Two Bible Societies saw the need in these Islands, and took steps to meet that need long before the clouds of war had risen. The American Bible Society in New York ordered its agent for China, Dr. John R. Hykes, to visit Manila, examine into conditions, and report to the society as to the advisability of establishing an agency at Manila. He reached Manila in September of 1898, looked into conditions, and made a report. This report was favorable to such action, and in 1899 Rev. Jay C. Goodrich, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church from the Newark Conference, was appointed, and, with his wife, took his place at Manila, arriving in November of that year.

The British and Foreign Bible Society had meantime sent the Rev. H. F. Miller from Singapore on an errand similar to that of Dr. Hykes. Later, Mr. Miller was himself appointed agent, and had arrived at his post some time before the arrival of Mr. Goodrich. Both these societies have been steadily at work during the past four years.

It was not the first attempt of the British and Foreign Society to open work in the Philippines. Through its agency in Singapore, to which city so many Fipilinos resorted when friar antagonism became too pronounced, and through its larger body of workers in Spain itself, that organization had come into close association with many of those Filipinos who waited most anxiously for a new spiritual condition to prevail in their native land. With the help of some of these men, translations of portions of the Gospel, more or less accurate, were made into Pangasinan and Tagalog. In 1888 a converted friar named Lallave, who had spent twelve years in the province of Pangasinan-a Dominican-with a companion named Señor F. de P. Castells, sought and received from the British and Foreign Bible Society permission to undertake the distribution of the Word of God in the Philippine

Islands. With a stock of Spanish Scriptures and the four Gospels in the Pangasinan language, which had been translated by Sr. Lallave while in Spain, these two men took their lives in their hands and entered Manila. They at once began to encounter difficulties. Their books were held up in the custom-house, and their work of distributing the Scriptures was brought to a sudden end by order of the officials. While seeking to unravel the complications. which had arisen so that it would be possible for them to carry on their work, and within a week of their arrival in the city, Sr. Lallave, the elder of the two, died of poison in his room at the Oriente Hotel, where they were stopping. He was buried in the Protestant cemetery at San Pedro Macati. His companion was also taken violently ill with similar symptoms, but did not die. It is not capable of exact proof such as would be demanded in a court of law, but on all hands it is believed that the death of Sr. Lallave was due to friar intrigue. They hated him on two separate grounds: he had become a Protestant, and was now engaged in an attempt to put the Bible into the hands of the common people. Foreman says that murders by friars were not uncommon :

"The mysterious deaths of General Solano (in August, 1860), and of Zamora, the bishop-elect of Cebu (in 1873). occurred so opportunely for Philippine monastic ambition, that little doubt existed in the public mind as to who were the real criminals. When I first arrived in Manila, nearly twenty years ago, a fearful crime was still Father Piernaviaja, formerly being commented on. parish priest of San Miguel de Mayumo, had recently committed a second murder. His first victim was a native youth. His second a native woman enciente. The public voice there could not be raised very loudly against the priests, but the scandal was so great that the criminal friar was sent to another province-Cavite--where he still celebrated the holy sacrifice of the Eucharist. Nearly

two decades afterward-in January, 1897-this rascal met with a terrible death at the hands of the rebels. He was in captivity, and having been appointed 'bishop' in a rebel diocese, to save his life he accepted the mock dignity; but unfortunately for himself he betrayed the confidence of his captors, and collected information concerning their movements, plans, and strongholds, for remittance to his community. In expiation of his treason he was bound to a post under the tropical sun and left there to die. See how the public in Spain are gulled! In a Malaga newspaper this individual was referred to as a venerable figure worthy of being placed high up on an altar, before which all Spaniards should prostrate themselves and adore him. As a religieux he was a most worthy minister of the Lord; as a patriot he was a hero.'"

The companion of Lallave was first imprisoned, and then banished from the Islands. But the society felt that its first effort, attended as it had been with the death of one agent and banishment of another, bound it to the Philippines, and made it incumbent upon its officers to avail themselves of the first opening to enter the Islands and carry forward the work to which Lallave gave "the last full measure of devotion!”

Nothing further was attempted by this society until 1898, when Mr. Randle arrived with translations of the first three Gospels and Acts in Tagalog, St. Luke in Bicol, and St. Luke and the Acts in Ilokano, all of which translations had been done by our agent in Spain, with the help of exiled Filipinos,-exiled chiefly through having incurred the displeasure of the friars. Mr. Randle was succeeded by Mr. Miller.

The first work of Mr. Miller was to translate the New Testament into Tagalog. It was found that the translation which had been made in Spain was too faulty to send out in anything approaching permanent form, and such portions as had been put into this vernacular were

all gone over as carefully as though it had been new work. The undertaking was one calling for really immense toil. Mr. Miller did not know the Tagalog. His familiarity with Spanish had to be largely acquired after he came to Manila. No Filipinos could be found whose English was sufficiently perfected to enable them to translate directly from English into the vernacular. The Spanish text was necessarily made the basis for general work, and native translators under vigilant supervision put the Spanish Testament into idiomatic Tagalog. Then the work was carefully copied, and submitted to good judges of both tongues. Then, after their corrections had been made, the final test was made. That consisted in having the translator or some other person familiar with Tagalog read the vernacular translation back into Spanish, while the agent and his assistants noted carefully every shade of meaning expressed to see that the full sweep of the original thought was secured. It was a toilsome method, and one which was sure to leave more or less of inaccuracy in the finer shades of thought; but it was the only method that could be employed at that time, and was therefore used, in default of more perfect but wholly unattainable methods. It required practically two years to complete this task, and two years of as severe labors as any man should attempt to perform in this climate. The work was completed in February, 1901, but a revision was found to be imperative to correct certain grave defects. This was completed during 1902, and the "Bagon Tipan," or New Testament in Tagalog, was ready for the mission for which it had been prepared.

In 1901 this agency reported 36,859 Gospels and Acts printed in Tagalog, and 9,000 Pangasinan Gospels. Of these books, 21,000 were printed for the American Bible Society, which, in turn, printed 6,000 Ilokano Gospels

for them. The circulation of Scriptures for 1901 was 26,825 Gospel portions in Philippine vernaculars, 3,671 Spanish Testaments and portions; 3,528 Chinese Testaments; English, 132; all other languages, 102; total, 34,258 copies of the Word of God or of some portion thereof. Besides the work of three English colporteurs, the society employed two Bible women, who did incalculable good in reading the Scriptures to women from house to house, and in selling such copies as were asked for in their visits. This work went to the very citadel of Rome— the blind allegiance of the women to all the superstitions and errors by which they have suffered so much.

Besides the totals given above during 1901, this society used a novel kind of agency for wide distribution—political prisoners-to whom 1.380 Scripture portions were given at the time of their discharge. The Gospels were thus carried to many remote places in the more distant provinces, and doubtless penetrated to many a village. where no regular agent or colporteur of the society will ever be able to go. One of the workers records this incident of her work among the people:

"At one house I had a splendid gathering of nine or ten women sitting on the floor all around me, waiting to listen to whatever I had to say. I read and sang to them, and tried to talk to them about Jesus, the only Way of salvation, looking up the various texts in Tagalog as best I could. . At a little shop there was quite a gathering of men and women and children. On hearing the hymn, The Light of the world is Jesus,' one man undertook to explain it to his neighbors: making a straight motion upwards with his arm, he said, "The hymn says you can go straight away to Jesus, but the friars say no-round by this,' making a circle around his back, and looking knowingly at his companions."

The report for 1902 shows a total circulation of 64,477