Bible Societies by A. Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 14, 1882

Bible Societies

By A. Smith

The Wonders of a Century.—No. 5.

BY A. SMITH.

Bible Societies.

In 1777, long before the first Bible society in the world had been organized, the first Congress of the United States performed the functions of such an institution by appointing a committee on the subject of printing an edition of ten thousand Bibles for the use of the people; and the committee reporting that it was difficult to procure the necessary material for printing, Congress provided for the importation of twenty thousand English Bibles from Europe at the public expense. In 1781, the war with Great Britain interfering with the importation of the Bibles, Congress again considered the subject of printing an edition; and passed the following resolution, recommending one printed by Mr. Robert Aitken of Philadelphia:—

“Resolved, That the United States, in Congress assembled, highly approve the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aitken, as subservient to the interests of religion, and being satisfied of the care and accuracy of the execution of the work, recommend this edition to the inhabitants of the United States.”

Elias Boudinot, a barrister of considerable political influence in the time of the Revolution, and who at the close of the war, being president of Congress, as such signed the treaty of peace that secured American independence, was a man of ardent piety, and devoted to the study of the Scriptures. In 1815 he was chosen president of the New Jersey Bible Society, the first society of its kind in the country, and published a notice of a general meeting to be convened at New York City, May 11, 1816, for the purpose of instituting a national society of this kind. The convention organized the American Bible Society and very appropriately elected Mr. Boudinot as its first president.

The British and Foreign Bible Society, the first of its kind known in the world, was organized at London, England, in March, 1804. In connection with the American Bible Society, subsequently established, it has exerted an influence that has resulted in the formation of like institutions in other nations, and in the organization of branch societies all over the world,

thus furnishing every nation and people with the word of God in their own tongue, which, like the sun in his meridian splendor, permeates the darkness of the earth with the effulgence of its rays.