BIBLE SOCIETIES 617 tion, published the Scriptures in 40 different languages, and circulated 4,000,000 volumes in our own and foreign lands. "The Bible Ad- vocate " is its monthly periodical. Its officers for 1872 are the Hon. D. M. AVilson, president ; the Rev. A. D. Gillette, D. D., corresponding secretary; U. D. Ward, treasurer. "The American Bible Union " was organized in New York, June 10, 1850. Its object is " to procure and circulate the most faithful versions of the Sacred Scriptures, in all languages, throughout the world." Its founders seceded from the American and Foreign Bible society May 23, 1850, when that body decided that it was not its province or duty to revise the English Bible, nor to procure a revision of it from others ; and that in its future issues it would only circulate the existing commonly received version. The membership is composed of voluntary contrib- utors, $30 constituting a member, $100 a direc- tor for life. The field of its operations is the world. It has aided extensively in the prepara- tion or circulation of versions made on its princi- ples, for the Chinese, Karens, Siamese, French, Spanish, Italians, Germans, and English. But the primary aim of the union is to prepare a thorough and faithful revision of the common English version. To accomplish this it has em- ployed the aid of scholars of nine evangelical denominations. Though mainly composed of Baptists, it professes to act without reference to denominational differences. The principle adopted for the guidance of translators is : Express in language most readily understood by the people " the exact meaning of the in- spired original." No views of expediency are allowed to withstand the invariable ope- ration of this rule. The New Testament has been subjected to three consecutive revisions, the first extending through a period of eight years, the second of four, and the third of a little more than two years. No expense has been spared in procuring books or supplying every possible aid for the greatest perfection of the work. The book of Job has been re- vised and published under two different forms : the first embracing the common version, the Hebrew, and the revised version, accompa- nied with philological notes ; the second con- fined to the revision and notes for the English reader. Genesis and the Psalms have been issued, each in a single volume, combining the notes for the scholar and the English read- er. Proverbs has lately been issued in the same form as Job. Exodus, Joshua, Ruth, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, have been revised, and the first four of these books are now (1873) undergoing revision for the press. The Bible union has also prepared a " Bible Primer " especially for the freedmen in the south. It has made two translations of the Testament into the Chinese language, one in the character, and the other in the Ningpo colloquial. Its Spanish Testa- ment has undergone three revisions, and is now widely circulated in Spain and Mexico. Its Italian Testament is undergoing revision in Italy. The number of copies of Scriptures which it has issued, or furnished the means for issuing, in all languages, exceeds a million. The "Bible Revision Association," organized at Memphis, Tenn., April 2, 1853, and after- ward removed to Louisville, Ky., suspended operations in the early part of 1860, and passed over its books to the American Bible union. The history of Bible societies would be in- complete without mention of the controversy with regard to the Apocrypha, in which the European societies were involved from about 1811, and which was not finally settled till 1827. The one idea of Bible societies, the circulation of the Scriptures without note or comment, had to a certain extent engaged all parties indiscrim- inately, and especially all parties of the refor- mation. The Roman Catholic church had a different canon of Scripture from the Protes- tant. On the continent various causes had conspired to separate the Protestants less in this matter from the Catholics than their breth- ren in Great Britain. Consequently, on the continent, the Catholic canon was in use among Protestants. At first the London society had connived at this difference of sentiment, or at least had not allowed itself to interfere with its free exercise. Thus the German auxiliary so- cieties had from the outset purchased for cir- culation the Canstein Bible, in which the apoc- ryphal books were intermingled with the ca- nonical (Protestant). A feeling began to be manifest on this subject with greatest violence in Scotland, and the parent society therefore decided in 1811 to request its auxiliaries to leave out the Apocrypha. This request pro- duced some feeling, and it was rescinded in 1813. The apocryphal war was thus fairly commenc- ed ; for the passing and subsequent rescinding of the resolution of 1811 brought the parties into position. The inspiration of the apocry- phal books was discussed, and the custom of the Protestant church cited, which had trans- lated the Apocrypha, and even in the establish- ment appointed it " to be read in the churches." While the general sentiment was in favor of the non-inspiration of the apocryphal books, one party insisted on the propriety of their circulation, on the ground that the catalogue of the canon was not inspired, and that even the Protestant canon itself was not an article of faith, but might contain uninspired books. On the other hand, the anti-apocryphal party rigidly defined the difference between the ca- nonical and apocryphal books, designating the apocryphal as "far below the level of many human writings, full of falsehoods, errors, su- perstitions, and contradictions, and the more dangerous for assuming to be a divine revela- tion." The Scotch party was violent, the con- tinental unyielding. The publication of the Catholic Bible in Italian, Spanish, and Portu- guese, in 1819, with the cooperation of the society, added fresh fuel to the flames. It was thought by the Edinburgh society a violation
