We also transcribe a letter which protests against overfastidiousness and finical purism:

SIR: I have myself been called a purist, and I certainly detest corruptions of English speech; but I must say that I am made very weary by the finicky criticisms of some who, while using without question numerous current barbarisms, object with hair-splitting logic to such well-established and expressive idioms as "higher up," "lower down," "further on," "gather together," and the like. The translators of our English Bible were pretty good masters of English speech, and they did not hesitate to say, "Friend, go up higher," just as St. Jerome, in the Vulgate, had said before them, "Amice, ascende superius." Milton, too, in Paradise Lost, wrote, "Ascend up to our native seat." The biblical translators again wrote, "When He had gathered together," and Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, gave us the proverbial saying, "Birds of a feather will gather together"-which is almost invariably misquoted "flock together." It would be far better for would-be language reformers to quit such "egregious folly of purism," and pay attention to suppressing real evils, such as "sending a wireless," "electrocuting," and "making a combine." Yet I know people who habitually use these latter expressions but regard "higher up" with holy horror. W. F. J.

New York, February 2, 1904.

Whatever force be conceded to this protesting letter, no one can accuse us of purism or fastidiousness in our protest against the misuse of "whom" for "who," which is a most flagrant mistake as indefensible as it seems incurable. Strange that so elementary a matter should ever need to be expounded and emphasized in educated circles!

THE BIBLE SOCIETY CENTENNIAL.

ONE of the most important events in the religious annals of the present year is the centennial of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The founding of this society just one hundred years ago marked the inauguration of what has been fitly called the greatest literary enterprise of the Christian era. What grander, nobler undertaking can be imagined than to give the pure word of God without note or comment, the source of unspeakable temporal and spiritual blessings, to all the millions of mankind? It is no wonder that the project once started speedily fired the hearts of multitudes, and enlisted the hearty cooperation of men of all creeds. The only marvel is that it was not entered upon before. The story of the origin has been often told, yet it deserves a brief rehearsal here. A venerable clergyman and a little girl seem to have been the prime factors in initiating the movement. The Rev. Thomas Charles, of Bala, a town in Merionethshire, Wales, a man fully given to good works, fertile in expedients for God, saintly, indefatigable, apostolic, was the main instrumentality. There

is no question concerning the world's indebtedness to him. Nor is the nature of the little girl's part doubtful, although her precise personality is not altogether clear. In fact, there would appear to have been at least two girls who figure quite significantly in the narrative that has come down to us. Possibly when the mysterious processes of higher criticism have been sufficiently exercised upon the incident. the two may resolve themselves into one, and the part which tradition has played with fact may be brought plainly to view. But at present it is not plain. According to one account-given in The Book and Its Story, put forth at the Jubilee of the Bible Society-as Mr. Charles was walking the streets of Bala he met a child who attended his ministry. He inquired if she could recite the text from which he had preached on the previous Sunday; she was silent, and the inquiry was repeated. At length she answered, "The weather has been so bad that I could not get to read the Bible.' The reason of this was soon ascertained: there was no copy to which she could gain access, either at her own home or among her friends; and she was accustomed to walk seven miles over the hills every week to a place where she could obtain a Welsh Bible, for the purpose of reading the chapter from which the minister took his text. According to another account, which may be the same in a slightly different dress, and which is the more usually told, the girl, Mary Jones by name, being without a Bible as were most of the people at that time, for there was a veritable famine of the word-and longing to possess one, set herself in right good earnest honestly to earn it. For six years she toiled and prayed and saved, and then with a brave heart full of hope, but with bare brown feet, she walked twenty-five miles from her home to Bala to buy the sacred book from Mr. Charles. But, alas! the good pastor had to tell her that the only unsold copy in his possession was already promised to another, and she had to walk back those weary twenty-five miles almost broken-hearted. It is also told us that twelve Welsh peasants subscribed together to purchase a copy of the Bible which was to circulate among the hills. Each family was to keep it a month and then pass it on. When it arrived among them an old man, who had been the last subscriber, finding his name at the end of the list, wept bitterly, saying, "Alas, it will be twelve months before it comes to me, and I dare say I shall be gone before that time into another world." From these and other incidents, which might be related, it is evident that the destitution of Bibles was appalling, such as might well give rise to energetic efforts for an improved situation.

The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, established in 1698, was at this time the main source of Bible supply, although there were a few other associations of similar character which did a little in the same line. And this society in 1799 printed ten thousand Welsh Bibles, but they were no sooner published than sold, and not a fourth part of the country was furnished. No more from that quarter was to be hoped for, and there was urgent need that something be done. Societies of one kind and another were just then decidedly in the air. The Religious Tract Society had just been started; also, in the few previous years, the Baptist Missionary Society, the London Missionary Society, and the Church Missionary Society. And it occurred to Mr. Charles one morning, as he lay wakeful upon his bed, thinking upon the hard necessities of Wales, Why not a society solely for Bible distribution? He hurried to London and laid it before the next meeting of the Tract Society. Whereupon the Rev. Joseph Hughes, one of the secretaries, after expressing his approval of the idea, said, “And if for Wales, why not for the empire and the world ?” The meeting cordially agreed, and instructed its secretary to follow up the suggestion. A letter was prepared which called together about three hundred persons of many denominations at the London Tavern, March 7, 1804, and they speedily effected the establishment of the Bible Society, "the first institution," as Mr. Hughes said, "that ever emanated from one of the nations of Europe for the express purpose of doing good to all the rest." Seven hundred pounds was subscribed upon the spot. In Wales, which rejoiced exceedingly at the good news, and which was soon abundantly furnished with Scriptures, nineteen hundred pounds was contributed the first year, mainly, it is noted, “from the lower orders of people." The noble and the good rallied round this inspiring banner, especially "the men of Clapham,' William Wilberforce, Zachary Macaulay, Granville Sharp, and the rest of that illustrious band. An Executive Committee of thirty-six laymen was constituted, the membership fee was fixed at one guinea, and Lord Teignmouth was chosen president. The society, it may be remarked, has been most happy in its presidents. They have been only five in number. Lord Teignmouth, a former governor-general of India, devoted his best energies to this cause for thirty years. His successor was Lord Bexley, who served for seventeen years, followed by the Earl of Shaftesbury in 1851, who highly prized the honor of the position and filled it conspicuously well for thirty-five years; then came the Earl of Harrowby, who gave the society fourteen years' dis

tinguished services, closed by his death in 1900. The Marquis of Northampton now worthily fills out this illustrious succession of most honorable names. What hath God wrought through this agency and the similar ones which have since been set in motion mainly by its example! Figures but faintly indicate it. Yet they are eloquent. In its hundred years the British and Foreign Bible Society has circulated in round numbers 187,000,000 Bibles, Testaments, and Scripture portions; the American Bible Society, in its eighty-eight years, over 74,000,000; the Scotch, in its forty-four years, about 24,000,000— making 285,000,000 for these three alone. For the many other minor societies which act independently of these we have not the precise figures at hand, but it would be perfectly safe to set them down at 15,000,000 more, thus making the grand total of 300,000,000 copies of some vital part of the word of the living God sent out during the century by this means alone, to say nothing of what has been done by private firms. The British Society now distributes about six million copies a year-one million Bibles, one and a half million Testaments, three and a half million portions-the American about two millions, and the Scotch about one million. But there is, of course, also an enormous sale from private publishing houses, like that of the Bagsters, the Cambridge and Oxford University Presses, and a vast number of others, many of whom do nothing but issue Bibles. Twelve million copies a year is probably not too large an estimate for the total output at the present time, when so many revised versions are thronging the market. And when it is remembered that there were not more than five or six million copies of the Bible in existence at the beginning of the last century the progress can be readily discerned, and may well call forth heartiest praise. At the beginning of the last century the Bible was current in about forty different languages. Fifty translations are said to have been in existence, but only thirtyfive were in living languages, and the entire Bible was by no means in all of these. The long, slow struggle of eighteen hundred years had led to this meager result. There had been gradually added to the original Hebrew and Greek, to the Septuagint and the Samaritan. Pentateuch, the ancient Syrias, the old Latin and the Vulgate. Then, after a time, it became credible that the sacred writers could be made. to speak in the modern tongues. The Bible was the first of Russian books, as it had been the first of Gothic, and the first of Armenian. Germany in 1466 obtained its earliest Scriptures in the vernacular; Italy soon followed, in 1471; France in 1474; Bohemia in 1488. The

printing press started its wonderful career with the Mazarin Bible 1450. Twenty editions of the Latin Bible had been printed in Germany alone before Luther was born; and in 1517 the fourteenth known issue of a German Bible took place-these fourteen issues being not mere reprints, but various translations from the Vulgate. In 1516 Erasmus's Greek Testament appeared. Luther grounded his great Reformation in the marvelously effective version of the Scriptures which he wrought, in 1522, which is still standard. The English Wyclife (his new Testament appeared in 1378) and his successors, culminating in Tyndale, gained this great boon of the Gospel story in their mother tongue. But it was seventy-five years after the first printed Latin Bible before the English had even a printed New Testament in their own language, and that was imported from the Continent. In 1536 the English clergy were ordered to put an English Bible and a Latin Bible in the choir of every parish church, that every man who chose might read therein; but not until some years later did any Englishman or Scotchman hear the Bible read in his own tongue as part of the public service.

How different the state of things now! Dr. Dennis, in his Centennial Survey of Foreign Missions, gives as the total of all living versions (including transliterations) in use at present by people of all languages and dialects, 452. His figures, in some respects the fullest yet gathered, show a total of 478 missionary translations, only ten of them issued before the nineteenth century. He reckons also six principal ancient versions, and sixteen standard modern versions, thus giving 478 ancient and modern, living and obsolete, Bible translations. Taking out 46 as obsolete, and adding the 20 transliterated versions now in use would give the 452 mentioned above. But since these figures were collected some three years ago they are subject to quite a little addition; for no less than eight new versions-Fioti, Kikuyu, Shambala, Karanga, Nogogu, Laevo, Baffins Land Eskimo, and Madurese—have been added during the past year by the British Society alone. No year passes without some additions; and the list of versions issued by the British Society now includes the names of three hundred and seventy distinct forms of speech. Its first volume, singularly enough, was for the Indians of the Mohawk River. It sent them two thousand copies of the Gospel of St. John bound in calf. Its final volume will not be issued until the judgment angel shall proclaim that all activities in this probationary world must cease. Nor will there be, until a period now apparently very remote, any