fearing, an utter overturn of true religion, there is a
revival, and the gospel expands its wings and prepares for a
new flight. It is worthy of remembrance that the year 1792, the
very year of the French Revolution, was also the year when the
Baptist Missionary Society was formed, a society which was
followed during the succeeding, and they the worst, years of
the Revolution, with new societies of unwonted energy and
union, all aiming, and aiming successfully, at the propagation
of the gospel of Christ, both at home and abroad. What
withering contempt did the great Head of the church thus pour
upon the schemes of infidels! And how did He arouse the
careless and instruct His own people, by alarming providences,
at a season when they greatly needed such a
stimulus."--_"Historical Sketches of the Protestant Church in
France," p. 522._

Another writer, Dr. D.L. Leonard, historian of the century of missions,
says:

"The closing years of the eighteenth century constitute in the
history of Protestant missions an epoch indeed, since they
witnessed nothing less than a revolution, a renaissance, an
effectual and manifold ending of the old, a substantial
inauguration of the new. It was then that for the first time
since the apostolic period, occurred an outburst of general
missionary zeal and activity. Beginning in Great Britain, it
soon spread to the Continent and across the Atlantic. It was no
mere push of fervor, but a mighty tide set in, which from that
day to this has been steadily rising and spreading."--_"A
Hundred Years of Missions," p. 69._