The rest of the books have been given in small appropriations of a miscellaneous character, to auxiliaries, Sunday School organizations, and benevolent societies.

Publications.

The Publications of the year amount to 30,364 volumes. Of these, 10,017 were Bibles, and 20,347 Testaments. The whole number of volumes hitherto published at the Depository, is 293,098.

Issues.

The issues have been 13,638 Bibles, and 26,590 Testaments. Total 40,228.

Books on hand.

On the 5th of April the whole stock of books on hand, amounted to 11,000 Bibles, and 13,630 Testaments, making a total of 24,630. Of the Bibles 310 were German, and 992 Welsh; Testaments 792 German, and 939 Welsh.

Library.

There have been added to the Library, 32 volumes, making the whole number received 1,576.

The legacies paid in during the year, have been as follows:

Legacies.

The estate of Deacon Phelps, of Ames, Montgomery co. N. Y.,

Amount brought over

The estate of Hon. Nicholas Brown, Providence, R. I., 7th in

Gorham Chapman, Nobleboro, Me., a boy 15
years old, his all,

S. R. Stelle, Piscataway, N. H., a dying bequest -
Mrs. L. Langdon, Fairfax, Vt.

Agencies.

The most of our agents are permanent. During the last year, in consquence of the sickness of several, we were obliged to employ the temporary services of individuals to occupy their places. This has somewhat increased the expenses of the year, although they still scarcely surpass those of 1847, when our receipts amounted to less that $32,000.

Life Members ann Directors.

Three hundred and thirty-four Life members and twenty-two life directors, have been added.

Reecipts and Disbursments.

The receipts of the year amount to $39,840 86. This is a larger sum, by several thousands of dollars, than has ever before been received in one year. The disbursments amount to $38,321 79. The balance against the treasury at the beginning of the year was $887 12; the balance in favor at the close $631 95.

Demands of the New Year.

Whoever has attentively read the preceeding pages of this Report, must be convinced that far more is demanded, and reasona

bly expected, of the Society, than has hitherto been accomplished. In the advancing kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the achievments of one year, only make room for those of the next. The cry is still "onward.". In each of the countries where we have done much, we are now required to do more. And we may add that the Society is virtually pledged to far greater effort than in former years. We cannot remit or diminish our domestic operations. The foreign field has largely increased its demands upon us. For Germany your Board has been obliged to assume responsibilities, which will require the expenditure of from $10,000 to $12,000 before the close of another financial year. For the Karen Scriptures, $3,000 were requested for the past year over and above all that we were able to pay. This sum must be met, with the additional expenditures of the current year. We have no reason to suppose that the Missionary Union will need for other objects, less that usual. $7,500 were paid through it last year, and then, in the case of the Karens, fell short of the demand. For the revisions in India, from $5,000 to $6,000 were asked for last year. We could only spare $1,000. This year we should endeavor to show more liberality in the circulation of those Scriptures, in the preparation of which so much has been expended. They are the standing monuments of the life-long toil of Carey, Yates, Sutton and their assistants.

The value of such works can hardly be overated: the usefulness of their circulation is attested in every missionary letter from the shores of India.

Your Board do not attempt to define, by specific boundaries, the extent of the field which you are invited to cultivate, or to designate the amount of liberality required; but they feel very safe in assuring you that if the income of the Society be raised the present year to $50,000, that sum will not enable them to meet all the demands for expenditures in Scripture operations.

Conclusion.

The results of the year evince, that the American and Foreign Bible Society is gradually, but surely winning its way to extensive

favor and enlarged prosperity. Its receipts have been greater, its operations larger, the interest in its behalf more deeply felt, and the intelligence of its proceedings more eagerly sought for, and more extensively read, than at any preceding period. These circumstances are to be attributed, partly to the extraordinary events of the year: but mainly, we believe, under God, to a growing appreciation of the merits and usefulness of the Society. The love of the bible;-the impression of its excellence;-the conviction of its necessity for the sanctification of saints, and the salvation of the world; are sentiments common to the hearts of believers, and only requiring circumstances to prove their existence and to develop their intensity in consistent and efficient action. Accordingly it is found, that wherever the plans aud proceedings of this institution are brought in contact with the hearts of the faithful, a corresponding sympathy is awakened, which secures to us permanent and devoted friends. Every year thus adds to the number of those, who pray for its success, and contribute for the support of its operation.

Still the Society constantly suffers from the influence of several causes, among which we may enumerate the following:

There is an almost universal and overweening confidence in its prosperity, which often induces its friends to relax their efforts in its behalf, unless they are personally addressed and urged to the work by an agent.

Connected with this, is a general conviction that the Society does not require more than a certain amount of funds, which, if supplied, will meet its utmost exigencies. In the same minds that cherish these views, there frequently exists the impression, that no positive responsibilities rest upon us; in other words, that your Board are not necessarily obliged to make provision for any certain amount of expenditure, but that they may receive and disburse whatever the churches or individuals are disposed to give for scripture operations, without any peculiar solicitude about the amount, or any danger of evil consequences in case of deficiency.

It would occupy more space than can be allotted to such subjects in an Annual Report, to present the arguments which prove the unreasonableness of such views and impressions. Let it suffice to assure those who entertain them, that the Society can prosper, and

accomplish its high and holy purposes, only if sustained by the individual, efficient, and untiring exertions of those who love its principles and desire its continued and increased usefulness: that its fields of operation are so varied and extensive, and present such claims to its regard, and such facilites for the advantageous employment of its means, that scarcely any limit can properly be placed to the amount of funds which it can judiciously and most usefully employ: and that the necessity of fulfilling contracts for printing the scriptures and supporting colporteurs, and of meeting the just expectations of missionaries and mission bodies in making the requisite appropriations to them for bible operations, imposes a weight of obligation and responsibility, which, in the estimation of your Board, can scarcely be increased. To stop the bible in its course through the press, to dismiss the colporteur in the midst of his useful toils, to dissapoint the missionary when expecting the means of paying for the publication of the scriptures which he has laboriously translated and is now prepared to print-such are the inevitable consequences of a want of pecuniary means to meet our obligations and discharge our responsibilities-consequences, the evils of which can only be calculated by those, who can estimate the usefulness of the word of God, and the value of immortal souls.