BIBLE SOCIETY

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 232, 26 June 1940, Page 7

BIBLE SOCIETY

Outline Of Its Work At the Wellington Rotary Club's luncheon yesterday the Rev. D. Calder, 8.A., of the British and Foreign Bible I Society, gave a brief outline of the i work of the society. It belonged, he j said, to no particular sect, and was controlled by British business men. The society was established in JSO2, when it was brought home to many Christian laymen in London that the world was hungry for the Bible. In 1 those days a Bible was a rather costly ; treasure, ami not everyone could afford to buy a copy. Measures were taken there and then to ensure that everyone who wanted a Bible could secure one. It was found at. that time that those who had been entrusted with the printing of the Scriptures were not doing their job. and steps were at once taken to increase the output. Ar present one-third of the output of'the Scriptures was published by t he British ami Foreign Bible Society, onethird by sister organizations such as the American and Scottish Bible Societies. and the rest by other publishers, i The third represented by the society's I output consisted of 30.000 copies of the I Bible, the New Testament, or portions I of the Scriptures each day, or J 1.000.000 | a year. I Since the time of Moses to the preI sent day, a period of 4000 years, the I Bilde had been translated into 72 dlfi ferent languages, but actually either

the Bible, or portions thereof, had been translated into 1115 languages or dialects that passed ns languages. The cost of such publication to the society was about £lOOO a- day. Of that expenditure about S/- in the £ was returned from sales throughout the Empire, the rest was found by those people who were behind the society in its endeavours to spread the printed Word throughout the world. For .136 years the society had never been in debt. It was the ambition of the society to put into everyone's hand a book that was pleasant to handle and good to read. From Central Bible House in London copies of the Bible, in good print and neatly-bound, radiated Io other Bible Houses in all Empire centres. There were 105 of these houses, including the one in Wellington, each of which provided for its own expenditure, either in its own premises or in premises which paid for themselves by subletting. The Bilde was the world's best seller. rind the buyer's best purchase, it was the greatest, power in the world, and it had helped human advancement licyond all calculation.