is perhaps too high. It will be seen, however, that the number
speaking German has multiplied nearly threefold and the number of
those speaking English six and a half times in the century under
review. Since an overwhelming majority of missionaries speak either
English or German or both, the significance of the spread of these
languages is apparent.
=The Geographical Control of the World.=--One of the most inspiring
evidences of the widening sovereignty of Christ is that he has passed
over the control of the territory of the world to the Christian
nations. According to Gulick's _Growth of the Kingdom of God_, in 1600
only 7 per cent. of the territory of the world was controlled by
Christian nations, but to-day 82 per cent., so that the growth of
Christian control has passed in three hundred years from 7 per cent.
to 82 per cent., while the control of non-Christian nations has
decreased from 93 per cent. to 18 per cent.
The increasing control of the world by Christian nations is due in no
small measure to the fact that they are masters of most of the great
waterways and highways of the world. The Suez and Panama Canals and
the Khaibar Pass in India are striking illustrations.
In 1800, four hundred millions of people were governed by Catholic and
Protestant Christian powers; in 1912 at least one thousand millions,
or two and a half times as many as were thus governed in 1800. In
1500, there were no Protestant political powers in the world. To-day,
England, Germany, and the United States rule over about six hundred
millions of the population of the world. These three Protestant powers
alone now have dominion over more millions of people than are ruled
over by all the non-Christian nations of the world added together.
The Mohammedan world furnishes a startling illustration of this
shifting control of the world. A few generations ago Mohammedan
political and religious control were coextensive. To-day over three
fourths of the Mohammedans of the world live in lands which they do
not rule politically. The passing of Mohammedan political dominion
from Africa is of profound significance for that continent. France has
extended and consolidated her African possessions by taking Algeria
and establishing a protectorate over Morocco, which is one of the
greatest strongholds of orthodox Mohammedanism. Italy has now taken
full control of Tripoli. Only a few of the forty or more millions of
Mohammedans in Africa are under Moslem
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