p. 13 | THE BIBLE IN RUSSIA

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 26, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 26.

THE BIBLE IN RUSSIA.

This immense empire stretches from Poland to Port Arthur, and includes nearly 140,000,000 of people, among whom the British and Foreign Bible Society distributes the Scriptures in over seventy different languages and dialects. The society’s total circulation in 1899 was 578,000 copies, half of which were either complete Bibles or New Testaments. Both Church and State in Russia show warm sympathy with the society’s work. Nearly eighty colporters are employed, who find a warm welcome in villages from the Russian clergy, and in barracks from the Russian officers. Many of these colporters receive free passes on the railways and steamboats, which form the main arteries of the empire. It is cheering to learn that the society’s privileges and exemptions in Russia have been recently revised, confirmed, and somewhat extended. For instance, Bibles in any quantity are transported free on all state railways, but over each private line not more than nineteen tons (!) of Scriptures per annum will be carried gratis. In 1899 Russian donations in money to the society amounted to £582. The vast provinces of Siberia are opening up each year more rapidly to colonists from Southern Russia. Its great iron road is creeping on eastward to touch the Pacific Coast. Translations of the Gospels are being pushed forward in several new languages spoken among the more remote Siberian tribes. We can praise God that His Word has such free course over the dominions of the czar.—Bible Society Reporter.