"There is a law of the imagination, forcing it to demand a concrete and personal center, around which (as a flint gathers around some organic substance in the chalk) its floating historical conceptions shall dispose them-selves." These words, though they in no way suggested the writing of this book, not inaptly describe its organizing idea. The chapters following are the outgrowth of the author's experience in teaching the history of Christian missions to his classes for more than a dozen years. No method is so practically effective in arousing the student's interest and in helping him see the facts in their true perspective as the biographical. Many books already exist that tell the story of Christian missions, but none pursue this method. And yet the subject is one peculiarly fitted for biographical treatment—indeed, it cannot be treated in any other way without most inadequate presentation of the facts." --