Mission; and similar undenominational societies, e.g. the Regions Beyond Missionary Union in England, and the Christian and Missionary Alliance in America, have since been founded. Other individual enterprises have been launched by persons or single churches, but such have not usually flourished for any length of time, their workers gradually attaching themselves to the larger associations.
Protestant Missions.—It is generally agreed that the period since 1885 has witnessed a very marked increase of missionary zeal and interest in Great Britain, both in the Church of England and among the Nonconformists. The improvement, indeed, dates back somewhat earlier. So far as the Church of England is concerned it may fairly be said to1. British. have started afresh in the year following the first observance of the Day of Intercession for Missions, on the 20th of December 1872. Both the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the Church Missionary Society were at that time suffering from a general coldness which, in the case of the latter society, had led in that very year to the committee reporting “a failing treasury and a scanty supply of men.” The observance of that first Day of Intercession was followed by an immediate change, and unquestionably there has been progress ever since. Then, less than five months afterwards, David Livingstone died at Ilala; and no event of the whole century did so much to wake up Protestant Christendom. Most of the missions in Central Africa owe their origin to the spirit it aroused. But the year 1884 was also an epoch to be marked. In that year Bishop Hannington went to Africa; and his murder in 1885 (first reported in England on New Year’s Day, 1886) deeply touched the Christian conscience. The speedy publication of E. C. Dawson’s biography of him worked a revolution in the circulation of missionary literature. Another event of 1884–1885 was the going forth to China of “The Cambridge Seven,” in connexion with the China Inland Mission. All were men of good family; some of them went at their own charges; and among them were the stroke-oar of the University Eight (Mr Stanley Smith) and the captain of the University Eleven (Mr C. T. Studd). Probably no event of recent years has exercised a wider influence in the cause of missions. In particular, university graduates have since then gone out as missionaries in much larger numbers than before. There are now five missions definitely linked with the universities. The Central African Mission (1858), indeed, is not for the most part manned by graduates, though it is led by them; but the Cambridge Mission at Delhi (1878), the Oxford Mission at Calcutta (1880), and the Dublin Missions in Chota Nagpur (Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 1891) and the Fuh-Kien Province of China (Church Missionary Society, 1887) consist of university men. Moreover, the older and larger societies have much increased the proportion of graduates on their staffs.
The cause of missions in the universities has been fostered greatly by the Student Volunteer Missionary Movement, initiated in America in 1886, and organized in England in 1892. The Union has over 3000 members (of whom 1400 have gone to the field), and has adopted as its watchword, “The Evangelization of the World in this Generation”; and this motto has been approved by several bishops and other Christian leaders. Another influence upon university men and others who have taken holy orders is that of the Younger Clergy Union of the Church Missionary Society (1885) and the Junior Clergy Association of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (1891). At the same time there has been a great accession of men to the missionary ranks from among other classes of society. The Anglican societies and the regular and older Nonconformist societies (Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian and the London Missionary Society, which is virtually Congregationalist) have shared in these humbler recruits; but a large proportion of them have joined several younger “non-denominational” or “interdenominational” missions. Of these the China Inland Mission is the largest and most influential; and while it has sent forth many of this class, it has also enrolled not a few men and women of considerable wealth, education and social status. The South Africa General Mission, the North Africa Mission, and the Congo Balolo Mission come next in importance; but there are several smaller bodies working in different countries. The Salvation Army also has missions in India, Ceylon and Japan; but these cannot be called “non-denominational,” because the Army has gradually become a very strict denomination itself. There is one Anglican society working, like some of those just mentioned, in one particular field, viz. the South American Missionary Society, founded in 1844. Many foreign dioceses also have associations in England for their help and support. Medical men have come forward in increasing numbers for missionary service, and medical missions are now regarded as a very important branch of the work of evangelization. They are especially valuable in Mahommedan countries, where open preaching is difficult and sometimes impossible, and also in works of mercy among barbarous tribes; while in China, which comes under neither of these two categories, they have been largely developed. There are 980 doctors (most of them fully qualified) labouring in British and American missions; and in 1910 it was calculated that the in-patients in mission hospitals exceeded 160,000, while the visits of out-patients in a year were about 5,000,000. In several of the great London hospitals there are missionary associations, the members of which are medical students; but a chief source of supply in the past has been the Edinburgh Medical Mission, founded in 1841, which, while working among the poor in that city, has trained many young doctors for missionary service.
The most remarkable development of missionary enterprise has been the employment of women. From an early date many of the wives of missionaries have done good service; but the going forth of single women in any appreciable number has only been encouraged by the societies in the last quarter of the 19th century. The Society for Promoting Female Education in the East (now absorbed by others, chiefly by the Church Missionary Society) was founded in 1834; the Scottish Ladies’ Association for the Advancement of Female Education in India (which subsequently became two associations, for more general work, in connexion with the Established and Free Churches of Scotland respectively) in 1837; the Indian Female Normal School Society (now the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission) in 1861 (taking over an association dating from 1852); the Wesleyan Ladies’ Auxiliary in 1859; the Women’s Association of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the Baptist Zenana Mission, in 1867; The London Society’s Female Branch, in 1875; the Church of England Zenana Society (an offshoot from the Indian Female Society) in 1880. But the earlier of these organizations only contemplated employing women for educational work on a very small scale. Out of it grew the visitation of Indian zenanas. The employment of women in general evangelistic work, such as village itineration, house-to-house visiting in towns, classes for female inquirers, training of native female workers, &c., although recent, has rapidly extended. The Church Missionary Society, besides relying on the above-named Zenana Bible and Medical Mission and Church of England Zenana Missionary Society for women’s work at several of its stations in India and China, sent out 500 single women in the fifteen years ending 1900; and the non-denominational missions above referred to have (including wives) more women than men engaged in their work—especially the China Inland Mission, which has sent out several hundreds to China. Women’s work and medical work are combined in the persons of nearly 300 fully-qualified lady doctors in various missions. Although nearly half the male missionaries (Protestant) are unmarried, these are exceeded in number by the unmarried women; and consequently, the husbands and wives being equal, the aggregate of women in the Missions is greater than the aggregate of men.
The home organization of missions is a subject that has been much considered. The bulk of the work has been done by voluntary societies, membership in which depends upon a pecuniary subscription, and the administration of which is entrusted to elected committees. These committees comprise not only real experts, such as retired veteran missionaries, and retired civil and military officers who have been active friends of missions while on foreign service, but also leading clergymen and laymen
