d Version. Only with these
safeguards and with not a little reluctance, the commission was
issued. One hundred and one scholars on both sides of the Atlantic
took part in the work. The committees commenced their labors early in
1871. On May 17, 1881, the Revised New Testament was issued, and on
May 21, 1885, the Revised Old Testament was in the hands of the
public. All that scholarship, strenuous labor and exhaustive research
could do to give a faithful translation had been done within the
somewhat narrow and conservative limits under which the revisers were
commissioned.

BIBLES BY THE MILLION.

With this improvement, there was at the same time a marked impetus in
Bible circulation. The nineteenth century has been eminently a
Bible-reading and a Bible-studying period. In no previous century have
efforts on so gigantic a scale been made to put the Book in the hands
of every one who could read it. The price was brought so low by the
decrease in the cost of production, that the very poorest could
possess a copy. The British and Foreign Bible Society, founded in
1804, and the American Bible Society, founded in 1816, have largely
contributed to this result. Both societies were organized to issue the
Bible without note or comment, and both have faithfully labored to
promote its circulation. In spite of all that has been said against
the Book and in spite of the fact that so large a number of persons
must have been supplied, the circulation has increased from year to
year. In the year ending March, 1896, the American Society alone
issued 1,750,000 copies, and the British two and a half million.
During its existence the American Society has sent out over sixty-one
million copies and the British Society over one hundred and forty
millions. The work of translation has kept pace with the demand. At
the beginning of the century the Bible had been translated, in whole
or in part, into thirty-eight languages. It is now translated into
three hundred and eighty-one, and translators are engaged on nearly a
hundred others. Nor must it be supposed that the supply was in excess
of the demand. There is abundant evidence of the desire of the public
to possess the Word of God. One fact alone is a conspicuous proof of
this demand. In 1892 the proprietor of the _Christian Herald_ of New
York offered an Oxford Teacher's Bible as a premium with his journal.
The offer was accepted with such avidity that edition after edition
was exhausted, a