but in putting the Scriptures into the hands of the aged, the needy, and the children, because these seem to be so glad to receive them."

J. W. Weston

This correspondent did some excellent work in the western part of Wisconsin.

A Pathetic Case

66 'In one village I found an aged couple and their daughter. The daughter had been bed-ridden for twenty-five years and was as helpless as a child. The husband had been in bed for seven years, and the care and maintenance of both fell upon the wife. I asked her if she had a Bible and she said that she had, but that the print was so small she could not read it. I gave her a large-print Testament, and read the Bible and prayed with them while they wept for joy."

At one place a woman sold a ham to get money for a book, and at another the colporteur waited while the woman took her savings bank to the officials to be opened to get money for a Bible.

P. A. Fant

This brother gave the most excellent service for a part of the year among the Italians of Chicago. He was so well prepared for ministerial services that, when a Presbyterian Italian Mission wanted him for their pastor, we gave him up to this wider service.

E. W. Henry

This brother began his work in lower Illinois in August. He has been most successful in putting out the Word, but has written no detailed report. A sentence from one of his letters refers to conditions that are well-nigh universal: "I have seen a lot of this world, but I have never seen the need of God's Word in the homes of the American people as I now do. I never would have believed that Christian America had so many homes without God's Word as I find in this region. If the rich could see the need as I see it every day, they would give of their millions to supply it, I am sure."

A. Moccia

The American Bible Society has joined with the Mission Board of the Synod of Illinois in keeping this brother at work among the Italians in Ladd, Ill., and the mines in the surrounding territory. The sales have not been many, but the seed-sowing is sure to bring a good harvest some day.

Peter George

For four months our Society joined with the Alton Presbytery in employing Mr. George to work among the Bulgarians in East St. Louis, Granite City, and Venice. He also did some work among Armenians, Roumanians, Macedonians, Hungarians, Magyars, tians, and other nationalities. A reasonable number of books were

Croa

disposed of, and the foundation laid will, we feel sure, result in one or more permanent organizations. Much as we wanted to continue this co-operation, our lack of funds made it impossible.

A Colporteur and a Policeman

An officer of the law stopped one of our men on the street and asked him what he was selling. Being told that it was Bibles, he forbade him selling any more, saying that the Bible was a bad book, the devil's book. The colporteur told him that the Bible was the Word of God, and so not a bad book, and said that he would prove it from the book itself. He first read the story of Christ taking the little children in his arms and blessing them, and then the story of Christ and the Magdalene. The policeman had never heard these stories before and was affected to tears. Is that in the book?" he asked. Why, I was told it was the devil's book. If that is in the book," he continued, I will tell the priest when I see him that he is mistaken." He said that he had four children, and he bought a Bible for each one, for he wanted each of them to have a book which had such stories in it.

66

66

Donald Babcock

66

This brother had as his field Mott, N. D., and the surrounding country. He traveled 1,005 miles and sold 655 volumes of Scriptures.

Tit for Tat

Sam Wallace, our representative in central Illinois, tells this occurrence, which certainly teaches us charity in judgment even when the evidence seems clear:

66

At one place I stopped at a house occupied by an elderly couple. I took my Bibles and Testaments out of my grip and after showing them and telling them the prices, I laid them on the floor. After selling the old gentleman a large Testament, I began gathering my books and putting them in my grip. After putting in all the books, I could see I had an extra wrapper. I began to look about for the book. After looking in vain, the old lady asked me what I was looking for. I told her I was looking for the Testament to which that wrapper belonged. She said, 'Well, I have it here in my lap,' and unfolding her apron, she handed me the Testament. Did she mean to steal it? God knows. At another house, a little later in the day, I had Bibles and Testaments scattered around me, and the lady of the house showed me a small Bible, somewhat worn. I told her I had a Bible just like hers that I was selling at twentythree cents. When I began to gather up my books I picked up her old Bible, stuck it down in my grip, piled my Bibles in on top of it, and was preparing to go. Just at that time the lady of the house returned from the kitchen and remarked that she believed that I had her old Bible in my grip. I was going to show her at once that her accusation was false, and that a Bible agent of the American Bible Society would not steal, and began to unload my

grip, and there right in the bottom was that little finger-worn Bible. I made the best excuse I could, but I kept thinking of the woman who had my Bible hid in her apron.

F. G. Cielinski

66

This American Pole was converted from Romanism about six years ago, and since then has been active in evangelizing his people. He did some work for us during the year. He relates his experience in trying to sell Bibles in a Roumanian settlement. It was with fear that I started out on my work, for I did not know the Roumanian language and they could not speak mine. If they would order me out, I would not know what they said, therefore the only way they could make me understand would be to throw me out bag and baggage. But, I thank God, the contrary spirit was shown. When I showed them that the Bible spoke the Universal Password, Jesus Christ,' off would come their hats, and I would then kneel and pray in English and they would pray in their own tongue, repeating my words after me.

Romanist Opposition

Whether Roman Catholic priests in America are exercising fresh zeal in their attempts to keep the Bible from their people, or whether the increased number of complaints from our colporteurs is because of the increased number of distributors, certain it is that no single year has brought so large a number of specific instances of opposition on the part of Romanists as has the past year.

"The Priest Will Scald Us”

66

This was the actual expression used by a Romanist who was asked to buy a Bible. Of course he meant scold" and not scald," and yet was not the right term used? When the people are threatened with excommunication and with the fires of eternal torment if they buy or read a Protestant Bible, do not the words really scald the ignorant hearers?

An Outstanding Case

William Kowalik, one of our colporteurs among the foreigners, was sent by me to Pulaski, Wis., in response to the request of a Polish priest in that community for help for the Poles who were leaving the Church of Rome. He started to sell Bibles as he does everywhere, but was soon accosted by the marshall, who told him that if he continued to sell Bibles he would be arrested. He then went to the city clerk, who told him he would have to have a license, which would cost him $5. He remonstrated at paying for a license, explained the missionary character of his work, and stated that this was the first time he had been compelled to secure a license. then carried the case to the mayor, who said that he had nothing to do with issuing licenses, except to sign them when issued by the clerk. Mr. Kowalik returned from the mayor's office to the city clerk, determined to pay the fee so as to be able to sell Scriptures.

He

The clerk informed him that they had talked the matter over since his former visit, and that they had decided not even to sell him a permit. The Mayor and the marshall were Roman Catholics and the city clerk was a professor in the Roman Catholic monastery at Pulaski, Wis. Unable to do anything at Pulaski, Mr. Kowalik went to the nearby village of Krakow. Before his mission was known here he attended a service at the Catholic Church. The priest informed the people that there was a man at Pulaski who was trying to sell Bibles. He told them that he probably belonged to the Federal Polish Catholic Church party, and that he would probably soon visit their village. He said the Bible this man was selling was a Lutheran Bible and false, and that no one was to read this book, nor to buy one, and that if the man came to their houses they were to brush him out of the door with a broom. He threatened that if anyone bought one of these Bibles he would refuse to forgive their sins.

Bibles for Flood Sufferers

In the spring of 1913 destructive storms visited much of the southern parts of the states of Indiana and Illinois. The property loss ran into many millions. Thousands of people lost their homes and all their possessions, and the toll of lives was heavy. By correspondence with ministers in the stricken towns and members of the relief committees, we learned of the most pressing needs for Bibles. Through these agencies the Northwestern Agency made grants of books to the value of nearly $500.

As one comes to the close of a report which has brought into view the work of every helper and a kaleidoscopic picture of every part of the field, deep impressions are made. For the moment in

I am the sole

On

my own person I represent the distributing force. agent through whom the needs of the field are to be supplied. my own heart I carry all the burdens and perplexities of all the colporteurs; before me loom all the opposition and hindrances of all the men; in me burn all their desires and ferment all their hopes, and revolve all their plans for the success of the work. I am knit in sympathy with every fellow-laborer. The experience solemnizes and sanctifies. New consecrations are born and high resolutions made. The new year should be better because of the review of the old one.

The two outstanding facts of the year are, first, the unprecedented large number of persons who have offered their services for the work of Bible distribution; and, second, the increased calls from the fields for help. The vision of this day is of the Agency as a great area in which are many fertile fields and gardens made beautiful and fruitful by a river of water of life-proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb;" and of vast reaches of barren deserts whose parched and cracked surface makes their voiceless prayer to the heavens for rain. It is our prayer and expectation that next year many of these deserts may be made to blossom as the rose through the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The South Atlantic Agency was established in 1907, and includes the states of Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The circulation for the year ending December 31, 1913, was 94,333 volumes, a decrease of 5,951 volumes. This brings the total since the establishment of the Agency to 490,053 volumes. Fifty-five persons were employed in this distribution, eighteen colporteurs, thirty-seven correspondents. The Agency Secretary is the Rev. M. B. Porter, 205 North Fifth Street, Richmond, Va.

LTHOUGH the distribution is a little less than that of the previous year, there has been no diminution in the vigor and energy with which the work has been carried through. Mr. Porter has pushed the men into the smaller towns and rural districts, visiting seven hundred or eight hundred of such towns and communities. He has adhered to the plan of using colporteurs paid and directed by himself, but also availed himself of the service of ministers and other Christian workers who are willing, without pay, to join in this long-tried and approved method of preaching the gospel. The Southland contains many faithful, humble toilers who delight to do such things, and they have done their year's work often with enthusiasm and always with fidelity. The diversity of classes and communities, requiring diversity of operations adjusted to each, is apparent once more in this report. Mr. Porter himself traveled nearly seventeen thousand miles in order to urge our cause on religious bodies at various times. His colporteurs have been going about with like diligence. One of them reports having traveled about four thousand miles, mostly on foot. The lumber camps, the colonies of foreigners, the cotton-mill people, prisoners in jails and convict camps, besides the dwellers in towns and on farm lands-none of these has been wholly neglected. Bible work is an endless chain of going about and doing good, as the following account will show :

Some General Aspects of the Work Done

Through the blessings of God 1913 was another year of development and progress in the life of the South Atlantic Agency. There