THE BIBLE SOCIETY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3773, 6 July 1926, Page 35

THE BIBLE SOCIETY.

UNIQUE POWER OF THE BOOK. SIR T. W. H. INSKIP’S TRIBUTE. OUR GREAT INHERITANCE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, MAY 18. Sir T. \V. H. Inskip (Solicitor-general) presided at the annual meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society, held at the Queen’3 Hall, on May 9, when speakers included Dr Riteson, the Rev. C. H. K. Boughton. Mr W. J. W. Roorne (East Central Africa), Dr F. W. Norwood, and Miss Ruth Rouse. Mr BougHton, in a summary of the annua! report, said the society’s translation work provided an excellent illustration of its co-operative character, 'lhe work had been shared between Anglicans and Methodists, German Lutherans, and French and Italian Protestants, American and Scottish Presbyterians, English Baptists, members of the London Missionary Society, and many others. During the year the society had issued 10,452,733 books of Holy Scripture. This number had never been surpassed, save in one of the war years, and it was over 412.000 in excess of last vear-’s figure. The output of English and Welsh Scripture from London had grown by 127,344. In India there waa an increase of about 60.000. In China the record figure of last year had been increased bv 385.000, and the total issues were over four and a-quarter millions. On a smaller scale progress had also been made in Europe, particularly in Portugal. New Bible houses were being erected in Addis Ababa, the capital of Abyssinia, and in Jerusalem. The total income for the year was £403.702, against an expenditure of £438,527, the latter being £27,000 in excess of the previous vear. The society this year needed an income of £450.000. 'ihe society was still debarred from entering Russia, but it was helping exiled Russians outside their native land. The Solicitor-general moved a "esolution urging ‘‘on all who love the Word of God the privilege and responsibility of making increased provision for its adequate distribution at this time of growing ’eed and opportunity. Apropos of the stoppage of everything, caused by the general strike, he said it was a good thing for those who had been able to come to turn their minds for an hour or two to so noble and inspiring a topic as the Bible. “Very, soon.” said Sir Thomas, “we shall have to resume—all of us—duties in the office or the home or the street which are anxious, and may even be harassing. It will be well for us if we can return to our tasks refreshed by the contemplation of this great Book. We turn our restless minds this morning with a sense of relief and refreshment towards the plain of God’s own territory, which stretches like a mountainside, towering above our little affairs in the valley. comforting in its strength, steadfast., immovable, even as a servant of the Lord should he ** The report, he continued, was crammed with facts whioh bore witness to the unique povyer of the Book. “Not a year passes Put there are some who tell us that a few of its nages have been torn from it. and vet every vear adds to the roll of its triumphs. It winds and wins its way into place* that are inaccessible to the human f>"en( It touches hearts that are insensible to every other appeal. It breaks the fetters of every caste and creed throughout tbe world, and it provides a universal language of aspiration and devotion, in which the learned and the unlearned of the world are able to express their worship to the God thev adore.” The Bihle was in no danger of destruction, whatever some timorous hearts might h*ve felt, from the flood of criticism. Tt rose buoyantly and triumphantly upon the very flood that some had designed to overwhelm it THE CHART AND COMPASS. When he read in the report that there had been circulated among our own kith and kin 1,750,000 volumes of the Scriptures, he recalled Tyndale’s historic answer to one of his persecutors—that if God would spare his life he would cause a boy who drove the plough to know more o( the Scriptures than hia tormentor. That once became true. Was it true now? Did the Bible hold the place in the home or in the school that it once did? Waa the soul of the race still delighted with the sweet savour, not merely of the beauty and education of the Bihle. but with its spirit? “I cannot tell. Sometimes I hear or read of great emphasis being laid upon the teaching of Christ, and in particular upon some parts of it. Brotherhoods. fellowships, and conferences quite rightly make much of the claim of Christ to control every department of our social, political, and industrial life. But I often look—and I sometimes think I look in vain—for a proper appreciation of the two greatest facts in the history of the human race with which the .Bible is filled—first, the fact that sin has entered into and marred the image of God in man; secondly, the fact that Christ came to he not merelv Loader, but to be the Saviour of the world.** If they were fact 3. and if they were only stated in their true proportion in the Book, “then we neglect the Bible at our peril. It is not enough to put it on our shelve* in our libraries or on our tables. It is the chart and compass, without which the powers of darkness cannot be fought and defeated. It is not enough to distribute a million and three-quarters of the Scriptures—though that is good. We must not be content until once more this Book is tile Book of our people, and this people is the people of the Book.”

He was often struck by the way in which the Bible was woven into the very warp and wool of our nation's history. No great occasion passed at whioh the spokesmen of the nation hid not make allusion either in work or in spirit to the Divine record. “When we were debating in the House of Commons the great disaster which w«a then imminent, tbe Prime Minister first, and then the leader of the Opposition resorted to passages in Bcriptures for some of their most arresting and moving ideas.'* He was grateful that their great inheritance was not to be lost to those who had gone out to make a Greater Britain Whatever economic and political ideas might do to associate our dominions with ourselves, the greatest, the strongest, the most en-

during of all was this Book, which united them ail to One Who was above all and over all. But the fact that it was distributed in the dominions, and that it needed to be everywhere to retain the characteristics of the British race was perhaps not the highest ground upon which to base the anneal. He believed the Christian sentiment to be an essential part in the unity of the Empire, and there was no reason why they should forgot it, but. of course, there was an Empire even wider than the King’s dominions, and that was the Kingdom of God and of Ilis Christ throughout the world. What was true of the Empire was surelv true of the world in its present needs—China. India, and Africa. AFRICA’S THOUSAND DIALECTS. Mr W. J. W. Roorne (Bible Society’s, secretary for East Central Africa) spoke of Christian progress in Uganda. One of the greatest difficulties in evangelising the people was the tangle of tribal divisions, and consequent diversities of language and dialects. The problem of giving the Bible to Africa was bound up with the unravelling of the tangle. It was impossible to sav bow many languages were spoken in Africa—there must be well over a thousand different dialects. At the present time over 200 languages had been reduced to writing, and some port the Scriptures translated into them. Of that number the Bihle Society had published or circulated 180. “WE WANT A WESLEY.’* Dr F. W. Norwood urged that people should not on!v read the Bible, but practise it To-day (May 5) people were obliged to go without newspapers It might be a blessing in disguise, if onlv for a few days, at least we thought rather than read. It would bo an unspeakable blessing if; instead of either thinking or reading, we could he inspired to act and live. Our thought and our criticism of the Bible had been far too much for the literary standpoint. We hacl discussed its phrases. We had discussed the methods of its inspiration. Some had tried to sunernaturalise them; ,some had tried to rationalise them. We had discussed tbe ethics of the Bible far more than we bed responded to their appeal. In our national emertrcTW to-day some peor.le said “We want ** Mussolini.’’ Rather should they cry. “We want a Wesley.*’ Whoever could bring us back to God would be bringing ii* back to tbe greatest things in our pa"t history, and the onlv things that, promised hope for the future.