844 



MISSIONS. 



ary Society, which has more than titty regular mis- 

 sionaries, and above 25,100 proselytes, principally 

 among the slaves in the colonies. Its schools contain 

 above 8000 children. It also maintains missionaries 

 at Paris, and in the south of France. 8. The Baptist 

 Missionary Society (1792) has more than 10,000 

 children, in the East Indies, under its direction. 9. 

 The Missionary and Tract Society of the New Jer- 

 usalem Church, founded in 1821. 10. Continental 

 Society incorporated in 1818 ; they have eleven 

 missions. 11. A London Society for promoting 

 Christianity among the Jews, which sends mission- 

 aries to Poland and Holland ; and a Ladies' Mission- 

 ary Society instituted for similar purposes, which 

 has twelve missionaries, among whom are five con- 

 verted Jews. The former has in its service a 

 German, Joseph Wolf, of Halle, descended from 

 Jewish parents, who was converted to the Catholic 

 church, instructed in Tubingen, and at Rome, in the 

 Seminarium Romanum, where, having expressed 

 doubts of the infallibility of the pope, he was thrown 

 into prison : he then left the Roman Catholic church, 

 and, without acknowledging himself a member of any 

 established church, entered, under the character of 

 a Biblical Christian, into the service of this society, 

 which sent him to Asia : at Bassora, he had discus- 

 sions with the Sabians, or Christians of St John, 

 which are printed in the Jewish Expositor. 12. 

 The Edinburgh Missionary Society, founded 1796, 

 has missions in Tartary, and in the Susoo country, in 

 the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone. From 1701 to 

 1817, 11 missionary societies (5 in England, 1 in 

 Scotland ; 1 in Denmark ; 1 in Germany that of 

 the United Brethren ; 3 in the United States) foun- 

 ded 10 missions, which, in 1819, occupied 439 mis- 

 sionaries, most of whom belonged to the United 

 Brethren, and 303 of whom were supported by the 

 British societies, 85 by the German, and 37 by the 

 societies in the United States. They also supported 

 a great number of physicians, farmers, labourers, 

 and their families. More than 150 missionaries 

 laboured in Asia, above 70 in Africa, and above 

 200 in America. In 1824, the whole number of 

 missionaries exceeded 500, of whom 370 were sup- 

 ported by the British. In Paris, the Calvinistic and 

 Lutheran churches united to form a missionary socie- 

 ty. Their object, however, has been not so much 

 the conversion of the heathen as the instruction of 

 poor children, and they have already opened 

 schools for several thousand children. In Germany, 

 where the United Brethren educate most of the mis- 

 sionaries for their own and other missions, there are 

 also societies for the education of missionaries in 

 Berlin, Basle, and other places, which obtain their 

 funds for instruction by voluntary contributions. 

 The Berlin Missionary Union, established by the 

 king of Prussia in November, 1823, numbered then 

 above 300 contributors. The British societies also 

 support an institution for the education of missionaries 

 at Sierra Leone. Among the means by which mis- 

 sionary societies aim to accomplish their objects, one 

 is the translation and distribution of the Bible. See 

 Bible Societies. 



Although the judgment of the missionaries, espe- 

 cially in the East Indies, has not always been equal 

 to their zeal, yet the vital power of Christianity has 

 displayed itself in an extraordinary manner in many 

 countries. The inhabitants of the Society islands, 

 particularly those of Otaheite, have embraced Chris- 

 tianity, and much progress has also been made in 

 the Sandwich islands by the American and British 

 missionaries, and books have been published in their 

 language. Similar results have attended the labours 

 of the VVesleyan Methodists in the East Indies, as, 

 for instance, at Trincomalee and Colombo on the 



island of Ceylon. A school has been established by 

 them, for the gratuitous instruction of poor Cingalese 

 children. Among the most active promoters of 

 Christian civilization, in the British East Indies, by 

 the establishment of missions and schools, was Dr 

 Middleton, bishop of Calcutta, who died in 1822. 

 Different sects have supported missionaries in the 

 same places, as, for instance, in Madras, Calcutta, 

 and Bombay, without any interruptions from sec- 

 tarian disputes, and have assisted one another with 

 the utmost cordiality. For the better promotion of 

 their common object, the Danish East Indian mission 

 has even given up to the British Society for the Pro- 

 motion of Christian Knowledge, eleven societies of 

 native Christians about Tranquebar, in establishing 

 which the Danish missionary Schwartz had been very 

 active. The British Bengal Missionary Society has 

 also been very active in the East Indies. According 

 to its fifth report (1823), it had erected four chapels 

 and schools. Attached to one of the schools there 

 is a printing-office, at which 1 17,000 copies of the 

 Holy Scriptures in English and the native tongues, 

 have been printed at the expense of the society. 

 The condition of the chief Danish missionary society, 

 at Serampore, in Bengal, on the Hoogly, which 

 attends particularly to the instruction of heathen and 

 Mussulman boys, is represented to be favourable. 

 From their printing office, translations of the whole 

 or parts of the Holy Scriptures have been issued in 

 twenty-seven languages of Central India. Among 

 the British missionaries at Serampore, Marsham, the 

 celebrated author of the Clavis Sinica, has particu- 

 larly distinguished himself by his researches in Hin- 

 doo literature. The great number of languages, 

 especially in Malabar, is a great impediment to the 

 success of the missionaries, who, it is desirable, 

 should be able to operate by precept as well as by 

 example; and many local obstacles the power of 

 the Bramins, the division into castes, &c. are also 

 impediments in their way; but their schools, and the 

 simplicity of their lives, tend to improve the charac- 

 ter of the natives. Of South Africa, where the chief 

 missionary station (since 1802) is Bethelsdorf, and 

 where the United Brethren now support missions at 

 three places (see Latrobe), an agent of the British 

 Missionary Society Campbell has given an account 

 (London, 1815). Missionaries have sometimes un- 

 ited with their main object an attention to the ethno- 

 graphy and geography of the country, which deserves 

 the highest commendation such as Loskiel in North 

 America, and the Danish missionary Monracl, who 

 was in Africa from 1805 to 1809, and published 

 Materials for a Description of the Coasts of Guinea 

 (Copenhagen, 1822). The missionaries have also 

 rendered great service to the study of languages, as, 

 for example, in the work of Blumhardt (inspector of 

 the missionary school at Basle), Comparative Obser- 

 vations upon the Connexion between tlie Indian 

 Languages, which are almost all related to the San 

 scrit (Basle, 1819). In the conversion of the South 

 sea islanders, the American and British missionaries 

 have been very successful. The spiritual head of 

 Christian Australia, Marsden, is one of the most 

 intelligent missionaries. He does not attempt to 

 convert savages without preparation, but provides 

 for their instruction, and endeavours to guard against 

 the new vices which attend the beginnings of civili- 

 zation. See New South fFales, and New Zealand. 



Among the latest missions of the United Brethren 

 (see United Brethren, and Greenland), that estab 

 lished among the Calmuck tribes deserves to be 

 mentioned. They sent two missionaries, Zwick and 

 Schill, from Sarepta, in 1823, to the Calmucks, 

 among whom, by the aid of the Russian Bible So- 

 ciety (which caused the Bible to be translated into 



