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And so Bible Sunday was observed throughout the world on 6 March 1904: in Fiji, where only fifty years earlier there had been cannibal feasts; in Korea; on the Yangtze river in China; on mail steamers in the Straits of Malacca and the Persian Gulf; at Blantyre in the Highlands of Scotland; on board passenger liners; in Buenos Aires and so on.
In London, the day dawned bleak with sleet and rain, but St Paul's was crowded long before noon with worshippers from all over London and beyond. King Edward VII was unwell, but the service was attended by Queen Alexandra and the Prince (the future George V) and Princess of Wales and Princess Victoria. A clear photograph exists of Queen Alexandra and the Prince and Princess sitting listening to the Archbishop of Canterbury preaching his sermon.
The members of the royal family were met on the steps of St Paul's by the Lord Mayor and high officials of the City of London, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, Dean Dan Gregory, dignitaries of the cathedral all in ermine, scarlet and gold of state. The first hymn was 'Thou whose almighty Word' and the service closed with an anthem by one of the musical Wesleys.
The Archbishop of Canterbury preached from the text 'Let there be light' (Genesis 1:3-4). He contrasted this Bible Sunday with Shrove Sunday of 1527, when leaders of the English church had watched from that very spot the burning of the English New Testament. In contrast, he said, princes, clergy and people were gathered today to thank God for the distribution of his Word to every nation under heaven. He described true science and true religion as 'sisters' and said that 'nothing but disaster could arise from the petulant scorn of the one or from the timidity or the tyrannies of the other' (an echo no doubt of the evolutionary debates which had so rocked Christians in the second half of the nineteenth century). Referring to the Bible Society's long struggle against poverty, distance and language he said, 'we look upwards and outwards and onwards: we thank God and take courage'.
These celebrations in London had their counterparts in Calcutta at which Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India was present; in Melbourne, attended by the Governor-General; in Washington, where at St John's in the centre of the capital the vast congregation included President Roosevelt, members of the Diplomatic Corps, representatives of the Supreme Court, the Cabinet and Senate of the United States. Other services included those in cathedrals in Stockholm, Uganda, Bloemfontein, Shanghai, Singapore and provincial cathedrals in England and Wales. Nearly every school and mission station in virtually all Methodist circuits throughout the world observed the day. It was said that 'never in the Christian centuries had so many millions come so near to realising the dream and hope of "one fold and one Shepherd".'
On Monday 7 March a quiet meeting for prayer was held at Bible House in the morning. Then the Marquis of Northampton entertained about four hundred members of many Christian churches and communions, including delegates from all over the world, at a lunch in the King's Hall of the Holborn restaurant. During the meal greetings were conveyed from other Bible Societies and churches from all over the world. In Wales that afternoon the schoolgirls of Bala decorated the statue of Thomas Charles and laid flowers on his grave. At seven in the evening the second of the two Royal Albert Hall meetings, the 'Centenary Meeting' was held and the hall packed. The Marquis of Northampton took the chair with the Archbishop of Canterbury on his right. The Bishop of St Albans led the prayers. The event certainly didn't simply look back: the President of the Society pleaded with his audience the needs of India where 450 million people were still without the Word of God. In his address the Archbishop of Canterbury focused on the two-fold name of Society (British and Foreign) and spoke of the deep undercurrent of Scripture which flowed behind English speech and English life - 'the Word of God, both in translation and the original had the same living power over the minds of men'. Other speakers pleaded for the maintenance of the Bible in the home as the essential condition of our character and place as a Christian nation.
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