THE CIRCULATION OF THE BIBLE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 166, 14 July 1879, Page 4

THE CIRCULATION OF THE BIBLE.

The "Printing Tiara" publish s some interesting statiaiios respecting the circulation of the Bible during (tie present century. The British nnJ Foreign Society is far in advance of any other existing institution of th3 kind 88 fnr us ngari's the number of copies issued. It was foundel in 1804, and, according to the statement referrrd to, hae circulated upwards of 82,000,000 volume?, The American Society, instituted some thirteen years later, h&B attained a circulation of nearly 35,000, 000. No others in existence at all oppronch these two organizations in respect of the magnitude of Iheir operations All the German societies tcgether have issued 8,500,000, the Swiss eocieties nearly 2,000,000, the French upwards of* 1,600.030, the societies in the Netherlands something over 1,287,000. The Hibernian Society, which is nearly as old 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 4,768,000. The Bible Translation Society, established in 1841, has issued 3,200,000, and during the last half ceniury the Trinitarians have circulated upwards of a million end a quarter of their own version of the sicred Scripture?. Besides these, there is a Danish Society, which has issued 37,000, a Swedish Society with nearly a million, and a Norwegian Society with something under a quarter of a million of Bibles issued aa the result ot (heir efforts since their formation early in this century. The few remaining organizations, of which detailed information is wa ting, are supposed to represent a total iesue of 3,000,000 volumes. Thus it appears that the present century has witnessed a circulation of the Bible amounting to the prodigious number Gf nearly 150,000,000. This total, however,

represents only those organizations which are primarily Bible publishing societies", nnrt does not appear to recognize other ioßtitutioaa which, while n t pD«flging ia this work as their chief function, nevertheless do a great deal in thia way, such, for instance, as tbe Religious Tract Fociety, which )*st year issued 74.000 English Bibles and Testaments. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge circulates 25,000 copies annually. These, and large numbers of private firms, are allowed, however, as a set-off against the separate issues of Bibles and Testaments in the other societies, and our technical authority assumes that the grand total given .-Lay be regarded as approximately correct. — " Globr."