Increase in the Number of Missionaries.—Not only does the expanding spirit of conquest express itself in organizations to extend Christianity, but also in the increasing number of lives that are dedicated to the service.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the missionary force was a mere handful. There was not one representative of the churches of North America anywhere in the non-Christian world. The Buddhist world and the Brahmin world were closed, and the millions of the Mohammedan world were practically untouched. The vast regions of South America and Africa were almost unknown. To-day there is an army of 24,000 missionaries, counting wives, or about 17,000 missionary families and single missionaries scattered over all the continents, and in almost every country of the world.
In North America the evidence of the growth of conviction regarding foreign missions is seen in the following record of the Student Volunteer Movement. In the report made by that Movement every four years the following facts appear:
| 1898–1902 | 780 |
| 1902–1906 | 1,000 |
| 1906–1910 | 1,286 |
In the year 1911 the total reached was 410, indicating the fact that the goal of two thousand sailed volunteers for the quadrennium is not an impossible number to expect to see go out before the next convention in 1914.
Gifts for Foreign Missions
1891–1912
Money Devoted to Missions.—One hundred years ago the total contributions to the foreign missionary enterprise from all the Christians of the world amounted to about $100,000 annually. To-day the regular annual income is over $30,000,000, or three hundred times as much per year as one hundred years ago. Great buildings are being erected at a cost of millions of additional capital to house colleges and hospitals and printing-presses and all other institutions necessary for the propaganda. In 1911 these special contributions from North America amounted to at least five millions of dollars. In all this vast enterprise the cost of administration at the home base averages only about 8 per cent. of the total of the regular receipts. The cost of all other big business is much higher than this. There are perhaps some cases where the efficiency of the mission Boards would be increased if more money was spent on the cultivation of the home constituency.
Translation of the Scriptures.—The Bible is the missionary's book, and translated into the language of the people is an indispensable aid to his work. The Bible Societies on both sides of the Atlantic have done and are doing a magnificent and enduring work the benefits of which all the churches are reaping. In 1800 the Scriptures were translated into 66 languages; to-day the Scriptures in part or in whole are available in more than 500 languages and dialects. One of the most striking intellectual achievements of the world has been made by the missionaries in the translation of the Scriptures, to say nothing of their tremendous contribution to science and all the branches of knowledge by the reduction of languages to writing, by the translation of text-books, and by the publication of many other books in the vernaculars. When it is remembered that the Edinburgh Conference declared that there are 843 languages and dialects in Africa alone and that only about 100 of them have been reduced to writing, a glimpse is given of the magnitude of the intellectual task remaining before the battle is won. The difficulties have been very great. Milne, a colaborer of Morrison, has this to say regarding the learning of the Chinese language: