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372 CHINA MISSION YKAR BOOK.Bibles.ts1 ortions. Total.British and Foreign Bible Society, 306,080 1,681,546 15.945.370 17,932.996American Bible Society ......... 101,735 579.716 10764,740 11,446,191National Bible Society of Scotland, 21,595 276,467 10,432,104 10,730,166429,410 2,537,729 37,142,214 40,109,353The chief lesson to be drawn from these figures,however, is not how much has been accomplished, buthow very littlecompared with the size of the field.Were every Bible, Testament, and Portion of Scripture,including the very smallest, which has been issued inChina by the Bible Societies since the days of Morrison,still in existence, the total would amount to no morethan provide one cop}- for every ten of the population.But, since the great bulk of this literature has entirelydisappeared, it may safely be said that Bible work inChina is still in its infancy.JOHN ARCHIBALD.American Bible Society.[From 93rd Annual Report, 1909. John R. Hykes, D.D., Agent.]The notable feature of this year s manufacture isthe increase in the number of complete Bibles and NewTestaments published. The Bibles were 12,000 and theTestaments 40,000 in excess of 1907. The increaseddemand for Bibles and Testaments came largely fromthe Chinese Christians, and shows that our work hasentered upon a new phase. With the rapid growth ofthe native Church we shall have to be prepared tosupply more copies of the complete Scriptures and, as;they have to be sold at a loss, because of the povertyof many of the members, we must have correspondinglylarger funds at our disposal if we are to do anythinglike our share in giving the Bible to the ChristianChurch in China.The Mandarin Reference Bible the first Bible everpublished in the Chinese language with references wasissued from the press near the end of the year, and the