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47'7 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Tract Societies

several series providing these at low prices are regularly issued. Special provision is made of tracts for women and children; and in the arrangement of the various aeries, regard is had to the particular needs of such classes as soldiers, sailors, and railway men. The work of providing tract literature happily has the sympathy of men distinguished both for scholarship and for position in the Christian Church. Thus modern authors of tracts published by the society include Bishop Handley Moule, the Earl of Northbrook, Sir William Muir, Alexander McLaren, Henry Wace, Griffith Thomas, Robert Forman Norton, Arthur Tappan Pierson, John Watson (Ian Maclaren), and Robert E. Speer. The method of the committee in choosing tracts is today what it was when the society began its work. Each tract is read by every member of the committee and a vote taken upon it. It is still required that the evangelical message be definite, and it is satisfactory to know that perhaps never in the history of the society have there been more frequent and more remarkable evidences of direct spiritual blessing through the reading of tracts than have been received during the last few years. It is clear that, although from time to time inexperienced observers allege that the day of the tract is past, the Evangelical and pastoral use of tracts has suffered no check.

In book publication the society has continued along the lines followed for many years. While primarily anxious to produce that which definitely conveys the Gospel message, or in some way illus S. its issues Crates or supports its claims, the society

of Books. has felt increasingly the need of pro viding literature which, though not so definitely religious in its message, is decisively Christian in tone and character. The provision of such literature has again and again been pressed upon the society as a public duty in the face of the overwhelming development of literature, low or even debasing in moral tone, or, if otherwise beyond criticism, still anti-Christian in its influence. In re cent years the more definitely theological part of the society's catalogue has been widely known for its series By-Paths of Bible Knowledge, to which authors of the standing of Professor Archibald Henry Sayce, Wallace Budge, Sir William Dawson, and others contributed; by such helps to Bible study as were furnished by Alfred Edersheim's vol umes on Bible History and on The Temple, by Dr. Samuel Gosnell Green's Handbook to Old Testament Hebrew, and Handbook to the Grammar of the Greek Testament; and by devotional works from the pens of such authors as Newman Hall, John Angell James, and Canon Edward Hoare. Still more recent ad ditions include the volumes of a Devotional Com mentary by Bishop Handley Moule, Frederick Brotherton Meyer, Griffith Thomas, and other authors; an important series of works dealing with the controversy with Rome, including a translation with notes, of Karl August von Hase's Protestant ische Polemik by Dr. Annesley William Streane; the Handbook of the Bible, of Dr. Joseph Angus, thor oughly revised by Dr. S. G. Green; together with practical and devotional works from the pens of such men as Bishop Welldon, Dr. Norton, William

L. Watkinson, John Henry Jowett, and Dr. Eugene Stock.

In general literature features in recent years have been the provision of full biographies of distinguished missionaries such as James Chalmers, Griffith John, and George Grenfell, and of finely illustrated works on natural history by Richard Kerr and others. No recent British artist engaged in illustration work is now more widely known than Harold Copping, whom the society sent to the East in order to provide Bible illustrations. The society has accordingly produced a Bible illustrated from Copping's sketches and in addition two finely illustrated works -The Gospel in the Old Testament and Scenes in the Life of our Lord, the letterpress of which was contributed by Bishop Handley Moule. In fiction the society has continued to produce books for adult readers as well as for the young, retaining old favorites and adding later authors of repute.

Thg periodicals of the society have always been a disAnctive part of its work. The Child's Companion, begun in 1824, is still issued. The Sunday at Home has now more than fifty years of work behind it. The Girl's own Paper, started in 1880, has recently been entirely recast. The Boy's own Paper is still perhaps the most widely known publication of its kind. Other periodicals appealing to various classes continue the work originated. nearly a century ago.

The aid of Foreign mission work has, from the earliest days of its existence, been an intimate concern of the society. As early as the year 1814, Morrison and Milne applied to it on behalf of China and promptly received aid. In the previous year, the

first application for help in vernacular 4. Aids to work came from India, and the first Foreign auxiliary tract society was formed at

Niesions. Bellary in 1817. Nearer home the society began to publish in Italian as early as 1806, and in Russian in 1814. The first effort on the part of France was made in 1819, and the work in Austria 'Cuss begun ten years later. The society now maintains its own book and tract depot at Madrid for Spain; at Lisbon for Portugal; at Vienna, for Austria; at Budapest for Hungary, and at Warsaw for Poland. In France it assists the Paris society, the McAll Mission (q.v.), and the Toulouse society; in Belgium, the work of the " Evangelical Mission " of Brussels; in Switzerland, the colportage work of the " Evangelical Society of Geneva "; in Italy, that of the " Evangelical Publication Society of Florence. "; in Turkey and Bulgaria, the publication work of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions; in Greece, the " Evangelical Society's " work; and in Russia, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, the publication and distribution of Christian literature through various societies and individual workers. The Religious Tract Society has thus for many years been a powerful supporter of those Protestant communities which, on the continent of Europe, are struggling against the power of Rome. It has continued this work in the face of many obstacles, but has gradually seen the liberty of the, press and of the individual more and more freely conceded. By the aid and operations of the American Presbyterian press the society has pro-