EARLY two thousand years ago the Lord showed John on the Isle of Patmos a vision of the last days. He saw the message of the everlasting Gospel being carried swiftly to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, warning the world that the hour of God's judgment was at hand. Then immediately followed the glorious appearing of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven to reap the harvest of the earth.
Every page of the thrilling story of modern missions bears witness to the fact that God's providence has been definitely shaping human history and guiding in the development of missionary activity to meet the specifications of the prophecy.
Thru centuries the way has been preparing for this crisis of missions. "Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world." Acts 15:18. As D'Aubigne says, God "prepares His work for ages." One continuous purpose is unfolded in the development of His work in the earth. Watching the growth and progress of missions from the point of view of the prophetic Scriptures is like watching the progress of an express-train with the railway time-table in hand. The sure word of prophecy is God's time-table for this world's history. And the mighty hand of Providence has moved the train of world-events to fit the great time-table of divine prophecy.
"The Time of the End."
For instance, the year 1798 marks the close of the long period of 1260 years of papal persecution and supremacy, of the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation. According to these same prophecies that date marks the beginning of "the time of the end." Concerning this same time the instruction was given to Daniel: "Shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Dan. 12:4. Thus the beginning of the time of the end was to usher in a great awakening and a world-wide activity diffusing the knowledge of the Lord.
And that very period, the last years of the eighteenth century, was in truth the birth-time of modern missions—the new era of world evangelization in preparation for the coming of the Lord. Professor Warneck, of Halle, recently called that period "the beginning of the missionary age." Doctor Leonard, in "A Hundred Years of Missions," says:
"The closing years of the eighteenth century constitute in the history of Protestant missions an epoch indeed, since they witnessed nothing less than a revolution. . . . It was then that for the first time since the Apostolic period, occurred an outburst of general missionary zeal and activity."
It was by no mere chance that Carey and others were raised up just at that time to pioneer the way into the wide world lying in darkness. The beginning of the time of the end had come. Knowledge was to be increased. Definitely the way was to be prepared for the evangelization of the nations and the last warning message of the judgment hour which was to precede the coming of the Lord.
In joy at the remarkable awakening of those times, a body of German believers in Basel sent this greeting to the British friends of missions who had issued a call for world-wide prayer and missionary zeal:
"It is like the dawn promising the beautiful day after the dark night. It is the beginning of a new epoch. . . . Such a call was never heard before. It was reserved for the close of the eighteenth century to be distinguished by it."
Thus the work of modern missions was definitely opened. The work of Bible translation and distribution sprang up. It was a mighty stride toward the great work that was to follow.
The Hour of God's Judgment.
Another generation down the course of time brings us to the next great prophetic waymark, the end of the longest prophetic period given us in the word of God, the 2,300 prophetic days, or years, which were to reach from the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the time of the final cleansing of the sanctuary, or the great antitypical day of atonement in heaven above. That period ended in the year 1844, marking the beginning of the judgment, its necessary pre-investigative work. From that time on was due to the world that message of Revelation 14, "The hour of His judgment is come," with its call to all peoples to prepare to meet the coming King. For just as soon as this Gospel of the kingdom is preached as a witness to all nations, then shall the end come, according to the sure promise of Christ. This final Gospel message warns against the corruptions of the Papacy, by which the traditions of men have made void the commandments of God, and calls all who will hear to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
When this message became due, in 1844, the last generation was reached—the generation of the judgment hour that is to see the coming of Christ in power and great glory. Quickly, therefore, the warning cry must go to all the world.
Wondrously has God moved in the world-wide cause of missions to meet the demand of this solemn time. Clustering around that period of 1844 have come the mighty movements, breaking down barriers, opening closed doors, laying bare the way literally to every nation, tongue, and people. It was about the year 1844 that Livingstone turned his face definitely northward to open the secret of the Dark Continent. In that very year Krapf landed at Mombasa, on the East Coast, and a few years later sent his thrilling call to Europe that the African interior was to be pierced from its eastern shore. Those were the years in which China,7
The Divine Program of Missions.
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closed for millenniums, was opening its doors, first the five treaty ports, in 1842, to be followed step by step by the opening of the entire country. Then quickly Japan's doors swung open because the time had come for a quick work to be done. In those early years of this last generation God put it into the heart of Allen Gardiner to make that heroic attempt for South America which stirred the hearts of British Christians and led to a definite missionary campaign for the "Neglected Continent." Within a few years, six or seven vast closed countries, representing half the population of the world, opened wide to missionary effort. The last generation had come, and the hand of Providence was preparing the way for a quick work.
A New England geography, printed in Boston, in 1858, noted with satisfaction the fact that in New England and the greater part of the Middle States fairly good wagon-roads intersected the country in every direction. What marvelous changes have been seen since that day! The Washington "Times," discussing a railway and steamship map put out by the Government Bureau of Statistics, says:
"Within the lifetime of men and women now living, the world had not a single mile of railway, or a single steamship crossing the ocean. To-day the world has on land five hundred and fifty thousand miles of railway, and on the ocean six million net tons of sail-carrying power, and eighteen million net tons of steam-carrying power."
While railway and telegraph enterprises were preparing the way for a quick work (and note that it was in May, 1844, that the famous telegraphic message was sent from Washington to Baltimore, "What hath God wrought?"), the unexplored portions of the earth were being opened up. Rear Admiral Wharton, of the British Navy, writes in the London "Geographical Journal":
"I hear people complain that Africa goes slow. When I look at what has been effected in my own lifetime, it appears to me that on the contrary it has been rushed. The maps that I learned from as a boy showed the whole interior as a blank. There are now no parts that are not more or less known. Railways are running over regions unknown forty years ago."
A recent traveler tells us that the very cannibals who hurled clouds of arrows at Stanley's canoes are to-day themselves firemen and engineers of African river steamboats.
Not long ago Mr. Cyrus C. Adams printed in the New York "Times" a map showing unexplored areas of the world, which is reproduced herewith. He then stated:
"Fifteen years ago the Scottish geographer Bartholomew, reviewing the mapping of the world, said that one-eighth of the land surface was still almost wholly unknown; furthermore, enormous territories that had been revealed in broad outline had not yet been studied so far that they could be mapped with any accuracy. About the same time Dr. Dawson, of Canada, made a map on which were thirteen large areas of British North America comprising nearly 1,000,000 square miles, which, he said, were 'for all practical purposes entirely unknown.' Since that time the unknown regions have been invaded by many explorers whose energy has now reduced the size of the total unexplored area outside of the polar regions to about one-fiftieth of the land surface. The world never saw greater zeal for geographical discovery."
A striking testimony to the conditions geographically was borne by the last Geographical Congress that met in New York City. Sir John Murray introduced the following resolution which was unanimously adopted:
"The Eighth International Geographical Congress, realizing that the only untouched fields for geographical discovery are the regions immediately surrounding the poles of the earth, desires to place on record its sense of the importance of forthwith completing the systematic exploration of the polar areas."
All the world is astir with activity and life. The hugest sleeping giant of them all is awake. In "Van Norden's Magazine" for September, Mr. Chow-Tszchi, Charge d'Affaires of China in Washington, says:
"Progress has at last taken hold of China. Attempts to galvanize the giant out of his sleep of ages have been made many times, but until recently they failed because the giant was not ready to awake. Now he has roused himself, stretched himself, and begun to put his house in order. It was time. . . . China is getting ready to take her place among the great civilized nations of the world."
Only four or five years ago some one suggested what a grand thing it would be if the heathen temples of China could be turned into modern schools, and now comes the word that over a thousand of those very temples have been turned into schools, and the movement is but beginning. Literally the world is astir. The heathen are waking up, the nations are getting ready for the scenes of the great day of the Lord. Secretary Patton, of the Congregational Board, recently summed up the rapidity with which changes are taking place when he said:
"Within five years the missionary situation of the world has been so transformed as to be hardly recognizable by those who studied the problem in the previous period. There has been nothing like this in history since the preparation of the Roman Empire for the advent of Christ. We are in a new fulness of time."
Definitely the mighty hand of God has been moving events in the world to meet the time-table of divine prophecy. The whole world lies open. The time has come for that closing message of Revelation 14 to be carried swiftly, as by an angel in the midst of heaven, to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, crying that the hour of His judgment is already come. Since 1844, that message has been sounded. This Seventh-day Adventist people have been raised up in the providence of God to proclaim this message to all the world. The New York Methodist "Christian Advocate" recently said of this movement: "Small tho the denomination still is, it has its missionaries scattered thru every region of the globe."
Map Showing Unknown Parts of World.
Small tho the numbers may be as compared with the great churches, it is an ever-increasing body, pledged heart and soul to carry the warning cry as a witness to all nations. The message stands there in the fourteenth chapter of Revelation. No man can deny that the last phase of Gospel truth to be carried to the world before Christ comes must bear the definite warning of a judgment hour already come, and exalt the commandments of God—the Sabbath commandment included—as well as the faith of Jesus. It is for this closing message that God's providence has been preparing the way thru all the history of modern missions. Every servant of God who has gone out into the wide world scattering the word of life has been preparing the way for this crisis in the last hour of earth's history. The message is not man's message, but God's. Every missionary ought to be preaching it now, in the very terms of the prophecy. God's hand has swung open the doors and prepared the way for a quick work. True to His pledged word, "He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness; because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth."
