The Washington herald., 1908-02-05
By FREDERIC ]. HASKIN.

When the American Bible Society holds
its annual meeting this spring II viii be
ready TO show 10 an interested world d
record of work unsurpassed by any other
benevolent organization in the world for
back Of it lies mncty-two years Of earnest
and successful effort 10 spread the znoWl-
edge OF the Bible into every land.
Presses set up in the Bible House, New
York. and in foreign countries under the
direction of the society print the Bible
In 20 or more different tongues and dia-
lecJs, and modern crusaders, Drawing
dangers Of war. of wind and Of wave
so out Ike the knights of old taking
these books To those who have them
not. There is not a country on the globe
that the Society has not invaded IN its
great work; there is not a people whose
language they have not studied; there
is not a missionary who may not turn
10 II TOR aid as ne goes out bearing the
gospel 10 darkened lands.
In the ninety-tWo years I'm which the
Society has been pressing its work It
has issued, according 10 the last report
So $50 copies OF the Bible. OF these
l9l095S went ont in the last fiscal year.
a proof. fl any be needed. of the great
growth OF the work. for in that one
year alone the distribution of Bibles
doubled that of the entire first decade.
The whole object" so states the Co
Ciety's constitution, shall be 20 encour-
age n wider circulation Of the Holy
Scriptures without note or comment"
That this work costs money is shown by
the financial reports that are compiled
each March. During its entire existence
the Society has spent $50, 40iSi3.25. OF
this money over S5,000000 represents the
requests of three thousand or more peO-
pie who have been interested in the
movement. The rest Of the income is
made up from memberships Ia the So
ciety. from gifts from churches and aux
Hilary branches. from the sale Of donated
Bibles, from interest on trust funds placed
at the Socletys disposal, and from the
sale OF the Bibles.
These are 6-ceut testaments. u. %, 81
cent Bibles, and on up, the price being
the exact cost Of the book. for it IS not
the intention Of the Society to paupeTizc
persons by giving them what they are
able 10 buy. nor 20 cheaper the Scrip
lures by making a wholesale donation Of
them. What "a contrast TO prices I'm me-
dievlal times. Then "a Bible would sell
in England for E3o-a common laborers
wages for fifteen years, and at the time
of the SOciety's inception the cheapest
In America was s.. When you cannot buy,
then comes some kiud-f-ced missionary
who gives you a copy of Gods Book.
an who will stop long enough by the
way TO help you read and understand
its meaning and TO gather from il the
comfort that comes to the wOr.d-Weary
and discouraged. The Bibles of the So
Ciety were early placed I'm schools and put
in the reach of sailors, of soldiers. and
immigrants. In 1863 no less than 1909
copies We're distributed among the immi-
grants as they landed in this country.
copies that were printed I'm their own
tongue when possible, and the next year
the Society surpassed even this phil8u-
thrOpy by sending over g. 600 copies to be
read on the steamer by the immigrants
ass they came over.
Within it's ninety-tw0 years the Society
has furnished about two and a half mill
lion copies 70 immigrants.
BY 1867 every humane and criminal in
stitution ia this country had been sup
Piled with Bibles. while hotels and boats
were invited 20 buy them at half price
and lend them 20 their guests and pas
senge-s. And this was when the Society
was yet only half a century old, when its
work was not So widely known when IA
elites for shipping the books or for send
ing out agents were limited and when
the country was really more interested
On realizing IT'S new-found industrial in
dependence. Homes of pioneers had been
visited I'm that half century and the Jesta-
meut left ia the log cabins that dotted
the West far out beyond the Mississippi
until white settlements Overlapped the
lands of the Indians Then when the
Indians We're reached the Book was left
for them turned into their own tongue
after days and nights of labor boy self
sacrificing missionaries.
Tt was on the eighth of May. 1sl5, that
the American Bible Society was born.
There had been other Bible societies in
America before this, one in Philadelphia
in 1905, one each i'm Hartford Conn
Massachusetts. New York City, and New
Jersey If. 1892, BY June, 1916, there We're
l2S Bible societies in twenty-one differ
cnt States and Territories, and the work
of disseminating the Rible was well on
its way Then came Rev. Samuel j.
Mills with the theory that much better
and more effective work could be done
II there were some great central Orgaui-
zat.0n. The matter was talked over In
different places, and finally in 1915 the
thought crystalliZed into the formal mo-
ton put ga a meeting of the New Jersey
organization, whose head was the Hon.
Elias Boudin0t. A convention was called
for the next year, and on the second
Wednesday IN May 1916, the American
Bible Society was organized i'm the Re-
formed Dutch Church on Garden street
HFH.H hFfH
came delegates from thirty-tive local
Bible societies and four representatives
from the Society Of Friends-siXty i'm all
Rev. Lyman Beecher was one Of the
first secretaries and since then the Off
GERS and members have numbered in
their ranks leading uen of the religious,
political professional, and scientific
bodies Of the nation. William Augustus
MUhlenberg addressed the assembly in
l>2a. and two years later we find the
name of John Quincy Adams among the
vice presidents. The present officers in
ciude as president, Daniel Colt Gilman,
Of Maryland; Rev. Henry o. Dwight, Of
New York, as recording secretary, and
vice presidents drawn from prominent
men OF twenty States OF the Union.
The original membership Of sixty has
Si'Nu IN iue ninety -I"o years lo db-
pr0Ximately 10000 and the equipment of
thirty presses and rs hands that did the
work OF publication in ISIS has grown
and grown until several different quar-
ters have proved too small, and, for its
lo0o,O0O a year output or books, 1t en-
pl0vs not only its giant New York
presses but mission and other presses in
China, Japan. Siam, Syria, and Turkey.
The office expenses, such a salaries and
printing amount each year 10 over 49,.
co., For awhile agents handled the dis
tributiOn Of books throughout this ccun-
r-au toraian lanas hut