Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE MISSIONARY HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY We must never forget that Christianity is not the native religion of any people and especially that the nations of Europe, who are to-day the outstanding Christian peoples, represent historically various forms of religion that are now designated heathen and all of which have been abandoned in the interest of Christianity. In basal principles and practices these native religions of Europe were just such as Christianity finds among the peoples of Asia to-day. We have suggested that history prior to Christ represented the movement of the race along various lines of development up to a fulness of the times for the apprehension of the Messianic, the redemptive, idea, when it should be revealed in Christ Jesus. Such is the traditional idea. Such is the clear declaration of the Scriptures. This is proved by the history of the West, which since the coming of the Christ has been a history of progressive apprehension and appropriation of the Christian conception. In the awakening of the East in modern times it is easy to trace a large measure of Christian influence in it all, and for the Christian there is easily discernible, also, a divine purpose producing a new fulness of the times, wherein Christianity is to be given to all the world through its missions. There was an original evangelical period of Christian missions following the ascension of our Lord, down to the time of Constantine. In this period the growth of the new faith was phenomenal. The converts came from every grade of society, with all degrees of culture, from scores of tribal divisions and from all phases of religion and irreligion. The social, moral and political influence was far superior to the relative number of Christians. This is a phenomenon of Christian...