THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
I. Origin and Character. II. In Germany. III. In Great Britain. 1. The Religious Tract Society.
TRACT SOCIETIES.
Origin and Development (§ 1). Its Tracts (§ 2). Its Issues of Books (§3). Aids to Foreign Missions (§ 4).
2. Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge.
3. Other Societies. IV. In America.
I. Origin and Character: Tract societies are associations for the dissemination of brief popular religious treatises, especially on present-day problems and questions of personal life, among wider circles than are immediately reached by the Church, thus seeking to counteract the circulation among the masses of tenets and principles either meager in faith or hostile to Christianity. The tract may be said to begin with the Reformation, as in Luther's ninety-five theses of 1517, which he followed with a long series of pamphlets, being imitated in this respect by other German, Swiss, and French Reformers. Later, English Puritans and Methodists, German pietists, and Moravians affected the circulation of tracts; but it was especially the Augsburg senior Johann Urlsperger and the English Hannah More, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, who were responsible for the formation of tract societies. In 1782 the former established at Basel the Deutsche Christentumsgesellschaft to unite Christians against the rationalism of the period; while the latter, after having combated French atheism by tracts which reached a circulation of 2,000,000, found her work carried on by the Edinburgh Tract Society (founded in 1796) and the London Religious Tract Society (established in 1799). On the model, and partly with the aid, of the latter organization, associations were soon formed in a number of places for the circulation of tracts, their work being carried on more or less in connection with home missions.
II. In Germany: The most important tract societies in Germany are as follows: Christlicher Verein im nordlichen Deutschland (Eisleben, 1811); Wupperthaler Traktatgesellschaft (Wupperthal, 1814); Hauptverein fur christliche Erbauungsschriften in den preussischen Staaten (Berlin, 1814); Xiedersachsische Gesellschaft zur Verbreitung christlicher Erbauungsschriften (Hamburg, 1820); Evangelische Gesellschaft (Stuttgart, 1832); Evangelische Bucherstiftung in Stuttgart, or Calwer Verein (Calw, 1833) ; Evangelische Gesellschaft in Strassburg (Strasburg, 1834); Verein zur Verbreitung christlicher Schriften (Basel, 1834); Agentur des Rauhen Hauses (Hamburg, 1842); Evangelischer Bucherverein (Berlin, 1845); Evangelische Gesellschaft fur Deutschland (Elberfeld, 1848); Evangelischer Verein fur die protestantische Pfalz (1848); Xurnberger evangelischer Verein fur innere Mission (Nuremberg, 1850); Schriftenabteilung der Gesellschaft fur innere Mission im Sinne der lutherischen Kirche (1850); Christlicher Kolportageverein in Baden (1867); Nassauischer Kolportageverein (Herborn, 1873); Deutsche evangelische Traktatgesellschaft (Berlin, 1879); and Christlicher Zeitschriften verein (Berlin, 1880). The circulation of pfennig sermons begun by the Berlin city mission in 1881 serves a like purpose; the Verein fur christliche Volksbildung fur Rhein-
land und Westfalen (Cologne, 1882); and the Deutsche Zentralstelle zur Forderung der Volksund Jugendlektiire (Hamburg, 1905), and the popularly scientific Lehr und Wehr furs deutsche Yolk (Hamburg, 1904 sqq.). The chief problems of German tract societies at the present time are, on the one hand, popular demonstration of the applicability of the Gospel to the problems of social and economic life to controvert the false glamour of Social Democracy, and, on the other hand, the defense of Christianity against rationalistic criticism and the theories of evolutionistic monism. The circulation of tracts is carried on chiefly by branch establishments of the societies and by colporteurs; and the desired results are best attained on the basis of personal acquaintance and with regard to the requirements of each case, inferior results being gained by promiscuous distribution of religious literature. (H. Rahlenbeck.)
III. In Great Britain. — 1. The Religious Tract Society : The great development of missionary interest which marked the last years of the eighteenth century led in 1799 to the formation by George
, _ . . Burder and others of the Religious
1 • On b*t ti
and De- Tract Society. Their act was the more velopment. fruitful in the case of Christian literature as, in 1804, its founders also originated the British and Foreign Bible Society. Starting with the production of simple tracts for home use, the society's work rapidly developed. The production of books and periodicals was added; work was undertaken for Roman Catholic countries on the continent of Europe; and, as early as the year 1814, assistance was given to Christian literature for China on the appeal of Drs. William Milne and Robert Morrison (qq.v.); while other parts of the heathen and Mohammedan world rapidly came under the society's influence. Its present operations extend to every quarter of the globe, the society continuing to be an agency for producing Christian literature in or for the mission fields of the world. So far it has used 272 languages and dialects in the course of this work, and every year sees some addition to this total.
Placing first its original work of producing English tracts, the society still provides literature of this type for all classes of the community. Its Present Day Tracts and its Tracts for the Tracts Times, written by men of learning and position in the churches, address themselves to the greater problems of theological criticism and social life. In its biographical scries the lives of men and women eminent in the Christian Church of all ages are treated by writers of position. The necessity of producing special tracts for distribution among men originated its series of Letters to My Brothers and The Men's Own. Much of tract distribution being conducted upon a regular system, requiring a constant supply of new tracts,