Ebook The History of the Church Missionary Society

When I first thought of writing the story of the C.M.S. during the years that have elapsed since the Centenary, I had no idea of producing so large a work as a fourth volume of the History published in 1899 must necessarily be. I only contemplated a small book for popular use. I had at first no intention of reporting on the several Missions in order. My idea was a brief narrative of the Society's proceedings at home. This would include its reception of information from the field and of missionaries on furlough so that any events abroad of exceptional importance would in this way be mentioned in the indirect form of news coming to Salisbury Square. But the book would, in the main, be the history of the Society, rather than of the Society's Missions during the period.

But this plan proved to be unworkable; and it became obvious that the Missions must be dealt with separately if their story, however condensed, was to be intelligible Still however I proposed only a small volume for general circulation; and I began writing on a very limited scale accordingly But when some portions of the MS. were submitted to the Secretaries, they were not satisfied. They urged that India and China, in particular, called for much fuller treatment. Eventually it was decided by the Publications Sub-Committee that I should attempt a Fourth Volume of the History on a scale similar to that of the previous three volumes.

One result of the change of plan has been the delay of over a year in bringing out the work. My original idea was to stop at the Declaration of War, August, 1914, and to have the book out by Easter, 1915. The period I should treat would thus be just years from the centenary, which was kept in April, 1899. As another year's work became necessary it was also necessary to bring the narrative down a year or so later and practically to produce a sixteen years' history. But I had already made a number of statistical and other comparisons based on the idea of the "fifteen-year period"; and it had not been possible to alter all these.