of the Old Testament, were read at the regular services. In addition to the Greek text of the Scriptures, which was widely distributed and in general use, other versions were prepared for use in particular fields. Such there were for Syria and Mesopotamia, several for Egypt and the upper Nile valley, besides the North African and Italian version for Carthage and Rome.

As to the personal workers engaged in the spreading of the good tidings of salvation, they must be counted in terms not of tens or scores, but of hundreds. There were, first of all, the official leaders and overseers, known as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Some were traveling missionaries, and others were placed in charge of particular fields and pastorates. The Greek term bishop and the Jewish term presbyter were used to designate the office of the public minister; they were sometimes used interchangeably; and their functions were those of the pastorate. But throughout the first three centuries of the Christian era the public ministers and leaders were aided by the effective testimony and personal work of believers generally. Christian tradesmen, travelers, artisans, soldiers, captives, prisoners of war, and government officials, these and other classes of the people were instrumental in evangelizing the remoter sections of the world. It must have been through agencies such as these that the first tidings of the Gospel were spread in Britain and in the towns along the Rhine.

St. Paul's missionary activity was typical for the whole period. The traveling missionaries made it a point, first of all, to preach the Gospel in the principal cities, knowing that here they would have opportunity to reach the largest number of people, and that from these centers the Christian influence would radiate into the

surrounding country. Young men were prepared, for the most part under the private tuition of the missionaries. and pastors, for the work of the holy ministry and were placed in charge of the newly gathered flocks. Selfsupporting congregations, as the aim of missions, were steadily kept in view.

Now, if, in conclusion, we inquire into the secret of success during this typical and vigorous age of missions, we find it essentially in two factors, namely, the Word of God, and the faith of His people.

Of the early disciples we read in the Acts: They ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ; they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the Word with signs following. The spiritual fruitage of the early centuries bears incontrovertible evidence of the regenerating, life-giving, transforming power of the divine Word. The charismatic gifts and the miracles that had mightily confirmed the message and accredited the messengers during the apostolic age ceased after the foundations had been laid for world-wide evangelization, but the work continued, even without their aid, through the ordinary because divinely ordained means of grace.

In perfect harmony with the acknowledgment of the supreme power of the Word of God St. John could declare and write: "This is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith." The apostles and early Christians had implicit confidence in the Lord and in His power to save unto the uttermost. They never doubted the reality and the effectiveness of their divine mission to preach Christ and to bear witness unto Him.

In every vicissitude, amid persecution and hardship and trial, their reliance was on God's redeeming grace and almighty power. And their faith was not put to

shame. It triumphed gloriously. It went on from victory to victory. It overcame the world. It made them bold and patient and persevering. It bore fruit in lives of love, of self-denial, of consecration and prayer, of devotion unto the end. May their example be a source of stimulation to us in our labors in the cause of twentieth century missions.

1.

CHAPTER III.

MEDIEVAL MISSIONS.

Providential Factors Still Discernible.

In the period of medieval missions the factors in the providential preparation for missionary expansion are neither so prominent nor so numerous as in the preceding period. The Church had declined in spiritual power, was enjoying the protection of the state and suffering from the manifold evils connected with the unhappy union. But the established Church had a strong organization, and when the migration of nations swept the barbarian tribes from the East to its very doors, the Church put forth heroic efforts to convert them and gather them into the pale of Christendom. The missionary methods were defective and in part unevangelical, carnal weapons were employed, and in the masses who were gathered into the churches there were many who were Christians only in name. Still, the overruling providence of God is evident at many points, and the races that peopled Europe and were Christianized during the medieval period have become the ruling Christian nations of the eastern hemisphere.

Through various agencies Christianity had been spread widely in western Europe when Constantine, in 313, proclaimed his edict of toleration and espoused the cause of Christianity. The infant churches were scattered far and wide in pagan communities, and while the opportunities for expansion were plentiful, the missionary task became involved and complicated. Under the changed conditions, favorable to the profession of

Christianity, the churches grew rapidly in numbers but at the same time suffered great decline in purity of doctrine and vigor of spiritual life. Under the guise of Christian profession a great mass of heathenism found its way into the established churches, making conflict and decline inevitable. The theological controversies that ensued resulted in purging the Church of the worst of the anti-Christian elements and in preparing it the better to meet the new problems that came upon the waves of further pagan invasion.

While the Church was lacking in resources and missionary vitality to carry the Gospel to the heathen beyond the borders of the Roman Empire, the Lord in His providence supplied a large opportunity for evangelization by bringing the heathen in vast numbers to the very doors of the Church. The Celtic tribes had for the most part sought refuge in the British Isles before the incoming Teutonic races, and these were in turn pushed westward by the Slavic migration. Thus Europe came to be peopled by many diverse and hostile pagan races, bent on conquest and plunder, and the only hope for their pacification lay in Christianity. To Christianize them was the mission of the Church. It was far too great a task for the Church, as it was then constituted and as it developed, to perform. And yet the Church, even in its enfeebled condition, carried on an extensive propaganda and was vigorous enough to produce no inconsiderable number of missionary leaders, whose names and heroic labors grace the chronicles of missions and furnish examples of devotion that challenge our admiration. At the close of the period of medieval missions practically the whole of Europe was nominally Christian, though unfortunately it was a very weak and