While these storms were agitating the upper air, and the thunderous
echoes reverberated through the mountains, the work on the plain went
rapidly forward. However the scholars and the theologians might decide
the questions at issue between them, the working forces were
profoundly convinced that the Gospel was the great need of the world,
and they put out new energy and applied all the powers of the mind to
devising new methods for its propagation. The increased facilities of
travel, the improved means of communication and, above all, the power
of the printing-press, were all seized and harnessed to service in the
dissemination of the Gospel. No characteristic of this century is so
prominent as this intense activity and aggressive energy. From every
secular movement, the church has taken suggestions for its own
advancement. Trade-unionism has suggested Christian Endeavor and the
Evangelical Alliance; the public school system has developed the
International Lesson system in the Sunday School; the political
convention has taught the advantages of great religious conferences;
the principles of military organization have been utilized in the
Salvation Army. If in some circles religion seems to have been a fight
over doctrines and theories, in others it has seemed a ceaseless,
untiring struggle for converts. In no century since the first century
of the Christian era has the zeal of propagation, with no element of
proselytism in it, taken so strong a hold of the followers of Christ.
To translate the Bible into every tongue, to carry the Gospel message
to every people, and to evangelize the masses at home, prodigious
efforts have been put forth, and enormous sums of money have been
expended. Mental activity, uncompromising veracity, indefatigable
energy, have characterized the Church through the century, and its
closing years show no abatement in any of these characteristics. A
brief sketch of some of the more prominent of these developments can
render the fact only more, obvious.