ISSIONARY ENTERPRISES. At the time of the 11eformation, Christendom was still beleaguered by armed Islam. Up to the very end of the sev,.nteenth century a great part of Hungary was in the possession of Turkey. and in 1683 Vienna barely escaped falling into the hands of the Mnssulmans. Missionary access to Eastern North Africa and Western Asia was barred by the sword of Islam. .1t the same time trans marine heathen lands were so distant that Im perial resources alone could reach them. Such resources were all in the hands of the great Ro Ma 0 Catholic powers. The conditions under which the 'Reformat hill developed left to the reformers no place for planning foreign mission ary enterprise. Luther and his associates preciated the essentially missionary quality of the Church of I hrist, but limited its sphere of action to their own surroundings. They deemed that in any case the Church was helpless regard ing foreign missions, since such vast undertak ings could be dealt with by governments alone.
The first Protestant foreign missions, then, were State enterprises. In 1555 _1dmiral Coligny induced the Council of Geneva to send sionaries to Brazil in connection with a Hu guenot colony. But both mission and colony soon ended in bloody disaster. In 1559 Gustavus Vasa of Sweden sent missionaries to labor for the pagan Lapps of his own dominions. But this mission came to naught. After the con quest by Holland of several Portuguese colonies in the East Indies, the Dutch East India Com pany was formed in 1602, and the governors of the various islands were ordered to 410 all in their power to Christianize the natives. Clergy Men were sent out to Ceylon, Formosa. and the Alalay .1rchipelago as missionary chaplains. whose duty included the ('In•istian instruction of natives. But the governors of the colonies obeyed their orders literally. and 'Christianized' the natives without waiting for the missionaries to instruct them. Consequently, when Dut ch goVel/IDWIll came to an end in Cey lon, ...mile 300.000 officially converted natives re turned to their former faith. In Formosa Chris tianity was extinguished by the Chinese, when they drove the Dutch from the island in 1661. In Java. however, the missionary chaplains slowly translated the Scriptures into Malayan. 'Die second of modern Bible translations into heathen latigielges (John Eliors Indian Bible. printed in 16'43. being the first I was thus produced by the initiative and published (in 1701) at the ex IWINe of the Dutch 11overnment. With all its de feels this State mission enterprise had permanent results. in .lava, the Molneeas, and Celebes has frown tip a native Christian Chnrch, numbering nearly 2.1foon adherents. with tow 350 pas
tors and preachers, supported by the DMA Ooy Of these probably not more than half are the fruit of later missionary efforts. .\ simi lar mission 1111(100A:en by Holland in Brazil, through the \Vest India Company, about the year 1621, came to an end with the expulsion of the Dutch about the middle of the century. Such missi.mary enterprises undertaken for reasons of State. manned by official appointment. and su pervised by colonial bureaus and clambers of commerce. were foredoomed to failure. The next of the State missionary enterprises originating on the Continent of Europe illus trates this fact. In 1705 a woman whose huslyind had beet killed by natives in the Danish colony of 'I'ranqnehsn•, in South India, pe titioned King Frederick IV. of Denmark to send missionaries to teach the people there. The pe tition was effective. The King endowed the mis sion. and, no fit men being found in Denmark, two Germans were appointed to go to India. They were of the disciples of Vrancke, the German piet ist, who saw that the highest form of Christian fruitfulness foreign as well as home mis sions. and whose energy formed schools at Halle to prepare men to serve Christ in the ends of the earth. The two young men, Ziegenbalg and Pint schan, taught singleness of purpose at Halle, and sent out by Frederick IV. in 1706. began the first serious Protestant mission enterprise in India. Before his death, in 1719. Ziegenbalg had made a translation of the New Testament into the Tamil language. which became the basis of the existing Tamil Bible. and the third modern translation of the Seriptuws into heathen lan guages. Other missionaries from the same home surroundings followed the two pioneers of this Danish mission, notably Schultze and his later associate. Schwartz. Each of these men a permanent impression upon the people of the country. Fifty thousand Tamils became Chris tians before the end of the century. After the death of King Frederick IV.. the English Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge as sumed the whole support of the Danish Omission in India until 1824. when the enterprise was passed Over to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. _kiloliter mission maintained by King Frederick IV. was that commenced by Hans Egede in Greenland in 1721. It was Inter trans ferred to the Danish Missionary Society. and the whole Eskimo population in the neighborhood of the numerous Danish trading-stations was long ago Christianized.