Eighty-four Y ears 
 
 OF 
 
 Bible Society Work 
 1816-1900 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2019 with funding from 
 Columbia University Libraries 
 
EIGHTY-FOUR YEARS OF 
 BIBLE SOCIETY WORK. 
 
 18 J 6-1900. 
 
 BY EDWARD W. GILMAN, D.D. 
 
 Second Edition, Revised, April, J900. 
 
 I T is a good thing to have an ob¬ 
 ject in view. The American 
 Bible Society has one ; very simple, 
 very definite, very easily understood. 
 Its aim for eighty-four years -has 
 been ^^to encourage a wider dis¬ 
 tribution of the Holy Scriptures.” 
 Starting with the postulate that the 
 Bible is a book of such intrinsic 
 worth that it ought to be found 
 everywhere, it devotes all its ener¬ 
 gies to promote that result. When 
 famine prevails in a country, the 
 thing of prime importance is to. send 
 cargoes of corn and potatoes—de¬ 
 tails of grinding and baking may 
 be attended to when the raw supply 
 is at hand. So if the book is to 
 
o 
 
 be used for private devotion, for in¬ 
 dividual instruction, for public en¬ 
 lightenment, for the furtherance of 
 the Kingdom, the thing first need¬ 
 ing attention is an ample supply of 
 the inspired volume, making it easy 
 to be procured in every community, 
 by every family, in every school; so 
 that whoever will, he he rich or poor, 
 wise or simple, may have access to 
 the Old and New Testament in “the 
 tongue wherein he was horn.” 
 
 LIMITATIONS. 
 
 The aim of the Society is still more 
 exactly defined. So far as the Eng¬ 
 lish language is concerned its work 
 is limited to “the version in com¬ 
 mon use,” and its issues of the Scrip¬ 
 tures in every language are to be 
 “without note or comment.” 
 
 Its founders avoided, and wisely 
 avoided, the task of amending and 
 improving the authorized version. 
 They found a book which had been 
 devoutly read in the homes of 
 English-speaking people for more 
 than two centuries, and had re¬ 
 mained unaltered amid all changes 
 of civil government, of ecclesiastical 
 polity and practice, and of doctrinal 
 
3 
 
 belief; and that book they under¬ 
 took to circulate. While perhaps no 
 one claimed that it was absolutely 
 perfect, it was accepted by all de¬ 
 nominations, and against its distribu¬ 
 tion no valid objection could be raised. 
 At the famous Hampton Court con¬ 
 ference in 1604, the Bishop of London 
 said : “ If every man’s humor should 
 be followed, there would be no end 
 of translating.” And so from 1611 
 until now, one generation after an¬ 
 other has tried its hand in revising, 
 amending, improving the work of 
 King James’ translators: now in 
 the way of abridgment, now of re¬ 
 arrangement, now to better the 
 phraseology, and now to change the 
 rendering; sometimes under the in¬ 
 spiration of denominational zeal, 
 and again in the interest of exact 
 scholarship. Archaisms have been 
 pointed out; errors of translation 
 detected; the underlying text is 
 proven to be inexact and faulty; it 
 appears that the translators—pro¬ 
 foundly learned men in their day— 
 did not appreciate all the niceties 
 of Greek grammar or understand the 
 genius of Hebrew poetry. Hundreds 
 of men since their day, wise and 
 
4 
 
 unwise, conspicuous and obscure, 
 have attempted to correct their 
 errors, or substitute better versions 
 of the Bible or of separate books of 
 the Bible, and the end is not yet. 
 No one can look with indifference 
 on such efforts. Individual mem¬ 
 bers of the Bible Society have been 
 forward to promote so desirable an 
 end. The Company of American Ee- 
 visers held all their meetings, from 
 1871 onward, at the Bible House, 
 and six of the most faithful and 
 eminent of their number were mem¬ 
 bers of the Bible Society’s Commit¬ 
 tee on Versions. But the Society 
 itself has had other and engrossing 
 work to do, and the failure thus far 
 of every attempt to attain the high 
 ideal of a perfect English version is 
 a vindication of the practical wisdom 
 which incorporated in the constitu¬ 
 tion in 1816 the provision that ^‘ the 
 only copies in the English language 
 to be circulated by the Society shall 
 be of the version in common use.” 
 
 4 
 
 WITHOUT NOTES. 
 
 No less important was the restric¬ 
 tion which forbade the Society to 
 accompany its editions of the Scrip- 
 
tures with notes and comments. A 
 book like the Bible is sure to find 
 commentators without number. It 
 had been so before the year 1816, 
 Avhen the names of Scott, Matthew 
 Henry, and Adam Clarke were famil¬ 
 iar household words. There has been 
 no lack since that date. The mention 
 of such names as Barnes, Bush, Alex¬ 
 ander, Jacobus, Lange, the Speaker’s 
 Commentary, the Butler Bible Work, 
 assures us that of making commen¬ 
 taries there is no end. The notes of 
 the Genevan divines—^^most profit¬ 
 able annotations upon all the hard, 
 places,” as they were called in 
 1560—retained a measure of popu¬ 
 larity for a hundred years, but they 
 did not then, and would not now, 
 meet with universal acceptance, and 
 it was King James’ dislike of them 
 that led him to direct that the new 
 version which he was consenting to 
 inaugurate should be free from 
 note or comment. But parents, 
 teachers, pastors, scholars, editors, 
 are all the time doing their best to 
 bring out the real significance of 
 this wonderful book; with differ¬ 
 ent interpretations, it may be ; from 
 antagonistic points of view; with 
 
6 
 
 novel expositions ; with all the help 
 of modern scholarship; with new 
 light from the study of manuscripts 
 and monuments ; with better under¬ 
 standing of what the original Scrip¬ 
 tures meant to those who first re¬ 
 ceived them ; and with larger appre¬ 
 ciation of the book, as designed not 
 for one race or one century, but for 
 every man and for all time. Where- 
 ever the book goes, in whatever 
 tongue it is printed, helps will be 
 wanted in the way of concordances, 
 glossaries, dictionaries, commenta¬ 
 ries, for the better understanding of 
 that which is obscure and the prac¬ 
 tical enforcement of that which 
 is plain ; and such helps will be pro¬ 
 vided as often as the demand arises. 
 The editor of the Congregationalist 
 writes Bible Studies ” for his paper, 
 and forthwith they are translated into 
 Hindustani, then printed in a news¬ 
 paper at Bareilly, and reproduced in 
 book form at Lucknow. But from 
 such work the Bible Society stands 
 aloof, not casting a shadow of cen¬ 
 sure on any effort to make the dark 
 things plain, not attempting to dis¬ 
 criminate between the opposing doc¬ 
 trines which men may deduce from 
 
i 
 
 tlie same inspired chapter ; but hold¬ 
 ing tirnily to the position that while 
 there may be doubtful interpreta¬ 
 tions set forth by different schools, 
 and different theories as to the way 
 the Scriptures are to be used, it will 
 not for a moment be questioned 
 that all Protestant denominations, at 
 least, will agree in circulating that 
 English text of phrase and diction 
 which is so imbedded in English 
 literature and life, which has had 
 so much to do in molding the 
 character of Anglo-Saxon people 
 from the days of Tyndale and 
 Coverdale, and which has held its 
 place so tenaciously since 1611. 
 So the aim of the Society has been 
 not to interpret, but to circu¬ 
 late ; not to explain, but to distrib¬ 
 ute ; to provide the Scriptures—and 
 the Scriptures alone—in the largest 
 variety and at the low^est prices, 
 leaving it to other agencies to unfold 
 the' meaning and to apply the truth 
 for the building up of character, the 
 reformation of life, the promulga¬ 
 tion of doctrine, and the establish¬ 
 ment of righteousness in the earth. 
 
 There were at the outset some per¬ 
 sons who would have been more 
 
8 
 
 ready to lend their countenance to 
 the Society had it been willing to 
 include in its issues Prayer Books 
 and metrical versions of the Psalms. 
 In the early English Bibles these 
 aids to worship were usually bound 
 within the same covers as the Holy 
 Scriptures. But the principle ac¬ 
 cording to which the preparation of 
 explanatory notes was relegated to 
 other agencies easily determined this 
 question as well, and cleared the way 
 for one single, definite aim: the 
 wider circulation of the Holy Scrip¬ 
 tures, without note or comment, 
 throughout our land and through¬ 
 out the world. 
 
 COMMENDATIONS. 
 
 It would be superfluous to quote 
 in this connection any testimony to 
 the importance of this object from 
 those whose antecedents assure us 
 of their prompt assent and hearty 
 co-operation; but for some who 
 would depreciate the importance of 
 the Society’s work, it is opportune 
 to hold up to view the sentiments 
 of representative men who are not 
 generally regarded as supporters of 
 the causes 
 
9 
 
 Said Professor Huxley to Dr. 
 Northrup, in reply to the question, 
 “What is your opinion about the 
 value of the Bible in education?” 
 ‘ ‘ I hold to the Bible as a great edu¬ 
 cator. It is an unquestioned fact 
 that for the last three centuries 
 this hook has been woven into all 
 that is best and noblest in English 
 literature and, history.” 
 
 In literature; and so Hall Caine 
 acknowledges his indebtedness to 
 the Book of books: “Whatever 
 strong situations I have in my tales 
 are not of my creation, but are 
 taken from the Bible.” Now it is 
 the prodigal son, now Esau and 
 Jacob, now Saul and Samuel, and 
 now David and Uriah. 
 
 Matthew Arnold recognizes the con¬ 
 vincing power of detached phrases : 
 “It is astonishing how a Bible sen¬ 
 tence clinches and sums up an argu¬ 
 ment.” 
 
 We hail it also as a sign of the 
 times when a prelate so eminent in 
 his communion as Cardinal Gibbons 
 takes a position at variance with the 
 universal practice of his denomina¬ 
 tion and pronounces a discourse in 
 his cathedral church at Baltimore in 
 
 Eighty-four, <fec. 
 
10 
 
 which with argument and illustra¬ 
 tion he enforces ‘ ‘ the sacred duty of 
 hearing and devoutly reading the 
 word of God.” Nor can we forget 
 the pastoral letter promulgated by 
 the third Plenary Council held in 
 Baltimore in 1881, in which bishops 
 and archbishops declare ^Hhat the 
 most highly valued treasure of every 
 family library, and that most fre¬ 
 quently and lovingly made use of, 
 should be the Holy Scriptures.” 
 
 Two hundred and fifty years ago 
 a famous assembly of divines at 
 Westminster formulated a truth in 
 a sentence which we do well to re¬ 
 member : ‘ ‘ The Scriptures principally 
 teach what man is to believe con¬ 
 cerning God and Avhat duty God 
 requires of man; ” and herein we 
 find reason for i^ressing on with 
 this work of distribution. 
 
 THE society’s WORK. 
 
 starting with this aim, consider 
 what has been the work of the 
 American Bible Society, and in what 
 direction its results are to be seen. 
 
 At its organization in 1816 it had 
 before it what seemed an ample field 
 in providing for the Avants of our 
 
11 
 
 own land, though its founders, even 
 at that day, when foreign mission 
 work was in its infancy, declared 
 their purpose to make the influence 
 of the Society felt in other lands, 
 wliether Christian, Mohammedan, 
 or pagan. They chose the word 
 ‘‘American,” as they said, “to indi¬ 
 cate, not the restriction of their 
 labor, but the source of its emana¬ 
 tion. ” So long as the colonists were 
 subject to Great Britain all their sup¬ 
 plies of Scriptures were imported, 
 and not until 1782 was the first Eng¬ 
 lish Bible printed on this side of the 
 ocean—a small 18mo book, in pro¬ 
 ducing which the publisher lost 
 the sum of £3,000 in specie—a 
 book so rare that a copy has been 
 sold in modern days for $650. From 
 1790 onward many editions were 
 brought out by publishers in Phila¬ 
 delphia, New York, Boston, Trenton, 
 Worcester, and elsewhere; which, 
 however, were inadequate for the 
 wants of our growing republic' 
 comprising in 1816 eighteen States, 
 with a population of eight mill¬ 
 ions. The founders might have felt 
 appaUed had they anticipated such 
 results as the doubling of the area 
 
12 
 
 of the country in eighty years; the 
 acquisition of immense regions like 
 Texas, California, and Alaska; a more 
 than eightfold increase of popula¬ 
 tion ; a vast influx of foreign immi¬ 
 grants ; and the addition of twenty- 
 seven States to the eighteen then 
 on the roll—this area to be trav¬ 
 ersed by men sent out to circu¬ 
 late the Holy Scriptures ; these fami¬ 
 lies, whether in crowded towns, or 
 in remote hamlets, or in mountain 
 solitudes, to have the word of flfe 
 offered to them ; these communities 
 to be supplied with the one book 
 from which in church assemblies, in 
 Sunday schools, in neighborhood 
 prayer meetings, and in private 
 houses, they might certainly learn 
 of truth and duty. 
 
 The receipts of the Society during 
 its first year were $37,779, and its 
 issues 6,410 volumes ; in the year end¬ 
 ing March 31, 1900, the receipts were 
 $248,904, and its issues exceeded one 
 and a quarter millions; its total issues 
 in eighty-four years being more than 
 sixty-seven million volumes. 
 
 Such results as are tabulated in 
 the Annual Keports of the Society 
 are due to a variety of causes, 
 
13 
 
 among which may be mentioned the 
 large co-operation of philanthropists 
 throughout the land, especially as 
 organized in auxiliary societies for 
 the maintenance of county deposi¬ 
 tories of Bibles and the supply of 
 local needs ; the munificent bequests 
 of noble-minded men and women 
 who loved the Kingdom of God, and 
 sought to promote its welfare after 
 their lives on earth were ended ; the 
 hosts of people desirous to enroll 
 their names and the names of their 
 children as members for life of an 
 organization so directly related to 
 the well-being of the country and 
 of mankind, and the words of ap¬ 
 probation and benediction spoken by 
 ecclesiastical bodies of every name. 
 
 ITS METHODS. 
 
 With a single object in view, the 
 methods .of work pursued have been 
 as flexible as the varying conditions 
 of life have required. 
 
 It has been a cardinal principle to 
 get the Scriptures into the hands of 
 the people at as low a price as pos¬ 
 sible. So, while securing the best 
 possible workmanship and material, 
 the books have been sold at uniform 
 
14 
 
 prices throughout the land and with¬ 
 out regard to profit, all societies 
 being allowed and encouraged to 
 buy the Scriptures at cost, and pro¬ 
 vision being made for the supply 
 in exceptional cases at prices far 
 below the cost. wider circula¬ 
 
 tion,” not increased returns, has been 
 the aim. So by grants in aid, by 
 concessions in price, by allowance 
 of credit, local societies by the thou¬ 
 sand have been encouraged to keep 
 on sale in small quantities supplies 
 of books, where heads of families, 
 pastors, teachers, and others could 
 obtain what they needed for their 
 own uses or to give away. 
 
 Special consideration has been 
 given to various classes of men. 
 Provision has been made for the 
 blind by books in embossed type, to 
 be read by finger-tips alone. For 
 American Indians, as a temporary 
 provision, the Scriptures have been 
 printed in Dakota, Cherokee, Mus- 
 kokee, and other tongues, that the 
 sons of the forest might not fail 
 of the life to come through igno¬ 
 rance of the language which must 
 sooner or later take the place of 
 aboriginal dialects. For families of 
 
15 
 
 immigrants special editions have 
 been printed, containing in parallel 
 columns French, German, Itahan, 
 and other languages with the Eng¬ 
 lish, that they might more easily 
 acquire a knowledge of the speech 
 of their foster land, and become the 
 sooner identified with the people of 
 this great republic. For the army 
 and the navy; for seamen on lakes, 
 rivers, and oceans; for hospitals, asy¬ 
 lums, penitentiaries, and charitable 
 institutions ; for immigrants at then- 
 ports of landing on the Atlantic or 
 the Pacific coast; for freedmen com¬ 
 ing out of bondage and darkness 
 into a new world of citizenship and 
 of literature; for missionary work 
 throughout the land; considerate re¬ 
 gard has always been had, first, by 
 providing the Scriptures in the most 
 needed varieties and at the lowest 
 price; and second, by generous grants 
 in such amounts as the resources of 
 
 t 
 
 the Society have enabled it to make. 
 
 Furthermore, under the conviction 
 that extraordinarv means are needed 
 to search out the destitute and igno¬ 
 rant who know nothing of the 
 Bible and have no means of find¬ 
 ing and obtaining the Scriptures, 
 
16 
 
 the Society, with the efficient aid of 
 its auxiliaries and friends in all the 
 States and Territories, has again and 
 again carried out the colossal un¬ 
 dertaking of canvassing the entire 
 country, with the aim of visiting 
 every family, especially the most for¬ 
 lorn and the most bigoted, and offer¬ 
 ing to supply parents and children 
 with the Scriptures at the lowest 
 price, and with the understanding 
 that no family which desires the 
 Bible shall be left unprovided be¬ 
 cause of inability to pay for it. Of 
 course, considering sectarian prej¬ 
 udices and infidel hatred, it was not 
 to be expected that the Bible, even 
 under these circumstances, would 
 make its way into all habitations; 
 but it is gratifying to note, as the 
 result of two of these costly and 
 protracted efforts, that the entire 
 number of families reported to be 
 visited was 11,764,416, and that out 
 of 1,299,150 of these which w^ere 
 found destitute of the Bible, 850,061 
 were supplied by sale or gift, an*d 
 598,924 persons besides. 
 
 These widely extended explora¬ 
 tions have been followed by an offer 
 to supply Sunday school scholars 
 
17 
 
 with Bibles of their own at special 
 rates, and probably 500,000 have 
 thus become owners of the book 
 since 1891. 
 
 FOREIGN LANDS. 
 
 The work of the American Bible 
 Society has also extended to other 
 lands. It has circulated the Holy 
 Scriptures in at least one hundred 
 of the different forms of speech 
 which our race has inherited from 
 the men who projected the tower 
 on the plain of Shinar. It has its 
 agents in twelve capital cities. Mis¬ 
 sionaries of every name are found 
 among its co-workers. In different 
 parts of the foreign field it has its 
 hundreds of faithful men employed at 
 its expense and under the direction of 
 its agents and correspondents as dis¬ 
 tributors of the Bible. More than one 
 half of its annual issues go into the 
 hands of pagan, Mohammedan, or 
 nominally Christian people outside of 
 the United States. In one year not 
 less than 447,858 were sold in China 
 alone, and more than seven and a 
 quarter million volumes in the vari¬ 
 ous dialects of that empire have been 
 printed during the last fifty years. 
 
18 
 
 RESULTS. 
 
 But as for ultimate results, what 
 mind but that of omniscience can 
 trac^ them ? What pen can record 
 them ? While duty is ours, results 
 are from God, who giveth the in¬ 
 crease. 
 
 After weeks of drought a copious 
 rain comes down to fill the rills and 
 streams and saturate the parched 
 soil. Men speak of it as worth 
 millions of dollars in reviving the 
 verdure of forest and field, in quench¬ 
 ing the thirst of man and beast, in 
 starting the wheels of industry, in 
 averting disaster and death—all this 
 wrought by drops of water falling 
 upon the earth and passing out of 
 view. 
 
 So the Scriptures go forth to 
 men with their benediction, and 
 the whole human family is blessed. 
 Men learn what they ought to 
 believe concerning God and what 
 duty God requires of them. Moral¬ 
 ity, religion, faith, hope, love, alms¬ 
 giving, philanthropy, patriotism, re¬ 
 vive and flourish, and God in Christ 
 has praise from human lips. Vice, 
 crime, hatred, idolatry, profanity, 
 
19 
 
 wantonness, drunkenness are done 
 away, giving place to noble thoughts 
 and self-sacrifice for the common 
 good. God’s book enlightens the 
 heart, and through the truth which 
 it reveals, men are regenerated and 
 made heirs of heaven. 
 
 The rain is of httle avail without 
 the sun; and rain and sun together 
 will not secure a harvest unless seed 
 be sown; and all together are use¬ 
 less unless there be certain con¬ 
 stituents of fertility in the soil; 
 and so in the providence of God 
 many things must work together; ” 
 but he honors his own book by giv¬ 
 ing it special power, and those who 
 have access to it become wise. 
 
 The Society has poured out the 
 water on the thirsty ground; has 
 held forth the word of life ; has pro¬ 
 claimed the gospel of Christ. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 These general statements might 
 be confirmed by many specific cases. 
 Let us adduce some evidence of 
 the blessing brought to mankind 
 through the^ , circulation of the 
 Bible. Dr. Farnsworth, of Ces- 
 area, in the Missionary Herald 
 
20 
 
 (March, 1896), describes the condi¬ 
 tion of churches in the Orient 
 sixty years ago: ‘‘The missionaries 
 found in Turkey a number of 
 churches, such as the Greek, the 
 Armenian, the Jacobite, the Coptic, 
 and others, claiming to be Christian 
 and to take the word of God as 
 their sure foundation. But that 
 word, whatever it might have been 
 to them in ages past, had ceased to 
 be a fountain of instruction; had, 
 in fact, become to the common peo¬ 
 ple nothing more nor less than a 
 fetish. It did not exist in the ver¬ 
 nacular of any portion of the peo¬ 
 ple. It was, indeed, read in their 
 churches, but not understood. The 
 reading was a form which it was 
 supposed might have some myste¬ 
 rious influence. The book was held 
 up for the worshiper to kiss as he 
 passed out of the church. So far from 
 being in common use was it that 
 it was considered a sin for an un¬ 
 ordained man I to take it into his 
 hands. The first work of the mis¬ 
 sionary was to translate the sacred 
 , Scriptures into the vernacular of 
 the several different nationahties. 
 This has been accomplished. The 
 
21 
 
 greatness and importance of this 
 work can hardly be overestimated. 
 It may be remembered that this land 
 is not far from Babel. The word 
 is now found in some twenty-seven 
 different languages and characters, 
 including even Koordish. In the 
 meantime a complete change of 
 sentiment has been wrought in the 
 minds of all the people as to the 
 use of the Scriptures. So far.from 
 beheving it to be a sin to take the 
 book into their hands, they now 
 beheve it to be their duty to have 
 it, to study it, and to make it the 
 guide of their lives. Despite aU 
 political changes, despite aU opposi¬ 
 tion, here is this book, in all these 
 different languages, and here is the 
 change of sentiment, and great 
 must be the result, both temporal 
 and spiritual, in future ages as well 
 as in the present time.” 
 
 The contrast appears also in a 
 statement from another honored 
 missionary in the same part of the 
 world. Dr. Barton writes: After 
 my experience in the mission field 
 I feel more strongly than ever before 
 the importance of Bible distribution. 
 I have seen in iny own experience 
 
so many cases where the word of 
 God has been the nucleus around 
 which has gathered a congregation, 
 and which has resulted in a Chris¬ 
 tian Sunday school, a day school, 
 and* a church, that I have the great¬ 
 est faith in the word itself.” 
 
 In our own land we have escaped 
 manifold disasters because the Bible 
 has always been an open book. Half 
 a century ago the voice of a prophet 
 proclaimed in our metropolis that 
 barbarism was the first danger of 
 the republic.” If the peril has been 
 averted, it has been through the 
 Bible, and through those who have 
 used the Bible both for defense and 
 for attack. Some forty-five years 
 ago, a colporteur of this Society, 
 having made his way to a wild, 
 mountainous district in one of the 
 central States, found a community 
 remarkable for ignorance and irre- 
 ligion. The patriarch was a man 
 ninety years old, who had settled 
 there thirty years before, and had had 
 eighteen children, most of whom 
 had grown up and had large fami¬ 
 lies, but were unable to read a word. 
 One son, sixty-two years of age, had 
 nine children, none of whom could 
 
23 
 
 readj and all but two were married. 
 A grandson had eight children, all 
 growing up in the same manner. 
 This colporteur supplied every family 
 with the Bible, told them as best he 
 could the good news of salvation, 
 taught them to pray, and passed on. 
 No long time elapsed before a report 
 came that there had been some 
 marvelous conversions in that neigh¬ 
 borhood, and when the Society’s 
 Agent visited the place two years 
 later, he found that about a hundred 
 persons had been converted, thirty 
 of whom were lineal descendants of 
 one man. The character of the 
 whole community had been chang¬ 
 ed. The people were still illiterate, 
 but their profanity and ribaldry had 
 given place to the language of prayer 
 and song. Many of them could not 
 read, but they had heard the truth 
 and obeyed it. Said one of them, ‘^1 
 love to have it in the house, whether 
 we can read or not. TJiafs the 
 little hook weWe trying to go hy 
 now.^^ And another said, Every 
 time they read out of that little 
 book it makes me cry, and I can’t 
 help it.” Who can tell, who can 
 imagine, what that community 
 
24 
 
 would have been had it gone on 
 for fifty years longer without the 
 Holy Bible ? 
 
 This is but a single case, but it de¬ 
 scribes in brief the work of the Bible 
 Society and its results : its work, to 
 encourage the wider distribution of 
 the Holy Scriptures without note or 
 comment in our country and in 
 other lands ; and its results : men 
 and women converted ; families res¬ 
 cued from degradation ; children nur¬ 
 tured in an atmosphere of purity 
 and brotherly love; neighborhoods 
 freed from pollution and vice ; com¬ 
 munities exempted from the cost of 
 providing for criminals and paupers; 
 and the nation made more prosper¬ 
 ous and happy. 
 
 God bless the people of the United 
 States, and God bless the American 
 Bible Society ! 
 
 Copies of this paper may be obtained on application 
 to the American Bible Societj', New York.