seeking to take advantasie of the facilities
afforded by the art of printing: but a Ion;; period
elapsed after the Reformation before a Bible soci-
ety was foriiiccl — durinfj whioh. liowever. an ex-
tensive ditVusion of the Scriptures took pUfc, and
partly by the agency of associations which in-
cluded it among other means for the advancement
of Christianity. Itneccssaiyly became, along with
the translation of the Scriptures, one of the ob-
jects to which missionary societies directed their
energy. But perhaps the first association ever
formed for the sole and specific purpose of pro-
viding copies of the Scriptures for tho.se who
were destitute of them was that founded by
Baron Hildebrand von Canstein, an intimate
friend of Spcner. in conjunction with Francke
at Ilallc. which, down to 18.S4, when other
Bible societies were beginning to make their ap-
pearance iu Germany, had distributed 2,754,350
copies of the Bible and about 2,000.000 copies of
the New Testament. The imjnilse, however, to
the formation of the Bible societies now exist-
ing in all parts of Protestant Christendom pro-
ceeded from England, where in 1780 an asso-
ciation was formed for the distribution of Bibles
among soldiers and sailors. It was at first
simply called 'The Bible Society'; it exists at
the present day. and is now known as the Naval
and Military Bible Society, and, confining itself
to its original specific object, has accomplished
much good. It is not an iminteresting circum-
stance that the first ship in which Bibles were
distributed by this society was the ill-fated
Roi/al (leorfie. In the beginning of 1792 a
similar association was formed in London, un-
der the name of the French Bible Society, with
a similar limited and specified object of dis-
tributing Bibles in the French tongue. It was
])robal)ly the attitude assumed by infidelity in
France which gave occasion to the formation of
this society, but the greater part of its funds,
having been remitted to Paris for the printing of
the Bible there, was lost, and everything belong-
ing to the Society destroved in the tumult of the
llevolution. It was not" till 1802 that the first
steps were taken toward the formation of the
British A^•I) Foreign Bible Society, the parent
of a multitude of similar institutions, and the
establishment of which must be regarded as a
great epoch in the historj- of this branch of
Christian bpnelicencc: nor was the Society fully
organized and established till March 7. 1S04.
Its fornuition took (ilace in consequence of the
deep impression made upon the mind of the Rev.
Thomas Charles, of Bala, in Wales, by the desti-
tution of the Sacred Scriptures which he found to
exi.st in the sjihere of his labors, and particularly
by a circumstance strikingly illustrative of that
destitution. Meeting a little girl. Mary .Tones —
a name had in loving remembrance by the friends
of Bible Societies — he in(|uired if she could re-
peat the text irom which he had preached on the
preceding Sunday. Instead of giving a prompt
reply, as she had been accustomed to do. she re-
mained silent, and then, weeping, told liim that
the weather had been so bad she could not get to
read the Bible. She had been accustomed to travel
everi' week seven miles over the hills to a place
where she could obtain access to the Welsh Bible.
Mr. Charles, on his next visit to London, brought
the subject of the want of Bibles in Wales to the
notice of the Committee of the Religious Tract
Society (q.v.). when it was suggested Ijy Mr.
Hughes, a member of the committee, that a
society might be formed for the purpose of sup-
])lying Bil)les. not only in Wales, Init wherever
destitution existed throughout the world. The
Society was constituted on the widest possible
liasis. Churchmen and Dissenters Ix-ing alike in-
cluded in it; and soon attained a greatness cor-
lespcmding with that of tlu' other two religious
societies, the London Missionary Society (see
Missions), and the Religious "Tract Society,
which had been formed on similar principles
a few years before. It was indeed able to ex-
pend only about £G19 in the first year of its
existence, but its annual income gradually in-
creased to an average of £70.000, and in 1873-76
it amounted to £11(J.S02, derived from the dona-
tions, legacies, collections, etc., and ajiplicable to
the general purposes of the Society, besides £108
for a special object (the 'Roxburghe fund'), and
£105,410 derived from sales of Bibles and Testa-
ments, abstiacts. monthly rejiorts. etc., show-
ing the net receipts for the year to be £222.320.
Auxiliary and branch societies and dc|)endent as-
sociations rapidly sprang up in all parts of Great
Britain and in the Colonies, the number of which
at present amounts to between 5000 and GOOO.
Large sums have, of course, been sjient by the
British and Foreign Bible Society for the diffu-
sion of the Authorized Knglish Version of the
Bible. The fundamental law of the Society has,
up to the present time, restricted it to the publi-
cation of this version only in English ; but a
change in its constitution has now liecn made, by
which the Revised Version can hereafter be pub-
lished. It has also spent large sums in printing
and circulating the Scriptures in the ditTcrent
Celtic languages spoken in Great Britain and lie-
land. It has developed an efl'ective system of
agencies for thoroughly meeting the needs of
Great Britain. The foreign department of this
work has gradually become, with the progress of
modern uiissi(nis, one of its chief functions. It
stands ready to print the translations of the
Bible prepared by missionaries and offered for
publication, and in many cases has been forward
to initiate the undertaking of such translations.
The translation, printing, or distribution of the
whole or part of the Bible has been pnmioted by
the Society directly in 2!lti languages or dialects,
and indirectly in 07; a total of 3ti.3. Its list now
contains the Bible in 100 langiuiges, complete
New Testaments in 100 more, and some ))ortion
of the Scriptures in iiKue than 150 others. To
print these, over 50 dilVercnt styles of diarac-
teis are required. The payments made by the
Society for the services of translators, rcvi.sers,
and proof-readers amounted iu this last fiscal
year to about £4,000. The extent of its opera-
tions can be measured in some degree by its is-
sues. Tiiese, during the last two years, were:
1900-1901 Compared with 1S99-1900.
Bibles Mo.aot Bibles S43.990 •• 1.308.176 •• 1.20.i,!lilO •• 2.760.686 •• 2.',07.S12
Total 4,914.369 Total., 5,(147.792
The total issues for the Society for the 07 years since its foundation in 1804 amount to nearly 170.000.000 copies. Its income for the same year reached an aggregate of £221,535. shillings, and pence. These stupendous tiorures become still more impressive by a closer survey of its work in various foreign mission-fields of the world, where
