Missionai-y Labors. — The native tribes of the moun- tains remain very largely in heathen ignorance. ]Many of the Moluccans were made converts to Mohammedan- ism even before the appearance of Christians on the soil, and Islamism is gaining new adherents daily. Christianity, on the other hand, has thus far secured but few in number, as the first impression made by the Portuguese did not result \ ery favorably. The Inquisi- tion at Goa extended its power to these parts, and tried hard to carry the Moluccans into the Christian fold, but failed utterly.
The exchange of ownership imported the Protestant doctrines, but the natives have failed to see much dif- ference between Romanism and the Reformed faith, and Islam is still ahead. All efforts until 1815 made by Protestants are hardly worth mentioning. In that year Jos. Kasse, in the employ of the Ruttcnlam Mis- sionary .iocii'tji (Zenddinggcnootschap"), inaugurated successful efforts fur the conversion of the Moluccans, and for eighteen years apostolic labors were perform- ed there. In 1811) missionary Jungmichel inaugurat- ed successful labors at Tcrnate and in the Sangur Isl- ands. At the same time valuable enterprises were in- augurated also at Timor and Amboyna. To tlie for- mer Lebrun went, lie sottle<l at Cupang. tlie seat of the Dutch governor, on the south coast of Timor. Por twenty years there had been no Christian minister among the natives there, who jirofess Christianity. With so much greater eagerness did they now crowd to the missionary's preaching; and in the very first year ninety pagans were admitted to the Church, which al- ready consisted of 3000 professed Christians. More- over, the rajah of Rotti submitted himself to Christ cru- cified; and in 1823 Lebnin baptized in Little Timor, Kissor, Lctti, and Moa, -106 persons. The Friciutly So- ciety whicJi he established was subscribed to even by some of the pagan princes, lie everywhere formed
schools, and to the remote churches he addressed pas- toral letters, after the manner of the apostles, of the good effect of which there are verj- pleasing testimo- nies. A few years before his death, which took place in 1829, eight missionaries more arrived, who distrib- uted themselves among various stations, and made it one part of their business to establish more fundamen- tally in Christianity the churches and congregations that had been gained to it. Their work, in(ltc(", is often exceedingly harassing and fatiguing. The centre, how- ever, of missionary labors in the archipelago is, and al- ways has been, Amboyna. Its uihabitaiits have since 1850 been regarded as Christians. The Rotterdam So- ciety has a number of stations there, and a seminary for the education of native teachers. These stations are now subject to the Church at Batavia, and it is antici- pated that the Dutch government will recognise the missionaries as stationed pastors, and contribute for their support. See Sonncrat, Voyofje to ihc Sjiice Isl- ands; Forrest, Voyage to New Guinea ; Crawford, Hist, of the Indian Archipelago, i, 18 sq. ; Earl, .Yr;//r<- Races of the Indian A rchipelago, ch. vi ; Daniel, llandbuch der Geographic, i, 323 sq. ; Grundemann, Missions-At- las, pt. ii, No. 6 ; Newcomb, Cyclop, of Missions, p. 485 sq.
Molyneux, William, an Irish mathematician and pliilosiiiiliir, who was born at Dublin April 17, 1G56, was educated at the university of his native place, and afterv.-ards studied law, is noted as one of the founders of the " Dublin IMiilosophical Society," of which he was (irst secretary (1083), and then president, and as the author of twenty-seven papers on miscellaneous subjects inserted in the " Philosophical Transactions" between 1084 and 1716, and of a Translation of the six Mela- physical Bissei-futions of Descartes, together uilh the Objections against them hy Thomas Ilolbes (Lond. 1671). Jlolyneux was a devoted Protestant, and during the political disturbances was obliged to seek refuge in England in 1088. After the battle of the Boyne he re- turned again to Ireland. Among the many ])ersons of literary eminence with whom !Molyncux maintained a correspondence, Locke was held by him in particular esteem, and in the last year of his life lie went to Eng- land for the purpose of visiting that philosopher. Mol- yneux died in Dublin Oct. 11, 1698. (J. H. ^^'.)
Mom'dis (IMo/icm'c v. r. Mo^/t^joc), given (1 Esdr. ii, 4) in place of Maadai (q. v.) of the Heb. (Ezra x, 34).
Moment ("5"^, re'ga, the u-inh of an eye, i. e. an insteint ; ffrty/u'/, a point of time, Luke iv, 5).
Momiers or Mummers (from the French word momerie — mummiry, hypocrisy) is a name of contempt given to a sect of Calvinistic IMethodists in French Switzerland. In the first part of the present century we find in Switzerland, as in Germany, a conflict be- tween the old confessional faith and Rationalism. The Genevan school had broken loose from rigid Calvinism, and the heresies of Arianism and Sociniaiiism were taught and believed. But after the great political events of the years 1813-15 we see the old evangelical faith beginning once more to assert itself, young the- ologians in (ieneva and the canton Vaud declaring in favor of orthodox preaching, and avowing the then almost forgotten doctrines of Christ's divinity and of total human depravity. Their preaching caused great bitterness of feeling. Emjiaytaz, genoriilly recognised as the first ]>rcacher of the IVIoiniers at that time, was in 1810 obliged to quit Geneva, and in 1817 the "Venera- ble Comiiagnie des Pasteurs" (i. c. the Presbytery of (ieneva) issued a formal prohibition against preaching on those doctrines which had ever been held as the fundamental doctrines of the Reformed Church. Tliis arbitrary action led to an open rupture bttwcen the evangelical and rationalistic parties. A number of preachers — among fhem.Malan (q.v.), Enipaytaz.Gaus- sen, Bost, Galland, and Drummond (a British Method-