Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-03-31
BIBLE SOCIETY MEETS

A large congregation assembled IrOHl
the various churches Of Yorkville. at
tended the meeting Of the York Bible
society, held in the A. r. P. church
last Sunday night, at which the ad-
dress Of DR.. ]. s. Moffatt, president OF
Erskine college, was the leading fea-
ture, followed by the report Of the Sec
retary and treasurer, the enrolment of
members and election Of officers for
the ensuing year.
Rev. Henry Stokes, pastor Of Trinity
Methodist church, presided, and fol-
lowing devotional exercises. introduc-
ed DR.. M 'ffatt as a man who needed no
introduction.
Taking as his text Psalm 119: :105-
"Thy word Is lamp unto my feet, and
a light unto my path," the speaker de-
scribed the Bible as being thesineans
of knowing God whom we otherwise
would not know. He illustrated his
point by saying that while he himself
might have In his mind a thought that
would be Of value to his fellows, unless
he spoke or wrote that thought they
would not know it. Christ, he said, is
the word and We must know the word
to know Christ.
The Bible is the means of mans re-
conciliation with God. How can man
be just with God? Reason. said the
speaker, tried to answer that question.
Superstition and Science tried to set
tie 1t; but could not. Jesus Christ is
the only way Of reconciliation. Further
more the word brings knowledge of
comfort, even as it was brought to the
sisters Of Lazarus. 1t also brings
knowledge of beauty and eternal hope.
But although we may know Of the
Bible and of God, this knowledge must
be brought to every person individual
ly. To illustrate, he said: We know
that there are lights in Due West. But
If we were in darkness in Yorkville
what good would the light in Due West
be to US? We could not read by it, be-
cause it is not here and We are not
there. 1t must be brought to us to be
of benefit.
So it Is with the Bible. 1t must be
placed in the hands of every person, Of
every nationality and station and
tongue. The distribution Of that word
was the work of the American Bible
society which was one Of twenty-seven
similar organizations in the world. 1t
was established in 1916 and has dis
tributed sS,OOO,O0O volumes Of Scrip
ture, about 100000 a year.
The American Bible society has three
departments. The first is the transla-
tion department which has translated
parts of the Scripture into 490 different
languages and dialects. The entire BIZ
BILE has been translated into 100 differ
ent languages and the work Of pre-
senting the word to every tongue has
been going on since 1920. The trans
lators have given a written language
to some tribes who had no language,
and all known people now know of the
Bible.
The second department Of the socie-
ty, DR.. Moffatt said, was the work OF
printing the Bibles and preparing them
for use. The society has presses in
New York and in foreign lands. Last
year 100000 Bibles and more than
5000, 900 parts of Bibles were issued by
the society. Many Of these were print
ed in foreign languages for the use Of
foreigners who have come to the Unit
ed States. There are eighty-t three Ian
guages spoken in the United States.
The society does not give away
many Bibles because people would not
the sacred work If it were
given away. Therefore the book is sold
for cost and some times less than cost
1t is sold for song in China and Is as
cheap as ordinary paper.
The third department of the society
is the distributing work. This is done
through auxiliary societies, a general
house to house campaign and through
paid agents Of whom there are about
$780, There were IA Of these agents
employed last year in distributing the
Bible among the negroes Of the south
and more than $4,000 volumes were
distributed.
Three thousand volumes Of Scripture
were distributed in South Carolina last
year and $4,000 was spent in present.
ing 1t to the blind Of the country Last
year the society distributed 1900 vol
umes among Italians in America. 55,-
900 to Poles, 5000 to Chinese and 5O.-
900 to Spaniards The work Of the
American Bible society, which is the
right arm of foreign missions, had not
been without results.
In concluding his address, the speak