THE CIRCULATION OF THE BIBLE.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5440, 22 July 1879, Page 3

THE CIRCULATION OF THE BIBLE.

. The printing fines publishes some interesting statistics respecting the circulation of the Bible during the present century. The British' afnfl Foreign Society is far in advance or any other existing institution of the kind as regards the number of copies issued. It was founded in 1803, and, according to the Statement referred to, has circulated upwards oi 02,000,000 volumes. The American Society, .instituted some 13 yeara fater, has attained a circulation of : nearly 35,0d0,000. No' -others in e*- ~% istence at all approach these two] organisations in respect to the magnitude of their operations* All ihe German societies together have issued &; 600', 000', the Swiss societies nearly 2,000,000, tho French upwards of 1,600,000, the societies in the Netherlands something over 1,288,000. The Hibernian Society fi which is nearly as "'"W^'pld as the British and Foreign, has issued in the course of its existence about 4,189,000 Bibles, and the National Society of Scotland, "which was founded in 1861, has . disseminated some 4,7G8,000. The Bible Translation Society, established in 1841, has issued 3,200,000, .and during the last half century the Trinitarians have circulated upwards of a million and a Quarter of their own version of the Sacred Scriptites. Besides theßo thero ia a Danish society wludh lias issued 37,000, a Sweedish society with nearly a million, and a Norwegian society with something under a quarter of a million of Bibles issued as the result of. their efforts since their formation early in the century. The few remaining organisations, of which detailed information is wanting, are supposed to represent a total issue of 3,000,000 volumes. Thus it appears that tho present century has witnessed a circulation of the Bible amounting to tho prodigious number of nearly 150,000,000.