The Era of Missions by W. A. Smith

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Sep 19, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 38.

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The Era of Missions

By W. A. Smith

The Hand of God in History — No. 21

Notes on Important Eras of Fulfilling Prophecy

The Era of Missions

(Concluded)

Just as the call of missions was meeting a response in Christendom, there came also into the hearts of men a new determination to open up the countries of the world which had been discovered, and to lay bare the secrets of unknown lands and peoples. This desire to find new avenues of commerce, and the natural spirit of adventure and love of learning, were factors, under providential overruling, in the missionary advance.

To many an explorer, and martyr to science and the extension of human knowledge, might be applied the word spoken by the Lord to Cyrus: “I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me.” Others have been conscious of the divine impulse upon them to press on and on into the regions beyond, blazing many a trail along which later the gospel missionary passed.

There was Mungo Park, for instance, the Scottish surgeon in the service of the African Society, seeking the route to Timbuktu for the benefit of trade. When at last he reached the upper Niger, flowing eastward, “broad as the Thames at Westminster,” he fell on his knees and “gave fervent thanks to God,” who had granted him success in his perilous journeyings. And after two years he returned, in 1797, having collected, it is said, “more facts as to the geography, manners, and customs of the country than all preceding travelers.” And these were the facts that began to give West Africa a place in the thoughts of the awakening church at home.

The journal of Captain Cook’s voyages among the Pacific islands (1768-79) was one of the influences that deepened William Carey’s conviction that the time had come when not alone explorers, but missionaries of the cross of Christ, must be out in the wilds, telling the good news among the heathen peoples.

Speaking of Africa during the later years of the eighteenth century, Jules Verne wrote:—

“During the eighteenth century Africa was literally besieged by travelers. Explorers endeavored to penetrate into it from every side. More than one succeeded in reaching the interior, only to meet with repulse or death. This discovery of the secrets of this mysterious continent was reserved for our own age, when the unexpected fertility of its resources has astonished the civilized world.”

The newly started missionary movement was knocking and prying at hitherto closed doors. Just a glance at the story must suffice to suggest how that early period witnessed the opening of the outer doors and the gaining of the first footholds.

India

When Carey landed in Calcutta, in 1793, he found missionaries decidedly not wanted. British India was then a possession of the East India Company. “One of the company’s directors said that he would rather see a band of devils than a band of missionaries in India. From 1792 to 1812 religious and educational labor was prohibited.” But an open door was found in the little settlement of Serampore (on the river above Calcutta), which providentially had been left under the Danish government.

Here Carey and his associates planted the mission which for many years was “the model and stimulus of almost all others.” In 1800 the first convert of the mission from Hinduism was baptized in the River Hooghly, one of the mouths of the sacred Ganges. Next year the Serampore press issued the New Testament in Bengali; and thus the opening of the new century saw the work of missions permanently established in India.

China

Here, too, as the end of the eighteenth century came, there were only barriers in view. Dr. Leonard says of China’s policy at this period:—

“It was largely through mortal fear of invasion and conquest that it was decided at length to close and bar every gate. . . . All trade with foreigners was to be confined strictly to Canton, and to a tract fifteen acres outside the walls. . . . It was a capital offense to teach the language to any ‘outside barbarian.’”

But in this time of missionary revival, hearts were praying for a way into China. In 1804 Robert Morrison was under appointment in London; and in 1807 he landed in Canton, having sailed via New York, because passage to a missionary was refused in the ships of the East India Company.

“So then, Mr. Morrison,” the New York shipping agent had airily said, “you really expect to make an impression on the idolatry of the great Chinese empire?” “No, sir,” Morrison quickly replied; “but I expect that God will.” The expectation was realized. With many a token of providential care, the missionary acquired the forbidden language; and by his labors in Bible translation and the compilation of a dictionary, was used of God in laying the foundation for Protestant missions in China.

Morrison had believed that the living God would open even China’s doors as the hand of faith knocked for entrance. “Some pious people,” he said, “justify their apathy concerning the inhabitants of the eastern limit of Asia, by saying they perceive no opening; they see no movement. As if the dry bones were to move before they were breathed upon! as if the door were to be opened before any herald of salvation knocked at it!” He did not live to see the doors flung really open; but the hour came at last, and to-day every missionary in China thanks the guiding Providence that sent Morrison to knock at the barred gates in the early years of the missionary century.

Africa

Treating the subject of modern missions in Africa chronologically, the late Dr. James Stewart (in “Dawn in the Dark Continent”) divided the history into three periods, thus:—

The Early Period—from 1790 to about 1840.
The Middle Period—from 1840 to 1860.
The Recent Period—from 1860 to 1900.

The early period, it will be noted, opens with the closing decade of the eighteenth century. A single Moravian missionary had earlier founded a station seventy miles from Cape Town, in 1736. But his work met bitter opposition, and was abandoned a few years later, when he was deported, charged with being “a great Hottentot converter.” In 1792 the

Moravians renewed their work, and in 1799 British missionary effort began, since which has come the extension of missions into so many parts of the Dark Continent.

The South Seas

The London Missionary Society directed its first efforts to the South Pacific. In 1796 the first mission ship, the "Duff," sailed from London for the Society Islands. As the ship started down the Thames toward the sea, the thirty missionaries on board sang the hymn "Jesus, at thy command I launch into the deep." If the inspiration of the missionary movement had been a merely human impulse, the practical difficulties in the way and the powerlessness of all human effort before a single unconverted soul, would quickly have halted the advance. Of the launching of this South Sea effort and its early history, Dr. Leonard says:—

“The tide of enthusiasm ran high, and great things for the gospel were expected soon and easily to be brought to pass. But bitter disappointment, and sorrow, and pain were in store; for the better part of two decades the two words failure and waste seemed to sum up the results, though as we now can plainly discern, the results of that undertaking, direct and indirect, near and more remote, were so various and so great that the ship which bore the pioneers to their destination may fittingly be classed with the ‘Mayflower,’ and even with the three caravels which some three hundred years before put forth westward from Palos.”—‘Hundred Years of Missions,’ page 250.

Thus, as the "time of the end" came, there was sent of God a distinct evangelical and missionary revival. Barriers were broken through. Doors double-locked to shut out the messengers of light were thrown open; there was a searching and a running to and fro, and knowledge was increased; and the missionary movement then set going is spreading still into all the world.

"The healing fount that in Ezekiel's dream Forth issued from the temple's sacred sill— Behold it now no more a slender rill, But far and wide an overflowing stream, That doth each heathen land with hope and gladness fill."