19th Century

History of Protestant Missions in India from 1706 to 1881

Matthew Atmore Sherring [1826-1880] & Edward Storrow [1818-1907], The History of Protestant Missions in India from their Commencement in 1706 to 1881This would appear to be a very significant work for those interested in early missionary work in India. It covers all of the major mission agencies involved from 1706 to 1881 and summaries the progress that had been made by the end of that period.

My thanks the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide for providing a copy of this book for digitisation. The title is in the public domain.

Matthew Atmore Sherring [1826-1880] & Edward Storrow [1818-1907], The History of Protestant Missions in India from their Commencement in 1706 to 1881. London: Religious Tract Society, 1884. Hbk. pp.463. [Click to visit the download page]

Contents

  • Preface
  1. Protestant Missions in India During the Eighteenth Century
  2. Missions in Calcutta and its Vicinity
  3. Missions in Bengal, Excluding Calcutta and its Vicinity
  4. Missions Among the Kols and Santals
  5. Missions in the North0-Western Provinces, Oudh, and Rohilkhand
  6. Missions in the Punjab
  7. Missions in Central India, including Rajpootana, Holkar’s Country,the Central Provinces, the BErars, and the Nizam’s Dominions
  8. Missions in the City and Presidency of Bambay
  9. Missions of Basle Evangelical Society in the Southern Marathi Country, Canara, and Malabar
  10. Missions in Bellary and the Mysore
  11. Missions of the Church Missionary Society in North Travancore and Cochin
  12. Missions of the London Missionary Society in South Travancore
  13. Missions of the Church Missionary Society, and of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in the Province of Tinnevelly
  14. Missions in the Province of Madura, of the American Board of Commisioners for Foreign Missions, and of the Society for the Propagation in Foreign Parts
  15. Missions in Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Coimbatore, and the Neelgiris
  16. Missions in the Provinces of Arcot and Salem
  17. Missions in the City of Madras an its Vicinity, including the Province of Chingleput
  18. Missions in the Provinces of Cuddapah, Kurnool, and Nellore
  19. Missions in the Kistna abd Godavery Districts, and in Vizagapatam and Ganjam
  20. Summary of the Agencies and Results of Protestant Missions in India
  • Appendix A
  • Appendix B
  • Index

Preface

The aim of this work is to show historically what Protestant Missions have accomplished in India since their commencement in the beginning of the last century. In pursuance of this object, I have collected together all the important events of these Missions, and have presented them in a succinct and consecutive narrative, thus striving to give a complete view, as in a panorama, of their operations and achievements. Notwithstanding the numerous reports which have been £or many years issued by missionaries concerning their respective fields of labour, it has hitherto been well-nigh impossible to gain an adequate and distinct conception of the wonderful work which has been accomplished in the evangelization of the people of India. While leaving matters of unnecessary detail, I have endeavoured to furnish an outline of the various methods, plans, and projects which have been pursued in the formation and growth of the Indian Protestant Church, sufficiently minute to be correct, and yet so compacted together and interwoven as to suffer neither in unity nor comprehensiveness….

London Society For Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jewish People

W.T. Gidney (1852/3-1909), The History of the London Society For Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, From 1809 to 1908The evangelisation of the Jewish people continues to be a controversial area of Christian missions. The London Society For Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews was founded by evangelical Christians in the early nineteenth Century. The Rev. W.T. Gidney’s History covers first hundred years of the operation.

Wikipedia notes that:

In response to changing attitudes towards outreach and the Jewish people, the society has changed its name several times over the years, first to Church Missions to Jews, then The Church’s Mission to the Jews, followed by The Church’s Ministry Among the Jews, and finally to the current name of The Church’s Ministry Among Jewish People, which was adopted in 1995.

A copy of this public domain title was kindly provided for digitisation by the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide.

W.T. Gidney (1852/3-1909), The History of the London Society For Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, From 1809 to 1908. London: London Society For Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, 1908. Hbk. pp.672. [Click to visit the download page]

Chapter 1. Introductory

Before entering upon the History of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, it seems necessary, by way of introduction, to give, first, a brief account of efforts to evangelize them prior to its foundation, and, secondly, a short epitome of their history in our own country.

We shall see in this chapter that, whilst there have been some attempts to bring this ancient people of God to a knowledge of His Son, Jesus Christ, they have been, for the most part, spasmodic and unorganized, without any very intelligent or sustained aim. Not that the Jews have ever been altogether neglected, nor that there has ever been a time when the “remnant according to the election of grace” was non-existent.

We pass over, in the fewest words, the age of Christ and His Apostles. His and their work for their brethren according to the flesh stands out in clear relief in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles….

Missions and Modern History by Robert E. Speer

Robert E. Speer, Missions and Modern HistoryRobert E. Speer sets out his threefold purpose in writing this history of 19th Century missions:

  • To correct distortions of the facts;
  • To demonstrate the significance of missions in world events;
  • To inform the reading public of important recent events.

My thanks to the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide for making these volumes available for digitisation. These books are in the public domain.

Robert E. Speer, Missions and Modern History. A Study of the Missionary Aspects of Some Great Movements of the Nineteenth Century, 2 Vols. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1904. Hbk. pp. 714. [Click here to visit the download page]

Contents

  • Preface
  1. The Tai-Ping Rebellion
  2. The Indian Mutiny
  3. The Religion of the Bab
  4. The Emancipation of Latin America
  5. The Development of Africa
  6. The Reform Movement in Hinduism 

    Second Volume 

  7. The Tong Hak Insurrection
  8. The Transformation of Japan
  9. The Armenian Massacres
  10. The Going of the Spaniard
  11. The Boxer Uprising
  12. The Coming of the Slav
  13. Missions and the World Movement
  • Index

Chapter 13: Missions and the World-Movement

Of the twelve great movements which have been considered, all but two have been related to Asia. We are often told that Asia is the immovable continent, that she is what she has been and that she will remain what she is, that “some strange fiat of arrest, probably due to mental exhaustion has condemned the brown men and the yellow men to eternal reproduction of old ideas,” that there notion and institution have hardened into permanency and that the continent must be regarded as alien to great moral or intellectual movements and separate from the stirrings of life that work ceaseless change in the West. How is it possible to reconcile such a view with the facts which have passed before us? These Asiatic nations are alive. The stock is not exhausted. “The theory that China’s dependence is due to the fact that she has long since reached maturity and has outlived the natural term of national existence does not hold good….