IN THE
VULGAR

TONGUE

A POPULAR ILLUSTRATED REPORT
OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN
BIBLE SOCIETY 1913- 1914

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"IgLve fiefe Bovki
for the founding of a ColUgi in this Colony'

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IN THE VULGAR TONGUE

MOUNT SAKURAJIMA IN ERUPTION.
'HE TOUCHETH THE HILLS AND THEY SMOKE."

IN THE
VULGAR TONGUE

THE BIBLE HOUSE, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, LONDON
1914

INTRODUCTORY NOTE
Except where otherwise stated, the incidents and
statistics in this Popular Report of the British and
Foreign Bible Society belong to last year s record. Here.,
it is only possible to offer a bird's-eye view of the main
aspects of the Society's operations. For a more detailed
account the reader is referred to the Hundred and Tenth
Annual Report, price One Shilling.
T. H. DARLOW,
Literary Superintendent.
The Bible House,
August, 1914.

" The Gospel was delivered for this intent, to
be utterly understood." — Archbishop Parker,
in the Preface to the Bishops' Bible, 1568

CONTENTS

PAGE I

Prologue . • ¦
In Simple Speech , '3
In Plain Print ... • 3^
For Common People . 4'
In Heathen Lands ¦ 53
fiR
At Humble Doors
In Human Hearts . • • 9°
For Poor Men's Pockets ... • i°9
Appenwx • ¦ • • • "^3

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE

PROLOGUE
" IIow many of our words have more in them than
we think of ! Give a cov/irtryman a plough of silver,
and he will plough vnth it all the season, and never
know its substance. 'Tis thus with our daily speech.
What riches lie hidden in the vulgar tongue of the
poorest and most ignorant ! What flowers of Paradise
lie under our feet, with their beauties and parts undis
tinguished and undiscerned, from having been daily
trodden on ! " — W. 8. Lajstdob : Citation of William
Shakespeare touching deer-stealing.
Like all living things in the world, language grows
and changes. Though its change be hardly perceptible,
like a glacier's, it never remains stagnant. So long
as a language is alive, it will develop. In course of
generations it discards old usages, it adopts fresh
phrases and forms. Indeed, the number of new
words which stand knocking at the door for
recognition and admission may be a sign of the
nation's intellectual vigour. For language cannot
fail to reflect the characteristics of the people who

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
speak it. If they become degenerate, their speech
will share their degradation. But change need be
no sign of decay : it may be the index of intense
vitality. Certainly no language becomes frozen and
fossil until it is ceasing to be heard on the lips
of men.
Learned persons are always striving, and striving
in vain, to check new developments in their national
speech. Dean Swift in his Journal to Stella described
his own scheme for " forming a society or academy
to correct and fix the English language " ; and Dr.
Johnson in the Plan of his Dictionary, issued in 1747,
announced that one aim of his undertaking was to
fix the English language and secure it against the
perpetual danger of corruption. As a matter of
fact the history of a language is the history of its
so-called " corruptions." Gradually, usage makes
them familiar and custom makes them correct.
Horace laid it down two thousand years ago in his
Ars Poetica that usage is the deciding authority,
the binding law, the rightful rule of speech. Ben
Jonson repeated the same dictum in other words :
" Custom is the most certain mistress of language,
as the public stamp makes the current money " ;
though he went on to say, "That I call custom of
speech which is the consent of the learned ; as
custom of life is the consent of the good." Learned
persons, however, often prove quite untrustworthy to
protect their native tongue. Indeed, one chief peril
which besets a language arises out of the ignorant
formalism and affected precision which wage war
upon its ancient idioms and array themselves against
its instinctive development ; and among the enemies
of natural speech we have to reckon the grammarian,

PROLOGUE
the pedant, and the schoolmaster. This was in
Montaigne's mind when he wrote : " J'aimerois meulx
que mon fils apprinst aux tavernes a parler, qu'aux
escholes de la parlerie."
In any country where a great class of people read
and write much more than they speak and hear, the
written language tends to develop more or less inde
pendently of the spoken language. In China, for
example, the caste of scholars employ in writing an
elaborately specialized style known as High Wenli,
which no ordinary Chinese pretends to understand,
We are told that in Japan the colloquial speech has
diverged from the classipal literary language almost
as far as Italian has diverged from Latin. In
English a parallel process has gone on, until we
have, as Mr. Henry Bradley points out, " a literary
vocabulary of which a large part has no connexion
with the oral vernacular, but has been developed in
writing by the process of transcribing the written
forms of words of foreign languages. Many of the
words so formed have come into popular oral use,
but a vast number of theip. are hardly ever pro
nounced except in reading aloud."
Now to some extent, this is inevitable. Every new
movement in the world always has to find words and
phrases in which to express itself. Since some of
us can remember, a Darwinian dialect has arisen
in England to explain theories of development, and
an aesthetic dialect has been fashioned to set forth
theories of art. Modern inventions and discoveries
have created a host of strange terms to correspond.
We were compelled to coin fresh words, which our
grandfathers never heard of, before we could dis
course about motor-cars and submarines and aero-

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
planes. Moreover, each profession tends to evolve
its own technical dialect, which laymen find almost
unintelligible. Scientific journals and philosophical
transactions and theological reviews are fast
becoming sealed books to everybody who is not
a specialist. Mr. Bradley goes so far as to say : " I
think it not impossible, and certainly much to be
desired, that a time may come when all European
works of abstruse science will be written in some
as yet unborn successor of Esperanto or Ido. At
present our English dictionaries are burdened with
an enormous and daily increasing mass of scientific
terms that are not English at all, except in the form
of their terminations."
Assuredly one of the gravest faults of modern
English is what has been called the " undemocratic "
character of a large part of its literary vocabulary.
Bookish writers employ swarms of w^ords w^hich are
alien to our common speech. In the introduction
which Lowell prefixed to the second series of
his Biglow Papers, he warns us against the danger
of coming to look on our mother-tongue as a
dead language, "to be sought in the grammar
and the dictionary rather than in the heart " ;
and he declares that our chance of escape is by
going back to its vital sources among those who
are " divinely illiterate." " Only from its roots
in the living generation of men can a language
be reinforced with fresh vigour for its needs ; what
may be called literate dialect grows ever more
pedantic and foreign, till it becomes at last as un
fitting a vehicle for living thought as monkish Latin.
. . . No language that cannot suck up the feed
ing juices secreted for it in the rich mother-earth
4

PROLOGUE
of common folk can bring forth a sound and lusty
book. True vigour and heartiness of phrase do not
pass from page to page but from man to man, where
the brain is kindled and the lips suppled by down
right living interests and by passion in its very
throe." Amid the distracting controversies of the feminist
movement, we lose sight of the fact that the trans
mission of language forms one great primal duty of
woman. Little children are first taught to speak
by their mothers and their nurses — not by their
fathers. And so we rightly refer to our " mother-
tongue," not to our " father-tongue." The deepest
and most sacred words which we utter well up out
of the fountain of speech we learned in childhood.
According to Sir James Murray, the circle of
English language has no discoverable circum
ference ; but at any rate its centre is well defined :
for each of us, it begins at home.
Moreover, common people possess a wealth .of
racy, vigorous vernacular. It used to be affirmed
that the English rustic has only a narrow range
of language, and employs hardly more than three
hundred different words. A glance at the English
Dialect Dictionary will convince any one that such
statements are ludicrous. That dictionary, which
extends to six volumes and over 5,000 pages, includes
more than 100,000 words. Moreover, it teems with
an immense variety of terms and phrases for express
ing one and the same idea. For example, there are
about 1,350 words meaning to give any one a
thrashing ; there are over 1,000 terms for a slattern ;
there are 130 names for the smallest pig in a litter ;
and there are 1,300 ways of telling you that you are

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
a fool. This vast vocabulary, which has well-nigh
vanished from modern books though it lingers in
the living speech of our English villages, sufficiently
illustrates the rich resources of the vulgar tongue.
Of course, no one seriously proposes to revive
dying dialects, or even to set about writing in the
wonderful Saxon style which William Morris ex
emplified in his News from Nowhere. Still less need
we adopt vulgarisms, or sink into slang. It is perhaps
impossible to discover a sufficient definition of orthor
dox English. But we shall not go astray when we
set before ourselves the simplicity and dignity of a
book like The Pilgrim's Progress. Among modern
public men Abraham Lincoln and John Bright could
wield the vulgar tongue at its very best. They were
masters of strong, nervous, noble English speech,
"classic because it was of no special period, and
level at once to the highest and lowest of their
countrymen." Our English Authorised Version of the Bible
claims on its title-page to be in the vulgar tongue.
The object of the translators was to make the Scrip?
tures intelligible, as far as possible, to every English.^
speaking man, woman, or child, rich or poor, simple
or learned. We may not be able to define precisely
what is meant by the vulgar tongue ; but its essentia
characteristic, the one thing which matters in this
connexion, is that it can be easily understood by
common people. For example, " A certain man had
two sons" is English in the vulgar tongue. "A
particular individual possessed two filial relatives"
is perhaps English, but it is not in the vulgar
tongue which was happily used by the translators
of King James' Version of the Bible.
6

From the painting by Tidemand
NORWEGIAN PEASANTS READING THE BIBLE.

PROLOGUE
William Caxton, the first man to set up a press in
England, was even busier as a translator than as a
printer. He lived when the character of our written
language was being settled, and in his prefaces he
gives us glimpses of the struggle which the process
involved : " Some honest and great clerks have been
with me and desired me to write the most curious
terms that I could find " ; on the other hand, " some
gentlemen of late blamed me, saying that in my
translations I had over many curious terms which
could not be understood of common people, and
desired me to use old and homely terms in my trans
lations." Caxton's sturdy sense led him to choose
" the common terms that be daily used," rather than
the English of his antiquarian advisers.*
We may appeal on this point to one of the greatest
of Bible translators, Martin Luther. When he has to
defend himself against those who reproach him for
departing from the literalism of the Vulgate version,
he writes in his own incisive and vigorous fashion ;
" One must not, as these asses do, ask the letters of
the Latin tongue how to speak in German. That
one must ask of the mother in her home, the children
in the streets, the common man in the market. One
must watch their lips to see how they speak, and
thereby interpret. Then they will understand it, and
perceive that one is talking German to them. So
when Christ says ' Ex abundantia cordis os loquitur,'
if I am to follow those asses, they will confront me
w^ith the letters and thus translate : ' Out of the
overflow of the heart the mouth speaketh.' Now
tell me, is that talking German ? What German will
understand it ? . . . Overflow of the heart is no more
* See J. R. Green, History of the English People, ii. 56.

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
German than overflow^ of the house, or overflow of
the stove, or overflow of the bench. The mother in
her home and the common man would say : ' What
the heart is full of, that will the mouth utter,' That
is good German speech, which I have always striven
after, but not always hit upon." *
On this vital question the ideal of the Bible Society
for the versions which it publishes has been summed
up in its printed " Rules for the guidance of Trans
lators, Revisers, and Editors."
"The Committee wish their versions to be
faithful translations, in a style easily under
stood by the people ; on the one hand avoiding
vulgarisms and colloquial expressions unworthy
of the Book, and on the other hand avoiding
forms of speech which are classical rather than
intelligible to ordinary readers. It is not the
object of the Society to produce versions in a
language as it should be, but in a language as
it is. The simplest and best known words should
be used in the idiomatic forms of the living
tongue, and paraphrase should be avoided as
far as practicable. Every version should be
as literal as the idiom of the language will
permit."
This problem of translation into the vulgar tongue
meets us in all countries. It has been objected to
certain modern versions of Scripture in Hindi and
Bengali that they are full of words derived from
Sanskrit, so that they appeal to educated minorities
rather than to the scores of millions of common
people who speak Hindi and Bengali. When we
* Preface to Luther's German Psalter, 1531.
8

PROLOGUE
remember Henry Drummond's warning against " the
unconscious tendency of all who pursue culture to
get out of step with humanity," we feel that it is
safer for a translator of the New Testament to err
by being too simple than to err by being too
stately and dignified. Sir George Grierson, our
first living authority on Indian languages, pro
duced in 1890 a revised version of St. Mark's Gospel
in the Magahi dialect of Bihari. A lady missionary
with twenty years' experience among villagers in
Bengal has described how she watched groups of
men while one of them read aloud from this Gospel :
"They looked pleased and nodded at each other
while hearing the dialect of their homes." It is one
chief aim of the Bible Society to provide translations
which the uneducated can read for themselves. We
cannot be satisfied until we give people versions of
the Gospel which cause them to "look pleased and
to nod to each other when they hear the dialect of
their homes."
*.^ sie, siL ^e.
JfC 5fr 'Tf^ Tf^
All great books must in some degree suffer when
they are made to speak in what is not their native
language. Even the best translation can be no better
than the copy of a picture or the cast of a statue.
When we take, for example, the masterpieces of
human literature — the Iliad or the Divina Corn-
media, or Paradise Lost, or Faust, or Macbeth —
and compare them with their finest versions in a
foreign tongue, we begin to realize how much has
been lost. The translation of an original poem is
like the wrong side of a piece of tapestry — the sharp
outlines vanish, the clear, bright colours are blurred.
For a poet's thought and language must needs be so
9

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
fused together that it is half fatal to divorce his ideas
from his diction. Indeed, the most perfect pieces of
literature are the least capable of adequate trans
lation. The Bible, however, comes to us, not as perfect
literature, but as essentially the medium and vehicle
of God's revelation. And the Bible has this unique
quality that it may be rendered into all the
languages of mankind without sensibly losing its
majesty and tenderness and spiritual power. The
Scriptures as a whole can be translated with but
little sacrifice of their energy and their beauty.
In his recent volume on The Bible, Professor Peake
points out that " we may reverently and thankfully
recognize that even the choice of the languages of
revelation was not left uncared for by the providence
of God." It is no small thing that Hebrew, the
mother-tongue of Israel — unlike Chinese or Accadian
— was a language with an alphabet. Moreover, the
Hebrew language by virtue of its simplicity and
directness is unusually easy to translate. Speaking
of his own West African tongue, Bishop Oluwole
has said, " Yoruba is a language into which the Bible
phraseology goes easily. We find it very convenient
to translate direct from Hebrew, more so than from
English." Again, it is not without significance that the
Apostles and Evangelists wrote in Greek, which
came nearest to a universal language in the ancient
world. Moreover, they did not write in classical
Greek. Of recent discoveries about the Bible none
is more striking than the testimony as to the
language of the New Testament which has been
unearthed during the last few years out of rubbish
10

PROLOGUE
heaps of waste-paper and broken pottery, buried
in the sands of Egypt and dating back to the very
beginning of the Christian era. What this new
linguistic evidence demonstrates may be stated in
the words of the distinguished scholar who has done
so much to make it available in English : " The
conclusion is that ' Biblical ' Greek was simply the
vernacular of daily life. . . . The Holy Ghost spoke
absolutely in the language of the people, as we
might surely have expected He would." That is
to say, the New Testament was composed in the
common speech of those who first read its pages ;
it was written literally in the vulgar tongue.
The astonishing translatableness of Scripture has
been explained on various grounds. Some point to
the character of its metaphors, the frequent paral
lelism of its construction, the homely force of its
images from common objects. Others emphasize
the sublime and pathetic ideas which mingle with
its contents. But the real secret lies in the subject-
matter of the Bible itself.
With the true classics of the world there is no
respect of persons ; they are concerned with those
things which are common, with matters of enduring
and universal interest which come home to every one
alike. Now we have one Book, and only one, which
embraces all the heights and depths of human
nature. The Bible belongs to those elemental things
— like the sky and the wind and the sea, like bread
and wine, like the kisses of little children and tears
shed beside the grave — which can never grow stale
or obsolete or out of date, because they are the
common heritage of mankind. This Book goes down
to the root of our bitterest needs, our darkest
11

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
sorrows. It speaks with accents that are not of
this world about the only things which really matter
at last to each human creature. Now the things
common to all men are far more important than
the things peculiar to some men. And the Bible
can speak in every language and come home to
every race, because it is as catholic as the blood in
men's veins and the milk in women's breasts.

12

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE

IN SIMPLE SPEECH
" / saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the
Son of inan came with the clouds of heaven . . . and
there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a
kingdom, that all . , . languages should serve Him."
Daniel vii. 13, 14.
To nine hundred and ninety-nine persons out of
every thousand the Bible can come only in the shape
of a translation. Very few and far between are the
scholars who habitually read the Scriptures in Hebrew
and Greek. For the mass of mankind such reading
of the original text is plainly impossible, and always
will be. God's Book was meant to be translated ;
and God's purpose is fulfilled as the Bible speaks to
every man in his own tongue in which he was born.
The command to go into all the world and preach
to every creature applies to the New Testament as
well as to the Church ; and to carry out Christ's
mission the Gospel itself, no less than its apostles,
must become all things to all men.
Babel and Bible.
No Christian would deny this duty in the abstract ;
but few Christians have any just conception of
how much is involved in translating the Scriptures.
Indeed, it is far from easy to realize that we are
the tenants of a most polyglot planet. Take, for
13

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
example, only one corner of the British Empire.
In Burma there are at least eight main groups of
languages indigenous to the country, and these
groups are divided and subdivided in a bewildering
manner. The Indian Census Report of 1911 enume
rates twenty-seven different dialects of Chin alone —
dialects spoken by tribes which number on an average
from 5,000 to 10,000; and nearly all these dialects
are mutually unintelligible. Altogether seventy-five
different indigenous languages are enumerated, and
the list is hardly exhaustive. In addition, thirty-five
non-indigenous Asiatic and European tongues are
spoken, while a dozen other languages or dialects are
current in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
At present our Society is able to supply this
modern Babel with the Scriptures in every language
spoken by immigrant races in Burma, where it actually
sold over 25,000 books last year in thirty of their
tongues. The case is different with the seventy-five
indigenous languages of Burma. Either by its own
publications, or through purchase from the American
Baptist Foreign Missionary Society — to which Burma
will always owe a deep debt of gratitude for its
splendid pioneer versions — the Bible Society is able
to supply at least a Gospel in eight, out of these
seventy-five. Last year translation work was begun
in two more. There remain half a million people in
Burma, speaking sixty-five languages and dialects,
for whom there can be no early prospect of a
single verse of the Bible in their own vernacular.
The Trials of a Translator.
Much has been written about the enormous
difficulties ^hich beset the earliest translators of
14

Photo by

Mrs. Leslie Milne

A PALAUNG WOMAN AT THE GATE OF A BUDDHIST TEMPLE IN BURMA.
STi MARK'S GOSPEL IS BEING TRANSLATED INTO PALAUNG;

IN SIMPLE SPEECH
the Gospel into some barbarous tongue. Those
obstacles are vividly depicted by the Rev. W.
Millman, of the B.M.S. Congo Mission at Yakusu,
Stanley Falls, from his own experiences in dealing
with the Kele language. It should be explained
that there are two entirely distinct African
languages known by this name : one, the Kele of
Gabun, is spoken in the basin of the Gabun river,
in French Congo ; the other is current in Belgian
Congo, from the Aruwimi river to Stanley Falls.
In this latter language Mr. Millman was the earliest
to attempt a translation of Scripture. His version
of the Lord's Prayer and selections from St. Mark's
Gospel was printed fifteen years ago, followed by
selections from the Old and New Testaments. In 1903
St. Luke's Gospel was translated by the honoured
and lamented Walter H. Stapleton, of the B.M.S.
In 1904, St. Mark's Gospel appeared, translated by
Mr. Millman ; and he and his colleagues are now
pressing on to complete the New Testament, which
will be published by the Bible Translation Society.
Mr. Millman induced native boys to come in the
evening to his own bamboo house, where they would
sit on until midnight teaching him to master the
Kele language. As the equivalent for God, he
adopted the Arabic word Mungu ; the name Litoko,
which the Kele people use for their mythical
personification of " Fate " or " Fortune," could not
be chosen, as it is also applied to diseases like small
pox. For many colours the Kele people do not
possess names, so that " blue " has to be rendered
by " like the sky," and " green " by " like the grass."
No word could be found for " thanks," until Mr.
Millman killed a leopard which the day before had
15

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
carried off a poor woman's little daughter, and the
mother led a band of women to the mission house
and thanked him with a native song. The first
word of the song was Kelekele. One of his house
boys, telling about it afterwards, said : " She gave
the white man kelekele," and that word has been
adopted ever since by the natives for " thank you."
"Sometimes the Kele translation has to be even
more precise than the English, as in the case
of the word for 'brother' or 'sister.' One must
know whether the brother is an elder or a younger
brother, or one must guess and take the con
sequences ! Then a good many of our ecclesiastical
words have yet to grow in signification ; as some
one has said, when we have converted the people,
we have to convert their language too. But what
is one to do for the word ' to bless ' ? One day I
met an old witch-doctor to whom I had been of
some help on a previous occasion. He came up to
me, and spread out his hands and pointed up to
the skies, and then spat full at me. One of my
boys, afraid, perhaps, that I should naturally resent
this treatment, said, ' That is his expression of good
wishes for you.' ' What is ? ' I asked. ' This man's
blowing on you.' ' Why, he spat on me ! ' ' Yes,
that is because he trusts you very much.' And so
it turned out ; the old man had blown me a blessing ;
the spittle was part of him, and it was held that I
could work him good or evil through it. But I have
not used that expression in the Scriptures : I prefer
to say not ' Isaac spat upon him,' but ' Isaac spoke
good things to him.'"
" The Lokele boys suggested that if I would teach
them to read what I had put down, they could better
16

IN SIMPLE SPEECH
help me to the correct words. They learned the
vowels a, e, i, o, u, in one night ; they learned
s, m, n, w, y, a day or two after; then they com
bined these letters. At last I got a few sentences
requiring only the ten letters they knew. My first
sentence — it is still the first complete sentence in the
Lokele primer — was Masiya asowa owawa — ' Christ
died, the innocent for the guilty.' Of that primer
20,000 copies have since been printed, and the very
first sentence any Lokele man learns to read is this :
' Christ died, the innocent for the guilty.' " *
Discovering the Right Word.
Here is an experience of another African trans
lator. In Rhodesia the New Testament is now being
completed in Ha, a widely-spoken language current
among 120,000 tribesmen north of the Victoria Falls
on the Zambesi. The Rev. E. W. Smith, of the Primi
tive Methodist Mission, is the chief translator, assisted
by coadjutors from three other missions, while the
Bishop of Northern Rhodesia, of the U.M.O.A., takes
a personal share in the work. Mr. Smith tells a
vivid story of how he accidentally discovered the
Ha equivalent for "trust," after he had asked for
it hundreds of times in vain : " One day I was
working in my house, and had climbed up a very
rickety old ladder, and as I stood there in an awk
ward position, reaching up w-ith my hands above my
head, I heard a boy say : ' If I were the missionary
I would not trust that ladder. He will fall down and
break his neck.' I was down the ladder with a rush
to get that word ' trust ' from the boy at once ; it
was the very word I wanted."
* Condensed from the "B.M.S. Herald" for August, 1913.
17 c

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
Dr. J. W. Lindsay, who has given many years'
service as a medical missionary in Paraguay, has
translated the New Testament into Guarani, the
popular language of that republic and spoken by
seventy-five per cent, of the people. He writes : " A
translator often wins his words by varied experiences
and in strange quarters. During the many occasions
when I have gone before a native judge in Paraguay
to speak in defence of some poor oppressed Indian,
I have learned the best words and phrases by which
to express the ideas of transgression, judgment, jus
tification, punishment, etc. Very many expressions
have been taught me in their best form by my
patients. When a poor suffering Indian looks up
with hope at my entrance, and I hear him say:
' Outna che yeroviaja ' (' Here is the one in whom I
trust to save me ') I learn the best word to express
the heart's idea of ' Saviour.'
" One day our washerwoman, Maria, came carrying
a huge bundle of clean linen on her head. As she
passed under the low end of our veranda, the
bundle knocked against the roof. ' Ndaiyai ape,'
she said — i.e. ' I cannot pass here.' Her remark gave
me the idea and the words for rendering ' It is easier
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. . . .'
I had doubts about the right Guarani word for
'temptation,' until one day I asked an educated
Guarani for the best way in which to express the
idea. He could not tell me, but called his aged
mother-in-law, who immediately in reply to my
question said: 'Temptation is nande pya raa, i.e.
the testing of our hearts.'"

18

IN SIMPLE SPEECH
The Pitfalls of Idiomatic Phrases.
Even in the case of a highly elaborated language,
with an ample vocabulary and a history and litera
ture of its own, a translator is forced to exercise
the utmost care and to give up exact literality in
rendering idioms. We may give one or two actual
examples of the pitfalls which lie in wait for the
unwary. In a former translation of the Hindi Old
Testament the phrase "to hide one's face" had to be
changed into "to turn aside one's face," when it
expressed anger against another, and not "to be
ashamed of oneself." In Isaiah xxxiii. 15, 16, the man
who " shall dwell on high " has this characteristic,
that he " shaketh his hands from holding of bribes" —
which the translators first rendered, " when a bribe is
slipped into his hand, he dashes it down " ; but the
pandits pointed out that Hindus would understand
this to mean that the man was dissatisfied with the
amount of the bribe, and dashed it down to get a
larger one. The promise to Jacob in Genesis xlvi. 4,
" Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes," was at
first rendered " Joseph shall close thine eyes " ; but
the pandits took this to mean that in a fight Joseph
would strike his father's eyes so hard as to close
them for a time. So foreign to them was an idiom
with which we are perfectly familiar.
A Translator at Work.
The following paragraphs are condensed from the
Rev. Norman Maclean's illuminating volume entitled
Africa in Transformation. The Nyanja tribesmen,
who nuniber about half a million, extend under
different names from the Shire valley in the Nyasa-
land Protectorate northwards as far as the middle of
19

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
the coast on both sides of Lake Nyasa. Fourteen
years ago a translation committee was constituted,
with Dr. Heth er wick of Blantyre as chairman, to
prepare a new version in "Union Nyanja," a com
bination of various kindred dialects used by the
Church of Scotland Mission, the United Free Church
of Scotland Mission, the Zambesi Industrial Mission,
and the Mvera Mission of the Dutch Reformed
Church. In 1906 the New Testament was published
at the joint expense of the N.B.S.S. and the B.F.B.S.
Since 1906 more than 44,000 copies of this Testament
have been sold, and 35,000 copies of the Book of
Psalms. In 1912 a fresh consignment of Nyanja
Testaments weighing four and a half tons was dis
patched to Nyasaland. We, who have had the Bible
in our hands for generations, cannot realize the eager
ness with which these tribes read the book which
to them is so strange and new. The Church which
is arising in Nyasaland is reared upon the knowledge
of the Word of God — and against that Church the
gates of hell wiU not prevail.
There is a little room opening from the veranda
of the manse in which every morning as the sunlight
gilds the hills that engirdle Blantyre you will find
Dr. Hetherwick hard at work, surrounded by dic
tionaries and innumerable documents. He is there
completing the Old Testament in Union Nyanja.
" One looks back," writes Dr. Hetherwick, " at one's
first essays at translation with feelings of thankful
ness that more harm was not wrought by the most
open and bare-faced errors. ... I confess that to me
there is no moment of deeper humiliation than that
in which I discover a word I have been wanting for
years and for which I had hitherto used inferior
20

Photo by

The China Inland Mission-

KOPU FOLK IN SOUTH WEST CHINA, FOR WHOM THE B.F.B.S. HAS JUST PUBLISHED
ST. MARK'S GOSPEL.

IN SIMPLE SPEECH
substitutes. The word I had been searching for had
been there all the time, though scores of natives had
firmly asserted that there was no such word — prob
ably because they had not grasped the idea — and I
was inclined to lament the poverty of the language
until one day, while I was talking with a native on
some subject wholly remote, the very word I wanted
dropped from his lips — the exact word with the exact
meaning. It had been there all the time in the
native consciousness, only not finding occasion to
rise to the surface. Those who work at translations
will know what I mean, and realize how poor a
grasp of the native language we have got after all,
and yet we are trying to express in it the wonderful
thoughts of God."
What Wycliffe did for England, Dr. Hetherwick
and his colleagues are doing for Nyasaland. To
give to a family of the human race the Bible in
their own tongue — there cannot be any greater
work on earth. Out of it there goes forth a power
whose end no man can foresee. And yet white men
come and go, pass into Nyasaland and out again,
without ever so much as knowing that the work
which will outlast all they do and see is being
quietly done in that little room off the veranda
of the thatched manse at Blantyre.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Duiring this past year the Bible Society has issued
SIX NEW VEESIONS bf Holy Scripture for the first time.
St. Mark's Gospel has been printed in Kopu, for
one of the many aboriginal tribes in the mountains
of South-west China. The Kopu are akin to the Hwa
Miao, the Laka, and the Lisu, in whose dialects
the Society has already issued vernacular Gospels.
21

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
Among these tribesmen, whose religion is mainly
a worship of demons, the China Inland Mission and
the United Methodist Mission have gathered many
thousands of converts to Christ. Last autumn 10,000
copies of St. Mark in Kopu were, delivered in " six
horse-loads " to the Rev. A. G. NichoUs, of the C.I.M.
Mr. NichoUs writes : "It will be impossible to forget the flrst
time the Gospel was read in public worship. We were at Great-
water-well, and it was the harvest festival. In spite of the
rain, about four hundred Kopu filled the chapel. Bach had
a copy of the Gospel, and word was given to find the first
chapter. Then one of the readers read a sentence aloud ; after
wards all read in unison. It was inspiring to think that for the
flrst time in Kopu history God's Word was being read in their
own tongue ! ... If only the friends of the Bible Society could
have witnessed these Kopu worshipping God and reading the
flrst chapter of St. Mark, their hearts would have been cheered.
They have the joy of providing the Gospel ; we have the joy of
teaching the book. ... I have just returned from a short
journey visiting some villages. It was very encouraging to
see the Kopu, both young and old, poring over St. Mark. . . .
The arrival of this Gospel will transform the people."
The Mawken — or " Drowned-in-the-sea," as they
style themselves — are a simple timid race who for
the most part live a gipsy life in their fishing-boats
along the coast of Lower Burma. St. Mark's Gospel
in Mawken, translated by the Rev. Walter G. White,
Anglican chaplain at Moulmein, has been published
for use by the S.P.G. missionaries.
St. Luke's Gospel has been published in Car Nico
bar ese, the dialect of the most populous of the
Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal. This version
is due to the Rev. G. Whitehead, of the S.P.G.,
who is evangelizing these islanders.
Among the snowy peaks of Western Tibet, Mora-
22

IN SIMPLE SPEECH
vian missionaries have for several years been pre
paring a version of St. Mark in Manchad. This
Gospel has now been completed by Dr. A. H.
Francke, and produced in Tibetan character at the
expense of our Society.
At the request of the Evangelical Missionary
Society for German East Africa the four Gospels
have been printed in Ruanda, which is current
among five million negroes in the mountainous
region between Victoria Nyanza and Lake Tangan
yika. Here, according to German geographers, lies
the true fountain of the Nile.
The secretary of this German Society, the Rev. Dr. W. von
Bodelschwingh, wrote in June, 1914, from Bethel bei Bielefeld,
expressing warm gratitude to our Society for the important
service which it has rendered the German missionaries in Bast
Africa — flrst, by printing the New Testament in Shambala, and
now, by publishing the Gospels in Ruanda. This latter service,
says Dr. Bodelschwingh, "appears to us still more important
than the former ; for while the Shambala people number from
70,000 to 80,000, the Ruanda language is spoken by something
like 5,000,000. . . . We must express to you to-day our heart
felt thanks that you have stretched out to us a helping hand to
bring the Gospel to Ruanda in this fashion. May the Lord
grant His blessing on the new book, awaken a hunger for His
Word, and thereby bring many souls to eternal life."
St. Matthew's Gospel has appeared in Addo, one
of the many dialects spoken in the Benin district
of Southern Nigeria. This version is due to an
African Bishop, Dr. James Johnson, who reduced
the language to writing. It has been published for
the Niger Delta Pastorate of the C.M.S. The Bible
Society has now issued translations in over thirty of
the languages of West Africa.
Many a heathen language, raised from degradation
23

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
to a new dignity through its association with the
Scriptures, might say like St. Augustine after his
conversion : " My infant tongue spake freely to
Thee, my brightness, and my riches, and my
health, the Lord my God."
Considerable progress has been made during the
past year in carrying forward unfinished translations
for various countries. The complete New Testament
now appears for the first time in four more versions. >
One of these is in Guarani, the popular speech of
Paraguay and its borderlands, to which we have
referred already. Another is in Toaripi, spoken by
tribes on the coast of Papua who are being evange
lized by the L.M.S.
The New Testament has also been printed for the
first time in Baba Malay — the form of Malay spoken
in the Straits Settlements by residents or immigrants
who are of Chinese origin. It contains a number
of Chinese words, borrowed mainly from the Amoy
and Swatow dialects. In Singapore, Penang, and
Malacca alone there are at least 50,000 Malay-speak
ing Chinese, besides many more in the Federated
Malay States, in Johore, in British North Borneo,
and on the east coast of Sumatra. This fresh version,
which is literally a New Testament in the vulgar
tongue, will be widely useful, especially among
missions — Anglican, Presbyterian, Brethren's, and
Methodist Episcopal. Miss Gage-Brown, of the
C.E.Z.M.S., Singapore, writes : " We are delighted
to hear that an earnest effort is reaUy being made
to give us at last the New Testament in Malay
as generally understood by peoples other than the
Malays themselves, especially by the Straits Chinese.
We long to have books in their own spoken tongue
24

Photo by

The Rev. Karl Roehl

"THE FOUNTAIN OF THE NILE.'

THE B.F.B.S. H.AS JUST PUBLISHED THE GOSPELS IN RUANDA FOR SEVEN MILLION
NEGROES OF THIS MOUNTAINOUS REGION IN GERMAN EAST AFRICA.

IN SIMPLE SPEECH
for the children to use in our school, and to take
away with them when they leave."
The New Testament has also appeared in Bugotu,
the chief language of Ysabel Island, one of the
British Solomon group. Two generations ago these
people were head-hunters and cannibals. The Bugotu
Testament has been published for the use of the
Melanesian Mission, and is sold in exchange for
porpoise-teeth. The version was mainly the work
of the late Dr. Welchman, a great missionary linguist,
who wrote to the Committee of the Bible Society:
"Your kindness has lightened my heart: it will also
lighten my labours in the district of Bugotu. For
it will spread the knowledge of the love of God as
no human voice can."
In 1913 the complete Bible was published for the
first time in Bicol, one of the principal languages of
the Philippines, current among 800,000 people in the
southern part of Luzon, the land of hemp. This
Bible is used by American Presbyterian missionaries.
Revision. The great work of revising and improving existing
translations goes forward continually in many dif
ferent lands. Progress is recorded in Wenli and in
Mandarin, for China; in Hindi, in Mundari, and
in Marathi, for India; in Ganda, in ChuMna, and
in Ronga, for Africa ; while in Bulgarian, in
Rumanian, in Italian, and in Spanish, earlier ver
sions are being , adapted to modern speech. For the
new State of Albania, our Society has at length been
able to issue the revised Albanian New Testament,
printed in " national " character. A specially bound
copy of this Testament has beon supplied to the
25

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
Queen of Rumania, " Carmen Sylva," who desired
to present it to her nephew, the Mpret of the
Albanian people.
For scholars and students the Society published
last year the Syriac Pentateuch in the ancient
Peshitta version, as well as editions of the Penta
teuch and the Psalter in the Greek LXX version.
The Pentateuch in unpointed Hebrew has also
appeared, as an instalment of the Old Testament
in this form. The elaborate edition of the Hebrew
Bible, to which Dr. Ginsburg devoted such immense
learning and labour for the last eight years, had
advanced within sight of completion, when that
veteran scholar was called to his rest in March,
1914.
Vernacular Chinese.
We may give a few further examples of the way in
which the Bible Society is providing men everywhere
with the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue. In China,
as we have already stated, the Bible has been pub
lished in Wenli, the elaborate literary form of the
Chinese language, which is intelligible only to the
educated minority of the population. The trans
lation in Mandarin, howevel", can be understood
by most Chinese who are able to read at all ; indeed,
the Mandarin Bible probably appeals to a larger
number of persons than any other version of the
Scriptures. But besides these two great versions
for China, our Society has issued the Bible, or some
part of it, in a dozen different colloquial forms of
Chinese, each of which is the homely familiar speech
of millions of people spread across provinces wider
than European kingdoms. 26

IN SIMPLE SPEECH
Colloquial Arabic.
The rhythmical Arabic of the Koran is acknow
ledged to be the most perfect form of Arab speech.
It expressed the thoughts and ideas of a Bedawl Arab
in Bedawi language and metaphor. " To Muham
mad's hearers his rude, fierce eloquence must have
been startling from the manner in which it brought
great truths home to them in the language of their
everyday life."* Later Arab writers have adopted
the style of the Koran as their classic standard.
But with them, after the lapse of so many centuries,
it has inevitably become artificial and archaic. Hence
the translation of the Bible into literary Arabic,
though highly esteemed by scholars, is imperfectly
understood by multitudes of half-taught Moslems
to-day. And therefore it is being found necessary
to undertake popular versions of the Gospels into the
common Arabic dialects current in Egypt and Algeria
and Tunisia and Morocco. Some of these have proved
remarkably successful, and are being " read by
hundreds of the sons of Ishmael as they spend their
evenings by the dim candlelight of the hut or by the
ruddy glow of the camp-fire."
An interesting allusion to our Society's publica
tions in the colloquial Arabic of Algeria occurs in
M. Victor Trenge's new book, L'Ame Arabo-Berbhre.
Referring to the work of Christian missionaries,
he says that they inundate the country with ver
nacular translations of the Gospels. The people
read these little books willingly, and without diffi
culty ; the missionaries, however, do not distribute
* The Qur'dn, translated by E. H. Palmer. Introduction,
p, Ixxvi, 27

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
copies gratuitously, but make a point of selling them,
be it only for the modest sum of a penny.
Orthodox Moslems believe in the absolute verbal
inerrancy of the Koran, and feel bound therefore to
discourage any tianslation of their own sacred book,
which must be read in its ancient original tongue.
At Lahore, a well-known Moslem lawyer was recently
speaking to his co-religionists in the Panjab on
matters connected with Islam, and protested against
this mistaken policy : " The reason why Christians
succeed is because wherever they go they have the
Bible and say their prayers in their mother-tongue ;
whereas we have wrapped up our religion in an
Arabic dress. We should give the people the Koran
and let them say their prayers in their own lan
guage." The only answer he received was, " Thou
art thyself an unbeliever to say such things."
Esperanto. In reviewing the new Esperanto-English Diction
ary, the Times supplied some remarkable facts in
regard to this " super-organic " language, which has
Dr. Zamenhof for its creator. Esperanto has been
constructed out of materials chosen from the word-
architecture of many tongues, and composed in an
artificial design of faultless regularity. It can be
mastered with ridiculous ease, and used for most of
the purposes of a natural language. If only a
sufficient number of persons of different nationalities
will learn Esperanto, it may become a really valuable
addition to the facilities of international intercourse.
In this direction it has certainly achieved much
greater success than any of the numerous attempts
which preceded it — since Bishop Wilkins endeavoured
28

IN SIMPLE SPEECH
to frame a " philosophic language " more than two
centuries ago. The version of the New Testament in
Esperanto, which was recently published by our
Society conjointly with the National Bible Society of
Scotland, has already passed into a second edition,
the first edition of 5,000 copies having been exhausted.
It is interesting to learn that in various countries Esperanto
is being very commonly recognized as an optional subject of
instruction, paid by grants, in State schools. This is now the
case as regards evening schools and classes in England, while a
police school of Esperanto is being conducted in London at
Snow Hill police station. In Hanover the teaching of Esper
anto is authorized in all first-grade schools ; in Lille over 2,000
children are under instruction ; it is an obligatory subject in
Bordeaux ; and in Rio de Janeiro it is taught in all the model
municipal schools. Centres of instruction are also found in
Belgium, Bulgaria, Japan, Spain, Italy, and the United States.
In the island of Samos, Esperanto is an obligatory subject in
every elementary school. The Russian Esperantist Year Book
gives the names and addresses of several thousand Esperantists
in more than 500 towns throughout European Russia. Esperanto
possesses a vigorous press, a widely extended consular system
for toittists and men of business, and a rapidly growing litera
ture, original and translated. Such a phenomenon, as the
Times remarks, is clearly worthy of attention.
For Feetle Folk.
From a striking address given by the Bishop of
Chester at Highgate last October we quote the
following sentences : —
" There is a saying of St. Augustine's that God is
great in His great works, but that He is greatest of
all in His least works. In accordance with that
saying we ought specially to honour the Bible Society
for its care of little people and tribes and those who
29

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
are comparatively few and helpless. Take, for in
stance, its regard for a tribe like the Cree Indians,
who are few in number and perhaps a dwindling folk.
Some would ask, 'Is not the Bible Society wasting
time and money, and the translators wasting power,
in providing a version for these fewfolk? ' It seems
to me one of the noblest points in the Society's
policy that it should do its best for the few
Cree Indians."
We may add that to revise and reprint the Cree
Bible in syllabic character cost our Society £1,800.
We have given some inadequate samples, selected
from a long catalogue which leaves few countries
outside its record of "something attempted, some
thing done" in Bible translation or revision during
the past twelvemonth. Such instances, however,
furnish some insight into the ceaseless, tireless labour
of our Society. We may mention that the cost of
the Editorial Department at the Bible House — which
includes the payments made for the services of
translators, revisers, and proof-readers in many
countries — amounted last year to £5,800.
The Bible Society has published at various times
no fewer than ninety diglot editions, generally of a
Gospel or Gospels, giving in each case a different
pair of languages side by side. In forty-one of these
diglot editions one of the languages is English.
The Society's list now includes versions in 456 dif
ferent tongues ; the complete Bible in 112 languages,
the New Testament in 111 more languages, and at
least one book of Scripture in 233 other languages.
Taking all agencies into account, God's Book, or
some part of it, has now been published, for a
30

IN SIMPLE SPEECH
religious or missionary purpose, in quite 600 distinct
forms of human speech.
A few months ago a Greek Christian sent a letter
to the Bible House from Chalcis — a town with classic
memories. He wrote in very broken English, and
ended with this epigrammatic sentence, whose quaint-
ness may be forgiven for the sake of the profound
truth which it struggles to express :
"The gabs are many, but the ghost is one."
MULTJE TBBBICOLIS TJJSGXTM, CCELESTIBUS UNA.

81

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE

IN PLAIN PRINT
" Christ wishes His teaching to be disseminated as
widely as possible. He died for all, and His desire
is that He should be known by all." — Ebasmus :
Paraphrases, Preface to Vol. I.
The alphabets of the world are only less curious and
bewildering than its languages. Yet a translation
of Scripture in the vulgar tongue avails little for
any people until it has been produced in type
familiar to their eyes. Now such printing is a
complicated business. To print the versions already
issued by the Bible Society, as many as sixty dif
ferent alphabets or sets of characters have been
employed. Some of these characters run from left
to right, some of them from right to left, and some
are read in columns from top to bottom of the page.
Moreover, for the sake of certain classes of readers —
such as Moslems in India and North Africa, who
have a rooted prejudice against type and in favour
of manuscript — editions must often be printed
from plates which reproduce page by page the
carefully-written copy made by a skilled scribe.
And in order to make the Scriptures legible and
intelligible to men of all races and creeds and of
all standards of education, there are nearly sixty
languages in which a version has been printed in two
or more different characters — so that every tongue
32

IN PLAIN PRINT
may confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father.
In the Vulgar Script.
In Korea, where Christian missions have been
winning such remarkable success, our Society cir
culated last year no fewer than 389,000 volumes —
more than double the total in 1912. And now we
learn that during the first half of 1914 as many
books have been sold as were circulated during the
whole of 1913. This extraordinary increase must
be attributed mainly to the fact that last year the
Society published for the first time cheap Korean
editions of each of the Gospels and of the Acts of
the Apostles, in the popular Eunmun script, which
is most easily read by common people. These little
books have been sold broadcast at the price of 1 sen
(=^d.) apiece.
For centuries educated Koreans have been reading
works by Chinese authors, and even their own
scholars wrote in the Chinese character. Until
recently only a few love stories and some rules
of life for the use of women existed in the Korean
character known as Eunmun, which means "the
vulgar script." The Gospels and other Christian
literature were the first books to be printed in that
character for general reading. Now, however, the
publication of the Scriptures in Eunmun has
popularized its use. The change in the attitude
of the people towards this character may be
illustrated by the experience of a missionary in
Korea: "When I first went north, fifteen years
ago, a man would almost apologize for reading
the lessons in church out of an Eunmun New
33 D

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
Testament, and now he would apologize for using
any other."
The style adopted in the Korean version of the
Bible is the language of everyday life, with some
literary endings borrowed from Chinese w^hich add
dignity to it. At the same time, it is so simple that
ignorant women-folk can understand it. And this
vernacular Bible is fixing Korean style very much
as our Authorised Version has done in England.
Moreover, it is now the accepted standard for
spelling. As Korean spelling is phonetic and each
man spelt a word as he thought he heard it, there
was great confusion. To-day, in preparing books
in Eunm,un, when the orthography of a word is
questioned, the Korean Bible is referred to as the
authority, and the word is spelt as it stands in
Scripture.
For our own People.
Out of nearly nine million copies of the Scriptures
issued last year by the Bible Society, 1,370,000
volumes — about 16 per cent, of the total — were in
English or Welsh. Nearly a million of these, more
over, consisted of Bibles or Testaments. They
included 145,000 copies of the Society's 6d. English
Bible; 91,000 copies of the lOd. English Bible;
88,000 copies of our "Ionic" Is. English Bible for
schools ; and 200,000 copies of the Penny English
Testament. Every copy of these popular editions
is sold at a loss. Of the issues of the Scriptures in
English, less than three per cent, were in the Revised
Version, the remainder being in the Authorised
Version. For the Society's Penny English Testament, the
34

IN PLAIN PRINT
demand increases. Since this little book was pub
lished in a new and greatly improved shape, three
years ago, 800,000 copies have been printed. It has
won a very warm welcome not only in England and
in the Overseas Dominions, but also in India, where
it is much in request among the Indian pupils of
schools where English is taught. Since this penny
Testament first appeared, twenty-nine years ago,
9,884,000 copies have gone into circulation.
The growth of business in the Bible Society's
London Warehouse may be judged from the fact
that during 1909 as many as 2,260 cases of Scriptures
were sent out, weighing 272 tons ; during 1910, these
increased to 2,845 cases, weighing 333 tons ; during
1911, they increased again to 3,664 cases, weighing
415 tons ; during 1912, they amounted to 3,359 cases,
weighing 440 tons ; and during 1913, 3,718 cases went
out, weighing 476 tons.
Cosmopolitan Printing.
Nevertheless, out of every five books which the
Society issues, only two are produced and published
in England. We find it much more convenient and
also much more economical to print the books, as
far as may be, in the countries where they are
distributed and read. And of our total circulation
84 per cent, is now in versions other than English.
Very large editions in many different languages pass
through the press year by year at various centres in
Central and Eastern Europe. We may mention a
few examples only, from the experience of 1913. The
Gospels in Uzbek Turkish have been reprinted at
Berlin. The Gospels in Votiak were reprinted at
Kazan, on the Volga. At Tifiis, in the Caucasus, with
35

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
the sanction of the Synod of the Georgian Churchj
we printed corrected editions of the New Testament
with references, and of the Psalter, in Georgian. In
Moscow the press of the Holy Synod produced for us
a new edition of 10,000 copies of each of the Gospels
in Ruthenian. All the Russian and Slavonic books
— amounting to 400,000 copies a year — which our
Society circulates in Russia are printed in that
Empire by the press of the Holy Synod of the
Orthodox Church.
During the past year our Society has published new
and corrected editions — one of them pocket-size — of
the revised Icelandic Bible and Testament. We learn
that in different parts of Iceland eighty dep6ts have
been established for the sale of these new editions
of the Scriptures. Many copies are also circulated
among Icelanders who have emigrated into Canada,
where an Icelandic Synod of the Lutheran Church
exists in the Province of Manitoba.
In the East.
The latest edition of the revised Tibetan New
Testament has just been excellently printed by a
Japanese firm at Yokohama from plates made by the
Oxford University Press, and the book now appears
in a very neat and convenient form. Indeed, most
of the Society's Chinese, Japanese, and Korean
versions are printed in Japan, where the presses
possess the latest American machinery. Books cir
culated in the Indian Empire — which now exceed a
million copies annually — are as a rule produced in
India. The Society has now issued the Bible, or some
part of it, in eighty of the Indian vernaculars, which
are current among 225,000,000 people,
36

Photo by

G. W. Lawrie & Co.

FOR THE MANCHAD TRIBESMEN, AMONG THE SNOWY PEAKS OF WESTERN TIBET,
THE B.F.B.S. HAS JUST PUBLISHED ST. MARK'S GOSPEL;

IN PLAIN PRINT
The latest catalogue of editions of the Scriptures
pubhshed by our Society in Chinese, has recently
been issued from the Bible House at Shanghai. This
remarkable document enumerates 422 distinct forms
of Bibles, Testaments, and separate books of Scripture,
all varying in type, paper, binding, etc., and all in
the languages and dialects current in the Republic
of China. The books range in price from a farthing
to about £1. They include the popular " sleeve "
{i.e. pocket) New Testament in Wenli ; editions in
roman character ; diglot editions, giving the English
and Chinese in parallel columns ; and editions printed
in embossed type for the blind.
For such as sit in darkness>
In recent months, mainly through the energy of
Mr. C. Arthur Pearson, fresh interest has been
aroused in England on behalf of those whose eyes
are sealed to the light of day. Public attention is
no longer blind to blindness, especially since King
George joined in an appeal for the men and women
and children smitten with this grievous affliction.
In his remarkable work Le Monde des Aveugles,
M. Pierre Villey has written a kind of Baedeker of
the veiled country in which the sightless dwell,
and has described the long educational effort which
is delivering these disinherited folk from isolation
and restoring them to human intercourse. In the
words of Professor Kettle, M. Villey " has produced a
chapter of comparative psychology of a new order,
and of unique value. It is a clear addition to the
weight of evidence in support of the spiritual in
terpretation of conscious life as against the meaner
theories of empiricism. Everywhere we come upon
37

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
a soul straining painfully for expression behind the
mutilated organs of sense, but it is an integral soul.
The scientific interest of M. Villey's work is touched
throughout with a warm glow of emotion. A great
wind of loneliness blows through it ; you are made
aware of the more than feminine passion for sym
pathy of these gens incompris of our kind. But
behind all is the desire that the seeing may under
stand, in. order that they may help."
No source of consolation and alleviation for the
sightless can be compared with that Book which
has power to open their spiritual vision. For many
years past the Bible Society has devoted itself to
issuing the Scriptures in embossed type. To-day
it publishes or circulates the Bible, or some part
of the Bible, in thirty-five different languages,
two of which — Cantonese and Sinhalese — ^have been
added during the last twelve months. Last year
3,719 volumes for the blind went out from the
London Bible House.
Embossed books cannot be other than cumbrous
and expensive. A complete English Bible in BraiUe
type contains 5,836 pages, and costs £5 to produce ;
it fills thirty-nine volumes, which occupy a shelf
seven feet long. Each volume of the Society's new
English Braille Bible costs from 2s. 3d. to 3s. to
produce, and is sold at Is. per volume, and 2,675
of these volumes were granted free or sold, during
1913. Nearly all the English and Welsh Institutions
for befriending the blind obtain the Scriptures
which they require from the Bible House, at
less than half the cost of their production. On
the recommendation of some minister of religion
any poor blind applicant can obtain a portion of
38

IN PLAIN PRINT
the English Bible in Braille or Moon type as a
gift.
Last Year's Issues.
The Society's total issues during 1913 reached
altogether the wonderful number of 8,958,000 copies
of the Scriptures. This total is made up of 1,006,000
Bibles, 1,275,000 New Testaments, and 6,677,000
smaller Portions.
In 1911 our issues for the first time exceeded
seven million books, and in 1912 they again in
creased by half a million. In 1913, however, the
issues have risen to over a million books more
than in 1912, and they are just double those
announced fifteen years ago.
Comparing the data more closely, we discover
thankfully that the complete Bibles issued last
year were 203,000 more, and the New Testaments
were 57,000 more, than fifteen years ago ; whereas
the annual output of Portions has increased during
that period by over 4,000,000 copies. The remark
able growth consists in the main of Gospels and
Psalters, which are published principally for
missions, and are sold at nominal prices in the
mission field. Plainly, the Bible Society is becoming
year by year more intimately and indispensably
bound up with the missionary propaganda of
Christendom. Beyond our own shores, the following figures
of circulation last year are significant : 1,800,000
volumes in Continental Europe ; 300,000 in Africa ;
315,000 in Canada; 212,000 in South America;
117,000 in Australia ; 1,170,000 in India and Ceylon ;
633,000 in the Japanese Empire (including Korea) ;
39

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
and 2,183,000 in China. Korea shows an increase
of 205,000 volumes, and China an increase of
315,000 volumes. It is just a century since Morrison's
first Chinese New Testament passed through the
press at Canton. Last year, nearly a quarter of
our Society's output was in the languages of
China. As already stated, the circulation of the British
and Foreign Bible Society for 1913 reached the
wonderful total of 8,958,000 copies. The National
Bible Society of Scotland for the same year had
a circulation of 2,698,000 copies. If these figures are
added to the issues of 'the American Bible Society,
which were 5,251,000 volumes, we have an aggregate
of more than 16,000,000 books as the missionary
circulation of the Scriptures last year by the
English-speaking race.

40

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE

FOR COMMON PEOPLE
" We may justly borrow from the old mythologies to
term the Bible Society the hundred-handed and the
hundred-eyed." — W. E. Gladstone.
Wb may consider the Bible Society in several
different aspects. Prom one point of view it may be
regarded as a great philological institute, which has
promoted and supervised translations in hundreds of
languages and dialects. From another point of view
it appears as a great printing and publishing com
pany, which produces editions in manifold types and
characters and sends them out in varied shapes and
forms. Beyond these functions, the Society is not
less concerned with spreading abroad the volumes it
prepares and issues — in order that God's Word may
penetrate into every country and circulate among
all sorts and conditions of men.
To carry out this purpose and to bring the Scrip
tures within reach of every human being able to read
their message, the Bible Society stretches out its
hands far and wide. It maintains depots and ware
houses in nearly a hundred of the chief cities of the
earth, besides sub-dep6ts and book-stores in numbers
of less important towns. These dep6ts are estab
lished in no fewer than fifty different states and
kingdoms. If we were to travel across the world
we should find them at Madrid and Madras and
41

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
Melbourne, at Toronto and Tifiis, at Budapest and
Buenos Ayres, at Rome and Rangoon, at Canton and
Calcutta and Cape Town, at Valparaiso and Van
couver, at Sydney and Shanghai and Singapore.
To illustrate this wonderful ubiquity of Bible dis
tribution, we may pause to notice a few of its
centres. At Moscow, for example, our depot sent out
in 1913 over 100,000 volumes, the highest number on
record. In recent years our customers in Moscow
have steadily multiplied. More and more do the
Zemstvoes — which may be described as Russian
county councils — come to us for the supply of the
Scriptures to their schools, and their orders have
nearly trebled in the last decade. While the large
booksellers draw their editions of the Russian Bible
from the Holy Synod in sheets and bind the books
themselves, the smaller booksellers in Moscow and
the surrounding provinces resort to our depot in
increasing numbers.
From all the ends of the earth crowds of pilgrims
and tourists turn their steps to Jerusalem. There,
just outside the Damascus gate, our Society's depot
distributes the Scriptures in thirty or forty different
tongues. We hear of a growing demand for the
Hebrew text. The Bible Society's new pocket edition
of the Hebrew Old Testament, printed on India paper,
is extremely popular among the Jewish population
of the Holy Land. Palestine is gradually being
resettled by Jews, who are returning " as the doves
to their windows." These repatriated exiles, hailing
from different countries, speak various forms of
Yiddish and other languages, so that they often
find conversation difficult. But ancient Hebrew
has recently experienced a kind of resurrection in
42

Photo by

The Photochrom Co.

TABLE MOUNTAIN, CAPE TOWN.

FOR COMMON PEOPLE
Palestine. Among many Jews there it is becoming
the speech of daily intercourse, and in Jewish schools
the phrases of Isaiah and Ezekiel are adapted and
applied to scientific use. An important technical
college is now being erected at Haifa, at the
foot of Mount Carmel, and will have Hebrew
as its official language. Perhaps the most striking
result of the Zionist Congress, which met at
Vienna in September, 1913, was the decision to
establish a Jewish university in Jerusalem. This
university is intended to be the coping stone of
the edifice to house the new Jewish learning and
art which have received their impetus from the
Zionist movement. It will also form a refuge for
those numerous Jewish students and teachers who
are still denied admission or welcome in many of the
universities of Europe.
At Cairo, the capital of Egypt and the real religious
centre of Islam, where the great Moslem university
can show "acres of turbaned students," our depot
sent out last year more than 10,000 books, in twenty-
four versions.
At Smyrna last year the Greek Metropolitan of
that ancient city purchased at otir dep6t many copies
of the Greek Testament, as gifts to members of his
flock. In the valley of the Tigris the Society maintains
a depot at Mosul, opposite the ruined mounds and
heaps which once were " immemorial Nineveh " ;
and another depot at Bagdad, formerly the capital of
the empire of the Caliphs and still haunted with
the romance of the Arabian Nights. Last year a
Chaldean bishop of the Roman Church entered this
Bagdad depot and purchased Bibles in French,
43

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
Italian, Turkish, and Arabic. He wondered to find
the Scriptures in so many translations and editions,
and was constrained to utter words in praise of our
Society. Two learned Moslems of the Shi' ah sect
paid a visit to the same dep6t, and after they had
seen various versions of the Scriptures they said,
" There is no work so good, so useful to the world,
and so pleasing to God, as this work of giving the
Word of God to all peoples in their own tongue."
From our dep6t at Johannesburg copies of the
Scriptures went out last year in fifty different forms
of speech to meet the needs of polyglot settlers and
labourers who come together from the ends of the
earth. Who would imagine that the Society at
Johannesburg had supplied one outlander with the
Bible in Icelandic and another with the Bible in
Maori ?
At Perth, the capital of Western Australia, where
a new dep6t has been recently opened, certain
Armenian strangers were delighted to obtain " some
thing so precious as the Holy Book in our own
language, so far away from home."
Some New Dcp6ts.
Word comes from Vladivostock that the Society's
agent in Siberia has received official permissioil to
open a new Bible depot at Khabarovsk. That town
is the capital of the maritime province of Eastern
Siberia, and stands on a high cliff at the confluence
of the river Amur and the river Ussuri, 5,500 miles
east of Moscow. A new dep6t has also been opened
in Central Asia at Tashkent, the capital of Russian
Turkestan. By arrangement with the American Bible Society
44

FOR COMMON PEOPLE
it has been agreed that the distribution of the
Scriptures throughout Persia shall in future be
left in the hands of the British Society. In order
to fulfil this increased responsibility, our Committee
have purchased at Teheran a new Bible House,
admirably adapted to serve as the headquarters of
Bible work in Persia.
The Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal are
used by the Government of India as a penal
settlement for long-term convicts. Through the
courtesy of the Chief Commissioner, permission
has just been received for our Society to open a
book depot for the sale of the Scriptures at Port
Blair. The settlement contains over 11,000 long-
sentence convicts, and, though no direct mission
work is permitted among the prisoners, there are
a fairly large number of self-supporting convicts
who are at liberty to purchase books. Port Blair
also contains a good many ex-convict settlers with
their descendants, besides the civil and military
official establishment. Altogether twenty - five
languages are spoken, and in nearly all of them
our Society is already able to supply the Scriptures.
In Ethiopia.
The Abyssinians still call their country by its
ancient name, Ethiopia. Theirs is the only indepen
dent kingdom of dark-skinned Christians, and the
Abyssinian Church claims to descend in unbroken
lineage from Frumentius, " the apostle of Ethiopia,"
who was consecrated bishop by Athanasius at
Alexandria in 326 A.D. The stronghold of the nation
— and the secret of Abyssinian aloofness from out
side influence — is a highland region between the
45

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
Red Sea and the basin of the Nile. This rocky
tableland has an elevation of 7,000 feet above
the sea, while some of its snow-clad peaks rise to
over twice that height. Secure in their natural
fastnesses, the Abyssinia^ defied the Moslem con
querors of Northern Africa, and they still retain a
form of Christian faith, the Archbishop of Abyssinia
being always chosen and consecrated by the Coptic
Patriarch of Alexandria.
A hundred years ago Abyssinia was split up into communities
more or less turbulently independent under their own princes.
About the middle of the nineteenth century this state of things
was ended by Theodore, who succeeded in subjugating his
rivals and becoming recognized by European powers as monarch
of Abyssinia. After the British expedition under Lord Napier
captured Magdala in 1868, the Ras of Tigr^ was allowed to
proclaim himself emperor. This prince warred successfully
against his Egyptian neighbours, but was killed in 1889 by the
Mahdi's dervish horde. Menelik, King of Shoa, came forward
as his successor and mastered the anarchy into which the
country had fallen. As emperor of Abyssinia, Menelik now
took the title of Negus Negusti — "King of kings." With an
iron hand he crushed his enemies, and built up his government.
Eventually Menelik was stricken with disease, and the state was
shaken to its foundations ; but his will was alive to keep the
fabric together. Ras Tassama, who was tutor to Menelik's
grandson and heir, Lidj Byassu, acted as regent until the
emperor's death.
The Abyssinian belongs to a race of warriors, shepherds, and
peasants, brave and unaccustomed to restraint. He is strong
and enduring when at work, fierce and cruel when he takes up
the more congenial task of bloodshed. His proudest ornament
is a curious crooked sword worn at the right side, though
a rifle is becoming his commonest w^eapon.
Adis Ababa lies scattered on the slopes of several mountains
and at an altitude of over 8,000 feet above sea-level. The
European houses with corrugated iron roofs are curiously
mixed up with the conical thatched native huts, all very much
46

THE ARCHBISHOP OF ABYSSINIA.

FOR COMMON PEOPLE
hidden among graceful eucalyptus trees. The churches, like
the houses, are circular buildings of stone or mud, exceedingly
well thatched with straw, the conical roof terminating in a
wooden top generally painted red and surmounted by a cross.
A priest who was asked why the churches were round, replied,
" Our churches are round like the world, and like our religion
know neither beginning nor end."
For a full century the Bible Society has been pro
moting and publishing translations of the Scriptures
for Abyssinia ; but peculiar difficulties have hitherto
made it impossible to carry on organized distribution.
However, in September, 1913, Mr. C. T. Hooper, the
Society's agent at Port Said, set out on a mission to
Adis Ababa, with the distinct purpose of meeting
the Abuna Mattheos, Archbishop of Ethiopia, and
obtaining from him permission to establish a Bible
depot in the capital. After a difficult journey occupy
ing twenty-four days, the agent arrived at Adis Ababa,
and in due course an interview was arranged by the
Abuna to take place at his palace. The whole
question of Bible work was fully discussed, together
with the constitution of the British and Foreign
Bible Society and its methods. While the Abuna
stated firmly that no active religious propaganda
could be tolerated, he expressed his appreciation
and approval of the lines on which the Bible
Society worked, and in the end undertook to grant
the permission requested. Some months later, the
promised official permission reached the Bible House,
Port Said, bearing the seal of the Archbishop. Trans
lated, the document reads as follows : —
"Prom Mattheos, Archbishop of the Kingdom of Abyssinia,
to Mr. Hooper, Director of the British and Foreign Bible
Society, Port Said.
" Peace and grace to you from the Lord Jesus. We have
47

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
received your letter dated 7th February last, and we thanked
the Lord Christ for your arrival in Egypt in health and
peace. " With regard to the place which you ask to establish in Adis
Ababa under our patronage for the sale and distribution of the
Holy Scriptures. You know quite well that this work rejoices
us greatly, and we therefore inform you that there is no
hindrance to its establishment on the conditions you promised
us to carry out when you visited Abyssinia, which are, that
there be sold in this place nothing besides the Holy Scriptures,
and that, as is the principle of your holy Society, the employees
of the place do not make any opposition through preaching.
" With regard to our opinion as to what concerns the success
of this place, and if you agree, there should be some copies of
the Holy Scriptures in the Abyssinian language, containing the
ancient and modern together, and some containing them
separately; and there should be also copies in the Arabic lan
guage in the same way, printed in large visible type, some
vowelled and some with references. We see that this will
greatly help the distribution of the Holy Scriptures, and this
is our great hope and desire.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of
God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.
Amen. " Written in Adis Ababa, 11 Barmhat, 1630" [which corre
sponds to March 20, 1914].*
[Seal of Abba Mattheos, Archbishop of Ethiopia.]
[Signed] "Mattheos, Archbishop of the Kingdom of
Abyssinia." Editions of the Scriptures have been prepared
and published by the Bible Society in several
different languages current among the tribes of
Abyssinia. In Ethiopic, the ancient language of
* The Archbishop reckons by the "Era of Martyrs," which
is still followed in the Coptic and Abyssinian Churches. This
chronology dates from 284 A.D., the year of the accession of the
Emperor Diocletian, the author of the last great persecution of
the early Church. Thus 1630 -h 284 = 1914 a.d.
48

FOR COMMON PEOPLE
the country, which ceased centuries ago to be
its vernacular, the Society publishes the New
Testament and the Psalter, as this version is still
used in the services of the Abyssinian Church. In
Amharic, the common tongue of the people to-day,
the Society circulates the complete Bible, which it
first published as long ago as 1840. To assist
worshippers who cannot readily follow the
liturgical Ethiopic, the Society also prints diglot
editions of the New Testament and Psalter,
which give the Ethiopic and the Amharic texts
side by side. While for other tribes and races
included in the Abyssinian dominions the Society
has published the New Testament in Tigrinya ; the
complete Bible or some part of it, in four different
forms of Galla ; a Gospel in Bogos, and a Gospel
in Falasha Kara. Hitherto the distribution of
these books has been much restricted, and of some
versions very few copies have been circulated. In
order that the privilege granted by the Arch
bishop may be used as early as possible,
considerable expense must be incurred in opening
a central base of supply in Abyssinia, in printing
large new editions of the Scriptures, and in or
ganizing the distribution of the books.
*****
By means of its world-wide network of depots and
agencies, carefully organized and equipped, the Bible
Society is able to distribute the Scriptures so as to
meet the needs of vast and variegated populations.
In each country which our colporteurs traverse, these
storehouses form for them a base of supply. And
Christian missionaries everywhere treat our depots
as arsenals from which they draw freely and con-
49 E

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
stantly whatever books they require. In the
chapters which follow we shall sketch the missionary
services rendered by the Society and give details in
regard to its colportage. Here we will only indicate
one other function which it fulfils in the bewilder
ing flux and flow of modern life.
The Modern Exodus.
Among the new signs of our times nothing is much
more impressive than the tides and currents of
migration which carry men away from their native
lands to settle on foreign shores. When the Bible
Society was founded none but rich people could
afford to travel ; but to-day multitudes of labouring
folk are seeking fresh homes across the sea. This
vast silent migration goes forward continually all
over the world. Asiatics are knocking at the
doors of remote countries. Japanese colonists settle
in Brazil. Syrian traders abound in Jamaica and
Venezuela. Indian coolies enter Madagascar and
Trinidad. Chinese swarm in the islands of Malaya.
Moslem Malays have invaded Cape Town. Indeed,
in some parts of the British Empire fresh arrivals
from the East are now being rigorously shut out.
The peasants of Central and Eastern Europe
gravitate mainly towards the open spaces of
America. Last year 300,000 emigrants landed at
Buenos Ayres. The Dominion of Canada is be
coming a great melting pot, into which nearly
half a million new - comers of many races and
tongues were poured during this past twelvemonth;
only about 150,000 of these came from the mother
country. In British Columbia, less than half the
population is of British origin : according to the
50

I

FOR COMMON PEOPLE
recent census this one province contains 16,000
Scandinavians, 12,000 Germans, 10,000 Italians, 4,000
Russians, and 7,000 from Austria-Hungary, besides
20,000 Chinese, 9,000 Japanese, and 2,500 Bast
Indians. At the present time, according to an
article in the National Review, forty-eight languages
are in daily use in British North America, between
Newfoundland and Vancouver.
Amid such a confused medley of immigrants it
becomes no easy task to provide every stranger in
a strange land with the Scriptures in the speech in
which he was born. Yet for each of them the Bible
Society has published the Gospel in his own ver
nacular. And our energetic Canadian Auxiliary
offers these Gospels free to those who land at the
eastern ports of the Dominion. Last year over
6,000 books were thus distributed at Halifax, 27,000
at St. John, and more than 73,000 at Quebec, the
summer port of Canada, where we now have an
office in the spacious quarters of the Government
Immigration Service.
Dr. Heine, one of the Society's devoted workers,
writes : — \
"The desire of many of the Russians to possess the Scrip
tures in their own language is astonishing. In the month of
October, 1913, while I was in Sydney, Cape Breton, as I was
near some houses in Tupper Street, a Russian recognized me.
I heard a shout ; and in a few minutes I was surrounded by a
crowd of Russians, all eager to buy God's Word in their own
language. Tears of joy ran down the cheeks of many, when
they saw the Book in their own tongue. One said, lifting up
the copy he had in his hand, ' This is the book that will bring
us light.' I sold forty Testaments on the spot."
Our Society also publishes diglot editions of the
New Testament, or Gospels, or a Gospel, which give
51

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
the English version side by side with some one
among dozens of other languages. Many of these
diglots are issued specially for free distribution
among immigrants into the British dominions. Such
books serve as primers from which a new-comer who
speaks only his mother-tongue can pick up English
as well ; and while he is thus mastering the speech
of his new country, he becomes acquainted with the
truths of Christianity. To bring about national
solidarity nothing is so effective as the bond of a
common language and the cement of a common
faith. *****
The great Swiss botanist Alphonse de CandoUe,
in his Geographic botanique raison4e, states that there
are only a few plants which range from the Arctic
regions to the southern extremity of the great con
tinents. Among these are iihe marsh marigold and
the common sundew ; while the humble sow-thistle
of our English fields {sonchus oleraceus) is found
scattered over every part of the earth, tropical as
well as temperate, and comes perhaps nearest of any
known plant to being truly cosmopolitan. Thus only
two or three of the lowliest plants prove them
selves world-wide in distribution ; whereas the Book
that is above every book knows no limit to its range,
and is equally at home among all the scattered tribes
and families of mankind.

52

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE

IN HEATHEN LANDS
When we compare modern Christian missions with
those of earlier ages, we recognize, as Canon Robinson
points out, one signal difference in the use made of
vernacular translations of the Scriptures. In the
year 331 the Emperor Constantino asked Eusebius,
Bishop of Csesarea in Palestine, to provide him with
fifty copies of the Bible in Greek, which he pre
sented to the principal churches throughout the
empire. This gift, which was considered a royal act
of munificence, probably forms some index to the
articulate wants of the time. To-day, the Bible
speaks in all the chief languages of mankind, and
its published copies are to be counted by hundreds
of millions. It may be difficult to appreciate the full
bearing of this fact on the missionary outlook, but
its importance can hardly be overestimated. The
pioneers of faith — not altogether excepting those of
the Roman Church — require and employ the printed
Gospel in the vulgar tongue.
The Bible Society exists to supply this vital need
of the missionary Church. Naturally, therefore, the
Society has become the indispensable ally of the
foreign missions of Reformed Christendom. From
the outset it has been linked with our great mis
sionaries in relations of the closest and most cordial
kind. The first book it ever published — in 1804 — was
53

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
a version of St. John's Gospel in the language of the
Mohawk Indians of North America. It voted £10,000
to Robert Morrison for the expenses of producing
his translation of the Chinese Bible. Its successive
grants to William Carey and his colleagues for print
ing their famous Serampore versions amounted in
all to £30,000. Early in the last century it was the
Society's representative in Calcutta who suggested
to Henry Martyn that he should devote his eminent
gifts to translating the New Testament into Urdu
and Persian ; and the Bible Society published both
those versions. Martyn. wrote: "Your design
announcing the Urdu translation as printed at the
expense of the Bible Society, I highly approve : I
wish to see honour put upon so God-like an
institution." Later on, the same institution was
privileged to print the Chuana Bible translated by
Robert Moffat, and the Swahili Bible translated
by Bishop Steere, and the Ganda Bible trans
lated by George Pilkington. Throughout its history,
no genuine application from the foreign field for
a fresh edition of the Scriptures has ever been
denied ; no missionary society's request to print
and publish a properly ailthenticated version in a
new tongue has ever been refused.
In carrying out this sacred stewardship the Bible
Society deals with no niggardly hand. It co-operates
with the missionaries in preparing the versions, it
prints the editions they ask for in the form which
they desire, and it sends the books out carriage free
to the remotest stations, on such terms that prac
tically no expense falls on the exchequer of the
mission which receives and distributes the volumes.
The Society is colour-blind to ecclesiastical dis-
54

IN HEATHEN LANDS
tinctions ; it rejoices to join hands with all who
will circulate God's Word in the speech of common
people. Missionaries abroad are its ablest trans
lators, its most persevering and successful helpers,
its most honoured friends ; while the Society has
no more ardent and generous advocates than mis
sionaries at home on furlough.
The Partner of Missions.
We often hear it said that the Bible Society is
the partner of foreign missions. But the great scale
on which this partnership is carried out can best
be realized by a few concrete illustrations. Here
is one example. From the Egyptian agency of our
Society, which has its headquarters at Port Said,
the following missions have been supplied with the
Scriptures during the past year, in altogether more
than fifty different languages : —
The American Presbyterian Mission, the Reformed Presby
terian Mission, the Swedish Evangelical Mission, the United Free
Church of Scotland Mission, the London Jews Society, the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the North Africa
Mission, the Church of Scotland Jewish Mission and Schools,
the Egypt General Mission, the Peniel Mission, the Church
Missionary Society, the Irish and Scotch Reformed Presbyterian
Mission, the British Syrian Mission, the Irish Presbyterian
Mission, the Waldensian. Mission, the Friends' Foreign Mission
Association, the Africa Industrial Mission, the United Methodist
Church Mission, and the Africa Inland Mission.
Yorubaland. Here is a picture of the missionary value of God's
Book. The Bible Society has published 175,000 copies
of the Scriptures in Yoruba. This language is spoken
by about two million people in Southern Nigeria,
where the Yoruba Bible is sold for Is. In 1913 the
55

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
Christian adherents of the C.M.S. mission in Yoruba
land were returned at 38,000, and the adult baptisms
for that year numbered 2,500. Further, during the
year nearly 60,000 reading primers were sold, a
sign of the number of Yoruba people who are
learning to read. The most notable feature in this
" mass movement " is that its early stages are almost
entirely due to voluntary workers. A missionary
passing through a village, which was wholly heathen
in days gone by, finds a house built apart and different
in shape and structure from the surrounding com
pounds, and is told that it is a church ; in a few
minutes his arrival brings together a crowd round
him, many with reading primers and others with
Bibles in their hands. Some Yoruba Christian from
another town has come to settle in the village ; or
one of the villagers has gone to Ibadan or Lagos for
purposes of trade, has been instructed and baptized
there, and has returned home with the Bible in his
hand and the new faith in his heart. This man begins
to teach his neighbours, books are purchased from the
nearest mission station, and before long the people
unite to build the primitive structure, with its mud
walls and thatched roof, which is the first Christian
church in the village. Among the little band gathered
roun(^ the missionary probably quite a number
will ask for baptism. Generally he finds that the
people can read the Bible haltingly, that they have
completely given up idol-worship and broken with
their old life, though they imperfectly realize what
the new life ought to be.
During this last year the Bible Society's grants of
editions of the vernacular Scriptures which were sent
out to the C.M.S. mission stations in West Africa
56

IN HEATHEN LANDS
alone, amounted in value to over £1,000. These books
included more than 4,000 Bibles in the Union Ibo
version, which are being rapidly sold at Is. 6d. a copy.
The Gold Coast.
Last June the Rev. W. R. Griffin, of the W.M.M.S.
gave the Committee at the Bible House some account
of the remarkable mass movement towards Christi
anity which is in progress among the negroes on the
Gold Coast. During the past four years the Wesleyan
mission there has received 11,000 new members, and
about 200,000 persons attend Christian worship every
Sunday. For these negroes our Society has already
published the New Testament and the Book of
Genesis in Fanti. The missionaries feel so strongly
the need for the complete Bible that they have
formed a translation committee, consisting of two
Englishmen and twelve Fanti Christians, to carry
out this project — which our Society is encouraging
and assisting. Mr. Griffin believes that if the great
opportunity now open be well used, the whole country
may become Christian within the next twenty years.
Nyasaland. Speaking at Oxford a few months ago the Bishop
of Nyasaland said that the Bible Society had just
printed for the U.M.C.A. 5,000 copies of the Nyanja
Bible in one volume : the copies had arrived and
were selling fast. The Society was exceedingly
generous — in fact its generosity was unlimited. He
commended the Society to anybody and everybody
connected with mission work in any way, because
it provided the missions with that without which
their work could not be carried on.
57

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
A Letter from Likoma.
The Bishop of Nyasaland has also forwarded an
interesting letter, addressed to the Bible Society
from Likoma, Lake Nyasa, and composed by
fourteen Christians belonging to the U.M.C.A.
Mission there. These men, known as the Wakulu
of the church, form a sort of council of Likoma
Christians, who administer the alms for the sick
and poor and act as churchwardens and sidesmen
in the cathedral at Likoma. The letter is written
by one of the two Wakulu able to write. The
Bishop supplies the following rough translation :
"Beloved — Salaam. We are thankful very much at seeing
the hew Bible ['the Bible of now'] which you have made for
us in England. All the Christians of Likoma rejoice at seeing
the Bible, the Chinyanja one, the whole of it. On March 19th
our Bishop called up all to show us the Bible itself, for it is
good very much, for because of this we are with joy. For since
of old we have not had [i.e. we have not ever had before] a
book like this. Because in the beginning we had the Bible
[only] bits of it, but indeed now we have the Bible made
together in one. And we all rejoice greatly. All Salaams I
We the Wakulu of the church." [Here follow the fourteen
names.]Kikuyu. Amid the controversy which has recently centred
round the name "Kikuyu" many are apt to forget
that the Kikuyu themselves are a tribe of savages
in the neighbourhood of Nairobi, the capital of the
British Bast Africa Protectorate. In their language
Sti Mark and St. John have been published, the latter
by our own Society, and the former in conjunction
with the N.B.S.S. A version of the Epistle to the
Philippians has also been printed by the Africa
58

IN HEATHEN LANDS
Inland Mission. Our Society has arranged for a
committee, which includes representatives of all
the Protestant Churches concerned, to prepare a
version of the New Testament. The village of
Kikuyu, which is almost on the Equator, stands
about seven thousand feet above sea-level, amid
beautiful scenery, and the snowy summit of Mount
Kenia, which is higher than Mont Blanc, rises
in the distance against the sky. But the Kikuyu
folk have hitherto hardly been touched by civiliza
tion. In their villages revolting customs prevail.
For instance, they expose not only their dead but
their dying, to be devoured by hysenas in the forests.
We do well to realize that the Conference at Kikuyu
had such a background.
Uganda. Preaching in Westminster Abbey at the beginning
of this year, the Bishop of Uganda could report
that in his diocese there are now 90,000 baptized
members of the Anglican Church, of whom over
23,000 are communicants — including the four kings
of Buganda, Bunyoro, Toro, and Ankole. The adult
baptisms in 1912 exceeded 6,000. In the kingdom of
Uganda, out of twenty country chiefs nineteen are
Christians. " The Word of God is the inspiration of
the Church in Uganda. It is for them not one Book
among many ; it is to many thousands their only
literature. Every candidate for baptism, unless too
old or too blind to see, must first learn to read the
Bible for himself. Every baptized member of the
Church must possess his own New Testament.
Directly or indirectly, that 'incorruptible seed,'
which is the Word of God, has transformed the
59

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
conditions of life in Uganda. It has abolished
slavery ; it has emancipated women ; it has swept
away the terror which hangs like a dark cloud over
African paganism and enlightened the gloom of
heathenism with the glory of a great hope. . . .
Almost literally in Uganda within the last thirty
years all things have become new."
We may add that all the editions of the Scriptures
used by the C.M.S. Uganda Mission are supplied by
our Society. During last year the following editions
were sent out direct from the London Bible House :
1,000 Bibles and 10,000 Testaments in Nyoro ; 2,000
Bibles and 5,000 Testaments in Ganda ; 12,000
Gospels in Luo ; and 200 copies of St. Mark in Teso.
An African Epistle of Gratitude.
In 1913 our Society published the New Testa
ment in Nyasa Nyika — the language of a tribe
of about 10,000 negroes, known as the Banyiha,
dwelling north-west of Lake Nyasa on the borders
of German East Africa. The version was due to
the Rev. Traugott Bachmann, of the Moravian
Mission, which has evangelized the tribesmen in
question. Mr. Bachmann has forwarded from
Mbozi an autograph vernacular letter of gratitude,
written and signed by five elders of the mission
church at that place. Before they received the
printed Testaments, his converts had been com
pelled to transcribe manuscript copies of different
books for their own use. This task was peculiarly
tedious and toilsome, since they had only learned
to read and write since attaining manhood.
We append a literal translation of this touching
epistle. 60

IN HEATHEN LANDS
"Mbozi, December ^l , 1913.
"Dear Fatheb.s, and Scribes of the Stories of God,
in the land op the english,
"We thank you much for the Testament, the Book of the
story of salvation. We find therein treasures, which surpass
all treasures. We mean the word concerning Jesus, the
Redeemer. With one voice we all say, 'Take our thanks.'
Ye have done a work which has been wrought through the
grace of Jesus. Folk who live without Jesus render no such
service as this. They say : ' Wherefore should we help those
whom we know not ? If we are willing and able, we help our
parents and kinsfolk, but we do not help strangers.' . . .
"Butye, Fathers, have acted otherwise, and have not disdained
to serve us — for which we say thanks to you. Ye have served
us although ye knew us not — -neither our manners and customs,
nor our name, nor our speech, nor our appearance. What
then is the reason, ye Fathers, that ye have so acted ? What
love has made us thus known to you ? We think that it is
the love of Him Who dwells in secret but beholds us all, Who
lives also in the hearts of men, and manifests Himself there.
Jesus Christ, Who has come from heaven and died for us
sinners, through Whom we have become made known. Who
also lets us find refuge in His name — He has made us known
to you. In this Jesus Christ, Who despises no man, are ye
great scholars, and thereby are ye a torch of the strength of
the Holy Spirit, and through Him we know one another.
During the short days of pain it will be no otherwise. Now
through Him and through mutual service we beeome known
to one another. In heaven, beside Him who died for us, it
will be otherwise.
"So we say also, it is on this account that ye thought of
us in your prayer, so that the Word may ever lay hold upon
us more and more when we read the New Testament. May
Jesus grant us clear eyes. We think that just as you have
helped us with the Testament, you will also help us with your
prayers. We beseech you, do not forget us. May God give
us wisdom of understanding and strength to carry out the
work of our Lord Jesus Christ, and before all things may He
give us all strength to live in this land of strangers. Just as
the Holy Spirit and the love of Jesus have constrained you
61

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
to serve us, so they constrain us also to serve one another.
. . . We also will think of you in prayer, that God may give
you greater strength to go on in His service in order that
His Word may reach forth to the ends of the earth. We
rejoice from our hearts in the Testament and the many stories
which it contains. Through them we receive a clearer know
ledge of salvation.
"And now, ye Fathers, might we say something about the
working of the Word of God ? In this place in which we dwell
some have received God's Word. They listen to the stories
of redemption ; some are laid hold of thereby, and the love
of Jesus has overcome them. We have told them that the
kingdom of God is come near to them and that Jesus has
loved the world and has died for it. We mean by the world,
us sinners. Certain who have obtained faith by our word
are also going forth to teach others. They speak nothing
except the stories of Jesus. We are comforted, that the Owner
of the work, who never slumbers, wiU work in the hearts of
men, as He has worked in our hearts — for we have not become
faithful in our own strength. He has stretched forth His
hand and has drawn us out of the darkness. So will He also
deal with others, yet must we abide in Him. Although His
work and the work of this world live in constant strife with
one another, so will He yet not desert the world. And even
though men bring themselves so much to resist Him, they
will not overcome Him, but He will overcome them with His
gentleness. At length they wiU receive His Word.
"We, the elders of the Church in Mbozi, greet you in
the name of Jesus the Lord. May He bless you with grace,
and peace, may He not withdraw His power from you for
ever."Baptists in South India.
The Bible Society is privileged to help Christian
missionaries who belong to many schools, theo
logical and ecclesiastical. Here is an example
which illustrates this catholic co-operation. The
field of the English Strict Baptist Mission, founded
in 1861, lies among Tamil-speaking folk in South
62

IN HEATHEN LANDS
India. The monthly organ of the mission for
December, 1913, contained the following paragraph :
" In accordance with our custom, we made a special
collection for the Bible Society, to which we are
indebted for copies of the Word of God, well
printed and supplied below cost at rates which the
Tamil Christians are able to pay. Our Christians
recognize their obligation in this matter, and
gladly contribute to the collection." In the latest
annual report of this mission we read :
"There are before us now three countries with a population
of nearly a million and an area of 2,500 square miles, where
not even a Testament is sold but through our agency. To
help us meet this great demand, we have secured the services
of another colporteur, himself a living proof of the usefulness
of this branch of mission work. . . . Both of these men are
converts from Hinduism, have the grace and fire of God in their
hearts — men whom we may rely upon to extend the helping
hand to any seeker after truth, however beset he may be by
enemies. Their Bibles, Testaments, portions, and other books
lie in hundreds of mud-huts, are shedding their light in many
a dark, gloomy home, and, we trust, are leading some heavy-
burdened souls ... to the bright and glorious reality of the
living Saviour."
George Sorrow's Manchu Version.
From the remote west of the Chinese territory
in the heart of Central Asia — between Mongolia
and Tibet— the Rev. G. W. Hunter, of the C.I.M.,
wrote in August 1913 that while on a journey' to
the northern boundary of Sinkiang he had sold
all the Chinese copies of the Scriptures he had with
him, and had also sold Gospels in Mongolian, Manchu,
Turkish, Tibetan, and Russian. " I have indeed" to
thank the British and Foreign Bible Society for their
great help. 'No one here among the many mixed
63

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
races need apply in vain for a copy of some book
of the Scriptures in his own language. I have sold
quite a number of the Manchu Gospels that were
printed for me. They seem to be quite appreciated
here, and at Hi among the Sipo, Solon, and other
Manchu tribes."
It is interesting to remember that these Manchu
Gospels were recently reproduced verbatim from the
Manchu Testament which was first printed in 1835
at St. Petersburg, where George Borrow not only
revised and edited the version but personally super
vised the printing on behalf of our Society.
"W^hat should we do without the Bible Society?"
From Siningfu, the frontier town on the Chinese
border of Tibet, the Rev. H. French Ridley of the
C.I.M. writes as follows : " In the first half of last
year I was able to take ten short journeys and had
good sales of books at all places. At the great
butter festival at Kumbum and the large fair at
Weiyuenpu among the aborigines, we had a warm
welcome and disposed of many books. In the
fifth moon I visited for the first time a fair at
a place called Manimo (' mill prayer- wheels '), so
named because there are five prayer-wheels worked
by water. . . . During October and November,
1913, Mr. Learner visited the granaries in Siningfu
almost every day, and sold a large number of
Gospels to the farmers bringing in their grain as
taxes. We have also sold a goodly number of
Arabic Gospels this year. What should we do
without the Bible Society?"
The Rev. J. Omelvena, of the Irish Presbyterian
Mission in Manchuria, writes from- Sinminfu:
64

IN HEATHEN LANDS
" Simple decency urges me to write a line or two to
express my thanks for the liberal help your Society
has given in our work. That help is so constant and
so unassuming that I am accustomed to reckon it as
a regular part of my district w^ork, and in fact I
never differentiate between the British and Foreign
Bible Society and our Irish Presbyterian Mission.
We are all one."
For French and German Missions.
In the fullest sense of the word, the Bible Society
is international as well as inter-denominational.
The foreign missionaries of other nations draw on
its resources on the same terms as are granted to
men of our own race and speech. In South Africa
the agents of the Soci4t4 des Missions EvangSliques de
Paris have been signally successful in evangelizing
the Basutos. Since 1881 our Society has published
64,000 copies of the complete Suto Bible, mainly for
the use of the French missionaries to whom this
version is due. We supply the same Paris mission
with editions of the Bible in Tahiti and Mar4 for the
Society Islands and Loyalty Islands, and in Malagasy
for Madagascar ; with the New Testament and parts
of the Old in Galwa and with Gospels in Pahouin
and Ongom, for use in French Congo ; with Gospels
in Houailou and Pon4rihouen for New Caledonia ;
and with Gospels in Jolof and Mandingo for Senegal.
The New Testament in Gu and in Kabyle is also
supplied to the French Wesleyan Missions in Dahomey
and Algeria. Two Gospels in Eastern Laotian have
been printed for the use of French Protestant mis
sionaries in French Indo-China.
German Protestant missionaries, who are much
65 F

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
more numerous, receive similar help on a wider scale.
We have already referred to the New Testament in
Shambala and the Gospels in Ruanda recently issued
expressly for the German Evangelical Mission in
German East Africa. Only last year a fresh edition
was printed of the New Testament in Ewe, at the
request of the North German Mission in Togoland ;
and a fresh edition of the New Testament in Herero,
at the request of the Rheinische Mission in Damara-
land. German Protestant missions have more than
400 agents at work in India, who obtain from our
Society practically all the copies of the Scriptures
which they need, in very many different versions.
For Missions of the Russian Church.
It is not commonly known in England that the
Russian Church carries on missionary work among
the Moslem and pagan tribes, of Tatar and Mongol
stock, that are still found in various provinces of
the Russian Empire. For many years the Bible
Society has co-operated in these labours of the
Orthodox Missionary Society. Versions in a variety
of languages are needed for circulation among such
tribes. In some cases the translations have been
printed and published by the Orthodox Missionary
Society, and the Bible Society has purchased copies
for circulation by its colporteurs. In several lan
guages, however, the Bible Society has either
published versions itself for the Orthodox Missionary
Society, or assisted that Society in so doing. Among
the publications for which our Society has thus
been responsible we may mention the New Testa
ment and Psalter in Chuvash, for the agricultural
tribe of that name dwelling in the valley of the
66

IN HEATHEN LANDS
Volga ; and the New Testament in Kirghiz, for
more than two million Tatars in Russian Central
Asia. The Bible Society has also published the
four Gospels in Mordoff, in Cheremiss, in Bashkir,
and in Votiak — all for tribes in Eastern Russia —
and in Yakut for a tribe in North-eastern Siberia ;
and St. Matthew's Gospel in Buriat for a tribe
in Eastern Siberia.
Early in 1913 one of our Russian colporteurs travelled from
Irkutsk by sledge to the river Lena, proceeding due north
for about 120 miles, with the object of reaching the Buriats
for whom our Society, in conjunction with the Orthodox
Missionary Society, has published this Gospel in Buriat. He
also visited the eastern shores of Lake Baikal. While on this
tour he wrote: "In the village of Khogotski I received a
warm welcome from the missionary priest there, a Buriat
Mongol, who had been baptized and received into the Orthodox
Church when quite a young man. He told me that he had
actually taken part in translating the Gospel which I was
endeavouring to sell."
Preaching in his University Church last December,
the Bishop of Oxford declared that "there is no
practical institution among men which accomplishes
its object more efficiently than the Bible Society;
and there is not one of our missionary societies,
not one of the societies which seek to make known
the meaning of the Christian religion, which could
possibly dispense with the Bible Society."

67

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE

AT HUMBLE DOORS
" Un de ces marchands ambulants qui vendent par
les campagnes, de parte en parte, de petits objets d
ban m.arcM." — Guy de Maupassant : Le Colporteur.
In course of time every great institution learns
by experience how to evolve the machinery best
adapted for its special mission. The Bible Society
has created one characteristic type of agent for
the purpose of taking the Scriptures to humble
folk all over the world. A colporteur is really a
Christian pedlar, who carries in his pack cheap
copies of God's Book in the speech of the common
people. And the colporteur's business is to travel
from town to town and from village to village,
calling at the wayside dwellings that lie between,
seeking men out wherever they make their homes,
and offering his books from door to door. These
wandering Bible-sellers generally work in their
native land. They can move among their own
countrymen with the franchise which belongs to
a son of the soil. And they succeed best among
those immense populations which are not congested
in cities, but scattered across the wide spaces of
the world.
The Bible Society maintains its colporteurs in
about thirty different states and kingdoms. They
68

AT HUMBLE DOORS
are selected, engaged, trained, organized, and super
intended with the utmost care — often in heathen
countries by missionaries who supervise their service.
For the cardinal fact about a colporteur is this :
he is not merely a hawker but an evangelist, who
has learned to know and to love the Book he
carries. Our staff of colporteurs is recruited from
many Christian communions. Lutherans are em
ployed in Germany, Waldensians in Italy, members
of the Russian Orthodox Church in the dominions
of the Tsar, members of the Reformed Church in
France. But it is no part of their duty in a
Christian country to make proselytes or to detach
adherents from any Church ; and they all receive
explicit directions that they shall, as far as possible,
avoid controversy. Not many months ago the Bishop
of Stepney made this telling comparison: "A vision
of the Bible Society's colporteurs rises in my mind
when I hear the words, ' He shall not strive nor
cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the
street.' I often think of those humble brethren
of St. Francis who in their best days made the
most extraordinary impression on England, and I
venture to think that there is something of those
simple, humorous, kindly, courageous, gentle, for
giving people in the simple colporteurs who go
from place to place offering the Word of God."
We have already recorded the wonderfu). growth
last year of the Society's issues. Side by side with
this, it is most encouraging to report a corresponding
advance in the number of books sold by colportage.
During 1913 the Society employed about 1,230 of its
wayfaring Biblemen, who were at work continuously
throughout the twelvemonth, and who sold more
69

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
than four and a quarter million copies of the Scrip
tures — an increase of half a million on the record
total of the previous year. Few of the colporteurs'
customers would have obtained God's Book unless it
had been thus taken to their doors and put into
their hands.
Colportage is intensive circulation ; yet from
another point of view, it is also extensive. These
humble, faithful Bible-seUers are carrying the
Scriptures to remote corners of the earth, other
wise unvisited and inaccessible — the dense forests
of the Orinoco, the upper waters of the Nile, the
homesteads of settlers in New South Wales, the
barracks of Russian soldiers at Vladivostock. If
we could follow their footsteps along the world's
highways and byways we should enter cottages
and chalets, camps and bungalows, log-huts in the
backwoods, the forecastles of ships in harbour,
and the tents of nomads on the steppes. The col^
porteurs find their best opportunities among the great
Asiatic races, and in those European countries which
are still unblessed with the Reformed Faith. More
than half their number are selling vernacular Gospels
among brown men and yellow men on the densely
peopled river-plains of India and China.
Perils of Service.
In the course of his duty the colporteur must
encounter not a few hardships and dangers. It
is no trifling matter to brave the blizzards of a
Siberian winter, to face the torrid heats of Brazilian
swamps and forests. In recent months our Bible
messengers have been hindered by anarchy in Persia,
by fighting and freebooters in Mongolia, by martial
70

Photo by

The Immigration Branch, N.S.W. Government Office

WASHING GOLD ON THE TURON RIVER, WHERE GOLD WAS FIRST DISCOVERED
IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

AT HUMBLE DOORS
law in South Africa, by revolutions in South America.
In many countries bigotry and superstition stfll
have power to persecute those who carry lamps into
their darkness, and our colporteurs suffer bodily
ill-treatment. Last year, one man was severely
beaten by the priest of a village among the Andes.
Another was kicked and pelted by Jews in Palestine.
Another was robbed of every farthing he possessed
by a highwayman in Peru. In China a colporteur
was kidnapped by brigands near Canton. Another
was assaulted at Suez by fanatical Moslem pilgrims
on their way to Mecca. In Moravia a colporteur was
locked up in three different Austrian jails. During
the fratricidal warfare between the Balkan races
several of our Bible-sellers were arrested as spies,
while others were called to serve with the colours ;
a Greek colporteur was arrested in Lemnos ; and
a Bulgarian colporteur was captured at Koritza,
chained and imprisoned by Greek soldiers, and
deported to Crete.
In most countries where the Church of Rome is
powerful, the clergy remain as a rule hostile to the
Bible in the vulgar tongue. We rejoice, however,
that the reports of our colporteurs show more
frequently than before that Roman priests have met
them in a friendly spirit. A noteworthy article
signed by Dr. F. Stummer, of Wiirzburg, appeared
recently in the Kolnische Volkszeitung — the most
influential Ultramontane newspaper in Germany,
and probably in the world. We need only quote one
sentence, which sums up Dr. Stummer 's position :
"If we consider for a moment the importance of
the Bible Society's work, we must willingly admit
that the circulation of God's Word carries with it
71

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
much blessing, and that many modem men are
pointed by the means of the Bible to God, just as
the Scriptures once served St. Augustine." The
article concludes by appealing for a cheap Roman
Catholic edition of the German Bible, which could
compete with the editions issued by our Society.
The colporteur's worst enemies are ignorance,
indifference, secularity, and unbelief. In Brazil,
for instance. Colporteur Cyrillo has been visiting
some of the most out-of-the-way places in the
province of Bahia — as largo as Sweden — where the
population is very scattered. One man exclaimed:
" Do you expect me to buy an immoral book ? "
Other common replies which met Cyrillo were
these : " The Bible ? No, indeed ; the only thing I
want is money." "No, I want some book about
spiritualism." "It is much better not to read the
Bible, for if you read it, you will find out what
your duty is ; then you will become a greater
sinner, and your sin will be unpardonable." " O,
this is the hated book ! " " If you had only brought
us romances, we would buy." " If you would only
sell immoral books, we would buy." " Even if your
book were given away, we would not have it."
" If we were to buy it, we should buy it to
burn it."
On the other hand a Chinese colporteur in
Shantung writes : " When I come to villages where
I have often been before, the children meet me
with the cry, ' The man with the heavenly books
is here,' and soon the whole village is crowding
round me." A Korean Bible-seller reports that in
one town a scholar who had bought copies of
tihe Scriptures called him "the angel colporteur."
72

AT HUMBLE DOORS
Successful Bit>le-selling.
The true success of a Bible-seller cannot be
measured merely by the number of copies of the
Scriptures which he manages to dispose of. The
qualities which he needs for his difficult and
responsible task are not just those of a clever
hawker. Moreover, he may be working under
conditions which make large sales impossible. For
example, he may be driving a Bible-wagon in the
Australian bush, or travelling by sleigh over the
snow to isolated Russian hamlets. He may be
pioneering among uncivilized populations, where
hardly any one can read; or again, he may be
confronted by Moslem bigotry and bitterness in
Persia or in the Sudan.
Nevertheless, we may well congratulate a col
porteur and rejoice with him, when circumstances
prove favourable and he is able by God's help and
through his own energy and perseverance to find
many purchasers of the Book that is above every
book. In the paragraphs which follow we give
some examples of colporteurs who last year obtained
conspicuous success in the number of volumes which
they were able to circulate.
In Malaya.
In Malaya the Scriptures are distributed from the
great seaport of Singapore, which has been described
as the gateway of the Far East. From this British
possession our colporteurs visit from time to time
the Straits Settlements, the Malay Peninsula, Borneo,
Sumatra, Java, and the lesser Dutch Indies. Among
the colporteurs who make their headquarters at
Singapore, one of the most successful is Khoo Chiang
73

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
Bee, a Chinese Christian who has proved himself a
splendid worker. He is ready to go anywhere and
to face any hardships, if thereby he may spread the
good news of Jesus Christ among Moslems and
Chinese who are as yet unreached and untouched
by any missionary. During last year this colporteur
made two tours in different parts of Johore, the
State at the southern extremity of the Malay
Peninsula ; he also took three long journeys in
Sumatra, and sold altogether 12,800 copies of the
Scriptures. Travelling in Sumatra is easy to write
or read about ; but it demands no small amount of
endurance and courage. This rich tropical island,
which measures more than a thousand miles in
length, is counted among the Dutch East Indian
possessions. Its interior is clothed with dense
forests, and rises into lofty mountain-ranges which
include active volcanoes. The population may
number four millions of people, who are generally
reckoned as Moslems or pagans. The Bible Society
would be glad to find more men of Chiang Bee's
stamp, willing to give up every personal comfort,
to leave their wives and children for months at a
time, and to set out, often alone, to carry the Gospel
to hostile Moslems in the islands of Malaya.
In Russia.
Colporteur E. Maslennikoff is one of our staff of
Russian Bible-sellers. A devout member of the
Orthodox Church, he has done twenty-two years'
loyal work for the Society in his native country.
During 1913 his service was curtailed by a holiday
which he took to visit London and New York ; but
in spite of this absence he sold 7,534 copies of the
74

AT HUMBLE DOORS
Scriptures. For most of the year he goes among the
mills and factories which are so numerous in and
about St. Petersburg. The summer months he
generally spends in the northern provinces, follow
ing the great river Dwina down to the White Sea.
From Archangel he takes steamer again and visits
the famous Solovetski monastery, where he always
receives a friendly welcome from the Russian monks,
and also calls at various ports along the coast of
the White Sea.
"The work in the factories, "he reports, "is getting more and
more difficult. A great change has come over the spirit of the
workmen in the course of the last ten years. Formerly every
workshop had a holy picture (ikon) on its walls, and in the larger
works there w^as generally a whole ikonostas. Lamps burned
before these pictures, and the workmen, in accordance with
their orthodox Russian custom, would meet here at the be
ginning and the end of their day's w^ork, and chant the morn
ing and evening prayers. On pay-day their flrst act would be
to put a coin or two in the collection-box for the upkeep of the
pictures and for lamp-oil. Of all this there is now nothing ;
the holy pictures are covered with dust, and instead of prayers
one hears ribald songs and bad language. The people have
become demoralized by revolutionary propaganda, by immoral
literature, and by strong drink."
But this is only one aspect of the matter. There
is still much reward for earnest service. Maslennikoff
visited forty factories in the course of the last
season ; in one, employing a thousand hands, he
might sell only a score of volumes ; in another, with
fifty hands, he would sell a copy to almost every
person ; and in one of the larger factories he actually
sold books worth 300 roubles (over £30).
In the Philippines.
The Philippine Archipelago contains more than
75

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
3,000 islands and islets, which have a population
numbering altogether over eight millions. The Fili
pinos derive mainly from a Malay ancestry, but
they speak many different languages and dialects.
Marcelino Espiritu, our senior colporteur in the
Philippines, sold last year quite 4,000 copies of the
Scriptures. He visited the island of Mindaiiao —
which is larger than Portugal and contains 500,000
people — as well as the Moro country and the rail
way construction camps in Tayabas. The following
is translated from his letters :
"Later in the year I went among the camps of men engaged
in building the railway in Tayabas province, and sold many
copies of the Scriptures in Cebuan, Pampanga, Ilocano, Bicol,
and Tagalog. In Polangui I entered a large house of one of the
principal families of that town to show them my stock of Bibles,
and if possible sell them some. The neighbours gathered to
look at the strange and mysterious books, which had never
been seen before by any of them. They asked me various
questions about the Bible, etc. Then, at the request of some of
them who knelt with me, I asked God to look in mercy upon
us all, and to open our minds to His truth : I prayed in Spanish,
as I did not know their Bicol dialect."
Last year our Society published for the first time
the complete Bible in Bicol.
In Rosario.
Situated on the right bank of the Parand river,
Rosario with its population of 220,000 has now
risen to become the second commercial city in the
Argentine. Here our senior colporteur, Antonio
Selle, who has rendered the Society twenty-two
years' valuable service, has the privilege of visiting
the railway stations, and also of entering the trains
and offering his books to the passengers. Rosario
76

AT HUMBLE DOORS
is an important railway junction, through which
great numbers of people are constantly passing
into various parts of the country. Colporteur
Selle almost lives at the railway station, where he
is able to place the New Testament in the hands
of many hundreds of persons bound for isolated
places far away in the interior of the republic.
During the past year he sold 7,751 books.
In Peking.
In the ancient capital of China our Society main
tains a Bible-seller who has achieved remarkable
success for several years past. Colporteur Yao
Chen-yuan is endowed with pleasant manners and
unusual tact. He spends most of his time at the
Peking railway station, where he is quite a favourite
with the officials, who give him perfect freedom to
carry on his work. He enters every passenger train
that leaves the station, threading his way in and
out among the crowded third-class cars, as well as
visiting the first and second class compartments,
right up to the time when the train starts. Thus,
he offers his books to people just when they want
something to occupy them on the long journey which
they are beginning. Many a Chinese traveller reads
the Gospel for the first time as he is carried away by
train from the capital. Some day, a great harvest
will be gathered as the result of this steady, patient
seed-sowing at the Peking railway station. In the
summer of 1913 Colporteur Yao also visited several
Chinese military camps, in which he had Christian
friends. He was well received by some of the
Chinese officers, one of whom commended his
books to the soldiers and urged them to buy
77

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
copies. During 1913, Yao sold altogether nearly
21,000 copies of the Scriptures.
Some Snap-shots.
The reports of our Bible-sellers contain many
picturesque touches and curious incidents and vivid
details. At Valencia, two Spanish ladies who were about
to buy tickets for a bull-fight agreed to purchase
Bibles from a colporteur instead.
In a Siberian village, a peasant, who could not
read, knocked up our colporteur at two o'clock one
morning, in order to make sure of a New Testament
for his boy, who was attending the village school.
A Greek colporteur visited every house in
Athens last year. A second, stationed at Corinth,
sold 1,230 books. A third did excellent service at
Salonika — another city to which St. Paul addressed
two epistles — having entered it with the Greek
troops early in 1913.
On the outskirts of a Bulgarian village. Colpor
teur Letshoff came upon a gipsy camp, and soon
the men, women, and children had gathered round
to hear him read the Gospel. Evening drew on
to midnight, when they constrained him to sleep
in the camp and continue his words next day.
In the morning, those who could read eagerly
bought up all the Testaments and Psalters the
colporteur had with him. The village inn-keeper
asked in astonishment : " Surely you did not sell
your books to those gipsies ? " But when he heard
the story, he confessed, " Of a truth our Lord
has justly said, Many that are first shall be last,
and the last first." 78

AT HUMBLE DOORS
A rich Chinaman who had come to Moulmein
seemed thunderstruck when a Burmese colporteur
told him the price of our Chinese editions. " How^
can you sell books printed in China at so small a
price in this distant land, unless you are a thief
and have stolen them ? "
On Chinese River Steamers.
From Shanghai, our sub-agent, Mr. Copp, writes :
"The steamers that leave Shanghai every day are legion.
I sometimes manage to visit five, but more often only three in
a day, and even on those I am not able to get round among all
their passengers. These steamers are very often crowded to
excess in the steerage. The majority of passengers refuse
the Scriptures, but there are so many of them that my sales
mount up by the end of the day.
"The different articles taken on board by pedlars a little
before the steamers start baffle description — cigarettes, matches,
candles, cakes and biscuits, cooked chicken, fruits, toys, clocks,
knives, chopsticks, spoons, frying-pans, mirrors, bean-curd
cakes, and a great variety of novels and newspapers. The
passengers get so pestered by these pedlars, that when the
colporteur comes to sell the Scriptures he is often looked upon
as another pest.
"But many are the opportunities of speaking about the
Book and the Gospel it contains. Numbers listen attentively
— as though they were hearing the message for the flrst time in
their lives. ' Sit down and talk,' said a man on a Yangtze
steamer one night. ' I am a Confucianist ; I have no sin.
Confucius is good, Jesus is good, and the Lord of Heaven
is good.' By the Lord of Heaven, he meant the Chinese
name for God which is adopted by Roman Catholic mis
sionaries. "Discouragements and encouragements follow each other
like waves of the sea. We may offer the Gospels to ten, twenty,
or thirty persons and get brushed aside. Then w^e come upon
one who listens quietly, and at once buys some portion of
Scripture." 79

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
A Japanese Chief of Police.
At one town in Japan our sub-agent, Mr. A.
Lawrence, visited the chief of the police, who was
interested to hear something of the world-wide
operations of the Bible Society. Although he knew
very little about the Bible, he had discovered that it
was a book able to influence and transform men's
lives. After a moment's thought he turned to an
official who was seated beside him, and asked : " How
many police have we in the force here ? " " Forty-
seven," was the reply. Then he said, " I will pay for
forty-seven Testaments, and you can send them at
your convenience." Thus, every policeman in the
town received a presentation copy of the New Testa
ment. Yet this chief of police was not a Christian.
On the Rand.
In South Africa the Scriptures in many versions
are circulated at the diamond mines near Kimberley
and at the gold mines near Johannesburg. More
than a quarter of a million labourers, including
recruits from nearly every tribe in South and
Central Africa, are employed along the eighty
miles of the Witwatersrand reef. During last year
each of the hundred compounds along the reef was
visited at least once a month by our Society's
colporteurs. The Africans are very ready to buy
Bibles, not only for themselves but to send as
presents to friends in their far-away kraals.
Mr. Irving, our senior colporteur, describes how one
afternoon he had been unusually busy, and had sold the
Scriptures in "at least thirteen different languages, among
them being Gujarati, Swahili, Hebrew, Yiddish, and several
South African tongues.'' Before Mr. Irving closed his wagon
80

AT HUMBLE DOORS
for the night a big Bechuana came up excitedly and exclaimed,
Don't you know me? I was in prison, and you spoke to me.
God answered our prayer, and had mercy on me, and saved
me. If the boy whom I had stabbed when I was drunk had
died, I was going to Pretoria, and I should have been hanged.
Jesus opened my eyes and made me happy." After his release
from prison this Bechuana had gone to his own people, and
told them of the great things which had come to him. He also
reminded Mr. Irving of words spoken at a service conducted
fourteen years before in one of the Rand compounds. Then
taking a well-worn Chuana Testament from his pocket, he
testified to the black crowd of Africans concerning the help and
safety that he found in its constant companionship.
"Pioneers! O Pioneers!"
The native Christian colporteur can make his way
where no other agent of the Gospel penetrates, and
thus in heathen lands he becomes a real pioneer of
the missionary. In Japan, for example, five-sixths
of the people live scattered in country districts,
hitherto for the most part untouched by Christian
teaching; it is in such country districts that our
Japanese colporteurs spend most of their time.
In India great areas are not only still unoccupied
by missionaries, but have no Christians living within
them at all. According to the census of 1911, in Ben
gal alone 13,500,000 people are dwelling in districts
where they are perforce without the opportunity of
seeing Christianity lived before them, and con
sequently of estimating its daily power in the home,
the field, and the village. Until the Church has
power to cope with these wide areas and vast
populations it appears more than ever urgent that
the Bible Society should place the Scriptures within
reach of all who can read.
In India the colporteur wanders from town to
81 G

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
town, from village to village, from house to house,
meeting here with friendliness and there with
hostility, pursuing his vocation by day, resting by
night at a wayside inn or under the roof of a
Christian family, or with a Hindu acquaintance. You
may see him at a railway-station offering his wares
to travellers by the iron road ; or trudging along
a country track ; or moving among the crowd of
pilgrims that gather from far and near at festival
seasons to lay their offerings at the shrine of some
Indian deity ; and always he carries the same burden,
in satchel or kerchief — a parcel of Testaments and
Gospels in the various vernaculars that are spoken
in that region.
A Tamil colporteur encountered a crowd of pil
grims in South India who had come to bathe in the
sacred river because — so they said — according to
their Puranas those who bathed on that auspicious
day would wash away their sins. The colporteur
read them suitable passages from the Bible and
explained that the forgiveness of sin could come from
faith alone — and not through ceremonial bathing.
Explorers and Pathfinders.
In China last year the Society maintained 400
colporteurs continuously at work, and they sold more
than two million copies of the Scriptures — ninety-
two per cent, of our whole circulation in China.
These colporteurs are, for the most part, definitely
related to the missions and churches of the districts
in which they work. They are Christians selected
and recommended for their special service by the
foreign missionary or the native pastor, and they
labour as part of the local mission force. The
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AT HUMBLE DOORS
specific duty assigned to them is to itinerate far and
wide. No other Christian workers spend so much
time on the road ; no others do more, either by
speech or by the printed page, to make known the
Gospel message to the unevangelized heathen. They
are the explorers and pathfinders of the Church.
Here is a testimony from the Rev. W. Eddon, of
the United Methodist Mission, Wuting : " At a small
market town in Northern Shantung the people were
violently opposed to Christianity. Again and again,
we had sought an opening, but in vain. At last a
colporteur named Hsu visited the market-place with
his bundle of books and, after a while, sold copies of
St. Mark's Gospel to eight men. Those men the same
evening sought out the colporteur at the inn where
he was staying, and begged him to explain some
statements in the books. Three evenings he stayed
with them, explaining the points raised, and then
took his departure. Left without teacher or helper,
the men tramped a long day's journey to the nearest
missionary to ask that he would send some one to
teach them, and help them to understand the book
which seemed to contain such good doctrine. Their
journey was in vain, however, as the missionary was
then too short-handed to grant their request. For
two years these men waited for a teacher— in the
interval reading the Gospel and trying to understand
it — and when at last a teacher w^as sent, he found
thirteen men already professing faith in Christ and
anxious to be baptized and make public confession.
The thirteen have increased to thirty baptized
Christians, who now worship in a large church built
by themselves in gratitude to their Saviour."
Dr. A. Fletcher Jones of Yungpingf u writes : " The
83

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
seed-sowing by Colporteur Chen led to a number
of men accepting Christ as their Saviour and
founding a church far beyond the Great Wall, at
Kankou. They asked for a preacher, and insisted
on their preacher being the man who had taken
the words of life into their district. Thus one
more church has been added to the many in China
that owe their origin to the British and Foreign
Bible Society."
A Korean Colporteur's Parable.
In Korea our sub-agent Mr. Thomas Hobbs has
done excellent service by his careful training of the
Korean colporteurs. Their increased efficiency is
strikingly refiected in the fact that they sold last
year 311,000 copies of the Scriptures — more than
double the total for the previous year. Mr. Hobbs
translates the following artless but graphic narrative
from the journal of one of these wayfaring men.
To-day the village in question contains a church and
a number of Christians — the result of this visit.
" I was travelling in North Kando during the summer for the
purpose of selling books. One day I walked many miles but
did not meet one single person. Since I had not sold one
single voliune I could not overcome my sorrowful heart. To
wards evening I arrived at a large village, in the front of which
was a broad plain. There was a man making a rice-fleld there,
and as it was a nice clean place, and I was tired, I sat down and
began to talk to him. While we were conversing, a dozen
children between ten and twelve years of age came out from
the village. I asked the children if they had a mind to listen to
what I had to say. Some of them said they would, others said
they would not. I told them to clean their noses, and wash
their faces in some clean water, which was near. Some of them
did as I told them, others refused to do so. Afterward I told
the children with the unwashed faces to look at the difference
84

AT HUMBLE DOORS
in the appearance of the other children. They were ashamed,
and had not a word to say. After a little more persuasion every
one washed his face. I then held up a copy of the Gospel and
began to talk to them. I told them that just as their faces
had been dirty and had been made clean by washing, so their
hearts were unclean because of sin ; but if they would believe
in Jesus He would forgive their sins, and make their hearts
clean, and that the books I had to sell would teach them the
way. Every one, including the man who was making the
rice-fleld, bought a copy of the Go.spel.
"At that time an old gentleman, wearing a, kwan [a four-
pointed hat worn by the gentry of Korea] and smoking a long
pipe, came out from the village. Seeing the children with the
books in their hands, he demanded in a loud voice what books
they had got. The children were afraid of him, and said they
had bought them from the visitor. He commanded them to
return them instantly. This they commenced to do, but the
man who was making the rice-fleld called out, ' Father, do not
be alarmed, this visitor is teaching the children well. It would
be good for us if we had one of these good men living in our
village.' The old gentleman was the father of the man who
was making the rice-fleld, and hearing these words from his son
he allowed the children to keep their books. I looked up and
saw that the sun was sinking behind the hills in the west, and
I had no place to sleep. But the man who was making the
rice-fleld said, ' Do not have any anxiety, come to my house
and stay the night.' I did so, thanking God for the way He
had helped me."
Faithful Service.
The Rev. F. G. Vesey, who was formerly the
Society's sub-agent in Korea and has a particularly
thorough knowledge of colportage, writes :
" It is hard not to sing the praises of the faithful
colporteurs. My men have tried to do well amid
many difficulties. They have nursed dying causes
into life, have comforted and strengthened weak
believers who live behind the hills and amid the
85

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
mountains. They live by the Word, on the Word;
through the Word, and though the hearts of
many of their hearers were like the rocky soil of
the hills the seed has grown and brought forth
fruit. " As I inquire here and there how candidates for
baptism arrived at the Cross, the answer is often
most creditable to the Society's colporteur. ' He
preached at my house,' one will say, ' and left a book
and came back again and again, until I began to
understand the truth.' Sometimes a man sells fewer
books but gets better results, because he is compelled
to follow up his sales by personal work."
In South America.
Most of our circulation in South America is
effected by colportage. Our colporteurs are hardy,
honest-hearted men with a deep love for Christ.
They have taken their lives in their hands as they
have climbed the mighty frontiers of the Andes
with the Bible in their wallets. In loneliness their
faith and courage have been sustained by the unseen
Saviour. God and they alone know over what fiinty
roads and rocky mountains, through what fever
swamps and insect-haunted morasses, they had to
travel with their books in order that the Gospel
might find an entrance among the varied peoples
of these republics. We see them ascending the
Magdalena River in Colombia. In Ecuador they
are at work on the line of the equator. In Peru
they are found among the sugar-cane valleys of the
coast and under the lofty snow peaks. In Northern
Chile they tramp the dreary nitrate pampas and
ascend the Andes into Bolivia.

AT HUMBLE DOORS
In the Amazon Valley.
It is hard to bring home to our minds the enormous
spaces and distances contained in Brazil. Few Eng
lishmen realize that this republic includes more than
half of South America, and that its area is nearly
double that of India. Most of the Brazilian States
are bigger than European kingdoms. The valley of
the Amazon and its tributaries forms an immense
region, mainly unknown and unoccupied, covered
by rank tropical forests, and for several months
of the year flooded by tropical rains so that much
of it becomes impassable save in boats. Except at
a few^ towns and trading stations along the rivers,
the inhabitants are uncivilized Indians, scattered
over vast territories, averaging less than one to
a square mile. The only commercial product is
rubber, collected from several kinds of trees and
sent down the waterways to the sea.
Our new sub-agency for the valley of the Amazon,
in charge of Mr. Sydney Smith, has been the means
of a strong forward movement, and in 1913 our
circulation reached 6,475 books — a result almost
entirely attained by diligent colportage. This repre
sents "much hard work, a great amount of travel
ling, and some amount of suffering as the result of
fevers." All our colporteurs suffered from illness.
Mr. Smith himself had a bad attack of sickness.
Besides other journeys he made his way up those
great tributaries of the Amazon known as the
Madeira and the Mamore, and penetrated to the
India rubber-gatherers in the remote Beni region,
below the northern boundary of Bolivia, where
he found some of these Indians in a state of
virtual slavery. During 1913 he travelled more
87

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
than 6,000 miles, including at least 1,000 miles in an
open canoe.
In Uruguay.
Paysandu, renowned for ox-tongues, is the second
city in Uruguay. It has a population of about 20,000,
and is the centre of a rich pastoral and agricultural
province of the same name. With its port on the
river Uruguay it is well served with steamers from
Buenos Ayres and Montevideo. Most of its buildings
are in the old-fashioned Spanish style, yet the city
has already some fine business houses and boulevards,
and is well equipped with electric light, telephones,
and other modern improvements.
Sehor Iglesias was at Paysandu last autumn,
mainly to visit the large factory of Mr. William
McCall, who specially asked that our colporteurs
should visit his employees. Iglesias wrote : " The
work has been very fruitful. I am calling at every
house, from the richest to the poorest. Many of the
people are very poor, and others are very bigoted,
but I have already met a number of friendly folk."
Iglesias spent the whole of October in Paysandu and
sold all the books he had brought with him.
At Fairs and Festivals.
Shakespeare tells us concerning the pedlar Auto-
lycus, that he haunted " fairs, wakes, and bear-bait
ings." And our colporteurs find it useful to take
advantage of the crowds which still come together
for business or piety or pleasure — or for all three
combined — at modern fairs and festivals and pil
grimages in many different countries.
The world-famous fair which is held at Nijni Nov-
88

Photo by Messrs. Miller & Degen

lent by Argentine Ry. Co.

INDIANS OF PARAGUAY, FOR WHOM THE B.F.B.S. PUBLISHED LAST YEAR
THE GUARANI NEW TESTAMENT.

AT HUMBLE DOORS
gorod for two months toward the end of each year,
attracts motley throngs of traders from every part
of Russia and Central Asia. Here Colporteur A.
Yevleff managed the Society's kiosk at the great
fair, where over 7,000 copies of the Scriptures
were sold. In the pilgrim season this colporteur
went to Arzamas on the Kazan railway, which is the
gathering-point of the pilgrims who come from
all parts of Great Russia to the Sarofsky monastery.
In the crowd women predominated, poverty-stricken
and suffering ; among them Yevleff gave away
many Gospels, finding it hopeless to effect sales.
In Belgium, which to-day has been turned into
a battlefield for contending nations. Colporteur
Caufriez was stationed last year at Paturages,
near Mons. His sales rose to 3,530 books, owing to
the fact that he had the help of three friends who
went with him at their own charges to attend popular
pilgrimages. These took place at Fosse and at
Berr^, near Namur, and at Loverval in Hainault.
At the last town, two of these friends rose every
morning at 4.30 a.m. — as Caufriez does himself —
for nine days in succession, that they might take
advantage of the splendid opportunities which a
pilgrimage furnishes for circulating the Scriptures.
The people gather in crowds and so are easy of
access. Besides, the pilgrims are often ready soil
to receive the seed of God's Word.
In Manchuria a special effort is always made to
distribute the Scriptures when the Mongol temple
fairs are held. An evangelist who works with our
colporteur thus reports on one of these great
festivals. " At Kulirh, in the seventh moon, 2,300
Buddhist lamas assembled for the fair. It is im-
89

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
possible to state the number of persons who pro
strated themselves, but between men and women,
tottering old folks and infants in arms, there must
have been several thousands. Taking advantage of
this opportunity we preached daily, and sold about
1,500 Mongolian and Tibetan Gospels. On the last day
of the fair, after the reading of the Mani Scriptures,
some Mani seeds were scattered among the assembled
multitudes : all sorts of miracles are said to be
performed by a single grain of this seed — even the
dead can be raised. In Mongolia a hard and
difficult task lies before the Christian Church ; but
the Bible Society is scattering the seeds of eternal
life."
The Over Seas Dominions.
It is difficult to bring home to our minds the vast
extent of the Over Seas Dominions. In Australia
the distance as a crow flies from Sydney to Perth is
greater than the distance from London to Cairo.
We cordially congratulate our Australian friends
and fellow-workers on manifest signs of deepening
interest in the Bible Society and growing activity and
devotion on its behalf. But it is especially encourag
ing to note that in every State colportage is being
pressed forward with sustained and systematic zeal.
Surely no Christian duty is more obvious or more
urgent than to carry the Word of God to the homes
of the lonely settlers who are scattered over the
immense spaces of the Australian Commonwealth.
During 1913 the Canadian Bible Society employed
upwards of 40 colporteurs more or less continuously
throughout the year, and they sold 80,000 copies
of the Scriptures. We seldom realize that Canada
90

AT HUMBLE DOORS
contains twice the area of the Roman Empire at its
largest extent — if Gibbon's estimate is correct. In
such enormous regions new-comers may only too
easily become severed from all religious teaching.
Here is an illustration to show how the families of
isolated settlers in Western Canada can grow up in
pagan ignorance of Christianity. Mr. J. Burgon
Bickersteth, who is an old Oxford " blue," has spent
two years as a lay missionary under the Anglican
Church in Alberta. During one of his expeditions
on horseback through a region of bush and swollen
creeks, he at last came out at a large clearing, where
a sawmill stood overlooking a beautiful lake. The
owner was a German, whose wife gave him a kindly
welcome, and called her son.
' ' Rudolf appeared, breathless, and not too well pleased. He
was a boy of nine, barefooted and roughly dressed, but sharp as
a needle. 'He knows nothing,' his mother said ; 'he's always
asking questions, but I don't know how to answer them.'
"Rudolf and I talked about sawmills and lumber and
carpentering for some time. But before going T produced from
my pack a little picture of the Cruciflxion, and asked the boy if
he had heard of Christ.
' ' ' Jesus Christ ! ' he answered, ' Jesus Christ I You bet
your life I have. The men are always saying it ; and I say it
too.' I told him the story of the Cruciflxion.
' ' ' Say, what sort of lumber did they use for the cross ? ' he
asked eagerly. ' Guess they had six-inch nails to drive through
His hands and feet, didn't they ? '
" ' I expect so. Anyway I'll tell you what I want you to do.
Make me a cross with pieces of old lumber by the time I come
round again this time next month, then I'll tell you some more.'
" This thoroughly interested him. To make something ! He
could do that."*
* See The Land of Open Doors, by J. Burgon Bickersteth,
with Foreword by Earl Grey, Wells Gardner, Darton.
91

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
Shrewd Common-sense.
The rank and file of our colporteurs are pious,
humble, faithful Christian workers, who plod on
patiently and perseveringly in the daily round of
their duty. As a rule, they do not possess out
standing abilities, nor have they generally received
any elaborate education. And yet it is refreshing
to discover how often these plain countrymen are
endowed with genuine native sense and shrewdness,
rising into keen spiritual perception, and often
clothed in racy phrases that are seasoned with the
saving grace of humour. Not a few of our Bible-
sellers show rare tact and readiness in dealing with
inquirers and in answering objectors. If their
answers sound somewhat quaint, they prove none
the less effective.
At Alcala la Real, in Andalucia, a Spanish col
porteur w^ent into a tavern and asked the barman
to buy a Bible. " I don't want that book ; it is bad,"
was the reply. The colporteur pointed to a bottle
of spirits and said, "My friend, you ought not to
sell that spirit : it is bad." " How do you know,
when you have not tasted it ? " " Just so ; and
how can you tell whether the Bible is good or bad,
seeing that you have not read it?" The man saw
his mistake, apologized for his rudeness, and bought
a Bible.
On the hills above Lake Como some Italian shep
herds, who were leading their flocks up to the
mountain pastures, met a colporteur. "We have
no time to think of buying books," they exclaimed.
He suggested how good it would be to have the
Gospels with them to read there, in the silence of
the hills. They would be kept from monotony by
92

AT HUMBLE DOORS
reading and thinking about the life of Our Lord.
Then he read to them, " The Lord is my shepherd " :
whereupon they bought two Gospels and the
Psalter. To escape a downpour of rain near Modena, Col
porteur Trabbia took shelter in a shed where two
Italian carpenters were busy making a long ladder.
Trabbia examined their work and remarked that he
had a book which spoke of a ladder far taller than
that. He opened a Bible and read the story of
Jacob's vision at Bethel and of the ladder which
reached up to heaven. The carpenters were charmed
with the narrative, which was quite new to them,
and after hearing other passages they gladly pur
chased books, saying that they were pleased the rain
had brought the colporteur their way.
In an Italian peasant's house near Bergamo, a
colporteur was asked whether he sold alarm clocks
— "awakeners," as they are called in Italian. No,
he replied, but his books were excellent " awakeners " ;
if you read them earnestly you would be aroused
out of spiritual torpor to active and healthy Chris
tian life. So the peasants decided to purchase the
Gospels of St. Luke and St. John.
On the piazza of a little town near Venice, a
company of mourners returning from a funeral
met Colporteur Brusadin and bade him go about his
business : they did not want books contrary to their
religion. Brusadin politely answered that in offer
ing them his books he was going about his business.
How much had they just understood of the Latin
burial service ? Well-nigh nothing. Even the
Miserere w^as only known to them as a mournful
prayer for the departed. He told them that the
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IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
Miserere was in his books, and in good honest Italian
too. Moreover it was a prayer composed by a living
man for the living and not for the dead ; and, taking
up a Bible, he read aloud to them the fifty-first
Psalm. The mourners listened with rapt atten
tion — the words were so new and fresh — and several
of them bought Bibles.
" Your books do not bear the Church's approba
tion," said an Italian road-mender to Colporteur
Gaeta of Genoa. " They bear the approbation of the
universal Christian conscience," replied Gaeta ; " and
through reading these books thousands and thousands
of souls have given up what God disapproves."
"This book is English," said a monk to our col
porteur at Nice. " Was our Lord Jesus Christ
English ? Or shall the English alone possess
Him ? " " We must be patriots," said the monk.
" Yes," retorted the colporteur, " that is why I
want to give my countrymen the joy which I
possess." At an inn in the north of France, Colporteur
Lheurette came across a scoffer, w^ho irreverently
declared " Le bon Dieu is the sun. I love it ; I could
pass my time looking at it, and saying my prayers to
it. Pedlar, what do you say to that ? I hate rain,
but I love the sun ; it always smiles." And he went
on talking similar nonsense. " One word, if you
please," said the colporteur. " It seems to me that*
for an admirer of the sun and a hater of the liquid
element, you are a bit inconsistent. You flee from
your god when you come for shade under the roof of
this inn. And though you hate liquids, you look
very happy while you are sipping away at your
glass. Like Clovis, you burn what you adore, and
94

Donald McLeisk

ON THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE.

AT HUMBLE DOORS
you adore what you burn." "This time you have
met your match," cried the landlord and his
customers in chorus. The man passed it off with
another joke; but Lheurette was able to sell New
Testaments to the landlord and three of his cus
tomers. In the Grand Duchy of Baden, Colporteur Stein
was mainly working in Mannheim, on the Neckar,
where he found people estranged from all religion.
" We are freethinkers," or, " We are social demo
crats," are phrases often on their lips ; but he tells
them that Christ also died for freethinkers and
social democrats, and many become thoughtful and
cease mocking.
In Rumania, Colporteur Klein had much opposi
tion from social democrats. A shoemaker cried
out, " I don't want any of the Pope's wares. I am
a socialist." When Klein answered that his wares
had nothing to do with the Pope but were the Gospel
of Jesus Christ, the shoemaker replied, "Who was
Christ? He was the greatest socialist there ever
has been." This gave Klein the opportunity to say,
" If Christ was the greatest socialist, you can do
no better than study the New Testament, take His
teaching and life as an example, and follow Him."
The shoemaker could not answer, but he fetched the
copper coins to buy a New Testament.
At Port Said a colporteur offered the Bible to an
officer on a Russian steamer, who said, " This book is
out of date now ; it speaks against science." " That's
strange," said the colporteur, " because it was through
studying science that I came to have faith in God,
and in this book." " Indeed," said the Russian,
" that's very interesting ; tell me all about it." He
95

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
listened to the colporteur's experience ; but still his
mind seemed unsettled. Apparently he wanted
scientific books, and then asked for "the seventh
book of Moses," which, he said, had " taught Moses
divination." Then he began to read Exodus iii, and
inquired, "How do you think it possible that the
bush could burn without being consumed ? " The
colporteur pointed to the electric light. After half-
an-hour's talk the Russian decided to buy a Bible.
A Japanese colporteur was visiting the schools in
the city of Kagoshima — near the scene of the terrible
volcanic eruption in January, 1914 — and showed
copies of the Scriptures to the students at a large
medical school. One student retorted : " I do not
want to read any ancient conceptions of two thousand
years ago." The colporteur answered : " The sun was
created not only thousands, but millions of years
ago, and its beneficent light still shines upon all
things. The highest Light is Christ, more important
to the world than sunshine." A listener agreed, and
immediately three students each purchased the New
Testament. At another school a student said : " I
have no desire to read the Scriptures. They are not
worth reading." The colporteur replied, "Please
gaze up into the sky at twilight. You will find
nothing worth looking at there ; but keep on gazing.
Presently you will see a star, and then other stars
will appear, until the whole heavens are full of those
wonders. Study the Scriptures, and the same
phenomenon will occur." The student was so much
impressed by this that he purchased an English and
Japanese diglot Testament.
In Rio de Janeiro a man asked our colporteur how
he could possibly know there was a God, as nobody

AT HUMBLE DOORS
had ever seen Him. " Have you ever seen the
wind ? " " No," said he, " but we know there is wind,
because we see its effects." " Just so," answered the
colporteur, "and we know there is a God by His
works for the benefit of men." The man then
bought a Gospel.
Better than all the Novels.
In the great city of Buenos Ayres, with its million
and a half people, Colporteur Brumat was offering
his books for sale when a woman came to ask
what good novels he had. He replied that he had
a book called the Bible, which was better than all
the novels. He then read some passages aloud to
her, after which he said, "Don't you see, senora,
that you are unsaved?" She replied, " I am a poor,
unfortunate woman." Brumat told her how the
thief on the cross was saved, and she appeared to
listen gladly, and bought a Bible.
*****
In the Continental countries which are now en
gaged in war — Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary,
Servia, France, and Belgium — the Bible Society was
employing last year about 200 colporteurs, who sold
altogether 570,000 copies of the Scriptures. Numbers
of these men have been called up to serve in the
armies of their respective nations.

97

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE

IN HUMAN HEARTS
"How many wards since speech began
Have issued from the Ups of man 1
How few with an undying chant,
The gallery of our spirits haunt —
And with immortal meanings twined
More precious welcome ever find
From, the deep heart of human-kind f
Wo7'ds that ring on world without end.
Words that all woe and triumph blend,
— Broken, yet fragments where we scan
Mirror'd the perfect God and man —
Words whereunto we deem that even
All poiver because all truth is given."
Ajbchbishop Albxandeb.
The Bible from first to last has only one subject. As
a great preacher says, it is all about God, and what
He has done for men, and what He has enabled them
to do. Here and nowhere else, we have the record of
God's entrance into the life of men for their redemp
tion. And the long generations of Christian ex
perience prove how mightily God speaks through this
record, how He seals by His Spirit its work upon the
hearts of men, how He uses it, often unaided by human
help, to beget in solitary souls an incorruptible life.
The history of the Church bears witness to the
living spiritual potency which resides in Holy
Scripture. " In every age he who bends over the
98

IN HUMAN HEARTS
Bible and peers into its depths, can feel at times as
though his own life must have been in some strange
way lived before, when the words that speak to him
so intimately were written down." Moreover, the
appeal of the New Testament is not limited to any
class ^or race : it comes home to all sorts and condi
tions of mankind. For example, in his book on The
Fetish Folk of West Africa, Mr. R. H. Milligan
pictures the life of the Mpongwe and the Fang tribes,
among whom he lived in the Gabun country of French
Congo. He testifies from his own experience that
the Person of Jesus Christ — and above all His moral
character, as seen in the Gospels — possesses a power
ful attraction for these degraded negroes, and is so
readily understood that they frequently ask whether
Jesus was a black man.
Year by year fresh proofs multiply that God's
Book can speak in all the languages of the world
without losing its spiritual virtue. Year by year
the reports of the Bible Society brim over with
evidence that in every tongue the New Testa
ment retains its power to pierce the thoughts of the
heart ; it still remains sharper than a two-edged
sword; it does its supreme work, compared with
which nothing else matters.
In the street of a town in Spain a woman declared
that she had a copy of the Gospel already. " Yes,"
said her friend, " thou hast the Gospel, but it is
very old and dirty." " True," replied the first, " the
book is very old and dirty ; but the words inside the
book are purer than the water from any spring."
" Why dost thou say so ? " " Because once my heart
was very black, but the reading of this book has made
it as white as snow." 99

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
In Burma, as two men were looking over a col
porteur's books, one warned the other not to buy
them. " What harm can th'ere be ? " asked the first
man. " There is certainly great harm," replied his
friend; "I know a large number of Burmese and
Karens who have bought these books, and they
nearly always end by becoming Christians." " Well,
that is true," answered the first : " but I have some
friends who were once notoriously bad men, and
since they became Christians they are honest and
good. This is why I want to read these books."
Then he chosa and paid for the Gospels in Burmese.
A Burmese artist, over seventy years of age, who
was a zealous and intelligent Buddhist, declared that
he was too old to change his faith. But after he
had read the Gospels, the love of Christ conquered
his heart. This aged convert was baptized last year,
and God's Book is so precious to him that he keeps
it under his pillow.
A Hindu fakir, with matted hair and ash-besmeared
body, was sitting under a tree in deep meditation.
His eyes fell on the leaves of a torn book which
some one had tossed away. It was part of the New
Testament. He smoothed out the crumpled pages
and read words which brought strange thoughts to
his hungry soul— they seemed to take him by the
hand and lead him straight to the Father. Then he
set out to seek for some one who obeyed the book.
He found an Englishman who confessed that he
obeyed it. The fakir delighted, noticed that the
Englishman wore a black band on his arm, and
concluded that this was the distinctive sign of a
Christian. So he put a black band on his own arm,
and when people asked who he was, he pointed to
100

IN HUMAN HEARTS
the band and told them. Some time later the
fakir wandered for the first time into a church and
listened to a Christian preacher. At the close he
announced that he, too, was a follower of this way,
and pointed to the band as a proof. They explained
that it was an English sign of the death of some
loved one. The fakir mused for a moment ; then he
answered : " But I read in the book that my Loved
One has died, so I shall wear it in memory of Him."
Before long, however, he grasped the Gospel of the
resurrection, and when he realized that his Loved
One was alive for evermore, a great joy filled his
heart. He took off the band from his aim, and the
light of the resurrection shone in his face — and
that became the sign.
In the south of Madagascar a native sorcerer,
who is now a Christian, attributes his conversion
solely to the reading of a Malagasy New Testa
ment which his daughter brought home from a
mission school.
In Ceylon a woman bought a farthing copy of
St. Matthew in Sinhalese and gave it to her hus
band to read; he met the colporteur a month
afterwards and said : " Your book is powerful to
soothe the hot temper: after reading it I am now
a new man. I do not beat my wife now."
In Bolivia a British missionary stopped at the
little town of Yotala, and sold a Spanish Bible to
a member of the town council. The purchaser read
the book, and his attention was riveted by the
account of the Crucifixion — which (he said), God
used to illuminate his soul and change the course
of his whole life.
At Rome last autumn the following letter came
101

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
from an unknown correspondent in the Italian
province of Udine : " Dear brother in Jesus Christ :
I send you herewith five and a half lire (= about
4s. Qd.) for the Bible Society. But for that benefi
cent Society I should never have known Jesus Christ;
I should still have been an atheist, like the majority
of men in Italy. But it pleased God to put within
my reach His Holy Word, the two-edged sword ; and
it has pierced my heart."
At Cheljabinsk railway station in Siberia a young
Russian accosted a colporteur : " Are you still in the
service of the Bible Society ? Do you remember how
you persuaded me to buy a copy of the Word of God —
how you quoted text after text till you convinced me
at last that each man needs a copy of the Divine
Guide ? To-day I am heartily grateful to you and
your Society, and shall be to the end of my life.
You were the means by which I was able to lay
hold of so great a treasure." He described how he
began to read the New Testament, and how he had
been enslaved by his fondness for vodka. "When
I read that no drunkard could inherit the kingdom
of God I determined to give it up, and with God's
help I overcame my longing for vodka ; in studying
His Word I received great assistance."
In a house near Limoges, in France, the father of
the family produced a New Testament and showed
it to a guest. " We bought this book last year,'' he
said, " from a colporteur. We gave him a very bad
reception, but he persevered and spoke so per
suasively of the need and use of having such a
book in a house that we bought it just to get rid
of him. One day my wife, whose curiosity was
aroused, decided to see for herself what the book
102

photo by

A MASTER HERDSMAN, ON THE GREAT HUNGARIAN PLAIN.

IN HUMAN HEARTS
contained, and found its contents so beautiful that
she spoke to me about it. Then I also read the
Testament. Well, it went home to me ; and now
everybody in the house reads the book. Before,
we were regular heathens and unbelievers. We ate
and slept, just like animals ; but now none of us
would rise or go to rest without asking God for
His guidance in everything, through Jesus Christ."
In a remote village of Hungary Colporteur
Kanurszky met a man who asked him how long
it was since he had been there before. Kanurszky
told him that twelve years had passed. The man
said that he had bought a Bible then, but had laid
it aside. One night, however, he could not sleep and
began to read the book. In this way he had found
his Saviour. So he praised God who had sent the
colporteur to his door.
In Buenos Ayres a lady said to Colporteur Sotola :
" You do not recognize me, but I remember you very
well. Eight months ago you sold me a Gospel of St.
John, and I read it, as you told me to do, with prayer
and faith. Now I know the love of God, and I rejoice
that Christ has gone to prepare a place for me also
in the Father's house."
In Toronto a young German immigrant brought a
fellow countryman to purchase a German and English
diglot Testament. He said : " I was a newcomer to
Canada a little over a year ago. I could not speak
English. I bought a German and English Testa
ment at the Bible stand in the Toronto exhibition,
and by means of it I have learned English, and,
better still, I have learned what it is to trust Christ
as my Saviour. This young man is a newcomer, and
he too wants to learn English, so I brought him here
103

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
to get a German and English Testament. I hope
he may find in it as great a blessing as I did."
A Korean Cobbler.
From Korea, the Rev. Dr. Hugh Currell, of the
Australian Presbyterian Mission, writes of a man
who had earned a precarious living by making
straw shoes, but was forced to move to a fresh
town. On his way to his new abode, he stopped
one night at a place where there was a church, and
the leader of this church preached the Gospel to
him and induced him to buy a copy of St. Matthew.
He read the book many times, and began to make
inquiries whether there were not other books with
similar teaching. Finally he bought a New Testa
ment, and while he was shoe-making he had the
book fixed up before him so that he could study
it — in a fashion which recalls the early studious
habits of William Carey, the " inspired cobbler." He
also began to attend church in Samka city, ten miles
from his new home. At length conviction was
borne in upon him that he must not keep this great
discovery to himself; so he went back to his old
district to tell his brothers and friends. He taught
them with so much power and enthusiasm that
they too were convinced they had found a great
prize in the Word of God. When a Christian
evangelist visited that place, the people of the
neighbourhood all gathered together, and after he
had spent some time in reading and expounding
the Scriptures, it was decided that a church should
be forthwith established. Such was the result from
a copy of St. Matthew's Gospel, sold to a chance
traveller. 104

IN HUMAN HEARTS
The Story of an Afghan's Testament.
The following narrative from the pen of the late
Dr. Theodore Leighton Pennell is quoted by per
mission from the recently issued account of his life :
Pennell of the Afghan Frontier. This apostolic
missionary was the doctor in charge of the C.M.S.
hospital at Bannu, on the frontier of Afghanistan,
and lost his life through infection which he
contracted in the course of carrying out his
professional duty.
"The Kurram Valley is situated just half-way between Kabul
and Bannu, and is inhabited by the Turi tribe of Afghans.
Shortly after the last Afghan war a civil offlcer stationed in this
district gave a Pushtu Testament to one of the headmen, and
occasionally explained it to him. The offlcer returned to India,
and it w^as quite eight years afterwards that he heard from
a friend of his, who had been in the Kurram Valley, that the
man had been a diligent reader of the book, and had come
to believe in it.
' ' Hearing this from the offlcer himself, I thought I would look
the man up, so as to give him some instruction and Christian
books. The journey was rather tedious, being largely through
tracts of Afghanistan inhabited by brigands, and as we
travelled chiefly by night, on account of the heat, and over
rugged mountain tracts, we had generally a guard of one to
four men well armed, according to the customs of this part
of the country. We reached our destination on the fifth day
in safety, and discovered the object of our search in one of
the villages there. We gradually unfolded to him the purpose
of our journey, and he was very pleased to welcome us, while
we were equally pleased at our intercourse with him, and found
much cause to praise God for having so manifested the power
of His Spirit in this man with so little human agency. He had
been reading his well-worn Pushtu Testament every day, for
all the eight years he had had it, and knew large parts by
heart, while he showed a wonderful grasp of the main doctrines
of salvation through Christ, and was able to quote texts in
support of nearly every question that was brought forward,
105

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
He was an example of what can be attained by persevering
study of the Scriptures in solitude.
"'The flrst time of reading,' he said, 'I understood but
little, the second and third times rather more, the fourth time
the truth began to dawn on me, and the flfth and sixth times
I was able to see the salvation and life of Christ in all its
glory.' Not only had he thus studied the book, and realized
salvation through Christ, but he had not neglected to let his
light shine before men, and had been in the habit of reading
the book to many priests, chiefs, and others who used to
collect in his house to hear him. But the remarkable thing
to me, knowing the usual bigotry of Muhammadans, was the
open mind and freedom from persecution with which many
of them were allowed to listen to him. Although he had
excited the ire of some of the priests by refusing to unite in
their public prayers (justifying himself by Matthew v. 6) or
to repeat their creed, yet he was able to continue his testimony
before them, because, as others told us : ' We saw that the
book had changed his life. Prom being cruel, tyrannical, and
hard, he had become mild, kind, and just, and it could not
be a bad book which had that effect 1 ' We found many there
who, impressed by his example, had become seekers after
truth ; and all those who could read repeatedly asked us for
Bibles in Pushtu, Persian, or Arabic, as the case might be,
requests which we were, of course, very pleased to grant ; and
we believe that many men in that village are now sincerely
searching the Scriptures. Our friend has been accustomed to
pray regularly, quite untaught except by the Bible and the
Holy Spirit, and listening to him I was struck by his repeated
earnest prayers for the increased gift of the Holy Spirit in
his heart."
The Flavour of the Gospel.
A Chinese evangelist in Shantung discovered a
truly remarkable person in a village seldom visited
by missionary preachers. About five years ago
this old man had by some means secured a large-
print Gospel of St. John. When the evangelist
arrived the old man showed that he understood the
106

IN HUMAN HEARTS
message : " I know that Jesus came down from
God, from heaven. I have the book that tells
about Him, Yo-han Fu-yin ('John's Good News').
I read it constantly." He was told that St. John
was one of many sacred writers ; he replied : I do
not care for any others ; this flavour is excellent ;
I read this constantly, and ten parts (i.e. perfectly)
believe in Jesus. You need not exhort me to trust
in Him. For nearly five years I have read about
Him in this book, and want nothing better." The
evangelist then taught the old man to pray, and
urged him to become acquainted with the com
munities of Christians near him, with whom he
might have fellowship. The nearest missionary
says : " We have sent him a large-print New Testa
ment, and invited him to visit us. This man knows
no Church, no ordinances, no fellowship, no teacher,
save Jesus' book and the Holy Spirit, who reveals
the deep things of this simplest, profoundest Gospel."
"I have it now!"
In the Chinese Province of Hunan, Mr. Becker
was selling the Scriptures in Teokeo, when a visitor
named Yang called on him one evening to ask
some questions. Six years before, he had bought a
New Testament, and had studied it most diligently.
Mr. Becker inquired whether he knew his sins were
forgiven : " Well, that is just the thing I want to
know. How can I get forgiveness? I wish I had
the peace of which Paul writes so much." After
more conversation Mr. Becker prayed, and when
the prayer ended the man said joyfully : " That's it,
I have it now ! " He came again the next morning,
and so far as human signs can show he had really
107

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
grasped the secret. Such is the fruit of one Chinese
New Testament, sold six years ago.
The Chief of the Beggars.
From Anhwei the Rev. A. Mair, of the China
Inland Mission, writes : " On a recent trip our col
porteur happened to walk into a temple which was
inhabited by beggars. One of them bought a Gospel,
and appeared much interested in the colporteur's
message. He could read, and seemed a very in
telligent man : indeed he was the chief of the beggars
in that region. Every night he came to our services,
and his heart seemed really touched by the Spirit
of God. One thing was certain : he did not come
for material advantages. We invited him several
times to have his food with us, but he refused,
saying, ' I want to know the doctrine ; if I eat your
rice, the people will believe that my object in
attending the services is false.' One night he said
to me that he had heard the Gospel once before.
' Did you believe it then ? ' I asked. ' No, I did
not know the way,' he replied, 'as I had not a
book. Now I have a book, and the way is plain.' "
*****
There is no test like the test of experience. The
late Dr. Joseph Parker was once asked for the best
reply to attacks on the Bible. His deep voice
answered with the single word: "Circulation."
Mr. Spurgeon, when asked how he would defend
the Bible, replied, " Defend it ! I would as soon
defend a lion. Let it out — it can defend itself!"

108

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE

FOR POOR MEN'S POCKETS
" The Book that is compensation for all things, and
is never more at home than on bare dressers and
worm-eaten loams." — J. M. Babbie.
The Bible Society does not do business to make profit.
As a rule it sells the Scriptures, because ordinary
people are far more likely to prize and read a book
which they have spent even a small coin to purchase.
This common-sense policy is endorsed by the most
experienced and devoted missionaries, who understand
the mischief worked by broadcast free distribution.
But the great bulk of the Society's books are cheap,
popular editions, and their prices in any country are
fixed not by what the edition costs to produce, but
by what the humblest class of readers in that country
can afford to pay. To publish and circulate these
cheap editions forms the Society's essential mission.
Cheap Editions.
It is worth while to mention here a few concrete
examples, familiar enough to some of our friends,
which illustrate how this policy actually works out
in practice. The cheapest edition of Shakespeare
ever issued in England was priced at Is., in paper
covers. Our Society sells an English Bible bound
for 6d., and another in larger print for lOd., while
a school Bible in admirably clear type may be had
109

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
for Is. Nearly ten million copies have been sold of
the Society's Penny English Testament. It cannot,
however, be stated too emphatically that these
popular editions are produced under conditions of
labour which are scrupulously guarded. The heavy
loss entailed by their publication at such low prices
is borne by the Society's funds.
In France, in Italy, and in Germany the Society's
cheapest Bible is sold for about Is., which also
involves a loss on each copy. The same is true
as to the Society's 6d. Dutch Bible, which is by far
the cheapest book published in South Africa.
It is in the mission field, however, that the widest
differences occur between the actual cost of produc
ing the books and the prices at which they are sold.
A few definite cases will make this clear. In each
of the great languages of India the Society publishes
a Bible at Is., the cost of production varying from
Is. 8d. to 3s. New Testaments in India are sold
uniformly at 4d., though the cost price varies from
5d. to Is. 2d., the average being about 8d. Single
Gospels are sold uniformly at Jd., their cost varying
from f d. to Id.
In Madagascar a Bible which costs about Is. 8d. to
produce is sold at Is. In Japan a New Testament
which costs 7 sen to print and bind may be bought
for 5 sen, that is, IJd. ; while a Japanese Bible is
sold for 6d. In China the wages of a common
coolie amounts in many provinces to no more than
6d. or 7d. a day. The Chinese New Testament in
an excellent format is sold for 2d., while cheaper
copies can be had for Id. A well-bound Chinese
Bible, which costs over 2s. to produce, is sold
for 6d. 110

FOR POOR MEN'S POCKETS
On the whole, out of every £1 which the Society
expends, only about 7 s. 4d. comes back to it as the
proceeds of sales of the Scriptures.
Exchange and Barter.
Yet even these nominal prices are beyond the
means of many impoverished folk. In not a few
countries our Bible-sellers meet people who are
literally penniless, and cannot find one small coin
to purchase that Book which is the compensation
of the disinherited. In such cases the colporteur
often falls back on the primitive method of barter,
and sometimes receives curious substitutes for
money. In South India a Tamil colporteur met certain
fishermen and palm-climbers. As they had no
money with them he gave them Gospels in ex
change for fish and coconuts. In Ceylon certain
Moslem coolies were unable to find money to pay
for books, so thay brought rice instead.
There are many people in Korea who never, or
at least very rarely, see money. Last year our
Korean Bible-sellers sold many books in exchange
for all manner of queer articles — rice, beans, peas,
barley, w^heat, millet, peppers, eggs, piece-goods,
matches, scissors, knives, ginger, turnips, potatoes,
and paper. One old Korean lady wanted to obtain
a Testament in exchange for a much- worn Buddh
ist rosary which had long assisted her prayers.
A colporteur encountered a fisherman and gave
him a Gospel in exchange for fish ; the fisherman,
after listening to the colporteur's words, said with
great satisfaction : " I, too, will fish men, like St.
Peter." Ill

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
Through the Suez Canal more than 5,000 ships
passed last year — and of these 65 per cent, sailed
under the British fiag. When a steamer reaches
Port Said the Chinese coolies among its crew say
to one another, "This is the place where we get
the Jesus books." Every day the Society's col
porteurs were busy at Port Said, visiting these
vessels and selling Bibles and Testaments and Gos
pels to their crews and passengers in half a hundred
different languages. Multitudes of the sailors and
stokers on board belonged to Eastern races. For
instance, more than 2,500 books sold last year
were in Chinese. Among the coolies and lascars
there were great numbers of men who had spent
all their pay, and possessed no money of any
description. Hundreds of these Indian, Chinese,
and Japanese sailors sacrificed some personal
possession, which they bartered to obtain the books
they were eager to read. Among the curious objects
thus taken in exchange for copies of the Scriptures
at Port Said last year we hear of fans, chop
sticks, cigars, pipes, musical instruments, and an
idol-god. A sunshade was given for a Chinese
Bible. A tobacco-box made out of a coconut shell
was exchanged for two sixpenny Japanese Bibles.
A match-box carved in the shape of a mask
was given for Japanese Gospels, while a violin
and bow from China were bartered for copies
of the Scriptures in Chinese. The queerest
article of barter accepted at Port Said last year
was a Chinese pillow : this consisted of a fiat,
oblong, hollow box of blue porcelain, quite im
possible for any one but a Chinaman to sleep
on. 112

Photo by

A MOSQUE IN MOROCCO.

Blanco, Tangier

FOR POOR MEN'S POCKETS
Free Gifts,
The Bible Society is not in bondage to its rule that
normally the Scriptures shall be sold rather than
given away. While its popular editions circulate
all over the world at nominal prices, the servants
and colporteurs of the Society have full discretion
to present a volume free to any one they meet w^ho
can read and really desires to read the Gospel,
but is too impoverished to find a single coin to
purchase it. Moreover, in cases of special oppor
tunity or emergency or calamity— for the sick in
hospitals, for children in orphanages, for criminals
in prison, and especially for the inhabitants of pro
vinces smitten by famine or pestilence or war — the
Society gives the Scriptures freely and generously to
those who so sorely require their consolation.
From this past year's experience we take a few
examples of the way in which God's Book is being
thus put into the hands of His needy children.
In Fez, the ancient capital of Morocco, the Jewish
quarter was pillaged and looted two years ago by
Berber tribesmen. The Jews in Fez laid before our
Society the condition of their destitute families and
school-children, and 554 Hebrew Bibles were dis
tributed among them as gifts in December, 1913.
In Japan 4,000 New Testaments were presented
to patients in forty of the principal hospitals, while
200 Bibles were sent to the keepers of the lighthouses
and signal stations along the Japanese coast. A free
grant of 10,000 Gospels was also distributed among
sufferers from the terrible volcanic eruption of
Sakurajima, near Kagoshima, and among peasants
in the north of Japan who were visited by famine.
113 I

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
For Students.
The Bible Society does not forget the needs of
students. It presents outgoing missionaries with
Bibles or Testaments in the vernaculars of the
fields in which they are to labour. In England,
students of theological and missionary colleges who
required such assistance received last year as gifts
472 Old Testaments in Hebrew and 690 New Testa
ments in Greek. In Spain, 10,000 Gospels were given
away among the teachers in the elementary schools.
The Society presents the Scriptures to all students
at Indian Universities. Each man, when he enters
college, is offered a copy of the four Gospels and
Acts in English ; half-way through his course he
is asked to accept an English New Testament ; and
when he has graduated, the Society endeavours to
arrange that he shall go forth with the English
Bible in his hands. During 1913 no fewer than
9,000 volumes were thus distributed among the
students of India. Hundreds of letters are received
year by year gratefully acknowledging these gifts.
A similar presentation was inaugurated last year
among graduates in the Universities of China.
For Prisoners.
No class of men appeal to the Bible Society with
a stronger claim for practical Christian help than
do prisoners and convicts — especially in countries
where they are confined under conditions of medieval
barbarity. Last year, for example, 1,800 Spanish
Gospels were given away in the ten principal prisons
of Chile, whose inmates are herded together in
extreme misery. Similar help was granted to
Brazilian convicts at Para ; and to Italian coatti
114

FOR POOR MEN'S POCKETS
in their penal settlements on small islands off the
coast of Sicily. Gospels and Testaments were also
given away to prisoners through a Russian chaplain
at Warsaw and a Russian lady in Moscow; while
Mr. Adam Podin distributed 1,836 volumes last
autumn at different prisons in the south of Russia.
Upwards of 1,000 Gospels were put into the hands
of Chinese prisoners at Canton.
For Lepers.
Free grants of Scriptures have been made as usual
to lepers in various countries. Thus, in the leper
village outside Pretoria, 100 whites and 750 blacks
are segregated in compounds, surrounded with high
barbed-wire fences. Here Bibles and Testaments
were distributed in seven different languages among
those who had no copies, or whose copies were worn
out — for sometimes the pages have to be turned by
the lips or the tongue. Some recipients even found
difficulty in holding the books given them, and could
only carry them between the stumps of their arms.
For our own Country.
In our own land the poor are not forgotten. The
Society spends several thousands of pounds each
year in making grants of the Scriptures at home,
either free or at greatly reduced prices. In this
generous fashion it becomes the willing partner in
all forms of Christian effort and service. It helps
countless Sunday-schools belonging to all denomina
tions. It joins hands with orphanages and hospitals
and asylums ; with soldiers' institutes and sailors'
homes and theological training colleges ; with mis
sions to navvies and hop-pickers and emigrants and
115

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
deep-sea fishermen. It supplies the Scriptures to
prisons, and barracks, and training ships, and police
and railway stations. It remembers the blind, the
crippled, and the fallen. It places a Bible in the
pocket of every boy or girl whom philanthropic
institutions send out to begin life afresh in Canada.
In issuing well-printed and well-bound English
Gospels for a halfpenny and the English New
Testament for a penny, both much under cost price,
the Society is not only providing — in accordance
with its guiding principle — for the needs of the poor,
who come to purchase out of their penury, but it
is also making a large and valuable contribution
to those individuals and organizations which have
the same object in view. Under normal circum
stances more than 200,000 penny Testaments and
about 300,000 halfpenny Gospels are issued annually.
In times of stress and special demand these figures
are greatly exceeded, involving a corresponding
increase in the loss which the Bible House is called
cheerfully to meet. It is safe to say that our Society
has done more than all other agencies combined to
put into the hands of the poorest of the English
poor that Book "which is compensation for all
things." In the Balkans.
During the war in the Balkans our Society gave
away altogether 230,000 copies of the Scriptures,
mainly New Testaments, Gospels, and Psalters. By
this means soldiers of all the contending armies and
races, as well as those sick and wounded in hospital,
received God's Word, each in his own mother-tongue.
Most touching testimonies have reached us of the
116

Photo by

ON THE ROAD IN NEW ZEALAND.

Christchurch Press Co.

FOR POOR MEN'S POCKETS
gratitude of the men who have received these books,
and evidence of the dying faith of many whose last
hours were cheered by the message of redeeming and
restoring Love.
For the Present War
The Committee of the Bible Society have decided
that their free distribution of the Scriptures among
the troops of the nations now at war shall be carried
out in co-operation with the various Red Cross
organizations in the countries involved in hostilities,
and through the authorities who are in charge of
camps for aliens and for prisoners. The Society has
therefore undertaken to present these organizations
with as many copies of the New Testament or the
Gospels as may be required for sick and wounded
sailors and soldiers, and prisoners of war. The books
are in all the different languages of the races now
in conflict, and are specially bound with a red cross
on the cover.
Generous Privileges.
Year by year we have occasion to record the
privileges generously granted to the Bible Society
by railways and steamships in the Russian Empire^
whether owned by the State or in the hands of
private companies. In addition to free passes for
members of our staff, scores of tons of books are
annually conveyed for us by rail or steamer free of
charge. In many other countries the Society obtains
important assistance of the same kind. Here we can
mention only one or two examples.
The Royal Dutch Packet Company has again
carried hundreds of cases of books free of cost in
117

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
its steamers to Java and all the Dutch East Indian
islands. The Government Railway of Java allowed
free passes to our European staff, and we are indebted
to all the railways throughout Java for carrying our
cases of books free of charge.
In South America we heartily thank many rail
way and steamship companies for the valuable
travelling facilities which they have afforded us,
either free, or at much reduced rates, thereby
lessening the Society's expenditure and smoothing
the difficulties of travel and transport. Such
friendly co-operation becomes a tribute of world
wide sympathy.
A Multitude of Contributors.,
With deep gratitude to God we can record that
last year the Bible Society surpassed all previous
precedents not only in the number of books it issued
and the amount of money it expended, but also in
the sums which it received. The financial para
graphs in the appendix to this volume give figures
which explain the chief sources of revenue, and show
that the Society's income almost exactly balanced its
outlay. Here we desire to emphasize the fact that
the great stream which replenishes our treasury is
made up of myriads of little rills fiowing from the
self-denial of our friends and fellow-workers in all
parts of the world.
Surely few Societies are as fortunate as ours in the
number and loyalty of its aged friends. One vener
able subscriber in Canada paid last year his seventieth
annual subscription. A veteran collector in Prince
Edward Island, although in his ninetieth year,
recently canvassed his entire district on foot.
118

FOR POOR MEN'S POCKETS
We must also acknowledge the munificent legacies
which year by year pour without slackening into
the Society's treasury.
A large number of native Christian colporteurs
and Biblewomen employed by the Society abroad,
are being maintained by means of gifts contributed
and allocated by individual friends. In China, in
Korea, in Japan, in India, in Ceylon, in Malaya,
in Palestine, in the Sudan, in Persia, and in the
Russian Empire there are now altogether 212 col
porteurs and 76 Biblewomen thus supported, repre
senting about 200 contributing friends of the
Society. One impressive feature of our anniversary last
May was the announcement that our friends in
South Australia had sent a splendid special con
tribution of £1,100 by the hands of the Rev. J. H.
Sexton, their secretary at Adelaide.
Welcome contributions sometimes arrive from
unexpected quarters. At Hamburg, at the recent
session of the European Division Conference Com
mittee of the Seventh Day Adventists, a donation
of twenty-five guineas was voted for the " noble
work of the British and Foreign Bible Society." At
Valparaiso, our agent received a contribution of £45
from readers of The Christian Herald, New York.
Our missionary friends in the New Hebrides sent
£30 lis. last year ; while £28 10s. 9d. came from
Welsh colonists in Patagonia.
From Tahiti we gratefully acknowledge a gift of
300 francs voted by the Conseil Sup^rieur des Eglises
tahitiennes, " comme un nouveau et bien faible
t^moignage de la profonde gratitude de nos Eglises
envers la Society a qui elles doivent les Saintes
119

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
Ecritures en langue tahitienne, et k des prix si
accessibles a tous nos indigenes."
A farmer who is keenly interested in the Society's
work as he sees it in Central India, made a unique
contribution in the shape of his most valuable cow
and calf.
The anonymous donations received at the London
Bible House during the twelve months ending
March 31, 1914, amounted to £6,839. Among these
we have space to mention only a very few.
One old subscriber sends 240 threepenny bits,
adding, " I have passed my eighty-first year, and
have been confined to my bed for the last twelve
years, I thought I would gather all the threepenny
bits I could for the Bible Society." " A thank-
offering " of £70 was forwarded by a lady who had
just completed her seventieth year. £1 was received
from a servant in South Devon who wrote : " The
amount is what I have saved from my dress
allowance." With the explanation " Recovered Income Tax,"
two sums were received from different donors,
amounting together to £32 14s. 7d. A gift of £500
came with the words " A thankoffering for endless
mercies." £1 8s. was received characterized as
" Conscience Money " ; and 5s. " From the sale of
old coins." The " Stamp Corner " in our Bible
Society Gleanings yielded last year £44 13s.
A donation of 5s. came from Leeds with the follow
ing note : " Receive the enclosed mite from an old
coal-miner, just to help a little bit the great work
for Jesus' sake."

120

FOR POOR MEN'S POCKETS
The experience of our Society during this past
year must needs baptize us afresh with the spirit of
thankfulness and courage. Once again the Lord has
been better to us than we dared to hope. He is
stirring up the hearts of His children to attempt
great things for His sake ; and in that venture of
faith, those who expect great things from Him are
never disappointed. Let us praise God, therefore,
because the mission of the Bible Society expands on
every side. Its very success entangles us in new
obligations, and demands new devotion, and entails
new sacrifice. But " the large thing to do is the only
thing we can do " — if we are loyal to this calling of
God. We can never forget that the Bible Society had its
birth at one of the blackest hours in our history — at
a crisis of national danger and dismay. Britain
was in the thick of a life-and-death conflict for
her independence, her very existence. In 1804 the
country was living in daily dread of invasion ; three
per cent, stock fell to 54^, and the price of the quar
tern loaf rose to Is. 5d. ; our trade was half -ruined ;
our poor were half -starving. Yet under such gloomy
and menacing war-clouds, amid distress and per
plexity of nations, the Bible Society came into being.
Its fathers and founders could not foresee the issue
of the desperate struggle in which their country was
engaged. But they believed profoundly that for the
miseries and evils of mankind there is no prescription
except the Gospel of God's redeeming love. By a
noble and courageous act of faith they formed a
Society, not limited to their own nation, in order to
send that Gospel to every human creature.
121

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
Our people to-day are again confronting an ordeal,
the like of which no man alive can remember, the
end of which no man can foretell. But the friends
of the Bible Society still have the confidence and
courage of their predecessors. We are girding our
selves, as they did, to endure hardness for the sake
of our country. But in our self-denial we will not
give up the sacred trust which the founders of our
Society bequeathed to their children. Even under
the shadow of the sword, we remember that God
has made us stewards, to carry out this special service
for His Church and Kingdom on earth.
Now IT IS EEQTJIRED IN STEWARDS
THAT A MAN BE FOUND PAITHPUL.

122

APPENDIX

NOTICE RESPECTING REMITTANCES.
Subscriptions and donations are received at the Bible
House, 146, Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C. ; also at
the Society's Bankers, Williams Deacon's Bank, Limited,
20, Birchin Lane, E.C. ; — advice being sent to the Secretaries
at the Bible House. Cheques, Bankers' Drafts, and Post
Office Orders (on the General Post Office) should be made
payable to The British and Foreign Bible Society, and
addressed to the Secretaries.

Letters containing Orders for Books are requested to be
addressed, prepaid, to the British and Foreign Bible Society,
146, Queen Victoria Street, London, E.G. The Society's Dep6t
is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., the Offices from 9 a.m. to
5 p.m. On Saturdays the Dep6t and the Offices close at 1 p.m.
The Bible House is closed on the usual public holidays.

FORM OP A BEQUEST TO THE SOCIETY.
/ bequeath the sum af Pounds sterling
free of Legacy Duty to "The Bbitish and Pobbign Bible
Society," instituted in London in the year IS04, to be paid for
the purposes of the said Society to the Treasurer for the time
being thereof, whose Receipt shall be a good discharge for the

Home Tblegbaphic Addbess: Testaments Cent London.
Pobbign Telegbaphic Address : Testaments London.
Telephone : 2036 Central.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY

President

Vice-Presidents :

1873. 1876.1877.

ISSil.1886.1887.

1891.1892.

1903.
1904.

BISHOP MIT0HIN3ON, D.C.L., D.D.
BISHOP MOOBHOUSE, D.D.
The EABL ot ABERDEEN.
The Rt. Hon. Sir J. H. KEMNAWAT, Bart.,
O.B.
BISHOP BOTD-CARPENTER, D.D.
Sir THOMAS FOWELL BUXTON, Bart.,
G.O.M.G.
The ABCHBISHOP oJ CANTEEBUB'X.
W. SCHOOLCKOFT BURTON, Esq.
BISHOP EOYSTON, D.D.
The EARL ot HALSBUBT.
EaBL BEASSEY, G.O.B.
The BISHOP Dl ST. ASAPH.
LORD KINNAIRD.
The DEAN ot WINDSOR.
Aid. Sir JOSEPH S.AVORT, Bart.
The BISHOP ol NEWCASTLE.
ROBERT HEATH, Esq.
The ABCHBISHOP ot the WEST INDIES.
ARCHDEACON SINCLAIR, D.D.
The BISHOP ot MABLBOBOUGH.
J. B. HILL. Esq.
The BISHOP ol BATH and WELLS.
The DUKE ot DEVONSHIRE.
LORD PECKOVEB ol WISBEOH.
The BISHOP ol CHESTER.
The BISHOP ol ST. ALBANS.
Eev. J. MONBO GIBSON, D.D.
J. TRUEMAN MILLS, Esq.
The Rt. Hon. Sir ALBERT SPIOEE, Bart.,
M.P.
Bey. J. G. GEEENHOUGH.
EeT. RICHARD GLOVER, D.D.
The BISHOP ol HEREFORD.
The BISHOP ol PETERBOROUGH.
Hon. J. J. BOGERSON.
A. S. LSSLIE.MELVILLE, Esq.
The BISHOP ot DURHAM.
The BISHOP ot WAKEFIELD.
The BISHOP ot ST. DAVID'S.
BISHOP WELLDON, D.D.
VISCOUNT OLIFDEN.
CANON B. B. GIEDLESTONE.
Rev. W. L. WATKINSON, D.D.
ROBERT BABCLAY. Esq.
BISHOP INGHAM, D.D.
The BISHOP ot LIVEEPOOL.
The MASTEE ot TEINITY,
Rev. F. W. MACDONALD.
F. A. BEVAN, Esq.
The DEAN ol WESTMINSTER.
The BISHOP ot LONDON.
BISHOP CLIFFORD. D.D.
Sh: GEORGE HAYTEE CHUBB, Bart.
The Et. Hon. Sir SAMUEL J. WAY,
Bart.
VISCOUNT ALVEE3T0NE.
Sir G. E. KNOX.
BISHOP OOPLESTON, D.D.
•BISHOP TUCKER, D.D.
BISHOP FYSON, D.D.
Rev. W. T. DAVISON, D.D.
Sir C. EBNEST TRITTON, Bart.
CHABLES finch foster, Esq.
The DEAN ot WELLS.
Sir ALGEBNON COOTE, Bart.
Sir G. W. MACALPINE.
The BISHOP ol OXFORD.
Tha BISHOP ot MANCHESTEE.
BISHOP OEMSBY, D.D.
BISHOP STIRLING, D.D.
Eev. ANDREW MUEEAY, D.D.
Rev. MARSHALL HARTLEY.
Eev. F. B. MEYER, D.D.
Eev. D. MACKICHAN, D.D.
Sir A. HAEGEEAVES BEOWN, Bart.
N. W. HOYLES, Esq., K.C.LL.D.
GEORGE CADBUEY, Esq.
P. F. WOOD. Esq.
The BISHOP ot BRISTOL.
The Hon. JUSTICE FORBES. * Deceased since

1905.

1006.

1907.

1908.

1909.

Rev. R. P. HOETON, D.D.
E. PERCY HOLLAMS, Esq.
WILLIAMSON LAMPLOUGH, Esq.
The EAEL ol DABTMOUTH.
The I BISHOP ol OAELISLE.
Tha BISHOP ol ELY.
BISHOP TAYLOR SMITH, D.D.
Rev. PEINCIPAL FORSYTH, D.D.
Rev. TIMOTHY EIOHAED, Lltt.D.
Eev. D. BOWLANDS.
D. B. HOSTE, Esq.
SAMUEL LLOYD, Esq.
E. J. EAEP, Esq.
The BISHOP ol SOUTHAMPTON.
The BISHOP ol EXETEE.
The BISHOP ot MOMBASA.
Sir GEOEGE SMITH:
I. P. WEENER, Esq.
EAEL GREY.
The BISHOP ol SOUTH TOKYO.
Sir ANDREW H. L. FRASEE, K.C.S.I.
Sir WM. MACGRPGOE, G.C.M.G.
Sir W. P. HARTLEY.
Eev. 6. CAMPBELL MORGAN, D.D.
J. RENDEL HARRIS. Esq., D.Litt.
A. J. CROSFIELD, Esq.
Eev. JOHN SHAEP.
The ABCHBISHOP ol YORK.
BISHOP MONIGOMEEY, D.D.
Prebendary H. E. POX.
Eev. J. CAMPBELL GIBSON, D.D.
Eev. W. W. JACKSON, D.D.
Eev. E. WAEDLAW THOMPSON, D.D.
Rev. GEORGE BROWN. D.D.
Sir 6. A. GRIERSON, K.C.I.E., Ph.D.
ELIAS ROGERS, Esq.
*W. ALDIS WRIGHT, Esq., LL.D.
•Sir FRANCIS F. BELSBY.
LOED LANGFORD. K.C.V.O.
The MASTER ol the BOLLS.
The Rev. LORD WILLIAM GASCOYNE
CECIL.
Sir J. T. DILLWYN LLEWELYN, Bart,
Rev. J. D. JONES.
Eev. ALEXANDER CONNELL.
Rev. J. H. SHAKBSPE.IEB.
The Rt. Hon. T. R. FERENS, M.P.
VISCOUNT BRYCE, O.M.
The BISHOP ol WINCHESTER.
The BISHOP ol MADRAS.
Sir THOMAS BARLOW, Bart., M.D.
CANON B. BBUOE, D.D.
Eev. DAVID BEOOK, D.C.L.
Eev. J. SCOTT LIDGETT, D.D.
A. W. YOUNG, Esq.
Tha BISHOP ot NORWICH.
Sir HENRY E. E. PROCTt)E.
The BISHOP ol STEPNEY.
Rev. CHARLES BROWN, D.D.
Sir ALFRED W. w. DALE, LL.D.
Eev. HENEY HAIGH, D.D.
Eev. Sir WILLIAM BOBEETSON NICOLL,
LL.D.
Tha BISHOP ol CALCUTTA.
The BISHOP ol SOUTHWAEK.
Rev. F. LUKE WISEMAN.
Archdeacon WESTCOTT.
Rev. OWEN BVANS. D.D.
Eev. Prol. A. S. GEDEN, D.D.
Sir ANDEEW WINGATE, K.O.I.E.
T. CHENEY GAEFIT, Esq.
Prol. ALEXANDEE MACiLISTEE, F.R.S.
ALFEED BEAUEN, Esq.
The BISHOP OF EIPON.
Sir FREDERIC 6. KENYON, K.C.B.
Sir JAMES A. H. MURR.AY, LL.D.
ARCHDEACON PELHAM, D.D.
CANON E. H. PEAECE.
Eev. Prol. G. G. FINDLAY, D.D.
G. A. KING, Esq.
Sir J. D. MCCLUEE, LL.D.
•Sir DAVID HUNTER, K.O.M.Q.
March slal. 1914.

1910.

1911.

1912.

1913.

WU.

125

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY

Treasurer :
Robert Babclay, Esq.

Chairman of Committee :
Williamson Lamelough, Esq.

Commiitee :

Elected May 6, 1914.
TTie dates indicate when members first joined the Committee.

*E. L. Barclay, Esq. . . 1914
C. A. Bingel, Esq. . . 1906
W. van 0. Bruyn, Esq. . 1910
E. T>. Cheveley, Esq. . 1906
G. T. Crosfield, Esq. . 1901
Col. D. P. Douglas-Jones . 1905
?Douglas Eyre, Esq. . . 1914
C. A. Flint, Esq. . . 1904
Sir William Godsell . 1903
H. Lance Gray, Esq. . . 1906
M. Gutteridge, Esq. . . 1908
•Maj.-Gen. E. 0. Hay, C.B. . 1914
Henry HoUoway, Esq. . 1913
*H. Joss, Esq. . 1914
fH. Koenigs, Esq. . 1897
?Christian H. Kragh, Esq. . 1914
G. B. Leeohman, Esq. . . 1908
Lieut.-Col. G. Maokinlay 1913

H. W. Maynard, Esq.
Gilbert J. MoCaul, Esq.
T. P. Newman, Esq.
A. W. Oke, Esq. .
W. H. Poate, Esq.
Charles G. E. Rees, Esq.
Leshe S. Robertson, Esq.
Maj.-Gen. C. G. Robinson
E. J. Sewell, Esq.
Colonel E. S. Skinner .
*Dr. R. T. Smith .
Douglas Spioer, Esq. .
Charles E. Sutton, Esq.
Sir Charles J. Tarring
Stuart Trotter, Esq.
Hon. Montagu Waldegrave
C. Hay Walker, Esq.
Robert Whyte, Esq.

1898
. 1902
. 1904
. 1910
. 190819091901189819011903
. 1914
. 1911
, 1911
. 1907
. 19121910 1910
. 1907

The Committee meet at the Bible House, 146, Queen Victoria
Street, E.G., as a rule, on the first and third Mondays in every Month,
at Half-past Eleven o'clock; and oftener, as business may require.
Secretaries :
The Rev. Arthub Taylor, m.a. The Rev. John H. Ritbon, m.a.

Translating '
& Editorial
Department.

The Rev. R. Kilgour, d.d., Editorial Sivperimtendent.
Dr. H. p. Moule, Assistant.

1 The Rev. T. H. Dablow, m.a.. Literary Superintendent.
Department.) M.!. A. G. Jatne, b.a.. Assistant.
Home 1 The Rev. H. A. Rayhes, m.a., Home Superintendent.
Department. ) The Rev. Habby Soott, Assistant Home Secretary.
Devartrnent \ ^'^' *^^°^'='® Cowan, Publishing Superintendent.

Accountant :
Mr. A. Buchanan.

Collector:
Mr. Geo. B. Poole.

Auditors : Messrs. J. and A. W. Sully & Co.

Honorary Solicitors :
Messrs. Coward & Hawksley, Sons
& Chance, 80, Mincing Lane, E.C.
• Not on the Committee last year.

Bankers :
Williams Deacon's Bauk, Ltd.,
20, Birchin Lane, B.C.
t Deceased July 10th, 1914.

126

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY

Agents and Secretaries Abroad.

Pa=!tor D. Lortsoh,
58, Rue de Clichy, Paris.
Mr. M. A. Morrison,
31, Bernburger Strasse, Berlin.
Rev. R. 0. Walker, m.a.,
25, Palazzo Assicur. Gen., Piazza
Venezia, Rome.
Mr. W. Summers,
2 2/4, Flar Alta, Madrid.
Rev. W. Kean, d.d. ,
Ekaterinhof Prospect, 12,
Petrograd.
Mr. W. Davidson,
Bible Depdt, Ekaterinburg.
Rev. T. R. Hodgson,
1, Tunnel Passage, Pera,
Constantinople.
Mr. C. T. Hooper,
Bible House, Port Said.
Rev. G. Lowe,
Box 639, Johannesburg.
Mr. A. Hope,
B.F.B.S., Teherdn, Persia.
Eev. A. W. Young,
23, Ghowringhee Road, Calcutta.
Mr. R. A. Adams,
170, Hornby Road, Bombay.
Rev. W. E. H. Organe, b.a., b.d.,
P.O. Box 502, Madras.
Rev. D. A. Rees, b.a. (Honorary),
South Parade, Bangalore.
Mr. A. E. Butler,
18, Clive Boad, Allahabad.
Mr. W. H. L. Church,
Bible Depdt, Anarkali Street,
Lahore.

Rev. W. J. MowU,
Acting Secretary, Ldhore.
Mr. T. Gracie,
Bible House, Union Place,
Colombo.
Rev. W. Sherratt,
19, Sule Pagoda Boad, Rangoon.
Mr. C. E. G. Tisdall,
17-2, Armenian Street,Singapore.
Rev. G. H. Bondfield, d.d.,
17, Peking Road, ShangJmi.
Mr. H. Miller,
B.F.B.S., Ghongno, Seoul, Korea.
Mr. P. Parrott,
95, Yedo Machi, Kob6, Japan.
Mr. Chas. B. Boweu,
Bible House, 242, Pitt Street,
Sydney.
Mr. Pred G. Barlev,
Biite House, 24"l-243, Flinders
Lane, Melbourne.
Rev. G. M. Clark,
Bible House, 108, George Street,
Brisbane.
Rev. J. H. Sexton,
Bible House, Orenfell Street,
Adelaide.
Rev. A. S. J. Fry,
B.F.B.S.,167,St.George's Terrace,
Perth, Western Australia.
Rev. P. H. Spencer,
Whanganui, New Zealand.
Eev. P. Uttley,
Caixa 73, Bio de Janeiro.
Mr. A. R. Stark,
Casilla 568, Valparaiso, Chile.
Rev. W. B. Cooper, m.a.,
14, College Street, Toronto.

127

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY

Home District Secretaries and Assistants.

Rev. James Thomas,
Bible House, London.
Eev. W. R. Bowman, b.a.,
Rowley Avenue, Stafford.
Eev. W. G. Jones, b.a.,
36, Abinger Boad, Bedford
Park, W.
Eev. J. Alston, b.a.,
37, Meadowside, Lancaster.
Eev. T. Smetham,
53, St. Augustine's Avenue,
Croydon.
*Eev. Elias George,
14, Goldington Road, Bedford.
Eev. Walter WaU,
12, Chestnut Road, Moseley,
Birmingham.
Eev. T. A. Wolfendale, m.a.,
41, Barrfield Road, Pendleton,
Manchester.
Rev. J. Addison Ingle, m.a.,
19, Mount Gold Road, Plymouth.
Eev. J. 0. Haughton, b.a.,
23, Marine Crescent, Waterloo,
Liverpool.

Eev. H. K. Marsden, m.a.,
4, Ashwood Terrace, Headingley,
Leeds.
fEev. D. E. Walters, m.a., b.d.,
15, Heathfield, Swansea.
Eev. H. J. Cossar, m.a.,
St. Luke's Lodge, Alpha Boad,
Cambridge.
Eev. George Daunt, m.a.,
83, Clevedon Road, Weston-
super-Mare.
Eev. George Hanson,
126, Wingrove Road, Newcastle-
on-Tyne.
Eev. W. G. Roberts, m.a.,
48, Burford Road, The Forest,
Nottingham.
Rev. J. Stuart Rimmer, m.a.,
167, Sheen Road, Richmond,
Surrey. ,
Rev. E. W. G. Hudgell, m.a.,
15, St. John Street, Oxford,
Rev. A. Wellesley Jones, b.a., b.d.,
Brooklands, Newry Park,
Chester.

Rev. H. Starmer,
45, Thorpe Boad, Norwich.

Mr. Robert P. Crosland, j.p., p.b.g.s.,
Oldfieldnook, Cleckheaton.

¦ Previoualy i/n the Sooiety's service from 1888 to 1903.

t Besigned 1914.

128

SUMMARY
The British and Foreign Bible Society exists for one single
object — to supply every man with the Holy Scriptures in his
own mother-tongue. It concerns itself solely with circulating
that Book which is the charter of Christ's Church throughout
all the world. And in this aim it unites Christians of almost
every communion.
Our late President.
At the Society's annual meeting in May, 1913, the Marquis
of Northampton presided for the thirteenth year in unbroken
succession, and spoke — as he always spoke — with the strong,
clear note of ardent faith. A few weeks later he passed away
with tragic suddenness in a foreign land. Only those who have
intimate knowledge of the Society's affairs can measure the
debt which it owes to the devotion and wisdom of its late
President. With its ideals he was in whole-hearted sympathy.
He rejoiced in its widening activities. He maintained and
magnified the best traditions of his office ; and his services were
never more conspicuous than throughout our great Centenary
Celebration in 1904. Our profound sense of loss is touched
with the sorrow of personal bereavement. We miss Lord
Northampton all the more keenly, when we realize how he
would praise God with us for the wonderful blessing which has
crowned the work during the last twelve months.
The Year 1913-1914.
The Society's issues now to be reported reached last year the
wonderful number of 8,958,233 copies of the Scriptures. This
total is made up of 1,006,281 Bibles, 1,275,040 New Testaments,
and 6,676,912 Portions.
In 1911 our issues for the flsst time exceeded seven million
books, and in 1912 they again increased by half a million. In
1913, however, the issues have risen to over a million books
129 K

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
more than in 1912, and they are just double those announced
fifteen years ago.
Of the Scriptures circulated in 1913, we note that 1,370,000
volumes were in English or Welsh, which are read as a rule
within the British Empire. More than half a million of these
are popular editions, sold at less than cost price. Since the
Society's new and greatly improved edition of the penny
English Testament appeared three years ago, 800,000 copies
have been printed, large numbers of which have been sent out
to Australia, India, and the West Indies.
Two-thirds of the Society's total issues are printed abroad,
for the most part in the countries where they are read.
The total issues by the Society since its foundation have
exceeded 253,000,000 copies of the Scriptures, complete or in
parts. Of these more than 88,000,000 have been in English.
The Work at Home.
Of last year's total issues, 1,371,185 volumes were in English,
Welsh, Gaelic, or Irish, and circulated mainly in the British
Empire. This number is 95,735 above the figures for 1912-1913.
Of the English Penny Testament, in its new and improved
edition, 200,781 were issued — as compared with 173,763 in the
previous year — making a total of 9,883,640 during the last
twenty-nine years. The Scriptures issued last year in English
included 144,655 copies of the Society's 6d. Bible ; 91,350 copies
of the lOd. Bible; and 87,781 copies of the "Ionic" Is. School
Bible. The total included 22,727 Bibles and 8,166 Testaments in
the English Revised Version — as compared with 1,294,784 Bibles,
Testaments, and Portions in the English Authorised Version.
In order to assist and increase the circulation of the Bible in
our own country, especially in places which are not reached by
ordinary booksellers, the Committee grant special colportage
terms to all societies and institutions which regularly carry on
the sale of the Scriptures by colportage among the poor in
England and Wales.
In England and Wales the Society spent over £6,500 last
year, mainly in grants of Scriptures — free or at greatly reduced
rates — to the schools and home missions of nearly every
Christian Communion, and to all the varied agencies of religious
and philanthropic activity. 130

SUMMARY
Almost all the English and Welsh institutions for befriending
the blind obtain the Scriptures which they require from the
Bible House, at less than half the cost of their production.
Students at Theological and Missionary Colleges, who need
such assistance, received last year as gifts 472 Old Testaments
in Hebrew and 690 New Testaments in Greek. The Society
also presents outgoing missionaries with Bibles or Testaments
in the vernaculars of the fields in which they are to labour.
A subsidy of £500 a year is given to the London Biblewomen
and Nurses' Mission for the maintenance of over 100 Bible-
women, who, during the year ending December 31, 1913, sold
1,670 copies of the Scriptures among the poor living in the
mean streets of London.
Translation and Revision.
The Society's historical list now includes versions in eour
HUNDRED AND EiPTY-six distinct forms of speech. This means
the complete Bible in 112 different languages ; the New Testa
ment in 111 more languages ; and at least one book of Scripture
in 233 other languages.
These versions are printed at about fifty different places,
and in sixty different sets of characters. Over a hundred new
languages and dialects have been added to the list since the
present century began.
In embossed type for the blind, the Society has already helped
to provide the Scriptures in thirty-five different languages.
The Society's expenditure last year for translating, revising,
printing, and binding the Scriptures was £127,428.
The Partner of Missions.
The foreign missions of almost every Reformed Church draw
supplies of Scriptures from the Bible Society. These are sent
out, carriage paid, to the remotest mission stations, on such
terms that practically no charge falls on the exchequer of the
missions which receive and circulate the books. In every field
the missionaries are our most enthusiastic helpers and our most
grateful friends, testifying to the indispensable assistance which
they thus obtain.
Prom the Bible Society the Church of England obtains almost
all the Scriptures required for its foreign missions.
131

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts has procured Scriptures from the Bible Society in eighty
languages. The Church Missionary Society has used one
hundred and twelve different translations which come from
the Bible House. The Universities' Mission to Central Africa
obtains from the same source all the versions which it uses.
Equally important help is rendered to the Melanesian Mission
and the South American Missionary Society.
Nonconformist Foreign Missions also obtain the bulk of all the
Scriptures they use, directly or indirectly, from the Bible Society.
It furnishes the London Missionary Society with the Scrip
tures in fifty-nine different languages, and Methodist Missions
in different countries with ninety-seven versions. Presbyterian
missions throughout the world use one hundred and thirty-two
of its versions. It published the Kongo New Testament for the
Baptist Missionary Society, and also supplies many B.M.S.
stations in China and Jamaica. The China Inland Mission
and other undenominational societies obtain from the Bible
Society practically all the editions of the Scriptures which
they use.
The enterprises and triumphs of Christian Missions are creating
as many new and imperious claims upon this Society — which
has never refused to publish a duly authenticated version of the
Scriptures in a new tongue. Each new tribe evangelized, each
fresh language reduced to writing and grammar, each new con
vert baptized, means a new claim for help from the resources
of the Bible House — help which is most gladly given, on such
terms that it creates no charge upon the funds of the Mission
which is aided thereby.
In Foreign Lands.
The Society maintains dep6ts in nearly a hundred of the
chief cities of the world.
It employs 1,230 native Christian colporteurs who were con
tinuously at work throughout the year 1913, supervised by the
Society's foreign agents or its missionary friends. The sales by
these colporteurs reached the unprecedented total of 4,311,000
copies of the Scriptures.
It supports about 500 native Christian Biblewomen, mainly
in the East, in connexion with missions in Eastern lands.
132

SUMMARY
The Society's total expenditure on colporteurs and Biblewomen
during 1913 amounted to £49,119.
Auxiliaries. At the close of 1913 the Bible Society had 4,960 Auxiliaries,
Branches, and Associations in England and Wales. During
1913 as many as 4,309 meetings were held, and 3,388 sermons
were preached, on behalf of the Society.
Outside the United Kingdom the Society has over 3,000
Auxiliaries and Branches, mainly in the British Colonies.
Many of these carry on Bible distribution vigorously in their
own localities, besides sending generous annual contributions
to London.
Last Year's Expenditure.
The total payments for the past year have been £275,298.
Among the main items of this unprecedented expenditure
we note that translations and editions cost £5,275 more
than in 1912. Although colportage proved extraordinarily
efficient, its expense increased only by £342. Other expenses
connected with the foreign agencies rose by £1,549. The
home expenditure decreased by £1,153. Altogether the
Society spent £5,987 more in 1913 than in 1912.
Receipts. The receipts have risen to £275,447 — the largest income ever
received by the Society in any normal year. When we analyse
the factors in this cheering result, we find that sales of the
Scriptures produced £102,240 — an increase of nearly £7,000.
Sales from London of English and other editions have risen
by £4,627, and sales from foreign agencies by £2,282. On
the other hand, donations paid in London fell off by nearly
£10,000. Legacies once more have shown a remarkable in
crease, rising to £75,909. Following the usual practice, £57,031,
being the average of the receipts from legacies during the last
seven years, has been taken into income — the balance, £18,878,
being carried to the Legacy Equalization Fund.
During the past year no less than £6,839 has been sent to
the Bible House by donors who desire to remain anonymous.
133

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE
Contributions.
The total contributions from Auxiliaries, etc., at home and
abroad have risen to £89,690, which is £4,357 more than in
the year 1912-13, and £8,000 more than in 1911-12. It is
encouraging to find that the receipts from Auxiliaries in
England and Wales showed a growth last year of £2,277. The
Hibernian Bible Society has sent £2,450 — an increase of over
£1,000. We also note that £255 has been collected for the
Society in Russia, £639 in Prance and Belgium, and £295 in
Central Europe ; £246 has come from the Republics of the
Andes ; £396 from the Yoruba Auxiliary at Lagos ; £470 from
China ; and £133 from Java. The contributions from South
Africa have grown to £1,904 ; while £3,251 has been raised
in India and Ceylon.
The Canadian Bible Society and its Auxiliaries raised over
£27,000 : among its items of expenditure is one of £6,758 on
colportage within its own borders, while a net sum of £6,410
was contributed to our Society's enterprise in foreign lands.
Australia has raised the sum of £8,493 : out of this, £5,328 was
expended locally, leaving £3,165 for the general w^ork of our
Society. The contributions from New Zealand, after deducting
local expenditure, amounted to £1,303.
Obituary. During the past twelve months death has removed not only
the Society's President, but nine of our Vice-Presidents : Lord
Strathcona, the venerable builder of Empire ; Mr. Joseph Storrs
Fry, of Bristol, the munificent Quaker philanthropist ; Lord
Radstock, the noble-hearted preacher of the Gospel : Mr. Theo
dore Howard, for thirty-five years the Home Director of the
China Inland Mission ; Lord Wimborne, an eminent man of
affairs ; Dr. C. D. Ginsburg, the learned Massoretic scholar,
who devoted his long life to the study of the Hebrew Bible ;
Mr. Martin John Sutton, of Reading, a devoted Evangelical
layman, prominent in business and in agriculture ; Sir William
Lee- Warner, the distinguished Indian civilian : last, but not
least. Chancellor Edmonds, of Exeter, who, after serving in
earlier days as District Secretary and then for a short time as
Secretary, became in 1893 a Vice-President of the Society, and
ranked among its wisest counsellors and most loyal friends.
134

SUMMARY
The Committee deeply mourn the loss by death of three of
their own colleagues — Mr. W. H. Seagram, Mr. F. S. Bishop,
and Sir John Molesworth Macpherson.
The Staff.
Between March and July last year the Rev. J. H. Ritson
spent four months for the Society in South Africa, where he
visited all the principal Auxiliaries, delivered 142 speeches and
sermons, and travelled 7,000 miles.
The Rev. W. J. Mowll has been appointed an additional
secretary for India.
The Society has lost a greatly valued servant by the death at
Shanghai of Mr. Leonard John Day, who had been one of its
sub-agents in China since 1887.
The Rev. George Hanson has been appointed District Secre
tary in charge of the Northern District.
The Rev. W. F. Hodge, M.A., has resigned the post of
District Secretary in charge of the South Metropolitan District
(West) ; he is succeeded by the Rev. J. Stuart Rimmer, M.A.
The Rev. J. A. Cooper has resigned the post of District
Secretary in charge of the North-Midland District, which he
had held since 1906 ; he has been succeeded by the Rev. W. G.
Roberts, M.A.
The Rev. A. H. Gaskell, M.A., B.D., has resigned the post of
District Secretary in charge of the South-Midland District,
which he had held since 1905. The Rev. E. W. G. Hudgell,
M.A., has been appointed his successor.
Owing to ill health, the Rev. D. C. Edwards, M.A., has
resigned the post of District Secretary in charge of North
Wales, after eighteen years' service. The Rev. A. Wellesley
Jones, B.A., B.D., has been appointed his successor.

135

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE

THE BIBLE SOCIETY RECEIVED DURING THE
YEAR ENDING MARCH 31st, 1914:

From sales of the Scriptures issued from
the Bible House, London, to trade
dep6ts. Auxiliaries, missionary societies,
etc. ...
From sales of the Scriptures abroad
From sales of magazines
Contributed by Auxiliaries at home.
Contributed abroad
Legacies ...
Subscriptions, donations, etc., paid at the
Bible House
Dividends

£34,551 65,886

£100,437 1,803
60,696 28,994
57,031
22,164 4,322

TOTAX. RECEIPTS

£275,447

136

IN THE VULGAR TONGUE

THE BIBLE SOCIETY EXPENDED DURING THE
YEAR ENDING MARCH 31st, 1914:

Production :
Translating, revising, printing, and binding the
Scriptures  £127,423
Distribution :
Warehouses, dep6ts, and sub-dep6ts abroad, and
freight and carriage of the Scriptures ... ... 44,333
Blaintaining colporteurs and Biblewomen ... 49,119
Salaries and travelling expenses of foreign
agents and sub-agents ... ... ... ¦•• 24,061
Bible House administration, salaries, repairs, rates,
taxes, insurance, postage, etc. ... ¦•. ¦•• 8,788
Home Organization staff, including District
Secretaries ... ... ... ¦¦. ••• ¦¦¦ 10,621
Reports, magazines, etc. ... ... ••• ••¦ 6,108
Allowance to old and disabled servants  4,845

TOTAL EXPENDITURE £275,298

137

The Bible in the World
A Monthly Magazine of the British and Foreign Bible Society.
Profusely illustrated, id.
Annual volumes, cloth, gilt, is. 6d.
The Bible Society Gleanings
A Monthly Magazine for villagers and young people. Illustrated, ^d.
Annual volumes, cloth, gilt sides and edges, is. each.
The Annual Report for 1913-14
Paper cover, to non-subscribers, is.
" In the Vulgar Tongue "
The Society's Popular Illustrated Report for 1913-14.
Sixteen full-page inset illustrations. Boards, is. post free.
The History of the British and Foreign
Bible Society
By William Canton. With Portraits and Illustrations. The
second part of the History, 1854-1904, is in three vols.
los. each net. The first two vols., 1804-1834, may also
be had. los. each net. The complete set of five volumes,
£2 2s. net. Published by Mr. John Murray, Albemarle Street,
W. To be had of all Booksellers, or from the Bible House,
146, Queen Victoria Street, E.C.
Letters of George Borrow to the British
and Foreign Bible Society
Published by direction of the Committee. Edited by T. H. Darlow.
Price 7s. 6d. net. Hodder & Stoughton, London, New York,
and Toronto.
Historical Catalogue of the Printed
Editions of Holy Scripture in the Library of the
British and Foreign Bible Society
Compiled by T. H. Darlow, M.A., and H. F. Moule, M.A. In
two vols., 8vo., large paper, bound in dark blue buckram, top
edges gilt. Vol. I., English, published in 1903. Vol. II., Other
Languages (1,850 pp., bound in three parts), published in 1911.
Only 500 sets printed, of which 450, numbered and signed,
were for sale in England and America. The subscrip
tion price of the last 200 sets has been raised to £z 3s. net
for the complete work (volumes not sold separately). To be
obtained at the Bible House, 146, Queen Victoria Street, E.C.
UNWIN BnOTHERS, LIMITED, THE GEESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON