Author's Preface

In the winter of 1890, while wandering among the ruins of the picturesque abbey at Arbroath, Scotland, my eye rested upon an old and much worn headstone which had marked the grave of some member of that large family whose name I bear. Along the side of this slab could be distinctly traced the letters, PiERSON, and the ancestral ‘’coat of arms” graven upon the stone had not been quite obliterated by the unsparing hand of Time. In presence of such a memorial of my forefathers, I felt like a lad visiting the old homestead where his ancestors had dwelt, and ready, in a filial spirit, to render to dear old Scotland any service asked of me.

One might well hesitate to attempt to fill the appointment to the ‘’ Duff Missionary Lectureship;” to follow such men as the heroic missionary, Rev. Thomas Smith, D.D., the seraphic advocate of missions. Rev. William Fleming Stevenson, D.D., and the accomplished scholar, Sir Monier Monier Williams; but, like Franklin at the Court of Versailles, I may say, I come, ‘’not to succeed but only to follozv” those who have gone before me.

To Dr. Alexander Duff, America owes a debt which can never be paid; and the visit of one of her sons to Scotland upon this errand was but a slight acknowledgment of that obligation, a tribute of the gratitude of my fellow-countrymen for that new imxviii PREFA CE.

pulse imparted to missions by that eloquent advocate, who, in the year 1854, visited our shores and set us all aflame with his holy enthusiasm.

By an undesigned coincidence, the opening lecture of this course fell, in Edinburgh, upon the exact anniversary of the death of Doctor Duff, February 12, 1893, fifteen years after the departure of that illustrious man, who was the Raimond Lull of our century.

One of the conditions of this trust is that each course of lectures shall, so far as practicable, be delivered in the various academic centres of Scotland. Hence, I undertook to give the full course in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee, and three lectures in St. Andrew’s also.

Another condition of the lectureship is that the lectures shall, after delivery, appear in printed form. This made preparation with the pen necessary and proper, on a scale more extensive than was available for oral delivery, within the usual limits. In the lectures as given there was a fragmentary and perhaps disconnected character, which, it is hoped, may be relieved by that fuller and final form in which they now appear.

For many years my habit has been to speak not only without manuscript, but without much penwork in preparation. It was perhaps well that the necessity of furnishing material for the press compelled the writing of these lectures; for the theme became so absorbing that, but for this check upon my utterance, the treatment of it, like some of our American railways, might have lacked “solid foundations,” ‘^ close connections,” and ‘’ terminal facili-PREFA CE. xix

ties.” Even in seeking finally to revise the manuscript for publication, Rousseau’s remark seems forcibly verified, that ‘’one half a man’s life is too little to write a book — the other half too little to correct it when written.”

To make this volume as far as possible complete, I have undertaken, at no little cost both of toil and money, to add to it a Map of the World, which may exhibit to the eye the prevailing religions of the world, with their comparative territory and area, and may also show the progress of the Protestant missions of the world toward permeating and penetrating the habitable globe. In this part of my work I owe especial thanks to my friend, Mr. William E. Blackstone, of Oak Park, Illinois, whose careful research largely forms the basis of this valuable addition to my published lectures.

It would be ungrateful to close this introductory word without acknowledging the many unselfish and untiring efforts of various friends who, in the several places of delivery, so largely contributed to whatever measure of success crowned my humble efforts to demonstrate and to illustrate the essential correspondence between the features of this missionarycentury and the age of the Apostles.

2320 Spruce St., Philadelphia, May, 1894.