The Crowder City Guardian (Crowder, Oklahoma), Vol. 5, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, February 25, 1910 Page: 4 of 8
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STREAM OF BIBLES
LEAVES NEW YORK
TO CIRCLE GLOBE
K\V YOKK Till re Is a . sent to partH uf China over 'he great
(1o<ir in it K1 % 'li avenue Yangi'11 klatig rlvi*r li - llg'ires of
building which has all the J thn latter luilf <if the yar I'.hki are not
hall linn kn of shipping «!<•- yet compiled, but the record shows
pari mint doors hi getierul that during thf • llrst six months tin-re
battered side posts, pol were sold In China alone ubout «' «,-
Igbeu Iron ehtltea, boxes on the Bide HUM lllbleH, a total nevei r.-ached be
walk marked with names that teem 1 fore.
lo have been taken haphazard from a In the salesroom of I lie socb-ty aie
gazetteer Husky truckmen are con .eases filled with duplicate copies uf
tlnually going in and out and through | original books and niauuacrlpis I he
the dusty windows the bead* may be fa< • that the building is not In-proof
Been of < li rks checking off lints It in j is the reason vilv (be Interesting col
one of a thousand doora which vould lection owmd by the society is at
to a casual passerby scein devoted to present housed at the l.enox library,
the same purpose
Itut there Is a special name attached
Dr Dwljht In regard to the expense
Incurred in earlier times
■ Before the art of printing the Bible
was reproduced exclusively by brief-
men or copyist* who wrote It out with
ti e pen, and It was then the most ex-
pensive hook in the world.' he said.
In lie thirteenth century a copy of
I be Itlble with a few explanatory notes
I cost II ".i) The wages of a laborer
amounted then to IS cents a week and
it would lake a workman about fifteen
years to - arn enough to pun-base a
I volume
Bible a Household Treasure.
I veil after the Invention of print
can missionaries from Mexft-o, thre«
men who have lived in South America
for 30 years and know the literary lan-
guage perfectly, and to assist these, |
three native scholars.
"They are expected to keep close j
watch on each other's work and pre- I
vent either provincialism or the stiff |
old C'astilian tongue from predomi-
nating. When the revision of the ex-
isting Bible is completed a thousand
copies will be sent through the Span-
ish speaking countries to get the c-riti-
I clams t/f the people.
"In China there has been working [
for 12 years a committee composed of
Great Tasks for
Great Souls
In/ Hi' Blbl< Hold at fabulous sums | Americans and British, who an re-
in iat«■ a period as that Immediate j vining two Chinese dialects. and these
iv following tin- American revolution men will stay there and dip; for sev-
the dearth of hooks was so great that ! eral years longer, lor it is a tre-
riion of a Hible ranked with ! mendous piece of work. Another
imtains
to this particular door This is the
Door of a Million Mibles Out of this
door each year a million Hiblos pass
to tie distributed through the world
The rumor that a conditional gift of
ViOO.OOO from Mrs Russell Sage awaits
the action of tin* Hible society in rais-
ing a similar amount is affirmed by
one of the officials, but that any rigid
time limit has been placed upon It ho
denies.
"Mrs Sage has been very consld
eratc," he says, "and appreciating the
difficulty attendant upon the task has
extended the time limit most gen
erously."
Already large sums have been
celved from the various agencies
about the country to be added to the
fund which is being raised It takes
approximately f MO,000 to pay the ex
penses of the society each year and
the fl.ftftO.OOO that the officials expect
'to receive through Mrs Sage's gift
will be considered In the light of a
nest egg. something to depend on in
financial depressions and slacking up
of contributions
It was Sir Walter Scott who In his
last Illness, after asking a friend to
read aloud to him and hearing the in
terrogation as to the book desired,
anld "There is only one." As to this
"only one" there is, according to the
statistics of the American Hible so-
ciety. no evidence that the Interest of
the human family has lapsed into In-
e tluin K>0 languages | M |vea confronted by a
Knglish versions and oftentimes takes anywhe
J This collection
the Bible in mor
and dialects. Of
revisions there ore approximately
f .000 Volumes exclusive of the manu-
scripts.
Editions of Famoui Bibles
Here you will see one of the few
"Vinegar Bibles." Oxford. 171 . in
which a printer's mistake has been im
mortal I/ed. as in the "Breeches Bible"
There is a facsimile of the Bible print-
ed on white satin which was presented
to the empress dowager of China In
1894 by 10.00ft Christian women There
is a copy of the Bible done Into the
Mongolian dialect by Schresc herow-
sky. a cripple, who also did it into Cal- I
muck There is a copy of the "Ma7«A-
rln Bible," the first book printed from
movable metal types in two volumes, j
which appeared about the year 1456 I
and the first recognized copy of which '
was discovered in the library of Cardi •
nal Mazarin hence the title It Is
also called the ''Gutenberg Bible," i
from the name of the printer, and
again termed the "Forty two Line!
Bible," from the number of lines in I
each column of its pages Copies of i
tiie several editions of the (iuteuoerg I
Bible have been sold for sums which '
would procure nearly 100,000 Bibles I
now printed by the American society
There are also copies of the Douay !
version of the Bible used by Koman j
Catholics, of the translation from the
Latin Vulgate made by the Knglish j
college at Keimti, of the Knglish
the pot
; that of the other treasures of a house-
| hold. The cheapest volume cost not
less than two dollars."
Altogether, through the efforts of
the Boeic-t\ translations of the Bible
have been made into about 4" 0 lan-
binges and dialects. These transla-
tions are generally made by mission*
| aries, who in the countries where
•litioni* of there is no written tongue find thern-
work that
equally difficult task is the revision
! of the Zulu B.ble.
| "The Arabic reference Bible is now
i being printed at the press in Beirut.
Syria, and the completion of the
Mandarin Chlneee reference Bible con-
tinues. slowly progressing to an ulti-
mate perfection. The revision work
is considered of tremendous impor-
tance in the society.
"In regard to the work nearer at
ro from two ] hand, in Now York there are several
O MANY the most pathetic
sight of our day is that of
great men doing little
things. Everywhere one
sees high powers consecrat-
ed to common ends, capable
enthusiasms expended on
trivial accomplishments and avoca
tlons that are commensurate only with
the animal part of being. Christians
concerned with the same things that
are the great concern of the world.
It was this pathetic irrelevancy be-
tween human capacities and human
use of them that led Jesus to remark
that one who followed him should
leave the dead to bury their own dead
and go and do the things the dead
could not do. A Christian has passed
out of death into life, and should be
accomplishing things worthy of living
to five years and is attended by very
great difficulties. As soon as a mis-
sionary lias formulated a written lan-
guage from the spoken sounds and has
taught some of the natives to read and
write ho wants to translate the Bible
and requests the Bible society to print
the translation and send him the
books for distribution.
At the present time the Bible so-
ciety is printing the Bible in three of
the languages of'Africa which have
never been used for writing. It is
also printing Bibles in five of the lan-
auxiliaries which help in this work souls, leaving the commonplace people
and there are in Manhattan between
36 and 40 spoken languages. Agents
from the society are sent daily to
to expend their energies on the com-
monplace things. Great tasks for great
souls, deeds for living men, worthy
difference A record of approximately | slon of the Scriptures now in common j
90,000,000 volumes In HO years speaks j use and of the revised edition, the
eloquently to the contrary
Early Days of the Society.
"The society was first housed In
small building on Nassau street, in
when lie svi 'a
SCRIPTURES SoldU«tw
work of Knglish and American schol-
i ars, which appeared in IHN.V Accord
a i lug to tin* terms of the agreement
a i then entered into no other revision
BROOKLYN-
SOCIETY
. i
m
kt
IftO
,"1AK/fiG P/Bl.ES /A A BIHPtKY
Ellis island. During the 80 years ! work for followers of the living Lord,
ended October 1. 1906, the society dis- j jt has been this impossibility to keep
tributed 2,0X0,088 copies of the Bible j the living away from the work of the
in this way. i dead that has sometimes hindered the
"Early in its history the society eonquest of the world by Christianity
made arrangements to supply Bibles I more than the antagonizing evil of evil
at half cost to hotels steamboats and I men. By the dead we refer to those
railroad cars, and at the principal sea- 1 who Jesus always thought of as the
ports, with New York in the lead, a j dead, those who were living simply
large number are regularly sent I in the world of things, in whom spirit-
j ual Impulses and aspirations had not
been born, whose manhood had not
passed beyond that of physical being
into the exercise of the faculties of the
soul. Now, life is simply capacity to
respond to environment. It is not ex-
pected that the life of the world will
concern Itself with anything except
things—for it is dead to anything
above. But one who lias life—that is,
real life of manhood touched of heav-
en—has capacity to respond to all
that environment that lies above the
world of things. And it is meant to
respond to these. The economy of the
kingdom of heaven is highest use of
highest powers. High powers put to
low uses fail and fade. The law of
life is constant contact with the things
commensurate with that life. Chris-
tians come and choose life, then ask
to be allowed to go back and spend
their time doing what th< dead can
do—burying the dead. We were say-
ing this absorption of the living in the
things belonging to the dead has beeu
one of the great hindrances to the
] growth of the kingdom. Macaulay has
called attention to the fact that one
of the things that lay back of tho
Puritan movement in England was the
fact that the Christians spent tlinlr
time dancing and feasting with the
rest of the court, so that often it was
hard to tell who was Christian and
who was not. It was not so much that
the dancing and feasting seemed aw-
ful sins, but that Christians, those
who had accepted the call to follow
Christ and go and preach, should be
dedicating their souls to these dead
things—living souls spending their
strength on what dead souls were do-
ing, and ought naturally to be doing.
Meantime great and glorious tasks,
life running an automobile up antf
down the earth in races and endur-
ance tests, but think of a Christian
devoting his life to that thing! It is
well enough for the world to go crazy
over football and baseball and other
sports. One expects if of dead people,
and re are not saying there is harm in
a Christian finding some recreation
in witnessing a game; but think of a
Christian expending his divine enthus-
iasm in an absorbing devotion to sport
while so many superb things are call-
ing for the devotion of great souls.
One often wonders what might happen
in the kingdom if half the enthusiasm
Christians expend on sports went into
things worthy of children of God.
Christians flutter about trying to kill
time by gossip and light reading and
theatergoing and bridge parties and
huge Sunday newspapers and a thous-
and other things, all of which may
have their occasional place—Jesus
went to the wedding feast and sought
pleasant recreation in the home of
Lazarus—which we are not now say-
ing are evil, but which belong in their
nature to the world, and are worthy
of worship and devotion only from
dead people, worldlings, those in whom
the spirit has not been highly born.
Even in churches one despairs some-
times as he sees church-people putting
divine energies into toilsome fairs and
bazars that ought to be going into
the work of the kingdom. And some
time churches will find that ministers
who have prophetic power and the
gift of preaching and befriending peo-
ple should be left to do the greater
thing, while people who have only the
lesser faculty of administrative work
will relieve him of its burdensome de-
tails, leaving him free to do his living
task.
Coming of the Ideal Time.
The ideal time will come when
every soul is free to do that which it
can do best; the living soul free to do
the living thing that antiphonally ans-
wers. But whether that time come
for us or not, it is time, for our own
sakes and the world's sake, to leave
the small things of small people, the
dead things of dead people, and ceas-
ing to fritter away our capacities on
cheap and trifling spheres, seek to do
the living tasks tnat call for living
souls, and move in the sphere of things
woithy of our best selves. Great, liv-
ing, burning problems and causes aro
calling everywhere for souls commen-
surate to the task. The live souls
exist, only they are down in the world
burying the dead with the dead. It
is time to come out and follow the
Master in these large things uf the
kingdom. When all Christians come
the task will sopn be accomplished.
The saloons can be closed in 25 years.
Many economic abuses can be ban-
ished in the same time. Even now,
because more Christians are putting
their interest in things commensurate
with their powers, government of
states and cities is improving. The
missionary opportunity is greatest of
all ages, for everywhere there is the
open door with welcome to truth over
its portals. Wars could be stopped,
with the horrible burden of armament
and unchristian suspicions preparation
for them is engendering, by the time
of the third Hague court, if Christians
would leave the trifling with the small
tasks and little pleasures that belong
to dead people. So many sins would
go, so many golden days would come,
such fair blossoming of the kingdom
prophetic with promise would at once
be seen, if Christians would leave the
he Philippines and slowly
the printed li;' of .'in lan-
in the islands of the south
Mar
Th f 3 N.E
room about the slue of one of the sec
retarles' sanctums of to-da> with its
walls lined with shelves An officer
of that early time said that he hoped
the society would prosper to the ex
tent of having all the available space
some time tilled with Bibles In lS>e
the society moved to Its present quar
iters after various changes of rest
'deuce, the cornerstone being laid
with due ceremonials on June 24.
118&4says Dr. Henry llwlght. one of
the secretaries of the society
Following him you see in the print
' iug rooms men and women working
together, a majority of whom have
was to be published until after 11
years, so it was not until the summer
of 1901 that the Xmerlcan Standard
edition of the revised edition was
given out
Interesting Exhibits.
The society exhibits ill special cabl
nets some of the queer objects given
among the many native tribes in ex
change for ltibles. These include per-
sonal adornments, weapons of the t
hunt and war. carvings and paintings, j aml Hungarians
shells embroideries.
In the sales room are to be seen
single books from the Bible, printed
In dear type and hound m cloth.
Distributing Points.
\ gie , r many of the hooks intended
; 'or distribution in the far east ate
printed in places other than New-
York For example, there is u tine
minting establishment at Yokohama
under the auspices of the Bible so-
ciety which employs Japanese work-
i men under contract. From this place
; distribution is made to the Philippines
and to Korea The society also prints
In Shanghai and Chen Tu and at
Bangkok in Slain, and at Beirut ln:
Sv rla similar work Is done, some of It
on presses belonging to the Presby-
terian Missionary society, with which
the American Bible society co-op-
erates.
"The agency established in the
northwest during the year ending in
March III 1909. distributed Scrlpturas
In different languages. Including, in
addition to French, German, Scandina-
vian and Finnish, such tongues as the
Lettish Slovak. Lithuanian, Croatian,
Slovaman and Arabic. One of the
Bible society colporteurs was sent to
Indianapolis to distribute hooks among
the Hunyaks The name was unknown
to hlni When he went among them
he found that the people so designated
were a medley of Servians. Croatians,
Bulgarians, Macedonians, Turks. Ru
maniatis. ('.recks, Albanians. Germans
among 'lie naval forces and among
seamen generally. About l.aOO.OOO
books have been distributed by the
marine committee."
Sales at Coney Island.
Even the dignified seriousness of
Dr. Dvvight Is not proof against the
attack of mirth that seizes him as he
relates the introduction of what a
barker described to the meriymakers
at Coney Island last summer as "the
vvashtub" edition of the Bible.
The Bible at Coney island is brought
into competition with fascinating and
novel forms of amusement and enter-
tainment and the hoarse voice of its
own energetic colporteur is one of
many crying special wares, such as
tile "Ixtop the Loop." the "Ride Into
the Whale" and the "Voyage to
Heaven and Hell," and even those
members of the society who deprecate
great tasks for great souls. Christian I |ea(i ^ bury ,heir dea(, and l0 ,,la.v
tasks for living souls, were every- j wjth thp wprl(i's toys and put all their
where awaiting accomplishment in clir)st(,d new-born lives into the ere-
England. Those who are familiar j .l(|on of u,ese superb living things full
with the history of the Reformation I f f thp promjse Qf Immortality, great
will remember that this was one of
the complaints that Luther made also J
of the churchmen of his time—that ;
a great church, capable of being pro-1
plietic and doing superb things, should !
be Inert and complacent as the world
that living followers of Jesus Chrfst
should be spending all their lives
the commonplaces and inanities
daily life. Luther's call was a call
for the living Christian soul to leave
the dead world to gi on concernlnr 1910 V,.0"?'
Itself with its dead things, and to j To be generous with the ungener-
eotne on with him to undertake living !0,18■
tasks for great souls. And let us re
member, too, that those who spend
their lives with the dead among dead
things become like them, llut the liv-
ing soul, engaged in dealing with liv-
] Ing thought and living things and di-
| vine emprize, is gaining eternal life
| from the coi tact with eternal things.
-The Christian Work and Evangelist.
tolerant with the intolerant; pa-
en,prize worthy of living men. I with the heady and te.ty;. calm-
I spirited and large-minded with all
Fault of Christians To-day. j sorts and conditions of men.
One could find that this absorption I To banish grouch from my heart,
of Christians, living souls, with the and for blessings known, erect a per-
dead things of the dead world, lay manent home for gratitude.
hack of most of the revivals and re- I To make to-day brighter than it
th. apparent loss of dlgnltv Involved I fonnatcry movements of history fully j otherwise would be because I see it
in tlii- rivalry are obliged to admit as much as the vulgar and barefaced , lighted up with the fore-gleam of a
that while it is eminently necessary to
grown gray In the service Some of which retail lor two cents
Die sec retarles and clerks have served
In the missionary Held, and I'r llwlght
.tituiw.ar i ,x come to his qulei revolv
ling chair after strenuous service In
Turkey
,' One of the most Interesting places
visited Is the managers room, where
the
in foreign tongues
The New Testament
The complete Bible
i, the forelgi
apiece
three
lie most ex pi
board am
It is a II
waltibcote
Stained t
low lighl
special meetings arc
e old apartment will
walls and paneled >
ass windows afford
and In It are pour
...rn prominent In lie In '1 *i > '
society At one end of the room Is
facsimile of a Chinese houseboat u ■
to convey a corps of missionaries
{Uardiny xbout tweiil.i tons of llibK-
liiul for 1.
costing 2T>
printed fe
Otllv $1 Si
pensive bindings. < x<
foi tbelli The low-
thern much below ti
production, are Inter
1 non with the stal
made
tin
tici
ictual cost of
In eon nee-
ynnlsliel by
tin
In Haughvllle. a suburb of Indtnn
apolis. he found Slovenians. Poland-
ers Slovaks and Lithuanians. These
foreigners live together In groups; in
one Instance men were living in
live small rooms The colporteurs
Cinploved bv I lie \llicricau Bible so-
cietv during the last year numbered
approximately titi'J; of these Hill were
In the home agencies and the re
uiainder in the foreign agencies and
as missionary correspondents
Revisions and Translations.
"Tin revisions of the various trans
Iat Ions and editions of the Itihli a!
ready printed is also an important
branch of the work." savs Or Ovvight
l et Miniple vvc have been at vvovk
sinc e' last spring In getting a Spanish
revision and expect it will take six
ve-ai's to complete the work Kor this
maintain the serious character of the
Holy Book, at the same time It is
equally necessary to yield a point in
doing so and to take into account the
prevailing moods of the thousands
who stroll by the stand—moods of
recreation and enjoyment
The colporteur at Coney island has
a ready tongue and wit. He has a
more difficult proposition to handle
than his competitors, and he handles
it deftly. To one he says reprovingly,
in answer to a }<*st "This book will
keep you from sin Sin will keep you
. from this book. On the cards he dis-
tribute sin! among the printed post-
ers decorating his well stocked stall
the passerby may read •
Sedan tremble's when he sees
St rtpturo* sol.| an chenp us thrxi*
With his megaphone in hand John
Henry Way, a lifetime devotee of this
special branch of work, calls out to
the moving multitude. "Don't forget
the Hible." and some are singled out
for special comments adapted to their
special needs Tho small boy whose
greedy mouth is open to receive a
large hunk of ice cream sandwich is,
for instance, arrested by the state
mint, "You can have a book that will
last you for years for the price of a
sandwich that is lost in a second."
ProhablN1 the sandwich is lost and the
book is nr.: gained, but the boy lias
sin and shame. It is this that has j better to-morrow.
been the despair of the leaders and For every evil I see or suffer, I
prophets, as it was of the church. ; shall bestow upon some fellow-
Father Lactantlus began to despair i human a substantial good,
of Christianity when he saw followers | To war with lies and shame, but
of Jesus Christ seeking immortality
by killing their brothers on battle-
fields, as did the common soldiers of
the world.
Perhaps It is this one thing that
makes the chief despair of those who
to-day would like to see the coming
of the kingdom of the Lord It Is not
that the evil of the world is invinci-
ble or so firmly Intrenched that it is
eternal Neither Is it, on the other
hand, that tt.ere are so few Christians
on the church rolls, or so few church
es The census Is just out, and shows
us the churches are growing faster
than the population The despair is
that so many Christians, living souls
made alive In Jesus Christ, who have
come and said. "Ixird, I will follow
thee whithersoever thou goest," who
have great souls for great tasks, di-
vine powers for glorious undertakings,
large sympathies tit for the living ser-
vice of the kingdom, run back with
the dead to bury the dead, become en-
grossed In the things In which the
crowd moves and lives and has its
physical being
small things
my only weapon Is to be "speaking
the truth in love."
With idolatrous devotion my soul
shall bow before the altar of the
Twelfth Comandment, which Is:
Thou shalt covet the clean mind,
the clean heart and the clean life.—
A II Beresford, In the I'nlversallst
Leader.
By Almighty Power.
Whence is this delicate scent In the
rose and the violet? It Is not from
the root—that smells of nothing; not
from the stalk—that Is as scentless as
the root, not from the earth whence
It grows, which contributes no more
to these flowers than to the grass that
glows by them; not from the leaf, not
from the bud, before It be disclosed,
which yields no more fragrance than
the leaf or stalk or root. Yet here I
find It Neither Is there any miracu
Ions way, but in an ordinary course
of nature, for all violets and roses of
this kind yield the same redolence. It
purpose «e brought h« t three Amerl- I been made to think
cannot be but that It was potentially
linds its delights In I in that root and stem from which the
worthy of small souls, (lowers proceed and there placed and
and the kingdom awaits its rightful , thence drawn by that Almighty power
supremacy In the earth It Is all which hath given those admirable
right for a dead man to spend Ills | virtues to these plants.—Selected.
$
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Barrow, A. E. The Crowder City Guardian (Crowder, Oklahoma), Vol. 5, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, February 25, 1910, newspaper, February 25, 1910; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc273983/m1/4/: accessed April 25, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.