A GREAT MISSIONARY ERA.

One of the most prominent characteristics of the Church of Christ in this century has been its phenomenal missionary activity.  Its zeal in this cause, the devotion and courage of its missionaries and the amount of money expended have had no parallel in the previous history of the Church.  Already a beginning had been made when the century dawned.  In 1701 King William III. of England had granted a charter to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.  In 1714 Frederick IV. of Denmark established a College of Missions and two Danish missionaries were laboring in India.  In 1721 the famous Danish missionary, Hans Egede, began a work in Greenland.  In 1732 the Moravian missionaries, Dober and Nitschmann, went to St. Thomas, and in the following year the Moravian Church sent missionaries to Labrador, the West Indies, South America, South Africa and India.  But it was not until the last decade of the eighteenth century that the spirit which was to distinguish the next century really manifested itself.  In 1792 the devotion and consecration of William Carey led to the formation of the Baptist Missionary Society, and in the following year he sailed for India as its first missionary.

In 1795 the London Missionary Society was organized, a missionary ship was purchased and the first band of missionaries sailed for the South Sea Islands.  Two years later, another party sailed for South Africa, among whom were the veterans, Vanderkemp and Kitchener.  Two Scottish societies were founded in 1796 and a Dutch Society in 1797.  In the closing year of the century the famous Church Missionary Society was formed in the Church of England.  Thus the nineteenth century opened with organizations for work in existence and pioneers few in number, but intensely in earnest in several fields of labor.

The first quarter of the century witnessed the advent of new agencies, as well as a multiplication of forces.  The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was organized in 1810, the English Wesleyan Missionary Society in 1814, the American Baptist in 1814, the American Methodist in 1819, the American Protestant Episcopal in 1820, and the Berlin and Paris Missionary Societies in 1824.  Thus, in the comparatively short space of thirty-two years, thirteen societies had been organized by the various denominations here and in Europe, each of which was destined to grow to proportions little contemplated by their founders.  Since that time the great China Inland Mission and other undenominational societies have been founded and are sending out men and women in large numbers to the heathen world.  Besides these, there have been societies of special workers which have done valuable service in aiding the missionary societies, such as the medical missionaries, the Zenana Missionaries and the university and students’ volunteer movements.  Statistics recently compiled show that the number