It was then that for the first time
since the apostolic period, occurred an outburst of general
missionary zeal and activity. Beginning in Great Britain, it
soon spread to the Continent and across the Atlantic. It was no
mere push of fervor, but a mighty tide set in, which from that
day to this has been steadily rising and spreading."--_"A
Hundred Years of Missions," p. 69._
The time of the prophecy had come, and the hand of providence was
bringing into being agencies that have spread light and knowledge over
all lands.
"Look where the missionary's feet have trod--
Flowers in the desert bloom; and fields, for God,
Are white to harvest. Skeptics may ignore;
Yet on the conquering Word, from shore to shore,
Like flaming chariot, rolls. Ask ocean isles,
And plains of Ind, where ceaseless summer smiles;
Speak to far frozen wastes, where winter's blight
Remains;--they tell the love, attest the might
Of Him whose messengers across the wave
To them salvation bore, hope, freedom gave."
--_Horace D. Woolley._
The organization of foreign missionary enterprise was quickly
accompanied by the establishment of Bible societies for a systematic
work of translating and world-wide distribution of the Scriptures.
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