A VAST PUBLIC

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 59, 10 March 1936, Page 16

A VAST PUBLIC

MOST POPULAR BOOK

BRITISH BIBLE SOCIETY

VISIT TO HEADQUARTERS

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, February 8.

In the first few weeks of their stay in London visitors from overseas make a pilgrimage to a large number of the famous and historical buildings, but it is doubtful if they include in their programme a visit to the library of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Yet here may be seen for the asking copies of all the rare editions of the Bible. As a library, it is unique, for though it contains 19,000 volumes it is devoted to only one book. The 19,000 volumes represent the Bible, or portions of the Bible, in over 964 different languages and dialects. The library is as old as the society iteelf. The earliest gift of books came from Mr. Granville Sharp. The library has been , gradually increased by copies of the society's own versions and editions, while rare copies have been purchased by funds specially subscribed for that purpose. In 1890 over 1200 English Bibles and Testaments were acquired from the collection of the late Mr. Francis Fry, of Bristol, and in 1909 part of the remarkable collection of the late Dr. C. D. Ginsburg, which is specially rich in early printed editions in Hebrew and German, was added. ■ . ; Visitors are welcomed, at .the premises of the Bible Society after 5 o'clock two. days'in the week. The building itself is a remarkable one, The foundation-stone was' laid by King Edward VII, then.Prince of Wales, in 1866. Bible House is probably the most stately and impressive home of any missionary society in the world. It stands in Queen Victoria Street near "The Times" office,.and recent excavations not many yards away have disclosed the pillars and arches of the old Blackfriars ■ Monastery, where John Wycliffe appeared to answer for his heresies before the Legate of the Pope. ' ' ■ ... ■ A STATELY BUILDING. Over the principal entrance is carved on an open book in stone, "The Word of the Lord Endureth ; for Ever." An inscription just inside the portal records that •■ "This House, erected by means of funds contributed specially for the purpose, was commenced in the year 1866, and completed in 1868." 'The Victorian builders did things in the grand manner. On the first floor is a spacious and beautiful chamber, known as the large committee room. The walls are hung with portraits of the society's former presidents, Lord Teignniouth and Lord Bexley, Millais's noble painting of the Earl of Shaftesbury," portraits of the Earl of Harrowby arid of the Marquess of North-ampton-^together with a large picture of "Luther's First Study of the Bible," by E. M. Ward. There is also a portrait of the actual president, H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught. The room has associations of peculiar interest from the fact that hardly any representative missionary visits London from . the foreign field -without attending a meeting of the committee to testify to the power of the Bible among the heathen in- distant lands. On the next floor is the spacious library where it is possible to spend many interesting hours. Every evening all the most precious and irreplaceable volumes are wheeled away tea strongroom. The latest of the translations—the 702nd—is displayed. This is in the Dogbane tongue spoken by natives of the Gold Coast." NO HAPHAZARD TRANSLATIONS. '■ No haphazard methods are employed in the translations. It may be done by one man or woman—generally a missionary—but it is then subjected to a committee of the natives and other Europeans on the spot. After that the translation has to go before a board in London, who have the assistance of all the experts in a particular language to be found in this country. The Gospel of St. Luke in Anganiwai, which was translated by a New Zealand missionary, Miss Clara Waterston, was the 700 th language to be translated. During her eighteen years' stay in the Solomon Islands she translated the Scriptures into various dialects. When the Bible Society began . in 1804 the Scriptures had been translated into no more .than seventy-two languages, but by the time it had been in existence twenty years it had published or circulate^ versions in one hundred languages. "It. took fortyseven years to reach the second hundred; but .the. third was reached in twenty-one years; and' the fourth in fourteen years. In eleven years (1906----17) the fifth hundred was added; in eleven years more (1917-28) the sixth. It has taken less than eight years to add the seventh : hundred.' A simple calculation shows that the. Bible Society has issued a Gospel in a new language every four weeks during the last seven and a half years. THE WAREHOUSES. The greater part of the London headquarters is used, as 3 warehouse for Bibles. No printing is done by the society itself. On two top floors are the printed sheets in the 700-odd languages. When an order is received for a certain number of Bibles or Testaments in a certain language the sheets are sent out to the bookbinders, and ■(hey return to Bible House in their fresh covers. From the large pack-ing-room on the ground floor about 11,000 volumes on an average are packed and sent out every working day. These, however, represent less than a quarter of the society's total output. For its foreign, versions it endeavours to employ printers and binders.in the countries for which the books are produced, wherever this can be done efficiently and economically. Cojpies of the Scriptures in Chinese are being printed, for instance, in China in everincreasing numbers. One floor of the building is devoted ,to bound copies of all languages which have been ordered, and another floor entirely to English versions. • For every £1 spent by the society on production it is expected to receive 8s for the sale of the books. The other 12s is subscribed by the public. Money, of course, is collected in the Protestant churches throughout the world. The shilling English Bible costs Is 4Jd to produce. On some of •the higher-priced books the society actually makes a small profit. BIBLES FOR THE BLIND. A complete English Bible in Braille type for the blind.costs £12 to produce. It fills 39 volumes, which occupy a shelf sft 6in long. Each volume of the society's new English Braille Bible now costs from 5s to 6s Bd, but is sold for Is 6d. Towards the cost of these books the sociey now receives a Government grant of 2s 6d per volume. The net loss to the society, . therefore,'ranges from Is to 2s 8d per volume. About 1000 volumes are granted free or sold at nominal rates every year. Nearly 1100 colporteurs are employed by the society to carry cheap copies" of the Scriptures into the remotest corners of the earth, and sell them at a price even the very poor can afford to pay. These colporteurs sell about 7,000,000 copies a year. Tt is interesting to learn thst 10.000 volumes have been distributed free to the Italian soldiers in Abyssinia or while they were passing into the Suez Canal. More than 5000 have been distributed to the Abyssinian troops.