British and Foreign Bible Society's Record Year of Distribution
The report of the work of the British and Foreign Bible Society makes an item which is in pleasant contrast with the signs of general spiritual declension which fill the horizon of vision in the world to-day. However much “evil men and seducers” may be waxing worse upon the earth, the dissemination of the divine word goes on, and the light of it penetrates more and more into the dark corners of the earth. The following figures are given in the Missionary Review:— Last year the British and Foreign Bible Society issued 5,067,421 copies of Scripture, complete or in parts—a total surpassing all earlier records. Since 1804 the society has circulated more than 175,000,000 copies of Scripture. Of every 100 copies issued, 19 were Bibles, 27 were New Testaments, and 54 were Scripture portions, chiefly Gospels or the Psalms. The colporteurs abroad, numbering 743, sold over 1,350,000 copies, while 620 native Christian Bible women were supported in the East, in connection with nearly fifty different missionary organizations. Translations or revisions are in progress in over one hundred different languages. The list of versions now includes the names of three hundred and sixty-seven distinct forms of speech. And this, while the greatest Bible Society, is not the only one which is engaged in this grand work.