THE BIBLE SOCIETY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16375, 24 June 1927, Page 4

THE BIBLE SOCIETY

OPERATIONS FOR YEAR REMARKABLE "SALES IN CHINA LONDON, May 6. The 123rd annual meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society was held at Queen's Hall yesterday. This year Mr. Baldwin becomes one of the vice presidents of the Society. He was to have presided yesterday, but was unable to do so owing to the pressure of other duties. His place was taken by Lord Salisbury. ' Lord Salisbury said that, the Prime Minister had upon his shoulders a burden almost heavier than any man could bear. The administration of this vast, Empire stretched to the farthest limits of the globe, but Mr. Baldwin had been able while Prime Minister to add to his political labours speeches upon other subjects which had deeply impressed the country—speeches on scholarship, on art, and on social and political ethics, which he (Lord Salisbury) believed had done, immense work in raising public sentiment and public conviction. OYER 10,000,000 VOLUMES ISSUED The following items m the report summarise the work of the Society during the year : Income ■•• " £396,'044 Expenditure £412,054 Languages added to the Society's list 14 Number' of, languages now included in the list ...... 593 Number of volumes issued during the year 10,128,087 Oelieie.nev on the year's working £l6,alU On the position m China the report stnted: "Our confidence rests in the assurance that tho many millions of Gospels circulated and read in that land cannot he fruitless. In view ol all the, circumstances, the number ol hooks purchased by the Chinese during 1926 is very remarkable. .No fewer than 4.142.000 'copies were circulated--onlv 119.000 fewer than in the record year of 1925. That there was this small decline is no proof that the Chinese do not desire the Scriptures. Civil war has rent the nation; hordes of ruthless bandits have plagued the Long-suffering people. In many districts it has been impossible for our colporteurs to travel. Two of them wore killed in tionau; many suffered assault; some were cast into prison. The great majority of the men have carried on their 'work faithfully and courageously. Almost everywhere they met people who eagerly purchased the Scriptures. In some places men (probably in foreign pay) shouted, 'Down with the Bible!' 'Down with God!' 'Down with Christians!' j but it often proved that opposition helped sales. Failure fo transport, not anti-Christian agitation, was the chief cause of the diminished circulation. Could the post office and the railways have conveyed the parcels from the coast to inland places, there is little doubt that the sales would have exceeded anything ever known before."

AGENTS FORBIDDEN IN RCSSIA

On the subject of Russia the report states: "We have again been unsuccessful m our efforts to gain an en trance for our agents into Russia. A small consignment of Scriptures was, however, permitted to enter; and we are glad to know- that 25,000 Russian Bibles have been planted in Leningrad. The demand is said to be tremendous. Religion still has a great hold upon the peoples of- Russia, and it cannot be that all the work accomplished by our Society in that land during a century before the (devolution has gone for naught."

Commenting on the references to China, in the report. Lord Salisbury said: "I 'should bo the last man to minimise the extreme gravity of the situation there, but is it not wonderful that, notwithstanding the political state of things in that country, the work of this Society among the Chinese should he so little affected? When the politieal situation is changed in China, when all tho troubles ihave passed away, the permanent work of flie preaching of Christianity will have gone on. That will be the real result. The other is merely temporary.''