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Since the war began, everything connected
with publishing has gone up enormously in
price, and the cost of paper has more
than trebled. Under such circumstances it
has been decided to curtail the size of
our Popular Report, which appears in paper
cover and without illustrations. We are
confident that our friends will appreciate the
motive of an economy which will enable us
to give away many thousands of additional
Testaments and Gospels among the sick and
wounded soldiers of all the nations now at war.

B^i'tish bmA hyt\£~n Bible Society.
DEEP
CALLETHUNTO DEEP

"Mira profunditas, mi Deus, mira profunditas."
Si, Augustine.

A POPULAR REPORT OF THE BRITISH AND
FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY FOR ' THE YEAR
MCMXVJ-XVII

THE BIBLE HOUSE, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, LONDON

i>i r (1

CONTENTS
Prologue 
With Many Voices .
From Many Lands .
In Many Camps
Through Many Channels
By Many Witnesses
For Many Gifts
Appendix .

Biiz

7
i8
355567 75
81

Except where oihertoise stated, the incidents and statistics in this
Topidar Report of the 'British and Foreign Bible Society belong to last
year's record. Here, it is possible to offer only a periscopie view of
the main aspects of the Society's operations. For a more detailed
account the reader is referred to the Hundred and Thirteenth Annual
Report, price One Shilling.

Tb> Bmi Horn, September I9i7>

T. H. DARLOW, Littraiy SupenHtenJtnt,

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PROLOGUE
''FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS"
Pkeachers are fond of declaring that the Gospel
is simple. We know, indeed, that to grasp it, a
man must first become as a little child. Yet chil
dren can ask bewildering, overwhelming questions.
And quite familiar facta often prove utterly impos
sible to fathom : they seem clear, but it is with the
clearness of the pure, unsearchable sea. The secrets
of God's love and redemption are open secrets : but
they refuse to be resolved into formulas, however
orthodox. In the simplest Christian sermon we
ought to catch some undertone of the apostolic
warning: "Behold, I shew you a mystery,"
There is one point of view from which the Bible
deserves to be called simple. Because the Bible
moves constantly among primitive things like
hunger and labour and love and duty and sorrow
and shame and parting. Such things appear homely
aflcj Qommonplace ; but they are the stuff out of
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which our life is fashioned ; and the aged turn back
to brood over them, and to feel that in such things
as these lie the real problems after all. The New
Testament never describes itself as a simple and
easy book. It tells us about the common salvation :
but common does not mean what is cheap or paltry
or vulgar ; it means what is universal. Now the
universal instincts are also the profoundest. The
commonest events — like birth and marriage and
death — are the most sacred and tragic of all. Our
most precious possessions are those simple, elemental
things which belong to the texture and fabric of
man's being ; they form part and parcel of our
common nature : but they go down to the roots of
the world. " The common mind," as a living writer
has said, " does not mean the inferior mind ; it
means the mind of all the artists and heroes,- or else
it would not be common. Plato had the common
mind; Dante had the common mind. Commonness
means the quality common to the sinner and the
saint, to the philosopher and the fool — the quality
in which God sees something to love,"
The Bible is not simple, but profound, because it
recognizes the deep things of Satan and reveals
the deep things of God, This Book makes hardly
any appeal to a shallow experience. Its message
throughout is addressed to beings whom it assumes
to be capable of boundless better or boundless worse.
The New Testament can convey no meaning to a
man who denies the reality of moral evil. We
blaspheme against the very alphabet of Scripture,
when we shut our eyes to the great gulf fixed for
ever between right and wrong.
But superficial views of life, such as were formerly

PROLOGUE
in fashion, are possible no longer. They are hope
lessly out of date. They have been refuted and
destroyed by the assaults of stern reality. This
result has come about from two opposite quarters.
In recent years we have had to face an outbreak of
what is called "realism" in literature and in art.
Realistic novels and plays and pictures set them
selves to bring home to us the naked truth of things ;
they profess to peel off the rind of decorous con
vention which hides the heart of life, they will show
us what lies under the smooth surface. And what is
the net product ? A fresh apocalypse of evil. After
the dust and the stench subside, it may be found that
realistic literature has in effect borne witness mainly
to one ancient and enduring fact* It has proved that
deep down in human nature lies a dreadful moral
disease — which is somehow against nature after all.
St, Paul quoted certain of their own poets to con
vince the Athenians. Certain of our own novelists
and dramatists — including not a few of the most
powerful and the most popular — combine to demon
strate this grim truth, which the Gospel takes for
granted. And their testimony becomes the more
decisive because it is given unwillingly, or unawares.
They represent the recoil from authors like Jane
Austen, who confessed : " Let other pens dwell on
o-uilt and misery. I quit such odious subjects as soon
as I can," The realists rush to the other extreme.
But in their attempt to "tear the mask from the
unbearable face of truth" they have exposed an
abyss of iniquity. We may cite a single instance.
In the foremost rank of modern literature emerges
the name of Balzac. His books are not for every
one to read, and many would shrink from classing

i*3* ««*«**--.

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him as a Christian writer. But at any rate we
must admit that Balzac stands among " the greatest
of those who have explored the secret things
of darkness." And his novels are not shallow but
profound, because they deal with the mysterious
wages of sin, the tremendous pursuit of retribution,
the slow-gathering coils of fate, the consuming
shame and pain of personal wrong-doing. It would
be easy to multiply examples. The nineteenth
century, according to a discerning critic, produced
two supreme works of original imagination : one
was Les Mis^rahles, by Victor Hugo, and the other
was The Ring and the Book, by Robert Browning.
Now both these amazing works exhibit moral evil as
an awful reality — not an error of judgment, not an
outcome of unhappy circumstances, but the most
terrible fact of human experience. Both lift up their
voices to proclaim the corruption of man's heart.
On this question we need not consult ecclesiastics
or schoolmen or Puritans. The princes of literature,
who have measured what humanity is capable of,
do not believe in either a shallow heaven or a
shallow hell. They know better than to describe
sin as a mistaken quest for perfection. Go to the
master among those who have sounded the abysmal
deeps of personality, and search Macbeth and
Othello and King Lear to discover whether remorse
in the soul be not a deathless worm and a
quenchless fire.
The Bible is so profound because it deals with this
deep original wound in human nature. It searches
down into the black pit of our evil and misery. It
reveals those abysses of mercy and judgment, in
wUicb the foundations of our redemption are laid.

PROLOGUE
Moreover, all superficial views of life have been
shattered by the earthquake of war. Now and again,
in the course of ages, some horror of great darkness
falls upon mankind. In the fourteenth century, for
example, there blew a mighty wind of pestilence —
the Black Death, men called it — which swept away
half the population of Europe. Two hundred years
earlier, the times appeared evil indeed to Bernard
in his cloister at Clugny as he sang Hora novissima,
tempora pessima. Through the window of his narrow
cell the old naonk was gazing out across a world
of wreck. The Church itself appeared rotten and
rent to pieces ; while to men in their misery it
seemed, says the old chronicler, " as if God and His
saints were dead." To-day, the human race lies
smitten with a calamity which is more widespread
and not less terrible. These last three years have
shown us what unsuspected chasms are yawning
under our feet. We feel like men who must grope
their way on some strange planet, which is full of
awful energies and incalculable perils. For us the
fountains of the great deep are broken up, and the
windows of heaven and the gates of hell are opened.
Yet in tremendous days like these, the Bible comes
to its own. Written for the most part amid the fires
of tribulation, it speaks to us in this present tribu
lation with strange and piercing power. It means
more to us to-day than it ever meant before. God's
Book has great allies,
Its friends are exultations, agonies.
And love, and man's unconquerable mind.
The sword has proved a spiritual ploughshare which
drives furrows into men's hearts, so that the good
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seed can find entrance and penetrate and prevail.
We bdgin to understand that Scripture was indeed
written for such a time as this. It embraces the
whole gamut of human passion and anguish, joy
and terror, death and victory. To a world which lies
bleeding and ravaged it carries God's own healing
and consolation and repair. Across the uncounted
graves of our young soldiers it whispers the sure
and certain promise of immortality. The Bible
enters into our profoundest need, our darkest guilt,
our bitterest sorrow ; it is at home among them
all. Throughout its pages, deep ealleth unto deep
; — and deep answereth unto deep. In this season of
bloodshed and anguish, when there is darkness over
all the earth, the Cross of Jesus Christ comes home
to us in its eternal reality. Overwhelmed by daily
tidings of misery and slaughter, we turn by irre
sistible attraction to the redeeming agony of the Son
of God. As we gaze upon the eyes and brow of
Him Who is indeed acquainted with grief. He meets
us with a look of solemn recognition, and from the
lips of the Crucified we hear the only words which
speak to the heart of the world : Comfort ye, comfort
ye, my people, saith your God.

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WITH MANY VOICES
" The long day wanes: the slow moon climba: the deep
Moa/na round with many voices."
Tennyson : Ulysses.
Nothing sounds simpler or more familiar than
speech. The faculty of speech is common to all
mankind, and must have its roots in man's
primeval past. Indeed, a savage is distinguished
from a dumb beast by this power to utter his wants
and wishes in articulate words. Yet, like so many
things that are universal, human language remains
mysterious and unexplained. What can be more
wonderful than the fact that we can embody ideas
in airy syllables, that we are able to put our
thoughts into words which we express by spoken
sounds or by written 8igr>.s ? The origin and the de
velopments of speech baffle research and analysis.
Philologists cark hardly explain, for instance, why
primitive languages are often complex in structure,
with elaborate grammatical forms. So, again, it is
not easy to tell why in certain regions, like East
and West Africa, we find scores of tribes within
comparatively small areas speaking languages which
are mutually unintelligible. Obscure and tangled
problems are involved in the confusion of tongues.

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Some of the secrets of Babel remain unsolved, and
perhaps insoluble.
What is language? A modern teacher ^ reminds
us that " it fioats like a great atmosphere, mediating
between two worlds, and partaking of either nature,
half material, and half spiritual. Flame-like to
kindle, and water-like to quench, it is the great
beneficent power that links man to man and age
to age, and makes common thought and feeling
and corporate action possible. But it is also a great
divider, that separates nation from nation, by
barriers which a lifelong labour cannot wholly
overpass. And then it invests our thoughts, whether
ior weal or for woe, with something of its own
everlasting terrible reality; carrying our good
intentions out, far and wide beyond us, and keep
ing them alive and powerful, when we ourselves
are gone ; and wresting our thoughts of evil in a
moment from our own keeping, to enter them
against us in its register of sin. It is the Kving
book of judgment which, from the dawn of human
history, has been silently recording the good and
evil done upon earth ; that in the day when the
books are opened, and the judgment-seat is set, by
our words we may be justified, and by our words
we may be condemned. And in all this, it is a
reflection of the nature and character of Him, who
was in the beginning with God, and was God ; and
yet who was made flesh, and dwelt among us, bind
ing together all kindreds and peoples of the earth
into one; but smiting the rebellious nations with
the sharp sword that goeth out of His mouth, and
choosing among His titles as pre-eminent, the Word."
' J, B, Illingworth : Sermons in a College Chapel, 1881.
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WITH MANY VOICES
The Bible Society exists that it may help the
Scriptures to speak in all the tongues of the world.
Notwithstanding the great war, its perpetual work
of translation and revision goes forward unchecked.
The list of versions in which it has produced or
circulated God's measage to men now includes more
than FIVE HUNDRED different languages. No fewer
than a hundred and four of these have been
added during the last eleven years — which is at
the rate of one new language in less than every
six weeks. And the Gospel still marches on, steadily
subduing human speech unto itself. Since the war
began, our Society has issued twenty-five versions
which it had never published before.
In Seven New Tongues.
How many languages can you speak? Whether
it be two or twenty, you always feel that you can
talk more naturally — with greater force and free
dom — in your mother-tongue. That is why the
Bible Society is constantly concerned to bring out
versions of the Gospel in new languages, in which
God's message has never yet bean printed. Last
year, for instance, translations were published in
seven fresh forms of speech. This means that seven
additional tribes will now be able to read tho Good
News in their own mother-tongue. Three of these
tribes are African negroes on the Upper Nile, in
Northern Nigeria, and in Belgian Congo ; two more
tribes are hill-men and jungle-folk in India; the
other two are people of little islands in the Pacific.
Fof Africa.
On the upper waters of the White Nile the C.M.S.
missionaries are at work among the Dinkas — other-

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wise known as Jieng — a primitive race of jet-black
herdsmen who live along both banks of the river
a little north of the equator. Their language in
cludes various dialects. In 1915 St. Luke's Gospel
was printed in the Bor dialect of Jieng, for Dinkas
on the east bank of the Nile ; and St. Mark appeared
last year in the Chich dialect of Jieng, for Dinkas on
the west bank.
St. Mark's Gospel in Munchi, translated by mem
bers of the Sudan United Mission, has been published
for 300,000 tillers of the soil on the Benue River in
Northern Nigeria, who are now being evangelized
by the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa.
The British Government has already established a
school among the Munchi ; and thus the use of this
Gospel will not be confined to mission-taught pupils,
but it will be read among Government scholars.
Three Gospels and the Acts have also been printed
in the language known as Lunda of Kalunda,
which is spoken by a tribe on the southern border of
Belgian Gcmgo.
For India.
India is a name which conveys variegated sugges
tions. According to Mr. Chesterton, we have no
united vision of India: "we know not whether it
is an empire or a chaos or a nation or a theocratic
association or a secret society or a map." At least
it is a land where men speak more than 140 differ
ent languages — all quite as distinct as Spanish is
from Italian. In nearly 100 of these the Bible
Society has issued at least some part of the Scrip
tures. Last year two more Indian versions were
added to the list. 10

WITH MANY VOICES
St. Mark's Gospel has been published in Bhili, the
mother-tongue of a Dravidian tribe which numbers
over a million. These Bhils, who live among the
hills and jungles of Rajputana and Gujarat, are
described as expert woodsmen and mountaineers but
inveterate robbers. They are being evangelized by
Canadian Presbyterians and other missionaries. Not
long ago the Society's secretary at Allahabad
received from a number of Bhil converts a gift
of Rs.2i, to which "fifty-nine former looters con
tributed their mite."
The mountainous border-lands between Burma and
Assam are occupied by various half-savage tribes,
many of which go by the name of Kuki, or Chin.
The Thado-Kuki hillmen number nearly 60,000, and
are found in all parts of the native State of Manipur.
In 1910 a copy of St, John's Gospel in Lushai was
given to a Thado-Kuki chieftain who chanced to be
able to read the Lushai language. Three months
later the book was returned with a pathetic appeal
written on the flyleaf begging the donor "to come
himself and teach them about God." The invitation
was accepted, though it involved a tramp of three
hundred miles over rugged mountain slopes and
through tiger-haunted jungles. And as a result of
this pioneer mission work, St. John's Gospel has now
been published by our Society in the sub-dialect
of Thado known aa Vaiphei.
For Islands in the Pacific.
For the South Seas St. Mark's Gospel in Roviana
has been published for the Australasian Methodist
Mission in New Georgia, one of the Solomon
Islands ; while 1 Thessalonians has been issued in
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Nduindui, the tongue of Oba Island in the New
Hebrides. The work of completing imperfect versions has
gone steadily forward. For China we have published
the complete Bible, translated by members of the
Basel Mission, in Hakka, the common speech of
15,000,000 people in the province of Kwangtung.
The Bev. Otto Schultze, who is the senior member of the Basel
Mission in China, and has taken a foremost part in completing the
version of the Bible which our Society has just published in the
Hakka dialect of Chinese, writes from Shanghai on June 8th, to
express " my heartiest thanks for the honour bestowed on me
in electing me an Honorary Foreign Member of the Bible Society.
This act of the Society fills my heart with joy and gladness. Coming
as it does just at this time, it is to me a manifestation of the truth
that Christianity triumphs oyer nationality, and that the children
of God throughout the world are one body in Christ. I beg to
assure you that the German missionaries in China wiU never forget
the great help to their work given by the British and Foreign Bible
Society. It is my privilege to thank you also on behalf of the
Hakka Christians that you have made it possible to put the entire
Bible in their hands."
The complete New Testament is now printed in
Nupe, for a tribe numbering 2,000,000 on the Upper
Niger; and also in Lushai, translated by Baptist
missionaries in Assam.
The bare record of these languages and com
munions shows how catholic and oecumenical is the
service of the Bible Society. Nor must we forget
the scholars and linguists scattered over the earth,
engaged in the laborious task of revising and per
fecting versions of Scripture in scores of tongues.
A distinguished Baptist missionary translator wrote
in June, 1917, from Bankipur : " There is nothing
romantic about this kind of service ; but it is blessed
drudgery, as it is done in such a cause."
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WITH MANY VOICES
Revisions. More than half a century ago the Bulgarian nation
received the first edition of the Bible ever printed
in their own speech ; it was published for them by
our Society. In recent years this Bulgarian Bible
has been undergoing revision, at the Society's
expense. In spite of the war the revision has been
completed and is now ready for press. During the
past twelvemonth an important revision of the Bible
has at length been finished in the Wenli or classical
form of Chinese. A revision of the New Testament has
been published in Spanish, and completed in Japanese.
From Germany, Dr. Nottrott, a veteran missionary,
has just forwarded the final chapters of his draft
of the revised Mundari New Testament, to be
printed in India.
At the request of the Moravian Mission, our Society has just
printed a diglot edition of St. Mark's Gospel, giving the English
side by side with the version in the Labrador dialect of Eskimo.
The proofs of this little book have been read by the Kev. Chr.
Schmitt, a Moravian missionary who is now interned in Hertford
shire. In acknowledging a specially bound copy of the work which
he has carried through the press, Mr. Schmitt writes : " I must
heartily thank you for the beautifully bound Gospel. With you, I
sincerely hope and trust that God may use this volume for the
blessing of our Eskimos and the furtherance of His kingdom."
The War and the Work.
The Society's translators have not gone unscathed
by the war. One young minister of the Church of
Scotland, the Rev, J, Pinkerton, a brilliant Semitic
scholar, who had given honorary service for two
or three years in preparing a more accurate edition
of the Syriac New Testament, felt it his duty to
enlist iu the Royal Scots, and fell in the Balkans
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killed in action on 1st October, 1916. As these
pages go to press sorrowful news comes that
Archdeacon Dennis, of the C.M.S,, the gifted trans
lator of the Union Ibo version of the Bible for
4,000,000 negroes in Southern Nigeria, has been
drowned at sea, after the steamer on which he
travelled had been mined. We can, however, record
with gratitude that during the past year no " copy "
and no " proofs " of any version have been lost
in transit. Communications have reached the Bible
House safely from remote corners of tho earth, and
men of many nations, including those now at strife,-
have joined hands in the service of our Society.
Though the world is torn asunder with savage
conflict. Christians can unite in translating the
Book of God, which carries the secret of all recon
ciliation when it speaks to every nation and people
and kindred and tribe in their own tongue.
The Bible in Afrikaans.
The Society has just decided to bear the expense of
producing and publishing a version of the Scriptures
in " Afrikaans," or Cape Dutch, An oiScial request
that the Bible Society would undertake this was
made by the Dutch Reformed Church in the Trans
vaal and the Orange Free State, which has 139,000
members and 270,000 adherents. Scholars belonging
to the same Church in the Cape Province — where it
numbers 142,000 members and 310,000 adherents —
are serving on the newly-appointed translation com
mittee. Tho principle of translating the Bible into
Cape Dutch has now been approved by the Federal
Council, which represents all the Dutch Churches
in South Africa. At the lowest estimate there are
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WITH MANY VOICES
a million and a half people who speak Cape Dutch,
including half a million coloured people ; and many
of these cannot follow the classical Dutch version
of the Bible.
The Conquests of the Translator.
The astonishing range and extent of Bible transla
tion will be best realized by a few concrete examples.
At the beginning of November, 1916, our Society re
ceived from the Home Office a request for a number
of New Testaments in twenty-eight different speci
fied languages — including such unusual tongues as
Albanian and Icelandic and six dialects of Chinese.
The books are for the use of foreign convicts who
are confined in the civil prisons of Great Britain.
The resources of the Bible House, however, proved
equal to this polyglot demand, and all the Testa
ments asked for were at once sent as a free gift.
Keen interest was aroused at a meeting of the
Royal Asiatic Society held in London in October,
1916, when Sir George Grierson, head of the Lin
guistic Survey of India, produced gramophone
records which had been taken in India, at his sug
gestion, by order of the Behar and Orissa Govern
ment. The records, which were obtained with the
help of several missionaries, are in languages
spoken by aboriginal tribes of Chota Nagpur and
the Santal Parganas. They include four languages
of the, Munda group — Kharia, Mundari, Ho, and
Santali — and one of the Dravidian group, Kurukh.
These languages were thus heard in native accents
in England for the first time, and old Anglo-Indians
who listened declared that they might imagine
themselves back again in India if only they had
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been able to smell the smoke of a cow-dung fire to
complete the illusion.
In each case, besides marriage songs and folk-
sayings, the record included the story of the Prodigal
Son in the vernacular. The agglutinative character
of these dialects may be judged from one example of
the English equivalent of the opening sentences of
that parable in Santali : " One man-of two boys
children-they-two were his. And them-two among
the-little-one his-father-he said-to-him, • O father,
me-to falling existing-thing-of portion bestow-give-
outright-mine-thou.' "
Of the five Indian dialects whose tones were thus
reproduced for the first time in London, the Bible
Society had already published the complete Bible in
Santali, the complete Bible in Mundari, the Gospels
and three epistles in Kurukh, while in 1915 it issued
St. Luke's Gospel in Ho.
The United States now imposes a test of literacy
on all immigrants. They are not admitted, unless
they are able to read their own language. Now to
provide a test in certain languages would be easy ;
but it is essential for such a test that it should be
applicable with equal fairness in every language.
The American Department of Labour has discovered
the only satisfactory test in the one book which
exists in all languages. As it officially explains :
" This is not because the Bible is considered a sacred
book by many people, but because it is now the only
book in virtually every tongue. Translations of the
Bible were made by eminent ¦cholars, and what is
more to the point, tho translations were done by
men whose purpose it was to put the Bible in
guch simple and idiomatic expressions in the various
16

WITH MANY VOICES
foreign la,nguages as would make it possible for
the common people of foreign countries to grasp the
meaning readily and thoroughly." Passages from
the Bible are placed on cards — a great many simple
passages in all the languages of the world — each on
a separate card, and immigration stations are
supplied with sets of the cards. Thus the test
imposed by the new law can be easily applied.

What is the final reason and motive for trans
lating the Bible ? It really depends on this profound
conviction — that to know Jesus Christ as He lived
on earth, and to read men's actual experiences of
Him, must always be supremely important in the
Christian life. His Name shall be called Wonderful :
and it grows more and more wonderful as often as a
fresh tongue spoken by some savage tribe learns to
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father.

17

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FROM MANY LANDS
" Their sound is gone out throngh all ilie earlh, and their
words to the end of the world.''
All the great central truths of faith are missionary
truths. They apply to the whole world. They
declare God's corporate dealing with the world's sin.
They enlist us in corporate conflict against the
world's evil and misery. Because Christ Himself is
the everlasting Missionary — the Shepherd of aU lost
souls — therefore He requires and enjoins His servants
to share His everlasting mission. " This do," He
says, "in remembrance of Me." He sends us, who
love Him, into all the world to claim every creature
in it for His own.
To make disciples of all nations must be the
deliberate effort and policy of the Church. From the
very beginning it has realized and responded to this
imperial vocation. Nothing is more impressive in
the New Testament than the way in which the
Gospel claims to be universal. Its programme is
one long propaganda. Its message speaks to all
kindreds and peoples, not in a single sacred lan
guage but in the tongues of the whole world.
Christianity has never lost the instinct of universal
dominion. It lives and moves and has its being in
18

PROM MANY LANDS
conquest. There is no surer note of the Church
than this undying sense of a world-wide mission —
this burden of a task unfinished, a duty only part
fulfilled. Apostle, after all, is simply the Greek for
missionary, and we may question how far any Com
munion deserves to be called apostolic in which all
missionary fervour has become quenched. When
the power and the pa,ssion for reclaiming the lost
die out of the Church, it ceases to be the Church.
But while that power and that passion remain —
then, whatever else be wanting, it may still be said
that the tabernacle of God is with men.
A real revival of religion always revives the central
missionary truth which belongs to the very genius
of the Gospel. As often as the Church repents and
returns' to its first love, it goes back forthwith to
recommence its first work as well— and that work
was preaching the Gospel to every creature. If
Christ has indeed tasted death for every man, the
awful and glorious fact must be brought home to
every man's heart. The children of His resurrection
are trustees, charged to make all nations sharers in
the unfathomable grace of God,
The Bible Society was founded hi the darkest
period of a great European conflict to publish
throughout all nations the Gospel of peace. Among
each one of the races that are involved in war to-day
the Society has been steadily working for genera
tions past, in some cases for more than a century.
Its spiritual alliance with them all may be illustrated
by a rough summary of the editions of Holy Scrip
ture which it has printed in the principal tongues
which they speak.
For the peoples of Central Europe it has already
19

DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEE?
published twenty-six million volumes in Gei-man,
three million in Hungarian, two million in Bohe
mian, besides nearly half a million for other polyglot
races in the Austrian Empire, 800,000 in Bulgarian,
and 300,000 in Turkish.
For nations now at war with the Central European
Powers it has printed nearly twenty million copies
in French, seven miUion in Italian, two and a half
million in Portuguese, more than a million in
Rumanian, a million in Serbian, more than a million
in modern Greek, and three and a half million in
Japanese. In Russian and Slavonic (the ecclesias
tical language of the Russian Church) it has issued
nineteen and a half million books, besides nearly
two million in Polish, a million and a half in
Finnish, half a million in Lettish, and more than
half a million in Ruthenian, Esthonian, and
Georgian — without taking any account of versions
printed for various Tatar tribes scattered over
Russian territory.
Such figures are baffling for ordinary minds to
grasp. At the end of the thirteenth century when
Marco Polo came home to Venice and told the tale
of his wanderings in the Far East, nothing sounded
stranger to the Venetians than his description of
the fabulous wealth and innumerable subjects of
the Great Khan ; so they nicknamed their traveller
Marco Millioni — the man of millions. And there is
the same note about the Bible Society: its work is
done for millions, and is reckoned by millions.
The Chief Source of Supply.
The world has learnt to regard the Bible Society as
the chief source from which the Scriptures are pro-
20

FROM MANY LANDS
vided for our own people, for nations overseas, and
especially for the ever-growing missions to non-
Christian lands. During the last three years we
have concentrated our strength to fulfil these duties,
which no other institution attempts on anything
like the same scale. Soon after the present war
broke out a positive famine of the Scriptures in fields
abroad was only averted by means of the stocks
held by our foreign depots. Those stocks have, as
far as possible, been continuously replenished. At
Johannesburg for instance, which is 8,000 miles
away, we delivered last year from London 50 tons
of books, in 50 different languages. Notwithstanding
immense difficulties, we rejoice to believe that
hitherto no missionary has had to slacken his work
because he could not obtain copies of the Scriptures.
Although problems of transport sometimes appeared
insoluble, the most remote mission-station has gone
on receiving its supplies.
During the last three years the Bible Society has
sent out altogether more than 30,000,000 copies of
the Scriptures. Moreover, it should be clearly under
stood that by a copy or " portion" we do not mean a
leaflet containing some selected verses : each of these
30,000,000 copies was either a Bible, or a Testament,
or at least one complete book of the Bible.
To this wonderful result the contribution of the
past twelve months fell somewhat short of the
previous year's. For it proved impossible in Central
Europe either to produce or to import all the new
editions needed ; while in Russia the presses of the
Holy Synod, on which we depend, could not for some
time supply the books we required. The result is
that our depots at Berlin and Vienna and Budapest
21

DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP
and Bucharest and Belgrade and Constantinople still
have their doors open, but their shelves are emptying.
Moreover, in 1915 gifts from American Sunday
scholars provided us with more than half a million
books for soldiers on the Continent. The demands
for English and Welsh editions for our own troops,
which became imperious in 1915, had been largely
satisfied by 1916. So that we have no reason to be
surprised that the Society's issues last year fell to
not much more than nine and a half million volumes.
This is still half a million above the total announced
three years ago, which was then the largest on
record. Of last year's issues, two million books
were in English — which is 700,000 more than in
the year before the war.
For Missions in Many L&nds.
The services rendered by the Bible Society to
missionary organizations are varied and manifold.
In almost all the chief mission fields — as, for in
stance, in China and India, in Uganda and South
Africa — the Society maintains its own representa
tive, whose functions include not a few important
and difficult duties. He has to organize the repre
sentative committees which undertake the task of
translation or re^asion in local vernaculars. He
must arrange for printing and producing such new
editions of the Scriptures in different languages and
characters as shall meet the popular needs, alike in
quantity size, and format. He has generally to
engage, supervise, visit and encourage the colpor
teurs maintained by the Bible Society in his agency.
He has to correspond with all the missions at work
there, and to see that they shall be duly supplied
2g

FROM MANY LANDS
from the Society's local depots with the editions of
the Scriptures which they require. Generally, also,
he has to decide, in consultation with representative
missionaries, at what prices editions shall be sold.
These selling-prices are fixed according to one
controlling principle of the Bible Society's mission.
Far from doing business at a profit, it habitually
sells its popular editions at prices which involve
Serious loss. Those prices are fixed in any country
by considering what the poorest class of labourers in
that country can afford to pay.
Missionary organizations obtain their supplies of
the printed Scriptures at a further discount off the
price charged to an ordinary purchaser. The Society
also pays the carriage of the books, so that there is
no increase of cost to some remote mission station
above the price charged at any of the Society's
depots. To those parts of the world where the Society has
no regular agents — for instance, to the South Seas
and to some parts of Africa — grants of the Scrip
tures go out as a rule on what are called "mis
sionary terms." This means that the Society defrays
the whole cost of production and freight, and sends
the books out free of charge. It leaves the mis
sionary to fix the price of sale, to repay himself for
his expenses in distribution, and to remit to the
Society whatever money may be left over.
A "World-wide Partnership.
To illustrate the scale on which the Bible Society
carries out its partnership with the missions of the
Reformed Churches, we will give a few concrete
instances. Here is one example. During the past
23

DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP
year the following missions have been supplied with
editions of the Scriptures by the Society's Egyptian
Agency, altogether in about fifty different forms of
speech :
The American Presbyterian Mission, the Reformed Presbyterian
Mission, the Swedish Evangelical Mission, the United Free Church
of Scotland Mission, the London Jews Society, the Society for Pro-
motmg Christian Knowledge, the North Africa Mission, the Church
of Scotland Jewish Mission and Schools, the Egypt General Mission,
the Peniel Mission, the Church Missionary Society, the Irish and
Scotch Eeformed Presbyterian Mission, the Waldensian Mission, the
Friends' Foreign Mission Association, the Africa Industrial Mission,
the United Methodist Church Mission, the Africa Inland Mission,
and the Universities' Mission to Central Africa.
For East Africa.
British Bast Africa includes tribes speaking thirty-
three different languages and dialects. Mission work
is being carried on among them by no fewer than
fourteen different societies. For the use of these
missions, the Bible Society has already published
the complete Bible in both the Zanzibar and the
Mombasa forms of Swahili, as well as in Giryama;
the complete New Testament in Pokomo and also
in Taveta ; and some portion of the New Testa
ment in nearly a dozen other British Bast African
languages. In German East Africa the war has wrought
havoc among mission stations. In January, 1917,
the Bishop of Zanzibar asked the Bible Society for
2,000 New Testaments and 1,000 Old Testaments in
the Zanzibar dialect of Swahili : " this is a large
order, but rendered necessary by the upset of war,
and to bring back ante-bellum conditions as far as
possible." By the same post the C.M.S. asked for
24

FROM MANY LANDS
2,000 New Testaments in the Mombasa dialect of
Swahili, for its work in British Bast Africa ; and a
further request has just come, in July, 1917, for
2,000 more. Our Committee at once ordered the
books to be printed and sent out — on terms which
involve no charge on the funds of either mission.
Owing to the immense rise in prices, these editions
now cost us more than double what they cost before
the war.
For "West Africa.
Bible work is carried on among the missions along
this immense shore-line, which fringes the Gulf of
Guinea for more than a thousand miles. Many mis
sion stations also exist in the hinterlands, and not
a few have been pushed far into the interior, where
moreover, the printed Gospel can often penetrate
into remote regions which are still closed against all
Christian teachers. Over 50,000 copies of the Scrip
tures were sent out to West Africa last year.
In 1915 the Rev, A. W. Banfield was appointed
the Society's secretary on the West Coast. He had
already completed fourteen years' missionary service
in Northern Nigeria, where he translated the New
Testament into Nupe. Since he joined our staff
Mr. Banfield has devoted himself with great energy
to the task of making himself familiar with the
various regions in this wide field. Between Novem
ber, 1915, and April, 1917, he spent most of his time
in systematic journeys from Sierra Leone to Angola,
visiting the principal mission stations, and obtaining
valuable first-hand knowledge from experienced
missionaries as to the languages spoken and the
versions and editions which they specially need for
25

DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP
their work. The scope and importance of Mr. Ban-
field's investigations may be judged by the following
extract from his own report:
" During these eighteen months I visited eleven Etiropean posses
sions and one African Eepublic, Liberia. These countries have
an estimated aggregate population of over forty millions. I came
into the fields of thirty-five different Protestant missions, and met
members of forty societies. I was unable, because of the great
distance, to visit ten other societies. I stayed for at least one day
at one hundred and fifty main stations occupied by European and
American missionaries, and in my travels I met over five hundred
missionaries. " Of the fifty Protestant societies working on the West Coast,
twenty-one are British, twenty-one are American (including those
in Liberia), three are native African, two are German, one is French,
one Swedish, and one Swiss. These societies are working among
eighty-one tribes, who speak that number of different languages.
Sixty-four of these languages have been reduced to writing, and in
each of them the complete Bible, or some portion of it, has already
been pubhshed. Translation work is being carried out, or contem
plated, in the remaining seventeen languages. Already the annual
sales of Bnghsh and vernacular Bibles on the West Coast number
tens of thousands, and the increase is steady and great. At present
the majority of the people are illiterate, and there is very little scope
for colportage ; but this will not always be the case, for whole nations
are now learning to read, and the first book they buy after the
primer is the Gospel."
For Nigeria the Society has provided the complete
Bible in Yoruba, and Yoruba Bibles are sold for a
shilling each; it also publishes the New Testament
and some books of the Old Testament in Hausa — the
most widely-spoken language among native traders
throughout West Africa — besides at least some por
tion of the Scriptures in a dozen other languages
current in Nigeria. During 1916, the C.M.S. book
shop at Lagos sold over 10,000 Yoruba Bibles and
12,000 English Bibles supplied by the B.F.B.S.
26

FROM MANY LANDS
For Rhodesia.
Here is an example of how one mission can help
another, and how the Bible Society helps both. A
missionary of the U.M.C.A., Mr. W. B. Deerr, wrote
last year describing how he had opened up a new
district in Northern Rhodesia :
" It was about this time, tgo, that I made my discovery that the
translations done by the London Missionary Society at Mbereshi,
about 170 miles to the north-west, were perfectly intelligible in my
own district ; and when I had obtained copies of the Gospels of
St. Mark, St. Matthew, and St. John, and also copies of the Acts,
we were able to have regular readings in school, and I was able to
make very rapid progress in the language. So much so, that last
September — ^that is, in less than a year after I had settled at Ngomba
— I was able to start regular Sunday preachings in the village, and to
have daily prayers and a very short instruction for all- who cared
to come."
The reference is to the Bemba version, of which
the complete New Testament, translated mainly by
L.M.S. missionaries-, was printed by our Society in
1915. More than 1,700 copies of this Testament
were sent- out last year to stations of the L.M.S.
and the U.M.C.A.
For Madagascar.
In response to a request from Madagascar, our
Society ordered in the autumn of 1916 a new edition
of 10,000 copies of the Malagasy Bible to be printed
in London. For many years this popular 16mo Bible
has been sold to its readers for Is. a copy — less than
two-thirds of what it cost to produce. Owing to
the increased charges for paper and printing, due
to the war, this new edition is costing the Society
about 2s. a copy instead of Is. 8d, The book, how-
27

DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP
ever, will continue to be sold throughout Madagascar
for Is.
For India.
Already the Society has published or circulated the
Scriptures in nearly a hundred of the chief Indian
vernaculars-^which are current among 225,000,000
people. There is ample evidence to prove that the
New Testament is more widely read in India to-day
than ever before. One missionary, who is a keen sup
porter of the Bible Society, wrote last year : " More
and more I am convinced that God is putting special
blessing upon His printed Word, and I believe the
door of opportunity along this line is thrown wide
open. Thank God, that in these days of great sorrow^
and suffering the Word of God is not bound."
Another missionary tells of a Brahmin who said :
" The Bible is a very good book, but people must not
read too much of it, else they will have to become
Christians." In this respect, imitation becomes sincere flattery.
As we watch the immense ferment which is now
at work among Indian faiths and creeds, we may
note one out of many proofs of powerful Christian
influences. Mr. J. N. Farquhar, in his recent volume
Modern Religious Movements in India, writes : " The
Christian contention that sacred books can be of
no value, unless they are understood by the people,
has led all the movements, Jain, Sikh, Parsee, and
Muslim, as well as Hindu, to produce translations
of the sacred books they use and to write all fresh
books in the vernacular."
The Bishop of Lahore gives an idyllic picture of
the primitive faith of some Indian Christians settled
at Batemanabad in the Punjab. 28

PROM MANY LANDS
" There is a little company who have banded themselves together
to seek to prove the fullness of what Christ means. They meet daily,
and sit sometimes half through the night singing and praying and
"exhorting. Their main purpose is evangeUzation. There are Sikh
villages round, where they get a friendly welcome— I fancy, largely
because of their beautiful singing — and where there is a real move
ment towards Christianity. . . . The part played by music in their
religious life is, as far as my experience goes, unique. I have never
been to a place where I felt so transported back into what I imagine
must have been, from this point of view, the atmosphere of the Early
Church. . . . The Psalms in their Punjabi version are an integral
part of their life, and when one remembers what the Psalms have
been to Scotland, it seems impossible to exaggerate the hopefulness
of the fact that every child knows large portions of these Psalms by
heart, and that the village rings with them, almost literally day and
night." The Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society is
embarrassed by the recent and rapid development
of its work in South India. As the result of thirty
years' faithful labour in the Hyderabad field, 20,000
people are already identified with the Church. But
to-day there are more than 7,000 inquirers in this
district, while in one circuit of the mission alone
there were 3,000 baptisms in 1916. Village after
village is forsaking idols and turning to Christ.
The Bev. Marshall Hartley, who has just returned from visiting
Hyderabad, describes his own experience at a place named Aler. A
man came from some distance to a Christian gathering there, attended
the services, offered a subscription to the fund for a church in another
village — not his own — and avowed himself a Christian, though un-
baptized. This man was asked why he had not been baptized. He
replied that he had never seen a missionary before that day. How,
then, had he become a Chr.istian ? It was by reading the New Testa
ment. Somehow a copy of the Telugu New Testament had come
into his hands, and the book had led him to turn to Christ, and had
made him a Christian evangehst. He told the missionary that ha
had destroyed his own idols, and mended a hole in the road with
thein, nr.H then had gone throiigh his village of sixty hor'-es, rcficlmg
29

DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP
the Testament from house to house, and persuading the people to
destroy their idols likewise. Now he had come to seek a Christian
teacher who would lead them all into the way of truth. He was
himself baptized that same day, and went home rejoicing. Such
was the result of a copy of the Telugu New Testament published
by the Bible Society, and sold in South India for 4d. — less than
half of what it cost.
For China.
The Bible Society began its work in China more
than a century ago by a series of grants towards the
expense of printing Robert Morrison's Chinese trans
lation of the Bible ; the first edition of his Bible was
completed in 1823, and the Society's grants for this
object amounted to £10,000.
The Society's catalogue of editions for China now includes trans
lations of the Scriptures into Wenli (two versions), Easy WerJi,
Mandarin (two versions), and the following Chinese vernaculars :
Ningpo, Taichow, Wenohow, Kienning, Kienyang, Foochow, Amoy,
Swatow, Canton, Hakka, Hainan — ^as well as translations into
Tibetan, Mongolian (four versions), Manchu, Chungchia, Hwa Miao,
Laka, Lisa, and Kopn. The last five languages are spoken by
aboriginal tribes in Yunnan and Kweichow.
These various versions are published in over 350 different sizes and
styles of printing and binding. During the last hundred years the
Bible Society has issued thirty-four miUion copies of the Scriptures
in the languages of China.
During 1916 nearly one-fourth of the Society's
entire circulation went out in China, where 2,200,000
volumes were sold by colportage. Four out of every
five of these books were copies of the Gospels in the
languages of the common people. Just before Christ
mas, 1916, our Committee sanctioned the printing of
seventy-four new editions, amounting altogether to
nearly four million books, in the languages of that
country. It was an unprecedented order, meant to
30

FROM MANY LANDS
anticipate the needs of the more immediate future, so
that in spite of growing difficulties of production
the Society may maintain its supplies for missionaries
and colporteurs. But the demand for the Scriptures
in China is exceeding all previous experience. During
the one month of April, 1917, more than 400,000
volumes were sent out from our headquarters at
Shanghai. In spite of political conflict and confusion,
which in some provinces have produced anarchy and
civil war, this vast population is being gradually
leavened with Christian truth. And whatever in
fluences Chinese ideals must vitally affect the future
of the world.
In a Chinese Temple.
We have space for only a single instance of how
a missionary can use the printed Word of God.
From the province of Yunnan Miss C. Morgan, of
the C.I.M., Tsuyung, sends the following account of a
seven weeks' tour which she undertook in company
with her female evangelist :
"We combine evangelistic and colportage work. The books
introduce us, and we explain the books. When the people discover
that we are out bookselling, they are less suspicious than when we go
empty-handed. SeUing is legitimate, and they understand it ; but a
traveller with no purpose that they can see is liable to create a lot of
talk and to prejudice the people against himself.
" At Tinguen, where the Chinese official kindly granted us the use
of a temple, we advertised that we had come to explain the books so
often sold there, and the response was overwhelming. Day after day
they came, some for the novelty of it, some to laugh, but many to
listen attentively, and so many teachers, merchants, and others of
repute were in the audience as to put a check on those who were
inclined to be frivolous and disrespectful. The official himself came
on several occasions, with a number of the gentry. He listened with
great courtesy and sent two of his own bodyguard ta look after ua.
31

Deep calleth Unto deep
" Our method was to take a book at each service — Genesis, Exodus,
Daniel, Jonah — and give some connected idea of the book, its content
and intent. On the day following we made a speciality of selling the
book that we had been speaking about.
" Never were we received so well as at Tinguen. We were invited
to mora houses than we could possibly visit, and when after 26 days
we felt obliged to move to Yaochow we received letters of introduction
to several famUies there. These letters made entrance easy, for we
were accepted as friends from the start, and only those who have
travelled away from the beaten track of the missionary can under
stand the surprise and joy we experienced at being thus welcomed. A
shop on the main street was lent us, giving us excellent opportunities
to dispose of Scripture portions and to receive and converse with
guests.
- " Our sales for the past year have amounted to nearly 11,000 New
Testaments and portions."
Here is one out of many official expressions of
missionary gratitude. The Foreign Missions Com
mittee of the Presbyterian Church of England have
recently adopted the following minute :
" The Committee heard with gratification that a translation of the
New Testament into Hakka vernacular [a dialect current in part of
the Chinese province of Kwangtung] has been completed and accepted
for publication in-roman character by the British and Foreign Bible
Society. Tho Conmiittee instructed the secretary to convey to the
Bible Society an expression of its deep gratitude for this further
instance of the generous assistance which that Society has always
been ready to give to Christian work within the mission field of this
Church."For the Wild North "West.
The Bible Society cares for the weak races of
the world, as well as for the mighty. Tukudh, for
instance, is the language spoken in the far Canadian
North West by a nomad tribe of Indian hunters,
numbering about 2,000, and living within the
Arctic Circle. Their version of the Bible was the
work of Robert McDonald, a C.M.S. missionary,

FROM MANY LANDS
who in 1875 became Archdeacon of Mackenzie
River. He spent a quarter of a century over his
translation, which was published by the Bible Society
in parts and completed in 1898. These Tukudh
Bibles are sent out to Yukon free, and sold at what
ever price the missionaries decide to charge.
Writing from Dawson in May, 1917, Bishop Stringer remitted to
the London Bible House j610 lis. 9d., being the proceeds of sales of
the Tukudh Bible. The Bishop writes : " Some of these Bibles are
given away, or sold at a very small price to Indians who are not
able to pay for them; while others are sold at a stated price to
Indians who are able to pay something for them. I wish to express
again our appreciation for the splendid help given in this respect.
The Indians value these books very highly. Throughout the northern
part of this country almost every family possesses one of the
Tukudh Bibles, and will carry it from place to place as they go
off hunting for food. We may not often express our gratitude ; but
I want to say now that over and over again your kindness in this
respect has been mentioned, and I want to assure you of the splendid
results seen in many ways through the circulation of the Bible
among the Indians. Your Bible, and the Prayer Book printed by
the sister society, the S.P.C.K., are practically the only books in use
among hundreds of Indians throughout this northern land, I always
look on the Bible as the classic of the Indian tongue."
For Immigrants.
The polyglot immigration into Canada is illus
trated by the fact that the Bible House in Winnipeg
sent out editions last year in thirty-eight different
languages. A Russian missionary in that city writes : " I dare say without
exaggeration that hardly any other institution in Canada performs
such a deep, pleasing, and beneficent office, especially upon the
strangers who come to this country in search of a new home. To
find the precious old Book in your own mother-tongue here, just
waiting for you, is the same as to meet a dear old friend bidding you
welcome in a strange country. It suddenly transfigures the whole
life around you. You do not feel a stranger any more."
33 D

DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP
The Imperial Missionary Idea.
We may conclude this section with some eloquent
sentences by Dr. John Kelman:
" Let us link on the missionary with the imperial
idea, for foreign missions are but the baptism of
imperialism with the Holy Ghost. Their enterprise
carries out in modern times the great dreams of old
— Augustine's City of God, Dante's De Monarchia,
More's Utopia, Bacon's New Atlantis. These dreams
shall be fulfilled when the kingdoms of the world
are become the kingdom of our God and of His
Christ. In this light all narrower and poorer
elements fall away from the missionary idea. It is
no longer a pious and romantic sentiment, nor a
matter of individual evangelism conducted in pic
turesque circumstances. It is a great department
of statesmanship, whose end is the conquest of the
world for the empire of Jesus Christ. At home, the
already submerged masses of the community are
sinking towards despair and revolution ; abroad,
vast lands are rising into what may well beconae a
Godless civilization, more dangerous to the world
than their ancient barbarisms. Surely the Church of
Christ is called at such a time, not merely to indi
vidual heroism, but to statesmanship of the highest
order, with intelligent strategy and concerted action.
Surely our Christian life to-day is to be regarded not
as a sheepfold but as a crusade."

34

DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP

IN MANY CAMPS
" The man who has never been a soldier has never learnt
how to say his prayers.". — Russian Pbovbeb.
The war bewilders us by its complexity. Never
since history began have so many races and kin
dreds and tribes marched to battle under the same
banners. The hosts Of fighting-men talk in scores
of different languages. Multitudes of soldiers and
sailors who use these varied forms of speech are
to-day lying wounded in hospitals or are watching
wearily in prison camps. And the Bible Society has
been providing them with the printed message of
God's love in each of the tongues in which they
learned to read when they were children.
For putting the Gospel into the hands of the
combatants, without distinction between friend and
foe, the Society commands resources which belong
to no other institution. It has unrivalled qualifica
tions and facilities for carrying out this sacred mis
sion. Before the great war began it had already
published versions of Scripture in every one of the
languages required, and it possessed plates from
which new editions could be struck off rapidly as
they were needed. It has been maintaining for
generations a wide network of distributing centres
35

DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP
up and down the world, and when war was declared
it possessed outside England about sixty depots and
sub-depots in the countries which are now at strife.
During three years of devastating conflict very few
of these depots have been closed, while in each
country the Society's trained and experienced
servants have devoted themselves to the task of
effective distribution.
For sick and wounded soldiers and sailors of all
nations the Society undertakes to present as many
Testaments, Gospels, and Psalters as are needed to
all Red Cross organizations and field and base hos
pitals, whether in this country or abroad. These
books, bound in khaki, are also supphed in any
numbers, free of charge and carriage paid, for
prisoners of war, for interned aliens, and for civilian
refugees. To friends in any country who give away
books among soldiers and sailors, pocket khaki Testa
ments and Gospels are granted at a war discount —
which means that such books can be obtained for
a mere fraction of what they actually cost.
In distributing the books the utmost care is exer
cised to avoid overlapping and waste, and also to
secure, if possible, that touch of personal Christian
sympathy which adds so greatly to the value of
the gift. The Society's grants have generally gone
through recognized channels and duly accredited
agents, both at home and abroad.
The Secretary of the Joint War Committee of the British Red
Cross Society and the Order of St. John of Jerusalem wrote last
summer acknowledging another "most generous gift" from the
Bible House, and added : " We are despatching these Testaments at
once to the hospitals in which our wounded soldiers are lying, and
judgmg by previous letters we have received, they will be thoroughly
appreciated by the soldiers. We feel deeply grateful to you for the
36

IN MANY CAMPS
splendid assistance you have rendered to the British Bed Cross
Society, and trust you wiU believe it has been thoroughly appre
ciated." From Surrey House, Marble Arch, London, the secretary of the
War Librai-y— which is organized under the British Red Cross Society
for the free supply of literature to hospitals at home and abroad —
wrote in February, 1917, to acknowledge yet another free grant:
"Thank you very much for your kind response to our wish for
10,000 Gospels and 1,000 Psalters. They are invaluable for our
work, which increases every week."
A lady, who understands the secret ot wise distribution of the
Scriptures among wounded soldiers, writes from Eastbourne : " The
100 Testaments wUl be a delightful help. You may depend upon me
to use them with care. Personally I do not much believe in giving
them all round, in a wholesale fashion : and I make ib always a
personal matter, generally writing the man's name inside."
Amid the storm and earthquake and fire which
are working havoc in the world, we have lost no
opportunity to distribute that Book which speaks
with the still small voice of God. In trenches and
dug-outs, in prison-camps, in barrack-rooms and on
battleships, the fighting men of all the nations now
involved in conflict have been reading the khaki-
bound pocket Testaments and Gospels and Psalters
issued by our Society. Since the war began we have
been able to provide for this purpose over six
MILLION VOLUMES IN MORE THAN SIXTY DIFFERENT
LANGUAGES. If only we could follow those little books on their
sacred mission, we should see them discoloured by
mud and rain, torn with shell-splinters, stained with
blood ; we should hear them whispering comfort bj'
the beds of countless wounded; we should- watch
them lifted reverently from the pockets of the dead.
It will help us to realize what this immense dis
tribution means, if we focus our attention on
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certain details of its far-spread working. Nothing
in the war has been more remarkable than the
splendid response made by the Overseas Dominions
to the call of the Mother Country. Now in all the
British Dominions and Colonies the Bible Society
by its organized Auxiliaries has endeavoured to
present a Testament to each soldier who sailed for
the seat of war. This work has been carried out
systematically and on a great scale. In Canada
270,000 Testaments, stamped with the Dominion
<3oat-of-arms, have been thus given away, includ
ing even Japanese copies for a battalion of Japanese
volunteers formed in British Columbia. Similar
presentations were organized in each State of the
Australian Commonwealth, where over 100,000
Testaments have been given away to men in the
Victorian training camps alone. Certain battalions
from New South Wales found their Testaments
awaiting them when they disembarked on the Suez
Canal. A Testament was placed in the hands of
each soldier of the New Zealand Expeditionary
Force before he sailed for Europe, while Maori
Testaments were provided for men of the Maori
Contingent. From Savage Island, or Niu^, as it is
now generally called, in the South Pacific, a contin
gent of about 250 dusky volunteers sailed for New
Zealand to take part in the war ; before he left
home, each man was presented by our Society with
a copy of the Niu^ New Testament. Testaments in
English or in Dutch were also presented to scores
of thousands of South African troops. Similar
gifts were provided locally for volunteers from
Ceylon, and from British Guiana.
At Rangoon last year two Burmese units — the
38

IN MANY CAMPS
91st Punjabis and the Burma Sappers and Miners —
left for Mesopotamia, and the men eagerly accepted
Gospels in their own tongues. The Sikhs appeared
proud to take Punjabi editions, while there was a
great rush for Gospels in Urdu and Hindi — " a seai of
hands stretched out to receive the Christian book."
Many Races in France.
Then consider the polyglot needs in one single
theatre of the great struggle. In France alone,
Testaments and Gospels have been supplied, not
only in French, but in two or three different
dialects of Arabic for French soldiers from North
Africa, in Portuguese for regiments from the Re
public of Portugal, and in Serbian for refugees and
wounded from Serbia who are being cared for on
the Riviera or nursed in hospital at Algiers. For
the scores of thousands of Africans and Asiatics who
are serving in labour battalions or as ambulance-
bearers behind the French and British lines, the
Scriptures have been provided in the following
languages : in Mandarin, for Chinese coolies ; in
Annamese, for coolies from Cochin China ; in
Malagasy, for men from Madagascar; in Jolof, for
men from the Gambia ; in Xosa, for Kafirs from
the Cape ; in Chuana, for the Bechuanas ; in Suto,
for the Basutos ; in Pedi, for Bapedi from the
Transvaal ; and in Zulu, for natives of Natal.
We learn from the Calcutta Statesman that the labour battalions
which the Indian Government has recruited for service behind the
British lines in France include a number of sturdy Lushais from
the hills of Assam. Six hundred of these recruits are Christians,
most of whom are able to read and write. Twenty-five years ago
the Lushais were head-hunters, without a Christian among them.
Only last year the Bible Society published for the first time the
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New Testament in Lushai, and before they sailed from India these
Lushais were presented with Gospels in their own language.
The French Government has brought over thousands of Malagasy
troops. A considerable proportion of them are Christians, and they
carry their Christianity with them. In the military zone a French
Protestant chaplaui reports that he observed a coloured man reading
the Bible hi a strange tongue to a group of fellow-countrymen, who
proved to be Malagasy drivers.
For British Sick and Wounded.
The Bible House is in direct touch with no fewer
than 1,200 military or V.A. hospitals in England
and Wales alone, as well as with practically every
military hospital for British soldiers abroad. To
all these hospitals we present English Testaments,
Gospels, and Psalters, bound in khaki with the Red
Cross on the cover, in any numbers that may be
required for personal distribution, and a steady
stream of fresh supplies to these hospitals is flowing
from the Bible House every week. From the com
mencement of the war down to March 31st, 1917, our
gifts for this purpose alone had exceeded 600,000
copies of the Scriptures in English.
A fresh gift of 1,000 Bed Cross Testaments, 500 Psalters, and 500
Gospels; has just been sent from the Bible House to a friend who
regularly visits several military hospitals in Yorkshire. He writes :
" Among the patients there will be probably hundreds without even
a portion of the New Testament. Many, it may be, have never yet
had a pocket Testament offered to them, while others when stricken
down lost their little books."
In Malta and Cyprus the Society's gifts for the
various military and Red Cross hospitals have
amounted to 10,000 Testaments, Gospels, and Psalters.
Most of these books were in English ; but a certain
number of copies have also been sent out in German,
40

IN MANY CAMPS
Hungarian, Bohemian, Slovak, Rumanian, and Arabic,
for wounded prisoners of war in Malta.
The senior Church of England chaplain wrote from Malta in May,
1917, to acknowledge a fresh gift of 1,000 Testaments : " They will
be a great help to us in our work here. I will instruct my chaplains
to dispense the books as carefuUy as possible."
The chaplain at the Imtarfa hospital wrote last autumn : " I take
advantage of your generous suggestion to apply for a further grant
of Testaments. At present I need at least 100 a week for new
arrivals, who are unprovided with Testaments and are anxious to have
them. I now make each man promise to read it regularly before
giving him a copy. Although many are rather indignant at this, the
situation is fairly well illustrated by one man who said, ' I shouldn't
take it off you, sir, if I wasn't going to read it.' "
For Sick and Wounded Indian Troops.
The C.M.S. hospital at Mengo treated 4,000 in
patients during 1916, most of them soldiers of the
B.E.F. in East Africa. Dr. Cook writes :
" At least seventy-five per cent, were Mohammedans, Hindus, or
heathen. The Mohammedan and Hindu Indians we could not directly
converse with on religion, though we learnt enough Hindustani to
treat their ailments satisfactorily ; but they eagerly accepted hundreds
of Gospels, etc., in their own tongues, provided for us in the shape of
the daintily got-up and exquisitely clearly printed Gospels by the
British and Foreign Bible Society. The slim volumes, bound in
khaki cloth with a red cross on the outside, were greatly coveted by
the Indian sepoys, who, many of them, found time hang heavy on
their hands, and they certainly read them diligently. For the Belgian
officers and N.C.O.'s we had ' souvenirs ' in the shape of nicely bound
Testaments in French, and even the German prisoners were not
forgotten, as we had a large stock of German Testaments."
In South Africa, at the Wynberg military hospital,
Dutch as well as English patients accepted the New
Testament with gratitude. One soldier said :
" I came in here for a serious operation. The night before it was
to be done, the sister placed a Testament by my bedside. But for
41

DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP
many years I had put God out of my life ; so I left the Testament
alone, untU just before I went to sleep, then I thought I would just
look at it — and the words I read went right home to my heart.
Now, hfe has a new meaning, I have written to my wife and told
her all about it."
We can only glance at some of the Society's
depots which lie close to the actual fighting zone.
At Bucharest our veteran depot-keeper has been
giving away Rumanian Gospels among sick and
wounded soldiers in the Rumanian hospitals ; while
another veteran servant of the Society remains at
his post supervising our distribution at Belgrade.
From the depot at Budapest 35,000 copies of the
Scriptures went out last year to Hungarian soldiers
at the front, while 20,000 more were put into the
hands of prisoners of war in Hungary, From
Bohemia, where the great Pardubitz hospital was
crowded with wounded Turks, the chief nurse
wrote : " It is wonderful with what enthusiasm these
Turks accept and read the printed Gospel in their
mother-tongue." The streets of Salonika in these days have become
more crowded and more polyglot than ever, and the
colporteur in charge of our depot reports that his
difficulty lies not in selling the Scriptures, but in
obtaining sufficient books in the various versions
asked for by soldiers of different races. Shortly
before midsummer, 1917, fresh supplies reached
Salonika which are now being sold in sixteen
different languages and at the rate of nearly 1,000
volumes a month.
To the British Bed Cross at Salonika 2,000 English Testaments,
8,000 French Testaments, 50 Russian Testaments, and 1,500 Serbian
Gospels were sent last year from London for sick and wounded

IN MANY CAMPS
soldiers, while 1,800 English Bibles and Testaments have also been
sent to chaplains and others for free distribution in hospitals
there. Writing from Monastir in May, 1917, our deposi
tary, Mr. Athanase Sinas, describes the terrible
bombardment which had then gone on without
ceasing for nearly seven months, until the town was
half-destroyed and abandoned by the greater part of
its inhabitants. Though numberless shells had fallen
round the Society's depot, causing much damage and
killing many persons, the depot itself was still safe ;
but Mr. Sinas has for months been living in cellars.
Our depot at Busra is kept stocked with copies of
the Scriptures for British soldiers fighting on the
Tigris, Consignments of English Testaments have
been sent to the Y.M.C.A. and to Army chaplains in
Mesopotamia from the Society's depots in India,
and also direct from London. A recent acknow
ledgment says : " The books have come just in
time, as we have received permission to send four
of our men right on to the Advanced Base, and they
are to leave to-morrow. We are sending the cases of
books with them, as there is great need for the con
tents up in the firing-line." English Testaments
with the Red Cross upon them have also been given
to British soldiers wounded in Mesopotamia and
now in hospital at Meerut and elsewhere.
At Bagdad the Society's depot, which contained
about 22,500 copies of the Scriptures, was looted
when the Turks evacuated that city. Colporteur
Razuki, who had been in charge of it since before
the war began, reached Busra about midsummer,
1917, and will return to Bagdad as speedily as pos
sible with fresh supplies to re-open the depot.
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In Russia.
It has been most difficult in Russia to replenish
our stocks of books, through scarcity of labour for
printing and binding and lack of railway transport.
Fresh official restrictions also limited free dis
tribution among German and Austrian prisoners of
war, as well as among Russian troops in the field
and sick and wounded soldiers in the lazarets. Yet
our war distribution last year amounted to 107,000
volumes, and included copies in Russian, German,
Polish, Esthonian, Hungarian, Bohemian, Chuvash,
Cheremiss, Mordoff, Votyak, Armenian, and Turkish.
More than half of these went out througli the
Russian Red Cross, or the Danish Red Cross, or the
Imperial depot at the Winter Palace in Petrograd.
In and around Moscow eight priests of the Orthodox Church have
distributed for us 2,000 copies among prisoners of. war, and nearly
4,000 copies among the sick and wovmded in the lazarets. The
clergy ot the church of Gagri in the Caucasus, overlooking the Black
Sea, offer their warmest thanks to the B.F.B.S. for a gift of the
Scriptures in Russian and Polish, which they distributed to the
sick and wounded soldiers of Field Hospital No. 1001.
The Colonel of the 451st Piriatinsky Regiment sent in the name
of the regiment his sincere thanks to the B.F.B.S. as generous
donors of a case of Holy Scriptures. " AU this time," he adds, " the
regiment has been in the fighting, and so this lettar has been
somewhat delayed."
In Russian Central Asia our depot-keeper at Tashkent gave away
8,000 Gospels and Psalters in German, Polish, Bohemian, and
Hungarian among prisoners of war, and the Russian censorship
officials helped in the distribution. At Tabriz, in the north of Persia,
our representative distributed the Scriptures in the hospital of Baghi
Shumal among sick and wounded soldiers — Russians, Armenians,
Georgians, and men ot other races. Here is one vignette from the
railway station at Krasnoyarsk in Siberia. A third-class passenger
bought a New Testament and then spoke to a group of young
soldiers : " You are going to lay down your lives for Holy Russia, our
44

IN MANY CAMPS
Emperor, our Church. I have only 64 Tcopeclis (now=10d.), and with
this I am going to give four of you a copy apiece of the four Gospels
in Russian: that will leave 4 kopecks with which to buy myself a
pound of bread. I hope you will treasure the small gift. BeUeve
me, I give it to each of you freely, and pray that you may each carry
your cross as our Master Christ has shown us in this little book —
with patience, looking upward and forward. Try and follow His
example." In Egypt.
At Port Said, the water-gate between the East
and the West, over 18,000 Red Cross copies were
given away from our depot last year to sick and
wounded soldiers in the British hospitals throughout
Egypt and on board hospital ships. We quote from
one among many letters of thanks.
" Words fail me to express the gratitude which is in my heart to
the B.F.B.S. for its most liberal supply of Testaments and Gospels
for men in the 31st General Hospital, whom I have had the privilege
of visiting frequently during the last eight months. As soon as I
had finished a packet of 100 copies I had only to announce the fact
to your agent, and he immediately sent another packet. Many of
the men, who had lost their Testaments in Gallipoli or the Sinai
desert, were most thankful to have them replaced."
At Port Said last year our colporteurs obtained
leave to visit many British transports. When 700
Russian sailors landed from a torpedoed warship,
each of them was presented with a Russian New
Testament, and our agent received a special letter
of thanks from the Russian Consul. Two large
Russian battleships anchored in the harbour, and
after various official formalities our colporteur was
allowed on board. He had a warm welcome on both
vessels, the sailors crowding round him, eager to
buy his books, so that 250 Bibles and over 50 Testa
ments and Psalters were sold. He writes:
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DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP
" I continued selling untU sunset, when I joined the whole ship's
company in a few moments of silent prayer, which is their devout
custom. There on the deck of that great ship it was touching to
note the reverence with which each man, from the highest to the
lowest, bowed bareheaded in worship to the Great Father of us aU.
With the last dip of the sun the bugles rang out, and we went on
with om: work until darkness made it impossible to do more."
An Italian troopship that anchored last year at
Port Said was full of Abyssinian soldiers, who kept
our colporteur busy, hour after hour, selling them
Testaments and Gospels in Amharic and Ethiopic,
at the rate of nearly a volume each minute. Another
colporteur at Port Said was selling Chinese Gospels
to coolies on board a French transport, when he
was interrupted by bombs dropped from an enemy
aeroplane. During 1916 there was great activity all along the
Suez Canal. Many thousands of British troops have ^
been constantly employed, and various agencies
have been distributing among them copies of the
Scriptures drawn from our Bible House at Port
Said. One very active Y.M.C.A. worker w^rites :
" ' The Word of the Lord was precious in those days ' ; that is
Uterally as true to-day as it was in Samuel's childhood. Hundreds —
it would be safe to say thousands — buried their pride and shame,
and stepped up in front of crowds of their comrades in the Y.M.C.A.
huts to ask for and receive a New Testament. Only those who fuUy
understand the ordeal to a soldier will appreciate what such an act
costs. . . .Recently in thirteen days I gave away 3,000 New Testaments
to men in need, and their gratitude was beyond description. I feel
strongly that the Bible Society demands our support even to the
keenest point of sacrifice."
A young Highlander, stationed forty miles east
of the Suez Canal, declared that it was his daily
experience for a dozen fellows to come and say :
46

IN MANY CAMPS
"Jock, do let us have a read of your Testament."
Our secretary at Port Said has now supplied Testa
ments for this Highlander to distribute.
At Alexandria the Grand Rabbi procured from
our depot 200 Hebrew Psalters, which he sent on
by post to Italy for Jews serving in the ranks of
the Italian army.
Last autumn we presented 250 English Bibles to
the British military prison, Gabbari, Alexandria,
where the men in confinement are permitted to
read no other book. Major Owen Hassall, the
governor, wrote :
" The Bibles are greatly appreciated. It is often forgotten that
when a man is removed from evil influence and is brought under a
healthy rigime, his body improves, and with it his mind. The
British and Foreign Bible Society appears to reaUze this fact, and by
so doing greatly helps to reform a man, which is the one great object
of an establishment of this nature. A number of men who have had
no previous opportunity of reading and studying religion now eagerly
avaU themselves of the opening, the key of which is pjaced in their
hands by the above Society."
For Prisoners and Captives.
It is difficult to summarize the far-reaching bene
ficence which has put God's Word into the hands of
multitudes of captives, speaking a Babel of tongues.
We have gone on providing Testaments and Gospels
freely for English and French and Russian and
Italian prisoners in Central Europe ; for German
and Austrian and Turkish prisoners in France
and Russia. German Testaments were sent last
year to prisoners at Casablanca, Bulgarian Testa
ments to prisoners in Egypt, Turkish Gospels to
prisoners in Burma, Testaments to German and other
prisoners at Pietermaritzburg. Among many words
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of thankfulness from prison-barracks, we will quote
one sentence, written by a Russian captive to our
depositary at Vienna : " I look upon the book as
the apple of my eye, and I lend it to my comrades
to read."
In Siberia our depositaries succeeded in obtain
ing permits to visit internment camps for tens of
thousands of prisoners. For example. Colporteur
Saprikin has had access to prison-camps at four
different centres in the Far East, where he gave away
over 3,000 Testaments and Gospels. The imprisoned
officers generally purchased books in foreign lan
guages. The soldiers were very grateful indeed;
those who could speak broken Russian were chpsen
to convey their heart-felt thanks. Pastor Sarve,
of the Swedish Red Cross, and his assistant, testify
to the welcome which our little Gospels in German
received from prisoners in the lumber and mining
camps, as also in the zavods (smelting works) on the
Urals. In December, 1916, Pastor Sarve wrote :
" I wish to record my sincere gratitude to the Bible Society for the
Scriptures it has supplied me with in Russian, German, Polish, Hun
garian, Bohemian, and Yiddish. Thanks to your generous assistance,
I was able to sow the seed of the Word of God in many camps and
scattered places where prisoners of war were located. In some
places, where it is impossible for me to go personaUy, the local
authorities kindly took upon themselves the duty of handing over
your Uttle gifts to the prisoners of war. GeneraUy speaking the men
accepted the books with every token of gratitude, and, I know, read
and found comfort in them. May God richly bless the glorious work
of the Bible Society."
In Manitoba, where there is a large camp for
interned aliens at Brandon, a representative of the
Bible House at Winnipeg secured a pass which
enabled him to visit the camp eight times last year.
48

IN MANY CAMPS
He writes : " The war prisoners welcomed me warmly,
and surrounded me like bees. The guards did not
interfere, as they saw that the prisoners became
better men after reading the Bible. Every one of
them wanted a Bible in his native tongue." In that
camp our agent gave away over 400 Bibles and Testa
ments in nine different languages — Hebrew, Russian,
Polish, Ruthenian, German, Hungarian, Yiddish,
Rumanian, and Serbian.
The British Prisoners of War Book Scheme under
takes a very useful and necessary charity. To any
one of our own soldiers or civilians interned in Ger
many it sends out gratis a copy of any book which
he desires to study and for which he makes applica
tion. The founder and chairman of this scheme, Mr.
A. T. Davies, Permanent Secretary of the Welsh De
partment of the Board of Education, informs us that
whenever a request comes from a prisoner for a book
in any foreign language, the applicant receives as well
a copy of a Gospel in that language and a copy of the
same Gospel in English — these being supplied free by
the Bible Society.
From an internment camp at Peel, Isle of Man, a
German missionary writes :
" God bless your splendid work I — I beg^to ask you for some Testa
ments for my feUow-prisoners. What they urgently need is a Saviour,
and the Word of God alone is able to make them wise and perfect. I
can testify to you that no work is more noble and ennobling than the
reverent study of the Scriptures in this war-time. My English-
German New Testament is already worn out in this two years'
internment, and I should hke to have a new one if you were to be
kind enough to supply me. The Bible is that Book which has led
me to become a Christian, and, after my conversion, to become a
missionary. Now it is my daUy food on the shining pathway, and I
get my strength and comfort from it in the hard struggle of life.
49 B

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... I think there would be no war and no trouble if everybody kept
the Bible in hand and the words of it in heart and mind."
For Exiles.
In Holland one of our Belgian colporteurs, who is
himself a refugee, finds daily opportunity to comfort
and cheer scattered Belgian refugees. He writes :
" One refugee, who had been a village poUceman in Flanders, I
found weeping like a child. He had received news that his wife and
baby had been kUled in the bombardment of Dixmude. I comforted
him with the Word ot God, and read to him about the love of God.
At last he said to me, ' Sir, you have given me rest in my soul.'
" At Kamperland there are a hundred exiles from Belgium, most of
them ruined. Here I met a Uttle Belgian lad, eight years old, whose
mother had died in Antwerp during the siege. He had found a home
with a Dutch pastor. If you asked him where his mother was, he
repUed, ' In purgatory.' ' There is no purgatory,' said the pastor.
'Yes,' said thp child, 'there is no purgatory here, at Kamperland;
but there is at Antwerp.' "
The Blessings which come from God's Book.
Thousands of pocket Testaments and Gospels are
still being sent out every week from the Bible House
for the soldiers of many races and strange tongues
who are fighting in the great war. Here we can give
only a few glimpses of the blessings which these
books bring to men in bitter need.
' Dr. John Mott recently quoted the following
extracts from soldiers' letters :
" I received the book in the trenches. I sacrificed my last candle.
When morning dawned, I was alone with the book, and had read
for nine hours.''
" The hour comes when we must look death in the face. Then
there is a giving way of aU false props, and the Bible becomes the
most precious thing on earth."
A Presbyterian CF. writes from a casualty clear-
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IN MANY CAMPS
ing-station somewhere in France to acknowledge the
gift of 200 English Testaments :
" They are exactly the kind I want. They will be invaluable in
, my work. Thousands of men pass to and from the trenches. If
you only saw the eagerness with which they reach out for the New
Testaments when I offer them, as I frequently do, after Divine
Service, it would rejoice your heart. I also use them for distribu
tion among the sick and wounded in the hospitals of which I have
charge. I take care that there is no overlapping. You have helped
me and my brave laddies mora than any of us can tell."
Writing while on board a transport, a CF. describes
the constant use to which the soldiers put their
little Testaments during the voyage :
" I had 1,500 of these ; 1,250 have already been distributed, the
remainder I must keep for use when we land, though every day men
keep asking for copies. One can sea the men at aU hours of the day,
when off duty, reading their Testaments."
An Australian CF. wrote from Egypt :
" I cannot tell you how grateful I am to you on behalf of our
regiment for the Society's gift. At Lemnos, where a brigade of
AustraUan infantry was resting after some months at Gallipoli, I
constantly saw men reading their Uttle leather-bound Testaments.
When I got over to GallipoU I was gazetted to another regiment,
where I noticed the same little Testaments being read by the men in
the trenches. One soldier told me that he had read his through
twice." At Park Royal Camp, in Victoria, our Society's
representative met Australian soldiers returned from
Europe, some of whom still kept the Testaments
given them when they first left home. They told
moving stories of how they had read the little books to
one another before going into action, and read them
also to wounded comrades on the battlefield. One
man had been shot in the neck, and lay out for
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two days before he was picked up : he said : " I
was conscious the whole time, and read my
Testament, and thought of home, and prayed to
God, Who heard my petition." This soldier had
made a good recovery and 'was soon going back to
the front. Another Victorian soldier said : " Twelve
months ago you gave me a Testament ; I did not
trouble much about it when I was in camp, but on
Gallipoli I saw enough to make me think, so I read
taiy book there, and I learned to pray, and soon got
saved." The Rev. C C Owen, who is president of the
Society's Auxiliary in Vancouver, and is now acting
as an Anglican CF. to Canadian troops at the
front, testifies that Canadian soldiers as a rule are
shy of talking about religion, but many of them
will take out and read their Testaments when they
are alone. It has frequently been Mr. Owen's
sorrowful duty to bury men who have fallen in
battle, and on going through their effects he has
found again and again in a dead soldier's coat-pocket
a khaki Testament which showed unmistakable signs
of use. One Canadian whom he thus buried was
known among his comrades as "the man who
always read the Bible."
In a Red Cross hospital near Leeds, when a
Testament was offered to a wounded soldier he
said : " Once, after we made an attack, I saw a man
lying dead in a shell-hole — open in his hand was one
of these Testaments. The dead man's eyes were wide
open and fixed on his book."
Professor J. H. Moulton, who recently perished
in the Mediterranean on his way home from India,
made one of his last public speeches in January, 1917,
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IN MANY CAMPS
at the anniversary of Our Auxiliary in Colombo.
He ended on a personal note :
"I cannot adequately express my gratefulness for the work which
the Bible Society has done in these days of war. Two years ago I
wrote to the Bible House to ask if they could produce a Greek
Testament small enough to go into the soldier's kit. Not long after
wards I received a copy, very small yet very legible— a beautiful
book in every way. That book went into the kit of my boy when
he went forth into the war. On August 4th, the second anniversary
of the war, he among so many others made the great sacrifice, and
the book was found in his pocket, pierced by the shrapnel that killed
him. I do not know if I shall see it. I do not know if I could bear
to see it ; but I want to acknowledge this personal tribute of intense
gratitude to the British and Foreign Bible Society."
In France a colporteur was cycling down the street
when two wounded French soldiers hailed him as a
friend. " I know you," said one of them ; " you gave
me a Gospel before I went to the front. I have
always kept it, and read it many times in the
trenches. It is St. Matthew's Gospel. Please will
you give me another ? My chum here has read it as
well. We have both been wounded, and when you
see death so close you feel the need of putting your
self into the hands of God."
A Canadian soldier in France had to lie out, badly
wounded, between the British and German lines ;
but, as he said afterwards, " It was all right, though ;
for thanks to the silent influence of this little book "
(pulling a Testament out of his pocket) " I was able
to make my peace with my Maker."

Deep calleth unto deep. When we catch the high,
heroic passion of those who count not their own lives
dear unto them — the spirit of the crusader and the
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DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP
martyr — it is then, and not till then, that the New
Testament unfolds to us its inner meaning. Those
lads who have gone in deadly jeopardy for our sakeg
enter into the very heart of the Gospel. They
understand what it means to be obedient unto
death, and they learn something of the secret of
Calvary which they might miss in a thousand
sermons. At a Bible meeting down in Devon last
spring, a father with two sons at the front stood up
and with choking voice quoted a letter from one of
his boys — a letter of gratitude for the gift of a khaki
Testament : " I have read it through more than once,
I can tell you I see things in a new light out here.
Don't be afraid for me, Jather ; all's well,"

54

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THROUGH MANY CHANNELS
I go my ua/y, thou goest thine,
Mamy ways we wend —
Many days and many ways —
Ending in one End,
Colportage, the Bible Society's characteristic
agency, has paid its toll to the war. Across wide
areas this work has perforce come to a standstill.
And in several countries dozens of our colporteurs
and sub-agents — generally the most vigorous and
energetic — have been called up to serve with the
colours. In Russia our staff has been diminished by
one-half, and in Siberia we have now only one man
left. Some of these soldiers have been wounded and
some have fallen in battle. The Bible-sellers who were
working for the Society last year did not escape
hardship and peril. We hear of one man pelted in
Egypt, another arrested in Italy, and another im
prisoned at Athens. In Ceylon one colporteur had
to hide from a wild elephant in the forest near
Trincomalee. In Peru a colporteur was attacked
and beaten by a fanatic. Several of our men were
both robbed and beaten in China, and one was in
danger of being shot as a spy. In Kelantan the
British Resident forbade our colporteur to sell any
more books to the Malays, warning him that these
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DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP
Moslems might kill him. In Persia a veteran col
porteur, who has spent forty years in the Society's
service, was so badly assaulted that he just escaped
with his life ; he writes quaintly : " The reports of
my journeys for the last two years are similar to
the Lamentations of Jeremiah." Nevertheless our
colporteurs sold last year about 4,500,000 books.
The picture of these pilgrims and their progress
brings before our minds a panorama of foreign lands,
and countless leagues of wayfaring, and a multitude
of Christian pioneers. They are the explorers, the
knights-errant of the missionary enterprise, who
carry with them a sense of adventure and risk and
hardship and isolation. They are far-scattered over
strange countries; they differ in blood and speech,
in colour and garb ; but they are humble members
of "that incredible company who turn the world
upside down and are ever amazed when it is done,"
Ready to give a reason.
The speech of the colporteurs is fuU of surprises
— quickness of thought, infinite tact, good humour
and resourcefulness, words of courtesy and com
passion ; " truly it seems as though to these
disciples also were given what they should speak.
And very few of them, if their lips were opened, but
could tell of strange experiences and providential
interpositions and deliverances."
Presence of , mind and ready wit are priceless gifts
for colportage. A Bible-seller in Madras saw a
Brahmin resting under a tree by the wayside and
preparing to chew betel-nut and tobacco. When he
was offered a Gospel he said, "I must not defile
myself. The books may be good, but you who carry
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THROUGH MANY CHANNELS
them eat flesh." The colporteur answered, " Sir, you
are about to chew tobacco. Can you tell me through
how many hands it has passed ? " The Brahmin
shrugged his shoulders, but had no reply.
The Imitation and the Reality.
In a restaurant at Rome where Colporteur Casati
was offering his books from table to table, one man
took up a Testament and said, " I have never seen
this book before. . . . Do you know the best book I
have ever read ? It is The Imitation of Christ."
" An excellent book, indeed?" said Casati, " I have
read it for twenty years with profit; but this is
better 1 " " What do you mean ? Come and explain
to me," said the man, making room for Casati beside
him. "Well," said Casati, "in Thomas a Kempis
you have the Imitation ; here on the other hand
you have the Substance, the Reality." The conversa
tion ended in the purdiase of an Italian Bible.
The Japanese Red Cross.
A man who was wearing the badge of the Japanese
Red Cross Society did not want to hear about the
Scriptures. He said to our colporteur, "I dislike
Christianity, so I want nothing pertaining to Christ."
" You contradict yourself. The Cross is the central
emblem of Christianity. The Red Cross Society has
grown out of the teachings of Christ ; and you are a
membfer of that Society." The man at once grew
polite : " So I am becoming a Christian unawares ! "
and he bought one of the colporteur's books.
"Read it to your heart."
Japanese, like English, has its local dialects. In
the region of Satsuma the common speech is so sharp
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DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP
in "tone" and accent that it sounds almost like a
foreign tongue. A young Japanese in Satsuma, who
had heard that the Bible is to the Christian as sacred
as Buddha's teachings to the Buddhist, put to our
colporteur this curious question : "With what
intonation ought the Bible to be read ? " " You may
read it without any tones," replied the colporteur,
"or even without audible utterance, for it ought
to be read to your own heart — not like Buddhist
books which are read aloud before an image or a
dead man's corpse." " I see," said the young man,
" I "will buy that 5 sen (= IJd.) Testament and read
it to my heart."
Sorcerer's Books.
At a country fair in France our colporteur found
at first that folk seemed suspicious of him. Before
long an old woman blurted out the reason :
" Are not those sorcerer's books ? " He could not
help laughing; but he opened the New Testament
and pointed to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
saying, " Is He a sorcerer, friends ? " One man,
to satisfy himself, took up a Testament and turned
over the leaves, while the people gathered round
and asked him questions. " In my opinion," said
he, "this is a good book, which tells us about God
and the holy apostles." Thereupon he bought it, and
thirty New Testaments were sold on the spot, besides
a score of smaller portions.
The Two Voices.
A Belgian colporteur, who has found refuge in
Holland, read some passages from God's Word to
a lady, and offered her a Bible. She answered,
" I don't want a Bible. I have God in my house,
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THROUGH MANY CHANNELS
and that is enough for me." He replied, "You
are fond of bread, and you do not like flour — how
can that be possible ? I will explain it to you. Your
heart is saying to you. Buy the Bible, for it is the
Word of God ; but your purse is saying, Don't buy it.
Now I say, obey your heart ; for the reading of the
Word of God will bring you into touch with your
Saviour — with God Himself." However she would
listen to nothing, so he left her, after wishing her
God's blessing. But when he had gone some distance
she called him back. He asked, "Has your heart
conquered, or your purse ? " and she answered, " My
heart," In India.
Out of a thousand colporteurs employed by the
Bible Society, 180 were busy last year along the
highways and byways of India, where these
humble men disposed of more than 400,000 copies
of the Scriptures. In ancient cities and in jungle vil
lages the wandering bookseller offers to his country
men the vernacular Gospels for a farthing apiece.
One day he carries his wares to a heathen festival
or a cattle-market ; another day he is peddling them
from house to house, or talking about them to a
traveller by the road-side, or displaying a little
magic-lantern at some country inn, or chanting
Christian lyrics to the accompaniment of a native
fiddle. Sometimes he is repelled with scorn, but
more often he finds that people will listen to his
words about the Scriptures even if they cannot be
induced to buy his books.
All over Lidia the war has kindled the popular imagination. In
Madras one of our colportenra met a Muhammadan, who asked him :
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DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP
"Are you a Christian? Then teU me this : if in this war with
Turkey the British are victorious, wiU His Majesty the Emperor
of India torture the Muhammadans in this country ? " A Hindu
devotee said to another colporteur : " Instead of trying to convert
us to Christianity, why do you not become a Hindu ? See how the
Europeans themselves follow our Hindu books I In ancient times
the war between the Devas and the Asuras was fought in the air,
and now the Europeans are fighting in like manner. Jloreover, aU
the gods of our country have gone over to Europe to fight for our
Emperor because he has given religious freedom to all alike. The
Hindu soothsayers tell us chat our gods wiU not return untU the
Emperor is victorious in the war."
More and more missionaries in India appreciate
the value of associating Scripture-selling with their
evangelistic and pastoral labours. In many a village
the preacher finds ground already prepared for him
before ever he arrives, and discovers some copy of
the Gospel as a centre of gracious influence ; and
when the human voice departs, the printed message
of God's love is left behind.
In November, 1916, a special week of Gospel-selling
took place in the Punjab, and God's blessing was on
the effort. One worker wrote : " The Gospels are
selling like hot cakes." A second wrote : " We got
surrounded by two separate crowds inside the city,
and at one place I sold as quickly as I could pass the
books." A third says : " With the help of our lads
in their midday playtime I disposed of 41 Gospels,
which were chiefly sold to boys." One Indian
Christian teacher sold 240 Gujarati Gospels.
A missionary in Bombay writes : " At the railway station I found
a Sikh in the third-class waiting-room, reading aloud from a New
Testament which ha had just bought. A dozen or more people were
seated round him, Ustening attentively. He seemed absolutely
unconscious of the fact that he was helping to spread the Gospel of
Christ." A sadhu, or Hindu devotee, who wanders all over India, visited
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THROUGH MANY CHANNELS
Jubbulpore in May, 1916, and there purchased from our colporteur
four Bibles, 18 New Testaments, and 50 Gospels m Hindi. The
sadhu told the colporteur that he had found the Bible very good
indeed, it contained "just what a sinner needed in the world." He
bought the books in order to distribute them to seekers after truth
whom he met on his travels.
In Lahore.
Here is a vivid picture of the variegated crowd
that gathers round an English lady, Mrs. W. H. L.
Church, who is not afraid to sell farthing vernacular
Gospels in the streets of Lahore :
" By this time quite a large crowd has collected and I am conscious
of several pairs of fingers and thumbs diving into several waistcoat
pockets for the Uttle copper coins. The crowd presses nearer, and
my heart rejoices to see the intense eagerness with which they are
Ustening. Dozens of them are gathered together : an old man with
a quantity of shaggy grey hair and three enormous teeth; a dear
chubby little boy with eyes like Uve coals ; several neatly dressed
gentlemen with real attention written on their faces ; two heavily
turbaned Muhammadans, apparently aU eagerness to hear who wiU
get the best of the argument which they hope wiU be started ; a fat
Hindu, buttoned tightly into a coat which possibly fitted him in some
former existence but has strained every seam to hold together and
faUed; an old grey-headed babu (clerk), who has one eye up and the
other down, so that his spectacles, tied round his head with string,
are not of very much use to him except, perhaps, as a proof that he
can read; a tall Muhammadan youth with the bent shoulders and
hoUow chest so common out here ; a smart erect mission-school boy,
his pockets bulging with books which include a beautifuUy bound
Urdu New Testament, just bought from me ; and ever so many more
— aU hot, aU sticky, mostly dirty, mostly interested, aU needy, all
sinners, aU God's loved ones and ' His jewels.' FUes, stickiness,
smeUs and noise, the Utter of fruit skins, mango stones and pips,
paper, scraps of this and scraps of that — we notice none of these, for
we do not grovel in the dust-heap when souls are to be won. ' My
word . . . shall not return unto Me void,' He says Who has
commissioned us to ' Go . . . teU.' "
From her own experience of selling the Scriptures
among common people in India, Dr. Margaret
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Stevenson, of the Irish Presbyterian Mission in
' Gujarat, writes in The East and the West :
" One feels that if only one knew a Uttle more and were more in
touch with the mind of one's audience, one could double one's sales
— for the shepherd women are so pleased to buy a book which makes
special mention of shepherds ; the farmers' wives are delighted with
a Gospel that aUudes to crops and birds and seeds and flowers and
grasses ; the tradespeople are caught by the mention of a merchant ;
often the other women insist on the village carpenter's wife buying
the story of the carpenter's Son ; while members of a wedding party
ask eagerly for St. Matthew when they are told that it is the book of
weddings. If only one knew more of Indian customs and beliefs,
one could doubtless find many of them to which the Scriptures would
seem to aUude almost by name."
In China.
This immense population offers openings for every
form of Christian service ; but its great cities, its
populous plains, and its remote dependencies call
most loudly for the evangelist. The colporteur's busi
ness is to take the Gospel message in its printed form
to the people everywhere ; and in China he has tra
versed the roads and footpaths of the provinces for
so many years that he is now a recognized institution
and frequently a welcome guest in village or town.
Often he is hailed as the representative of the wider
world, and as a teacher of the new doctrine about
which something has already been heard. Last
year the Bible Society supported nearly 400 Chinese
colporteurs, working throughout the whole twelve
months, who sold 2,200,000 copies of the Scriptures.
We receive emphatic testimony to the evangelistic
value of colportage in China. On the Yellow River
a missionary of the American Board met forty men
who had joined the Christian Church in a year
through reading Gospels sold by a single B.F.B.S.
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THROUGH MANY CHANNELS
colporteur. In Yunnan a United Methodist mis
sionary describes how ten years ago two of our
colporteurs first visited a place forty miles from his
station; and as the direct result of their service,
there are to-day 200 heads of families enrolled as
adherents, while several young men are training as
Christian teachers. A missionary in Szechwan writes:
" I would rather give up almost any branch of work
than do without an energetic colporteur." A remark
made by a Chinese Roman Catholic priest to one
of the pastors of the United Methodist Mission at
Ningpo is worth recording : he said, " No matter
where I go, even in the most remote mountain
villages, I find the Gospels."
From Shantung, the Rev. W. H. Sears, of the Eng
lish Baptist Mission, Pingtu, writes :
" Again our mission gratefuUy acknowledges the grants made by
your Society. Three new churches have been organized this autumn,
with an average of 220 per church, and two of them were started
by colporteurs."
From the province of Chekiang, Miss M. Steinmann,
of the C.I.M., writes :
" In our mountainous region, with its countless viUages and
hamlets scattered up and down. Colporteur Chen's work often results
in a,ching back and sore feet. All around Chingning there is quite a
spiritual awakening, mainly due to Mr. Chen's faithful work. I
myself was present at the last baptismal service, on November 5th,
1916, when nineteen men and seven women confessed their faith in
the Lord Jesus by baptism : each one testified that he or she first
heard the truth through Mr. Chen.''
The mountains of Yunnan, in the south-west of
China, are the home of a number of aboriginal tribes,
of which the Hwa Miao, the Lisu, the Laka, the Kopu,
and the Nosu are being evangelized with remarkable
success by the C.I.M. and the United Methodist Mission.
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Our Society has already published one or more of the
Gospels in four of their dialects, and the New Testa
ment in Hwa Miao is now nearly ready for press.
To meet the special needs of these scattered tribes
men, the B.F.B.S. supports eighteen native Christian
"readers," whose special business it is to teach the
villagers to read the Gospels in their own tongue.
Of these "readers," eight are at work under the-
United Methodist Mission, and ten under the C.I.M.
The Rev. H. Parsons, of the United Methodist Mission, describes
the transformation going on through the inconspicuous ministry of
thesp colporteur-readers : " Each vUlage has been visited in turn, the
people called together as opportunity permitted, and the old, old
story spelled out letter by letter. The Bible-readers are teaching a
people to read and to understand ihe Gospels in their own tongue.
It is intensely interesting to watch groups of the Kopu sitting on the
ground, spelling out the sayings and doings of Jesus. Again we ¦
desire to express our sincere gratitude to the Bible Society."
We can only indicate the ubiquitous range of col
portage by a few random illustrations. In the
spring of 1916 an Industrial Exhibition was held
at Taipeh, the capital of Formosa ; it lasted for six
weeks, and was visited by some 800,000 people,
among whom our colporteur spent a busy time.
At Baku, on the Caspian Sea, an Armenian col
porteur sold 10,000 books last year. In Java, our
colporteurs disposed of numbers of books to Dutch
soldiers and officers in their military cantonments,
as well as to Javanese farmers and Malay boatmen.
Among the hundreds of thousands of native
Africans who work in the mines of the Rand, two
European colporteurs last year sold nearly 10,000
volumes — of which about 4,000 were Bibles and over
5,000 New Testaments. These books were in forty
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THROUGH MANY CHANNELS
different languages, including twenty-two native
languages of South Africa.
In Korea.
Nowhere is the mission of the colporteur so mani
festly assisting to evangelize a whole nation as in
Korea. Last year the Society employed in that
country 160 Bible-sellers, who sold nearly 700,000
books, mainly little Korean Gospels, in the common
tongue. A missionary in Korea, who was himself
formerly a member of our staff, sums up the spiritual
results : " This colportage is a splendid investment.
The Bible Society's work in Korea is practically the
history of the Korean Church. Whatever harvests
that Church has reaped, we know that the Bible
Society has done the chief amount of sowing — yea,
and much even of the watering too."
In Korea the colporteur soon develops the qualities of a good
salesman. Of the people he meets, ninety per cent, at first refuse
to buy the book, and the colporteur soon learns to know the stock
excuses by heart and has ready answers for them. One man says,
"I cannot read, what should I buy a book for 1 " " What do you do
when you get a letter, if you cannot read ? Do you throw it away ? "
"No, I take it to some one else, and have it read to me." "WeU,
this is a letter from God, and you cannot afford not to read it ; take
it, and get some one to read it to you. You know you have two doors
to your mind, the eyes and the ears. If you cannot read, Usten to
some one else ; and any way you ought to be able to read for yourself.
Here, take this sheet with the printed alphabet. If you study it
for an hour every day, you wiU soon be able to read this book." In
many cases the ignorance is only an excuse, and the man is seen
reading the book a few minutes afterwards. " I have no money."
" But this Gospel only costs 1 sen (^ ^d.). Look, where would you
get such value for a sen ? " " Yes, I know it is cheap, but I have not
got even a sen." If this is only an excuse, the colporteur says, " 0
well, if you reaUy want the book, and have not got a sen, just give
me a handful of millet, or an egg, or anything." This often helps a
Korean to find the ten.
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In the Republics of the Andes.
For colportage on the Pacific slope of South
America a man needs a sturdy constitution and
strength of body, with plenty of courage and a heart
overflowing with the grace of God. It is no light
duty to carry the Gospel-bag across dreary deserts
and up rugged mountains. The results achieved are
the best evidence of the spirit by which our Bible-
sellers are inspired. Last year the Scriptures were
circulated, either by our regular staff or by corre
spondents, from equatorial Colombia to the bleak
Straits of Magellan. In Peru a long and perilous
journey was made by two of our men from Huancayo
to Ayacucho. Another colporteur travelled exten
sively on the altitudes of Bolivia. Along the inhabited
length of Chile God's message has been carried.
Colporteur Irigoyen has maintained a steady circula
tion in the fever-haunted city of Guayaquil. One
delegate to the Panama Missionary Congress, after
he had circumnavigated the continent, wrote: "No
work in South America appealed to me more than
tbat of the colporteurs of the British and Foreign
Bible Society." * * * * *
" Here, then, are a thousand men, far-scattered in
many lands ; of different race, language, and early
upbringing, yet all so much alike that we think of
them as one. The reason is not far to seek. One
Christ, one book, one purpose make them a unique
fellowship and give them a family likenesa"

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BY MANY WITNESSES
" We cam scarcely imagine how much even a single
Gospel can do to remove misconception, to bring home the
attraction of Christ to- minds in all parts of the world;
and if we read the record of Bible diffusion, we shall find
the most touching and penetrating stories of this power of
the Bible, simply by its oum force, to penetrate the conscience
and bring light to ihe heart." — Thb Bishop of Oxford.
There are various ways of handling the Bible, and
it affects men differently according to their moral
and spiritual condition. To some characters God's
Book makes no appeal, and they refuse to respond
to its challenge. Not a few cultivated people
still read it after the fashion of the Master of
Ballantrae in Stevenson's romance : " He tasted the
merits of the work like the connoisseur he was ; and
would sometimes take it from my hand, and turn the
leaves over like a man that knew his way. . . , But
it was singular how little he applied his reading to
himself ; it passed high above his head like summer
thunder : the tales of David's generosity, the psalms
of his penitence, the solemn questions of the Book
of Job, the touching poetry of Isaiah — they were to
him a source of entertainment only, like the scraping
of a fiddle in a change-house," But to men who are
racked with agony the Bible speaks otherwise, and
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becomes their refuge and strength, their very present
help in time of trouble. Heine tells us that when
he was reading Uncte Tom's Cabin he wondered
extremely how an old black slave should find so
much more in the New Testament than he, with aU
his education and genius, could discover, and then
he continues : " Since I lay here sick and suffering,
I have found out the reason. I have discovered that
Uncle Tom read his New Testament with his back "
— his back scarred by the lash : that led him into the
soul and secret of God's Book.
The New Testament possesses a strange power
to reach the conscience and heart of any reader
who will seriously ponder its message. And we
have the overwhelming testimony of experience in
all countries and among all races to prove how
mightily that message can speak. President Wood-
row Wilson said in a recent address : " Give men the
Bible unadulterated, unexplained, pure, unaltered,
uncheapened, and then see it work its wholesome
work through the whole nature. It is very difficult
indeed for a man or for a boy who knows the
Scripture, ever to get away from it. It haunts him
like an old song. It follows him like the memory
of his mother. It reminds like the word of an old
and revered teacher. It forms a part of the warp and
woof of his life." Montaigne relates how his father
bequeathed to him his cloak — a garment of thick,
durable cloth — and he loved to wrap himself up in
this cloak as he sat in his study : " I felt," he says,
" as if I were surrounded by my father." Multitudes
of Christians have felt when reading the New Testa
ment as if they were surrounded by Christ.
Year by year the Bible Society receives fresh
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BY MANY WITNESSES
evidence of the way in which God uses the printed
Gospel to bring men to Himself. We do not under
rate the importance of living Christian testimony
and example, but where these are lacking, God's
Spirit often works by means of His Book.
From Korea the' Rev. D. W. Macdonald, of the
Canadian Presbyterian Mission, writes :
"Last autumn I spent a week with my Korean helper in a village
among the mountains where, so far as was known, there were no
Christians. But in our house-to-house visitation we discovered New
Testaments or Gospels in most of the houses. We held services
every evening, and I found the people very ready hearers, and before
we left fifteen men had decided to 'believe.' After our first night's
service one aged man, whom I afterwards found to be seventy-two
years old, told me to my great surprise that he was a Christian and
had read the New Testament through several times. We visited
his house, and found him a most interesting Korean of the old
school, well versed in Confucius and Mencius. He showed us his
New Testament in large type, and we saw that from St. Matthew to
the Kevelation it was well thumbed, and marked with pencU at
nearly every verse. Without any teacher, by reading the Book of
books, he had found his Saviour ; and though he was ignorant in
regard to our church customs — for example, he came to service with
his great long pipe and began to smoke while I was preaching — I
feel sure that he is a sincere Christian. If our way in this village
had not been paved by the sale ot the Scriptures, our efforts could
not have won the same success — so I thank God for the Bible
Society." From Peru, Colporteur Espinoza writes : " One
day, as is my custom, I went to the mines to sell
books. The men were receiving their pay, and a
crowd gathered around me to look at my books and
listen while I explained the central message of the
book I carried. As these miners have a reputation
for stealing, I took precautions so that I should not
lose any copies ; but on returning to my room I found
to my surprise that one volume was missing. On
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DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP
my next visit to that mine a man came up to me and
said, ' Senor, last pay-day, when you were talking
about your books, I took one without you noticing
it. At night I was hunting in it for the passage which
you had read to us ; but imagine my surprise when
I came across the words. Nor thieves . . . shall inherit
the kingdom, of God> Now, if you will forgive me, I
will pay you what you ask for the book. It certamly
is a wonderful book, which reaches my heart.' "
" Before we ever visited the village of Sa-pe-dau,"
writes a Burmese colporteur, " a man living there
had been labelled ' Jesus ' by his neighbours. When
he met us he received us hospitably and questioned
us about the Gospel, Though he had not yet
changed his religion, we found that he had already
obtained and read the Scriptures, He and his house
hold desired to become Christians, and with eager
faith he was telling others about Jesus Christ and
His salvation. For this reason they had given him
the name of ' Jesus.' "
In the Philippine Archipelago, the island of Bohol
has nearly a quarter of a million people scattered
among its rice-fields and forests. Dr, Graham, of
the American Presbyterian Mission, has sent us the
following experience. Five or six years ago a man
from the interior of the island visited the mission
dispensary, where he received a copy of the New
Testament. He took it away, and nothing more
was heard of him until last June, when a report
reached our colporteur in Bohol of a "crazy man"
who was constantly reading from a book and talking
to his friends about it. The colporteur found that
the " crazy man " was he who had received the New
Testament years previously. The book had laid hold
70

BY MANY WITNESSES
on him, and he had laid hold upon it, and had taught .
it to many of his fellow-villagers, until quite a little
community of true believers had grown up in that
place. Dr. Graham adds that eighty of these people
have since been baptized and received into the fellow
ship of the Protestant Church.
From North India a Canadian Presbyterian
missionary writes : " Only yesterday a man stood
up and declared before all the people of his village
that he had given up Hinduism and had become a
follower of Jesus Christ, because of what his son
had read to him from a Gospel purchased last
year." A missionary in Bombay writes :
" A lad from a Native State came over to one of our out-stations
and learned to read. One day, on his way home, a young man met
him when he was reading his first book. His companion became
very interested, and began taking lessons himself with us. Presently
these two young men started classes in their own villages, and now
two of. their pupils in turn have started to teach in their viUages.
Two of these possess the Bible, and two the New Testament. , They
are reading and having prayers daily. They have quite a number of
eager Usteners ; and although persecution ot an acute kind is going
on, they are holding fast to their faith in Jesus Christ."
From Manchuria the following delightful picture,
sent by the Rev. John Keers, of the Irish Presby
terian Mission, shows the arresting power of God's
Word :
" More than two years ago our blind colporteur was sitting outside
the preaching hall in the market town of Hungloahsien, reading
from the Gospels in Braille character. It was market-day, a,nd he
had gathered a crowd round him, amazed at the wonderful sight of a
blind man reading. Perhaps not more than one in four or five of
those who listened could read their own Chinese characters. Among
the number was a man called Liang, who became quite excited, not
at what he saw but at what ha heard. It was the first time he had
ever beard the Gospel, and it seemed to take root in his heart
71

DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP
immediately. He bought a Gospel and went home. The next
Sunday he attended church, and has done so ever since, in all kinds
of weather ; the distance of five miles he has to walk does not keep
him away. He has now received baptism, and has been the means
of leading many members of his own family to a knowledge of the
truth. ... In his vUlage he has led many families to put away their
idols ; two ot his neighbours have lately received baptism, and every
Sabbath he meets with Christians and inquirers for worship in his
own little room, which he has neatly prepared for that purpose.'"
Shortly before Christmas, 1916, the Bishop in South
Tokyo confirmed forty-five Japanese in the pro-
cathedral at Tokyo. One of them had just undergone
fifteen years' penal servitude for deliberate murder,
committed when he was a youth of nineteen. "He
was an instance — not the first I've met in Japan —
of a man who in prison had come to the faith of
Christ, without any teacher at all, simply from
reading the Bible alone. . . . He looks a pretty good
ruffian, but he is a dead-keen Christian."
In Chile one of our colporteurs was enthusiastically
greeted by a painter. This man's daughter had pur
chased a couple of Gospels, and the little books had
brought salvation to his house. " I was nearly beat
ing her," he said, " when she first showed me the two
books of the Protestants ; but I read them myself,
and now thank God I am a changed man. My
sorrow is that I did not find these books sooner, for
all my youth was lost to God. Let me have a Bible."
The painter has been eagerly telling others the good
news, ever since he found out its value for himself.
Redeemed from the Law.
In the Transvaal, Mr. W. F. Mundell, one of our
colporteurs on the Rand, met an African labourer to
whom he had given a New Testament, and who thus
described his experience : 72

BY MANY WITNESSES
" On getting the Testament, I went to my room to read ; but I was
stopped at the passage, The wages of sin is death. Those words kept
coming back in my ears, and I felt very unhappy and had no rest or
peace. One day I opened the Epistle to the GalatiarfB, and read that
no one could be saved by trying to keep the law. That night I did
not sleep ; for ever since I read that the wages of sin is death, I had
been trying to keep the law so as not to sin. Then I spoke to a friend,
who is a Christian, and he told me to read further on in the same
Epistle, and at Galatians iii. 13 I read, Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. Again and again I read those words ; then I
shouted, ' I see it now : it is aU finished : Christ has finished it for
me.' Then I cried again — not because I was lost, but because I was
found." Mr. MundeU adds : " Just to look at that boy's face was
enough to convince me that he had found peace with God."
A Newspaper Propaganda.
In Buenos Ayres a popular illustrated paper,
Mundo Argentina, now publishes a weekly para
graph under the heading, " Christianity according
to Christ," giving a selection from His teachings,
with exposition and comment. So courageous and
unprecedented an innovation has aroused widespread
interest. One reader wrote to ask the name of the
book from which -the editor was quoting Christ's
sayings, and where it could be obtained. The
editor accordingly inserted a paragraph recom
mending his readers to procure the New Testa
ment, and to write to the Bible Society's depot
in Buenos Ayres enclosing the price in stamps.
Within a few days our secretary received 160 letters
enclosing stamps and asking for New Testaments.
One of them was signed by seven prisoners in
a jail, who enclosed stamps for New Testaments !
The following is the translation of a letter written
subsequently by one of these prisoners: —
"I am very grateful to the Bible Society for having given me the
light in this prison, where there seemed to be nothing but darkness.
73

DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP
These divine precepts have acted on my soul with saving power.
How ihappy one feels when he knows his Lord, and has the forgive
ness of his many sins. Although I am condemned to be here for the
rest of my Ufe, I have no fear of the future. I do not mind being
condemned by man, knowing that I have eternal Ufe, and am for
given by Him. I have had the satisfaction of interesting some of my
fellow prisoners, who now ask for Gospels, and I send you a doUar.
I am hoping many more will foUow their example."
For the Bible Society, the distribution of the
Scriptures is not a mere commercial undertaking,
or a problem of business machinery. From the
beginning, it has been regarded as a work not less
of faith and prayer than of zeal and courage and
wise organization. The history of the enterprise
proves how faith and prayer have never been lack
ing ; how often, when human enterprise reached its
limits, the hand of Providence has carried the
printed Gospel into dark regions far beyond the
range of missionary or colporteur ; how the Evan
gelists themselves have spoken of Jesus to men
who had never heard His Name from Christian lips.
On the Russian steppes and the heaths of Brittany
strange stories linger of our Lord and His disciples
passing through lonely villages and stopping at poor
huts. Charming old folk-tales we think them,
handed down from the dark ages. But to-day, in
places undreamed of, if our eyes were but opened,
we should truly see our Lord and His Evangelists
still walking in the world.

74

DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP

FOR MANY GIFTS
"Largely Thou giuesi, Chreuiiou% Lord,
Largely Thy Gifts should he restored:
Freely Thou givest, and Thy Word
Is 'Freely Give J'
They only who forget to hoard.
Home learnt to Uve I "
KSBLE.
The preceding pages of this Report have touched on
some of the outstanding features of the beneficence
of the Bible Society. Much, indeed, has perforce
been left unmentioned. We have said nothing about
the hundreds of native Christian Biblewomen sup
ported in Eastern lands ; or about those editions of
the Scriptures for the blind, which are now published
at nominal rates in thirty-seven different languages ;
or about the grants of Bibles and Testaments which
are being continually sent out to Sunday schools in
every county of England and Wales.
We have drawn an imperfect sketch of the open-
handed provision which the Society is making for
the fighting men, the wounded, and the captives in
the great war. But we have no space to attempt any
enumeration of the free gifts which it distributes
systematically year by year all over the world —
to patients in hospitals, to criminals in prisons, to
children in orphanages, to lepers in asylums, and
75

DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP
to sufferers in any country from flood or famine or
plague. Other special classes are not forgotten.
To-day, the Universities of India, with their afl&liated
colleges, contain over 40,000 indents. The Bible
Society offers to present to each young man, when he
enters college, a copy of the four Gospels and Acts in
English ; half-way through his course he is asked to
accept an English New Testament ; and when he has
graduated, the Society endeavours to arrange that
he shall go forth with the English Bible in his
hands. During 1916 over 10,000 volumes were thus
distributed as gifts aniong the students of India
on the threshold of manhood. A similar presenta
tion is now being extended to students who graduate
at the newly-founded Universities in China.
The appeal of a great enterprise.
After all, nothing has power to move men's hearts
like the logic of facts. This plain tale of a great
Christian enterprise needs no rhetoric to enforce its
appeal. Yet even our friends and sympathizers often
fail to grasp the financial position of the Bible Society;
while outsiders are apt to assume that it thrives by
some imaginary endowment or that it possesses
treasure laid up in store. On this account we are
bound to explain why the Society has never needed
generous help more urgently than it does to-day.
During the last dozen years our annual output of
editions of the Scriptures has doubled. Before the
war broke out the demand for the Word of God —
especially in the ever-growing mission fields overseas
— was already straining the resources of the Bible
House and had depleted its financial reserves.
Through this demand, our expenditure had been
76

FOR MANY GIFTS
steadily growing even in normal times ; but it has^
gone up by leaps and bounds through the new claims
which the war creates and the new outlay which
the war entails.
During the past three years all charges for paper,
for printing, and for binding have enormously in
creased. To take one example — the paper needed
for printing our immense popular editions of the
Scriptures used to cost from 2d. to 2|d. per lb. : to
day similar paper is quoted at from 7Jd. to 8d.
per lb. To take another instance, the price of our
packing-cases has quite doubled since the war
began. Moreover, the Society has also to pay far
heavier sums for freight, for insurance, and for
loss on exchange.
Christian people must realize the serious problem
which confronts the Society, in which they are all
partners. During these last three years it received
£12,000 less than it was compelled to spend. The
staff at home and abroad have responded promptly
and loyally to the Call to cut down expense. Thrift,
however, cannot be carried beyond a certain point ;
and our administration has always been thrifty^-
directed and controlled as it is by men of affairs who
have wide experience in business and commerce.
Hitherto, the Society's service to-Christian missions
abroad has been maintained without any reduction.
It would be a calamity indeed if the arsenal, which
puts the Word of God into the hands of His mis
sionaries, were compelled to cut down its supplies.
Hitherto, no missionary organization has been
refused the editions for which it has made request.
What Christian man could bear to see the Bible
Society failing to meet the claims which multiply in
77

DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP
this time of our tribulation ? Never surely does the
Divine message become so precious as in dark seasons
of conflict and calamity,
England to-day is suffering from a scarcity of
many things. Up to the present, however, we can
say, broadly speaking, that the Bible Society has not
run short of its necessary editions of the Scriptures,
because its directors have looked ahead in these
critical times, so as always to have adequate sup
plies in hand, or guaranteed. Before the end of 1916
they looked further ahead still, and placed orders
for new editions to provide at least for the needs of
the present year, 1917, Such a step entails very
heavy expenditure. The alarming increase in charges
for paper and printing and binding is compelling the_
Society TO lay out during this present year
£30,000 EXTRA MERELY TO PRODUCE ITS EDITIONS,
besides spending far more money for freight and
insurance. After most careful consideration the Committee
have reluctantly decided that they ought to place
some part of this burden upon the purchasers of the
books which they issue ; though they have in no way
abandoned the Society's great principle — to maintain
missionary editions everywhere within the purchas
ing power of the poor. Even with the advance in
selling price, our popular editions to-day are entail
ing heavier loss than ever. Our special khaki
editions are still supplied on terms which represent
only a trifling fraction of what they cost; while the
Society's offer to present Testaments, Gospels, and
Psalters, free of charge, to all sick and wounded
soldiers and sailors, to all prisoners of war, and to
aU refugees, is in no way stinted or curtailed.
78

FOR MANY GIFTS
The increase in the selling prices of the Society's
editions, moreover, can at most meet only a very
small part of the additional expenditure which the
war has entailed. The Committee are therefore
appealing to the friends of the Bible Society to
raise an EMERGENCY FUND
which wiU provide for present liabilities and the
claims of the immediate future.
His Majesty the King, who has told his people that
he himself reads the Bible every day, has graciously
contributed £100 to the Emergency Fund, to show
his personal sympathy with the work of sending out
the Scriptures to all the world. Members of the
Committee have endorsed the appeal by themselves
subscribing £5,000 already. We have abundant
grounds to be thankful for generous replies which
are coming in from all parts of the country. The
letters which accompany these gifts show that the
policy which the Committee have pursued is heartily
endorsed by the Society's friends and supporters.
There is still real need for earnest and self-denying
effort ; but we have strong faith that the Emergency
Fund will prove a success. '
Co-operatiqn in Christian service is strikingly
illustrated by the following letter which was re
ceived at the Bible House on March 26th, 1917, from
the Chief of Staff of the Salvation Army :
" I am desired by General Booth to express his sympathy with
the British and Foreign Bible Society in its present financial need.
He feels that the work the Society is doing was never of greater
importance to mankind, and he directs me to enclose a cheque for
JG1,000 as a gift from the Salvation Army towards the cost of carry
ing that work forward." 79

DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP
An equally sympathetic letter, enclosing a gift of
£100, has come from Miss Agnes Weston, of the
Royal Sailors' Rest, Portsmouth. Such generous
donations we can only accept in the same spirit of
fellowship in service which prompted them. The
Committee had some natural hesitation in receiving
gifts which might seem to impoverish one cause in
order to assist another. But we are fuU of gratitude
for so happy a proof of the unity which binds us
together as members of the Body of Christ.
The Committee desire above all things that the
great Society which our fathers handed down to us
may fulfil its great tradition — may never say " no "
to a genuine need for the Holy Scriptures, and may
never run into debt. For a solu1;ion of our present
problem we must give ourselves afresh to prayer,
since the Divine resources are not straitened ; and
we must gird ourselves anew for the labours and
sacrifices whereby alone a world torn with conflict
can learn the Gospel of peace.
*****
These awful years are indeed appointed for the
test and trial of our faith, our fortitude, our sacrifice.
Yet now, when God makes bare His arm, it is surely
a solemn and inspiring thing to be alive. We feel
that the Bible was written for such a time as this.
It speaks to our hearts to-day, as it never spoke
before. And when we face the tumult and agony
of nations in the light of the New Testament, we are
" utterly convinced that of all kingdoms there is but
one that has no end."

80

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY

President ;

Vice-Presidents ;

1878. BISHOP MITCHINSON, D.C.L., D.D.
1877. The MABQUIS ol ABEEDEEN AND
TEMAIK, K.T.
Ihe Bt. Hon. Sir J. H. KENNAWAY, Bart.,
O.B.
1884. BISHOP BOTD-OAEPENTEB, D.D.
1687. The ABCHBISHOP o( OANlEBBUKY.
1889. The EAKL ot HALSBUEY.
EABL BBASSEY, G.C.B.
The BISHOP ot ST. ASAPH.
1881. LOBD KINNAIBD, K.T.
The DEAN ol WINDSOB.
1893. Aid. Sir JOSEPH SAVOBY, Batt.
BISHOP STEATON, D.D.
1694. ROBEBT HEATH; Eaq.
ABCHDEACON SINOLAIE, D.D.
The BISHOP ot MAKLBOEOUGH.
J. E. HILL, Esq.
1895. The BISHOP ot BATH and WELL3.
The DUKE ot DEVONSHIBE.
LOBD PECliOVEE o( WISBECH.
Tho BISHOP ol CHESTEK.
The BISHOP ot ST. ALBANS.
Bev. J. MONEO GIBSON, D.D.
189e. J. TBUEMAN MILLS, Esq.
Ihe Et. Hon. Sir ALBEEI SPICEE, Batt.,
M.P.
Est. j. Q. QEEENHOUQH.
Eev. EIOHABD GLOVEB, D.D.
Tho BISHOP of HEBEFOED.
1897. BISHOP OABE GLYN, D.D.
Hon. J. J. ROGEBSON.
A. S. LESLIE-MELVILLE, Eaq.
The BISHOP ot DUBHAM.
1898. The BISHOP ot WAKEFIELD.
1809. The BISHOP ot ST. DAVID'S.
BISHOP WELLDON. D.D.
VISCOUNT OLIFDEN.
CANON E. B. GIEDLESTONB.
Bev. W. L. WATKINSON, D.D.
EOBEET BAEOLAY, Esq.
1900. BISHOP INGHAM, D.D.
The BISHOP ot LIVEBPOOL.
The MASTER ot TEINITY.
Bev. P. W. MAODON.ILD.
F. A. BEVAN, Eaq.
1901. The DEAN ot WESTMINSTER.
Ihe BISHOP ot LONDON.
BISHOP CLIFFOBD, D.D.
Sir GEOBQE HAYTEE CHUBB, Dart.
Sir a. E. KNOX.
1901. BISHOP COPLESTON, D.D.
BISHOP FYSON, D.D.
Bev. W. T. DAVISON, D.D.
Sir C. EENEST TEITTON, Bart.
CHAELES FINCH FOSTEE, Esq.
1903. The DEAN ot WELLS.
Sir ALGEENON COOTE, Bart.
Sir GEOEGE W. MAOALPINE.
1904. Tho BISHOP ol OXFORD.
The BISHOP of MANCHESTER.
BISHOP OEMSBY, D.D.
BISHOP STIRLING. D.D.
Bev. MABSHALL HARTLEY.
Bev. F. B. MEYER, D.D.
Bev. D. MACKIOHAN, D.D.
Sir A. HAEGBEAVES BBOWN, Bart.
N. W. HOYLES, Esq., K.C., LL.D.
GEOEGE CADBURY, Esq.
P. P.- WOOD, Eaq.
1905. BISHOP BEOWNE, D.D.
The Hon. JUSTICE FOBBES.
Eev. E. F. HOETON, D.D.
E. PERCY HOLLAMS. Eaq.
WILLIAltSON LAMPLOUGH, Eaq.
1906. The EABL ot DARTMOUTH.
The BISHOP ol CARLISLE.
The BISHOP of ELY.
BISHOP lAYLOE SMITH, D.D.
Rev. PRINCIPAL FORSYTH, D.D.
Rev. TIMOTHY RICHARD, Lltt.D.
D. E. HOSTE. Esq.
SAMUEL LLOYD, Eaq.
Z. I. EABP, Esq. * DMfOMd iilM

1907. The BISHOP of SOUTHAMPTON.
BISHOP llOBEBTSON. D.D.
Sir GEOEGE SMITH.
I. P. WEENEE, Eaq.
1008. EABL GEEY.
The BISHOP ot SOUTH TOKYO.
Sir ANDBEW H. L. FKASEH, K.O.B.I.
The Rt. Hon. Sir WM. MAOGEEGOR,
a.O.M.G.
Sir W. P. HAETLEY.
Eev. G. CAMPBELL MOEGAN, D.D.
J. EENDEL HAEEIS, Esq., D.Litt.
A. J. OEOSFIELD, Esq.
•Rev. JOHN SHARP.
1909. The ABCHBISHOP of YORK.
BISHOP MO.MTGOMEEY, D.D.
Prebendary H. E. FOX.
Bev. J. CAMPBELL GIBSON, D.D.
Eev. W. W. .TAOKSON. D.D.
•Eev. GEOEGE BROWN. D.D.
Sir G. A. GEIEE30N, K.C.I.E., P.B.A,
ELIAS ROGEES, Eaq.
1910. LOBD LANGFOED. K.O.V.O.
The MASTEE ot the BOLLS.
The BISHOP ol EXETER.
Sir J. T, DILLWYN LLEWELYN, Bart.
Rev. J. D. JONES, D,D,
Hov. ALEXANDEK CONNELL.
Eev. J. H. SHAKESPEAEE.
The Et. Hon. T. E. FEEEN3, M.P.
1911. VISCOUNT EEYOE, O.M.
The BISHOP ot WINCHESTER.
The BISHOP ot MADRAS.
Sir THO.MAS BAELOW, Bart., M.D.
Eev. DAVID BEOOK. D.C.L.
Rev. J. SCOTT LIDGETT. D.D.
A. W. YOUNG, Eaq.
1912. Tho BISHOP ol NORWICH.
Sir HENRY E. E. PROCTER.
The BISHOP ot STEPNEY.
Kev. CHAELES BEOWN, D.D.
Sir ALFRED W. W. DALE. LL.D.
•Eev. HENRY HAIGH, D.D.
Rev. Sir WILLIAM EOBEETSON NIOOLL,
LL.D.
1918. The BISHOP ol CALCUTTA.
The BISHOP ol SOUTHWAEK.
Eev. F. LUKE WISEMAN.
AEOHDEACON WESTCOTT, D.D.
Eev. OWEN EVANS, D.D.
Rov. Prof. A. S. GEDEN. D.D.
Sir ANDREW WINGATE, K.O.LB.
T. CHENEY GAEFIT, Esq.
Prof. ALEXANDEE MACALISTEE, F.R.S.
ALFRED BRAUEN, Esq.
1914. The BISHOP OF RIPON.
Sir FREDERIC Gt KENYON, K.O.B., P.B.A.
CANON PELHAU.
The AEOHDEACON of WESTMINSTER.
Rev. Prol. G. G. FINDLAY, D.D.
G. A. KING, Esq.
Sir J. D. MCCLURE, LL.D.
1915. The ARCHBISHOP ot PERTH, Western
Australia.
Tho BISHOP of LICHFIELD.
BISHOP E. R. HASSfi.
Dr. M. E. S.ADLER. O.B.
Sir WILLIAM MAOKWOKTH YOUNG.K.C.S.I.
1916. The BISHOP of OHEl.MSFOED.
BISHOP TUGWELL, D.D.
Blr T. F. VIOTOft BUXTON. Bart.
Sir CHAELES 0. WAKEFIELD.
Eiv. J. B. GlLLIBS, D.D.
ElfGENE STOCK, Esq., D.C.L.
Rov. PRINCIPAL W. B. SELBIE, D.D.
Prof. A. S. PEAKE, D.D.
JOHN MOOEE OEIPFITHS, Esq.
1917. The ARCHBISHOP of BEISB VNE.
General BEAMWELL BOOTH.
DAVID DAVIES, Esq.
Bev. JOHN OLIFFOED. D.D.
The BISHOP of SHEFFIELD.
JOHN BIGBY, Esq.
Bev. J. H. JOWETT, D.D.I
JAMES B. NIOHOLSON, lEq.
IfaralkllK,mT

81

a

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY

Trea,surer:
BoBEBT Barclay, Bsq.

Chairman of Committee :
Williamson Lamplough, Esq.

Committee :
¦ Elected May 2nd, 1917.
TTie Sates inAieate wlien memhera flrst joined the Committee.

0. A. Blngel, Esq. . . 1906
W. van 0. Bruyn, Esq. . 1910
Philip Burtt, Esq. . . 1916
•A. Eowell Buxton, Esq. . 1917
B. D. Cheveley, Esq. . . 1906
G. T. Crosfield, Esq. . . 1901
Col. D. P. Douglas-Jones . 1905
Douglas Eyre, Esq. . . 1914
C. A. Flint, Esq. . . . 1904
Henri Prey, Esq. . . . 1916
H. Lanoe Gray, Esq. . . 1906
M. Gutteridge, Esq. . . 1908
•Sir Henry Holloway„ . . 1917
OhristianH. Kragh, Esq. .1914
' Sir Frederic S.P.Lely,K;.C.I,E. 1916
Li6u|.-0ol. G. Maokinlay . 1913
•William Mallinson, Esq. , 1917
H. W. Maynard, Esq. . . 1898

Gilbert J. McCaul, Esq,
•Arthur Mercer, Esq.
E. B. P. Moon, Esq.
A. W. Oke, Esq. .
•Sir Charles J. Owens
B. E. Parkinson, Esq
•Major H. Pelham-Burn
W. H. Poate, Esq.
E. J. SeweU, Esq.
Colonel E. S. Skinner
Dr. E. T. Smith .
Otto Soldan, Esq.
James Steel, Esq.
Charles F. Sutton, Esq
Sir Charles J. Tarring
Stuart Trotter, Esq.
Axel Welin, Esq. .
Eobert Whyte, Esq,

. 1902
. 1917
. 1916
. 1910
. 1917
. 1916
. 1917
. 1908
. 1901
. 1903
. 1914
. 1916
. J.915
. 1911
. 1907
. 1912
. 1907
. 1907

The Committee meet at the Bible House, 146, Queen Victoria
Street, E.C, as a rule, on the first and third Mondays in every Mouth,
at Half-past Eleven o'clock; and oftener, as business mayjrequire.
Secretaries :
The Eev. Abthub T.\ylob, m.a. The Eev. Johh H. Bitson, m.a., d.d.
Tho_B6v. E. KiLOOUB, D.D., Editorial Superintendent.
Dr. H. F. MouLE, Assistant.

£ Editorial
Department.
Literary

\ The Eev. T. H. Dablow, m.a., Literary Superintendent.
B'Joarbme.nt I '^^^ ^^.y. H. A. Batnes, m.a., Home Superintetident.
Ihvartment l'^'* CrBOEGE CowAN, Publishing Superintendent.

Accountant ;
Mr. A. Buohanan.
Auditors ; Messis. J. and A. W. Sully & Co

Collector:
Mr. Geo. B. Poolb.

Honorary Solicitors :
Messrs. Cowabd & Hawkslby, Sons & Chance, 30, Mi7tcing Lane, E.C.
Bankers :
The Bank of England, Threadneedle Street. E.C. 2, and
Williams Deacon's Bank, Ltd., 20, Birchin Lane, E.G. 3.
* Sot on the Oommiltea last year.

82

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY

Secretaries Abtoad.

Monsieur A, L. Vasseur {Acting I
' Seoretary),
58, Rue de CUchy, Paris.
Herr A. Hartkopf (Acting Secre
tary),
31, Bemburger Sirasse, Berlvn.
Eev. B. W. Smith,
25, Palazzo Assicur. Gen., Piazza
Venesia, Borne.
Benor A. Araujo (Acting Secretary),
2yi, Flor Alta, Madrid.
Eev. W. Kean, D.D.,
Ekaterinhof Prospect, 12,
Petrograd.
Mr. W. Davidson,
Bible Depot, Ekaterinburg.
Bev. T. B. Hodgson,
1, Tunnel Passage, Pera,
Constantim^le,
Mr. 0. T. Hopper,
Bible House, Port Said.
Mr. W. J. W. Boome,
P.O. Box lis, Kampala, Uganda.
Eev. A. W. Banfield,
P.O. Box 78, Lagos.
Eev. D. S. B. Joubert, b.a., b.d.,
P.O. Box 215, Cape Town.
Eev. G. Lowe,
P.O. Box 639, Johannesburg.
Mr. A. Hope,
B.F.B.S., Hassanabad, Teherdn.
Bev. A. W. Young,
23, Choviringhee Road, Calcutta.
Mr. E. A. Adams,
170, Hornby Road, Bombay.
Eev. W. J. MowU (Acting Secretary),
Bombay.
Eev. W. E. H. Organe, B.A., B.D.,
P.O. Box 502, Madras.
Eev. D. A. Bees (Hem. Secretary),
B.F.B.S., St. Mark's Road,
Bangalore.
Mr. A. B. Sutler,
16, Thomhill Rood, AUaMbad,

Mr. W. H. L. Church,
Bible Depot, Anarkali Street,
Lahore.
Eev. W. Sherratt,
19, Sule Pagoda Road, Rangoon.
Mr. T. Gracie,
Bible House, Union Place,
Colombo.
Mr. 0. E. G. Tisdall,
17-2, Armenian Street, Singapore.,
Bev. G. H. Bondfield, d.d.,
17, Peking Road, Shanghai,
Mr. H. Miller,
B.F.B.S., Chongno, Seoul, Korea.
Mr. F. Parrott,
95, Tedo Machi, Kobi, Japan.
Mr. Chas. E. Bowen,
BibU House, 242, Pitt Street,
Sydney.
Mr. Fred G. Barlev,
Bible House, 24"l-243, Flinders
Lane, Melbourne.
Eev. G. M. Clark,
Bible House, 108, George Street,
Brisbane.
Bev. J. H. Sexton,
Bible House, Qrenfell Street,
Adelaide.
Eev. A. S. J. Pry,
B.F.B.S.,167,St.george's Terrace,
Perth, Western Australia.
Bev. F. H. Spencer,
Whanganui, New Zealand.
Bev. Alexander Telford,
Caixa 73, Rio de Janeiro.
Mr. A. B. Stark,
Casilla 568, Valparaiso, Chile.
Mr. W. 0. K. Torre,
CasilladelCorreo5,Buenos Ayres.
Eev. W. H. Barney,
Apartardo de Correo 323,
Caracas, Venezuela.
Bev. W. B. Cooper, m.a.,
U, Collega Street, Toronto.

83

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY

Home District Secretaries and Assistant.

Bev. James Thomas,
Bible House, London,
Bev. W. R. Bowman, b.a.,
Rowley Avenue, Stafford.
Eev. W. G. Jones, b.a.,
36, . Abinger Road, Bedford
Park, London, W. 4.
Eev. J. Alston, b.a.,
9, Priory Road, Kew, S.W.
Eev. T. Smetham,
53, St. Augustine's Avenue,
Croydon.
*Bev. Elias George,
14, Goldington Road, Bedford.
Bev. Walter Wall,
12, Chestnut Road, Moseley,
Birmingham.
Eov. T. A. Wolfendale, m.a.,
41, Barrfield Road, Pendleton,'
Manchester.
Bev. J. Addison Ingle, m.a.,
Lanteglos, Wilderness Road,
Plymouth.
Bev. H. K. Marsden, m.a.,
4, Ashwood Terrace, Headingley,
Leeds.
Eev. H. J. Cossar, m.a.,
St. Luke's Lodge, Alpha Road,
Cambridge.

Eev. George Daunt, m.a.,
3, Pitman Road, Weston-
super-Mare.
Rev. George Hanson,
126, Wiiigrove Road, Newcastle-
on-Tyne.
Eev. W. G. Eoberts, m.a.,
48, Burford Road, The Forest,
Nottingham.
fRev. J. Stuart Bimmer, m.a.,
167, Sheen Road, Richmond,
Surrey.
Rev. E. W. G. HudgeU, m.a.,
51, Cowley Road, Oxford.
Rev. A. Wellesley Jones, b.a,, b.d.,
Leven Grove, Kilmorey Park,
Chester.
Bev. W. Crwys Williams,
8, Richmond Road, Swansea.
Rev. J. Crossley,
18, Orosvenor Road, Scar
borough.
Bev. Tom Dring,
151, Mount Road, Wallasey,
Cheshire.
Eev. S. Metcalfe, m.a., b.d.,
2, Fairfield, Kendal.
Bev. H. C. ThreUaU, b.a.
26, Highfield Street, Leicester.

\ Eev. H. Starmer, 4b, Thorpe Road, Norwich.

• Besigmd Jwne 30th, 1917 ; succeeded by the Rev. H. O. Threlfall, BA.
+ Resigned September 30th, 1916.
t Jiesigned March 31st, 191T

84

SUMMARY
Thu British and Foreign Bible Society exists for one single object
— to supply every man with the Holy Scriptures in his own mother-
tongue. It concerns itself solely with circulating that Book which
is the charter of Christ's Church throughout all the world. And in
this aim it unites Christians of almost every communion.
The Year 1916-17.
The year's issues by the Society now to be reported have reached
a total of 9,589,235 copies. Of these 837,000 were Bibles, 1,903,000
were New Testaments, and ,6,799,000 were smaller portions of
Scripture. During the last three years the Bible Society has sent out more
than THIRTY million copies of the Scriptures. It should be clearly
imderstood that by a copy or " portion " we do not mean a leaflet
containing some selected verses : each of these thirty million copies
was either a Bible, or a Testament, or at least one complete book of
the Bible.
Of last year's issues, two million books were in English — which is
700,000 more than in the year before the war. More than a million
volumes have gone out in the languages of our fellow-subjects in
India. '
It is significant that a quarter of the books we issued last year
were sold in China. In spite of political strife, which in soine pro
vinces resulted in anarchy and civil war, that immense population
is being gradually leavened with Christian truth. And whatever
influences Chinese ideals must vitally affect the future of the world.
The total issues by the Society since its foundation have exceeded
284,000,000 copies of the Scriptures, complete or in parts. Of these
more than 95,000,000 have been in English.
The Work at Home.
In order to assist and increase the circulation of the Bible in our
own country, especially in places which are not reached by ordinary
85

SUMMARY
booksellers, the Committee grant special colportage terms to all
societies and institutions which regularly carry on the sale of the
Scriptures by colportage among the poor in England and Wales.
Apart from its war distribution, and exclusive of the losses involved
in the sales of its books at catalogue prices, the Society spent about
jE7,000 in England and Wales last year, mainly in grants ot Scrip
tures — free or at greatly reduced rates — to the schools and home
missions of nearly every Christian Communion, and to all the
varied agencies of religious and philanthropic activity.
Almost all the EngUsh and Welsh institutions for befriending the
blind obtain from the Bible House the Scriptures in embossed type,
at less than half the cost of their production.
Students at Theological and Missionary Colleges, who need such
assistance, received last year as gifts 100 Old Testaments in Hebrew
and 168 New Testaments in Greek. The Society also presents out
going missionaries with Bibles or Testaments in the vernaculars of
the fields in which they are to labour.
Translation and Revision.
In spite of the war the work of translation and revision goes
forward unchecked. The hst of versions in which the Bible Society
has helped to produce or circulate God's message to men now con
tains nvH hundred and four different languages. These include
a complete Bible in 182 forms of speech, and a complete New Testa
ment in 119 more. No fewer than 104 new languages have been
added in the last eleven years — which is at the rate of one in less
than every six weeks. During the past year versions have been
published for the first time in seven frbsh tongues.
Twenty-five new languages and dialects have been added to the list
since the great war began. These versions are printed at about
fifty different places, and in sixty different sets of characters. In
embossed type for the blind, the Society has already helped to
provide the Scriptures in thirty-seven different languages.
The Partner of Missions.
The foreign missions of almost every Keformed Church draw Bup-
phes of Scriptures from the Bible Society. These are sent out, car
riage paid, to the remotest mission stations, on such terms that
practically no charge falls on the exchequer of the missions which
receive and circulate the books. In every field the missionaries are
our most enthusiastic helpers and our most grateful friends, testifying
to the indispensable assistance which they thus obtain.

SUMMARY
The Anglican Church is now teaching the Gospel in 188 languages.
For versions in more than 178 of these it depends on the Bible
Society.- The Foreign Missions of the Free "Churches also obtain the bulk
of all the Scriptures they use, durectly or indirectly, from the Bible
Society. The enterprises and triumphs of Christian Missions are creating as
many new and imperious claims upon this Society — which has never
refused to publish a duly authenticated version of the Scriptures in
a new tongue. Each new tribe evangelized, each fresh language
reduced to writing and grammar, each new convert baptized, means
a new call for help from thei resources of^ the Bible House — help
which is most gladly given without creating a charge upon the funds
of the Mission which is aided thereby.
In Foreign Lands.
The Society maintains depots in nearly a hundred of the chief
cities of the world.
It employed over 1,000 native Christian colporteurs who were
continuously at work throughout the year 1916, supervised by the
Society's foreign agents or its missionary friends. In spite of many
hindrances, due to the war, these colporteurs sold last year more
than four and a half miUion copies of the Scriptures — nearly half our
total circulation.
It also supports about 500 native Christian Biblewomen, mainly in
the East, in connexion with missions in Eastern lands.
Auxiliaries. At the end of March, 1917, the Bible Society had 5,120 Auxiliaries,
Branches, and Associations in England and Wales. In connexion
with these, during the previous twelve months, 3,743 meetings were
held, and 8,301 sermons were preached, on behalf of the Society.
Outside the United Kingdom the Society has over 3,000 Auxiliaries
and Branches, mainly in the British Colonies. Many of these
vigorously carry on Bible distribution in their own looaUfcies, besides
sending generous annual contributions to London.
Last Year's Expenditure.
The Society's expenditure is controlled by rigid economy carried
to the utmost limit consistent with efficiency. The war has con
tracted the possibilities of colportage in several countries, but other
87

SUMMARY
expenses have inevitably increased. The totai, payments for the
past year have amounted to £857,263.
On translating and revising the Scriptures we have spent during
the past year £4,812. It ruust be observed that the heavy cost
of producing books for war distribution has been met by delaying
as much as possible of our printing in foreign countries — with
the result that in some fields our stocks of missionary editions
have not been maintained at their normal level. The Society's
depot expenses last year have increased ;61,274. On colportage we
have spent £2,217 less than in the previous year, and £i 3,712 less
than in the year before tho war. Altogether the Society's expen
diture for 1910-17 was £2,165 below the total for 1915-16.
Receipts. When we analyse the principal items of income, we find that
sales of the Scriptures at home rose by i£923, but sales abroad fell
by £8,078. Donations paid in at the London Bible House have
increased by over £4,500.
In spite of the war, the contributions from our Auxiharies, not
only at home but overseas, have nearly everywhere increased. Last
year they rose to £93,096 — a total which (apart from special funds)
is the highest in our history, and is £8,000 more than it was two
years ago.
In England the Auxiliaries have sent £1,547 more, and in Wales
£300 more, than they sent in the previous year. Ireland has con
tributed i62,178 — an increase of nearly £500. South Africa sent £2,702
— against £2,023 in 1915. India and Ceylon sent £4,254 — an increase of
£1,160. Our Auxiliaries in Australia have raised £9,190 — an increase
of £604; and in New Zealand £2,610 — an increase of £461. The
Canadian Bible Society, after meeting the cost of Bible work in the
Dominion, has contributed £8,621 — which is £2,727 more than in
1915-16. We received last year altogether nearly i£ll,000 more in gifts
from the Hving. Legacies, however, brought in £23,866 less than
their recent average. According to rule, this amount has been trans
ferred from the Legacy EquaHzation Fund. Apart from this transfer,
and including the proceeds of sales, the Society's actual receipts
during the year have amounted to £250,657 — which is £6,606 less
than the Society expended.
During the last three years the Society received altogether
£12,000 less than it was compelled to spend. Nor is this the
whole. 88

SUMMARY
The alarming increase in charges for paper and printing and
binding is compelling the Society to lay out this year £30,000
EXTRA merely to produce its editions, besides spending far more
money for freight and insurance, The Committee are therefore
appealing to theJriends of the Bible Society to raise an
EMERGENCY FUND
which will provide for present liabilities and the claims of the
immediate future.
His Majesty the King, who has told his people that he himself
reads the Bible every day, has graciously contributed £100 to the
Emergency Fund, to show his personal sympathy with the work of
sending out the Scriptures to all the world. Members of the Com
mittee have endorsed the appeal by themselves subscribing £5,000
already. On August .1st, 1917, the payments and promises to the
Fund amounted to £22,000.
Otituary. Since the Society's last annual meeting, death has removed five
of its Vice-Presidents : —
The Archbishop of the West Indies, whose name had been on the
Hst for twenty-two years ; the Eev. Dr. Andrew Murray, the most
revered Christian teacher in South Africa; the Eev. D. Eowlands,
a veteran leader of the Calvinistic Methodist Church in Wales ; the
I^ev. Dr. E. Wardlaw Thompson, the statesman- secretary of the
L.M.S. ; and the Eev. Dr. George Brown, himself a missionary
pioneer and translator, and general secretary of the Australasian
Methodist Missionary Society. '
With deep personal sorrow the Committee record the death of
their colleague, Mr. Leslie S. Eobertson, the distinguished engineer,
who went down with Lord Kitchener in the sinking of H.M.S.
Hampshire on June 5th, 1916. He had served on the Committee
of the Bible Society for fifteen years.
During the year we have lost three valued and devoted members
of the Society's staff abroad: Pastor D. Lortsch, ~who had been
agent at Paris since 1901 ; Mr. William Summers, agent for Spain
and North Africa, who first joined the staff in 1900 ; and Mr. Sydney
W. Smith, who at the time of his sudden death was in charge of the
Society's work in Brazil.

89

DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP

THE BIBLE SOCIETY BECEIVED DUEING THE
YEAE ENDING MAECH 31st, 1917:
From sales of the Scriptures issued from the
Bible House, London, to trade depots.
Auxiliaries, missionary societies, etc. ... £39,382
From sales of the Scriptures abroad  57,181
 £96,568
From sales of magazines  1,326
Subscriptions, donations, etc., paid at the Bible
House  24,869
Contributed by Auxiliaries at home  62,429
Contributed abroad  30,667
Legacies (excluding £23,866 transferred from the
Legacy Equalization Fund)  29,535
Dividends  6,268

TOTAL RECEIPTS £250,657

90

DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP

THB BIBLE SOCIETY EXPENDED DURING THB
YEAR ENDING MARCH 81si, 1917 :
Production :
Translating, revising, printing, and binding the
Scriptures  £123,471
Distribution :
Warehouses, depots, and sub-depots abroad, and
freight and carriage of the Scriptures  44,089
Maintaining colporteurs and Biblewomen  84,956
Salaries and travelling expenses of secretaries and
sub-agents abroad  23,917
Bible House administration, salaries, repairs, rates,
taxes, insurance, postage, etc.  9,241
Home Organization staff, including District
Secretaries  10,041
Reports, magazines, and other literature  6,874
Allowances to old and disabled servants ... ,  6,173

TOTAL BXPENDITUSa £257,262

91

NOTICE RESPECTING REMITTANCES.
Subscriptions and donations are received at the Bible
House, 146, Queen Victoria Street, London, E.G. 4 ; also at
the Society's Bankers, The Bank ov England, Threadneedle
Street, E.G. 2, and Williams Deacon's Bank, Limited, 20,
Birchin Lane, E.G. 3; — advice being sent to the Secretaries at
the Bible House. Cheques (crossed on the Bank of England),
Bankers' Drafts, and Post Office Orders (on the General Post
Office) should be made payable to The British and Foreign
Bible Society, and addressed to the Secretaries.

Letters containing Orders for Books are requested to be
addressed, prepaid, to the British and Foreign Bible Society,
146, Queen Victoria Street, London, E.G. 4. The Society's Depot
is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., the Offices from 9 a.m. to
5 p.m. On Saturdays the Depot and the Offices close at 1 p.m.
The Bible House is closed on the usual public holidays.

FORM OF A BEQUEST TO THE SOCIETY.
/ bequeath the sum of Pounds sterling
free of Legacy Duty to "The British and Foreign Bible
Society," instituted in London in the year ISOJf, to be paid for
the purposes of the said Society to the Treasurer for the time
being thereof, tuhos^e Receipt shall be a good discharge for the
same.

Home Teleqbaphio Address : Testaments Cent London.
Foreign Telegraphic Address : TestamenU London.
Telephone : 2036 Central ; 6174 City.

Prttited in Oreat Sritaln by Unwin Brothers, Limtted, Woking and London