The other great institution for the furtherance of the work is the publishing house. The dissemination of Christian literature has, from the first, been one of the chief aims of our brethren. At first, Mr. Oncken obtained grants of Bibles and books from other societies; but the need of having a publishing house under his own control soon became apparent, and the first tract was published in 1834. Through its connection with American and British tract and Bible societies, the society has been able to do an extensive work. The number of Bibles and Testaments sold during 1887 was 35,586 copies. Over three million pages of tracts were issued during the same year. A number of periodicals also issued from the press of the society. Sunday-school lesson papers are published. There is a paper called “Wort und Werk” for the young men, and another called “Tabea” for the young women. The most important paper is the “Wahrheitszeuge,” the regular organ of the denomination, which has recently become a weekly, and has a circulation of over five thousand copies. Since 1878, the business has been managed by Reverend Philip Bickel, D. D., formerly editor of the “Sendbote” at Cleveland, Ohio. He has, by the most painstaking work, diminished the indebtedness of the business, and steadily increased the scope of its work. The colporteurs and volunteer workers of the German Baptist churches constitute an agency for the dissemination of Christian literature which, for cheapness and effectiveness, is scarcely equalled anywhere. The work is bound to grow. It is opposed by the conservatism and prejudice of the people, of the strength of which no one can have a conception who has not put his shoulder against it and tried to budge it. The government, at least in the larger states, has taken a far more tolerant attitude; but complete religious liberty does not exist in Germany, nor will it exist until the State Churches have been disestablished, and the German nation has stripped from its limbs the last shackles of political absolutism and caste prerogative. Our churches are increasing in number in spite of the constant drain of emigration which takes from them their most prosperous and wide-awake members. But, aside from the actual gain of converts, our churches are doing the work of leavening thought by their literature, by their demonstration of the power of Christian fellowship as presented in a church of believers, and by the very general and extensive system of lay evangelization. In 1889, 190 churches reported 1409 stations where the Word is preached at regular intervals. Our churches are the conductors of the evangelical thought and church methods of England and America. They have been pioneers of Sunday-school work in Germany, and they are bound to influence its entire religious future. CHAPTER XIX. OUT OF GERMANY INTO SWITZERLAND.