THE BIBLE IN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES.
THAT in the more ignorant countries, and especially among the Spanish peoples, there exists the old-time opposition to the circulation of the Scriptures among the laity, it needs no testimony to establish. But evidence on this point is supplied by the seventy-eighth annual report of the American Bible Society, which has just been issued, and which deals with the obstacles which the agents of the society meet in the countries in which the Roman Catholic religion is in the ascendant. The report says that, although a late encyclical of Leo XIII. proclaims his desire to have the Scriptures "more abundantly opened for the use of the Lord's flock," not a priest or bishop in Mexico or South America is found to approve these commendations. On the contrary, according to the report, "it is at the instigation of ecclesiastics that any edition of the Bible which is not loaded down with notes is stigmatized as corrupt and pernicious, worthy only to be burned, for reading which the simple soul who desires to become enlightened becomes liable to excommunication and the forfeiture of all that church can offer as a help to salvation." It is affirmed, however, that the Bible without note or comment is being read more widely than ever before.—Christian Work.