BIBLE DISTRIBUTION

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 10, 4 August 1930, Page 4

BIBLE DISTRIBUTION

SOCIETY'S WORK. "Great as are the present achievements of the society, its steady growth from year to year indicates that its greatest days are yet in front," said H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester, in tendering his greetings to the British and Foreign Bible Society in the Queen's Hall, London, at the annual meeting on May 7. The Duke, who presided,' congratulated the society on a .year of extraordinary work. He expressed the belief that this would be a happier and more peaceful world when, in our personal and public affairs, the Bible was made the final court of appeal, arid its ruling accepted as the law of life. Sir Anton Bertram, speaking with the experience of a quarter of a century spent in the service of the Crown in the West Indies, Cyprus, Ceylon, and Palestine, said: "There is a realm overseas of which I can speak, where I have served for nearly a quarter of a century. It is an Empire consisting of the Crown colonies and dependencies for which Britain is responsible; an Empire containing fifty million subjects of the King, ruled by fifty administrations, and ranging from vast territories like Nigeria, seven times the size of England, to tiny islands like Ascension, with three hundred inhabitants. All along that great line of Imperial responsibility the Bible Society is constantly fighting in the front. In all those regions we find that the society is the chief auxiliary i of the Church militant and missionary. The Bible Society supplies all missions. In the depots of the Bible Society all Christian bodies meet on a common ground, and the discords that divide them vanish from the minds like evil dreams. Let me tell those of you who are destined to go forth to carry the Christian faith into the world, that you will find the Bible Society constantly at your right hand, supplying you with munitions of war, and supplying all those to whom you minister with constant inspiration." A Record Year. The society reported a remarkable increase in the distribution of the Scriptures during the year. The total output for the past twelve .months was 12,175,232 copies, this showing an increase of 775,540 volumes over the previous year. Twelve new versions were added to the society's list of publications, making the number of languages printed 630. One new slanguage had been added every month, and five of these new versions were compiled by women translators. A total of 30,566 copies of the Scriptures were distributed in New Zealand in thirty different languages. These figures constituted a record for the output of Scriptures for one year for the British and Foreign Bible Society. The world's best book was still the world's best seller. It was, a striking fact that the society was now selling more than double the number of copies in the languages of Britain than it sold ten years ago. Over five and a quarter million copies were placed in Chinp —an increase of a million and a, quarter on the figure of the pi*evious year. Although the expenditure, exceeded last year's by £6172, the income of the society met all demands and left a mar-