During the next 50 years the Student Volunteer Movement SVM , as they named themselves, catapulted 20, Christians into overseas missionary service. Every night of the academic year of , Robert Wilder and his sister, Grace, prayed for a thousand new missionaries to emerge from the colleges of America. They had experienced first hand the spiritual needs of India, where their parents were missionaries.
Moved to share this burden with others, Robert, who was a seminary student at Princeton College, invited five fellow students to his home on Sunday afternoons to study foreign missions. Grace usually prayed from her post in the room adjacent to the parlor that their hearts would be stirred. It was not proper for young women to mix with unchaperoned college men. That spring, Robert received an invitation to attend the first summer Bible conference ever conducted for college students in North America.
At first, Robert deliberated on whether to attend the conference, but his sister Grace saw in this event the answer to their prayers. There, I believe our prayers for a missionary awakening will be answered. When Wilder arrived at Mount Hermon on July 6, he joined college men, representing 89 schools across America. From the start, he invited others to join him at an afternoon missions prayer meeting. At first, the prayer group numbered four, then 14; soon the numbers swelled to Each of them signed the declaration Wilder had brought.
Once they signed the declaration, these students started challenging others during the conference. Pledge-signers began to talk about missions everywhere—in the dining halls, at the swimming wharf, during leisurely hikes and on the athletic field.
Although Moody did not plan to include missions as an emphasis of the conference, within 10 days Wilder persuaded the evangelist to schedule a missionary program on two Friday evenings. At the second Friday meeting, students presented the spiritual needs of 10 nations. Those in the audience were deeply moved and hushed as they heard about lost souls in such countries as China, India, Persia and Japan. The meeting closed in quiet prayer, and everybody scattered among the groves overlooking the Connecticut river.
Many prayed into the night, surrendering themselves to the lordship of Christ. One who dedicated his life that night was John Mott, soon to be a junior at Cornell. He later became the greatest missionary statesman and ecumenical architect of modern times. At first, Wilder began meeting with small groups of students for prayer meetings in the afternoons.
Moody later permitted him to organize the Meeting of the Ten Nations, a special session where representatives of ten foreign countries spoke to the students of the need for missionaries in other parts of the world. That meeting sparked great interest in foreign missions, demonstrated by the famous Mount Hermon One Hundred, a group of students in attendance who pledged their intent to become foreign missionaries. Wilder sensed that the story of these willing volunteers had potential to inspire even more students if it could be spread.
In the year following the conference, Wilder and another student named John Forman visited colleges and universities with news of those first hundred volunteers, and soon over 2, students had pledged to become foreign missionaries. From that point growth was exponential, and the group was formally organized in as the Student Volunteer Movement , or SVM. Thanks to dedicated student groups on college campuses and regular conventions held around the country, the SVM established itself as a leading recruiter of missionaries through the turn of the century.
An estimated 20, students became foreign missionaries over the lifetime of the SVM, and tens of thousands more dedicated their support in other ways.
The student volunteers believed sincerely and fervently in the importance of the missionary cause. In his biography of D. Moody, J. The Hapsburg emperors lose their power over the German states, and the Holy Roman Empire has suffered a severe setback. It is doubtful if any one power will ever arise to bring unity to the over factious German states. Representatives of Pope Innocent X have voiced their strong opposition to the peace term's exclusion of the papacy from the religious affairs in Germany.
Since the days of Charlemagne, the church has maintained a strong alliance with the powers of the state. This now seems to be breaking apart. Meanwhile the countryside is desolate. In many areas over half the population has been destroyed by the brutal fighting or the disease and famine which has followed.
Though peace has come, the process of rebuilding will be a long one. Perhaps there is consolation in the thought that we surely have finally learned from all of this devastation.
Is it not unthinkable that Europe could ever again be turned into a huge arena of destructive warfare? In Praise of an unsung hero Often when giving a history talk, I am asked who is my favorite hero in all church history. My answer is Jan Amos Comenius. He lived from He is often called the "Father of Modern Education. He made learning more a joy than a drudge, introduced visual aids, pioneered new methods of language training, and insisted on the education of girls, just to name a few contributions.
Comenius demonstrated what it means to live for Christ regardless of circumstances. His dreams were repeatedly shattered, yet he joyfully persisted. He agonized with his people, exiled from their homeland in the Thirty Years War p.
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