As a summary showing of the work accomplished by a distributing tract society, the following items are copied from the Report of the New York City Mission and Tract Society for 1880 :
KESlir.TS OF fifty-three YEAKS' PRACTIOAT. WORIC.
Years of missionary labor l,21f>
Missionary visits 2,342,205
Tracts in English and other languages dis-) 50770740
tribnted ( ' '
Bibles and Testaments supplied to the des-) g^ 267
titnie j ' '
Bonks loaned and given 171.708
Children gathered into Sabbath-schools 112,054
Children gathered into day-schools 23,5.30
Persons gathered into Bible-classes 1,5.200
Persons induced to attend Chu'-ch 2.53,375
Temperance pledges obtained 55,.501
Religions meetings held 122,100
Persons restored to church fellowship 3,1.59
Converts united with evangelical churches 13,0,50
The total amount expended iu fifty-three years, $1,170,- no.OL
In addition to the above sum expended in the regular missionary operations of the society, more than $100,000 have been raised for building mission stations and chapels.
The detailed statistics of the tract enterprise in its various forms of action would fill many volumes with facts of intense interest, and form a just basis not only of admiration for its past success, bnt also of high ex- pectation for its expanding and multiplying influence in the years and centuries to come.
IV. 'Collateral PiihUshing Orc/anizations.—TiehTe pro- ceeding to enumerate the more important of them, some words of explanation seem necessary. In the develop- ment of the tract enterprise, various kinds of organiza- tions have been found necessary or expedient. Only a few have become great publishing institutions, and no other one has attained such a magnitude of operations as that of the Religious Tract Society of London. Never- theless, societies for the effective and appropriate distri-
TRACTS AND TRACT SOCIETIES 516
bution of tracts have been found essential to the object of the enterprise as a wiiole. They have worked in more limited spheres, but have proved indispensable to the highest forms of success. Iteligious reading, when merely jirinted, has no mure value tlian other niercliandise. A single tract, brought to the eye and heart of an inti'rcsted reader, accomi)lishcs more for (iod and humanity than millions of pages resting upon tlie shelves of a depository. Societies, therefore, that circulate religious publications, and especially by the agency of skilful and sympathetic Christian workers, deserve high respect. Not all of them l>ear the spe- cific name of tract society. Some of them liave min- "led the work of liible and tract distribution. Some have adoi)ted coljiortage as their chief form of work, while others have devoted their energies largely to other forms of evangelization. In this state of the case, it may not be possible to give a complete list of all the societies that have been organized to promote the circulation of religious tracts. Still less possible would it be to give, within a convenient space, the full historical data of all sucli institutions. Fortunately, however, numerous details are ipiite unnecessary, since specimen sketches like those given above are suffi- ciently descriptive of all similar institutions and their auxiliaries, whether conducted on a larger or smaller scale.
As to plan of organization, there are two classes of tract and book publication societies. One class repre- sents united Christian effort in the sense of being com- posed of the members of different churches. The other is denominational in the sense of separate church ac- tion. These two classes of societies, though distinct from each other, are by no necessity antagonistic. They may, and usually do, simply represent different modes of accomplishing the same or similar objects. While in England, owing to the pre-eminence and catholicity of the Keligious Tract Society, denomina- tional action has generally limited itself to the work of dissemination, there is at least one important example of separate church action— it is that of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. By that body the joint enterprise of tract and book publication and circulation has been contimied fnnn the time of its inception by the Kev. John Wesley in tlie first half of the 18th century. The publications of the Wesleyan book - room embrace a large assortment of tracts, a variety of periodicals, and a large list of religious books. A due proportion of its tracts and books has been prepared and printed in foreign languages, in adaptation to the wants of the various mission fields of that Church. Book affairs constitute a standard topic of business at the annual meeting of the Conference, which officially appoints a publishing agent and the requisite editors. It also ap- points a tract committee charged with the duty of pro- moting the circulation of tracts by means of auxiliary and loan societies and suitable grants. As a branch of church work, cities, villages, and country neighborhoods are districted for consecutive and periodical visitation by tract-distributors. In America, several of the more prominent denominations muiutain pidilication societies both of tracts and books on a similar plan, although few are as thorough in the work of dissemination.
The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, founded in London in the early part of the present cen- tury, deserves in several respects to be classed along- side of the publishing tract societies of England. It issues, chiefly on Inisiness princi|)les, a large assortment of books adapted to juvenile, Sunday-school, and popu- lar reading, all of which have for their object at least indirect Christian influence, besides many thousands of religious tracts.