ABSTRACT
It has often happened in the history of the Church that the greatest progress has been made in the times of greatest tumult. As a witty divine has said, 'the Church, like some political parties, is at her best in opposition'. Even when the tumult has been of her own creating it has often given her an impulse to fresh endeavour. This was clearly exemplified in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when, in spite of the conflicts in Europe, more converts were being won to the faith than at any time since the conversion of the barbarians. During the intervening thousand years the world had presented itself in the guise of a battlefield, with Christians on one side and Mohammedans on the other, and in such circumstances little missionary work was possible. But in the new age discoveries had been made which dwarfed the significance of the old division and opened new worlds for the Church to conquer.
