RECORD YEAR

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20919, 20 October 1942, Page 5

RECORD YEAR

GISBORNE BIBLE SOCIETY The annual meeting of the Gisborne section of the British and Foreign Bible Society was held in the Baptist The treasurer’s statement showed that in 1941 the society in Gisborne had had a record year. The election of officers resulted.— President, the Rev. J. Davie; vicepresidents. Messrs. D. O’Halloran and J. C. Hardy; secretary, Mr. A. Skillen; treasurer. Mr. A. Hall. Miss E. M. Berg,- the travelling secretary for the society, gave an informative address on the work -of the society in these war days. She particularly .spoke of the spiritual awakening in China and India, and the consequent increase in the distribution of Holy Scriptures. Chinas

request for Scriptures far exceeded the supply, even though 4,000,000 copies were circulated. The Christian leadership of Marshal and Madame [Chiang Kai-Shek had contributed (largely to the spiritual awakening in ! China. 9 Miss Berg paid a great tribute to the translators of the Scriptures, especially’ to William Carey, the greatest of Bible translators and leader of modern missions. In his 30 years of service in India he was responsible for the translation of portions of Scriptures into 40 languages, the British and Foreign Bible Society largely helping with the finance.' Last year over 1.338,000 volumes were distributed in India and Ceylon. Miss Berg spoke, too, of the work of the Bible Society amongst the men of the fighting forces. Throughout the British Empire 2,000,000 New Testaments had been placed in the hands of the men.

Dr. Miskelly thanked the speaker for her address and spoke of the activities of the society in Manchuria. The annual house-to-house collect-, ing will be carried out within the next >month.