MISSIONS

MISSIONS, RELIGIOUS. It is impossible within the limits of our article to give even a hasty sketch of those great religious movements which have exercised their influence at the dawn of every civilization on the face of the globe, and have done more to change the features of national life than the sword of kings or the scourge of conquerors. The civilization of Egypt can be traced upwards to sacerdotal colonies, slowly effecting a religious revolution, and prosecuting missionary work from centres of religious influence which at first were isolated and weak. From these religious schools swarms of colonists, chiefly priests, migrated into other lands and planted a sacerdotal civilization wherever they went. Not dissimilar in kind was the advance of the Brahmins over India, spreading by colonies and conquest a religious culture not indigenous to the country; and the progress of the Buddhists, who disseminated a foreign creed as far as Japan and Central Asia. In the traditions of many barbarous nations there is a floating recollection of religious change, and of a time when their present worship was adopted by their ancestors as an improvement, at the suggestion of teachers from some other clime. Unlike the forms of worship that rose and fell around it, Judaism seems to have made few converts in the days of its prosperity; and when its doctrines became known in the Western World by means of the dispersions, it was the internal tenacity of the system, and not its expansive power, that gave it a missionary character. The Jewish colonies, although they commanded respect from their heathen neighbours, served as little more than stepping-stones conveniently placed for the spreading of Christianity when it should be revealed. From the Greek tongue and the Greek race Christianity borrowed the great machinery of its speedy diffusion. Even in the East its chief seats were the Greek colonies, and from them "it spread into China and Tartary, and from its ancient success in these quarters kept in suspense the emperors who wielded the sceptre of Zengis, whether they should desolate the world with the sword in the one hand and the Koran or

the Bible in the other." In apostolic times the choice long hung trembling in the balance whether the efforts of the first preachers were to be directed to the East or to the West; and to the operation of a few seemingly trivial causes we owe it that western Christianity is now carrying its gospel to the East, instead of missionary societies in Tartary sending their agents to convert the savages of Britain.

Under the supremacy of Rome much more might have been expected of the popes for the diffusion, if not of religion, at least of tenets that were favourable to their own interest and sovereignty, than was actually performed by them. Their attention was too much distracted by the quarrels of nominal Christendom, and the more tempting opportunities of increasing their power at home at the expense of Christian kings, to enable them to look steadily and far abroad, or to form any settled plan for extending their spiritual dominion over foreign nations. Another obstacle presented itself; the Papists were inferior in knowledge to the Moslem; the Greek church might boast of some superior civilization, but the Franks were despised by the Saracens for their ignorance and barbarity, as well as held in abomination for their gross idolatry. Their missions, therefore, were there chiefly confined to tribes of kindred and German origin, whose conversion was facilitated by the greater number of their own tongue and blood having already submitted to the papal sway.

But if the popes did little in comparison with their resources, individuals did much. The mission of St Patrick to Ireland may compare in zeal and in success with whatever had been undertaken for the spread of Christianity since the times of Constantine; and its effects were not confined to Ireland, but spread over Scotland and the north of England, and reached even to Germany. The popes, indeed, when aroused by the fear of a Tartar invasion, despatched an ill-conceived and hopeless mission to the sovereigns of Tartary, in order to avert the danger which threatened Europe, by converting them; but any real and disinterested zeal throughout the dark ages is chiefly to be found in individuals who, like the ingenious but fantastical Raymond Lully, were meditating plans for extending religion whilst the rest of the Christian world were careless and asleep.

The Reformation gave a revival to Popery itself; and as the Carthaginians sought to regain the resources which they had lost nearer home by founding a new empire in Spain, so the Roman Catholics endeavoured to counterbalance the loss of the third of Europe by extending the spiritual dominions of the church over the regions of the boundless and populous East. Of all religious revivals, the Reformation least abounded in missionary efforts, because in its origin and spread it was least of all dependent on the personal exertions of missionaries. It was the first great manifestation of the power of printing, and for a time so new and mighty an engine seemed to supersede all other exertions. It is true that so early as September 1556 fourteen Swiss missionaries took their departure from Geneva for Brazil, and the example was followed by many of the Reformed Churches; but not till the Reformed faith had suffered a long eclipse and been again restored to vigour, were any commensurate efforts made to carry the gospel to heathen territory. In modern times the scale of missionary effort has rapidly risen, until at the present moment there are few sects of Christians, however weak, who do not bestow some of their activity on this work. Instead of entering into particular details, which must be sought for in the lives of eminent missionaries given in this work, we prefer to begin our survey by a comprehensive table, containing a list of the principal missionary bodies, the sphere of their missions, the number of communicants reported as belonging to their churches, and of scholars attending their schools.