Having been a local church pastor for twenty years before returning to school, I look through the eyes of a pastor, and think as a pastor. When I first read about the "reflex influence of missions," I was intrigued. I wanted to know more about anything that could bring spiritual renewal to the local church. I have enjoyed studying the foreign missionary movement from the vantage point of the local church and the mission supporters at home, lay and clergy.

Local parish life in America was transformed--for better or for worse--by the foreign missionary movement and the accompanying other voluntary societies, into the "activity church." This same movement has significantly changed the character of the church around the world, and the world in which we live. We who live with the legacy of the foreign missionary movement need to understand its roots, in order to better understand where we are today.

I thank my wife, Christyann, for enduring while I have pursued these studies. I thank Dr. James Smylie for helping me to see the breadth of the reflex influence from the context of American church history. I thank my other readers, Dr. H. McKennie Goodpasture and Dr. David M. Stowe, for their helpful comments. I thank the holders of archival collections for allowing me to do research and to use their materials in this project: Houghton Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Andover-Newton Theological Seminary, Newton Center, Massachusetts; Congregational Library, Boston, Massachusetts: Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Baptist Historical Society, Rochester, New York, and the library of Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia. I especially thank the Union Theological Seminary, of Richmond Virginia, for accepting me as a student, and providing generous financial aid, without which my studies would have been impossible.

1. REFLEX SIDE OF FOREIGN MISSIONS
   1. Harriet Atwood Newell
   2. Structure and Contents of this Dissertation
   3. "Reflex Influence"

2. THE SPIRIT OF THE TIMES
   1. Social Context
      1. Rapid Expansion
      2. American Democracy and Voluntary Associations
      3. Women's Sphere
      4. American Foreign Missions as a Social Phenomena
   2. Theological Context
      1. Reason, Religious Affections and Will
      2. Disinterested Benevolence
      3. Millennialism and Missions
      4. Summary
   3. Ecclesial Context
      1. Spirit of Unity
      2. Struggle for Orthodoxy
      3. Developing Denominational Life
      4. Missionary Piety and Denominationalism

3. THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN BOARD
   1. Incubation of American Foreign Missions, 1795-1810
      1. A New Epoch
      2. Mills and the Brethren
      3. Formation of the American Board
   2. Worcester Administration, 1810-1821
      1. First Mission
      2. Case for Missions
      3. Christian Unity in Action
      4. Renewed Missionary Activity
   3. Evarts Administration, 1821-1831
      1. Jeremiah Evarts
      2. System and Policy
      3. Human Equality in Missions
   4. Administration of the Brethren Generation, 1831-1850
      1. Secretaries
      2. Missions
      3. Declension and Retrenchment
      4. Rising Denominationalism
      5. Anti-Slavery Agitation
      6. Summary
   5. A Fourfold Reflex Influence

4. PRAYER IN CONCERT
   1. Prayer and the Concert for Prayer before 1810
      1. Origin of the Concert for Prayer
      2. Beliefs, Settings and Disciplines of Prayer
   2. The Concert and the American Board
   3. Elements of the Concert for Prayer
      1. Prayer
      2. Hymns
      3. Missionary Intelligence
   4. Piety, Prayer, and the Concert

5. READING FOR DEVOTION AND FOR ACTION
   1. Transformation of Religious Literature
      1. Rise of the Religious Press
      2. Tracts and their Uses
      3. Children, Reading, and Mission
      4. New Ways of Reading
   2. A Firmer Faith Through Reading
      1. Reinforcing Orthodoxy
      2. Walking Where Jesus Walked
   3. A Window to the World
      1. Pity for the Misery of Non-Christians
      2. Befriending the New Christian through Biography
   4. Servants of the Cross

6. MISSIONARY VOCATION OF THE PEOPLE AT HOME
   1. Recruitment of Missionaries
      1. Missionaries, Ministers, Christians, and Duty
      2. Female Missionaries
      3. Institutions
      4. Missionary Recruitment and the American Board
      5. Missionary Recruitment and Children
   2. Detoured Missionaries
      1. Roadblocks
      2. Subsequent Careers
   3. The Missionary Ideal
      1. Identification with the Missionary
      2. Missionary as Crusader
      3. Missionary as Martyr
      4. Departure Solemnities
   4. Spirit of Missions and Christian Vocation
      1. Living the Missionary Spirit at Home
      2. Christian Vocation and Politics

7. CONSECRATION OF MATERIAL POSSESSIONS
   1. Religion and Money Before the American Board
      1. Financing of American Churches
      2. Fund Raising for Missions Before the American Board
      3. Beliefs About Giving
   2. Fund Raising for the Board
      1. Initial Appeals
      2. Strategies for Fund Raising
      3. Auxiliaries and Associations
      4. Agents
   3. A Theology for Consecrating Material Possessions
      1. Devotion to Christ
      2. Stewardship
      3. Disinterested Benevolence
      4. Holy Cause of Missions
      5. Self Denial
      6. Proportion
      7. Regularity
      8. Battle Against Covetousness
      9. Summary

8. EVALUATIONS OF FOREIGN MISSIONS
   1. Criticisms of Missions and Responses
      1. Criticisms of the Missionary Enterprise
      2. Criticisms of Fund Raising
      3. Criticisms of Voluntary Societies and Their Agents
      4. Abolition and the American Board
      5. Action verses Devotion
   2. Claims of Reflex Influence
      1. More Ministers
      2. More Money
      3. More Revivals
   3. Conclusion

ABBREVIATIONS

GLOSSARY

BIBLIOGRAPHY