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The Danish Bible Society issued 4,204 copies in the past year; and 4,146 copies were issued by the Sleswick-Holstein Society. The Swedish agency at Stockholm issued 7,239 Bibles, and 16,567 Testaments, to which must be added 3,961 Bibles, and 14,061 Testaments, issued by the Swedish Bible Society. In Norway were issued 541 Bibles, and 5,053 Testaments, besides 362 Bibles, and 998 Testaments from Drontheim, Christiania, and Stavanger.

In St. Petersburgh the Agency circulated 19,186, of which 12,542, were Finnish; 2,634, German ; and 2,140, Esthonian.

Of Spain and Portugal the report is gloomy, the priests not suffering the people to possess the Holy Scriptures. The imprisonment of Dr. Kalley, at Madeira, for promoting the reading of the Scriptures, shows the enmity of the priests against the Bible.

In Greece, the Rev. H. D. Leeves laboured in perfecting the translation of the Old Testament into the Modern Greek, and of the New Testament into the Ancient Greek. During the year, he issued from Athens, 7,814 copies of the Scriptures, mostly in the Greek language.

Mr. Barker, in Turkey, issued 6,430 copies of the Scriptures in Asiatic and European Turkey and South Russia; while some were sent to Syria and Jerusalem, as well as to Bucharest. The Rev. Mr. Homes, Armenian Missionary at Constantinople, co-operated with him in disseminating the GrecoTurkish and Greco-Armenian Scriptures. The Rev. Mr. Ewald, at Jerusalem, Missionary to the Jews,

X

reports the circulation of the Scriptures in Hebrew, Arabic, and Armenian.

India was regarded with increasing interest, as it led the Society to feel the responsibility of providing the Scriptures in its many dialects and languages.

Dr. Hæberlin, of Calcutta, visited many places as far as Chinese Tartary, and disposed of most of the 60,000 copies of the Scriptures, in fifteen languages, that he took with him, loading four boats. The Calcutta Auxiliary issued in the year 55,630 copies; and the Association, 3,398 copies.

The Madras Auxiliary issued 29,275 copies, chiefly in the Tamil, Teloogoo, Canarese, Malayalim, and Hindoostance languages, towards the printing of which the British Society granted £1,000 and 2,000 reams of paper.

The Bombay issues were 5,556 copies, and the Jaffna 2,954 copies of the Scriptures.

China claimed the anxious attention of the Committee, especially regarding a revision of the Chinese translation of the Bible. They had engaged with the American Bible Society in the expense; for which service, the Missionaries of the London Society, of the American Board, of the American Baptist Board, and of the Morrison Education Society, met at Hong Kong, for solemn conference on the best means of prosecuting the work. The principles were agreed upon, August 22 to September 4, 1843. But the Bible Society had to "lament the decease of three valuable friends to whose judgment they would have deferred, the Rev. S. Kidd, Professor of Chinese in the London University College, and formerly Principal

of the Chinese College at Malacca; the Rev. S. Dyer, many years Missionary at Penang; and the Hon. John Robert Morrison, son of the late Dr. Morrison, possessing, perhaps more than his father, a knowledge of Chinese language and literature. Sir Henry Pottinger looks on the decease of Mr. Morrison as a positive national calamity."*

In Australia, the Bible cause made progress. In New Zealand, the distribution by the Wesleyan Missionaries of 10,000 copies of the New Testament prepared for 5,000 more on the way, and a grant of another 5,000, making 20,000 to them, and the same to the Church Society's Missionaries. New grants were made to the Missionaries in Tahiti, outraged by the French Protectorate; 3,000 Bibles to Rarotonga; and 10,000 each of the Gospels of John, Mark, and Luke, and the Epistle to the Romans.

Several consignments of New Testaments and the Psalms in the Sechuana language were made to South Africa, and grants to Western and Northern Africa, and to Madagascar. Grants also were made to South America and Central America; and large supplies were forwarded to the West Indies, for the black and the coloured people; 32,726 copies of the Scriptures were issued from one depôt in twenty-one months.

The American Bible Society in its magnificent course received 126,448 dollars, and issued 216,605 copies of the Scriptures this year. It also printed the Old Testament in Armeno-Turkish and the Hebrew-Spanish.

Report of the Bible Society for 1844, pp. cxi., cxii.

British North America possesses 246 Auxiliaries; that of Upper Canada issued 11,371 copies of the Scriptures; that of Montreal, 5,702 copies, and that of New Brunswick, 1,144 copies; total, 18,217: in all the Provinces, probably, 25,000 volumes of the Scriptures.

Domestic operations were of their usual variety and magnitude; the receipts of the Society for the year were, £98,359 2s. 4d.; and the issues, 298,293 Bibles, 378,331 Testaments; total 676,674; and on the Continent 37,301 Bibles, and 230,106 Testaments; a grand total of 944,031 copies of the Scriptures. The grants of the Committee in the year amounted to £32,647 6s. 2d.; including the amount of 6,700 Bibles and 25,800 Testaments for schools and the poor of Ireland.

The Fortieth Annual Meeting of the Bible Society was held at Exeter Hall, May 1, 1844; when the crowded assembly was addressed by the President, Lord Bexley, the Bishop of Cashel, the Bishop of Worcester, the Earl of Chichester, the Archdeacon of Winchester, Sir J. Bathurst, the Hon. and Rev. Baptist W. Noel, Rev. Dr. Morrison, Rev. Dr. Wilson, of Bombay, Rev. Mr. Trefit, of New York, Rev. T. Marzials, of Lille, Rev. J. Mc Lean, and Rev. A. Brandram.

CHAPTER VII.

FIFTH DECADE OF THE BIBLE SOCIETY.

THE FORTY-FIRST YEAR OF THE SOCIETY,

1844-1845.

On entering upon the Fifth Decade of the History of the Bible Society, both the retrospect and the prospect appear highly instructive. The records of the past are full of wonders of the Divine grace. The prospect is bright and full of hope; while "we are bound to raise a grateful Ebenezer as we proceed to survey, in retrospect, the amount of work that has been done; the amount of good that has been effected; and the willingness of mind to the work manifested by the varied agencies brought into operation." All this, evidently, proclaims the Society to have been the work of God.

France claims our first notice, as the progress appears truly admirable. M. De Pressensé reports his issues for the past year, as 150,562 copies; 16,452 Bibles and 134,110 Testaments: of these 125,547 were sold by colporteurs, chiefly to Roman Catholics. The French and Foreign Bible Society issued 14,031 copies; and the Protestant Bible Society of Paris, 6,697 copies of the Scriptures.

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