The time of the prophecy had come, and the hand of providence was
bringing into being agencies that have spread light and knowledge over
all lands.

"Look where the missionary's feet have trod--
Flowers in the desert bloom; and fields, for God,
Are white to harvest. Skeptics may ignore;
Yet on the conquering Word, from shore to shore,
Like flaming chariot, rolls. Ask ocean isles,
And plains of Ind, where ceaseless summer smiles;
Speak to far frozen wastes, where winter's blight
Remains;--they tell the love, attest the might
Of Him whose messengers across the wave
To them salvation bore, hope, freedom gave."

--_Horace D. Woolley._

The organization of foreign missionary enterprise was quickly
accompanied by the establishment of Bible societies for a systematic
work of translating and world-wide distribution of the Scriptures. In
1804 the British and Foreign Bible Society was organized. Students of
the prophetic word felt at the time that these agencies were coming in
fulfilment of the prophecy. One writer of those times said:

"The stupendous endeavors of one gigantic community to convey
the Scriptures in every language to every part of the globe may
well deserve to be considered as an eminent sign even of these
eventful times. Unless I be much mistaken, such endeavors are
preparatory to the final grand diffusion of Christianity, which