Leading European Languages
By W. A. S.
DIVINE providence so ordered that this organized advent movement should first rise in the English-speaking world. By this tongue the largest number of people in Christendom may be reached. It is distributed over the earth more widely than any other. The expansion of English-speaking peoples is one of the remarkable facts of modern history. In the year 1500, for instance, just as the era of exploration and discovery was being ushered in, the English language was spoken by four millions of people—less than the population of London to-day. And these people were huddled together in the British Isles. Now, about one hundred and forty-five millions speak the language, and the English speech girdles the whole earth. The English tongue has been the vehicle of the widest dissemination of the Word of God. While all nations in Christendom have been the scene of the missionary awakening, the great movements in modern missions have sprung from the English-speaking peoples. And in our own work, we cease not to thank God that our English literature has made the way of entrance easy into Africa, all Australasia and Polynesia, India, Burma, the Malay Straits, and, in fact, all about the great continents and the island fields. Now the world is witnessing the rapid expansion of another element—the German-speaking peoples. Reviews and consular reports are of late continually calling attention to the persistency with which the German race and tongue are being pressed into the most out-of-the-way corners of the earth. Some are even talking of the Germanization of the world. We are not concerned with the commercial and political developments and rivalries of the nations. But, as we see Germany throwing its influence out into the wide world, we may thank God that in Germany we have so strong and growing a presentation of the cause of this third angel’s message. There is a providence in it. Next to the English tongue, the German has the greatest amount of our literature, and our work in all departments in Germany has attained hardy growth. And our German brethren are ready to follow the dispersion of the German tongue and the spread of German influence with the literature and in the influence of the message of Sabbath and advent reform. From the French-Latin field workers have gone out into Algeria, where the French tongue gives them readiest access. And while the French Catholic field in Europe itself is large for so small a body of believers, the eyes of our French brethren are already upon other French colonial possessions in Africa and Madagascar. In the Spanish, we began first in the outlying regions, and worked backward toward the home land of the language, Spain itself. But here is a language with a tremendous distribution over the earth. No doubt the Spanish-speaking peoples number about sixty-five millions. The production of our literature in Spanish has but fairly begun. The people are waiting for it in Spain, Central and South America, Mexico, Cuba, and Porto Rico, and in the Philippine Islands. By a few of these leading European languages we have access to multitudes in every quarter of the earth. This wide distribution of languages is an important factor in the evangelization of the world.