As I close this report, I am with my mind set and plans formed to go to Jerusalem to participate in the meeting of the International Missionary Council.

To God be all honor and glory for blessings received, privileges enjoyed, and opportunities anticipated.

Statistical Summary

We give below, as usual, a general summary of the year's work in so far as it can be expressed in figures:

EUROPE

The Society has no established Agency in Europe, save in such countries as are included in the Levant Agency. It, however, has correspondents in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, France, Switzerland, Central Europe, and Italy. Through these correspondents it is able to assist in the supply of the Holy Scriptures to many who might not receive them otherwise.

HE reports from our correspondents in Europe, this year, contain fuller details. in many cases. There are also some reports of special service rendered during the year. It still remains true, however, that reports have not been received from all with whom it has been our privilege to cooperate. No report is at hand from Norway, and from the Methodist Episcopal Church in Switzerland. usual, the reports are presented by countries, beginning on the north and running from west to east in irregular tiers.

SWEDEN

As

The correspondent of the Swedish Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Edwin Jansson, has sent in the following report:

I send a most hearty word of appreciation for the welcome gift of $200 received by the Bible Committee within the Sweden Annual Conference for distribution of Bibles. By this help it has been possible for us to distribute 380 Bibles and 160 New Testaments by our Epworth Leagues, Sunday schools and Bible Classes, as you will also see in the enclosed report.

Thanks to your contribution, it has been possible for us to make an arrangement during this year, which, I am sure, will make you glad, since we are sure it is in accord with the principles of the American Bible Society. We have bought 100 copies of the New Testament in Lappish,* and those Testaments have been distributed free of cost to the Laplanders by our ministers. Recently the Bible Committee received a word of thanks for those Testaments, which has been printed in our church paper Svenska Sändebudet, and from that we quote the following:

"It has been a great delight for us to give the Word of God to the people of the Laplanders' huts. Everywhere it has been received with

The Laplanders are a nomadic people of Mongolic race in the northern part of Sweden and Norway.

great thankfulness. The Laplanders have been especially glad to get the Word in their own language. There has been jubilation in the hibittcas that we have remembered them in this manner. Many of the Laplanders are diligent Bible readers. Now the Word of God follows them on their ways among the alps. Now we only want to say a word of thanks for this new possibility of making good which has been given to us up here. Later on we will let you know some points of interest from our journeys among the small grown people of the alps and the snow."

In the same way 40 whole Bibles have, free of cost, been distributed to sailors by one of our sailor's home.

FINLAND

There is a brief statement from Peter Talikka on behalf of the Methodist Episcopal Conference in Finland, to which a contribution was sent from our Society:

Distribution of the Bibles has caused much joy wherever donated. One of our preachers wrote me, after distributing the Bibles in part: "If I could write as one of the immortal authors, I would write you a letter in which I would depict the moment of emotions caused by the distribution of the Bibles; and, reading that letter, you, as a Bible Agent, would feel a blessing which would be one of your best experiences."

More than in any previous years we have been able to donate the Holy Scriptures this year. We are very grateful to the American Bible Society which, through your kindness, has made all this work possible.

DENMARK

A grant to the Methodist Episcopal Conference in Denmark has brought forth the following from the Rev. Engelbrecht Ried:

We have thankfully received your grant of $200 for the year 1927. By this grant, supplemented by the collections for the American Bible Society in Denmark, it has been possible for our Methodist pastors and Sunday-school presidents to circulate 60 Holy Bibles and 327 New Testaments and Bible portions in 29 cities in Denmark. This circulation has been a blessing, especially to our young people, and it has been a good help in the work to promote the kingdom of God in Denmark.

RUSSIA

Conditions are still unfavorable to the importation of the Bible into Russia, so far as we are informed.

Word comes occasionally from individuals who, having obtained copies of the Bible, express their deep gratitude and tell of the blessing received from the reading of God's Word.

The All-Russian Evangelical Christian Union, through its president, Mr. I. S. Prokhanoff, brought out during the year an edition of 25,000 copies of the New Testament and Psalms. These were from plates made in Russia through a donation from the American Bible Society, and were printed at the Soviet Government Press. As in the case of the plates for the whole Bible reported last year and paid for by the American Bible Society, the plates of this New Testament and Psalms are for the use of any evangelical body in Russia which wishes to use them and can meet the expense of printing from them. Word comes that the Baptist Union of Russia is collecting money for such a purpose and hopes to print 50,000 Bibles and Testaments.

BELGIUM

The Belgium Evangelical Mission has been deprived of the personal guidance of Ralph C. Norton a part of the year under report. He has been in the United States under medical care; but we rejoice in the last word received which indicates that returning health gives the promise of his return to the work to which he and Mrs. Norton are so deeply devoted. To Mr. C. Vansteenberghe we are indebted for the following interesting report:

The work out here on the field during 1927 has been much blessed; it has been a year of "enlargement," as Mr. Norton prayed it might be, and we have opened eleven new posts, making forty in all. Also from our workers' reports, in many of our posts the meetings are very well attended and the people are interested. Pray that these may be brought right through to life eternal.

The colporteur Mr. Norton mentioned in his letter to you of last December, who is working that dark part of the country in the southeastern part of Belgium, has been visiting and revisiting the towns and villages in his district, and this is an extract from his report:

"You will certainly be rejoiced to know the approximate number

of New Testaments, Bibles, and booklets, which have been sold during 1927. Here are the figures: 40 Bibles, 2,340 Testaments, and 1,050 booklets, etc. I do not keep count of the portions and tracts; I simply endeavor to leave something in each house I visit, and that runs to about an average of one hundred homes per day; then counting 300 days of labor in the year, you can easily reckon the number of people reached in counting on an average two or three people in each house. The fairs and markets I have visited either with friends or alone, and they have been much blessed. We always have a good crowd to listen to the message of the gospel.

"The question which naturally arises, is: Are the books read? Well, a good number are destroyed through the influence of the priests or by other means of Satan, but some fall into good ground. Personally, I believe the Lord is doing his own work; i. e., giving life and sustaining it. I always feel that the work I do for him must be left entirely in his hands, and I am certain that his Word shall not return void."

I am attaching a brief account of a story that has given us much joy and encouragement and which tells something of the hope we have that the Word of God, thus scattered widely over the land, can not but produce its fruitage, some thirty, some sixty, and some the hundred fold.

An Encouraging Story

A short while ago we were called to visit a husband and wife, who live in a little town on the Belgian coast, and we marveled greatly at the wonderful way God works. The husband was a Belgian soldier during the war and received Scriptures from Mr. Norton, which interested him very much. He never loved the Roman Church and ceased to go to its ceremonies. After the Armistice, although a native of Antwerp, he settled down in this little Belgian seaside village and married there. There he got into touch with another man who also, although still an unbeliever, is very interested, from whom he learned quite a lot about the Bible.

A little while before our visit to this husband and wife, they went to Antwerp to "enjoy" themselves, as there are no amusements in their home town. They wanted to go to the cinemas, dancing halls, theaters, etc., and at the same time visit their relatives in Antwerp. However, one of their first evenings in Antwerp found them sitting in our hall in the Karel Rogierstraat, where we had an evangelistic campaign in progress. No doubt the influence of his early reading of the Scriptures and the further talks with his unconverted friend drew this husband inside. He was very pleased, but his wife was very disgusted and did not want to go again. But the next evening they were both there, and the following night they were both soundly converted. The wife said to us afterward that she felt as if she wanted to stay with these men who brought the Good News to her, in order to learn more and more. And to their great joy on that