Much has been done in this sphere, and the fruits of these wise and unwearied endeavors are incalculable. Secretary Arthur J. Brown remarks: "We often hear that the Bible is now accessible to practically all the nations of the earth. It is true, and the missionary is the one who has made it so." The Bible societies of Christendom have rendered the most valuable services in this department of mission work, co-operating with the missionary societies in the work of Scripture translation, printing and circulation. During the past century upwards of 225,000,000 copies of the Bible, in whole or in part, have been printed and circulated in more than 400 different languages and dialects, and these among the leading languages of heathendom. Medical missions. This is the youngest of the main departments of foreign mission work. Following the example of Christ who, besides preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, "went about doing good," and especially healing the sick and relieving the pains and woes of humanity, medical missions, together with allied forms of Christian benevolence, are pressing to the forefront in waging magnanimous and successful warfare upon the nameless sorrows and woes that are rampant and stalking, ghastly and deadly specters of heathenism. It is a gracious ministry wrestling heroically with great need. It is only to be hoped that medical missionaries will not forget the frequent cautions and reminders of their brethren, that the missionary should never shrink into a mere physician, that he must always remain also a preacher of the Gospel, and that, while ministering to all manner of sick, not fearing or failing to mitigate even the horrors of leprosy, he crowns his office with its noblest and sweetest wreath when he faithfully applies the only remedy known to man for the healing of the monstrous leprosy of sin. Some conception of the volume and extent to which this work has grown since its inauguration, some three score years ago, may be formed in view of the fact that the Protestant boards of Christendom are maintaining on the foreign field more than sixteen hundred hospitals and dispensaries, and that last year some four million. patients received treatment. Well may we close this section with the words of Dr. James S. Dennis1: "The Gospel leaven has penetrated every land; Christian instruction is disseminated in almost all the languages of the earth; medical missions with healing touch are allied with evangelistic agencies on every field. There are many and varied facilities waiting to do our bidding all throughout the earth." And at the end of all, and over all, we will inscribe the motto: 1 See, what hath God wrought! 1 Foreign Missions After A Century, p. 35. I. Home Mission Work. I. CHAPTER XX. THE SCOPE AND AIM OF HOME MISSIONS. Distinctive Character of This Part. The essential unity of the missionary enterprise we endeavored to show in the tenth chapter and have assumed throughout our studies of missionary principles and practice. There is no radical or fundamental difference between foreign, and home, and inner missons, in source and origin, purpose and aim, ground and motive, or even in the principal means and methods of work. This is practically the scope of the principles. we have studied in the Second Part. The agreement is fundamental all the way through. And yet there is room and occasion for the separate treatment of the work of home and inner missions. This is owing to the fact that there is a marked difference in the spheres of work and, consequently, important differences in the mode of applying the general principles, which are the same in all spheres. 2. The Relation of Home Missions to Other Activities of the Church. As has been emphasized in a preceding chapter, there are reciprocal influences between the Church's missionary operations in different spheres and the life of the Church itself. The relative importance of home. missions appears from several considerations. |