Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/667

MISSIONS. 595 MISSIONS. the existing uiissiouary societies in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden also lie in the first quarter (if tile niui'teentli century. These .Seandinavian >-ncieties expanded during the last quarter of the lentury, and in HKJO had between 500 and (iOO missionaries in Africa, Madagascar, India, China, and Chinese Turkestan. The intimate relations of some of the Seandinavian societies with Ger- man, English, and American enterprises, however, make it certain that some of these missionaries are also reported by societies in otlicr countries. In 1824 the Kstablished Church of Scotland un- dertook missionary work in India and among the Kallirs in Africa, one of its early missionaries being Alexaiuhn- Dufl', the father of educational missions. The disruption in 1843 caused the resignation of all the Scotch Church missionaries in India anil Katlraria. they preferring to join the Flee Ciiurch, which has since carried on extendeil missionary operations. In l'.)00 the Free Church joined with the United Presbyterian Cliurch in forming the United Free Church of Scotland. This body has missions in India, Africa, Arabia, SjTia, Turkey, China, West In- dies, and the New Hebrides. Its missionaries number 403, men and women, and its force of na- tive workers is 2824. As to the Established Church of Scotland, after recovering from the effects of the disruption, it pressed its missionary enterprises, and in 1001 it had in India, Central Africa, China, and Turkey 130 missionaries of both sexes, with ()24 native workers. These Scot- tish mission enterprises are carried on by the Church organizations, and not by independent missionary societies. The Bible societies grew out of the same religious quickening whii'li gave rise to the vol- untary missionary societies (the British and Fiireif/n liihle Hocictyi. 1804, the American Bible !<<irietii. ISKi, the Xcthrrland.'S Bible Socicti/, the l<cottish XatioHul Bible Socicli/. and others). So far as concerns their publications in the lan- guages of non-Christian peoples these societies iln foreign missionary work in the very highest -i-nse, since no Protestant foreign mission can exist without the Bible in the language of the [iiople among whom it is w'orkiiig. The Bible Siicieties work in harmony with each other and with the missions. Indeed, missionaries have made the greater part of the translations of the Bible now in circulation. In nil, the Bible has been translated into 427 languages. The Rcli- ■lions Tract Society of London (1799) and the American Tract Society of New York (1820) have <lone a similar work for foreign missions in aiding to provide general Christian literature in the languages of non-Christian lands. While our survey indicates the origin of the Protestant missionary movement in the spiritual enlightenment of the Christian Cliurch, it cannot detail its exiiansion since the first quarter of the ninctceiitb century. In Ihe second quarter of the century the Methodist Church and the Prestn-te- rian Church in the I'nited States, previously oc- cupied with missions among the American In- dians, began their great missionary enterprises abroad. In many other denominations in the T'nited States. Oreat Britain, and Europe, foreign missionary undertakings have been organized. Since the middle of the century foreign mission- ary societies have been formed in the colonial churches in Canada, the West Indies, India, Aus- tralia, New Zealand, South Africa, and other Protestant colonies. Since ISGl, when the first Woman's Foreign Missionary Union was formed in New York, Christian women in all lands have entered U])on the woi'k. organizing women's mis- sionary societies, commonly more than mere auxiliaries to the older enlerpri.ses. Educational and medical missionary enterprises have been established in considerable number. Interdi'noini- iiational missionary societies, like the Clirislian and Missionary Alliance of America and the China Inland ][ission and the Xorth Africa Mis- sion of England, have umlcrtakcn extensive enter- prises in non-Christian countries. To some extent Christian communities which are themselves the fruit of missions have undertaken foreign mis- sions; as in India, Africa, the Fiji Islands, the Hervey Islands, and Hawaii. In India, Ceylon, and South Africa the Salvation Army has estab- lished itself, seeking to forward the evangeliza- tion of the heathen by mclliods peculiar to itself. We may also here mention the Student ^'oluntcer Movement, organized in 1880 in America, but now found in many other lands. It is neither de- nominational nor a missionary society, but un- consciously follows the idea which led the Ger- man Baron von Welz in 1033 to make his mis- sionary appeal to students. It has influence in colleges and universities in increasing knowledge of the claims and the results of foreign missions, and in providing the various societies with can- didates for service in the field. According to the statistical tables of the Rev. Dr. J. S. Dennis (in his Cetitennial Surrey of Foreign Missions, to which we are indebted for some other statistics given in this article), in 1900 the total number of societies directly or in- directly engaged in the Protestant missionary en- terprise was as follows : .merican continents 128 llreat Britain and Ireland 154 Deuniarli 4 Finland 2 France 6 Gernlan^■ -4 Holland 22 Norway 10 Sweden 10 Switzerland 4 Asia :.... 117 . 9tralasia and Oceanica 35 Africa 42 Total 558 These societies are represented in the field by about 1.5.000 missionaries, men and women, and about 77,000 native preachers, teachers, and other laborers. The enormous increase of foreign missionary societies during the last half of the nineteenth century, and especially since the work of Living- stone and Stanley culminated in the opening of Africa to colonization, might seem to threaten friction and confusion among these numerous agencies. This has been largely averted, how- ever, because unity of aim develops a sense of the essential unity of all interests. In India, China, and .Japan, and in some other countries, interde- nominational conferences of missionaries are regularly held for the comparison of experiences, the improvement of metliods, and the promotion of comity. In the Netherlands, in Germany, in the United States, and to some extent in Great Britain, conferences between the various Prot- estant missionary societies are held at regular intervals for the same purpose. Furthermore, general and international missionary conferences