BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9163, 10 August 1908, Page 7

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.

The Rev. Edward Walker, of Halcombe, who is visiting the Wairarapa as temporary deputation of the British and Foreign Bible Society, yestreday addressed the Presbyterian and Methodist congregations in Mastercon, and the Y.M.C.A. in the interest of the Society. Mr Walker, in the course of his addresses, said the Society was like the atmosphere. The benefits of its existence were all about us, but we took little thought of it. In the Sunday schools, the churches and the mission fields at home and abroad its productions abounded, the sudden universal withdrawal of which would create a startling realisation of its value. The Society was founded in the dark and gloomy days of the beginning of last century, namely, in 1804, when England was dreading invasion, and the outcome of the great war with Napoleon was painfully doubtful. Most people knew little of what was going on beyond their own neighbourhood, and the stage coach and the sailing vessel were the only means of travelling, and the highwayman and the pirate were the travellers' dn>ad. The strong desire of a Welsh girl to possess a Bible in her own tongue and the efforts she nale to do so, vvere a little incident wh'.ch led on to the founding of the Sicietyto provide everyone with the scriptures in his own language the Wjrldover, at a small price which lie could pay or for nothing if he could not pay. In its first year the Society spent £961, and thought this a great achievement. year it stent £226,0U0, and fro.n the beginning ha*, spent £15,000,000 on its bold and noble object. About 80 kindred societies have since arisen in other lands, some of which it helps, but it di.-tributes more copies of the word of God than all of these put together, and is undoubtedly the grjid.st institution in Christendom tor the diffusion of the scriptures. It haa produced the whtle or parts of the scriptures in no les3 than 412 languages of the world, and Ins issued 209,600,000 copies. It issues the scriptures in raised type for the blind in thirty languages. List year its output of Scriptures was over five and a-ha!f million cnme3. It empl >yj 900 colpcrteurs in i iffarent countnes, mostly natives of the countries where they labour, and all of them Christian men who can tell the story of redemption the scriptures contain. It also supports 640 Bible women mainly in the East to read and sell then peoples. The colporteurs last ytar sold over 2,200,000 copies. It has Bible depots in all the great cities of the world and very many pu'-U-pots. From the whole of its depots there gceiout daily an average ; of 16,000 copies all the year round, 'i ne languages in whi2.i it the w ni:! or part of the tcr.pturja

.re s )olcen by seven-tenths uf the world's population, but tiere still are ■ijt,000,001) people, or three-tenth* of ue world's population, into whose Jarguages no portion of the scripture:, has yet betn translated, and who know nothing of the Woid of God., f i his fact alore shows the need of all the help which can be given, that the missionaries who may yet go to these peoples nay be aole to give them the scriptures in their own tongue. The operations of the Society are straightened for want of ready funds, and it is hoped that in this district will be found people willing to subscribe to help forward this great work for uplifting and saving of the natioi.s.

The Society had four great ideals, paid Mr Walker, viz., to translate tho Scriptures in every man's) speech however complex or uncouth his speech may be; to multiply copies by mechanical means, however strange the character or script may be; to bring the hooks within every man's reach, however difficult of access he may be; to sell to every man at a price he can afford, however poor he may be. , ft st lis the books on an average at two-fifths of their cost, varying the pi ice to suit the standard of wages of ♦he pooi est labourers in each country. ii'or eight successive years the Society's income did not equal its expinditura, but the Committee m untamed the work according to thes,e ideals, by drawing upon their rctiprve capital, waititig h>p:fully for prJSp rous The ava labjja reserve is now reduced to the lowest lim t compatible with safety; and as the income hac not increased, the Committee have been compelled to cut down their expand ture ty £32,000 in the last two years. If the cornmi;tte arj to embrace ' all tl.e r opportunities, the income mu3t be augmentel by £32,000 pr annum. This could be donj—if the auxiliaries, as a whole, would provide "half as much jjgaii." Mr H. 'J. Wood, of Masterton, ie the treatiuier of the Wairarapa auxiliary of the Society, through whom contributions can be paid.