“Moses and Aaron were among His priests, and Samuel was among those who called upon His name; they called upon the LORD, and He answered them . . . You answered them, O LORD our God; You were to them God-Who-Forgives, though You took vengeance on their deeds" (NKJV; “Yet you punished their wrongdoings” ESV; Psalm 99:6, 8). 

“A desire fulfilled is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12).

In these chapters, we note the pattern of progression, “conquest,” and then retrogression, as formerly “Christian” nations and peoples were conquered from without or fatally compromised from within.

“Rest your hope fully on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13). 

This one-volume history of Christian missions is, in one sense, comprehensive. Neill’s grandparents and parents had served as missionaries in India, bequeathing to him an insider’s knowledge of missionary life and work, which he augmented by serving in India with the Church Missionary Society for twenty years. His narrative reads like a story rather than a mere chronicle.

“O Israel hope in the LORD; for with the LORD there is abundant redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities” (Psalm 130:7-8).