Missions

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

2026 Editor's Note: This page uses language about race that was commonplace when the book was published and is offensive by today's standards. The text has been left exactly as it was printed, rather than cut or softened, so that the historical record — including how ordinary such language once was — is preserved. (Ed: ET 2026-07-22) an organized method of propagating a religion: specifically, the propagandism of Christianity among the heathen. Apostolic and Mediæval Missions. The Gospel made great progress during the lifetime of the apostles and found a footing in most countries to the E. and N. of the Mediterranean. It was also successfully introduced into Egypt and other African regions. As the result of persecutions thousands of converts were scattered abroad and Christian churches were founded in Persia, Mesopotamia, and Arabia. Within a century after preached over a large part of the Roman world. Alexandria early became noted for its missionary college from which teachers were sent to all parts of the world. By the close of the 2d century also Carthage had its church with Tertullian at its head. In 306 19 bishops assembled at Elvira in Spain. The Goths and Vandals came down on the Roman empire from the N. and carried away many Christian captives. Ulfilas, the descendant of one of these, translated the Bible into Gothic and is regarded as the Apostle of the Goths. Before the time of Constantine there were churches of considerable extent in the S. and N. sections of Britain, due not so much to missionaries as to the natural intercourse of Britain with Rome. These churches, however, became distinguished for their missionary zeal and Saint Patrick is commonly regarded as their leader. He found Ireland entirely heathen and lived to see it become Christian. As the Scotch Patrick was the apostle to Ireland, so in a certain way was the Irish Colomba the apostle of Scotland. The island of Iona with its monastery became of missionary center and Aidan a sort went from there to Northumbria and established missions. The Scotch-Irish missionaries were the evangelists of a large part of the European continent. Columbanus, Gallus, and "a host of others numerous as a swarm of bees," introduced, together with religion, agriculture and civilization into France, Switzerland, and other parts of Europe. The English Boniface became the apostle of Germany. Ansgar, a monk of Corvey in the 9th century, under the influence of Louis the Pious, preached in Denmark and Sweden. The Russian prince Vladimir was baptized in 988 with all of his sons (in the Dnieper at Kief) and his people. Kublai Khan, a grandson of the famous Genghis Khan, a ruler of the E. Mongol empire, sent for missionaries to tell him about the new doctrine. It is supposed that the Nestorian-Tartar church flourished till the country was devastated by the Mongols. It is almost certain that the Nestorians intro- India and that duced the Gospel into they passed through Tartary into China and founded churches there which ex- 9th century. As isted till the end of the early as the year 1200 Albert I. of Appeldern went with a band of pilgrims to the mouth of the Düna river and founded the city of Riga and established there the Brotherhood of the Knights of Christ, or the Brethren of the Sword. He has been called the Bishop of Livonia. One of the most remarkable missionaries of Christ the Gospel had probably been the Middle Ages was Raymond Lully. The Roman Catholics after the discovery of the new world founded several missionary orders, chief among which were the Jesuits , Capuchins, Dominicans, and Franciscans. Their object was the extension of the Church among the Mussulmans of Spain, north Africa, and western Asia. Francis Xavier was sent as an apostolic nuncio for India, and worked with wonderful success in all parts of India and the islands of the Chinese archipelago . He labored for years with success in Japan. In 1622 Pope Gregory XV. established a society for the propagation of the Gospel, and that has ever since controlled the mission enterprises of the Church. It has its seat in Rome where there is a college for the training of missionary priests . Protestant Missions. In 1555 a company of men including several missionaries sailed for Brazil with a hope of establishing there an asylum for the Huguenots, but it was unsuccessful. In 1559 Gustavus Vasa sent a missionary to Lapland , but it was more than half a century before the country was Christianized. In 1612 a college for the training of missionaries was established at the University of Leyden and a few years later the Dutch introduced Christianity into Java. Their success was so great that 100,000 Christians were counted there in 1721 and a single missionary in Formosa had baptized nearly 6,000 adults and taught 600 of the natives to read. In Ceylon alone the Dutch Church in 1722 reckoned over 240,000 members. John Eliot, "the apostle of the Indians," came to America early in the 17th century under the auspices of the Corporation for the Spread of the Gospel in New England. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was founded in 1701 for work among the British colonies rather than among pagans. Early in the 18th century the first Protestant mission was sent to India. It was projected by the King of Denmark, and continued throughout the greater part of the 18th century. At first, and for a long time, tim Germany supplied the missionaries; but the pecuniary support of the mission soon devolved on England, Prince George of Denmark, the husband of Queen Anne, having recommended the object of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. In 1847 the entire mission passed into the hands of the Leipsic Society. In 1731 Count Zinzendorf, the patron of the United Brethren called the Moravians, visited Copenhagen and there saw two Eskimos and a negro from boy the Danish West Indies. When he returned he told the story and two of the Moravians resolved to go to St. Thomas and teach the slaves the Gospel. This was the beginning of the missionary enterprises of the Moravians. Their work from their first beginnings in St. Thomas and Greenland in 1732 to their latest undertaking in the Tibetan Himalayas is most interesting. In 1786 Thomas Coke who had been sent to Nova Scotia, was , the Methodist driven to the West Indies by a storm. The story which he brought back of heathen conditions was the foundation of the Methodist missions. William C was the first English Protestant to en- Carey gage personally in the work, which led to the foundation of the Calvinist Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen and in his family, set sail for India and landed 1793 he, with at Calcutta where he laid the foundations of the later missions in Asia. In 1794 an address to professors of the Gospel calling for the support of at least 20 or 30 missionaries among the heathen was published. This led to the foundation of the London Missionary Society which began its work by the dispatch to the South Seas of 29 missionaries. In mission in Madagascar was established. 1818 the The Church of England felt the impulse of missions and in 1799 started a society for missions to Africa and the East which was afterward called the Church Missionary Society for Africa and the East. Henry Martyn, the pioneer missionary, had intended to go out under their auspices but he went out ish chaplain. Their first expedition was as a Britto west Africa . They went to New Zealand in 1814, the Levant in 1815, India in 1816 , and Ceylon in 1817. Work among the Indians of northwest America in 1826, work in equatorial Africa in 1844, in China in 1845 and in Japan in 1869 was carried on by this remarkable society. The Wesleyan Missionary Society was formed in 1814 and entered the field in south Africa. Missions in New South Wales were established in 1815, in Tasmania in 1821, among the Maoris of New Zealand in 1822, the Friendly Islands in 1826, in the Fiji Isin lands in 1834, in Victoria in 1838, in Queensland in 1850, and in China in 1853. The American Board of Missions organized at Bradford, Mass., June 29, was 1810. In January, 1812, the first missionaries sailed to India, but when they reached Calcutta they were home by the British East India Comordered pany, on the ground that commercial interests would be jeopardized if any attempt were made to interfere with the religious faith of the Hindus. Two of the missionaries to India changed their views in regard to baptism and this led to the formation of the American Baptist Missionary Union in May, 1814. The Ceylon mission was begun in 1816 and a foreign mission school was founded at Cornwall, Conn., in the same year, but the school was abandoned in 1826. Missions were opened among the Cherokee Indians in 1817 and among the Choctaws in 1819. The first mission in the Hawaiian Islands was established in 1819. The first missionary to China went out in 1829. In 1830 missions were established in Asia Minor and Persia and in 1831 in Athens. The Gabun mission in west Africa was sent out in 1834 and that to the Zulus in south Africa in 1835; that in Japan in 1869. The first mission work of the Presbyterian Church was directed to the evangelization of India. The Western Missionary Society was organized in Fitchburg about the close of the 18th century. In 1818 the United Foreign Missionary Society was formed but did not enter the foreign field. The Presbyterians worked through the American Board till 1870. In 1870 the Presbyterian Board of Missions was formed and took charge of the Persian, Syrian, and Gabun missions. The missionary society of the Methodist Church was organized in 1819. In 1835 they established the Brazil Mission. The first Methodist missionaries to China sailed in 1847, to Bulgaria in 1852, to India in 1856, to Japan in 1872, to Mexico in 1873, to Korea in 1885 and to Malaysia in 1889. A Domestic Foreign Missionary Society of the Episcopal Church was founded in 1835, occupying China in the same year, Japan in 1859, and Haiti in 1861. The World War checked missionary advance, but great progress has since been made. At the Foreign Missionary Conference of North America held in New York the annual income was stated to be $20,400,000 as compared with $16,- 935,741 in 1915.