The Bible as 
 a Social Force 
 
 American Bible Society 
 
 Bible House, Astor Place 
 New York 
 
 
AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY 
 
 Bible House, Astor Place, New York 
 
 President 
 
 James Wood, Esq. 
 
 Corresponding Secretaries 
 
 Rev. John Pox, D.D., LL.D. Rev. William Ingraham Haven, D.D. 
 
 Recording Secretary Acting Recording Secretary 
 
 Rev. Henry Otis Dwight, LL.D. Rev. Henry J. Scudder, B.D. 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 William Fodlke. 
 
 Home Agencies 
 
 EV. J. P. WRAGG, D.D., Colored People of the South, 35 Gammon 
 Ave., Atlanta, Ga. 
 
 REV. S. H. KIRKBRIDE, D.D., Northwestern Agency, McCormick 
 Building, 332 South Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 
 
 Illinois, Indiana, Michigan,Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, 
 North Dakota, and South Dakota. 
 
 REV. M. B. PORTER, South Atlantic Agency, 205 North 5th Street, 
 Richmond, Va. 
 
 Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, 
 and Florida. 
 
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 Building, Denver, Colo. 
 
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 New Mexico, and Arizona. 
 
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 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco, Cal. 
 
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 REV. J. J. MORGAN, Southwestern Agency, 1815)4 Main Street, Dallas, 
 Texas. 
 
 Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas. 
 
 REV. WM. H. TOWER, Eastern Agency, 137 Montague Street, Brook¬ 
 lyn, N. Y. 
 
 New York State and adjacent regions not otherwise cared for. 
 
 REV. GEORGE S. J. BROWNE, D.D., Central Agency, 424 Elm 
 Street, Cincinnati, O. 
 
 Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. 
 
 REV. LEIGHTON W. ECKARD, D.D., Atlantic Agency, 701 Walnut 
 Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. 
 
 Foreign Agencies 
 
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 Agency : Casilla de Correo 304, Lavalle 1467, Buenos Ayres, Argentina. 
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 hai. Brazil Agency : Caixa, 454, Rio de Janeiro. Mexico Agency : Box 
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 Central America and Panama Agency : Guatemala City, Guatemala. 
 Philippines Agency : Manila. Venezuela Agency : Caracas, Venezuela. 
 
 Sand contributions to WILLIAM FOULKE, Treasurer, 
 
 American Bible Society, Bible House, Astor Place, New York. 
 
The Bible as a Social 
 
 Force 
 
 Common Sense at a Coal Mine 
 
 a certain coal mine the operators 
 bewailed their lot. Every Monday 
 brought an output less by ten per cent than 
 that of other days. Worse yet, the output of 
 the Monday after pay-day was twenty per 
 cent less than the normal rate. Money in 
 the men’s pockets meant facilities for wilder 
 dissipation in the holiday hours. Perfectly 
 well known to the operators are the causes of 
 this inefficiency. The laborer is to blame. 
 Without foresight he carouses while his 
 money lasts. But the mine owners, pitying 
 themselves, did not once think of kindly talk¬ 
 ing to these careless, discredited laborers 
 about the way to manly efficiency tested under 
 all possible conditions, and outlined with con¬ 
 crete illustrations in the Bible. 
 
 Some young men who were believers in the 
 practical quality of Bible rules of life came 
 along. They were willing to deny themselves 
 for the sake of the ignorant and careless 
 miner. They took time for friendly approach 
 to the sturdy fellow with the idea of making 
 clear to him the lasting value of sober self- 
 control. It was not long before many work¬ 
 men spent Sundays in a Bible class instead 
 of a barroom. The mine owners hailed this 
 kindly Christian service with delight; with 
 something of a shock, however, for they were 
 churchgoing people, they began to perceive 
 
 that such kindly ministrations, as well as their 
 
 3 
 
fruit, spring from the injunctions of the Bible 
 as certainly as harvest from seed. 
 
 The Social Conscience Found 
 
 As if announcing a new discovery, some of 
 our captains of industry have now begun to 
 declare that friendly co-operation is the only 
 solution of difficulties which arise between 
 employer and employee. “Personal inter¬ 
 course and sympathy,” says a recent maga¬ 
 zine writer, “is the medium of that subtle 
 something, which, though it has no place in 
 the records of industry, has been the basis of 
 industry’s greatest achievements.” “That 
 subtle something” is merely the plain Bible 
 rule of regard for the needs, rights, and 
 welfare of others embodied in the law, 
 “ Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” 
 On the grimy bench of industry, in the 
 directors’ council-chamber, in the street, 
 the mart, the cozy home, the best achieve¬ 
 ment waits upon conscience sensitized by that 
 law. 
 
 The Fitness of the Bible to Guide a Life 
 
 The Bible is a treasure house of the ex¬ 
 periences of men in all varieties of relations 
 with others. Its records of triumph and fail¬ 
 ure can aid those who suffer through so¬ 
 cial complications. Yet this unique feature 
 of the Bible is often unrecognized. Peering 
 more deeply into this feature of the Bible 
 one sees the foundation of its teaching on 
 social morality to be that love to God and 
 sense of his love to all men which controls 
 desire and by his help expels the demon 
 selfishness, author of all the anarchies of the 
 race. 
 
 4 
 
The One Key to Social Problems 
 
 One course of conduct followed steadfastly 
 brings peace into social relations. This is 
 careful copying of Jesus Christ in devotion, 
 unselfishness, and beneficence. Individuals, 
 families, nations, races, can be and are being 
 united in interest and aim through a common 
 loyalty to Jesus Christ. The brotherhood 
 which the Bible pictures in the life and words 
 of Jesus Christ completes all virtues. That 
 Christian brotherly love is long-sufifering in 
 patience; it abolishes envy, self-assertion, 
 and arrogance; it permits no discourtesy; it 
 does not insist upon its rights; it does not 
 take umbrage and brood over the injustice of 
 others; it is glad to see the good, and does 
 not count up the faults of others ,* in short, it 
 believes in men, it bears, it hopes, it endures, 
 and withal it never fails in times of stress. 
 Sincere care for the needs of others is the 
 key to all social problems. It is so rare as 
 to be the Holy Grail for searchers of the 
 twentieth century. The great mystery of suc¬ 
 cess of the quest is the mystery of hearts 
 purified from self-seeking through the love 
 of Jesus Christ, who gave himself up that 
 men here and now may live as dwellers in the 
 Kingdom of Heaven live. The one guide¬ 
 book for the searcher is the Bible. 
 
 Some Practical Illustrations 
 
 The Bible is a social force because it seri¬ 
 ously, persuasively, continuously calls upon 
 men to bear one another’s burdens, and so 
 fulfill the law of Jesus Christ. It harmonizes 
 conflicting interests and reconstructs the social 
 organism by cultivating a new sense—a state 
 
of heart that is as sensitive to discords as 
 the ear of a musician, and is content only 
 when in harmony with the great laws of the 
 Kingdom of God. This tendency of the 
 Bible teachings is abundantly illustrated by 
 the experiences of the American Bible So- 
 cie fT * 
 
 Occupied with increasing the circulation of 
 the Bible, this Society is in contact with men 
 of divers races, of many tongues, of all de¬ 
 grees of social development. The briefest 
 notes from its records show the Bible in 
 action working for good-will and peace among 
 nations by changing the basis of the mutual 
 relations of individuals. 
 
 The Result Comes We Know Not How 
 
 Wherever the seed of the Kingdom is scat¬ 
 tered “the earth beareth fruit of itself.” In 
 every land it reaches some who seem to have 
 been prepared beforehand to receive and ap¬ 
 preciate the written Word. 
 
 In 1912 a fire-worshiper in Persia came to 
 the missionaries in Teheran asking baptism. 
 He had journeyed sixty days for the purpose. 
 He was a truly converted man, Christian in 
 character and in purpose, although he had 
 never heard Christian teaching. All that he 
 knew about Christianity had been gathered 
 from study of a Bible dropped in Persia by 
 the Bible Society, which had somehow fallen 
 into his hands. In a case like this of the 
 Zoroastrian the strange new development 
 certainly has likeness to the growth of a 
 seed in fertile soil. We know not how; but 
 it grows ! 
 
 A Mohammedan in Bitlis, Turkey, took up 
 
 6 
 
one of our colporteur’s Bibles last year, say¬ 
 ing : “I love this book. Two years I bought 
 a copy. All our villagers love it and love to 
 hear me read it.” Some vague craving in 
 that man’s heart was satisfied by the Bible, 
 although we are assured that it is impossible 
 for a Mohammedan ever to accept the teach¬ 
 ings of Jesus Christ. 
 
 In New Mexico in 1853 Don Ambrosio 
 Gonzalez, a Roman Catholic, received a gift 
 of a Spanish Bible from a missionary at Santa 
 Fe. Reading the book made him what he has 
 been these many years—a teacher of the evan¬ 
 gelical faith. He says: “It was the first 
 Bible I had ever seen. When the rest of the 
 family had gone to bed, I read nearly the 
 whole of Genesis. Then I turned to the New 
 Testament and read several chapters of St. 
 John’s Gospel. It was a new book. I read 
 until the chickens began to hail the new day. 
 I lay down on a lounge and went to sleep. 
 When I awoke the sun was shining on my 
 face. The Sun of Righteousness was shin¬ 
 ing brightly in my soul!” Several besides 
 Don Ambrosio received Bibles that day; his 
 eyes only were free from fog and saw the 
 truth. 
 
 Some of every race appreciate the Bible 
 because it opens a scheme of life as suited to 
 their deepest needs as if written for them 
 alone. 
 
 Obedience to the Bible Means Social Uplift 
 
 Never can a man go back to ignorance, even 
 if he does not accept the Bible, after reading 
 its verses which condemn the telling of lies, 
 stealing, defrauding, oppression of the poor, 
 
 7 
 
intemperance, or debauchery. He may refuse 
 to heed his conscience, but the self-evident 
 truth is always there to plague him for falling 
 below the high plane of life revealed by the 
 book. In Minnesota a colporteur of the Bible 
 Society last year went to a home where hus¬ 
 band, wife, and oldejr daughter were habitual 
 drunkards. It was a fearful home. He talked 
 with the mother and gave her a Bible. When 
 the father came home the younger daughter 
 showed him the Bible and said she was going 
 to wrap it up and put it away. Strangely 
 enough the father said, “No, the book shall 
 lie on the table and be read.” The mother 
 began to read it, and finally changed her whole 
 habit of life so that she is the wonder of the 
 neighborhood. The atmosphere of that home 
 has been made healthful by the influence of 
 the Book. 
 
 A Korean opium-eater, broken down, de¬ 
 graded, without mental stamina, was given a 
 Gospel by an agent of the Bible Society and 
 was told that in it is truth which can set men 
 free. A Christian Korean often visited him 
 to help him understand what he read. The 
 result was determination to seek the help of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. In time the man thus 
 broke the chains of habit and gained a com¬ 
 plete renewal of efficiency and strength. The 
 forces of good in the community gained a 
 worthy unit. 
 
 A Slovenian in Joliet, Ill., two years ago was 
 a drunken, quarrelsome fellow who had tried 
 to kill his own father, who could talk seven 
 languages and read ten, but knew only “swear 
 words ” in English. The gospel injunctions 
 
 got hold of him and he was genuinely con- 
 
 8 
 
verted. He had been discharged for fighting 
 his fellow-laborers. Now as a peacemaker 
 he is invaluable to his employers. He has 
 taken charge of a Presbyterian mission to 
 Slavic workmen in Joliet. In January there 
 were twelve conversions in that mission. 
 Wherever the Bible reveals Jesus Christ dark¬ 
 ness is changed to light; true values in life 
 are made clear. 
 
 The Bible Estimate of Man is Contagious 
 
 A curious fact of social development is its 
 absence among those who habitually scorn 
 Scripture rules of virtue. Such seem careless 
 of the number of lives they blight or destroy. 
 The buttresses of our benevolent, charitable, 
 and reformatory enterprises are people who 
 rate men and their rights by Bible standards. 
 A man named Ishii of Yokomachi in Japan 
 received a Gospel from a missionary. He 
 read it thoughtfully and was amazed at its 
 teachings. He had to tell his friends about it. 
 Later he read the whole New Testament, and 
 thus became an earnest Christian. He has 
 won a score of others to study the Way, and 
 the men of Yokomachi are begging for some¬ 
 one to teach them more fully. Thus the one 
 Gospel has had fruit in a stronghold of Bud¬ 
 dhism where no preacher has ever taught. 
 
 A ranchman near Kennedy, Texas, was per¬ 
 suaded by the Bible Society Agent to give 
 Gospels in Spanish to his Mexican farm-hands. 
 One of these laborers, a Roman Catholic, af¬ 
 terward came and got some more Scriptures 
 for his mates. His reading of these Scrip¬ 
 tures led to his making it a neighborly duty 
 
 to teach gospel truth to all whom he met. 
 
 9 
 
The interest thus started spread until three 
 evangelical churches have grown oup of that 
 distribution of Spanish Gospels on the Texan 
 ranch. 
 
 The contrast is sharp between such eager¬ 
 ness to help one’s neighbors and the normal 
 spirit of self-seeking that keeps communities 
 in turmoil. 
 
 At Goldfield, Nev., a colporteur of the Bible 
 Society met a man with blackened face and 
 hands, and wearing a leathern apron, who had 
 been an arson fiend and a murderer. This 
 man, who worked in the mines, frankly said, 
 “I ought to be in the penitentiary; that is 
 where I belong.” But he bought fifteen dol¬ 
 lars’ worth of Scriptures from the colporteur. 
 On inquiry it was found that he had made his 
 hut a refuge to any who were “down and 
 out”; and he wished to put God’s message, 
 which had changed his whole life, into the 
 hands of every homeless, friendless outcast 
 as a cure for vicious habits. Such a man in a 
 mining camp becomes the nucleus of a social 
 revolution through the unfailing sympathy 
 with which he offers a remedy for bad blood 
 and brutality. 
 
 Plain Selfishness Alone Opposes Bible 
 
 Teachings 
 
 The emphasis placed in these illustrations 
 upon the Bible as adapted to men’s needs, as 
 inevitably lifting ideals, as establishing fellow¬ 
 ship where it was unknown, represents first 
 steps only in a new order of life. Seeing the 
 distance yet to be traversed, men who have 
 not tried them tell us that nevertheless the in¬ 
 junctions of the Bible are both needless and 
 
 10 
 
impracticable. Such rules will not work in a 
 world like ours. So in times past we have 
 heard that it will not work for men to be hon¬ 
 est in trade, to be temperate, to be pure in 
 life and thought, to keep cool when exasper¬ 
 ated, or to refuse to fight duels. “It will not 
 work” was the devil’s suggestion in Eden, 
 and it is his suggestion everywhere to-day. 
 This is a lie. Selfishness is the one thing 
 that “will not work” in matters of social re¬ 
 form. It is rooted in the heart and hides it¬ 
 self in the garments of virtue. It explodes 
 like a dynamite bomb where least expected, 
 blowing to pieces theories of social regener¬ 
 ation which the world has tried to make prac¬ 
 ticable. The ground is strewn with hope¬ 
 less wrecks of “ communities ” and “broth¬ 
 erhoods,” by which we all remember social 
 reformers who went to their task without 
 knowledge of the grounds of reform. 
 
 Surrender to Jesus Christ the Remedy 
 
 The only principle that can advance the com¬ 
 munity toward the social ideal is surrender, 
 one by one, of its individual members to Jesus 
 Christ. Christianity is acceptance of Christ 
 as Lord and Master. “To as many as re¬ 
 ceived him,” says St. John, “to them gave 
 he the right to become the children of God.” 
 How? Jesus Christ performs the miracle of 
 recasting the desires and aims of men in such 
 fashion that he rules them in a spirit of 
 selfishness. 
 
 A Concrete Illustration 
 
 A concrete illustration of the method and 
 quality of this miracle is given by Dr. George 
 
 Heber Jones in a recent article on the Trans¬ 
 it 
 
formation of Korea. He says: “The Bible 
 is present in Korea in the spirit and life 
 of an ever-increasing number of the Korean 
 people. It is in the hearts of the Christians; 
 they know its message and honor and value 
 it—they determine their own life latitude and 
 longitude by the degree to which they are suc¬ 
 cessful in translating its truths into conduct.” 
 People who have advanced to this degree 
 have some at least of the qualities of the chil¬ 
 dren of God. “What is such a spiritual Chris¬ 
 tian worth to a community? Is not his char¬ 
 acter a valuable asset of society, his example 
 a power for good, his kindness of heart a bene¬ 
 faction, his zeal for Christ a leaven in the 
 social lump, his whole life an evangel?” 
 
 The Social Efficiency of the Bible Tells among 
 
 all Races 
 
 So many virtues spring in our own land 
 from widely disseminated Bible principles 
 that many people blissfully suppose these 
 virtues inborn. Let such complacent people 
 contrast their state with that of their ancestors 
 or of peoples still untouched by the Bible. 
 Half of the population of the world to-day 
 grovel and cringe in the darkness like owls in 
 daylight. In their fellow-men they see none 
 but enemies awaiting opportunity. God they 
 know only as an angry being who gloats over 
 the punishment of sins. In their religion is 
 no ray of light, in their hearts is no hope until 
 they find it in the Bible, v 
 
 What men owe to the Bible, people who 
 have lived in darkness discover as soon as 
 they open it. Japanese immigrants on the 
 
 Pacific coast are so convinced that the Bible 
 
 12 
 
has the secret of development that they have 
 organized a “ Dendo Dan,” or evangelistic 
 society. This society is trying to take the 
 Scriptures furnished by the American Bible 
 Society to every Japanese wayfarer in the 
 Coast states. Look over to Central Europe. 
 In a Roman Catholic village not far from 
 Prague in Bohemia a colporteur of the Bible 
 Society persuaded a man and his wife to read 
 the Bible. After some time he chanced that 
 way again and called at the cottage where he 
 had left the book. The wife watched her op¬ 
 portunity to speak to the colporteur alone. 
 She said with gladness in her voice, “ You 
 have no idea how much better my husband 
 has been since he began to read the Bible.” 
 By and by the husband took the colporteur 
 aside and said, “ My wife has changed ever 
 so much for the better since she took up Bible 
 reading.” Both had seen and heard Jesus 
 Christ in the wonderful Book. 
 
 Homage to Followers of the Bible 
 
 A missionary in Changchow, China, wrote 
 us a year or more ago, “ The people gener¬ 
 ally feel that Christianity stands for truth, 
 righteousness, liberty, and every kind of le¬ 
 gitimate prosperity.” From many lands we 
 might bring instances of a sort of homage 
 paid by the common people to one who follows 
 the Bible. For instance, the Rev. F. S. Pen- 
 zotti, Agent of the American Bible Society, 
 tried in vain to sell Scriptures on a steamer 
 sailing along the Pacific coast of Central 
 America. But as he was about to land at San 
 Jose, Guatemala, a stranger, one of the pas¬ 
 sengers, said to him : “You are the only one 
 
 13 
 
on board whom I can trust. Please take this 
 money ($200 in gold) ashore with you, since 
 there is no time for me to go out and back. 
 It is to go to my family at-.” 
 
 These instances from the experience of the 
 Bible Society relate to individuals in widely 
 separated lands. But it is through changing 
 the ideas of single individuals that the Bible 
 lifts nations in the social scale. From the 
 Bible the poor and the oppressed learn man¬ 
 hood, its potencies, and its birthright of no¬ 
 bility. 
 
 The Sociological Changes in Asia 
 
 Commerce is a powerful agent of civiliza¬ 
 tion. Through the hope of personal gain it 
 brings friendly intercourse into the place for¬ 
 merly held by hostility to strangers. So far 
 it testifies in favor of the social law of the 
 universe—the law of brotherly love. But 
 when one observes the great fields of mission¬ 
 ary effort in Asia, where the Bible has been • 
 circulated, and translated into action, and ex¬ 
 pounded in the pulpit for scores of years in 
 many languages, and when one notes large 
 masses of the despised common people rising 
 to manly participation in national affairs, as 
 in India, or insisting on justice and fraternity, 
 as in Turkey and Persia, or struggling even 
 when submerged in poverty to learn the se¬ 
 cret of manhood, as in China, one can recog¬ 
 nize natural fruits of Bible influence. Dr. J. 
 
 S. Dennis’ “ Christian Missions and Social 
 Progress ” offers, to any who will take time 
 to read, enormous detail of the fruits of Bible 
 teaching upon such peoples once sunk in ig¬ 
 norance and superstition. The record justi- 
 
 14 
 
fies our claim that the Bible is the social force 
 which all need. 
 
 Weighty Testimony 
 
 Chancellor Frelinghuysen, when President 
 of the American Bible Society years ago, de¬ 
 scribed the influence of the Book in our own 
 land. “ No department of commerce,” he 
 said, “no relation of friendship, no claim 
 of benevolence, but will find in the Bible its 
 law clearly written and forcibly enjoined. 
 Every plea that can arouse conscience and 
 every hope that can cheer and elevate the 
 soul has a record in the Bible; a system of 
 truths, precepts, and duties pure and exalted 
 as the Spirit who gave them, ranging over 
 every department of human life and action, 
 and turning to the inner man, requiring purity, 
 uprightness, and kindness there.” Wu Ting- 
 fang, the Chinese statesman, in his book on 
 America shows himself a clear-headed friend 
 of the movement for individual betterment 
 when he said, “ The greater the number of 
 good men a nation possesses the greater she 
 becomes.” The Rev. W. H. Elvin, who has 
 been teaching the Bible to Chinese students 
 in Japan, shows what is its power when he 
 says, If I had been working among the stu¬ 
 dents without assurance that the New Testa¬ 
 ment is the Word of God, what I have seen 
 among the students would be overwhelming 
 proof.” Professor von Dobschutz, of Halle, 
 who lectured in 1913 at Harvard, adds his 
 witness to the place of the Bible in civiliza¬ 
 tion. “Making men devout,” he says, “it 
 makes them strong and influential in the com¬ 
 mon effort to promote civilization by remov- 
 
 15 
 
ing everything which is contrary to the wel¬ 
 fare of others.” 
 
 Seed Sowing Slow but Necessary 
 
 The scattering of the truths of the word 
 among men our Saviour likened to the sow¬ 
 ing of seed. It is a slow process. It seems 
 wasteful when we perceive the various mis¬ 
 chances which bring to naught the sower’s 
 toil. But there is always some good soil 
 which welcomes its portion of seed and gives 
 back, thirty, sixty, or a hundred-fold. In 
 every race of men, east, west, north, and 
 south, some are found prepared to receive the 
 Bible and yield its fruits in due season. 
 Everywhere communities are being lifted into 
 unity of aspiration and knit together in one 
 great purpose through the work of Jesus 
 Christ in the souls that adopt Bible rules of 
 devotion to God and fellowship with each 
 other. Everywhere such communities are 
 leavening their environment with knowledge 
 of this wonderful social and spiritual force. 
 Everywhere the Book is a light for to-day 
 upon the path to manhood and peace, and a 
 guide for the unknown to-morrow to the life 
 that cannot end. These truths urge us to 
 cling to this blessed Bible, that we lose not 
 the key to our own national solidarity. The 
 whole spirit of Bible teaching, also, compels 
 us to win for this Book the attention of 
 our brothers who know not its message for 
 them. Whatever we must set aside as beyond 
 our means, increase of the circulation of the 
 Bible, in this land and all other lands, we may 
 not cut out of the list of necessities for which 
 liberal provision must be made. 
 
 12,1914; 10m. 16