The Spread of the English Language.—We quote from a leaflet entitled "The Seven Wonders of the Modern Missionary World," by Dr. A. W. Halsey.
"The spread of the English language is one of the wonders of the age. The English language is spoken at the present time by nearly 200,000,000 people; each year sees large additions to the group of English-speaking peoples. In the Philippines more people to-day speak the English language than spoke the Spanish language after three hundred years of Spanish rule.
"In all higher education in India, English is compulsory; in the secondary schools in India, English is taught. In China, the government has made English a part of the regular curriculum. In Japan, the students are eager to learn English. It is the avenue through which the missionary frequently is able to reach the educated classes. In Syria, one of the boys in the classroom wrote on the blackboard, 'God is love' in his own language, thirty boys followed, each writing the text in his own language; yet these boys sooner or later will all speak the English language. A speaker at the Edinburgh Conference declared that some missionaries read the Lord's command as though it were written 'Go and teach all nations the English language.' Macaulay says that whoever knows the English language has 'ready access to the vast intellectual wealth which all the wisest nations of the earth have created and stored in the course of ninety generations.' The English language is the language of liberty, of law, of morals, of high ideals. The English Bible, which has molded Anglo-Saxon civilization, is making no small impress on world civilization.
"The Greek language became the vehicle in which the gospel story was borne to the educated world of the first century. The English language seems destined in the providence of God to be the bearer of the gospel to the races of the twentieth century."
The following table indicates the remarkable growth during the nineteenth century of the English language as compared with other tongues. The estimates are given by Mulhall and John Bartholomew of Edinburgh and appear in the 1912 World Almanac.
| 1801 | 1901 | |
| French | 31,450,000 | 52,100,000 |
| German | 30,320,000 | 84,200,000 |
| Italian | 15,070,000 | 34,000,000 |
| Spanish | 26,190,000 | 46,500,000 |
| Portuguese | 7,480,000 | 15,000,000 |
| Russian | 30,770,000 | 85,000,000 |
| English | 20,520,000 | 130,300,000 |
In the light of these figures the total given by Dr. Halsey quoted above is perhaps too high. It will be seen, however, that the number speaking German has multiplied nearly threefold and the number of those speaking English six and a half times in the century under review. Since an overwhelming majority of missionaries speak either English or German or both, the significance of the spread of these languages is apparent.
The Geographical Control of the World.—One of the most inspiring evidences of the widening sovereignty of Christ is that he has passed over the control of the territory of the world to the Christian nations. According to Gulick's Growth of the Kingdom of God, in 1600 only 7 per cent. of the territory of the world was controlled by Christian nations, but to-day 82 per cent., so that the growth of Christian control has passed in three hundred years from 7 per cent. to 82 per cent., while the control of non-Christian nations has decreased from 93 per cent. to 18 per cent.
The increasing control of the world by Christian nations is due in no small measure to the fact that they are masters of most of the great waterways and highways of the world. The Suez and Panama Canals and the Khaibar Pass in India are striking illustrations.
In 1800, four hundred millions of people were governed by Catholic and Protestant Christian powers; in 1912 at least one thousand millions, or two and a half times as many as were thus governed in 1800. In 1500, there were no Protestant political powers in the world. To-day, England, Germany, and the United States rule over about six hundred millions of the population of the world. These three Protestant powers alone now have dominion over more millions of people than are ruled over by all the non-Christian nations of the world added together.