The closing years of the 18th century and the early years of the 19th were marked by the foundation of several of the leading missionary societies of modern Protestant Christianity. The estab lishment of private societies not officially sponsored by the State and in most cases not officially supported by the Churches, is characteristic of this modern effort. William Carey, a Baptist cobbler in Northampton, and also a great linguist as well as a botanist and zoologist, published in 1792 his Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, and the book marks a distinct point of departure in the history of Christianity. Under its influence twelve ministers at Kettering in October 1792 subscribed £13 :2s :6d to begin the Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen, and Carey left in 1793 for India. In 1795 the London Missionary Society was formed by a group of evangelical ministers of all denominations, particularly for work in the South Sea Islands. The evangelical movement in the Church of England took missionary form in the Church Missionary Society, established in '799 under the guidance of John Venn and Thomas Scott as "The Society for Missions to Africa and the East." This great society from its inception maintained cordial relations with the missionary societies of the Nonconformist Churches. In 1814 the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society was founded. In Scotland private missionary organizations in Edinburgh and Glasgow gave place to the organized work of the Church of Scotland, whose first mis sionary, sent out in 1829, was the famous Alexander Duff, the pioneer of the educational method in missions.
On the Continent of Europe there was a similar movement. The Basel Mission, which came to have large work on the Gold Coast of Africa and in India, was founded in 1815, drawing sup port from both southern Germany and Switzerland. Other Ger man societies arose, such as the Leipzig, the Berlin and the Rhen ish. The Netherlands Missionary Society (1797) in Holland began the evangelization of the Dutch Colonial possessions. The French a little later began their famous mission in South Africa. In North America at the very end of the 18th century small societies were founded with a view to the evangelization of the Indians. The action of three students at Williams College in Massachusetts, who in 1806 formed themselves into a mission band, led to the formation of the American Board of Commission ers for Foreign Missions, an interdenominational society which like the London Missionary Society is now virtually, though not formally, a Congregationalist organization. The first offshoot from it was the American Baptist Missionary Union in 1814. The Methodist Episcopal Church founded its mission board, now the largest Protestant Missionary organization in the world, in 1819, and in 1837 the Presbyterians began a similar work.
No account of the stages by which the modern missionary movement developed would be complete without reference to two important features, which are to be taken into view along with the official work of the different denominational societies. First, there are the important bodies such as the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (1698), the Religious Tract Society of Scotland (1793), of London (1799), and America (1823), and most important of all, the great Bible Societies (q.v.)—the British and Foreign Bible Society (1804) and the
American Bible Society (1816).
Secondly, there is the individual type of mission such as the China Inland Mission, founded by J. Hudson Taylor who went out to China in 1853 ; it has now over I,000 missionaries there.
Recent Developments : Protestant. (1) Great Britain.— The eighties of last century marked a period of increased inter est in missionary work throughout Great Britain. One of the principal causes of this increased interest was the world-wide attention given to the life and work of David Livingstone and particularly to his death in 1873. In 1874 Bishop Hannington went to Africa and his murder in 1885 deeply touched the Chris tian conscience. In 1884-85 came the famous offer of service by the "Cambridge Seven," led by Stanley Smith and C. T. Studd. The offer for service in China on the part of these seven men gave an impetus to missionary interest in the Universities, not only in Great Britain but also in America, on the Continent and in the Dominions.
The principal instrument in the development of missionary interest among students has undoubtedly been the Student Volun teer Movement for Foreign Missions organized in 1886 in Amer ica and the Student Volunteer Missionary Union organized in 1892 in Great Britain.
Medical Missions have greatly developed and in certain coun tries, notably in Mohammedan lands and in such tracts as the North-West Frontier of India, are of singular value. In China the development of missionary medical training has been very noticeable and medical missions occupy an unusual place in rela tion to the medical profession.
Perhaps the most remarkable development of the missionary enterprise has been the great extension of women's work. It has only been in the last quarter of the nineteenth century that the missionary societies have engaged unmarried women to go out in any appreciable numbers. The larger denominations have devel oped their own Women's Auxiliaries (sometimes absorbing small voluntary societies). The Zenana Bible and Medical Mission was founded in 1861, and the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society in 1880.
(2) Dominions.—In Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the Protestant denominations all have regular organizations for for eign missions. The Anglicans of Canada have missionary work in India and in Japan, the Baptists in India, and the United Church of Canada (a union of Presbyterians, Methodists and Congregationalists) in India, China, Japan and Korea. The Pres byterians of Australia have missionary work in India, Korea and the South Seas, the Baptists in India, the Methodists in the South Seas. The Baptists and Presbyterians of New Zealand both have work in India. The Melanesian Mission associated with the names of Selwyn and Patteson is supported by the Anglican Churches in New Zealand and Australia. The London Missionary Society and the Church Missionary Society both have important auxiliaries in Australasia.