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"THE BIBLR SOCIETIES. 375Total Direct Issues from the China Agency.Bibles. Test s. Portions. Total.Prior to 1908 95,586 542,294 10,325.479 10,963,359For the year 1908 6,149 37,422 439261 482,^32Total direct issues .. ..101,735 579,716 10,764,740 11,446,191CIRCULATION.This is the record year of the agency for the number of books put into circulation. The sales amountedto 591,246 copies and the donations to 3,706, making atotal of 594,952 volumes. The highest previous circulation was reached in 1905, when the sales were 526,925and the donations 10,379 copies. The increase over lastyear is 103,672.Rev. P. F. Price, D.D.. S. P. M., Tunghiang, Che.,writes about a new plan of using the mails :"The reason, as you may remember I proposed in the conference with j ou, is that there are a large number of readingpeople, both of the scholar and merchant class, who never get aBible or portion from a colporteur, but who are accessible throughthe mails. The plan adoptedis to get a list of these in this cityand adjacent towns and cities and to distribute copies of aGospel or other portion to them through the native post. I hadaccumulated a list of nearly 2,000, which was also destroyed.Ihad a block cut for printing on the inside of each cover. Itstated that this book was a part of a divine revelation a fewsentences along that line and in regard to the influence of theBible and then said that this book was given with the bestwishes of the American Bible Society and with the hope that itwould be read and thought upon and prove a blessing. Thiswas the gist of it. I wish I could send you a copy of the block,but that was burned also.I heard many echoes of these donations. Gentlemenwould step up to me on the street and thank me for them. Oneman to whom a Gospel was sent, sent me a large order for booksof various sorts, all of a Christian nature, and not a few havecome into the book-room and bought other books. Some NewTestaments were given in this way to officials. I met onestriking instance of the value of this kind of work. I wascalling on a new district magistrate and opened the subject ofthe Gospel. Whereupon he told me he had a Christian bookgiven him by a Wen chow missionary. He sent a servant tobring it, and itproved to be a small New Testament. He told