The Hand of God in History

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 12, 1912

The Hand of God in History

—No. 21

Notes on Important Eras of Fulfilling Prophecy

The Era of Missions

THE spreading "to and fro" of increasing knowledge of God, by the world-wide proclamation of the gospel, was to be the characteristic feature of the latter days.

The history answers to the prophecy. The last decade of the eighteenth century, that opened "the time of the end," opened also the "era of modern missions."

In his "Hundred Years of Missions," Dr. D. L. Leonard 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, a renaissance, an effectual and manifold ending of the old, a substantial inauguration of the new. It was then that for the first time since the apostolic period, occurred an outburst of general missionary zeal and activity. Beginning in Great Britain, it soon spread to the Continent and across the Atlantic. It was no mere push of fervor, but a mighty tide set in, which from that day to this has been steadily rising and spreading.

Hitherto all similar undertakings had been isolated, spasmodic, and lacking in reliable support. Spurts of vigor were certain to end in fatal relapse. Except in the case of the noble Moravian work, every attempt had thus sooner or later come to failure. But from this time forward it is no more to be after this discouraging fashion. Or the fact may be stated in this way: Hitherto the churches, ministers and people together, had been indifferent to the spiritual condition of the pagan world. Whatever had been done was the achievement of some single earnest soul, or some monarch, and usually in that case politics entered largely as a directing force. Only a little circle had been aroused and moved to co-operate, while all about was a dead mass of apathy. And so, naturally, the project ended with the originator. But with Carey was ushered in a more excellent way. A few elect spirits were touched,

and from them the flame was diffused to Christians of other names in all the dissenting churches and to the great establishment as well; that is, to the most intelligent and spiritual in each.

It was the plain people, the masses, that now began to pray and give and go, not tarrying in the least for king or prelate to noise the signal. Or this form of expression will fairly well complete the setting forth of the change which now transpired, so radical and sweeping as to amount to a revolution. Here and now was the beginning of missionary organization. From henceforth as never before, emotion, desire, holy purpose, were to be incarnated in constitutions and by-laws, in memberships and anniversaries, in treasuries and systematic giving, the continual offering of littles by each one in great multitudes. And Carey's Baptist society, which originated in his brain, was the model for the scores and hundreds which followed after. Thus was ushered in the happy day of voluntary societies, organizations sustained by such as are interested in the promotion of the objects sought.

And the year of grace 1792 is annus mirabilis, the famous date from which to reckon backward and forward. Well may it stand side by side with 44 A. D., when the Holy Ghost said, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them;" or 53 A. D., when in vision Paul was bidden to lay the foundations of the gospel in Europe. Whatever has been accomplished since can be traced to forces which began to operate a hundred years ago.—Pages 69, 70.

The date 1792 (May 31) marks the famous meeting in the back parlor of Widow Wallis's cottage, in Kettering, England, when William Carey, Andrew Fuller, and a few others organized the Baptist Missionary Society, which was the pioneering and inspiring agency in the great revival.

There was a compelling power upon Carey that would not allow him to cease his importunity that the time had come to begin the work. Dr. George Smith has written:—

Even Andrew Fuller, in 1787, replied to Carey's urgency for immediate action: "If the Lord should make windows in heaven, then might this thing be." The fact, published by his contemporaries in 1793, and verified by all the history since, is thus expressed by Dr. Ryland, another unbeliever in immediate duty, like Fuller: "I believe God himself infused into the mind of Carey that solicitude for the salvation of the heathen which can not be fairly traced to any other source."—"Short History of Christian Missions," page 160.

It was not because of their numbers, or of their resources, that the members of this little band were able to start a movement that has marked an era. Unbelievers of the world and of the church scoffed hilariously at the notion of a few poor men—"a nest of consecrated cobblers," they were called—setting out to proclaim the gospel to all the world. But "the time of the end" was at hand, the fulness of time for the beginning of the work, and the living God gave power to these feeble efforts to compass the launching of a mighty world-movement.

There was something decisive done in the decade of history that held those events closing the prophetic period of papal supremacy and those marking the opening of the era of increase of knowledge. The two orders of events present striking contrasts. Mr. W. Canton, historian of the British Bible Society, says:—

In November, 1793, when the Goddess of Reason, garlanded with oak leaves, was being enthroned on the high altar of Notre Dame, William Carey, the devoted Baptist missionary, was sailing within sight of the coast of Bengal. In the following year, when Robespierre, in the ghastly coxcombry of sky-blue coat, white stockings, and gold shoe-buckles, was giving legal sanction to the "existence of the Supreme Being," and to "that consolatory principle of the immortality of the soul," Samuel Marsden, the apostle of New Zealand, had begun his labors among the convicts of Botany Bay. One scheme of Christian benevolence took form after another.—"History of the British and Foreign Bible Society," Vol. I, page 2.

The Baptist Missionary Society (1792) was followed by the London Missionary Society (1795) and the Church [of England] Missionary Society (1799). Within a few years (1810) the first American Missionary Society was formed. "This was the beginning of the missionary age," said the late Professor Warneck, of Halle, the historian of missions.

One incident illustrates the powerful revolution of sentiment wrought by the Holy Spirit as the time of God's appointment came. Scotland has led all lands in missionary fervor. But in the Scottish Church Assembly, in 1796, a proposal to go to the heathen with the gospel was met by the introduction of a resolution stating that,—

to spread abroad the knowledge of the gospel among barbarians and heathen nations seems to be highly preposterous, in so far as philosophy and learning must in the nature of things take the precedence; and that while there remains at home a single individual without the means of religious knowledge, to propagate it abroad would be improper and absurd.

Then it was, we are told, that old Dr. Erskine cried out, "Mr. Moderator, rax me that Bible!" and he read to the assembly the great commission, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Out of the incident grew the beginning of the awakening in Scotland.

So, with the predicted hour, came the missionary movement to spread increasing knowledge through all the earth. It brought revival also in the home lands. In 1797 it was written of England: "Christians in every corner of the land are meeting in a regular manner, and pouring out their souls for God's blessing on the world." From Basel, over on the Continent, German believers sent the message to England:—

It is like the dawn promising the beautiful day after the dark night. It is the beginning of a new epoch for the kingdom of God on earth. Your undertaking and its success fills our hearts with joy and our eyes with tears. . . . You call on the wise and good of every nation to take interest in the work and bear a part. Such a call was never heard of before. It was reserved for the close of the eighteenth century to be distinguished by it.—"Hundred Years of Missions," page 91. W. A. S.

(To be concluded)