Page:The Moslem World - Volume 02.djvu/8

 conference at Cairo, in 1906, to consider the field in its entirety and its problems. Representatives of many missionary societies, and missionaries, many of them men and women grown gray in the service, counselled together for eight days, and sent out to the Churches a report which has accomplished more to arouse a serious interest in the work of carrying the Gospel to Moslems than anything undertaken in all the centuries past. During the five years that followed this question was discussed in print and in missionary gatherings, with the result that new work was established or workers were specially set apart in older fields for this task. Then came the Edinburgh World Conference, in which missions to Moslems also had their place.

This awakened interest in the evangelisation of Moslem lands was naturally accompanied by the production of a large literature on the subject. Not only in the missionary library but in the secular press, Islam has never occupied so prominent a place as it does to-day. The Lucknow Conference, of which an account appeared in our columns, was both representative and comprehensive, and we are grateful that already practical results are evident. It is fair to say that there is not only a pan-Islamic movement, but also a pan-Christian movement throughout the world—a movement of self-sacrificing service and believing prayer on behalf of our Moslem brethren.

What could be more appropriate, therefore, than the establishment of an organ such as our review, to help the Churches in their plans for the evangelisation of the Moslem world. We thank our contributors for their cordial co-operation in the past year, and believe the quarterly will prove increasingly helpful to every student of Islam. May we not bespeak a place this year, therefore, in every public library of Christendom, in the reading rooms of colleges and universities, as well as theological seminaries, and in the hands of every one who prays for the coming of the Kingdom, for ? Then we may look forward to years of progress and blessing in missionary work among Moslems.