Henry C. Vedder
Published: 2015-07-06
Total Pages: 382
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Excerpt from Christian Epoch-Makers: The Story of the Great Missionary Eras in the History of Christianity "There is a law of the imagination, forcing it to demand a concrete and personal center, around which (as a flint gathers around some organic substance in the chalk) its floating historical conceptions shall dispose themselves." These words, though they in no way suggested the writing of this book, not inaptly describe its organizing idea. The chapters following are the outgrowth of the author's experience in teaching the history of Christian missions to his classes for more than a dozen years. No method is so practically effective in arousing the student's interest and in helping him see the facts in their true perspective as the biographical. Many books already exist that tell the story of Christian missions, but none pursue this method. And yet the subject is one peculiarly fitted for biographical treatment - indeed, it cannot be treated in any other way without most inadequate presentation of the facts. It will occur to some readers, possibly, that other chapters ought to have been added on modern missionaries, the absence of whose names they will mark and deplore. But a little further consideration will make it plain that this would have been incompatible with the plan of the book. If one were attempting to give a complete history of missions, or even a fairly complete collection of missionary biographies, the omission of such names as Brainerd, Morrison, Paton, Neesima, would indeed be inexcusable. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.