Following the Sunrise:

A Century of Baptist Missions, 1813-1913

by

Helen Barrett Montgomery

Published in Connection with the Centennial of the the

AMERICAN BAPTIST FOREIGN MISSION SOCIETY

by the

AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY

Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, St. Louis

1913

Helen Barrett Montgomery, whose birth year (1861) and death year (1934) are respectively 100 years after William Carey's birth and death, was an influential American Baptist who published eight books on missions, who served as president of the Women's American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, who served as presiding officer for two years of the Northern Baptist Convention, and who became a licensed Baptist minister in 1892 of the Lake Avenue Baptist Church, Rochester, New York. 

In addition to her service to the church, she involved herself in the Woman's Suffrage Movement as well as in other social and educational reform movements.  She was a colleague of Susan B. Anthony with whom she founded the Woman’s Educational and Industrial Union of Rochester (WEIU).  Montgomery served as first president of the WEIU.

Equally important, however, was Montgomery's translation of the New Testament in 1924 under the title Centenary Translation of the New Testament.  In 1884, Montgomery had earned an undergraduate degree in Greek (first in the class) at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts.  A critical review of Montgomery's translation appears in Sharyn Dowd, "Helen Barrett Montgomery's Centenary Translation of the New Testament: Characteristics and Influences," Perspectives in Religious Studies 19/2 (Summer 1992):133-150.

Following the Sunrise: A Century of Baptist Missions, 1813-1913, was a centennial history of the American Baptist missionary outreach into the Orient, including a full chapter on the mission to Burma initiated by William Carey's friend Adoniram Judson.  Below are links to the first chapter, "Back of the Beginnings," in Following the Sunrise.  In this first chapter, Montgomery reviews William Carey's missionary, linguistic, and social reform efforts in India.  Additionally, Montgomery discusses early American Baptists and the unique contributions that Baptists have exerted on Western Christianity.

"Back of the Beginnings," in Following the Sunrise (ch. 1)

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Created:  March 22, 2001            Updated:   September 18, 2001