PROPAGATING SCRIPTURES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3977, 30 July 1929, Page 2

PROPAGATING SCRIPTURES.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN : BIBLE SOCIETY. < WORLD-WIDE WORK. s WORK OF TRANSLATORS. I The world-wide work of the Bri- ' fish and Foreign (Bible Society in disseminating copies of the Scriptures was the theme of addresses given in Fox ton on Sunday by the ' Rev. David Calder, general secretary of the society in New Zealand, who occupied the pulpit of the Presbyterian Church in the •morning and that of All Saints’ Church in the evening. The Rev. Mr. Calder first referred to the great work of translating the Script-Hires into the English language, and the difficulty of (finding words to adequately express the meaning of the Eastern phrases. As an illustration of this lie said that when translating into a South American language no word could he found to give the meaning of the word “butter.” The translator conferred with a chief of the country, to whom lie described butter as “the grease of the juice of the udder of the cow,” and a word of 22 letters was framed to express this. He said the translation of the Scriptures was no mean business. The Scriptures were written by men who knew nothing about the English language, and for those accustomed to treading the Bible in English it was difficult to believe sometimes 1 hat those who wrote it knew nothing of our tongue. We sometimes found it difficult to realise that .Jesus was not an English gentleman, and that He was an Asiatic. The speaker told a story of a Chimb which once put up a notice that no (Asiatics were wanted in their church, evidently being quite forgetful that the founder of their Church was an Asiatic. Had it not been for good nien who were prepared to sacrifice their lives there might never Im.ye been an English Bible as wg knew it. And if the English people had their Bible there was no reason why other peoples should not have the Scriptures in their own tongue. It was this work of translating the Scriptures and publishing them in many different : languages 'that- oleieuipied the British ■ and Foreign Bible 'Society, so that , every man might- have Hie Bible in , his own tongue. THE. GRAND BOOK OF THE ’ ; WORLD.

The Rev. Mg. Calder said most English people recognised) the value of the Bible, every page of which, he said, was bedewed with drops of Divine love. The Bible was becoming anore and more the grand book of the wofld. It- 'was being more and moire read by our own people and by the world of men. Every possible investigation that could be made showed that, such was the ease. It was becoming more esteemed than ever, and was finding

its way to the uttermost part of the world. During the last ten yea|rs the sales of Scriptures through the British and Foreign Bible Society liad adv'anlced by 100 per cent., and the English language was being spoken over an increasingly wide area. This society did not stand alone. It had been in existence Top- 125 years, its birthday being celebrated in March of tliis year. There were branches of the society in 'Scotland and America, but they all worked in harmony. For five years the output of the society bias been ten’million copies of the Scriptures. Li 1804 when the British and Foreign Society was formed, the Scriptures were issued in seventy different languages. To-day they were issued hi SS7 different liuiguages. Tihe speaker said that last year he had stood in the library of the British and Foreign Society, where there now are in one room ■ 17,000 examples of issues of the Scriptures in 887 different languages. The British Society publishes portions of the Scriptures in 618 different , languages. GENESIS OF THE SOCIETY.

Air. Cakler then proceeded bo give a jskefcc-li of the manner in which this great wo|rk wins brought into being and carried on. It was established by a committee of laymen, who undertook the great task of seeing that every man in the world had the Scriptures in his native tongue. He referred to the cost of the Scriptures in the early days of such work, and said that a load of hay had bjeen given for a couple of pages of the Bible. This committee conceived the idea of ]moling the resources of all the churches for the carrying on of this work, it stalled with the > enthusiasm of a group of Christian gentlemen, and after four years William Wilbcu'force had expressed a hope that the time would come when the income of the committee would be £IO,OOO a year. In the next year there, were formed auxiliaries for the support of (the society, and in the ninth year of its existence it had an income of £70,000. It had never been in debt, and existed on the voluntary contributions of those interested in its work. Its present income is £420,000 a year, it had' never refused a proper request of missionaries or .others for copies of Hie Scriptures. The commit, tee sought efficiency and economy in the production of these copies, and had the Bible, or portions of it, printed on good papetr and well hound. This was clone by the society subsidising the printing concerns. They did not make a practice of giving the Scriptures away, but had them produced in such form that they were cheap enough for anyone to buy. They contributed something like 5s per dozen for the production of editions such as were used in many Sunday schools, which were good

in quality and cheap in price.. Copies were sold for 2d which cost fid to produce, and in other eases an edition costing 2d was sold for Id. Tills was possible through the subsidies provided by the society. Mr. Calder concluded Inis address by giving a number of instances in which the change reading of copies of polrtions of the Scriptures had been the means of changing the lines of people in foreign countries who previously 'had ,known nothing of the story of the Gospel.