Milford chronicle., 1942-12-11
President Roosevelt Endorses
Universal Bible Sunday


Il am happy to give my endorse
ment to the setting aside of De-
4 cember 13 as Universal Bible Sun
day" writes President Franklin d.
I Roosevelt to the American Bible
Society in his annual endorsement
of this observance which is spon-
sored by the Bible Society and will
be celebrated in tens of thousands
of churches throughout the coun-
/ try. "These days of crisis have
brought strain and anguish to Am
erican homes, but they have brought
also a quickened sense of the
strength which religion alone can
give to our people.
"The crisis of the world today
is moral crisis. The essential war
/ is war of values, and the stake for
which mankind is contending is the
right to be free. The Christian con-
ception of man created in the image
of God, that tradition of human
freedom and dignity which over
many centuries has gradually
achieved democracy as its secular
expression, is challenged today by
the Nazi conception of man created
in the image of the beasts of the
field. We are defending humanity
against systematic and calculated
brutalization. We are fighting to
make the future safe for decency
and brotherhood.
More than any single work, the
Bible is the repository of the moral
and religious teachings of our wes-
tern tradition. 1t is a book not for
day or a week but for eternity.
In the great moral crisis of ancient
Israel the phophet Isaiah cried out,
They that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength; they
shall mount up with wings as
eagles; they shall run, and not be
weary; and they shall walk, and not
faint
In that spirit we shall fortify
our souls for the uncertainties of
the future. With that spirit sus-
tanning us, we shall not falter and
we shall not fail"
For over two decades the Ameri-
can Bible Society has sponsored the
annual observance of a Sunday in
December as Universal Bible Sun
day, supplying material to over
100000 pastors to aid in this cele-
bration. The theme chosen this
year is Watch Your Scripture
Reading"
AS in every time of crisis, the
Bible Society finds, the American
people are turning to the Bible.
Bookstores are with difficulty main
tanning their stocks of the Sacred
Volume, and publishers are run
ming their presses overtime. The
hunger for the Book on the part
of our armed forces is Unsuitable. I
The American Bible Society, which
has supplied the Scriptures to Am
erica's fighting men in every war /
since the war with Mexico one /
hundred years ago, has just placed .
its second order for 100000 New .
Testaments specially prepared for .
the nations forces. They are COM
ing from the presses at the rate OF
10000 or more day and even then
the orders from the chaplains can
not be promptly met; 25,000 for the
head chaplain with MacArthur'g
men in Australia, five hundred for
the Army and Navy in the Aleu-
tians, another five hundred for a
chaplain somewhere in England
who ministers to our boys in a great
hospital there, are but a few of the
many requests reaching the Bible
Society.
America is probably better sup
piled with Bibles than any nation
on earth. Last year again, as in all
recent years, the sales exceeded
5 100000 copies of the Bible or
parts of it. These were purchased
in sixty-four different languages.
The distribNtion this year will un-
doubtedly be much greater than
last, and possibly the greatest in
our nations history.
The stumbling block here is that
our people do not read the Bible.
They honor it; they respect it; they
buy it; but they do not read it.
Man yin these tragic days are turn
ing to it afresh land it is the hope
of the American Bible Society that
the practical elements in the cele-
bration of Universal Bible Sunday
in the churches on December 13
will encourage these and many
others to make the earnest reading
Of the Bible one of their regular .
habits.