The Ordway new era., 1908-09-18
SALE OF THE BIBLE
CHINA AND JAPAN BUY MORE
THAN ENGLAND AND WALES.
Entire "oood Book" Has Been Trans
lated Into 1906 Tonsues-Para
Have Been Edited for 2cS
Additional Peoples.

London.-In a single year more than
| l,0o0. 900 Bibles have been distrlout'
ed throughout China, and 10000 IN
| in Japan, according 10 the advance
summary of the British and Foreign
Boble society's one hundred and fourth
annual report. while In England and
Wales, where the years demand has
fallen on. only l.l05,000 have been
sold
Three additions have been added TO
the society's long list. In South
America, where LenEua is spoken by
he Indians OF the Paraguayan Chaco.
version OF St Marks gospel has
been printed In this tongue in the
heart OF Africa. ST. Matthews gospel
has been printed for Uganda tribe
speaking language called luNyan-
kole: in India, two GOSPELS are being
published in Hndu-Sindhi. In six
other languages versions are almost
ready The publication of the canon
ical books Of the bible has been com
pleied in two additional languaGes-in
Giryama. for British East Africa, and
In Nguua EtaIe. a combination Of the
dialects OF TWO islands in the New
Hebrides With these. the number OF
complete Bibles Is now l05.
The New Testament has been com
pelted in Bafln's Land Eskimo. and In
the Mombasa form OF Swahili: these
raise the number Of New Testaments
10 90 While 20s other languages.
In which only some part OF the testa-
ment has been issued. make up the
total to iI2 different languages in
which the British and foreign Bible
society has promoted the translation.
printing and distribution OF at least
some part Of Gods book '
Important progress has also been
made in revising versions whose quail
ty requires Improvement Here We
can mention only the two dominant
languages OF the far east. In Japan. q
| representative body Of japanese schol
ars and foreign missionaries has re
Gently agreed upon joint plan for re
vislng the japanese Bible. In China,
he missionary conference At Shans
hai in 1890 arranged for Union" yer.
sions Of the Chinese Bible In High
Wenli. and In Mandarin. The task has
been successfully fulfilled In all three
cases. so far as concerns the New
| Testament.
The rapid influx into North Ameri-
ca OF immigrants from Europe has in.
creased the demand for diglot Testa-
ments, in which English is printed
side by side with one or other of
dozen Continental versions. A new
edition OF the English Bible in Braille
lraised type for the blind is in prep
aTation. Thus In divers portions and
in divers manners, in the hands OF
the English and among the far-away
folk OF foreign speech under alien
stars, Gods book carries its own eter-
aal message TO the human heart"
The years issues amount altogether
20 5.6sS.3Sl volumes, a total of 272..
900 copies above the output in the
previous year. though still 2s9. 900 be-
ow the record total announced two
years ago.
The issues from the Bible house In
London for the past year were 1.s3s..
PSI copies-an increase of $1,000 over
t.le previous year. The growth here.
however. has been In foreign versions
sent out from London. The issues in
English and Welsh amounted to .i05.-
900 copies-a falling off OF lI2 900
from the previous year. which again
was $4,000 below the year before
OF the society's issues. a smaller pro.
portion are English and Welsh Scrip
lures than was the case ten years
ago: then 1t was over 80 per cent,
now 1t is under 20 per cent of the
total. For this, however. there may be
two-fold explanation. On one
hand. people to-day who can afford
them prefer more expensive editions,
often with notes or helps. which they
procure elsewhere than from the Bible
house. On the other hand. some ex-
tremely cheap English editions have
been put on the market by other pub
fishers.