A CENTURY'S MISSIONS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 813, 10 May 1910, Page 4

A CENTURY'S MISSIONS.

SOME SURPRISING DEYELOP- ■" ■ MENTS. The Btory of a century' of foreign missionary achiovcrrcnfc is full • of inspiration for tho futuro: 1810. ■ Nearly every country in Asia ana.Africa waa closed to tho Gospel. , Tho Church did not believo in foreign, missions.' . There wero practically .no Protestant Christians in heathen lands. Only ono hundred foreign ' missionaries had been sent out. • Tho Bible was translated into only sixty-five languages. Ojily a few thousands of..dollars-were given yearly for foreign missions. ■ Thero were no.medical mi&sioijarios. Thero were no. mission hospitals or orphanages. ■ There was no' native Christian ministry. Missionary "work was not recognised, in American and British colleges. There were no unmarried women missionaries, and no organised work for women. There wore no mission presses or agencies for preparing - and distributing Christian .literature in non-Chris-tian lands: ' '. 1910. Practically every nation in the world is open to missionaries. All evangelical Churches are interested in missions. To speak against missions is counted a disgrace, and a j sign of ignorance. • ' M6ro than two million Protestant Christians have been gathered in, heathen lands—besides ■ all who have died in the. faith. , There aro nearly 22,000 foreign missionaries in tho world. Tho Biblo has been translated into about 500 languages and dialects. Total foreign missionary contributions amount to nearly £5,000,000 annually. Thousands of medical .missionaries in the , heathen lands treat throo million patients a year. Thero aro 400 mission hospitals and over 500 orphanages find asylums in foroigi) lands, oporated by missionaries. Thero aro over 6000 unmarried tomon missionaries to heathen women and children. There aro about 93,000 uativo pastors, ovangelists, ete., working among their own pcoplo. 1 . There aro nearly 30,000 schools and colleges conducted by Protestant missionaries in foreign lands. Thero aro over 160 publisliing houses and mission presses, and <100 Christian periodicals are published on- tho mission fields. Thousands of college students aro on tho mission field, and thousands aro preparing • to go. And .yet to-day ono thousand million pcoplo aro ignorant of tho Gospel of Jesus, tho Christ, tho Son of God and Saviour of tho world. —"Tho Missionary Review of tho .World." •