PREFACE
ARTHUR T. PIERSON was a man of deep missionary insight and passion. For twenty-five years editor of the famed Missionary Review of the World, author, preacher and lecturer, there were few in his day who knew so accurately the world-wide missionary situation or who contributed as much to stimulating the missionary enterprise in the homeland. Along with Charles H. Spurgeon and Dwight L. Moody, he was born in the year 1837. With them he figured in the great evangelical movement of the latter half of the nineteenth century which gave such an impetus to revival, evangelism, Bible study and missions.
In some respects we face a different situation today. All illusions of world-wide spiritual conquest are gone; the Church of Christ is now almost overwhelmed with the rampant forces of modern paganism and materialism. On mission fronts, fields which in A. T. Pierson's day were pointed to as prime examples of the triumph of the Gospel, are today well-nigh closed. From a missionary point of view, we live in apocalyptic times; GOD's judgment upon the failure of Christian missions is being felt in many lands. And yet, because of the very extremity of the human situation, it is a day of unparalleled opportunity.
The situation today may in some respects be different, but the commission remains the same and, as Dr. Pierson points out so clearly, the divine principles by which the task can only be accomplished, also remain the same. Because the urgency of our task and the opportunity are so great, and because of the confusion as to methods in a day of new scientific media and modern techniques, A. T. Pierson's book, The Divine Enterprise of Missions, long out of print, will, we feel sure, meet a real need in helping every missionary and every student of missions to a clearer concept of that pattern laid down by our Lord and His apostles, according to which the Great Commission must and can only be carried through to completion.
This pleasant and rewarding task of condensation has been rendered easy, thanks to the typing skill and service of Mrs. John C. Matthews of Hohokus, New Jersey.
R. K. STRACHAN
Latin America Mission
July 28, 1954
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