RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Missions to the Heathen
neither of these had any comprehension of the missionary task. The dislike nourished by orthodoxy for the Pietist mission was also felt 3. Apathy toward that of Herrnhut; the rationunder Ra- alistic spirit, however, which soon tionalistic spread over the whole Christian world, Influences, had for all missions the same contemptuous dislike, since toleration was its chief glory. But since the Moravian brotherhood cherished Zinzendorf's inheritance faithfully and bravely, even in such an unfortunate time it came to form a living bond with the great missionary movement of Germany and England in the nineteenth century; a movement that owed more of its inspiration to Herrnhut than isolated facts prove. As in Germany Rationalism dug the grave of the Danish and Halle mission, so in Holland, also, it proved destructive. Under its baleful influence, the Dutch Colonial Mission, which had grown more and more mechanical and feeble, became nearly extinct. Besides this, the colonial government changed its policy, considering it wiser to favor Mohammedanism, and this attitude was maintained until the latter half of the nineteenth century. In England from 1698 and 1701 existed the two societies already mentioned. In Scotland, also, a Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge was founded, which from 1740 sent some missionaries to the North American Indians, among them David Brainerd (q.v.). Otherwise there was but little interest and no activity in missions up to the last decade of the eighteenth century, although Great Britain had in the mean while become the foremost sea-power. The cause lay in the low level of moral and religious life which obtained after the Restoration (1660). In the fifth decade of the eighteenth century an awakening took place which did not immediately develop a missionary activity, but in which lay hidden the motive power that, in the following generation, caused the great mission movement with which the present missionary era began. John Wesley and George Whitefield (qq.v.) were the instruments of the impressive awakening which extended to the following generation and from it to the European countries and North America. It was the great importance of the English revival that, accompanied as it was by a series of great events in the world's history, it opened the ears of the awakened part of Evangelical Christianity to the voice of the Holy Ghost, reminding it of the nearly forgotten missionary command and rendering it both capable and willing to obey this command.
3. The Present Mission Era: The modern missionary movement was not due solely to the religious revival just mentioned; a series of secular facts of historical importance contributed. Among these, four play the principal part: (1) the great geographical discoveries which began with Captain Cook and the extension of the world's commerce which ensued; (2) the struggles against the slavetrade and slavery; (3) the awakening of the national conscience of England against the arbitrary rule of the East India Company; and (4) the growth of colonial conquest.
To what a degree earnest Christians, especially
in England, were aroused by the discoveries of
Cook, appears clearly in a number of tracts, issued
in the last decades of the eighteenth
1. Events century, which sought to arouse en- Leadingr to thusiasm for the missionary cause by
Renewed reference to these discoveries; in the Effort, great influence which they exerted on William Carey (q.v.), the great pioneer of the missionary movement and the founder of the first modern missionary society, and in the choice of a group of South Sea Islands (Tahiti) as the first field of labor of the second modern missionary society, that of London. The discoveries of Cook were followed by others which continually attained greater proportions, especially in Africa, and the fact always repeated itself that, as Livingstone said: " The end of the geographical act is the beginning of missionary enterprise." The agitation for the abolition of the slave-trade and of slavery, carried on in connection with the ideas of political liberty and philanthropy, also drew the attention of Christians to the heathen world. The leader in this agitation was William Wilberforce (q.v.). After a struggle of nineteen years, the slave-trade was at last, in 1807, declared illegal, and in 1834 slavery itself was abolished in the English colonies. Already in 1791, a philanthropic society was formed, which transported liberated English and American slaves to Sierra Leone and made their civilization its exclusive task. The experiment was unsuccessful, but it helped the foundation of the Missionary Society of the English Church (1799), in which Wilberforce took an active part. England had in the mean time become a great colonial power, but the old colonial history of England was full of bloodshed, treachery, injustice and harshness against the subject peoples, especially those of India. Since 1600 a company of merchant princes, who had little by little become a conquering power, had possessed a monopoly of the commerce with India. It had but one aim: to enrich itself. Besides this, its officials led godless lives, kept large harems, and looked upon it as an amusing spectacle when their concubines paid worship to their idols. The rule of this company lasted for more than eighty years in India without the erection of a single church for their officials, and of the few chaplains who from 1698 were sent out as a result of the renewal of the charter, a governorgeneral said: " Their black garb offers no protection against the general moral corruption." In the beginning the company was religiously indifferent, and afterward it was bitterly hostile to all missionary endeavor. Therefore, when the unjust wars which it waged, the violation of treaties which was a part of its policy, and the oppressive taxation which impoverished the people became known at home, there began a struggle in 1783 against this misgovernment, which lasted for thirty years and ended in the legally enforced opening of India to the missionaries. In these struggles, the recognition of the sins of omission of the government toward its heathen subjects grew in England, so that the missionary duty came to be regarded as a national obligation.
Missions to the Heathen