A3r7 Universal Bible Sunday • • The dominant thought and aim of the Centennial Celebration of the American Bible Society is the exaltation of the Word of God. In commemoration of the blessings which have flowed from the Bible, and in gratitude for the good hand of God upon the Society throughout the 100 years during which it has put forth and circu¬ lated the Scriptures, and which 100 years end on the 7th of May, 1916, it is requested that that day be observed as UNIVERSAL BIBLE SUNDAY In this observance churches of many denominations throughout the United States have indicated their intention to join. It will also be observed by union meetings in large centers, and by special exer¬ cises in Sunday Schools, Young People’s Societies and other church organizations throughout the length and breadth of our great country. As the sun brings light that day to our southern continent, there, too, will be gathered, in observance of this day, those who love the Word of God. .Assurances have already been given that in the Is¬ lands of the Seven Seas, in the far Philippines, in the Land of the Rising Sun, in Bible-loving Korea, in great seeking China, in Siam and India, along the Persian Gulf and the Delta of the Nile, and even in war-smitten Europe, there will be those who will join in this grateful recognition of the blessings from The Book. . Will those who read these lines all join in the observance of this day, or a later date, if more convenient? Literature to assist in such observance may be had from The Secretaries, .American Bible Society, Astor Place, New York City. Centennial History of the Bible Society • • The Rev. Henry Otis Dwight, LL.D., the Recording Secre¬ tary of the Society, has for more than a year now been set aside for the one purpose of writing the Society’s History. It is a story of intense interest and intrinsic value for all who rejoice in, and watch solicitously, the growth and development of our own country or the growth and development of the Kingdom of God the world over. It is a volume of about 600 pages, with illustrations. Cloth bound, it sells for $1; paper bound, 50 cents. The .Macmillan Company are publishing it for the Society. Orders or inquiries may be ad¬ dressed to The Secretaries, American Bible Society, Astor Place, New York City. The Bible in the Land of the White Elephant Siam HENRY OTIS DWIGHT, LL.D., Recording Secretary of the American Bible Society AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY NEW YORK Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Columbia University Libraries https://archive.org/details/bibleinlandofwhiOOdwig The Bible in the Land of the White Elephant— Siam /k N atlas is not necessarily a good recourse for JT^L. ideas concerning the size of any country. Probably it is because Siam occupies so small a space in the edge of the continent of Asia that many people consider it too small to concern their minds. However, it contains 220,000 square miles, which is a good deal more than the area of the New England States with New York, New Jersey, Penn¬ sylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia. About 60,000 square miles of this territory lies on the eastern side of the Malay peninsula, stretching down toward the Straits Settlements. By Europeans Siam is sometimes called the Land of the White Elephant, because the Royal White Elephant is revered by the people, although it is not always easy to prove that the royal elephant is white. Sometimes it is called the Land of the Yel¬ low Robe, because the Siamese young man is ex¬ pected to put on the yellow robe and serve as a Buddhist priest for a time, much as the French or German youth serves as a soldier for a time. The Siamese people call themselves “Thai” (The Free), and they call the country “ Muang Thai” (The Land of the Free). It is a name of which they are proud, and which they have claimed as distinctively theirs even when they were suffering under despotic rulers. In matters of religion the Siamese would call themselves free, but they are held in bondage by Buddhism. It is estimated that there are between S 2 3 80,000 and 100,000 Buddhist priests in the country, and perhaps half as many pupil priests who wear the yellow robe, shave their heads, and beg bread for a living. Buddhism in Siam is considered to be purer than the forms found in many of the Asiat¬ ic lands, but in northern Siam it is very frequently mingled with a demon worship which chains the people in superstitious fear. This demon worship is of the same class as the worship of evil spirits found in many other parts of the world. Buddhism, on the other hand, has religious books written in the old Pali language, which educated people in Siam take much pride in possessing. This pride in what is written opens the door for all books of religion. A liberal-minded Siamese will respect the Bible in some degree as the sacred book of the Christians. A Pleasing People The people of Siam have not shown the hostility to visitors which many people of the Far East feel toward strangers. Perhaps this liberality was fostered by the curious circumstance that in 1689 a Greek named Constantine was Prime Minister of Siam and introduced Western ideas. The pleasing qualities of the Siamese counted for something in the history of the land as a mission field. In the early days of American missions, when Dr. Judson went to Burma, many thousand Siamese lived in Rangoon, and their attractive qualities so delighted Mrs. Ann Haseltine Judson that in 1815 she learned the Siamese language and translated the Gospel of Matthew and Dr. Judson’s catechism. The cate¬ chism, at least, was printed in 1819, at the Seram- pore Press—the first Christian book ever published in Siamese. We may be sure that many, many prayers were offered for the conversion of these pleasing people of Siam while the Bible Society was yet in its infancy. Perhaps this story was partly shaped by those prayers ! 4 The Bible Society began to aid missionaries in Siam about eighty years ago. Dr. Carl Gutzlaff, of the Netherlands Missionary Society, and the Rev. Mr. Tomlin, of the London Missionary So¬ ciety, passing through Bangkok in 1828, were so struck with the promise of the field that Dr. Gutz- laff appealed to the American churches to work in Siam. The American Board of Boston sent the Rev. David Abeel from China, in 1830, to Bangkok; and later sent out Messrs. Johnson and Robinson and Dr. D. B. Bradley and others. Dr. Gutzlaff’s appeal also went to the Baptist missionaries in Burma, and in 1833 the Rev. Mr. Jones, a Baptist missionary from Rangoon, arrived at Bangkok, while in 1835 the Rev. Mr. Dean and other rein¬ forcements followed. The Baptist missionaries worked chiefly for the Chinese, who could not then be reached in their own land, and the first Chinese church in Bangkok was organized in 1837. Earliest Work by the Bible Society Dr. Gutzlaff had begged the Dutch Bible Society for money to print Scriptures in Siamese and re¬ ceived a grant of $800. This money he turned over to the American Board’s mission. The missiona¬ ries set up a printing office, asked help from the American Bible Society, received during the next twenty years between five and six thousand dollars, and printed with this aid the New Testament and parts of the Old Testament in Siamese—Dr. Brad¬ ley translating (from the English version) a large part of the Bible. These books served a good pur¬ pose in Siam long after the Congregational mission of the American Board and that of the American Mis¬ sionary Association in Bangkok had been given up. The Congregational missionaries in Siam did lit¬ tle more than to sow seed. Mr. Robinson wrote in 1844 describing the improvements which they had introduced into printing for the Siamese: “Hun- dreds, and perhaps thousands, in Siam have read some portions of the Word of Life. This seed will certainly spring up after a time.” It has done so. The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions opened a mission in Bangkok in 1840-1847. This mission found the work already done a providential prepara¬ tion. Years afterward Dr. Dunlap, the well-known Presbyterian missionary, found an old man in Petchaburee who had received from Dr. Bradley New Testament portions, and who had been led by study of them to put away idols and believe on Jesus Christ as the Saviour of men. In 1877 an old man came to the mission station in Chieng Mai, North Siam, for medical advice. A score of years before this he had received from Dr. Bradley in Bangkok some Scripture portions. He had to study Siamese in order to read them, because the Laos characters with which he was familiar are different, although the language is quite similar. The light shone in his heart, and at Chieng Mai, with further instruction, he found Christ. It was this man who first called missionaries to Lakawn. Two sequels of the Congregational mission which cannot be ascribed to chance are worthy of note. One of these was the circumstance that Dr. Bradley of that mission had a daughter born in Siam, speak¬ ing Siamese and knowing all its peculiar idioms like a native, who in due time became the wife of the Rev. Dr. McGilvary, the pioneer of the Presby¬ terian mission among the Laos tribes of northern Siam. In the important work of translating the Scriptures into the Laos language, Mrs. McGil- vary’s name stands by the side of that of her hus¬ band. By heredity and by environment she was specially prepared for the work. Opening a Highway for the Gospel Another circumstance which seems like a provi¬ dential preparation for the future of these missions 6 was that the Rev. Jesse Caswell, of the American Board’s mission, was asked to teach a Siamese prince who had been set aside by a usurper and was a student-priest in a Buddhist temple. Mr. Cas¬ well gave him lessons every day during a year and a half. The prince learned English and became familiar with the Bible. When the Presbyterian missionaries began their work in Bangkok they were troubled by the hostility and even violence of the usurping Siamese king. In 1851 this bad king died; and who should then come to the throne but the priest-prince whom Missionary Cas¬ well had taught and who became King Maha Mong Kut! The new king favored the missionaries; the whole attitude of the government changed, from that day to this being marked by extraordinary friendliness. In 1887 King Maha Culalongkorn, the son and successor of Mong Kut, visited Petcha- buree. He was very much pleased with the mis¬ sion schools and hospitals, contributed money for their support, and invited the missionaries to meet him in order to explain more fully the methods which they followed. During this interview, sev¬ eral of the princes talking with the missionaries showed a wonderful acquaintance with the Bible, which they had evidently studied. The women of the king’s court bought about 300 Gospels, and the king, observing that they were reading these books on all sides, inquired what these leaves were, “fly¬ ing about in all directions.” When he found out that they were parts of the Bible he expressed good will and told them that the reading would do them good. Such circumstances are almost the same as if the Lord, as he did to Abraham in the matter of his obedience concerning Isaac, had said to these missionaries who had given up all in order to serve him in Siam, “Surely in blessing I will bless thee.” 7 Into Laos Districts The Presbyterian missionaries gradually extend¬ ed their operations into the Laos districts in the North and the Malay territories in the South of this great kingdom. The rather wild, half-inde¬ pendent tribes known as the Laos, and inhabiting the North of Siam, early attracted the missionaries. For some forty years this part of the field has been cultivated with vigor. The Laos civilization, such as it was, was rather of the Chinese type, in the highest degree conservative. It was actually the case that the people would sometimes say to the missionaries, on hearing the gospel story : “ What you say warms our hearts, but it is not the custom in this land.” The language of these people differs materially from the language of southern Siam, and yet the Siamese, the Laos, and the Shan dialects have quite a large number of words which differ from each other only in the initial consonant; one having “n” to begin with where another will have “1,” etc. The mode of writing differs very materially. In the Laos region Siamese can be read only by a few, and it became necessary to make special ar¬ rangements for printing in the Laos language. Type was prepared by the first missionaries at Chieng Mai in northern Siam, but this was a first attempt, for there were no printed books in the Laos tongue and the type did not work. Finally the whole matter was taken to New York, and in 1890 a font of Laos type was finished and sent out to Bangkok. Meantime, the Gospel of Matthew, revised by Mrs. McGilvary, had been printed at Bangkok with Siamese letters for the benefit of the better educated of the Laos people. The languages used in Siam are three: the Sia¬ mese, the Chinese and the Laos. But in the north¬ western portion of this field, in the Shan states of British territory, one set of dialects can be found; 8 in the northernmost parts of the Laos field is another group of dialects, and in the east, on the borders of the French possessions, are still other dialects. The missionaries are convinced that somewhere in this maze of dialects there must be one which will serve as the basis of a common writ¬ ten language for all Thai people. It has been pro¬ posed to the Bible Society that it grant half the salary of Dr. Dodd, one of the missionaries in the Laos country, so that he may press on researches already begun in the different dialects in order to compare them and find the one most generally intelligible. Rev. John Carrintfton Begins His Twenty Years’ Service The missionaries in their Bible work have had aid from the American Bible Society ever since 1851. In 1887 the general work had grown so that the missionaries found it difficult to give proper at¬ tention to Bible distribution. Dr. Gulick, the Bible Society’s Agent in China, was then given the super¬ intendence of Bible distribution in Siam. It soon proved that the distance from Shanghai to Bangkok was too great for any practicable supervision of the needs of Siam, and in 1890 the Society established a separate Agency in Siam, sending out as Agent the Rev. John Carrington, pastor of a Presbyterian church in California, who had been a missionary in Siam and knew the language. Mr. Carrington in one of his reports gives a glimpse of the fatigues of the Bible Agent’s life. He was to make a tour in one of the boats owned by the Society for use in Bible distribution along the banks of the rivers and canals in the vicinity of Bangkok. He says : “ On the morning of Septem¬ ber 10th I was ready to start in the Society’s four- oared boat. The day before I had engaged a team of four men. They were to be on hand by seven o’clock. The appointed hour came, but no men. 9 Eight o’clock came and the men did not appear. So I sent for another team. Boxes of books and other effects for the journey were hurriedly packed in the boat, and, when this heavy work was entirely done, along came the delinquent boatmen ! These I sent away that they might learn a lesson in regard to keeping promises, which perhaps they did not learn. About noon we got away, stopping here and there to buy coverings for the men, charcoal fur¬ naces, lanterns, etc., for the voyage, and pushed on into the canal which leads to the Tachin River. “ September 11th. Stopped at a temple to attend to a leak in my boat. I was to occupy the house of the boat, but ants by the thousands and thou¬ sands disputed my right there. All day to-day I sold only eight books. September 12th. About nine o’clock in the morn¬ ing we were very glad to reach the Tachin. The canal had become so shallow that travel was pain¬ fully slow. Stopped at three Buddhist temples ; labored among the people at Nakonshaisi. In the afternoon entered the canal which leads to Phrapa- thom, arriving at this large town just before sunset. The day’s sales were 139 books. “ September 13th. Worked all day in Phrapathom, the central government town of three large prov¬ inces. The tallest pagoda in Siam is at this place. It is nearly 400 feet high. One long street runs through the town and is lined on both sides with stores, market stalls, and workshops, the residences being largely in the rear of the stores and work¬ shops. As in most large Siamese towns the gam¬ bling house is conspicuous with its accompanying evils. The sales to-day were 413 books. This ended the week, and we rested on Sunday. September 23rd. Read Siamese Scriptures in the hearing of my boatmen, had prayers, and moved down the river to Muang Samoot, the province town. Labored all day, with the result of sales of 315 books. 10 Twenty of them were Chinese. No one knows how much conversation, how much preaching, how much answering of the same questions over and over again are involved in such a day’s work. '‘'September 30th. Sold nineteen Siamese and four Chinese books, and reached Bangkok at 11 a.m. During this tour of thirty days we visited some sixty-five temples, five cities, and twenty-five vil¬ lages. I came in contact with hundreds of people, preached the gospel in many places, had many con¬ versations with the people on “ the Way,” and sold 2,864 books of Scripture, of which 214 were Chi¬ nese. This distribution is one of the most impor¬ tant branches of our work. A tour of this kind takes one into heat, discomfort, mosquitoes and other insects, but also into many pleasant experiences.” During some forty years the missionaries gave away gratuitously all the Scriptures which they printed. About 1880 the decision was taken to re¬ quire payment for all books. Like spoiled children the people immediately protested; missionaries had no right to ask money for these books ; their “kind ” predecessors always gave them away, etc., etc. In one year the number of books put in circulation fell from five or six thousand to 716. This was the more disheartening because the price asked for the books represented only one-tenth (or less) of their cost. The distribution of the Scriptures at this time was carried on by the missionaries, it being almost impossible to find colporteurs who were both good and clever salesmen. It was from personal expe¬ rience, then, that Mr. Irwin, the present Agent of the Society in Siam, wrote : “ It is easier to clear the worst jungle for a crop than to clear the souls of men for a harvest—a jungle has no will! ” Mr. Carrington was always enthusiastic about the work which the books he distributed will certainly accomplish. In another report he said: “ These books have gone into all sorts of places—Christian 11 homes, Christian schools, public schools, markets, railway cars, railway stations, street cars, boats, steamers, streets, alleys, opium dens, gambling houses (and worse places), temples, and the homes of the people, along canals and rivers, in villages, in some twenty towns and cities, whose inhabitants number from 1,000 to 20,000, and in Bangkok itself, estimated to contain 500,000. These books have been sold to believers and unbelievers. Many women and children have purchased them. Very rarely have we seen evidence of their destruction.” Printing in Siamese The great enterprise of printing the Bible in Siamese has been unusually difficult. In 1884 the Rev. Mr. MacDonald wrote that the poor little press at Bangkok would require four years to print the Bible if not doing anything else. The mission¬ aries of the American Board in Bangkok not only set up a printing office, and introduced into Siamese literature the separation between words, and marks of punctuation, which nobody had ever thought of before, but they cast smaller type than that in com¬ mon use and reduced the bulk of their New Testa¬ ment portions. Mr. Robinson estimated that the new type saved about half of the cost of the books. Nevertheless, one of the missionaries, writing in 1884, said that the Bible in Siamese, if bound in one volume, would be about as large as Webster’s Dictionary. A novel trouble encountered by the Bible Society’s Agent is that books cannot be bound in any quantity because a specially greedy insect bores into its covers for the paste ! A reduc¬ tion in size of the New Testament in both the Sia¬ mese and the Laos language is now to be made by having plates manufactured in Yokohama by the photozinc process, so as to make a real pocket edi¬ tion of the Testament. Hitherto the smallest books of the Bible have been the best sellers. 12 Upon the Agent of the Bible Society falls the responsibility for final reading of the proofs of the Bible in both Siamese and Laos languages. This is an enormous labor, and it undoubtedly shortened the days of Dr. Carrington, who did this work, so important in Bible publication. Dr. Car¬ rington was also chairman of the Revision Com¬ mittee appointed by the Presbyterian Mission, a position which involved an immense amount of drudgery. During his term of service he availed himself of the assistance of a scholar from Cochin China to make a translation into Cambodian of the Gospel of St. Luke, the book of Acts, and the twentieth chapter of Exodus. These books were carefully written out and sent to California, where they were printed for the Bible Society by the photozinc process. The Rev. John Carrington, D.D., the veteran Agent of the Society, died October 13, 1912, and was buried in Siam, which he loved, and to which, as missionary and as Bible Society Agent, he had given thirty years of his life. “ Simple, genuine and great, his figure has eminent significance in the missionary annals of that land.” In the work of Bible distribution he was energetic, persistent and aggressive, and had his own method of doing his own work, as all great men have. He was uni¬ versally respected and greatly beloved by many. As Agent of the American Bible Society he kept steadily at work in all weathers, in spite of the ad¬ vice of physicians and protests of friends. Heliterally laid down his life for the Bible and its distribution. Rev. Robert Irwin Takes up the Work The Rev. Robert Irwin, who had been associated with Dr. Carrington a little more than a year, was appointed Agent of the Society after Dr. Carring¬ ton’s death. He took hold of the affairs of the Agency in a thoroughly masterful way, recognizing that the day had passed where any important part of the Agent’s time should be given to going about as a colporteur to distribute Scriptures. He felt that the field was now so large and contained so many different elements that the work must be organized on a broader scale, bringing more col¬ porteurs into the work in order to reach different parts of the field at the same time. Mr. Irwin’s missionary field had been in northern Siam, among the Laos people, and he naturally had personal knowledge of the possibilities and the necessities of that part of the field. This led him to wrestle with the problems of that region. The Christians in the Laos field have been taught that each individual has a duty to win men to Christ from the moment that he has himself accepted Jesus Christ as his Saviour. This producesademandupon the press which is rather remarkable. As fast as the portions of Scripture can be printed the Christians buy them up, in order to distribute them among neighbors who have not accepted Christianity. The only Laos printing press in the whole world is that of the Presbyterian Mission at Chieng Mai, and it is kept busy in supplying the needs of that field. For years the Rev. D. G. Collins, manager of the press, has taken charge of the proof reading, storing and shipping of the Laos Scriptures printed at Chieng Mai. In fact, he acts as a sub-Agent of the Society in other ways, even supervising a num¬ ber of colporteurs. It is an illustration of the heavy work which Mr. Collins has done gratuitously for the Society which one sees when a caravan of pack mules departs from the printing office with 90,000 books which it will bear on a twelve-days journey to Chiengrai, far up toward the border of the British Shan states. Voluntary and Generous Service The missionaries among the Laos are pushing 14 their work both in the British territory in the north¬ west and French territory on the east. They meet with many difficulties but also many encourage¬ ments. A colporteur at a lone station on the Me¬ kong River, after some months of labor, sends in word that there are ninety persons desiring to be baptized. The reality of the conversions appears in the devotion of the church members. Many Christians serve as Bible distributers for love of the work. Dr. McKean mentions a peddler of drugs and medicine who always makes it a point to carry Scriptures with him on his tours as salesman. A church among the lepers, in this Laos country, in 1913 sent a gift of twenty-five rupees to the Ameri¬ can Bible Society. The members immediately made another effort, and out of their deep poverty raised money to buy 4,250 Scripture portions for distribution among their own Laos people. In the town of Prae there are two churches, and together they have given more than $19, which is a large sum in northern Siam, to buy Scriptures for gratui¬ tous distribution among those who have them not. A problem in the southern part of the field is to find Siamese willing to work as colporteurs for their own people. Colporteurs can be found easily among the Chinese residents, but the Siamese Christians seem to shrink from the fatigues of the colporteur’s life. It is true that the work offers nothing to attract excepting love to Jesus Christ. The pay of the colporteurs averages about $5.50 a month. When they go on long tours they are allowed the cost of their daily rice besides. In the city of Bangkok two of the colporteurs are leaders in the Chinese Presbyterian Church, three are mem¬ bers of the Chinese Baptist Church, and one is a member of the Siamese Presbyterian Church. “These colporteurs,” says the Agent, “are like stokers in a steamship—out of sight, but absolutely essential to any progress.” In 1914 forty-eight 15 colporteurs were employed in this field besides one Bible-woman. Testimony From Missionaries As a rule the missionaries thoroughly appreciate the importance of Bible distribution work. The Rev. Dr. Campbell says, “Where the Scriptures are, there the converts are.” Dr. Campbell, at Chieng Mai, has almost lived with his evangelists and colporteurs and has had them always under his instruction and the inspiration of his energy. These men, paid and unpaid, have literally flooded his dis¬ trict with Scriptures, with the result that he has had almost constant accessions to the church during the year. “At the Bantah communion service,” says Dr. Campbell, “fifty-nine persons were bap¬ tized. In every single home represented by these fifty-nine persons. Scriptures had been placed be¬ fore any member of these households had become a Christian. One who seemed to be remarkably well read was questioned about it. ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘ I had Scriptures in my home long before I be¬ came a Christian.’” The Rev. Henry White, also in the Chieng Mai district, speaking of the Bible work says : “ It is a great work and the time is propitious for pushing it. Seven new houses came into the Christian religion in one of my villages, two other entire families came in two days ago in the same village, and the end is not yet. In twelve villages around this parish 919 portions of Scripture have been dis¬ tributed, and, as a result, in this parish alone I re¬ ceived into the church seventeen adults and twenty- four children from a village where heretofore we have not had one solitary Christian. This village of over 200 houses seems to be ripe for gospel work, largely through scattering broadcast the Bible portions.” In one of the villages the progress of the people under colportage work can be seen. 16 When the Scriptures were first brought to the vil¬ lage many received them eagerly. A few months later each house was again visited and many more asked for a copy. Later a third canvass of the vil¬ lage was made. Many portions were placed and twelve households publicly professed faith in Christ. “Ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” The Messiah Expected In the British Shan states and far up to the north, in the southwestern provinces of China, are more people of the same family as the Laos people. Two of the missionaries visited Kentung (Chientung) in the Shan country and were overwhelmed by the magnitude of the preparation for the gospel in the hearts of the simple village folk. They lived in constant expectation of a Messiah who was to come and teach them the way of life. When they heard the story of Jesus they were ready instantly to be¬ lieve on him. One of the tribes on the border is known as Yao. They are closely related to the Lao, and also to the Miao, who are beyond the bor¬ der in China. The problem of language becomes acute with the advance of the missions into the ter¬ ritory of these different tribes. East of Chieng Mai is another new language, called Kamu, which is now being reduced to writing in order to make a trans¬ lation of the New Testament for the tribes which use that dialect. Some Figures and Their Story The development of the distribution can be seen from the statistics for Siam in five years. In 1911 the total was 52,000 ; in 1912 it was 98,556; in 1913 the total was 161,057, in 1914,172,930, and in 1915, 178,176. A notable feature of this growth is the extension of work among the Laos people. Ana¬ lyzing the distribution in 1914, 40,738 copies were distributed among the Siamese of the districts about Bangkok, 9,159 were in Chinese, and 122,785 were in the Laos language of North Siam. A very curious fact to which we have already alluded is the tendency of the people to buy the smallest books of the Bible. In 1914 the largest numbers of single books of the Bible were, first, the book of Jonah, of which 37,867 were distributed ; second, the book of Ruth, which had a circulation of 36,594 copies; and, third, the Epistles of John, of which 34,086 copies were called for. The next largest to these was the Epistle of James, of which 15,468 copies were used. Of the Gospels the fa¬ vorite one appears to be that of St. Mark, of which 10,920 copies were called for. From 1851 to the end of 1889 the partial reports of the overworked missionaries seem to show an issue of about 80,000 copies of Scripture. The number issued by the Congregational missionaries before 1851 may be estimated at 20,000 copies; so that 100,000 copies were probably issued in Siam at the expense of the Society before the establish¬ ment of the Agency. The total issues of the Agency from January, 1890, to December, 1915, amounted to 1,372,995 copies. In eighty years, then, the total issues of the Society in Siam were 1,472,995 copies. The expense of this work of the Bible Society for Siam during the same period, in¬ cluding translating, printing, distribution, and other Agency expenses, was $161,837.58. Like the man who questioned the waste of the ointment of the alabaster box, some will say, “Why all this labor and expenditure in that out-of-the-way country?” This is not the place to argue the ne¬ cessity of missionary labor for all nations. We would only suggest that the most faithful and la¬ borious missionaries are the first to testify to the advantages which they attain through the distribu¬ tion of the Holy Scriptures. The fact is, that the 18 Bible is indispensable to the missionaries just as much as the missionaries are indispensable to the American Bible Society in all of its work in foreign lands. But aside from this question we can see in Siam that there is a great significance to the nation in this distribution of hundreds of thousands of copies of the Scriptures among the common people. We can see how the Bible has remade thousands of men and women in Siam. By remaking individ¬ uals, it can remake a nation. From this point of view the value of Bible distribution to the land.has been recognized by the three kings who have ruled Siam since 1851. Moreover, the continual blessing of God upon all engaged in this work in that corner of Asia shows that its value is recognized by the King of Kings, who has fostered the enterprise. 19 WORK OF THE American Bible Society CARRIED ON In ' 5 Continents Islands of The Seven Seas Over 150 Languages . 12 Kinds of Scriptures for the Blind Through \ Agencies ** / 12 Foreign Agenct By 9 Main Printing Centers Over 2,000 Distributers | ncies f Bible House, N. Y, Constanticople Beirut Bangkok Chiengmai Shanj^i Chengtu Weiheisen t Yokohama 550 At Home 450 Abroad TOTAL ISSUES IN 100 YEARS Over 117,000,000 Volumes TOTAL ISSUES, 1915 7 tSO^^ll VnlutTUMti Home ''Oiumes-j 4 442,950 Abroad All 1915 figures tentative, pending complete returns CENTENNIAL PAMPHLETS SMALL QUARTO (7>