Bible Societies

societies formed for the distribution of the Bible or portions of it in various languages, either gratuitously or at a low rate, A clergyman of Wales, whom the want of a Welsh Bible led to London, occasioned the establishment of the British and Foreign Bible Society, which was founded in London, March GT, 1804.: In the United States the great American Bible Society, formed in 1816, acts in concert with the auxiliary societies in all parts of the Union. The annual income of the society is now over $500,000, and its total i ue has amounted to about 64,000,000 copies. These have been mostly in English, Spanish, and French, from the society’s plates. The managers have occasionally purchased Bibles in Europe, and i ued them to applicants, in German, Dutch, Welsh, Gaelic, Portuguese, modern Greek, and some other Buropean languages. They have also furnished money to print translations into pagan languages, by American mi ionaries. It is the object of the society to supply every one who can read in the United States, before devoting much attention to distribution abroad. Yet Spanish America and Ceylon, Greece, and the Sandwich Islands have been furnished with Bibles by the society. Other American societies are the Pennsylyania Bible Society, -the American and Foreign Bible Society, and the American Bible Union.