priest in squalid clothing had only aroused their contempt, received the Gospel at the hands of Otto, Bishop of Bamberg, who came to them as the splendid representative of the King of Poland at the head of a band of envoys and soldiers, but who at the same time manifested a spirit of unselfish devotion and tactful zeal that distinguish him as one of the noblest and most successful missionaries of the middle ages. The relation between the Pomeranians and their apostle is a unique example of confidence and harmony between German and Slavic nationality.

German preaching and the German sword united in the Christianization of the Baltic provinces. By the military valor of the "Brethren of the Sword," an order of knights that had been founded in, the interest of the mission, Livonia was subjugated and its new bishoprics were protected. Under similar conditions the neighboring provinces embraced Christianity. After prolonged efforts to subdue Prussia and make Christianity dominant in the land, another order of German knights succeeded, in the thirteenth century, in exterminating Prussian heathenism and the majority of the population at the same time.

After many vicissitudes political interests finally resulted, in the fourteenth century, in the establishment of Christianity in Lithuania. The inhabitants were baptized in crowds, and each one received a garment as a present.

Among the more distinguished missionaries of the middle ages should be mentioned the Franciscan, John de Monte Corvino, who labored for eleven years in Peking, built two churches in the city, baptized some six thousand Mongols, and translated the Psalter and the New Testament into the Tartar language.

Other members of the Franciscan and the Dominican orders put forth zealous but, for the most part, fruitless efforts to convert the Moslems in Africa and Spain.

This outline of medieval missions may be fitly closed with the mention of Raymond Lull, the most illustrious and a most devoted pioneer among missionaries to the Mohammedans. This nobleman of Majorca, after spending his life in fervent but vain appeals to the Church, writing many voluminous works, originating a method of argument (his Ars major) by which he hoped. to convince and silence Moslem scholars, died a martyr's death at the hands of the Saracens in North Africa, whither he had gone on his third missionary tour. He was stoned to death on the thirtieth of June, 1315, in the seventy-ninth year of his age. One of his books contains the memorable motto: "He who loves not lives not; he who lives by the Life cannot die."

CHAPTER IV.

THE REFORMATION AND MISSIONS.

1. Failure to Engage in Foreign Mission Work. During the century preceding the Reformation missionary expansion had practically ceased. Reforming parties, such as the followers of Wiclif, the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren, and scattered remnants of the Waldensian churches, were bearing heroic witness to the truth of the Gospel against the errors and abuses of Rome, but it was a harassed struggle for existence in the face of tremendous odds. Amid the general religious and moral degeneracy, the debasing practices of the Romish Church, the prevailing profligacy, superstition and spiritual bondage, there was neither motive nor power to spread the faith and extend the kingdom of God.

With the open Bible in the hands and homes of the people, the right of private judgment over against the autocratic dictates of the papacy, evangelical forms of worship in place of the sacrilegious practices of the mass, and the peace and salvation bestowed through the Gospel by the unmerited grace of God, came new life and abounding joy all over enfranchised Europe, wherever the Reformation gained a foothold and had a chance to develop its fruits. In accordance with its nature faith impels to confession, deep conviction speaks out in word and deed, the joy of personal salvation constrains its possessor to proclaim the good tidings to others. Wherever the Gospel of Christ prevails and possesses hearts and molds lives, there will be missionary activity in some

form and measure, corresponding to the strength of the life and the opportunity presented by the providential opening of doors.

It was so in the Reformation period. And still there was an evident failure on the part of the Protestant churches to enlist in the work of carrying the Gospel to the heathen beyond. And many have wondered why the Protestants were so slow and apparently inactive, while the Roman Catholics were occupying many foreign fields, and some have spoken disparagingly of the Reformation on account of it.

With a desire to judge fairly, with no intent of denying weaknesses and blemishes, we need not fear to look the facts squarely in the face. The leaders of the Reformation and their successors, the great theologians of the sixteenth century, were human and limited by their environments and the prevailing conditions of the time, as are men in every age. If, therefore, we discover shortcomings here and there in their work, we should not on that account underestimate their noble achievements and the abundant fruits of their arduous labors.

If the home mission work that we perform in our own lands is mission work in the true sense of the term— and so we hold it to be, and of paramount importance, too the Protestant churches of the sixteenth century were fairly submerged in missionary undertakings and deluged with perplexing missionary problems. To instruct and convert the "heathen at home," to gather them into congregations and prepare them to maintain an independent existence in the face of menacing dangers, to train efficient ministers and teachers, to establish schools and educate the rising generation, such labors as these demanded and fairly drained all the

energies and resources of the Evangelical Church. The coffers of Rome had an abundance of means, and its monasteries and schools had no lack of trained men, available and ready to carry on an extended propaganda. All this was lacking to the Protestants. It taxed them to the utmost to secure and train enough men to take charge of the churches, the missions and schools, at home. This is one cogent reason why foreign missionary enterprise could not be thought of and did not appear within the scope of their undertakings.

Another equally cogent reason was the inaccessibility of the foreign fields. From the close of the fifteenth till the beginning of the seventeenth century foreign commerce and shipping, colonization and conquest were under the exclusive control of Roman Catholics. Occupation of newly discovered territory and travel to foreign countries were in the hands of the only maritime nations of the age, Spain and Portgual, whose ships controlled the seas, and whose governments, in conjunction with the papal authorities, held sovereign sway over the lands. Under these conditions the foreign fields were absolutely barred against Protestant missionaries. Had the men been available, and had they been able in some way to reach the pagan nations across the seas, they could never have gained a foothold. They would have met a fate similar to that of an attempted mission to Brazil in 1556, when a number of French Calvinists, having been lured to that country by deception, were speedily driven out, while several of their number were condemned to death as heretics. Even to this day the French government, though agnostic and defying the papal authorities at home, harasses in every possible way and obstructs the work of the Protestant missions in Madagascar, while it favors the Roman Catholics.