Mission (1) An establishment of people zealous for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, who go and preach the Gospel in remote countries, and among infidels. No man possessed of the least degree of feeling or compassion for the human race can deny the necessity and utility of Christian missions. Whoever considers that the major part of the world is enveloped in the grossest darkness, bound with the chains of savage barbarity, and immersed in the awful chaos of brutal ignorance, must, if he be not destitute of every principle of religion and humanity, concur with the design and applaud the principles of those who engage in so benevolent a work. We shall not, however, in this place, enter into a defense of missions, but shall present the reader with a short view of those that have been established. In the sixteenth century, the Romish church particularly exerted herself for the propagation of their religion. The Portuguese and Spaniards pretend to have done mighty exploits in the spread of the Christian faith in Asia, Africa, and America; but, when we consider the superstitions they imposed on some, and the dreadful cruelties they inflicted on others, it more than counterbalances any good that was done.
For a time, the Dominicans, Franciscans, and other religious orders, were very zealous in the conversion of the heathen; but the Jesuits outdid them all in their attempts in the conversion of African, Asian, and American infidels. Xavier spread some hints of the Romish religion through the Portuguese settlements in the East Indies, through most of the Indian continent, and of Ceylon. In 1549 he sailed to Japan, and laid the foundation of a church there, which at one time was said to have consisted of about 600, 000 Christians. After him, others penetrated into china, and founded a church which continued about 170 years. About 1580, others penetrated into Chili and Peru, in South America, and converted the natives. Others bestirred themselves to convert the Greeks, Nestorians, Monophysites, Abyssinians, the Egyptian Copts. "It is, however, " as one observes, "a matter of doubt whether the disciples of a Xavier, or the converts of a Loyola and Dominic, with their partisans of the Romish church, should be admitted among the number of Christians, or their labours be thought to have contributed to the promotion or to the hindrance of the religion of Christ. Certain it is, that the methods these men pursued tended much more to make disciples to themselves and the pontiffs of Rome, than to form the mind to the reception of evangelical truth."
With ardent zeal, however, and unwearied industry, these apostles laboured in this work. In 1622 we find the pope established a congregation of cardinals, de propaganda fide, and endowed it with ample revenues, and every thing which could forward the missions was liberaly supplied. In 1627, also, Urban added the college for the propagation of the faith; in which missionaries were taught the languages of the countries to which they were to be sent. France copied the example of Rome, and formed an establishment for the same purposes. The Jesuits claimed the first rank, as due to their zeal, learning, and devotedness to the holy see. The Dominicans, Franciscans, and others, disputed the palm with them. The new world and the Asiatic regions were the chief field of their labours. They penetrated into the uncultivated recesses of America. They visited the untried regions of Siam, Tonquin, and Cochin China. They entered the vast empire of China itself, and numbered millions among their converts. They dared affront the dangers of the tyrannical government of Japan. In India they assumed the garb and austerities of the Brahmins, and boasted on the coasts of Malabar of a thousand converts baptized in one year by a single missionary. Their sufferings however, were very great, and in China and Japan they were exposed to the most dreadful persecutions, and many thousands were cut off, with, at last, a final expulsion from the empires.
In Africa the Capuchins were chiefly employed, though it does not appear that they had any considerable success. And in America their laborious exertions have had but little influence, we fear to promote the real conversion of the native to the truth. In the year 1621, the Dutch opened a church in the city of Batavia, and from hence ministers were sent to Amboyna. At Leyden, ministers and assistants were educated for the purpose of missions under the famous Walxus, and sent into the East, where thousands embraced the Christian religion at Formosa, Columba, Java, Malabar, &c. and though the work declined in some places, yet there are still churches in Ceylon, Sumatra, Amboyna, &c. About 1705, Frederick IV. of Denmark, applied to the university of Halle, in Germany, for missionaries to preach the Gospel on the coast of Malabar, in the East Indies; and Messrs. Ziegenbalg and Plutsche were the first employed on this important mission; to them others were soon added, who laboured with considerable success. It is said that upwards of 18, 000 Gentoos have been brought to the profession of Christianity. A great work has been carried on among the Indian nations in North America. One of the first and most eminent instruments in this work was the excellent Mr. Elliott, commonly called the Indian apostle, who, from the time of his going to New England, in 1631, to his death, in 1690, devoted himself to this great work by his lips and pen, translating the Bible and other books into the native dialect. Some years after this, Thomas Mahew, esq. governor and patentee of the islands of Martha's Vineyard, and some neighbouring islands, greatly exerted himself in the attempt to convert the Indians in that part of America.
His son John gathered and founded an Indian church, which, after his death, not being able to pay a minister, the old gentleman himself, at seventy years of age, became their instructor for more than twenty years, and his grandson and great grandson both succeeded him in the same work. Mr. D. Brainard was also a truly pious and successful missionary among the Susquehannah and Delaware Indians. His journal contains instances of very extraordinary conversions. but the Moravians have exceeded all in their missionary exertions. They have various missions: and, by their persevering zeal, it is said, upwards of 23, 000 of the most destitute of mankind, in different regions of the earth, have been brought to the knowledge of the truth. Vast numbers in the Danish islands of St. Thomas, St. Jau. and St. Croix, and the English islands, of Jamaica, Antigua, Nevis, Barbadoes, St. Kitts, and Tobago, have by their ministry been called to worship God in spirit and in truth. In the inhospitable climes of Greenland and Labrador they have met with wonderful success, after undergoing the most astonishing dangers and difficulties. The Arrowack Indians, and the negroes of Surimnam and Berbice, have been collected into bodies of faithful people by them. Canada and the United States of North America, have, by their instrumentality, afforded happy evidences of the power of the Gospel.
Even those esteemed the last of human beings, for brutishness and ignorance, the Hottentots, have been formed into their societies; and upwards of seven hundred are said to be worshipping God at Bavian's Cloof, near the Cape of Good Hope. We might also mention their efforts to illumine the distant East, the coast of Coromandel, and the Nicobar islands; their attempts to penetrate into Abyssinia, to carry the Gospel to Persia and Egypt, and to ascend the mountains of Caucasus. In fact, where shall we find the men who have laboured as these have? Their invincible patience, their well- regulated zeal, their self-denial, their constant prudence, deserve the meed of highest approbation. Nor are they wearied in so honourable a service; for they have numerous missionaries still employed in different parts of the world.
See MORAVIANS. Good has been also done by the Wesleyan Methodists, who are certainly not the least in missionary work. They have several missionaries in the British dominions in America and in the West Indies. They have some thousands of members in their societies in those parts.
See METHODISTS. In 1791, a society was instituted among the Baptists, called, "The particular Baptist Society for propagating the Gospel among the Heathen, " under the auspices of which missionaries were sent to India, and favourable accounts of their success have been received. We learn, with pleasure, that through their indefatigable industry, the New Testament, and part of the Bible have been translated and printed in the Benegalee; and that parts of the Scriptures have been translated into ten of the languages spoken in the East.
See Periodical Accounts of this society. In the year 1795, The London Missionary Society was formed.
This is not confined to one body of people, but consists of Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Seceders, Methodists, and Independents, who hold an annual meeting in London in May. As the state of this society is before the public, it would be unnecessary here to enlarge; suffice it to say, that it is now on the most permanent and respectable footing. "It has assumed consistency and order; it combines integrity of character, fortitude of mind, and fixedness of resolution, with a continued progression of effort for the exalted purpose of presenting the doctrines of the blessed Gospel to the acceptance of the perishing heathen, and of exhibiting an uncorrupt example of their tendencies and effects in their own characters and conduct." Besides the above-mentioned societies, others have been formed of less note. In 1699, a society was instituted in England for promoting Christian Knowledge. In 1701, another was formed for the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts. In Scotland, about the year 1700, a society was instituted for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. Recently, some clergymen of the established church have formed one among themselves. Societies for spreading the Gospel also have been instituted in various other places. From the whole, it seems evident that the light and knowledge of the glorious Gospel will be more diffused than ever throughout the earth.
And who is there that has any concern for the souls of men, any love for truth and religion, but what must rejoice at the formation, number, and success of those institutions, which have not the mere temporal concerns of men, but their everlasting welfare as their object? My heart overflows with joy, and mine eyes with tears, when I consider the happy and extensive effects which are likely to take place. The untutored mind will receive the peaceful principles of religion and virtue; the savage barbarian will rejoice in the copious blessings, and feel the benign effects of civilization; the ignorant idolater will be directed to offer up his prayers and praises to the true God, and learn the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. The habitations of cruelty will become the abodes of peace and security, while ignorance and superstition shall give way to the celestial blessings of intelligence, purity, and joy. Happy men, who are employed as instruments in this cause: who forego your personal comforts, relinquish your native country, and voluntarily devote yourselves to the most noble and honourable of services! Peace and prosperity be with you! Miller's History of the Propagation of Christ; Kennett's ditto; Gillies's Historical Collection; Carey's Enquiry respecting Missions; Loskiell's History of the Moravian Missions; Crantz's History of Greenland; Horne's Letters on Missions; Sermons and Reports of the London Missionary Society.