In Eight New Languages by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 3, 1907

In Eight New Languages

By W. A. S.

It is estimated that the Bible, in whole or in part, has been translated into languages making the words of God accessible to ninety-five per cent of the people of the world. Now the remaining five per cent is being thought of and planned for in the operations of the Bible societies.

One of the secretaries of the British and Foreign Bible Society reports that this year eight new languages have been added to their list. These are as follows:—

Nagpuriya, spoken by half a million people in southwestern Bengal, India.
Dimasa, a hill tribe in Assam.
Hwa Miao, a people of southwestern China.
Bontoc-Igorot, spoken in central Luzon, one of the Philippines.
Tunisian Arabic, a vernacular peculiar to the regions of Tunis, North Africa.
Ila, spoken in northwestern Rhodesia, South Africa.
Tasariki, the language of the southwestern part of Espirito Santo, one of the New Hebrides Islands.
Paama, the language of a little land in the New Hebrides.

What a wonderful thing to put a portion of the Scriptures into a language that has never before spoken the life-giving thought of God! And there is something tenderly pathetic in hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd calling to the sheep that are straying in the uttermost and darkest corners of the earth. Those “other sheep” are upon the Shepherd’s heart, and in the last hours of time the Word of God is to sound the gathering cry to all the world.

“For thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.”, Eze. 34: 11, 12.

Truly the Lord is preparing the world for the close of time. W. A. S.