As the clouds broke over the countryside around Williamstown, Mass.. five Williams College students out for a walk scurried for the shelter of a haystack. There, while the rain droned on, they earnestly discussed three topics: religion, Asia, and their future. Before the storm ended on that summer day in 1806, they had decided to dedicate themselves to the work of bringing the Gospel "to a barricaded heathendom" in foreign lands.
From their resolution grew a society of students pledged to the missions. U.S. Protestant churches soon joined in to form the American...
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