out in 1894 over 100000
copies have been issued, at loss of
925. 900, as itcannot possibly be pro-
duced at it's selling price. At the Ok
ford and Cambridge University Press
rs, which taken together with the
Queens Printers, alone have the
right of printing the Bible in this
country, the finest Typography, the
choicest paper and most artistic of
bindings are requisitioned for the
sacred volume, and there is not the
slightest diminution to be observed
in the demand for sumptuous copies.
Mr.. Provide says that the total an
nual output of Oxford Bibles fol- $500
years past has been upward of
600 copies, and ovrn before there wan
an American branch of the Oxford
University Press the weekly shipment
of Bibles to the United States often
exceeded five tons in weight. The
Americans take the keenest interest
in Bibles and biblical matters, as was
shown very clearly at the time of
publication of the revised Testaments.
Not only the authorized Bible holds
it's own, but the revised version is
slowly but steadily increasing in pop
u1aritv