A distinctive feature of the year has been the effort to follow up the results of the Mississippi Valley disaster of 1927 by reaching with Scriptures the reestablished homes. This has not been an easy task because of the distribution problems involved; but, with the cooperation of local pastors and church officials and the activity of the Society's colporteurs, several thousand Bibles, Testaments, and portions have been placed in these newly made homes. The secretary of the board of home missions of one of the large denominations, after a visitation of the territory, has stated again and again publicly "that the churches are all greatly indebted to the American Bible Society for this big piece of work." A new measure, this year, to meet the needs of Navy chaplains for Scriptures for sailors has been the provision of standing orders to the Society's Agencies in a dozen ports on both sides of the Atlantic and Pacific to supply chaplains with a suitable quantity on call. The largest center for naval training happens to be on the Great Lakes, and to the chaplains in this center several hundreds of Testaments and portions have been granted for the use of the young lads learning their new occupation. Likewise, service has been rendered at the marine camp at Quantico, Virginia, at the naval hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, and at the embarkation camp in Parris Island, South Carolina, and other points. Moreover, sailors on marine ships have not been neglected, as appears from reports not only from the major ports of the country, but also from Norfolk, Va., Wilmington, N. C., Charleston, S. C., Jacksonville, Tampa, and Key West, Fla., and Mobile, Ala. In the Gospel Reading Campaign in January and February of this year the Gospels of Matthew and John were widely read. This periodic reading before the pre-Easter period seems likely to become a regular feature in the life of several denominations. Other uses of the Gospels for widespread distribution bring many testimonies. Here are four: "I thought I was a pretty decent sort of chap and was satisfied with myself, until I read that Gospel you sold me." "That little Gospel is the only part of the Bible I've ever read. If the rest is anything like that, I want the whole book." "I've read this little book (St. John) every day for the last two months, and the more I read it the more anxious I am to read it again. I learn something new every time I look at it." "I have spent thousands of dollars for things that brought me less pleasure than I've gotten out of this Gospel. Why, it has made a new man out of me, and I wouldn't exchange what I've gotten out of it for any price." Again, a lady's purse had disappeared from her motor car. Some time later it was returned to the police station, and the lady was sent for. The man who brought it in announced that he had stolen it,-which seemed a surprising statement in view of the fact that the money and jewelry were intact, and that there had been no clews to the thief. The lady's check-up of the contents of the bag showed that one article was missing,-a penny Gospel of St. Luke,-the cause both of the thief's repentance and his confession! By cooperation with the Bureau of Reference for Foreign Migrants, the Society has made available to local pastors, copies of bilingual Scriptures containing English and a foreign language in parallel columns, in order that the pastor may use them in calling upon immigrants newly settled in his community. The bureau secures the names and locations of such immigrants and forwards them to the nearest pastor with the Society's notification of the Scriptures available for this service. A bit of the foreign language problem of the Society appears in the fact that in an Agency on the Atlantic coast Scriptures were distributed in fifty languages, and one in the central part of the United States reports Scriptures distributed in forty-four languages, and on the Pacific coast Scriptures in seventy-seven languages. And from opposite shores of the country come these two illustrations of the work. A correspondent, after visiting a California jail, wrote: "A few days ago a Chinese boy in the Sacramento jail came forward with a Chinese Gospel and said, 'When I am released, I am going to Lockport and tell all the Chinese what this book says about Jesus, and what he has done for us.' His face was shining with joy." Again, the chaplain of the Virginia penitentiary writes of a little brown man from the Philippine Islands, in the sick ward: "He speaks English very poorly, and none of us can speak his native tongue. Over and over again, we have wished to help him, but what could we do? At last we thought of that great friend of the world missions for the Master-the American Bible Society. We found that the man could read in a language, whose very name was new to us, the Ilocano language, and a New Testament in this language was secured from the Society's Agency. Think of it! Some one had been sent out by the Christian church, and he had labored and learned until he could translate the Word into the language of the strange man. The American Bible Society as one of its numerous jobs of like sorts took up the matter, had the book printed and bound, and was ready at the call of need from one lonely man to give 'The Word of Life.' I stood by his bed today, gave into his hands the precious Book and asked him to read first of all, John 3:16. It was a fine experience to see the smile upon his face. And when I left the prison, after half an hour's visit, he still had his lean hands outside the bed covers holding the Book, and was straining his weak neck to see and to read." Throughout the reports of the Agencies, illustrations are multiplied of the variety of institutions and people who are served by the Society. A large prosperous suburban church buys attractive Bibles for its pews. The prison congregation in a state penitentiary where a notable revival has been carried on, asks for, and of course receives, a pulpit Bible for its services. A young woman borrows a Bible for a day from an exhibit; conversation on her return reveals that she had felt the need of the aid of the Book in overcoming temptation, and as she left she said, "I've won." A colporteur writes of having spent half his life in the distribution of the Scriptures among foreign-speaking people, and writes, "And the best of it is that it has been well spent." A group of Indian children in a government school, watched over and trained by the voluntary work of a Christian missionary, are given each a copy of the Bible as a personal possession for achievement in their studies and as an aid in further mastery in the way of life. Quite apart from such grants as may be made to individuals who are in need,--and a multitude of such grants are made through the Agencies' offices, colporteurs and correspondents,--many grants are made to and through institutions that have their effect both upon individuals and upon the atmosphere of the institution itself. The list which follows of institutions and groups to which grants were made by the Central Agency during 1928, may be taken as typical: City Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio. School for Crippled Children, Cincinnati, Federated Woman's Missionary Society, National Military Home, Chardon, Ohio. Carr Creek Community Center, Carr Memphis Goodwill Industries. Hospital for Crippled Adults, Memphis, Flood Sufferers, Baxter, Tenn. Seaman's Church Institute, Mobile, Ala. State Penitentiary, Parchman, Miss. Woman's Auxiliary, for Bibleless Homes, This is all in addition to large numbers of Gospels donated for local "wayside pulpits," where local workers keep a little box filled with Gospels in some railroad station, public waiting room or popular shop. A warm testimony of praise should be given to the many correspondents and voluntary workers who aid the Society by part time or occasional service in reaching the many who would not otherwise be reached. Of such a one among the colored people, the Agency Secretary writes, "We have made her donations, but often she will say, 'Please do not make this one. I had three or four good days' work this week, and I must give God. his part, and this will leave you that number to send to some others who are just as needy.' Out of these daily earnings for housework she has sent many books. Again, a worker in North Carolina has established Golden Rule libraries in many of the public schools in the state, to each of which the Society has donated a Bible; and in addition she has distributed some 6,000 Testaments and some 10,000 portions. There are two or three score such helpers across the United States who use their hard-worked motor cars to carry them to the out-of-the-way valleys and extended territories of the countryside. While the reports of the Agencies were being reviewed, an inquiry was recently received from a prospective donor, asking whether the work of the colporteur, "now that nearly everyone has a Bible, is not likely to be discontinued." To be sure, in many a well-to-do suburban community one might easily suppose that the colporteur was out of date. But the reports furnished the answer to the inquiry; for, while it is true that increased costs of living expenses and of traveling have reduced the number of colporteurs the Society can employ, the reduction is not because there is not an almost unlimited amount of work for them to do,—a work which seems likely to be needed for several generations. Across the United States there are very many communities where there are no churches; and others where the population is so widely scattered as to make the maintenance of an established church difficult. There are great populations in industrial or foreign-speaking sections of great cities where family after family has never had opportunity truly to make the Book a part of the home; there are great numbers of migrant workers that move from one seasonal occupation to another and are only inadequately reached by the home missionary forces of the churches. A single extract from one report tells the story: "A colporteur working in Idaho was told by a man at whose home he was calling, 'We haven't been in a church for fifteen years and have never owned a Bible.' After telling them about the |