Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 edition. Excerpt: ... THE POSSIBILITY OF EVANGELIZING THE WORLD IN THIS GENERATION IN VIEW OF THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE FIRST GENERATION OF CHRISTIANS One of the most distinguishing characteristics of early Christianity was the wide propagation of the Gospel. The age of the Apostles was pre-eminently a missionary age. The first generation of Christians did more to accomplish the evangelization of the accessible world than has any succeeding generation. This first generation may be regarded as the period extending from the Day of Pentecost to the destruction of Jerusalem, or from 30 A.D. to 70 A.D. The Acts of the Apostles contains the principal record of the achievements of the Christians during this period. It describes in bold outline the progress of Christianity from its beginnings at Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish world, to its establishment at Rome, the capital of the heathen world. One of its objects is to show how the early Christians labored to extend Christ's Kingdom. Several of the Epistles also throw valuable light on the nature and extent of the evangelistic work of the time. The Apostolic Church has furnished many helpful lessons to the Christians of all subsequent generations; but in no respect is its example more instructive and more inspiring than in what it teaches concerning world-wide evangelization. The field of the Christian operations of the first generation, so far as authentic records inform us, was limited practically to the Roman Empire. That Empire reached from Scotland to the African deserts and to the cataracts of the Nile; and from the Atlantic to the valley of the Euphrates. It stretched from East to West a distance of over three thousand miles. It comprised Italy, the ruling state, and thirty-five provinces of which three...