Mary Jones & World Missions Season 1 | Episode 47
In the year 1800, a 16 year old Welsh girl longed to own her own Bible.
She had been saving up her pennies from the age of 10,
and finally she had enough to buy her own Bible.
Mary was from a poor family,
and there were many other things she could have spent her money on,
such as a pair of shoes,
but she really wanted a Bible in her own language.
The problem was, though, the nearest one was 28 miles away,
and undeterred by the distance and her lack of shoes,
she set off from a home right here
and walked through the valleys to the town of Bala.
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Arriving here in the town of Bala,
she went to the home of Reverend Thomas Charles.
Today his home stands on the High Street
and has now been converted into a bank.
He was so inspired by her story
that he sold her three Bibles for the price of one.
One of those today is in the National Library in Wales
and another one is at Cambridge University's library.
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The story of Mary Jones inspired many others.
Reverend Joseph Hughes asked the daring question of church leaders soon after:
'If for Wales, why not for the kingdom,
and if for the kingdom, why not for the world'?
That question posed at a meeting of the religious tract society
on the 7th of December, 1802
would reverberate around Wales, and ultimately the world.
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Captured by the vision of the Bible being readily available
in the language of the people,
William Wilberforce and other members of the Clapham sect sprang into action.
They made this vision part of their campaign to make goodness fashionable
in the hope that people would fall in love with the Bible
and a biblically inspired way of life.
At a meeting on the 7th of March, 1804, of around 300 people
in the London tavern which used to stand near here on Bishopsgate,
William Wilberforce and the campaigning groups he was a part of
formed the British and foreign Bible Society,
now known as the Bible Society.
In the last 200 years,
they have gone into over 200 different countries with God's Word.
Soon after this society was formed in 1816,
the American Bible Society was formed in New York City.
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Later in the 19th century,
inspired by Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission,
seven students at Cambridge University, later known as the 'Cambridge Seven',
gave a promising careers and sailed to China to be missionaries.
Their influence inspired many others,
causing the number of missionaries in China to swell
from 165 in 1885 to 800 just 15 years later,
approximately one third of the Protestant missionary force.
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The Keswick convention also had a profound impact on mission service,
inspiring many people to devote their lives
to the service of God in faraway lands.
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As the Dark Ages came to a close
and the light of God's Word was beginning to shine,
Daniel 12:4 was being fulfilled.
The 1260 year prophecy which came to a close in 1798
coincided with the words of Daniel,
who said that 'many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase'.
This referred to knowledge of the Bible
which would only increase as people had access to it,
a cause that countless missionaries devoted their lives to.
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Today mission service may not be as cutting edge as it was back then,
or the Bible as 'new',
but the need for both is still vital;
the Great Commission still applies today.
There are countless people who have never heard of the Bible
and who have no idea what Christianity is.
Maybe God is calling you to be a missionary,
to leave your home, your place of comfort,
and fly away to a different land
and be a missionary for God there where people have not heard of him yet.
May we treasure God's Word as did Mary Jones,
and may we go wherever God calls us.