Mar, 28, To-day the British and Foreign Bible Society's China Agency holds its annual meeting. There record will be made of a continuance of great traditions of service. The romance of the penetration of the Bible into the heart of this vast country, amid fall the perplexities and discouragements inherent in its teeming population, is, in itself, an epic of devotion. In the past. year the Society and its staff. have experienced special difticuland setbacks in China. Therein has been illustrated how closely their activities concern the life of the people and the country. It is not surprising that the Bible has, by the mere machinery of its' distribution, made valuable contributions to the best of all sciences: the i creasing study of mankind by man. Exploration, archaeology and" anthropology have been richly endowed by the efforts of those who direct the cfreulation Of the Holy Scripture in China, And with some magical grasp of the message which they bring, the colporteurs seem often to assume the guise of. willing ministers to the pains of human Of this side of the [Society's work countless tales jate to be told. In 1932 4,205,559 Bibles, New Testaments and "Portions" were sold as against 4,506,415 in 1931, leaving out of Jaccount the circulation figures of the America and Scottish Societies, which, between them in 1932' reached a figure over 5,000,000 copies. The trouble "in Manchuria, the cholera epidemic and the aftermath of the tremendous Yangtze floods of 1931 were in the order named the chief causes of the Nevertheless it is remarkable that so magnificent a record of over 4,000,000 has been The Society has laboured for 121 years in China—it started in 1812 with a grant of £500 for printing Dr. Morrison's translation of the New Testament. It has circulated over 90,000,000 loopies of the Chinese scriptures since then. And its present buoyancy is particularly gratifying for, in addition to. the troubles already noted, it suffer-led, in common with other cul-{tural institutions, tragic losses the result of Japanese military action in destruction of the [Commercial Press, which had printed more Bibles than any lather establishment in. Asia during the last thirty-three years. The Report not sur-Prisingly pays a tribute to the spirit which overcome this disas-for: been manifested before our eyes courageous perseverance has ip the achievements of "the Chinese printing firms." When their fortunes had been shattered and that that had been built up by past years of business enter prise had suddenly gone to the winds,' they did not whitle or ive Up in despair, but set to] for rest and the solace of the inner treasure in man, it is often.to The Good Book that, tired minds, great and small alike, will turn. Whatever pas-Sage among the wealth of prophecies, comfortings, exhortations may be chosen, the quest is scarcely ever in vain. Who for example can recall:
"They shall hunger no mor neither thirst any more; neith shall the sun light on. them, no any heat: for the Lamb which in the midst of the. throne shall feed them, and shall' lead" them unto living fountains. of ware and God shall wipe avery all tea from their eyes." without feeling that the sum of the world's troubles is there known and weighed? And, on return to the bewilderment of the kaleidoscope, there is renewed courage and' alerter vision.
experience might be multiplied. It, is the spirit of The Good Book, not its matchless form, which binds it to humanity through the age:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.